┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐
chapter twenty-one!
THE ALPHA AND THE
DARACH
└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

( the overlooked, pt. ii )

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

"OH MY GOD," Stiles rambles. "Holy shit. Holy—"

"Stiles!" Vera sharply exclaims, snapping him out of his episode before it can escalate. "Cora! Not breathing! Do you know how to revive her?"

"Okay, okay, yes," he answers, exhaling slowly from his mouth to calm himself down. He shifts in his seat to give himself more space. "Here we go. Tilt the head, fingers on the chin, clear the throat..." He gently opens Cora's jaw, checking her esophagus for fluid. "Great, nothing. I see nothing. Alright. Okay, so, uh, just pinch the nose and blow."

Stiles does exactly that, pinching Cora's nostrils closed and breathing into her mouth. He repeats the action and then puts an ear to her heart. Vera becomes increasingly panicked when there's nothing, her own heartbeat thundering in her ears as it trips to keep up with her fear.

"Come on, Cora," he mumbles, blowing more air into her. When she still doesn't respond, he sharpens his voice. "Come on, Cora."

This keeps going on for several seconds, but for Vera, it feels like years. Stiles keeps attempting mouth-to-mouth again and again. She can tell that he's still panicking, but he's focusing his nervous energy into reviving her. Vera can't help herself from reaching forward and grabbing her sister's hand. She squeezes, mumbling a prayer under her lips— an action she hasn't done in a long time. But after these horrible past few weeks, she could use a gift from God right now.

After a few more attempts, Cora finally sucks in a breath on her own. Stiles pulls back with a relieved sigh when she begins coughing. Vera releases a thankful breath and drops her head onto the stretcher when Cora weakly squeezes her hand back.

"You know, the next time I put my lips to your mouth, you'd better be awake," Stiles says. Vera reaches over and smacks his arm without looking. He yelps, "Ow!"

"That's my sister," she reminds him through a hiss.

"I know, I was joking," Stiles grumbles. "Kind of..."

Vera pulls out her phone and checks for any updates. She sees a couple of new messages from Derek, Isaac, and Allison, all spaced out within a few minutes.

SOURWOLF: You okay? How is Cora?

LAHEY: where are you guys??? did you make it to the ambulance??

ALLY: On our way. Stay safe. Love you

ALLY: Btw, Lydia's okay

She responds to each of their texts in order, hoping that the messages will go through due to the hospital's terrible cell reception.

VEE: we're fine. cora stopped breathing for a sec but stiles revived her. she's still unconscious

PÉREZ: stiles, cora and i are in the ambulance but kali killed the EMT so we're stuck here

VERA: thank god you're coming. love you too and i'm glad lyds is okay

Now more than ever, Vera wishes Dominic were here with them. He'd know exactly what to say to lighten the mood in the ambulance. He'd probably crack some dumb joke that would be just stupid enough to make them laugh in spite of all the odds stacked against them, and they'd feel a flicker of hope. But all she feels right now is despondence. How could everything unravel so quickly? Is she really going to lose Cora, too?

"You just hold on a little longer, okay?" Stiles says. It takes Vera a moment to realize that he's speaking to Cora even though she can't hear him. She stays silent, allowing him to keep talking. "Trust me, if anyone's gonna get us out of this, it's Scott." He scoffs. "Can't believe I just said that."

Vera presses her lips together to hold back a chuckle. She doesn't want to disturb him. It seems like whatever Stiles is going to say, it'll be for himself, not for her.

"You know, I actually used to be the one with the plan," he continues. "Well, or at least a plan B. Now I don't know. Now I'm thinking maybe you were right. You know, maybe... maybe we are pretty much useless. Maybe all we really do is show up and find the bodies." He pauses, twiddling his thumbs and pressing his mouth into a hard line. His next words come out reluctantly like speaking them aloud will seal their fate. "I don't want to find my father's body."

Vera finally straightens up and looks at Stiles. He wipes away a rogue tear that had escaped down his face, inhaling a deep breath to steady himself. It's especially difficult seeing Stiles break down. When they first got entangled in this mess in January, he hardly showed any other emotions around her other than distrust and callousness. But he'd always seemed like the one who had it all together. Like Dom, he can provide a glimmer of happiness to the darkest of days. When he reaches a low, looking at him physically hurts, like a knife is being twisted between her ribs.

Vera places a comforting hand on his knee so he looks at her.

"We'll find him before then," she promises. "Because if there's one thing I know about your dad, it's that he'll never stop fighting."

He nods, glassy brown eyes looking into her own for reassurance. Out of all of them, Vera might be the only one to truly understand how he feels. Her own father had been taken ten years ago. Talia had been the one to find his body in the woods. She wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, so she puts all of the firmness she can into her words. There's no way they're giving up on Sheriff Stilinski; they never will.

Vera leans her head on his shoulder and pats his knee. He inhales another rattling breath, but seems calmer now, continuing to fidget as they sit in silence.

An abrupt banging sound causes her to jump up straight. Stiles leans forward to look out of the window, the increasingly-dark shadows that smother the garage making it harder to see through. Whatever he finds makes him yank her closer until her back is against his chest. He presses both of them against the wall, attempting to hide them behind the shelf to Stiles' left. Her cheek is smushed against the side of the ambulance.

A now-familiar, low growl from outside makes all the hair on her arms stand up straight. She feels a chill even through her jacket, which is still half-damp from her crystal bath. Will Aiden and Ethan leave them alone if they don't have Jennifer with them?

A few moments pass without a second sign of the twins. Stiles starts to shift back into a more comfortable position, but she reaches back and stops him with a whisper of, "Wait."

With her ear pressed to the wall, she can hear an echo of footsteps coming from that direction. They're steadily growing louder.

Stiles turns toward the doors and slowly reaches toward them. She tries to yank him back against the wall, but he ignores her, swallowing thickly as his fingertips brush against the handle.

Scott slams a palm against the window, causing both Stiles and Vera to jump in fright. His panicked face appears in the tiny square. "Stiles, open the door!"

"Right, right, opening the door," Stiles mumbles, unlocks the left-side door, and reveals Scott and Isaac with a drugged-out Peter hanging onto them. His head hangs like holding it up is too much effort to bear— the epinephrine had evidently worn off.

Scott unhooks Peter's arm from around his neck. "Get him inside."

Stiles helps the two boys drag Peter into the back of the ambulance. With just him and Vera, the tiny space had been manageable, but now with Peter added, it's quickly becoming cramped. She sits squeezed between the two of them after Peter had wedged himself to her right, uncomfortably pressed shoulder-to-shoulder.

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

"We have to go back for them," Scott answers, "and I have to get my mom."

"Okay, well, two problems: Kali's got the keys to this thing and we just saw the twins, like, thirty seconds ago."

As if on cue, a distant banging noise sounds from somewhere in the garage. Scott and Isaac both snap their heads in that direction in sync, allowing Vera to realize that Scott has a huge gash running down the side of his face. Isaac is sporting a bruise around one of his eyes.

"Stay here," Scott commands.

"No," Vera replies shortly. When Scott looks at her in surprise, she leans forward so she can see around Stiles. "Look, I may not have your strength, but I have powers now. I'm not just a measly human." She winces, regretting the words as soon as they come out. "Sorry, Stiles."

The boy scratches the back of his head. "Yeah, how kind of you, Vera."

"Look, if my brother is stuck with a Darach, sorry, but I'm not just going to sit here and let her manipulate him any further," she continues. "You think I'm going to trust anything she says after she tried to murder one of our friends in her classroom?"

"Okay, can you maybe save the dramatic speech for another time?" Isaac asks with a jerk of his head toward the hospital doors. "Cuz every second you waste talking is another everyone spends in deep shit."

Vera rolls her eyes, bracing a hand on Stiles' shoulder as she climbs out of the ambulance. "I hate you."

When she hops down to the ground and walks toward the hospital without looking back, she swears she hears Isaac mutter, "No, you don't."

— ✯✯✯ —

After narrowly escaping another brawl in the middle of the hallway with the twins, the three of them reunite with Melissa McCall. Vera had been surprised to see her. Scott's mother had claimed that Deucalion released her as a gesture of goodwill.

Vera doesn't believe that— nothing that monster does comes without a price.

They also reunite with the Argents, who have finally arrived. Vera throws her arms around Allison as soon as she sees her. The taller girl hugs her back tightly, asking, "Hey, you okay?" as she gives her a once-over. Vera nods, waving to Allison's father as well.

They walk into another supply room on the ground floor for cover.

"So then they're essentially trapped?" Argent asks, trying to process all of the information that Scott, Stiles, and Vera had just unloaded on him.

"Right," Scott affirms.

"There's no way of getting them out without turning the power back on," Isaac adds.

"But wait, wait, wait," Melissa says, waving her hands around frantically. "If the power's back on, they're gonna hear the elevator moving, right?"

Scott finishes, "And they'll be on Jennifer and Derek as soon as it stops. We can't get in a fight with them."

Vera pauses at that, a thought coming to her head. Yes, Derek and Jennifer are stuck in one lift, but there has to be a ton of those in this hospital. How can the Alphas be sure of which one they're trapped in?

"You've got us, now," Argent reminds him.

"It's too much to risk," Scott argues. "They want her dead, and if she dies, there's nothing we can do for Stiles' dad or Cora."

"I don't even think I know which teacher this is," Argent says.

"She's, uh — she's the one with the brown hair," Isaac replies. "She's kinda hot."

Everyone in the room turns to look at him with varying expressions of incredulity.

He swallows thickly under everyone's clear judgment, quickly rectifying, "Oh, it's just... just an observation."

Vera raises her eyes heavenward and shakes her head in exasperation. She places her hands on the metal table in the center of their circle, leaning her weight on it as she thinks. "Okay, well, there are multiple elevators, right? So even if we got the power back on, the Alphas wouldn't know which one to go after if a few of them were moving at once."

"But how are you gonna get inside?" Argent questions. "It'll make noise."

Without saying anything, Vera pushes one of her hands through the table and then pulls it back out. Allison's dad blinks. Though he'd been informed that she is now a part of the supernatural, it's evident that Allison hadn't fully briefed him on all of the weird things she can do.

Allison glances at her reflection in the mirror above a sink in the corner. A crease forms between her brows. "I've got an idea."

The plan is about as good as they can make it under the dire circumstances. Vera and the Argents stand in a vacant corridor, waiting for Isaac to reach their car in the garage. They can only hope that nobody had heard him leaving the building.

Allison dials Isaac's number for a video call. It rings for several moments before he picks up, his face appearing on the screen. From the looks of it, he's finally made it to the vehicle and gotten inside.

"You ready?" she asks him.

Isaac sighs. "Yeah."

"You're not nervous, are you?"

"Do I look nervous?"

Allison and Vera share a brief glance. Isaac's eyes are glimmering with anxiety, worried rivets forming on his forehead from his creased brows. His lips are pressed in a firm line whenever he's not speaking.

In the end, Allison decides to reply with, "No, not at all."

As she sets the phone on the floor so it's propped up against the wall, her father asks, "Did he look nervous?"

Vera snorts a laugh. "Yeah."

"Terrified," Allison confirms.

"Yeah, I can still hear you," Isaac's voice calls through the phone's speaker, voice tinged with annoyance. "Very, very clearly."

Allison ducks down so her face is visible to her camera. "Just go as soon as you see them, okay?"

Vera joins her on the screen. "Don't mess up."

"Don't trip," he shoots back.

When the girls straighten up again, Allison raises her eyebrows at Vera.

"What?" Vera whispers. The girl merely shakes her head and waves Vera on to do her task.

When she'd seen her reflection in the mirror, Allison had realized that she could pass for Jennifer if seen only from behind. Both are similar enough in appearance to trick the Alphas just long enough to lure them outside, where they'll be ambushed with arrows and bullets. The two share the same lean and tall build with matching dark hair. With Vera's chestnut-brown hair and short stature, she couldn't have passed for Jennifer unless the other person was blind and not a werewolf like Deucalion.

She drops through the floor and materializes one story lower, landing in a crouched position that slightly shocks her joints. Her mouth twists in a cringe as she pushes herself to her feet and uses short bursts of flight to cross the floor more quickly. She only uses her feet when she has to, attempting to stay as silent as possible so she doesn't ruin Allison's part of the plan.

The first elevator comes into view after a couple of seconds. Melissa had given her a run-down of the quickest ones to get to, though speed shouldn't be a problem considering she can phase through walls. Her biggest challenge will be remembering the locations of the lifts.

Vera phases through the elevator doors and finds it empty. It's dark even though the emergency lights are on, and her breathing is loud to her own ears. She can't imagine being trapped in one of these with Jennifer. God, she knows her brother can be stupid and it's easy to use his emotions against him, but Vera hopes he can be his usual, hard-ass self just this once. They can't have him falling for her tricks.

Her hands curl and uncurl into fists at her sides. Thank God that Coach had forced all of them to run cross-country in the lacrosse off-season— it's helped her build up her endurance and speed for things like this.

The power flickers back on. As soon as the first burst of light illuminates the elevator, Vera jams her finger onto a random floor's button and phases back out before it can start moving. She uses her flight to push herself as fast as she can. Cutting through rooms and offices, she sprints like hell toward the next elevator. This one is a story below, so she braces herself before jumping down the shaft and dropping through the top.

Vera gets about three of them moving. As she darts across the fifth floor to locate another lift, she hears the familiar, bone-chilling sound of a white cane tapping against the tile floor. She screeches to a halt and quickly turns invisible. From the sound of it, he's right around the corner.

Run! her brain screams at her. She's about to phase through the wall behind her when he speaks.

"I know you're there, Vera. I'd like to talk to you for a moment."

She squeezes her eyes shut, a curse flaring in her mind, her body at war about whether to leave or stay. This could be a trap. But what had he said before? That she doesn't have to worry about him?

The cane taps become louder. Vera thinks, Screw it, and poises herself to drop a floor.

"It's about your mother."

She freezes. God damn Deucalion and his way with words; he truly knows how to get her to listen.

The man himself finally appears around the corner. He holds his cane out in front of him, checking for obstacles as he walks, lips pulled into a knowing smirk despite the plan currently unfolding. His posture is relaxed. Once again, even with her invisibility and his blindness, he seems to direct his sunglass-obscured gaze directly at her.

"Have you spoken to her recently?" Deucalion questions, coming to a stop and removing his sunglasses from his face. She flinches at the sight of his damaged, ruby-red eyes. Like Cora and Boyd's had been on the full moon, his irises seem to be triple the size of a normal person's.

Vera doesn't reply, keeping her breathing as quiet as possible, hardly letting any oxygen out of her nostrils. She doesn't dare to even twitch a muscle.

He keeps speaking to her anyway. "I know you think she's still away, but I heard through the grapevine that she's back in Beacon Hills."

He's lying. He has to be. Vera was just at her house this morning before leaving for school, and it had been empty as ever. Her mother always tells her when she's returning from her business trips.

"One might even say she's waiting for you at home, worried about how late it is but not wanting to call in case it ruins the surprise. Tonight I come to you not as a foe, but a friend. You may want to keep an eye on her, especially after what Jennifer is pulling right now."

Vera's heart drops into her stomach at the last sentence. Deucalion hears the sound of its stutter, turning his blind eyes in her direction. Without uttering a word to him, she drops through the floor, taking only a moment to pause after landing before doing it again and again. Then, when she reaches the ground floor, she scrambles to get herself moving, feet sliding on the slick tile.

But even though she uses every power she can, she still isn't fast enough. Stiles is already at the elevator. The raven-haired boy turns at the sound of her approaching, his expression a mixture of worry and alarm. He steps aside and allows her to peer into the lift.

Derek lies motionless on the floor, limbs awkwardly sprawled out and eyes firmly closed. Vera instantly shoves Stiles aside and drops to the ground beside her brother.

"Der?" she asks, lightly slapping his cheeks. His head limply moves. "Derek!"

Vera glances up at the ceiling where the emergency escape hatch hangs open. Jennifer is nowhere to be seen, and if Deucalion's words have any truth to them, she's just made all of their problems even worse.

________

a/n:

so when isaac drives cora and peter to the other hospital (or the loft? can't remember honestly), he says "not without scott" and i imagine him saying "not without scott and vera" in this universe because i'm a hoe for BOTH verisaac and scisaac.

also, i am VERY excited to bring vera's mother into the story and show how her finally being home (especially at a time like this) will affect her! ana is a LEGEND tbh.

this is how i picture everyone looking at isaac after he calls jennifer hot:

—kristyn

( word count: 3.4k )