Allison's POV:

Liam pushes open the door that led to the roof but finds nothing except the generators for the Hospital. However, a burst of sparks erupts from one of the transformers which cause the three of us to flinch back.

"Looks like someone did something to it." Liam spoke.

Before I could utter out a word, the sounds of bones clattering against each other send chills to run down my spine.

"I think somebody did." Kira nervously said and quickly pulled out her Katana from her bag.

The three of us turn and we were instantly met with the large Berserker. My eyes trail to the dry blood on its skeleton mask and I swiftly unsheathe my daggers while Liam let out a roar.

Olivia's POV:

Ms. Martin walks over to one of the chained cabinets and carefully pulls out a silver jar. "These are your grandmother's ashes." She spoke as she walked closer to Lydia and I.

"Grandma died in Eichen House." Lydia stated, never taking her stares away from the jar.

"Your father had a difficult relationship with his mother, but after the things she said, and the way she acted—"

"He probably thought that she was crazy." I interrupt and guiltily eyed the jar. "No offense."

Ms. Martin gave a small shrug. "Well, she said she heard things."

Lydia looked around the room as she crossed her arms. "Why would she want her ashes in here?"

"Well, actually, she didn't. She left instructions for her ashes to be spread across the lake."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "So why haven't you done it?"

"Because..." Her eyes land on Lydia. "she wanted you to do it. When you turned eighteen...don't ask me why. But since there are only a few weeks till that," She hands the jar to her. "I suppose now is as good a time as any."

Lydia carefully takes off the lid until her nose scrunched up. "Mom, these aren't Grandma's ashes."

Ms. Martin furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean? Of course, they are."

"No." Lydia dug her hand inside the jar and grabbed a handful of the ash, letting it drop back inside before opening her hand to show the familiar black dust.

"Mountain Ash?" I ask and Lydia simply nodded.

She quickly grabs another handful before throwing it towards the water. Shockingly enough, the ashes simply fly to the side instead of going straight to the water.

Lydia looks around the building. "The whole building...it's all made of Mountain Ash."

Allison's POV:

Liam extends his claws and charged towards the creature, swiping his claws back and forth until the Berserker finally dodged his hit. He grabs ahold of Liam by the neck, lifting him up from the ground before throwing him against the fence of the broken generator.

I worriedly glance at him, seeing the blood trickle down his forehead. "Liam!" I glare at the creature and run to the Berserker, lifting my leg up to kick its chest, forcing it to stumble back.

It attempts to swing its arm but I duck under and push the dagger through its exposed hip, causing it to growl.

Before I could move, it uses its bone-shaped dagger to slash down on my leg and instantly I let go of my other dagger to clutch onto my leg in pain. The Berserker backhands me and instantly my head slams against the stairwell, knocking me unconscious as soon as my head slammed on the ground.

Olivia's POV:

"This was the last thing your grandmother wrote down before she died." Ms. Martin handed Lydia a piece of paper while I carefully closed the lid on the jar and placed it back on the shelf. "Don't even know why I kept it because it's basically nonsense."

I walk over to Lydia and took notice of her nervous expression. "What's wrong?" I whisper but she slowly turned to her mom.

"Are you absolutely sure grandma's dead?

"Yes." Ms. Martin answered as if it was the obvious thing ever but Lydia gave her a look. "I mean, she has to be."

Lydia hands me the piece of paper and my eyes widen at the scrambled letters, numbers, and symbols. "This is definitely not nonsense. It's code."

"I think there's more of this upstairs. Just give me a second. I'll be right back." Ms. Martin said before quickly walking out of the boathouse.

I glance over to Lydia and see she had been sitting on the edge of the boathouse, staring off at the lake almost as if she was deep in thought.

"You doing okay?" I ask and she gives a small shrug.

I took a seat beside her, letting my legs dangle off the edge."I'm just...am I crazy for thinking that my grandmother could be working with The Benefactor or actually is The Benefactor?" She worriedly looks to me. "What if she's not even dead?"

"It's not a terrible theory. Look at me," I gesture to myself. "I was supposed to be dead but I guess the perks of being a Phoenix come with resurrecting from the dead."

Her eyes widen slightly. "You know about...?"

I nod. "The reishi mushrooms brought my memory back. I know what you guys did."

She shook her head with disbelief. "I wasn't on board with lying to you. I knew it was going to bite back eventually." She looks back at the lake. "Sorry about lying to you, though. How are you feeling?"

"I'm not completely mad anymore so it's okay. I mean," I lift my shirt a bit to reveal the scar in the middle of my body. "whenever I change it reminds me so I can't exactly forget about it."

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out, seeing that it was Stiles. I shove it back in my pocket and see Lydia's curious expression. "Really? You're not mad anymore?"

"Well, just a little bitter to everyone else." I innocently shrug but chuckle afterward.

She raised an eyebrow. "So what makes me different?"

"You said it yourself. You didn't want to hide it but everyone else did." I shrug. "And according to your mom, she thinks we're sneaking around so there's that."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know why she said that. She knows about you and Allison still working things out."

I awkwardly scratch the back of my neck. "I don't think it's happening anytime soon. She broke up with me and I think yesterday's fight was the final straw."

I feel her hand placed on top of mine. "I'm sorry. Maybe things can turn around for you both?"

I shake my head. "I think it's time I stop fighting against what our relationship needs. Time to heal." I grab a pebble from the side and toss it to the water, watching it skip across until it sank. "Focus on just myself for once."

"Well even if you're still mad at everyone, you still have them." She squeezed my hand and I look to lock eyes with her. "You have me."

My eyes dart between her lips and her hazel colored brown eyes, my nerves practically holding me back from leaning any closer.

What the hell am I thinking? Isn't this wrong? I mean, Allison and I aren't together anymore but what would she think?

If she ever found out it would completely change things between us and it definitely wouldn't be for the better.

Was this worth completely losing Allison to?

Suddenly, my phone buzzes once more which causes both of us to flinch back.

"I-I should answer it." I awkwardly muster out as I grabbed my phone to check, seeing a couple of texts from Stiles and my mom.

Mom👩‍👧

SOS
{8:50 p.m}

HOSPITAL
{8:50 p.m}

Stiles🔎

look I know you're still mad but we really need you at the hospital
{8:44 p.m}

allison, kira, and liam went to the roof to check something out and haven't been back since. im worried
{8:45 p.m}

Oh no.

Allison's POV:

"Allison! Allison get up!" I shot my eyes open and instantly was met with Kira's worried expression as Liam attempted to fight the Berserker.

She quickly helps me up from the ground and hands me the dagger I dropped earlier.

Liam immediately gets thrown to the side once more and I painfully clutch on my leg, seeing the blood seep through my clothes. I lean against the railing as Kira charged to the creature next.

"Liam, run." I grunt, trying to push the unbearable pain aside. "Get out of here and get Olivia!" Liam clenches his fist and pushes himself up from the ground once more, anger filling his expression as Kira gets backhanded again. "Liam!"

He lets out a roar and we watch as he jumped on top of the generator that was taller than the Berserker.

He lets out another roar and swiped his claws downward as he hopped down, causing the Berserker to grab the front of his shirt. Liam's eyes widen in shock at the sudden action and the Berserker slams him on the floor, bringing it's bone-shaped dagger up in the air in preparation to stab him.

"No!" I cry out.

An arm wraps around the Berserker's skeleton arm, forcing it in place which causes the weight on my shoulders to disappear once I realized who it was.

"I'm getting sick and tired of you pieces of shit!" Olivia grunted and somehow managed to throw the Berserker off of Liam.

The Berserker slammed against the fence that surrounded one of the generators, causing the machine to burst into sparks. Olivia slips off her jacket and tossed it to the side before she flicked her wrists and her arms instantly ignite into flames as her eyes glowed a bright orange.

As she continued to face off with the Berserker, I limp over to Liam who weakly tried to push himself up. I offer my hand and carefully help him lean against the wall, seeing some of the cuts in the middle of healing.

He tries to run to Olivia but I hold his arm. "You're gonna get yourself killed if you try to help." I scold as he clutched on his hip with a pained expression.

"She might need my help." He growled out.

"Actually," Kira grunted. "it looks like she's doing fine."

We both look over in time to see her swiftly dodge the Berserkers attempted stabs from its dagger and grabs ahold of its arms, driving it back closer and closer to the ledge of the building.

My eyes widen, seeing that she was practically risking her life if she made one wrong move. "Olivia!"

Once the Berserker reached the ledge, the flames traveled across the Berserker's arms until it reached its neck, causing it to screech in pain. She lets out a cry as the flames burned brighter than normal before she harshly shoved the creature off the building, watching as it fell stories down until only an echo of a loud slam was heard.

Olivia slowly turned to face us, seeing her eyes still glow orange before she blinked a couple of times until faded back to her normal brown eyes.

Liam coughed. "Woah."

Olivia limped her way over to us with a tired expression. "Where's everyone else?"

The alarm on Kira's phone goes off which causes her to let out a gasp. "I gotta go. Come on Liam." She quickly said before dashing towards the exit.

Olivia's eyes lands on my leg and I shake my head, knowing what she wanted to do. "You're drained. I'll be fine." I took notice of the slash on her abdomen. "You need it more."

Her hand hovers over my leg, the palm of her hand emitting a white glow as she placed it over the wound. She inhales a deep breath and the pain on my leg disappeared once she moved her hand away.

She stumbled forward a bit but I hold her arm so she could stand. "I can get my energy back," She muttered breathlessly. "but you can do me a favor by helping me downstairs."

Olivia's POV:

Allison guides me to the morgue in time to see Scott jolt forward with a pained scream as he sat upright from the metal table.

His expression soon after turned to relief once he locked eyes with Kira and she leaned down, giving a small kiss before pulling away.

"What happened? Did it work?" He quickly asked but I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" I spoke up and he instantly snapped his head towards me with shock, almost as if he was surprised to see me.

"We thought we could lure the Benefactor here." Argent responded as Stiles shook his head with disbelief.

"Kate and her little Berserker children might've ruined our chance since the guy didn't even bother to show up."

Suddenly, Liam entered the room which earned all of our attention to him as he only stared at Kira.

"What?" She worriedly asked.

"It's your mother...she's hurt."

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

"You didn't have to drive me all the way to my house. I could've waited for my mom." I say as Allison helped me out of the car, shutting the car door behind me.

"It's the least I could do after you healed my leg." She gave a small smile. "I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"If it's about that Scott thinks that a banshee is The Benefactor, he already told me." I give a small smile. "He explained to me what he saw when he was...you know, dead."

"No, I wanted to talk about what happened at the school."

Oh. "Allison—"

"Hear me out, please?" She interrupted with a pleading expression and I nod as she helped me sit on the bench in front of my house. "What I did, I shouldn't have lied and hidden about what happened. Especially the whole 'I love you' thing. I messed up."

"You definitely did." I bump her shoulder. "You could've told the truth about the 'I love you' thing instead of having me look like an idiot."

"I know. I know." She leaned her head back so she could only stare at the starry night sky. "I was just overwhelmed with everything going on. Attending two funerals, fighting off another life-threatening monster, and having to balance it out with my classes so I could graduate on time to get into a good college isn't exactly good for my mental health."

I copy her posture, staring at the stars as well. "No kidding. I lost count about how many times I'd wake up from a nightmare, reliving that night with what the Nogitsune did to me."

"I still get them too. A lot." I worriedly glance at Allison and see a tear roll down from her cheek. "I think it was part of the reason why I hid it from you. I thought by not bringing it up, I could pretend that it never happened in the first place. Just go back to how things were."

I look up to the stars again. "Then?"

"I realized that I had to stop running away from what happened. As much as it hurt, it affected our friends and showed us how life was so precious and could be taken away in a second." She adjusted her position and I feel her pinky momentarily brush against mine. "It makes me think about things that could've changed if I did something different."

"Well sometimes if something traumatic happens to us, maybe it was meant to shape how our mindset should be when we're like our parents." I move my hand a bit until my pinky touched hers. "I mean, I guess when I died it showed me that sometimes my reckless decisions aren't usually the best. Despite how stubborn I am to admit that to everyone else."

A chuckle escaped from her lips and I couldn't help but laugh along.

"I missed this." She whispered. "Our talks." Suddenly, I feel her hand placed on top of mine and my heart practically melts on the spot at the gesture.

I slowly flip my hand around and interlock our hands together, almost as if two puzzle pieces were finally put together. "Me too."

"I meant what I said though. I'm sorry for lying to you. I should've told you that night you woke up instead of you finding out on your own." She squeezed my hand. "I promise I won't hide anything from you anymore."

That's when I remembered what happened at Lydia's boathouse. It's not fair to her if I lie.

"I forgive you," I whisper and feel the nerves in her hand lessen. "but if we're admitting things...there's something I have to tell you."

"It can't be worst than what I did to you." I lift my head to face her and she does the same, narrowing her eyes but luckily still held onto my hand. "Olivia?"

"Before I came to the hospital, I was with Lydia helping her find some clues about Meredith at the boathouse." I start off and she gives a small nod. "After hearing some stories from Ms. Martin, she went inside to get something which left Lydia and I alone again so we were killing time, talking about why I was mad at everyone. There's this...weird silence where we just stared at each other and—"

She pulls her hand away. "You kissed her."

"We almost did but my phone buzzed which snapped me out of it and that's when I saw I had texts to go to the hospital." I tried to explain but she moved her hand on her lap, moving her stares straight ahead. "Allison, I didn't want to hide it from you. I wanted you to hear it from me if it was something that could affect our friendship."

"Well...we're not together anymore so why should I be mad when you could be with whoever you want." She crossed her arms. "Even if it's one of our best friends."

"It's not—"

"It's getting late." She cut me off as she stood up from the bench and pulled out her keys from her pocket. "I'll see you later."

I decided not to follow her since it would make things worse so all I could do is watch as she got inside her car and drive off without another word.

Well that's just great.