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twenty-one. the sword and the spirit

Luna

THE END OF THE day came and went and, as I expected, Theo made sure to make himself scarce. I couldn't find him anywhere in the school and when I finally went out to my truck, his own was gone. During the whole ride home, my anger just rose and rose and rose and I was sure I was going to keep my promise to rip his throat out. Although, he wasn't home when I got to my house and he didn't come home at all through the night. This only made my anger worse because I knew he was reading the journals to confirm his thoughts of my powers being derived from my ancestors. Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night waiting on him to come back.

Coming into school the next day I had expected to see Kira, but the police officers wandering around the halls with shotguns came as a shock. For the first few minutes, I caught up with Kira until she had to go visit her dad in his classroom. Then, I bumped into Stiles who was questioning a Sheriff's deputy. Soon Scott was standing with us, too.

"You don't think this is a bit much in terms of firepower for a high school?" Stiles asks the deputy in front of him holding a large shotgun in his hands.

The deputy responds, "Your Dad's the one that issued us these things, and he wouldn't officially say why."

Stiles glances over at me in confusion before meeting Scott's eye as Scott asks, "Did he say anything unofficially?"

"No. But everyone's got a theory."

Stiles asks, "What's yours?"

"I shouldn't be talking to you guys. Don't you have class?" The deputies eyes land on me as if he's accusing me of starting up this conversation.

"Come on, Strauss," Stiles tries to convince him. "What's your theory?"

The deputy glances at his coworkers before confiding in us, "Do you guys believe in the supernatural?"

Each of us shared a look of disbelief. Was what was happening really so indescribable the deputies were thinking it could only be something they don't understand? If some of them were already having theories involving the supernatural, who actually believed in it?

Another entire school day passes by of not seeing Theo even though I knew he was in the building. He skipped all of the classes we had together and only made the classes I had with the pack much more unbearable. I was beyond furious and everyone around me could tell I was on the verge of lashing out from the permanent glare on my face.

At one point, Stiles questioned what was going on and why I was so angry. When I told him what Theo had done, he told me he understood but continued on to tell me he noticed I'd been way more temperamental since the night the truth came out. Usually, I'd think over what he said and either agree or disagree, but I ended up snapping at him about how he was being pigheaded and insensitive. Something I would never say, especially with how much he and the rest of our friends have been treating me since I popped up in their lives.

Now, I'm walking with Liam around the sewers because I'm ashamed of how I acted. Liam is also dealing with his shame of almost killing Scott which is the reason why he was down in the tunnels looking for the Dread Doctors' Operating Theatre. Besides hiding in the tunnels from my behavior towards the pack, the other reason I'm down here is because I didn't want him to find something dangerous and then be alone to deal with it.

"Tell me again how you managed to convince me to come down here with you?" I ask when the third mouse ran across my foot.

"I didn't. You followed me," he replies, glancing down one of the hallways.

"You know, you should be thankful I did. I'm your extra man power."

"Why? You haven't helped in finding this place so the chance of us running into anybody isn't likely."

His phone buzzed from his back pocket, but it was only a text from Hayden. I pretended not to notice. We continued on and took a right at the end of the hallway. I started looking around at my surrounding instead of just following Liam. Nothing really changed. It was just pipes, pipes, and more pipes, and the occasional symbol with a snake eating itself. He suddenly stopped, making me bump into him. Slowly, he spun around to study the walls around him before sighing. He steps forwards only to stop again. This time it's because he's found Scott.

"You lost?" Scott asks.

"Completely," Liam answers. I meet Scott's eye and he's giving me a look.

"Don't look at me like that I was just following him," I defend.

Liam continues as Scott walks towards us, "How did you know we were down here?"

"I followed you guys. Well, you actually."

"Why are you following me?" Liam asks incredulously.

"Why are you down here?" He has a hint of an amused smile on his face.

"I'm just trying to figure out if this is where they took us. Me and Hayden. Malia said she was down here too. That the scent was the same. She said you were right."

"Uh, there's a turn you guys keep passing," Scott decides not comment on what Liam says and points back to where we've come from. "It's easy to miss."

"How many times did you watch us pass it?"

"Five."

"Well, thanks for letting us know we were walking circles," I say sarcastically as they nod their heads towards each other. Scott just looks at me. "I'm sorry. I didn't get any sleep last night."

"It's all right. Come on. Let's see if we can find it together."

We all walk back in the direction behind us to look for the turn Liam and I had missed. Majority of the time, it feels like we are just walking through dozens and dozens of tunnels with pipes. Until we turn down one that vibrates our entire bodies. Scott stops ahead of us and stares down at his hands.

"Do you feel that?" He asks us, turning around.

"Like something's vibrating," answers Liam, glancing around.

"What is it?" I question, walking down the tunnel with my hand skimming across the pipes.

Scott ignores my question, "I can't tell where it's coming from."

I hear Liam shuffle as he squats to the floor and concentrates on the vibration, "It's coming from everywhere." Scott sighs. Something goes through the air and I can somehow feel that Liam is going to start confessing his feelings to Scott since I'm away. "I was just trying to do something right."

"You do a lot right," Scott tries.

"Yeah, but I did one thing really wrong," he shoots back.

"Hayden's alive. Everything before that doesn't matter." I turn around and meet Scott's eye for a moment before he returns his attention to Liam.

"It should," he says, almost cutting Scott's sentence off. "I feel like I had to do more than just say sorry."

"Actually, you still haven't done that." Scott's lip turns up, trying to lighten the mood.

"Back at my old school, at Devenford, I got into a fight with this kid. I knocked two of his teeth out. They made me write a letter of apology. We both knew it meant nothing. We both knew that sooner or later, we were gonna get into another fight." Liam shakes his head. "I can't just say I'm sorry. I feel like I have to do something. Like maybe, somehow I have to save your life."

Scott takes a deep breath and squats down at eye-level, "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure you'll get a chance."

Liam scoffs but I take this as my cue to return back to the conversation. As I walk over, I say, "Yeah, Liam, what do you think we've been down here looking for? Santa Claus?"

"We've been walking around for hours and all we've been able to find is some stupid snake sculpture on the wall."

"I noticed that. I can't remember what it means," I agree.

Scott starts nodding but then an expression of confusion crosses his face. He turns to where Liam pointed at the walk and stands up instantly.

"You think it's important?"

I scoff, "No, he just realized it's the most beautiful sculpture he's ever seen, of course he thinks it's important." I step around him and stand next to the sculpture. Scott follows my lead and runs his hand over the snake eating itself. Liam stand behind him as he turns the sculpture like a steering wheel. He's surprised and looks at Liam over his shoulder. He continues to turn it until it doesn't turn anymore. We hear rumbling and mechanical whirring from behind the wall, and we glance around to find out what it did. Liam stares at something behind me, then so does Scott. When I turn around, I realize a metal door has been revealed.

Scott brushes past me and goes to open the door. Once it's fully open, we step in but are immediately stopped by the sound of gun cocking. We freeze for a second before we realize who was pointing the gun at us. Chris Argent, the father of Allison Argent and former werewolf hunter. He puts his gun away as Scott sighs and steps further into the room. Another person's scent hits our nostrils, but Scott seems to be the only one to recognize it.

"You didn't," he says.

"I had to," Argent replies, looking away from Scott for a moment.

An old man steps around a corner and stops next to Argent. Almost instantly, I recognize who he is from his brief time as Beacon Hills High School's principal. Also known as Allison's deranged grandfather who was the main cause for further trouble with Jackson as a kanima.

"Hello, Scott." Scott's anger rises at the sight of them, and I step forward ready to back him up but he just puts a hand out in front of me. "I haven't seen that color on you. It suits you."

"Who's the old guy?" Liam asks, which causes him to chuckle.

"At the moment, uh, they would call me 'a necessary evil'. But you can call me Gerard."

"Or crazy, but that's basically the same thing," I state shrugging my shoulders. Gerard fixes his menacing eyes on me and almost seems to bare his teeth at me like a wild animal.

"Coming from the great-granddaughter of a whore," he snarls in disgust. I step forward again, ready to throw hands, but Scott stops me from doing so by grabbing my arm.

"What's that suppose to mean?" I sneer back, restricting myself from showing my newly changed eyes and keeping myself human.

"What were you thinking?" Scott asks Argent, glancing at the side of my face before looking back at him.

"That we need him," Chris replies, side eyeing me since I have not stopped glaring at his father.

Gerard's voice is back to a calm demeanor, "He's right. If you want to catch a werewolf like the Beast of Gévaudan, you're going to need more than one Argent."

Chris' face as he walks toward us shows he was dead set against bringing Gerard back, but his words say otherwise, "He knows all the stories. All the folklore. Everything written and everything passed down."

Scott steps forward, "Are you sure about this?"

"Take a look," Chris nods his behind him before walking into another room. Scott seems to roll his eyes before glancing back at Liam and I and following. I glance at Liam before following also. I glare at Gerard, and he glares back just as fiercely. Liam follows close behind me and the old man brings up the rear. What we find in the next room is a hole in the wall with a mural inside it. It's two, dark beasts fighting against each other except one is on fire. "The one on the right is the Beast of Gévaudan. Do you know what the other one is?"

Everyone turns to stare at Scott, Liam and I on one side of him and Chris and Gerard on the other. After a moment, Scott shakes his head.

"The Hellhound," Gerard states. "The guardian of supernatural places. They're both creatures of the night. But you may know them as ordinary people during the day."

"And most likely neither of them know what they are," Chris continues. Scott, Liam, and I look to one another. "What is it?"

"We found a message in Latin... Damnatio memoriae," Scott tells them. Chris and Gerard stare at each other for a moment.

"They want it to remember itself," Gerard realizes.

Chris thinks before saying, "That might give us time."

"Time for what?" Liam asks.

"To prevent this," Chris says and steps up to the wall and begins smashing the bottom of the mural, breaking off the rest of the wall. What's revealed is disturbing and graphic. The beasts are standing on a pile of bloody, dead bodies.

"Who are they?" asks Liam.

"Us," Scott answers immediately. "It's all of us."

〰〰〰

The Animal Clinic's lights are all off but that doesn't stop us from entering the premises. Malia had texted not too long ago saying she was hurt, but had managed to save Deaton from being her mother's hostage with Braeden. Scott leads Liam and I into the building and he sighs instantly at the sight of his friends. He and Malia share a nod before he goes to hug Deaton. I, personally, don't know Deaton or Braeden so I walk over to Malia to chat with her.

"How are you doing? You okay?" I ask, rubbing her arm soothingly since hugging her wouldn't be a good idea with the bullet holes in her abdomen.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Luna." She gives me a small smile which soothes my worries.

"Luna?" I turn at the sound of my name to find Deaton was the one speaking to me. "As in Luna Louve?"

"Yes?" I glance at Scott for support and he just smiles softly at me.

Deaton smiles warmly, "I knew your father."

I return the gesture but can't help the retort that comes out of my mouth, "I guess that makes one of us."

He slightly frowns, "He was a good man but when he found out you'd killed," he shakes his head, "he felt ashamed and thought he was doing what was best."

I laugh but it's humorless, "I wonder how he's going to feel when word spreads that I didn't kill her."

The look of shock on his face almost shocks me from it's intensity. He turns to Scott for confirmation of this information and even he's startled by the doctor's shock. When Deaton gets the head nod, he turns back to me.

"Have you been experiencing mood swings? Easily brought to tears or angered? Maybe even... sensual?"

"Sensual?" Liam questions, not fully understanding what it means.

"In other words, sexual," Deaton states bluntly making my cheeks and the tips of my ears pink. All eyes burn into my face at the question. "I'm guessing I can take that as a yes?"

"That's what it was!" Liam shouts startling everyone but me. "I knew you smelled different and you changed your clothes! And when Theo said something about round two in the hall yesterday-!"

"Liam, shut up!" I growl but it has no affect on him.

"You had sex with Theo, didn't you?" Scott's whole demeanor changes as stares at me like I'm a different person. Malia steps away from me, and the movement nearly puts me to tears.

"Luna.. you didn't," Scott says in a disbelieving, breathy voice. I nod as tears fall down my face.

"I did and I'm sorry. I don't know why I did, but it's like whenever he gets near me I either want to punch him in the throat or rip his clothes off. There is no in between. It's like I have no control over myself," I confess.

"That's because you don't," Deaton speaks up.

I sniffle and wipe at my nose, "What?" Everyone else turns to him for answers also.

"You don't have any control. If I'm correct and your body's doing what I think it's doing, all of these emotions you're having, heightened by your supernatural abilities, causes you to not have control to dim those feelings. Did your parents teach you your ancestral history?" I shake my head. "Well, I only know so much from what your father told me so I can only tell you very little information."

"I found some journals that could tell me, but Theo stole them the night we, uh, you know."

Deaton nods, "Yes, your father mentioned those. You will need to get them back to fully understand what I'm about to tell you." He takes a deep breath. We all seem to be standing on edges to hear what he has to say. "I believe your body is evolving."

The room is dead silent as each of us process the information.

"If she's evolving, shouldn't she be losing power?" Scott asks.

"Yeah, like Derek did after Kate had made him young again?" Braeden asks, speaking for the first time.

"And shouldn't she have to die so she could fully evolve?" Liam questions.

"Those are all valid questions, but Derek and Luna's power derives from different sources. Derek's comes from his mother and Luna's comes from someone more ancient. Now, I don't know from who because I'd only gotten limited information from Luna's father. What I do know is Luna's evolvement affects her similarly as how puberty affects teenagers," Deaton concludes. "Each person is different. For Luna, her guilt for the death of Theo's sister has suppressed her ability to evolve sooner. But now that she knows she didn't commit the crime, the guilt has lifted and she can start evolving."

Everyone seems to turn to stare at me as I process the information. Finally, I ask, "You mean you're telling me I'm going through puberty again?"

Deaton nods, "Essentially, yes."

"That fucking sucks," I say causing everyone to laugh. "I hated it the first time around."

"But at least now you know why you're so moody," Scott points out.

"Now all I need to know is what I'm evolving into."

Hi, guys! How'd you like the chapter? You get a little in sight on Luna's history and what's going on with her, especially why she and Theo had sex. I'm sorry there wasn't a Leo moment, but there will be in the next chapter.
GOOD NEWS! I'm now posting every Monday! I finished prewriting the rest of the book so I'll be able to post without worrying about writing a chapter.
On a side note, I'm writing a Bellamy Blake fanfic and will be posting it in between the book and the next!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please vote or comment what you think!
- chelsie

word count: 3089

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