"Mason?" Corey called for his boyfriend's attention when he saw that it was elsewhere.

Mason seemed to be shaken out of a daze. Upon hearing Corey's voice, he immediately looked up at him, "What?" he asked.

"Nothing. I was just asking if you were alright," said Corey.

Mason didn't say anything. Instead, his eyes drifted back towards the floor, where they originally were before Corey came by his side.

Corey knew Mason too well not to understand that something was making his gears turn. The concern displayed on his features was a dead giveaway.

"What is it?" he asked as he sat near him.

"No, it's just something... I couldn't shake out of my head, ever since we had that meeting earlier," Mason admitted.

That was it. He didn't reveal further details about his thoughts, he just kept on staring blankly at the floor tiles straight ahead. But his body seemed to relax a little once he felt Corey's touch. The later gently held his partner's hand, slowly moving his thumb back and forth on it, "Talk to me about it, please," muttered Corey.

"Well, we know the nogitsuné is back, Stiles saw him. We also know that Jennifer, Kali and Anas are back, since Derek fought them. Kate Argent went after Peter and Malia. Then there's Scott, he said he was attacked by a certain Matt. I never met him, but I heard about him and apparently the longtails obey him now," Mason had said that after taking a deep breath. He paused for a moment before adding, "The sheriff was missing earlier because he had to go to Eichen. Parrish was there, in Eichen. He was also attacked and...,"

"And what?" Corey nudged him softly to go on.

"How many creatures do you know, that are powerful enough to give a hellhound a run for his own money?" Mason finally finished his thought.

"I see your point," Corey felt a little squeeze on his hand. Mason somehow looked even more worried than he did before.

"There's someone else with them, and whoever it is, they are very powerful,"

"But you have an idea about their identity, don't you?" asked Corey.

"Well, the new banshee, Maylee, mentioned her sister earlier. A certain Euriella, I believe. I think she could have been the one that attacked Parrish in Eichen. And I think... She was going to win; she was going to kill him. Lydia had a vision of his death, I heard her speak his name when we were fighting the Oni,"

"What about this apprentice? Do you think he might already be here?" said Corey.

"No idea," Mason said nothing after that.

The silence that settled in after their words, felt heavy on their shoulders. Or at least that was what Corey had felt, he simply assumed it was the same for his boyfriend. Although, from the sight of him, there weren't many doubts to have about it. He seemed... Determined to remain stuck in his own head. He seemed to have so much to say yet couldn't get a single word out. He seemed... To struggle with his own inner voices. He had a look that no one sane of mind would enjoy their loved ones to bare.

"Mason? Hey, Mason," Corey softly called for his attention. When Mason finally granted it to him, he continued, "You know we're gonna get through this, right? All of us, I know we can do it. I mean, we've done it before. We've been doing it for years without a break,"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"And we lost so many people along the way. That was when we had one enemy. Now it's an entire league,"

"I said it before, and I'll say it again, I don't care how many times I have to repeat it, I will. People like me, need people like you, Mason. You're the only reason I am still alive, you're the reason many people are still alive. And yes, you're right, we lost many battles. But we won a lot more of them than you think. If you give up on us now... It'll be like losing half of our forces, and there's no rising back from that," Corey had emptied his heart out, looking right into Mason's eyes. He'd put his hands on both sides of his boyfriend's face to make him look up.

********

"So, you're a supernatural?" Chris Argent asked away. Rosalie did nothing but stare at him for a while, not grasping the need to answer such enquiry, "When we found you in the forest. Your wounds weren't healing and... You didn't react to mountain ash either," he clarified.

"If I didn't react to mountain ash, then that must mean only one thing, that I am not a supernatural," she stated.

"So, you were made too?"

"I know the dread doctors came to Beacon Hills a few years ago. I also know that you dealt with the chimeras that they created. Those didn't react to mountain ash either, did they?"

"Yes but, they were only trying to resurrect the beast. All the others were deemed failures, collateral damage," he said.

"Technically, that was exactly what they were, in that context at least. As Maylee explained it before, the apprentice left the dread doctors because he thought they weren't ambitious enough. He thought their ultimate goal was holding them back, was clouding their judgments and impairing their progress,"

"So, you're saying that the apprentice made better progress in the process of creating chimeras?" he was intrigued by her words.

"I have boosted physical strength, superhuman speed, hearing, eyesight, very slow aging, but... I wasn't given the ability to heal faster," she confessed.

"So, he is so far ahead, that he can even control and pick which abilities you get, and which you don't?" Chris was surprised to say the least, but apart from the usual eyebrows furrowing, none of his thoughts and feelings were displayed. Her lack of response indicated that he was right. So, he thought he'd ask her about another subject that... He was a bit reluctant to get into. Not knowing what her reaction about it could be, held him back. But his desire to understand it, got the better of him, "Hilldon... Is not really your son, is he?"

To his surprise, her traits softened, her nerves seemed to ease, and she gave a small yet radiant smile to nobody in particular. Not quite the reaction he'd expected but, he didn't ponder on that for very long, her lips parted to let her speak, "The apprentice is a smart man. Back when he started his experiments, he never took anybody that would be missed. He gave everyone a choice, to join him or to die, but not like he would kill them if they refused. Everyone he spoke to was already on the brink of death. Hilldon was the same when he was brought in. He was so sick, so broken... They left him in my care as he was undergoing experiments. When he was back on his feet, I found out from him that he was an orphan, and that no one would come looking for him anyway. He was eleven at the time,"

"When was that time?" Chris asked as soon as she went quiet.

"He was eleven, thirty five years ago," she said.

"But you weren't loyal to the apprentice, even after what he gave you,"

"I wanted to live, I was alone and scared. Who would say no to a second chance? But that doesn't mean I couldn't tell right from wrong. Besides, he wasn't a kind man either. Everyone could see that, with the exception of Euriella of course,"

They both didn't say a thing for a couple of minutes, until Chris thought of a new question to ask Rosalie, "You said you wanted to live, and that you were alone. How old were you then? if I may ask,"

"I was twenty... But I prefer to keep the rest of my story to myself," she seemed adamant about her decision not to disclose any further details of her story. So, Chris didn't push. He thought that whatever it was that had happened to her, it must have scarred her pretty deeply. It must have, if she chose to remain silent about it even after several decades had passed.

He left her side to go seek his daughter. Speaking of stories... He knew he had his own to sort out before thinking about that of others. He didn't speak to Allison since he first saw her that morning, nobody did speak to her for that matter. He moved through the hallways until he thought he heard her voice among others.

She sounded deeply focused on the conversation she was having with someone, another woman it appeared. The small bit of their dialogue he'd caught stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Busy mind? Marie-Amélie Argent?" said Allison.

"If I asked you, how you knew my real name, would you answer me honestly?" and that was Maylee's voice, he thought...