From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski - Chapter 57: Chapter 57

Vaguely, Maddie wondered how she got here.
Throat dry and neck aching, the world spinning violently around her. A face, smiling and terrified, right above her. For a second, she thought it was the woman from before - which turned the expression into more of a 'see? I told you so!' - but the face above her was rounder, pale, and framed in black hair. She knew even more when the voice that came from the person was British. "You're alive."
Alive.
I'm alive.
Her heart was racing, pulsing in her ears. She held onto something warm but brittle, crushing it in her grasp like she hung from a high up branch, feet dangling above an endless chasm. It was like nothing she ever felt, because she felt everything all at once waking up. All five senses flaring to life and something else, something old and full of light and pain and darkness. Something feral that she remembered from so long ago coming alive in her bones.
Alive.
I'm alive.
"Oh my god, you're alive!" the girl above her shouted as her face began contorting into a wince. "And crushing my hand."
Maddie didn't let go, not immediately, until a pained wail came from somewhere close. She finally released Max's hand as something came into view just behind the woman's head. A hand smoking and sizzling, the meat beginning to show. Without another thought and not remembering to be gentle, Maddie shoved Max away.
Like instinct, she placed her hands in the grass on either side of her head and used them like springs, pushing from the ground so hard and feeling the kinetic energy from her feet to her stomach as she sprang up. She only wavered for a second but the ground felt solid beneath her in a way she missed.
Maddie was standing, muscles taut and back straight. She was standing and allowing her head to swivel to the mass of smoke and the shadowed, gnarled creature it came from. Her blood was still on his mouth and the thought tore through her as her hand went to her neck, sticky and only half dried.
Vaguely, more like an after-thought, she heard Max say in a weak voice, "...It's a miracle!"
How much blood did she lose? Enough that the world seemed to be a tunnel, the edges dark and blurry. Enough that she could still not make it.
How much poison did he take? Enough. Enough that even enraged, he seemed unfocused. Enough that she was standing.
The creature in the alley was burned into her brain, its grip so tight and its claws burying deeper and deeper into Maddie's arm.
Her blood was pumping furiously and tunnel vision narrowed her gaze to the vampire ahead of her. The Father, looking disheveled and manic. Looking like death would come for him soon, like the horsemen beckoning the end times.
War is coming.
The Father's hand was the only thing through the barrier, inches from her. Maddie rolled her neck like she was flaunting her open wound. Her eyes narrowed on the vampire and cocked her head like a bird, curious and lacking sentiment. He seemed so small compared the pounding of hooves and the shadow that took up the whole sky.
Her hand gripped his wrist like a vice, feeling the vampire pull back and her muscle tensing. He tugged harder, receiving not even on ounce of give in return. She was a stone against the tide, something immovable and bound to the earth. It was the strongest she felt in months and, in that instant, she knew it was hers. Power slipped on as easy and right as soft leather.
Her muscles only just began to strain as he continued to pull away, frantic now. A cornered animal, probably exactly how Maddie looked when they captured her. A trapped rat, its beady eyes alight with confusion and something else, something deeper. She might've mistaken it for anger in the past if she wasn't so accustomed to spotting terror. Rage was a living thing guiding her, whispering all the horrors she endured and those that haunted her with the threat of the future.
She pulled.
The smell of dead flesh burning reached her nose before he began screaming. She thought of her mother and father, faceless to her now, dancing as the world crumbled around them. She pulled him past the elbow, thinking of how easy it would be to watch him burn up.
Something burned like acid in her throat at the thought, adrenaline still coursing through her veins with a strength she long forgot. The thought of blackened claws digging into her arm was fresh and so real, she wondered if she would see the open wound if she caught a glimpse of it. Like if she turned only slightly, the creature with her face would still be there, fingers like hooks and linked to her forever.
With a final tug, Maddie flung herself forward in a skull-cracking headbutt. The sharp disorienting pain came with a high pitch ringing in her ears and she shook her head, hoping her dizziness could easily fall from her like loose dirt. Her vision wasn't entirely done doubling and spinning when she noticed she wasn't holding onto an arm anymore.
The vampire, the thing that told her to call him Father, was blissfully at a loss of words as he stumbled back and wobbled on his feet.
Maddie shot a look to Max, who was still on the ground and gawking at her. Maddie held out her hand.
Max took the offer, which was confusing as it was not what Maddie intended. She was too confounded to realize she was helping Max up, like kindness wasn't even a thought to her but a reflex. Maddie scowled at Max. "What are you doing?"
"Hm? Oh! I thought..." Max released Maddie's hand, her own confusion passing over her face but immediately shifting to realization and embarrassment. "You weren't trying to help me up, were you?"
Maddie glanced down at the ground without a word, searching in the lack of light for something familiar and hopping Max was here because she found what Maddie left behind. When she saw her bag, she knelt down and pulled out her ax. She stood again, waving it with flat expression and Max made an 'o' face.
Just as Maddie redirected her attention to the vampire, he was stumbling towards her and she leapt out from the woods to tackle him into a slew of other, smaller vampires swarmed like bees on honeycomb. Several toppled to the ground with them and Maddie was getting up without another thought.
A hand pulled at her shoulder and she turned to see a scrawny vampire, immediately swiping her the blade of her ax across its neck. Despite the cut not being deep enough to dust him, he buckled, holding the red smile on his neck as dark, thick blood oozed from it. She kicked him in the side of the head and turned again. It wasn't a kill but the ease of it and the speed of her reflexes as he went down felt like a muscle untensing.
And she was off. Off like there were no chains on her, no fences and no leashes. Off like she was free, even if this was the only freedom she would ever know. Freedom. She hated that word not very long ago. She hated its sound and how it took up space somewhere in her grief. She hated how she associated it with death. Death wasn't freedom. Death, from what she gathered being so close to it, was nothing at all. An absence of even relief because relief would be something.
She flung herself at a group of vampires, more than she ever fought on her own. Her style was still messy and frantic, throwing punches as elegantly as bar room brawler.
Freedom felt like this. Of knowing herself. It felt like choosing this - this life, this fight - because the people in it meant everything to her. Memories of moments that made her heart ache meant everything and she wanted to remember all of them, even the ones that meant nothing to anyone else. Someone had to remember.
Someone had to protect this sorry world from what was coming and she wanted it to be her.
Maddie lifted from the ground, tugged by the back of her shirt like a cub by its scruff. Something tossed her into the air and a few feet away, barely missing a tree. She rolled in the dirt, keeping her grip on her ax tight as she stumbled to her feet again. Her hair was matted and a thin layer of loose dirt caked to her face.
When she focused her gaze again, which was getting harder to do, she noticed two vampires grinning in front of her with their pointed canines exposed. She lifted her weapon to attack them when a familiar whistle met her ears, something cutting through the air too fast. It was enough to make her hesitate and she was thankful she did as the two vampires turned to the sound and a long wooden pole shot through both of them like a kabob with a blade at the end only stopping when it hit a tree.
The vampires had no time to see where it came from as they turned to dust and crumbled to the ground. The halberd stayed in place, still jutting from the tree trunk.
Maddie ripped the javelin-like weapon from the tree with a hard tug, looking at it closer to find the collapsible hinges in three separate places. Compact. Thin. Extremely hard to wield. She shifted her gaze to where it came from as a shadow ran up to her but stopped.
Terra's face was covered in sweat, blood, and vampire dust as her ear-length hair stuck to her skin. Wide, dark eyes got wider but her mouth remained a line of composure. Her clothes, which were always a bit on the gothic chic side, were uncharacteristically disheveled. It was typical at this moment for Terra to cross the rest of the way and yank the weapon out of any person's grasp. Right now, Terra didn't move and neither did Maddie.
The moment felt like forever but might've been a few seconds when Maddie blinked as if shaking herself out of a memory and tossed the halberd back to Terra. She caught it, still watching Maddie, and nodded.
Maddie ran back into the fray, somehow invigorated. Part of something.
She spotted The Father in the center of a mass of vampires and drop kicked the closest to her, both feet in front of her as she landed hard on the ground. Kipping up, she used the wooden handle to pierce another vampire's chest and basked in her exhilaration when it crumbled to nothing.
As the ashes fell, behind them revealed The Father, yellow-eyed and teeth bared as he moved faster toward her than she anticipated. Long, greasy hair clung to his pallid face, more demon than ghost, and all signs of humanity gone. His hands were outstretched, one of them missing large pieces of skin and charred around the little still left from the elbow down.
Hands gripped her limbs on either side like shackles as the vampire ahead of her reached for her throat. He grasped her neck, squeezing and increasing the pressure in her head.
Something loud went off. An explosion but not quite. Shorter. It went off again and again.
The grip on her arms and legs loosened on her left first. Then, her right.
She caught the Father's arms as he throttled her, digging her nails into the exposed muscle and he screamed. His hands tightened for a second before letting go. She stamped down on his foot and kneed him in the groin. He crumpled down to a knee and Maddie kicked him in the face.
The tiny explosions continued as Maddie glanced around for the source. She turned all the way around and spotted something moving in the trees. For a second, she thought it was Max but then she caught a brief glimpse of gray and something else glinting in the moonlight.
She didn't know what shocked her more: that it could be Chris Argent lending a hand or how much she hoped it was him.
The vampires around her weren't dusted, but many were bleeding out and clearing the field at eye level. She staked a few, which felt like cheating in a way, as she scanned for who was left.
There were many more vampires all around, swarming in small groups around Terra close by and huddling together in the distance.
Wait.
Not huddling.
Someone burst from the center of a group of vampires as a few fell to the ground. From a distance, everything told her it was Marie for a brief, hollowing second.
When that didn't make sense anymore, she remembered the demon. The thing in the alley. She envisioned it as something corporeal, fighting beside her but that wasn't right - because that thing was her.
Maddie ran over and beheaded a vampire that attempted to get up.
She stopped short of the girl ahead, gaping. Dark hair pinned back and black clothes torn, a girl sliced a dagger across the back of a vampire and shoved a stake in a demon on her other side.
Maddie didn't believe what she was seeing and it wasn't until the girl spun again and faced her that she could process Allison Argent slaying vampires right in front of her.
When the vampire turned to dust, Allison turned, poised to fight. She looked like she was about to drop the stake when her gaze met Maddie's and a surge of warring emotions passed over her face. Maddie didn't do any sort of kindness for Allison like she had for Terra; she simply stared, trying desperately to connect what she knew with why Allison Argent would be here in the first place.
Without any sort of acknowledgement from either of them, Maddie spun around to the pounding of footfalls and cracked a vampire in the chin with the point of her elbow. Before it could register what happened or react accordingly, she spun the ax in her hand and stabbed the demon through with the wooden handle.
There were too many, even after all they dusted.
Too many.
And she was so tired. Woozy. A little dizzy and nauseous. The longer she went, the less precision she had with her ax as she flailed it around hoping to hit something.
A hand grabbed the back of her neck and her feet left the ground.
Her ax ripped away from her hand as she clawed at the stranger with the other. Like so many times and in so many different ways, the stranger launched her forward. She braced herself for the impact of hitting the ground as her side landed first and she rolled.
Something gripped her hair and hauled her back up. She tried her best to stand as quickly as the creature lifted her to ease the pain in her scalp just as she met The Father's gaze. It was a maddening, corrosive yellow, bright and full of the fury she expected earlier. He grabbed her face and squeezed tight, the pressure in her jaw so unbearable she was sure it would crack. Her spoke, finally, and the sound held something so much more than anger. The fear was still there.
"You," he spat as the chaos continued around them. "Stupid girl. You learned nothing."
She struggled to look away more than ease the pain because something in his face frightened her more than anything he said. The fear from before wasn't for her. It went so much deeper and the thing she saw in the San Francisco skyline loomed at the edge of her thoughts like the shadows in her vision.
"You were given a choice!" he shouted and she swore there were tears there. "You were given every chance!"
At such a close proximity, it was easy to see the punch to her face coming as he let go of her neck. The horrible tension in her gut managed surge forward, the moment of panic spreading out from there. The moment of knowing she couldn't stop it.
"You ruined all of it! Everything!" An echo. A reminder of everything she couldn't do and the people she couldn't save. A reminder of pain.
He caught her cheek. The sensation was nonexistent at first, but it only took seconds for the bright white pain to explode and spread. She didn't realize she stumbled to the ground until she was lying there.
Her cheek would swell soon. The lack of blood in her body would catch up to her.
The Father was over her, his hand back on her neck as strands of greasy hair hung above her. "Everyone's askin' what is left of you. What I see is a tiny bag of bones, broken and bloody. Wanna see somethin' really scary?"
He laughed as he lifted her by the neck and slammed her back down. He leaned in closer and she could stench the copper on his breath mixing the the scent of rot. He smelled like death.
"They are coming. They will smite you down," he growled, fingers squeezing tighter. "No one is safe and you've doomed every last one of us."
Maddie scratched at his arms, taking skin with her as she tried with everything she had left to loosen his grip.
"That is your legacy. A world undone, plunged into fire!" He was raving, drowning in his own lunacy. Unhinged. "One town to save everything. Rebirth as a savior. What did you think, hero? That it ends with me?!"
Maddie clawed at his eyes and he screamed as he let go and rolled to his side, narrowly missing her. She scrambled to her feet and used a free hand to rub at her bruised and aching neck. The skin around the two punctures was wet, her wound reopened. She pulled her hand away and tensed at the blood covering it, fresh and dark and more than she ever witnessed from any injury she had.
"Death is on your heels, Miss Hayes!" he shouted with a boisterous laugh as he stood, arms spread wide with two long scratches running along his eye socket and cheek. "He will take everything from you and I cannot wait for you to feel every moment of it!"
War is coming.
She glanced back down at her hand and slowly lifted it to her face, closing her eyes as she dragged her fingers down her forehead, lids, and cheeks. The metallic smell of her own blood hit her nose all at once and some even got on her lips, causing her to grimace. What was left on her hand was what was already drying there and she turned away from it, back to the monster screaming at her.
A tiny thing, one of many. Weaponless, broken, bloody.
But the sky above her was still clear. They still had time.
I am a soldier.
Let war come.
Maddie ran at The Father, screaming and kicking dirt with the sheer amount of force she used to charge ahead. The man ahead was a phantom, pale and covered in red and reaching for her neck again. She knew in her bones the next time he got hold of her, that would be it. She didn't abide and became useless to him. The next time his hand would grasp her throat, he would more than likely tear it out - which was exactly why she ducked around him, seizing his ankle and taking him off balance.
The Father fell face first while Maddie never let go of his leg, keeping it suspended. She stomped with all her strength on the raised back of his knee and felt the crunch of bone shattering as clearly as she heard the sound of ligament snapping. The sound he made was somewhere between a bellow and blood-curdling scream. She tossed his ankle so hard, he flipped over and she placed a firm boot on one of his wrists.
Somewhere behind her, something glowed bright in and out like a faulty bulb. It warmed her back a little and she heard the unmistakable exhale of air a vampire lets out as their bodies go from solid to ash. She only turned slightly, not wanting to take her full attention from the vampire at her feet. Someone stood at the edge of the woods, a pale figure with a hand outstretched and a massive light like the sun coming from it. It wasn't steady, flickering like Morse code but there was a whole line of vampires disintegrating so Max had to be doing something right.
Maddie saw a flash of something speeding towards her from the ground and caught it without another thought. When she examined what she caught, she realized it was The Father's free hand and now, one arm was fully extended. She drove her knee through the point of his elbow as she knelt down, bending his whole arm the wrong way with a loud, wet crunch.
Maddie stared wide eyed at the creature, suddenly aware of how much she enjoyed the pain on his face. She thought of Harper and the body left behind, then of the red-headed boy in the club bleeding out.
Her thoughts drifted to something more recent. A video of an ice rink full of laughter and a threat so casually said while she screamed an unheard warning until she was hoarse.
"How very sweet. He'll do nicely."
For the first time since she woke up, she thought of Stiles and her curious stare at The Father went cold. She dropped his now useless hand and took a fist full of his shirt, raising his head up and punched his gnarled face.
When his head drooped, she raised it back up and hissed, "Tell me again, how many times did I hit the bag?"
She brought her fist down again and again as sweat and blood ran down her forehead and cheeks. She heard bone break and saw the first split on his cheek. Her chest rose and fell, rage pumping through her veins with a need for violence she never had words for before. Her mouth tasted like salt, dirt, and copper. Her body was an aching and unsteady mess, begging for rest. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. The longer she watched the vampire, the more she wanted to cave in his face.
Blow after blow connected and more and more blood covered their skin. Something broke in her hand, she was sure of it - maybe one of her fingers. If she stopped, she would feel all of it and be forced to address it. Her body might not even stay upright without the adrenaline of her anger and her head wasn't doing much better. So she kept going, kept doing the one thing she forced herself not to do and, for a second, it felt like control.
Maddie kept going until something inside her broke and she wasn't sure what it was, even as she withheld a scream and his head lolled. His vampiric visage was long gone, leaving him with the look of an ordinary man, badly beaten. Bits of his face began to swell, turning his features into something equally as gruesome as any demon.
Her knuckles were red from the splitting skin on her hand and his face. Old blood and new clashing against each other.
It got quiet. Painfully, horribly still.
Despite not needing the air, the Father breathed like his throat was all gummed up and all that was left was a wheeze. When he spoke, it was soft and broken. "It will come for you."
Maddie still had his shirt balled in her fist while her other hand remained raised, poised to sail down and collide with what was left of his face. She didn't speak; she was too busy looking for a weapon on the ground when she caught something out of the corner of her eye, somewhere in the shadows of her periphery.
A shock of blonde hair.
Maddie blinked hard and unfurled her fist, dropping the vampire and standing. When Sadie came into focus instead of Marie, it was both a relief and jolt of fury. Sadie on the other hand didn't come alone.
A pale blonde girl was in her grasp as Sadie dragged her over with her arms restrained behind her back, a broken branch held at the girl's chest. The yellow eyes under the protruding brow darted as the creature struggled in Sadie's arms.
Maddie glanced down at The Father, whose eyes drifted distantly over to Sadie and the vampire girl. Weakened, out of it, and slow to understand what he was seeing but then his beet-red eyes widened through his swelling sockets and for a second he looked like he said something. He tried limply to get up but Maddie's foot on his chest forced him back down.
Maddie was still in shock from seeing Sadie but registered the vampire in the demon's grasp as she choked out a word.
"Papa?"
It was a weak, small sound, almost innocent. A question belonging to a lost child.
"Call off the cult of personality before Sister Sunshine fits in an ashtray," Sadie said, pressing the point of the broken branch to the girl's chest.
Maddie allowed herself a moment of confusion, to try and connect the pieces. There was an unflinching second when the vampire on the ground seemed to process what he was seeing, a thin, sharp tension like they stood on a knife's edge - aware that tipping to either side was making an impossible choice but staying meant they all would suffer at the mercy of the blade.
After a silent beat, surrounded by the static of the wind through the trees and the fighting all around them, Maddie thought the threat was empty. Just Sadie grasping at straws, making up the rules as she went.
Then the vampire under her shoe made a noise that began as a whisper. She didn't hear what he said but the soft interruption was surprising. Maddie's stare shifted to The Father, face swollen and the whites of his eyes blood red, making the blue of the irises alarming as he stared at the pale wisp of a girl all in white with deep purple bags under her eyes. Maddie couldn't read what was there, but for a second she thought it might've been defeat - but whatever it was, it shifted and deepened with the threat hanging in the air between him and Sadie.
There was a jerk from Sadie's wrist and the branch pressed further into porcelain flesh, enough for Maddie to feel a jerk beneath her boot.
"STOP!" he bellowed, hoarse and thunderous. It was half a roar and half a wail, both desperate and full of anger. It echoed in Maddie's ringing ears and filled her head like water in an overflowing glass.
There was a sudden shudder of movement around Maddie, a ripple before the dwindling masses made a hesitant stop. She glanced around as vampires and humans alike jerked away from each other, shocked at the sudden, booming interruption.
Vampires were backing away and Maddie saw a group disperse around Terra, who was on the ground and weaponless. Two vampires turned on Maddie's other side, with Allison on one knee and rasping with her stake poised and cheek bruising. Max and Chris was somewhere further back and out of Maddie's line of sight, most likely preparing for another strike.
The thunderous sound of the Father's voice to startled everyone, not just the vampires. He was huffing on the ground which might've been odd in any other situation, watching a vampire breathe - one of the more common conundrums of the supernatural world. He exhaled hard as if each breath bolstered him.
He stopped and closed his eyes, which were a bit misty and Maddie wondered why. His gaze stayed on the vampire girl, who seemed more and more like a lost child. Her face twisted into a sob, and it was only then that Maddie noticed the blonde's demonic face gone. She remembered her, a soft featured girl maybe around her age - before a monster turned her into this. Maddie remembered the girl's sheer joy when she took that hunter's life and the strange little bit of empathy for the vampire evaporated again.
Something smooth and cool slipped into Maddie's hand and she closed her grip around whatever it was based on the comforting familiarity alone. She glanced down at the ax her in hand and the blood on its blade, then up to whoever placed it there.
"You dropped that," Max said, her movements a bit twitchy as she all but glued herself to Maddie's side.
Maddie turned a little more and noticed a taller shadow, with tense shoulders and gray hair. There was a glint of something in his hands and Maddie assumed it was Argent with his gun raised. More were coming into view and Maddie had to crane her neck the other way to see a girl whose back was facing her, with long dark hair and all black clothing. She was leaning a little on the older hunter but her stance was alert from what Maddie could tell.
There was one space left, a space beside Maddie which closed slowly as Terra backed up and took a fighting stance beside her.
Sadie was the only one of them apart from the group, which made the most sense to Maddie - as much as any of this made sense. Nothing really made logical sense, not the vampires crying over each other or Maddie standing after losing so much blood. Standing shoulder to shoulder with an over-enthusiastic new Watcher and a Slayer she fought beside for years despite their fractured relationship felt right. Not quite hope, not yet - but someday.
Maddie took a long look down at her blade, stained dark red. Her eyes floated over to The Father, thinking of how easy it would be to put her ax through his neck and dust him. For this to be over. He still wasn't meeting her eyes, his gaze trained on the vampire girl straining against Sadie's grip. Shadows of the remaining vampires surrounded them as Maddie started to hear a low growling all around.
She pressed down harder, feeling the bend of his sternum. "Tell them to leave."
The slow shift of his eyes from far off to meeting hers turned his pain venomous. "What soldier takes orders from a man on the ground?"
"Good point." Maddie leaned down and grabbed his throat, using whatever strength she had to deadlift a vampire twice her size from the ground and to his feet with one hand. Like a mirror of the past, he gripped her wrist with his one good hand, not for oxygen to get to his lungs per se, but maybe to keep his head from separating from his body. "Tell them to leave now and never come back, or she dies."
Maddie pushed him away and he grabbed at his throat, limping on one leg.
"Leave," he said, his tone scratchy and weak. The vampires didn't move, but Maddie noticed a few of them twitch like they wanted to. The Father looked to Sadie and then to a few of the vampires standing still around them. "Dawn will break soon! It is time for all good children to go home."
He was right, or at least he had to be right. How early in the morning was it?
Another tremor traveled around them and the Father bellowed, "LEAVE!"
Something like defeat passed over the vampire girl's soft features and, if Maddie looked close enough, she might've started to cry. The vampires, twitchy and unsure, jumped and began to scramble into the trees opposite of Beacon Hills like frightened deer.
Maddie waited, listening to the thudding of footfalls and the shuffling of movement fade. There was shifting behind her and the two Argents came into view.
"Papa," the girl said again, her voice raw as black makeup ran down her face in thin streaks. "Can we go home? Please, I...I wanna go home."
A shudder passed through Maddie and something in her stomach knotted. Something must've flashed on her face as the Father watched her and the pain in his expression went from broken to somber. He turned to the girl, his comforting tone pulsing with desperation in its slight quiver. "Soon, my dear. When you understand."
It was such an easy answer when he said it, like coaxing a child. The girl nodded almost imperceptibly as her eyes grew wide and Maddie wondered why either of them cared or if it was an act. There was nothing frightening about them as they continued to fall apart.
He smiled and it made the swelling all the worse. "Everything will be just fine."
Something sank into Maddie's gut and she wasn't sure which expression carried more weight: the Father's as he soothed his weeping child or this unnamed vampire girl begging for something so small that he couldn't give.
"Madeline?" someone behind her said softly and it took her a moment to register it. She didn't look away though; she couldn't allow the scale to tip out of their favor.
"Come on, let's get this show on the road!" Sadie shouted and Maddie's eyes darted to her, full of malice. Maddie considered Sadie's little game, changing sides to suit her needs and naming Maddie her nemesis if she survived. The sudden urge to beat the hell out of her went from nonexistent to overwhelming just by remembering she was there.
Maddie redirected her gaze to the Father and grimaced, wondering if he could feel the sting of betrayal as well, or if you needed soul to care about such things.
She swallowed the lump at the base of her throat and fought past the ache in her neck. "What would you do to keep her safe?"
The Father looked at her and, from the little she could tell from his face, everything there was utterly hopeless. "...You still don't get it. There is no saving. The world stops for no one. Pain clings to us with fervor and I...taught her to live with it until the inevitable."
"...I can't spare you from that! The world keeps spinning and we have to keep going."
The phrasing alone made her sick. The inevitable. Whoever the girl was before, she was dead now; pain couldn't be anything more than the decay of the soulless corpse she wore. Still, for a second, Maddie mourned the teenage girl the Father murdered as she glanced at the demon who bore her face.
"Of course you did," Maddie said, and marveled at the hollow echo the words made in her chest. "Tell her goodbye."
The girl shrieked what might've been the word 'no' and the sound of it was total, cacophonous pain. It burned into Maddie's eardrums. She would never stop hearing it. The girl cried and Maddie looked away, back to the Father who was already looking at the girl.
Maddie's grip on the ax tightened as the Father attempted to speak but and the vampire girl's crying made her whole form shake.
"You've got to be kidding me," came an irritated mumble and there was no denying it was Sadie. Every time Sadie spoke, image of sailing across a room came back to Maddie. Every eye roll reeled her back to her voice dying in her throat. Sadie, hopping back and forth over every ethical line. Sadie, mocking Maddie as she was ground face down in the mud. Sadie, willing to sacrifice anything and everything when it suited her. Saving her life and watching with glee as it was slowly taken.
Maddie nodded to Sadie, a miniscule gesture to bring over their captive without taking her eyes off of the man in front of her. In another motion, bridging the gap between them, Maddie jumped and lifted her knee to crack him in the nose.
In her peripheral, Sadie and the vampire girl came into clearer view.
As the Father crumbled, Maddie turned to Sadie. "Let her go."
The air turned still and cold, like she took all the life out of every person around her just by speaking.
Sadie was too busy giving her a shocked and incredulous stare, so when Maddie yanked the stick from her hand and grabbed the arm of the vampire, she didn't react in time. Maddie tossed the girl down to the Father and, with the same hand, turned back to Sadie and punched her as hard as she could at the point of her jaw.
Pain burst open wide in her knuckles and reverberated up her arm, assuring Maddie that something else might've broken.
Sadie only briefly lifted off her feet and she landed, rolling. Allison rushed to her, kneeling down gingerly.
Maddie didn't have time to see if anyone else left her side as she studied the vampires in front of her, the girl crawling on all fours over to the man that could no longer get back up. Part of Maddie hoped the girl would attack her and prove her theory wrong. Instead, here they were, huddling together and holding onto each other as if their enemies weren't hovering above them.
Maddie felt a wave of tension on both sides of her but didn't move to acknowledge it. She waited, quietly and patiently, for the girl to look up. When she did, it was slow and quivering and full of fury as much as fear. Her long hair was a lace veil around them, a shroud of sun bleached wheat. Maddie's head was full of so much and so little of it registered these monsters as a threat.
But the pendulum would swing out of her favor eventually and that alone was a threat she could no longer afford. It was a crazy thought but all of this was some form of madness.
"It's over," Maddie said in a tone she didn't recognize. Something which went deeper than the armor she encased herself in; something molten and black and full. "Take him and go."
The fear in the vampire's pale eyes turned rancid, her mouth souring. Another wave of tension rippled over Maddie, turning her spine rigid. The only thing in the silence was a whimper and the rustle of leaves.
"If you come here again, I will find you and rain hell on your whole family." She nodded to the people around her, speaking as if she could wrap her words in silk. "Not them. Not the wolves or the gods. Me."
There was no need for specifics, ranking herself more vengeful than any god they believed in. She would be their inevitability, the bloody wraith to smite them.
No one around her spoke, not in favor or against. She saw the girl's fingers curl into fists as she held onto the man she was shielding, and her name finally reached the surface of Maddie's thoughts. Lilith. Maddie took a step back and turned to leave.
"What are you doing?" Max asked in a far more composed tone than Sadie had moments ago. "They're vampires. It's your duty to-"
Maddie fixed her with a hard stare. Behind her Chris still had his gun pointed at the creatures and it was almost comical. On her other side, Terra was analyzing her, looking for something in her face. An answer, probably. Something Maddie couldn't give. Mercy was something she couldn't properly explain and there was no time to describe whatever she saw when she was unconscious. There was no way to explain that these two were not the biggest threat to them in a way they could understand in such a short span of time.
There was no way to explain properly that she received the same choice a day ago.
Maddie turned back to Max, already so distant from this moment. "We're leaving."
When she walked away, it was only begrudgingly that anyone else followed. They were so focused on her baffling choice, and that would have to be enough for now.
Another tremor went through her just before she got to the trees. It was like a memory coming to life as something in her bones and in her stomach urged her to turn back around. Something was wrong.
There was a growl and the stomping of feet, quick and urgent.
The Father, deformed and sprinting, roared with one arm slack and legs hobbling. His bellow was something unearthly, detached from the eloquence of his words and the mirth his boisterous laughter. It was the sound of someone freefalling.
Before anyone could react, Maddie's ax was at the ready. There would be no fight. Lilith screamed for him.
Maddie turned all the way around and swiped the blade across his neck. A scream came from the distance and it turned feral midway.
The Father's body drooped and began to fall, but his skin turned to ash and he exploded in a cloud of dust before it met the ground.
More running. Clearer footfalls. A flash of white.
A shadow blocked her view, small and thin. Lilith, she thought before her vision cleared and it was someone's back, with messy dark hair tangled behind them.
Not Chris or Terra.
Maybe Allison?
"Librum Incendere!"
A burst of warmth spread across Maddie's face, a glow reaching her as she stumbled back to see Max. Her back was to Maddie and her hand outstretched as flames ate up the dry grass. A wall of fire extended like it was following a line of gasoline and somewhere in the orange glow was a pale face with dark eye sockets peering back at her. A ghost on the other side of flames.
Maddie grabbed Max's arm and tugged her out of her daze, and away.
They were in the trees before Maddie processed any of it and she whirled around to find each individual face in the dark.
Terra rested against a tree, most of her makeup gone as a film of sweat and dirt clung to her skin. Max was on Maddie's other side, holding her stomach and pacing. Meanwhile, Chris Argent's face was lit up in the glow of his cellphone, worried and onto the next thing like everything that just happened was a minor inconvenience.
It was only then that Maddie realized these were the only people in her vicinity.
"Where's Allison?" she asked, her voice returning to something close to normal until the second part of that equation dawned on her. "Where the hell's Sadie?!"
Chris examined something on his phone. "It's Gerard."
The name was almost foreign, like Maddie knew it from another life. It took a second to connect the wires in her brain enough to understand such a simple statement. A pale, wrinkled man came to mind along with the sight of his fear from just yesterday. "What do you mean?"
Max, who looked about as anxious as Maddie, approached her slowly. "You should lie down, Madeline."
"No! Where did they go?!" Maddie shouted, her last thread of calm sufficiently snapping. She bee-lined for Argent, because the only path familiar to her was anger. "What's going on?!"
Chris swallowed and looked down.
Maddie stopped. "What? What's going on?"
"Jackson's dead."
Silence, like waking from a dream. Her senses switching on and tuning into reality.
More wires crossing and information connecting in her head. Jackson Whittemore. Jackson was the kanima. Jackson was...
"But how did..." The memory of Gerard flashed in her head and each thread led to another. To Derek and Allison and Scott, to Stiles and Lydia. Like she kept waking from the dead over and over. When it clicked, the world managed to find its way back to her and there was no time to rest. "The game. What happened at the game?!"
☽ † ☾
Dawn was only few precious hours away as Sadie strummed her fingers on the armrest of the car and rubbed her jaw with her free hand, watching Allison like it was totally normal to be covered head to toe in ash, dirt, and gore. "Did your Grandpa tell you where you need to go?"
Allison mumbled a 'hm' and, like a light flickering to life, the present seeming to return to her. "Oh. Uh, yeah."
"Distracted, much?"
"It's okay." Allison's knuckles were white on the steering wheel and when she realized Sadie's gaze was on her hands, she loosened her grip. "I'm okay."
"No, you're not." Sadie gestured to her whole body, because all of it ached. "This pain I'm feeling? It's somehow not the giant bruise on my face. In fact, it's not even mine."
That was a half lie; it was, at least in part, the giant bruise on her face.
Allison's shoulder twitched and Sadie wondered if it was a shrug. "I'm fine."
Sadie was already in a foul mood and didn't have time to play nice, even with Allison, who didn't have to practically carry her out of the woods but did anyway. "Okay, Maddie."
The car veered off the road, jerking to a full stop and causing Sadie's head to collide with the back of the head rest. She groaned at the ache and closed her eyes tightly.
Allison turned to her. "Why did you show up tonight?"
"I followed the energy. And, I dunno! I thought you needed help."
"Why do you even care?"
The car was off and the lack of background noise only made the tension in Sadie's gut worse. Why did she help them?
What did it get her?
"I guess I thought we were friends."
Sadie glanced over at Allison, whose face was cast down. Tired, the one thing Sadie knew for sure they had in common. All of this, every moment of it, was nothing but exhausting. Now, they headed to do some old man's dirty work and that was it, the last straw. Sadie was done.
"My kind...we all like to specialize in a certain area of vengeance. Sometimes, it has something to do with what happened to us. Some in neglected children. Others in scorned women. I like to think my niche is...sudden, violent loss. Grieving family members, lovers, you get the idea."
Sadie said it so casually, anyone watching might think they were discussing the weather. Allison on the other hand didn't allow for the nonchalance. She didn't answer for a while and Sadie expected the conversation to be over and considered how far away she was from the house where she was currently squatting. "Who did you lose?"
The question both alerted Sadie and stung as a face flashed in her memory. Not the right face, not anymore. Verity was long gone. Sadie narrowed her eyes at Allison as the hurt needled at her insides. "No offense, Ally, but we're not that good of friends."
"Are we only good enough friends for you to know everything about my life?"
"You know I'm not human."
"Is there anything else I should know?"
"Probably."
"Like?"
"I've killed people. Directly. Indirectly. With wishes and, before that, with spells." Apparently, they were close enough for that. Sadie wanted to push her away, to take a step back. To scare her with the truth. "A man flayed in strips. Organs liquefying. The exact pattern of flesh turning boiling and exposing muscle when it burns. I have more blood on my hands than your entire lineage combined and I like the power rush I get from thinking about it."
Sadie's gaze never left Allison, who analyzed her frantically. Maybe looking for the lie. Gaping, but still searching for a way to disprove it. Sadie noticed Allison's hand on the door handle and didn't care to take any of it back.
Allison's other hand eased towards her the space between her seat and the console, maybe reaching for a weapon. It was laughable. "...Why are you telling me this?"
"Cause you're not me. Not yet." It almost sounded sincere. Sadie shrugged. "I mean, feel free to prove me wrong, but I saw you out there tonight practically shoulder to shoulder with a girl you almost killed just a few weeks back."
A shudder went through Allison the moment Sadie said 'killed' and, if nothing else, that was a good sign. "So were you."
"But I wasn't doing it for her. Can you say that?"
Allison didn't move but her hand rested on her seat, still near her weapon.
"I can't go back. I can't be that person anymore." Allison's body language closed in farther and farther, curling into herself as tightly as she should. "I don't think she exists."
"Well, yeah. That's just...how it goes."
"Do you remember what you were like?"
"Kinda whiny. Not a very good Puritan. Ate too much, let her mind wander during service, skipped morning prayer..." Sadie listed things off on her fingers. "Also, super gay, but that hasn't changed."
Sadie dragged out the word 'super' comically and grinned.
Allison watched her like she couldn't believe what she was seeing and couldn't contain the smile as she chuckled softly. "I feel like I should hate you."
"Cause I'm a lesbian?" Sadie joked because it seemed like the most appropriate answer to the tension. Her eyes got big and she gave Allison a disapproving stare. "Wow."
"No!" Allison said, shocked and putting her hands up in surrender. "I don't understand how I'm sitting here laughing. You just told me you're a mass murderer."
"We've all got our flaws."
Allison, finally distracted from reaching for a weapon, slumped in her chair. There was still dirt on her face as she stared at the roof of the car like it was the night sky.
"How is this my life? How did I get here?"
Something about that irked Sadie. Maybe because of how often she heard it from her clients. Maybe because D'Hoffryn broke her of saying it about herself. It seemed childish and void of any responsibility from the one person she was absolutely stuck with in this mess.
"Were you even listening?" Sadie furrowed her brows as she scrutinized Allison for the first time that night. "You didn't just get here. You're not here because something terrible happened to you. Granted, something did; people you love died but you chose what came after. You chose. Welcome to the consequence."
Allison face fell and she looked away. "Sorry. That was stupid of me to say."
She didn't start driving again but instead they sat there in silence as the night left them there on the side of the road. The car air was thick and humid and smelled like artificial rain.
Sadie tried to will Allison to turn around but there was no place to go after what she said. There was no counter to self deprecation that ever actually worked.
"Allison..." Sadie tried and it felt like Mercy.
For the space of a breath, Sadie's gut told her to go the moment she imagined the 'I told you so' look on Anyanka's face. She thought of a plethora of ways to stomp it out.
"I don't know what I am anymore," Allison said.
"Human, for starters - I mean, for all intents and purposes."
"So were they."
"Who now?"
"I knew who they were. I knew. And that should've made it hurt less." Allison sounded stuffed up as her voice cracked. "Kate, my mom..."
Anya's face was there again, hurt and bitter. Disappointed. "You really do think you know everything."
Sadie swallowed and focused on her reflection in the windshield. "It never does."
"I should hate them like everyone else. It should be easy to hate them."
She sounded like she was drowning, overwhelmed by the silence. Sadie offered her nothing.
Allison's reflection didn't turn to Sadie, but to the windshield, her eyes glossy as her face crumpled into suffering. Deep and dark and tugging her all the way down. "They did horrible things. I don't know if they were ever any better than Gerard but they were my family."
Sadie thought of her mother and father and the faces she could no longer see. Names with no meaning.
Allison's jaw clenched as tears rolled down her cheeks and her voice lower, ragged like she couldn't control it anymore. "And I hate Derek for what he did. I hate him...because my mom is gone. She's gone and she's never coming back."
The way she said 'gone' took the air out of the car and the sound she made at the end of the sentence sounded like a gasp for breath she couldn't take. Her face was a mix of agony and confusion as she allowed the words to sink in for possibly the first time. Sinking deeper and deeper and Sadie no longer knew what to do.
Allison turned to Sadie, her expression broken and pleading. Reaching out. "How do you stop loving someone who caused so much pain?"
It was like the ground left Sadie but she wasn't falling. More like floating, suspended in the space between every disaster she caused. She remembered a girl's hands, holding onto them so tight, maybe she wouldn't get picked up in the current of time. She remembered the face after all, but never the way she wanted. She remembered it bloated and discolored. She remembered the noose and blistering flesh.
Neither time or her memory would allow her anything else.
"You don't," Sadie said and she had to get away. She opened the door and the motion shocked Allison. As Sadie climbed out of the car, she pushed down the little she had left of her ghosts and a girl named Mercy. "Life keeps going and the cycle continues the moment you look away. All we ever do is hurt each other."
Sadie closed the door and began walking. Allison didn't follow.
Meeting Allison Argent had been, in every sense, a mistake.
☽ † ☾
Christopher Argent's car hit another bump and Maddie would absolutely throw up if it happened again. She focused on the humming of the engine, smooth and low and lulling. She forced the thought of Gerard Argent back into her brain to keep herself awake with, if nothing else, seething hatred. She swallowed and her neck ached - then her jaw, and finally her back. "Why did you show up?"
"Now's not the time. You need to take it easy."
She didn't like the way her voice rasped and wished she could will it into it's normal register. Unfortunately, she downed the only mini water bottle in the car and Max didn't know any healing magic off the top of her head. In fact, Max wasn't there. A few steps after they agreed to help with the kanima, she tripped over her own legs and passed out. Spells tended to do that though, given the amount of energy that went into it, but hopefully not enough to start a forest fire. At least Terra was too busy with Max to lecture Maddie on going into yet another battle.
"Now is exactly the time." Lilith's face in the flames clung to Maddie's memory, ghastly and screaming. She saw it there when she closed her eyes, next to the deformed beast made of fire and the shadow in the graveyard. Pieces on a chessboard. Pawn, knight, queen - each more dangerous than the last. Each coming for her. "And I can't. Not yet."
"The fight's over, Madeline."
"No, it isn't." She shook her head, more to stay awake than in disagreement. "Not Scott's."
Chris didn't answer, but she heard a sigh.
"Their fight is my fight," she said more to herself than anyone else. He should understand that. She remembered the shots ringing out in the clearing as she fought. "Why were you there?"
"We were close by-"
"Hunting?" She had no time for pleasantries. One might argue she never did. "Right."
"And if we weren't?" Chris turned to her in the passenger seat and Maddie realized they stopped. "I understand you're upset but you're going to need to get past it. We're not always going to believe in the same values or methods, but we both know the danger Gerard poses to the people we care about. Does the rest matter right now?"
The words barely registered as she took them in, aside from the last question. Time was not a luxury they were afforded and sides meant very little as she sat there, bleeding on the nice leather seat. "...Thanks for getting there in time."
He unbuckled his seat belt and sent a knowing glance. "I didn't. Allison did."
Sides indeed meant very little these days. Maddie followed him in suit and heard a familiar voice on the other side of the car before she got there.
"What do you want?" Scott asked and even then, it was possibly the most welcoming sound she could fathom.
"We don't have much in common, Scott. But at the moment, we have a common enemy."
"That's why I'm trying to get him out of here."
"He didn't mean Jackson," Maddie said, doing her best not to limp over to the other side of the car. Scott and Isaac stood there, confusion meeting shock as their eyes shifted over to her. She looked around and didn't see Stiles anywhere, but she did notice the body bag the two betas were lugging. "Hey."
"Oh my god," Scott breathed and he nearly dropped his side of the bag. "Maddie?"
He stared at her neck and she clasped her hand over the open wound.
"It's fine. I..." Almost died and proceeded to have a prophetic slayer dream about the end of the world? She tried her best at a tight smiled and wondered how weak it looked from Scott's perspective. "I'll explain later. Gerard's the priority."
"He's twisted his way into Allison's head, using her for her power just like he used Jackson," Chris said and the first note of actual fear crept into his voice. "We're losing her. And I know you're losing her too."
We're losing her? We? Maddie didn't correct him.
"You're right. So can you trust me to fix this?" Scott asked without it sounding like a question. Chris nodded. "Then can you let us go?"
"No." He nodded to the SUV. "My car is faster."
☽ † ☾
Maddie did not sit in the back with the body bag she later learned didn't just have Jackson's dead body in it, but a very dead body that was very much moving. She could hear it jerking around in the bag, pulling against the heavy material as Scott and Isaac were focused on keeping it still and thankfully not so much on Maddie's worsening condition.
On the other hand, she could think of a million better places to be when she chanced a look out the window as the warehouses came into view. They parked somewhere in their shadow and at the mouth of an alleyway, because of course they did. Without another thought towards it, she immediately got out of the car with her ax in hand.
Somewhere behind her, she heard Isaac say, "I think he stopped moving."
No one responded to that and Maddie assumed it was mostly because they didn't want to think about what it could mean.
"Where's Derek?" Argent asked.
As if in reply, a shadow ran on all fours towards them - practically galloping. Even in the distance, Maddie could spot the glowing red of his eyes and craned her head back to beg whatever gods were listening to give her infinite patience. She hoped the request went right to the woman from before. She also kind of hoped it made her laugh.
Derek did a flip instead of just stopping, not that Maddie was one to talk under better circumstances. Still, she rolled her eyes - which did nothing but remind her of how dizzy she was. She glanced at Scott as Derek looked up, his trademark glower in place. "Seriously?"
He stood slowly in the glow of the headlights.
"I'm here for Jackson." Chris shook his head. "Not you."
Derek glared and the pettiness of it felt so tiny. "Somehow, I don't find that very comforting. Get him inside."
Maddie reminded herself of the ongoing feud that was the Argents versus the Hales before she got into another fight. The boys dragged Jackson into a warehouse and Maddie continued the process of referring to yet another person she knew as a dead body.
The air was sweet with molasses somewhere in the distance, so much so Maddie's nausea shoved its way to the forefront of her mind as her stomach shifted uncomfortably. The dark edges around her vision were deeper and she wondered how much longer she would be able to keep this up. Moonlight fractured into diamonds and rectangles on the dirt floor and the static presence of them gave Maddie something to focus on.
"Where are they?" Scott asked.
"Who?" Derek said.
"Peter and Lydia."
Maddie's focus narrowed on Derek instantly the moment Scott mentioned Lydia, like she was only just remembering the name. Derek ignored them as he bent over the body bag and began unzipping it.
Scott made a slight motion to reach out. "Whoa, hold on a second. You said you knew how to save him."
"Save him?" Maddie asked, trying to keep up. "Isn't he dead? How do we save him?"
"We're past that," Derek said.
Scott looked from Maddie back to Derek. "What about -"
"Think about it, Scott!" Derek cut in, talking to them like they were children playing at war. "Gerard controls him now! He's turned Jackson into his own personal guard dog. And he set all of this in motion so that Jackson could get even bigger and more powerful."
"No. No, he wouldn't do that." Even as Chris Argent said it, he didn't sound like he believed it completely. It sounded like a mantra, a way to reign in his own paranoia. "If Jackson's a dog, he's turning rabid, and my father wouldn't let a rabid dog live."
"Of course not!" a voice said, almost amused. Old and rasping. A sound that made the whole world intensely and horribly clear.
Maddie turned in time with the rest of the people standing around to the direction of the voice where Gerard Argent stood, decrepit and feeble. Maddie's blood pumped furiously in her veins as her spine went rigid.
"Anything that dangerous, that out of control..." Gerard's gaze shifted from his son, to Derek, and finally to Maddie, who only just realized she might still have blood in jagged lines on her face. Adrenaline made everything alarmingly clear and focused as she tightened the grip on her weapon. "...is better off dead."
The sound of skin tearing was so familiar, it was a surprise that it caught Maddie off guard as she whirled around to see Derek impaled on the claws of the kanima. Not quite the kanima though, but as if Jackson only half transformed, his scales only going from his head to his torso. His eyes were slits and his teeth were needles as he lifted Derek up and tossed him.
Gerard smiled and the fact that he believed he won something reignited a malice in Maddie she didn't even bear for the vampire who tried to kill her. "Well done to the last, Scott. Like the concerned friend you are, you brought Jackson to Derek to save him. You just didn't realize that you were also bringing Derek to me."
Slayer senses always appeared like a tug or static in her ears, as if she had to switch to the right station to get the message clearly. Just as she focused, she heard a familiar whistle cutting through the silence as she spun and snatched something out of the air. It stung, burning her palm as it stopped and she looked at what she had.
An arrow. Something cold sunk into Maddie's veins as she dropped it and beelined for the source, ignoring Gerard and allowing the past few hours to come to her in flashes.
When Allison appeared, it was not a sneak attack or a charge, but a slow walk. Maybe she thought she could delay the inevitable if she strolled instead of ran.
"So, we're really doing this?" Maddie asked, defeat already in her voice. "After everything?"
Allison dropped her bow and unsheathed her knives from their holster. Twin knives. "Last time. You and me."
"Why?"
"Because you were right. Some people don't get a choice."
Maddie searched her memory for that, for the words and remembered a gym, her insomnia, and a ghost she wasn't ready to face. She remembered more than that though. She remembered fighting Allison with no super strength and no advantage. She remembered calling Buffy and running to her death. Even if she escaped it now, one day it would come for her and she would meet it just as before - with a hell of a fight.
She sucked on her teeth and tasted the grit of dirt still there. This was her life.
"I guess I was. I mean, I didn't choose this. I didn't choose to be a Slayer. I didn't choose to leave my family. I sure as hell didn't choose for Gerard to poison me!" Maddie pointed in no discernible direction, maybe to the past. She shouted towards the end and watched Allison stiffen up as her voice echoed. Maddie was shocked she could even tell as her vision went blurry. Annoyed at the fact that she was already tearing up, she spoke again through a clenched jaw. "But this stupid town needed saving and I still chose to do something about it! You cannot imagine the choices I had to make! I hope you never have to!"
Allison was a stone in a tidal wave, taking the onslaught without even an inkling that it affected her and something about that only made Maddie more frantic.
Maybe Maddie wanted to scare Allison or maybe she needed an excuse to vent as the wind was taken out of her sails. "I am tired and angry and scared all the time, I'm always in pain, I will never stop losing people I care about, and I will never have enough time to mourn them -"
Her voice rose again with every word until she was yelling and trying her best not to cry, but failing.
"But if I can spare even a second of that pain for the people who are still here, it doesn't matter."
Allison's face was unreadable, a mask of emotions Maddie couldn't identify. She thought in the beginning that Allison was so obvious about everything when in truth, she hid whatever she really felt from everyone. Maddie never knew her at all, especially now.
Maddie swallowed, allowing an echo from the past to rise up in her and hoping Allison could reach it. "I choose to use my power to help my friends, not as an excuse to push them away."
Something on Allison's face cracked and it was only then that Maddie noticed the red around her eyes. Allison attempted a grin but instead looked like she was about to crumble. "Thank the gods for that."
Maddie froze.
"What?" Gods? As in plural? She didn't say it out loud for fear of sounding as ridiculous as Stiles. "What did you say?"
Allison gave Maddie a smile like she just shared a secret. "Give me the best you got."
She charged right towards Maddie, daggers in both hands, and Maddie, beyond startled, began to run as well. The clamor of fighting in the background rose with the screeching of the kanima.
Maddie thought about the last two times they fought and the clear, full technicolor of the moments before. The fear and horror of the first fight, the rage and hopelessness of the second, and now this. The first ever instigated by Allison, she realized. The first on equal standing. Their footfalls were drumming in her ears.
Allison threw down the daggers in mid-run and that was when Maddie noticed Allison was no longer directed at her by skewed slightly to her side. They were about to meet in the middle when Maddie heard the strangest thing.
"Switch," Allison whispered, and there was a tug on Maddie's ax.
Every cell in her body should've fought against the command and she wanted to so desperately, but something much stronger at her core wanted to believe in something good right about now and that happened to be the side her senses took.
She loosened her grip on her ax and Allison took it as Maddie tucked and rolled forward, her hands gliding along the floor. She grabbed the first pieces of metal she found on either side and when she stopped at a crouch, saw the two knives in her hands. She stood and whirled around, taking a defensive stance next to Allison just as she threw the ax at the kanima. Despite her propensity for ranged attacks, the throw was clunky and, as it lodged in the monster's shoulder, the ax was shrugged off.
"What are you doing?"
Allison shrugged. "Making it up as I go?"
The kanima shrieked again and past him, Gerard was staring at Allison with a mix of shock and fury. Maddie didn't wait for Allison before she charged at the kanima and entered the fray. Still, she saw a blur of black clothing and long hair keeping in step with her just as the monster threw Derek across the room.
Maddie wasn't great with daggers; they required precision and a level of agility she never quite able grasped. She still raised one knife as she closed in, only to have her wrist caught in the fully formed kanima's clawed hand. She spun the other in her palm and slashed at its torso. It screamed and threw her by the arm into a crate as she dropped the weapons and splintered wood exploded around her.
There wasn't a moment she forgot about the pain she was in, but the force of impact turned it from a massive ache she endured underneath her adrenaline to a fire on the surface of her skin, wrapping around her muscles and all the way down to the bone. She looked up and Allison's knives were back in her hands, not as precise as Marie but far less sloppy than Maddie.
She scanned around to find something to attack with - if she managed to get up - and found all the scattered scraps of wood lying around her. Somewhere under them, something reflected light and Maddie hoped it would be her ax as she began to crawl.
One hand then another, she pulled herself forward over the pieces of wood, feeling them catch in the knees of her jeans and needle her palms. She winced every time, her whole body shuddering in pain as she hauled herself along the edge of the fight, too far to be noticed for the moment.
The closer she got, the clearer the ax became and it was the only relief she had at the moment. She went to grab the handle.
A foot came down on the weapon and Maddie's hand jolted back. Through her matted hair, she craned her neck to see the stranger above her.
Dressed more like he was out for a night on the town than for a fight, and smirking, Peter Hale looked down at her as if he were a deity awaiting an offering. "We have to stop meeting like this."
"Go to hell."
"Oh, don't be so dramatic," he said, peering through the scaffolding at the battle raging on. "We don't particularly have time for the usual heroic antics."
Maddie raised herself up and noted that Peter didn't stop her, despite his foot still firmly pinning down her ax. Tackling him seemed like a half formed plan, just like that first night but with her vision doubling and horrible nausea, she would sooner vomit and pass out than legitimately do damage. "What do you want?"
"The same thing as before." He smiled as confusion overtook her already muddled brain. "Don't you remember? I believe I spared your life some time ago."
Maddie searched her memory until a flash of a massive wolf came back to her, its hand wrapped around her neck as it stared into her eyes, deciding something before tossing out a broken window.
Peter sighed like she wasn't getting it. "I want information."
Maddie wobbled a little on her feet, the whole night rapidly catching up with her as she stood. "What could you possibly need that I would know?"
Peter's smile went tight and a new darkness hooded his stare. "Where is Faith Lehane?"
It was like being doused in ice water, hearing that name from him. She couldn't hide the shock as she gaped at him.
The kanima screamed and Maddie's head snapped in the direction of the sound.
Peter kicked the ax to her and she scrambled to pick it up before standing straight up again, not allowing more than a second to pass without watching him.
"Considering your current state, you may not want to take too much time to think about it." Peter took one step back, a gesture to perhaps let her go. "The next time I ask, I assure you, you'll want to answer."
She shuffled backwards and stumbled into a run, nearly tripping over Allison's discarded bow and a quiver. Maddie looked up at a distracted Allison, unable to keep up with the improved speed of the kanima.
"Allison!" Maddie shouted, kicking the weapons to her just as she looked in Maddie's direction.
Maddie, foolishly, ran in and jumped, grabbing onto a horizontal beam, the rust like sandpaper on her fingers. She swung and kicked the monster in the chest as the momentum carried her backward and she let go, backflipping into a low squat to keep from falling over. Still crouching, she swiped her blade at its legs but - even after the kick - he recovered too quickly and whipped his tail at her feet.
Maddie tripped, hitting the floor hard as the kanima raised its hand to end it.
He stopped, hand raised but frozen in mid air. He wasn't looking at her, but somewhere off in the distance. Maddie followed its stare to Allison, who was shaking and aiming an arrow at Gerard.
"What's the cruciamentum?"
Gerard didn't move, but watched the point of the arrow. Everyone around them froze, waiting. Derek was immobile on the ground but Scott and Isaac watched, still poised to attack as Chris raised a hand to stop them, fear masking whatever else he felt.
"Allison..." Chris tried, voice shaking and dying on the last syllable.
"Why were giving it to Maddie?" Allison raged and Maddie's eyes widened as she heard the creak of the bow. "Tell me!"
"Do you really want to know?" Gerard asked softly but with so much venom, it made Maddie sick. "Slayers are just another demon to wipe out, albeit a more malleable one. They are a virus that has spread worse than any wolf. I poisoned her so that I could kill her."
A more malleable one. Maddie watched Allison, unable to see her face but the tension in her form made it easy to know how much that stung.
"Would you have done that to me?" Allison asked, quieter than expected.
There was a silence so tense, a pin drop would sound like a bomb going off.
"Oh, Allison," Gerard cooed, sounding almost loving. "Oh, my dear, sweet granddaughter..."
Any softness on his face evaporated and the sound of his voice returned like bile.
"In a heartbeat."
Maddie blinked and wondered how much time she lost when she opened her eyes.
Isaac was above her, right where the kanima was before, horrified and concerned when he tried to place his hand on her shoulder and she jerked away. Scott might've sent him over and, odds were, he'd try and relieve some of her pain. She had nothing against Isaac but her pain was the only thing keeping her awake as far as she could tell.
Maddie turned and the kanima's hand was wrapped around Allison's throat from behind and the bow and arrow clattered to the floor.
"What..." Maddie started to say as she rolled over onto her side. "What are you doing?"
"He's doing what he came here to do," Scott said, defeated.
Gerard gave Scott a curious look. "Then you know?"
"What is he talking about?" Allison asked with an alarmed glance over to Scott as well.
Gerard looked back and forth between the two, a horribly pleased grin on his wrinkled face. "It was that night outside the hospital, wasn't it? When I threatened your mother. I knew I saw something in your eyes. You could smell it, couldn't you?"
Everything was becoming a wash to her senses, dreamlike and disconnected. She gripped her neck, digging her nails into the two small punctures as a wave of pain crashed over her and narrowed everything to a focus. She propped herself up on her elbow and again thought about throwing up as her nausea ebbed and flowed back to her over and over again. Her head pulsed.
"He's dying," Isaac said, now beside her instead of over her.
Gerard's gaze shot over to Isaac. "I am. I have been for a while now. Unfortunately, science doesn't have a cure for cancer yet."
The old man's eyes scrutinized Maddie before shifting over to Derek.
Allison gasped like her throat just closed, and Scott jerked forward the slightest bit at the sound.
"You monster," Chris growled.
"Not yet," Gerard said.
Sending Max and Terra away was a mistake. This should've been over the moment the Father turned to dust, but Gerard was a different type of beast. It was amazing to think that he was the one with a soul and the cult of vampires, willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, had none at all.
"What are you doing?!" Allison asked, struggling against the kanima's grip. Gerard shot her a look and the kanima squeezed tighter.
Alive, the kanima was already faster and stronger than one slayer, but whatever was happening to Jackson left a room full of wolves and two slayers incapacitated.
Argent's voice was cracking as he watched his father. "You'll kill her too?"
"When it comes to survival," Gerard said with a cold stare. "I'd kill my own son."
Something in Chris Argent's eyes grew dark like it was dying, withering away.
Gerard gave a knowing smile. "Scott..."
All eyes crossed the length of the room to Scott whose face was back to a more human state as he slowly crossed the room grabbed Derek by the neck. Derek was saying something she couldn't quite grasp.
With another blink, Maddie slipped into darkness, losing time. There was a scream that sounded like Gerard and when her eyes opened again, Derek's fangs were only just releasing Gerard's arm.
Maddie was scrambling up, gaping and trying to shout but the glee on the withered face of the old man meant her wounds cost her this. He laughed and raised his arm up high, showing off the deep punctures like a badge of honor, even as it bled.
It kept bleeding down his arm, the red becoming deeper and deeper until it was black. Gerard, suddenly aware of the change, examined his arm and looked at Scott. "What is this? What did you do?"
"Everyone said Gerard always had a plan," Scott said, turning from Derek to Gerard. "I had a plan, too."
Gerard reached for something in his pocket, a small tin that he emptied into his hand and Maddie saw spilling by her head. He stared at the pills still in his hand before he slowly crushed them in a fist. "Mountain ash!"
Black was oozing from the bite, then from his ears and nose. When it came from his eyes, something started to click through the thick fog of Maddie's head.
Isaac held out a hand to her and she took it, keeping herself upright to see the damage at eye level. It shouldn't have felt so satisfying to see the poisoned blood seeping out of him, but she wanted it to kill him. Maybe it was the mirror of seeing herself in a similar state as she reasoned with the demon inside her, or whatever it was, or maybe knowing his blood was poisoned after what he did to her was what made her see red.
She didn't even care that hers was the only face not riddled with horror and disgust.
He collapsed to his knees and Maddie took a step back as he craned his head straight up and began to retch. Black fountained from his mouth in a terrible stream, puddling around him.
When he collapsed, no one moved except for Maddie, who limped over to Scott's side.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Derek asked.
Scott glanced down at him. "Because you may be an Alpha, but you're not mine."
There was no time to react, no time to get to the old man before he pushed himself up on his forearms and began shouting. "Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!"
The suddenness of the command made everyone turn to the kanima and Allison. The kanima loosened its grip on her throat and, without missing a beat, Allison elbowed it in the face to give herself a moment to get away.
That was when the ugliest and most familiar sound of a car engine got louder and louder. The wall in front of them burst apart and wood flew everywhere as headlights illuminated the kanima seconds before a car hit it head on.
It came to a stop and Maddie, whose brain raced at a million miles per second, realized it wasn't just any car. It was a beat up blue jeep.
The kanima was already up again and on the hood of the jeep, peering into the windshield and two very different screams came from inside, both completely and joyfully recognizable. The passenger side door opened and both Lydia and Stiles scrambled out, practically tripping over each other. Lydia stopped in front of the kanima, holding out something and shouting for Jackson.
Stiles, on the other hand, ran right for her and Scott, almost stumbling as he tried to stop. Maddie was torn; so incredibly happy to see Stiles but panicking as the kanima raised his clawed hand to attack Lydia. She moved forward to get to her, but someone gently grabbed her forearm and she saw it was Scott as she looked back. He shook his head.
The kanima stopped and looked from Lydia to the object in her hand, something Maddie couldn't see from where she stood.
The green hue began to leave the kanima's skin and Jackon's features became more prominent, like something siphoned the monster out. His slit pupils vanished and radioactive eyes became a soft blue. As he changed, Maddie saw a look on his face that she never associated with Jackson. With a hand that was still clawed, he took the object from her and Maddie realized it was a key. She wasn't sure of the meaning but didn't dwell. What was important was it meant something to them.
Jackson started backing away from Lydia, only half human but aware as he opened up his arms as if he welcomed something. In a flash, Derek and Peter were on either side of him, claws sinking into Jackson's torso and back as they raised him up.
His arms drooped and the two released him, allowing him to fall to the ground and to Lydia's arms as she cried.
Quiet enveloped the warehouse and their conversation felt too private for Maddie to hone in on it. This life was now all of theirs, too, and there was so little room for goodbyes.
His head fell to her shoulder, the key fell to the ground, and they all allowed Lydia the time and the space to sob silently over his body.
A minute or so passed and Maddie realized Allison was on Scott's other side when she spoke. "Where's Gerard?"
Maddie went rigid and her eyes darted to the space his body laid and a bitter anger flooded her when she saw it was empty.
"He can't be far," Chris said.
Lydia stood up, her back still to them as she wiped her eyes and turned around. Her face was blank for a moment, like she was still processing what she saw. Then her face crumbled and it took everything in Maddie not to go over and at least hug her.
She never wanted anyone else to go through this, and shame overwhelmed her as she imagined her plan from earlier going off without a hitch. This was what she planned. What right did she have to do that to anyone?
Maddie snapped out of her self pity long enough to hear something sharp drag along the dirt floor. She couldn't place where it was coming from until Lydia turned back to Jackson's body.
Seconds passed, each longer than the last until Jackson's eyes snapped over, bluer than before. Bright, glowing blue. Slowly, he stood and raised his head to the sky, his face unnaturally contorted as he opened his mouth and Maddie heard the sound that started this whole huge mess in the first place: the howl of a werewolf.
As the sound ended, Jackson gasped and his face returned to normal as Lydia rushed to wrap her arms around him.
Everyone around her wore stunned expressions and the scene immediately reminded Maddie that she'd only just gone through her own reawakening - with Max as her only witness.
of her deflated and she crossed her arms, trying to ignore the return of the darkness around her vision. "...I guess everyone's coming back from the dead."
"What?"
She jumped and turned to see Stiles there, eyes tired but bright as they met hers. Her arms went tighter around her and she shook her head. "Nothing. It's...nothing."
The beginnings of a grin stretched across his face. "Because nothing always means nothing with you, right?"
Maddie shrugged her shoulders and when he kept giving her that expectant look, she broke and said, "I mean, I guess I've seen cooler."
"Cooler what? Resurrections? Seriously?"
I bet he didn't see the end of the world. She was getting dizzy again.
Maddie shook her head - which was a bad idea - not like she was saying no, but more like she was trying to get the thought out of her head. She was about to answer when she noticed he was examining her face, his brow furrowed like he was only now getting a good look. "Hey, are you okay?"
She didn't know how to answer. Instead, her stare focused on the cut on his cheek. "Are you?"
Stiles raised a hand and hesitated. Maddie's eyes tried to follow his gaze and noticed it was just below her chin. Carefully, he moved her hair away from her neck and she watched as his face changed to alarm. "Oh my god. Maddie, what happened?"
She couldn't think straight if she tried, and didn't have the words to answer him. All she knew was she missed him. Gods, she missed him so much. She loosened her grip around herself and, as her vision started to flicker in and out, she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. He seemed shocked at first, his arms slightly out, but after a moment that had no proper length of time in her head, he enveloped her in his embrace.
The first rays of dawn were flooding the windows and the only thought Maddie could decipher was how the night began, crying for the future she was so sure she lost. She slipped from consciousness with the thought that, if nothing else, she would wake up on the other side of it.
The future was full of new horrors and she would need to prepare for a war, but for now, she was alive...
And the sun was rising.