CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO:
THE TRUTH

STILES AND ELAINE QUICKLY PULLED up at the school, jumping out and making it over to Allison and Scott. They had just gotten the call about another dead body from Lydia.

"Where is she?" Elaine quickly asked.

"Over there." Allison pointed.

Elaine quickly ran over to her best friend with Stiles following close behind her. "Lydia?"

"It's the same thing―︎same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different, and ended up here." Lydia explained to the group. "And you told me to call you if there was a dead body."

"You found a dead body?" Elaine frowned.

Lydia shook her head. "Not yet."

"Not yet?' What do you mean, 'not yet?' Lydia, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body." Stiles exclaimed.

"Oh, no. I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on." Lydia pointed to him.

"How are we supposed to find the dead body? You're always the one finding the dead body!"

"Guys. . ." Scott spoke up, grabbing their attention. "I found the dead body." They turned their heads to see a police officer on the sign for the Beacon Hills school, blood covering her and the sign. Elaine placed a hand over her mouth, immediately grabbing her boyfriends hand. It was a deputy. Which meant that this situation was about to escalate a whole lot more.

It wasn't until the next morning when there were students inside of the actual school that the sheriff had started talking to people. Elaine had stayed up the entire night, no matter how much Stiles tried to comfort her to sleep. She just couldn't close her eyes without seeing it. Without seeing Heather. Or the cop. Or all of the other sacrifices. She just couldn't go to sleep with the thought that another murder was going to happen. With that being said, Elaine didn't show up to school the next morning. Instead she sat in Stiles' room all day, staring blankly ahead of her as she tried to think of something that she could do.

She was glad that she did. Because so much had happened on the one day, and she probably would've screamed. She walked up to Stiles' board, carefully messing with the red strings that ran along it and looking at everything on the board. She bit on her lip, the bodies flashing through her head. She snapped out of it when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Aidan attacked Cora." Stiles breathed.

"What? Oh my god, is she alright?" Elaine frowned.

"She says she is. But I'm taking her home." Stiles told the girl. He paused. "Hey, Allison's calling, I'll call you right back."

"Alright." Elaine answered before hanging up. There was a silence as she stood there, only for it to be interrupted by Stiles calling her again. "Stiles?"

"Change of plans." Stiles told her. "Cora and I are on the way there. We're gonna tell my dad the truth."

"What―︎Stiles is that a good idea?" Elaine frowned.

"Allison called, and said the next group of people are supposed to be Philosophers or Guardians. Possibly police officers. We have to tell him, make him believe." Stiles explained. Elaine pursed her lips for a moment, not sure if this was a good idea. Noticing her silence, Stiles called her name. "El?"

"Yeah, alright. Whatever you need."

"Thanks."

"Mhm." Elaine hummed before hanging up the phone. Not moments later everyone was in Stiles' room. Cora and Elaine sat on the bed whilst Stiles was pacing back and forth. Noah had his arms crossed over his chest as he watched his son walk back and forth.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay. . . Yes! No, okay." Stiles panicked continuing to pace.

"Stiles!" His father snapped.

"Dad, I'm sorry, okay? I'm just. . . I'm trying to. . . I'm just trying to figure out how to start, here." Stile told the man.

"Hey, I don't have this kind of time." Noah responded.

"Um. . ." Stiles took a deep breath before going right into it. "For the last year, you've had all these cases that you couldn't figure out, right? I mean, all the murders involving Kate Argent, and then Matt killing all the people that drowned him, and all these murders right now! It's like─︎It's like you've been playing a losing game."

"Stiles, the last thing I need right now is a job performance review from my own son―︎"

"I know, okay? See, but that's. . . that's just it, Dad. The―︎the reason that you're losing the game is 'cause you've never been able to see the whole board! I need to show you the whole board." Stiles was quick to place a chess board on the desk, the father and son sitting in front of one another. He took out the pieces, labeling them with different colored flags to show Noah who was what. Noah sat there for a moment, scanning the board. It was silent, Cora and Elaine exchanging several glanced with one another.

"Scott and Derek are Werewolves?" Noah asked.

"Yes." Stiles nodded.

"And Kate Argent was a Werewolf?"

"Hunter. That's―︎purple's 'Hunter.'"

"Along with Allison and her father." Cora told the man.

"Yeah." Noah nodded. "And. . . and my friend Deaton, the veterinarian, is a Kanima?" Noah frowned, looking up towards his son.

"Well, no. No, no, no, no. He's a Druid, okay?" Stiles answered. "Well, we think."

"So, who's the Kanima?" The man was quickly getting frustrated.

"Jackson."

"No, Jackson's the werewolf."

"Jackson was the Kanima first, and then Peter and Derek killed him, and he came back to life as a Werewolf. Now, he's in London."

"And Elaine's the witch?"

"Yes." Stiles nodded.

"Who's the Darack?"

"It's Darach." Stiles mumbled.

"We don't know yet." Elaine spoke up and Stiles repeated her words.

"But he was killed by Werewolves?"

"Slashed up and left for dead."

"We think." Cora was the one to speak up this time.

There was a pause before Noah asked, "Why was Jackson the Kanima?"

"'Cause sometimes, the shape that you take reflects the person that you are." Stiles explained.

"And what shape would an increasingly confused and angrier-by-the-second father take?"

"Uh, that would be more of an expression like the one you're currently wearing. . ." Stiles trailed off and Noah nodded his head.

"Yeah." Noah stood up from his seat.

"Dad―︎Dad, would you―︎I can prove it, okay? Look, she's one of them. A Werewolf!" Stiles quickly stood up.

"Stiles. Stiles! That's enough."

"Dad, can you please just hold on?" Stiles begged, making the man sigh. Stiles turned to Cora who stood up. He looked at the girl before asking, "You ready?" Cora nodded. "All right, Dad, just watch this, okay?" That's when Cora fell to the floor, passed out.

Noah ran over to the girl before looking back towards Stiles. "Call an ambulance."

━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎

They made it to the hospital and Elaine and Stiles were on the phone with Scott. "It's not guardians, it's philosophers, as in teachers. Allison and her father just found Mr. Westover."

"That makes sense. Tara, she wasn't always a cop―︎she used to teach middle school." Stiles spoke up, nodding his head.

"Then the last one's gonna be another teacher." Scott told them.

"Yeah, but there's dozens of them, Scott, and they're all headed home." Elaine told her brother with a frown.

"No. . . No, they're not. They're all going to the recital." Scott told them, making the two exchange looks before hanging up. When they saw Noah, Stiles looked at Elaine before he walked towards his father. Elaine stayed close by enough to hear the conversation but not enough to be in their business.

"What did you see the night at the bank, when Scott and Elaine were trying to save Deaton?" Stiles started.

"Nothing." Noah answered.

"Dad, you saw Scott healing himself after he tried crossing the mountain ash. . ."

"I don't know what I saw―︎"

"You saw something that you can't explain!" Stiles eagerly told the man.

"Stiles, I have seen a lot of things I can't explain in this town." Noah sternly told him. "That doesn't make 'em supernatural, and it doesn't make 'em real. They just found another body. That's real―︎and that's the lead I'm following."

"Yeah, and another teacher's going to die if you don't start listening to me―︎"

"I am listening!" Noah shouted. "I have been listening!" The people around them turned to look towards them whilst Stiles stood there in a moment of silence.

"You just don't believe me." Stiles realized. Noah pointed towards him before clenching his jaw and turning to walk away. He stopped when Stiles said his next words. "Mom would've believed me." Stiles turned and walked away and Elaine immediately grabbed his hand as they disappeared around the corner.

"I believe you." Elaine shrugged, stopping to stand in front of him. "It's a lot to take in, Stiles. Just. . . just give him some time, alright? He'll come around."

He looked at the girl before leaning down and giving her a kiss to which she gladly accepted. "I love you, Laney."

"I love you too, Stiles." She rubbed a thumb over the boys cheek, offering him a gentle smile. "Now, I believe we have a recital to get to." The two were quick to rush out of the hospital, making it back to the school and entering the auditorium and standing beside of Scott when they found the boy. Elaine looked around, noticing everyone was there except for one person.

"Hey, Scott." Elaine whispered, grabbing the boys attention. "Did Lydia show up?"

"Yeah she's right. . ." He turned to point towards Lydia only to find she was no longer there.

"Shit." Elaine muttered before the three quickly ran out. They called for the girls name, but to no avail.

"Anything?" Stiles asked, but Scott shook his head.

"She's not answering texts. What do we do?" Elaine told them, her heart starting to race. "Scott?"

"Scott?" Stiles asked this time, watching as Scott covered his ears and flell to the ground on his knees with a grunt.

"Scotty, what's happening?" Elaine quickly asked. And before Elaine knew it she was following after her brother, appearing in the room that Lydia was in with Miss Blake behind her. She didn't know how she had gotten there so fast, but she didn't have time to question it. Sheriff Stilinski was on the ground, the weapon the teacher had thrown lodged into his shoulders. Scott let out a roar, and Elaine's eyes glowed purple.

"Patere!" She shouted the Latin, sending her hands out and sending the teacher flying away from Lydia. Whilst Scott went after the woman, Elaine was quick to make it over towards Lydia. She let out a gasp of surprise though when she was grabbed onto, pausing for a split second when Stiles appeared so that she could push the desk against the door. She moved Elaine to stand in front of her and the girl's eyes started to glow again. But before she could say anything, she was flying across the room, slamming her head onto the corner of one of the desks, making her vision turn black.

Stiles tried everything he could to get through, but to no avail. Jennifer walked towards Noah who had quickly grabbed his gun, pointing it at the woman. "There was a girl. Years ago, we found her in the woods, her face and body slashed apart. That was you, wasn't it?"

"Maybe I should've started with philosophers―︎with knowledge and strategy." Jennifer started. Noah shot her in the leg, making the woman grunt, Noah watched as it healed. "Healers. . . " She grabbed onto Noah by the weapon his his shoulder, lifting him up so the gun would fall from his grasp before slamming him against the stacked desks. "Warriors. . . guardians. . ." She grabbed his sheriff's badge, bending it in her hand. "Virgins." And then she kissed him, revealing her true self to the man. Just as Stiles managed to break in, Jennifer had broke through the glass, with Noah in her grasp.

Scott stood up, blood still coating his lips whilst Stiles stood there in the room, looking around before panic immediately struck him. "Dad?"