The Silver Soldier

III

I don't know Theo's secret. Or I didn't; not when I confronted him. His reaction is what gave him away, the way he turned away from me gave me everything I needed.

Though I still don't know exactly what he's hiding, I now have the upper hand. He thinks I know his secret, and I will bet anything that he will do everything to make sure Scott doesn't find out. Theo is not the good guy he claims to be... and I can use this knowledge to my advantage.

I walk into math class, sitting in my desk behind Scott. The lesson starts, our teacher talking about variables and exponents. Barely ten minutes into the class, Scott turns to face me. "Stiles, we have to talk." He whispers.

"About?"

He blinks. "You know what about."

"Oh, about me killing Donovan." I say, not making an effort to be quiet. I open my notebook, writing down today's date and the title of the note.

"Stiles." He hisses. "Someone's going to hear you."

"So what? I did kill him, did I not? It's not like they're going to find his body any time soon."

"What has gotten into you?"

"Oh I don't know." I shrug. "Maybe my best friend didn't believe me when I told him it was self defense. That he was trying to kill me, there was nothing I could do."

He hesitates. "You never told me he was trying to kill you."

"You never asked." I look up, meeting his eyes.

"Stiles, I-"

"You know what?" I put my pencil down, closing my notebook and stuffing it back in my bag. "I'm done." I say, standing up. "I'm done, Scott. If you like Theo so much, he can be my replacement." I hear both him and the teacher calling my name as I walk out of the room. I'm already halfway down the hall when I hear footsteps running up to me.

"Stiles. You can't just walk out of class like that." I hear Scott say, he grabs my shoulder to turn me around. I stop myself from taking hold of his wrist and breaking it. God, with the anger flowing through my veins right now I feel like I could. But instead of resorting to violence, I just stare at him. "Look, I'm sorry. Okay. I was wrong."

"Damn right you were."

"But still, you can't kill-" he starts.

I begin to laugh. "You think I wanted to, Scott? You think I looked at that kid and thought 'you know what? I'm going to murder him tonight'?" I ask, Scott stays silent. "You don't have to keep telling me what is and isn't right. I know what I did was wrong, Scott. It's not like I'm going to do it again."

"Stiles-"

"No. Let me finish-"

"No, Stiles." Scott says, staring at my nose. "You're bleeding."

"What?" I ask, bring my hand up to my face. When I bring it back down, the blood on the back of my hand isn't red, but silver. I look at it, feeling more drip down my face. "Shit" I whisper. Glancing up at Scott. His eyes are on the silver liquid on my hand.

"We need to get you out of here." He grabs my arm, pulling me down the hall. "Somewhere they can't get you."

"No."

He stops moving. "What?"

"I said no. It's a simple word, Scott, would you like me to say it again?"

"What?" Scott stares at me, taken back. He tilts his head, noticing something different on my face.

"I can protect myself." I say, offended.

"Not against these things, Stiles. You're only human."

"Am I?" I ask, and his expression changes, becoming confused.

"What do you mean?"

I scoff lightly. "This can only mean one thing, Scott. You know it as well as I do."

"Stiles, I am looking at you right now, you're obviously human. You have no scales, no fangs, you don't smell like a wolf or a fox, or any supernatural creature for that matter." He steps towards me, his gaze fixated on the silver blood dripping from my nose. "I don't know what they did to you, Stiles, but you're no chimera, that I know for sure. So snap out of whatever this is and stop acting like you can protect yourself when you can't."

I stare at him, brows raised. "Protect myself?" I repeat, finding his statement funny. "And what do you mean by that?"

"You need us, Stiles. If you didn't have us, you wouldn't survive. Not in Beacon Hills." He scrambles for words, trying to prove himself right. "This town isn't made for the weak, that's why we're here. Now snap out of whatever this is and come back to class. Put Donovan behind us, what's done is done, there's no going back."

"You think I'd go back?"

This seems to take him off guard. "Wouldn't you? If you had a chance to make everything right again, wouldn't you take it?"

I shake my head, amused that he could be so naive. "If I were to go back, I'd kill him all over again." I say, looking past Scott's shoulder for only a second before returning my gaze. "I would do everything the same, but with one exception." I make my voice softer. Venomous. "This time, Scott, I'd enjoy it."

He doesn't hear the heavy footsteps behind him, nor does he sense the presence of a supernatural force. His focus is on me, and solely on me. The utter disbelief on his face tells me I have said the right thing to piss him off. And a part of me feels satisfied with myself.

I feel my nose start to bleed more heavily now, my eyes begin to water. Only, it isn't tears running down my face, but mercury. My own blood. Silver tears trace my cheeks, the liquid metal is leaking from my ears as well.

I don't do anything to warn Scott. And it is only when the Dread Doctors are standing beside him, does Scott realize what is happening.

"Mieczyslaw Stilinski." One of the doctors hiss through it's gasmask, though I can't tell which one it is. "Condition: terminal." I feel a sharp pain in my lower neck as a needle is pushed into my skin, the rush of foreign liquid being injected into me is enough to make me feel nauseous.

The mercury from the syringe is now in my body, some of it breaking into my bloodstream, the rest filling my airways, causing me to choke. A vast majority of it spills from my mouth, dripping down my neck. My ears are ringing, I can only see Scott's mouth open but I can't hear his cries.

Some strange part of me welcomed the darkness, the other part fought against it. It was that same stranger side of me that chose not to tell Scott about the Dread Doctors behind him, or resist as they killed me. But in the end, it is that part of me that won; and because of that, I didn't end up feeling regret as my legs gave out from underneath me.

And soon, everything went dark.