Scott and Stiles had called Derek, asking to meet him at the loft because they had to tell him something about Jennifer, his new girlfriend.

Peter and I didn't leave Cora though.

The hospital was supposed to be evacuating, but they were taking their damn sweet time in getting Cora out of here.

I was sitting next to Cora, blotting away sweat, as I turned my head toward the door and called out to the hall, "Hey, anyone wanna tell me when they're getting my sister out of here?"

I heard Ms. McCall, Scott's mother, before I saw her. "Sorry, Tara, but she wasn't, uh--"

I looked behind me as Peter stepped back into the shadows of the room.

"You're supposed to be dead."

"I get that a lot, actually."

I turned to look at Cora as the beeping on her machine increased, and her eyes opened, sitting up as she vomited black blood with little white dots . . .

"Mistletoe," I muttered.

*

Derek called me. Asking about Cora. Doctors tended to her as Peter stood next to them as I answered, "It's not good. She's in and out of consciousness, she's vomiting up black blood along with one other alarming substance."

"Mistletoe?" Derek asked.

I looked up. "How did you know that?"

I didn't get an answer, the line going dead.

I hung up too, turning back to the room.

They were gone. The doctors, the nurses, Cora and Peter. All of them.

"Peter?"

I looked down to the trail of black blood leading to the door and started to follow.

*

I saw why Peter and Cora had disappeared.

The giant Alpha the twins turned into threw Peter into a wall, and he fell as I looked to Cora, who laid on the floor in front of them.

Shifting, my eyes glowing blue as I growled, they looked at me, and I ran forward, slashing their side deeply when they grabbed my neck, pulling my up from the floor, and I went to kick up with both legs when they used the other hand to clamp around both my ankles, holding me horizontally like that when Peter ran up, and they kicked him back through the double doors.

I struggled in their hands, and we heard Peter say, "We got a problem." They looked toward him, Scott, Stiles, Derek and Jennifer as I continued to struggle and Peter looked toward us. "Big problem."

*

With the twins distracted, I kicked one of my legs free, kicking the side of their face with my right leg, then my left, flipping backwards out of their hold and onto the floor when they pushed me back into the wall.

Derek, shifted, ran forward, and he was pissed that they were messing with his two little sisters, he jumped over Cora as he pushed them back, and they elbowed his back, making him fall too.

I looked over at Scott, Stiles, Jennifer and Peter as Scott looked at me, slowly shifting as the twins punched Derek's face one time, two, three.

Scott ran forward, using one leg to push off of the wall above my head and slash toward the twins, but they dodged, taking him by his shoulders and pushing him above my head as Stiles and Peter ran past, toward Cora.

"Ethan and Aiden, stop!" Scott told them. "You don't know what you're doing here."

"All we want is her."

Using both hands, I keeled up and slashing their stomach to make them drop Scott, and he fell next to me as they looked down at their bloody, slashed and already-trying-to-heal stomach, then to the elevator as the doors dinged closed on Jennifer's smiling face, and they ran for the elevator, blood dripping to the floor as the doors closed.

I looked at Scott as both of us started running after Derek, Peter--holding Cora--and Stiles.

*

Derek was there first when Scott and I got there, yelling at Peter, "Don't stop, don't stop!"

I looked back as Stiles hid on one side of the door, Derek yelling, "Stiles!"

As the twins stepped through, Stiles swung his baseball bat at their head, hitting, and it shattered into splinters. They turned to growl at him, and he slowly edged back toward us.

He ran past us as Scott jumped toward the ceiling, and Derek and I boosted him up as he pulled the light from the ceiling, pulling it down and hitting the twins with it.

Then all of us turned and ran.

*

The room went dark as I pulled the doors closed, and Stiles asked, "Where's the big guy?"

"He's close," I answered, looking out the windows.

"What about Ms. Blake?" Stiles asked, and we didn't answer, Scott shaking his head. "What--What does that mean? Like, she's gonna? Scott, are you kidding me?"

"Sh, quiet," Derek said.

"Me be quiet? Me, huh? You're telling me what to do now when your psychotic, mass-murdering girlfriend--the second one you've dated, by the way--has got my dad somewhere tied up, waiting to be ritually sacrificed?"

How much did I miss?

"Stiles, they're still out there," Scott told him.

"And they want her, right? Which means we don't have her either, so my dad and Cora are both dead."

"Not yet." Scott stood next to me, over my right shoulder as I looked down at Cora. "Is she really dying?"

"She's definitely not getting any better," I said, my hand going through my hair to get it out of my face.

"There has to be something we can do. We have to help her."

"You can't," a new voice came, and we turned to Jennifer. "Only I can. I can save her, and I can tell you where Sheriff Stilinski is. But there is a pack of Alphas in this hospital who want me dead. So I'll help you, but only when I'm out of here and safe. Only then."

*

Throwing down the table in front of him, Derek tried to get to Jennifer until Scott stopped him. "Wait."

"She was trying to get out."

"I was trying to keep myself from getting killed," Jennifer defended herself. "You can't blame me for that."

"If you're trying to show that you're one of the good guys, then heal her," Stiles told her, pointing at my older sister.

"Not until I'm safe."

"I'd like to volunteer a different method of persuasion," Peter said. "Let's torture her."

"Works for me," Derek said, trying to get to Jennifer again, but Scott grabbed him again.

Then a different voice filled the room through the P.A. "Um, can I please have your attention? Mr. Deucalion--excuse me, just Deucalion--requests you bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the E.R. reception. Do this, and everyone else can leave. You have ten minutes."

I knew why I recognized the woman's voice, looking at her son in front of me.

"He's not gonna hurt her," Jennifer told Scott.

"Shut up," Derek told her, pointing.

"He won't! Scott, you know why. Tell them it's true."

"What does she mean?" I asked.

Scott looked back at us, not answering, so Jennifer did. She sighed, looking at Derek. "You're not the only one he wants in his pack."

*

"Deucalion doesn't just want an Alpha pack. He wants perfection. That means adding the rarest of Alphas to his ranks."

From behind me, Peter said, "A true Alpha."

"What is that?" Stiles asked.

"The kind that doesn't have to steal his power from another. One that can rise by the force of his own will. Our little Scott."

Everyone looked at Scott as he looked at me, then past me to Cora. "It doesn't matter. We still need to get her out of here."

"Scott, your mom--" Stiles started to say.

"My mom said there's an ambulance coming in twenty minutes. I don't think we've been here that long. So we get down to the garage, get to the last ambulance, and we get out of here."

"The twins aren't just gonna let us walk out," Peter pointed out.

"I'll distract them."

"You mean fight them," I said.

"What I have to," Scott replied.

"I'll help you," I told him.

"So will I," Derek said.

"Sorry, but I'm not going anywhere without you, Derek," Jennifer told him.

"I'll do it," Peter said. "But I'd prefer to be out there with an advantage."

"Advantage like what?" Stiles asked. "Like a weapon?"

"Something better than a baseball bat."

*

Stiles was asking as we looked for weapons, "Hey, wait. What about these?"

I didn't turn around, but Derek asked, "Do you know how to use those?"

"Well, no."

"Then put them down."

"Epinephrine?" Scott asked.

"That's just gonna make them stronger."

"How strong?" Peter asked.

*

We were ready now.

Peter walked out of the double doors with the syringe pushed into his chest, breathing heavily as he removed it, Scott and I standing on either side of him as we looked down at the twins.

"All right, boys," Peter said as I already changed my eyes to blue. "Let's rumble."

Both of them growled, walking forward, as they did, they started to merge, as Peter growled as we ran toward them, the twins dodging a move by Peter, pushing him aside, and as they swung an arm toward me, I crouched to the floor, and Scott pushed them into the wall.

I was facing the way that Stiles, Derek as he held Cora, and Jennifer were running the other way.

As I rose from the floor, the twins grabbed me from behind, pushing me into the wall, into a picture frame and breaking it, and I fell to the floor, Peter pushing the twins back into a cart.

Scott started to run and Peter followed behind, Scott turning back when he realized I wasn't following yet. "Tara!"

I finally stopped fighting with the twins, backing away, and Scott took my arm and pulling me with him in a run, running after Peter.

*

After a while, Peter fell, and Scott wrapped one of his arms over his shoulders, and I did the same for the other, both of us still running and pulling him with us. "That shot didn't last very long."

I turned, kicking in a door to let us in, the door reading 'Soiled Laundry', but I didn't care, letting go of Peter as he fell into a table, and Scott shut the door.

I let out a heavy sigh. "Those twins are really starting to piss me off."

"How the hell are we supposed to get past them?" Scott demanded as I looked around the deserted room, shaking my head.

"Personally, I think if we keep letting them beat the living crap out of us, they'll tire and give up," Peter said.

I looked behind him to the laundry chute.

Peter went down first, and then I waited until I was sure he was out, sliding down into the soft, filled laundry bag/basket and not even two seconds later, Scott slid down, landing on me.

I looked up with a sigh, knowing the feeling I felt now, but I wasn't a big fan of the crush-like-love feelings, pushing him off because I saw the exact same look in his eyes.

"You couldn't have waited, like, ten seconds?" I asked to distract hum before his phone vibrated. "They didn't get out, did they?"

He didn't answer, but I grabbed the ends of the basket, jumping out, and Scott followed, both of us taking Peter down to the ambulance with Stiles and Cora.

*

Scott and I got down to the ambulance, Peter's arms over either of our shoulders, and I repeatedly hit the door. "Stiles! Stiles, open the door!"

He opened the door. "Sorry."

"Help us get him in," I said, and we pushed Peter while he pulled.

"Where's Derek and Jennifer?" Stiles asked.

"We have to go back for them and my mom," Scott answered.

"Okay, two problems. Kali 's got the keys to this thing, and I just saw the twins, like, 30 seconds ago."

We heard growls, looking around, then back to Stiles.

"Stay here," Scott said as we shut the doors and ran back.

Walking inside the dark hallway, I thought I heard someone nearby, stopping, looking around.

"What?" Scott asked.

I held up a finger when I saw the twins coming, ducking under their fist, backing away as they turned to me, slashing toward me, and I ducked again, and when I stood, I kicked them away.

They turned to Scott, slashing toward him, he ducked and slashing toward them when they pushed him into the wall, then turned and threw him onto the cart behind them, and he fell to the floor.

I kicked them in their back again, and they turned, slashing toward me, but I dodged, and when I raised, they back-handed me to the wall, turning to me and grabbing my throat, holding me above the floor and against the wall. "Where is she? We're trying not to hurt you."

"Try harder," I growled as Scott started to get up, and they kicked him back down.

"Hey!" a new voice said, and we all looked to Scott's mother. "I'd like to try something."

The things Stiles had suggested earlier were being used now--by Scott's mother, being pushed to their chest, and they had to let me go, dropping me next to Scott as they fell, just Ethan and Aiden again when they landed.

"Sweetheart, get up!" Scott's mother told him.

Scott's hand gripped my arm, pulling me with him as we ran down the hall.

*

"He just let me go, said it was a gesture of good will," Scott's mother told us. "No other reason."

"He had to have had a reason," I told her.

"I don't think he does anything without a reason," Scott agreed.

"Well, if that means I should continue to be profoundly terrified, then don't worry about it," she said. "I got that covered."

Scott and I stopped walking when we heard a gun click. We exchanged a look, edging closer to the corner of the hall, ready to fight or flee.

And saw Argent with his gun raised at us and Isaac and Allison on either side of him, all of us relaxing instantly and Argent lowering the gun as Scott's mother stood next to us.

*

I had separated from Scott and his mother, Isaac, Allison and her father, running quietly toward the elevator, and got to the floor where I heard Jennifer and Derek.

There was a slight hole between the floor and the elevator, where I could see them.

Derek saw me. "What are you doing?"

"Showtime," I replied, looking only at Derek as I handed him my cell phone through the hole, and Jennifer read over his shoulder, already starting to take off her shoes as Derek handed it back.

Jennifer handed up her shoes too, and I put them and my phone down as Derek nodded, and I pushed the doors closed from the outside while he did the same from the inside so the elevator would move after the power was back on.

I turned away, handing the shoes to the girl that would be running in them. Allison nodded awkwardly once, already walking away and starting the plan.

*

I stood when the power turned back on. Or at least, the back-up generator, and the elevator raised to this floor.

I heard Jennifer's screech from inside before the doors opened, and when they did, I ran inside, to see Derek on the floor, unconscious, and the elevator shaft pulled down as a way to get out.

I went to Derek's side as Scott came to elevator doors.

"Mom."

He started to run when I yelled, "Scott!"

"Scott, wait!" Stiles yelled as he came too, but Scott was already gone.

I stood, pointing at Derek and telling Stiles, "Stay with him!"

I ran after Scott as he was about to leave with Deucalion. "Scott. Scott, don't do this. Don't go with him."

"I don't know what else to do," he admitted.

I looked behind him to Deucalion. "No, there's g--Scott, there's got to be something else, okay?"

"Not this time."

"Scott."

"Tell Stiles I'm gonna find his dad. I'll find a way to help your sister. I promise."

Then he turned and started to walk away with the enemy.

"Scott!"

He didn't turn around. He just kept walking.

And I had to tell Stiles and Derek.