"What do you mean, 'No'?"

Scott stands his ground calmly when Liam rises from Hayden's side and steps toward him, almost in his face, "Liam, look at her. She's too weak. It will kill her. We don't even know what the mercury's doing to her," he tells him. "We don't even know if it's actually mercury. This can't be the only way to save her."

"It saved mine," Liam argues.

"Liam, you know you can't compare that," Ariel says gently, holding up a placating hand to show they mean no harm.

Scott nods, "That was different. You were hanging off a ledge."

"You promised. You said you'd do everything you could," Liam spits out angrily.

"Which is why I'm not going to do something I think is going to kill her," Scott replies firmly, his breath hitching as he struggles to get his next words out. "There has to be -- There has to --"

"Careful," Ariel tells him, grasping Scott's arm gently when he struggles to breathe. "Where's your inhaler?"

"Scott," Theo calls out, gaining their attention as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out his inhaler and throwing it to him, leaving Ariel confused as to why he even had it.

Scott doesn't seem to even think twice about it, taking a deep hit before speaking again, "There's another way to save her."

Theo shakes his head from where he's trying to help Hayden, whose state was getting worse, "Guys, I don't know what the statistics are for surviving a Werewolf bite, but she's definitely not surviving this. We need to do something."

***

The sky is lightening from the arrival of the morning by the time Melissa makes it to the Animal Clinic to help, and they had quickly moved Hayden to lay on the table whilst she got to work, setting her things down on the side and pulling different materials out, syringes and bags.

"Okay, what's that?" Liam asks from beside her, refusing to stray far from his girlfriend as the others watch.

"It's called chelation therapy. It removes heavy metals from the blood," Melissa explains, pulling an I.V needle out and pushing it into the skin of Hayden's hand. "But, the problem is that it can injure the kidneys, and Hayden only has one to begin with, so . . ."

Hayden groans at the pain of the needle pinching her skin and in response, Liam steps forward angrily, grabbing Melissa's wrist, "Hey, you're hurting her!"

Melissa sends him a look, ignoring the pain in his grip as she speaks calmly,  "And you're hurting me."

Almost in sync, Ariel and Scott's eyes snap towards Liam and his grip on Melissa, their gazes watching dangerously.

Realising what he was doing, Liam pulls back,  "Sorry."

"Hey, guys?" Theo speaks up, noticing the tension. "Remember, we're here to save a life, not kill each other."

"Hmm," Ariel hums in vague agreement, though keeps her eyes trained on Liam, who avoids their eyes.  It was clear his already short temper was shorter than usual, and that was a liability -- especially with the upcoming moon.

"It's the full moon," Scott says pointedly. "We can feel it, even during the day. And, it's a super moon." 

"What, is that supposed to make you guys, like, super strong? Super aggressive?" Melissa asks as she works.

Scott sighs, "Both."

***

After what felt like hours later, Ariel stares down at her phone blankly, sitting on one side of Scott in the Clinic's waiting room while Theo sits on his other. Her screen was bare with no calls, no texts, no contact. Letting it fall onto her lap, Ariel slouches in her chair, glancing to the side when Theo speaks up.

"You know we're going to need help with him," Theo says quietly, talking about Liam.

"He'll be all right," Scott murmurs, staring straight ahead.

"He's sixteen and in love. First love," Theo points out. "You remember what that's like?"

Ariel chuckles humourlessly, "You don't have to remind me."

"Yeah," Scott agrees. "Trust me, I remember."

"All those emotions mixed with the super moon. Tonight isn't going to be good."

Scott sighs, "I know."

"Do you think we're gonna go mad and kill each other?" Ariel wonders, only half-joking.

Theo huffs in amusement, "I hope not. But we need help-- and I don't mean restraints or chains. I mean Malia, Stiles, Lydia, Sky . . . " he trails off, watching them both wince. "You need your pack, Scott."

"I'm not so sure I have one anymore," Scott mutters.

"Let me talk to them. Let me see what I can do. Okay?" Theo offers, standing up to leave and do just that.

"Theo," Scott calls out before he goes. "Thank you."

Theo walks out of the Clinic with an assuring nod, leaving Scott and Ariel alone, the former turning to glance at his friend. Her sullen mood hadn't escaped his attention, despite everything that was happening.

"I've noticed you haven't talked to Sky," Scott starts carefully, watching for a reaction that Ariel doesn't give easily. "It's -- It's not my fault, is it?"

At the reminder, Ariel is forced back into thinking about what she'd been actively avoiding, the problem with Hayden providing a good distraction, despite its awfulness. However, now they were sitting in quietness, waiting, there was nothing to stop her emotions from catching up to her.

Swallowing, Ariel shakes her head, "No. It's not," she speaks softly, avoiding his gaze and trying to rein her dejection in. Now was not the time to break down. She clears her throat, trying in vain to clear the lump that was making it ever so hard to act like she wasn't affected by everything that happened. Scott was losing Stiles and they both were losing Sky. 

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"It seems like nobody does," Scott replies quietly, but his eyebrows pinch in sadness when he catches a glimpse of tears in her eyes that he could tell she was trying not to let fall. So carefully, he leans closer to wrap an arm around Ariel's shoulders, letting her lean her head against him. "But it's okay. I'll still be here for you anyway."

Slowly, Ariel buries her face into Scott's shoulder, a single tear falling onto his jacket.

"This is all a mess," Ariel eventually mumbles with a mirthless chuckle.

"Yeah," Scott murmurs, glancing to the doorway that led to Hayden. "It really is."

***

"It's not working, is it?" Liam asks, holding Hayden's hand tightly while Melissa moves closer to check up on the girl.

"She should be showing signs of improvement," Melissa says quietly, unsure why it wasn't working. She brushes Hayden's hair back in the same comforting manner she would for her own children. "Hayden?"

Hayden's pants are quiet as she struggles to speak, "Call Val. My sister," her breath hitches, trying to tell them who she wanted to see before she died -- something she knew was coming, even if the others didn't want to believe it. "Valerie."

"She's a deputy," Liam tells them.

"I think I might know where she is," Scott announces as he walks into the room, Ariel trailing behind him. It seemed they were clinging to each other the same way Stiles and Sky were whilst everything goes wrong. "Theo just texted me about the high school. He said there's cops everywhere. Might be another Chimera."

"Um, my sister," Hayden breathes out. "I don't want to die without my sister."

"I'll get her," Scott assures.

 "Uh, wait--" Liam stops them before they leave. "What are you going to tell her?"

"If I have to. I'll tell her everything," Scott says, determined, before he leaves quickly. 

"Did you mean that? Are you willing to tell her everything?" Ariel asks quietly, following him outside.

"I can't let her die without her sister," Scott replies softly, offering her a helmet for his bike. "Are you coming?" 

Ariel stares down at the helmet with pursed lips, "This thing is gonna ruin my hair," she mutters, grabbing it anyway.

***

"Did they say where they were?" Ariel asks when they walk into the school together.

"No," Scott replies. "Should we split up?"

Ariel nods, glancing around, "You check the library. I'll check the locker rooms. Those are our frequent meetup places for some reason. Text me if you find anything."

"Yes, boss," Scott mutters, smiling a tiny amount despite the circumstances.

Ariel chuckles, shaking her head before walking away from him down the hallways. As she goes, she glances back and forth through the windows of the classrooms just in case, until eventually, she reaches the boy's locker room. She enters, the initial lingering smell of sweat making her scrunch her nose up, but she brushes it off, stepping inside and glancing around.

She could have sworn she heard someone in here. 

The room was beginning to darken as the sun sets, orange hues peeking through the small windows, and Ariel knew the super moon was closer -- she could already feel the effects tingling under her skin, willing her to transform in a burst of fiery aggression.

The sudden thud of the door closing in the quiet room makes her jump slightly, and she spins around, sighing in relief when she sees who's standing in the room with her.

"Theo," Ariel exhales, smiling tensely. "You scared me."

Theo returns her smile, but the way it sits on his face doesn't sit quite right with her.

"Sorry, Ariel," Theo says, much to her confusion as he steps closer, his footsteps echoing. "But Scott can't have his pack here to help him."

Ariel frowns, moving back instinctively, but Theo just steps even closer, "What?" she questions in disbelief.

"No Stiles, no Malia, no Lydia," Theo continues casually. "No Sky, and certainly no Ariel. He's just going to have to wait there alone for what I've got planned."

"Planned?" Ariel repeats in breathless shock, barely understanding what was happening. "Why? I thought -- But we were friends?"

"Yeah, I lied," Theo shrugs, seeming even more satisfied at her state of confusion. "I lied about a lot of things. And I can't have you getting in the way."

And before Ariel can react, Theo lunges forward, slamming her back into the lockers and harshly gripping both sides of her head. Caught off guard, Ariel tenses and struggles fruitlessly, but he had the jump on her and now she was stuck.

"If only you weren't so loyal."

Theo smashes her head against the metal, and Ariel barely feels the fracture of her skull as she falls to the ground.

***

There's a throbbing pain in the back of Ariel's head when she wakes. 

Her eyes crack open blearily with a low groan sounding from the back of her throat, and the first thing she notices is the darkness of the room. The second is that her vision was shifted into her wolf form, and she could only guess the rest of her was thanks to the moon that was now casting light through the windows. 

The super moon.

Carefully, Ariel pushes herself onto her elbows and just about manages to make her transformed features fade back to human, reaching to feel the back of her slowly healing head and wincing at the soreness that was still there. Theo really got her good.

But she wasn't dead. Which meant he only needed her out of the way.

His words suddenly come back to her in a rush, and Ariel's eyes widen as she scrambles to her phone, unlocking it with trembling hands and not hesitating to send an urgent text to Sky to come as soon as possible. 

Theo was after Scott. He had lied to them all, which led her to wonder if he lied about everything with his aim to pull them all apart from the inside. But that didn't matter presently, and Ariel pulled her aching body to her feet, wobbling slightly as a wave of dizziness hits her -- but she could feel herself healing, slowly but surely.

Ignoring the rage that boiled beneath the surface of her skin, fuelled by betrayal, Ariel pushes forward, throwing open the locker room door and striding through the hallway. Scott had been headed to the library, so chances are he'd still be there.

When she finally reaches the door to the library, she barely stops herself from walking into the invisible barrier that divided her and where she could hear Scott's troubled grunts. But to her surprise, Theo is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it's Liam's familiar growls that are heard as she takes in the sight as he attacks Scott relentlessly.

She could see them from the open doors of the library, fully transformed and fighting aggressively, and the only thing Ariel could do was watch, flinching back every time she got too close to the barrier that was meticulously placed around the area.

"Liam!" Ariel shouts, glaring through the barrier. "What are you doing? Liam, stop!"

"He's using you, Liam!" Scott calls out when he and Liam break apart, facing each other. "He wants you to be the Alpha because he can't take the power from me. But, once you do, he'll take it from you. That's why he wants you to kill me."

"That's what you don't get, Scott. I want to kill you!" Liam growls, getting closer. "I want to!"

Liam dives forward, and the two grapple, struggling back and forth until Liam gets the upper hand, throwing Scott down the stairs. Ariel's eyes widen, but then she turns when she hears the sound of a car door slamming as someone walks to the school, a very human someone.

Without another thought, Ariel runs down the hall, and as soon as she sees him, she grabs Mason's arm in an uncaringly tight grip and drags him along, ignoring his surprised exclamations. 

"Mason," she says quickly, seeing the doors just ahead of them. "Disrupt the barrier! Now!"

"What?"

"Now!" Ariel snaps, the low growl in her voice making him jump and nod rapidly, kicking the mountain ash. His eyes widen in horror at the scene in front of them.

"Liam!"

Ahead of them, Scott lays almost lifeless on the stairs, Liam's claws slashing him with reckless abandon. Ariel wastes no time in transforming with anger, running over and grabbing Liam by the back of the neck and yanking him backwards, wrapping her other arm around his throat in a headlock, using all her strength to keep him restrained as he flails with draining anger.

"Liam! Liam!" Mason calls out, horrified at what he'd witnessed his best friend doing, and Liam finally starts to come back to himself. "What are you doing?"

Panting, Liam goes limp in Ariel's arms, but despite wanting to drop him and run over to help Scott, she wasn't letting him go until she knew it was safe.

"Hayden. She's gone," Mason reveals, making them both go still in shock. "Hayden died a few minutes ago. She's gone."

At the news, Ariel carefully removes her arms from Liam's neck, and the boy wastes no time running out of the doors without looking back. The moment he's gone, Ariel scrambles over to Scott, swallowing her horror at the sight of all the blood on him.

"Oh, my God," Ariel mutters, grasping his arm.

"I'm okay," Scott breathes. "I'm okay."

"Scott. What happened?" Mason asks, helping Ariel pull him to his feet. When she is sure Mason has him, she turns away, pulling out her phone and frowning when she sees the text she'd sent to Sky had gone unanswered.

"It's the super moon," Scott explains quietly. "It was just --"

"Bad timing," Theo's voice appears, and Ariel stiffens, barely turning in time to see him striding forward, shoving Mason out of the way. . . and impaling Scott with his claws. "I should've stayed. I should've made sure."

Scott grunts, eyes fluttering at the feeling of the claws pushing deeply within him, "Because now you have to kill me yourself."

"Theo!" Ariel growls, stepping forward, but Theo shakes his head in warning, the message clear. If she came any closer, Scott was definitely going to die.

"I wouldn't make a move if I were you," Theo tuts, then addresses the weakened Alpha in his arms. "Your pack, they're still mine. Maybe not yet, but they'll come around."

"Not for you. They're not like you. They never will be," Scott whispers.

"Because I'm a Chimera? Because I'm not a real Werewolf?"

Scott shakes his head minutely, "Because you're barely even human."

With an angered growl, Theo pushes him to the ground, digging his claws in further, and Ariel shouts, rushing forward to push him off harshly. Theo lets her, stumbling back from the force with a smirk, one that spreads when she drops down next to Scott instead of going after him, fretting over the lack of life he now displayed.

Her head whips towards him with an icy glare from her protective position over Scott, "Come any closer and I'll remove your head from your neck," she growls viciously.

Smug that everything went to plan, Theo takes one last look at them, then lifts his hands in a surrendering gesture and turns to walk away, disappearing into the night with the confidence that his goal was reached. Once he's out of sight, Ariel quickly turns to Scott, seeing Mason crawl over to them in the corner of her vision. 

"Scott?" Ariel whispers, shaking him with glassy eyes as the reality of his state created a horrifying pit in her stomach. But surely he could heal from this. "Scott, wake up --"

"Scott!" A voice that makes Ariel's heart drop even further shouts, and she and Mason turn to see Melissa running in, heartbreak clear on her face when she sees the state of her son. "Scott! No, no, no, no, no. . ."

"There's no pulse," Ariel whispers miserably to her, and Melissa instantly drops to her knees by Scott, her nursing instincts kicking in as she moves to perform CPR straight away.

"What?" Mason questions in confusion, watching in shock. "What are you doing?"

"Bringing him back," Melissa replies firmly, no other option up for debate.

And then Ariel hears something that makes her chest feel like it's caving in from the voice alone, and what she was about to see, and she stiffens.

"Ariel!" Sky's voice shouts from outside the entrance. "Scott?"

"One, two, three, four, five," Melissa just mutters, pressing down continuously.

"Ariel?" Sky calls, jogging through the door, clueless to what she was walking into. "I came straight away, Stiles is still tracking Parrish. What's going on --"

She stops still, frozen as she stares at the scene before her. Scott, lifeless on the ground, Ariel in tears as she watches Melissa lean over him, Mason watching in shock next to them. 

Unable to find the strength to move, or even stand, Sky makes a slow descent to her knees as she just stares, watching in a worrying silence as her mom performs CPR on her brother.

CPR on her brother.

Scott needed CPR.

Scott was --

"Six, seven, eight," Melissa continues to mutter.

"Sky," Ariel cries, looking across at the frozen girl, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry --"

"But, he --" Mason stutters at Melissa, hating to have to say it. "He hasn't had a pulse in minutes. You can't bring back someone that's--"

"He's not someone," Melissa snaps desperately. "He's my son, and he's an Alpha, and he's too strong to die like this!"

". . . He's dead?" Sky whispers finally, making Melissa's head shake rapidly.

"No!" Melissa almost shouts, continuing to push against Scott. "Come on! Open your eyes and look at me,