✓ | battle wounds, scott m.

chapter eighty six.

Ella stood behind Stiles, her hand on his shoulder and his hand around Lydia's. "Your teachers, uh, gave us some of the stuff you guys have been working on. They wanted us to hold on to it for you. I saw something about the, uh, Riemann Hypothesis. Um, things like, nontrivial zeros, zeta functions and a lot of other stuff that goes totally over my head. Maybe you can wake up and explain it to me?" Stiles asked, chuckling lightly. Ella kneeled down beside him and looked at the girl she called her best friend, "Oh, come on, Lydia. You have to come back to us. There's no way we're getting through this without you." "Lydia, you have to wake up," Stiles whispered. "I think that's enough," Natalie Martin said from the doorway, the twins glancing at her before looking back at Lydia, "Stiles." Stiles went to brush back some of her hair when they saw a patch of her hair gone, "Wait a second, what is this? What are they doing?" "All right, you two need to go," Natalie said, walking up to Lydia and them. "They shaved her head," Ella pointed at Lydia's missing hair, "Look at it." "Did you.. did you know about this? What are they gonna do? Drill a hole into her head?" Stiles asked, he and Ella standing back. "Are you crazy? It's for E-C-T. Electroconvulsive therapy. They shave small portions of the scalp. It's done under general anesthesia and it's perfectly safe. Look at her, Stiles, Ella. She's my daughter. You don't think I'm trying everything I can to bring her out of this?" Natalie asked.

"No, no, no, that's not E-C-T," Stiles denied. "Is everything all right in here?" One of the nurses asked as she walked up to the room. Stiles and Ella glared at her before looking back at Natalie. "It's fine," she said, "Our guests are just leaving. Stiles, Daniella, go. Or you're not coming back." Stiles and Ella shared a look before turning and walking out, hearing the nurse say it was time for Lydia's shower. Stiles brushed one of the guards's arms, apologizing. A guard that stood at the gate opened it for them, the two continuing down the hall. Ella looked at Stiles and he nodded, pulling out the guard he had brushed against keycard.

▽

A blueprint laid on the table that Kira, Scott, Stiles, Liam, Malia and Ella stood around. Several pictures were laid out at the corners, the keycard was in the corner closest to Ella, and other directions pamphlets were at another corner. Liam placed down the Eichon House Log book, glancing at Ella who smiled lightly and wrapped an arm around him. She pressed a soft kiss to his temple, making him smile. Scott nodded at his friends, "Now we get Lydia."

▽

"Unit Five heading northwest on Crescent reporting an incredibly large.. something," Deputy Clark said to the units over the radio. Stiles was driving the Jeep down the road, following a couple of police cars. "Unit Nine, to Dispatch, I think I've got eyes on the same thing," a male deputy answered, "Some kind of rabid animal." Ella shared a brief look with Scott and Stiles. "Unit Five to Nine, trust me, that's no animal," Deputy Clark informed them. "Unit Six to Dispatch. We have a situation downtown. Multiple fatalities," Strauss said over the scanner, "Copy, medics on the way. Do you have a perp in sight, Unit Six?" "Negative. Looks like a 10-91E," Strauss replied, "Animal attack."

"10-4 can you say what kind of animal?"

Before anyone could reply, Stiles picked up the radio. "All units stay back. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage." "Stiles, get off the radio," Dad replied. Ella and Stiles shared a glance, not expecting for their dad to respond that quickly. "All unit alert. Wait for back-up. Repeat, no one goes near this thing," Dad told the other units. "Unit Five reporting a sighting on Hill Road southbound," Clark said over the radio, "Unit Nine, I've got it turning off Oakridge, southbound on Beachwood."

"All units, this is Dispatch. We've got a 911 call with additional sighting on Mitchell."

"Wait a second.. Beachwood to Mitchell? It's headed back for the hospital," Ella muttered, leaning forward and snatching the radio, "Dad." "Daniella, get off this channel!" Her dad replied a few seconds later. "Dad, just listen to me, okay? It's headed for the hospital, all right. He's headed for Beacon Memorial. You hear me? It's headed for the hospital!" Ella informed him, Stiles driving swiftly to the hospital. Stiles parked the Jeep, Stiles and Scott getting out first then Scott helping Ella out. Scott and Stiles pushes the doors open and they rushed inside, Noah following close behind them. Noah loaded his handgun, making Ella jump slightly. The three turned around to him, Noah holding a finger up to his lips, signaling them to be quiet. A growl sounded through the hospital and everyone immediately looked up. "Fourth floor," Scott muttered. The four made their way into the elevator, Ella pressing the button with the number 4, the doors soon closing. When the doors opened, Sheriff walked out first with his handgun in hand. Ella's eyes darted around the hall, Ella following close behind Stiles and seeing that some parts of the hallway were still burning.

Ella sniffed the air, furrowing her brows and turning to look at Scott. "Blood?" She said in a questioning tone. Scott nodded and pointed to the bloody prints on the floor. She let out a shaky breath as she and Scott walked down the hall, a frown appearing on her face when the clawed feet slowly turned into bloody shoe prints.

▽

"There's four steps," Stiles started, "We get into Eichen, we get into the Closed Unit, we get Lydia, get out." Ella glanced at Liam with an unsure expression and he slid his hand into hers, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. "And we have to do it all of this while getting past orderlies, guards, electric door locks, and a Mountain Ash barrier," Scott explained the hinders they had to get past Lydia. "You have a plan for all of that?" Malia asked. "I stole this last night off an orderly," Stiles said, holding up the keycard, "But it's useless 'cause they reset the codes each night." "So why did you take it, Sti?" Ella asked, shaking her head lightly. "I'm getting to that," Stiles said to his sister. "The only way to get Lydia out of Eichen is to make that key card work again," Scott continued as he pointed at the keycard. "How are you going to do that?" Liam asked, narrowing his eyes at the alpha. "We're getting to that, okay, just listen," Stiles spoke up, turning the MacBook around so they could take a look at the screen, "I pulled all the history off the key card. Two weeks ago, there was a brownout and the security system rebooted. During a reboot, all of the key cards revert back to a default code. So, if we trigger a reboot —" "The card goes back to the default code," Liam muttered as he looked at them. "It works again," Ella nodded slowly, "How are we going to cause a brownout?"

Scott looked at Kira, "That's your part. You're going to draw power from the main line. But only enough to cause the brownout." "Not a blackout," Stiles added with a light nod, "Do that and you send Eichen into lockdown which would be bad. Very, very bad." "There's an electrical room behind the reception counter," Scott explained as he pointed down at the map they had placed on the table, "The main power line goes into two breakers that run power to all of Eichen." "Okay, slight problem. I don't know how to do that," Kira admitted as she looked up from the map at Scott. "That's okay. You have time to practice," Scott assured her. "Let's say all this goes perfectly," Ella spoke up, "How does a brownout get us into the Closed Unit of Eichen?" Silence was Ella's reply until Stiles broke it a couple seconds later, "The system takes five minutes to reboot. In that five minutes all the alarms will be turned off the key card should work." Scott nodded, "Liam, you, Ella and I get Stiles to the gate of the Closed Unit. But after that, he has to go on his own. We can't get past the Mountain Ash barrier. And when we're gone, all anyone's going to think is that there was a reboot of the security system caused by a brownout."

"Uh, any questions?" Stiles asked, waiting for their questions that he knew they had. "How do we get into Eichen House in the first place?" Liam asked, looking at the best friends. "What's our worst-case scenario?" Malia asked. "What if I can't do it?" Kira asked. "Okay, admittedly, a lot could go wrong," Stiles nodded. Ella rolled her eyes, "Stiles, everything could go wrong. Especially if it was your plan." The others nodded in agreement, mumbling 'she has a point.' "Guys, if we don't do this, we lose Lydia," Scott explained, "She's going to die in there tonight. And she might take a lot of innocent people with her."