Once in a Lifetime

28

Theo grabbed Lydia and placed his claws to her neck. Josh was holding Tabitha hostage.

Tracy growled at Parrish and began running toward him. She attempted to thrust her claws into his stomach, but he threw her against the wall. Josh threw Tabitha to the ground and tried to do the same with a set of electrical conduit wires towards Parrish, and was also shoved into the wall. Valack plunged a trepanation needle into the back of Theo's thigh.

Valack grabbed Lydia and Tabitha and turned to leave. He rushed out with them and Stiles stepped in front of them to block them. "Hey! Lydia! Tabitha! Lydia! Tabitha!"

Stiles managed to grab Tabitha and swept her in his arms.

Parrish threw a flaming Corey, knocking Stiles back, and allowing them to get by. Stiles managed to roll Corey off and chased after Valack and Lydia, but was stopped by a locked door.

Robin followed the sounds of the fight and ran up as soon as she saw her daughter. She glanced back to see her husband and said, "Get her checked out."

Micah nodded and took his daughter from Stiles who was hesitant to let her go.

Stiles turned and tried kicking the door to run after Lydia and Valack and heard Theo say, "Let me try. You're not gonna find her without me."

Robin narrowed her eyes and said to Theo, "You're lucky we've got a missing teenager to save. Otherwise I might shoot you in the leg. Or the chat. I haven't decided."

"Stiles," Theo called again. "I want her out of here, too. I've got her scent."

"What do you want?" Stiles snapped.

"What's the difference?"

Stiles scoffed. "Huh."

"I can find her. You can't." His eyes glanced over to a vent that had steam blowing from it. "It leads to the tunnels, doesn't it?"

Stiles nodded. "There's miles of them. They could be anywhere by now."

---

Lydia was screaming in Meredith's mind. Meredith turned to Scott. "She doesn't have much time."

"What's happening to her?" Scott asked in a worried tone.

"She's being consumed by her power. Dr. Valack thinks it's worth it if she can answer the question."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "What question?"

"Who is the Beast?"

"She can answer that?"

Meredith shook her head. "Not yet. Not until the screams in her head are loud enough to kill her."

Scott instantly panicked. "How do I get to her?"

"You can't. You won't be able to get past the Mountain Ash. But someone else might be able to."

"Who?"

"The Hellhound."

"You mean Parrish?"

Meredith nodded. "Find the Hellhound... and he'll find the Banshee. The witch is already free."

Scott removed his claws from Meredith's neck, but not before hearing one last whisper. "Save her."

The door opened to reveal a very large muscular guard staring at Scott before falling down to reveal Liam with a fist in the air. "Oh! Is he out?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay," Liam said before collapsing.

---