( TWELVE )
damnatio memoriae

Stiles slowly woke up, his eyes gently fluttering open as he released a quiet sigh and sat up in his chair.

His gaze wandered to the hospital bed in front of him, the boy frowning as his father was no longer there.

Stiles glanced at Alex curled up in the chair next to him, the girl still asleep. He then glanced back at the empty hospital bed again and began to panic.

Needing his girlfriend, Stiles reached over and gently shook Alex, the boy whispering. "Alex, wake up."

At this, Alex's eyes fluttered open, the girl waking up.

"What is it?" Alex questioned as she stretched a little.

"My dad's gone." Stiles panicked as he gestured to the hospital bed.

"What?" Alex frowned, the girl sitting up in her chair. Her gaze shifted to the open door, Stiles glancing in the same direction, his eyes going wide.

"Come on." Stiles spoke as he stood up, Alex following his movements.

The two walked towards the elevator, Stiles pressing the button that read 'B'.

Once they arrived, the two walked towards the morgue, both Stiles and Alex frowning as they witnessed Noah staring at Donovan's body.

Stiles's heart rate began to speed up, his eyes going teary. Alex glanced at him, her hand interlocking with his as her gaze softened.

Stiles glanced down at their interlocked hands, then back to Alex's face.

"Do you wanna go in there?" Alex whispered.

Stiles released a shaky breath, but nodded anyway.

Squeezing Alex's hand for reassurance, the boy then opened the door with his free hand, catching Noah's attention.

••••

"The story Theo told me about the library." Noah started as Stiles and Alex stood on the opposite side to him. "That's how it happened."

Stiles nervously fidgeted with his fingers, Alex crossing her arms as she glanced at Noah.

"Except it didn't happen to him." Noah added.

Stiles released a breath as he whispered. "Yeah..."

"Stiles, I can't protect you if I don't know what happened." Noah replied, his gaze set on his son.

"I should leave you two alone..." Alex quietly spoke as she began to walk away, Stiles stopping her by grabbing her arm before she could leave.

"Stay. Please." Stiles replied, his gaze set on her. Alex's gaze flickered between his eyes, the girl nodding and standing next to him again.

"Did you really feel like you couldn't tell me?" Noah continued quietly, his tone sad.

"I couldn't tell anyone." Stiles responded, his tone of voice soft—almost fragile.

"Did you think that I wouldn't believe it was self-defence?" Noah frowned, his tone gentle as he glanced at his son.

"What if it wasn't?" Stiles responded, Alex glancing at him at the words. "What if I had told you I wanted him dead?"

"I'd believe you." Noah replied without hesitation. "I also believe that wanting someone dead and murdering them are two very different things."

"Yeah, well, what if the judge didn't think so?" Stiles questioned sarcastically.

"Then to hell with the judge." Noah replied quickly. "Stiles, it was self-defence, and I would destroy every shred of evidence to protect you if I had to. I would burn the whole sheriff's station to the ground."

"What about upholding the law?" Stiles questioned. "What about Kira?"

"Kira was a mistake." Noah responded with a sigh. "I guess I'm learning how to bend."

"So, what, it just goes away?" Stiles frowned.

"Not for you." Noah shook his head. "The problem now is how to bear this burden. This kinda thing is not at all uncommon in law enforcement. A fatal mistake. A partner who dies. Or one who gets paralysed. Stiles, you carry that with you, and sometimes it doesn't truly feel okay again until there's a kind of counterbalance."

"Like what?" Stiles asked, his voice soft.

"Like instead of taking a life, you manage to save one." Noah answered. "Something like that can help, and it may be only for a moment. The real conflict you're having now is between your head and your heart. Your head. Your head knows that the only crime you committed was surviving. But your heart? Your heart still thinks that it's murder. So I guess you gotta...you gotta get your heart to catch up to your head."

"I feel like it's more than just guilt, though, you know, I feel like..." Stiles's voice wavered as he wiped away tears. "I feel like I've lost something. You know, I feel like I can't get it back."

"You won't." Noah whispered sadly. "Not entirely. But you get a little bit by forgiving yourself."

Stiles shook his head as his gaze dropped to the floor.

"And since that's not always the easiest thing in the world to do, then maybe you start by forgiving someone else." Noah continued, the man referring to Scott. "Someone who probably really needs it."

"Someone like Scott." Stiles responded as he glanced back at his father, who engulfed him in a tight hug, Stiles's arms wrapping around his father tightly.

••••

"Is that my laptop?" Noah frowned as he glanced at Stiles from his hospital bed, who was sitting on a chair, Noah's laptop resting on his lap, Alex sitting in the chair next to him, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Yep." Stiles responded simply.

"Do you have my password?" Noah asked.

"I have all your passwords." Stiles answered, Alex raising her eyebrows from her position. "You know they just brought in another body from last night?"

At this, Alex's head raised from Stiles's shoulder, the girl frowning. "What?"

Stiles glanced at her and nodded.

"Yeah, I was hoping you two wouldn't find out." Noah sighed as he glanced between Stiles and Alex as he reached over. "Now give me my damn computer."

"Hang on, hang on." Stiles frowned as he moved away from the hospital bed so his father couldn't take the laptop away from him. "I think there's some footage missing. Or something missing in the footage."

Alex leaned over his shoulder to see the screen as he spoke, a frown overtaking her features.

"I think there's something missing in your head." Noah responded annoyedly as he reached over again, Stiles moving the laptop further away from his father.

"You need your rest." Stiles responded, the boy rewinding the footage to show some kind of creature running out of a factory.

Without glancing at Alex, he asked. "Did you see that?"

Alex nodded, her gaze set on the footage. "Yeah. Play it again and slow it down."

Stiles did as he was told, the boy rewinding the footage and slowing it down.

Alex and Stiles frowned as they shared a glance. They needed to tell Scott.

••••

"Hey." Stiles spoke as both him and Alex stopped at the doorway to Scott's bathroom, Scott shirtless, and a bandage around his wound.

"Still not healing?" Alex questioned as she glanced at the patched up wound.

"Sometimes it just takes a little longer." Scott responded as he glanced at the girl.

"Not this long, though." Alex replied with a frown, the girl crossing her arms over her chest.

With a sigh, Scott continued, the boy putting on a shirt. "What are you guys doing here?"

"You heard about the guy who got killed out at the communication towers, right?" Stiles started, Scott nodding. "We may have figured something out."

"What, you want my help?" Scott raised his eyebrows as he glanced between the two.

"Yeah, well, two werewolves are better than one when you're trying to solve a case, so..." Stiles let his voice trail off.

Alex released a breath as she spoke. "Of course we want your help, Scotty."

Scott glanced at Alex, a smile working its way onto his lips as he nodded.

"Here, take a look." Stiles added, the boy holding out his phone in front of the group and playing the security footage. "This was when the technician first arrived, you see him going in? Then Deputy Clarke goes in. Then something really big and really fast comes charging out. And now comes Clarke. Eventually, the technician's body is carried out by paramedics."

Stiles put his phone away, Scott frowning. "Okay. What am I missing?"

"Two people go in, three come out." Stiles answered. "Lex and I checked all the footage. Not a single person enters that building before the technician the entire day. So, where does that something really big and really fast come from?"

"There's another way in." Scott spoke in realisation, Alex nodding.

••••

Stiles, Scott, and Alex were exploring a dimly-lit tunnel, pipes everywhere.

Stiles held a flashlight, the boy slowly walking around.

"Guys." Alex spoke up as she approached a large, iron locker on the ground, the girl catching Scott and Stiles' attention.

Her eyebrows raised as she glanced at the deep claw marks indented into the middle.

Dried blood was around the locker, Stiles shining the flashlight at it.

"You see that?" Stiles questioned with a frown.

"I see blood." Scott responded.

"Look where it leads to." Stiles spoke, shining the flashlight at the pathway the blood led to.

The group frowned at each other as they realised the blood led to a place in the floor that none of them could get to unless they pushed the locker aside.

Scott began to try to open the large locker, the boy struggling as he couldn't open it. "Alex."

"Yeah." Alex responded as she went around the other side to help him.

The two pushed the locker up to stand straight, Scott exhaling as he caught his breath.

Stiles frowned as he noticed an abundance of a black, sticky substance coming from one of the pipes.

Alex followed his gaze, a frown appearing on her face at the sight, Scott mirroring her actions.

A large hole in the ground was in front of the substance, a ladder placed just below it.

"Rock, paper, scissors for who goes first." Alex started, humour lacing her tone as she glanced between the boys.

Stiles and Scott raised their eyebrows at her words, Alex sighing.

"Fine I'll go." She spoke as she then climbed down the ladder, the girl looking up at Stiles and Scott as she nodded.

Once Stiles and Scott had followed her down, the three continued their mission.

It was dark, small, and smelly, pipes lining the walls.

Stiles shone the flashlight at the ground, trying to find something that'll help them.

He noticed a wet substance on the ground, the boy starting to walk slowly, Scott and Alex following him and sharing a glance.

"What is that?" Scott frowned as Stiles shone the flashlight towards the corner of the tunnel, a word spelt out in a substance.

"It's a word spelt in Latin." Alex furrowed her eyebrows as she then read it out. "Damnatio Memoriae."

Stiles and Scott raised their eyebrows in question as they glanced at her, wanting her to elaborate.

"It means condemnation of memory." Alex explained as she returned their gazes, the girl exhaling a breath as she glanced back down at the words. "Sounds pretty familiar..."

As Scott then tried to get a photo of the words, Stiles groaned, the boy falling to the floor with his hand on his neck.

Alex and Scott widened their eyes as Tracy Stewart snarled at them, the girl in her Kanima form.

Tracy whacked her tail at Alex's stomach, the girl falling to the ground as she became paralysed.

"Not again." Alex groaned.

Scott and Tracy began to fight, Scott trying to scratch her but failing as she dodged his attacks.

"Scott behind you!" Stiles yelled from his position on the ground as Scott turned around just in time to fight off another Chimera.

Scott grabbed Tracy's arm and plunged her hand into the other Chimera's stomach, the boy yelling out in pain.

Scott threw Tracy to the floor, the girl landing next to Alex.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Stiles spoke.

Scott growled as his red alpha eyes shone and his canines bared. He snarled at the wall, knowing another Chimera was present.

Corey shape-shifted back to his human form, the boy previously disguised as one of the pipes along the wall.

"Okay!" Theo's voice interrupted the potential fight, Alex's eyes moving to glance at Theo as he approached the group.

"Maybe they're not ready to take on an alpha." Theo started as Tracy stood up and approached Theo. "Especially one that can smell fear."

"He's got fangs." Corey responded.

"What did you do?" Scott frowned at Theo.

"Found some new friends." Theo replied as Tracy and Corey helped their other Chimera friend up.

"I don't take rejection well." He continued as he glanced at Alex.

"Hey, Theo." Stiles spoke annoyedly as he glanced up at Theo from his position.

"Stiles." Theo responded, the boy glancing down at the Latin words on the floor and stomping on it with his foot, the immense pressure breaking the ground.

"You're gonna leave here thinking that you need to worry about me." Theo continued as he slowly began to walk past the three. "But you're wrong. We're actually back on the same side."

Alex scoffed, not believing a word he was saying.

"Because that thing..." Theo added, an unusual sound from above the group catching their attention. "That's what we need to worry about. Your pack and mine. We're gonna go back to school and pretend like we're normal teenagers, but at night, we're going to be fighting for our lives."

"We've been doing that for years, we know how it works." Alex replied annoyedly, the girl starting to feel her body parts again, as Tracy didn't cut her too deep.

"What is it?" Stiles glanced at Theo, referring to the creature that was after them.

"It's not a Chimera." Theo responded.

"But it's just a kid underneath." Scott frowned at him. "Someone like us."

"Not anymore." Theo spoke.

••••

Alex could finally move again, the girl stumbling a little as she stood up, Scott holding onto her arm to stabilise her.

"You good?" Scott raised his eyebrows, Alex nodding.

Alex then helped Stiles sit up against the wall.

"Whatever the Dread Doctors created, whatever this last Chimera really is, it's not something new." Stiles started, glancing between Scott and Alex. "It's something old. Really old."

"What, like how Jackson was the Kanima?" Alex frowned as she crossed her arms.

"So they didn't create a new creature." Scott furrowed his eyebrows.

"They resurrected one." Stiles finished his thought.

Scott then drew a circle in the dirt, the boy speaking. "We need help."

Stiles glanced away, Alex sighing as she shared a glance with Scott.

"If Theo's got his own pack now, then we need ours." Scott continued as he glanced at Stiles again. "We have to get the others back."

"The others?" Stiles sighed. "You mean Lucas, who is god knows where, Kira, who is currently battling a homicidal fox spirit inside her, Malia, who isn't even speaking to either one of us, Lydia, who's stuck in Eichen House and Liam who almost killed you?"

"Stiles." Alex sighed. "They're our best friends. We have to try."

"Okay, how?" Stiles spoke after a moment.

"One by one." Scott responded, the boy glancing at Alex. "Starting with Lucas."

Alex nodded.