"𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾 𝓉𝓇𝓎 𝓉ℴ 𝒷ℯ 𝓉ℴ𝓊𝑔𝒽, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒾 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝓈𝒸𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓂"

Ophelia Stone doesn't feel guilty about many things in her life. She's the type of person that doesn't usually think about stuff; she doesn't dwell on them. Well, she doesn't try to dwell on them. In Stiles' words, she's a very big fan of ignoring all of her problems until eventually, they all just go away. Currently, the prime example would be Kol's recent death. What would contradict that statement would be her frequent decisions to hold grudges against people. Now that happens a lot. Maybe more than she would like it to, as well.

However, making the decision to keep Freya away from the recital tonight is something she'd be feeling guilty about for a long while. It's not that she regrets it- well, that could be up for debate... The horrific consequence that her decision presented her with was giving Lydia enough trauma to last for a lifetime, and possibly the more pressing matter at hand, Noah Stilinski disappearing with Jennifer Blake to become the next sacrifice.

The first thing she had done after leaving the classroom was to comfort her friend, who would then be taken to the hospital by a hesitant Niklaus. Of course, Lydia had understood that Ophelia couldn't stay with her for long; Sheriff Stilinski had to be found, fast. The youngest of the Mikaelson family had instructed her brother to inform Freya about tonight's events after dropping Lydia and making sure she was safe with her mother. The witch would try to perform multiple locator spells with a hair comb Stiles had given her to use. Hopefully, she would be able to break through any cloaking spells or Darach magic that Jennifer would most likely have in place out of precaution while the group of teenagers proceed ahead with their current idea. After all, they need multiple backup plans.

Now, Ophelia sits on the spiral stairwell inside Derek's loft, watching as both Stiles and Scott pace around the kitchen table where the Hale sits and broods like usual. It was Scott's genius idea that the first place Jennifer would go to after this would be to the person (boyfriend?) who would be the most likely to believe her. With Stiles' tearful expression and the sheer anger radiating off Ophelia, it would have been incredibly difficult for Derek to admit he thought the three were straight up lying when they told him the woman he is dating kidnapped Lydia with the plans to kill her, actually had killed Ophelia, and finally abducted Noah Stilinski to sacrifice him.

It's safe to say she feels very confident that Derek's on their side. That's what she wants to believe, anyways.

In the distance, she can hear a car pulling up on the street in front of the building. Taking a deep breath, she stands up from her position on the bottom of the stairs and loudly clears her throat. "Witch-bitch is here, everyone in positions!"

Before she can make her way up to the landing point at the top of the staircase to hide, Scott rushes over and keeps his voice low. "Please try not to kill her straight away," he tells the girl pleadingly.

Ophelia rolls her eyes but nods at him nonetheless. "Got it." She gives Stiles a comforting smile, something that he weakly returns. Despite their argument from earlier, their dynamic has returned to usual. However, she continues to overthink that he blames her for tonight's events- no, she knows he does. Once she's at the top and hidden within the shadows, she sends Derek a final message. "Sunshine, everything she's told and shown you is a complete lie. She's manipulating you. Which applies to what is about to happen. And please remember, Stiles' dad is missing here."

His reply is a grunt.

A few minutes later, the door to the loft opens with a clang and in rushes a desperate, seemingly panicked Jennifer. "Derek! Derek, where are you?"

"I'm right here," he answers, stepping out from his space in the shadows, ever so dramatic as usual.

"Thank God," Jennifer exclaims in relief.  Immediately, she runs over to him and wraps her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his chest. Ophelia raises her eyebrows as she watches the pair from above. She thinks the woman could be in the running to win an Oscar. This is almost as good as her own non-humanity performances. Almost. "Something happened at the recital, at the school, okay? I need to tell you before you hear it, before you hear it from any of them."

Derek gently pulls away to look her in the eyes, his lips tugged down into a frown that depicts his confusion to her words. He makes a pointed effort to block out Ophelia's incessant explicit muttering from above. "From who?"

"Ophelia, Scott, Stiles..." Jennifer takes a deep breath. "They're all gonna tell you things- things you can't believe. You have to trust me, okay? You trust me."

"Bullshit," the hybrid mumbles to herself. She sighs as she watches the pair on the ground floor continue their conversation. Even from above, she can tell that Derek is uncomfortable. He's trying hard not to show it, but she likes to think she's gotten fairly good at reading the people she's closest too. That tiny sliver of discomfort that he is currently showing is enough for Ophelia to know that he doesn't believe a word that is coming out of the Jennifer's mouth.

"Promise you'll listen to me," she reiterates desperately, her eyes wide as she searches his face for anything.

"I promise," Derek responds with a single nod of his head.

She presses her lips against his feverishly, although she freezes a few seconds later due to the lack of response from him. Jennifer pulls back to look him in the eyes. "They're already here, aren't they?" She takes a small step away from him and spins around as she hears both Scott and Stiles moving out of their hiding place that is a partially crumbled brick wall.

Ophelia steps forward to lean her arms on the railing of the staircase, still concealed amongst the shadows from any prying eyes. She focuses on Jennifer's chemo-signals, and though they are subtle, she recognises the unmissable scent of anxiety.

"So, they told you it was me?" Jennifer questions incredulously, keeping her eyes on Derek as she waits for a reaction. "That I'm the one taking people?" She looks over to the boys when Scott shakes his head.

"We told him you're the one killing people," the werewolf corrects firmly, a hint of venom hidden amongst his tone of voice. It's clear he's struggling to stay calm for the sake of his best friend's father.

Their English teacher scoffs in disbelief, still playing it off as though she is entirely innocent. "Oh, that's right." A small bark of laughter leaves her mouth. "Committing human sacrifices? What, cutting their throats? Yeah, I probably do it on my lunch hour- that way, I can get back to teaching high school English the rest of the day. That makes perfect sense."

Finally having enough of the act, Ophelia hauls herself over the railing of the stairwell and her Doc Martens thuds softly onto the concrete floor. She ignores Derek's eye roll at her dramatic entrance, refraining herself from exclaiming how he did exactly the same thing the other week. "Actually, yeah, it does make perfect sense," she replies, her narrowed glowing eyes boring into the face of the woman that has caused her and her friends so much stress. "Honestly, I don't know why we didn't think how a teacher could be the one behind it all."

The surprise that flashes over Jennifer's face at the sight of the girl is gone as fast as it had appeared in the first place. She regains her composure from earlier, continuing to play dumb to the group before her; specifically, Derek.

"Where's my dad?"

Jennifer's head snaps over to Stiles. The boy's hazel eyes are glazed with tears that slowly drop down his cheeks. "How should I know?"

Ophelia's fist clenches tightly by her side, and her frustration only continues to bubble as the charade of innocence refuses to drop. "Oh, fuck off," she hisses. She's long moved past anger now. Right now, all she cares about is Noah Stilinski. And to stop his impending death, she is willing to do just about anything to get his current location.

"Derek, tell me you don't believe this!"

Said male looks over to Scott quietly seething, Stiles, who isn't hiding his devastation and distress, and Ophelia, simply a grenade waiting to have the pin pulled out of. "Do you know what happened to Stiles' father?"

"No," she answers with a shake of her head.

"Ask her why she almost killed Lydia," Scott adds.

"And why she did kill me."

Jennifer's eyebrows furrow slightly as she looks between the teenagers with surprise. "Lydia Martin? And Ophelia, why on Earth would I hurt you? I know nothing about either of those."

The girl's lips curl up into a smile, something that drastically contrasts her current mood and attitude. "Two things, Jenny. The first, surprisingly, we actually have multiple Lydias at school. So, how'd you know we meant Lydia Martin?" Jennifer swallows. "Secondly, I have been nothing but a complete bitch to you this year, so..." Ophelia trails off at the pointed look Derek is giving her. "I'll just shut up," she mutters.

It's becoming more and more apparent to the three young adults that the Hale is rapidly losing his patience. Honestly, they're all a little shocked that he hasn't lost his cool yet. "What do you know?"

Jennifer turns back around to face him, still not letting up her performance. "I know that these kids, for whatever misguided reason, are filling your head with an absurd story." A crackle of lightning illuminates the loft in an eery glow. "And one they can't prove, by the way," she directs to three standing behind her.

"All right, I've witnessed enough court cases to know that majority of the time when someone gets all defensive and mentions they want proof, they're most likely guilty." Ophelia keeps a blank face as she delivers her point to Jennifer. The woman ever so slightly scrunches her face up at the girl in a way that could only be described as irritation.

Scott meets the blonde's eyes and they both have the same thought, giving each other a subtle nod to confirm the go ahead. He clears his throat and takes out a small glass vial from the pocket of his jeans. "What if we can prove it?"

Jennifer's face drops as she stares at the murky greenish-brown powder. She lifts her head briefly to look at him. "What is that?"

"My boss told me it's a poison and a cure..." Scott unscrews the silver lid of the jar and takes a step toward her. Jennifer immediately flinches. "Which means you can use it, and it can be used against you."

"Mistletoe?"

Right before he goes to throw the powder, Ophelia grabs onto his arm and halts his movements. A bright grin lights up her face as she holds out her hand. "Please?" If they were in any other situation, Scott would chuckle at how eager she is to bring pain to the woman. Once she has the jar in her hands, she takes great pleasure as she tauntingly walks toward Jennifer.

With a flick of her wrist, Ophelia throws the mistletoe aimed directly at her teacher. The substance surrounds her body almost instantaneously, like it's desperately trying to cling to her. Pained screams leave Jennifer's mouth as she frantically tries to rid her skin off the powder as her glamour spell is disrupted, her true form slowly becoming visible to the eyes of the group watching. Stiles, Scott, Ophelia, and Derek all share a look of a combination of shock and utter horror as her scarred and mutilated appearance appears before them. Once the cloud of mistletoe disappears, Jennifer returns to normal. Although the change was only brief, it's enough to reassure Ophelia that Derek one-hundred percent believes them now. If he doesn't... She might just revisit her policy of killing friends.

The loft is filled with a short-lived silence apart from the Jennifer's heavy breathing. The woman avoids all eye contact, then suddenly attempts to make her escape out the door. She seems to have forgotten who is surrounding her. Derek quickly wraps his hand around her throat and forces her to walk backward. "Derek, wait, wait!"

Ophelia leans on the concrete column next to her in amusement as she watches the Darach plead for her life to be spared. "Aw, this is cute," she comments.

The Alpha's claws flick out and the pressure around Jennifer's throat only intensifies. "You need me," she rasps out.

"What are you?" Derek snarls, his teeth grinding against one another in a murderous rage.

Taking this as her opportunity, she turns to bargaining. "The only person who can save your sister." Any trace of a smile on Ophelia's face is wiped away. "Call Peter," Jennifer wheezes. "Call him!"

With a curt nod from Derek, Ophelia dials Peter with an urgency she hasn't felt in a while. She leaves her boys' sides and walks toward the Hale as she connects with Peter, not leaving him any room to greet her. "How's Cora?" She's now close enough so Derek can hear the conversation clearly.

Peter must detect the imperativeness in her voice as he cuts straight to the chase. "It's not good, Fi. She's in and out of consciousness, she's vomiting up black blood, along with one other alarming substance..."

Ophelia closes her eyes in defeat when she realises that her friend's life is in the hands of the puppet master who is still pulling all the damn strings. "Mistletoe," she quietly says with Derek.

The line is quiet for a millisecond before Peter questions suspiciously, "How did you both know that?"

The call is hung up before either Alphas can give him an adequate answer. Ophelia narrows her eyes further as she stares at Jennifer who is catching her breath. The hand that remains around the woman's throat tightens to the point the hybrid can hear the distant sound of bones cracking inside her body. She watches Derek choke the life out of Jennifer, and she watches with joy.

"Derek," Scott speaks out in panic, his eyes flicking between the male and his friend who stands unmoving. His voice raises as he and Stiles figure out that the werewolf's intent is to kill the Darach right here in cold blood. "Derek, what are you doing?"

The man ignores the calls from the Beta and lifts Jennifer up off the ground. Scott's voice snaps her out of her state as Ophelia remembers that this person is the only one on the planet who knows where Noah Stilinski is. "Derek. Drop her. Now."

It could be because Ophelia rarely uses his first name or because her voice is so ridiculously calm compared to Scott that Derek finds himself dropping Jennifer to the ground. He looks over to the girl briefly and she gives him a nod of gratitude.

The sound of maniacal laughter increasing in volume draws their attention back over to Jennifer who remains on the ground. She flips her head up to remove her hair out of her face, and her lips twist into a sinister smile. Her dark eyes move slowly, pointedly, between the group of four and another flash of lightning highlights her facial features. "That's right. You need me." Her stare settles on Ophelia and the girl uncomfortably shifts her weight. "You all need me."

"Ugh, this is going to be a long night, isn't it?"

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆

Ophelia convinced Derek to let her ride in the car with himself and Jennifer. She had bluntly told him it was because she didn't entirely believe him when he said he wouldn't murder the woman in private, and that her presence would help to de-escalate things if something was to happen. She promised Stiles that nothing would occur on her behalf because she knows how vital the Darach is in providing the location of his father. She just hadn't predicted that, somehow, her own urge to murder Jennifer Blake would skyrocket throughout the journey to the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital.

"You should know, I'm not doing this because I have to, I want to."

The girl leans the side of her head on the window and sighs as she turns to look at Jennifer seated on the other side of the car. She requested to be beside her instead up front, you know, just in case... "Oh, my fuck- lady, shut up."

From the driver's seat, Derek is staring at the road in front them, making a solid effort to ignore his girlfriend's (ex-girlfriend?) words. It's evident that Jennifer still thinks she's in the position to manipulate him. "I could still run," she adds, raising a brow when the person beside her glows her eyes. "And neither of you would be able to stop me easily."

"I don't know about that, I usually get what I want when I'm angry," Ophelia counters, both females missing the almost invisible nod from Derek.

"But I don't want your sister to die," Jennifer concludes. Her tone appears genuine, although if both werewolves concentrate hard enough they can detect an extremely small blip in her heartbeat. "I'm only doing what I had to do."

"Jenny, I'd stop talking if I were you because I am struggling immensely right now from stopping myself from decapitating your head off your body."

The woman looks between the two who are glaring coldly either directly at her face or through the rear-view mirror, and she sighs in defeat. "You need to hear the whole story, Derek. You need to know just how connected we are."

Derek clenches his jaw, and his fingers grip into the leather steering wheel so tightly that faint cracks begin to form. "Stop. Talking," he spits out.

"I'm just trying to help you-"

Jennifer cuts herself off when Ophelia abruptly leans over to brush brunette hair off porcelain skin, not bothering to conceal the striking inhumane features that suddenly adorn her face as the tang of iron hits her nose. A manicured nail tantalisingly drags across the skin off her neck with just enough pressure to draw out a spot of blood. "Look, Jen, I'm happy to rip your throat out, or I'm sure my mate up front is just ecstatic at the thought of doing it himself."

"Guys-"

"Shut up."

The rest of the car ride is filled with a deathly silence, set aside from Ophelia's low whistle that refuses to stop even when she is given scowls of warning.

By the time they reach the parking lot of the hospital, Ophelia is glad Derek broke multiple laws by how fast he had been speeding. She isn't sure how much longer she could've lasted in a car with Jennifer Blake. Jumping out of the vehicle, she's met with torrential rain pelting down onto her, completely drenching both her hair and clothes. She leaves Derek to go round and get Jennifer, and jogs over to meet her friends who have just gotten out of the Jeep parked behind. "Hey! I-" Ophelia's eyebrows furrow in confusion as she looks down to the wooden baseball bat in Stiles' hands. She raises her voice to be heard over the rain and the group reach the undercover area right before the entrance to the building. "I don't remember you saying you play baseball..."

"I don't," he yells back.

"... Does your dad?"

"Nope!" Ophelia nods slowly, meeting Scott's equally amused look. Stiles rolls his eyes at the two, barely glancing over to Derek and Jennifer who join their sides as they head toward the doors. "You got claws, Ofi's basically a walking, talking combo of Edward and Jacob, so... I got a bat."

The Stone pats her friend's shoulder playfully, a smile on her face as she chuckles. It's only Stiles who holds the power to bring humour in a situation quite like this. "You're not gonna let the Twilight thing drop, are you?"

"Oh, never. We should totally set up a meeting with you, Rob, and Taylor."

Following right behind Derek who is tightly gripping onto Jennifer's arm to keep her beside him, Ophelia notices exactly how chaotic the hospital currently is as they enter. Nurses and doctors are running down the hallways, either heading to a patient or escorting one. Occasionally, a light flickers overhead. Tuning into a nearby conversation, she realises that the building is being evacuated due to the storm that has decided to settle over Beacon Hills.

"Scott! Scott!" Said boy spins around, and the rest of the group pause to allow him to have a moment with a frazzled Melissa McCall. "What are you doing here? The hospital's evacuating..."

"We're here for Cora," Scott says quickly.

Melissa looks behind her son and to the four waiting for him, and her eyebrows raise in slight surprise. "What, all of you?" She focuses in on the object being held by the Stilinski. "Why does Stiles have my bat?"

Ophelia nods in understanding as she connects the dots and points a finger between Stiles and Melissa. "Oh! It's your bat. Mel, do you play baseball?"

Eyes on the girl, Melissa smiles at her and opens her mouth, only for Scott to interrupt with worry for his mother. "Mom, just trust me on this. You need to get out of here." Thunder rumbles in the distance and the curly haired woman looks over to Ophelia who nods in support of her friend's statement. "Right now."

Melissa takes a deep breath and dips her head in acknowledgement. "The building is supposed to be clear in thirty minutes. We've got two ambulances that are coming back. One's ten minutes out, the other's twenty. Cora needs to be on one of those. They'll be picking up in the basement garage."

Scott nods as he takes in the information. "Got it," he replies. Right before Ophelia heads after the four, she gives Melissa a comforting smile and a wave goodbye.

Hurrying behind Derek because he knows where his sister's room is, the group reach the elevator at the end of the hallway where they are quickly engulfed into a rather uncomfortable silence. Ophelia doesn't think it's ever taken an elevator to reach a second floor longer than right now. Jennifer seems to be thinking the same. She looks over to Derek who hasn't removed his hand off her arm the entire time since they left the car. "You don't have to keep me on a leash, Derek," she announces. "I'm going to help."

Ophelia chuckles, but the older woman doesn't give her the satisfaction of looking at her. "I mean, he kinda does, Jenny. Unless you'd prefer me?"

The only response she gives is a short exhale through her nose. Jennifer hesitates for a second, before glancing behind her to Scott. The werewolf has his eyes narrowed to slits as he glares daggers at her, his chest heaving up and down while he tries to restrain himself from committing an act of violence. Personally, Ophelia thinks he looks hilarious.

Jennifer's eyebrows furrow before she turns to the other side to find Stiles with his bat raised in the air and a determined expression on his face as he stares at her. When it comes to the girl directly behind her, she isn't in the position to comfortably turn around. Instead, she finds her in the reflection of the metal doors. Ophelia lifts a hand and wiggles her fingers. She is a stark contrast to the men in the room, ironically acting as if she's the sunshine throughout the storm they are stuck in.

Closing her eyes in exasperation, Jennifer shakes her head and stares blankly at the doors as everyone waits for them to open. When they eventually do, Derek doesn't waste a second to forcefully drag her out, the teenagers all quickly walking out after them. However, almost as soon as she exists the elevator, Ophelia skids to a stop. While Derek and Jennifer continue ahead, Scott and Stiles share a look and turn back to the girl in confusion. "Fi, what is it?"

She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes. "Blood," she answers quietly. "Lots of it."

"Okay, but we're in a hospital," Stiles tries to reason as the three catch up to the adults. "There's gonna be heaps."

She nods, the frown on her face still prominent. "Yeah, but this is different. It smells... weird." Her brows crease further as she stops beside Derek who has dropped his hand off Jennifer and is staring into the empty examination room to the left. "I'm assuming this is where Cora is meant to be?" Ophelia's eyes narrow as she finds the source of the blood on the floor. Right in front of one of the unmade beds is a puddle of dark liquid, something that if she couldn't smell it, she wouldn't know that it's blood. Mixed throughout it is a white, pearlescent substance that she can't identify.

"Derek," Scott speaks up softly but urgently. Following the boy's line of sight, they find a drop of that same liquid a metre away from its original home. A few inches after, another. The trail of blood leads up to a set of brown double doors that are the entrance to another section of the level.

Having heard the quiet grunting from the other side merely seconds earlier, Ophelia seems to be the only one prepared for the double doors to suddenly slam open. The body that is thrown through and eventually slides to a stop before her feet causes everyone's eyes to widen in shock. "What the fuck?"

Peter Hale groans in pain before opening his eyes and staring up at the group who peer at him from above. "Hi. We got a problem," he declares. Still breathing heavily, he lifts his head up to look back through where he had just come from. "Big problem."

A thunderous roar is heard from the back of the corridor, and once Ophelia sets eyes on what created the sound, she feels a little faint. "What the flying fuck is that?" Looming over the unconscious figure of Cora Hale is something that resembles a werewolf like Scott and Derek once fully transformed, however, at the same time this is nothing like it. The creature is at least twice the height of her own body, and for some weirdly confusing reason she swears she can see some sort of vague resemblance to the Steiner twins.

"That," Stiles begins in a whisper. He nervously swallows and raises his bat a little higher into the air, making sure his own body is fully covered by Ophelia's, so she acts as a human shield. "That," he repeats a little louder, "is Voltron Wolf."

Ophelia takes a deep breath, her eyes not removing from Cora's unresponsive form. "Right, you lot distract that... thing, and I'll get Cora the fuck out of here and to the ambulance."

"Are you kidding me?" Peter exclaims, grunting as she helps him up. "You're probably the only one out of us who can stop that thing, and you want to leave?"

Derek refrains himself from rolling his eyes at his uncle, now fully changed into his wolf form. "She's also the only one fast enough to get your niece out. Priorities, please."

Stiles' mouth opens and he grips his bat even tighter when the Hale runs toward the large creature with a roar. "He's sassy today," he comments quietly to nobody in particular. "That was sassy."

All eyes are locked on Derek as he slams into creature, only forcing it back by a few steps. Ophelia winces whilst watching her friend manage to only get a few punches in, but to their displeasure (and Derek's) the attacks don't seem to be doing much damage at all. Sure enough, the creature grabs the back of its opponent's head and sends a large fist to the Alpha's jaw; no doubt breaking a bone or two.

Glancing at Scott, Ophelia rapidly gestures for him to move. "What are you doing? Go, help him!" With a growl of his own, Scott races off as Derek is thrown harshly against a wall. The teenage werewolf leaps onto the nearby wall, using the momentum of pushing off to help try and slash the creature's torso. As she watches him duck under the set of vicious claws, she takes a deep breath and gains both Stiles' and Peter's attention. "Both of you with me." Without a question they follow her lead, hoping the distracted creature choking Scott doesn't notice them racing behind.

What Ophelia manages to hear while passing is something that almost gives their position away by her swearing in disbelief. "Ethan, Aiden, stop!" Scott calls out, hoping to get into the head of the conjoined twins. "You don't know what you're doing!"

Her jaw falls slack as the names fall out of Scott's mouth, and she realises why the appearance of the creature looks so familiar to her. Somehow, the two Alphas have joined their bodies together and morphed themselves into one single, gigantic werewolf. As they reach Cora, Ophelia lifts the girl into her arms, one supporting her back and the other underneath her legs. The entire time, Stiles keeps his bat raised, entirely ready to use the wooden object to defend the two girls from harm's way. Peter is in a similar manner, a sudden protectiveness taking over him.

"All we want is her," the twins respond distortedly, like both their individual voices have been overlapped over the other.

Just as Ophelia and the two on either side of her race down the hallway out of sight, she groans loudly and her shoes squeak against the flooring as she stops. "Jennifer," she hisses. The woman has been left alone without any eyes watching her. It's highly likely- no, it's certain that she is going to try and escape the building.

She hears the elevator doors closing and she comes to the realisation that the Darach is now long gone. She also ignores Stiles and Peter's protests to keep moving. Without Jennifer nearby to help save Cora's life, there's no point going to an ambulance. They might as well all stay together, so that if the woman is to return it'll be easy to find them all.

But based on the low growls around the corner, they still have a rather large problem. She needs to get Cora somewhere where the twins can't get them. Ophelia gently hands the girl in her arms over to her uncle and motions for him to start running. "Keep going, we'll catch up in a second."

With confusion in his eyes, not understanding why she isn't getting his niece the hell out of the building, Peter still nods and follows her instructions. Stiles doesn't hesitate to follow.

Once Derek and Scott have joined her, Ophelia jerks her head ahead where Peter is just visible to be seen barging into an empty operating room. Her red eyes meet the ones of the twins, and she sighs. "Boys, grab an arm." Without understanding what she means, the werewolves take hold of one of her arms, and not even a second later all three are in the same room that Peter, Cora, and Stiles had been in seconds earlier. Well, where Peter and Cora had been in seconds earlier.

Another deafening roar behind them stops Scott from vomiting due to the incredibly fast movement, instead his skin pales and he results in taking deep breaths. Surprisingly, Derek seems to be the complete opposite to the younger boy, acting as if what he had just experienced hasn't affected him whatsoever.

They're all slightly startled to find Stiles lingering behind with his bat still clutched in his hands, staring at the doorway the trio just arrived through. "Stiles, we need to go!" Derek yells, stopping at the exit his uncle had disappeared through and turning around to look at the boy.

Ophelia glances at the exit once more and grimaces hearing the footsteps that are far too close for comfort. "What's the view on just killing this thing?" Scott scowls at her despite his queasiness. She rolls her eyes. "Fine. We knock it unconscious."

Right as the conjoined twins enter the doorway, from his position hidden behind the opened doors Stiles slams his bat down on the head of the creature. It does the exact opposite to what he had predicted would happen. The weapon doesn't just break, it completely shatters upon impact.

"That wasn't really what I had in mind," Ophelia points out with squinted eyes. She cracks her neck and deeply inhales through her nose. "Run, I've got it."

"But-"

She barely looks over to Derek. "I said, I've got it." The sternness in her voice leaves no room for rebuttal, the three males sharing a brief look before backing away slowly, then choosing to sprint out the exit door.

Left alone with the violent supernatural creature, Ophelia pushes her hair over her shoulder and focuses on keeping her breathing steady. Just as she lifts her head up, all remaining power in the building cuts. They're consumed by complete darkness. Ethan and Aiden don't want to admit it, nor will they ever say it out loud, but both are terrified. Standing face to face with the girl, she either looks ethereal or petrifying. The radiant scarlet eyes somehow look less red than usual, with the specks of golden shining brighter than they should be. Instead of staring into pools of crimson jewels, they're staring into a pair of sunsets.

Her canines peek through her lips as Ophelia snarls, and dark veins snake underneath her eyes, stopping halfway down her cheeks. She's hungry for blood, even if she won't get the chance to taste it upon her tongue.

She waits.

Then she pounces. Which is ironic because she's half dog, not cat.

The creature doesn't have enough time to properly process the girl no longer standing where she was a milli-second ago before its breath is caught from a kick against its stomach. It drops onto its knees from the power of the blow and Ophelia doesn't waste any time before going in for her second attack. Since she had arrived in the operating room, she had been looking for something to use as a weapon in case of emergency. She thinks this classifies as an emergency. A big emergency.

Because Scott doesn't want the twins crucially hurt, Ophelia knows that her claws or teeth would do too much damage, even if she didn't try. So, she grunts as she lifts the metal table off the floor and lifts her head over the top to give a toothed grin as the creature gains the strength to charge at her. Right before its claws can manoeuvre around the table and dig into her heart (which she knows at least Aiden definitely wants to do), she smacks the piece of furniture right in the centre of the wolf's forehead.

A 'clang' echoes across the room and the creature stumbles backward, crashes into a few pieces of medical equipment, then collapses onto the tiled floor.

"The bigger they are, the bigger they are!" Ophelia exclaims joyfully. She had half expected that not to work. Looking around, her smile drops as she realises no one saw her. "Aw..." Knowing it probably won't take too long for the twins to gain consciousness again, she darts out the room and follows the scent of her friends, specifically Stiles' stench of terror.

"There's no way she managed to take them on her own -"

"Lick rust, Scott," she interrupts. "Lick rust!" She gives him a mocking smile as she pushes open the double doors to yet another empty operating room just as the hospital's backup generator decides to begin working. Dim lighting turns on, providing some sort of brightness for the non-supernatural to work with. Ophelia beams at the boy who had inadvertently insulted her. "Things one and two are temporarily incapacitated, just like you asked."

Stiles nervously looks over to the doors she had just entered from, then back down to Cora who is lying on the metal table. "How long?"

"Hopefully ten, at most," she replies with a sigh. "Man, I was really underestimating it when I said it was going to be a long night."

"What about Miss Blake?"

Stiles' question remains unanswered for a few seconds. Ophelia clears her throat. "I thought we collectively realised back there she had escaped when we all left her unattended..." She puts a heavy emphasis on the 'all.'

His eyes widen when Scott grimaces, agreeing with the girl's statement. "What do you mean? Like, she's gone?"

"That's what 'escaped' means, bud," she confirms hesitantly. "She's gone, gone."

"Are you kidding me?"

With the stress of his sister dying and the one person who can heal her now missing, Derek's patience snaps. "Okay, everyone shut up for a minute and let me think."

Stiles blinks at him incredulously. "Shut up? Me, shut up? You, shut up!" He leaves the sides of Ophelia and Scott who share a look as he strides up to Derek. "Are you seriously 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? And-And Deucalion wants her too, right? Which means now, we don't have her either, so both my dad and Cora are dead."

"Guys, let's all take a breath," Ophelia calls out.

Stiles' head snaps over to her. "Don't tell me to take a fucking breath, Ophelia. We're all in this fucking mess because of you."

The entire room falls silent, so silent that a pin could be heard dropping to the ground. Feeling everyone watching and waiting to see what her next move would be, she maintains eye contact with Stiles. She knows he's riled up from stress, from adrenaline, anger, betrayal most likely, and fear. So, she lets it go. Because he is completely right. "Yeah, we are in this because of me," she replies softly. "And I'm trying to do everything I can to get us, Cora, and your dad out of it. But to do that, Stiles, we all need to stay calm and level-headed."

Stiles closes his eyes at her words and leans his head against a wall, attempting to take a breath in like she had suggested. He doesn't reply to her, worried that if he is to speak, he'll only say something hurtful again.

Scott inhales deeply as well. "They're not dead yet," he says. Walking over to Cora who is now coated in a sheen of sweat, he looks up to her relatives. "Is she really dying?"

Peter sighs, sparing a glance to Ophelia who stands beside him, observing his niece with narrowed eyes. "She's definitely not getting any better."

"There has to be something that we can do," Scott responds, ever so hopeful. His eyes focus on the hybrid, and she meets his gaze questioningly. "Maybe Fi can try give her some blood-"

The double doors open, and Jennifer confidently  inside. "It won't work, her body will reject it. Nothing you do will work. Only I can help her." She looks between each member of the group, her eyes lingering on Derek for a little longer than necessary. "I can save her, and I can tell you where Sheriff Stilinski is." Ophelia folds her arms as she stares at the female, trying to figure out if anything about her body language, heartbeat, or chemo-signals is giving away the fact she is lying. She comes up with nothing. "But there is a pack of Alphas in this hospital who want me dead."

"I don't know if I'd call three of them a pack," Ophelia mumbles to herself.

"Three?" Jennifer questions. Her brows arch as she looks at the girl. "Including the twins, there's four." She briefly registers the shock that falls over the room, however, she doesn't let anyone question who the new addition to Deucalion's pack is. Unless Kali is back from the dead, none of them have any resemblance of an idea as to whom she is talking about. "So, I'll help you, but only when I'm out of here and safe. Only then."

Blowing a strand of hair off her forehead, Ophelia heaves a sigh. "Right, well, I say we take it," she announces.

The room is silent again, until Derek makes up his mind and charges forward to the Darach, flames of anger dancing throughout the blood red of his eyes. Scott realises his intention and frantically tries to hold him back. "Derek, wait, just wait!"

The Alpha's eyes flick down to the boy who has a hand on his chest. "She was trying to get out," he seethes, jabbing a finger at the woman.

"I was trying to keep myself from getting killed," Jennifer corrects, bringing the attention back to her once again. "You can't blame me for that."

Stiles steps forward from his position leaning on the back wall. "If you want to show you're one of the good guys, then heal her."

"Woah, woah, woah," Ophelia interrupts quickly, not giving anyone a chance to reply to the previous suggestion. "She is not one of the good guys, no matter if she's claiming she's going to save a few lives. She is definitely one of the bad, bad guys."

Jennifer rolls her eyes at the teenager's overdramatised words. "I'm not doing anything until I'm safe."

Ophelia raises a hand in her direction to reiterate her point. "See? Bad guy."

Peter narrows his eyes and places a hand on her shoulder, making it clear that he shares her frustration. "I'd like to volunteer a different method of persuasion I'm sure, you will love." Ophelia raises an eyebrow for him to continue. "Let's torture her."

A grin immediately adorns her face at his words, like she's just been gifted a mountain of presents on Christmas day. "Now you're speaking my language!"

Derek looks between the two, completely unfazed at the idea of inflicting a little pain on the woman. "Works for me," he adds nonchalantly, shrugging Scott's hand off his body.

Before the McCall can try and persuade them away from the idea of torturing his English teacher, the PA system crackles to life overhead. "Um, can I have your attention?" All three teenagers freeze at the familiar voice. Ophelia can instantly detect the fear that Melissa is trying to, unsuccessfully, hide. "Mr Deucalion... Excuse me, just Deucalion... requests you bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the ER reception. Do this, and everyone else can leave. You have ten minutes."

The system shuts off, revealing the sounds of Scott's shallow breathing. Knowing what he is about to protest, Jennifer speaks up. "He's not gonna hurt her."

Ophelia rolls her eyes. "Come on, we all know that's not true." Even though she hasn't known Melissa McCall for long, even less considering how long it took for the woman to trust her after the events from earlier that year, she loves her just as much as Scott and Stiles. Which means that right now, Jennifer Blake's word doesn't mean a damn.

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

Derek's eyes squint in confusion. "What does she mean?"

When the boy refuses to answer, Jennifer quietly scoffs. She glances between the two Alphas in the room. "You're not the only ones he wants in his pack."

"Over my dead body is he getting me," Ophelia grumbles to herself. A few seconds later, her back straightens as she takes in the weight of Jennifer's words. She blinks once. Then twice. "Wait, what? No way." She points to Scott and laughs dryly. He rolls his eyes. "Him? No way." Her lips close, and she tilts her head to the side in thought. "Actually... That makes a lot of sense..."

Because none of the others in the room have still yet to catch onto the meaning of Jennifer's words and Ophelia's behaviour, the Darach sighs. "Deucalion doesn't just want an Alpha pack. He wants perfection. That means adding the rarest of Alphas to his ranks."

Peter purses his lips together and finally pieces the puzzle together. "A True Alpha," he says slowly.

Stiles' eyebrows furrow. "What's that?"

Ophelia looks back to him and sighs. "It's something different to us," she starts, gesturing between herself and Derek. "You don't have to steal power from someone else, you don't have to kill someone for it. You gain the title and the power on your own merit."

"By your own force of will," Peter adds. He shakes his head in bewilderment and looks to Scott with something that could be defined as approval. "Our little Scott..."

Scott takes a moment before he voices his own thoughts. His head shakes as his eyes move between Peter and Ophelia. "It doesn't matter." The boy turns back to Jennifer waiting patiently. "We still need to get her out of here." The woman raises her eyebrows.

"Scott, your mom-"

"My mom said there's one more ambulance coming in twenty minutes," Scott interrupts his best friend. "A-And I don't think we've been here that long."

"I beg to differ," Ophelia counters bluntly. "It feels like a decade since I knocked the wonder twins out."

"Point is, if we can get down to the garage, get to the last ambulance, we can get out of here."

Peter nods his head over to the girl and acknowledges her point. "She's right, it's been a while since we left the twins. And they aren't gonna let us just walk out."

"I'll distract them," Scott answers assertively. He scowls when Ophelia giggles.

"You mean fight them," Derek rectifies.

"Whatever I have to do."

He keeps eye contact with Scott and nods. "I'll help you."

"Um, sorry, but I'm not going anywhere without you, Derek."

Dragging a hand down the side of her face, Ophelia groans in frustration. "Bloody hell, you are such a demanding, know-it-all bitch!"

Peter suppresses his want to smile at the display of confidence she shows, even with the knowledge that Jennifer could probably kill her within a few seconds. "I'll do it," he says. "But I'd prefer to be out there with an advantage."

"An advantage? Like what?" Stiles questions. "You mean, like, a weapon?"

"Stiles, your definition of a weapon is a wooden baseball bat," Ophelia tells him with a grimace.

"Something better than a baseball bat," the man agrees.

The next few minutes are spent opening every single draw in the operating room and rifling through them, searching for anything that could be of use to a werewolf whose homicidal tendencies are coming out to play. Ophelia's brows pinch together as she pushes multiple jars aside, nothing on the labels standing out to her to be lethal. "You know what, I've only recently discovered a solution to our ever growing incredibly long list of problems."

Scott's lips twitch into a small smile as he pauses his search to glance over at her. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah," she replies, far too joyously for it to be brushed aside. Almost everyone in the room stops to look at her. "We just kill them all." Stiles' jaw drops. "Honestly, it's the best way I've come up with so far in order to have a peaceful, non-anxiety filled life."

The McCall's face holds no amusement to it this time. "No!" Scott exclaims quickly. "No, we-"

Derek takes a single glance at Jennifer, his jaw squarely set as he refrains himself from doing exactly what she had suggested for the benefit of his sister and Stiles' father. "I'm with her," he voices, his eyes locked with the Darach. "I say we kill them all."

Peter chuckles. "You boys forgot to mention where you found this little devil."

"No, she found us and inserted herself into all of our personal issues," Scott deadpans.

Ophelia scoffs. "And that sounds like a you problem, Scotty."

"Hey, wait," Stiles calls out, interrupting anyone from further conversing on the topic, specifically Ophelia. He holds up a defibrillator.

Derek raises his eyebrows at the boy. "Do you know how to use those?"

Stiles purses his lips together firmly and glances down at the paddles again. "Well... No."

"Then put 'em down," the Hale finishes.

Ophelia giggles at the pout of disappointment her friend makes before listening to the instruction and returning the equipment. Her eyes narrow as she stumbles upon a rather large syringe with some translucent liquid inside. "Oh, wow. Hey, what does... Epy-Epinef-Epinee-Epinephrine do?"

Derek looks over from the fridge and shakes his head, dismissing the idea to be used as a weapon on the twins. "No, that's only gonna make him stronger."

Peter, on the other hand, has his eyes light up. "... How strong?"

A loud roar down the hallway is enough for everyone in the room to conclude that the twins are wide awake from their nap, no doubt stirring with some form of a concussion. It's safe to say that they don't sound happy. Far from it, actually. Ophelia clasps her hands together with a grin. "Can I stab him?"

Peter's small smile drops. "Should I be concerned by how quickly you offered to do that?"

Stiles sighs. "No, she's like that with everyone."

Receiving a nod from Derek, she grabs the syringe and walks over to the man with that same innocent smile. She gives Peter no warning at all before she inserts it into the centre of his chest, positioned right over his heart, and presses down on the plunger to deliver the drug to his body. "There we go, sunshine. Have fun!"

Peter's eyes shoot wide open as the Epinephrine starts to work. He barges past the group and stumbles out the doors into the hallway, then ripping the syringe out of his chest and tossing it to the side. Breathing heavily, he stares at the silhouettes of the Steiner twins at the end of hall as Scott joins his side. "All right, boys. Let's rumble."

Once the grunting and crashing of furniture (occasionally bodies) begins outside, Ophelia takes a deep breath and looks over to Derek. "Okay, we all ready?" She gets a collective chorus of nods. "Group trip!"

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆

Somehow, all five make it down to the basement where the ambulance bay is located without running into Deucalion or the surprise new addition to his pack. Bursting through the doors first, Stiles' eyes lay on the red and white vehicle. "It's still here," he yells out in relief. Ophelia tightens her hold on the girl in her arms, her hearing acutely aware of how shallow Cora's breathing is. The doors are held open for her by the two males and she rushes over to the ambulance to have the back doors open for her. Climbing in, she gently lays Cora on the gurney inside and shuffles aside so Stiles can fit in.

"Derek, over here," Jennifer calls out from the front of the van.

The two teenagers share a look with said man, and he hesitantly wanders over toward her voice. "She's probably luring him to his death," Ophelia concludes with a sigh of disappointment.

However, as Derek reaches Jennifer's side, he follows her gaze to find the driver to the ambulance face down, sprawled across the floor. The white shirt of his uniform sports multiple bloody gashes that look like they had been created by claws. As the Hale cautiously follows behind her, they notice the large puddle of blood that the man is laying in, alongside a track of bloodied prints of a shoe.

"'The sun'll come out, tomorrow... Bet your bottom dollar, that, tomorrow, there'll be sun...'"

Ophelia's eyes widen as she and Stiles can hear the voice singing outside, and she reaches over her friend's body to quietly close the doors to the vehicle.

Twirling the key to the ambulance around their finger, a woman steps out from behind the bonnet of the vehicle, her canines out and her eyes glowing a vibrant scarlet. "I think I might have something you all want!" Her lips curl up into a smile as she holds the keys up, taunting the pair in front of her to retrieve them. "Nice to finally meet you, though. Derek, I've heard a shit tonne about you. Duke really doesn't know the line between gossiping and planning an attack on someone..."

"Who are you?" Derek asks quietly. Jennifer dryly swallows, recognising the woman to be the one who had tried to kill her earlier when she had stumbled upon Deucalion during her attempt to escape. Derek also begins to realise that there is a very low chance that he will be able to beat her on his own.

"I believe you know my brothers? Although knowing them they definitely haven't mentioned me in conversation... Name's Elise. Elise Steiner."

Ophelia's eyes widen further in a dramatic manner, and she sucks in a breath as she gently leans her head back against the metal wall. "Oh, fuck," she murmurs. Ophelia Stone isn't scared of much; very little, actually. But due to all the pain she has caused the twins over the last few months... an older sister scares the living shit out of her. "I am fucked."

"Who is it?" Stiles murmurs under his breath, unable to hear the conversation occurring outside. She holds a finger up, signalling him to wait.

Derek takes a small step backward, and Jennifer follows his movements. "In a second, both of us are going to run," he tells her.

A few seconds later, the pair inside the ambulance watch in surprise as the adults race past them, and a deafening roar is followed. The threat of another Alpha hunting them is dismissed as the newly introduced Steiner sibling chases after Jennifer Blake, like she is starving for a piece of prey.

"Fuck!"

Stiles glances down at Cora, out the small window on the back doors, then to Ophelia who just loudly cursed. "Who was it?"

She groans and places her head in her hands. "Turns out Ethan and Aiden have something in common with their sister." She hums as his jaw drops. "Yup, they all want to kill witch-bitch." She pats his leg in mock-comfort. "Just you, me, and a very dead looking Cora for the foreseeable future."

Stiles takes another deep breath and moves to double check that the doors are shut. "Okay, okay, okay... We're okay. We're all right," he rambles, trying to reassure himself more than anything that everything will indeed be all right. His eyes flick down to Cora, whose chest still rises up and down, shallow breaths leaving her lips. "You okay? How you doing?" Ophelia's muffled giggle brings him to ask her the same. She realises it's definitely inappropriate timing to mention he sounded a lot like Joey Tribbiani. "Fi, you okay?"

Ophelia is very, very, very far from okay. But she can see how visibly distressed her friend is, and she doesn't want to burden him with her own thoughts and emotions. It's not fair, especially since she really is majority of the reason why he is feeling the way he currently is. "I'm fine," she reassures him, trying to keep her voice steady. When the ambulance becomes silent, her face falls.

She can only hear two heartbeats.

There should be three.

Stiles seems to catch on a few seconds after he watches her freeze. He leans closer to Cora and notices her lips have turned to a shade of a dark purplish-blue; something that looks like what you would see on the autopsy of a dead body. "Fi, wh-why does she look like she's not breathing?"

Ophelia nervously swallows. "'Cause she's not."

Pure chaos erupts inside the ambulance parked at Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital.

Stiles looks at the girl with wide eyes and frantically gestures to the unresponsive werewolf on the gurney. "Give her some blood!"

Ophelia blinks incredulously and raises her voice. "My blood won't work!"

"Okay, then, do CPR."

"... I don't know how to do that."

The boy stares at her in disbelief. "What do you mean-"

"I've never been in a situation like this before!"

"Like, what?"

"Where I can't give my blood to someone! I've never had to use CPR!"

"You've never-"

"I've never had to learn it!"

"Oh, my fucking God-"

"Stiles, you do the fucking CPR!"

It's as if he remembers there's a girl beside them, who is only slipping further and further into the grips of death the longer they argue for. "Shit, fuck, yeah, okay."

He quickly pushes the sleeves of his flannel up, and Ophelia notices his hands shaking. She grabs onto his wrist tightly. "Stiles, you can do this. Breathe. You can do this."

The boy nods quickly at her words, the reassurance being exactly what he had needed. He takes in a deep breath. "Here we go, tilt the head," he murmurs to himself. "Fingers on the chin, clear the throat." He opens Cora's mouth to look inside, checking for anything that might be lodged in her airways. "Great, nothing. I see nothing. Fi, do you see-"

"Stiles, you can do this," she repeats firmly. She can see his doubt and hesitation, but he doesn't need her opinion. Stiles Stilinski might just be the smartest person she knows.

"Okay, all right, so, uh... Just pinch the nose and blow." His trembling fingers pinch her nose, and he leans forward to blow a breath of air into her mouth. He does it again, then presses his ear to her chest. "Oh, come on, Cora," Stiles murmurs desperately.

Ophelia watches the pair anxiously, her knees bouncing up and down as the pit of dread in her chest only grows when Cora fails to respond to the resuscitation. "Come on, love, just breathe."

Her nose is pinched again, and Stiles presses his lips to hers to blow another breath. "Come on, Cora," he says urgently. "Come on!" Ophelia gnaws onto her lip as Stiles repeats the process over and over again with no luck. She can tell that he's losing hope, and so is she. "Come on, Cora, breathe."

Then, the youngest Hale's lips part and a large gasp of air is sucked in. She begins to cough, although her eyelids stay closed, still keeping her in the state of unconsciousness.

With loud sighs of relief, the two teenagers slump back against the walls of the ambulance and close their eyes briefly. "Thank, God," Ophelia mumbles. Her eyes widen in horror as she realises what she just said.

"You know, next time I put my lips to your mouth, you better be awake," Stiles comments, proving that he didn't hear his friend's whisper.

The girl turns her head to look at him in surprise. "What?"

Stiles' mouth falls agape. He closes it quickly and straightens up. "Huh? Nothing. Nothing."

Ophelia chuckles to herself as his cheeks flush a dark red, and she runs a hand through her hair that is finally starting to dry from the rain. "Man, this shit is crazy. I mean, have you really sat and thought about it? We're in an evacuated hospital, running from twin werewolves who make one giant werewolf, their psychotic sister, and a blind demon werewolf, who all want to kill a witch, who actually isn't a witch..."

Stiles is silent for a few moments before he begins chuckling. It starts off muffled by his lips that are firmly pressed together, but when he meets Ophelia's eyes, he bursts out laughing. "This is why I try not to think about it," he answers her in between giggles.

She grins. "Yeah, it really makes your brain turn to mush."

His smile slowly fades away as they both remember the bigger picture. "You know how ridiculous it is right now, that Scott is going to be the one to get us out of this? Like, Scott. Scott McCall, who basically failed school last year. The Scott McCall who took over eight months to learn how to tie his shoes. He's going to be our saving grace."

"Let's pretend it's all Derek and Peter, then."

Stiles gives her a weak smile. "You know, I used to be the one coming up with all the plans. Or, if it wasn't plan 'A,' it was plans B, C, etcetera." He shuts his eyes and softly sighs. "Maybe Cora was right, you know? M-Maybe we are pretty much useless. Maybe all we really do is show up and find the bodies. And... occasionally be the cause of one." Despite his attempt to try and lighten the mood with his last sentence, Ophelia's eyebrows stay furrowed as she observes him in concern. It's been a while since she last heard him ramble. Her breath catches in her throat at his next words. "I don't want to find my father's body," he whispers. His voice is raw, and his eyes shine with tears that are ready to shed. When one drops, he is quick to wipe it away before she can spot it.

Ophelia squeezes her eyes shut, letting them both stay in silence for a little longer. Almost nothing she can say right now will take away what he is feeling. And to be perfectly honest, even if it could, she wouldn't know what to say. So, instead, she opts to begin the conversation she had been wanting to all night. "Okay, before I start, I want to tell you how much I love you. I don't use that word lightly, at all, and I want you to know that I consider you one of my best friends."

Stiles grimaces at her choice of wording, and he looks down to pick the cuticles of his nails. "I'm sensing a 'but' coming here..."

"But no matter how good of friends we are, you will never come before my family. There's no way to sugar-coat it and you deserve the truth. They are my always and forever. Weirdly, I care about this hellhole of a place and a few of the people in it, but if trying to save them means putting my remaining family in jeopardy... I will always choose them. Like, this afternoon. I chose for Freya not to come, because I was worried we would be putting too big of a target on our backs as a family."

She risks looking over to see how he's reacting. Strangely, his expression doesn't show much, just that he's intently listening.

"I regret it so much, I feel so guilty, because as a result of my decision, you lost your dad," she speaks in a hushed voice. Her eyes begin to sting. "I think you have the right to know that I wouldn't change it." Stiles brushes away another tear that drops down his cheek, and Ophelia begins to feel guilty about starting this in the first place.  She takes a deep breath and grabs onto one of his hands. He doesn't pull away. "You also need to know that I will do everything in my power to help find him."

"But not everything," the boy mutters.

"No, not everything. Though I'm going to do everything I can, right until it reaches the 'everything' level."

He slightly smiles. She might show it in an odd way, but Stiles knows this is her way of saying she loves him like something that resembles one of her brothers. He's the closest to family that she has. "Thanks, Fi."

She squeezes his hand and sighs. "I'm just sorry I can't do more." He weakly smiles at her but he silently communicates that he understands, because if he was in her place, Stiles would have the same mindset. "We're going to find him, Stiles. I promise you; we're going to find him."

Stiles' eyebrows raise in alarm when her head snaps over to the doors to the ambulance. "What is it?"

Ophelia's eyes glow as she strains her hearing. "I don't know." Suddenly, something crashes. And it doesn't sound far away. "It's pretty hard to smell things tonight, with the storm and because we're at a hospital," she mutters.

Both teenagers are pressed up against the window until Stiles wrenches the girl away when she growls upon spotting the merged Steiner twins. His hand slaps over her mouth and he's surprised she doesn't smack it away. Thankfully, most likely due to what she had just explained, the creature continues walking past, not even sparing them so much as a glance.

"Just don't breathe or make a sound, and we might be okay," she tries to comfort. It obviously doesn't work.

"Yeah, or you could run out, knock them out again-"

Stiles' mouth snaps shut when she rapidly clicks her fingers at him, her eyes wide. "Shh!"

"Who is it?"

As quickly as the new wave of fear had washed over her, it disappears. Ophelia's shoulders slump with relief as she picks up Scott and Peter's scents, and she shuffles herself past the boy to wrench open the ambulance doors despite his protests. "About bloody time you two decided to rock up!"

"Yeah, help me get him in," Scott rushes out.

The duo inside the vehicle look over to Peter who is leaning most of his body weight onto Scott, and they don't hesitate to abide to his request. Peter grunts as he grabs onto Ophelia's outstretched hand (she contemplates dropping it and letting him fall just for laughs) and climbs past them to slump on part of the bench that is empty. Stiles looks back over to Scott. "Where's Derek and Jennifer?"

The werewolf breathes heavily and glances between his two friends before saying, "I have to go back for them and my mom."

"Fuck me!" Ophelia hisses. "What the hell are they doing now?"

"Two problems," Stiles cuts in with a slight roll of his eyes. "The twins have a sister, she's got the keys to this thing, and we just saw said twins, like, thirty seconds ago... So technically, three problems."

Scott's eyes only widen further as the boy talks, his brain taking in all the new information. "They have a sister?"

"Not the point, Scott," Ophelia scolds. Another bang somewhere in the parking garage brings silence.

The McCall looks between his best friends pleadingly. "Stay here."

She throws her hands up in the air when he runs off. "Yeah, it's not like we've got anything better to do," she calls out, wincing when she remembers the twins are somewhere nearby. "Sorry," she apologises, feeling the scowls from both Peter and Stiles.

"You're not going to protest to go punch someone?" Peter asks her incredulously.

She shrugs and leans her head back. "Pretty knackered actually. I'm quite content with staying here playing guard-dog. I'm also well overdue for a good beauty sleep." She feels her phone vibrate and quickly opens it to find multiple messages from people.

negative nelly
argents, boyd and i are heading to the hospital
here
where are u???

Ambulance in parking garage with Cora
Find Scott, he's inside

"Isaac, Boyd and the Argents are here," she informs them quietly.

Stiles sighs in relief. "Thank, God. We need some backup." Peter scoffs. "Not that you aren't good backup..." He tilts his head to the side as he examines the man's current physical state. "Well..."

barbie
Lydia's been taken to another hospital.
She's ok and with her mother.
Freya's still trying to find the Sheriff, no luck so far.
Whatever spell the Darach has got blocking
his location is immaculate.
Ophelia, are you ok? I'm getting worried.

Trying not to let someone die courtesy to a
bunch of nut jobs...
Will be home in hopefully 30!

Approximately ten minutes pass by before some form of noise is heard outside the ambulance. The squealing of tires prompts Ophelia to look through the window, and she grins widely at who she spots in the driver's seat. Isaac yanks his car door open and rushes around to the emergency vehicle where the back doors are being opened to get Cora out. "Come on, come on, come on!"

Peter lifts his niece off the gurney and runs her over to the backseat of the Lahey's borrowed car. "Get the door!"

"Where's Boyd?" Ophelia asks quickly as she shuts the door behind Peter.

"With Allison and Argent, I think they planned on using him as a bodyguard from the twins..." Isaac smiles when she chuckles at the thought, but they look over to Stiles where he lingers by the ambulance.

"Stiles, what's wrong? We gotta get the fuck outta here." She frowns deeply as a strong wave of fear hits her nose. She touches his arm gently as she steps up beside him. "Stiles," she repeats. Her throat runs dry as she follows his shaking fingers pointing at a clipboard hanging up inside the door. On the bottom of a patient form are the three words 'Parent or Guardian.' Those three words are the reason both of their hearts drop to their feet. "Holy shit," she whispers in realisation. She and Stiles look at each other, then break into runs toward the entry inside the hospital, leaving an incredibly confused Isaac and Peter behind.

"Ofi! Stiles!"

Looking over to the boy running beside her, Ophelia grabs onto his shoulder and stops him in his tracks. "Arm around my waist," she instructs. He doesn't even question it.

Speeding through the deserted hospital, she instantly distinguishes Scott's scent. He reeks of fear, and it's a type of fear she herself hasn't felt in a while. It's the type of fear you finally feel when you realise someone you love is about to leave you. And it's the type of fear you feel when you realise that there's not a damn thing you can do to stop it from happening.

They find him racing past one of the elevators, not flinching or turning back when his name is called out desperately by his two friends. Ophelia flies to a halt as she notices Derek unconscious on the floor inside the elevator. Stiles releases his breath shakily and tears his gaze off the man. "We can come back after," he tells the girl.

Ophelia nods and forces herself to stop looking at him out of concern. They need to get to Melissa. When they reach the stairwell, she departs with her vampiric speed and chooses to let both herself and Stiles go the few steps at a normal pace. Even though they're quite a way behind Scott, she can hear the conversation occurring outside on the rooftop perfectly.

"You help me catch her, and I'll help get your mother and Stiles' father back."

"It's Deucalion. He's with Deucalion," she rambles to Stiles. He takes the news as well as her.

The pair burst out the exit door to the roof and are met with a crisp breeze hitting their faces. The rain has gone to rest for the time being, allowing the town below it to continue its nightly activities in peace. However, what is happening right now is far from what Ophelia would describe peace. They stare helplessly at Scott's back and watch him take step after step closer to the Alpha waiting for him. "Scott," Stiles calls out.

The boy falters in his movements and turns his head slightly to the side, but he doesn't meet their eyes. He can't. Because if he turns around, if he sees the teary expressions his best friends hold, he knows he'll give in.

"Scotty, please don't do this," she softly says. "You don't have to do this."

He stops walking and turns his head to the side again. She can see a tear dropping down his cheek that is closest to them, glistening in the moonlight that cascades down from above. "I don't know what else to do," Scott replies, his voice helpless. He's out of options.

Stiles swallows. "No, there's go- Scott, there's got to be something else, okay?" His shoulder brushes against Ophelia's, and he glances to her to find her eyes shining with salty water. "We always- Scott, we always have a plan B."

Scott finally turns around to face them. His forehead is stained with dried blood created from wounds earlier that night, and his eyes are tearful, exactly like his friends'. "Not this time."

He shakes his head in defeat and continues on to Deucalion. "Scott," Stiles calls out.

He looks back once more. "I'm gonna find your dad. I promise."

"Scotty?" Ophelia takes a deep breath and wills her bottom lip to stop wobbling. She watches him stop moving.

He doesn't turn around this time.

"Please be careful." Stiles grabs onto her hand and squeezes it so tightly she swears she hears something fracture. Once both Scott and Deucalion are no longer visible to the eye, she groans. "Well, shit."

This just got hell of a lot harder.

𝘏𝘪 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴!

𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘎𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘐'𝘮 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵𝘮, (𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘬) 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵!

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘴, 𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘖𝘊. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘑𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯 (𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘭). 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴, 𝘤𝘮𝘰𝘯 😐

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘖𝘧𝘪'𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵...

𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘰𝘺𝘥'𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 😭