Rachel had been silent for the past half hour since they'd gotten back to the loft.

They, being herself, Derek & Peter— all of whom had managed to survive. Derek had been out cold when Rachel & Stiles found him, but the Stilinski boy had managed to slap him awake & they escaped before law enforcement arrived. Apparently someone had called the police about all the commotion going on at the hospital, prompting the alpha pack to retreat & everyone else to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.

Everyone else, aside from Scott & his mother.

Rachel couldn't lie, she expected Scott to come back. She really did. She expected him to walk off with Deucalion, only to talk for a few minutes & then return, because with his friends is where he belonged— but as she & Stiles stood up on the roof & the seconds ticked by, she realized Scott was gone. He wasn't on the other side of the roof talking, nor was he on one of the lower floors of the hospital. He was gone, and he wasn't coming back for them. Not tonight, anyways.

After that depressing realization, Rachel & Stiles had gone to find Derek in the elevator, unconscious. Jennifer had easily gotten away from him, as she could have all along, and took Melissa McCall while they were distracted by the alphas. The Darach now had two guardians, but no one had lost hope just yet; she needed three. All her sacrifices had been in threes, which Rachel had made sure to remind Stiles of when he began to lose hope of ever seeing his father alive again.

Once they found Derek, they were out. They got out of the hospital & met up with everyone else, where they informed the Argents of what had happened to Scott's mother & what was going to happen if they all didn't leave as fast as possible. Derek & Peter took Cora home to the loft, Allison & her father left, Stiles stayed to hold off the police & Isaac.. Rachel didn't know where he went. He showed up at the loft after a little while, presumably due to realizing he had nowhere else to go.

"She's dying, isn't she?" Rachel questioned, her eyes never leaving her sister. The younger Hale twin looked as though she were barely breathing now, and Rachel could no longer ignore the pain in her chest that worsened each time Cora fell still for a few seconds. She could still feel her sister's pain, but it was shifting into more of an ache than the stabbing pain it had been earlier— it was fading, along with her life. "I can feel it."

Rachel felt tired. She wanted to sleep, but she feared if she did, she wouldn't wake up. Her hands were shaking & every so often she would shiver from the cool air seeping in through the window behind her. She had been sitting on Derek's bed next to Cora since they got there, and she had no intention of moving any time soon.

"I don't know." Derek answered the girl, despite her already knowing. He never really understood her connection with her sister, how one was able to tell when the other eas in pain— he understood how it worked & such, but he didn't truly understand the depth of it. He assumed it was more of a pack connection; Rachel could feel that one of her pack members was close to death, but it was more than that. She felt it as soon as Cora was injured, and she'd felt it ever since— not quite as bad, but she knew the full extent of the injury. She was dying.

"Are you going to do something about it?" Isaac cut in before Rachel had the chance to.

"I don't know."

"Want to figure something out?" The beta snapped. "Because while Scott and Stiles were out there trying to help people from being killed, you were in here, rolling around the sheets with the actual killer. Do you get how many people she's killed? Erica and Boyd are dead, Cora is dying, and you are doing nothing!"

It was only a matter of time before Isaac finally got angry at Derek for all that he'd done— Rachel was almost surprised it took this long. He had every right to be angry, to hate the alpha for everything. This isn't what he signed up for, this isn't what any of Derek's betas signed up for; they wanted power, and now they were more powerless than ever. Two of three were dead.

If Rachel had the chance to talk to any of them before they were bitten, this is what she would have told them about. Not just the hunters, but how becoming supernatural was far from the power trip Derek made it look like. Even if it did cure Erica's epilepsy, she would have been better off with it— at least that way, she would still be alive. And Boyd; all he wanted was friends. He was dead because Derek convinced him becoming a werewolf would make him popular. Then there was Isaac— the only one left alive. The one who only wanted the power to escape his abusive father; the one who had instead ended up watching his father die. And his friends.

People who weren't born into the supernatural weren't meant for it.

That had always been Rachel's belief; despite the few questionable choices she made in the past— they had only solidified it. If someone was born human, then they were meant to be human; not a werewolf, not a banshee, not anything. They were meant to live a normal life, believing anything remotely similar to Rachel & her family only existed on the pages of books & on screens.

Those who were not born into it, they couldn't learn it. They could try, they could acquire some skill, but they would never master the art. Those who didn't grow up being shot at, running for their lives every waking moment, could never fully adapt to it. They could do their very best, but sooner or later, they would grow tired; they always did, because they knew a life other than that. They knew a life of peace & serenity, a life where they weren't hunted & could live their lives. They believed they could have that life again, and that was a mistake that often ended their lives.

There was no peace for those in the supernatural world. There were moments of placidity when the storm would reduce to a sun shower, but it was only a matter of time before another tempest would rage through. The calm interlude was merely a form of trickery designed to separate those who were new to the supernatural, from those who knew nothing more than a constant uphill battle. Those who were new believed it was a war they could win; while the veterans knew it was one they were simply meant to endure until it one day consumed them.

"Why'd you do this to us, Derek?" Isaac asked him after a minute of silence, the alpha not even bothering to look up at him. He had no answer. He had no answers for anyone. He didn't know what he was going to do to save Cora, he didn't know what he was going to do to save Scott & Stiles' parents, and he didn't know what he was going to do about Rachel. "Was it all about the power? Were you bored? Were you lonely?"

The room fell into silence for a few more seconds until Derek replied, his voice quieter than before. "Maybe."

That was all the beta needed to hear. He turned to leave, but stopped as Derek spoke again.

"I told Cora I wouldn't leave. I'll help the others when I figure out how to help her."

"There's no time!" Isaac yelled back at him; Derek had been doing absolutely nothing to help with the Darach situation ever since it had begun, and now, their time to save Scott & Stiles' parents was almost up. There was no more time left for Derek to sit around & try to come up with a way to save everyone— he had to make a choice. "The full moon's coming. The sheriff and Melissa are gonna be dead, so I'm gonna try and help them. You can sit here and perfect the art of doing nothing."

With those final words, he stormed off, letting the door slam loudly behind him. Rachel cringed at the loud noise, her gaze lingering on the door for a few seconds before falling back down to the floor as the room engulfed in silence. She wanted to go with him, to help her friends, but she couldn't leave her sister— Isaac knew that, he had to. At least, she hoped he did.

He had gotten mad at Derek for not leaving Cora to help Scott..

Was there a possibility that he could be mad at her too? Rachel didn't think so, it seemed to be directed mostly at Derek, the world's worst alpha, but she wasn't entirely sure. She was doing exactly what Derek was doing, even if she had helped out before her sister was injured. Rachel wasn't abandoning her friends, she was staying with her sister in case they couldn't find a way to save her.

There were so many people in the house Rachel never got to say goodbye to. For the longest time, she believed her sister to be one of them. Now that she knew otherwise, Rachel would not make the mistake of leaving her ever again. She was going to stay with Cora until she knew with absolute certainty that she was going to be okay— or until she knew with absolute certainty that her friends were not going to be okay.

Then, and only then, would she force herself to get up & keep going, despite feeling every last bit of pain her sister did. Rachel felt like she was dying. More than the countless times she'd been shot, more than the time she had been captured by hunters & tortured, more than almost anything. She could feel her heart beating slower than ever; she should have been asleep at the rate it was going, but she was fighting to stay awake in case someone needed her.

The sound of footsteps on the metal spiral staircase in the corner caught Rachel's attention, her gaze flickering over to see her least favourite person in the world, Peter Hale. He always had a habit of showing up at just the right time following a conversation everyone knew he'd been listening to.

"I wouldn't take it personally." Peter shrugged, referring to what Isaac had said. "Anger is just a tool. He's using it to excuse shifting allegiance from one Alpha to another. From you to Scott."

Derek looked at him. "Scott's not an alpha."

"But he's on his way, isn't he?"

—

From: scream queen
Stiles & I think we know where she's keeping them. The nemeton. He said your brother & uncle know where it is— it's the root cellar.

To: scream queen
How's Stiles?

From: scream queen
He's okay for now.

Rachel sighed, locking her phone & leaving it on the small table next to her bed. She had gotten a text from Isaac twenty minutes ago saying Argent had been taken ("he fucking stabbed me with that stupid electric stick & left with the darach" kind of taken) and she'd been on edge ever since. Jennifer now had the three sacrifices needed— and what little time they had left to find them was rapidly ticking away.

To make matters worse for them, Peter had provided them with a potential way to save Cora— but it not only surrendered Derek's alpha status, it risked his life, leaving everyone hesitant to test it. Derek was still upstairs with Cora, meanwhile Rachel was downstairs in her room, laying patiently next to her phone waiting for a text similar to the one she had just received. She wasn't expecting it to be from Lydia, she still wasn't really all that used to the girl being in on their supernatural agenda, but she wasn't going to question it. If Lydia wanted to help, Rachel wasn't about to oppose the help of a banshee.

"Peter!" She yelled from the doorway of her room. Rachel had little to no desire to go find him, wherever he was; she could faintly smell something burning & she was hoping it was him.

Her hopes were shattered as he replied. "What?"

"Where's the nemeton? The root cellar."

"I don't know."

Rachel was out in the kitchen in under five seconds. "What the fuck do you mean you don't know? The root cellar is where Derek.. you know. You said you were there."

"I was. But after that, your mother decided that she didn't ever want us going back. She knew how dangerous it was & took the memory of its location from us." Peter shrugged, turning back to the stove where he was in the process of cooking pancakes. That explained the burning smell— being comatose for six years didn't just affect his sanity, it made him the perfect candidate for Gordon Ramsay's show Kitchen Nightmares. Because Peter was a horrible cook & this kitchen looked like a fucking nightmare as a result.

"Great." Rachel huffed, turning to go back to her room before stopping for a moment. "Do us all a favour & order a pizza before you set off the smoke detector."

With that, she was on to plan B.

—

"Do you know where the nemeton is?"

That was the first question Rachel asked as soon as she entered the animal clinic. She didn't bother with a hello, or even to ask if Deaton was there (she knew courtesy of her enhanced senses that he was)— there was no time left for conversation. Time was of the essence; there was none left for anything other than saving lives, that was the problem; they could no longer slow down & take the time to properly examine the problem, then move forward to find the easiest method to resolve it. They were moving too quickly, just as they had months ago when they'd nearly fallen into Gerard's trap.

They needed to slow down & think things through— or at least evenly distribute their focus. Rachel was thinking about her sister 89% of the time, Scott & Stiles' parents 9% & what Jennifer had said about her abilities the other 2%; Rachel understood that the people in imminent danger were priority, but she couldn't get Jennifer's words out of her head. You'll figure it out once your friends stop lying to you.

"I unfortunately do not." Deaton appeared behind the front desk, startling the brunette out of her thoughts.

"Do you know how to save my sister?"

"I'm aware of a possible way, but I'm fairly certain it's one your brother is already aware of."

Rachel sighed, running a hand through her hair. It got tangled before she managed to get far— she made a mental note to add brushing her hair to the extremely long list of things she desperately needed to do. "Do you know what I am?"

Deaton stayed silent for a minute, seeming to think more carefully before selecting an answer. "You call yourself a reflector."

"But that's not what I am." Rachel stated, though it sounded more like a question. She was hoping he would be able to confirm it— it had been implied in every possible way, but no trustworthy person had straight up told her it wasn't what she was. There was a small part of her hoping he would be able to honestly say it was, simply to put her mind at ease, but Rachel knew better than to put all her hope on that. She knew better now.

"What's led you to believe otherwise?"

"Jennifer." She answered without hesitation. "When she had Lydia & I, she was talking to me. She seemed.. confused. Like she didn't know what I was at first, and then when she realized, it became one big joke to her— she said I was a ticking time bomb. I asked her what it meant & she said I'd figure it out once my friends stopped lying to me."

"I wouldn't be so quick to believe the words of a dark druid." Deaton warned her, still choosing his words with caution. He made sure his answers were as indirect as possible while still allowing the girl to gain some sense of knowledge regarding what had been said to her. He didn't lie to her, he couldn't lie to her, but that didn't stop him from withholding enough truths to re-sink the Titanic.

It wasn't entirely his choice— for the most part, he was respecting the wishes of her mother.

"She was right about everything else. She knew what Lydia was." Rachel argued, knowing that although the woman could have lied, she wasn't. Why couldn't anyone just believe her? Was it so hard to comprehend that maybe she wasn't the supernatural abomination she'd always been assumed to be? Maybe she was something more. Something better. Something with a purpose. "I just want to know what I really am— good or bad. I can't keep going forward knowing there's more to me that I don't know about. And to talk to my friends like there's nothing wrong when I know for sure at least one of them is lying to me, I just want to know why they're hiding it. I just want the truth."

"Sometimes the truth isn't always the best thing."

"Isn't the truth supposed to set you free?"

"The truth you're looking for won't set you free, Rachel." He told her with complete honesty. It was more information than he intended to give her, and essentially a confirmation that he knew far more than he was letting on, but it was something; something he hoped would delay her efforts to continue pursuing answers. "It will destroy you."

—

UNEDITED.

yikes short chapter but if i had've included the rest of this episode it would have put this well over 6k words (i think) so i'd rather split it & be able to update tonight. so far no one has really correctly guessed the truth about rachel, but it should become easier once we move into 3b & rachel learns about her little episode the night of the full moon & what stiles isn't telling her. i really hope i've managed to avoid being predictable & at least make it somewhat surprising.