Chapter Text
Everything changed when she turned 15.
Katerina Harper was one of the most intelligent students at Beacon Hills High. She possessed an IQ of 190 and was consistently outperforming the expectations that were set before her by teachers.
It was widely known that Katerina Harper won the lottery with her gene pool. She was beautiful along with her intelligence, and her steel silver eyes and black flowing mane of hair perfectly complemented her grand height. It was clear nobody could compare with the angelic goddess that was Katerina Harper.
One autumn day in the middle of November, Katerina was walking home through the forest as usual when she felt a sharp tug in her abdomen. She knew better than to ignore such obvious signs from what she thought was her subconscious, so she followed it all the way to a tree stump, which was probably 5 miles into the forest.
As she grew nearer, the sense of urgency mounted and she found herself digging through the roots of the old decaying tree, although she had no idea why.
Soon she unearthed a wooden box with unknown contents, and when she twisted the lid off, she encountered two fireflies. They were beautiful, and danced around each other in the charcoal dusk of the rising moon.
They flew around her head and twisted around her fingers. As she gasped in delight at the creatures, they made a mad dash for her open mouth and forced themselves down her throat.
As she gagged and coughed, the forest went quiet, as if mourning the girl that entered the forest and that would undeniably never resurface again.
***
She awoke in the forest at sunrise, many hours later, curled upon the tree's roots and hugging herself.
She came to the horrifying conclusion that she was not alone in her mind.
In the depths of her mind there were voices.
They caused her head to throb, and the pain grew worse as the voices drew nearer. Soon she could begin to comprehend the words that were being spoken to her.
There were two voices that she could decipher, one sounded knowing and honey-like and the other sounded malicious and predatory.
She got the impression that they were sifting through her memories, before the honeyed voice spoke up.
‘We knew you would come eventually.’
***
She was curled upon those tree roots for many hours while they answered all of their questions.
She found that their names were Kazu and Akuma, and that they were Nogitsunes who were born thousands of years ago in a great war - even though they were very powerful, they desperately needed a host after being trapped for close to 100 years in a jar.
They explained that Akuma mainly focused her magic in Darkness and Death manipulation and Kazu worked with time and psychological pathways, and they gave her the opportunity to choose one to stay with her in the front of her mind, and the other would hibernate until she could find a suitable host.
She accepted Akumas’ offer, however she already had some semblance of an idea about who she would give Kazu to.
***
Katerina had known Stiles for years, they worked together on group projects in classes that he had no other friends in.
They had come to know each other rather well, and now she knew his friends were werewolves, she understood him even better.
She also happened to know that Stiles hated being unprepared. He really disliked not knowing what was going to happen, and now that she knew he was part of a pack and knew about the supernatural? That made her choice so much easier.
The only problem she may have faced would have been the pack, as they didnt know her very well with the exception of Lydia, Allison and Stiles and would probably object to her stealing Stiles away and forming a solid friendship with him in order to possess him, but in the end they didn't really mind, as Stiles started hanging out with her more often, even going as far to take her to a pack meeting in disguise - he still didn't know she knew about the whole werewolf thing, but it was only a matter of time before he trusted her enough.
Soon, Katerina broke the news that she had been keeping a secret for many months into senior year. Once she explained herself fully, Stiles accepted basically instantly. He was won over by curiosity, and he was gifted Kazu.
Over the next few months, they trained relentlessly, immersing themselves so fully in the training it didn't occur to either of them that they had not been called to a pack meeting in months, and it was only eventually when Stiles was ready to tell the pack that they realised this.
They waited anxiously for an invite, and when one was received they knew that something was wrong.
***
The meeting was a faux, it was only organised as a way to remove Stiles from the pack and announce that he was no longer needed.
The effect was immediate, and Stiles was thrown from the loft bodily and left for the dogs.
As Katerina picked him up and took him to her house, they agreed that they would leave the country during the night, high school diplomas be damned, and never come back.
When they realised that something was wrong, they immediately made backup plans. Plans like plane tickets could be booked on speed dial, but cars couldn't.
Noah Stillinski took one look at his boy and agreed, he even helped fund the tickets because he knew that Beacon Hills was killing his son.
They decided to fly to Barcelona, and it got Kazus’ approval on the whole future business.
When they landed they found a hotel on the seaside before going flat hunting a few weeks later. They found their flat only two weeks after moving, and on the day they finished moving in, Stiles asked Katerina to be his girlfriend.
She agreed.
*** Four years later, all was still perfect. They trained relentlessly and were at peak fitness, both physically and magically.
They both had jobs, Katerina worked as a model and Stiles became a guest lecturer on psychology at the local college.
They were both well-paid, and they lived comfortably together.
One weekend they decided to go to the beach. Stiles was planning to propose, and was delighted when Katerina agreed to go.
They arrived at the beach and immediately began to swim. They were not the type of people to sit and tan, in fact they preferred to be active and play games.
It was perfect when he proposed. The sun was framed perfectly against the sea, the golden streams of light created were soaked up into Katerinas skin as she accepted, pleased.
Only a few moments after they had kissed their promises to each other, the gunshots started.
The news station that was reporting live watched on as terrorists swept the beach, planting bullets into everyone they came across. Right in front of the camera, Stiles kissed Katerina before they were both embraced in an eternal hug, but riddled with bullets.
***
In California, it was just an average day for the pack as they cuddled in the living room of the newly renovated Hale house.
The silence left by Stiles' departure still occasionally filled the room, but not as often as it used to.
Everybody had stayed, apart from Allison. She left for France, said she wanted to stay with the code abiding Argents and teach at the archery school.
The peaceful chatter was broken by a terrified Lydia shouting to pass her the remote. As she fiddled with the remote, the packed looked at eachother with worry, it had been a long time since she had done this.
The TV flickered into life on a news channel in Barcelona, reporting on a small theft from the burger shop on a beach.
They held their breath as someone got proposed to in the background and cheered when the lady accepted.
Then the gunshots started.
People were dropping like flies - bleeding all over the sand.
Horrified, the pack watched on in silence.
The couple who were just engaged, ran to just a few feet in front of the camera.
They were clearly visible, and they all recognised Stiles and Katerina.
Before anyone could react, both of them had several bullets through their hearts, and as Lydia screamed the pack looked away in horrified realisation, that them kicking Stiles from the pack got him killed.