Once in a Lifetime

40

The teens met Peter at the sheriff's station.

Lydia narrowed her eyes at Scott. "You're going to bite Tabitha? She's already supernatural."

Scott nodded slowly. "To get her through the rift. It's the only way. Not enough to get through safely."

Peter, who was fully healed, asked, "Just to clarify, are you planning on biting everyone in the train station?"

"With Tabi back, she'll be able to help us figure out a plan," Stiles reasoned. "She's my good luck charm."

Peter's eyebrows raised. "So the plan is to get Tabitha to help come up with a plan."

Malia narrowed her eyes at her father. "You can shut up, man."

"Malia, look around. We're the only ones left in Beacon Hills. If they take us, Lydia will be the only one left to haunt the place."

Scott met the former alpha's eyes. "That's why I'm the only person that's going in. Liam and Hayden will stay with Mason. As long somebody is left in Beacon Hills, the Wild Hunt can't move on."

"I like your plan, Scott, I really do, especially the part about turning Stiles. But it can't work."

"How do you know?"

"Logic. Life experience. Liam, what are the odds he'll get taken? What if Tabitha isn't there? What if there's no Beacon Hills for you to come back to?"

"You got a better idea?" Liam and Stiles retorted.

Peter nodded. "Yeah. It's called, "run like hell." So, leave in five."

Malia stepped closer to him. "You promised you'd help us. We still to find the rift."

"I didn't promise I'd help you commit suicide."

"If you can't help, we can find it ourselves," Scott said.

Peter sighed. "Scott, I admit that you have a flair for beating the odds. But this? You don't walk away from." He stepped toward the door. "You run." He left the station.

The teens made their way to the woods, searching for the rift Peter had come from.

Scott turned to Malia. "When you were here before, how long until the Ghost Riders showed up?"

"A couple minutes," Malia replied.

Lydia frowned and muttered, "That's reassuring."

"What's a rift supposed to look like?"

"If it's a tear in the fabric of our world. Theoretically, it could look like anything from a microscopic black hole to a free-floating Einstein-Rosen bridge." They stopped in the middle of a grassy area covered with dying flowers, broken branches, and oddly shaped clouds. Lydia sighed. "I really hope it's not up there."

Eventually, Scott and Stiles said, "Hey, look at this."

They walked over to them and saw a large opening to a pipe that had formed a tunnel.

Scott knelt down and ran his fingers over a pile of dead leaves scattered around. "The rift's not above us."

"It's below," Lydia and Stiles finished.

Malia put her hand up and the rift shimmered green.

"It's remarkably similar," Lydia noted.

"To what?" Malia asked.

"To the Einstein-Rosen bridge."

Malia picked up a steel pipe and attempted to push through the rift. She took a moment to look at the pipe which had melted.