In the game of life, Rachel was losing.

No, scratch that; she was losing a week ago. Now, at this point, she may as well be reduced to the rank of a skeleton buried six feet underground, because she was far beyond dead. Even if Derek hadn't put the pieces together yet, he would soon. The mystery of the Kanima was no longer a jigsaw puzzle, it was a five-pieced toy for one year olds, and Rachel couldn't keep the final piece hidden much longer. Eventually, they wouldn't need it; the picture would come together all on it's own, and the hidden piece would become useless.

Much like Rachel, at the moment, who'd chosen not to chase after her idiot brother, and her even more idiot friend, when they'd both chased after the Kanima. Well, Derek had bolted after it- she had a feeling Scott had only gone to ensure neither the homicidal lizard, or the alpha ended up dead. That left her with two options; helping Boyd drag two unconscious (she wished Erica was unconscious) betas back to the warehouse without being seen, or she could accompany Stiles to wherever the hell he decided to go.

Obviously, she'd chosen Stiles.

The absolute last thing Rachel wanted to do was drag Erica across town & listen to the endless array of insults directed towards none other than her. Not to mention, the fallout she'd have to face whenever Isaac woke up. She was going to avoid him for as long as (in)humanly possible. Rachel seriously didn't need to add a few broken bones to her already outrageous list of problems.

So with that in mind, she'd wordlessly climbed into the passenger seat of Stiles' jeep, mentally thanking Scott for not being present. For the first time in forever, Rachel actually got to sit in the front, rather than in the back with various wrappers & the dreaded Cheeto powder; which she was beginning to think she was allergic to. The vehicle had been parked in an empty lot, beneath a pole lamp to provide a little extra light, whilst they waited for a call from Scott in order to determine their next move.

At first, Stiles had attempted to follow him, but the teen wolf had been lost as soon as he cut through to woods. Although Rachel was still a werewolf, one of who, was fully capable of tracking his scent, she'd chosen to keep her mouth shut & let Stiles assume she'd reflected a human. Little did he know, she was growing to hate humanity with each passing day. The weakness, inability to defend/heal oneself & the simplicity of losing her overconfidence was more than enough to cause Rachel to never want to be human again.

"Do you wanna listen to the radio?" Stiles interrupted the silence, raising a brow as he proceeded to turn on the radio without an answer. The preset volume was unexpectedly loud, giving both teens a minor jump as it began blasting a song throughout the jeep.

Rachel scrunched up her nose, shaking her head as she shut off the radio, cringing at Stiles' music taste. "What the hell was that?"

"I have no clue." He admitted, scratching at the back of his neck absentmindedly. "There's some CD's in the glovebox, here."

Stiles paused for a moment, digging through the glovebox rather comedically (as in, tossing a half eaten pack of m&m's, an actual glove, and a broken pair of headphones on the floor) before pulling out what appeared to be an immensely overstuffed CD case, equipped with a piece of duct tape in order to hold it together. Rachel gave him a questioning look, only to be completely ignored as he passed her the case, adding, "Not all of them are mine, so if you find anything weird, it's probably Scott's."

The brunette nodded, picking off the tape & opening the case, flipping through the various CD's. Some she'd seen before in Derek's collection, like Metallica, AC/DC & The Beatles; all of which she didn't mind listening to, from time to time. Others, like Bastille, All Time Low & Imagine Dragons were familiar only by name. She'd probably heard one or two songs from them, likely through the stereo system of a store when she'd been moving around with her siblings after the fire.

"You're lacking electronic, but you make up for it with the killer classics." Rachel commented, continuing to flip through. "Do you have anything remotely along the lines of EDM?"

"Does Scott's old Shakira CD count?"

Rachel opened her mouth to speak, but paused as she rethought what he'd said. "Why does- y'know what, I don't even want to know. But speaking of McWeirdo, did he say anything to you before running off? Anything about Derek or Jackson.."

"Uh, no?" Stiles furrowed his brows, confusion beginning to set in. "He was saying earlier, something about Derek denying that he bit Jackson, but nothing at his house, why?"

"No reason." The reflector shrugged it off, picking a random CD & loading it into the player. "Let's just listen to some songs until Scott calls."

The spastic boy nodded, falling silent as the first track from his All Time Low CD began blaring through the speakers. As much as The Reckless & the Brave seemed appealing to her, there was no way in hell Rachel was capable of forcing her attention to remain on the music. She was drowning in her own thoughts, a deadly combination of guilt, regret & anger at no one but herself.

It all went back to her idiotic decision to give Jackson the bite. She'd relied foolishly on myth versus fact, and in turn she was paying heavily for it. As far as she dug back through her head & heart, she only found more truth in the belief that she had never intended for any of this to happen. No part of her had truly wanted to kill Jackson that night, and of course she didn't want to turn him.

She had honestly believed she was doing good, when in fact she'd thrown a match into a pool full of gasoline.

As hard as she'd tried to pin the blame on anyone but herself, (hell, she'd even tried to blame her bubbling fury on the death of her uncle) there was no one else to blame. Derek may have been at fault for anything involving Erica, Isaac or Boyd; but Jackson & the Kanima was all Rachel's fault. It may not have been her fault that the bite effected him differently than anyone else, but she'd still been the one to do it; inadvertently making her the culprit.

Though, Rachel refused to accept it. Even if she was the one to blame, for every death the Kanima had caused, she refused to take responsibility for what she'd done. She should've went to Derek the minute she knew something was wrong with Jackson, and she didn't. Rachel had passed up her opportunity to seek help, and now she had to deal with the consequences.

But that didn't mean she'd passed the opportunity to at least warn them of the impending impact. The fallout was approaching rapidly, and if Rachel wanted to try & save a life; she had to tell someone. Even if that someone was a pale, fragile human with little to no hope of preventing the disastrous future awaiting them, she had to tell someone. Rachel couldn't carry the weight of so many deaths on her shoulders. It was too heavy, and it was pushing her further into a hell she knew she'd never escape alive.

"Stiles!" Rachel yelled over the music, reaching forward & lowering the volume. The brunette hesitated for a moment, before turning the song off completely & speaking again, "Can I trust you?"

"I- uh, yeah?" Stiles muttered, looking at her with confusion. He'd noticed the look of concentration on her face over the past few minutes, and he was beginning to worry why. It was evident that she was overthinking something, the question was; what?

"There's this secret I've been keeping." She breathed, playing with her fingers nervously. "I did something. Something bad. A lot of people have gotten hurt because of me, Stiles, and it's only gonna get worse. I don't know how to say it, but I-"

The sound of a phone ringing immediately caused her to stop, as Stiles fumbled around for his cellphone. Eventually he found it & answered, hanging up a second later & starting his jeep. The spastic boy shot Rachel an unreadable look, causing the brunette to simply shake her head.

"Can you hold that thought until later? Scott found Jackson."

"No, it's fine." Rachel mumbled, lying through her teeth. It wasn't fine; and it probably never would be, but now wasn't the time to confess her sins. If she wanted even a hint of mercy in hell, confessing was far from what she needed to do. If she wanted even a chance of survival, she had to fix the damage she'd done. Although an apology couldn't restart a heart, it could gain her some allies; ones of which would be greatly valuable in the near future.

"You sure?" Stiles questioned. Even without any sort of supernatural abilities, he still knew a lie; especially when Rachel had been so worried just seconds ago. She might've had a knack for frequent mood changes & surges of anger, but she didn't go from upset to okay in under a minute.

"Yeah." She nodded, pursing her lips. "I just felt bad about leaving Boyd on his own, that's all."

"Rachel-"

"Drive, Stiles. Just drive."

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

In the short span of ten minutes, Stiles had stopped his jeep in front of what appeared to be a club of sorts, judging by it's neon advertisement sign. A line was formed at the door, beneath the bright sign titled Jungle, whilst an all to familiar figure stood in the shadow off to the side. Stiles & Rachel both walked over, recognizing Scott through the haze of darkness.

The duo stood behind him for a moment, waiting for the teen wolf to acknowledge their presence before Rachel grew annoyed & smacked his shoulder, causing him to jump back. "Holy cr-"

"What?" Rachel asked, furrowing her brows in confusion. He had supernatural senses, and she'd practically terrified him by walking up behind him. "Did you forget how to werewolf, or something?"

"Could you stop being a Hale for like, thirty seconds?" Stiles huffed, turning back to Scott. "Did you see where he went?"

Scott shook his head. "I lost him."

"You couldn't catch his scent?"

"I don't think he has one."

"Alright, any clue where he's going?" Rachel cut in, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as a cold gust of wind blew by. In hindsight, she probably should've grabbed a warmer jacket; especially whereas her supernatural senses were beginning to fade.

"To kill someone." Scott deadpanned, earning two eye-rolls in response.

"Ah, that explains the claws, and the fangs, and all that. Makes perfect sense now." Stiles remarked, whilst Scott glared at him. The spastic boy sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "What? Scott, come on. I'm a hundred & forty-seven pounds of pale skin & fragile bone, okay? Sarcasm is my only defence."

"Just help me find it." The teen wolf insisted.

"Not it." Rachel corrected firmly. She wasn't about to let them act as though there wasn't a person hidden beneath all the scales; even if it was someone she hated. He was still as human as her & Scott, even if he chose to act like a drone. "Jackson. I know you hate him, but he's still a person."

"Yeah, I- I know."

"But does he know?" Stiles inquired, biting his lip as he thought for a second. Without even naming someone, both Scott & Rachel knew he was referring to Derek, with the life or death question; did Derek know the face behind the Kanima? "Did anybody else see him back at your house?"

"I don't think so." Scott answered, thankful that they still had a bit of time before Derek opted to seek out Jackson when he was human. "He already passed Derek's test, anyway."

"Yeah, but that's just the thing." The spastic teen argued, making a valid point as he continued. "How did he pass the test?"

"I have absolutely no clue." Rachel huffed, leaning back against the stone wall. "All I know is, to me it was like pouring lemon juice on a paper-cut."

"Maybe it's like an either-or thing? I mean, Derek said a snake can't be poisoned by it's own venom, right?" Stiles informed. Scott looked moderately confused (as per the norm) & unaware of where his friend was going with the explanation, whilst Rachel seemed to be catching on quite easily. "When's the Kanima, not a Kanima?"

"When it's Jackson."

Stiles stared up at the roof for a moment, a look of distress soon forming on his face as he gestured for the two werewolves to follow his gaze. "Uh, guys? See that?"

Rachel & Scott both looked up just in time to catch a quick glance of an all too familiar reptile slithering into an opening on the roof, the everlasting agenda of murder accompanying him. In sync, both teens stated the obvious. "He's inside."

"What's he gonna do in there?" Stiles asked cluelessly, ignorant as Scott peered around the corner.

"Oh, I don't know." Rachel scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Buy a drink, maybe meet a girl who's got a thing for lizards? What the hell do you think he's gonna do, Stiles?"

"I know who he's after." Scott announced, his sights still focused on the lineup to enter the club.

"What? How? Did you smell something?" Stiles frantically questioned, whilst Rachel instead focused her senses on the cool night air surrounding her. A variety of scents invaded her senses; tequila, cheep beer, sweat & hormones were all strong, but a single one of familiarity stood out amongst the others. There was only one person she knew with that scent.

"Armani."

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

Their entry into the Jungle had been far from orthodox. Being the logical human, Stiles had attempted to find them a somewhat legal way into the building, whilst Scott had opted to break off a door handle with supernatural strength, before Rachel broke the entire door. She was growing annoyed with every passing second, ever since she'd focused her senses, she couldn't seem to un-focus them, due to her choice of power source.

It wasn't like she could reflect her brother; when he was mad, he purposely avoided her so she couldn't. Of course she could've asked her werewolf friemd, but if there was anything she hated, it was Scott's abilities. He was too in control, and always thinking of Allison; which made it hard for Rachel to control her reflector abilities, due to the fact that Allison wasn't her anchor. So, she'd chosen to keep the fading werewolf abilities she'd gotten from Isaac days ago. She knew they weren't going last much longer, and she certainly wouldn't do well in a fight, but for the time being, she was managing.

Key word being; was.

Everything was perfectly fine, up until realization hit that Rachel was the only female in the entire club. With that in mind, it didn't take a genius to figure out that the Jungle was in fact, a gay club, and Rachel Hale, the most out of place person on the face of the earth, was neither male, nor gay. At that point, she was relatively alarmed, to say the least. Even more so when an array of drag queens began to flock towards her, each intrigued by either her hair, her makeup, or her outfit. The brunette whimpered quietly, backing away as the group crowded around her & neither of her friends took notice.

"Dude, everyone in here's a dude!" Scott yelled over the pounding music, his eyes narrowing at the bright strobe lights. "I think we're in a gay club."

"Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf senses, huh, Scott?" Stiles remarked, chuckling softly as he turned to see Rachel surrounded by drag queens.

The brunette glared daggers at him, dragging a finger across her neck as if to say "I'm gonna kill you" as a few of them herded over to him. It was her turn to laugh as they began poking at his face, muttering comments about how attractive he was & questioning on whether or not he'd like to go home with them.

"I-uh, I'm sorry, I'm not-" Stiles stuttered out, hurriedly trying to come up with an excuse before blurting out, "I've got a girlfriend."

"She's one lucky lady!" One of the drag queens mused, turning back to Rachel. "What about you, sweetie? You got yourself a man?"

"Uh- yeah, actually I do." Rachel nodded, a fake smile soon spreading across her lips as she pointed at Stiles. "Him."

The queens then began muttering about young love, and a variety of other things that made Rachel want to barf. They talked amongst themselves, leaving an easy out for both teens as they hurried over to the bar with Scott. The teen wolf had already taken a seat on one of the barstools, watching from afar as both his friends approached with very different expressions.

Stiles seemed relatively pleased that so many people seemed to be finding him attractive, whilst Rachel looked a combination of terrified & homicidal. It wasn't a far cry from her usual look of murder, but the slight fear was something not seen everyday. She really didn't like being crowded.

"So.." Stiles trailed off suggestively, taking a seat next to Scott as Rachel sat beside him.

"Don't." Rachel huffed, leaning on the bar. "You're not my type."

"What? Do you even have a type?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." She informed, praying he didn't ask. In truth, she didn't exactly have a type; she just knew that her relationship with Stiles was strictly platonic, and it always would be. She couldn't lie, she did find him cute at first; but after getting to know him & his lifelong obsession with Lydia, they were better off as just friends. Rachel happened to really like their friendship, and in all truth, Stiles & Scott were the closest friends she'd ever had, and she didn't want that to change.

"Really?" Stiles raised his brows, eager to hear the lies she was about to tell. "I'd love to hear about it over a drink. Hey, bartender! Can I get three beers?"

"You think he's gonna sell you a beer? You look twelve. This is how you get a drink." Rachel smirked, tugging her shirt a bit lower & pushing up her boobs. Stiles stared at her in disbelief, only to be ignored as she leaned forward on the wooden bar.

The bartender finished pouring a drink for a customer & walked over, glancing at the trio before his gaze locked on the two boys. "ID's?"

Scott & Stiles proceeded to hand him their licenses, whilst Rachel bit the inside of her cheek, waving flirtatiously at the bartender. "I'd actually be better off with a Gin & Tonic. I don't like beer." Rachel spoke slowly, feeling like a brunette rendition of Erica. If this was what it felt like to be the popular girl, noticed by every guy in the room; Rachel didn't want it. She felt like a cheap whore, but on the bright side; she'd annoyed Stiles. It was definitely worth it.

The man simply nodded, not asking her for an ID as the boys handed over their drivers licenses, despite knowing they were both underage. The bartender handed them back, smiling as he questioned, "How about cokes, for you two?"

"Rum & coke? Sure!" Stiles hollered, a wide smile on his face before he turned back to face the still-grinning bartender. "Coke's fine, actually. I'm driving anyway."

The bartender nodded, walking off to retrieve two Cokes as Stiles turned to Rachel in bewilderment. "Did you seriously just seduce a gay guy?"

"What can I say?" She grinned proudly as the bartender returned with a tray of drinks, sliding the gin & tonic over to her. It wasn't like the alcohol would have any effect on her in her werewolf state, so no harm, no foul. In truth, she'd only done it to agitate Stiles & distract him from the previous topic. "It's a gift."

The bartender handed out the two cokes, pausing as he got to Scott. "That one's paid for."

The trio glanced across the bar to see a man hold up a beer to toast, causing Scott to turn & smile smugly at Stiles. Rachel laughed along with the teen wolf, whilst Stiles pouted as though he were a small child who'd just been grounded. "Oh, shut up."

"I didn't say anything." Scott mused, still finding humour in his best friend's annoyance.

"Yeah, well, your face did." Stiles huffed, turning his attention to the crowd in search of Danny.

Rachel did as well, but also opted to direct half of her attention to her drink as she took the lime off the side & dropped it into the clear liquid before taking a drink. As always, the familiar burn of alcohol on her throat was present for a second, but then disappeared quickly after as her supernatural abilities kicked in to prevent any form of intoxication.

The brunette let out a sigh as she took another drink, her eyes searching the crowd for Danny. Countless shirtless bodies filled the room, all dancing & drinking carelessly as strobe lights shot around. Rachel squinted her eyes as she finally managed to pick out the person of interest. She turned towards her friends, tapping lightly on Stiles' shoulder to gain back his attention. "I found Danny."

Scott, who's gaze seemed to be focused on a shadowy area of the ceiling, spoke the words they'd all been dreading. "I found Jackson."

⠀⠀⠀⠀↻

rae's type is totally cute, curly-haired, claustrophobic werewolves, she just doesn't know it yet okay this is unedited btw

this chapter made me mad, because i tried to hard to find a way to get rachel to go back to the warehouse, but i ended up rewriting it like this. i swear, the ship's gonna sail very soon. this was basically rachel finally realizing that she can't keep pushing derek & his betas away no matter what they do, because she needs them as allies. either in the next chapter, or the one after; there's gonna be cuteness & fluff (or cuteness & violence. there's a pretty fine line between they two when it comes to rachel)

i hate this episode so much, and i just want to finish it & move onto restraint (which may be one of my favourites in season two). tbh i just wanna finish season two, because 3b's my favourite, but i also have some awesome stuff planned for 3a, so yeah. long story short, i really like season 3.

as always........ comment opinions?