Chapter Text
2019 - Luella.
Her breath is forced out of her lungs in violent pants as she makes herself run even faster.
Her sandy blond hair tosses over her shoulder as she allows herself a glimpse of the women chasing her.
This is her chance, her only chance.
She can hear her... her footsteps echoing her own.
Her heart beats loudly in her ears.
The full moon has lit up the night and she doesn't know if she's glad it helps her see her way through the preserve or if she's frustrated that makes her that much easier to track.
Her left foot is cut and bleeding and with every step something new and painful slices her bare skin.
She lost her shoe.
And she can't remember when.
It's an inane thought that lingers behind all the panic and grief and fierce determination that it doesn't end like this, her pack doesn't end like this, she doesn't die like this.
Was it before or after that witch, Silvia, tore out Liam's spine?
Her manic laughter ricocheted behind her.
She was enjoying this and it made something twisted and ugly and fucking homicidal burn through her body with a cold fury.
She just needed to make it to the Nemeton.
If she could just get there before...
Her side aches sharply as the skin of her torso pulls with her every movement.
She can feel the blood dripping from her wound, the material of her t-shirt rubbing against it like a thousand fire ants.
She's running out of time... she's getting weaker.
"Luella!" Her melodic voice sings out behind her but there's a fakeness under all the genuine, disgusting joy, she knows she's hurt her too. "Come now, darling! I'll make it quick, I promise."
Fucking liar.
"You don't really want to be the last of your pack, do you?" She taunts her, her voice smug like she's already won, like she's already dead.
She ignores the voice in her head that says no.
No, I don't want to survive losing the rest of my pack.
No, I don't want to live long enough to grieve for them too.
Not after she's already grieved her father, her best friend, her husband.
Her fucking child.
She grits her teeth and pushes herself faster.
She doesn't get to win.
After everything she's done.
After everything they've lost over the years to protect the innocent, to protect this town, this world.
She doesn't get to make that all worthless.
She doesn't get to reign over the world like the dictators of all dictators.
She won't let her.
She can see it now.
That stump.
That fucking hellmouth.
There's not been a day since she understood what it was that she didn't curse it's bloody existence and now it's her last hope.
Her Hail Mary.
Even if it is a morally grey area.
Even if she may literally set the world on fire.
Even if this is the kind of thing Deaton told her specifically never to do.
She is Luella fucking Stilinski and she doesn't let things like the laws of the universe trip her up.
She comes to a stop and spins around.
Her hand shoots out sharply as she throws out a handful of mountain ash imbued with her very own twist.
She watches with a bloody grin as it spreads in an arch before falling into a perfect circle.
Surrounding her.
Protecting her.
Watches as Silvia steps into view.
Watches as her smug smile falls.
And then she turns to do what she came here to do.
What Peter and Chris and Liam died for her to do.
She can hear Silvia let out a scream of manic fury as she sees where she's headed.
She crashes down harshly on her battered knees next to the remains of the once powerful Nemeton.
Her hands reach out just as she hears Silvia begins to chant to break the...
She has to focus.
She feels the cool wood against her finger tips, her palms and the muted power vibrates through her skin.
She uses her own blood to etch runes onto its rough surface, rubbing her fingertip raw.
And then she's done, she's finished and she lays her palms down on its roots and she pulls on its wisps of power as she pleads.
"Please." Her voice a broken whisper. "Please, just this once...just...help."
She knows she can do this.
She's a Spark.
She could have easily if she hadn't spent all her reserve fighting the demented witch hopped up on dark magic.
That's why she needs the Nemeton.
She just needs a boost.
She focuses her mind and allows the Nemetons power to fill her.
It starts off as a rain drop but as she pulls on it, it turns into a puddle, a river, a lake and then finally an ocean of pure, unrelenting force.
It seeks out every inch of her body.
Her skin.
Her nails.
Her hair.
Her teeth.
It comes with a rush and finally she asks...
"Take me back."
There's a moment before chills race down her spine and everything stills.
Silvia's voice halts in the middle of her incantation.
The forest around fills with an unnatural, heavy silence.
Her heart stops in her chest, her blood in her veins and the air in her lungs.
It's like the world itself has stopped turning.
Stopped moving.
Stopped being.
And suddenly she's falling.