things weren't awkward after stiles and i had sex at eichen house.

[ 4.01 ]

The bodies were packed tightly into the club like sardines. The music played so loud that one could hardly think — though Willow's thoughts were racing, going over the plan repeatedly.

She didn't let her eyes wander to Stiles and Lydia as they passed her body on the dance floor. Neither did she look at Scott, Kira, and Malia who were also stationed around the club. As she danced with a group of girls whose names she didn't even know, Willow thought back on what led them here.

To Mexico.

Stiles, when Willow never came home to have that talk, had a bad feeling. After all that had happened in the past few weeks, he couldn't help but be suspicious. So, he grabbed Scott and the pair rushed to Derek's loft.

It was there that they found Willow, still unconscious, lying in a heap on the floor. And Derek was nowhere in sight.

The two boys managed to wake Willow, but she didn't have any answers for them. The attack was a blur in her mind, and she couldn't recall who was there or what happened. But several hours had passed between Derek disappearing and them finding her.

So, with Lydia, the four of them met at the animal clinic. They had to make a plan to find him, but in order to do that, they had to somewhat understand what happened.

"The alarm was on. Everything looked okay aside from Willow. But then, we found these," Scott told Lydia. He put a silver cup full of bullet casings on the table in between them. "So, I sent a picture of it to Deaton. He said that it's the mark of a family of Hunters based out of Mexico — the Calaveras."

"What would they want with Derek?" Lydia asked.

"They're the same hunters that kidnapped him and Peter," Willow recalled. "They wanted something from him then too."

"You don't think they killed him, do you?" Stiles asked. The mere thought of it made Willow flinch.

"I - I don't know," Scott muttered, glancing at Lydia. "That's why you're here."

Lydia took a deep breath before nodding. She ran a finger around the rim of the cup before reaching in and grabbing a handful of casings. Then she shut her eyes and dropped them on the table. Gunshots and Derek's screams echoed in her head.

"Lydia, what?" Scott asked eagerly, seeing how her face shifted. "Is he dead?"

"No," she said, still frowning. "But I'm not sure he's alive, either."

"What does that mean?" Willow asked, her eyes watering and voice going up an octave.

Lydia looked at her sympathetically, knowing she didn't have the answers that Willow was desperate for. "I don't know. There's something not right. I just, I don't know."

"So, if the Calaveras have him, how do we find them?" Stiles asked.

Scott picked up one of the bullets and stared at the skull design molded into the side. There was only one way to find him. "Mexico."

Though Willow would have preferred to leave then and there, it took a few weeks to get everything together. With Chris still mourning Allison, they didn't feel they could ask for all the information he had on the family of hunters. So, while Deaton found all he could on the Calaveras, Willow and Lydia handled the financial arrangements for the trip, where they were hoping to pay for information about Derek and his whereabouts.

Back at the club that was run by the Calaveras, Willow saw a number of armed guards make their way onto the main floor. She slowly moved through the crowd toward Malia, wanting to be close in case there was a fight. Just in case Lydia and Stiles faced a problem with negotiations.

Kira, who also noticed the increase in security, scurried over to the girls. "Something's happening."

"I know," Malia said, not letting their arrival scare her. She continued to dance and smile.

"What do we do?" Kira asked.

"Blend in!" Malia said over the music. Kira looked between Malia and Willow in confusion. "Dance with us, dumbass!"

"Oh," Kira muttered. She awkwardly moved her limbs, which looked more like twitching than dancing.

Taking pity on her, Willow and Malia each grabbed one of her arms and pulled her close. They helped Kira move to the fast-paced beat, hands running through hair and chests touching.

Malia, admittedly, was a bit more seductive than Willow, who really only ever danced to One Direction and Taylor Swift songs. But soon, the three girls managed to find a rhythm as they danced. Others joined them, pressing up close behind them as they danced with them.

But their blending in could only go so far as Lydia and Stiles gave them away from their meeting. Two hunters moved through the crowd, headed directly for the girls. Kira noticed them first and let out a nervous squeak, nodding to them over Malia's shoulder.

"Ready?" the werecoyote asked.

Well, Kira was ready. Willow stepped back and let the two other girls take action. As Malia whipped out her claws, Kira pulled a set of nunchucks out, which she had snuck into the club. Then Scott appeared, joining in the fight. The party continued around them, most people too drunk or high to notice.

Willow watched as each hunter was taken out and left unconscious on the ground. Then Scott led the four of them through a now unguarded side door. The hallway was deserted and silent, the walls blocking out the music from the club.

"How far are they?" Willow asked Scott, knowing he could follow Stiles and Lydia's scents to find them. "And can you smell Derek yet?"

"I've got them but not him," he told her. "But don't worry—"

A low hissing sound caught their attention. Up ahead, a white smoky substance drifted along the floor, coming from a room up ahead. Scott carefully stepped forward to investigate. But then the pipes above their heads opened up, letting out the same mist.

Scott and Malia's lungs reacted instantly, the toxic substance invading their senses.

"Wolfsbane. It's wolfsbane!" Scott shouted, trying to cover his mouth and nose with his shirt. It was pointless though. "Kira, Willow, get out of here!"

But before either girl could run back to the club and hide, more hunters arrived. They knocked out the Kitsune and Incantator while Scott and Malia collapsed, struggling to breathe.

Araya Calaveras stood above Scott, a pleased smirk on her face. "Someone who has been an alpha only a few months should be more careful when facing a hunter of forty years."

"All we want is Derek," Scott said, coughing loudly.

"Ay, Lobito," she cooed. "You're a long way from home."

Scott studied her face, the realization hitting him as his vision began to fade in and out. "You don't know where he is either."

☽︎

"He's awake," Kira said, standing over Scott. As soon as he opened his eyes, they all crowded around him. "Guys, he's awake!"

"Scott, you okay?" Stiles asked as Scott slowly sat up.

"Yeah," he mumbled, looking around. They were being kept in a large, disgusting room that was covered in mold and rust and dried blood.

"They don't have him," Scott then said, looking at Willow. He was crushed that they weren't able to find him, knowing how crazy Willow had been the last few weeks waiting. "They don't have Derek. I'm sorry, Willow."

"It's alright," Willow said, knowing that they all tried as hard as they could. They had even crossed the border for him. "And we know they don't have him."

"But right now, they've got Lydia," Kira said, bringing the redhead's absence to Scott's attention. She wasn't trapped in the room with them.

"Lydia? What do they want with Lydia?" Scott asked, getting to his feet.

"What does any bad guy ever want with Lydia?" Willow asked rhetorically, leaning against the wall. She cringed as she did so, knowing that her shirt would probably be stained from how dingy it was.

"Banshee shit," Stiles answered, giving Scott a pointed look.

Scott desperately scanned the room, looking for any kind of window or exit other than the huge, steel door that they came through. He tried to pry the door open with his werewolf strength, but it was useless. The Calaveras wouldn't make such an obvious mistake.

"We already looked for a way out. I think a lot of people have," Kira said, eying all the claw marks on the stone walls.

"I say, when that door opens again, we take out whoever's standing in the way and run for it," Malia said, making a game plan.

"What about Lydia?" Kira asked.

Malia looked at her, confused. "What about her?"

"We're not leaving without her," Scott said.

"Why not?" she asked, not getting the point.

"Because we don't leave without people," Stiles said, moving to Malia's side as he spoke softly. "Remember, we talked about this? Rules of the wild kingdom don't apply to friends."

"Is that what you would do as a coyote?" Kira asked nervously. "Leave her for dead?"

"Yes, if she was weak and injured," Willow answered for her. "And a coyote would also eat her if it struggled with hunting that season."

While the others looked horrified, Malia grinned brightly at Willow, who had done plenty of research on coyotes after Malia joined the pack. "Exactly. I'd eat her and then I'd leave."

"Believe it or not, that's progress," Stiles muttered, sighing heavily.

Moving on from Malia's human moral lesson of the day, Scott went back to the issue at hand. They were all trapped. "All right, guys. We're not dead yet, and that means Araya wants something."

"But, if the Calaveras don't know where Derek is, that means they didn't take him from the loft, right?" Kira asked.

"Maybe he left on his own?" Stiles guessed.

"And leave Willow bleeding on the ground?" Scott asked, scoffing. Willow smiled appreciatively at him. "No way. But maybe someone else got to him."

"But who would want him?" Willow asked, biting a pink glittery fingernail nervously. "Peter wasn't taken — just Derek. And they didn't take me or even kill me."

"We'll figure this out, Willow," Kira told her. She also pulled Willow's finger out of her mouth to keep her from chewing on it. "And we'll get Derek back."

Willow nodded before sliding down the wall to sit down. She rested her head against her knees, ready to wait for Scott to come up with a plan or for the Calaveras to make their move.

And she didn't have to wait long.

Twenty minutes later, the door was thrown open and a horde of armed hunters was waiting for them. Before anyone could ask questions or even attack as Malia suggested, they grabbed Scott and Kira, dragging them out of the room. Stiles and Willow had banged on the door loudly, demanding to know where they were being taken. But of course, no one was coming to tell them.

"This just keeps getting better and better," Stiles muttered, lazily kicking the door. "Went from being possessed by an evil fox spirit to being trapped in one of the grossest holding rooms on the planet — really, we're all gonna need tetanus shots after this."

"And your dad's probably gonna ground us both if we do get out," Willow added, leaning her head against the wall. "We are so not on a camping trip."

Stiles managed a smile, knowing she was right. "He's gonna kill me if these hunters don't."

"I mean, I bet we can still get sympathy points from being possessed and mind-controlled," she muttered. They'd been too busy trying to find Derek to even process everything that had happened. Too busy to talk about it.

"Yeah," Stiles said, nervously messing with his fingers.

"Okay, so you were possessed and she was the one you were mind-controlling, right?" Malia asked, still trying to recall all the supernatural drama they told her about.

"It - it wasn't Stiles doing the controlling, but yes," Willow said softly.

"But how did that work? Like, was it just following automatic commands?" she asked, eyebrows scrunched up as she thought about it.

Willow cleared her throat uncomfortably, making sure to avoid Stiles' gaze. "Well, the Nogitsune reflected my abilities for several weeks, altering my emotions and making me feel, uh, closer to Stiles. Then once it had full control of him, I did whatever he wanted."

"Does closer mean you thought you were in love with him?" Malia asked bluntly, seeing how awkward things had become.

"Um, yeah," Stiles said under his breath. "I did a lot of - of emotional manipulation and, uh, made her do some non-consensual things and t - tattoo discovery."

No, Stiles never saw the intimate tattoo. But when the Nogitsune asked Willow to tell him all about it so he'd be able to make Derek think otherwise, she didn't have a choice but to tell him. Now, Stiles wished he could scrub it from his brain — knowing was just another way he'd violated her. Suddenly, all those whiny jokes after she first got the tattoo weren't very funny.

Despite her red face and the way she wanted to crawl underground and hide, Willow spoke up. "That - that wasn't you, Stiles."

"Okay, well, if it wasn't actually Willow and Stiles doing those things, why are you two being so awkward around the other?" Malia asked, raising an eyebrow. "Lydia told me you two used to be really close, but I've barely seen you interact since starting at school."

Both Stiles and Willow had been hesitant to spend time near each other. It was a necessity, of course, now that they were across the border and all rode down there crammed in Stiles' jeep.

"Or is this another normal human thing?" Malia asked, frowning. "Because things weren't awkward after Stiles and I had sex at Eichen House."

Now it was Stiles' turn for his cheeks to burn. Willow looked between the two of them with wide eyes. Everyone suspected that something was happening between Stiles and Malia, but none of them knew it began when Stiles was admitted while temporarily fighting off the Nogitsune.

"Um, no, no," Stiles said, coughing. "It's just uncomfortable and a little traumatizing and guilt-inducing because what we — Willow and I — it wasn't something we wanted to or consented to. And I - I don't speak for Willow, but it kind of just brings memories to surface when I'm around her."

"That's - that's essentially it," Willow added under her breath. "I just think it'll take a little more time before things feel normal, for me at least."

Stiles nodded along. "Well, at least you've got this Derek guy — well, you'll have him if we find him. Unless he's dead. Then you don't have him."

Willow's eyes went wide, dread filling her once again. Stiles noticed the way her eyes glossed over, telling him that she was now thinking about the fact that Derek could be dead. Lydia wasn't with them to confirm or deny.

"Another human tip," Stiles stated, cringing. "Don't continuously point out the fact that someone's partner might be dead. And try to not make Willow cry. It's not like a faucet with her. Once she starts crying, it's very difficult to get her to stop."

Malia bit her lip awkwardly and nodded, shooting Willow a half-apologetic look. "I'm sure he's... fine."

She didn't sound like she believed her own words, and so Willow didn't either, though she appreciated the effort. "Can you hear where they took Scott and Kira at all? Like, are they still in the compound?"

"I guess I can try," Malia said, frowning. She wasn't the best at controlling her shift or using her heightened senses. "I just, like, listen, right?"

"Right," she said, nodding.

It was quiet for a moment as Malia shut her eyes and tried to focus. She tried to extend her hearing past the room and the club to find the others. But Stiles, as impatient as ever, couldn't stay quiet for long enough.

"Do you hear them? Can you hear Scott?" Stiles asked, pacing the room as he rattled off one question after another. "Can you hear Kira? Lydia? Anybody? What are they saying?"

Malia let out a frustrated sigh and looked up at him. "I - I can't. I can't concentrate. I - there's too many sounds and voices."

"Okay. It's okay. Well, just breathe. Breathe with me, all right? You practiced this with Scott before, remember?" he asked, crouching in front of her.

"I'm trying," she muttered.

"It's okay. It's okay. Just focus on something. Here, look at my eyes," Stiles said, tilting her head so that she was no longer glaring at the floor. "Very good. Just focus on the sound of my voice. All you have to do is try to concentrate. Concentrate—"

Malia cut Stiles off by kissing him suddenly. The boy was frozen, not expecting it. Willow was silent as well, wondering if something like that would work. From her past experience, kissing Derek typically distracted him from his other senses, not helped him to focus.

But when Malia pulled away, her eyes were glowing bright blue. Stiles scooted backward as she stared off into space, her ears picking up on Scott's voice.

"They're killing him!" Malia exclaimed, hearing him scream. Willow jumped up and ran over to them, realizing that Araya was torturing him. "They want to know who took Derek."

"We don't know who took Derek!" Stiles snapped at no one in particular. "If we did, we wouldn't be in freaking Mexico!"

"She - she thinks that Scott knows," Malia said. She winced as Scott's screams became impossibly loud. She couldn't imagine what they were doing to inflict so much pain. "Kate!"

Willow visibly flinched as Malia suddenly shouted the name. "Wh - what?"

"He said Kate," Malia repeated. "That's who took Derek."

"That's impossible," Stiles mumbled, pacing once again. "It's impossible! That can't be what he said."

"Why?" she asked, not understanding. "Who - who's Kate?"

"She's a hunter," he answered. "An Argent."

"Kidnapper, arsonist, murderer, Derek's ex," Willow listed off. "But most importantly — dead."

☽︎

There wasn't time to give Malia the rundown, not when hunters came and pulled the three of them from the room. Now that Scott knew who took Derek, the Calaveras were letting them go.

Willow walked alongside Scott as they all exited the compound. Araya held the two back, having a few last words for them.

"So, you're just letting us go?" Scott asked, still confused by it all. Why make his sort-of-girlfriend torture him to the point of almost dying and then just let them go?

"I sent four men out to where Kate was rumored to have been seen. None of them came back," she informed him. "Let's see if you can do better."

So, Araya just didn't want to waste any more of her men.

"You could have just told me she was alive," Scott told her, still sore from the electrification.

"You wouldn't have believed me," she said, smirking. "Now I know what kind of alpha you are... And where your next step lies."

"What next step?" he asked, frowning.

Araya's smirk morphed into a harsh glare. "When you take the bite of an innocent — when you make a wolf of your own. When you do that, then I will cross your border and come knocking at your door."

Scott swallowed thickly, greatly intimidated by the older hunter. He nodded and turned to go to his friends, pulling Willow along. However, Araya stopped them once more.

"Querida, a moment," Araya called, her eyes now on Willow.

"Yes, Mrs. Calaveras?" Willow asked nervously.

"You are the Incantator, no?" she asked. Willow silently nodded. "You could have taken hold of every single one of my men and escaped with your friends. I want to know why you didn't."

"I can't - I can't control that many people at once," she told her, shaking her head. She'd only ever achieved making the twins do simple commands at the same time. "And, well, certain events have transpired that make me reluctant to use my abilities. I'm not... comfortable doing so."

Araya hummed, her eyes studying Willow carefully. "You are not the first Incantator I have come across. You are young, Querida, and still have time for your power to grow. And if they grow too much — if you use them selfishly — then I shall have no choice but to put a stop to that power."

The threat caused a chill to run down her spine. Once again, Willow found herself wanting to hide. How could one small old woman be so terrifying? And while calling her a term of endearment like 'darling'?

"I - I understand," Willow said, her eyes wide. "And I'd deserve it if I were to do something bad."

She had already done something bad, though. She'd done a lot of bad things with her powers, though that was because of the Nogitsune. Perhaps if the Calaveras had heard about the traps and the bomb, they already would've put a stop to her.

Willow did her best to push Araya's threat to the back of her mind as she and Scott rejoined the others. They were waiting by the jeep expectantly.

"So, what now?" Stiles asked, digging the keys out of his pocket.

"She thinks she knows where we can find Derek," Scott said.

"She's gonna tell us where?" Malia asked. It was certainly suspicious of them to let them go and point them in the right direction. But once they explained how Araya just didn't want to risk losing any more hunters, she'd understand.

"Uh, actually, she's giving us a guide," Scott told them.

As if the very sentence summoned her, a figure drove right up to them on the back of a motorcycle, wrapped in leather. The helmet came off, revealing a neck scarred by claws and a brooding face.

"You know her?" Kira asked, seeing the look of recognition on Scott's face.

"Braeden," he stated.

"Who's Braeden?" Malia asked, eying the woman.

"She's a mercenary," Lydia answered in a flat tone.

"Paid to rescue Isaac once, and then also Derek and Peter," Willow added with a smile. While Braeden never helped them out of the kindness of her heart, she still helped.

"Right now, I'm the only one who's gonna take you to La Iglesia," Braeden told them.

"The Church?" Willow questioned, frowning in recognition.

"What's The Church?" Scott asked.

Braeden smirked at the alpha. "It's not a place you'll find God."

☽︎

"Where's Derek even gone sit?" Willow asked, looking around the crowded cab of the jeep. Kira, Malia, and Lydia were taking up the backseat, while Willow was squeezed in between Scott and Stiles in the front. "He's got long legs, big muscles. He's not gonna fit. We didn't think this through."

"Uh, Lydia will take your seat," Scott said, looking back at the girls to try and figure out a seating arrangement. "Derek can sit where Lydia is. Then you sit on Derek's lap."

While Willow wouldn't mind sitting on Derek's lap, that wouldn't be comfortable after several hours. Beacon Hills to Mexico wasn't exactly a short trip.

"Or we could shove him in the trunk," Stiles muttered. "It's what he deserves for dragging us into this mess. For making us deal with Kate freaking Argent again."

"Okay, I'll ask," Malia said, suddenly poking her head in between Stiles and Willow. "Who's Kate Argent?"

Kira awkwardly raised her hand, eying the back of Scott's head. "Uh, I'd like to know, too."

"Well, we were at her funeral, so I'd like to know how she got out of a casket that was buried six feet underground," Stiles told them.

"She was never in it," Scott said.

No one spoke immediately after that, so Lydia sighed. "She was Allison's aunt and a total sociopath."

"You don't have to talk about it now if you don't want to," Kira said softly. She knew anything related to Allison was difficult for them to think about, especially Scott.

"Um, yes, he does!" Malia snapped. She didn't care about their feelings at that moment. She needed to know what they were up against.

"Yeah, she's right. You guys should know. You need to know," Scott said, giving in.

"All right," Stiles began. "Kate was the one who set the fire that killed most of Derek's family."

"Some of them survived, like Cora and Peter," Willow added.

"A very angry Peter," Lydia noted, thinking about the incident at the movie rental store as well as being bitten.

"Yeah, he's the one who bit and turned me," Scott told them.

"And the one who finally caught up to Kate and killed her," Lydia told them.

"And we saw her buried," Willow said, frowning. "I was front row at that funeral."

"No," Scott said, shaking his head. "We saw a casket, remember? She wasn't in it. The Calaveras heard that Kate had been killed by an Alpha's claws. They wanted to make sure she was really dead. Her body was healing, more and more, as she got closer to the full moon. She was coming back. So, they switched the bodies. If a hunter is bit, they have to take their own life before they change. The Calaveras — they treat the Code like law. They make it their responsibility to enforce it."

"Good for her!" Malia suddenly said, realizing that Kate escaped instead of killing herself. "I wouldn't do it, either."

"Would you kill a half-dozen people to get out?" Scott asked her, raising an eyebrow. "Because that's what she did."

"So, Kate's a werewolf now?" Kira asked.

"I don't know," Scott admitted. "You know, there's a saying — sometimes, the shape you take reflects the person you are. Like Willow being a Charmer."

"What kind of shape is a sociopathic bitch?" Lydia asked, rolling her eyes.

"It has to be something Derek's never seen before," Willow guessed. "It would've taken more than just her being alive to catch him off guard. One omega wouldn't have been able to take him down—"

Willow cut herself off as the jeep shook violently, feeling as if Stiles rammed into some kind of animal. Whatever they hit did damage, and Stiles had no choice but to pull the jeep over on the side of the road to try and get it running again.

"What happened?" Braeden asked, getting off her bike and walking over to them.

"I don't know," Stiles said, inspecting all the tires. None of them were flat. "It felt like we hit something."

"Scott, we need to get there by night," Braeden said as Stiles popped the hood. "It's too dangerous, otherwise."

Scott looked at them reluctantly, not wanting to split up. But Stiles shook his head — there were more of them anyway. "Go."

"Not without you," he argued.

"Dude, someone needs to find Derek. We'll figure something out. We always do," Stiles told him. "Just go."

Scott sighed before nodding. "Okay." Then he looked at Willow and rubbed her shoulder. "We're gonna bring him back to you."

"I know," she said, smiling softly. "But don't get yourself hurt."

While the others began helping Stiles inspect the jeep, Kira jogged after Scott to speak with him before he left. Willow watched out of the corner of her eye as they shared a hug.

"Should've kissed," Willow whispered under her breath. As Braeden and Scott rode off, Kira rejoined them. The look on her face made Willow think she wanted Scott to kiss her too.

"Stiles?" Malia called. She reached up under the car, past the tire, and pulled out a long, sharp piece of bone. "I don't think we hit something — I think something hit us."

Feeling substantially unnerved, Stiles got out his tool kit and began working on the engine, trying to get it to start again. Willow was behind the wheel, in charge of turning the key each time he asked. So far, only the auxiliary power and headlights were working.

"Maybe we should just walk," Lydia said, eying the mountains in the distance. The sun was sinking, and it wouldn't be long before they were plunged into darkness.

"No leaving Roscoe!" Willow said, sticking her head out the window.

Stiles, who had been holding a wrench in his mouth, spit it out and pointed it at Lydia. "Hey, I will never abandon this jeep! You understand me? Ever."

As Stiles muttered, "ever, ever" under his breath repeatedly, Malia watched the surrounding area carefully. She had a feeling that someone was watching them as well. "Work faster, Stiles. There's something out here with us."

As the sun went down, things got worse. Given that there were no street lamps in the middle of the desert, Stiles had very low visibility for fixing the car. And there was only one flashlight in the toolbox, which Lydia was holding.

"Lydia, could you please hold the light still for a second?" Stiles asked, glaring at the girl. "It's really hard to see anything if you keep shaking it like that."

Lydia scoffed, not appreciating his attitude. "I'm shaking it this way because we're in the middle of nowhere with your broken-down jeep, and we're being attacked by yet another razor-clawed monster, and I'm terrified!"

"Well, just be slightly less terrified," he ordered. "And hold this."

He handed her a large, round car part with wires sticking out of it, not connected to anything on the other end. "What's this?" Lydia asked.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I'm hoping it's not important."

While they bickered about the car, Kira and Malia continued to watch the perimeter. "Anything?" Kira asked Malia, sword in hand.

"It's too hard to see," Malia replied. "We should've brought another flashlight."

Getting an idea, Kira walked back to the jeep. She held her katana up to the lit headlights and used it to reflect the light and aim it at the rocks in the distance. As the small, bright beam moved around, they caught sight of something moving, and it hid behind a boulder.

"Did you see that?" Kira asked nervously. Malia had seen it. She let out a fearless roar and charged at the figure, not giving it a second thought. "Malia, wait!"

Stiles, seeing that she was taking off, tried to climb off the jeep and stop her. "Hey, Malia!"

Lydia grabbed Stiles' wrist tightly, keeping him in place. "Kira, go! You — fix the jeep." Stiles nervously looked back at the engine before trying to spot Malia in the darkness again. Lydia snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Stiles, focus!"

Stiles picked up the pace, but his hands shook the entire time, worried about Malia. Finally, as he told Willow to try the key, the engine started.

"Malia! Kira!" Willow shouted while sliding out of the driver's seat.

Whatever was watching them didn't run up on the jeep as Malia and Kira returned. Malia had a huge gash on her side from the creature. But once all five of them were safely in the vehicle, Stiles sped away, putting as much distance between them and the creature as possible.

Now on the way to Scott and Braeden — and hopefully Derek — Stiles looked at Malia with wide, panicked eyes. "You - you, please don't do that ever again!"

"Do what?" she asked cluelessly, not understanding what she did wrong.

"I - I thought you just took off. I thought you were running."

"I was running," she stated.

Stiles shook his head. "I thought you were leaving."

"I wouldn't leave without you," Malia said, earning a surprised look from him.

"Really?"

"I would never leave without you," she admitted. But then she ruined the moment by looking at the three girls in the backseat. "Them, I would leave. Well, maybe not Willow if I was in a good mood."

Willow smiled softly, amused by it all as Stiles sighed. "Yeah... Uh, it's progress."

Lydia moved on from the leaving comment and glanced at the still-bleeding wound on Malia's side. "That doesn't look good."

"It's okay," Malia said, shrugging it off.

"Are you sure?" Kira asked. "It looks deep."

"I can feel it healing," she told them.

But that wasn't good enough for Stiles. "Willow! Attack!"

Before Malia could even question what the hell that meant, Willow leaned in between the seats and kissed Malia's cheek. The werecoyote flinched at Willow's glowing eyes and then looked down at her wound, watching as it healed right in front of her.

"Woah," she muttered, her eyes wide. Then she looked back at Willow, who leaned back into her seat as a short wave of exhaustion washed over her. "I feel like I could bench press a house."

"Please don't pick up anyone's house," Stiles told her.

"So you didn't see anything?" Lydia then asked. "The thing that attacked you?"

"Barely," Malia mumbled. She was clearly unhappy about being unable to fight it. "It had a strong scent, though."

"Like what?" Stiles asked.

"Like death," she muttered.

"That's comforting," Willow whispered under her breath.

Now worried that Scott and Braeden were at The Church fighting off an army of those creatures, they raced through the desert. Soon, they arrived and drove right up to the temple in the center of the city.

They arrived just in time to see Scott and Braeden dragging someone out of the temple. Willow let out a sigh of relief, knowing that it was Derek. She was the first out of the jeep, running up to them.

"Derek! You're okay—"

Willow stopped dead in her tracks, looking at the figure in between Scott and Braeden with wide eyes. She didn't even notice that the others joined her.

"Is that him? Is that Derek?" Malia asked, having never met him. "Willow, you said he was big, but that guy's shorter than Scott."

"Uh, sort of," Stiles replied. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly.

Then they all glanced at Willow, who was as white as a sheet. Her eyes scanned his form frantically, trying to piece together what had happened. How this happened.

They found Derek, but it wasn't him. Not quite. Hanging limply between Scott and Braeden was a fresh-faced, seventeen-year-old Derek Hale.