Scott

I follow the sheriff to his office. I see Scarlett wrapped in a blanket, asleep. She's been on edge since Stiles went missing last night. We're all worried. I hope he's not hurt...or worse. The sheriff sits at his desk, looking at her. "She's been here all night," he explains. "She wouldn't even eat anything. All she could worry about was Stiles."

I look at her face. Even sleeping, she looks disturbed and worried. I know her and Stiles have a bond that no one can understand, not even themselves. I'm about to pick her up when she snaps up, out of breath. "You okay?" I ask.

She looks at sheriff and at me. She grabs my wrist and pulls me out. When we are alone by the car, she explains everything. "I thought I was having a nightmare but I think I know where Stiles is. I saw the Argent house, Gerard, Erica, Boyd and an electrical box. I know they might seem like a weird combination but he has to be at the Argent house. I just need to find a way to prove it."

Scarlett

Once everyone leaves the locker room, I walk into Scott ripping the door off Stiles' locker. "We're gonna track him by scent," he says.

"So, opening it made too much sense?" I ask.

"I don't have his combination." I hold the broken door and turn to three numbers and the lock pops open. I just look at him. "That's not important."

Scott takes a shirt to smell and hands Isaac a shoe. Before they can follow this course, Derek and, much to my surprise, Peter shows up. Me and Scott confront Derek about Peter's return. Derek confronts Scott and I about our conversation with Gerard. "He threatened to kill our mom and we had to get close to him," I explain. "I would choose my mom over you in the blink of an eye."

Peter sides with us, saying that our mom is gorgeous. "Shut up," me, Scott and Derek say at the same time.

Isaac is wondering about the new guy. Scott gives him the abbreviated version. "That's Peter, Derek's uncle. A little while back he tried to kill us all and we set him on fire and Derek slashed his throat."

I nod. "That sounds about right."

Peter waves. "Hi."

"Good to know," Isaac says.

Scott wonders, "How is he alive?"

"More like why," I say, keeping my eyes on Peter.

Derek deflects the questions, saying, "Peter knows how to stop and perhaps save Jackson."

"But Jackson is dead," Isaac informs.

"Gerard forced Jackson to kill himself," Peter says.

At Hale House, Peter has hidden a laptop under the stairs. "I digitized all of the my family's assorted lore, records and reference books shortly after I recovered from my coma," Peter explains.

My mom calls. She is freaked out over Jackson being in some kind of cocoon and thinks Scott and I should have a look. Me and Scott are clueless as we, Isaac and our mom examine Jackson's cocoon. "I thought you were going to tell me. Is it bad?"

"It doesn't look good," Isaac replies.

Then Jackson twitches on the table and we all freak out a little. Me and Scott ask our mother to zip up the body bag. She gives us a look. "My twins, the big bad werewolves, expect ME to do this?" she defends.

She tries to zip up the bag but it gets stuck under his chin. Jackson gnashes with his kanima teeth. Our mother jumps back. I keep Scott pinned against me as I press myself as much against the wall as possible. "Zip, zip, zip," we say over and over again.

The bag is finally zipped and Jackson moves again inside his black confines. We send messages to Derek, telling him about Jackson's cocoon. Scott and Isaac carry Jackson in the body back through the hospital parking lot. Scott accidentally drops his head to the pavement just as Chris Argent pulls up. "I came to help you two because we have a common enemy," he says.

"Jackson?" Scott asks.

"That's not our enemy."

Gerard. I stop by to see Stiles. I knock on his door and then open it. He's asleep on his bed with papers everywhere. I notice he has a busted lip and a bruise under his eye. I find myself smiling. I gather all the papers and put them on his desk. I manage to lift him up and place him under the covers. I sit on the edge and watch him sleep for a couple seconds. I lean in and softly kiss his lips. I taste his blood and dirty copper. When I pull back, I watch his lip heal instantly. I kiss under his eye and watch the bruise fade. I tiptoe out, slowly closing his door.

The next night, at the Beacon Hills Warehouse District, me, Chris, Isaac and Scott pull up in the SUV. Isaac points out that Jackson has stopped moving. "Where's Derek?" Scott asks.

Right then, Derek comes bounding down the street in a werewolf leap/run on all fours. "Nice entrance," I say.

We move Jackson inside one of the warehouses. "Why aren't Peter and Lydia here?" Scott asks.

Derek ignores him and begins to unzip the bag. "We promised to save him," I protest.

"We're past that."

He unzips the bag and the cocoon is gone. Jackson, in half kanima form, lies still with eyes closed. "Gerard set up all of this: Jackson's self-inflicted wound and death. He put this into motion so that Jackson would become more powerful," Derek explains.

Chris disagrees saying, "If Jackson's a dog, he's turning rabid and my father would not allow a rabid dog to live."

Gerard agrees, appearing in the doorway he says that anything that dangerous, that out of control, is better off dead. Derek draws back his arm to thrust his claws into Jackson's chest but Jackson moves first, stabbing his claws into Derek's chest. One handed, he lifts Derek off his feet as he stands up. He then hurls the Alpha into the next room.

I grit my teeth and growl at the kanima. "Congratulations, McCall twins. I expected you two to bring Jackson to Derek to save him, meaning I could find the Alpha," Gerard explains.

Allison fires a bolt from her crossbow. Me and Scott duck. The bolt strikes Isaac. We rush to help Isaac and Chris fires several shots at Jackson. The bullets don't seem to hurt him but it does trigger his transformation from half to full kanima form. He whips out his tail, wraps it around Chris' gun and disarms him. Chris runs away to get into a better defensive position against the creature. He turns, armed only with a knife, and faces it. Jackson bats him away easily. Derek confronts the kanima in his wolf form. Me, Scott and Isaac also wolf out and prepare to battle. We all get some good shots in but ultimately the kanima bests us. Scott and I are thrown into the wall. Derek is clawed and partially paralyzed.

I get back up and wolf out. I run to the creature. It tries to hit me again but I jump out the way. I land a couple punches. We go at it for a couple minutes, me getting the best of the kanima. Gerard begins to get frustrated. "Paralyze her, dammit!"

It scratches the back of my neck but nothing happens. I grab a wire and jump on its back. I try choking it but I don't make much progress. Suddenly, a gun goes off and I'm shot in the back of my leg. I grit my teeth and keep a hold on the kanima. "Chris! Scott! If you have any attacks left, now's the time!"

A gun goes off again and this time I'm hit in my back, off to the left. Gerard wanted me hurt but he was considerate enough to not paralyze me by hitting my spine. I gasp and fall to the ground. The kanima picks me up by the throat and throws me all the way across the room. I tie my sweater around the wound on my leg and hold my hands down on the second one. Isaac rises to return to the fray but Allison, armed with a knife in each hand, gets in his way. She slashes him in the gut and then spins to stab both knives into his back. Isaac collapses on the floor as she withdraws the knives dripping with his blood. "Allison!" I scream.

She tries to shoot me with an arrow but I catch it in my hand and break it in half. She runs toward me with another blade. I roll out of her way and work my way to my feet. She grabs me by my leg and tries to pull me back down. She digs her thumb in my bullet wound. I yelp and fall back down. She jumps on top of me and holds a blade to my neck. I can feel the cold steel press against my skin. "Allison, think about what you're doing. You're about to kill your best friend, someone who has been with you through thick and thin."

She sighs and pulls back. I think she's about to change sides but she just heads toward Derek. The kanima disarms her and grabs her throat. "Not yet, sweetheart," Gerard tells her.

I look at Scott and we both nod. Everything was falling into place now. "He's doing what he came here to do. Gerard has cancer," Scott announces.

"We smelled it on him the night he stabbed us outside the hospital," I continue.

"Gerard's plan was to get Derek in a position where he would have to bite him in order to cure the cancer."

He threatens to have the kanima kill Allison unless Scott helps him. Scott looks like he was gonna choose Allison over Derek. He was about to stand when I grab his sleeve. "Scott please don't. It's clear he plans to kill Derek once he transforms so that he can be an Alpha."

Gerard admits as much and says if Scott helps him, he can have Allison. He mocks Derek saying he simply cannot compete with young love. Scott grabs the paralyzed Derek's head and holds his mouth open while Gerard inserts his arm. "Scott, no!" I scream, my voice cracking.

When I see our real plan go into play, I smile. The bite marks on Gerard's arm start oozing black goo just as Jackson did when Derek bit him. The old man has black goo coming out his eyes and nose now. Scott helps me to my feet. "Once we smelled the cancer, we figured out what Gerard was after," Scott explains.

"We worked with Deaton to conspire switching Gerard's pills with capsules filled with Mountain Ash powder," I continue.

The old man spews a torrent of black goo into the air and collapses to the floor. "Why didn't you two tell me?" Derek complains.

"Because you might be an Alpha..." Scott starts.

"But you're not ours," I finish.

Gerard is incensed. Still spitting black goo, he screams at the kanima to kill us all. But, once he collapses, the creature loosens its grip on Allison and she elbows it in the face. It throws her to the floor just as Stiles and Lydia come crashing through the wall in his Jeep. Stiles has his eyes closed but he manages to swerve and get a bead on the kanima, slamming into it at full speed.

The kanima is back up in seconds. He leaps to the hood of the Jeep. Lydia jumps out with Stiles following. She confronts the kanima, calling it Jackson. He draws back a clawed hand as if to strike. Stiles rushes back toward her but Scott holds him back. Lydia stands her ground and pulls out Jackson's key. The kanima stops and stares at the key. Jackson's remembering, I think to myself.

Jackson starts to transform back into his half kanima form. He takes the key from Lydia. His eyes revert to human and he takes several steps back. He spreads his arms and closes his eyes. Peter springs from the shadows and Derek from the floor. Derek plunges his claws into Jackson's abdomen while Peter gets him from behind. They lift him off the floor between them and Derek slashes up. Jackson coughs and falls to his knees. "Derek, no!" I scream, but it was too late.

Lydia rushes forward to catch him and they kneel together. He asks, "Do you still..."

She quickly says, "I do, I do still love you." She repeats this several time.

He closes his eyes and collapses on her shoulder, dead. The key drops to the floor. Tears start to swell in my eyes. Scott pulls my head into his shoulder. I hated Jackson but he didn't deserve to die. I was looking but as Lydia lays the dead boy down on the concrete the last trace of kanima scales vanish from his face is an electric blue haze. I wasn't looking but I hear a werewolf let out a deep growl. My eyes start to glow. I turn to see Jackson in wolf form. He has the heavy brow, long sideburns and sharp teeth of a werewolf. Then he is suddenly human shaped once again. He and Lydia embrace.

Stiles starts to cry. "He scratched my Jeep."

I pat him on the shoulder and smile. He looks down at my leg and at my back. "Scar, you're shot...twice!"

I scoff and nod. "Yeah and I am so glad it's over."

"Why?"

"Because I can rest."

My knees buckle and I collapse. Thankfully, Stiles catches me. "We have to get her to Deaton."

I ride in the back of Stiles' Jeep with Scott in the back with me and Derek up front. Scott carries me inside and gets me on a slab. Things are blurry and I keep going in and out of consciousness before everything goes completely black. I saved a friend and almost lost one. This life is not easy. When I wake up, I'm in bed. I slowly sit up and realize I'm in the guest room. I'm guessing Stiles slept in my bed last night. I throw the covers off my body to see my leg wrapped and a patch on my back, reaching to the front.

I look out the window to realize Scott and Stiles are already at school. I sigh and slowly stand to my feet. I shower and change clothes. When I get to school, I stop by my locker the next day for my sneakers when the same girls that have been messing with me walk by. "Scarlett, what-"

I slam my locker shut and turn to them with a smile. "Before you say anything, think about this: You hate who I am. But, I love me and so does my family. Isn't that what matters most?"

I wink and start toward outside. I go with Scott and Stiles to the lacrosse field. "I know Allison will come back to me," Scott says.

Stiles explains that his 10 year plan to make Lydia fall in love with him may now have to stretch to fifteen but the plan is definitely still in motion. "Why don't you just simply ask her out?" I ask.

Stiles laughs and tells Scott to just get in the goal and help him practice so that he can become team captain. Stiles makes a big deal out of the fact that Scott has promised no werewolf powers during their training. Scott agrees but then his eyes glow yellow as Stiles lobs the first ball toward the goal. "I said no werewolf powers!" Stiles exclaims.

I laugh and look at Scott. He was happy, and so was I...