Dread Doctors

**The Dread Doctors** were the main antagonists of Season 5, though their influence on the supernatural world lingered throughout Season 6 as well. They first appeared in *Creatures of the Night*, when they were seen admonishing Belasko, a Werewolf-Garuda hybrid, for failing to kill Scott McCall and take his Alpha powers. From then on, it was quickly revealed that they were experimenting on teenagers and turning them into hybrid creatures that became known as Chimeras, an artificially-created pseudo-supernatural being made up of parts of different creatures. Among those they turned into Chimeras were Theo Raeken, Belasko, Tracy Stewart, Donovan Donati, Lucas, Josh Diaz, Hayden Romero, Corey, Beth, and Noah Patrick.

In addition to these hybrid creatures, the Dread Doctors also performed procedures on several true supernatural creatures as well, including shocking Scott McCall in the chest to exacerbate his wolfsbane-induced asthma attacks and weaken him, summoning a lightning bolt to channel through a lightning rod inserted into Kira Yukimura's eye to superpower her Kitsune spirit, and giving Liam Dunbar an infusion of a special type of wolfsbane in the form of a black fluid through an IV pump.

At the end of the first half of Season 5, the Dread Doctors uncovered what appeared to be a prophetic fresco painting hidden behind a tiled wall in their operating theater that depicted a Hellhound fighting against the Beast of Gevaudan, which foreshadowed the battle yet to come in the second half of the season. In *Damnatio Memoriae*, it was revealed that the Dread Doctors did, in fact, resurrect the Beast (Sebastien Valet) by placing his spirit into the body of the first and only successful Chimera, which was eventually revealed to be Mason Hewitt in *The Beast of Beacon Hills*. According to the Dread Doctors, Mason was their only successful Chimera due to the fact that he was a truly good person, and they had learned from their experimentation on Theo Raeken that true evil can only come from corrupting something truly good.

Using vibrational frequencies, the Dread Doctors forced Mason to transform into the Beast multiple times, causing him to grow in strength and physical power (as well as allowing Sebastien's spirit inside of him to remember more and more of his true identity) and go on several large-scale massacres before his body morphed into the Beast without prompting and subsequently mauled the Dread Doctors to death. The Surgeon survived just long enough to reunite with the newly transformed Sebastien, revealing that The Surgeon was, in fact, Sebastien's former best friend and comrade from the 18th century, Marcel. Sebastien then continued the new life given to him by his friend until the Banshee Lydia Martin managed to use her voice to force Sebastien to turn back into Mason, ending the Dread Doctors' dream of resurrecting the world's perfect killer.

## Early Lives

Almost nothing is known about the Dread Doctors' lives before they gained the esoteric powers that allowed them to experiment on teenagers and turn them into Chimeras. The only member whose early life is somewhat known is The Surgeon, who was formerly a French soldier in the Seven Years' War named Marcel who fought alongside his best friend and comrade, Sebastien Valet in North America in 1760. He was present when Sebastien transformed into the Beast of Gevaudan, the world's most ferocious and violent Werewolf, by accidentally drinking rainwater from a wolf's paw print in the forest during their time serving in what is now known as Montreal, Canada.

Upon their return to their hometown of Gévaudan, France some time later, Marcel helped Sebastien cover up the hundreds of victims he killed throughout his reign as the Beast, even after Marcel was caught by Sebastien's sister and Gévaudan's best huntress Marie-Jeanne Valet, who initially believed Marcel to be the Beast before ultimately realizing that he was simply covering up for her brother.

After Sebastien/the Beast was killed by Marie-Jeanne in 1767, it is assumed that Marcel decided to dedicate his life to becoming a surgeon (if he was not one already) and worshiping the supernatural, with the ultimate goal of resurrecting his dear friend Sebastien, as he believed the Beast to be the world's most perfect killer. He became known as The Surgeon, and, in his experiments, he managed to harness electromagnetic forces within a steampunk-style mask, bestowing upon himself the power to manipulate electromagnetic fields, which he used to various effects, including controlling electricity and magnetism, manipulating the memories of his test subjects, and extending his lifespan far beyond normal limits. It is assumed that he was eventually joined by two more physicians who eventually became known as The Pathologist and The Geneticist, who also gained the same powers that The Surgeon possessed. The three then began to work together to resurrect the Beast of Gevaudan.

Sometime around the World War II era, the Dread Doctors settled in Russia, where they engaged in experimenting on pregnant women and their unborn children to use science to replicate the supernatural. Whatever they accomplished while in the country was so disastrous that the Russian government covered up their experimentation by claiming their laboratory was a dangerous nuclear site with unhealthy amounts of radiation. However, this cover-up didn't convince everyone, and graffiti at the site, which read "They come. They come for all of us," suggested that the legends of the Dread Doctors have not been forgotten.

They also managed to capture a Nazi soldier in the German military who was also an Alpha Löwenmensch (a lion-wolf hybrid shapeshifter). The Doctors called this man *Der Soldat*, which is German for "the soldier," and they somehow utilized the healing factor in his blood (which continued to bleed through wounds caused by the Ghost Riders that wouldn't heal), mixing it with the original version of the regenerative green serum the Doctors had already created so that they could use to further improve their health and extend their lives in conjunction with their existing electromagnetic powers.

They kept the soldier in a large tank of the green serum for seventy years, during which time the serum made him stronger while his blood made the serum more potent. In Season 6, it is implied that Der Soldat was a severe burn victim and that the Dread Doctors used heliox therapy to keep him breathing normally while they used his body to augment their experiments; it was then later revealed that he had actually been lashed by the Ghost Riders' whips, causing wounds that wouldn't heal due to the nine venoms coating the weapon.

At some point in the early 2000s, the Dread Doctors made their way to Beacon Hills, where they met the eight or nine-year-old Theo Raeken. It has been implied that they were attracted to him as a test subject due to his willingness to kill at such a young age, and as a result, they watched as Theo allowed his sister to die of hypothermia in the woods and decided to change their methods in their experimentation.

According to Theo, the Dread Doctors lied to him and told him that his sister wanted him to have his heart in order to motivate him to kill her, but Stiles believed that Theo actively wanted to kill her and used the Dread Doctors' plans as justification; however, it remains unknown which version of events is the actual truth, though the traumatic hallucinations experienced by Theo during his time in the underground prison seem to imply that he might not have lied about the Dread Doctors' manipulations.

The Dread Doctors then harvested Theo's sister's heart before transplanting it into young Theo's body, which gave him genetic chimerism (or when a human has two sets of DNA, in this case the DNA he was born with along with his sister's DNA as well), a condition that was necessary in order to be turned into the Doctors' first pseudo-supernatural Chimera; in Theo's case, a Werewolf-Werecoyote hybrid.

Though Theo was not a suitable vessel for the Beast, he was the closest that the Dread Doctors came to creating a "successful" Chimera until they finally achieved their ultimate goal of resurrecting the Beast of Gevaudan in the autumn of 2012. Since he survived his transformation without any difficulties, the Dread Doctors apparently allowed him to live in exchange for his help in creating more Chimeras.

At some point in their lives, they crossed paths with Gabriel Valack, though the nature of their relationship remains unknown. However, Valack has held a grudge against the Doctors ever since, and he dedicated himself to finally stopping them from then on, even going so far as to write a novel, titled *The Dread Doctors*, to help those victims of their experiments to recover the memories that the Dread Doctors repressed of their experimental procedures in hopes of exposing them for who they are.

## Throughout *Teen Wolf*

### Season 5A

content =
In *Creatures of the Night*, the Dread Doctors were seen for the first time in their operating theater, where they had returned to find one of their Chimeras, the Werewolf-Garuda hybrid Belasko, badly injured from his battle with Scott McCall, Kira Yukimura, and Theo Raeken and waiting on them. When he insisted on being given a second chance to kill Scott and steal his powers, it was implied that he was sent after Scott by the Doctors themselves.

However, the Surgeon refused to give Belasko the second chance he was pleading for, stating that the terms of their deal-- eliminating Scott, who they saw as an obstacle, from the equation-- were not met and that his condition was worsening. The three Doctors then made it clear that they did not give second chances before The Surgeon stabbed Belasko with his sword-cane, splitting his chest open and causing several crows to inexplicably fly out of his body.

It was then later revealed through flashbacks that, earlier in the evening, The Surgeon and the other Dread Doctors cornered Kira Yukimura while stuck in traffic in the car with her parents. They used their electromagnetokinesis to prevent Noshiko and Ken Yukimura, along with the others stuck in traffic, from noticing what they were doing, as well as to keep Kira from struggling against them.

As The Pathologist and The Geneticist pinned Kira to the hood of her family's car, The Surgeon pulled out a special lightning rod, which he pushed into Kira's eye as he summoned a lightning bolt to strike it. The lightning overpowered Kira's Kitsune spirit, causing her to glow with a bright white light and ultimately disrupted the balance between the Fox and the human parts of her, though no one else would know this event occurred until Kira regained her memories in *Ouroboros*.

In *Parasomnia*, the Dread Doctors made an appearance in a night terror she had, which she discussed with her guidance counselor, Natalie Martin, the following morning at school. They also appeared in a hallucination she had later on in the day, due in part to the return of her repressed memories caused by reading *The Dread Doctors* novel by Gabriel Valack.

That night, the Dread Doctors summoned Tracy Stewart to their operating theater in the tunnels near the water treatment plant. When she tried to convince herself that she was just in the middle of another night terror, The Surgeon informed her that she wasn't sleeping, she was "awakening." He then injected her in the neck with a syringe full of their special modified mercury to complete her transformation into a Werewolf-Kanima Chimera.

In *Dreamcatchers*, The Surgeon, along with The Pathologist and The Geneticist, watched from afar as Tracy attacked the prison transport van that was driving Donovan Donati to prison; not only did she attack the driver, who was paralyzed by her Kanima Venom, but she attacked and killed the second guard and her own father, Mr. Stewart, who was Donovan's defense attorney and was discussing the case with the young man.

When Donovan managed to get away in the chaos, the Doctors caught up with him in an alley and cornered him. The Surgeon waited while the others pinned him down before using a stabilizing cage to use a medical drill on Donovan's ear, allowing them to inject the modified mercury into his brain that gave him a silver third eyelid, known as a nictitating membrane.

Tracy, continuing to have flashback-hallucinations of the Dread Doctors as she was running around Beacon Hills on instinct, which led her to Beacon Hills High School. She ultimately fainted from the side effects of the mercury (vomiting up a large amount of the Dread Doctors' modified mercury in the process), allowing Scott McCall and his packmates to bring her to the animal clinic to be assessed by Alan Deaton.

After Tracy awakened and transformed into her limited Kanima form, revealing her hybrid nature to the pack, she ran off to the Beacon County Sheriff's Station, where the Dread Doctors found her; she had just finished battling Kira Yukimura, who cut off her tail with her katana after Tracy had critically wounded Lydia Martin. Just as she had been incapacitated and snapped out of her fugue state by Malia Tate after yet another physical fight, The Geneticist pinned Malia to the wall while the Pathologist and The Surgeon injected Tracy with a fatal overdose of modified mercury, telling Malia that Tracy's condition was terminal before leaving as Tracy fell dead to the ground.

In *Condition Terminal*, The Surgeon led the Dread Doctors upstairs to the holding cells of the Sheriff's station, where they used their electromagnetokinesis to break Donovan out of his jail cell. Shortly afterward, Scott McCall and Kira Yukimura, with help from Alan Deaton and information provided by Liam Dunbar, determined that the Dread Doctors were burying their neophyte Chimeras in the ground as a sort of incubation period to initiate their transformations.

The Dread Doctors brought him back to the operating theater and strapped him to the exam table before the three began to examine him. The Surgeon declared that Donovan's condition was promising, gesturing to the others to pin him down so he could pull out all of Donovan's teeth. He seemed satisfied when he saw Donovan grow a double row of Wendigo fangs. The Surgeon later presumably gave Theo Raeken permission to both talk to Donovan and to free him so he could go after Stiles Stilinski as part of their joint plan.

That night, The Surgeon and his cohorts went to Sinema, where they killed the Werewolf-Scorpion Chimera named Lucas before the McCall Pack could take him to the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic for treatment. When Scott McCall demanded to know why they killed him, The Surgeon cryptically replied that his condition was terminal and that he was a failure before he and the others left.

In *A Novel Approach*, it was revealed that the Dread Doctors and Theo Raeken purposely left Gabriel Valack's novel *The Dread Doctors* in Tracy Stewart's bedroom, knowing that members of the McCall Pack (in this case, Malia Tate) would find it. When Scott McCall went to Theo for help figuring out the significance of the book, Theo pointed out the author's name on the back in order to lure them to Eichen House as part of the Doctors' plan. When Theo informed the Dread Doctors that the pack would be going to Eichen, The Surgeon smugly replied that they would be going there as well.

It was then revealed that they purposely overpowered Kira with the intention of her Kitsune spirit reacting to the powerful convergence of telluric currents upon which Eichen House was built; her foxfire disabled the defenses the currents provided that prevented the Dread Doctors from entering the facility, essentially "unlocking the door" so the Dread Doctors could go after their next target, Gabriel Valack. The Pathologist and The Geneticist held Valack down so The Surgeon could use a device to remove Valack's third eye, essentially removing Valack's ability of extrasensory perception.

In *Required Reading*, the Dread Doctors brought Josh Diaz, a Chimera they created with the ability to grow fangs and claws and both absorb and manipulate electromagnetic forces, much like the Dread Doctors themselves, and experimented on him by removing a flap of skin to reveal glowing bluish-purple flesh underneath. While Josh pleaded with them to stop, The Surgeon stated that Josh's condition was worsening before freeing him once again.

The Pathologist and The Geneticist then appeared at Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, where The Pathologist shocked Scott McCall in the chest to trigger another asthma attack to weaken him. The Geneticist then got into a fight with Malia Tate, who punched and kicked her with little success until The Geneticist grabbed her in a choke-hold. Fortunately for Malia, she managed to break out of The Geneticist's grip and ran into the elevator with Scott and his mother, Melissa McCall, closing the door before the Doctors could harm them further.

Meanwhile, Josh was ultimately killed on the roof of the hospital by Theo Raeken after Josh lost control and almost killed Stiles Stilinski while he was in a flashback-hallucination triggered by reading *The Dread Doctors* novel. It is possible that the Doctors gave Theo permission to take Josh out after it was determined that he was a failure, allowing Theo to get closer to Stiles and making it easier for him to drive a wedge between Scott and Stiles.

In *Strange Frequencies*, the Dread Doctors went after Hayden Romero, using their electromagnetic abilities to cause her car to break down in the middle of the road and to talk to her through the radio. They told her that her condition improved when her hand healed from when she punched Liam Dunbar in the face earlier, and would have captured her for experimentation had Liam not intervened at the last moment and brought her to the McCall House to see Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski.

The next morning, The Surgeon confronted Theo at the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic while he was standing watch over Josh Diaz's body in an attempt to find out who was stealing the bodies of the dead Chimeras. When Theo realized that the Doctors already knew who it was, he angrily reminded them that they were supposed to be keeping him in the loop about everything, but The Surgeon simply replied that the identity of the body-thief was "inconsequential." Before Theo could learn anything more, Stiles returned to the clinic, and The Surgeon vanished before he could be seen.

The Doctors then worked together that evening to cause powerful illusions in the minds of Scott McCall (who hallucinated that Kira had stabbed him with her sword and tried to strangle him while calling herself the "Messenger of Death"), Lydia Martin (who hallucinated that Tracy Stewart was still alive and ripped out Lydia's tongue), Jordan Parrish (who hallucinated that he was making out with Lydia and had eventually severely burned her with his pyrokinetic abilities) and Malia Tate (who hallucinated that she had been caught in several coyote traps), since all of them were working together to protect Hayden, who they had just learned were a Werewolf-Werejaguar Chimera, from being captured by them.

The Surgeon informed Hayden and her boyfriend Liam that they were on a frequency they couldn't possibly imagine before capturing them both and bringing them back to the operating theater, where they hooked Liam up to a thick IV drip of wolfsbane to weaken him while they cut into Hayden's side and continued their experimentation.

In *Ouroboros*, the Dread Doctors continued to experiment on Hayden, brutally attacking Liam when he tried to stop them by wolfing out and continuing to weaken him with a wolfsbane IV drip. After their experimentation, they declared that Hayden's condition was worsening before throwing her onto the floor next to him.

They returned later to knock them both out with more wolfsbane before transporting them to a makeshift holding cell for the Chimeras at an abandoned house. It was there that they met Zach, who explained to them what he knew about the Doctors' experimentation and how they dealt with "failures" before showing him the leftover nubs on his back from where the Doctors had removed the wings that they had given him.

When his nose started to bleed modified mercury, the Dread Doctors came in and dragged the struggling and screaming Zach out of the cell while Hayden and Liam watched in horror, too weak from wolfsbane and their injuries to help him. The Doctors presumably gave Theo the "okay" to free the two from the holding cell in order to continue proving his trustworthiness to Scott as part of their deal.

Meanwhile, Scott McCall used the Alpha Werewolf memory-manipulation ritual on a newly-discovered Chimera named Corey and determined that the Dread Doctors had repressed his memories of his experimentation, including when they captured him at the hospital and brought him back to the operating theater, which led Scott, Malia Tate, and Mason Hewitt to believe that the operating theater was located in the sewers/tunnels near the water treatment plant.

In *Lies of Omission*, Theo went to talk to the Doctors at the operating theater, where The Geneticist had just drawn up a syringe of the green serum from Der Soldat's tank and injected it into The Surgeon's arm, causing the scarred and shriveled up flesh to become healthy again. Theo insisted that he not only needed more time to complete his plan, he also needed Hayden to remain alive, but The Surgeon replied that they were on a schedule and stated that he only had until the *perigee-syzygy*, or supermoon, that would occur in two days, since that was when their own plans would come to fruition.

Despite the Dread Doctors' assurances that they would wait until the supermoon, they still continued to pursue both Corey and Hayden, who had begun to bleed modified mercury from their noses and mouths. The Doctors tracked Corey to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, where he had utilized his newly-discovered ability of supernatural camouflage in order to blend in against an ambulance in the parking garage, but The Surgeon was able to see through this camouflage and killed him by stabbing him with his sword-cane.

They then tracked Hayden and Liam to Sinema, where The Pathologist and The Geneticist fought Liam, Scott, and Theo while The Surgeon injected Hayden with an overdose of modified mercury. However, instead of killing her instantly like it did with Tracy Stewart, it slowly began to weaken her, forcing the pack to bring her to the animal clinic for further treatment. While they were distracted, the Doctors reminded Theo that he had until the supermoon to complete his plan.

In *Status Asthmaticus*, the Dread Doctors went to Beacon Hills High School and were pleased to find that the inside of the school was in shambles, with the stone sign in the front of the school having been thrown into the entrance hall through the roof. Satisfied, The Surgeon and The Pathologist agreed that their successful Chimera's transformation was imminent.

At the end of the episode, the Doctors returned to the operating theater, where The Surgeon used the hammer-head on the handle of his sword-cane to break one of the brick walls, revealing a fresco painting behind it that depicted a Hellhound battling The Beast of Gevaudan. The three Doctors then chanted, "La Bête. La Bête. La Bête" to indicate that their goal was to bring back the Beast.

### Season 5B

content =
In *The Last Chimera*, the Dread Doctors sensed that the part-Berserker Chimera Noah Patrick was rejecting his transformation and spent the entirety of the episode attempting to track him down as he fled all over town. The Doctors caught up with Noah in the tunnels underneath the railway depot, only to be stalled by Scott McCall, Malia Tate, and Chris Argent while Noah escaped with help from Stiles Stilinski.

When Argent began shooting at the Dread Doctors with his assault rifle, the Surgeon used his power of electromagnokinesis to create an electromagnetic field that shielded him from the gunfire and removed the kinetic energy from the bullets. Though it was not seen on-screen, it has been implied that the Doctors did successfully kill Noah for being a "failure," as Hayden Romero, who had a connection to him due to herself being a part-Werejaguar, who were associated with Berserkers; if he hadn't been killed, he likely died from rejecting his transformation on his own.

In *Damnatio Memoriae*, the Dread Doctors used high-pitched frequencies to force Mason Hewitt to transform into the Beast of Gevaudan, though Mason's identity as the last Chimera and the vessel for the Beast was not yet known at this time. After being forced to shift by the Doctors, Mason as the Beast killed a telecommunications technician at the Telecommunication Tower and tried to attack Deputy Clark, Hayden Romero, and Liam Dunbar.

Later, when Scott and Stiles went down into the Underground Tunnels to look for clues about the Beast, they found a message scrawled on the floor in mercury that read "DAMNATIO MEMORIAE" by the Dread Doctors, leading Scott and Stiles to realize that the Beast was a very old creature resurrected by the Doctors who they were now trying to get to remember itself.

That evening, Chris Argent visited his father, Gerard, at his nursing home, where Gerard revealed that even he had heard rumors of the Dread Doctors' arrival in Beacon Hills and agreed to share what he knew about the Doctors and the Beast, including the fact that the Beast had been killed by " the Maid of Gevaudan", in exchange for Argent healing him with yellow wolfsbane he had hidden away at Argent Arms International.

In *Codominance*, Theo Raeken and Tracy Stewart, two of the Dread Doctors' first Chimeras, were tracking the newest threat to Beacon Hills, the resurrected spirit of the Beast of Gevaudan possessing the body of a yet-unknown teenage Chimera and guided by the Doctors. Tracy asked Theo if she was sure that the Beast was there, and Theo confirmed it before advising her to keep her distance since this was just a reconnaissance mission and he had no intention of catching it yet.

When they got into the high school, Theo's Chimera eyes flashed bright gold as he noticed yet another reiteration of the Dread Doctors' message to the Beast written in mercury so it couldn't be seen with human eyes-- "DAMNATIO MEMORIAE." Tracy pointed out that it was the same message and wondered aloud what it meant, and Theo explained that the Doctors were trying to get it to remember who it was.

Confused, Tracy replied that she thought the Beast was like them-- a teenage Chimera-- but Theo just sighed and revealed that the Dread Doctors really don't care about the teenagers at all; their intention was to resurrect the original Beast of Gevaudan, but since they couldn't bring him back without a body, they created a Chimera vessel for the spirit. As Theo summed up, the Chimera was just a side-effect, and the Doctors' main priority was the Beast.

When Tracy asked him what would happen when the Beast did remember who it was, Theo admitted that he wasn't sure, as he didn't think the Beast even knew it turned back into an ordinary human during the day. Finally, Tracy stated that she had read that the Beast of Gevaudan killed 113 people during its reign of terror in France and asked if it was true, leading Theo to smirk and retort that the Doctors told him it was closer to *500*.

Suddenly, the sound of the doors slamming closed were heard, followed by the tell-tale skittering noise that indicated the Dread Doctors were approaching, along with a low growl that made it obvious the Beast was with them. Tracy flicked out her claws and fangs in order to attack, but not only was The Pathologist not fazed by her blows, he backhanded her so hard she flipped into the air and slammed into the row of lockers behind them. Theo ignored Tracy in favor of keeping his eyes on Dread Doctors, his simultaneous fear and annoyance obvious in his features.

The Dread Doctors wasted no time ordering Theo and Tracy to leave immediately, but Theo, still not seeing the newest monster, wanted to know where the Beast was. The Surgeon reminded Theo that he already got his pack, as promised, making it clear that they believed their business arrangement has now ended. However, Theo argued that the deal didn't work out at all, flashing his gold eyes at them and adding, "Do they look red to you? I'm not an Alpha. I'm not even a real Werewolf!"

Just then, the ground began to tremble under their feet in rhythmic thumps until suddenly, the Beast of Gevaudan in all its glory appeared from around the corner, holding the severed head of a male teacher in his hands before dropping it on the ground and rolling it toward them. When Theo gasped in shock, the Beast roared in his and Tracy's direction with so much force that they had no choice but to squeeze their eyes shut and cover their sensitive ears with their hands. By the time the sound had passed, the Doctors and the Beast had already vanished, leaving Theo and Tracy overwhelmed by what they just witnessed.

Meanwhile, Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski, who were driving Stiles' Jeep to Shiprock, New Mexico in order to bring Kira Yukimura back into the fold after training with the Skinwalkers, took advantage of their driving time to study up on the Beast of Gevaudan as they took turns driving. Stiles looked over at Scott as he studied an old book and asked if he had learned anything yet, and Scott admitted that it was all mostly information Stiles had already provided before coming upon a relevant section of the book that described *damnatio memoriae*, a Roman practice that was intended to be worse than death by essentially erasing a person's mark on history by destroying images of them, scratching names from inscriptions, chiseling their faces off of statues, etc, all in the name of the ultimate punishment-- being forgotten.

Scott then described the Demon Tailor, a serial killer in France in 1598 who was punished in the same way after he was found to have lured children into his shop in Paris, killed them, boiled the flesh off their bones, and ate it; as a result, no one knows his real name who is still alive. Stiles realized this meant that the Dread Doctors had resurrected a killer who was so brutal that he had to literally be erased from history, which Scott confirmed before pointing out that, in the case of the Beast, it was even worse because this killer was also a Werewolf, which, as Stiles stated, would likely make him better at murdering people.

Concerned about just how savage the Beast of Gevaudan could be, Stiles hit the gas on the Jeep in hopes of getting Kira faster, knowing they were going to be needed back in Beacon Hills as soon as possible, and with the entire McCall Pack reunited and at full strength in order to fight this new threat.

Back at Beacon Hills High School, Corey Bryant, another one of the failed Chimeras who Theo brought back to life and recruited to the Chimera Pack, asked Mason Hewitt, a member of the McCall Pack, to go out on another date with him, which he impulsively agreed to before remembering what was happening and refusing, stating that Corey was still with the "bad guys." Corey insisted there were no bad guys, leading Mason to argue, "There are *definitely* bad guys! Some of the bad guys are called *Dread Doctors*-- you don't get a name like "Dread Doctors" and not get classified as the bad guys." Corey sighed and retorted that Mason and his friends didn't get it-- there aren't going to be any "good" or "bad" guys with the Beast around, it was only going to be "dead" or "alive."

Corey went on to say that he wanted to be alive and asked Mason if that's not what he wanted as well, leading Mason to admit that he would rather die if surviving meant standing with the bad guys. After Corey managed to convince Mason to stay alive for *him*, he inadvertently informed Mason that Theo was calling the last Chimera "the Beast," hinting toward its true identity.

Theo had tracked Malia Tate to the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic, where she was looking for clues as to where Alan Deaton had traveled after finding out during an interrogation of a Russian mobster with Braeden that Deaton was being held hostage by her mother, the Desert Wolf. Theo correctly guessed that Malia was trying to find Deaton before Scott found out what happened, and that she didn't know where to start looking before he began taunting Malia about the fact that he could already be dead, and she would have to tell Scott that it was her fault for keeping it a secret this whole time.

This was the last straw, and Malia tackled Theo before throwing him onto the exam table and straddling him so she could punch him and break one of his arms, growling that she should kill him. Theo smirked and made it clear that she wouldn't because she "liked [him] too much," causing Malia to continue to assault him for several more minutes until Theo finally confessed that he was there because he could help her find them-- Deaton *and* the Desert Wolf. Malia was suspicious of this offer, but also desperate for clues and short on time, so she asked him how he could do that, leading Theo to admit that he now knew how the Dread Doctors were keeping track of everyone and how they could use the same means to track down the others.

In *The Sword and the Spirit*, the Dread Doctors were in the underground tunnels, presumably disposing of the bodies of the victims slaughtered by the Beast. Meanwhile, Chris Argent was also in the tunnels with his father, Gerard Argent, as the two had decided to hunt down the Beast together due to their family's history with the powerful Werewolf.

After Argent and Gerard had split up, Gerard had stumbled upon the Dread Doctors, whom he quickly incapacitated using one of his ultrasonic emitters, stating that he knew their frequency and knew that they were down there for a reason before sarcastically asking them what that reason could be. At the same time, Argent stumbled upon a grate to the sewers below, where he found more than twenty bodies of Beacon Hills townspeople killed by the Beast who were hidden there by the Doctors in order to protect the resurrected creature.

Later that day, Theo brought Malia to the operating theater, informing her that the Dread Doctors had something that would help her find her mother, the Desert Wolf, and by extension, Alan Deaton. This turned out to be a pair of steampunk-designed goggles, which Theo explained were used by the Doctors to keep tabs on their Chimeras, as the hybrid creatures were created with a specific frequency that the goggles could hone in on, just as supernatural creatures also have their own specific frequency.

Unfortunately, the goggles required the wearer to press a button that shoved metal spikes into the flesh around the eye socket in order to induce a vision of where the target was located. Luckily, the goggles worked, and Malia learned that the Desert Wolf was holding Deaton hostage at Fort Jewett.

Before setting off to plan the rescue of Deaton with Theo and Braeden, Malia stopped at the high school to inform Liam that Scott had been right, and that the operating theater was, in fact, in the tunnels, hoping that it would help Scott and Liam find the Dread Doctors. The information helped, and, after wandering in circles for a while, the two managed to find the operating theater together, only to find Argent and Gerard already there, having found it before them.

The four of them then looked at the fresco painting that The Surgeon had uncovered and realized that the Hellhound (i.e. Jordan Parrish) was their key to defeating the Beast. After Scott informed the older Hunters about the "DAMNATIO MEMORIAE" messages being left around town, Gerard realized that the Dread Doctors were trying to get the Beast to remember who it used to be.

In *A Credible Threat*,

In *Maid of Gévaudan*,

In *The Beast of Beacon Hills*,

In *Apotheosis*,

## The Doctors

The Dread Doctors consisted of three members, each with their own apparent role likely based on their respective medical specialties.

### The Surgeon

The Surgeon, originally known as Marcel, was the first Dread Doctor and the creator of the trio, and as such was their leader. He was in charge of determining their course of action and often was the one who spoke for the group in conversation with others. He presumably became The Surgeon at some point after his best friend Sebastien Valet, the famed Beast of Gevaudan, was killed by his sister in 1767.

### The Pathologist

The Pathologist was the second male member of the Dread Doctors who acted primarily as the muscle of the group, using his enhanced strength to hold down their test subjects so that The Surgeon could perform his experiments on them.

### The Geneticist

The Geneticist was the only female Dread Doctor and seemed to work more on the materials the Doctors used in their experiments more so than doing the experiments herself. She was often seen giving the other Doctors injections of the green serum they created using *Der Soldat's'* healing factor, which helped them maintain their health and longevity in addition to the longevity gained from their electromagnetic manipulation powers. Despite her more passive role in the trio, she was still a very talented fighter and was defeated in battle only by the Beast of Gevaudan.

## Personalities

The Dread Doctors revealed very little of their individual personalities, instead of working as a collective whole with a single-minded focus on resurrecting the Beast of Gevaudan. They were obsessed with the supernatural and cared about the results of their experiments; they had no tolerance for failure and did not give second chances, as evidenced by the fact that they killed their Chimeras as soon as it was evident that they were rejecting their transformations. Because of this solitary focus on their ultimate goal, they regarded anything outside of it as inconsequential and would typically not waste their time on any issue that didn't contribute to their mission of resurrecting the Beast.

For this reason, they typically did not kill bystanders or witnesses unless they got into the way of their goals, and only seemed to want to harm the McCall Pack because of their interference with their experiments. However, they were willing to make deals in order to facilitate their goals, such as working with Theo Raeken, who agreed to help keep the McCall Pack distracted in exchange for the Doctors' help in turning the pack against their Alpha, Scott McCall so that Theo could steal his Alpha powers, become a real Werewolf, and take control of the pack for himself.

Though they were not concerned with killing unless it served their agenda, they seemed to genuinely be awestruck by the Beast, regarding him as the perfect killer and doing anything in their power to bring him back, to the point where they even seemed unconcerned by the prospect of their own deaths when the Beast finally realized its true identity and fatally mauled them all.

## Physical Appearances

The Dread Doctors were nearly always seen wearing their helmets and armor, which had a very steampunk style; this included bronze or brass helmets, which had rusted with verdigris as it aged, wool peacoats, brocade vests, and silk shirts with utilitarian slacks. Their color scheme was predominantly dark colors such as black, forest green, and navy blue, though The Surgeon would wear a gold and pink brocade vest with a light pink silk shirt under his jacket.

The Geneticist, as the only female, wore black skirts with fishnet stockings and platform boots with numerous silver buckles, making her style more modern and trendy than her cohorts and possibly indicating that she may be the youngest of the Doctors. All three Doctors also wore robotic gloves and gauntlets over their hands to hide how scarred and aged their skin had become through their extended lives.

However, their true appearances were seen on two occasions. In *Strange Frequencies*, The Geneticist was briefly seen without her helmet, revealing her skin was scarred and covered with age spots, with her head nearly bald and covered with sparse patches of white hair. She also had a small hole drilled into her skull behind her ear, suggesting that she may have performed trephination on herself to further augment her abilities like Gabriel Valack.

In *Apotheosis*, Sebastien Valet removed The Surgeon's helmet to reveal that he was actually Sebastien's former best friend Marcel; his skin was mottled, wrinkled, and scarred just like The Geneticist's due to his advanced age, with a bald head that had sparse patches of white, brittle hair; even Sebastien remarked that the Dread Doctors' form of immortality was unattractive due to the fact that they did not have eternal youth to go with it.

## Experiments

### Powers

Over the nearly 250 years that the Dread Doctors have existed, they have managed to bestow upon themselves numerous supernatural abilities through scientific experimentation, which they can use for numerous effects. The source of their powers comes from both the harnessing of electromagnetic currents as well as creating a serum from an Alpha Löwenmensch known as *Der Soldat.* The Dread Doctors have displayed the following:

* **Electromagnetokinesis:** The Dread Doctors gained the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields once The Surgeon figured out a way to harness the electromagnetic forces through their helmets, which they can use to create electrical and/or magnetic currents from their hands. They used these abilities to shock Scott McCall in the chest to cause an asthma attack; unlock various doors locked with RFID card readers; remove surveillance video footage by manipulating EMF currents; generate protective force-fields out of electromagnetic energy, and create a wall of metal furniture by magnetically linking them together and then causing an electrical current to go through them, essentially creating an electrified fence.
* **Super Strength and Durability:** The Dread Doctors, through their various forms of experimentation, gained superhuman strength that is superior even to that of an Alpha Werewolf, allowing them to break through chains and stone walls, as well as to throw grown adults across a room with ease. This strength also extended to superhuman durability as well, as they were able to withstand punches, kicks, and other kinds of blows without sustaining any injury; in fact, those who hit them would instead usually bruise their hands or even break their bones in the process.
* **Longevity:** The Dread Doctors possessed lifespans far beyond the normal limits due to a combination of their electro-magnetokinesis and regular infusions of the green serum derived from *Der Soldat's* accelerated healing factor. As a result, they managed to live over 250 years of age until their deaths in 2012. This serum also appeared to heal their wounds and generally improve their health, giving them an enhanced healing factor and an immunity to toxins and diseases.
* **Phasing:** Using electromagnetic forces, the Doctors were able to phase through solid objects by vibrating their cells at an enhanced frequency.
* **Memory Manipulation:** The Doctors possessed the ability to manipulate the memories of others, which could be used to either prevent bystanders from perceiving them (as evidenced when they experimented on Kira on Route 115 and when they captured Corey and took him out of the hospital without anyone paying attention to what they were doing) or by erasing any memories of their experimentation from the Chimeras they created after the fact, as evidenced by Tracy Stewart, Hayden Romero, Corey, and others having no memory of their time with the Dread Doctors until they were informed of it.
* **Super Senses:** The Doctors appeared to have an enhanced sense of sight, likely due to their ability to manipulate electromagnetic forces. This was demonstrated when they were able to find and kill Corey even despite the fact that he was using his ability of supernatural camouflage to blend into the ambulance against which he was leaning.
* **Illusion Casting:** The Dread Doctors possessed the ability to inflict powerful illusions on others in the form of horrifying hallucinations, which were usually caused to weaken and/or incapacitate people who were interfering with their work. They used this ability on Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, Jordan Parrish, and Malia Tate in order to prevent them from fighting back when they captured Hayden Romero and Liam Dunbar.

### Abilities

The Dread Doctors also possess a multitude of human abilities in addition to their supernatural powers. Because they are all physicians, they all are experts in the field of human medicine and are able to perform various procedures based on their specialties in surgery, pathology, and genetics. Additionally, The Surgeon, in particular, is very adept at creating scientifically-based objects and machinery that can be used for supernatural means, such as the modified mercury that turned humans with genetic chimerism into pseudo-supernatural Chimeras, the masks that harnessed electromagnetic forces, and the goggles that allow them to hone in on a specific frequency to locate a person.

## Weaknesses

* Telluric Currents: The Dread Doctors, due to their powers of electromagnetic manipulation, were unable to enter buildings that were situated on top of powerful convergences of telluric currents, such as the convergence that runs under Eichen House. As a result, they were forced to overpower Kira Yukimura, a Thunder Kitsune, with a lightning bolt before luring her to Eichen House so that her presence and involuntary production of foxfire could temporarily disable the currents' effects on them and allow them to enter.
* Ultrasonic Emitters: Because the Dread Doctors' powers were based on certain electromagnetic frequencies, they could be disabled by conflicting frequencies, such as the ones used by the Argent family in their ultrasonic emitters. This was proven when Gerard Argent used one of their emitters to prevent the Doctors from using their powers against him.

## Equipment

* Dread Doctor Masks: These masks harnessed electromagnetic forces and allowed them to gain their powers. One specific mask, created by The Surgeon, fell into the hands of Gabriel Valack, and it could allow the wearer the ability to see things no one else could see, though it was nearly always fatal to anyone who did not already possess electromagnetokinesis like the Doctors did.
* Modified Mercury: This substance was created by the Dread Doctors, allowing them to inject it into humans with genetic chimerism to turn them into pseudo-supernatural Chimeras. The Chimera would then be buried in the ground as part of an incubation process before being given one last injection that would be the last step in starting their transformation.
* Green Serum: The Dread Doctors created a serum using the healing factor of an Alpha Löwenmensch known as *Der Soldat* that possessed miraculous healing properties. It could heal wounds, improve health, and extend the lifespans of those who were given regular injections of it, which the Dread Doctors used to stay alive for over two centuries. Its most impressive quality is that it can even resurrect the dead when injected into a corpse; it was used to resurrect Hayden Romero, Tracy Stewart, Josh Diaz, and Corey Bryant, all of whom had been dead anywhere from several hours to several weeks, though they did experience a darkening of their personalities as a result. The serum also allowed them to successfully transition into Chimeras, despite the fact that they had died because their bodies rejected the transformation.
* Sword-Cane: After the death of the Beast of Gevaudan at the hands of Marie-Jeanne Valet, Marcel stole the special pike she used to kill her brother, which contained wolfsbane and mountain ash in the steel and had been forged with her blood under the light of a full moon, and reforged it into a sword cane, which he kept for nearly 250 years in case he needed it to kill the Beast in the future.
* Frequency Goggles: The Dread Doctors created a pair of goggles that had spikes, which would impale the soft tissue around the eye socket and create a bond with the wearer that would allow them to hone in on a specific frequency in order to locate a person. The Dread Doctors themselves used these goggles to keep track of all of their Chimeras, as they were each given a specific frequency during their transformation into Chimeras, and Theo Raeken allowed Malia Tate to borrow them so that she could use them to track down her mother, the Desert Wolf, a Werecoyote who, like all supernatural creatures, had her own unique frequency as well.

## Trivia

* The Surgeon, who was the creator of the Dread Doctor group, was over 250 years old at the time of his death, though it is unknown how old the other members were and when they officially joined him.
* If the stories in *The Dread Doctors novel by Gabriel Valack are true, the Doctors possibly created numerous other Chimeras in other cities, including a town in the northeastern region of the United States known as New England.*
* The Doctors are played by a number of different actors, including Marti Matulis and Daniel Bonjour as The Surgeon, Douglas Tait as The Pathologist, and Caitlin Dechelle and Elizabeth Carpenter as The Geneticist.