Scott's lips moved, but only to say, "You gotta be kidding me...,"

He felt a gentle yet firm grip on his shoulder, before a familiar voice spoke to him, one that he hadn't heard in years, "No, I am afraid it's not a joke, Scott,"

When Scott laid eyes on the speaker, the first name that came to his mind was Ethan, but then, and once he was able to take a better look at the young man, his eyes flashed with another wave of shock, "Aidan?"

Aidan's lips curved upwards, giving Scott a small but very warm smile in response. Not that Scott wasn't delighted to see an old friend, he felt overwhelmed by the velocity of the latest events. For a moment it seemed that the whole time his body had been running on nothing but adrenaline, since the minute he took his very first step back into Beacon Hills. Well, since he first crashed back into Beacon Hills. He just stood there stunned, until Stiles finally spoke, "Welcome back to the land of the living," he addressed Aidan.

"Is nobody going to welcome me back?"

"Deucalion," Scott had finally snapped out of it, and simply greeted Deucalion with a small nod and a side smile.

"So, are we going to discuss the reasons that brought us here or...?" again, Stiles took it upon himself to end the comfortable silence that had settled between them in that clearing. They didn't say anything, they just needed to enjoy their quiet happiness. They hadn't even noticed that they were just standing there, staring at each other.

Deucalion cleared his throat before speaking his mind, "Well, first things first. Do you recognize any of these faces?" he gestured towards the desolating sight of the dead bodies around the nematon.

Scott moved forward first, then Stiles followed, apprehension visible on both of their demeanors. Scott walked around for a while, trying his best not to avert his gaze away from the empty eyes, gaping blankly at him. He crouched down, his eyes fell towards the ground before looking back up, "It's kinda hard to say, in their condition," he commented. He knew that statement didn't bring much to the table; deep within himself he knew it was just a distraction from the rest of the thoughts forming in the back of his mind, each violently pushing and racing towards the front; sort of like how all of those people looked so young, how most of them were with no doubts in the prime of their lives, how breathing air was unfairly stolen from them.

"It's just that there are so many of them, it's really hard to believe that Lydia didn't pick up on any of them,"

Scott finally broke eye contact with one of the cadavers that seemed to be seeing through his soul. He turned towards Aidan to answer him, but Stiles beat him to it, "We've been out of town for the past three years," when everyone did nothing but stare at him, he added quietly, "Kind of a long story...,"

"And I am sure it's a very interesting one. Anyhow, we've seen this phenomenon before," said Deucalion, using his cane to point at the bodies.

"You mean bodies being dropped near the nematon?" asked Scott.

They all seemed to know what he meant by that, with the exception of Aidan who looked beyond confused. Still, he didn't utter a word about it; instead, he waited for more details on the matter.

"Yeah, but I am having a really hard time picturing Parrish hiding the bodies like he did back then," said Stiles in response.

"Well, I didn't really have Parrish in mind when I said that," Scott clarified. Thinking back at the times when Parrish took the bodies of the failed chimeras and carried them over to the nematon. Back then, he had very little control over his powers, acting only and purely based on his hellhound instincts.

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"It wasn't necessarily a hellhound that did this," said Deucalion.

Stiles furrowed his eyebrows in Deucalion's way, but Scott seemed to have caught on, "Yeah, most of them aren't even supernatural," he gestured towards the bodies.

At the mention of most of the bodies belonging to non supernatrals, something clicked in Stiles' mind. He walked even closer to the mass, doing his best to overcome the whiff of pure death his nostrils were hit with and the pang he'd felt around his heart. He moved from one carcasse to another, intently eying every visible detail about them.

"What is it?" asked Scott.

Stiles' right arm repeatedly waving around in circles was a second nature for him. It was something he did whenever he was deep into an analysis, "No... It's just... Look at their wounds. Don't they look familiar to you?"

Scott stood up, somehow convinced it would give him a better view of the scene. His eyes skipped between bodies, until an air of comprehension appeared on his face as a feeling of deja vue washed over him, "The threefold death," he muttered unable to decide if he was shocked or just disheartened.

"So, all of these are sacrifices?" Aidan finally butted in.

"Most of them appear to be so, yes," Deucalion confirmed.

"What you said earlier about Jennifer getting stronger, when we were on our way here, you were right," Scott turned to meet Stiles' gaze, but the latter seemed to remain focused on one of the wounds he had under his eyes.

But even in that state, he still managed to articulate his thoughts, "Derek said that her powers had been enhanced, extremely, compared to the last time we faced her,"

"Yes, she was much more powerful than before, but she still was reluctant to face me," said Deucalion.

"Guess somethings never change," Aidan commented on that last statement.

"That still doesn't explain how Kate was able to create an illusion," said Scott.

"If her allies are as powerful as Jennifer, maybe she didn't need to," Stiles retorted.

"I personally don't believe it was Jennifer that did that," both Scott and Stiles turned towards Deucalion. They stared at him in anticipation for further clarification, "I did sense that Jennifer's powers grew beyond what they once were but, I don't think she'd have that kind of reach and projection. Kate was too far away from her at the time," he added.

"Okey so, so far we know of Matt, Kate, Jennifer, the nogitsuné, Anas and Kali... Who else is with them?" Scott asked.

"There's the other banshee, Euriella or something like that," Stiles flicked his nails against each other as he spoke.

"Well, we can't really be sure of anything. We don't know much about her," said Scott.

"It would still be a fair assumption," said Deucalion.

"Besides, I think we should talk to Parrish about this," Stiles spoke again.

"Why exactly?"

"Because I am pretty sure he met her last night,"

Before Scott could ask Stiles another question, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He picked it up, noting that he'd received a text from Liam, "Liam says we need to meet again, he thinks he found a way to track our enemies to their hideout," he voiced the content of the message to inform everyone around him about it.

"Didn't mention how?" asked Aidan.

"No, that was all he said,"

"I think we've seen everything we needed to see here anyway, but we need to call this in," said Stiles.

"I'll take care of that," Aidan volunteered for that task.

Scott and Stiles broke away from Deucalion and Aidan. Heading back out of the preserve, they exchanged further notes and conclusions about the scene they left behind them. There were things they had already figured out, like the source of Jennifer's power, or the fact that nobody in town had connected the missing people's cases until then. But there were things they still couldn't wrap their heads around, things such as Euriella's mysterious powers, or who else was part of their enemy's team.

Once they were both seated in the car, Stiles looked up towards the darkening sky, "Do you think they'll strike again tonight?" he asked.

"No idea, really," Scott replied as he started the car.

There was another buzz, only that time it came from Stiles' phone. He immediately answered the call once he saw Lydia's name on the screen, "Lydia?" he remained silent in front of her frantic vocal attempts to sound coherent, but all he could make out of it was, "We tried to call the station, but nobody is answering," and "I tried to get a hold of Parrish and the sheriff, but I couldn't,"

Stiles did his best to understand it, but when he couldn't, he stopped her, "Wait, wait, wait, Lydia, please slow down, I can't understand a thing from what you're saying,"

She'd stopped speaking, but she was still breathing heavily on the other end of the line, trying to slow her heart rate to a normal one. When she thought she could get a decent sentence out of her mouth, she spoke again, "We are on our way to the sheriff station, we need to get them to evacuate immediately. There's a bomb in there but we couldn't reach the emergency line and I couldn't get a hold of Parrish or the sheriff either. I don't know if you can get there faster, but we need to try everything we can to keep everyone safe,"