After Parrish and sheriff Stilinski, it was Rafeal's turn to run through the web of walls surrounding him in that basement. He moved forward with no way to know if his friends had taken that route before him. He'd remained behind until he'd made sure the number of longtails left was manageable; enough for the rest of the deputies and agents to handle on their own.

He'd hoped he'd be able to catch up with Parrish and Stilinski with the smallest number of hurdles he'd have to deal with. But alas, he wasn't helped by the many dead ends he was confronted with; the sheer, unnerving silence around him and the harrowing feeling that things were about to go from terrible to unbearable levels of doom, like they hadn't touched rock bottom just yet and that worse was yet to come.

And so, he ran with that in mind until he was finally able to see the end of the concrete maze he'd been rushing through. He'd reached what he thought to be a spacious open area. He could hardly tell; it was poorly lit for his human eyes to distinguish anything beyond the ten feet ahead of him. By then, he'd already slowed his pace down from a speedy stride to a very cautious one. His flashlight very close above his gun, he advanced warily, illuminating the place he walked into, gradually, from one spot to another. All the way, for what felt like an eternity to Rafael, he could not catch sight of a single thing. But all of that changed when, along his hyper vigilant exploration process, his ears caught what sounded like an egregiously low, bone chilling growl. The more steps he took in front of himself, the louder became the growl. Only a short while after that, he began to discern another sound. A hitched, ragged breathing grew louder with the growl.

It was only when he'd stopped to contemplate his fate that he'd taken notice of his shaking body. The sound of his own uneven breathing. The pouding of his heart against his ribcage as well as his sweat drenched skin. He tightened his hold around his weapon and cursed at his stiff legs, forcing them to move further ahead. Which they did, allowing him to venture deeper into the unknown, drawing closer to that... Thing, that creature, whatever it was, with every step.

He made peace with the idea that the monster he was sharing that space with, could jump at him at any given moment, from any possible angle. The thought, that everything could come to an end for him at any second in there. Well, peace was perhaps not the right word to describe his state of mind right then, but he sure did his best to keep his calm in that situation.

At first, he thought his prayers were answered when the beam of his flashlight brushed a familiar figure. But then, he remembered where he was and the fact that who he thought was the sheriff was crouching down, holding his arms tight around his own gut, was no good augury. Rafael drew nearer to the sheriff, making sure to remain on his guard. After all, he could still hear the growling and panting from earlier.

"Stilinski... What's going on?" he asked in a very low tone. Knowing full well that the creature that was with them there, was already aware of their presence.

However, Rafael's heart sank lower into the pit in his stomach when he understood that the growling noises weren't coming from a monster nearby, but from the sheriff himself. He paused for a split second before moving towards Stilinski again, but he stopped him, "Stop! Don't come any closer. I... can't control... it," he uttered through gritted teeth and agonizing tears. Rafael was barely able to recognize his voice underneath the deep, raspy growl that accompanied every word he struggled to put out. He sounded like a demon, more than a real one could ever sound like.

Once he'd lifted his head up for Rafael to get a look at him, the latter was horrorstruck when he saw what had become of the sheriff's face. The bone structure around his mouth and jaw had changed to somehow put more emphasis and give more definition to that area of his face. The shape of it sat somewhere between a human mouth and a wolf's snout. His teeth had nothing of the ordinary ones he previously had; all jagged and standing in line, with the exception of the canines; those were far more evident considering the way they were protruding past the rest of them. His eyes were flashing between his human Irises and the shinning, golden ones of a werewolf.

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"Stilinski, what the hell is going on? What happened to you?" Rafael questioned as he began to move closer towards Stilinski, again. Completely forgetting his previous warning not to come near him.

"I said stop! Don't come near me!" growled Stilinski once more. Rafael froze in his spot but said nothing, hoping Stilinski would volunteer more information about his condition on his own accord, when he can. To his relief, Noah carried on, "It was in the shrapnel bomb. Fisher... She put something in the bomb... Some sort of virus...," it appeared that with every effort to speak, Noah lost a little more control over his actions. His eyes remained illuminated with a golden hue for a longer span of time than they did before. During that interval, Stilinski had to restrain himself from launching forward at Rafael.

"Fisher? Isn't she one of your deputies? What do you mean she put something in the bomb?" Rafael did his best in order to put the pieces that Noah gave him together. But some pieces simply didn't fit, no matter how hard he tried.

"The nogitsuné... She helped him get the bomb inside the...," his throat burst into an agonizing, inhuman scream before he could finish his sentence. Stilinski was gradually losing all the features that made him human, only to be replaced by foreign, monstrous ones. Sturdy and firm Claws came to slowly replace his fingernails.

Instinctively, Rafael brought his weapon up before slightly lowering it again in front of the shaken figure of the sheriff, or what remained of his original self, "This... This virus is making you turn into a werewolf or some sort of other creature?"

"It's a full moon night... I can't control it! I can't!" cried the sheriff as he held his right wrist in his left hand, giving the impression that he'd lost control over that arm.

"The full moon is what triggered the virus. That means that every deputy that survived the explosion can be contaminated," Rafael's mind was bustling, running at a faster pace in order to process the information he'd just received.

"Promise me that you'll do whatever you can to take care of this situation," at those words, Stilinski no longer sounded threatening, but instead, he sounded defeated, beaten down by his circumstances.

"What do you mean? What about you?" Rafael was afraid of what Noah expected of him. He feared that what he'd have to do, the price he was going to have to pay, was far more expensive than anything he'd imagined it to be when he sat foot in that basement, at the beginning of that night.

"You know what I mean... Please, don't make me say it," Stilinski begged.

"There has to be another way!"

Right as Rafael had finished that exclamation, he saw what was, perhaps, the last remaining shard of humanity, Noah had struggled so painfully not to lose. He shed one last tear before his eyes flashed into that cursed golden color they kept on teasing all that time. His skin had lost its natural shade and had turned into a different one. One that Rafael couldn't distinguish with exactitude, considering the poor lighting in that place.

It seemed that his body was done with all the aching. It seemed he was becoming much more comfortable in his new body once there was no ounce of his true self left to fight it. He, the creature, slowly stood straight in front of Rafael, a devilish grin drawn across its features.

He took one first step towards Rafael, who hastily aimed his gun at Stilinski again, "Stilinski! I know you can hear me! I know you're in there! Please! Don't make me do this! Fight it! I know you can! Noah!" he kept on shouting at him. He took as many steps back as Stilinski was taking forward.

At that point he'd lost all of his composure, his voice just as shaky as his arms, which barely allowed him to aim correctly. At that point he knew, he was only delaying the inevitable. He knew, that should he refuse to pull the trigger, there was no way for him to live to see the end of their war against the apprentice. He knew he'd have to make his choice as fast as possible and so, he...

He did nothing. He did not get to do anything. He did not have to make that choice after all. A far sounding, soul shuddering growl resounded all around them. It completely captured the attention of the creature that Stilinski had become.

A few seconds of silence followed after that before the creature turned around and scurried away from sight.