hold me closer

39

"Can you keep him alive?" Scott asked.

"I'm not sure he technically is alive," Deaton said, examining the Dread Doctor on the table.

"Screw keeping him alive," said Liam. "How do we get him to talk?"

"Personally, I don't think we utilize torture enough," Stiles commented.

I looked at Liam as he spoke. "Did you hear that?"

I shook my head, confused. There was a long silence. Then, I jumped back when the table shook, The Surgeon bolting upright. I closed my ears off as an ear-splitting noise sounded.

I looked up and watched The Surgeon stand, about to leave. Liam growled and lunged towards him.

"Liam, wait!"

The Surgeon turned and a blast of blue light shoved Liam backward into the wall behind him and he crashed to the floor. The Surgeon walked out and I heard the door slam shut.

"Watch out!" I called, pushing Stiles out of the way.

I had seen the metal furniture start to move. The metal furniture flew toward the door, blocking the way. Liam got to his feet and he and Scott went towards it.

"Stop," Deaton warned. "It's electrified."

After a moment, Scott spoke. "The cane."

"But they took it," said Liam. "They took the cane."

:::

"Maybe there's something in here?" Scott said, flipping through the pages of Mason's file. "Something about how he was a genetic chimera."

"Mason had a vanishing twin," Deaton stated.

"Now we've got a vanishing Mason," Stiles commented.

"What does that have to do with him turning into a two hundred fifty-year-old French guy?" Liam said, confused. "How does that even happen?"

"Hold on," said Deaton with an idea. "Scott might have something. Mason's twin wasn't entirely gone. That's what made him a genetic chimera."

"The DNA was still there," Scott caught on slowly.

"Metaphorically speaking, the DNA of Mason could still be inside Sebastien as well," Deaton finished.

"How?" I asked.

"Life is energy," he explained. "Energy doesn't just disappear." I nodded, understanding. "The Dread Doctors may have found a way to break the rules of the supernatural world, but there are some rules that simply won't break."

"So Mason can't just be gone?" Liam said with some hope.

"Somewhere in Sebastien, he has to still exist in some form," he replied. "A spark of energy, a flicker of memory."

"Hang on," said Stiles. "Liam, you said Mason said something right before he turned."

"He said... 'That's not my name.'"

"He finally remembered his name," I muttered.

"Damnatio memoriae," Stiles said grimly.

"That is what they wanted," I continued. "They wanted Sebastien to remember his name."