"Be brave. Stay strong. We need all hands on deck."

♰ ♰ ♰

Stiles uses the keys to open the lock on the door of the ice rink. Scott gives a smile as he watches his best friend open the doors for them all and turn the lights on, revealing the ice rink ahead of them.

Allison rushes in, grabbing Scott's hand as she giggles and drags him off. Stiles grins at the Martin cousin's, Lydia enters first giving Stiles an impressed look before heading in to catch up with Scott and Allison.

Isabel trails behind before standing with Stiles who watches her with a beaming smile. She grins back up to him, before gently grabbing his hand and following behind the three others to get their ice skates.

They take their skates up to the stands as Isabel continues to try and find herself a pair she liked. When they were younger, and Lydia would do figure skating together so they were well acquainted with the ice.

She looks over to see Stiles and Lydia sitting together and grins at the sight. Lydia had become a lot more accepting towards Stiles, knowing how much he meant to her younger cousin.

"Could it be any colder in here?" Lydia complains, tightly knotting up her skates.

Stiles pauses for a moment before digging into his bag. He pulls out an orange scarf that he had brought just in case.

"Here." He offers but falters as he watches Lydia's face crumple in disgust.

"I'm wearing blue. Orange and blue? Not a good combination."

"But it's the colors of the Mets." He trails off, offended.

He shakes his head, knowing he had to get along with Lydia because she was Isabel's family. He puts the scarf back into his backpack and looks at the bag of Reese's he brought.

He holds the bag of chocolate up to Lydia as she turns, giving him a look before taking the chocolate and beginning to unwrap it. He thinks for a moment before trying to start a tactical conversation about himself and Isabel.

"Okay, um, maybe orange and blue is not the best, right, you know... Um, sometimes, there's other things you wouldn't think would be a good combination, end up turning out to be, like, a perfect combination. You know? Like, two people together... who nobody ever thought would be together ever..." He tries to explain, hoping to get Lydia's approval. Lydia pauses for a second.

"No, I can see that," Lydia responds thoughtfully.

"You can?" Stiles asks, shocked.

"Yeah." Lydia nods, before looking over at Scott and Allison. "They're cute together." She obliviously comments.

"Oh, yeah... them..." Stiles comments glumly.

"Cute." Lydia smiles, taking a bite of chocolate.

"Cute. Adorable." Stiles sighs.

"I found them!" Isabel shouts, causing everyone to look up.

The ginger girl stands at the bottom of the stall beaming as she holds tan-colored ice skates in her hands. Lydia gasps, knowing these were her old skates from when they were 14.

Isabel quickly takes a seat at the bottom of the stand, before starting to put on the skates; thankful that her feet had stayed the same size. Stiles moves down to the girl, before kneeling and helping her tie up her skates.

She gives a thankful smile before watching as he cautiously tightens them. Once he was happy, he stands before holding out a hand for Isabel to take. She chuckles and takes his hand, standing up on the skates.

Before Stiles can talk, Lydia grabs Isabel's other hand and drags her off to the ice, causing her other hand to lose grip on Stiles'.

Stiles watches the two in awe as they skate effortlessly across the ice. Lydia continues to dance across the ice as Isabel turns to Stiles with a grin. She skates toward the boy before holding out a hand.

"Well? Come on!" Isabel giggles, taking his hand in hers as they skate off together.

After a while of skating, Scott and Allison leave to give Scott a break as he wasn't a good ice-skater. Stiles leaves to grab some snacks from the vending machine for Isabel and Lydia, who continue skating together, carefree.

Lydia pauses on the ice, seeing a purple petal of a flower on the floor. She leans down and picks it up to inspect in her hands. She looks up to see a trail of petals and follows it closely, feeling her heart racing in her chest.

Across the ice, Isabel freezes as she feels her own heart begin to race and spins to watch Lydia in fear. Lydia kneels to the ground, and Isabel quickly skates towards her, pausing in her spot as she sees the purple flower sticking up out of the ground.

Lydia turns her head to Isabel, who nods her head to confirm what she was seeing and drops to the ground next to her. Isabel reaches out, wiping the ice where the flower stood to see under it.

The girls jump back in horror as Peter Hale screams out inaudibly under the ice, slamming at the ice from underneath. Lydia and Isabel scream in fear at the man, the man Isabel thought was dead.

The sound of their collective screams echo around the ice rink, causing Stiles to come running back quickly skating toward the girls and trying to calm them down.

Scott and Allison come rushing out of the door and watch the scene unveiling before them. They quickly rush onto the ice to help console the screaming girls.

♰ ♰ ♰

Scott stands behind Erica at her locker the next day, watching as she fixes her makeup before sighing and turning to face the other wolf.

"Two's not enough for Derek- I know he needs at least three. So, who's next?" Scott lowly asks.

Erica giggles before turning back to her locker, shutting it before looking back to Scott.

"Why does there have to be a "next" when we've already got Isabel?" Erica answers flirtatiously, walking Scott down.

"Who's next?" Scott firmly asks again, knowing Isabel would never agree with what Derek was doing.

"You know, I never knew what I looked like during a seizure until someone took a video of me once and put it online," Erica responds but Scott shakes his head.

"I don't care." He answers impatiently.

"It happened during class. I started seizing in my desk, and everyone was saying how they should put something in my mouth... until some genius reads the card on my key ring which tells him not to 'cause it could break my teeth."

"Erica..." Scott sighs.

"Do you know what happens next? I piss myself. And they start laughing." She sadly continues, moving forward as Scott moves backward. "You know, the only good thing about seizures was that I never remembered them..." She trails off before shoving Scott back against the lockers. "Until some brilliant jerk-off had to go and put cameras in everybody's phone!" She shouts before calming herself down.

Allison watches the interaction from a distance.

Erica caresses Scott, "Look at me now, Scott." She attempts to seduce but Scott turns his head, noticing Allison watching. Erica turns her head to follow. "That's right- you only have eyes for her." She scoffs.

Scott angrily turns back to Erica, grabbing her hands and removing them from the side of him. She giggles as Scott forcefully removes her hands, placing them back in front of her.

He turns back to see Allison gone and gives a frustrated look to a smirking Erica. Scott leaves for the cafeteria, and notices as Allison comes and sits behind him.

"I know how it looked, but she came up to me." Scott quietly explains.

"I'm not jealous." Allison answers.

"You're not?" Scott asks surprised with a smile.

"She's with Derek, now, isn't she? Like Isaac." Allison mumbles worriedly. "You can't get caught in the middle of this. Don't you feel what's happening? My grandfather coming here, Derek turning Erica and Isaac, it's... It's like battle lines are being drawn."

"I know." Scott sighs.

"There's always crossfire," Allison emphasizes.

"What am I supposed to do? I can't just stand by. I can't pretend to be normal."

"I don't want you to be normal-- I want you to be alive." Allison quietly answers, before picking up her tray and leaving, almost bumping into Stiles as he rushes toward Scott.

"Scott, do you see that?" Stiles exclaims out of breath, pointing to a table.

"What? It's an empty table?" Scott sighs.

"Yeah, but whose empty table?" Stiles pushes. Scott freezes.

"Boyd." He speaks in realization. He quickly gets up and the two exit the cafeteria. "I'm going to the ice rink, see if he's there. And, if he's not at home, you call me, got it?" Scott explains but turns to Stiles as he doesn't respond. "What?"

"Maybe we should let him." Stiles hesitates. "Boyd, you know, man? You said Derek's giving them a choice, right?" Scott grabs Stiles' arm and makes him continue walking,

"We can't." Scott insistently responds.

"You gotta admit, Erica looks pretty good," Stiles comments before looking down the hallway, noticing Isabel. "And Isabel- I mean, you know, the word "sensational" comes to mind." He trails off, watching the girl.

"Yeah, how good do you think they're gonna look with a wolfsbane bullet in their heads?" Scott comments making Stiles' face drop and turn back to him. "Erica told me Derek wants Isabel." Stiles sighs.

"All right. All I'm saying is, yeah ok Isabel is but, maybe this one isn't totally your responsibility." Stiles explains in regards to Boyd.

"They all are. And you know this thing's gonna get out of control. That makes me responsible." Scott explains, watching as Isabel approaches the two, meeting them in the middle.

"All right, I'm with you. And, I also gotta say... this newfound heroism is making me very attracted to you." Isabel hears Stiles say and holds in her laugh.

"Shut up," Scott responds exasperatedly.

"No, seriously! Do you wanna just try making out for a sec? Just to see how it feels?" Stiles jokes as Scott pushes him away and makes him turn around to see Isabel. "Totally joking." He stutters out. Isabel nods with a laugh.

"Of course. I'm coming with you." Isabel says nodding to Scott.

He nods approval and pats Stiles on the back. Stiles watches the two wolves leave silently before remembering his job and running to his Jeep.

♰ ♰ ♰

Stiles stumbles out of his Jeep, throwing the door shut as he runs toward the door of Boyd's house.

"Hey, Boyd?" He knocks and knocks again when there is no answer. "Hey, Boyd!" He repeats, trying the door but sighs as it's locked. He looks over to the window trying to see any movement. "It's Stiles." He takes a breath as it is silent inside the house and turns around only to push himself back up against the door. "Oh- wow." He mumbles, coming face to face with Erica. She giggles at the boy.

"What are you doing here, Stiles?"

"Uh," He nervously starts, "Nothing. I was just looking for, um-"

"Boyd?" Erica offers with a smirk. Stiles nods.

"Yeah. Yes. Boyd." He clarifies.

"You know what you're doing right now that's kind of funny? You're only looking in my eyes." She responds amused.

"That's funny?" Stiles asks, keeping his eyes glued to hers.

"Well, yeah... Because it's that kind of look where you're trying not to look anywhere other than my eyes... But you want to, don't you?" She laughs, moving closer. "You want a nice, long, hard... look."

"Not really, no." Stiles gulps.

"Oh... So, it's just my eyes?" Erica asks, playing dumb.

"Yep. You have beautiful eyes." Stiles nervously laughs.

"I have beautiful everything," Erica smirks.

"And a new-found self-confidence. Congratulations, Erica. I should get going." He tries to move forward, but Erica places a hand on his chest, her face serious.

"You're not going anywhere." She demands. Stiles closes his eyes in fear.

"Why not?" Stiles asks, finally opening his eyes to see Erica holding one of the parts of his engine.

"You're having car trouble." She smirks before using the metal to knock Stiles out.

♰ ♰ ♰

Scott and Isabel approach the ice rink, entering and watching as Boyd drives the Zambonini on the ice.

"Boyd!" Scott shouts over the sound of the engine. Boyd looks up to see the two and turns back, ignoring them. "We just wanna talk." Scott continues. They make their way onto the ice and head in his direction.

"Hey!" Isabel shouts this time. "Boyd, please." She begs.

"Did Derek tell you everything? And I don't just mean going out of control on the full moons- I mean everything." Scott tries to explain, as they get close enough to Boyd that they don't have to shout. Boyd stops and turns the engine off.

"He told me about the hunters," Boyd confirms.

"And that's not enough for you to say no? Whatever you want there are other ways to get it."

"I just wanna not each lunch alone every day." Boyd clarifies.

"If you're looking for friends, you can do a lot better than Derek," Scott responds, Boyd looks down at his hands.

"That really hurts, Scott," Derek answers from across the rink. Scott and Isabel turn to Derek, seeing Erica and Isaac stand beside him. "I mean if you're going to review me, at least take a consensus," Derek smirks, turning to Erica. "Erica, how's life been for you since we met?"

"Hmm. In a word? Transformative." She dramatically answers, before growling and flashing her fangs at Scott and Isabel. Isabel shakes her head at the girl.

"Isaac?" Derek continues. Isaac smirks, watching Isabel closely.

"Well, I'm a little bummed about being a fugitive... but, other than that, I'm great," Isaac responds. Scott sighs as he watches the two get into a fighting stance.

"Okay, hold on. This isn't exactly a fair fight." Scott lowly speaks.

"Then go home, Scott," Derek responds, satisfied. "I'm sure Isabel won't mind joining us." He smirks, looking at the girl.

She shakes her head as all eyes fall on her. "He meant, fair for them." She growls, flashing her blood-red eyes as the chaos swirls around her.

Isaac and Erica growl back, rushing forward. Isaac rushes for Isabel, while Erica goes for Scott. Isabel shakes her head at the pair, manoeuvring her hands around a ball of chaos before shooting it at Isaac and throwing him against the wall of the ice rink.

Scott drops down as Erica tries to swipe at him, and knocks her back against Boyd's Zamboni with a thud. Isabel glares at Isaac as he stands back up snarling, Scott turns around to make sure the girl was alright.

Erica uses the distraction to grab at Scott from behind, throwing him against the vehicle. Isabel hears this and turns at the sound of Scott grunting in pain, not noticing Isaac lunge for her waist. He knocks the strawberry blonde down, winding her as she hits the ice with a thud.

Erica punches Scott and throws him across the ice. Scott grips to the floor with his claws before running up and knocking her down. Isabel looks up to Isaac growling above her and glares at him before swiping his feet out from under him.

Erica jumps up and wraps her arm around Scott's throat, but Isabel throws her off and to the side, keeping her down with swirling red dancing around the blonde's body. She turns back, making Isaac's fist freeze mid-strike.

He looks at his hand, encased in red energy in anger and shock. Isabel smirks at him before making him hit himself in the face, knocking him down onto the ice. Derek smiles at the two beta's as they look over Isaac and Erica on the ground.

"Don't you get it? He's not going this for you. He's just adding to his own power, okay? It's all about him. He makes you feel like he's giving you some kind of gift when all he's done is turn you into a bunch of guard dogs!" Scott shouts, sliding the two across the ice to Derek's feet.

"It's true. It is about power." Derek shrugs, slowly approaching the two teenagers.

He releases his claws and glares at the two with his red eyes. He growls, flashing his fangs at the two. Isabel shakes her head at the Alpha.

Scott looks at him in disbelief, but Derek headbutts the beta and swipes at his stomach. Scott clutches to the wound painfully but Derek continues to punch him in the face.

"Derek!" Isabel shouts, but he ignores her and knocks Scott onto the ground with a hard smack. "Don't make me do this Derek!" She cries out, not wanting to fight him.

He turns to her and smirks, but she uses her magic to throw him back. The smirk stays on his face as he stands back up, Scott attempting to regain his composure. This time he walks Isabel down, she starts to try and build her energy back up, feeling the trickle of blood dripping down her nose. Derek swipes at her, Isabel lifts her arm to protect her body and feels the searing pain immediately.

He continues, grabbing her by the throat and punching her in the face. She coughs out the blood, the burning sensation taking over her face. Derek lifts her and slams her to the floor next to Scott with a crack, and presses his foot down onto her ribs. A sickening crunch can be heard under his weight, breaking her ribs.

"You chose the wrong side." He growls, before kicking off of her body leaving her writhing in pain on the ice.

Scott looks at her in worry as he coughs up blood. As Derek leaves with Erica and Isaac, victorious; Boyd jumps down from his spot. He approaches the two with worry. Scott sits up slightly, staring into Boyd's eyes.

"Don't... You don't wanna be like them..." He tells him weakly.

"You're right..." Boyd answers but lifts his top to reveal the bite was already done. "I wanna be like you guys." He confirms, before walking off and following after Derek's pack.

Scott watches him, before turning to Isabel concerned. He helps the girl sit up gently before picking her up in his arms, wincing in pain at the slice on his side.

"Why aren't you healing?" He asks the girl as he takes her into the animal clinic; the only place he could think of. She grunts in pain as Scott takes her through the door.

"Because it's from an Alpha," Deaton speaks, causing the two to look over in shock. "Just like how you won't heal." Scott and Isabel look at the body on the table in horror, claws carved into his chest. "I think we better have that talk now."

----