Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wednesday, March 8

The ground is hard when he lands, crouching to absorb the shock of falling on his arrival. Looking around the clearing he spots the stump of the Nemeton and frowns at its still slumbering state. There is only a whisper of the power there now, the leftover from Paige’s death and Julia’s draw to keep her alive after Kali’s attack, but like a forest in winter, he can tell that the Nemeton slumbers restlessly, not quite awake or asleep. He remembers all the hell that that thing will bring and a part of him seriously considers dynamite or concrete to fill it up, especially that damn fox, but he doesn’t have time for that right now. No, he needs to get things ready if he is going to be successful and he has to be. He is so tired and ready to have it all just end.

Casting a glamour upon himself he first hides his scent and then alters his appearance, making it so that he looks like a former Deputy. If this works, perhaps Jordan won’t show up here at all. Either way, it’s a face that no one here would recognize and one he knows well enough so that it will serve. He starts walking off towards town when he realizes that he will need several things to happen and he only has a few hours to make it all work. If he timed it right, today is the 8th and it will be about 6:00pm. He has forty-five minutes before the lacrosse game and then the Kanima will attack at the pool. He can’t interfere in that, no, but he can prepare for when everything comes crashing down. Tomorrow is the day they find out it is Jackson when Derek and the betas try to kill Lydia, but he plans to use that to change everything. He shifts the bag on his shoulder and feels relief at the heavy weight on his back.

Smiling he releases a bit of magic and then he is running, as fast as an Alpha wolf, towards the town. He needs several things and he will start with an ATM. He is sure he can liberate all he needs without alerting anyone, especially the police. Timing is everything.

He arrives quickly in town and drops his speed as he walks to the first ATM he comes to and with a flick, he releases a cantrip that causes the camera to malfunction. Once done it is an easy twist of his magic and the ATM generously spits out several thousand dollars from a certain bank account and he smiles wickedly. Serves the bastard right that he is paying for all of this.

Stepping away he moves to the small store down the street that he knows carries some elaborate stationary and steps inside. Fifteen minutes later he is leaving with the cards, envelopes, pen, and inks for his invitations. Next he heads for Deaton’s. He is fairly certain that the vet will be out by now and he smiles when he sees the empty parking lot. A quick spell confirms the druid’s absence and another expertly disentangles the protections that the man had carefully placed on the place. Taking care not to damage them, he steps inside and quickly gathers the ingredients he needs before leaving the clinic and with a gesture he slips the protections back into place as if they had never been touched.

Deaton’s good, but the druid isn’t in his league. Besides, the former Emissary wasn’t expecting someone who knows him so well to show up. Time to find a quiet place to work and write up his invitations so that everyone arrives exactly on time. He smiles…soon it will all be over.

Thursday, March 9

Victoria Argent is not happy. Not happy with her husband. Not happy with her father in law. And definitely not happy with her daughter. She is certain that Allison is lying about that damn mutt and that she is still seeing him, however obedient she tries to appear. She and Chris have had to dance around it so as not to alert Gerard to the fact that his daughter is dating a werewolf, but the man is no fool and she would bet any money that he discovered the boy’s true nature at that nightmare of a dinner even if he didn’t confirm it. His ‘doting grandpa’ act was just a bit too obvious, even for him.

Then the man had left right after and Chris told her of his conversation with the boy in the kitchen and she tightened her grip on the spoon she was using. That boy had to die, but it had to be subtle. If she had him killed outright, it would draw attention that they did not need right now. Not to mention that it might push Allison away. No, it would need to look like an accident and then she remembered. The boy was a former asthmatic. The new weaponized wolfsbane that they had been experimenting with created an aerosolized version of the poison to use on the wolves. It would poison his lungs and blood and kill him quickly. The best part was that the trauma and his reaction would make it look just like an asthma attack.

Victoria smiled. No boy with that medical history should be playing lacrosse. So dangerous. She starts planning everything. There can be no room for mistakes. After her talk with his mother in the ER, she is fairly certain that with some prodding, the woman would confirm that they are together and then she will strike without hesitation. She was on the fourth item of her list when the doorbell rang and she looked up in surprise. Who would be here this early?

Opening the door she saw a man standing there looking nervous with a black envelope. “Victoria Argent?” he asks her.

“Yes” she replies looking at him carefully but not detecting any threat.

“Delivery for you” he says and holds out the envelope with a smile. She takes it and sees her name on the outside, written in gold ink in a rather elegant script.

“Who is it from?” she asks suspiciously but the man just shrugs.

“Well, we normally only deliver flowers, but when I got to work I found it, your name and address, and a hundred dollars with instructions to deliver it” he tells her casually. “I was going to toss it, but it looks kind of nice and they did pay really well, so…” he looks unconcerned but then smiles and heads back to his truck, ‘Beacon Hills Florist’ written on the side.

Stepping into the house she hesitates to open it but she cannot detect anything and it is too thin to carry anything dangerous. Stepping to the sink, she uses a letter opener to slice the top carefully before holding it out, but nothing happens so she peers in and sees the card inside. Pulling it out, Victoria Argent frowns at the message and feels a sudden surge of rage before she throttles it down.

Victoria Argent, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. Come alone. Do not tell anyone of your attendance. Come unarmed. I have information regarding the nature of your daughter’s ‘relationship’ with a certain young man that I know you do not approve of. Her life depends on you coming.

The invitation isn’t signed and despite the handwritten message, it is too refined for any regular person. How many people can actually write this elaborately? The ink is also something that catches her eye. It shimmers and almost glows and then, as she watches, the invitation suddenly starts to smoke. She stares as the words burst into flames and she drops it into the sink where it quickly turns to ashes leaving no trace. She glances over at the envelope but it remains untouched.

Victoria Argent doesn’t like mysteries and she doesn’t like this. But she will be going tonight, oh yes. She won’t tell Chris or Gerard, but unarmed? Hah. She moves to the garage to pull out weapons she can easily conceal. She gives a small consideration that the final sentence was a warning and not a threat, but either way, if she didn’t get answers, someone would pay.

Alan Deaton stepped back to the front of the clinic when he heard the door chime ring and smiled pleasantly at one of his regular customers. “Good morning Mrs. Abernathy” the vet greeted the older woman as she held on to the leash of the cocker spaniel that was sniffing around happily. “And Buster” he said with a smile. “What can I do for you?” he inquired.

“Buster has been acting strange and I am afraid he might have eaten something he wasn’t supposed to” she said with a sigh. Alan smiled. He had seen Buster multiple times after the dog had managed to swallow all manner of things. “Oh, and I was asked to give this to you” she said reaching into her purse and pulling out a black envelope with gold lettering.

She handed it over and Alan looked at the envelope in surprise. His name was written in golden script and he looked at it confused. “Who gave you this?” he asks looking at the woman.

“A wonderful young man. Very pleasant, nice looking” she says with a wink. “I haven’t seen him around here before but I was getting my coffee when I told that sweet girl working there, the Anderson girl, Stephanie, about bringing in Buster. He politely asked if I was coming to see you, mentioned you by name, and when I said yes, he asked if I could deliver it. He seemed very nice. Said he had many errands to run and it would help him greatly. He even bought me my coffee which I tell you, I have not had a handsome man do for me in a while. I normally wouldn’t have agreed to this, I mean, it seemed strange, but then Buster was all over him. He never likes strangers like that you know, but Buster liked him. I tell you, when a dog likes someone, you can trust that.” She pauses as she looks up from gazing down happily at Buster. “So there it is” she smiles.

It takes about twenty minutes to determine that Buster had gotten into the garbage but nothing too bad so he gave him some medicine and sent her home. Stepping into his office he held the black envelope up and felt a slight tingle. There was magic…but it was not harmful as far as he could tell. Carefully he opened the top and pulled out the card.

Emissary Deaton, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. Come alone. Do not tell anyone of your attendance. Come unarmed. Your young protégé is in significant danger and the risk of losing a True Alpha is too high to leave to chance.

Alan re-read the invitation twice before it started smoking. Setting it down he watched as the card turned to ash in seconds and he snorted. That was an old trick to keep messages out of the wrong hands. If anyone but him had opened the envelope, the card would have been blank and once read, it self-destructed. It was a simple spell but it told him that this person was serious.

And a True Alpha? Alan had not considered it possible, not even for the boy, despite seeing great potential in him. He had only begun adjusting to things, but his resistance to both Peter and now Derek as Alphas suggested a strength there, but to become a True Alpha? If true, this would be the first in decades. He had to find out.

Derek Hale walked out to his car and slid into the driver’s seat only noticing the envelope on the dashboard once he was in the car. He frowned when he pulled the black envelope with the gold ‘Derek Hale’ glittering from the front. He didn’t smell anything, there was no foreign scent in his car or on the note that he could catch. Frowning he tore it open and pulled out the black card and looked at the message.

Alpha Hale, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. It is critical that you come, the Kanima can wait another day and you will learn the truth about it. Bring your three Betas; Lahey, Reyes, and Boyd.

Derek stares at the bottom of the card, of the Triskelion drawn on the card expertly but what causes his throat to catch was the final note under the Hale family symbol.

Not all was as lost as you believe.

Derek rereads that sentences several times trying to determine what it means but he can’t seem to make sense of it. He is staring at is when the card suddenly smokes and ignites, burning to ashes in seconds with no trace of any accelerant that he can smell. Swallowing he looks around but doesn’t spot anyone unusual watching him or anything that signals anything unusual. After Jackson was paralyzed by the Kanima venom, Derek and Isaac had made sure that the teen had gone to the sheriff to clear Isaac so he would be going back to school today and the plan was for Erica and Isaac to test Lydia. She was the only other option.

Derek remembered the note’s warning and he froze. They only knew it was a Kanima since yesterday. Who would know enough to send this card? Growling, Derek felt his pack was being threatened and his thoughts turned to Scott and Stiles and he frowned before dismissing them. They were not that clever.

Melissa McCall sat down at her computer finally happy to have five seconds to relax and catch her breath. She was happy to be getting off at a decent hour tonight, maybe even getting a chance to have dinner with her kid for a change when there was a sudden cough in front of her. Looking up she saw a pair of sparkling blue eyes and short blonde hair in the very attractive face of a young man. “Melissa McCall?” the man asks with a slight tremor in his voice.

“Yes?” she replies with a questioning look.

“I was asked to give you this” he said as he handed her a black envelope.

Melissa looked down at it and stares at the gold writing on the front. Seeing her name so elegantly written is a surprise. She looks up but the man is already walking away. “Wait. Who sent this?” she asks moving around the desk to stop the man.

He looks back at her and smiles. “Don’t know. Just asked to deliver it” he says and she looks back down at the envelope. Looking up to ask him how he got it she is surprised to see he is gone and nowhere in sight. She looks around but there is no sign and she finally sighs and opens the envelope and pulls out the card.

Melissa McCall, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. Your presence is critical to the meeting. Your ex-husband will cause difficulties for you if certain steps are not taken to prevent his return. Do not tell your son of this meeting. You may bring Noah Stilinski.

Melissa frowned at the card and reread the part about Raphael and she was pretty sure she was grimacing. That man was good and gone and the idea that he might return did not sit well with her. And why shouldn’t she tell Scott? She decided that she was going to call Noah. Find out what he thinks.

“Sheriff?” Tara says from his doorway looking off centered. The deputy was frowning a bit but she also looked confused.

“Deputy?” the Sheriff said and nodded for her to enter his office. She walked in with a black envelope in her hand.

“Sir” she paused and looked really unhappy. “I was at the front desk and I would swear no one came in but one second my desk is clear and the next this was sitting on it” she tells him handing him the envelope.

Noah takes it slowly noticing how unhappy the deputy looked. Glancing down he sees ‘Sheriff Noah Stanislaw Stilinski’ and his eyes widen at the sight of his middle name. He is fairly certain that it is not listed anywhere in his files. He glances up at Tara and she swallows nervously. “I didn’t actually read it beyond Sheriff” she says carefully.

Noah just nods and Tara takes the opportunity to step away, leaving the Sheriff in his office. Noah takes a few seconds to stare at it but finally he reaches for a letter opener and slices open the envelope and pulls out the card with more gold lettering.

Noah Stilinski, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. Tell no one about this meeting except the person who will contact you. If you would know the issues that Mieczslaw is facing, you need to come tonight.

Noah Stilinski startled reading his son’s name on the card. Finding both of their names on the invitation was beyond surprising as he was fairly sure that Stiles had managed to destroy every trace of his real name. He frowned at the part where it said tell no one but then his cell phone went off and he saw Melissa’s name on the screen. He answered and heard her voice sounding strained but when she started talking about a mysterious envelope he stopped her and told her he was on his way.

Isaac and Erica had figured that Chemistry would be there best chance to test Lydia. Isaac had some of the Kanima venom so even the slightest trace should be enough to confirm that she was the creature and they could kill her. While he wasn’t exactly upset about his dad being dead, he doubted that the guy at the garage deserved it. Now that he thinks about it, he is pretty sure that the guy even swam on his dad’s team with Cam.

“Scott’s going to be an issue” Erica warned him but Isaac wasn’t too worried. They were walking down the corridor when all of a sudden the she-wolf stopped and took in a deep sniff and looked around. “Do you smell that?” she says trying to find the scent.

Isaac takes a sniff and he smells it. Blood and something else…something bitter that burns his nose. Nodding at her they change course and start following the scent trail until it leads them to Isaac’s locker. Wrenching it open, Isaac stares at the black envelope inside when the scent suddenly disappears. Grabbing it he looks at the front and frowns before showing it to Erica. It is addressed to ‘Isaac Lahey & Erica Reyes’. Erica tears it open and pulls out the card.

Beta Lahey, Beta Reyes, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. Your Alpha has been invited and instructed to bring both of you and Beta Boyd as well. He will probably not tell you about it but you need to be there. And stop plotting about testing the Kanima, it won’t work. Isaac, you already almost killed someone, are you sure that you are so eager to try again?

Isaac flushed. Attacking Stiles at the station was mortifying, he had absolutely no control and having to have Derek roar him into submission was still bothering him. He wanted to prove himself to Derek that he could be a real werewolf, good enough that the Alpha would stop chasing after Scott even. He looked at Erica but she snorted at it and headed towards chemistry.

Chemistry was boring and Lydia was so not interested in whatever was going on between Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Erica, and apparently Allison. They had been acting strange all class and Lydia knew that they were hiding something from her. She stepped outside the door when a freshman walked up to her with a nervous smile. “Lydia?” the girl asked tentatively. “uh…this is for you” she says handing her a black envelope.

Lydia frowns at the girl who leaves quickly and sees Allison and Erica staring at her with very different expressions. Erica looks shocked but Allison just looks confused. “What is that?” Allison asks but Lydia just shrugs.

“Don’t know, don’t care” she says as they walk to their next class. “What was all of that?” she asks looking back to the classroom. They walk into History together and sit down but Allison is still playing dumb. Lydia sighs dramatically before opening the envelope and pulling out the card.

Ms. Lydia Martin, the pleasure of your company is expected tonight, March 9th, at 9pm in the library of the Beacon Hills High School. The questions you want answers to, the ones that everyone around you are hiding, will be answered. Do not tell anyone except Allison Argent, who may accompany you. You are not imagining things…he is real.

Lydia pales at the last words. Allison looks at the invitation and frowns until she gets to her own name. “Lydia?” she prods but the teacher walks in and starts the class. Lydia puts the invitation away and tries to focus but she can’t. How can he be real? She has to know.

Chris Argent steps out of his SUV in front of the high school and frowns as he sees the darkened building. Glancing over at the man still in the SUV he nods before stepping towards the school. The other two SUVs have positioned themselves at other locations around the school so that they can respond if he calls them. He wasn’t foolish enough to come here without backup or weapons, no matter what the invitation said.

He walked towards the doors but doesn’t see any sign of someone there. His advance team had been watching the school since this afternoon but they didn’t see anything and had reported that the staff had locked up and left as normal and the night cleaning crew had left nearly an hour ago and there had been no other sign of whoever might have sent that invite. Walking up to the door closest to the library Chris figured he would need to pick the lock but it opened with no trouble. Someone had unlocked it.

Walking in he glanced carefully but there was nothing that he could find so he opened the doors and walked in the darkened library but he didn’t see or hear anything. Walking in he paused and stared at the scene before him. Several tables had been moved together and there were, he counted, fourteen chairs around the tables that looked like they were set up for some kind of meeting.

Walking around the library he looked for anyone who might be hiding but he didn’t find anything then he heard footsteps approaching, a woman he guesses from the sounds, and he stepped to the side of the table into the shadows as he hovers his hand over the glock in his back holster. The doors open and the person walks in carefully and Chris frowns. Stepping forward he holds his hands up as Victoria pulls her gun and aims it at him.

“Christopher?” she says looking surprised. “What are you…did you arrange this?” she demands looking angry as she lowers her gun.

Chris pulls out the envelope out of his pocket and shows it to her and sees the look of recognition. Pulling her own envelope out of her clutch she frowns. “Why did they tell me not to tell you if you were invited too?” she asks but they hear footsteps coming towards them and they move to opposite sides just as the doors open.

“Sheriff?” Chris Argent looks at the man standing there in uniform and looking confused. Melissa McCall walking right behind him.

“Mr. Argent” the Sheriff acknowledges as his eyes flick over to Victoria “were you responsible for this?” he asks holding up a black card and Chris’ eyes widen. His card?

Shaking his head he flashes his envelope and sees the man relax a bit. “So who invited all of us? Is this about Scott, Stiles, and Allison?” Melissa asks concerned and doesn’t notice the glance between the Argents.

“I’m not sure Sheriff” Chris tells the man and realizes that getting the local law enforcement involved is not what they want. “I thought it might be a hoax but my invite had some rather…personal information” he says slowly.

Noah Stilinski nods just as the door behind him opens and everyone spins around, surprised at the noise. Alan Deaton walks in the door and looks at the four of them with an unsurprised expression on his face. “Alan” Chris says guardedly as he stares at the man.

“Did you…” Melissa starts to ask, her invitation in her hand when Alan holds up his own envelope. “Okay, this isn’t funny anymore” she says and sees the others look at her in surprise. “Scott is the only common connection between all of us.” They all share, in general, what their invitations said about why they should come.

Noah frowns as he considers her words and sees a glance between Deaton and the Argents that suggests there may be something else they are not mentioning. Noah is about to ask when the door opens again and he is stunned by what he sees. “Hale?” he blurts out as he sees Derek Hale, looking like a criminal in his leather jacket, step in the room and Noah sees the look of fury on his face as he stares at the Argents and suddenly he realizes that this is probably the first time that the man has probably seen the family of the woman who murdered his entire family.

“Derek” Chris’ voice is cold and the Sheriff has a momentary thought that maybe Kate didn’t act quite so on her own as he believed. There wasn’t guilt or embarrassment in the man’s demeanor like he would expect, his tone was definitely threatening.

Derek actually growled at the man but Derek didn’t fit the pattern. “Sheriff” the man finally says looking at him and Noah can feel the tension in the room rise as the man glances at Alan and Melissa.

“Did you get invited?” Melissa asks him and Noah sees the first flicker of surprise as he hears the question. A brief nod and he pulls out a familiar black envelope.

Derek stares at the Argents again, angrily, before turning to Alan. “Do you know?” he asks and the vet just shakes his head.

“What did yours say?” Melissa asks curiously. “Mine talked about Scott and my ex-husband” she tells him.

Derek looks confused for a moment before he shrugs. “Just that I needed to come here” he tells her.

“Did you get a ‘come alone’ or ‘with someone’?” Alan asks and Derek just glares. “It seems that the Sheriff and Melissa were both told to come together while the Argents were each told not to tell the other.

Derek grimaced but he finally snarled “It told me to bring someone, but I didn’t trust whoever sent it” he finally said.

Chris looked knowingly at Victoria. The Alpha was protecting his pack for certain. Just as he was about to ask the doors opened suddenly and three teenagers were standing there and Derek looked furious. “What are you doing here?” Derek roared and the three teens looks a lot less certain than they had just seconds before.

Noah’s eyes were surprised at seeing the Lahey boy, but was that Erica Reyes? The poor girl had suffered from epilepsy since she was little and both the police and hospital knew about her issues but the girl looked more like a supermodel than someone with a serious medical condition.

Erica straightened her back and looked at the adults before shifting to Derek. “We were told that we were supposed to be here and that you would probably not tell us” she says and holds up that familiar black envelope.

Derek growls, literally growls, again. “You don’t just show up like this, it’s dangerous” he snarls at them.

“Son” Noah says stepping forward hoping to defuse some of the tension. “It seems that someone wants a bunch of us here and has gone to serious efforts to make it happen. I don’t know who did it, but I don’t think anyone is going to try something with all of us here” he says calmly.

“We shouldn’t have long to wait” Deaton says softly and the others turn to him in surprise. He glances down at the table. “It would appear that we are only missing five people based on the number of chairs still remaining.” Everyone looks down at the table and they all suddenly realize that there are fourteen chairs and nine people.

“Who?” Isaac starts to ask when he suddenly turns around to look at the door and Noah is surprised to see that the other two and Derek all do it at the exact same time. Several moments later he hears footsteps and figures he better get his hearing checked.

The door is jerked opened and the body that storms in angrily suddenly slams to a stop and looks around the room in shock. “Jackson?” Erica says in shock and Noah sees the look of fear and uncertainty on the boy’s face. “What the hell are you doing here?” she says and Noah sees the teen flinch and move away from his classmates.

“I got this stupid card that caught on fire” he says angrily and Noah notices that everyone but Melissa and he seem completely unfazed by his statement. “It said” he pauses and glares at both Derek and Chris Argent “some things.” Jackson looks bitter and angry, more wound up than the Sheriff remembers the boy ever being, even after recanting about Isaac yesterday.

“Who would want you here?” Isaac says looking down at the teen and Noah knows something is going on. He hasn’t been in high school in some time, but the top jock and Mr. Popularity that is Jackson Whittemore wouldn’t be talked to like that by a kid like Isaac Lahey.

“Enough” Noah says and everyone turns to look at him. “There is something going on here that is more than a little suspicious” he says and all of sudden Derek and the three kids that are standing with him all turn to look back to the door as one. Do they all have super hearing or something? Suddenly the doors open and two very surprised girls are standing there looking at the crowded library.

“Allison?” Victoria Argent says looking at her daughter standing next to the redhead.

“Lydia?” Jackson, Erica, and Isaac all say almost at the same time. Lydia looks even more confused before her eyes narrow.

She turns towards Allison and glares at the brunette. “So you still think that this is nothing?” she hisses and Allison flushes as the girl moves over towards her parents who are looking at her very angrily.

“Down to two” Alan says quietly but several others turn to him. Noah looks around and groans out loud and everyone looks at him in concern. “Sheriff?” the vet prompts.

Sheriff feels the definite beginning of a headache. “Who are the only two who are missing?” he mutters just as Derek and his leather team turn back to the door as it opens and sure enough, Scott and Stiles stumble through.

“Scott!” Melissa says and Noah sees the shocked surprise on the boy’s face.

“Mom? What are you doing here?” he asks looking confused and Noah sees his son roll his eyes behind his back.

“Probably for the same reason you are” Erica snorts and the boy turns and looks at the blonde angrily.

Noah catches his son’s eyes and he can see the boy’s brain suddenly churning to come up with some lie to explain all this but he cuts him off. “Don’t. Don’t even Stiles. What is going on here?” he asks but Stiles denies any knowledge of it. Says he got an invitation telling him and Scott to come here.

Noah frowns but looks around before he looks at Alan. “Fourteen people are here” he says looking at the vet. “Now what?” he says looking uncertain.

“You could sit down” a rough but strangely familiar voice says and everyone spins around and they see the outline of a man standing in front of the windows of the library at the top of the stairs covered in shadows. “We have a great deal to discuss” he says and Noah frowns at how the voice nags at him. It’s so familiar.

Derek suddenly sucks in a breath and he growls at the man. “Who are you?” he demands but the man just chuckles at him.

“Good to see you too Alpha” the man says with a sarcastic tone as he starts coming down the stairs. “Chris. Vicky. You won’t be needing your guns.”

“You said to come unarmed” Chris says innocently and the man laughs.

“I also said to come alone and you have five hunters in the parking lot” he says and Victoria looks at her husband with the barest hint of a smile.

“Dude…that voice” Scott mutters and then he sniffs deeply. The sheriff and Melissa both look at the teen and Stiles who suddenly looks nervous. Derek, Isaac, Boyd, and Eric all sniff the air and frown at whatever they are smelling.

“Down boys” the man says with a raspy chuckle. “We wouldn’t want to give anything away quite yet would we?” he asks.

Noah frowns at that voice. He knows it from somewhere. “Who are you?” the sheriff demands stepping forward and the man turns towards him and steps out of the shadow into the light. Noah Stilinski feels all the air being sucked out of his lungs as his heart roars in his ears. He hears the gasps of surprise coming from everyone as they turn from the man to look at Stiles in confusion.

The man looks so much like Stiles they could be brothers. He is older, several years older, with long hair, a beard and scars on his face. His face is hard. Not just the angles, but there is something that reminds Noah of some of the guys who came back from the war. They have seen things that no one should have to see.

“What is going on?” Lydia demands as she turns to Stiles angrily. “You have a brother?” she asks the thunderstruck teen.

“What? No! I mean” Stiles flounders and looks at his dad in desperation. “Dad?” he croaks and Noah looks back at the man trying to figure out how this could be.

“Who are you?” Noah finally asks as he watches the man looking at each of them with a slightly bored expression. “You brought us here?” he demands.

“I sent the invitations. We have some things to discuss tonight if I am to be successful. Take your seats” he gestures to the table and chairs around him and they notice that there is no chair where he is standing.

“Answer the question!” Derek growls angrily. “Who are you? What do you know about…” he glances at the sheriff and Melissa for a moment “what we’re looking for” he finally says. Noah notices how the three leather teens, Allison, Scott, and Isaac all tense.

“The one you are looking for is in this room” the man says easily and Derek growls and looks at Lydia causing Allison, Scott, and Stiles to all move between him and the redhead.

“Enough!” Noah’s voice is loud and breaks the glaring contest going on. “Everyone sit down now” he yells and glares at each person as they slowly take their seats until only he and the man is standing. “Now. What is your name” he says, his police voice firm and clear.

The man smiles. “Miezcslaw Stilinski” he says and Noah goes pale as does Stiles and Scott.

“Who?” Lydia demands and looks at Stiles who’s doing a rather impressive imitation of a fish opening and closing his mouth with nothing coming out.

“It's a mouthful I know, that's why I prefer to go by Stiles” he tells her and Lydia narrows her eyes at him.

“Is this all some kind of joke for you? Pretending to be Stiles? How do you know about…him” she says desperately.

“Him? Oh, you mean Peter Hale?” he asks and sees the surprise from Derek, Chris, Victoria, Scott, Allison, and Stiles. “That's easy. When he bit you on the field at the dance he forged a magical link to you and is using that to twist your mind so he can control you to cast a spell” he tells her and Lydia pales and looking more frightened that anyone has ever seen on her.

“Peter is dead” Derek snarls at him.

“For the moment” he shrugs and everyone stares at him. “But death isn’t always final sometimes. In fact,” he smirks and looks at the Sheriff “you should probably answer that.”

Noah frowns but then feels his phone go off. He frowns and pulls it out and sees the station’s number. Looking at the man who appears too relaxed he nevertheless answers. “Stilinski. What? When?” he looks over at Chris and swallows unhappily. “No, I will notify the family. Are you sure? Okay. No, I don’t think I can. Just secure the scene. Right.” The sheriff hangs up the phone and looks at the man wearing his son’s face. “I am guessing that you can explain that?” he demands.

“I could, but perhaps you should let the family know first” he says instead and looks pleased and Noah is certain the man is involved.

Taking a deep breath and glancing at both Allison and Derek he pauses before turning to Chris and Victoria. “There has been an incident. At Beacon Hills Memorial Cemetery” he says carefully and Chris frowns and glances at the man standing at the head of the table. “Someone dug up Kate Argent's grave.”

Allison gasps and Chris pales before glaring at the man and standing up. “There’s more” Noah says carefully and Chris whips back around to glare at him and waits, not saying anything, for the sheriff to continue. “It seems they took the body out and put it on the ground nearby and then…they set the coffin and the body on fire…before removing her…head” he finishes looking sick.

Chris has his gun out and swinging towards the man but, as fast as he moves, the other man is even faster and takes it from him before Chris has had a chance to get it close to firing position. The man hits Chris hard in the chest, sending him crashing to his seat just as Victoria pulls her knife but she freezes when she sees that while the man is staring at her eyes, he is pointing the gun down the table. Looking over slowly she sees that he is aiming at Allison’s head. She turns back and he raises his eyebrow and, glaring angrily, she sets the knife on the table and he lowers the gun.

“Now, before you get all worked up about it Chris. It didn’t exactly happen the way the Sheriff laid it out” the man says easily and he smiles as he looks over at Derek and gives him a wink causing the Alpha to look confused and then angry. “First, yes. I did dig up her grave. But I set her on fire while she was still in the coffin.”

“Then why did you move her body?” the Sheriff demanded.

“Oh. I didn’t move her body. She did that herself” he says easily and Derek goes white as do several others. “She wasn’t dead. She was actually slowly healing down there. So one I dug her up, I set her and the coffin on fire. She woke up screaming and tried to run, so I chopped her head off. All nice and easy” he says like it was nothing.

“Kate Argent was dead” Noah Stilinski says looking angry and confused. “I saw her body. Her throat was ripped out.”

The man with Stiles’ face chuckled and turned to Chris. “Turning can be done by two ways. By and Alpha's bite or and Alpha's…” he looks like at the man like a teacher in a classroom.

Chris pales as he looks at the man “claws” he whispers.

“Ding, ding!” he says with a bitter laugh. “Peter’s claws ripped her throat out but he also went deep enough to turn her. It was just taking a long time for her to recover.”

Everyone was staring at the man but no one was speaking. “She is alive” Derek’s voice is garbled and he looks sick as both Erica and Isaac lean closer to him.

“Well, she was. She's really dead now” the man says gently looking at the Alpha. “I figured waking up on fire and dying while screaming in agony was just a small dose of the Karma she deserved” he shrugs easily and Noah and Melissa both look at him like he must be insane. The Argents all look sick but Noah feels a bit of cold when he sees some agreement in his son’s eyes.

“She didn’t deserve that” Victoria Argent snarled as she stood up. “You are no better than they are” she starts but freezes at the look in the man’s eyes that suddenly terrifies her.

“Kate Argent was a psychotic, child molesting, mass murderer who didn’t suffer anywhere near long enough to atone for her crimes in Beacon Hills, let alone elsewhere. Your family has fallen very far from the noble example of Marie-Jeanne Valet Victoria Argent, and very soon you will need to decide whether you are truly worthy of her legacy” he says, voice brutal, as his eyes bore into the woman “or whether you will join that bitch in hell.”

Melissa’s whimper at the sight of a man with Stiles’ face being so terrifying escapes her and he glances over and the fury is gone as if it was never there. “You said Peter killed Kate?” Noah says carefully.

“Peter was an Alpha Werewolf. He grew claws and ripped her throat out. Pretty fair considering she killed nearly his entire family” the man shrugs and all three Argents flinch and the Sheriff sees Allison looking both scared and angry.

“Werewolf. You want me to believe there are werewolves? Like in fairy tales?” Noah asks the man who laughs without any humor in it.

“Sheriff. You, Melissa, and Lydia are the only ones in this room that doesn’t know that werewolves are real” he says sympathetically. The sheriff glances around and suddenly realizes that no one will look him in the eye. Even his own son.

“Stiles?” he prompts and the teen looks sick as he glances back and forth between Scott and Derek. “Stiles!” he growls.

“I didn’t want you to get hurt” Stiles barks out finally and Noah looks sick. How has he missed this? His son is having delusions just like…he feels his heart freeze.

“No, he isn’t crazy. It isn’t like it was with mom. It’s really real” the man says suddenly and Noah looks at him and sees that the man is staring at him looking concerned before he turns Derek. “It might help move things along if you would show them?” he suggests and Derek’s jaw goes tense but after a second he nods. His eyes suddenly start glowing red and his face shifts and Noah jumps back as Melissa and Lydia both squeak. His face looks bestial and he has fangs…and claws. Suddenly the wounds on Kate Argent look a lot less animal inflicted.

Noah watches as the man suddenly looks normal again and very uncomfortable but he also notices that both Argents, Deaton, and most of the teens in the room didn’t react to that. “You all knew?” he frowns and looks at the former murder suspect “and all those animal attacks? And your sister?” he demands and sees the young man flinch.

“Peter Hale” old Stiles says easily before anyone else. Noah looks at him in confusion. “He killed animals to lure Laura back here so he could kill her in order to steal her Alpha power to finish healing from the fire before going on his killing spree. He was eliminating everyone who helped Kate kill the Hales. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he also wasn’t batshit crazy. But six years trapped in his pain ravaged body, unable to protect himself, relieving that night…” the man shrugs. “But he was, so Derek, Scott, young me, Jackson, and Allison all ganged up and wounded him enough so Derek could kill him and become the new Alpha.”

“Kate didn’t…” Victoria started and the man glare silenced her.

“She did and you know she did. I know that and I also know that you have created an aerosolized version of wolfsbane that you are planning to use to murder an innocent, violating the Argent Code yet again” he says looking at her. Chris looks at his wife surprised as the woman pales and leans away from the man standing over her. “You are only here because I feel a bit guilty and so I am willing to give you one, and only one, chance to come through this with your honor intact. Push me Vicky and I will make sure you die on schedule no matter how it affects Allison” he says coldly and ignores Allison’s gasp and Chris’s look of shock.

“You are from the future” Alan’s normally calm voice sounds fearful. “You time traveled” he ask-states.

The man looks at the vet and smiles. “Got it in one doc. I am the Stiles you know but I am twenty six” he says with a shrug. Everyone stares at him before looking at their Stiles and back.

“You can’t be me!” Stiles finally yells as he jumps up. “You…I…that’s…” he sputters and flails and the man just laughs.

“God, was I really so annoying?” he says with a glance at Derek who flushes in surprise. “Sit down young me.” He turns to Alan and nods. “I cast a time spell to travel back to today, Tempus Incantare.”

Alan looks sick. “That’s not possible. That spell has been lost for centuries if it ever even existed!” The man looks bored and just smirks at the vet, a very familiar smirk. “Traveling in the past is forbidden! The damage that you do could be incalculable” he warns and the man laughs.

“Everything in the future is shit Deat. Destroying that future would be a mercy” he says with a snort and the vet’s eyes widen in shock.

“Stiles…you shouldn’t do this. Whatever you are trying to change…it is how it is supposed to be” the vet warns the man.

He frowns as if thinking and then nods. “Perhaps you are right. But then again” he pauses and looks up as someone comes walking down the hallway and everyone turns in surprise as the door opens and someone steps inside.

“Matt?” Jackson says surprised to see the teen standing there.

“What’s going on?” Matt Daehler says looking at the gathering in confusion as he walks in the room before his eyes spot at the man standing at the far end of the library. He pales as he sees the gun in the man’s hand. “Wait!” he yells as the gun goes off.

The group is watching the teen’s face go rigid with fear right before the bullet hits him right between the eyes, blowing blood against the wall behind him and he falls to the floor. There is a moment of shocked silence before Noah is pulling his gun out but the man has already set Chris’ glock down and is walking towards the body lying on the floor, everyone moving away from it. He looks down for a moment with a curious expression, staring at the dead teen before he turns and moving fast he steps up to a stunned Jackson and grabs the back of teen’s neck and looks into his terrified eyes.

“You belong to me” he demands and stares at the teen. Jackson looks terrified but he slowly drops to his knees, never taking his eyes off the man until he is on his knees and then he looks down and presses his face into the man’s leg.

“Jackson?” Lydia whispers looking terrified.

The man runs his hand over Jackson’s head and forces his head back. “I need you to take care of something for me. You will do that won’t you?” he says, his voice strangely gentle. Jackson only nods.

“What are you doing?” Scott demands looking furious but confused at the older Stiles and the man just smiles.

“Go boy” the man says and suddenly Jackson hisses and the room suddenly looks scared as scales spread to cover his face and in seconds Jackson is gone and the lizard form of the Kanima is suddenly there, tail flashing. He roars, the black fangs glistening, before he suddenly tears out of the library. Lydia and Melissa's whimper at the sight clearly audible to the room.

“It was Jackson?!” Derek sputters. He looks like he is about to tear into something. He turns to the older Stiles. “But we tested him. He was paralyzed by the venom!” he sputters.

“Kanima venom doesn’t affect Kanimas, but it will affect their host in human form” the man says. “And it wouldn’t have affected Lydia since she is immune to the effects. So while your test ‘cleared’ Jackson and Lydia would have ‘failed’ it, you would have gotten the wrong answer. You were going to kill the wrong person” he tells the Alpha.

“Kill?” Lydia squeaks and looks around and sees Derek and the trio all not meeting her eye.

“Where is it going?” Stiles suddenly asks his older self, looking sick.

Old Stiles looks at his younger self for a moment. “The Kanima has a purpose. It is supposed to be an instrument of justice, not cruelty.”

“And what about killing that kid?” Chris demands looking at the dead teen on the floor.

Old Stiles looks at him with disappointment. “Send two of your men who are outside to check out his house and tell them to look in Matt’s bedroom closet” Stiles tells him. “Once they do that, you can tell me that I should have allowed him to live. Besides, he was the Kanima’s master. Who do you think ordered Jackson to kill Isaac’s dad and the mechanic?” Chris pulls out his phone and when he hangs up, two of his men are already moving.

“Why would he kill my father?” Isaac choked out suddenly looking over at the dead body.

The man looked at Isaac and sighed. “Matt came to your house the night your brother’s team was celebrating winning state. He left your room and came downstairs where Coach Lahey had let the team drink pretty heavily and after some rather cruel taunting, some of the seniors threw Matt in the pool where he almost drowned because he couldn’t swim. They pulled him out and gave him CPR but Mr. Lahey blamed it on Matt and threatened him to not tell anyone. The seniors all terrorized him after that. He decided to kill them in revenge.”

Isaac looked shocked as did the Sheriff. The man walked back to the front and glanced at the empty space where the gun was set down. He smiled over at Chris’s actions but didn’t comment. “So…while we are waiting for Chris’ phone call and Jackie boy to come back, let’s talk about the future!”

“Stiles” Alan says again “this is wrong” he tries to convince the man.

“You think so? Well, how about we take a vote? We will ask everyone here if they want to hear about the future and what is coming” he offers and sees the man look determined. Deaton opens his mouth to speak but the man cuts him off “no Deaton. No stories about your precious balance. You failed in your duties as Emissary” the man suddenly rears back as if slapped. “You failed the Hale Pack. You failed the Nemeton. You failed Beacon Hills. You seek redemption by helping Scott but you ultimately will fail. There is no balance anymore” the man’s voice is stable and each of the wolves hears the man’s steady heartbeat showing that he is telling the truth.

“Knowing the future is dangerous” Chris says to the man who looks at the hunter with sympathy.

“I understand” he tells the man. “If it makes you uncomfortable, you can step out. I suppose you shouldn’t hear how your daughter dies.” Chris freezes and the room stills as Allison lets out a whimper while Scott growls. The man stares at the stunned hunter. “But then again, I don’t think you could force yourself to leave this room right now even if you wanted to” he says shrewdly. The rest of the group sits in silence for a few minutes, all looking at each other.

“Stiles” Scott growls and the man looks at the teen who looks ill. “This is wrong.”

The older man nods in understanding. “Then step out Scott.” He turns to look around the room. “Any of you can leave. I don’t want you to feel burdened by knowing how you die” he tells them and there is a pause when everyone looks at him in shock.

“Stiles…who else dies” Lydia says with a tremor in her voice. “Not how…but who of us here?” she asks desperately.

The man turns to his younger self and looks sad. “In five years, you will be the only one left” he says simply and he sees his younger self sicken and look stunned. The teen looks at his father in terror and he shakes his head.

“No. That’s not…dad?” he begs.

“Dad. Melissa. Scott. Lydia. Allison. Isaac. Jackson. Erica. Boyd. Chris. Victoria. Deaton. And Derek” he says slowly and each of them look at him and he sees doubt in their faces.

“Mom?” Scott whispers and moves to her side and he looks at her for a moment before he looks up. “I vote yes. I want to know.”

“Scott” Alan’s voice is weak but he tries.

“Yes” Erica, Allison, and Melissa all say at once. The rest of the group agrees one by one until Alan is the last left and he just nods in resignation.

The older Stiles nods and pulls a chair over and sits down. Just as he opens his mouth Chris’ phone rings and the man pulls it out. “Argent. Yeah…what is it? Just tell me” he orders and then his face goes blank and he sucks in a breath. “Are you sure? Yes. Remove it. All of it. Take it to the house.” He hangs up and looks at the older man and stares at him while Stiles just watches him with a curious expression. “You should have let me kill him” he finally says.

“Chris!” Victoria yells at her husband but stops when the man looks at her, his expression one of controlled fury and rage.

“That…bastard had a closet full of pictures of Allison. Some of them were taken through her bedroom windows. He had personal things he stole…her...underwear” he grates out and sees his wife’s face go stiff. “He also had notes about him planning to take her” he barely gets out and several of the others look at Allison who looks like she is going to throw up.

“If it makes you feel any better, stalker Matt was going to die in a few days anyways. And that was after he killed several more people including five of your deputies” he says to his father who looks shocked. “He sends Jackson in to the station attack them” he explains and the Sheriff swallows nervously.

“How many people did you save by killing Matt?” Lydia asks the older Stiles who looks at her and pauses.

“Seven…maybe eight” he replies after a moment. “Not counting the people hurt by the one who killed Matt originally.”

“I am so confused” Melissa says looking close to breaking.

The older Stiles looks at her with a sympathetic look. “Perhaps we should get everyone caught up to the present before we talk about the future, huh? Peter had killed Laura to become the Alpha and the night the police found half of Laura’s body, Scott and I went into the woods to look for the body.” The sheriff groans and both him and Melissa glare at their sons. “Peter attacked and bit Scott turning him into a werewolf which had the benefit of curing his asthma.”

“What!?!” Melissa looks at her son who shrinks back and looks betrayed as he stares at the older version of his friend. “You are a werewolf? Like…him?” she looks at Derek.

“Dude!” Scott yells at older Stiles who just shakes his head.

“She was going to find out in a few days Scott. Matt took her hostage along with me and my dad when he attacked the station and she saw you turn” he tells the teen who looks stunned, as does everyone else. “Anyways…there was lots of running around after that trying to figure out who the Alpha was. We encountered Derek but he and Scott did not get along and thought that Derek was the one who bit him, despite the fact that as a Beta, he couldn't do that. We didn’t know it was Peter until later but while he goes around killing people, Scott is reveling in his new powers which allows him to impress the new girl who it turns out is from a centuries old family of werewolf hunters.”

“You…what?” Melissa says looking at her son and Allison who was looking just as flummoxed.

“He was dating a girl whose entire family wants to kill him” older Stiles sums up and Melissa suddenly turns to the two Argents and looks at them with dangerous eyes.

“We have a code” Chris starts but Melissa looks at the older Stiles who just snorts. Chris looks sick.

“Who was Marie…whoever you said” Erica asks confused. “You mentioned her earlier.”

“Marie-Jean Valet: The Maid of Gevaudan. She was the first true werewolf hunter. Her children took the name Argent and founded one of the older Hunter Families. Turns out the Beast of Gevaudan, who killed hundreds in France, was actually her brother Sebastien Valet. Which is why there is the whole ‘get bit and you die’ thing in the family” old Stiles tells the she-wolf. “Though to be fair, he was a complete whack job and if she had just killed him as a kid the world would have been better off.”

“How do you know all that?” Chris demands and Allison stares at the man looking thoroughly confused.

The man shrugs. “I met him. He showed up here, reborn, before we killed him...again” he says simply and Chris and Victoria both look overwhelmed. “We will get there, just wait.”

Victoria shakes it off and glares at the older Stiles. “Our family has fought these animals for generations, protecting normal people from these monsters” she declares proudly.

“We follow the code” Chris adds to his wife’s statement. “We hunt only those who have killed.”

“And where is the Code when Vicky tries to murder Scott?” the man asks and Victoria looks at him, glaring daggers. “That’s what ends your own life you know” he tells the woman who looks less certain. “Derek bites you accidentally while trying to rescue Scott from your wolfs-bane gas and you end up killing yourself…in Allison’s room to avoid becoming what you hate” he says unemotionally. “Gut yourself with a knife…very messy.”

Chris lets out a sound and Allison gasps looking at her mother in shock. The older Stiles leans forward and looks at Victoria Argent carefully. “You are supposed to die this month and I am willing to bet that you have already taken several steps in planning to kill Scott. I really was going to let you die like you deserve but I owe Allison this so this is your only chance Vicky. Change or die. Your life means nothing to me compared the others around this table.” He turns to Chris. “You were a decent man once, but losing your family breaks you and you die alone and broken.”

“Stiles” Noah whispers looking at the man his son has become. “I don’t…are you?” he trails off and looks at the younger version of his son nervously as the older version shakes his head.

“No. Neither of us is a wolf. Back to the story. Derek and I figure out that the Alpha is Peter and we have a fight but the dude manages to convince Derek that he was insane when he killed Laura and it was an accident. Derek stops fighting him until Scott proves that Peter lured Laura back to town to kill her as he wasn’t crazy. Kate returns, captures Derek and is torturing him and that’s how Allison learned about the family business. Peter attacks at the dance and bites Lydia and forces me to help him find Derek by tracking his phone after I called the ambulance and Jackson.”

“Wait a second” Lydia interrupts the man looking furious. “So I am going to turn into a werewolf?” she demands.

“You aren’t a wolf. You didn’t turn” Derek says looking at the redhead in confusion. “You didn’t die but you didn’t turn and I’ve never heard of that before.”

“There is no exception” Chris repeats Derek’s words. “If you are bitten, you either turn or die” he says decisively.

“But I did neither” Lydia reminds both men who only look uncertain. Finally she turns to the older Stiles. “Well?”

“They are correct. Any human bitten either turns or dies” he says and looks at the redhead who pales.

“I’m not human?” she whispers.

“Not entirely. You come from a long line of women with Fae blood. It makes you immune to many forms of magic like the wolf bite or Kanima venom because your own magic protects you” the man tells her.

“What am I?” she asks him, her voice stronger.

“A Banshee” he tells the girl who looks shocked. “Just like your grandmother. You will learn about your powers and gifts later” he assures her.

“Powers?” Lydia mutters suddenly looking interested. The rest of them all look at the redhead in surprise.

“So, where were we? Right, so Peter goes to rescue Derek and ends up killing Kate for her crimes but then he decides he wants to kill all the Argents starting with Allison which is where Scott and Derek fight him to protect her. Jackson and I show up and toss Molotov cocktails at him and with an assist from Allison we set the bastard on fire and Derek kills him. Chris takes Allison and leaves accepting Kate’s punishment but determined to keep his daughter from dating Scott” the man says. “Then Derek bites Jackson but the bite goes wrong and he becomes the Kanima, though he doesn’t actually know it. He then bites those three” he points to Erica, Isaac, and Boyd who all look nervous at everyone staring.

“Why?” Noah asks looking at the three and suddenly realizing that if Scott getting bitten cured Scott’s asthma, it probably cured her epilepsy.

“An Alpha needs a pack. It makes the entire pack stronger, both betas and the Alpha, but more importantly it stabilizes the Alpha's power. It makes them grounded and more certain. The pack makes the Alpha better because it gives them both purpose and family. Pack is the most important thing to wolves, werewolves too. Derek needed a pack to deal with the sudden infusion of the Hale power. Normally a new Alpha would already have a stable pack to keep them sane, but with only Scott connected to them but refusing to have anything to do with him, Derek needed a pack of his own or he would have spun out of control. Each of the betas had their own reasons for wanting the bite, but they made their choices.”

“He shouldn’t have done it” Scott says glaring at the older man.

“Scott, shut up” the older version of his best friend says with exasperation. The teen looks at him in hurt betrayal. “You are a hypocrite. You complain that were turned against your will, fine, you were. Peter’s a dick. But you also have had no problems taking advantage of your powers to become co-captain of the lacrosse team or to sneak around with Allison” at this both of the two lovers looks guilty and the Argents glare at Scott “and you have kind of really enjoyed all the perks.” Scott opens his mouth but the older man cuts him off. “Don’t. There is no cure and there never was. If you had killed Peter you would have been the Alpha and the power might have been more than you could have handled. You nearly killed me at one point, you would have been driven to bite people if you were the Alpha, and you probably wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge long enough to make sure they wanted it first.”

There is silence as Scott stares at the older man for a few minutes but he seems to deflate a bit. “But Derek is out of control” he trails off looking at the trio.

“Why? Because Erica doesn’t want to die from having an Epileptic seizure?” the man asks and Scott pales a bit. “Or because Isaac finally wanted to be strong enough so that no one else would be able to hurt him like his own father did? Or that Boyd might want what being a member of a pack offered? Strength and belonging?” The man just shakes his head. “You are forgetting Scott that the reason the three of them, and Jackson, all wanted the bite wasn’t because of Derek…it was because of you.”

Scott looks thoroughly confused and he starts to sputter. “How is it because of me?” he demands looking stricken.

“You were kind of a huge walking advertisement for the benefits of being bitten. You went from an asthmatic loser to a popular super jock who everyone notices and wants to be friends with” he says with a look as the teen blushes.

“But…he lied to us” he looks at his Stiles and sees the teen look a bit guilty. The others all just look at him without really saying anything but it is fairly clear that they agree with the description. Scott suddenly remembers Body saying to him ‘no, I want to be like you’ at the ice rink and he finally deflates.

"And you are right too Scott, Derek was an ass in more ways than one. But considering we accused him of murder, not once but twice, while he was dealing with someone killing his sister...maybe we could have tried being a bit more understanding" he says before looking over at a confused Derek. "That's not to say you weren't as big a d-bag as Jackson more than once. If you had bothered to just sit down and talk to us instead of snarling and giving orders, you could have avoided a ton of problems" the older Stiles says and Derek flinches at the words.

Melissa moves around to pull Scott into a hug as he looks like a kicked puppy and no one can really resist that sad face and eyes. “It’s okay honey. I just wish you had told me” she assures him.

The older man just smiles gently watching the two of them. “So what happened to Jackson?” Noah asks his son and sees Alan, Chris, Victoria, and Derek all look up at his question.

“Sometimes the form a shifter takes reflects their true self, but sometimes, when a person doesn’t have a true sense of their own identity, it becomes lost. Jackson’s turmoil over his relationship with his adoptive parents plus Scott suddenly messing with the school’s social order has the guy’s sense of who he is all out of whack. The bite brought that uncertainty and confusion to the front and tada, a Kanima is born.”

Derek looks over at Chris and the two of them seem to come to a silent agreement. “Oh knock it off you two” the man interrupts causing both of them to look at him unhappily. “Neither of you is going to kill Jackson. He is a jackass, but he is also innocent.”

“Son. You said he killed people” Noah says carefully but the man shakes his head.

“A Kanima has no free will. Matt killed people using the Kanima. No different if he had used a gun. You wouldn’t prosecute a gun for its owner shooting someone” the man says with confidence.

“A Kanima is too dangerous to be allowed to roam free” Derek argues but the man just sighs in frustration.

“Which is why we will cure him” he replies confidently. Chris, Derek, and Alan all look at the man in shock. “Yes there is a cure. We did it before, so let it go” he tells them.

“Anyways…I think that brings everyone up to date” he pauses and looks around. “So Derek kidnapped Jackson and tested him with the Kanima venom but it actually paralyzed him and so they thought he was cleared so they had him recant the story he told the police to get Isaac cleared.”

“Jesus” Noah mutters as he glares at Derek who looks defensive.

“To be fair, Isaac was innocent” the man tells his father who finally nods at that. “So the pack tests Lydia with the Kanima venom, which she was immune to, so they decide she is the Kanima and they try to kill her.” The man smiles at the squawk from the redhead. “Stiles, Scott, and Allison play three card monte and outmaneuver the betas getting Lydia back to Scott’s house while he tries to delay Derek. Long story short, tonight the betas were supposed to attack but Allison managed to immobilize Erica and Stiles held off Isaac just long enough for Scott to arrive and toss both of them out. He and Derek are about to fight when the Kanima is spotted on the roof and then Lydia walks out and everyone realizes that it wasn't her after all. Scott's pack however knows it was Jackson.”

“Wait” young Stiles looks at the Alpha “so we were supposed to have some kind of showdown tonight?” he asks.

“Yep. So then Stiles and Scott kidnap Jackson and lock him up in a borrowed police van but are ultimately found out when Jackson escapes and in the process the Whittmores get not only a restraining order against Stiles and Scott, but set in play a chain of events that gets my dad temporarily fired” he says. “Allison gets information from the Beastiary and Ms. Morrel helps translate some of it for her.” The man looks at Deaton and scowls. “Your sister also has some answering to do” he says and smiles at the vet’s shocked look. “Yes I know who she is and what she is really doing here” his voice carries an edge to it. The man sighs.

“So then we track the Kanima to the Jungle where he attacks several people, including Danny, but young Stiles manages to create a mountain ash barrier to trap it, but they have to break it to save the people inside so Jackson escapes. That’s the day that Victoria tries to murder Scott and ends up getting bit” he adds looking at the woman.

“You tried to kill my son” Melissa’s glare is matched by Victoria’s.

“He is a monster. They all go bad eventually” she declares but older Stiles laughs coldly.

“Really? You are calling anyone else a monster. How about the Riley Pack in Vermont? They had lived in their town for five generations with no murders or attacks on humans when Gerard and Kate murdered the entire family down to a newborn baby. Or the Karastas in New York? They had lived peacefully for over 100 years before the Argents butchered them. Or how about how Gerard arranged a peace conference with several packs and then killed his own men so he would have reason to betray and attack the packs?” the man challenged the Argents. “I have more if you would like, we could spend hours. For every real threat that you stopped, your family has killed innocents as well. Hell, you Hunters have kidnapped, tortured, and brutalized wolves so that they lash out blindly in pain and fear and then use that to justify you murdering their entire packs. If the Hunters were held to the same Code, the entire Argent family should have been executed for Kate’s crimes.”

Chris stares at the man and something inside him breaks. “The peace conference” he asks weakly. “He didn’t…” his voice goes soft in the harsh glare of the man’s gaze and he slumps back knowing it must be true. He never understood that entire mess until now.

“Chris?” Victoria looks at her husband feeling like she is in quicksand. “He's probably lying” she reminds him.

“Gerard is the one who pushes you to kill yourself when you get bitten” the man tells her and both of the Argents look determined. They both had made an oath about that. “Which makes his betrayal even worse" the man adds.

“What betrayal?” Chris looks sick.

“Gerard has stage 4 cancer. He wants to capture an Alpha so he can get the bite to cure him and then kill him so he can take that power. He plans to become a werewolf” Stiles says simply and the last bit of support of Chris Argent’s world collapses. “He kills Matt after the police station attack and becomes the new master of the Kanima, kills some folks, and uses Jackson to threaten Melissa to force Scott to help him.” He turns to Scott who is looking totally lost. “That was the favor he was going to ask for when he stabbed you at the hospital the other day”. Scott’s eyes widen.

“He stabbed you?” Melissa looks at her son trying to see a sign of injury.

“I healed, it’s okay” he assures his mom but sees Allison looking just as sick.

“So then, Gerard destroys Victoria’s suicide note explaining things and instead plays Allison like a fiddle getting her to go all dark and she goes after the pack. At the same time, Erica and Boyd decide to desert Derek and leave town. However, Allison and Gerard chase them down with her shooting both of them repeatedly and the hunters end up capturing Erica and Boyd and then taking them back to the Argent house where Gerard tortures them for a few days.

Erica and Boyd both look stunned, as does Allison and Derek. “I wouldn’t do that!” Allison protests.

“Gerard manipulated your grief Allie” he says sadly. “You embraced your rage and lashed out. I know you didn’t do any of the actual torturing, but you knew it was happening. So then at the Lacrosse game, Jackson dies” Lydia’s gasp causes the man to look at her and give her a wait gesture. “They take Jackson away where Scott and Melissa realize he isn’t exactly dead while young me manages to score the winning goal in the championship game, which was great. But then Gerard kidnapped me and took me to the house where he beat the hell out of me to send a message to Scott to ‘play ball’.”

“Stiles” Scott looks devastated and the Sheriff is glaring at the Argents who look like their entire world has shifted from under them.

“It's okay Scott, it's long over. Not gonna happen this time around. So I get Lydia and we go to the warehouse were the final battle takes place and Scott betrays Derek to Gerard.” Derek’s eyes flash red at the teen who just closes his eyes. “But it seems that our boy is a hell of lot smarter than anyone knows. He and Deaton managed to switch out Gerard’s cancer meds with capsules of Mountain Ash. So when he gets the bite, his body rejects it and he oozes black goo. Jackson is cured after Stiles junior rams him with the jeep and Lydia cures him. Allison and Chris go home and we find out that Chris freed Erica and Boyd.”

“So we leave town?” Erica asks in a quiet voice avoiding looking at Derek.

“You try. But there is a pack of Alpha werewolves led by Deucalion, the guy Gerard blinded at the ‘peace conference’ and they capture both of you. They hold you prisoner for months while everyone tries to find you. Finally you fight to get free but Kali, a crazy bitch, kills you when you try to escape” the blonde goes pale. “Later she and the murder twins kill Boyd by shoving him onto Derek’s claws” he adds and the silent teen looks at Derek who is staring in shock.

“Why would they do that?” Stiles junior croaks out.

“Deucalion learned that an Alpha who kills his betas takes their strength. His ‘pack’ is made up of Alphas who wiped out their own packs and they want Derek to join so they try to force him to kill his betas.

“I would never do that” Derek snarls and the man just nods.

“No you wouldn’t. But they don’t care. If you refuse, they just plan to kill you. Especially since they manage to capture Cora when she tries to return” the man says gently but the Alpha freezes.

“What?” his voice is ragged, barely a whisper.

“Cora wasn’t in the house at the time of the fire, she was playing out back. When she saw the fire she tried to come but the hunters were there so she ran. She thought everyone died so she fled and ended up in South America. But the rumors of a Hale Alpha rebuilding the pack causes her to return and Deucalion catches her. He plans to threaten her to force you to kill your betas” the man sounds sad telling the Alpha this.

Derek looks lost and close to breaking. His pack or his sister? He doesn’t trust himself to know what to do. “You don’t. You rescue Cora and Boyd forgives you with his dying breath. Cora is mortally injured in the fight but Peter shows you how to use your alpha power to heal her and you do, becoming a beta again” the man tells him and Derek stares at him in confusion.

“Your sister is alive?” Stiles junior says softly looking at the man with a sympathetic expression. “But now we know so we can keep her safe” he says looking at his older self. “That’s what you are doing? Making it so people are okay.”

His older self opens his mouth and closes it as the doors bang open and the Kanima returns with a bag. He smiles as the lizard scuttles over to him. “Take it to Derek. He will need it for later” he instructs and the lizard moves around the room and drops it at the Alpha’s feet.

Derek and the other wolves suddenly rear back as the scent hits them. Blood! “What the hell is this?” Derek demands of the man looking at the bag with revulsion.

“That? That’s Gerard’s head” he says with a smile and the room goes deathly quiet as everyone looks at him in stunned silence. “When Deucalion arrives, send it to him and see what the so-called Demon Wolf does.”

Allison scrambles away from the bag on the ground, rushing into Scott’s embrace and Chris looks ready to throw up. The others all look equally sick. “Stiles…” his father’s voice cracks.

“Dad, if you are going to get sick every time I kill someone, this is going to be a really tough night for you” he says with a hollow laugh.

Lydia is staring at the man and the lizard at his feet. “You’re insane” she says clearly looking at him.

The man looks at her and laughs again. “Should have known you would figure it out first Lyds. You thought Peter went nuts? I went off the edge years ago” he says happily and the rest of the people all shift away from him slightly and his younger self is looking horror-struck. “But then I’d like to see you watch everything and everyone you love die horribly and come out of it sane.”

“Stiles, you need help” his father says, the concern clear in his eyes. The man looks at his father, the madness there so clear now.

“No. I need to erase my life. I went dark after the pack died. I did things. Things that I should be horrified about but I don’t feel anything except irritation that it took so long” he sighs unhappily. “But if I can change the past, then maybe, just maybe, I can erase my existence.” He turns to Alan who is staring at the man in quiet contemplation. “I can’t remember how many people I’ve killed…that’s not right, huh?” he asks.

Alan suddenly realizes that the man before him is more dangerous than he ever imagined possible. “I don’t know” he finally says.

The older man sighs. “Okay, so the Alpha Pack comes and starts causing problems. We also have a Darach show up” Alan startles and looks up at that. “A Darach is a dark druid and it turns out to be Julia Bacari, calling herself Jennifer Blake, our English teacher. She was Kali’s Emissary but didn’t die from the wounds when Kali attacked her. Instead she lived and recovered enough to start trying to create the five-fold knot to gain enough power over the Nemeton to kill the Alphas. She kills twelve people including Tara, Mr. Harris, and my friend Heather. She then kidnaps Chris, Melissa, and Dad as her final sacrifices but Deaton helps me, Scott, and Allison do a ritual sacrifice instead and we break the chain and discover her hideout. But it comes at a cost.”

“Do we save them?” Allison whispers sounding very small.

“Yes. We do. We rescue our parents while Scott and Derek fight Deucalion and Julia and Derek tricks her into giving Duke his sight back before Scott breaks her mountain ash barrier when he discovers that he is a True Alpha” he says as Derek and Alan both gasp in surprise. Scott looks confused.

“What’s a True Alpha?” he asks looking at the vet.

“It’s a beta werewolf that becomes an Alpha based on their own character, not by killing or taking another’s power” Alan says woodenly. “But there hasn’t been one in decades” he tells the older man.

“Hey, that’s our Scotty for you. Mr. ‘Save Everyone’ pays off and he becomes an Alpha as Derek sacrifices his power to save Cora. Duke leaves promising never to return and the Darach tries to escape only to be killed by Peter.”

“I thought Peter was dead?” Melissa interrupts.

“Oh yeah. Lydia brings him back to life with a spell” he says and the redhead looks shocked. “Anyways, the Alpha Pack and Darach are defeated. Yay us.”

The man looks tired but he cracks his neck. “I’m going to speed through the rest of high school. By doing the ritual, we weakened the Nemeton’s magic and there was the spirit of a Nogitsune trapped there that got freed. It’s a Japanese fox demon, of the void” he explains as several people open their mouths. "It takes possession of me, well, you” he points to his younger self who looks horrified. “While the demon is driving my younger self insane, Scott and Allison break up, Scott dates a new girl who turns out to be a Kitsune, a Thunder fox, whose mother is the one who imprisoned the Nogitsune. Allison and Isaac start dating.” Scott, Allison, and Isaac all look stunned by those revelations.

“Isaac?” Scott says looking over at the stunned beta who looks equally confused.

“I didn’t…” he turns to Erica who just looks pissed.

“Don’t ask me, I’m dead at this point remember?” she snarks and the other teen flushes.

“Unfortunately, Nogitsunes thrive on pain and chaos so it goes to town, kills a whole bunch of people at the hospital until our final showdown when you try to save me while fighting the Oni” he smirks at the sudden flinch from Chris at the mention of those demons. “During the fight, Aiden, one of the Alpha Pack twins who stayed to get a fresh start with Scott, dies in the fight. Allison is killed by one of the Oni, stabbed in the heart, and she dies in Scott’s arms.”

He stops there and looks at the brunette and his best friend who look devastated. It seems that everyone is just waiting before Victoria and Chris are suddenly moving to hold their daughter tightly as they all try to process this. “What happens to me?” Stiles junior whispers looking at his older self desperately.

“They free me…but I have to deal with the memories of everything that fucker did using my body. The nightmares never really stopped” he admits. “Anyways, after that there is the Banshee Meredith who is locked up in Eichen House with Peter and she pulls information from his head to create a Deadpool, a list of all supernatural creatures in town and offers bounties for their deaths. She steals the bearer bonds from the Hale vault to pay for the kills. Lots more people die during that episode but finally we get everything sorted out and that’s when Kate shows up and kidnaps Derek…again” he growls.

Derek looks up and the man can see the tremor in the Alpha's frame as he hears that name again. “She kidnaps him so she can take him to a temple in Mexico where she turns him into a teenager with no memories of the fire. She needs him to give her something from the Vault, but we finally manage to free Derek and return him to his right age, but he starts losing his powers until he turns human.”

Derek looks horrified at that statement and Scott suddenly looks confused. “I thought there was no cure?” he asks the man.

“Ripping out half of your soul isn’t really a cure. Besides, Kate’s spell ultimately failed. During the battle with her and her berserkers, you manage to defeat Peter, who betrayed us…again, while Derek, who was shot and dying, suddenly evolves and gains his mother’s power and gifts and becomes not just a werewolf again, but he gains the ability to fully shift into a wolf.” Old Stiles looks at the awe-struck expression on the Alpha’s face. “He then kills Kate, for the final time, and we head home.”

Derek let’s out a bit of wuff of relief before he looks a little messed up. “My mother…she could do a full shift…she was amazing” his voice sounds very vulnerable and Noah sees both versions of his son react to that and he suddenly has a premonition that makes him take a deep steadying breath.

“Then there’s the Dred Doctors. They are these crazy old scientists who are trying to create artificial supernaturals. Theo Rakin shows up, and he is one of their stooges and he gets Donovan Donati to threaten dad” the Sheriff startles at the man’s name. He arrested his father a few years ago and the kid always seemed unstable. “And then he gets turned into a chimera of a Wendigo and a Lamprey and comes after me promising to not only kill and eat me, but to leave my gnawed on corpse for my dad to find, but he dies when I kick him off the scaffold and he impales himself on a pipe. Theo uses that to drive a wedge between me and Scott and me and my dad, making both of them think I was a murderer instead of defending myself against a serial killer.”

“Stiles I would never…” Scott starts just as the Sheriff looks like he is going to joinin, but Stiles cuts them off.

“Theo was a master manipulator and sorry, but Scotty you sometimes...you can be a bit too moral. You trust and believe that everyone can be saved, you believe in everyone and I love that about you, but man...sometimes it can cause problems when you don't stop to think that maybe someone is a danger. It’s not a bad thing being so good, but believing a guy you knew a few weeks instead of me? It hurt, I admit. But he played my dad too, and he almost got away with it because he wanted the Void version of me, which was a mistake. The void me? Would have ate him for breakfast." He smiles a bit at that. "But ultimately we got over it and figured out what he had done and then we arranged for Theo’s sister, who he had killed, to come up and drag him down to hell” the man smiled and everyone was fairly certain that he wasn’t joking.

“So while dealing with the Doctors, we also had to deal with the Beast of Gevaudan who had possessed Mason, the best friend of Scott’s first Beta. Luckily Deputy Parrish, drawn to town by the Nemeton is a Hellhound and he and the beast fought and we killed the Beast using the Dred Doctor’s cane, which was the original silver used by Marie-Jeanne” the man added.

“I am so lost” Melissa mutters.

“I am taking notes” Stiles junior has his phone out and sees the smiles exchanged between both versions.

“Then the Wild Hunt arrived in town” the man says and Deaton looks horrified. “Yep. Beacon of crazy. They start erasing people by taking them and once the Hunt has you, everyone forgets you ever existed. They took classmates and then I got taken and everyone forgot me. Ran into Peter, who had been taken too, but luckily he was able to escape and helped Scott, Malia, and Lydia remember me and then Lydia figured out how to open a portal and I came back.”

“We fought the Riders, who by then had about 95% of the town, when we realized that our physics teacher was actually an escapee from the Dred Doctors. Turns out he was a Nazi Werewolf from WWII” he said.

“Oh come on, you have to be making this up!” Erica demands but the man just shakes his head.

“Nope. Nazi wolf was trying to take over the Wild Hunt, like he did in 1944, but Scott stopped him with help from Theo, Malia, and Peter” he replied.

“Wait? Wasn’t Theo just dead?” Allison asks looking around.

“Liam and the babies used Kira’s sword to summon him back to help and he actually did help. Seems being in hell scared the piss out of him” the older Stiles answers.

“Who’s Malia?” Boyd says quietly and everyone looks at him with worn out expressions.

“Oh…uh…she’s a were-coyote. Peter’s daughter” he adds and sees Derek stiffen in shock. “Apparently Talia removed everyone’s memories of it like she did of the Nemeton after Paige.”

Derek goes white. “Paige?” he whispers.

The older Stiles looks at the Alpha sadly. “Yeah. Sorry about that. If it helps, Ennis was one of the Alpha Pack and he died.”

Derek stands up and moves away from the others without leaving the room. “So then what?” Lydia asks carefully after watching the Alpha for a second. No one wanted to push on that.

“Actually? Things quieted down for a while. You went to MIT as a junior, don’t ask me how. Agent McCall helped me get accepted to the FBI College program in George Washington, Scott went to UC Davis to study to be a Vet. Derek had left after he did his full shift thing, got away for a while. I graduated at 22 and returned to Beacon Hills. Scott was still Alpha and doing well and Jackson had come back from London where his parents sent him after the whole Kanima thing and he and Lydia were reconnecting.” The man smiles at his younger self before looking at Lydia. “We actually dated” he says and sees the look of jubilation on his younger face and the shock on Lydia’s as well as several others.

“You drove me to college when we left town after graduation. We kissed, really kissed, when I escaped from the Hunt. We dated for about a week before we left on our cross country road trip. By the time we hit Ohio we were broken up” he said with a sigh.

“WHAT?! NO!” his younger self wails and Scott tries to put a reassuring hand on him. “Why?” he demands. Lydia refrains from saying anything.

“I love Lydia, always have, always will. But I was never ‘in love’, it was just fantasy…infatuation. We were way better as best friends. It wasn’t bad. I started seeing someone seriously right around New Year’s during freshman year and we ended up being really serious. Even talked about getting married” he says sadly.

“Oh...okay, I guess that’s good too. Who?” his younger self asks.

The man looks suddenly broken and the smile slides off his face. He turns away for a bit before he comes back to the silently waiting group. “When I returned from college, the pack was all here again and things were good for a couple of months, but then a team of Hunters showed up. They didn’t follow the Code and didn’t care about anything other than killing. They felt the McCall Pack was getting too famous and was too much of an inspiration for ‘other dogs’ so they decided that to put everyone in their place and remind them that Hunters were the power, they decided to come and wipe us out. They killed Liam and Mason without warning and Mason was human. It was bad but we fought back. Killed a few of them but then…they decided to up the ante.” He pauses as he looks at Alan and sighs. “They felt that as a Druid, you were biased in the pack's favor. They blew up the vet clinic with explosives, killing you, your new assistant, a half dozen customers, and all of the animals. Did it in the middle of the day.”

Alan looks stunned and he can’t help but glance at Chris who is shaking his head at this, trying to deny it. Scott lets out a slight growl and Noah and Melissa both look at the calm vet with sympathetic eyes. “Needless to say, things went south pretty fast after that. Scott was furious and any mercy he had pretty much was gone. We managed to track them down, being FBI trained was definitely a help, and we attacked them. Wiped out the entire team though we lost Malia in the fight” the man looks particularly pained at that loss.

“We thought that was it, but it wasn’t. It turned out that the team was actually made up of some of the younger members of the more prominent Hunting families who had gone rogue but the Hunter’s Council was furious over the death of their kids. They gathered and declared that our Pack was too dangerous and ordered all Hunters to attack and kill any affiliated with the McCall pack” he said, the anger fresh in his voice.

“No. This can’t be. The Council wouldn’t do that” Chris said desperately.

The elder Stiles looked at the man with pain written clearly on his face. “The leader of the team that attacked us was Marcus Scheoenberg” he says and sees Chris groan and Victoria look sick. “Since the leader of the Council lost her grandson, she kind of went crazy blaming everyone but him. You” he looks at Chris “were there, but ultimately you voted to approve the kill order.” Chris pales again and looks sick.

“They killed Danny in Honolulu. He hadn’t been around us in years but it didn’t matter to the Hunters. A team attacked the Hospital. Scott showed up and found Melissa among the dead and went feral. Killed nearly two dozen of them before he was cut down and killed by you Chris." Melissa looks furious while Allison stares at her father in disbelief. Chris looks like his is going to be sick. "Another team attacked the police station but while they failed to kill Jordan, they did kill my dad” his voice broke as he repeats the facts. The sheriff looks at the younger Stiles and he sees the fear and terror written on his son’s face.

“Lydia was still screaming for Scott when a team of hunters killed her and Jackson in Boston” he adds and sees the redhead pale. “They also killed Ms. Martin…just because” he says without any real emotion. Lydia starts crying and Allison pulls her into a hug.

“Derek…he, he almost went feral with the losses but I was able to keep him focused long enough and we laid a trap. Chris led a team of Hunters that thought they were going to trap us but it wasn’t their trap we walked into, it was ours. My explosives killed nearly thirty hunters with the first blast. Derek got another dozen including you” he looks at Chris, “ripped your head off your body. You didn’t seem to be surprised” he adds off-handedly as Allison looks at her father and whimpers. “Derek and I were all that was left of the pack and we tried to run but it seemed like there was an endless supply of Hunters to come after us. We made it to just outside of Seattle when we were attacked. We fought for a while, but they had us cornered and Derek…he was hit by so much Wolfsbane…it finally overwhelmed him. I had been learning real magic for a few years and when I saw him go down, I just lost it and in my rage, I ripped them apart with my magic. I exploded with fire and disintegrated all of them. I held Derek in my arms as he died, in agony, and I couldn’t stop it.”

“Stiles” Noah’s voice is broken and he sees that most of the people around the room have tears on their faces.

“Derek and I had been together for nearly five years” he says without emotion and he sees his younger self and Derek both look shocked. “I loved him so much” his voice sounds raw “and it was too much. Losing everyone and finally Derek, I just snapped. I think that’s when I went insane. I made Peter look like the poster child for mental health.”

“What…what did you do?” Derek croaked looking at the man with an expression of absolute despair knowing he had lost everyone, once again, to Hunters.

The elder Stiles looked confused for a moment by the question but then he smiled. “I killed them” he says simply.

“Killed who?” Scott asks.

“The Hunters” the man replies looking at the teen like it should have been obvious.

“You said that” Lydia says shaking her head. “With your magic. What did you do after that?” she clarifies.

The man frowns. “You misunderstand. I killed the Hunters. All of them. Every Hunter connected to the Council” his voice and heartbeat never waivers.

Chris and Victoria both almost pass out. “Stiles…you can’t mean that. There are the nine major Hunter families around the world, but they also have allies. There are thousands of Hunters” he trails off as he looks into the eyes of madness and he looks sick. “You killed all of them?”

The man looks at the Hunter in disappointment. “They killed us. I killed them. From the eldest to the youngest. Hunters in wheelchairs and nursing homes down to the cradle. Argents, Calaveras, Scheoenbergs, Mattias, Tisdales, Wens, Van Doorsts, Richardsons, and Kouri. I hunted down every family that supported the Council in any way and I exterminated them and every one of their allies. Took me three years but I finally got every last one” he said hollowly.

Chris was horrified, as were several others, not just by the depictions of death, but by the man’s unemotional recitation of the events. “Stiles…how many innocents…” Melissa whispers but the man laughs harshly at that.

“Innocents? There are no innocent Hunters. Baby hunters grow up to become killers like their parents before them. You want to wipe something out, you kill everything” he snarls, his eyes blazing with madness.

“There must have been over five thousand family members” Victoria whispers and looks at the man who only blinks at her and looks thoughtful.

“Around that” he confirms and sees the shock and dismay on their faces at his casual confirmation.

“No” his younger self says finally. “I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t go dark side like that” he protests weakly.

His older self looks at him with a pitying expression. “It got easier after I wiped out the first couple hundred Hunters. Word got out that I had declared war on the Hunters. There were so many wolves, omegas and even entire packs, who had been treated cruelly by Hunters and now they flocked to me. Not to mention all of the other supernaturals that had been persecuted over the centuries by Hunters. Witches, Vampires, Fae, Selkies, they came to me every day. By the time I was finally done, I had an army of over a thousand fighters operating on five continents” he says proudly. “And then, sooner than I ever expected, it was suddenly over. My army left and I was there, alone. My friends and family dead. My enemies gone. It was…empty…meaningless” he looks up and they see the exhaustion on his face. He puts a book on the table. “This is my Grimoire and it is for you” he says looking at his younger self. “There are more details in there, how to rescue Jackson once Peter is restored, and how to avoid…everything, hopefully” he says looking so, so tired. “Maybe you can change things so the future can be better.”

The elder Stiles turns to Chris and Victoria. “You have a choice to make. Hunters were supposed to have a purpose. They exist to protect the innocent. But when they become as monstrous as those they fight, then they are no different, just another kind of monster. The families have become cruel and corrupt and they on a course of destruction. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been another. It’s not just Hunters that are learning to use technology. We are too and if it finally comes to all out war, you will ultimately lose” he says simply.

He looks around at the others and then calls Jackson to his side. “I give you to your new master. Serve him” he instructs and the Kanima stands up and starts shifting and several seconds later Jackson Whitmore is standing there looking confused. He looks at the elder Stiles but then moves over to the Sheriff and puts his hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Stiles?” Noah asks surprised at the gesture.

“You are the best choice. You won’t use or abuse your power over him until he is freed.” The man looks at the younger people in the room. “You are divided and because of that, you are vulnerable and you will ultimately fall. If you can unite, truly become a pack and draw on the wisdom of these elders, then you can be a force to be reckoned with, one that will keep people safe; human people and non-human people. The choice is yours” he says with a yawn as his eyes start to droop. He drops into a chair and seems to lose all color.

“Mr. Stilinski?” Alan’s voice is soft but it doesn’t seem that he hears as the man’s head droops and then they watch in amazement as he slowly fades away like mist in the sunlight and then he is gone.

“Stiles!” the sheriff yells and jumps up, staring at the now empty chair. “Where did he go?” he demands.

“I believe that he has changed too much” Alan explains gently. “What he told us, killing Gerard and Kate, stopping Jackson, all of it is rippling out and erasing the future he came from. His history isn’t there anymore so he doesn’t exist” he says simply.

Stiles stands up and walks to the book his older self left behind and he runs his fingers on it and feels a tingle that makes him feel something wonderful. “So…” the teen stops for a moment and takes a deep breath before looking at Derek. “Derek” he says sounding nervous but determined. Derek looks up in surprise. “On behalf of myself, and my father, I formally request to be accepted as human members of your pack.”

Derek looks stunned, almost as stunned at Scott who looks hurt and betrayed. "I'm sorry Scott. Maybe this isn't what you want, but I have to decide for myself and my dad this time. I hope you can understand" Stiles says looking at Scott.

The alpha turns to the sheriff with a look of uncertainty but the man is staring proudly at his son. “I trust your judgement. Stiles speaks for us” he says simply when he looks at the Alpha.

Derek swallows and steps up to Stiles and nods. “Yes” he says simply.

Stiles smiles and nods but then frowns. "Don't think this means I will be a meek and obedient Beta" he says with a scowl. Surprisingly, Derek only chuckles.

“I can’t speak for Jackson, but I would like to be Pack as well” Lydia says carefully and smiles when Allison looks at her in surprise. “If I am a Banshee, I think I might like to be with people who can help me understand that. Besides, I think Stiles' book is going to be important to us and I am betting there is stuff in there about me and how to deal with this Peter thing.” Derek doesn't immediately respond but looks thoughtful and nods at Lydia.

“Scott?” Stiles says gently. “I guess you don’t need Derek if you can become an Alpha all on your own, but maybe...maybe if you are there, he will be a better Alpha. Not to mention he would have both my dad and your mom to keep him in line” he suggests tentatively and the teen looks conflicted before turning to his mother.

Melissa looks tired and worn out from the night's revelations but she stiffens her shoulders. “I didn’t like that future Scott. If Derek is willing to try, and we can make it better for everyone, then I say we give him the chance” she tells her son and he looks back at Allison who doesn’t say anything, just stares back, and he takes a deep breath and Stiles can see the shift in his demeanor.

“My mom and I would like to join” he pauses for a moment “but only if you will accept the Argents too. If they want” he adds quickly looking at Allison and her parents.

“Scott…” Chris says guardedly but Allison cuts him off.

“I won’t speak for my parents Derek, but I want to be pack. Maybe if people know that Hunters are part of the pack, then they will think differently about us” she says sounding determined.

Victoria and Chris both look conflicted. “I’m not sure Allison” Victoria finally says. “I have believed in what we do my whole life. I am not sure I can change now” she lets out a heavy sigh. “But whatever your father and I decide, we will support you if you want to join the pack.” Allison’s eyes widen and she rushes to hug her parents.

Scott looks at the Alpha with questioning eyes. “Well?” he finally asks.

Derek looks around the room, at the faces all staring at him and for the first time he doesn’t feel threatened or in danger. “Allison, Scott, Melissa, Lydia…welcome to the Pack. Chris, Victoria…if you decide later, you will be welcome but hopefully we can be allies until then. I am going to need help, from all of you” he says looking around at everyone. “I lost my entire pack once. I don’t want that to happen again either.”

"Doc" Stiles says cautiously as the vet looks up, still uncomfortable with everything. "He said I can learn magic...real magic. Can you teach me or help me with that?" he asks.

Alan takes a moment and glances at the book. The older Stiles' tale still makes him ill. The Nemeton...the nogitsune...everything. He looks up at the young man and realizes that keeping him out of this is impossible now. But maybe he can help the boy become a force for good. He nods. "I can get you started and then we will see what will work best for you" he tells the young man.

Stiles looks around at the faces, drawn with the emotional ups and downs of the evening and everything and feels a shift. There is something different among them and if it was enough to erase his future self, it's up to them to make that future better. “And so the new Hale Pack is born” Stiles says softly and he sees the red flash of Derek's eyes.

Chapter Text

Peter smiles as he looks down at his nephew and the confused Martin girl. He cracks his neck as he brushes the dirt and ash of his grave off after pulling himself out of the hole in the floor of the burned out Hale house. “Why Derek, you look surprised to see me” Peter smirks at Derek lying on floor when Derek suddenly smiles and the shocked expression disappears from his face.

“Because you used Lydia to bring you back? The wolfsbane spiked punch to create an emotional storm? No, we knew exactly what you were doing” Derek says easily.

Peter’s suddenly looks doubtful but his nephew's casual attitude is all wrong. The boy should be stunned or even afraid, but he seems...bored. “No…you couldn’t have known what I was doing. If you did you would have…” he stops when he hears the snap of something breaking behind him and he spins around and steps back in shock.

“Remember us?” Stiles says with a smile as he holds up one of the Molotov cocktails. He is surrounded by four betas, including the McCall boy, eyes shining gold and claws out. But Peter can neither smell them or hear their heartbeats, as if they have been shielded from his senses. While the blonde boy and girl don't worry him, he knows that McCall is fairly skilled and the larger boy looks worrisome. The human is smirking at Peter like he is daring him to try something. Just as Peter is about to respond he hears movement from the other room.

“I bet he does, I bet he remembers everything” Allison says in a harsh tone as she steps in from the other room and Peter spins to see her standing there, bow drawn back with a shining silver arrow pointing right at Peter's heart and he can smell the wolfsbane on it. The girl's mother and father are both standing beside her, with their guns pointing at Peter. Add in the surprising fact that the Sheriff is standing beside Chris with his shotgun aimed at Peter and he suddenly feels like he is missing a very big piece of a puzzle.

"Do you think he knows that we knew exactly what was going to happen tonight and were ready for him?” Derek asks with a hint of superiority just as Peter raises his hands slowly in surrender. Hunters, betas, and the human law? No, he did not think even he could manage to survive that fight in his current condition.

“Back up Peter” Stiles says and when Peter looks at the teen with disdain, and then Stiles holds up a water gun and aims it at the man. “That is unless you want to drink essence of Wolfsbane” he asks with a smirk and Peter steps back involuntarily at the thought of that touching him. Boyd and Isaac both move to help Lydia stand and once she is away, Derek tosses a bag to Peter, filled with the man’s own clothes. He quickly pulls on a pair of pants and a shirt.

“How did you do this?” Peter asks his nephew, a hint of admiration in his voice. His nephew isn't this good, not even Talia could have predicted that Peter would have been able to accomplish this.

Derek smiles and his eyes flash red. “I’m the Alpha. And this is my pack” he says and the other wolves flash their eyes while the humans, all save Chris and Victoria wave.

Peter flashes his blue eyes at Derek. “You let her into your Pack!” he roars glaring at Allison.

“At least when she kills someone they stay dead, unlike your lame ass” Stiles says and Peter spins to glare at him. “Kate? You didn’t kill her you jackass, you turned her.”

Peter’s face goes blank for a second before he roars in fury. “Where is she? I will kill her again!" he demands.

“She's Dead. Once and for all. Gerard Argent as well” Derek tells his uncle and doesn't hide the satisfaction at Peter's stunned reaction to that bit of news.

Peter looks at Derek in shock before glancing at Chris, Victoria, and the Sheriff. “You seemed to have missed a few Argents” he tells his nephew. Scott growls at him trying to be threatening and Peter rolls his eyes at the beta's display. Truth be told, he didn't have a shred of evidence tying either of these three to his family's death, unlike Kate and Gerard. He would have killed them just for cause of course, but they were not actually on his list. If they had run, he wouldn't have particularly cared.

“Allison is innocent of any crimes against any werewolf. Kate and Gerard have both paid for theirs. Chris and Victoria have agreed to keep firmly to the Code” Derek says simply. “My mother even acknowledged that there needed to be something to protect ordinary humans from those wolves that go bad.”

Peter stares at his nephew carefully. Trying to determine the end game. Finally he asks “so, now what?” he asks casually.

“We need your help. With a Kanima” Stiles answers. “Your laptop has information that can help us cure him.”

“There is no cure for a Kanima. I don’t think” he says suddenly looking thoughtful. “Actually...there may be...wait...how do you know about my laptop?” he asks the teen.

“Not important” Derek replies. “We need it and you are going to not only share everything on it, but you are going to do everything in you ability to help us cure it" Derek said firmly.

"Ah, no. I don't think so. I don't particularly care about your little pack or it's problems Derek. You may outnumber me at the moment, but you don't have anything I want" Peter says with a smirk and a shrug.

Derek looks over at Stiles who smiles and nods. "Then you are not interested to learn that my mother removed certain memories from you that you might want back.”

Peter looked at Derek with an expectant look. "What memories?" Peter says carefully. Derek's heartbeat never waivered and while Peter can lie even to a werewolf, he knows that his nephew has neither the temperament or skill to do so.

“You have a daughter” Derek says with a slightly less angry look. "Apparently there were issues and my mother felt it necessary to seperate her from the family so she was sent...eleswhere. You help us, we will help you" Derek says simply.

Peter looks stunned but he knows Derek can’t lie. Not to Peter. He has a daughter? A daughter who was not only taken from him but all of his memories as well? The only way that would be possible if it was at or before the child's birth otherwise there would be too many memories to be successful, even to an Alpha of Talia's skill. He glances around and realizes that the entire pack knows about this. He has to know!

“So, what’s it going to be Peter” Stiles asks with a smile. “Do you want to help out or maybe you would like us to put you back in the hole?”

Peter looks at the teen and frowns as he finally notices the body language of the pack. The human boy is not only a member, he is highly respected. This should be interesting.

"Well...it seems that I have no choice. Luckily my laptop is here" he says with a smarmy smile and heads towards the stairs.

With Peter’s assistance, the Pack learns a great deal about the Kanima and its nature and Peter is rather stunned to learn that a teenager was the first master before discovering that the Sheriff is actually the current one. He also learns that the Kanima was in the house the night he returned and at a signal, the abomination would have paralyzed him in seconds. He would not have managed to kill even a single one of them before he was taken down. His nephew, or that blasted boy, had made sure that Peter would cooperate. Once they have the information, the pack is able to free Jackson from the curse of the Kanima with significantly less drama that the other timeline did. There was no death on the field where people could see, no kidnapping and restraining order, and Jackson’s parents barely even noticed anything going on so he wasn't shipped off to London. Lydia was again the key in breaking the spell and allowing Jackson to turn fully into a werewolf once he truly believed he was loved. Lydia shared with him everything they learned about that other timeline, all the people he would have killed and the fallout. She also told him how he died and that really got to him.

About a week after he was cured, Jackson came to speak with Derek and then began training with the pack officially. He formally joined a few days later after Lydia had told him to stop being an idiot as she was joining with or without him. He had gotten stubborn but he didn’t know that she had been working with Stiles and Deaton and she unleashed a scream that sent him flying across the yard to crash into the ground. Everyone was stunned but Lydia was standing there looking fierce and proud. Somehow seeing her do that had made Jackson love her even more and they ended up getting back together and he calmed down immensely. He was still an ass though.

Chapter Text

Lydia sits down across from the guidance counselor considerably more relaxed than she has been during her previous visits. “So how are you feeling today?” Ms. Morrell asks with her professionally crafted smile that’s meant to relax and comfort her clients.

“Oh much better” Lydia says with a smile and toss of her hair. “I mean I admit that things were really hairy there for a while, but everything is much better now.”

“That’s good” Marin says calmly. “What happened to make everything so much better” she asks in a soothing voice.

“Oh lots of things” Lydia answers easily. “I mean after dealing with the attack at the dance, I had so many questions but my friends finally answered those and once we did that, the rest? Well the rest just fell into place now that I know what I know, I am a lot better. I wouldn’t say happier, because between us, I am really angry. But it’s better than thinking that you are going crazy” she shrugs vapidly.

Marin Morrell has worked with many students and she saw the trauma that Lydia had been hiding during their last appointments, but something had fundamentally changed. She was confident and sure in herself, much more than before. “You thought you were going crazy, but now you’re not?” she prompts.

“Well sure. I mean I didn’t have all the facts and I really hate that” Lydia confides to her. “But now that I know all about werewolves, kanimas, druids, emissaries, and all that stuff, well let’s just say it clears up a lot of things.

Marin’s face goes blank at Lydia’s words but she notes that the girl’s eyes have laser-focused onto Marin and there is a flash of anger and controlled fury. “That must be disconcerting” she says instead.

“Disconcerting?” Lydia shakes her head. “No. Disconcerting is when an Emissary for a foreign pack enters another pack’s territory without announcing themselves or following any of the proper protocols. Disconcerting is when said Emissary gets a job to spy on, and report back, on the members of said pack in preparation for an act of war.” Lydia leans forward “Such a thing is how emissaries get killed and their heads stuck on a post on the edge of town as a warning to the encroaching pack” her voice is toneless and icy.

Marin’s eyebrows go up and she leans back. “That is a very graphic description Lydia. Do you often think about such things?” she asks calmly.

Lydia smiles at the woman. “You know, I would have expected better from Deaton’s sister” she says and sees the flicker of surprise from the woman. “Oh yes, we know you are his sister. Just as we know that you are here on Deucalion’s orders. Him and his little band of sociopaths” she adds and Marin’s nostrils flare at the man’s name.

“I see” she says simply.

“Really? Why on Earth would you align yourself with such a pack of defectives? I mean Kali and Ennis? You must really have low self-esteem to think that either of them represent the best that werewolves have to offer” Lydia says looking completely disappointed in the woman.

“I assume that you are here for more than our regular appointment?” Marin asks the girl and sees her smile in acknowledgement.

“Yes. A couple of things. We voted about what to do with you and ultimately the ‘let you live to deliver a message’ got more votes than ‘kill her and ship the pieces to the dogs’. So I guess you are useful after all” Lydia smiles happily.

“I am glad to hear that” Marin replies carefully. “I suppose I should say thank you?”

“Oh don’t bother” Lydia waves it away. “I voted to kill you.” Marin startles a bit at that. “After what we learned about what your band of merry murderers have been doing, I was actually surprised that it came down the way it did.” She shrugs as if she doesn’t get why it happened. “Anyways, the message. You will tell Deucalion that Derek will meet him and the twins, if he feels he needs back up, in one week’s time. Your brother will give you the location that day. They will chat, Alpha to Alpha, then Duke’s little pack will leave California, never to return under penalty of death. Oh…and Kali and Ennis? Leave them at home. She is a crazy bitch and he killed a friend of the Hales which means if he steps foot in our territory, he dies.”

“Our territory?” Marin asks hearing the possessiveness in the girl’s voice.

“I think you would be surprised at our pack” Lydia smiles as she stands up. “Make sure he understands something very carefully Ms. Morrell” she pauses and waits for the woman’s signal to proceed. “Everything you may have thought you know about us is wrong. Come here and they will die. No hiding their scents or running around painting symbols on doors will be enough to save them.”

Lydia turns and leaves the room leaving behind one very surprised and confused druid. She picks up the phone and dials waiting for a reply. “Marin” the cool voice on the other end answers.

“Alan. I had a very interesting conversation just now” she begins but her brother cuts her off.

“Ms. Martin delivered the Hale Pack’s message. I would advise you to take it to heart. Your presence and interactions with members of the Hale pack was not taken very well” her brother’s voice carries a wealth of information. She knows that the pack is much better informed than she had any idea.

After hanging up with her less than informative brother, Marin called Deucalion who ordered her to meet them several towns over and she left Beacon Hills shortly after.

Marin walked into the room of the house that Deucalion had taken as his base of operations to observe and plan their moves on the Hale pack. She glanced at the man sitting there, hands resting on the cane in front of him. Kali and Ennis were off to one side, not exactly whispering but obviously not really including the others in their conversation. The twins were looking bored but she could see the tension and wariness that never truly left them around the others.

“Marin” Deucalion said with a smile “you said you had some information for me about Hale and his pack of teenage rejects?” His sneer was clear on his face and she heard the snort of derision coming from the she-wolf on the other side of the room.

“Yes. I was contacted by a member of his pack and asked to deliver a message to you” she said calmly but saw the appearance of surprise and tension in the wolves at her statement.

“And how did they know about you?” Deucalion asked deceptively calm but she could detect the anger that he was controlling.

“I honestly don’t know. I was told that they knew about me, that Alan is my brother, and that I was serving as your Emissary. Mentioned you by name” she adds. “Apparently they debated whether to send me with a message or simply leave my head on a post at the edge of town” she added without emotion.

Deucalion was a master of control. He didn’t allow others to prod or drive him, he felt that emotional displays were a sign of weakness but Marin could see the sudden flare of outrage that here words caused. “What is the pup’s message?” he finally asks in a dangerous tone.

“He will meet you in one week at a time and place that Alan will notify me about. You are not to step foot in his territory until then. He also said that you may bring the twins if you are worried for your safety” she adds being careful not to smile at the man’s reaction to that bit. “He said to leave Kali at home and that Ennis” and she paused to look at the large Alpha. “Ennis was responsible for the death of a Hale pack friend and his life is forfeit if he steps foot in Beacon Hills. I was also told that after the meeting, he expects you, and your pack to, leave California, never to return” she finishes with a nod.

Deucalion leans back and is concerned though he doesn’t show it. Kali and Ennis start ranting and raving about Hale and his pack and how they will punish him. She looks over at the twins and Aiden looks as annoyed as Kali and Ennis, but Ethan looks worried. “How did he know who we are?” Ethan finally asks and Marin sees the shocked expressions on the faces of the other Alphas, save Deucalion who had already spotted that.

“I don't know, but he did. By name” Marin answers the teen but she never takes her eyes off of the leader of this pack. “I was also told that everything we think we believe about their pack is wrong and that if you threaten them, they will wipe you out.” Marin moves to sit down, a clear indication that she has delivered her message.

They argue for a bit but Deucalion is intrigued. No one has managed to do that in a very long time and he wonders how that stupid boy managed it. The Argents had wiped out the Hale Pack, it was too obviously their handiwork even if it had been declared an accident, he knew that Talia Hale wouldn’t die like that. The prestige of having the boy in his pack would be a huge step to making his pack the law over all others on the continent. He would go to this meeting and see for himself what the boy was made of.

Deucalion walked into the warehouse, noting the rather large hole in the wall but focusing instead on the scene before him. He had brought the twins with him as offered but he had also brought Kali and Ennis. However they were outside the building, close enough to respond quickly when he called but able to stay hidden from the pup’s pack. Hale was standing there, leaning against a crate with a young beta to one side and a human on the other. He didn’t see anyone else besides Marin. The fool came with one beta against three Alphas?

“Derek. So good to see you” Deucalion said, voice smooth as silk and a pleasant smile on his face. “I am impressed you have even heard of me.”

Derek glares and doesn’t respond, nor does the beta. It’s the human who actually answers. “We know all about you and your Alpha Pack. All about thing one and thing two and their Frankenstein wolf baddy. We aren’t impressed. You are not welcome in our territory” Stiles says curtly.

Ethan and Aiden both growl and the boy laughs. “That’s going to be a problem I think” Deucalion says with a smirk “as I have business here. I find I like it” he says with an absent look around.

Stiles glances over at Derek who in a single motion, reaches behind him and grabs a bag and tosses it at Deucalion where it lands and the grisly head of Gerard Argent rolls out ending up face up, staring at the Alpha with unseeing eyes. Both of the twins jump back in shock and disgust but Deucalion only sniffs and gets a look of distaste on his face. “You think a rotting head concerns me?” he asks Hale.

“It’s Gerard Argent’s” Derek growls out and Stiles smiles at the look of shock and disbelief on the Alpha’s face. He suddenly shifts, his red eyes blazing at he looks at the hideous sight and everyone tenses at the sudden roar he lets out, even the twins.

“You killed him?” Deucalion demands in disbelief looking at Derek.

Derek smiles. “I didn’t” he says with a smile. He looks at both of the teens standing next to him before looking back at Deucalion “my pack did. He attacked my pack and paid the price. You might want to seriously consider that fact” Derek adds, his voice dangerous.

Deucalion narrows his eyes for a minute before he suddenly laughs. “Boy, you don’t know what you have done. Killing Argent? You will unleash a plague of Hunters on this place and your pack. You won’t last the year” he dismisses.

The beta smiles and his eyes flash golden but Deucalion sees something there, some glimmer of potential. “Really? His granddaughter is in our pack and his son and his wife are both our allies” Scott says with a smirk.

Deucalion hides his reaction to that news. The boy’s heart was steady the entire time, he wasn’t lying. Hale had not only killed Gerard Argent, he had managed to get the man’s son and family as his allies?! It should not have been possible. Kate Argent had killed the Hales, there is no way that the boy should ever have trusted that family. He glances at the two teens and sees it, they are Hale’s link to the hunters. “You think you can trust them? Trust an Argent not to betray you?” Deucalion asks Derek.

“Just because Gerard killed his own men to justify attacking you, doesn’t mean Chris, Victoria, or Allison are like him” Stiles says easily. “They follow the code, as do we. We don’t allow killing or attacks in our territories.”

Deucalion glares at the boy but he too is calm and too relaxed. As the only human in a room full of wolves, he should be scared mindless or at least nervous. Focusing on the teen he feels it when he presses and shifting his eyes he spots the black line surrounding the teen. He is in a mountain ash circle! The little shit! He can’t contain the growl that escapes him nor does he notice the smirk on the teen’s face when he does as if he knows exactly why the older man is growling.

“You have had your meeting. Will you leave?” Derek asks impatiently.

Deucalion pretends to think about it. “No, I don’t think so. Boys?” he says and one of the twins drops down and the other jams his hand in his back and in seconds there is one monstrous Alpha standing there. “I think we will teach you a lesson. Your pet can watch from his little circle.”

At that point a howl sounds from outside the warehouse, Erica’s howl and Derek suddenly gets a big smile on his face. Erica's howl was the signal he was waiting for. “Looks like you are down one Alpha” he says looking at Deucalion who frowns just as the door bursts open and Kali comes in, two arrows sticking in her back as she roars at them.

“They killed Ennis!” she screams and Deucalion whips around to stare at Derek.

“I warned you his life was forfeit if he came here” Derek replied unconcerned. "Take what’s left of your pack and leave Deucalion. Stay and you will die.” Derek looks over at the monstrous joined Alpha. “Ethan and Aide, I offer you sanctuary here in Beacon Hills. Renounce the Alpha Pack and agree to submit and you can start over with a real pack and have a normal life. We are not like your old pack. Every member of our pack, from the strongest to the weakest, is valued and cared for because they are pack. You don’t have to be like them” he says looking at Deucalion and Kali.

Kali growls but then the doors behind Derek rolls up and standing there are Chris and Victoria, both armed to the teeth while Jackson, Boyd, and Lydia are standing around them. Deucalion looks at the Argents in shock. Even though he knew they didn’t lie, he didn’t believe that Hale would allow armed hunters at his back!

“Perhaps we should leave for a bit” Deucalion starts but Stiles barks out a laugh and the man glares at the teen.

“You will get the fuck out of California, heck let’s just say the entire west coast while we are at it” Stiles demands.

Deucalion growls as Kali’s eyes shift and Derek can tell she is getting ready to make a move. “You might want to start running Kali. You didn’t manage to actually kill Julia when you ripped into her. I heard she pretty much plans to return the favor to both you and Deucalion” Derek says and enjoys the look of stunned amazement on the woman’s face.

“She’s dead” Kali whispers, most of her confidence gone.

“Actually, she is a Darach now and has dedicated herself to wiping you out” Stiles adds with a helpful smile that causes Derek to take a bracing sigh. “Seems she wants to use both of you as werewolf sacrifices. You know, tie you down before she carves you into little pieces, like you did to her K” Stiles smirks and sees the she wolf look sick.

“If she is a Darach, then we all need to put aside our differences” Deucalion starts to say be Derek’s snort cuts him off.

“If she comes here, she dies. Just like you” Derek growls out without the trace of a waver. “The Argent-Hale Alliance protects all those in our territory that keep the peace.”

Chris and Victoria both smile at that and the twins, separated once again, see the predatory nature of those two. Hunters and pack together? It is unprecedented. “You offered asylum?” Ethan asks and Aiden looks at his twin in shock. Kali growls and Deucalion frowns at the twins. Ethan turns toward his twin “I don’t like living like this. I want a real pack” he says simply.

Aiden looks over at Deucalion before looking at Derek. “How can we trust you?” he asks the Alpha simply.

Derek looks over at a brunette human with a bow in her hands, arrow notched, and nods. “I am Allison Argent, member of the Hale Pack” she says without a tremor. “This is a good pack. Healthy, disciplined, and united. All members support each other and keep our territory safe. You will have to prove yourselves, but if you do, you will be welcome” she says simply.

The twins sees the agreement in the rest of the pack’s eyes. Ethan and Aiden look at each other for a few moments before turning to Deucalion. “We’re staying” Ethan states and Deucalion’s eyes narrow. Kali roars and lunges at the twins, claws out.

The hail of gunfire from Chris and Victoria rips into the Alpha and sends her into the wall, the stench of wolfsbane heavy in the air as the she-wolf slides to the ground, black blood pouring out of her wounds. The twins, startled by her attack, look over and see that except for the Argents, the rest of the pack is simply standing there watching. “You will leave” Derek said to Deucalion who looks at the Hale Alpha who just wiped out his pack and growls but he knows that today is not the day to fight and he leaves.

The rest of the pack cleans up, with Chris handling the disposal of Kali and Ennis's bodies. Derek walks over to the twins who are both standing there nervously. “I think you made the right choice, but even if you decide not to stay with us, being free from those three is good” Derek tells them.

The rest of the pack begins introductions with Scott and Isaac asking them how they do that merge thing and the rest of the pack tries to feel out their new guests. Stiles sees Derek step back a bit to stand alone and glare and so he moves over to stand beside him. “This was a victory, don’t be such a sourwolf” Stiles says in a teasing tone. “We took care of Kali and Ennis and turned the twins, that means Erica and Boyd’s future has changed” he reminds the Alpha.

Derek glances at the teen and nods slowly but Stiles can sense the tension is still there. “I was going to tell you before, but I figured I would wait until after this whole thing, but I got a message from the Giancarlo Pack in Argentina just a few hours ago. Cora has been notified and is coming to see us” Stiles says gently.

Derek spins around to look at Stiles with a hopeful expression. “They had heard about the Hale Alpha so she was already planning to come. I have her flight information so you can pick her up at the airport” he adds. Derek smiles at the teen and ducks his head as he thinks about his lost sister finally coming home.

Chapter Text

Stiles stepped through his front door exhausted. Dropping his bag by his feet, he barely made it over to the sofa before collapsing with a huge sigh of relief, glad to finally be able to just sit down. The last couple of weeks had been exhausting as the pack tried to deal with all of the information in his older self’s grimoire. The biggest issue? Only Stiles could read it. Apparently his older self had cast a spell on the book so it was only understandable to him which meant he was the one reading it every night and giving the pack their marching orders. Not to mention dealing with the thoroughly annoyed Lydia Martin and Peter Hale who had both tried repeatedly to read it with no success.

So it was all up to him. Well, he told Derek who then told the pack but it was basically the same thing right? After Deucalion had taken off with his tail between his legs, the pack had been running around like crazy eliminating issues before they had a chance to blow up in their faces. His father and the Argents had taken his information about Eichen House and were cleaning that mess up. The killer orderly Brunski had been arrested and was currently awaiting trial for over a dozen murders of patients that he had killed and faked their cause of death. Victoria, and he still doesn’t want to know how, had somehow gotten appointed to be the new Director of Eichen House. Apparently the foundation that was paying for everything was falling apart but between the Hale money and the Argent name, the pack had basically taken over with Derek, Peter, Victoria, Chris, and Alan Deaton being named to the new board of directors.

Victoria had started cleaning house on day one and she was working with Derek and the Alpha of a nearby pack named Satomi to replace most of the staff with supernatural guards and other staff. The grimoire had identified a Fae, a Djinn, and three Brownies as possible allies and after reaching out, all of them agreed to assist with turning Eichen House into a real resource for imprisoning those too dangerous to let go while also trying to help those harmed by the supernatural. Apparently there were also a rather surprising number of hunters who had become disillusioned with the killing and were more than willing to try a different way.

Chris was out of the country leading a number of hunter teams that were tracking down the remnants of future Kate's adventure in Mexico. Apparently the were-jaguars had been giving the Calaveras trouble over the years without knowing how or why they were doing it and they had appreciated both Stiles’ information and Chris’ help. After Chris had directed them to blow up the temple in La Iglesia which managed to wipe out the berserker 'factory', they were very happy. Unfortunately she hadn't been the only one that they dealt with so Chris was staying to help track down the others in the area but now that their magical power source was destroyed, they would be significantly less of a threat and more like a traditional were. Hopefully Chris would be back in the next week or so and leave the rest up to the Hunters down there.

“Stiles?” the Sheriff asks cautiously as he steps out of the kitchen. “Everything okay?” his dad asks looking concerned.

“Just exhausted” Stiles wheezes. “Apparently there was a family of trolls that were going to take up residence in a cave in the Preserve in a few years so Derek decided we should make it uninhabitable now. Then we had a meeting with an Irish Water Horse, a real life Ceffyl Dŵr, in that small Lake on the other side of the Preserve. Deaton and I had to explain that he was permitted to stay but had to swear off attacking and drowning anyone or we would have to drive him off. He was pretty offended by the suggestion…turns out he is a nature blogger and don’t ask, I still don’t get how he uses a laptop” Stiles shakes his head.

The sheriff looked confused as he watched his son carefully. “What’s an Irish Water Horse doing in California?” he finally asks.

Stiles sighs. “Apparently the potato famine was just the part that normal people saw. There was a magical disaster and many of the magic creatures followed the Irish here to America and spread out” he takes a deep breath. “Then there was the meeting with the Djinn therapist at Eichen who wants to meet with the pack members to discuss a ‘dark sadness’ that seems to be hovering around us. Apparently learning of a nightmare future leaves a mark…who knew?” he snorts.

Noah narrows his eyes and moves to his chair to sit down and look at his son. “Sounds like that might be a good idea” he offers gently.

Stiles flails back against the cushions. “That’s what Deaton said and I know it probably is but Derek is resisting. The truth is that Jackson is still dealing with his issues, Lydia too. Isaac, Erica, and Boyd are all struggling dealing with nightmares where they really do die and it’s causing the whole pack to suffer. I think the only one who is not affected is actually Scott. He’s so happy that he and Allison are doing well that I am pretty sure he has forgotten most of the rest of it. Of course he might have the right idea actually” He rubs his hands over his face and through his hair which is getting way longer than it has since before his mom died. “I will work on Derek” he promises.

“Stiles, you need to rest. You can’t do everything” his father starts but stops at the tired look of determination on his son’s face.

“How did things go with you” Stiles says and Noah recognizes the pathetic attempt to change the subject.

“Good. My friend at the FBI from my army days finally got back to me after I sent him the list of names and information about the assassins that you gave me. Mark said that they have already caught two of them…Garret and Violet…and are running down the others. The mute was killed in Texas by the Rangers right after he killed a family in the panhandle. And I have Deputy Haigh under surveillance while we go through his history. If there is something there, we will find it” he promises.

“Any sign of Parrish?” Stiles asks.

“Not so far, but we are still have a while to go before he was to arrive and that’s assuming that he still comes without the tree thing” Noah reminds him. "Besides, I can't really put out an APB on him."

Stiles groans and falls over. “Oh god, that reminds me about that damn fox. Derek is supposed to get a box from his families vault so that the two of us and Deaton can go deal with the bug” Stiles moans.

“The one that possessed you?” Noah asks sharply remembering that particular story.

“Yeah. Luckily without the power from the Darach’s sacrifices, the bug is still weak and without the darkness around my heart from that trip in the ice, I am not susceptible to the thing. Deaton said that between the three of us we should no problem moving it to the box” Stiles reassured him. “Deaton said it was made of the wood from the Nemeton which will allow it to serve as a magical prison. So we put the bug in there, stick the box in a chest filled with mountain ash and bury the damn thing on consecrated ground and that asswipes going to slowly rot away until it starves to death” Stiles snarls.

“Language” Noah says half-heartedly. Hearing the full story about his son’s possession and the evil that he caused had counted for more than a few nightmares of his own and he agreed with his son’s determination even though he wasn’t keen on Stiles being anywhere near the thing. “How are your magic lessons going?”

“Argh!” Stiles wails dramatically. “Deaton is making me work with him for two hours every morning before school. Doesn’t he know that asking a teenager to get up that early is criminal? You should arrest him!” he demands of his father.

Noah raises a single eyebrow at that. “And…?” he prompts and sighs at the sudden smile on his son’s face.

“Well” Stiles drawls out and hold up his hand and a ball of purple light suddenly appears. The ball is the size of a basketball and gives off a warm, comfortable feeling. “Pretty cool huh?” he asks.

“Does it do anything?” Noah asks impressed.

“Watch this” Stiles says and flicks his hand and the ball suddenly flies over and hovers above the kitchen table and increases in brightness. Noah watches as ghostly images of himself and Stiles sitting at the table eating breakfast appear in the purple light. “The light shows the past. It shows what happened where the light shines. I can go back about twelve hours so far but Deaton thinks I should be able to go back up to three days once I build up my strength” Stiles says proudly.

“That would be incredible for police work” Noah muses and sees the devious smile on his son’s face and realizes that he had already thought of that. “So…any other potential developments of a more personal nature that you want to share with me” he asks slyly and smirks when he sees his son flinch and flail in denial.

“Dad! I told you it isn’t like that” Stiles protests and flails as he jumps up heading to the kitchen as Noah follows. “Derek isn’t…I mean I am not even interested” he says but trails off at the look of disbelief on his father’s face. “He won’t be alone around me!” he finally admits.

Noah raises another eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. Silence has always been uncomfortable for Stiles and Noah has managed to get his son to confess many times simply by waiting. “I mean I just want to talk about it…nothing has to happen” he mutters.

“Since you are not yet seventeen, nothing better happen” Noah growls and watches his son flush red and sputter.

“DAD!” his son wails and Noah just waits. Stiles looks mortified but he finally calms down enough to fall back against the counter. “I can’t think of anything else. My older self wrote a lot about them, I mean a ton about how they dated and everything. He was really in love with the guy” he mumbles and Noah looks surprised. Stiles had not admitted this before.

“Stiles…why haven’t you said anything before now?” Noah finally asks and sees the look of guilt mixed with determination cross his son’s face.

“A bunch of stuff in the book is just for me dad, from my older self. I have been sharing all the stuff that affects the pack and Beacon Hills, but that personal stuff is kinda hard to share. There just a lot there that scares me” he adds in a whisper.

Noah sees the moment his son seems to break and he has pulled him in to a tight hug before he even realizes that he has moved. Despite everything they learned, Noah knows that Stiles has been messed up knowing he went so dark and he is now certain that there is a whole lot more information about what the older Stiles did to the hunters than he admitted. And Stiles has been reading it, seeing it, seeing himself capable of acts of cruelty that he never believed himself capable of. Most people believe that they wouldn’t go bad, do things like that, even in the worst circumstances, but Stiles knows exactly how bad he could get.

“Stiles…that man, that version of you, he lived a different life. You and the pack have already changed so much that I am not sure he could ever exist. Also, you know, you understand what could happen and that makes a difference. You might think that he was you and in a way he was. However, as much as he was once you, you are not going to become him. He lived a colder, crueler life. He faced horrors we only read about and it shaped him, bit by bit. All the things he faced molded him so that when that man finally lost the last important thing in his life, he broke into something else. You…you are never going to be him and you need to know that” Noah assured his son, feeling him shake from holding back the sobs that threatened to overwhelm him.

“I…He…he killed so many people” Stiles finally stammers and Noah feels a bit of relief that he said ‘he’ and not ‘I’. “I just don’t understand” he confesses.

“Maybe you need to talk with Derek. Isn’t that what your Alpha is supposed to do? Tell him some of the stories about the two of you and let him learn more than what we heard that night” Noah advises.

Stiles pulls away looking dejected. “He’s avoiding me. He won’t even give me the chance” Stiles complains.

“And you are going to let him get away with that…why again? What do we do when we want to break a perp?” he challenges.

Stiles looks confused for a moment before a sudden look of inspiration hits his face and he looks at his father with a maniacal glee. “Oh…I got it” he says with a smirk that Noah thinks does not bode well for a certain werewolf.

Pulling out his phone, Stiles quickly dials and waits till his call is answered. “Lydia? I need your help” he says walking into the other room while Noah pulls out his hidden box of cookies. He wants to feel sorry for the boy, but he really brought this on himself. He seriously doesn’t know Stiles if he thought avoiding it entirely was going to work.

Sitting down at the table he pulls out his own notebook and looks at his notes. He and Victoria are going to be taking down several of Gerard’s hidden caches of weapons around town and moving them to different locations that only they know of in the morning. As insane as he was, that man gave them so much valuable information that it still shocks him. He pauses and looks up before yelling after his son. “Wait a minute…what vault?!”

Derek hung up the phone with a relieved sigh. Cora had finally made arrangements to come to Beacon Hills and see him and Peter. She had been completely surprised when Derek had first called and was ready to rush back but Derek, and surprisingly Peter, had convinced her to give them a few weeks to get things settled before she risked coming here. That hadn’t gone over too well with sister but luckily the Alpha of the pack she was staying at agreed and made her wait. Now she had her tickets and would arrive in three days and who knows, maybe she might even want to stay with them.

“Everything settled with your sister?” Erica asked as he walked back in the room. The blonde she-wolf was much quieter than she had been before. She had been seriously affected by their glimpse of the future. She had truly thought that becoming a werewolf was an adventure when it all started, that she was finally free from the crippling fear that her body was going to betray her. Despite Derek’s warnings, she truly felt herself invulnerable but learning how she died in that other time had nearly broken her spirit and Derek was struggling with how to help her.

“Yes. She will be here in three days” he said with a small smile. “I think you will like her. She is a lot like our older sister Laura, strong and tough. And it’s not a bad idea to add some more women to the pack” he adds and sees her narrow her eyes suspiciously like she used to.

“Yeah…well she better be tough to hang out with us” she replies finally but Derek sees the slight tremble and sits down next to her and, slowly, giving her time to object, he moves his arm until it is around her and with a final tug, he pulls her into him in a hug. Erica is stiff at first but then she melts into his embrace and Derek can feel her shaking. “I hate this. I hate feeling like such a failure” she whispers and Derek startles.

“What do you mean failure? You haven’t failed anything” he assures her.

“But I was the first. The first one to die” she whimpers and Derek finally sees it. It wasn’t that she heard that she died, they all heard that from Stiles. No it was learning that she was the first to fall that made her think she was the weakest.

Derek knows that Laura would be better at this, but ever since that night, he has been feeling different. Stronger. More Stable. Peter finally explained that with the right bonds, an Alpha has the ability to draw on the gifts of the members of the pack beyond simply increasing his strength as an Alpha. The expanded pack gave Derek more than just physical power, it gave him mental strength as well. He has what is basically an unconscious link to each member of the pack and he is able to draw from them. That’s what made his mother so impressive. She could draw from all of the Hales and now Derek can do that with his pack. And since bringing in Scott, Melissa, Lydia, Stiles, and the Sheriff, Derek has realized that his insights into people have gotten supercharged. Each of them are significantly better at this stuff than Derek was and now he can somehow draw on that.

“Do you blame Stiles for all the people his future self killed?” he finally asks the she-wolf.

Erica startles and looks at him like he is stupid. “Of course not. Stiles didn’t do all that stuff, it was that guy” she tells him with certainty.

“I think seeing that other Stiles helped all of us see him and our Stiles as two different people but we didn’t get to do that with ourselves. We only got the story so it feels more real to us but the fact is that girl, the Erica in the other life, she doesn’t exist. She ran away from the pack, she was captured and tortured by Gerard, she ran away again and got taken and abused by the Alphas. She died fighting them, but she never truly had a pack, not like you do. It’s not just you, Isaac, and Boyd anymore. You, Allison, and Lydia are all becoming friends, not to mention Stiles, Scott, and Jackson. That girl was basically an omega and the lone wolf dies. You are a strong beta in a strong pack” he tells her and feels her tighten her embrace.

They don’t talk much more but Derek knows she needs this. Needs to feel grounded in her Alpha to help her rebuild her confidence without the arrogance she once had. He has a flash of insight and thinks that having her train with Scott and Allison would be perfect. Allison will help Erica remember how powerful she is and Scott will make her feel safe.

There are still there when Boyd and Isaac finally come back from their adventure with Scott and Allison. “How’d it go?” Derek asks as they sit down.

“It was crazy” Isaac admits. “We got to that lab place Stiles told us about and set the charges with the new bombs that Lydia and the Argents developed. There is enough C4 to turn that whole place to dust and they are all rigged with frequency triggers that reset the countdowns every three minutes. If those crazy doctors do return and jam the signals like Stiles said, the bombs will go off and hopefully take them out once and for all.”

“Any sign of the Nazi wolf?” Derek asks doubtfully but they all just shake their heads. “Worth a shot” he mutters and smiles when he sees Boyd’s smirk. “Boyd, why don’t you, Erica and Isaac run the borders. A run in the woods will do all of you some good.”

Isaac groans, as does Erica, but Boyd is already up and pulls both betas with him and in a few moments they are out the door and heading for the sun. Derek smiles and looks back down at his never ending to do list when the phone rings. Looking down he sees Lydia’s name and answers quickly. “Yes” he says abruptly.

“Stiles found something in the book he wants us to see. Peter and I are on our way and will meet the two of you there” she says and hangs up and Derek sighs. He knows he should stop avoiding Stiles but he doesn’t know how he is supposed to handle the sixteen year old version of the man he was supposedly in love with enough to marry. Derek wasn’t hung up on the gay thing, wolves really didn’t worry about that, but he never even considered skinny defenseless Stiles as an option. Now he had to and it was more than a little uncomfortable. That and the fact that he was only a year or so older than Derek was when he…no!. He isn't like her! As long as they were only together in the group, he wouldn’t have to deal with the spastic teen.

Allison and Scott exit her mother’s office in Eichen House, ready to get out of the place that still gives her the creeps. She hopes that with the changes her mother is instituting, many of the things Stiles told them will be changed because this place seems to be the source of so many problems. They have managed to deal with Valack by giving him to the Fae Court who were more than happy to take him off their hands despite the man’s screams. His experiments on the supernatural and himself were too extreme for anyone here to handle.

“Do you think it will work?” Scott asks breaking her train of thought as she turns and smiles at his concerned expression.

“I think so” she says firmly. “Mother is pretty determined and Derek and Peter have promised to provide the funding needed. Building a surgical suite inside the facility will avoid taking dangerous people to the local hospital. Besides, Deaton has already dealt with William Barrow so we won’t have to deal with him and his escape” she reminds him.

“Oh that reminds me. My dad called my mom last night. Apparently the FBI got an anonymous tip about a certain assassin who apparently uses toxic chemicals to poison his victims and he was the one to make the bust. Apparently it’s a pretty big deal” Scott says looking conflicted.

Allison smiles. She hadn’t been too keen on telling Danny about everything but it had turned out surprisingly well. Stiles had said they needed his computer wizardry and she had to admit that both Lydia and especially Jackson were much happier with Danny in the know. He had taken it pretty well, apparently certain pack members were not quite as subtle as they thought in school and Danny had already figured most of it out. He had helped tracking down a number of their targets and had sent tips to more than a few law enforcement offices about them. Stiles had suggested Agent McCall as a nice gesture, but since the man was in New York at the time they found him, Allison wondered if it was his way of keeping the man far away from Beacon Hills.

“You hungry?” Scott asks with a smirk which Allison returned. She was pretty sure that Scott’s mom was on shift so going to his house for a snack was going to be about more than food. She nodded as they got in her car and headed for the McCall household.

Stiles walked into the loft with the grimoire under his arm as he entered the apartment. He glanced around but didn’t see Derek so he guessed the guy was probably hiding upstairs until Lydia and Peter showed up. It wasn’t the first time that Stiles had tried arriving early or staying late but Derek was exceedingly difficult to pin down when he was being stubborn. But Stiles was done playing games and was determined that the Alpha was going to listen to him this time as he set the book down on Derek’s table. Pulling out his bag of mountain ash, Stiles flips open the book to the notes that he had noted a few days ago about using the ash.

Deaton had talked about creating lines and circles but his older self had learned a whole lot more about what could be done with the stuff. Closing his eyes, Stiles poured the ash into his hands and thought about what he wanted. His spark meant that he had to believe it would work and it would and like Harry Potter, he already knew that since his older self already did it that meant he could do it too. Holding the image firmly in his head, Stiles whispered “seal this place” as he flung the ash out from him in a wide arc. Opening his eyes Stiles watched the sparkling ash as it slid to the walls and rose up, so thin that it was barely visible, but he could see the pattern, like a net, spreading up the walls, over doors and windows and he when it reached the final corners the barrier snapped into place. A mountain ash barrier over the walls and ceiling of Derek’s entire loft.

Feeling immensely pleased with himself he moved to the sofa and plopped down and propped his feet on the table to wait. Lydia and Peter were not coming and with a text he let her know that he was ready for her to tell Derek. Stiles wondered what Derek would do when he got her call. Leaning back against the sofa Stiles he decided to be comfortable while he waited to see what the Alpha would do.

Lydia closed her phone with a satisfied smirk before looking up at the man sitting across from her. “You look satisfied” Peter Hale says with a smirk . “I assume you and Mr. Stilinski are finally dealing with my nephew’s issues?”

Lydia doesn’t give anything away despite the desire to put the man in his place. She wasn’t happy with being attacked, bitten, and enspelled by the former Alpha, but Stiles had shared some things that made both of them believe that the man could possibly be redeemed. Lydia had been surprised when Stiles had gathered her and Peter and shared information without telling Derek or the others. “There are some things that won’t be dealt with as simply as the others might wish. I think that if the three of us agree to take certain, shall we say, less than savory actions, then we can eliminate threats without letting the others know” Stiles had told them cautiously.

Peter had then explained how the position of Hand of the Pack existed to act when the Alpha couldn’t and that he had held that role for his sister Talia before the fire and he acknowledged that Stiles was assuming that role. The Hand acted when the Alpha couldn’t or shouldn’t. “Stiles has some new information about a potential problem and he wants our thoughts and ideas to solve it” Lydia tells him simply. She didn’t have notes or anything else, none of them were foolish enough to have any evidence that the others might find.

“And what did our dear devious boy come up with this time?” he asks happily. Peter had already eliminated one man in California, another in Oregon, and a third in Nevada who were rather notorious hunters who enjoyed the kill a bit too much. Peter had wanted to simply gut the bastards but Lydia and Stiles had insisted that it had to appear like accidents so Peter had agreed and two of them died during a ‘robbery’ while the third drove his car off a cliff due to a ‘faulty’ brake line.

“Apparently there is a counselor at the school that we need to get rid of but this one is a bit harder. She becomes an issue due to the Beast attacking and though we are trying to prevent that entirely, Stiles feels that it would be better to get her out of town without raising any suspicions” Lydia tells him.

Peter sighs. He can already tell that they are not going to simply kill the woman, no that would be too simple. “What does he suggest?” he asks tiredly.

“Danny looked her up and found that her brother and sister both live in Virginia, she came out here for something different, but he wanted us to come up with something that would make her want to move back to Virginia. He left the details up to us” Lydia says exasperated.

It takes about two hours but by the end they have a plan to get rid of Ms. Monroe without arranging a convenient ‘accident’ to remove her from the picture despite Peter's willingness. Lydia had agreed with Stiles that the woman, while not guilty of anything right now, was too dangerous to be allowed to remain where she could learn about the supernatural. Getting her out of town using positive means would take care of the problem well enough. Besides, they had agreed that unless all three of them agreed with an action, they would have to take it to Derek for a final decision and whatever Stiles read in his book about the woman and how he had finally killed her in that future time had rattled the teen enough that he didn't want to go down that road.

Derek scowled down at the phone and tried counting to ten. Lydia had called and said that she and Peter had to deal with something and that they wouldn’t be there but that Stiles could update him instead. He hadn’t gotten the chance to respond before she hung up leaving the Alpha alone in his apartment. He had heard Stiles come in but the teen hadn’t bothered calling out, he just plopped down on the sofa and was humming annoyingly. Derek was almost certain that Lydia had set this all up but she wasn’t lying when she said that they were dealing with something but that didn’t mean she was innocent either.

Deciding that this could wait, Derek grabbed his jacket and keys and headed downstairs at a determined pace. Spotting Stiles sitting on the sofa, his feet propped on the table, Derek frowned at the relaxed attitude the teen was showing. “There’s been a situation in the Preserve” he said abruptly and noted the small smirk on the teen’s face before he continued “we will have to reschedule when everyone can be here” he finished and noticed that Stiles didn’t even flinch.

“Okay” Stiles says easily as he looks entirely too comfortable on the sofa.

Derek shakes his head. The kid had been trying to get them alone for weeks and now he doesn’t seem to care. Maybe he finally got the hint he thinks as he walks to the door. He reaches for the handle when he sees the flash of blue and feels the push of mountain ash. Growling he stares down at the floor but doesn’t see anything. Stiles must have lined the door from the hallway!

He turns to glare at the teen who is whistling happily but he has forgotten that Derek’s loft has a rather large roof deck and while going down the fire escape isn’t exactly graceful he isn’t going to admit that Stiles outmaneuvered him. Striding over to the sliding glass door he gets a few inches away when the field flickers over the door. He blocked the door to the deck! Staring down Derek frowns briefly when he doesn’t see anything. Turning back to Stiles Derek growls at the smirk on the teen’s face as he smiles innocently. “Problems?” he asks happily.

Growling again, Derek heads back upstairs. The window in his room is over the deck. He will just jump down to the deck, Stiles hasn’t been upstairs. Derek moves up the stairs quickly and reaches for his window when the familiar blue flashes and he is pushed back. “What?” he mutters and presses against the field and sees the blue light along the whole wall and ceiling. Confused, Derek heads back downstairs where Stiles is still humming happily. Derek crosses back to the door to the deck and presses hard. That’s when he sees that the blue light is flashing along all four walls.

Turning back to stare at Stiles, Derek sees that the teen is watching him with a determined look. “I learned a new trick with mountain ash. The particles are spread out over walls, windows, and doors of the entire loft. They are spread out very thin, but nothing supernatural will be getting in” he paused and looked directly at Derek “or out.”

“Stiles” Derek growled. “This isn’t funny. I need to go” he demanded and took several steps towards the sofa where the teen suddenly stood up. “I need to go to the Preserve.”

“You know Derek, just because I’m not a werewolf doesn’t mean that I am incapable of telling when you are lying” Stiles says moving closer. “Lydia told the pack before she called us that no one was supposed to call you or me until she gives the all clear so I know you didn’t get any call” Stiles says and suddenly Derek realizes that he looks exhausted, worn out.

“Stiles” Derek’s voice is low and pleading but Stiles turns and sits back down on the sofa and pulls the book into his lap.

“You know that I have been reading it and figuring out things since only I can read it. What I haven’t told anyone was that my future self put a lot of personal stuff in here. He talked about killing the hunters and how he didn’t care about collateral damages to innocents. He also talked about the pack and about you…about us” Stiles whispers the last part but Derek still hears it.

Derek stands quietly not sure what he should do as he stares at the teen and sees how vulnerable he is being right now. Stiles looks up at him and Derek can see the confusion and fear in his eyes. He isn’t afraid of Derek, no, he hasn’t been for some time. No he is afraid that Derek is going to reject him.

“Stiles…” Derek rasps before clearing his throat “you are sixteen” he starts.

“Almost seventeen” Stiles corrects automatically and Derek rolls his eyes in resignation at the response.

“Fine. Seventeen. Stiles…they were older. They were different people” Derek says finally sitting down on the sofa but keeping a bit of distance between them.

Stiles looks at the older man and winces. “Maybe. But aren’t you curious even a little bit? Don’t you want to know?” he asks quietly.

“Stiles…we have too much to deal with right now. Take the barrier down and when things quiet down we can talk” Derek says sounding much more certain.

Stiles glares at him. “Derek…we are dealing with problems that aren’t supposed to show up for over two years from now. We can take one afternoon off! I have to read this thing” he points to the book. “I have to read his crazed thoughts Derek. His anger at losing everything important to him and then finally losing you. Did you know he held your body for hours? He sat there, while your dead body went cold, surrounded by the corpses of the hunters he killed as his mind finally unraveled. When he finally left he was insane and he turned his fury on everyone. And I have to read all of it Derek. Because he talks about threats and dangers in between so I have push through it to keep everyone safe” Stiles voice breaks and Derek’s resistance finally crumbles.

He moves closer and at the first touch, Stiles collapses into him much as Erica had done earlier. Derek held the shaking teen and realized that he had well and truly messed up. He had counted on the Sheriff and Scott being Stiles’ support system so he didn’t have to but he was the Alpha and his mother would never have let anyone in the pack struggle with something like this. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly he finally nudged Stiles’ shoulder. “Did he ever mention how we…they…got together?” he asks gently.

Stiles pulls back, eyes red and puffy, and nods. Reaching for the book he opens it up near the beginning. “It started after he went to rescue you from the FBI and ended up needing to be rescued after his toe was shot” Stiles says with a slight smile.

“Tell me” Derek says and shifts them so they are more comfortable.

Several Weeks Later

“Derek” Noah Stilinski said cautiously looking at the young man standing on his front porch. Things had been fairly quiet since they had imprisoned the Nogitsune in a more permanent prison. They had managed to eliminate almost all of the threats in Stiles' book and were finally getting a chance to breathe. Noah had noticed that Stiles and Derek had been spending more time together over the last few weeks but Stiles had been fairly tight lipped about exactly why. “Stiles isn’t here right now” he adds knowing that the man already knows that.

“Actually sir…I wanted to speak with you if it is alright” Derek says managing to suppress the nerves that he is feeling.

Noah just nods and gestures the Alpha inside and leads him to the living room where he sits down in his favorite chair. He manages not to smile as the werewolf looks momentarily uncertain before finally sitting on the sofa, right on the edge and leaning forward. “I wanted to tell you that Stiles and I have been talking a lot recently. He has been sharing some of things from the grimoire” Derek says and looks at the unblinking eyes of the Sheriff.

“I see” Noah’s voice doesn’t give anything away.

“Most of it is about keeping the pack and Beacon Hills safe” Derek takes a deep breath to steady himself “but there has also been a lot about the future us, the future Derek and Stiles I mean. There is a lot about how we got together, and stories about them before my future self died.”

“I told Stiles and I’m telling you son” Noah interrupted surprising Derek. “Those people, that future. It isn’t you, any of you. It was something that might have been but things are very different now. Derek, the pack has been dedicated to not repeating the mistakes that version lived through. We will make our own mistakes, but whatever you read in that book…it isn’t set in stone. You’ve proved that” Noah’s voice is certain.

Derek looks anxious, torn between wanting to believe and fearing the risk. “I want to believe that. That we can make our own way” he whispers.

Noah leans back and allows the smile to show. “Then listen to the pack elders. We have been talking about it, not just with Deaton, but just in general. That pack were soldiers in a war Derek. Your pack doesn’t have to be so they can just be kids. Because they are still kids” he adds and smirks slightly at the flinch in the Alpha’s shoulders. “Unless you are looking at them…differently?”

Derek flushes and Noah just waits for the young man to recover. “Stiles…he…I mean we…I think I understand how that me fell for him” he says sounding extremely vulnerable. “We have talked about things that I still haven’t shared with Cora. I know he is still young” Derek says carefully.

“Seventeen going on seventy” Noah mutters but Derek hears it anyway and smiles tentatively at the description.

“And I would need to take it slowly…” he pauses and braces himself before looking the Sheriff in the eye without any challenge, only respect. “But I would like your permission to ask Stiles to date” he says firmly.

Noah leans back looking thoughtful. Derek has changed a great deal since coming back but there is still a part of Noah that remembers Derek the fugitive. But even more than that, he remembers the ashen face of absolute despair on the teenage version of the man before him on that terrible night so long ago. “If Stiles wants that, and while I am certain he does you will still respect his decision” he pauses and shakes his head at the absurdity of Stiles saying no to Derek “and understanding that your…relationship…will be above reproach until he is eighteen…then you have my permission” Noah finished.

Derek looked both relieved and surprised but he nods quickly. “I need this to be slow…he needs to be sure not…” Derek breaks off and Noah doesn’t press. His son gets his investigative skills from Noah and the Sheriff had put the final pieces together not long after that fateful night. He knew what that woman had done and the scars she left behind. Derek would never be like she was and Noah was fairly certain that it was only the fear that he was that had kept him apart from Stiles for this long.

“Well son” Noah said standing up and Derek quickly came to his feet “I expect to see you here for dinner at least once a week. Maybe with you here I will actually get real meat instead of that tofu garbage” Noah mumbles and Derek smiles.

“I could grill steaks if you like” Derek offers tentatively and smiles at the look of joy on the Sheriff’s face.

“Derek…I think that this could be a really good thing. Now if you tell me you’re a Dodgers fan then it will be perfect” he adds slyly.

Derek smiles easily “Definitely the Dodgers…why?” he adds curiously.

Noah looks like he’s gloating. “Stiles is a die-hard Mets fan. Now we have him outnumbered” Noah says gleefully.