Olivia's POV:

"You've arrived at your destination."

My eyes trail to the toppled-over slabs covered in weeds and one part of the gate barely holding on to its rusted hinges, picturing what used to be Camp Oak Creek.

Damn, that many years and the place is practically in ruins. Barely even recognizable.

I step out of the car and close the door behind me, trekking through the grass and stopping at the entrance.

My eyes trail to the fallen sign that read 'CAMP OAK CREEK'.

"We've done this before, guys." Scott spoke, probably noticing the discomfort look on Stiles's weakened state. "A couple of weeks ago we were standing around just like this and we saved Malia, remember? That was a total stranger. This is Lydia."

"I'm here to save my best friend." Allison stated, momentarily glancing at me before she looked around at everyone else.

Scott nodded his head to Stiles with a smile. "I came to save mine."

I scratch my neck nervously. "Uh...I'm glad I never called the FBI when I first moved here," I say, remembering how terrified I was when I first found out about the supernatural. "or else I wouldn't have become friends with the people I consider my family."

I shake my head, ridding the memory, and step over the fallen sign to continue walking.

Once I reached the middle of the camp, I consciously graze my fingertips on the jagged scar in the middle of my stomach.

I quickly grab the bottle of mountain ash I had gotten from Argent and open the jar, throwing it directly where Allison stood, and use every bit of my energy by conjuring a blast that circled her. The Oni's sword immediately deflects, creating a blue shock wave that causes it to harshly crash against the stone wall.

I pull my hands away and sigh in relief, the weight coming off my chest as I watch the flames circling her slowly disappearing from the amount of energy I exerted.

Allison locked her eyes with mine and smiled, realizing that I was the one who blocked the attack.

I didn't bother to fight the grin that formed on my face and was about to run toward her,

but something didn't feel right. In fact, I felt an ache in my back.

I slowly look down and my eyes widen at the sight of the blade of the Oni's sword protruding from my stomach.

"Like I always said Olivia," A chilling whisper from Void Stiles spoke in my ear as he twisted the blade in my stomach, causing me to cry out in pain as the insides of my body were practically ripping apart. "nothing can last forever. I just needed the perfect distraction to get you out of the picture.

I hear someone scream my name as the numbness begins to spread throughout my entire body, my vision throbbing red as I watch the sword pull out from my stomach.

"Ugh." I rub my eyes, bringing my senses back to the present as I stared at the patch of dirt.

"Don't tell me you need glasses. Are you that old?"

"I don't blame her. Especially with the amount of paperwork she has to read every day."

I smile at the voices and turn around, meeting the two figures I hadn't seen in ages. "Says the guy that looks like he'll have a receding hairline in ten years." I joke, taking notice of his buzzcut.

"It's not receding!" Scott exclaimed in disbelief.

Lydia quickly runs to my first to pull me into a tight hug and I immediately reciprocate the gesture with a chuckle. "Nice seeing you again Lyds."

"How have you been doing?" She asked, slightly pulling away from the embrace. "How's Griffin?"

"We've...been managing." I shyly explain and pull away to hug Scott next. "Trying to heal but of course, you can imagine my face when I heard about what might have happened to Allison."

"Do you really think all this is true?" Lydia hesitantly asked as we stared at the patch of hardened ground. "Allison being stuck, unable to cross over?"

"I honestly don't know what to believe. I didn't have the heart to tell Griffin about this unless we were sure. He's already going through enough at school and he's better off not knowing about the supernatural. Especially after what Phoebe had gone through when she first found out."

"If being here and doing this thing actually helps her, and no one else gets hurt, I'm up for trying." Scott added with a small smile.

Lydia nodded resolutely. "Okay. Then let's try." She unclips the latch from a black file to take out the sheets of paper filled with various scribbles before she gestured to the floor. "We need a handful of earth from the ground where Allison held Olivia when she died."

Scott crouches down to the floor but I couldn't help but look away from the sight, feeling the ache in my heart resurface. Thankfully, Lydia wraps her arm around mine, giving my arm a short squeeze in support.

Scott takes a deep breath before slamming his fist into the ground, creating a large indentation. He collects a handful of the soil in the palm of his hand and quickly puts it inside a cloth bag, sealing it shut.

"What's next?"

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

"Anybody mind if we close this thing?" Lydia muttered in discomfort, gesturing to the katana inside the briefcase that Argent placed on the McCall kitchen island.

Argent quickly nods, closing the lid before putting the latches back on and moving them to the kitchen table. "Does your--uh, mom know that you're here?" Argent curiously asked.

Scott raised a brow. "Does she know that you're here?"

"No. And I...kind of want to keep it that way."

"Yeah, me too."

"All right. Lydia, we've got the earth where Allison held Olivia, the weapon that took Olivia's life." Argent listed off and I cross my arms over my chest in discomfort. "According to you, that's steps one and two. What is next?"

"I was--uh, hoping you could help me figure that out." Lydia trailed, placing the sheets of paper in front of us where the scribbles spelled out the word 'bardo' dozens of times in various shapes. "I mean, to be honest, I'm a little out of practice with all of this."

"You still scream like a banshee, right?" Scott asked.

"Not quite like I used to." She spoke with a tightlipped smile. "It's just like a muscle. You stop using it, and it atrophies."

"Okay but...why did you stop using your power?" I ask.

"Stiles." We all look away from the table, seeing as Jackson unamusedly entered the kitchen and walked over to the refrigerator to search through the food. "Obviously it has something to do with Stiles."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "You brought him?" I ask in disbelief. "He wasn't even here when it happened!"

"Yeah, why is Jackson here?" Scott looked over to Lydia with annoyance but she innocently shrugged, watching as Jackson casually pulled out a slice of pizza. "What are you doing?"

"Well, firstly, Jackson prefers not to be talked about like he's not in the room." Jackson muttered, chewing the piece he bit off. "Second, well, Lydia called, begging me to help, as usual. And I said, okay, so long as she promised never to tell Ethan because I promised Ethan that I would never come back to this nightmare hellscape of a town." He sternly emphasized before walking over between Argent and I.

"Thank you." Lydia sarcastically remarked.

"Oh, I love these games." Not wiping his hands with a napkin, Jackson tries to reach for one of the papers but Argent is quick enough to grab his wrist with a glare.

"This isn't a game."

"I have claws that drip paralytic venom, and a tail that'll snap your neck." Jackson gritted through his teeth. "So take your hand off of me, old man."

"You try that, I'll use your pizza to slap you hard enough to knock you unconscious." I snapped. "You do not want to test me, Whittemore. Especially not today."

"Easy." Scott warned, pushing me back a bit away from Jackson. "We're trying to help Allison, not kill each other."

Argent releases his grip from Jackson's wrist and watches with reluctance as he collects the papers from the table and begins to set them on the floor in certain positions.

A few moments pass and he sets the last paper in the middle, smiling in satisfaction once the picture displayed a tree stump from the top view.

One that all of us knew all too well.

"It's a tree." Jackson concluded, grabbing the slice of pizza from the counter and taking a bite. Well, maybe not Jackson.

"It's not just a tree." Scott muttered.

"It's the Sacred Grove." Lydia reminded.

"The ancients Druids call it a nemeton." Argent added.

"It makes sense. Of course." I whisper in discomfort. "When I moved to Beacon Hills and sat on the nemeton without realizing it, it jumpstarted my powers."

Jackson narrowed his eyes. "Well, it looks like a tree."

Griffin's POV:

I awkwardly follow behind Derek and Eli as they agitatedly entered their household in silence.

I look around the living room, subtly smiling in remembrance of the antics Eli and I used to get ourselves into. It's been years since I've been here.

Eli slams his backpack on the kitchen island in frustration but just as Derek tossed his jacket onto the coat hanger, it immediately breaks off of the hinges.

My eyes widen in surprise but (mostly out of fear) I don't say a word, watching as Derek exhaled through his nose. "All right. Can we just—Can we just stop before either of us does anything completely embarrassing? Especially in front of our guest."

Eli snorted in amusement. "I think that qualifies as pretty embarrassing."

Derek briefly looks at me before quickly shaking his head. "It was coming loose anyway."

"Are you gonna punish me or not?" Eli questioned as he gestured down the hall. "Cause otherwise, I'll just go to my room."

"Eli, I don't--I don't want to punish you." Derek sighed and leaned against the kitchen island. "I'd like to maybe understand what you think you were doing."

"You really want to do this now?" Eli scoffed, nodding his head toward me and seeing that I awkwardly took a seat on their living room couch and snatch the Rubix cube that was left out on the coffee table. "Fine. I needed a ride to meet my friends after the game. What is wrong with that?"

"You're fifteen, you don't have a license, and it's called breaking the law."

"You never broke the law?"

Derek lets out a dry chuckle. "Okay. You know what? If this is about...the other thing, then let's talk about the other thing.

"I don't want to talk to you about anything!"

"I wouldn't push it if it wasn't a thing. But we both know it's not just anything and now it's definitely something."

What the hell is up with the secrecy in this town?

"I don't even know what you're talking about. Are you--Are you listening to yourself?" Eli asked in disbelief. "You sound drunk."

"I can't get drunk. You know that."

Eli shrugged. "It's not my problem."

"Eli, it's a thing!"

"Okay, to you, not me!"

"I can teach you." Derek tries to take a step closer to him but Eli immediately steps away.

"What if I don't want to learn?"

"Well, you're gonna have to learn. It's who you are. You're a Hale."

"I'll change my name." He countered.

"That won't change the fact that you're..." Derek briefly paused as his eyes flicker to mine once more before he glanced back at Eli. "going through changes!"

Is that what this fight is about? Puberty?

"And what if I'm not?" Eli raised his voice in frustration. "Maybe that's why I can't? You know, what if I'm the first-ever Hale not to?"

Derek averts his eyes from his son with a sigh. "To be honest, it would probably make life a little easier."

"Yeah, for me?" Eli emphasized with a tightlipped smile, taking notice of his father's expression. "Or for you?"

Derek stays silent which causes Eli to snatch his backpack from the table and walk out of the kitchen to the hall, slamming a door shut behind him.

"Definitely me." Derek muttered to himself before his eyes land on me. "Sorry, it's...it's not usually like this. I promise."

"You don't have to hide arguments from me. Trust me, I have my fair share of those." I sarcastically smile and glance down at the Rubix cube, continuing to match the patterns.

"You fight with Oli--I mean, your mom a lot?" He asked but I continue to spin the combinations, not answering his question. "Well whatever it is, can I offer some advice?"

I shrug. "Doubt it would fix anything."

"Before, I used to keep my circle small. Not very into the idea of letting people nor did I care to...until I met some very good friends." Derek started to smile, almost as if to recall the memory. "One including your mother, as much as she was a pain in my ass. But if I hadn't given them my trust, I don't think I would be here today. Be open about how you feel, Griffin."

"Thanks for the advice, Mr. Hale," I slide one more piece, furrowing my brows in annoyance at the other sides having mismatched colors. "But it'd work if she didn't spend her rare time off running errands. Plus the fact she dropped me off with no explanation, I'm not gonna bother."

"Right...well you think you can do me a favor?" He asked and nodded his head to the hall where Eli stormed off to. "Check on Eli for me, will you? Make sure he hasn't run off? Se--"

"Second door on the right." I cut in as I toss the Rubix cube back on the table and stand up from my spot. "I remember."

I walk down the hallway and knock on Eli's door a few times, wincing at loud it sounded. God this is so awkward.

"Dad, I swear I don't--"

"It's not him. It's--" I speak up, internally beating myself up over how I spoke. "erm, it's Griffin."

"...Oh, then it's open."

I twist open the doorknob and see him taking his books out of his backpack and placing them on the desk.

"Let me guess, he sent you to spy on me?" He scoffed and tossed his backpack in his closet.

"Sort of..." I trail, shutting his door behind me. I glance around the medium-sized room, taking note of his unmade bed and the small trinkets on his desk. "But in reality, I wanted to avoid the same lecture I've heard before."

He looked over at me with an amused smile. "You get the disappointment ones too?"

"More like how I should be the bigger person." I say as I stroll over to his lizard tank to get a better look at his pet. "There are these two guys who make my life a living hell so after I did some payback...I got suspended for a month."

"Seriously? The other guys get no punishment for messing with you? What kind of principal is that?"

"Pretty much. I still think it was worth helping a girl to get out of a relationship with one of them. But honestly...kinda glad I got to get away from home." I lean closer to the lizard container with a small smile, lightly scratching the glass. "You really grew up, huh?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's been a shitty past couple of days." It's silent for a moment but he walks over to his window and quietly pushes it open. "Woah--what are you doing?"

"Well, given that we had a shitty day, how about we ditch this place and explore?" He suggests as he carefully steps out of the window.

"But what about your dad?" I worriedly ask. "If he finds out--"

"Griffin, I know it's been ages since we last hung out but from what I've learned for the last couple of years," He holds his hands out with a smirk. "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission."

I hesitantly glance behind me. Mom would kill me if she realizes I snuck out.

"Come on, Griff. You said it yourself. You're already technically grounded so how bad could it be? Besides, there's no way we'll bump into your mom if she's running errands where we're going." He stepped away from the window with a grin. "So, you coming or are you gonna hang out and become best friends with my dad?"

"...God, I'm gonna regret this."