Foresight

Chapter 38: 3-12

Stiles, Scott and Allison awake in their water-filled metal tubs. They are in a large white room with support posts spaced evenly down its length. The only other features are florescent light fixtures set into the ceiling above and seemingly random areas of grey and white tiling on the floor below.

"Is this what the afterlife looks like? It's so... dull" Laura said. "Not the afterlife. They aren't technically dead. They are both living and dead at this moment, meaning they are in limbo. The place between life and death" Talia explained.

They exit the tubs and notice, in what appears to be the center of the room, a large tree stump protrudes through the floor. It is the Nemeton.

"That's the Nemeton? It looks so unimpressive" Stile frowned. "It used to be a huge tree once, very large which could cast a shadow over most of the preserved lands. But after it lost its magic, this is what was left of it" Talia said quietly.

It is surrounded by cracked floor tiles as if it has forced its way up into the room. The three friends approach and Scott takes notice of the rings that mark the stump. He slips up the sleeve of his t-shirt to reveal his tattoo which seems to mimic the tree's growth rings. Scott flashes back to the day Derek helped restore the tattoo using fire. He remembers telling Derek that he didn't know what it meant that the image was just "something I traced with my fingers."

"Well that's interesting" Talia mused.

Scott reaches down to touch the stump and finds himself in the woods on the night he first got bit by The Alpha Werewolf. While this is all part of post-mortem hallucination, it is clear that this is more than a flashback as Scott watches himself discover Laura Hale's body and then sees the attack that made him a werewolf. As he begins to back away from the scene, he bumps into the Nemeton which is apparently somewhere in Beacon Hills Preserve. Stiles also finds himself back on the night Scott got bit. He arrives a bit earlier and sees himself leading Scott through the woods in a search for a dead body. He watches as his father catches the other Stiles and escorts him out of the woods. Stiles' vision quest ends as he too bumps into the Nemeton stump. Allison finds herself in the Argent's SUV with her mother. Victoria Argent is talking about the unique requirements of her husband's job, "a highly respected private security consultant and a federally licensed firearms dealer." Allison says it's still odd when he runs out in the middle of the night with "duffle bags filled with automatic weapons."

"It's a lot less odd now" Allison giggled.

At that moment, Allison sees someone in the road ahead. Mrs. Argent swerves and barely misses hitting Scott. This is also the night Scott got bit and he's run out into the road after the attack. Allison insists that her mother turn around but when they return to the scene, Scott is gone. Noticing tracks leading into the woods, Allison follows and finds Scott's inhaler lying on the ground. Her mother arrives and tries to drag her back to their car. They hear a wolf howl. Mrs. Argent takes the inhaler from Allison and throws it back into the woods where it lands at the feet of Allison Argent. Looking to her side, this Allison sees the Nemeton.

"So all three of us were there that night. Does this mean that the Darach targeted us specifically because we were there and the Nemeton's power had played its game?" Stiles asked. Talia shrugged, "You're over thinking things. It's just a coincidence" she said with a smile. Stiles nodded agreeing that it could have been just a coincidence.

Scott, Stiles and Allison awake back in the Vet's Clinic in their tubs of ice water. They excitedly relate their visions and the connections they all shared with the location of the Nemeton. They are informed by Dr. Deaton that they've been in the water for 16 hours and now have just 4 hours before moonrise.