𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒚-𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘚𝘪𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴

AS CHARLOTTE AND LYDIA PULL up before the animal clinic, the former glances to her sister whose grip on the steering wheel has caused her knuckles to turn white. "Hey, you okay?" she asks in concern.

"Fine," Lydia dismisses quickly.

Charlotte sighs. "Dee, you just saw Peter for the first time since... everything. It's okay to not be fine. I know I'm still not."

The girl blows out a deep breath. "It's just going to take some time to get used to the fact he's actually alive," she says quietly.

"And there's no rush for that to happen," Charlotte reassures her softly. "He's a dick."

A small smile adorns Lydia's face. "A big one," she corrects. The blonde-haired girl manages to get a few metres along the path up to the building before she has to lean her weight against the brick wall. Charlotte breathes deeply as another wave of nausea passes over her. Even though the throbbing pain in her arm has yet to cease, she's trying not to make it a big deal. After all, they have much bigger problems than her stab wound. Lydia's eyes widen in both alarm and worry as she hurries over to her sister, laying a hand on her back. "Hey, are you okay? Do you want to go home?"

"No." Charlotte inhales another deep breath and glances to her as she shakes her head. "No, I'm okay."

The sound of an engine pulls their attention back to the parking lot, and the siblings turn just in time to see Allison and Isaac getting out of the brunette's car. As soon as she spots the pair up ahead, Allison races forward to meet Charlotte halfway, both girls embracing each other in a suffocating hug.

"I'm so sorry," they blurt out simultaneously.

Both of them laugh, however, Charlotte's smile quickly fades as she notices the tears threatening to fall in Allison's eyes. "Hey, we're going to find him," she tells her softly as she takes her hands. "Okay? We're going to find them."

Allison weakly smiles and squeezes onto her hands, but then her eyes lock onto the bandage poking out of her friend's shirt. Concern quickly fills her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Charlotte reassures swiftly. She can see the uncertainty flash across Allison's face, and she sighs. "Really, I will be. The focus right now is saving all your parents."

A throat clears and the girls turn to see Lydia and Isaac watching with matching small smirks. "Do I get a hug, too?" the boy calls out as he spreads his arms.

"Absolutely not," the blonde retorts. As Isaac places a hand over his heart in mock offence, the three girls break into giggles and head inside the animal clinic.

Once the bell dings, Stiles pokes his head around the corner of the examination room and waves them over. "Hey, how did it go?" he calls out, the question directed to the twins about their visit to the Hales.

"Shit," Lydia replies bluntly.

Stiles huffs a sigh. "Great. I take it that means they have no clue where it is?"

Charlotte nods and sends a small smile in greeting to Deaton leaning against the table. "Yep, neither of them," she confirms.

"It has to be on a telluric current, or maybe even at the axis of two, or where they all intersect... I just know it's where Derek took Paige to die," Stiles says.

"My dad and Gerard were there once," Allison quietly adds. "But Gerard said it was years ago and he couldn't remember where it was... and my dad obviously isn't here to tell us now."

"Yeah, mine either..."

With a frown on his face, Isaac questions, "Then how do we find this place?"

Charlotte's eyes narrow slightly as she glances to Deaton who has walked off into a corner of the room, his brows furrowed in concentration. "Doc?" she calls out. The rest of the group turn to the veterinarian. "You have that look on your face, you know, where you know something."

Deaton doesn't meet any of the teens watchful eyes as he speaks his words. "There might be a way," he reveals. "But it's dangerous... We're gonna need Scott."

»»———-　　———-««

On their mission to retrieve Scott, Deaton and Stiles have been gone for over half an hour so far. Most of those thirty minutes had consisted of Charlotte anxiously pacing around the animal clinic. After Alan Deaton had explained what they would have to do to not only find the Nemeton, but to save the three parents, Charlotte began to spiral. Quickly. Her three best friends, her entire life, would have to die. Despite their death only being temporary, for a few seconds, death is still death. A few moments or not, Allison, Scott, and Stiles have to die. "I don't like this," the blonde stresses in a panic. "No, scratch that, I really don't like this."

Isaac nods in agreement. "Fully with you. There has to be another option."

A sigh leaves Allison's lips. Even though the three who aren't being sacrificed are fully against the ritual, she's already made up her mind. She knows Stiles has, and she knows the second Scott is told, he would have too. "We don't have any other options," she speaks quietly.

"But you guys are going to have to die!" Charlotte exclaims. She runs a hand through her hair. "You're gonna be dead! Like, actually dead!"

Allison glances over to Lydia and the banshee subtly nods her head over to the waiting room outside. Gently taking hold of Charlotte's hand, Allison leads them out for some privacy. "Hey," she softly says. But the girl continues to gnaw on her lip, pointedly avoiding any eye contact. "Hey." Allison places a finger under Charlotte's chin and lifts her head, their eyes quickly locking. "It's going to be okay. He said only for a few seconds."

Charlotte thickly swallows down her crippling anxiety and her eyes flick across her friend's face, checking for any sign that she might be hesitant. "You're one-hundred percent sure?" she whispers.

"I'm sure," Allison answers with a nod. "We don't have a choice."

"Just promise me that if there's any part of you that wants to back out you will."

She won't back out.

"I promise."

When the bell to the side of them jingles, Charlotte breaks her gaze with the Allison and turns to find Scott in the doorway. Her eyes widen and she rushes forward to hug him. "I'm so sorry, Scotty," she murmurs.

The boy sucks in a shaky breath. "Let's just get this over with."

Charlotte nods. She turns to the veterinarian standing with Stiles. "What's the plan?" A few minutes later, bags of ice are being tipped into three large metal tubs. They're all full of a concoction of water, the ice, and mistletoe leaves. Charlotte tentatively dips a hand into the icy water and quickly retracts a split-second later, her skin red from the low temperature. "Shit, that's cold," she hisses.

Stiles grimaces. "Good to know," he mutters. 

"All right," Deaton calls out, gesturing to the three teenagers about to be sacrificed. "What did you bring?"

Stiles swallows and brushes a finger over the Sheriff's badge in his hand. "Um, I got my dad's badge. Jennifer kind of crushed, so I tried hammering it out a bit. Still doesn't look great..." He tries to return the comforting smile Charlotte sends his way.

"Well, it doesn't need to look good if it has meaning," the veterinarian tries to reassure gently. His eyes jump over to his employee. Stiles nods, continuing to trace the engravings on the badge.

"Is that an actual silver bullet?"

Allison nods at Isaac's question as she studies the bullet in between her fingers. "My dad made it," she says. "It's kind of a ceremonial thing. When one of us finishes learning all the skills to be a hunter, we forge a silver bullet as a testament to the code." A small smile graces her lips, but it's clear she's struggling to hold back her tears. A hand grabs onto her own and entwines their fingers. Allison glances over to Charlotte as a tear drops down her cheek.

"Scott?"

The boy's head lifts, and he opens his enclosed hand to reveal a watch in his palm. "My dad got my mom this watch when she first got hired at the hospital. She used to say it was the only thing in their marriage that ever worked..." Charlotte huffs a quiet laugh and Scott smiles.

"Okay, the three of you will get in. Each of us will hold you under until you're essentially... well, dead." Charlotte exhales a deep breath and her fingers nervously tap on the metal table as she listens to Deaton explain the procedure. "But it's not just someone to hold you under. It needs to be someone who can pull you back. Someone that has a strong connection to you, a kind of emotional tether." His eyes flick between the two girls standing side by side, sharing a small smile with each other. "Charlotte, you go with Allison. Lydia... you go with Stiles."

The blonde-haired banshee bites onto her lip to hide her snicker at Stiles' expression. Charlotte glances over to Allison when her hand is squeezed. She raises her eyebrows, her voice lowered to a whisper as she says, "You sure you trust me? 'Cause this is some pretty serious shit. I wouldn't even trust me."

Allison rolls her eyes in amusement. "There isn't anyone in the world that I trust more than you."

With a little hesitation, the werewolf turns his head to look at Deaton questioningly. "Uh, would you... Would you mind?" The vet smiles at him and gestures to the baths. Each of the future sacrifices share a look of determination and take a step toward the tubs filled to the brim for them.

Charlotte gives Allison a determined smile. "You got this," she tells her firmly. The brunette tries her best to return it and goosebumps erupt across her exposed skin as her foot dips into the ice.

Slowly, each get into their baths, making various quiet protests at the temperature as their lower themselves in the water. All of the teenagers tightly clutch onto their personal items.

"By the way," Stiles calls out, his teeth chattering in between each word. He turns his head to look at Scott who's in the bath beside him. "If I don't make it back and you do, you should probably know something... Your dad's in town."

If Scott hadn't already frozen from the ice-bath, he now has out of shock. Charlotte sends Stiles a stern look. "No, all of you are making it back," she scolds. "Don't be stupid."

Now neck deep in the water, Allison's hand darts out to grab onto Charlotte's resting on the tub, her fingers violently shaking from the cold. The tether's place their hands on each of their sacrifice's shoulders, ready to submerge them underneath the water. Finally, at Deaton's nod, Stiles, Scott, and Allison are pushed under. After a few moments their bodies float to the surface, still and unresponsive. The entire room is deadly silent.

Charlotte Martin stares at Allison in disbelief, tears welling in her eyes at how deathly pale the girl looks. How calm she looks. But when she glances over to her childhood best friends, she stumbles back away from the tubs with her hands covering her mouth. Once Lydia breaks through her own shock, she moves over to her sister and tightly grips onto her hand.

From the corner of the room, Isaac is the one to break the silence. "I know I don't pay much attention in maths, but didn't you say it would only be for a few seconds?"

»»———-　　———-««

Sixteen hours. Allison Argent, Scott McCall, and Stiles Stilinski have been unconscious, or dead, for sixteen hours. Charlotte had accepted food from Lydia who had briefly gone home, and tried to distract herself by trying, emphasise on 'trying,' to tutor Isaac in chemistry. She wouldn't leave. She couldn't leave. She sits in the clinic's waiting room with her head in her hands. Her heart races as her thoughts drift back to her friends in the room down the hall.

When she sees someone sit down beside her out the corner of her eye, she looks her eyes up to find Deaton. The man gently smiles at her. "How're you doing?"

"It's definitely not meant to take this long, is it?" she questions in a small voice.

He purses his lips together. "No," he finally answers. "No it's not."

Charlotte picks away at the skin around her fingernails as she whispers, "They're gonna be okay? Right?"

"To be completely honest with you, I'm not sure. This was already dangerous enough. It's going to have an effect on them. It won't be visible, but they'll feel it for the rest of their lives."

The girl tilts her head slightly to look at him. "You mean that nature always finds a way to balance everything out?"

Deaton gives her a brief smile as he nods. "Exactly," he confirms. "How serious it will be, well, only time will tell."

The sound of splashing, loud gasps, and coughing causes both of them to race into the examination room, their eyes widening at the sight of each sacrificial teenager standing up in their baths. Charlotte briefly locks eyes with both Isaac and Lydia before they turn back to the three soaking wet.

"I saw it," Scott rushes out. "I know where it is."

"We passed it. There's-there's a stump, this huge tree," Stiles breathes, carefully stepping out of his bath to send water cascading onto the floor. "Well, it's not huge anymore, it was cut down- but it's still big, though! Very big!"

Scott glances to his best friend who stands with her sister. "It was the night we were looking for the body," he adds.

Stiles nods as the two boys realise they both shared the same scenario. "Yeah, the same night you were bit by Peter."

"I was there too, in the car with my mother," Allison says. "We almost hit someone!"

Scott's eyes widen as he turns to her. "That was me. You almost hit me!" If they were in any other situation, Charlotte would be doubling over with laughter. "We can find it," he tells Deaton determinedly.

The group of four that remain dry all share a look of concern with one another. Heavy breathing is all that is heard for a few moments until Allison's gaze falls onto Charlotte who nervously fidgets with her fingers. "What?"

"You guys were out a long time," Isaac reveals hesitantly.

"How long is a long time?" Stiles asks.

Charlotte clears her throat. "Sixteen hours," she replies.

Allison, Stiles, and Scott stare at her. "We've been in the water for sixteen hours?" he asks his boss incredulously.

Alan Deaton nods grimly at their reactions. "And the full moon rises in less than four."

Everyone inside the room of the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic shares the same worried expression with one another. They don't have a lot of time left at all. The woods are span across such a large area that it could take up those exact four hours to just find the Nemeton, let alone get through Jennifer who would most likely be standing guard over her future sacrifices. They're running against a clock without knowing how much time is left before the alarm blares.

Once Allison has stepped out the bath, Charlotte is quick to hand her a cotton towel. The brunette gratefully smiles at her and tightly wraps it around her shaking body. "I-I thought you were gone for a minute," Charlotte whispers.

Allison's eyes soften as they flick across the girl's face. "I wouldn't leave you," she says. "I'd never leave you."

With a sigh, Scott's next words manage to bring the mood in the room back down. "I have to go back," he speaks up.

Charlotte's eyes snap over to him. "No," she denies firmly. "No, Scott, absolutely not."

Stiles nods in agreement, and he's quick to jump in and protest. "Agreed, you're not going back with them."

"I made a deal with Deucalion-"

Stiles glances around the room briefly before he interrupts, unable to hear the regret and guilt in Scott's voice. "Does anyone else think that sounds a lot like a deal with the devil?"

Charlotte raises her hand. "Yes!" she exclaims.

"Why does it matter, anyway?" Isaac asks.

"Because I still don't think that we can beat Jennifer without their help," Scott tells them.

Charlotte stares at him taken aback and waves a hand to get his attention. "Um, okay, hi! Common sense committee here. Let's talk this out. Can we please remember that Deucalion is a full-blown psychopath that most likely won't hesitate to kill you the minute you piss him off and he doesn't get what he wants? And that Tyler joined him?" She laughs humourlessly. "And look where he ended up! A fucking asshole! I don't want you to turn into a fucking asshole!"

Allison seems to have a similar mindset as she looks over to Deaton in disbelief. "He trusts you more than anyone. Tell him he's wrong," she pleads.

Without any hesitation, the veterinarian replies with, "I'm not so sure he is." The response elicits a couple of shared looks in surprise. It seems like not many were expecting him to side with Scott.

Charlotte throws her hands up into the air in frustration. "Oh, my God! You're both lost your damn minds!"

"Circumstances like this sometimes require that you align yourself with people you'd normally consider enemies."

"So, we're gonna trust him," Isaac starts in a deadpanned tone. "The guy that calls himself death, destroyer of worlds? We're gonna trust that guy?"

"I wouldn't trust him, no," Deaton corrects.

"Keep talking," the blonde mutters.

"But you could use him to your advantage. Deucalion may be the enemy, but he could also bet the bait."

The sound of the front door opening interrupts them, and Charlotte immediately pulls a face at the bell, the noise having become one of the most irritating sounds to her over the last day. As the veterinarian disappears around the corner to see who the visitor is, the remaining group have their full attention trying to listen. "I'm looking for Lydia and Charlotte."

Both Martins share a look at Ethan's voice and they hurry out to stand by Deaton's side. Charlotte's eyes narrow as she folds her arms across her chest. "Why?" she asks in a short tone.

"I need your help," Ethan answers.

"Why the hell would we help you?"

"Because unless we stop them, my brother, Tyler, and Kali are going to kill Derek."

»»———-　　———-««

With the twins on either side of him, Ethan walks closer to the Hale family. "We know about the lunar eclipse, so don't think Kali's going to sit around waiting for it to level the playing field. She's coming, and my brother and his egotistical friend are coming with her." Charlotte jaw clenches at the mentions of both Kali and Tyler, but her gaze softens when she spots Cora. Both girls share a small smile, each of them relieved that the other is okay.

"Good enough for me," Peter concludes. He turns to his nephew. "Derek?"

"You want me to run?" Derek retorts.

"No. I want you to stay and get slaughtered by an Alpha with a psychotic foot fetish. Of course I want you to run. Sprint, gallop, leap your way the hell out of this town!"

When Derek glances to his sister, Cora shrugs. "If you want to fight and die for something, that's fine with me. But do it for something meaningful."

"How do you know I'm gonna lose?"

Charlotte snorts and she clears her throat when Derek looks to her with a blank face. "Sorry, but you can't fight for shit," she says. "No offence."

Peter nods his head slightly in agreement. "There is that. But I bet they have a better idea." He looks pointedly to the sisters and they stare back at him. "Don't you?"

"We don't know anything," Lydia replies, keeping her eyes locked onto the man as he stalks toward both her and Charlotte.

Peter raises his eyebrows as he stops before them. "But you both feel something, don't you?"

"What do you feel?" Derek asks.

The twins share a look and Charlotte sharply inhales. Her eyes meet Derek's. "It feels like we're standing in a graveyard."

Within the next five minutes, the Hale family hurriedly leave the loft as they decide to take the word of multiple banshees as true. The sisters flinch as the alarm to the apartment blares for a few seconds, then is disarmed by Kali as she kicks the box off the concrete pillar. Lydia squeezes Charlotte's hand underneath the table as she watches the girl tense at the sight of the werewolf. "Where is he?"

Charlotte tilts her head to the side and purses her lips in thought. "Um, I vaguely recall him saying he was heading out to do some shopping."

Lydia nods. "Yeah, run a few errands, you know... the usual..." She clears her throat. "Werewolf afternoon." Charlotte's jaw clenches as she glares daggers Tyler who stands beside Aiden a few metres behind the female Alpha. He refuses to meet her stare.

Kali slowly moves closer to the three. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Someone who should have died weeks ago.

"Someone in desperate need of a pedicure," Lydia snidely remarks. "I'd be happy to give you a referral."

Kali takes another step, however, she pauses as a low growl comes from behind her. Turning around, she looks at Aiden in annoyance and a sliver of amusement. "Oh, really?" But the boy doesn't take his eyes off her, continuing to growl threateningly. "Did someone take their assignment too seriously?" she mocks. Kali nods to Tyler who grabs onto Aiden's arms to hold him back from trying anything.

As she circles him, Aiden sighs. "She's not the problem."

"Maybe the problem is where your loyalties lie," Kali snaps. "If only you could be like Ty, he's had no issues coming back here."

Lydia gulps nervously. "Oh, God," she whispers. "This is gonna get really violent, isn't it?"

Both Ethan and Charlotte share a look and nod. "Yep," the blonde confirms.

Before Kali can violently murder Aiden, the skylight above them shatters to thousands of pieces. Ethan quickly grabs the twins and pulls them to the side and out of harm's way.

Charlotte's eyes squint and her heart picks up when Jennifer Blake slowly stands up within the pile of glass. With a small smirk on her lips, the woman looks directly at the Alpha wolves. "So, who wants to go first?"

Whilst watching Jennifer toss Kali to the side with an unusual amount of power, the sisters move further away until their backs are pressed against the wall furthest away from the scene. The three male werewolves growl at the Darach, their eyes glowing crimson as they prepare to attack. Tyler's lips curl back as he snarls and races forward. With a single hand, Jennifer pushes him back, as if the wind blowing into the loft from above is on her side.

Tyler McCall flies across the loft and his head hits the cement wall with a sickening crack. Blood begins to trickle down his hair and onto his forehead as his soulless eyes stare into empty space.

Charlotte's eyes widen in horror. Everything seems to blur around her. The sounds of the twins fighting with Jennifer is muffled. All she can focus on is Tyler's limp body lying across the room. She stays still in shock. She can't move. The nausea from her stab wound and concussion suddenly come back and hit her like a tidal wave. But when Lydia gasps in shock, her attention leaves her once best friend and over to Ethan and Aiden who appear very unconscious. Charlotte protectively grabs onto Lydia's arm to stop her from rushing over to help them.

Their hands grip onto each other as they watch Kali stand back up to face Jennifer. The two women slowly creep toward each other, and after attempting a kick that Jennifer swiftly dodges, Kali pauses to stare at her. "That's right, Kali. Look at me. Look at my face. Do you know what it takes to be able to look like this? To be able to look normal?"

"I don't care," the Alpha says with a shake of her head.

"It takes power. Power like this." Jennifer closes her eyes and slowly raises her hands from her sides. As her arms raise, the shards of glass from the skylight rise with them. The pieces of glass swirl around in the air and surround her.

"I-" The alarm that had briefly flashed across Kali's face disappears. She raises her voice. "I should've-" Each piece rotates to point toward the woman like arrows. A wicked smile pulls at Jennifer's lips. Kali's expression morphs into one of fury as she stares down her former emissary. "I should have ripped your head off!"

With a scream, Jennifer throws her arms out toward Kali and the glass follows her movements. As Kali stands motionless, shards stuck all over her body, Charlotte breathes heavily. When the woman drops lifelessly to the floor, a weight lifts off her shoulders. She has to refrain herself from smiling at the sight of the corpse. But then Jennifer slowly turns around to them and she thickly swallows, the traumatic event from the other night hitting her in the form of brief flashbacks.

A low growl comes from behind, and Lydia clasps onto her sister's hand in fear as the twins stand up, fully merged together. Charlotte glances over to the door as they race toward Jennifer, determined to protect the sisters and to avenge Kali and Tyler, and she's almost tempted to make a run for it. A nauseating crack rings through the loft and Charlotte's head snaps over to the twins, her eyes widening in alarm as she watches Jennifer drop the body by their neck. Lydia's shoulders begin to shake as she's on the brink of hyperventilating, and Charlotte's grip on her hand tightens as she tries to shield her from the grim sight.

"What's the line Coach likes to say? The bigger they are...?"

With her eyes flicking between the four bodies in the loft, Charlotte stumbles back with Lydia by her side as Jennifer creeps towards them menacingly. "What do you want from us?" she asks in terror.

The Darach's smile widens at the fear radiating off the girls. "I want you to do what you do best," she replies calmly. "I want you to scream." Lydia and Charlotte glance to one another, and when they look back to Jennifer, they're greeted with her real face. The face covered in gnarly scars and bloodied teeth. And they do exactly what she had asked for.

They scream.

𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 🥳