Battlefield

Scott steps out of the shower while I'm busy straightening my hair out. I hear a hissing sound coming from the other bedroom. We go into my mom's room to find the kanima clinging to the wall with its tail wrapped around our mother's throat, suspending her above the floor. Gerard is sitting in the room, too. Me and Scott flick out our claws but Gerard just laughs since he knows he has the upper hand. The old man says, "You haven't been answering your phones so I took a more direct approach to contact you. I want Derek and his pack."


"They're in hiding and we don't know where," Scott replies.


Gerard looks at me. "Now, you must know where your boyfriend is."


I shake my head. "If I did, I would've said so. I'd give Derek up in a second for my family." I lie. I would never be able to choose between Derek and family. They both mean a lot to me.


Gerard then explains that he plans to use the kanima to get revenge on Derek for the death of Kate then they leave. My mom is completely terrified. "I don't understand what's happening, what that thing was or even what my twins have become. Please just give Gerard whatever he wants."


"But mom..." Scott starts.


"I don't think we can."


At the vet clinic, Dr. Deaton is filling a syringe and Scott is assisting. We hear the bell from the front door and the dogs in the kennel begin to bark furiously. We enter the lobby to find Isaac standing there. "Don't worry. They did the same thing with us," I say, referring to the dogs.


He joins we in the examination room. Isaac can smell that the dog on the table is very sick and not getting better. "Scott and Scarlett have the ability as well as part of the werewolves enhanced sense of smell. Their powers can also be used on others," Deaton explains.


Deaton has Isaac lay a hand on the dog and absorb some of its pain. This transference manifests physically as a black liquid filling the veins on his hand and then diluting and dissipating as he absorbs it into his system. Isaac weeps after he realizes what he's done. "Don't worry, Isaac, we cried the first time too," I tell him.


Isaac explains to us about Boyd and Erica's plan to leave. He confesses that he's seeking out our advice because he trusts us. "I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time," Scott replies.


Isaac says he'll likely go with the other two and then lets us know that Jackson was back at lacrosse practice after the siege at the sheriff's station and would be playing in the game that night. Before the big game, I go to see Derek. On the way in, Erica and Boyd are coming out. I want to say something to them but the tears in Erica's eyes keep me silent.


I go through the door and see Derek leaning against a wall, upset. "What the hell happened?" I ask.


He huffs. "Erica and Boyd think I'm holding them back from a real teenager life."


I sigh and stand in front of him. "You tried to be the father figure in their lives but they will always be teens who have the sense to rebel."


He goes in to kiss me but I hear someone say, "Oh, get a room."


I look to see Peter standing in the doorway. Me and Derek get on guard. "What are you doing here?" I say through my teeth.


"Well, from what I heard, you need my help. It's quite a situation you got yourself in here, Derek. I mean, I'm out of commission for a few weeks and suddenly there's lizard people, geriatric psychopaths and you're cooking up werewolves out of every self-esteem deprived adolescent in town."


"What do you want?" Derek asks.


"I wanna help. You're my nephew, the only relative that I have left. You know, there's still a lot that I can teach you. Can we just talk?"


"Sure. Let's talk! Scarlett? Would you like the honors?"


I smile and nod. "Gladly."


I take a running start and kick Peter in the middle of the chest. He goes flying through the railing of the stairs. They start to fight. I have to leave when my mom texts me, asking to drive with her to school for the game. I go with my mom to the locker room looking for Scott. She makes her way through the suited team members as Coach Finstock begins his pre-game motivational speech, which is a verbatim rendering of the big speech Bill Pullman gives in Independence Day just before the pilots go off to fight the Aliens. "Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind."


My mom looks at me with a confused face. "What?"


"Mankind," he continues. "That word should have new meaning for all of us today..."


She looks to Stiles. "What the hell is he talking about?"


I laugh. He winks at me with his usual smirk. "He does this every year."


"Yeah, it's the one of the only speeches he knows, I think," I add.


"Seriously?"


"Yeah."


"We are fighting for our right to live..." the coach goes on.


"Wait... is this..."


"Yeah!" Stiles replies.


"It's the one and only speech from Independence Day," I say.


"But as the day the world declared in one voice."


"It's his favorite movie."


"We will not go quietly into the night!"


"He doesn't know any sports speeches?" my mom asks.


"I don't think he cares," Stiles and I reply.


After the speech, Gerard comes in. My mom hides behind Stiles. Gerard says he won't be happy with a win. He wants them to kill the other team. Please, no pun intended. The coach explains that Scott is benched because he is failing three classes. In the stands, Sheriff Stilinski, sitting next to me and mom. The coach blows his whistle and calls out, "McCall!"


I think he's talking about Scott but, when I look up, he's looking directly at me. I walk down to the field. "Coach?"


"I need someone to replace Greenburg and you seem like my only hope."


"Coach, you see those players? They might kill me. Use Stiles."


The coach looks back at the benched Stiles. He huffs and approaches him. "Put on your helmet and get out there. You're in for Greenburg.


"What? What happened to Greenburg?"


"Greenburg! He sucks, you suck... slightly less."


Stiles gets super excited. "I'm playing? On the field? With the team?"


"Yes! Unless you'd rather... play with yourself."


"I already did that today. Twice!"


I hold my hands up in surrender. "TMI, Stiles!"


When I get back to the stands, Gerard speaks in a voice he knows only Scott and I can here. "When the clock counts down to the end of the game, I'm going to have Jackson transform into the kanima and kill someone unless you give up Derek's whereabouts."


He specifically threatens our mother, the Sheriff and Lydia who is just arriving at the game and sits next to me. He then threatens the Coach, calling him ridiculous. Stiles gets off to a slow start getting tackled repeatedly, dropping the ball and generally looking like a clown on the field. The team is losing badly. Isaac shows up which is a surprise to Gerard.


He and Scott cook up a plan to disable their own teammates so that coach will be forced to put Scott into the game. The plan works, they disable a couple of players before Jackson takes out Isaac with a tackle and a scratch that leaves him partially paralyzed. With Isaac injured, the coach must either allow Scott to play or forfeit. He chooses the former. Me and my mom run on to the field. She's senses that something is up. "Mom, it's best to just leave. I don't want something bad to happen to you," Scott warns.


"I won't leave and you two should forget everything I said earlier while I was cowering in fear. If you can do something to help then you have to do it."


Scott looks at me and tears swelled in my eyes. My mom goes back to the bleachers. "Scott, I can't just give Derek up to the hunters."


"Scar, what choice do we have?"


"We fight against them. Derek has done so much for us and giving him up would make us traders. We practically owe him our lives."


Coach calls him onto the field. I give a quick 'goodluck' hug. I go up to the bleachers, next to my mom. Scott and Stiles both get tackled hard. As Scott is getting up, I realize that Gerard is no longer on the field. I can still hear him as the old man offers to trade Allison for information about Derek. I follow him to the locker room and see Gerard about to cut Isaac in half. Isaac gets up, using a sink as support, and smiles at us.


I see our reflection, our eyes glowing, in the mirror. Scott and I take out all the hunters but Gerard is missing. I go back out to the game and I find out Stiles is a scoring machine, putting up an additional two goals in the game's final minutes. The final score will be 10 to 9, Beacon Hills winning. He looks in the stands and sees Lydia smiling and cheering for him and Stiles has never looked happier.


Scott makes it back to the field as the clock begins to tick off the final 30 seconds. Jackson stands away from the rest of the team, claws out as the crowd erupts in celebration of the win. Then the lights go out on the field and someone screams. It is chaos as everyone runs about in the dark, terrified. I can hear my mom calling us and I make my way to her. "Someone is down on the field," she panics.


The lights come back up and we see it is Jackson who is down. Lydia, seeing him injured, runs to his side. My mom listens for a heartbeat and hears none. She pulls up his jersey to reveal deep puncture wounds to his abdomen. She makes Lydia get down to help her with CPR.


Me, Isaac and Scott notices that Jackson's hands are bloody. "He must have did this to himself," I whisper.


"But why?"


The sheriff runs on to the field and realizes that Stiles is nowhere to be seen. He yells for his son...

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