From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 42: Chapter 42

One Year and Two Months Earlier
Scotland was Maddie's favorite place to live in the world - it was really a shame she couldn't stay. Instead Buffy slowly moved the caravan of slayers to San Francisco in small increments, group by group. It was only two weeks since reaching the new HQ and Maddie already loathed the city.
It was too loud, for one. Walking outside in the foggy moors somewhere north of Old Aberdeen was soothing and silent. California came pre-loaded with its own soundtrack of screaming sirens, thumping sub-woofers in nightclubs, and the chatter of millions all mixing and funneling into white noise at all hours of the day and night. Scotland was all green and gray and neutral even at noon, and the canvas of trees and sky bled into each other like watercolor. Of course San Francisco was otherworldly in its own way, too. It was full of bright blues and greens and reds and even the grays were hyper-saturated, all within the hard, thick brushstroke lines to separate all of it.
Well, not so much brushstrokes. More like thick, black permanent marker. Even in the older, rusted parts of the city, there was too much contrast.
Marie absolutely loved it. She loved the uncertain mixture of old and new, the glimpses of a flower child past amongst a silicon future and all of it overexposed in flickering neon. She couldn't get enough of it. She couldn't get enough of people in general. Maddie almost forgot about just how different they were outside of that old castle, the stone walls holding in their friendship like lungs holding in a breath. It needed to be let it out, because with it left the toxins, but she knew you couldn't ever take in the same oxygen as it was.
Maybe that was another reason she hated California - for what it did to both of them. For how it made Maddie cling tighter to Marie, afraid of losing her best friend, and how it made Marie wilder. Maddie began taking more risks during training just to try and keep up, to hold onto the last part of her time Scotland. Marie didn't seem to mind or, for that matter, notice.
When her squad - the A Squad, the best of the best at their base of operations - would split up on patrol, Maddie would immediately grab Marie's hand before she ran off. One thing that never seemed to change was that Marie would grip Maddie's hand just as tightly. It was a comfort every time - anything, just to not be alone.
Her team did nearly everything together, aside from patrolling. Their bunks were in the same room and they would stay up late and talk all night - some more talkative than others. They would go out to eat and be so loud (typically because of Marie) that they were banned from a few places in town. They'd even go to nightclubs on "teen nights", even when a few of the girls were too young and had to stay behind - meaning Maddie, at the cusp of fifteen, and Nora, the youngest at fourteen, were too young.
Of course, they didn't care when Marie suggested celebrating Maddie's fifteenth birthday at a warehouse party. They didn't care when Maddie complained as Terra did her makeup - although they should've apparently. Marie frowned and placed her hands on her hips as she threw the older girl with sandy brown skin, too many mismatched pieces medieval silver jewelry, and jet black hair an annoyed look. "I said edgy, not goth."
They all took Marie's word with a grain of salt when it came to makeup. She thought any visible amount of black eyeliner was basically goth or emo territory but her makeup always made her look fresh faced, like she wasn't wearing any at all - despite how long she took to apply the ten or so products daily. Anything outside of that she called "trying too hard".
"Back up, princess," Terra bit back with an eye roll. "You want to take over? Go right ahead."
Marie flicked a blonde curl over her shoulder and clicked her tongue before sweeping out of the room and taking any tension with her. Emery sauntered over, adjusting the strap of her white tank top before allowing it to snap lightly against her dark skin. Her glossy, plum lips stretched into a wide smile when she looked from Maddie's face to Terra's. "Boom! Perfection."
"You expected less?" Terra teased.
"Never. I'm telling you, makeup artistry. Look into it."
Terra snorted a laugh. "Huh. Makeup artist freelancing over the district attorney's office? Let me think- No."
Em nudged Terra playfully as she adjusted a bronze earring and then squinted at Maddie's face again. She pointed at her right eye. "You missed a spot."
"I'll miss your spot," Terra said and Maddie choked on a laugh.
However, Charlie, who was busy curling her dark brown hair, dropped the iron on the floor and went into hysterics when Marie shouted from the other side of the doorway, "Oh my god, we get it!"
Nora chuckled from her bed, but the expression on her face immediately drained. Nora was the most left out of the group already due to her age. Nora, the girl with olive skin and bright green eyes and the least physical scars, looked about as out of place as Maddie typically felt. The difference was that Nora didn't have a girl like Marie vouching for her, even if Charlie played mentor to her here and there; Maddie, on the other hand...got lucky. What Nora was, though, was the best of the trainees in her bracket - so of course she ended up with them.
Still, she was too flighty, forgetful, and, most of all, naive. There was certainly a difference between being good in a room full of higher-ups as opposed to being good in a mausoleum full of vampires. After three or four patrols, most of the team agreed that they weren't a fan. Maddie didn't mind her, honestly, despite never saying so out loud. Nora was everything Maddie was terrified of showing and if she wasn't so afraid of being left behind by Marie and the others, she'd be the same way.
"Okay, baby slayer," Terra cooed, her tone mocking as she reinforced Maddie's fears. Maddie's head jerked back to her, abashed but unable to think of a comeback. Terra smirked, her necklaces jingling and clinking together as she turned, grabbed a hand mirror, and offered it to Maddie. "Take a good look."
Maddie gave a tight smile in thanks before accepting the mirror and looking into it.
Her eyes seemed to be glaring back at her through thick black lines and dark shadow; even though she was sure she wasn't glaring at all. Her skin glowed, but not unnaturally and the natural pink of her lips stayed almost the same, only popping slightly. Even the curve of her brows somehow looked sharper. She seemed angry, unapproachable even. She seemed...maybe a little dangerous.
She wasn't quite sure if that's what she wanted. Maybe she really was an angry person, but did she want everyone to see that? Did she want people to see her as someone to be feared? She glanced up at Terra, knowing she probably looked worried. She always looked worried. Terra's grin didn't waver, as if she had been expecting the reaction.
"Are you sure about this?" Maddie asked, gesturing to her face.
Terra quirked an eyebrow. "What were you expecting?"
Maddie gaze flickered over to Marie automatically. Marie, the natural beauty with her perfect curls and pale, freckled skin and hypnotic blue eyes. Maddie looked away, her head down, but Terra was having none of that as she shot a look to Marie and back to Maddie.
"Word of advice? Grow the hell up. You're not going to be Marie. Ever." Terra's voice was lowered to a whisper but it sounded more like a hiss. The words sliced through Maddie's stomach, her eyes becoming a little glossy and she didn't look up, afraid to allow Terra to see her cry. She hated people seeing her cry and she especially hated how many time they had already. Besides, crying would ruin all of her eye makeup, she assumed. Terra seemed to allow Maddie's head to stay down as she went on. "And stop acting like that's so fucking bad. It's not."
"But I look angry."
"Aren't you?" Terra sent her a scrutinizing stare that Maddie could only see out of her peripheral. "You spend more time than any of us training your ass off. You walk around this place with bruised up, bloody knuckles like it's nothing."
Maddie's head jerked up as a new surge of emotion surfaced - only this time, it was rage. "Yeah, and I'm still not as good as the rest of you."
"Jesus! So what? You being on this team wasn't a fluke." Terra rolled her dark eyes as she started to pack away her eyeliner and shadows in a black toolbox. "Okay, yeah, we didn't think you'd make it through the first night."
Maddie's teeth gritted and she averted her gaze to the furthest wall. Of course they didn't.
"And Marie pled your case, so I watched you that first patrol because I wanted to prove that uppity bitch wrong." Terra closed the toolbox and latched it with a loud, metallic 'snap'. "You know what happened that night?"
It was a routine patrol, only around a local cemetery, and somehow things went awry. She could even remember the smell of decay on the vampire that had grabbed her shirt and flung her into the sharp corner of a mausoleum. "They got me."
"They got you. You were bleeding so bad, it was everywhere and I thought you were done before any of us could reach you. Then you wiped away the blood and it smeared all across your face, like some viking war paint. Totally done for, banged up, and bloody... and you smiled. You smiled. Like, what the fuck, are you a masochist?" Maddie could hear the grin on Terra's face but didn't have a chance to answer. "Then you got up, screamed, and went total berserker-mode on his ass - and when I say scream, I mean like - holy shit - you let out a freaking battle cry."
Maddie finally looked at Terra again, in disbelief and awe. The person she was describing couldn't have been her. Not even a little bit.
Terra leaned forward and dropped her voice even lower. "That's when it started making sense. Marie's absolutely fucking terrified of you. There aren't people like you in her world. You want to be the best more than any of us and that makes her afraid. Own it. The way I see it, it's not makeup. It's war paint."
It was just then that Maddie realized she was still holding the mirror that was resting on her lap. She raised it and took another look at her face, her own stare burning through her. When she asked her next question, her voice still wavering, she didn't notice Terra almost completely out of the room. "...Am I going to war tonight?"
"God, you really haven't learned anything, have you?" Terra asked, her tone returning to its more natural state of annoyance. "We're slayers. We go to war every night."
Maddie's gaze didn't leave the mirror and she forced the corner of her lip up in a smirk. Terra was right; she was utterly terrifying. The smirk slowly turned into a grin and the worry in her stomach faded a little. It was not the last time that night that she found herself grinning. That night would be the night that changed her whole world.
That was the night, she knew now - fourteen months later, that would lead to the worst moment of her life.
☽ † ☾
Maddie didn't know what hurt more, her ribs or her pride.
Actually, that was a lie. It was her ribs, definitely.
She hadn't even had time to recoup or be angry when she was on her way out of the door. She'd already grabbed her jacket and phone. She was already stumbling up the steps, gripping her torso more like she was trying to claw out the broken bones than hold them in place. She didn't want to look into the horror struck face of her aggressor, even when the girl started mumbling under her breath the same three words over and over again until they were a meaningless mush.
"Oh my god. Oh my god, oh my god, ohmygod..."
4 Unread Messages, 2 Missed Calls, she read from the lock screen on her phone as she made her way to her room to change and clean up. Stiles, Scott
As she opened the door and unlocked her phone, she plopped the phone face up on her bed and she carefully changed her dirty, sweaty clothes.
Stiles 『 We're meeting up at the Vet Clinic in an hour』
Stiles『Hey where are you』
Stiles『This is important like life or death important we need you』
Maddie's jaw clenched, half out of annoyance toward Stiles and half anger toward everyone else in the house. She tugged up her jeans, grumbling to herself before she swiped her finger across the screen to view Scott's message.
Scott 『Stiles said he couldn't get a hold of you, what's going on? Are you ok?』
She quickly pulled her shirt over her head, groaning as she looked out her window. The sun was almost beneath the trees in the distance and the sky burned with pinks and blues and oranges. She'd wasted so much time. In moments, she was hopping out of her room, frantically trying to tie her boot strings as she entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her to apply her makeup. Once she had a chance to look up at the mirror, though, horror flitted over her face for a second before she frowned at her reflection.
There was the deep, dark red of dried blood under her nose and just above her upper lip. It was nothing, really. She'd been hurt worse before. She inflicted worse.
Without meaning to, she allowed an image to slip into her mind. Trista, her second grade bully. Trista, spitting up blood as a stream of tears came from her purple and sickly yellow eyes. Trista, who was fighting for breath as Maddie's fist kept colliding with with skin and bone and blood. She couldn't stop. She was just so...angry - so, so angry and full of hate and power. Trista, who was unconscious when several teachers pried Maddie from the girl. Trista, who was in Intensive Care probably for weeks.
Instantly, Maddie grabbed the washcloth hanging beside her and ran some water over it before scrubbing furiously at the blood. She looked away from her arms and shoulders that were spotted with large, dark bruises and didn't dare lift her shirt to see the rest of the damage. How? How did Allison not only beat her but so handily? Why was Maddie so slow to react?
She pushed the questions aside when she heard her phone buzz in the next room. Now was certainly not the time. She opened up the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a small, black toolbox that was dirty and slightly dented in some places. Night was coming and she had to be ready for war.
When she finished and left the bathroom, she checked her phone to see another message from Stiles.
Stiles 『If you get this in the next hour please meet us at my place asap if not i'm going to assume something's wrong and we'll come find you』
Grabbing her things, she loaded them all into the pocket of her messenger bag and tucked her cross into her shirt before throwing on her jacket in one smooth motion, even though the stretching out of her arms and torso felt like knives digging into her ribs. Quickly, she rushed out of the room and shut the door behind her, rounding a corner and seeing Xander at the bottom of the steps. Xander had tried to catch her arm on the way out of the house but she dodged and spun to meet his eye for a moment. "I can't right now. I have somewhere to be."
Her voice was coarse and low, more like a growl than a mumble.
"Maddie, we're worried. What happened down there?" Xander asked, eyebrows knitting together.
"Nothing. I proved a point."
"But why didn't you fight back?"
"I did."
"Have you been feeling alright?"
"I'm fine." She yanked the door open and it groaned. Her eyes scanned the darkness just beyond and she sighed. "We'll talk later. I gotta go."
She turned to him to deliver a hard, resolute expression and, before he could argue, she stumbled into a sprint.
☽ † ☾
Night descended and they were running out of time. Where was Maddie?
Scott only just showed up at Stiles' house to get a ride over to the warehouse where the rave was being held and the idea was for the three of them to head over there in about five minutes. Unfortunately, Stiles hadn't heard from Maddie in hours, since she went to find Allison.
That...that was another thing. Allison. Allison was a slayer. Allison Argent was a Vampire Slayer. So many questions came from that one fact and he could even tell when he looked over at Scott just how distracted he was and probably for the same reason.
Then there was his dad. Stiles recalled the look on his dad's face as he walked into their house, head lowered and eyes empty. Like he'd lost damn near everything. Guilt recoiled in Stiles' gut, weighing him down and making him sick when he looked at his house. Somewhere behind the brick and dry wall, his dad was sitting alone and probably staring at a pile of papers, determined in his futile need to solve the case anyway. All because Stiles screwed up and kept screwing up. What hurt the most was that they were both aware of this but the only one angry at Stiles was Stiles. He shook his head and looked back at the street.
"Maybe she's on her way," Scott said.
Stiles kicked the ground. "Or maybe something went wrong."
"She's our friend. She'd let us know."
"Or she wouldn't say anything so we wouldn't get hurt," Stiles mumbled, unable to hide his worry and gripping the keys in his pocket tightly. They couldn't wait for her any longer. Maybe it was her tone when those people showed up that made him so uneasy. He didn't trust them and he wasn't sure that Maddie did either. He watched her take a step towards him and Scott and speak to them like coworkers.
"Once we gain our powers, they find us."
"...how long ago was that?"
"Eight years."
That couldn't be possible. It had to have been a one-time thing, like maybe they were being professional because of how serious the situation was. Then again, Maddie never talked about them as people; she brought up her 'watcher' a few times but never mentioned a name. It all felt...cold. Empty. For a second he wondered what her real family was like and if she really remembered them, if there was room in her life for holiday dinners and embarrassing stories or if the slayer part was really all there was. Just as the thought entered his head, however, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Scott staring down the street, suddenly alert.
"I hear something."
Stiles head shot in the same direction and he squinted, seeing only the bare street of his neighborhood cast is orange light from the street lamps. He strained his hearing for noise aside from the distant cars from the main road. Nothing. "What? What is it?"
There was a long pause and Scott slowly grinned. "Running."
It was several more long seconds before Stiles heard the familiar echoing thud of boots hitting blacktop and a couple more before he spotted the even more recognizable black jacket and brown curls whipping behind the form of a girl. It felt like a large rock had been lifted from his stomach - after a day that made his gut feel more akin to a quarry where Dwayne Johnson worked.
Maddie sped forward toward them, head down, almost like a bull charging as she gripped the strap of her messenger bag. Or maybe...maybe like she was doubling over? That couldn't be right. When she finally did look up, just seconds before nearly colliding with the side of Stiles' jeep, she staggered slightly to a halt. Her eyes closed again as she winced, dropping her bag and gripping her side. Stiles didn't react nearly as fast as Scott, who rushed over to catch her before she collapsed to the ground. Suddenly, the weight in Stiles' stomach returned tenfold as he reached her other side.
"Whoa, hey," Stiles said as she shoved herself away from Scott, leaning heavily against the jeep instead - a move that felt annoyingly typical of her but he was too worried to give it much thought. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Dumb question, he scolded himself just as Maddie rolled her neck and sent him a glare. For a second, he was sure he was hallucinating because he could've sworn the glare softened but she looked away too quickly for him to tell. "I'm fine. Just healing."
"Healing from what?" Scott asked, concern filling his tone. "What did this?"
She looked at him and Stiles could see her jaw tense. There was something he didn't recognize in her eyes and, just like before, it was gone in a flash - but there was clarity in it that Stiles couldn't ignore. Shame. Scott, being the most emotionally sound of any of them, seemed to pick this up much quicker and what it meant. He shook his head slowly and his eyebrows furrowed. Maddie looked away again, pushing herself off the side of the jeep and standing up straight, maybe to say 'no, I'm okay, don't worry' but what came out was something different. "She didn't mean it. It was a test and...and it's a lot of power. She doesn't know her own strength yet."
Scott backed away, silent with his dark eyes downcast. Stiles swallowed, feeling a bit withdrawn from the shock. Allison did this.
Maddie almost seemed panicked by this, like she'd seen it before. "I... A lot of us are the same way when it happens. The important thing is she stopped. Some of us don't."
Stiles didn't want to think about what that could possibly mean but couldn't help it. Did Maddie hurt someone - an innocent someone? He couldn't think about what came after that. There was no way. You don't know her, his paranoia argued.
"Look, now's not the time alright?" Maddie said, her voice tearing through the tense silence. "The others are handling it. We have a kanima to worry about right now."
"She's right," Stiles said and Scott shot him a worried look. "Allison's got a team of people to help her right now and I'm guessing Jackson's next victim doesn't have that luxury. We're running out of time."
Scott looked down at the pavement again. "Yeah."
They all moved towards the jeep and both Stiles and Scott opened the doors. Stiles stretched his seat forward and took a step back, allowing Maddie to climb up. She didn't meet his gaze as she threw her bag in the back seat and took a step in, gripping the side of the car to pull herself up. Of course, to throw off her brusque demeanor entirely, her boot slipped from the step with a loud squeak and she was sent stumbling backward right into Stiles.
As a reflex, just as her back collided with his chest, he found himself grabbing her upper arms to both steady her and stop himself from stumbling. He didn't even realize that he was gently holding her against him until the faint scent of her hair reached his nose, snapping him out of his stupor. He didn't think he'd ever like the smell of artificial pears that much in his life. She stiffened for a moment and didn't immediately wrench out of his grip like he expected. Maybe she hurt herself. He silently scolded himself for enjoying her closeness for that tiny moment in time. She must have hurt herself. That was the only reason he could think of to explain why she wasn't moving.
"You okay?" He knew he'd already asked this earlier and that she hated this question more than anything. He spoke so softly that it was almost a whisper in her ear and he felt her shift ever so slightly, possibly in discomfort.
It was only another moment before she finally ripped herself away from him. Not only that, but it was so sudden and so harsh that it left Stiles frozen just as he was a moment before. She climbed in with no more problems and without even a side glance. "I said I'm fine."
And it was like nothing had happened at all. If he was being honest with himself, he probably just made up her hesitation in his head. Still, he felt cold, colder than before it happened. Not the time, dumbass. He shook the cold off and readjusted his seat before hopping in the driver's side and slamming the door shut. Like he said just moments before, time was running out.
He revved the engine and whipped out of the driveway, speeding toward their destination.