North Starr

72

Stiles sat by his dad's bedside and heard him ask, "Is that my laptop?"

Stiles continued typing on the laptop and said, "Yep."

"Do you have my password?"

The sheriff's son raised his eyebrows. "I have all your passwords. You know, they just brought in another body from last night?"

"Yeah, I was hoping you wouldn't find out. Now give me my damn computer."

He shied away from his father's reach. "Hang on, hang on." The sheriff groaned and Stiles continued. "I think there's some footage missing. Or something missing in the footage."

"I think there's something missing in your head," Sheriff Stilinski retorted.

"You need your rest," Stiles said in an absent-minded tone as he continued looking through computer footage.

---

Lydia was standing beside her bed, still comatose. She walked to the room where she saw her grandmother's trepanation when she was young. Lydia stepped closer to the black tub to see that it was full of black goo. A figure rose from the goo and crawled along the floor toward her. Lydia gasped. She turned to leave, but was stopped by the door slamming and locking.

The figure stood. It was none other than Meredith Walker. "Don't be afraid," she told her.

Lydia began to scream.

---

Stiles and Melanie found Scott in his bathroom nursing his wound and the former said, "Hey. Still not healing?"

His eyes shifted down for a moment. "Sometimes it just takes a little longer. What are you doing here?"

"Ah, you heard about the guy who got killed out at the communication towers, right? I think I may have figured something out."

Scott stared at his friend in surprise. "What, you want my help?"

Stiles shrugged. "Yeah, well, you said you can find the clues that Melanie and I can't." He pulled out his phone as Scott put on a shirt. "Here. Take a look." Stiles pushed play on the video from a security cam he'd pulled up. "This is where the technician first arrived. You see him going in? Then Deputy Clark goes in. Then something really big and really fast comes charging out. And now comes Clark. Eventually, technician's body is carried out by paramedics."

Scott frowned. "Okay, what am I missing?"

"Two people go in," Melanie said. "Three come out. Stiles 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."

The three made their way to the Telecom building. They found a grate on the floor with words of a different language.

"You see that?" Stiles asked his friends.

"I see blood," Scott and Melanie noted.

Stiles followed his flashlight across the blood and glanced to Scott and Melanie. "Look where it leads to."

---

Nurse Cross came into Lydia's room. She rolled her eyes at her. "I have been here a long time, you. You think I haven't seen this before? I know when patients are pretending. Manipulating to get what they want. You aren't getting out of here. Someone as dangerous as you are? We can keep you here for the rest of your life."

Meredith looked at Lydia. "You have to wake up."

"What if I can't?" Lydia asked.

"Then you wouldn't be able to help your friends and they'll die without you."

"How am I supposed to help fight them like this?"

"You learned to fight, didn't you?"

"Only a little."

"You learned more than you think you did, and faster than an ordinary person could."

Lydia shook her head. "But that doesn't matter now."

"It does. Because I'll teach you the rest. I'm going to show the you how to use your voice. How to use it as a weapon."

---

Stiles looked at the words on the ground. "What is that?"

"It looks like Latin," Scott replied, moving closer to his friend. "Hold up that light. I'm gonna get a picture of it. Stiles, hold the light still."

Stiles collapsed to the floor and held his neck as he groaned. "Scott, behind you! Melanie, look out!" Stiles yelled, seeing Josh behind Scott, ready to attack. Melanie darted away and grabbed a stick to use as a weapon.

He shifted slightly and Tracy and Josh collided. Josh was paralyzed by Tracy's claws and she was knocked down by his electricity. Scott turned to the wall of the tunnel with his eyes glowing. Corey's eyes widened in terror.

Stiles turned to Josh. "Sucks, doesn't it?"

"Okay!" a voice yelled.

Theo appeared and glanced to his pack. "Maybe they're not ready to take on an Alpha. Especially one that can smell fear."

"He's got fangs!" Corey cried, his voice raising a few notches.

Scott pointed to Tracy and Josh. "What did you do?"

"I found some new friends. I don't take rejection well."

Corey and Tracy carried Josh away, leaving only Theo.

"Hey, Theo!" Stiles and Melanie yelled.

"Stiles. Melanie," Theo noted in an annoyed tone. He looked down at the Latin words and crushed them with his foot. He turned to Scott. "You're going to leave here thinking that you need to worry about me. But you're wrong. We're actually back on the same side. Because that's the thing... 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."

Theo turned to something and Scott asked, "What is it?"

"It's not a Chimera."

"But if it's just a kid underneath. Someone like us."

"Not anymore." He left.

Scott and Melanie helped Stiles sit up and the former said, "He knew what it meant and I can't remember the words."

"Damnatio Memoriae," Stiles reminded him. "It means the condemnation of memory. I think it also means that whatever the Dread Doctors created, whatever this last Chimera really is, it's not something new. It's something old. Really old."

"So they didn't create a new creature."

Stiles and Melanie nodded. "They resurrected one."

Scott began drawing his pack symbol into the dirt. "We need help. If Theo's got his own pack now, then we need ours. We have to get the others back."

"The others?" Stiles repeated. "You mean Kira who's currently battling a homicidal fox spirit inside of 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?"

Scott smiled. "Also known as our best friends."

"Okay, how?"

"One by one."

Stiles' eyes flicked down to the circle. "You're not seriously going to make me do it, right?"

"You're part of the pack, right? You too, Melanie."

Stiles sighed. "Okay." He and Melanie drew the outer circle of Scott's pack symbol. When he finished, Scott and Melanie helped Stiles up and they left the tunnel. "We need to find Kira. I still hate that tattoo."

Scott smiled. "I know."