A/N: Thank you for all your comments about the dream segment. It seemed to be deadlocked between both versions so I decided to go back and change it to a new version that held aspects from both of them and I really liked it. I hope all of you do too.

___________

Over at a small apartment there was some soft moaning coming from a closed room. There was a deep groan that was followed by some tired laughing from under a sheet spread over two bodies on a bed. The guy on top moved to lay on his back next to the blonde that he had spent a good hour having sex with.

"That was awesome," Derek Hale gasped out with a satisfied smile on his face.

Kate Argent turned and smiled at the teenage boy. "The third or fourth time?"

"All of them," he said making her giggle. The two of them took a minute to take a breather as they just stared at the ceiling. "You know...these past couple of weeks have been really good."

"Oh, I think I'm getting as much out of them as you are," she said jokingly which made Derek smile at her.

"But seriously, it's been great," he said as he let his head rest gently against the pillow. "I haven't been able to have fun with anyone for...a long time."

Kate narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?" Her tone was one of concern. "You're a great guy Derek. One would think that you would have loads of friends and things to help distract and keep you occupied."

Derek let out a heated breath. "Not really. Most of my friends have left for the summer or are working."

"Well, I'm sure that'll change when school starts up again in two weeks."

"Not likely. Some are going off to college and any that are left are going to be busy with basketball practice. I not going to be on the team for next year so I won't be seeing them as much."

"Oh, what happened?"

"My mom's not letting me play. She overreacted over a mistake I did. A small, little thing and nothing bad even really happened, but she's treating it like I did something horrible like rob the Memorial Bank and wants to punish me forever."

She sucked in some air. "Yeah, parents could be that way sometimes. You should meet my dad. He's always been on me and my brother's case but he seems to be ten times harder with me. I tend to always make him blow a gasket because I liked to do my own thing growing up. Sad to say, he hasn't mellowed with age."

That made Derek grin in amusement. "I can't see my mom mellowing then either." He then sighed. "I better get going." He then moved to pick up his boxers and put them on before moving for his pants.

Kate just let herself watch as he put his clothes on with his back to her. "What about your family? Why don't you hang out with them? Other than your mom."

"Well my little sister is only nine, so-" That made Kate nod in understanding. "And Laura's been focused on getting ready to head off for school. She leaves in a few days."

"Oh, what school is she going to exactly?" she asked interested.

"Berkeley," he told her as he reached for his shirt.

"Wow, that's a good school."

"Yeah, I know," he said with a roll of his eyes as he had heard his mom commend his sister about making it to a good school enough times already. "Where did you go?" he asked as he started to pull his shirt on.

"What do you mean?"

"College?" he said as he got his head through the hole and started to tug it down. "You're trying to be a teacher, right?"

"Right," Kate nodded. "Santa Barbara, that's where I went." She then moved to start getting her undergarments back on now that Derek was clothed again. "But I'm not really trying to be a teacher. I'm only a TA, remember? My job there was just for the summer and ends just before the school year starts."

"Oh," Derek said letting his head hang down for a bit. He had been hoping to keep seeing her through the school year, now that he had someone to talk with, and do other things. He then cleared his throat. "Hey, do you mind if I grab some water?"

She smiled widely at him. "Sure. After everything, I know you need the rehydration."

Derek smiled bashfully but also felt a hint of masculine pride as he headed for the kitchen. He went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. As he opened it, he noticed that there were some envelopes on the table. It seemed like junk mail stuff, but his eyes widened when he read the name on them.

"Kate!"

Kate had just finished getting her shirt on but was still in her undershorts as she ran into the kitchen as she heard the urgency in his voice. "What? What's wrong?"

His back was turned to her and he slowly turned around to face her with a slightly angry look in his eye. "Is this, is this true?" He held up the envelope. The one that had the recipient's name. The name Kate Argent.

She felt a bit of annoyance starting to rise up in her but she pushed it down and kept a cool head. She just sighed and kept her expression light. "Yes. It's true."

"You're...you're a hunter?!" he asked, a look of hurt coming over him.

"Derek, look, just give me a minute and I can explain."

___________

Jordan Parrish was responding to a domestic disturbance call as he pulled into the reported location. It was an empty lot of a condemned warehouse but Parrish couldn't see anyone, not even another car. He stopped and made his way outside, turning on his flashlight and started to look around. He heard a small sound that sounded like metal rattling and he moved to check it out. He moved to the corner of the building where he heard the sound and flashed his light on the ground to find just a can lying there, slowly rolling, as if it had been thrown recently. Just then he heard movement behind him and turned just in time to see a nightstick come at him.

He was slowly starting to come to and found himself sitting back in his car. His head was also stinging and there was a dried spot of blood at the side of his hairline. He also dimly heard water outside and thought that it was raining. Jordan raised his head and found that his wrists were tied to the steering wheel. He tried to pull himself free but he couldn't get hands free. He was trapped. He then heard more water but his heart dropped when the smell started to hit him. The smell of gasoline.

"Hey!" he cried out before he spotted the one pouring it all over his car. "Hey! What are you doing? Listen, I'm a deputy with the Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department!"

But the attacker moved to look through the open passenger side window. "Damn, I was hoping you'd be out longer." It was Deputy Haigh. After failing to catch Stilinski's boy alone, he decided to go for Parrish but knew that he couldn't just be on wait again. He put in a call for a disturbance in Parrish's patrol area to get him alone in a place where he knew no one would be and lied in wait. He was happy to see that his plan worked this time around.

"Haigh?!" Parrish cried out. He saw the gas can in his hand and saw him move to continue pouring it on his car. "What the hell are you doing?"

"You're a good guy Parrish. But the list says you're worth five million dollars."

Jordan's heart froze. There was only one list he could be referring to. "What? I don't know what you're talking about!" he cried, trying to play dumb. But Haigh just kept on pouring gas. "Hey, listen! I barely make 40 thousand dollars a year!"

But Haigh just tilted his head at him. "I only make 36." And with that he savagely threw the last of the gasoline straight at him.

Parrish screamed as he became drenched in the stuff. "Please, just stop!" Haigh did stop, but only because his can was now empty. "You don't have to do this. Listen, if you're having money problems-"

"You're worth five million dead Parrish. Sounds like you got the problem. Just like the Sheriff's boy. He's worth ten million dead. I wanted to actually get him first but he kept having his fellow brats around with him." That made Parrish's eyes widen in shock. "Yeah, I know you have a soft spot for that little bastard and his friends. Hey, if it's any consolation, I'll try to make it be faster for the kid than it was for you."

"No, wait! You can't do this!" he cried out at him. "You're just going to stand there? You're just going to listen to a fellow deputy burn to death?!"

Haigh just reached for his pocket and pulled out some earphones and started to stick them in his ear. Parrish tried harder to pull himself free but the twist ties were not budging at all. After turning on some music from his phone, Haigh then reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter. He lit it up and then threw it into the car. Immediately, it lit up in flames. Parrish cried out as he became surrounded in the inferno until he was completely cut out from seeing the outside. All he could see was flames. Just as Haigh could see no sign of him through the flames.

_____________

Stiles and Lydia found his father at the station as he was getting a drink of water from the dispenser.

"Dad, we have to talk to you for a sec," said Stiles.

"Oh," the Sheriff said when they stood side by side to face him. "Now you want to talk?" he said a little short to him.

"Dad?" His dad seemed angry and annoyed about something.

But the Sheriff narrowed eyes fell when he say that his son and Lydia were nervous. "Uh oh, by now I know those expressions. I'm about to hear something crazy, terrifying or impossible, aren't I?"

"Possibly all three," Stiles shrugged to him.

The front door then opened and Deputy Haigh walked into the station. He gave the Sheriff and the two kids a small look as he headed over to his desk. He needed to access the Deadpool and place in the confirmed kill so he could collect the reward. As he sat down, Stiles' nose crinkled from across the room. He picked a hint of gasoline and burnt smoke in the air and it made his nostrils itch. He started taking deeper sniffs and started to scan the room, trying to find where it was coming from and Noah narrowed his eyes at his son's behavior.

"Stiles, what is it son?" he asked him.

"Do you guys smell something?" he asked them.

"Smell what?" Lydia asked him.

"Uh, nothing. Forget it." Stiles shook his head. Gasoline and smoke weren't exactly subtle smells. If his dad and Lydia couldn't smell it then it probably wasn't a concern. Maybe he was picking up traces of a deputy coming back from filling up their car at a gas station and someone who had just smoked.

His father shrugged and moved to get them back on topic. "So, what did you come here to tell me?"

"It's about my grandmother," said Lydia. "Lorraine Martin."

"Lorraine Martin...yeah, didn't she die about eight or nine odd years ago?"

"That's the thing," Stiles started.

"We think she might be still be alive," Lydia finished.

Before they knew it, Stiles and Lydia were being herded into the Sheriff's office with him right behind him with a tired look on his face.

"It's not just that she might still be alive," Stiles said as soon as all three were inside.

"It's that she would've had to fake her death," said Lydia.

"Your grandmother, Lorraine Martin, faked her death?" Noah asked skeptically.

Stiles nodded. "Definitely."

"Maybe," Lydia quickly put in.

"More than likely, yes," Stiles shrugged but still nodded.

"Yeah, crazy, impossible and terrifying all in one," his dad sighed. "And I'm guessing you have a story to back this up?"

Lydia tensed a bit. "She...might be helping the Benefactor."

"Or is the Benefactor," Stiles put in.

Now it was Noah's turn to tense up. He knew that the Benefactor was no joke but serious business. This was the person that wanted to kill his son and his supernatural friends. "That sounds like a story worth hearing." He then moved to close the door so no one could overhear them. "Where did she supposedly die?" he asked turning over to Lydia.

"Eichen House," she answered.

Noah deflated as he shared a silent look with his son. That place still was a sore spot for them. And still affecting them as there was still the great bill from Stiles' time there that was still unpaid.

"Okay, what do you need?" he asked them.

"I need to go there," Lydia told them. "Find out where she was and what happened while she was there."

"Do you even know where to start?" Noah asked her.

Lydia narrowed her eyes and nodded after a second. "Brunski. When I went there with Parrish to see Meredith, he seemed to recognize my name. He must've known her."

"Brunski, of course," Stiles mumbled as he rolled his eyes. Of all the orderlies, it would have to be him that might have some clues for them. That was just their luck. "But I don't think he's going to be in the mood to be doing us any favors."

"Parrish," Lydia told them. "He can help. He did it before."

Over at his desk, Haigh was going through the final bits of accessing the Deadpool before he was in. He took a moment to look over at the Sheriff's office where he saw Stilinski's boy in there with him and the Martin girl. He was marked and soon he would make a plan to get him alone too. After that, he would have triple the money he got tonight. He looked back and requested to check on the status of his wire transfer.

The Sheriff opened his door and looked out. "Anyone seen Parrish?" he asked. He then looked over and saw that Haigh was the only one there. "Haigh?"

He shook his head. "Haven't seen him."

The Sheriff nodded and closed the door to go back to the kids. "Guess we'll have to wait," he told them.

"Dad?" Stiles said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

Stiles stepped over to face the window and set his sight on the deputy. "Haigh, he just lied to you."

"What?"

Stiles narrowed his eyes as he kept looking at him. "Yeah, I was listening out when you asked if he'd seen Parrish. His heart jumped right when he answered you."

Now Noah's eyes narrowed before he moved to open the door again. But when he did, Stiles caught a new smell. A stronger smell, of something burning.

Back at Haigh's desk, he was waiting for the Benefactor's response when the Sheriff's door opened again.

"Haigh, is there something wrong?" Noah asked him.

Haigh shrugged and tried not to flinch at the serious tone that the man was speaking to him with. "Wrong sir? What do you mean?" But then he saw movement at the corner of his eye and turned. Entering the room was Parrish, blackened from head to toe, but alive. 

"Holy," Haigh gasped before he went for his gun but Parrish moved for him and grabbed his hand and pushed him back into the opposite wall.

"Parrish, Haigh, stop!" the Sheriff cried at them. Stiles moved to stand beside him as he watched the two of them fight.

Haigh tried to maneuver his hand to point the gun at Parrish but he let out two shots into the air.

Stiles looked back at Lydia. "Get down!"

"Hey, hey!" Noah screamed at them as he pulled out his own gun.

"You're dead," Haigh grunted out.

Parrish then threw him to the ground and moved to pound on him. Lydia whimpered as she looked over at the sight of Parrish wearing only shorts as ash covered his whole body, savagely punching and beating Deputy Haigh.

Stiles, in practically slow motion, saw Haigh's hand with the gun moving down and was pointing in his father's direction. He knew what was inevitably going to happen. "No!" he said knocking into him just as the shot rang out. His father had been thrust out of the way as Stiles then felt the burning sting as the bullet pierced his left shoulder and he fell to the ground.

"Stiles!" Noah cried as he saw Stiles' sleeve now sporting a growing red spot and threw himself over to him.

He helped him sit up and they watched as Parrish slammed Haigh's hand down and force him to let go and lose the gun.

"But you're dead," Haigh cried.

Parrish didn't respond, with words. He just moved and made punch after punch at Haigh's face. He didn't stop until Haigh wasn't moving anymore. He then stood up, back to his feet.

"Parrish!" Lydia yelled out causing him to turn to look in their direction.

Stiles grit his teeth as he thought it meant that Parrish might move on them next. He got to his feet against his father's cries and attempts to keep him down and moved to face Parrish. Parrish looked at him, breathless, and even a little scared. He seemed to be trying to calm himself down and get back in check. Then there was a soft peeping close by. Stiles looked and saw a familiar looking screen on Haigh's computer and his eyes widened at the message displayed on the bottom. KILL NOT CONFIRMED. He remembered him and Lydia showing Parrish the Deadpool, which had his name on it. Suddenly, Stiles looked down at Haigh and he caught the same lingering scent of gasoline and smoke that he noticed before. It had been coming from Haigh and he thought back to the lie he had told his father and the fight the two just had. Suddenly, Parrish's burned and ash covered appearance made scary but complete sense.

____________

Liam sitting in a corner of his room, as he thrust his hand down and exposed the claws at the end of them. His fingers felt hot and the warmth was going through him and his heartbeat went up a beat but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he opened them again and calmly stared at them. After a moment, he watched as they started to shrink and went back to plain fingernails.

There was then a knock on the door that nearly made him jump up from the chair. "Liam?" he heard from the other side of it. It was his stepfather.

Liam looked at his vanity mirror to check that nothing was out of place on his face or hands. He seemed clean. "Come in," he told him. His stepdad opened the door and Liam saw he was dressed in everything but his white coat. "You heading to the hospital?"

"Yeah, but I just wanted to see and talk to you a bit before I headed out."

"About what?"

"You. Your mom says that you slept at a friend's house last night."

Liam nodded. "Yeah. It's not the first time I've slept over at a friend's."

"But I hear this friend wasn't Mason. It was the Sheriff's boy. And, from what Melissa McCall tells me at work, you've been hanging around her son Scott too."

"Is that bad?"

His stepdad quickly shook his head. "No, no Liam, I'm just surprised. I mean, last I knew you didn't like those two because they sent you to the hospital."

Liam ducked his head a bit. "Yeah, I admit I didn't really like them at first. Actually, punched and kicked them," he said laughing at the memory of escaping from Scott's house when they kidnapped him. His stepdad raised his eyes at him. "But, Scott is actually a real good guy. He might be kind of annoying but he's always trying to help people. His mom is really nice too."

"That I agree with," his stepdad nodded.

"And Stiles...he's crazy." That was the only word that could fully sum up Stiles. "But it's a good kind of crazy. And he's been helping to teach me some things."

"What things?"

"Oh, just some stuff to help out the team. His dad actually helped him to show me something new today. And their other friends, I'm starting to like them too."

"Really? Well, it sounds like you found yourself some good new friends. Especially since I know that what happened with your other two friends couldn't have been easy."

Liam resisted the urge to shiver at the reminder of Garrett and Violet. "No, it wasn't but this is making it a lot better."

"Well, I'm really happy for you then Liam. Sounds like moving here was a better decision then we thought after all." Liam smiled wider at him as he nodded. "Okay, well I think it's high time you hit the hay. School's opening back up from that quarantine mess and you don't want to be half-asleep for it. Especially when they're having that bonfire tomorrow night."

"Sure," Liam nodded and watched as he was about to leave the room. "Uh, hey dad," he said stopping him.

"Yeah."

"Thank you," he gently said to him.

"For what?"

"Everything," Liam answered.

His stepdad just smiled and then moved to switch off the lights as he closed the door. Liam let out a deep breath and moved to snuggle up under his bed covers. He let his arm rest on his forehead as his mind went back to early that day.

He was sitting in the Stilinski's living room as Stiles tried to help him find his anchor. The Sheriff was also there and was sitting and watching them.

"I still don't get what an anchor is," Liam said to him.

"It's something that helps keep you grounded. Something that you focus on to help keep or give you back control. But it's different for everyone."

"How do we find mine?" he asked him.

"I don't really know. It's different for everyone," Stiles admitted. Liam deflated at that.

But Stiles' dad looked from him to his son. "How did you find yours son?" the Sheriff asked. "Maybe telling him how you found yours will help?"

Stiles leaned back into his chair. "Uh...well, I remember that I was feeling angry, scared and overwhelmed all at once and could feel myself turning. I ran into the bathroom and was gripping at my sink hard to try and keep calm but it wasn't working. Then, you showed up dad. I was so scared that I would do something to you, especially when you came in. But then, you put your hand on me, and I started to calm down and stopped changing."

Liam's face lightened as he looked at the two Stilinski's sharing a look. "Your anchor is your dad?"

"My dad, Scott, Malia, Lydia. All my friends. They're all my anchors. But my dad was my first." Stiles then froze up. "Okay, that last part didn't come out right." His dad rolled his eyes amusingly at him.

But Liam narrowed his eyes in thought. "So, a person? Those are anchors?"

"They can be. Pain also helps keep you human but those don't turn out to always work so well. Is there a person that you can easily think about?"

"My stepdad. But, how do I use him if he's not always with me."

"A memory of him should work too. I remember a time that I got so angry at a guy, I just wanted to claw his face off and almost did. But then, I thought of me and my dad arguing about curly fries earlier and I stayed in control." That made both Stilinski's chuckle under their breath.

Liam only felt more confused. "Curly fries? I don't get it. How did that give you control?"

"It was a moment between me and my dad." Stiles calmly explained. "It means something to us."

"Do you have a memory like that between you and your stepdad Liam?" the Sheriff asked him. "A time that you and he did something. Or maybe told and taught you something that means alot to you?"

And Liam did have one. The first time that his stepdad shared and taught him his favorite slogan. Play smart, not hard. With it, he was able to ground himself and shift his wolf features at will without him flying out of control though it was still a little shaky but it was a lot more than he had before. Maybe in a little while, he might be as together as Scott and the others were. Him, Stiles, Lydia, Malia and Kira; they all seemed to have a good handle on things. Even though they were all really high on the Deadpool, they still were so strong. He let himself smile as he moved to settle and get to sleep.

But he then heard a buzzing. It was coming from his printer. It had turned on and was printing something. He looked over and saw that it was printing page after page. He reached for one and saw that it was a printout of the Deadpool. However, it was different from how he remembered. For one, there were names crossed out. Names from people that he knew were now dead. The list was updating itself. And the printer was printing them out one after the other. Non-stop. He moved to hit the off button but the printer just kept going anyway. He then dropped to pull the plug out of the wall to finally get it to stop. He went and checked the lists, to see just how many people were left, and his eyes widened when he looked over at his name. It was different. It changed, and after going through every name, he saw that it wasn't the only one to.

___________

After getting him cleaned, and put in some new clothes, Stiles, Lydia and his father went and took Parrish over to Derek's loft where they met with him and Scott after they gave him a call. Parrish told them what had happened. How Haigh had jumped him and trapped him in his squad car before dumping gasoline everywhere and lighting him on fire. He was surrounded in flames but the next thing he knew, he had pushed his door off its hinges and was walking out of his burning car.

Derek was looking at his hands that seemed to have no burn marks or blemishes of any kind. "You say that he covered you in gasoline?" Derek asked him and Parrish nodded.

"He still has hair and nails, right?" Lydia asked him. "The parts of the body that are essentially dead."

Derek nodded. "They should be gone."

"I was set on fire," Parrish cried out. "All of me should be gone."

"Not if you're like us," Scott told him.

"Like you?" he asked confused.

But Stiles shook his head. "No, we're not fireproof Scott. Remember Peter? He had been burned and it took years for him to heal but when Parrish came to the station, everything but him was burned."

Lydia nodded. "The only damage the fire did was burn away his clothes and leave him covered in ash." If she hadn't been terrified at the time, she actually would've been a little appreciative of that fact.

"Stiles is right," said Derek. "I don't think he's like us."

"Then what is he?" Lydia asked them.

"Sorry, but I have no idea," Derek told them.

"But you knew about Jackson and Kira," Scott pointed out.

Derek straightened up. "Uh, this is a little out of my experience. There might be something in the bestiary, did you try Argent?"

"I don't know where he is," Scott told him.

"Okay, what's a bestiary?" Parrish cut in before he shook his head. "Actually, no, that's not my first question. Just tell me one thing, are all of you like Lydia? Are you all psychic?"

The group was taken aback with shock or some amusement.

"Psychic?" Derek repeated like it was a joke.

But Parrish nodded with a serious look on his face. "Yeah, Lydia told me that she can feel when someone's dead or going to die. Can you all do that too?"

"Not exactly," Scott mumbled.

Parrish shook his head before looking over at Stiles and saw the red spot of dried blood smeared on his shirt. "Sheriff, wait, why haven't you taken your son to the hospital? I mean, wasn't he shot back at the station? Speaking of which, how are you not in pain or still bleeding right now?" he asked the boy.

Noah ducked his head awkwardly before looking at his son who was scratching his head. Scott and Derek were looking at them tensely while Lydia was staring at her shoes.

"Well, because it's long gone by now," Stiles mumbled.

"What do you mean gone?" Parrish asked him.

Stiles then moved to pull his shirt off and revealed that his shoulder was fine. There was no marks or anything that would suggest that anything even happened.

Parrish's eyes widened. "Okay, what is going on?"

"My son is different," the Sheriff told him as Stiles pulled his shirt back on.

"Different? And you sir? Are you different?" Parrish asked him.

"No," he sighed off. "It's just my son." He then pointing over to Scott and Derek. "And these two."

Scott moved to look at Parrish while Derek moved to look to the side, avoiding looking at anyone. Parrish was meeting Scott's gaze. "And, just what are all of you?"

Scott then closed his eyes for a moment before he revealed his glowing red eyes to him. He then looked over at Stiles who shut his own eyes for a moment before revealing his glowing blue eyes. He then turned to look at Derek but he was still looking away from everyone.

They then settled themselves in as Scott, Stiles and Lydia took turns explaining the supernatural world to him and the different creatures that they have encountered. Derek and the Sheriff were off to the side, speaking alone.

"That deputy being supernatural, I have to say, I wasn't expecting that."

Noah nodded at Derek's statement. He was quite thrown himself. "You know, I didn't think anything of it, but nearly two months ago I asked Parrish why he came to this town. He said that he had felt drawn here. Isn't that what the Nemeton is supposed to do? Draw things here?"

"Yeah," he said as he looked over at the deputy just sitting there and listening to what Scott, Stiles and Lydia were saying to him. "You didn't notice anything off about him? Anything that might suggest that he wasn't completely human? Ever?"

Noah shrugged. "No. He seemed like a completely normal guy to me." He folded his arms and shrugged. "But then again, I didn't even have a clue that my own son and his best friend were werewolves for over half a year so what do I know."

Derek shook his head. "I wouldn't feel bad about that, it looks like Parrish didn't even know about himself either."

Parrish had just sat silently as he tried to absorb as much of what he was being told as possible. The Sheriff's boy, his best friend and Derek Hale were all Werewolves. Real werewolves. And apparently, Lydia wasn't really a psychic. She was a Banshee. And apparently there were cannibalistic Wendigos and electrical Kitsunes too. But there was something that he still didn't quite get.

"Uh, what's a Kanima?"

That made the three of them start looking at each other.

"Uh, we'll get back to that later," Scott said as he moved to stand beside him. "Right now, all you need to know is that everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the Deadpool."

"But I don't even know what I am," he told them.

Derek shrugged. "Uh, I'm pretty sure they don't care."

"Just how many professional assassins are there?" he asked them.

Lydia shook his head. "We're starting to lose count."

Stiles nodded his head down as he crossed his arms over his chest. "And now we have professional killers moonlighting as deputies in my dad's police station."

But Derek shook his head. "No, that can't be. He was there before all this even started, right?" He remembered Haigh from when he had been turned back to a teen and that had been before the bearer bonds had been stolen.

"Yeah," Scott muttered. "What if it isn't just professionals anymore?"

"Haigh, I don't think he's ever done anything like this before. I think he was just taking a chance."

"But if he's not a professional then how did he know about the Deadpool?" asked Stiles.

"Maybe from this." The Sheriff then went and pulled out a piece of folded paper. "I pulled this from Haigh when I threw him into the holding cells. It's a part of the list, the one that has your name and Parrish on it. And both of you are circled," he stated grimly.

Parrish moved to take the paper from him. "Yeah, just before he lit me on fire, Haigh told me that he actually wanted to go for Stiles first because he was worth more but couldn't get you alone."

Stiles tilted his head a bit in thought. "Then it must've been him I saw last night."

"What do you mean?" Scott asked him.

"After the hospital, I was driving Liam home but I saw that someone was following me. But they were kind of easy for me to notice, not exactly professional like. I didn't want to risk someone finding out where Liam lived and leave him in danger and alone so I brought him to my house. But it sounds like he actually protected me instead." Stiles didn't see that his father was making a shocked face at him as he was distracted in thought. "At the time, I didn't think anything of it."

Derek let out a frustrated huff from his nose. "Then that means that anyone that gets their hands on this Deadpool can also try and take a chance, like the deputy."

"But how did Haigh even get it? How easy is it to get this thing now?" Parrish asked them.

Everyone stiffened. That was a very good but scary question.

"We have to stop the Benefactor," Scott told them. "The only reason that anyone is trying to kill us is because they want to be paid. If we can find him, we can stop the Deadpool and they'll all go away."

"But isn't this Benefactor a ghost?" asked Parrish. "How do we even start to find someone like that?"

"Actually, we have a pretty good idea where to start," Stiles told them. "We found something. Well, Lydia found something."

"What?" asked Derek.

"Meredith," she told them.

"The girl from Eichen House?" asked Parrish. Lydia nodded. "She was on the list too, wasn't she? Was she something too?"

Stiles nodded. "A Banshee, just like Lydia."

Everyone then looked over at her as Lydia began pacing around the loft. "Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once. But I think once was enough."

"How did your grandmother know her?" Derek asked her.

"She didn't, she found her. Because of another woman named Maddy, a woman she loved." She then moved to hand a photo of her grandmother and Maddy for Scott to look at. "I never met her but I saw her name everywhere. She used to be part of a yacht racing team. There are plaques and trophies from all the galas she won."

"How'd she die?' asked Parrish.

"How's not the story, it's what happened right before. My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM. She was there on a weekend, catching up on work and she started hearing this...sound. Like rain, but when she looked out the window, all she saw was blue sky."

"But she kept hearing the rain," Scott said catching on to what that meant.

"And it just kept getting louder. Rain, thunder cracking, like gunshots in her head. So loud...she finally just screamed.

"Like a Banshee," said Derek.

"Like you," Noah breathed.

She looked at him for a moment before turning away to continue the story. "She called Maddy who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. Maddy said that the sun was shining there too so Lorraine didn't say anything."

"There was an accident," Parrish realized what had happened. Lorraine had foreseen a death out on the lake. Maddy's.

"It took them four days to find Maddy's body. And it took decades to figure out how Lorraine knew. She started with a pair of psychologists. A PHD in their name made it more scientific," she slurred. "They built the study in the lake house according to every pseudo-scientific theory they could find. None of it worked. Then she started getting into things like extreme occult, mediums and psychics. All of them were failures, until Meredith. They found her at Eichen House. This fragile girl that didn't understand the things she heard. They brought her to the study, and they almost killed her." The other five in the room had shock written clear on their faces for Lydia to pick up. Tears started falling from her eyes. "She was hospitalized for over a year. She, never really recovered. My grandmother drove her insane...and I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help."

"But what does this have to do with the Benefactor?" Scott asked her.

Lydia went and brought out the paper that she had found at the lake house and put it on the table for all of them to look at. "My grandmother created the code for the Deadpool. She might be the banshee that put the names out in the first place. She left me this message in the same code."

"But she didn't leave a cypher key, did she?" asked Scott. Lydia shook her head.

"Can you crack it?" Parrish asked her.

"Maybe," she sighed. "But not without help."

She looked over at Stiles and he nodded. "Yeah, definitely. You can stay over and we could work on it together. But, we might need to stay home from school," he said turning slowly over to his father.

He sighed. "Well, I can't speak for Lydia's mom, but if it gets us to the Benefactor, then yeah. Go for it." He then turned over to Derek and held his hand to him. "Thank you for your help."

Derek reached over and shook it. "Of course."

Stiles, Lydia, Parrish and the Sheriff then all moved to leave the loft but Scott stayed behind as he tried to work everything he just heard into his head. Why would Lydia's grandmother be involved in creating a hitlist of supernaturals that would include her own granddaughter. It didn't make any sense to him. Not to mention that now it wasn't just professional assassins that were coming after them anymore. He then remembered the words that were spoken to him when he was in the morgue. 'They are coming and will keep coming'. Someone else on that list, close to them, could've been killed tonight and Stiles was being stalked, again, and was shot. By a deputy. A normal deputy that was supposed to be protecting them, not trying to kill them. Scott's heart suddenly felt heavier from it all.

Derek noticed how quiet Scott seemed all of a sudden. "Something wrong?"

Scott scoffed. "A lot of things," he muttered. He started to pace over to the window when he noticed a gun lying on Derek's bed. He moved to pick it up and give it a look.

"Careful with that," Derek said to him as he came over.

"I thought you didn't like guns?" Derek just silently reached his hand for it. "Does this have something to do with your eyes?"

He nodded. "My eyes, my strength, my healing...all of it."

Scott's eyes widened. "Gone?"

Derek nodded again. "Whatever Kate did to me, it's still happening."

"Uh, if the Deadpool was really made by a banshee, then there's something you should know about. Your name broke the third list. It was a Cypher Key."

"And the other two keys were Allison and Aiden." Derek realized what this meant.

"I don't want to make you nervous but it kind of feels like there might be a pattern there, doesn't it? Allison. Aiden. You."

Derek could see that Scott knew it to. "Names picked by a banshee."

"It could mean that...you're in danger."

Scott was in denial and Derek moved to set him straight. "Scott, banshees don't predict danger. They predict death."

____________

Stiles, Lydia, his father and Parrish walked out of the building and headed over for the Sheriff's van and the jeep.

"Uh, listen kids," Noah said stopping the four of them. "Parrish and I need to head back to the station. We kind of have to handle the whole situation with Haigh and smooth all this mess over so I might not be back at the house until morning. Please be careful tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Stiles and Lydia said together.

"Good, uh Stiles, do you mind if I talk to you alone for a moment?"

"Uh, okay?" Stiles said as he could detect how tense his father seemed to have gotten all of a sudden.

"I'll wait for you at the van," Parrish told him. The Sheriff nodded at him.

"I'll walk with you," Lydia said to him before pulled at his arm and walked with him for the jeep.

"What is with you Stiles?" Noah asked when he and his son were alone.

He looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"What am I-, why didn't you tell me that someone tried to follow you last night?"

"Well after everything that happened at the hospital, it wasn't exactly at the front of my mind."

Noah narrowed his eyes at him. "Yes, the hospital. Yet another thing you didn't tell me about. You told Melissa, Noshiko and Argent but you didn't think to tell me? I had to hear about what you were doing from Melissa after I got there? Stiles, especially after this morning with Liam, I thought we were finally done with you trying to keep things from me?"

"But what about what you're trying to keep from me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The bills dad. From the hospital and Eichen House. I know that you've been trying to hide them."

"I wasn't hiding them from you. I didn't tell you because it's not your concern."

"Of course it's my concern dad. How am I supposed to take care of you if I don't know what's going on?"

"You're not supposed to take care of me Stiles," he said raising his voice a bit. "I'm the dad," he said pointing to himself before pointing to him. "You're the son. I'm the one that's supposed to know what's going on so I can take care of you. Like back at the station. You weren't supposed to push me out of the way. I was supposed to be shot, not you."

Stiles narrowed his eyes. "Dad, I was trying to protect you. I can heal from a bullet but you can't."

"That doesn't matter!" Noah shouted. "That's my job, not yours. I'm supposed to protect you, you're not supposed to protect me," he finished in a weakened tone. Noah then let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and turned away from his son as he rubbed at his heated forehead. Protecting his son was already feeling hard enough with so many people and things already hurt him and are currently trying to do worse. Lately, he'd been feeling so powerless as a father and a cop and what his son did tonight only amplified his feelings of helplessness.

"Dad," Stiles said softly. "I just didn't want you getting hurt."

Noah's head fell a bit. "I realize that. That's why you didn't tell me about the hospital, or Mexico, or even about being a werewolf. But Stiles, you're all I have left. Okay, do you get that? You can't just start keeping things from me and keeping me in the dark because you're scared I'll get hurt. Because, not being able to trust me to help you, that hurts me a lot more."

Stiles breathed in the pain and anxiety that his father was giving off. It made Stiles' heart ache and he dropped his gaze to look at his feet. "Maybe you're right." That made his dad look back at him. "I should've told you about what we were doing last night to catch the Benefactor. And dad, I do trust you. With what you did for me and Malia with her dad, it really meant a lot to me." He looked up to face him with shining eyes. "But, why shouldn't I try and look out for you too? You're the only family I have left too. Aren't we supposed to take care of each other?"

Noah then moved to embrace his son tightly, who went and embraced back just as hard.

Parrish sat at the driver's seat and was looking his hands up and down. Lydia was standing right outside the door, looking silently with him.

"I still can't believe it," he said almost inaudibly. "There's no marks. Not a one." He then pulled the front of his hair back a bit. "And the cut I had on my head is gone. Looks like the fire healed that for me."

Lydia could hear how shaken he was. "What," she said making him turn to her. "What did it feel like?" she asked him hesitantly but softly. His jaw stiffened. "No, forget it. I shouldn't have asked that. You don't have to say anything."

Parrish's gaze fell a bit. "Like water," he mumbled. He slowly looked over at Lydia. "Like when you stand under falling water. Those first moments, everything was heightened. My adrenaline, my tension, my fear, but then it all became...soothing." He let himself be lost in the memory of earlier tonight. "I was so scared when the flames touched me. I never screamed so loud before and or for so long. But after a while, I realized that I wasn't in pain. The flames were scaring me but they weren't hurting me. The next thing I knew, I heard you scream my name and found myself standing in the police station, covered in ash and my clothes all burned away."

Lydia straightened up a bit as she looked at the soft expression on his face. She found herself moving her hand to lightly rub at his cheek. She couldn't help but think that she knew exactly how Parrish had felt tonight. She had gone through the same thing after Peter had bitten her. "I'm sorry."

They just looked at each other for a few moments before Stiles called Lydia and told her that they should get going. She nodded and she and Parrish shared one final look before she went to follow her friend.

The Sheriff went and climbed into the passenger seat and looked over at Parrish who was staring hard at the steering wheel. "You okay?"

Parrish shook his head. "No. I don't think I am."

"Yeah," he breathed. "Me either."

Parrish then moved to start the engine and started to drive them both back for the station.

Stiles took Lydia back to his room and they hung up the new code onto his board of the Benefactor. Next to it, a picture of her grandmother with Maddy.

____________

Scott moved to get ready for school. He saw that Stiles had sent him a text that he and Lydia were still working on the new code. He just hoped that it was something that could finally get them to the Benefactor before someone else was attacked and killed. As he was moving for the door, his eyes fell on the bag of money still under his bed. He checked to see that his mother wasn't around before he moved to close his door and went over to it. He pulled it out and opened it to gaze upon the thousands of dollars inside. He then dropped it onto his bed and started to count it. As he stacked the bills, he found his heart rate going a touch faster as the number went up in his mind. When he finished, he saw that it was a solid 500 thousand. He let out a deep breath. Half a million dollars. He then saw that his hand was shaking a bit. He quickly moved to take the money and put it back in the bag and he zipped it back up. He let his heart settle a bit before he got up and headed off for school.

____________

Stiles had his eyes closed and was fumbling his fingers as he stood in thought, ignoring the beeping from his printer that stated it was out of paper. He and Lydia were trying to find the Cypher Key for the new code.

"Try Maddy," he said suddenly. "It's got to be Maddy."

Lydia raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't Maddy feel a little obvious for a Cypher Key?"

"Guarantee it's Maddy." But Lydia typed it in and it wasn't. "Uh okay. Well, your name. Your grandmother left the code for you, right? It's got to be your name." She typed in Lydia but that hadn't been it. "Your mom's name?" She tried Natalie, it didn't work either. Stiles started to bite the inside of his gums. "Uh...do you have any beloved family pets?" He then smelled and saw Lydia's annoyance growing. "Hey, I'm just trying to help."

"Well your help right now is no help," she sighed out.

Stiles moved to sit down next to her and rested his head on the table. He tried to take a reset and figure out what they had to be missing. "Okay, the ashes were left for you. The code was left for you. You're supposed to be able to figure this out."

"But no one else is, which is making it hard."

The printer then started beeping again and Stiles snapped. "Okay, that's it." He moved to grab some paper and he thrust it inside the printer. "Okay? There." He then backed off and the printer suddenly started printing but Stiles froze. "No one knows but you," he muttered.

"What?" Lydia asked him.

"You. That's it. This whole time we've been thinking that it has something to do with Lorraine, right? So, we've just assumed that the key has something to do with her but what if it has something to do with you."

"Me? What about me?"

"Well, maybe not just you but you and your grandmother." Suddenly, he remembered the talk that he and his dad had with Liam about his anchor. How he used a memory of them arguing about curly fries to stay in control because it meant something to just the two of them. "What do you remember doing with her? Something that might've not meant anything to anyone else but was special for you two? Did you two go to the beach or like the same ice cream?"

"We read," she told him.

"Okay, what did you like reading?"

She shrugged. "The Little Mermaid."

He widened his eyes at her. "You read that movie?"

She gave him an annoyed look. "It was a book first. Hans Christian Andersen."

He nodded. "Okay, then type in the Little Mermaid."

Lydia typed in Little Mermaid and then Mermaid but each one failed. She shook her head. "We read it every night. Like I was obsessed with it. For three months I wouldn't respond to anything but Ariel." She smiled a bit then. "It drove my parents crazy but-" She froze. "Grandma thought it was adorable.

Lydia then typed in Ariel and then they watched as it was accepted and then unlocked a new list. But as the list broke down, the printer started spewing out papers.

"Recognize any of these?" Stiles asked her.

"No," Lydia told him. Lydia's finger was moving down the list. The list that had its last name as her grandmother, Lorraine Martin. "Just my grandmother."

He then became frustrated with the printer and moved to pick up the nearest paper and his face fell. "Oh man."

"What?" she asked him.

He looked up at her with his face paling a bit. "We need to call Scott. And Liam."

___________

Liam walked in through the school doors and his eyes wandered. He felt that everyone around his was looking at him. Looking calculating and suspicious. Like any one of them could just jump out at him any second. And someone did.

"Liam," Mason said startling him. "Hey, am I going to see you at the bonfire tonight?"

Liam tried to settle himself back down. "Uh, actually I'm thinking about skipping it." Right now, he wasn't exactly in a partying mood.

But Mason shook his head. "You're not skipping it."

"Why not?" Liam asked a little nervously.

But Mason was smiling. "Because you're on the lacrosse team. Don't you have to go?"

Liam shook his head. "I...I don't know." He then turned to the side and blinked. It looked like a Berserker was standing down the hall. He turned away. "I don't think I can make it."

Mason's smile vanished. "You're coming," he told him like he didn't have a say. "And we're going to find you a nice girl that you could embarrass yourself in front of and find me a lacrosse player because, statistically speaking, someone on your team has to be on my team. Right?"

Liam barely heard him. All he could see and think about was a Berserker coming down the hall. It's tall and unbreakable pose not faltering as it stomped towards him. He snapped out of it when Mason called his name. "Right, I'll be there." He then went and moved to get far away. He headed over to get to the locker room as fast as he could. He turned around and noticed the Berserker turning down the hall and was still calmly following after him. Liam's breathing quickened. He was about to get into the locker room when he felt someone grab him and Liam reacted. He moved to grab the wrist and pushed it back while squeezing it. He saw that it was a fellow lacrosse player and quickly let him go.

"What the hell Dunbar?" the guy said as he rubbed his hurt wrist with his other hand.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "What do you want?"

"I was just going to ask if I could borrow your helmet during practice. You didn't have to kung fu grip my hand," he bit at him.

"You scared me," he piped in.

"Yeah, well you're scaring me so I guess we're even." He then walked away from him as he kept rubbing his wrist and spread his fingers out.

Liam sighed before he moved to sit down. When Stiles taught him that move, he said that it didn't work on just guns but also could be used on guys with knives, claws or even punches. At least he knew that it did work. He guessed that was a small consolation as he tried to keep himself calm and tried to think of his dad and hear his voice telling him his game slogan. He didn't see Scott had been watching from across the room.

But then Coach Finstock came on inside. "Alright!" he called out to get everyone's attention. "Now I know the start of season bonfire is a big deal for you guys. I also know that it gets out of hand sometimes. The alumni show up, there's other teams and alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol." That made everyone start cheering and clapping, well, save for Scott and Liam who were all kinds of depressed. "Shut up!" he told them. "Now, what I don't understand is why anyone would want to get drunk in front of a massive, stumbling fire. But I'm also resigned to not being able to stop you guys." They all cheered again. "I'll also remind you that your team captain, McCall, will be there. And I can count on him to narc on any and every one of these little bastards. Get back to class!" he told them.

Scott looked over to the benches but saw that Liam had gone before Coach had finished.

Liam was sitting on an empty staircase. Everyone was at class right now so the halls were all empty. He was fumbling with the net of his lacrosse stick, just trying to not lose himself in his dark thoughts. He rubbed at his eyes as he had barely gotten any sleep after what happened with his printer. The good feelings he had previously had long vanished. Those good thoughts were all replaced with a thousand new scenarios that played nonstop through his mind. Scenarios that ended with him having a blade thrust into his heart or a bullet getting emptied into his skull. Or...getting ripped apart by those Berserkers that made him feel so small and helpless the night before. He could hear his mom screaming out in horror and see his father's broken face at seeing his body. And during all of that, some nameless person would be flipping through millions of money he got from killing him. He jumped when he heard footsteps but saw that it was just Scott and turned away.

Scott moved down the stairs and sat by him. The anxiety he was picking up from Liam was thick enough to cut with a knife. "Hey," he said lightly. "If I touch your shoulder, you're not going to try and grab my hand with your kung fu grip, are you?" he tried to joke.

Liam didn't. He just let a big breath out. "Go ahead."

Scott lay his hand on him but Liam kept his gaze away. "Liam, you okay?"

"Last night, my printer went on by itself. I couldn't turn it off. I hit the cancel button but it just kept printing."

Scott felt his spine going cold all of a sudden. "Printing what?" Liam reached into his pocket and handed him a paper.

But before he could really read it, they heard the Coach cry out in shock and anger. "What the hell is this?!"

They ran to his office to see that his printer was going crazy. It was printing page after page of the same thing. The Deadpool.

Liam then quickly took some and pulled Scott aside. "Notice anything?"

"Derek's not on the list anymore," he realized from the first part. And he looked at the third part. "Meredith's gone too."

"Yeah, and I'm not worth 5 million anymore. And Stiles, he isn't ten anymore either."

Scott gasped as he saw the new numbers and moved to pull out his phone to call Stiles.

Before Stiles could hit the call button, he saw that Scott was already calling him and put it on speaker so Lydia could hear. "Hey Scott," Stiles said as soon as he picked up. "You read my mind. I was just about to call you. We just cracked the Cypher Key."

"You did?" Scott's eyes widened. "What was it?"

"It was a list of names."

"More?"

"Yeah, but these don't have numbers on them. But we found something else. You have to find Liam."

"He's here with me and we found something else too," Scott told him. "It's the Deadpool. It's changed. Well, what you and Liam are worth has changed."

"Yeah, we know," Stiles said glumly. "My printer went and started printing up the new Deadpool by itself, just all of a sudden."

Liam stiffened. That was just like what happened to him.

"So you know?" Scott asked.

"Yeah," Lydia chimed in. "We know. Liam, he's like me now. Worth 15 million, and Stiles is now worth 16 million."

Scott shared a look with Liam while Stiles shared one with Lydia. All four of them were thinking the same thing. With this new change, that meant that the four of them together, now made up the highest marks in the Deadpool.