Hey all :)! I first want to sincerely apologize for the super long hiatus before this next chapter. I've been so busy with life and everything it entails and haven't had enough time to properly sit down and write my stories out. And admittedly this is not a long or plot-heavy chapter; in fact it's basically a filler, so sorry for that. It's become a bit harder to continue the story effectively, which really sucks when you start out with a concept you're really excited about. However, I'm determined to finish out the story as best as I can, and if that entails chapters that are few and far between, so be it. I do thank you for your immense patience and support throughout all this, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story and, like me, stick with it till the end :).

This chapter relays a lot of canonic events from early Season 5, but, as I've said before, the future chapters are going to severely deviate from the plot, especially since I have finished Season 5 and realized it's nothing like my headcanon, lol. That conflict between canon and headcanon is actually part of the contribution to my writer's block, but hopefully that can be resolved soon. Hope you enjoy the chapter; reviews are more than welcome and much appreciated!

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf at all, but hopefully my story is doing it justice :).

Millions of colors swirled. Shrieks and cracks and thunks of scales against skin rattled around Stiles's brain as he lay in his bed. Processing several things at once was already difficult for the young man, so constantly thinking back to the events of that day nearly made his head explode from pain. Yet he remembered anyway, remembered so he could at least try to contrive some sort of sense from it.

When Tracy escaped Dr. Deaton's office, the group there immediately built up a plan of action. Deaton had started explaining how to potentially speed up the process of discarding their paralyzed state, but Lydia, who was immune to kanima venom, was already on her feet and calling Malia and Kira for help. She then promptly left without another word to meet the other girls and find Tracy.

Meanwhile, Scott, Deaton, and Stiles were trapped in paralysis goo for a good while, which almost drove Stiles insane. Many times he'd claim that he could move a part of his body when Deaton informed him that he most certainly was not. But they all maintained their resolve, and Scott and Stiles even practiced sending mental messages about random stuff to pass the time. The latter had to admit, it was amusing when the emissary would give both boys funny looks whenever they were discovered staring intensely at each other.

It took some time, but the venom's effects slowly wore off, and soon all three were able to get back on their feet and rush to find the others. It turned out that Lydia determined that as a kanima, Tracy was going after people who were trying to help her, which included Lydia's mom. And said Ms. Martin was at the police station on a date (Stiles decided he was going to have a serious talk with his dad after all this was over). To their horror, Stiles and Scott got to the station to see Lydia on the ground, clutching her side that was slashed by the kanima but trying to tend to her also injured mom despite her severe pain. As Scott took away some of that pain, the banshee explained to the two boys how somehow Kira could activate her kitsune powers and ended up slicing off Tracy's tail and how now the creature was in the basement fighting Malia. Stiles instantly became pale as paper.

After rushing to the basement, they found Tracy's body lying still in a small pool of a silvery mercury-based substance. Malia meanwhile was fortunately alive but scared out of her wits. She repeatedly stammered that while she was trying to talk the girl to her senses, some guys in mechanical suits and masks had suddenly arrived, grabbed hold of the werecoyote so she wouldn't be able to do anything, and promptly killed Tracy, stating something about the girl's "condition" being "terminal". The whole thing sounded rather ridiculous, but Stiles knew better, and so he believed her completely. Then here they were, with yet another death in Beacon Hills to deal with.

That was the thick forest of Stiles's mind that night as he continuously tried and failed to go to sleep. He was too terrified; the realization that these scientists were more powerful than imagined was severely frightening. There was no way to understand how something as limited as science could achieve supernatural results, and that thought worried him the most. He then decided to give up on analyzing the situation, figuring that sleep and an answer would come more easily if he tried to clear his mind for a moment. He closed his eyes and considered counting some sheep…

"Stiles?"

His eyes fluttered open. The voice was so gentle in his mind that he almost thought it was part of a dream. Almost. He had a feeling he was being spoken to, but was confused as to how.

"Stiles, are you awake?"

He shook himself out of his confusion as the realization hit him. It was very clear whose voice this was inside his head. Man, this would have to take some getting used to. Stiles closed his eyes again and focused.

"Yeah, I'm still awake; couldn't really sleep to begin with. You can't either?"

Somehow, Stiles could picture Scott gently shaking his head. "I thought I could help her. I thought I could SAVE her…"

"We ALL wanted to save her. But there's not much we can do about it; we don't know at all what we're up against now."

Stiles could sense the panic as his best friend replied, "For men of science, they're able to do things I can't even imagine, and that's coming from a werewolf."

Stiles was about to agree, but a nagging memory in the back of his head surfaced, and he had an epiphany. "You know what? They may be able to do some incredible things, but they're still scientists; they still have limits. And besides, OUR world has been known to house some pretty phenomenal things itself." And without even needing much effort, he flashed his memory of Jordan Parrish controlling fire for the first time into the forefront of his mind, as though doing that would project it out of his head for everyone to see. A light gasp poofed into his subconscious, letting him know that Scott now held the memory as well.

"He…JORDAN did that?" Sure, Scott had seen Parrish shift, but he hadn't seen the phoenix completely control his powers, and he was beyond amazed.

Stiles smiled to himself; he didn't want to admit it, but these new powers were growing on him more and more. "We're going to do this." he thought out, despite him still feeling anxious about it all. "I have no idea how, but we'll figure it out some way; we always have a plan, right?"

Now it was Scott's turn to smile. "And a plan B," he responded, echoing their sentiments from when this whole ordeal started.

Stiles was about to think something else when a sharp tapping on his window distracted him. He jumped a little, initially worried that he was under some bizarre attack. But upon peering through the window he saw none other than a surprisingly vulnerable-looking Malia. Quickly he let her in, and without a word, she gave him a strong look and promptly crawled into his bed. Of course, no words were needed; Stiles knew why she had come. Yes, all of them had seen Tracy's body, but only Malia saw her actually being killed. And something like that is not easy to deal with by any means. So he let her snuggle close to him, and when instead of turning to spoon him she turned so her back faced him, Stiles didn't question it and immediately wrapped an arm comfortingly around her waist. His nose lightly touching the small of her neck, he breathed in her scent and was slightly startled by how strong it was. He wondered if this was part of his "enhanced" abilities and realized that now he could potentially recognize people by their scent. Which was a little weird, but admittedly cool.

Meanwhile, Scott remained silent, sensing that he somehow "lost communication" with his friend. But just as he was about to try calling out Stiles's name again, a sudden wave of emotion swept over him, a feeling of…safety. For some reason it reminded him of whenever Kira and he would spend the night together, but that didn't make much sense with her not being here. That's when he realized what was happening, and again he smiled to himself.

"Yeah, we ARE going to figure this out, together," he whispered to himself, sinking back into his pillow and letting his exhaustion from the latest events consume him. In one last attempt at communication, he sent out one thought, "Good night, Stiles."

It took a few minutes, but just before he finally drifted off to sleep, the young werewolf caught the wisp of a voice from his best friend, "Good night, Scott."