Stiles explanation of why he needed help had been extremely brief. Mostly because their destination had been Harris' classroom, no more than three minutes away. In those three minutes, however, Rachel had learned some disturbing facts. One, there was indeed another one of the darach's sacrifices that needed to be found. Two, they needed to be found alive rather than dead, which was probably a given, but Stiles was sure to be crystal clear as both girls obviously initially believed they'd be searching for something dead. Three, the sacrifice was Scott's boss & mentor, Deaton.

Four, Stiles' only plan to find him involved a Ouija board.

It also involved Rachel attempting to figure out Lydia's abilities by reflecting & trying them out for herself, but she'd put a stop to that idea as soon as she heard it. Stiles had argued "c'mon Rae, can't you just take a leap of faith for once?" but Rachel wasn't having any of it. The last time she (accidentally) reflected an unknown supernatural creature, she almost turned into a kanima in gym class. Even if they were relatively sure Lydia didn't turn into anything, Rachel wasn't taking any chances unless it was a last resort— even then, she doubted she'd have a clue how to use the strawberry blonde's abilities.

"If I get possessed from this, I'm killing you first." Rachel told Stiles as he placed the planchette on the Ouija board. She had always believed in ghosts & demons, and in Ouija boards' ability to communicate with them, hence the reason she never played with one. It wasn't that she was afraid (she totally wasn't, she used her infamous "I'm one of the monsters lurking in the shadows, they should be afraid of me" way of thinking to avoid that), but she didn't want to have to perform an exorcism, nor did she know one by heart. "Seriously Stiles, a Ouija board is the best thing you could think of?"

"It's worth a shot."

"A shot in the dark." Lydia remarked, bored already. It was no secret she didn't think this was going to work, and she wasn't alone in that thought

Stiles sighed. "Could you just try it, please, okay? Let's not forget who this is for. Scott's boss, the guy who has saved our collective asses on more than one occasion."

"Oh, wait, should we all do this?" Cora spoke up after being silent since they'd entered Harris' classroom. She had been dragged along by Rachel, who refused to let her go back to the loft & join in on whatever idiotic schemes Derek, Isaac & Boyd were up to.

"Yeah, yeah." Stiles responded after a moment. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"I'm just here to supervise." Rachel shook her head, moving back slightly. "Seriously. I'm not touching that thing. You guys go ahead." After some thought, she may or may not have been slightly afraid of summoning a demon, because let's face it, it was a real possibility knowing their luck. But she wasn't about to announce that as her reasoning. She just kept replaying in her head "you're the monster under the bed, the dark shadow at the end of the hall. Demons are afraid of you" and went along with it.

Everyone aside from Rachel had placed their hands on the planchette in the centre of the board, all waiting impatiently as Stiles asked the first question. "Where's Dr. Deaton?"

The room fell silent & all eyes focused on Lydia as they awaited an answer of some sort. She was supposed to be the one who knew, with her inexplicable connection to everyone dead & dying— Rachel wasn't even sure why Stiles had brought the Ouija board to begin with if they weren't actually contacting a dead person.

It didn't take Lydia long to realize everyone was staring at her, the girl quickly becoming confused of why. "What?"

"Aren't you gonna answer it?" Stiles asked her, as if she should know.

"Oh, I don't know the answer." The strawberry blonde deadpanned. "I thought we were asking some sort of spirit."

"Well, do you know any spirits?" Cora asked seriously. The younger Hale twin apparently had yet to realize no one was taking the plan of asking spirits seriously & they were instead betting on Lydia answering their questions (at least, Stiles was).

"Is she for real?"

"Don't be rude." Rachel's eyes narrowed as she looked over at Lydia. "We know a lot of spirits, but I doubt they'll tell us anything since we're the reason they're dead. We have a really bad record of saving people, in case you haven't noticed." She sighed, her gaze shifting to Stiles. "Is there anything else we can try? This isn't working."

Stiles nodded, moving the Ouija board off the desk. He dug into his pocket for a moment before retrieving a set of keys. "Okay, these are Deaton's keys for the clinic. Close your eyes, and I'm gonna put 'em in your hand, and then we're just gonna try & see if you can feel out for his location. It's called psychometry."

"I'm not a psychic." Lydia stated.

"You're something! Okay?" Stiles huffed, growing tired of the girl's constant denial of any possibility of her having psychic abilities. It wasn't the first time he'd brought it up or hinted at it, and it wasn't the first time she was quick to shoot down the idea, nor would it be the last. One thing she couldn't deny, however, was the fact that she was indeed something. Something, being their only hope of finding Deaton alive. "Just, Lydia, put out your hand, and.."

Stiles trailed off as he lowered the keys into her hand, the strawberry blonde humming softly as the metal touched her palm. "Hmm."

"What?"

She opened her eyes, toying with the keys for a moment before glancing up at Stiles. "They're cold."

"Lydia, concentrate, please? Trying to save lives here, for the love of God." Stiles sighed as he leaned against the desk, his frustration now becoming more evident.

Lydia rolled her eyes before closing them, opting to try once more for the sake of Stiles' sanity. She hadn't felt a thing before, nor had she heard anything, and she still didn't now— but the least she could do was give it an honest effort.

The room went silent, Cora & Stiles leaned in closer whilst Rachel stayed still, furrowig her brows as she watched the strawberry blonde curiously. Lydia fell still after a moment, the faint metal clicking of the keys ceasing & gaining Stiles' attention in an instant. "What is it? What do you see?"

Lydia opened her eyes, a faint sigh escaping her lips. "Nothing."

"Can you try?" Stiles turned his attention to Rachel as he took the keys back from Lydia. "Maybe you can sense something she can't?"

"If I reflect her abilities I won't be a werewolf anymore. Meaning I won't be able to sense anything, genius." The older Hale twin grumbled, quickly realizing that was the first time she'd ever used the W word around Lydia. Rachel assumed since the girl had not only poisoned her & all of her friends with wolfsbane, but resurrected Peter, she knew all there was to know regarding her friends' supernatural secrets.

"Please?"

Rachel huffed in annoyance, her eyes clouding over silver for a moment as she shot a glance towards Lydia before reverting back to a normal green colour. She took the keys from Stiles' hand, holding them in silence for a second before reaching an obvious conclusion. "Nothing. Because I don't know what Lydia is, nor do I know how to use her abilities. Now can we please move on to plan B?"

"Fine." Stiles grumbled, taking the keys & shoving them back in his pocket. He turned around for a moment, pulling a notebook from his backpack & grabbing a pencil from the table in front of the one the girls were seated at. He placed the open notebook in front of Lydia, before explaining, "Automatic writing."

"Automatic writing?" Lydia gaped, looking between the Hale twins to see if they found it as outrageous as her. Both girls shrugged, neither seeing how it could do any harm— it wasn't like they had any better ideas.

Lydia sighed for the umpteenth time, taking the pencil from Stiles' hand. She hesitated for a moment, looking deep in thought before finally starting to write something. Everyone waited in silence as they'd done before, watching the strawberry blonde intently until Stiles began to notice she wasn't writing at all, but in fact drawing a picture of something.

"Lydia, what are you doing? What.. What the hell is that?"

"A tree." Lydia replied, her tone a mix of happy & bored. It was something you'd expect a young child to have said, not the infamous genius Lydia Martin.

"A tr— Lydia, you're supposed to be writing words, like in sentences, something like a location, something that would tell us where he is!" This was probably the angriest Rachel had ever seen Stiles when Lydia was involved.

He was on the verge of losing it with her, and she couldn't care less. "Well, maybe you should've said that."

"Isn't she supposed to be some kind of genius?" Cora questioned & Rachel nodded.

"Genius? Yes." Lydia agreed. "Psychic? No. Honestly, I don't know why you're even bothering with me anyway. I mean, especially since it's obvious you should be talking to Danny."

"What?" Stiles questioned, his brows furrowing in confusion. "Why Danny?"

"Because." A voice called from across the room before anyone had the chance to answer, everyone's heads turning to see Scott standing in the doorway. "Last night, he was a target. But he wasn't a sacrifice."

—

Things were not going well.

Stiles, Cora, Rachel & Lydia had all gone to the hospital in search of Danny. Scott had received a text from Allison which prompted him to send his friends off without him whilst he met the former huntress at her apartment. Something about the girl finding some interesting information regarding the sacrifices in her father's office.

The group of four had decided that all of them going in to the hospital would look suspicious, Stiles had gone into the room alone whilst Lydia stood guard outside. The twins had initially stayed in the Jeep, but after growing bored they had gone looking for a vending machine to pass the time. Rachel got a bag of Doritos, Cora got a KitKat & they still ended up waiting nearly ten additional minutes for Stiles & Lydia to return to the Jeep after they got back.

Surprise, surprise, they'd later learned that Stiles hadn't been talking to Danny, but instead searching through the boy's belongings & ended up stealing (Stiles had called it borrowing,) one of his school papers. Reading it had revealed it was a research proposal for Mr. Harris' physics class, focused on telluric currents.

Rachel did not know what telluric currents were. That was one of the many reasons physics was not a class she chose to partake in. Stiles had explained to her that they were geomagnetic fields flowing through the earth, but that had only worsened the reflector's confusion. She only retained knowledge of the things she needed to know— those things being that Danny was mapping the telluric currents that run through Beacon Hills, and that is supposedly why he was a target.

Scott had found out some additional information from Allison as well, who'd accompanied him when he reunited with his friends back at the animal clinic. Chris Argent had bee mapping the sacrifices, where they'd been taken & where the bodies were found. That would't have raised any red flags, if not for the disturbing amount of markings— he'd mapped sacrifices that hadn't even been found yet, let alone taken.

"Okay, so, what does this kid's homework have to do with finding Deaton?" Cora questioned, looking around at the circle of people surrounding them table.

"Because it's not just homework, okay? It's a project on geomagnetic fields. They flow through the earth. They can even be affected by lunar phases, all right? Now, look at this. This is a note from Harris on Danny's proposal." Stiles explained, holding out the paper for everyone to read.

"I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The ideas here, while innovative & thoughtful, border on pseudo-science. Not suitable for class." Lydia read aloud.

"So Harris wasn't just a sacrifice?" Rachel stated, but it sounded more like a question. She was still piecing it together, but she was fairly certain she was correct. "He knew something."

"Now check this out. Allison's dad wasn't the only one with a map, alright?" Stiles told them, unfolding the map he'd grabbed along with Danny's paper on telluric currents. "Danny had one too. Danny marked all the telluric currents, okay? Now, the weird thing about Beacon Hills is that it actually is a beacon. You wouldn't believe how much energy flowing through the earth is around this town."

"Stiles, look, they match." Scott took the papers from Stiles & began placing them over the map Danny had created, each fitting like a puzzle piece. He stared at it for a moment before moving the papers off the map & grabbed a sharpie off the table. He bit the cap off, looking over the map again before beginning to circle various locations. "Alright, there's three places, right? Where they're kidnapped, and then the place where their body was found."

"Look, that's right on the telluric current." Lydia pointed to one of the lines connecting two of the circles Scott had drawn

"So, maybe where he was sacrificed is somewhere in between."

"Let me see that." Stiles muttered, taking the sharpie from Scott's hand. He began drawing X's over some of the circles before explaining. "You said there's six more bodies to be found. Deaton's one of them. Got to be somewhere in between, right?"

Rachel was as confused as she could possibly be— how her friends were managing to piece this together was beyond her (she felt unbelievably stupid in comparison because none of what they were saying fit together for her as it did for them). She understood the basics, the mapping, but the way they were able to fill in the blanks so easily was something she couldn't seem to do today. Her head was starting to hurt & it was making comprehension a challenging task, so she remained silent as she watched Stiles continue to cross out circles. That is, until a hand caught his wrist, stopping his movements.

"Stop." Cora said, moving Stiles' hand across the map until the sharpie he was holding was just above Beacon Hills' First National Bank. "He's in the vault. He's in the same vault."

Moments after the realization had settled, Scott, Stiles & Lydia began collecting everything off the table. They folded up the maps & other loose papers, stuffing them into Stiles' backpack. Scott was the first one to head towards the door, followed by Stiles whilst Lydia & the twins stayed still. Rachel & Cora's phones both chimed with text messages at almost the exact same time. Rachel dug her phone out of her backpack, hitting the home button & illuminating the screen to show the message.

New Message
From: derek's bitch #1
plan backfired. power cut. probably gonna die.

To: derek's bitch #1
Not gonna die, we're on our way.

Rachel hit the send button, glad that heartbeats couldn't be heard via text message because she was lying. The alphas may have made it clear they wanted Derek to be the one to kill his betas, but she strongly believed they could easily be motivated to do it themselves, especially now that Ennis is dead & Derek is to blame.

"It's Boyd." Cora announced, looking up from the screen of her phone. Scott & Stiles had stopped near the doorway, their attention caught by Lydia moments earlier— Rachel had been too busy typing to pay any attention. "The plan didn't work. They cut the power."

"It's just like he said." Scott exhaled, confusing everyone. No one bothered to question him though, as time was running dangerously low. "Go. I can save Deaton myself."

"What? Scott, what about us?" Stiles called after him as Scott headed towards the exit.

"Rachel & Cora can't get there fast enough without you. Go. We can save both of them." The teen wolf hurried out the door of the clinic before Stiles could argue further; not that there was any argument. This was their best & only chance to save two people instead of one.

"Alright, let's go."

—

"Okay, what do we do?"

That was the first & only thing Stiles had asked once they found themselves in the room housing each & every power breaker in Derek's building. The four of them stood in front of countless switches, handles & buttons, and not even the genius able to provide the slightest bit of guidance regarding which would trigger the power in Derek's loft. All they knew was they needed to get it back on, as quickly as possible.

"We pull them." Cora answered him. "Pull all of them."

The four jumped to work, turning over switches & pulling handles. Various clicks emitted from them, echoing through the shady room. Rachel stopped when three quarters had been completed, leaving her friends to finish the rest as she pulled out her phone, checking for any messages. The screen lit up, showing her lock screen void of any new notifications.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Rachel muttered, tucking her phone back in her pocket as Lydia flipped the last switch. The lights in the room they were currently located in flickered on, but no one else spoke. It had worked. But Rachel still didn't feel any better. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

Rachel couldn't hear what was going on upstairs now that the power had been turned back on, her ability level still that of whatever Lydia was, but she had an undeniable feeling it wasn't good. It was a mix of fear & anxiety, a toxic combination eating away at her with each passing second— she wanted to go up & see, but at the same time she didn't. The feeling was faint, like an itch she couldn't scratch; it was enough to make her uncomfortable, and it only got worse.

It was similar to the dull ache in her skull, which had migrated to the back & found a home just behind her ear, where she'd occasionally been checking to ensure no one had hammered a nail in her head when she wasn't paying attention.

The lights above them began to flicker, before going out entirely seconds later. Without any warning, Cora bolted out of the room, tearing everyone's attention away from their small victory & onto her. The three followed her, all running for the stairs & up to floor Derek's loft was on. Cora beat them by a landslide & was already inside the loft by the time Rachel had reached it. Stiles & Lydia had fallen behind, neither used to running as much as the girl who'd been doing it since she learned to walk.

The door was open, but Rachel didn't go inside. Something was wrong. It was quiet aside from the sobs, which she found were coming from Ms. Blake (why the fuck was she here?). Isaac was beside her, not really making any effort to comfort her— Rachel expected him to say something, but he didn't. He didn't even look at her.

Rachel's gaze moved to the flooded part of the loft, where her brother & sister were. She didn't see it at first, but as she moved closer she soon began to realize what had happened. Pain instantly struck her heart like a lightning bolt, leaving the girl at a loss for words. She could hardly even breathe staring at the scene in front of her, let along think of anything to say about it.

It was like a train wreck— she didn't want to look. In that moment, her heart had become a pin cushion, and with each passing second that she continued to stare another needle was added & the pain worsened, but she couldn't tear her gaze away. She couldn't look away & then look back again to find that the scene was in fact real, and not just a horrible figment of her imagination.

Derek was on his knees, his hands dripping in crimson blood. He stared blankly, somewhat like Rachel, but colder, as if the dead blood on his hands were a reflection of how he was on the inside. Cora was on the ground in the water, tears rolling down her cheeks. She was shaking, sobbing harder than Ms. Blake.

And in her arms, was the lifeless body of Vernon Boyd.

—

UNEDITED.

yikes. i hated writing this episode, but that last little sad part went surprisingly well. next up is visionary & holy shit i have plans. i'm so excited to move towards 3b so i can write more about rachel, what she is, and how she became it. there's so much more to her that you don't know about yet. i can promise that what you've seen so far & what you know is only a fragment of everything.

also, just curious, has anyone noticed the slight difference between the two matching covers for unspoken & unbroken?