Love's Spiral

Stiles put his hand on the knob to the door that Spencer led them to. “Okay, are you sure that this is it?”

Spencer narrowed her eye at him. “Uh, werewolf senses. I know my pack. Of course this is the right place.”

The boy nodded, looking to his hand on the knob and then back to Spencer. “You know, ‘cause if this is the wrong door and I end up walkin’ in on someone, you know, makin’ out or…something much, much worse, I’m afraid I’ll be scarred for life.”

“Stiles, just open the door.”

“I think we need to talk.”

“About what?”

“About what almost happened.”

“Bigger things are at work here, Stiles!”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Stiles turned the handle and pushed on the door to open it. He nearly jumped right back out the door as Erica bared her teeth and took a defensive stance towards him. “No, no, no.” Stiles calmed.

“Erica, stand down.” Spencer ordered, stepping around Stiles to put herself between him and the werewolf.

“It’s just us!” Stiles shouted.

“What the hell are you guys doing? So focused on Jackson you forgot to listen out for people?” Spencer glanced at the incapacitated looking Jackson sitting in a metal folding chair. “You didn’t kill him did you?” The redhead demanded looking to Isaac.

“No, we did exactly what Scott told us to do.” Isaac claimed.

“Well, is he okay?” Stiles asked.

“Well,” Isaac stepped towards Jackson’s catatonic state, “Let’s find out.” Isaac lifted his hand and shot out his claws. He tried to swipe at Jackson’s face, but somehow Jackson fought back.

They thought Jackson was paralyzed, but he wasn’t Jackson grabbed onto Isaac’s wrist and twisted it, making Isaac cringe and fall to his knees.

“God…” Isaac groaned in pain. He tried as hard as he could to get out of Jackson’s hard grip. When he had, he made a sound of relief and quickly stepped back towards the three others in the room.

Spencer instantly bent down to get Isaac to stand up straight. “Are you okay?” She asked, reaching for his hand.

Isaac shook his head with clenched teeth. He turned away from her, not letting the girl touch him.

“Okay, no one does anything like that again, okay?” Stiles demanded, putting a finger in Isaac face.

“Isaac!” Spencer forced Isaac to look in her direction, getting confused but pained looks from Isaac. She put her hand against his lower arm and thought about taking away his pain. The second Spencer made the thought though, a sharp pain filled through her body, she jerked her arm back.

“What the hell?” Isaac asked.

Spencer shook her head, confused glances going from her hand back to the boy in front of her. “I don’t know. I - I thought it was only sprained.”

“It is only sprained.” Isaac pressed. “Hurts no more than when Derek broke it.”

“It didn’t feel sprained to me.”

Isaac scoffed. “I thought the ketamine was supposed to put him out.”

“Yeah, well,” Stiles gestured to Jackson. “Apparently this is all we’re going to get. So let’s just hope that whoever’s controlling him just decided to show up tonight.”

“We’ll we’ve got to figure something out.” Spencer insisted. “We can’t just sit here and wait it out, this wasn’t the plan.”

“I’m here.” A groan came from the other side of the small room.

Spencer turned her body to face the voice. What she was was Jackson staring in their general direction. Problem was, Spencer knew that it was Jackson, but it didn’t feel like Jackson was the one talking to them.

“I’m right here with you.”

The redhead shook her head. “Guys, I don’t think that’s Jackson. I - I mean, it can’t be. Jackson’s pumped with ketamine.”

Stiles looked to the girl and then suspiciously towards Jackson. He took a few steps in Jackson’s direction.”

“Stiles, be careful.” Spencer warned. “You saw what he did to Isaac. You don’t heal like we do.”

Stiles waved her off and crouched in front of Jackson.

“Oh, yeah. Don’t listen to me.” she mumbled to herself. “I’m the only one thinking clearly here.”

“Jackson?” Stiles asked aloud. “Is that you?”

“Us.” Jackson said. His voice had an evil tinge to it that made a shiver run down Spencer’s spine. “We’re all here.”

Isaac glanced questioningly at Spencer. “We? I thought he was only controlled by one other person.”

Stiles slowly moved his head to pass a look telling the betas to be quiet. He looked to Jackson. “Are you the one killing people?”

“We are the ones killing murderers.” Jackson stressed.

“So then all the people you’ve killed so far - ”

“Deserved it.” Jackson said through his teeth.

Spencer walked up behind Stiles, putting a hand on his shoulder to pull him back. Once Stiles relented, Spencer took his place. “Look, we’re just confused. We have a little rule book saying you only go after murderers.”

“Anything can break if enough pressure is applied.”

“So the people you’re killing are all murderers, right?”

“All. Each. Every one.”

“Now, you’re just spitting out nonsense, ‘cause I don’t believe you.” Spencer sighed and looked to Stiles who stared at her, wide eyed. “What? It’s not like you weren’t thinking it.” She turned her attention back to Jackson. “Who did all those people kill?”

“Me.”

“Wait, what?” Stiles asked, rushing to Spencer, nearly pushing her out of the way. “What do you mean?”

“They murdered me!” Jackson reiterated.

Stiles and Spencer’s eyes met in a confused terror.

“Uh, Spencer?” Isaac questioned.

Spencer’s gaze shifted to him. “What?”

“We have a problem.” He pointed past her to Jackson.

Spencer looked back at Jackson whose eyes were now golden yellow and snake like. Both she and Stiles stumbled backwards away from the shifting creature.

“They murdered me!”

Isaac pulled Spencer to her feet and helped Stiles steady his.

“This can’t be good.” Spencer said. “Right? I’m not the only one thinking him shifting like that isn’t good.” Spencer looked down at Jackson’s hand as its movement gained her attention. “Oh, God, he has his claws.”

“Okay. Alright.” Stiles said, trying to calm her, grabbing her arm to show some comfort.

“Stiles, this is not alright. Last time I went up against this thing, I wound up paralyzed.” Spencer told him. “He’s not exactly something I’m ready to fight again.”

“More ketamine.” Stiles suggested quickly. “The man needs more ketamine.” He looked to Isaac. “C’mon!” Stiles said, holding out his hand to the boy.

Isaac shrugged his hand into his pocket for the vial. “We don’t have anymore.” He said reluctantly.

Stiles eyed Isaac as if he were dumb. “You used the whole bottle?” He asked, grabbing the empty container from the werewolf.

Spencer scoffed. “Does moderation mean nothing to you?”

Erica tapped Stiles on the shoulder, pushing his attention to Jackson.

Jackson stood slowly to his feet.

Spencer gulped. “Okay. Scales and standing are not at all good.”

Jackson’s head started twitching violently as his body fought off the last bit of the ketamine that was in his system.

“Um…” Stiles thought.

Jackson snarled loudly, making the group jump back away from him.

“Okay, out. Everybody out!” Stiles insisted.

Isaac brought up the rear pushing the three in front of him out of the door. “Go, go!” Isaac forced, repeating himself until he was safely out of the room. The four of them quickly shut the door and held themselves against it to keep it closed.

“Okay, find something to move in front of the door.” Stiles ordered as they resisted the pounding and pushing coming from the other side. Suddenly, the pounding had stopped. No more than a second later, a hole burst through the wall to their left. The Kanima came out running faster than Spencer had ever seen and instantly, it was back in the midst of the rave.

Spencer groaned.

“Now what?” Isaac asked.

The redhead glanced at her watch. “The rave should be over soon. I saw we wait until the warehouse clears. It’d be easier to catch him without all the innocents around.”

“But if Jackson made a point to come here, wouldn’t that mean he’s here to kill someone?” Stiles asked her.

Spencer pulled out her phone to text Derek to meet them outside by the front entrance. “Let’s certainly hope not.” She made her way through the crowds, towards the way out, Stiles following behind her.

Stiles managed to get in front of her and grabbed onto her hand so they wouldn’t get separated, as they had from Isaac and Erica. He pushed through the doorway into the cool, night air.

“There.” Spencer pointed towards the direction Derek was jogging from.

Stiles moved in that direction, and stepped over the ashline. He was forced to drop Spencer’s hand as he did.

Spencer stumbled back from the force of the ash. “Yeah, that stuff is a pain.”

“What’s wrong?” Derek asked. “Did it work?”

“Uh, yes?” she said, lacking confidence.

“Well, you’re not lying.”

“The, uh - The ketamine wore off and then we ran out.” Stiles informed. “So we kind of lost Jackson inside, but it’s okay.”

Stiles, Derek, and Spencer looked to the door. Erica and Isaac pushed themselves out through a small group of people. They were both hesitating over going much further from the building because of the ashline.

Stiles smiled and burst with glee. “Oh, my God. It’s really working. This is - ” he grunted with pleasure. “I did something.” He bragged to Derek.

“Yes, we did lose Jackson, but since the line is working, he’s still trapped inside.” Spencer clarified, turning to Derek, studying him. “You okay?” She asked him, noticing that he looked off.

“Something’s wrong.” Derek responded.

“What?” Spencer asked. “What is it? Jackson?”

“No. It’s - ”

A loud howl burst into their ears and was quickly cut off. The sound was easily recognizable.

“Scott.” Spencer said, before rushing off towards the sound. She didn’t pause for a second, listening and sniffing out her best friend. When Spencer smelled the scent of wolfsbane, she started using her hands to push her even faster towards Scott.

“Red, wait!” She heard from behind her.

Spencer stopped in her stride in front of the door she knew Scott had to be behind. She turned seeing Derek coming up quickly behind her. Spencer was still panicked and wanted to burst through the door. “How did you get here? It’s over the line.”

“Stiles broke the line.” Derek informed.

“The kanima - ”

“Screw the kanima. What about Scott?”

Spencer eyed him for a moment before swallowing the small lump in her through and nodding. “He’s in there.” Spencer insisted. “I can’t tell if he’s alone. There’s wolfsbane is messing up all of my senses.” She groaned. “I’ll kill whoever did this.”

“I’ll go in first. Give you an all clear if its safe to go in.” Derek ordered.

Spencer nodded. “Just hurry. He won’t have much time left.”

Derek broke the door handle off, pushing the barrier open. He took a few steps forward into the room.

Spencer stood directly in front of the open doorway, but couldn’t see anything inside. The smell of the strong wolfsbane wafted heavily outside. Spencer stumbled in the small steps she took, but was able to catch herself before she fell. She lifted her shirt up over her nose, hoping it would help. Spencer glanced inside again, seeing a shadow move from the corner. “Derek, watch out!” Spencer shouted to warn the alpha. She must have been too late in her warning though because she heard a loud groan come from Derek.

The redhead took it upon herself to enter the room and rush to Scott while Derek handled who Spencer only knew as the shadow. She hurried over to Scott’s side, trying to pull him up off the floor with his arm flung around her shoulder. “C’mon, Scotty, wake up.”

Scott’s eyes fluttered open. “Pence…?” He groaned softly.

“Yeah, buddy. It’s me. Just hang in there.” Spencer coughed. As she said it, Scott passed right out again. Spencer struggled to get him to his feet, even with her strength. Her wolf powers were fading from the poisoned air around her.

Derek was thrown on the floor and he rolled towards Spencer almost knocking over the progress she had been making with Scott.

Spencer caught herself, slowly, planting her feet firmly on the ground. She took a deep breath and then coughed it back out. She took this moment to look to where Derek was thrown from. Spencer groaned when she saw no one was standing there anymore. “Derek!” She said to gain his attention. “Who was that? What happened?”

Derek got to his feet, shook his head to get his focus off the scent of the wolfsbane, and moved to Scott’s other side to help Spencer. “Victoria.” He grunted.

“Argent?” Spencer exclaimed, finding it monumentally easier to get Scott off of the floor with Derek’s help. “Urgh, that bitch.”

“She’ll get what’s coming to her.”

The two pushed themselves and Scott out into the fresh air and hurried to where Spencer had parked her truck. Derek held Scott up on his own while Spencer got the door open. The alpha pushed Scott into the cab of the rust bucket.

“What’s that supposed to mean? ‘She’ll get what’s coming to her’?” Spencer asked.

“Well,” Derek started, grunting as he steadied Scott in the seat. “I might have bit her.”

“You bit her?”

“When will you stop questioning things that I say?” Derek asked with a furrowed brow.

“What exactly does that mean? For her or for us. What happens when the rest of the Argents find out?”

“She’ll turn, if she makes it that far.” Derek admitted. “As for us, nothing will happen to you, Isaac and the others, but they’ll probably want me dead.”

Spencer felt a painful hit right to the middle of her chest and she lost her breath at Derek’s words.

“They’ll do anything to make it happen.”

“This is perfect.” She whispered, taking deep, shaky breaths trying to calm herself from the heart-wrenching news.

Derek shook his head. “They’ll try.” he confessed, before noticing how affected she was by it. “But, Spencer, they won’t kill me.” He reached for her, grabbing onto her upper arm with his uninjured one.

Spencer pulled herself from his grasp, moving to the driver’s side of the truck. “We need to get Scott to Deaton.” Spencer climbed in behind the wheel. “Are you coming?” She asked, starting the vehicle.

Derek’s face became hard, showing little emotion. He nodded, pushing Scott into the middle seat, and climbed in before Spencer could pull away.

Spencer, to fill the awkward and painful silence, called Stiles to tell him and the spare betas to back down and go home.

“What’s about Jackson?” Stiles asked.

“We’ll have to come up with a new plan. He’s probably long gone by now. Him and whoever was controlling him.”

“Do you hear that?” Derek asked, Spencer’s attention moving from the phone call to him.

“One second, Stiles.” Spencer moved the phone away from her ear, listening. “Sirens.” she said. “They’re getting louder.” Spencer brought the phone back to her ear. “I think we’re too late. Police are headed your way. Jackson was after someone tonight.”

“You mean he killed someone around all those people?” Stiles asked for clarification.

Spencer ignored his question. “Could you just stick around then? See what you can find out from Pops?” Spencer asked, pulling into the parking lot of the animal clinic, thankful to see Deaton’s car.

“I can’t. He’s not Sheriff anymore.”

“What?” Spencer questioned. She looked to Derek, gesturing for him to take Scott inside to the veterinarian.

The alpha wolf complied.

“I - I think it might be my fault, Spence.” Stiles worried. “I think things got really messed up. Between kidnapping Jackson and stealing the van. They forced him to back down as sheriff.”

Spencer groaned and slouched in her seat. “There’s got to be something we can do. We have to fix this.”

“We?”

“Yes, we.” Spencer insisted. “This isn’t just your fault, Stiles. And I know I haven’t been around much, you’re making that perfectly clear, but Pops not being sheriff is just wrong. Especially when he can’t help not knowing what’s going on in this town. He only has half of the information.”

“It’s not like we can tell him.” Stiles said. “And - and even if we did, who’s to say that he’ll believe us.”

“True.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe we just need to solve the case for him.”

“Yes!” Stiles exclaimed. “Spence, you’re a genius.”

“We have both sides of the story, right? You still have all the copies of the stuff that we need?”

“Of course. I’ve been helping my dad with this stuff for weeks.”

“Great. Get home. Start working on it. I’ll be over later to help. I need to check on Scott, then get him and Derek home.”

“Wait, what happened to Scott?” Stiles asked before she could hang up.

“Victoria Argent had him locked in a room, poisoning him with wolfsbane. He’s in with Deaton now.” Spencer sighed. “I can’t wait until things go back to normal. This stuff is insane.”

“I don’t think things will ever be normal again, Spence.” Stiles said reluctantly. “Especially now that you’re - ”

“I know. But don’t you hope they will? I mean, don’t you wish we could wake up not knowing anything about werewolves, witches, or kanimas?”

“Sometimes. Especially when one or all of those things are deadly.” Stiles said gaining a quiet laugh from Spencer. There was a short silence between them as Spencer thought about the hunters and what Derek had said about them coming after him. “Spencer?”

“Yeah?”

“Is everything else okay?” Stiles asked.

Spencer cleared her throat. “Things are just getting really weird, not to mention, scary. And I’ve just got this awful gut feeling that we’re not even close to being safe again.” She bit her lip. “I’m really worried about my friends. You and Scott. Derek and the pack.”

“We’ll beat it, Spence.” Stiles encouraged. “Just like we did with Peter. No one’s dying this time. A few scars maybe.”

The redhead nodded to herself. “You’re right. I’m probably just freaking out over nothing.”

“Just go check on Scott and then head over to my house. I’ll head home now.” Stiles told her.

“Drive safe. I’ll see you in a bit.” Spencer said, hanging up her phone. She quickly collected herself and pushed out of her truck, entering the clinic. “Doc!” She called out.

“Back here.” Deaton responded.

Spencer followed the voice to the exam room where they had planned tonight’s failed plan. She saw Scott sitting up on the table in the middle of the room, Derek on a pile of bags of dog food by the wall, and the Doctor looking over Scott. Spencer sighed in relief at Scott’s consciousness. “You okay?”

“He’ll be fine.” Deaton claimed. “I suggest getting rest before the full moon tomorrow night.”

“I’ll take him home.” Spencer said, moving to help Scott off of the table.

“We need to talk about our next plan first.” Scott insisted, resisting Spencer’s pull.

“Scott,” Spencer tried to argue, “It can wait. At least until morning.” She said, getting a headshake from Scott. “Doc, c’mon. Give him a note or something.”

“I believe I’m staying out of this one.” Deaton said, dismissing himself from the room.

Spencer groaned. “Fine, I’m giving you ten minutes before I drag you out of here by one of your ears.”

“Alright. So what should we do?” Scott asked.

Spencer scoffed. “I assumed you had a plan if you were so dead set on sticking around to talk about it.” She shook her head. “You gonna chime in here, Mr. Alpha? Maybe you wanna go out with a bang? One last master plan before you’re cut in half?”

Derek glared at her, but stood from his seat. “We need something we know is going to work.”

“Are you saying my plan didn’t work?” Spencer asked. “If you are, you’d be terribly wrong.”

“I’m saying we need a new plan because next time, one of us is gonna be too hurt to heal.”

Scott groaned. “He’s right. It was a good plan, Pence, but too many things went wrong. We need something fool-proof. Something no one will see coming.” He paused. “Especially because I’m starting to believe we can’t save Jackson.

“What?!” Spencer gasped.

“We can’t seem to kill him either.” Derek pointed out. “I’ve seen a lot of things. I’ve never seen anything like this. Every new moon’s just gonna make him stronger.”

“So, if we can’t save him and we can’t kill him, how do we stop Jackson?” Spencer asked.

“I don’t know.” Derek shook his head. He looked defeated. “I don’t even know if we can.”

“Yeah, maybe we should just let the Argents handle it.” Scott suggested.

“I’m the one who turned him.” Derek reminded. “It’s my fault.”

Spencer shook her head, and walked away from the table, taking a deep breath.

“You didn’t turn him into this. I mean, this happened because of something that happened in his past, right?” Scott asked.

“That’s a legend in a book. It’s not that simple.” Derek said.

“But its something to start with.” Spencer pushed.

“What do you mean?” Scott questioned, ignoring Spencer’s comment. “What are you not telling us?”

Derek narrowed his eyes at Scott. “Why do you think I’m always keeping something from you?”

“Because you always are keeping something from me.”

“Maybe I do it to protect you.”

“Doesn’t being a part of your pack mean no more secrets?” Scott asked seriously.

Spencer scoffed. “Derek doesn’t like sharing even if you’re in his pack.” She pointed out. “Hell, I’m his freaking emissary and he still doesn’t tell me anything. He’d rather keep it all in and handle things himself, even though, he’s got five other wolves on his side.”

Derek eyed her, pursing his lips. “Red, take Scott home. Scott, sleep. Heal. Both of you need to make sure your friends are safe. Full moon’s coming. With the way things are going, I’ve got a feeling its gonna be a rough one.”

Spencer took a deep breath, squaring her jaw. “Let’s go, Scott.” Spencer insisted. “Don’t expect me back at the subway. I’m staying with Stiles tonight.” She left through the door, not waiting as Scott pushed off the table.

“Red.” Derek tried to call after her.

“Goodnight, Derek.”