The Alpha's Keeper

Armored Truck

Well, turns out Stiles' brilliant plan involved stealing an armored truck from the police station and keeping Jackson chained up inside. "I'm gonna kill you!" Jackson called from the millionth time. Did he really not know what he was with that attitude? We stashed the truck deep in the preserve for safe keeping. I leaned up against the side of the truck as Stiles pulled up in his Jeep. "Hey." I called to him as he hopped out of his Jeep with some sandwiches. "Hey, how's he doing?" Stiles asked me. I sighed and looked back at the truck. "He's pissed." I replied, shrugging slightly. We had figured he would be when he woke up. "Well, let's do this." Stiles sighed heavily. I nodded before opening up the back doors. "Okay, I brought you some foo –" Stiles started as he and I climbed into the back. "Let me out now!" Jackson shouted, cutting Stiles off.

"You know, I put those pants on you, alright, buddy?" Stiles snapped, glaring at him. "One leg at a time. Being all up close and personal with your junk wasn't exactly a highlight of my day. So don't think this is fun for us either. You know we're actually doing you a favor?" Stiles snapped at him, holding the bag of sandwiches in his hand as he and I sat on the bench across from Jackson. "This is doing me a favor?" Jackson asked us, anger in his eyes as he held up his chained hands. "Yes. You're..." I trailed off, wondering if there was an easy way to tell him this. "You're killing people. To death. Yeah." I said, seeing his disbelieving expression. "And until we can figure out how to stop you, you're gonna stay in here. I'm sorry. Now..." I started, reaching into the bag of sandwiches and pulling three out. "You want the ham and cheese, or turkey club?" I asked him, examining the sandwiches. The peanut butter and honey was all mine. "You actually think my parents won't be looking for me?" Jackson asked, refusing to answer my question. "Uh, well... not if they don't think anything's wrong. Yeah." Stiles replied before tossing Jackson the turkey club.

"Scales? Like a fish." Jackson asked as we tried to explain his kanima state. "No, more like a reptile. Um, and, uh, your claws have this liquid that paralyzes people, and you have a tail." Stiles told him. "I have a tail?" Jackson asked skeptically. "Yeah, you have a tail. And that thing hurts like hell." I added, finishing off my sandwich. "Mm. Does it do anything?" Jackson asked us. "Other than whipping me? no, not that we know of." I explained, crossing my arms over my chest. "Can I use it to strangle you?" he asked us, his eyes on Stiles. "Yeah, you still don't believe us. Alright, the night of the semi-final game, what did you do right after?" Stiles asked him, leaning forward slightly. The night of the semi-finals was the night Stiles, Derek, and I had been trapped in the pool. "I went home." Jackson replied with a shrug. "Are you sure about that?" I asked him, raising one eyebrow skeptically. "Yes, you idiots. What the hell else would I do?" he asked us.

I leaned forward, glaring at him hard. "You attacked me, Stiles, and Derek at the school, and you trapped us in the pool. You also killed a mechanic." I started. "Right in front of me, by the way." Stiles added snappily. "That was lovely. And one of the Argent's hunters. Oh, and last night, you tried to kill Danny." I added, giving him a twisted smile. "Why would I want to kill my best friend?" Jackson asked us as if that was proof enough that he wasn't the kanima. "Well, that's what Scott's out trying to figure out right now." Stiles told him simply. "Mm. well, maybe what he should be trying to figure out is how he's going to pay for a lawyer when I prosecute your asses all the way to jail!" Jackson snapped, glaring at us. "Alright, well, tell us this. On the night of the first full moon, what happened?" I asked him. Disappointment flashed in his eyes. "Nothing. Nothing happened." he grumbled, looking away from me and Stiles.

Stiles and I sat outside of the truck waiting and waiting. "Oh, my god." Stiles jumped when Allison suddenly ran up in front of us. "They know." She told us breathlessly. "What?" I asked, using the truck to get me to my feet. "They know Jackson's missing." She told us. "No, they can't. I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue." Stiles protested. "My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know." She insisted, her tone urgent and frantic. "Oh..." Stiles groaned as he ran to the cab of the truck and turned on the police radio. "All available units proceed to Beacon Hills Preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Proceed with caution." The dispatcher said over the radio. "Get in. get in!" I snapped at both of them as I hopped into the front seat. "Where are we going?" Allison asked as Stiles pulled out Jackson's phone and messed around with it. "Somewhere very far from this." He said before tossing the phone out my window. "Jackson?" I heard a woman's voice come from the phone just before we sped away.

Scott met us at our new location farther into the preserve. "If Jackson doesn't remember being the kanima, he's definitely not going to remember stealing Danny's tablet." Scott told us. Danny had been helping Jackson with something but wouldn't say what it was. Only that whatever he was helping him with was on his tablet. "Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" I asked my brother, crossing my arms over my chest. "What if someone else took it?" Allison suggested. "Then somebody else knows what he is." Stiles provided, nodding at her suggestion. "Uh, which could mean someone's protecting him." Scott pointed out. "Like the bestiary says, 'the kanima seeks a friend,' right?" Allison added with a shrug. "Okay, hold on. so, somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the kanima, and then just erases part of it so he wouldn't know? I mean, who would do that?" Scott asked, completely dumbfounded. "Somebody who wants to protect him?" Allison suggested again.

"There's something else. You said the only thing you found online about the kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true?" Scott pointed out. "No, it can't be. Tried to kill all of us, remember? I don't know about you three, but I haven't murdered anybody lately."
Stiles pointed out. "But I..." I trailed off, eyebrows knitted together in thought. "I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us. Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?" I suggested, talking to Allison and Scott. "You're right. It just ran off." Allison agreed, shaking her head in confusion. "And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage." Scott pointed out, gesturing to Stiles. "Well, yeah, but it tried to kill us and Derek in the pool." Stiles replied, gesturing to me. "Did it?" Scott asked quizzically. "It would've. It was waiting for us to come out." I told them, crossing my arms over my chest. "What if it was trying to keep you in?" Scott suggested, making my face contort in confusion. "Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?" Stiles asked, sounding disgusted and annoyed.

"Because there's something else going on. We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him." Scott insisted, answering Stiles question – kind of. "'Know thy enemy'." Allison said, earning confused glanced from all of us. "Just something my grandfather said." she said, shaking it off. "Alright, I got it." Stiles started. "Kill Jackson. Problem solved." Stiles finished with a shrug. "He risked his life for us. Against Peter, you remember that?" I asked, pointing out something huge that everyone forgot. "Yes, but what did we just find out? He got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny." Stiles argued.

"Yeah, it doesn't mean he's not still worth saving." Scott replied snappily. "It's always something with him, though." Stiles grumbled. "He doesn't know what he's doing." Scott snapped. "So what?" Stiles asked as a memory flashed through my mind of that night Scott first lost control on the locker room. My fingers brushed over the pale scars on my arm. "So, Scott didn't either. You remember that night in the locker room when he lost control?" I asked Stiles who nodded in reply. "Scott had somebody to stop him. Jackson has nobody." I told them, suddenly feeling sorry for Jackson. "That's his own fault." Stiles snapped, suddenly angry and annoyed that we were sticking up for Jackson. "Doesn't matter. If we can save him, we should try." Scott insisted.

I needed to burn off a little steam after that conversation. So I ran through the preserve, checking for police while I was at it. I ran for over an hour and when I came back, Stiles was staring at the open back doors of the empty truck. "What happened?" I asked him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "I don't know. I just went to check on Lydia and when I came back, he was gone." Stiles insisted before looking over at Allison's car. He and I jogged over to the car and I rapped my knuckles against the window. Scott and Allison – who were asleep – jumped awake. Scott quickly rolled down the window while rubbing his eyes. "What?" he asked us. "You guys might want to come take a look at this." I growled, glaring at them both. They were supposed to be on watch and now Jackson was gone.

"I have to tell my father." Allison said as she pulled out her phone and stared at the open doors. "Scott, he's going to kill someone." She reminded him. "Okay, tell him. Tell him everything." Scott replied, his voice sad but resolved. He knew that Mr. Argent would know about him and Allison now. "Scott, I gotta call mine too." Stiles said, his phone in his hand. "This is all my fault." Scott grumbled after nodding. "It's not. But we have to tell them. We're just a bunch of teenagers. We can't handle this." Allison tried to tell him. "Hey, I'm legally an adult." I snapped at her. "She's right." Scott said pointedly. I sighed but nodded in agreement. "How are you going to make your dad believe all this?" Allison asked Stiles. "I don't know." Stiles replied, shaking his head. "He'll believe us." I said, hands on my hips. Stiles nodded and took a deep breath before calling his father.