From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Of course they got detention. Realistically, Maddie was shocked they weren't suspended for the total catastrophe that was the boys locker room incident. If anything, she couldn't help but wonder how shelving books in the library was anywhere near an appropriate punishment - not that she would complain about it. The silence of the book stacks was probably the best part of her day thus far. Quiet, as it turned out, was something she could rarely ever afford.
"So, what was that?"
The sudden sound of a voice brought reality crashing in again and Maddie glanced from the bookshelves to Erica. "What?"
"I didn't think slayers would have glass jaws."
"We don't," Maddie said, eyes narrowing before she looked away. She sounded too defensive and she knew it. If this was the Erica from a few months ago, she might've even apologized. "I was caught off guard. That's it."
In the very next moment, Maddie felt a shift in the energy around her and instinctively turned toward Erica, grabbing the fist that was rushing toward her barely in time.
"That's being caught off guard." There was a smugness in Erica's whole expression, like her voice couldn't contain all of it.
Maddie let go of the fist with a small shove, clenching her jaw. Without snapping back with a reply, she continued to shelve books, one after the other - but now much sloppier. She just wanted to leave. She wanted to get away from these people, all of them. There was never a break, a reprieve from the strange occurrences or the questions. She heard more whispers a few rows down and something inside her snapped. She spun around to look at Erica again. "Why do you even care?"
"Maybe I'm making sure I don't get taken out," Erica drawled and Maddie noticed her side glance. "Maybe I'm making sure you don't get taken out either."
"Since when was I one of your priorities?" Maddie crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "What would Derek say?"
Erica's gaze shot over to Maddie, eyes blazing. "In case you haven't been noticing, Isaac and I have been trying to save your ass for weeks. And all you can do is accuse us because we didn't want to be helpless anymore. Do you even know what that feels like?"
The scar on her stomach itched and she fought to ignore it, her words coming out in a hiss. "Of course I do."
"Then maybe you just don't remember anymore." Erica's jaw tightened. "I didn't want a protector, I wanted a friend. That's it. I don't know why I tried."
The anger that filled Maddie's throat drained away. Her mouth was slack for another moment before she closed it and turned away. She couldn't even force herself to apologize. Even if she was able to, it would've been promptly interrupted by the rumble of books falling to the floor. She paused, noting the turn of unsettling silence before it was followed by more rumbling, although it seemed much louder.
Maddie turned her head to Erica, brows furrowed. "Did you hear that?"
☽ † ☾
He let his coffee sit for too long.
One of the worst things about researching, in Xander's opinion was when he'd shovel out the money for a decent cup of joe and he'd be too busy looking at old books to drink it.
Then again, he wouldn't have needed it if Terra, one of the older girls, hadn't been bugging him all night about a lousy Bohg'dar demon terrorizing her campus and whether or not they might eat the faces of twenty-something-year-old law students. He didn't even know what the heck a Bohg'dar demon was (and when he found out, he wished he still didn't).
Headquarters was lively enough to keep him up, though. He could hear nothing but idle chatting from the floor above him and grunts and thuds of training below. Around those parts, it typically felt as if there were no time to sleep and that was being made abundantly clear at the moment.
Luckily, in the office area he currently sat in, he was alone. He wasn't sure he could deal head on with a bunch of hyperactive, chatty slayers on no sleep - which was precisely why he groaned with his head in his hand when he heard someone enter.
"Occupado," he said, his voice gravelly from exhaustion.
"Hey, what did we say about claiming the whole computer room?" a soft, slightly nasally woman's voice replied with a calming familiarity. What was also familiar though, was the tightness in her tone that made the man worry all over again.
He spun his chair around and used his one good eye to glance at the worried expression of his best friend. "Will! What's goin' on?"
The red head ignored the question and pulled up a chair at the computer next to the plethora of aged tomes. Her pale fingers began racing across the keyboard as her anxious green eyes stayed focused on the screen. There was a tenseness, a nervousness, in her movements, like he hadn't seen in years. Of course, this seemed to alert him more than the coffee possibly could have.
"Okay, you're freaking me out a little bit." He sat up straight and leaned closer to the woman beside him, reading over her shoulder. An email window was opened and she was already a paragraph in.
...There's been a disruption, a huge one. I don't know what it is though. A crack? A tear? I felt something that I haven't felt since Su
She stopped typing completely, her fingers frozen on the keys, and took a deep breath before she turned to her friend. "I think something bad's happened. I was meditating and...something grabbed me. I don't know what. I wanted to contact the coven in England just for some confirmation, I guess."
Xander still seemed more curious than worried. "Can't be that bad, right? I mean, you haven't had to contact your old coven since after-"
"Yeah," Willow said with a bit of emphasis. "That's kinda the problem."
Xander seemed a bit taken aback. It had been almost nine years since she'd gone to an outside source for help. They didn't really need to, after all. They had an army. Nothing was that bad that they couldn't handle it. He turned completely toward her with a sigh and spun her chair around to face him. Her eyes were wide and still horror-struck as she looked at him. He gently put his hands on her shoulders, searching for a way to calm her. "Hey, whatever's happening, we got this. When there's trouble we can handle it. That's kind of our thing."
"Trouble's definitely a-brewin'," she said, sounding withdrawn. "The brew just hasn't been this big in a while."
The man in front of her shrugged his broad shoulders. "Let's start at the beginning, okay? Have you tried to meditate since?"
"I don't know about you, but when I'm manhandled by the universe, I'm a little iffy on letting it happen again."
"We gotta start somewhere, right?" Xander answered, confidently. "Besides if the universe gets grabby again, you'll show 'em who's boss. I mean, you're Willow freaking Rosenberg. The cosmos doth tremble at your presence."
Willow smiled slightly and exhaled a long breath. She took a brief look at her email before she stood up and moved her chair. After a moment's pause, she turned to Xander again. "Okay, but just in case? You should probably hide behind something heavy and preferably bolted to the floor."
☽ † ☾
Lights were exploding from above and roars sounded from behind her and a few rows down.
That's when she felt something sharp slice across the back of her neck.
And it felt like a limb going to sleep, only now it was her entire body all at once. She crumbled to the ground in a heap moments before Erica did. She landed face down her head slightly facing the blonde only feet away.
The kanima screeched above them as the whole room shook and bookshelves came tumbling down.
Then, something even more horrifying happened. Erica started convulsing violently on the floor. She'd been frozen by terror the day in the gym and swore she wouldn't let that happen again. She swore to herself that she would follow the same steps Allison did that day and she would help. That's what she's supposed to do, right? Help people?
All the while, there she was, feet away from the blonde, watching helplessly. Frozen.
She couldn't even cry out for someone.
That was when she saw someone turn the corner and stop, although she could only see their feet. They shouted and knelt down beside Erica and Maddie felt a bit of relief wash over her when she saw that it had been Stiles. She noticed two other pair of feet a bit farther away just before he cradled Erica's shaking form and shouted, "I think she's having a seizure!"
As Scott rushed over, Stiles looked over at Maddie, who looked back at Erica and tried to speak but it came out as nothing but a whimper.
"She'll be okay," Stiles began. "We'll help her. I swear."
Erica kept repeating that she had to go to Derek as the boys spoke. Scott ran back over to a voice that Maddie presumed was Allison on the other side of the shelf on closest to them. When he returned, he picked up Erica, and looked over at Stiles. "Can you help Maddie up?"
Stiles nodded quickly and clumsily rushed over to the brunette still on the ground. "I just want you to know I'm sorry in advance for this."
She wanted to ask why but it was made painfully clear when he threw her arm around his neck and fumbled a bit while trying to scoop her up as easily as Scott did with Erica. In the process, Maddie's forehead collided with the side of the wooden shelf.
"You're gonna kill me for this and I've come to terms with that."
Once she was finally off of the ground and Stiles had started moving, they were soon speeding out of the library.
In hindsight, she regretted not asking whether or not kanima venom also came with sensory loss along with the all of the victim's motor functions - because she was now keenly aware that it did not. It was even more troubling that she had to find out like this, being carried around bridal style, leaning completely on some guy-
It's just Stiles. Get it together.
- and being overloaded by all of her senses at once. There was no way around it either. She would breathe and the smell of laundry soap and spearmint gum would flood her nose. Not just that though. He sort of smelled like the inside of his jeep - or maybe his jeep just smelled like him, only less so. Like the woods and exhaust and something else she couldn't quite pinpoint. Of course, that sense wasn't the least bothersome. If anything, it was a distraction from the more troublesome ones.
He was warm. The whole right side of her face was leaning against his chest and his arms were wrapped around her and the first thing that popped into her head was that he was warm. This knowledge, though, seemed to be a mixture of comforting and anxiety-inducing. Maybe it was the lack of human contact she's had lately.
Heightening both of those feelings was what she was hearing, even over his feet hitting the linoleum one after the other. Breathing. Well, sort of. Wheezing, mostly - and a loud, rapid thumping behind that. He was freaking out - which she understood, but it still worried her more than she wished it would.
She was so preoccupied with her sensory overload that she didn't even realize at first when they made it outside or that her toes had been nervously curling and uncurling in her boots.
It was a relief when she was set down in the passenger side seat of the jeep (and buckled in like a child, which brought her annoyance rushing back). Her body leaned heavily against the window of the car as she heard Scott say something from the backseat, where he kept Erica propped upright. She didn't catch it though, as her thoughts rushed back to Erica - both her words from earlier and her current state.
She tried to focus back on her toes moving instead.
The car stopped after another few minutes, although it felt like at least an hour.
Scott had already bolted out, presumably with Erica, as Stiles opened the passenger side door and unbuckled the seatbelt clumsily. As he tried to pull her out of the car to pick her up again, Maddie managed to shove herself away weakly, even though it meant that she had stumbled to the dirt.
"I'm fine," she said, but it came out mumbled. Her limbs felt as if they were moving in slow motion as she attempted to stand but fell to her knees again.
"God, you're stubborn," Stiles muttered as he threw her arm around his neck and heaved her into a standing position and began walking. "I'm trying to help you, you know that?"
They slowly limped into the warehouse that was almost pitch black inside and smelled a bit like burning tires. Once they found the train car that Scott, Derek, and Erica were in, Stiles set Maddie down on the ground against the wall and rushed over to the others a few feet away. After a few long minutes, Maddie heard Erica scream over and over again and it felt like a jolt to her nerves and she tried lifting herself up to little avail. She could hear Erica breathing normally again even though she couldn't see much from where she was.
She did hear something though; Erica was speaking quietly.
"Stiles...you make a good Batman."
Something in Maddie's stomach churned painfully, but not in a way she would describe as bad. Nervous and grateful, maybe, but not all bad. Perhaps a bit worried that it didn't feel bad. She struggled to lift the corners of her lips in a sign of relief and gratitude, because, honestly, she couldn't help but agree with Erica.
☽ † ☾
It'd been a while since Buffy had problems getting to sleep, or at least more than usual. Maybe that's why she was still trying to get some shut eye in the middle of the day. It just felt like...like something was eating at her. Like something was trying to catch her attention but she wasn't sure what. Whatever it was though, it had led her up to the sleeping quarters of the younger girls.
The bunks were quiet these days - but not for the lack of girls, weirdly enough.
Most of the girls didn't really get along now, though. Sure they talked to each other, but as coworkers, not friends. The kinship had fallen away almost entirely; most of them had either a group of friends outside of headquarters or just didn't make friends. Death had a way of doing that to a person though.
Still, she missed the noise, the chatting, the fighting. It brought life to the place. It made Buffy miss Xander's group a little bit. Well, a whole lotta bit. What'd they call themselves? The 'a' squad?
She missed Emery and her bossiness - not to mention the girl's eye for style. She missed Terra's sarcasm and ability to make a room full of people buckle at her negotiating skills. She missed Nora's bad jokes and obnoxiously loud laugh that would wake up the whole room. She missed Madeline's kindness and almost constant questions. She missed Marie's unwavering optimism.
The bed sank a little when she sat down on the stripped bed. It had been that way for nearly a year and counting. In fact, more and more bed were becoming empty as time lurched forward - and all for different reasons. Some girls ran away, some moved on to bigger and better lives, and some...well, they died. Came with the calling.
The small, blonde woman felt a jolt of anger though. It sounded so casual when death was never, ever casual or to be taken lightly. They weren't incredibly often, but she was sure there was even some girl on the other side of the world fighting for her life with powers she probably never wanted. Every death was a result of a decision she made for those girls because they never had the choice. Buffy hadn't either, but did that make it alright?
It was the constant argument she had with herself, even though she would've made the same call every time; she would've still known that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. There was no other way.
Not everyone would agree.
Her hands curled around the edge of the bare mattress as she looked over at the bed across from it. It still had its sheets - thin burgundy ones - but they were dusty. Typically, they would keep the sheets on the bed only if they knew the girl who left them there was coming back. Still, the owner of the bed had left almost everything else bare, save for a frame on the nightstand.
It was understandable; the wound was still too fresh. Buffy might've done the same once upon a time.
She gingerly picked up the frame, the picture inside peering back at her. Two girls with wide smiles looked back at her. Maddie seemed happier than she'd ever been as she looking into the camera, leaning toward the blonde girl beside her slightly. Marie was looking at Maddie with the most genuine smile Buffy had ever seen the girl have. She didn't even know when the picture was taken, honestly.
Probably before Nora went missing. Definitely before they relocated to San Francisco.
Maddie never liked it here, or at least that's what Xander had told her. Buffy hadn't even noticed, but that was mostly because she'd decided not to. Marie apparently loved it; it almost seemed fitting that it was the last place she ever lived.
It was like a shot to the gut, that night. Buffy was the last to get there; she was the one who had to carry the body out of the alley and that was when she realized just how much she missed when she made the decision to put space between her and the other slayers. She was the person who ripped those girls from their families and she couldn't even be that much to them. It was no wonder that Maddie loathed her.
God, how that girl would cling to her in those first few year...it even hurt a little when she started avoiding her altogether. She abandoned a little girl who had no one left. Part of the shell that was created the night Marie was murdered was her fault too. She had spent so much time building herself up as a general that she forgot what it was like in times of peace.
And now here was a framed moment that would never happen again.
As she set the frame back down on the nightstand, she heard a shrill scream that snapped her out of her thoughts. Her head shot up and she was on her feet and running in no time at all, rounding corners and bounding through thresholds.
Her feet led her to the computer lab, as sparks flew from exploding lightbulbs over head. The room sank into darkness, the only light coming from a lone computer at the other end of the room.
"Buff! Look out!"
The slayer turned toward Xander's voice, seeing a black-eyed Willow walking toward her. Without a moment's pause, her friend was right in front of her and sent her flying into a far wall with one backhand. The blonde had hit her head hard enough that her vision faded in and out for a second or two before she was picked up by the throat and hoisted up high enough that her feet couldn't touch the ground.
"You."
This wasn't Willow. The voice that came out of the redhead's mouth was deep and menacing and the strength it called upon was more than even Buffy could fight against. Xander tried rushing over to help but was met with a shove so hard from Willow's free hand that he was sent crashing into a table.
"You're too late. There is another."
Buffy felt herself choking as she struggled against Willow's grip on her neck.
"This world is cracked. She is not one of us. Balance must be restored. Find her. Find her before-"
The blackness in Willow's gaze drained to reveal her eyes as they were before and her grip on Buffy's throat fell away as they both collapsed to the ground. Buffy coughed violently as she rubbed the purple mark around her neck and looked over at her friend who was breathing heavily. "Buffy...Buffy, I...I'm sorry..."
Buffy cautiously went over to Willow and gently touched her arm.
"It's okay. We're okay," she said as she caught sight of Xander standing again unsteadily. "What happened?"
"A whole lot of not good," Willow said weakly.
"What? What's going on?" Buffy's eyebrows furrowed. "Is it a demon? A possess-y demon?"
Willow shook her head slowly and swallowed. "That wasn't a demon...It was the First Slayer."
Buffy could feel the color drain from her face as her eyes widened at her friend. She didn't speak as she thought back to earlier and her strange feeling. She thought to what Willow was saying while she was possessed. Her mouth became a thin line.
"Someone who's not a Potential was chosen." Willow looked her in the eyes, horror and worry in her green gaze. "Whoever they are just woke up something very old and very pissed off."
☽ † ☾
He could feel the dirt rising from the ground, twisting and winding around him, urging him forward. Lilith stood behind him a few steps, her white blonde hair covering most of her face as her lips formed a wide, cheshire cat smile. They dreamt of this day.
"B eati qui semet igni ,
beati qui honorem illi veteres ..."
He dropped to his knees, his face hidden under his straw fedora hat and his hands holding handfuls of dry earth for only a moment before allowing it to slip through his fingers slowly. His grey eyes watched as the metal 'Welcome to Beacon Hills' sign swayed slightly in the breeze.
"Cineribus patrum nostrorum causabunt in igne sancto,
et in illo igne accenderentur elegit ambulabo in coelestem paradisum..."
The wind howled like a dying wolf and he smiled through his thick, dark beard to the heavens that shined down on him, lighting the darkness.
"Beati qui negavit salutis,
ut veteribus discreparit permisit eos ,
transitus trans muros hos instauraretis!"
The wind stopped and silence consumed the empty stretch of road. Lilith's bright blue eyes grew large as the Father grasped at another handful of dirt and stood again, dusting off his dark brown slacks with his free hand. His other hand that was balled into a fist opened slightly and a thin stream of dirt slipped from it slowly.
"Ashes to ashes," he murmured and turned to the pale girl behind him with another smile. "Dust to dust."
Once the dirt ceased, he took a step closer to the sign that mocked them. He raised his hands, palm facing the barrier he was so familiar with and he moved them toward it. For a moment, he touched the cool metal and laughed loudly and hysterically. Eight long years. In the next moment, his skin finally began to burn again and he jolted back.
His laughter became more boisterous. "Amen!"
He cackled on and on and Lilith smiled, arms wide as she looked up to the stars. The sounds echoed on and on into the night.