『Act I • Side A』
CHAPTER ELEVEN

✨🌙🔮🌙✨

June Tanaka can't fathom how her life took a fresh course in a matter of days.

She can't explain them, not even to herself (who right now, seems to be most confused out of everyone else.) In the span of only a few days, June found out that werewolves exist, that she's a witch-- moreover a Lunar one, something that werewolves from all over the world want dead because she is anti-werewolf, whatever that means. The recurring nightmares involving Scott still don't end, and then of course: her parents. Somehow, despite her life being in threat right now, nothing troubles her more than the reality of her parents. June yearns for a reasonable explanation, as Eliza had described it, as to why her parents never told her the truth about who she really is.

June doesn't even know what a Lunar witch is to begin with. And she owns an abundance of inexplicable power that she has no control over; her eyes randomly turn purple when her powers are in motion; the Demon Wolf is after her life and she can't tell why...

Not to mention the brand new gnash on her forearm all thanks to Deucalion.

Needless to say, these past few days forced extra weight on her shoulders that she never expected or even asked for. It all seems like it's her fate to end up here, like she was meant to be in the middle of all the chaos circumferencing Beacon Hills.

This only augmented her urge to just run away from this cursed town.

Scott has his arm protectively around June's shoulder as the duo leave the hospital wing at school, the witch's wound now aided to. The werewolf is careful with his steps, as though June would get hurt if they move too fast. June glances up to look at him from the side, an uncontrollable grin on her face as she watches him take care of her. She wonders if she should remind him that it's her arm that's been injured, and that walking faster wouldn't harm her in any way. But who was she kidding, June prefers this way more.

Scott suddenly chuckles, breaking the careful silence that they maintained until now. "Are you done staring?" He calls her out, a teasing grin lingering on his lips as he tilts his neck to meet her eyes. Flustered, June immediately snaps her neck away from him and puts her gaze on the floor, her cheeks turning into deep fuschia. The embarrassment that creeps up her cheeks makes her want to crawl into a dark corner and stay there, hiding her face with her hands.

This causes Scott to laugh some more and unintentionally, his grip on her shoulder tightens. June's eyes widen at this gesture, struggling to keep still. She can't stop her heart from throbbing (as always), almost forgetting for a moment that Scott can vividly listen to it. It feels so loud, June doubts he needs super-hearing to hear it.

Awkwardly, Scott clears his throat, pretending like he can't hear her galloping heart. "Does it still hurt?" He politely asks, referring to her wound. Truthfully, it does. But June is too flustered to have a conversation that lasts for more than two sentences. "N-no." She quickly responds instead, refusing to meet his brown eyes.

Scott's phone buzzes to signify a new text and June finds herself feeling thankful for the first time that day. The discomfiture between them quickly wears off, and Scott's fiddles to grab his phone. He slowly takes his hand from June's shoulder whilst looking at her with his eyebrows raised, asking if she'll be fine without his hold. June raises her eyebrows in response, floundering to keep in her laughter but nods her head, smiling wide at his naivety.

The smile quickly fades when she spots Scott frowning upon looking at his phone. "Who is it?" June asks, confused.

"Allison." He quickly responds with his eyebrows furrowed. He reads the message, then looks back at her, concern swept across his face. "I need to go, it's-- I think she found something."

June bobs her head quickly in understanding. "Okay then, you go to Allison and I'll find Stiles and let him know about finding the current. That's what Deucalion said, right?"

"Let the current guide you, that's what he said." Scott corrects her, looking at her in wonder. Unexpectedly, he gives a friendly punch on her shoulder. "And you're already getting the groove, June. Good job!"

This time, June fails to control her laugh at how genuinely excited he sounds. Or is he trying to make June feel better? Nevertheless, she waves him off before he can get the chance to respond to her, and quickly goes in search of Stiles, Eliza and Lydia.

━━☆⌒.⌒☆━━

With a plaster wrapped around her forearm, Juniper precariously walks towards her group of friends clustered in the chemistry lab. But Stiles, Eliza, Lydia and a young woman that June doesn't recognise-- don't even seem to realise that someone else just entered the room.

She raises her eyebrow, only slightly offended, but clears her throat loudly to make her presence known. Their heads whip to her direction abruptly, the unknown girl swiftly taking a defensive stance like she was ready to fight off June. The lost witch can only assume that she's yet another werewolf. Straight, onyx hair sit tranquilly on her shoulders, the werewolf has pale, almost translucent skin. Her eyebrows contort as she glowers at June, snarling at the witch.

"Hey, that's just June!" Stiles calls hurriedly, grabbing the brunette werewolf's hand to stop her from attacking June. "She's a friend."

She relaxes her posture, although her eyebrows still furrow in confusion.The brunette turns around to face June again. She doesn't look pleased, to say the least. "She's the Lunar witch Derek was talking about?"

Bewildered, June asks, "Derek was talking about me?" Her face scrunches. Somehow that news doesn't sit well with her.

"Everyone's talking about you, June." Eliza intervenes, her shrill voice lazy. "You shouldn't sound so surprised."

The Lunar witch releases a long exhale, she doesn't like being in the center of things like this. June has spent her life on the circumference-- unnoticed and unbothered, and that's just how she wants to live the rest of her life. But her fate has other ideas, and she really wishes it didn't.

The she-wolf takes a few steps forward and passes a short nod her way. "I'm Cora. Derek's sister."

June widens her eyes in shock at the unexpected disclosure. "Derek has a sister?" She looks at Stiles.

The scrawny boy nods, showing her a flat smile. "That's right, I'll give you a moment to let it sink."

"Can you please just shush, I'm trying to concentrate here." A familiar voice cries in frustration, and Lydia Martin hasn't taken her face off the book she scribbles in ever since June got in.

Stiles shrugs, rushing to see what Lydia has managed to draw. The others quickly join him, circling the redhead. Confusedly, June looks at Lydia's illustration of a tree. "Uh, why are we looking at a tree?"

"Because Stiles thinks he can get a clue out of me." Lydia says, glaring at the human boy.

"You're supposed to be writing notes or locations or something, not a tree!"

"You never specified what I was supposed to be writing." The redhead points out. "And this whole thing is pointless, nothing is gonna come out of this."

Cora groans in annoyance, and turns around to face June. "You're a witch, right? Do your magic and help us find Deaton."

June furrows her eyebrows, shaking her head vigorously. She points to Eliza. "You do it, you've got more experience than me anyway."

Eliza sighs, rolling her cerulean eyes. "If I could, I would have already. But unfortunately, location spells aren't my expertise. That's my sister."

"Great!" Stiles jumps in, clapping his hands. "Where is she?"

"Out of town."

Stiles' enthusiasm vanishes as soon as it comes and he shakes his head hopelessly.

"Wait!" June suddenly yells, her gemmed eyes wide with realisation. Everyone looks at her expectantly. "Deucalion mentioned something about... a tide? Or a wave? I can't remember what, but he said to follow it."

"Deucalion?" Cora asks skeptically, examining June's face. "You met with him?"

As Cora says this, Stiles' face crumbles into worry for his best friend. His eyes widen when he finally notices the wound on her arm and he grabs her hand, inadvertently pressing the gnash.

"Ow!" June scowls, taking her hand back from him.

"Are you hurt?" He stupidly asks.

June huffs with anger, looking like she is about to reprimand him but Cora cuts him off. "What else did Deucalion say? Any other clue?"

The witch shakes her head helplessly, lips sticking out as she thought back to the only riddled instruction he left them. "He just said, 'follow the waves'... or something."

"You gotta be more specific than that June." Stiles urges, completely unsatisfied by where this is going. June raises her shoulders in defense, a habit she got behind ages ago. "I can't help it! He just spoke in riddles, and whatever he said made no sense-- just so you know."

"This is a waste of time," Lydia says, shaking her head as she turns to Stiles. "It's obvious that you shouldn't be bothering with me, you should be talking to Danny."

"Danny was a victim, right?" June asks.

"He was a target, but not a sacrifice." Stiles sighs, his hands over his mouth as he contemplated over something. Then, with a firm nod of his head, he moves towards the exit. "I'm gonna go talk to Danny."

"I'm coming with you." June announces without thinking, and quickly follows her best friend out of Beacon Hills High.

When they reach Stiles' jeep, June readily scoots in the passenger's seat, determined to do something useful, no matter how small of a role she'll have to play. She turns to Stiles, expecting him to start the engine after floundering at the first few attempts but instead, she is met with his direct gaze that takes her off guard.

"What?" She exclaims loudly, agitated by his brown eyes that bore intensely into hers. They slowly travel down to her hand and he sighs weakly. June then realises that this is regarding the wound on her hand, whose plaster now had a large vermilion spot in the center.

"Did Deucalion hurt you?" Stiles softly asks, unwavering worry in his voice.

June sighs, but puts on a smile for him. "Mmm, I wouldn't say so. It was mostly just Scott and him jumping all around the room while I just stood there."

"Yeah? Then how did that happen?" He motions his eyes towards her forearm.

"He was gonna stab Scott..." June says in a distantly, drowsy lamentation in her voice. "Before I could think, I just came in between them." She is being brutally honest, and that makes her heart beat faster. What will Stiles say if June tells him about the strange connection she feels with Scott? She feels like he would laugh for sure. And she can't blame him, even in her head the idea alone is laughable.

Stiles scoffs teasingly. "I never took you to be a romantic."

June's eyes widen and her cheeks heat up, blushing profusely. "It's nothing romantic," She says loud and clear. "Scott's my friend."

The goofy grin that can only belong to Stiles returns on his face as he finally kick starts the engine. "Whatever you say."

That didn't sound the least bit convincing.

They reach the hospital a few minutes later and sneak into it to meet with Danny as discreetly as possible. They visit his room and unsurprisingly, he's out cold. Stiles proves to be more suspicious than June, as he leans over an unconscious Danny-- and proceeds to lightly slap his face. Stiles doesn't get a reaction from Danny.

"He's not dead right?" June asks with an eyebrow raised, it just seems strange that he won't give any reaction. Stiles gives her a look, "Is it really necessary for you to be negative at the moment?"

The witch just raises her shoulders with no care. Stiles searches around the room and spots a bag next to the bed, bending down to open it. As he starts to go through Danny's bag, the unconscious boy shuffles on his bed. June lets out a short gasp and Stiles looks at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"What are you doing?" His eyes still closed, Danny groggily asks Stiles.

"I'm not doing anything, Danny. This is just a dream you're having." Stiles says, looking back to June for her approval and she mouths 'not bad' to him. Without wasting another moment, Stiles returns to searching Danny's bag.

But Danny isn't convinced yet. "Why are you going through my stuff?" He groans in a meshy voice. Even in half-consciousness, he has his eyebrows furrowed.

"Right. But only in the dream, remember?" Stiles reiterates slowly, with an effort to sound mellow. "Dream, dreaming..."

Danny is persistent. "Why would I dream about you going through my stuff?"

Stiles snaps. "I don't know that, Danny, okay? It's your dream. Take responsibility for it. Just shut up and go back to sleep."

Surprisingly, Danny has no response to that. "Maybe he did go back to sleep." June says lightly, her eyes scanning Danny for any other unprecedented reactions.

Stiles continues to rifle through Danny's bag and pulls out something out of it. "What's that?" June asks him as Stiles goes through the stack of papers in his hands one by one.

"Danny's research proposal. Looks like it's for Mr. Harris's physics class." Stiles says, "It's called 'Telluric Currents'." He sounds excited as he glances through each sheet, June suspects that he may have discovered something.

"Danny may have actually found something." He says with surprise, looking like his mind was just blown.

As he's about to explain to June, his phone rings. June peeks at the phone screen and is actually delighted to see Scott's name on it. Stiles slides the green button and keeps the call on speaker mode.

"Hey, Scott. Find anything?" Stiles asks as soon as the call starts.

"Chris, Allison's dad has all the six possible locations for the next targets mapped out." Says Scott, "They're all over town and I'm worried that we may not have the time to check all of them."

"Okay..." Stiles replies, biting his lower lip in deep thought as he looks at the research papers in his hands. "But if Danny's research proposal makes any sense, we may not have to check all of the locations."

"What do you mean, what's it about?"

"Telluric currents. It's--"

"Currents..." Scott repeats, interrupting Stiles. "Stiles, is June with you?"

June's heart takes a leap when she hears Scott say her name. "Y-yeah I'm right here." She announces herself.

"Okay, remember what Deucalion told us? 'Let the currents guide you'."

June's jaw opens as realisation strikes her. She looks at Stiles with wide eyes. "That's it! That's the ridiculous clue I was telling you about! Do you think this could be related?"

"I think so." Scott says from the other end. "And we don't have much time left, we have to find Deaton now."

"Don't worry, we'll find him." Stiles reassures him. "Let's meet at the animal clinic ASAP, I'll call in Eliza, Lydia and Cora too. I think Danny's papers have some major clues hidden in them."

━━☆⌒.⌒☆━━

At the animal clinic, Scott, Stiles, Lydia, June, Eliza and Cora are gathered to go through 'this kid's homework', according to Cora. "It's not just homework." Eliza argues with the werewolf, "It's a project on geomagnetic fields, which flow through the earth and can even be affected by lunar phases."

"Lunar phases..." June softly repeats, suddenly feeling involved in the ongoing situation. Eliza curves her bubblegum lips into a smirk. "See June? Everything is about you."

"Look at this note Mr. Harris made on his paper," Stiles says. "I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The idea's here, while innovative and thoughtful, border on pseudoscience. Not suitable for class."

"Harris wasn't just a sacrifice." Scott realises grimly, "He knew something."

As Cora scans through the papers, she pulls out a map of the town stacked in between them. When she unfolds them, they find all the telluric currents marked on it.

"Beacon Hills isn't just named like that." Lydia interprets, "the high number of currents flowing through the town makes it an actual beacon of energy."

Scott studies the map and his eyes widen with realisation. "Some of the marks on Danny's and Chris's maps match." He informs, tracing his fingers through the locations. "The place where Deaton is supposed to be sacrificed is somewhere along the telluric currents between where he was taken and where his body will be found."

Stiles grabs a pen and marks the area where Deaton was taken on the map, "He should be sacrificed between the animal clinic and here." Stiles marks another area near the Beacon Hills First National Bank.

Cora voices the thoughts June has running in her mind. "The bank," the werewolf points, her voice pacing with realisation. "This was the place Boyd and I were held captive. Maybe Deaton's in the same vault."

"Then that's where he is." Eliza says, nodding her head. "Let's go!"

None of the others protest as they all leave the animal clinic, except for June, who stays behind, hesitant to join them. Scott is the only one to notice her. Confusedly, he walks towards her. "June?" He carefully calls, trying to read her mind. He expects to hear her heart pounding out of anxiety, but much to his surprise, it's calm.

June fakes a smile, braiding her arms across her chest. "I'm not coming." She simply states.

Scott's forehead creases as he walks closer to her. "What do you mean? We need you, June. You have to be there."

"You don't need me." June scoffs, shaking her head. "I'm just a liability. You saw what happened earlier with Deucalion! If not for me, maybe you wouldn't have gotten hurt. Maybe you could have won that dumbass challenge that he proposed. I spent the entire day with you and I've contributed absolutely nothing."

Her outburst leaves Scott in shock, his lips parted as his eyes widen. He looks expectantly, as though waiting for her to say more but June seems content with what she let out, her chest heaving as she takes in deep breaths.

"June." Scott calls after a long pause, and gestures to hold her hands. June lets him, suddenly feeling nervous about it. She avoids his eyes. "You're not a liability... you just feel that way because you don't have control over your powers, but you will get there eventually. We're all here for you."

The witch bites her lips with force, struggling to suck her anxiety in. Sensing this as he listens to her racing heart, he softly traces her knuckles with his fingers to comfort her. June feels chills all over her body. "Believe it or not, I used to feel helpless too when I was still a newborn Beta. So I know that it's hard, but it's not gonna be this way forever."

June swallows thickly, shortly bobbing her head. Somehow, she manages to look up at him and smiles at him, the gratitude that she feels washing over her face. She takes a deep breath in, exhales the anxiety out (or at least half of it) and says, "Thank you."

Scott returns the smile, nodding his head and without wasting anymore time they leave the clinic to join the rest, hand-in-hand.

    a/n : i know they may seem intimidating, but in reality both scott and june are just two touch starved kids that have too much on their plate ☹️ sorry this is so filler-y hehe im trying to lead everything to a very important scene that will hopefully take place next chap without any plot holes. i hope you liked this chapter!

AND i hope no one forgot abt the cat, it's gonna make a come back soon 👀