𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐘
i am not who i was

AS SOON AS Jackson was outed to be the Kanima, Derek was the first to run off.

"Hurry!" Hope snapped as they raced towards Stiles' jeep. She jumped into the back and let out a grunt as she landed on her stomach in the seat.

The tires of the jeep screeched as Stiles jerked the wheel, and right when they turned into the alley, Stiles slammed on his brakes.

Hope cried out in surprise as her frontside slammed into the seat. But, she ignored that as she looked out of the windshield.

There were tire spikes directly in front of the car as well as a chain linked fence.

"What do we do now?"

Scott flung open the door, leaving the duo as he flipped himself over the gate, not looking back once.

Hope went to follow, but then glanced at Stiles' worried and scared expression, so she slid into the passenger seat. "Come on. We can go look together. But, don't leave my side, alright?"

THE DUO WALKED through the seemingly-empty area and when they approached the backside of the building, Stiles sighed in relief. They had spotted Scott who was peeking around the corner of the building.

Stiles immediately walked over to him and grabbed his arm, scaring Scott in the process. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He held his hands up in defense. "Did you see where he went?"

"I lost him," Scott muttered, letting out a breath.

Hope huffed and grew angry with herself. "Seriously?"

"You couldn't catch his scent?" Stiles asked exasperatedly and then turned to Hope. "Can you?"

"I don't think he has one."

Stiles huffed, "All right, any clue where he's going?"

"To kill someone."

"Ah! That explains the claws and the fangs and all that. Good, makes perfect sense now," Stiles replied sarcastically, earning frowns from Scott and Hope. "What? Guys, come on. I'm one-hundred and forty-seven pounds of pale skin and fragile bone, okay? Sarcasm is my only defense."

Hope sighed and moved past them so she could get a better visual of everyone going into the club. There was nothing out of the ordinary. "We need to find it."

"Jackson," Stiles stated and then frowned at himself. "Can't believe I corrected you on that."

"Yeah, I know," Scott agreed, sighing.

"All right, but does he know that?" Hope asked, sighing heavily. She went from dragons to this. Can she ever catch a break? "Did anybody else see him back at your house?"

"I mean, I don't think so, but he already passed Derek's test anyway."

"Yeah, but that's just the thing. How did he pass the test?"

"I don't know," Scott replied, shaking his head.

"Maybe it's like an either-or thing," the auburn haired girl stated as she thought about all the lore she read from seven years old to now. "I mean, Derek said that a snake can't be poisoned by its own venom, right? When's the Kanima not the Kanima?"

Scott's eyes widened in realization. "When it's Jackson."

"Uh..." Stiles muttered out, waving his hands around trying to get their attention. "Guys." They turned to him and took a step back to look at where he was looking. They watched as the Kanima slipped into the club. "You guys are seeing that too, right?"

"He's inside," Scott stated, panic beginning to bubble within their chests.

"What's he gonna do in there?"

Hope bit her lip. "He's going to kill someone."

Scott looked toward the entrance of the building, a familiar lacrosse player standing in the front of the line. His eyes widened, realization finally settling in. "I know who he's after."

"What? How?" Stiles questioned, looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Did you smell something?"

"Armani."

They quickly headed to the side door of the club. And as Stiles struggled to open it up, Hope rolled her eyes, and held her hand out to the doorknob. She twisted her hand to the side and a lock unlatching could be heard.

"Oh," Stiles mumbled, "cool!"

"Come on!"

Stepping into the building, they paused as a party was going on. Strobe lights and disco balls were and flashing from every corner in the room.

"Dude, everyone in here's a dude!" Scott shouted over the thumping music.

Hope glanced around to see guys grinding against one another, a few were hanging down on a silk cloth hung on the ceiling, and another was dancing on the table.

"I think we're in a gay club," Scott concluded, and Hope turned around, only to snort in amusement as she saw a group of drag-queens surrounding Stiles. One of them was caressing his cheek with their hand.

"Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf senses, huh, Scott?" Stiles drawled out sarcastically.

Hope shook her head and turned around to see what Scott was staring at. She recognized the man immediately. Danny Mehealani, the gay-lacrosse-player that is nice to everyone.

Stiles escaped the drag-queens, and the three of them slid onto the bar stools at the bar, keeping a sharp eye on Danny.

The bartender made his way over to them, and Stiles ordered, "Three beers."

"IDs?"

Hope forced a smile and said, "nothing, thanks." She then rolled her eyes as Scott and Stiles dug around in their pockets for their IDs.

The bartender grinned as he stared down at Stiles and Scott's obvious fake IDs. He let out a laugh, glancing between the two teenage boys. "How about two Cokes?"

"Rum and Coke? Sure," Stiles chirped, biting his lip and moving his head along to the beat of the music, only causing Hope to shake her head at the human. "Coke's fine, actually. I'm driving anyway."

A shirtless bartender walked up to them, sliding Scott and Stiles their drinks. He made eye contact with Scott before saying, "That one's paid for."

Stiles' eyes widened, his face falling as a guy held up his beer toward Scott. Hope bit her lip, trying to hide her grin.

Stiles huffed and glared at them in response. "Oh, shut up," he muttered, taking an angry sip of his drink.

"I didn't say anything," Scott said, holding up his hands in defense.

"Yeah, well, both your faces did."

The three of them turned around, overlooking the crowd of dancing men.

Stiles' voice suddenly interrupted up their search, "Hey, I found Danny."

Hope immediately looked up, and her blue eyes landed on the Kanima which was circling above Danny and the shirtless guy he was dancing with.

"Get Danny," Scott instructed.

"What're you gonna do?" Stiles asked, moving to stand next to Hope. Scott didn't reply, instead he just outstretched his hand, his claws on full-display. Stiles glanced up and nodded, "Works for me."

Hope and Stiles began to push their way through the crowd, their line of sight getting broken every time someone stepped in front of them.

Soon enough, the music was so loud that it messed with her hearing. But, hoping Stiles could take care of himself, she continues trying her best to duck in and out of places, yelling out for Danny.

Hope found herself in the middle of a bunch of dancing guys, their bodies literally shoving her in every direction possible. 

She glared, annoyed with their sweaty and half-naked bodies grinding against her, so she began shoving them away, looking like she was parting the Red Sea.

Suddenly, a body dropped down onto the ground right in front of her, causing her to jump back in shock.

With wide eyes she quickly scanned her surroundings, but it was far too crowded to see where Jackson was. That, and the smoke machine had just kicked in.

Another body dropped beside the one already on the floor, before another, and another, and another. 

It took about a dozen bodies falling to the ground, including Danny himself, for the men around them to notice and they all started screaming and panicking, shoving Hope to get out of the club.

Getting annoyed, she shoved at a boy so hard he ran into a group of boys which knocked them all down in the floor. She winced and quickly walked over to where Stiles was.

Together, they quickly pushed open the door that they had originally came through.

As they ran down the street, Hope noticed a trail of blood leading down toward the parking lot. They both followed it until it led them straight to Jackson's naked and bloodied body.

Scott was crouched down beside him, looking up at them frantically. "What do we do now?"

HOPE SAT IN the backseat of Stiles' jeep, shifting was uncomfortably as Jackson's head was on her lap. Thankfully, the bottom half of body was covered by blanket that Stiles had in the back.

She was smoothing out his hair, watching as his face was carefree, and his chest was slowly rising up and down.

Stiles glanced back at them, his face scrunching up at the fact that Hope was being nice to Jackson. After all, he has been nothing but an asshole to them all.

Scott had gone to check on Danny to make sure he was okay, and to see what he had saw. Hope wanted to go, but, also didn't want to leave Jackson with Stiles seeing as he could turn into the Kanima at any moment.

Hope furrowed her brows as she saw the dried blood on Jackson.

Apparently, Derek had followed the Kanima into the club and clawed out the Kanima's throat. There was blood all over Jackson's chest, like someone had clawed out his throat, but there were no real injuries.

Scott jogged over to the jeep before jumping into the passenger's seat, glancing between the duo. "I couldn't get anything out of Danny."

"Okay, can we just get the hell out of here now before one of my dad's deputies sees me?" Stiles begged, and funny enough, as soon as he started the engine, a police cruiser came, and parked right in front of the jeep. It was the Sheriff. "Oh, my God. Could this get any worse?" He asked, flailing his arms about. Jackson's head lolled on Hope's lap as he let out a moan. "That was rhetorical."

"Get rid of him," Scott demanded, turning toward Stiles as he pointed at the Sheriff's cruiser.

"Get rid of him? We're at a crime scene and he's the sheriff!" Stiles shouted, his eyes wide.

"Do something," Scott spat, making weird motions with his body to prove his point.

Stiles groaned, doing his own strange body movement before struggling to open the door.

The sound of the car door slamming was enough for Jackson's head to rise up from Hope lap, stirring a panic between Scott and her.

They shared a look, eyes wide and mouths agape as Jackson sat up and groggily asked, "What's... what's going on?"

Hope glanced to Stiles who was flailing his arms around, talking to his father who kept glancing over at the Jeep. Cursing under her breath, she waved her hand over his body. "Ad Somnum." Instantly, Jackson's body relaxed, and he was back asleep.

Scott stared at Hope in wonder. "That is amazing."

She smirked. "Thanks."

THEY WERE STILL in Stiles' Jeep, driving around with a half-naked Jackson - who could still turn into the Kanima at any moment - in the backseat with his head resting on Hope's lap.

"Uh, what about your house?" Stiles suggested, shrugging.

"Not with my mom there," Scott cried out, shaking his head. "We need to take him somewhere where we can hold him long enough to figure out what to do with him. Or long enough to convince him he's dangerous."

"I still say we just kill him."

Hope's eyes widened and she quickly turned to stare at Stiles in surprised. Sure, back in Mystic Falls, the only reason she killed the monsters with barley any second thought was because it needed to be done. Landon was in trouble, and so was the entire world. The monsters needed to die to protect everyone and everything. But, now, hearing those words, it struck something in her.

Her mother always wanted her to be good — to have mercy on those who harmed her and those she cares for. And so far, Jackson hasn't done anything real bad. So, they had to try and give him a second chance. Not only for him, but for their own sakes.

But, if it did come down to it — if there was no other choice — she will eliminate the threat.

"We're not killing him!" Scott exclaimed, appalled by the thought and the words that came out of his best friends mouth.

"God!" Stiles grunted, letting out a hiss through his lips. "Okay, okay. I got an idea."

"Does it involve breaking the law?" Scott asked with narrowed eyes.

"By now don't you think that's a given?" Stiles questioned, and Scott and Hope nodded in agreement.

HOPE COULDN'T BELIEVE that she just spent the past hour stealing a prison transport with Scott and Stiles. But, it did happen.

Opening the back of the transport, Hope saw Jackson's head lift up as she stepped in, sitting down on the bench across from him. She went to open her mouth, not sure how they were going to tell him that he was murdering people.

Stiles climbed in after her. "I bought you some foo—"

Jackson lunged toward the boy, his back slamming against the metal wall of the transport to keep as much distance between Jackson and himself. "Let me out now!" He snarled through clenched teeth, holding his hands out in a motion that showed he wanted to strangle Stiles.

Hope held her hand out to Jackson, ready to blast him with magic if necessary. "Take one wrong move, you're done for."

"You know, I put those pants on you, all right, Jackson?" Stiles began, pointing down at the sweatpants Jackson was wearing. "One leg at a time. Being all up-close and personal with your junk wasn't exactly the highlight of my day. So don't think this is fun for us either. You know we're actually doing you a favor."

Jackson tugged his hands up, the shackles jingling loudly. "This is doing me a favor?"

"Yes. You're killing people. To death. Yeah," Stiles deadpanned, not caring how blunt it came out. "And until we can figure out how to stop you, you're gonna stay in here. I'm sorry."

Hope couldn't help herself but smirk at the boy. Sure, he was a lot like Landon and Mg mixed into one, but he sure as hell had a lot more bravery than them. And that is what made him special. Well, that, and his sarcasm.

"Now, do you want the ham and cheese or the turkey club?" Stiles asked, opening his backpack and pulling out the brown paper bag filled with sandwiches.

Jackson's face contorted into a deep scowl. "You actually think my parents won't be looking for me?"

Stiles tossed the sandwich at Jackson, the food bounced off of his chest before landing into his hands as he dug Jackson's cellphone out of his pocket.

"Well, not if they don't think anything's wrong," Stiles said simply, showing Jackson the text he had sent to Jackson's parents.

"Yeah." A smirk appeared on Jackson's face.

HOPE WAS SITTING beside Stiles, picking at her bracelet as the three of them sat inside the transport.

"You have scales," Stiles mused, staring at the annoyed boy.

"Scales? Like a fish?" Jackson assumed, raising an eyebrow.

"No, more like reptile," Stiles corrected which made Jackson roll his eyes.

"I have a tail?" Jackson deadpanned.

"Yeah, you have a tail."

"Does it do anything?" Jackson asked, tilting his head.

Hope tilted her head, not liking the dangerous glint in the boy's eyes. "Not that we know of."

Jackson leaned forward slightly, staring directly at Stiles. "Can I use it to strangle you?"

Stiles sighed in annoyance, "Yeah, you still don't believe us. All right. The night of the semi-finale game, what did you do right after?"

"I went home," Jackson replied through gritted teeth.

Stiles leaned forward slightly, "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, you idiot. What the hell else would I do?" Jackson asked in an aggravated tone.

Hope growled in annoyance. She had shown him her eyes, and they had been trying to explain everything within the past few hours, but he wasn't believing them. He thought that since he didn't have much sleep, the lighting played a trick and made it seem like Hope's eyes changed.

"You attacked Stiles, Derek, and I at the school and you trapped them in the pool," Hope stated, sighing heavily through her nose. "You and I fought."

"Did I win?" He smirked.

Stiles narrowed his eyes. "You also killed a mechanic. Right in front of me, by the way. That was lovely. And one of Argent's hunters. Oh, and last night, you tried to kill Danny."

Jackson remained unfazed and asked, "Why would I want to kill my best friend?"

"Well, that's what Scott's out trying to figure out right now," Stiles explained, but he still wasn't believing a word they have said.

"You know what?!" Hope exclaimed and jumped forward, her hand going on Jackson's throat. Stiles jumped up in surprised, his mouth agape and eyes wide. "If I really wanted to, I could rip out your throat right now. But, you wanna know why I won't? It's because we're trying to help you, and all you're doing is being a jackass. So, believe us when we tell you the things you have been doing!"

Growling loudly, Hope let him go roughly, and got out of the transport, trying to control the beast within.

This is something she has been doing since she was seven and had the Hollow in her — trying to control the Mikaelson monster that laid just beneath.

She took in a deep breath and paused when she heard the sound of leaves rustling. She lifted up her head and looked to her right and saw nothing, she slowly turned around only to be nose-to-nose with Allison.

"They know," Allison breathes out.

"What?" Hope asked, her eyebrows inching upward.

"They know Jackson's missing," Allison cried out, her eyes wide in fear.

"What?" Stiles blurted out as he approached them. He had followed Hope after her little real down. "There's no way. I have been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue."

"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know;" Allison replied, nervously glancing around the woods.

Stiles' eyes widened when they fell upon the black device in his hands. "Oh..." He held out the phone between his forefinger and thing, as if it would explode. And then, a thought occurred to him, and he ran over to the van, and pulled out the police radio.

"All available units proceed to Beacon Hills Preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Repeat. Proceed with caution."

Without warning, Stiles jumped into the drivers seat, which left Allison and Hope quickly jumping into the passenger seat. But, seeing as there was barely any room, Hope was squished between them.

Hope grabbed Jackson's phone from Stiles who was put the transport in motion, dialed Mrs. Whittemore's number in Jackson's phone before throwing it out the

SCOTT MET UP with the trio on a cliff that overlooked the entire town of Beacon Hills - everything looked so small and beautiful.

Hope took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, loving the smell of the woods.

Scott rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. If Jackson doesn't remember being the Kanima, he's definitely not going to remember stealing Danny's tablet."

As it turned out, while Scott was at the hospital questioning Danny about any reasons as to why Jackson might want to kill him, he found out that Danny was doing Jackson a favor. Danny was recovering some missing footage of Jackson while he was sleeping. On the full moon.

"Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" Hope asked, crossing her arms. She understood that the camera must've been used for him to figure out if he was turning on the full moon or not.

"What if someone else took it?" Allison suggested.

"Then somebody else knows what he is," Stiles replied, pursing his lips.

Scott's eyes widened in realization. "Which could mean someone's protecting him."

"Like the bestiary says: "The Kanima seeks a friend," right?" Allison asked, shoving her hands into her jacket pocket.

"Okay, hold on," Stiles mumbled, holding his hands on in front of him while he thought. "So somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the Kanima and then just erases part of it so he wouldn't know? I mean, who would do that?"

Hope nodded along to Stiles. "Yeah. That doesn't completely make sense. Something else is going on here."

Scott looked over to Stiles and Hope, knowing they had stayed up the night that they found out what the Kanina was, researching. "You said the only thing you found online about the Kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true?"

"Well, no, it can't be," Stiles denied, shaking his head. "It tried to kill all of us, remember? I don't know about you three, but I haven't murdered anybody lately."

Hope's eyes watered and she had to look away, thinking about her parents and uncle. Technically, she did kill them. Her mother was only in danger because of her, and her father and Elijah sacrificed themselves for her. And let's not forget that innocent man she killed which turned her into a werewolf.

"But I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us," Scott stated, looking toward Allison. "Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?"

Allison thought for moment, thinking back to the night before nodding her head and saying, "You're right, it just ran off."

"And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage," Scott added as he turned to look at Stiles.

"Well, yeah, but it tried to kill Stiles, and Derek, and I at the school, Hope commented, clearing her throat.

"Did it?"

"It would've," Stiles replied back harshly. "It was waiting for us to come out."

"What if it was trying to keep the three of you in?"

Stiles' jaw fell slack, his face instantly morphed into one of utter disgust as Scott's suggestion settled in. "Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?"

"Because there's something else going on," Hops concluded, really wishing she had the Salvatore's library, maybe something about Kanima's would be in there.

"We don't know anything about what's going one with Jackson or why someone's protecting him," Stiles informed, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Know thy enemy," Allison murmured softly and they all turned to her with raised brows. She shook her head softly, as if she hadn't realized that she had said the words out loud. "Just something my grandfather said."

"All right, I got it!" Stiles exclaimed suddenly. "Kill Jackson. Problem solved."

Everyone turned to glare at Stiles.

Scott stared at his best friend in belief. "He risked his life for us. Against Peter, you remember that?"

"Yes, but what did we just find out?" He rhetorically asked. "He got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny."

"Yeah, it doesn't mean he's not worth saving, Stiles."

"It's always something with him, though," Stiles argued.

"He doesn't know what he's doing," Hope commented, hoping that her tone would help him see what was happening..

"So what?" Stiles retorted, becoming extremely irritated that everyone was against him.

"So, I didn't either," Scott announced, before turning to Allison. "You remember when I almost killed you and Jackson?" Allison nodded. "I had someone to stop me. He has nobody."

Stiles shook his head, "That's his own fault."

"Doesn't matter. If we can save him, we should try."

WHEN HOPE AND Stiles arrived back at the cliff sight where Jackson was currently being held, they stared in shock as the back of the transport had been busted open.

They had only been gone for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, tops, but that's all.

Their faces contorted into ones of disgust when they saw Scott and Allison lying on top of each other in Scott's car — while Jackson was roaming around Beacon Hills.

"The hell, Scott?!" Hope shouted, making Scott and Allison jump in the seat and cover themselves quickly. "He escaped!"

Once Allison and Scott were fully clothed, the four teens jogged toward the back of the transport, showing Scott and Allison the van which was currently ripped wide open with a pair of broken and bent handcuffs on the ground.

The four looked upon the sight in front of them in dismay and discomfort knowing that they had lost Jackson and needed help getting him back before he killed someone.

"I have to tell my father," Allison sighed out, knowing that they really didn't have any other option.

Scott turned and began to walk away from the three of them, hundreds of thoughts running through his mind at that moment.

"Scott?" Stiles called out softly. "He's going to kill someone."

Scott let out a shaky breath, "Okay, tell him. Tell him everything."

Hope shook her head. "I am not going to stand around and wait for someone else to drop dead. I'm going out to find him!" She quickly took off running, not paying attention to their yelling.

IT WAS ONLY about half an hour, and Hope seemed to not be able to get a whiff of Jackson. So, when Stiles' Jeep pulled up to her, she simply sighed and jumped in.

They soon found themselves at the Sheriff Station.

"Could you buzz us in? I gotta see my dad," Stiles stayed and they waited for the deputy to buzz them in.

After a while of thinking, Hope realized that they needed someone in the inside, just like they had in Mystic Falls. It made things so much easier when the Sheriff knew what was happening which meant the supernatural happening would be covered. But, at the same time, it never ends well when humans find out about the things that go bump in the night.

The door buzzed softly and Stiles opened it fully, and the three of them stepped inside.

But, once they did, they all froze in shock from what was in front of them.

Inside, was Jackson Whittemore, whom was wearing a thick police jacket and was sitting on a small couch, his adoptive father standing right next to him.

Jackson looked toward the three whose jaws were slacked open, a smug grin on his face.

Sheriff Stilinski stepped into sight, letting out a sigh. "Scott, Stiles, Hope." He gave her a disappointed look. "Perfect timing. Have you met Jackson's father, Mr. David Whittemore? Esquire."

Jackson leaned forward slightly and stated, "That means lawyer."

Hope's eyebrow twitched as she only wanted to do one thing right then and there; punch Jackson into another universe.