Hoping for Heroes

Chapter 39

Harley sits up out of the tub, gasping for air. She looks to her left and finds both boys in similar positions. She gets out of the tub and looks around, finding them to be in a plain white room with many lights. The three turn to look behind them in unison, and find the Nemeton as the sole difference in the otherwise plain room. They silently walk toward it, Stiles and Harley standing slightly behind Scott as he assesses the situation. Scott kneels down and touches the tree, causing everything to go dark.

Harley comes back to consciousness and finds herself in the middle of the woods. Just ahead of her, she can see her younger self standing beside her mother, a bow and arrow in hand. She watches as she slowly draws the bow, aiming at a target drawn on a tree ahead of her. Just before she can fire it, loud footsteps come from beside her. She watches as her past self quickly turns and fires the arrow in the direction of the noises, a loud noise of pain being released as it made contact with its target. The footsteps quickly recede.

"Look at you," her mother says to her past self, laying a hand on her shoulder. "A natural." Current Harley steps back, but trips over a tree root. She turns and finds herself staring down the Nemeton. Before she can react, she feels herself yet again in cold water. She sits up, gasping. Rather than the random room, however, she finds herself back in Deaton's office.

"I saw it!" Scott yells as he pushes himself out of the tub. "I know where it is!"

"We passed it," Stiles elaborates. "There's a stump, this huge tree. Well, it's not huge anymore. It was cut down. But it's still big, though, very big."

"It was the night we were looking for the body."

"Yeah, the same night you were bitten by Peter."

"I was there too," Harley gasps, pushing the hair out of her face. "With my mom. She was training me. I shot someone with an arrow, I think."

"You shot me!" Scott yells. 

"Sorry?"

"We can find it." Scott turns his attention to Deaton. Harley watches the others exchange looks, a sinking feeling in her stomach. 

"What?"

"You guys were out a long time," Isaac says. 

"How long is a long time?" Stiles asks. 

"Sixteen hours," Deaton sighs. Harley starts shaking harder. Noticing that, Allison shrugs off her jacket and wraps it around her shoulders. Harley smiles softly at her, nodding her head in appreciation. 

"We've been out for sixteen hours?" Scott asks.

"And the full moon rises in less than four."

Harley leans back on a table, now wrapped in a towel Isaac had given her. He seems to have foregone the arms-length distance thing, and is instead pressed up right beside her in a seemingly protective manner. Lydia is standing just as close on her other side. 

"You are not going back with them," Stiles tells Scott.

"I made a deal with Deucalion," Scott says.

"Does anyone else think that sounds a lot like a deal with the devil?"

"Why does it matter anyway?" Isaac asks. 

"Because," Scott sighs, "I still don't think we can beat Jennifer without their help."

"You can't honestly believe that," Harley scoffs. 

"He trusts you more than anyone," Allison says to Deaton. "Tell him he's wrong."

"I'm not so sure he is," Deaton shrugs. "Circumstances like this sometimes require that you align yourself with people you'd normally consider enemies."