From Ashes ✗ Stiles Stilinski [#𝟏]

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 [ unbecoming, part two. ]

A/N: So, this part ended up being way longer than expected, so technically it's a three-parter. After the rave is when shit hits the fan though. Not making any promises but I'll try and get it out sooner rather than later! Also, many of you are wondering why Allison beat Maddie so badly. The answer is coming soon so hold tight!

Song Recommendation ["Drown (acoustic)" - Bring Me The Horizon]
NOTE: For the full experience, I do personally suggest seeking out each song rec.

    ☽ † ☾    

  It wasn't armor; it was a tourniquet to keep the darkness from spilling out.

      ☽ † ☾      

One Year and Two Months Earlier

Scotland was Maddie's favorite place to live in the world - it was really a shame she couldn't stay. Instead Buffy slowly moved the caravan of slayers to San Francisco in small increments, group by group. It was only two weeks since reaching the new HQ and Maddie already loathed the city.

It was too loud, for one. Walking outside in the foggy moors somewhere north of Old Aberdeen was soothing and silent. California came pre-loaded with its own soundtrack of screaming sirens, thumping sub-woofers in nightclubs, and the chatter of millions all mixing and funneling into white noise at all hours of the day and night. Scotland was all green and gray and neutral even at noon, and the canvas of trees and sky bled into each other like watercolor. Of course San Francisco was otherworldly in its own way, too. It was full of bright blues and greens and reds and even the grays were hyper-saturated, all within the hard, thick brushstroke lines to separate all of it.

Well, not so much brushstrokes. More like thick, black permanent marker. Even in the older, rusted parts of the city, there was too much contrast.

Marie absolutely loved it. She loved the uncertain mixture of old and new, the glimpses of a flower child past amongst a silicon future and all of it overexposed in flickering neon. She couldn't get enough of it. She couldn't get enough of people in general. Maddie almost forgot about just how different they were outside of that old castle, the stone walls holding in their friendship like lungs holding in a breath. It needed to be let it out, because with it left the toxins, but she knew you couldn't ever take in the same oxygen as it was.

Maybe that was another reason she hated California - for what it did to both of them. For how it made Maddie cling tighter to Marie, afraid of losing her best friend, and how it made Marie wilder. Maddie began taking more risks during training just to try and keep up, to hold onto the last part of her time Scotland. Marie didn't seem to mind or, for that matter, notice.

When her squad - the A Squad, the best of the best at their base of operations - would split up on patrol, Maddie would immediately grab Marie's hand before she ran off. One thing that never seemed to change was that Marie would grip Maddie's hand just as tightly. It was a comfort every time - anything, just to not be alone.

Her team did nearly everything together, aside from patrolling. Their bunks were in the same room and they would stay up late and talk all night - some more talkative than others. They would go out to eat and be so loud (typically because of Marie) that they were banned from a few places in town. They'd even go to nightclubs on "teen nights", even when a few of the girls were too young and had to stay behind - meaning Maddie, at the cusp of fifteen, and Nora, the youngest at fourteen, were too young.

Of course, they didn't care when Marie suggested celebrating Maddie's fifteenth birthday at a warehouse party. They didn't care when Maddie complained as Terra did her makeup - although they should've apparently. Marie frowned and placed her hands on her hips as she threw the older girl with sandy brown skin, too many mismatched pieces medieval silver jewelry, and jet black hair an annoyed look. "I said edgy, not goth."