22: The Kanima

There was only silence as Allison pulled the car to a stop in front of the Martin residence. The three girls sat for a moment, absorbing the events that had just occurred at Sky and Scott's house.

Allison turns to look at Lydia in the passenger seat next to her, "I need you to promise that you won't say anything about what just happened."

Lydia stares straight ahead, "I'll promise not to say anything about what just happened if you can tell me what the hell just happened," she says, annoyance clear in her tone.

Allison hesitates, glancing at Ariel in the back, "It's -- it's kind of complicated," she hesitantly admits.

Lydia turns to her with narrowed eyes, "Well, how 'bout you start with why was Derek there? Or where Jackson went, or what is wrong with Erica? Oh, do you need a minute to come up with a plausible lie?" she questions.

Allison sighs as guilt settles in her, "Part of the reason why I'm asking is because Scott and I aren't supposed to be seeing each other, okay?" she tells her. "So, it's better if you just keep what you know to yourself. "

"Fine," Lydia huffs. "I'll keep what I know about you and your boyfriend -- which is nothing -- to myself."

Allison looks at her seriously, "He's not just my boyfriend. You get that, right?" she asks.

Lydia moves to leave the car but Allison grabs her arm, "Let me go."

Ariel leans forward, putting a gentle hand on her sister's shoulder, "Lyds, please wait," she pleads.

"Just for one second, please," Allison begs. "Try and remember --"

Lydia meets her eyes, "Remember what?" She asks as Ariel also looks at Allison in confusion.

Allison takes a deep breath, "Remember what it feels like," she says. "All of those times in school when you see him standing down the hall, and you cannot breathe until you're with him."

Ariel sits back and frowns in thought.

She thinks about all the times when she waits for Sky at her locker, feeling lighter as soon as she comes into view, her dark brown eyes sparkling with happiness and mischief as she stops in front of her and smirks, saying, "Hey, princess."

"Or those times in class when you -- you can't stop looking at the clock because you know that he's standing right out there waiting for you."

Ariel taps her pen on her desk as she waits for the last ten seconds to pass, which seems to take forever. Finally, the bell rings and she rushes out of the classroom to be met by her girlfriend, who was glaring at someone down the corridor for reasons unknown to her. At the sound of her approaching, Sky immediately drops the glare, spinning round to face her with a grin.

"Don't you remember what that's like?"

Ariel smiles to herself.

"No."

Ariel whips her head up to look at her sister in shock, "What?"

"What do you mean, "no"?" Allison says with a frown. "You've had boyfriends."

Lydia looks down, "None like that." She moves to get out of the car only to pause, glancing at her sister and then looking at Allison with hard eyes. "Oh, and you guys better not be getting my little sister into trouble," she warns before stepping out of the car.

Ariel sighs, "Thanks for the ride, Allison. See you later," she says, following after her sister.

Just as Ariel makes it into her house, her phone sounds with a text from Sky saying they've found Jackson in a gay club and were going to be keeping him in a police van that Stiles had 'borrowed'.

Ariel bites her lip in worry. The hole they were in was only getting deeper.

***

"Scales? Like a fish?" Sky hears Jackson asking as she climbs into the van and sits next to Stiles.

Sky shakes her head as she settles, looking at Jackson as he sits handcuffed while Stiles tries to convince him he was the Kanima, "No, more like a reptile. Um, and your claws have this liquid that paralyses people. Oh, and you have a tail!"

Jackson stares at him blankly, "I have a tail?" he asks sceptically, glancing at Sky for confirmation.

Sky nods with a smirk, "Yep. A big, long tail," she confirms.

Jackson nods, disbelieving as he asks, "Mm. Does it do anything?"

Stiles shakes his head, "No," he answers. "Not that we know of."

Jackson narrows his eyes at them, "Can I use it to strangle you?"

Sky scowls, "Listen here you green little shi --"

"Alright!" Stiles interrupts with an amused sigh. "What did you do the night of the semi-final game?" he asks Jackson.

"I went home," he grumbles.

"You sure about that?" asks Sky, raising her eyebrows.

Jackson rolls his eyes, "Yes, you idiot. What else would I do?"

Sky clenches her teeth slightly, inching forward with the intent to hurt him, but Stiles, already expecting this, holds his arm out in front of her as he answers, "You attacked me and Derek at the school, then Sky and Ariel, and you trapped us in the pool," he tells him. "You also killed a mechanic -- right in front of me, by the way. That was lovely. And one of Argent's hunters. Oh, and last night, you tried to kill Danny."

Jackson frowns, "Why would I want to kill my best friend?" he asks.

"That's what Scott's trying to figure out right now," Stiles answers.

"Mm," starts Jackson, before raising his voice to a shout as he yanks on the chains holding him down. "Well, maybe, he should be trying to figure out is how he's going to pay for a lawyer when I prosecute your asses all the way to jail!"

Sky looks at Stiles, "Can I kill him yet?" she mutters quietly. He momentarily considers it, before shaking his head, questioning him again. "All right, well, tell me this. On the night of the first full moon, what happened?"

Jackson sags as disappointment takes over him at the reminder of the fact that the bite Derek had given him hadn't worked, "Nothing. Nothing happened," he grumbles.

Stiles and Sky look at each other in exasperation before jumping when someone yanks the doors open.

Stiles lets out a yelp, "Oh, my god!"

"What the -- Oh, hey," Sky clears her throat and smiles sheepishly as she notices the disapproving glare she was seeing from her girlfriend from beside Allison.

"They know," exclaims Allison.

"What?"

Ariel crosses her arms, "They know Jackson's missing," she deadpans.

Stiles shakes his head, "No, they can't," he tells them. "I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue."

"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know," says Allison.

Stiles's face drops, "Oh --"

Sky face palms, "I told you, you shouldn't have put those kisses at the end of the message," she mutters to him.

The radio blaring grabs their attention, "All available units proceed to Beacon Hills Preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Proceed with caution."

Everyone looks at each other in alarm before springing into the front seats, Stiles driving.

"Where are we going?" asks Ariel as she squeezes herself between Sky and Allison.

"Somewhere very far from this."

***

"If Jackson doesn't remember being the Kanima, he's definitely not gonna remember stealing Danny's tablet," says Scott as he stands with them at the new location in the woods.

"Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" wonders Stiles.

Allison frowns in thought, "What if someone else took it?"

Stiles nods, "Then somebody else knows what he is," he says.

Sky looks up from where she was playing with Ariel's hair, "Uh, so someone's protecting Jackson?" she asks.

Allison nods to her, "Like the bestiary says, 'the Kanima seeks a friend,' right?"

Stiles raises a hand, "Okay, hold on. So, somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the Kanima, and then just erases part of it so he wouldn't know? I mean, who would do that?"

Ariel shrugs, "Somebody who wanted to protect him?"

"There's something else," says Scott. "You said the only thing you found online about the Kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true? "

Stiles shakes his head, "No, it can't be. Tried to kill all of us, remember?" he points out. "I don't know about you two, but I haven't murdered anybody lately."

"But I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us," says Scott, looking to Allison. "Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?"

"You're right, it just ran off," agrees Allison.

"And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage," Sky points out to Stiles.

Stiles shrugs, "Well, yeah, but it tried to kill us in the pool," he shoots back.

Scott gives Sky a look and she frowns in thought, "But did it?" she asks, looking back at Stiles.

"It would've," Stiles argues. "It was waiting for us to come out."

"No," realises Ariel. "It was trying to keep us in."

Stiles pauses as the thought hits him, then shudders dramatically, "Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?"

"Because there's something else going on," says Scott. "We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him."

"Know thy enemy," Allison mumbles gaining their attention. "Just something my grandfather said."

"Alright, I got it. Kill Jackson, problem solved," says Stiles, clapping his hands.

Sky raises her hand, "I'm in," she cheers, smiling as the two high five.

Ariel grabs her arm, pulling it down with a stern look, "No, Skylar. We're not killing him."

Sky stares at her for a moment before her shoulders sag in defeat, "Fine," she grumbles.

"He risked his life for us. Against Peter, you remember that?" adds Scott.

"Yes, but what did we just find out? He got the bite from Derek," Stiles points out. "It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny."

Scott sighs, "Yeah, it doesn't mean he's not still worth saving."

"It's always something with him, though," mutters Sky, Stiles pointing to her in agreement.

Scott rolls his eyes at them, "He doesn't know what he's doing," he tells her.

"So?"

Scott gives her a pointed look, "So, we didn't either. You remember when I almost killed you and Stiles?"

"Killed?" Sky scoffs. "Hardly."

He ignores the comment, "I had someone to stop me. You had someone to stop you. He has nobody."

Stiles huffs, "That's his own fault."

Scott shakes his head, "Doesn't matter. If we can save him, we should try," he reasons.

Sky groans in exasperation, "You definitely got all the hero when we were born, Scotty boy."

"You have it too, it's just buried a bit -- " Sky gives Scott a look. "A lot deeper." he corrects.

***

"What are you -- And you're sitting on the ground. Okay."

Sky blinks up at Ariel from where she sat against a tree, "Well, where else are we going to sit?" asks as she frowns. "I'm not getting in the car with Scott and Allison when I could choke to death on their sexual tension," she fake gags.

Ariel pauses, "Fair point," she agrees, sitting next to her and leaning back on the tree, just able to see the van a short distance away in the corner of her eye.

Sky leans her head on Ariel's shoulder as they stare into the forest, "This is creepy," she notes. "But not as creepy as it would be if we couldn't see in the dark."

Ariel hums, "It's kind of peaceful," she says quietly.

"Yeah," sighs out Sky. "It's nice," she mumbles, her eyes drifting shut as she relaxes.

After a few moments of silence, Ariel looks down to see her asleep on her shoulder and smiles, running a hand through her hair, looking up through the trees at the night sky, not able to stop her own eyes from drifting shut as recent events catch up to her.

"Jackson's gone!"

Ariel flinches awake, eyes flashing for an unnoticeable second as she comes to from a strange dream about Peter Hale. She almost headbutts Sky as they both jerk up, looking towards Stiles who was standing in front of them with his hands on his hips and a frustrated frown on his face.

Sky groans, looking towards the van in the distance, which had quite noticeably been broken out of.

"We're all definitely taking prison guards off our future career prospects."