Stiles was running blindly through the woods in the middle of the night with a book in his hands. His car keys were left behind at work with the rest of his things in the employee locker at the bookstore he had been spending all of his time at this summer.

They were carrying rifles and shooting at him. He stopped abruptly to make a turn, and saw one of the bullets making contact with the tree in front of him.

He was stacking the book when Chris Argent tried to get him to hand it over. One thing that he had learned recently was that if a hunter asked for something, everyone would be better off if Scott or Derek had it instead.

Except for the fact that Scott wasn't answering his phone, and Derek's house was where his feet took him next.

"Derek, please tell me that you're a predictable home-body and that you're at your house", he said, the book tucked under his arm as he ran.

"What's wrong?"

"Book at the store that Argent wanted, don't know what he wants with it, but figured it can't be good."

There were more gunshots behind him. "Scott's not with you, is he?"

Stiles let out a breathy laugh as he made another sharp turn. "No."

"Where are you?"

"I'm a couple of minutes South. Warning you that there's a swarm of them coming this way behind me. I didn't know what else to do."

"I'm on my way."

The line disconnected and he kept running. Almost there. Just a little farther.

"I can do this for hours, Stiles! You're going to tire eventually!" Argent shouted

Bite me.

He kept a tight grip on the book and ignored the man, running until Derek came along and grabbed his arm. He pushed Stiles ahead and growled at the pack of runners.

"Wolf!" One of them cried out, shooting at him.

Stiles wondered why Derek thought that it was a good idea to risk his own life to save a book, but he had been wondering that himself the entire way over here. He opened the door to the Hale house and opened the cover, hoping that something inside of the book would be able to tell them why it was so important.

The book emitted a bright light the instant that he opened it.

"Stiles! Don't!" Derek yelled at him in human form, before changing again, getting on all fours and running into the house.

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by people who looked like they were dressed for a Renaissance fair. And he was juggling an apple with three swords. His arms seemed to be more in control of what was going on than he was, because Stiles had no idea how any of this was happening.

There was clapping and everyone was watching him. This wasn't so bad, whatever this was. Suddenly, of the apples was thrown across the room and one of the swords hit it in midair before it landed as a skewer on the wall. Another apple was added, and the process continued until the swords made a line in the wall.

The people cheered and he bowed.

He noticed on the way down that he was wearing ridiculous elf shoes, and he noticed on the way up that his outfit was making ringing noises as he moved, as if bells were attached to him.

Then he saw his reflection on one of the dirty silver platters. He was a jester. Great.

"Marvelous", he heard a voice say. "Simply marvelous."

He didn't recognize who was on the throne, but he recognized the Queen. At least, he saw her once when she was cut in half. It was Derek's dead sister.

Stiles scanned the room looking for Derek, until he found a very royal, stick still stuck up the ass prince wearing a thick red cloak and a crown, who was staring in awe at his sister, ignoring Stiles' performance completely.

Well, that was just rude. Understandable, but rude nonetheless.

Stiles moved to the side of the room, not sure what else to do, and one of the servants patted him on the back. Isaac. "Well done, mate", he said.

Since when was Isaac British? What a ridiculous dream. This made no sense at all.

"What am I doing here?" He asked

"I know it seems juvenile, especially when his Majesty is about to go into a war, but do appease them. You do want to continue to sleep in the palace, don't you? For whatever reason, the royal family finds your methods charming." Isaac moved to clear a plate.

Stiles followed him to the back, where the kitchen was. "So refresh my memory. How long have I been doing this, again?"

"Time slipping away from you? Let me see, before the old King passed away from illness, and right when Prince Derek turned of age and his father decided that he needed a new serving boy. So, three years? Four?"

Serving boy? He was Derek's serving boy. Hell no. Stiles wasn't sure if he could run around calling him 'Sire' with a straight face, let alone clean up after him.

"Yeah", Stiles said, clearing his throat. "Sounds about right."

"Did you bump your head before the performance?" Isaac asked him "You're acting strangely."

Stiles nodded. "Things are just a little out of place at the moment."

"Told you playing with swords was dangerous. Not that you'd listen. Look, I don't mind helping you out here and there, but if someone finds out that you're not completing your duty to the kingdom, they'll have you replaced. Understand?"

Time to figure out how to get the hell out of here before someone comes along and beheads him. It looked like Derek ended up here with him, at least a Derek that he recognized.

Hopefully, Derek wasn't British. "Understood. What do I do next?"

"You'll help me wash up and then report to the prince's chambers in case he needs something before the end of the night."

Stiles looked at the huge piles of dirty dishes in front of them. "Sure", he said, rolling up his sleeves in an irritated fashion.

Hours and a couple of missed turns later, he used the giant brass knockers on the door to get Derek's attention. The door opened, and Derek pulled him into the room, slamming the door behind him. "Tell me you're normal."

Oh, thank goodness.

"Never ask me to put on the grand, flourishing names like 'my lord' and 'sire'. I won't do it."

"You could have changed out of that outfit." Derek told him

"You know, I would. But I don't know where I live. Oh, and we're in some weird ancient castle probably because of that stupid book!"

"I've been thinking about that", Derek said. "There have been some records over the years of magic texts being activated when they're opened by the right people. Nobody really gets lost in them forever. Maybe we should just let this play out. See where it goes."

"That sounds great as the Prince of whatever kingdom we're a part of. I'm supposed to be a serving boy at day and Jester at night."

"Well, my entire family is going into battle tomorrow except for me", Derek snapped. "Because I'm next in line to the throne."

Stiles didn't know much about what would happen to them if they died here, but in general, life was a good thing. "Dude, are you actually pissed about this? Dying in battle isn't going to help us get out of this if you want to play it out."

"They were all around me going over strategy. Just like they used to when things got bad with Argent's family. And guess who the battle is up against? Gerard's Kingdom. They think Allison's Dad is trying to make a point to his people, show that he can take over the kingdom when Gerard dies."

So Derek probably thought that everything with his family was happening all over again. That if he substituted modern day for fairytale-land, and a fire with a giant war, he would have history repeating itself.

"Listen, I found Isaac. He's British, and it's a little weird, but it's different from what I know about your past. Isaac wasn't there, was he? And neither was I."

He kept an eye on Derek and watched him take a couple of deep breaths. "Okay. I have to get ready tomorrow to train some of the younger up and coming knights. I was told to have you polish all of my armor. I guess I should ask you to give it to someone else to do, right?"

"Jesters don't have servants", Stiles said. "And it's after midnight. Everyone's probably gone to sleep already. No one's around to ask for a favor."

"Don't worry about it. I really don't care about polished armor, anyway."

"Yeah, but if I don't, someone's going to pick up on the fact that something's off."

"We better not be stuck here forever", Stiles scowled, walking over to the pile of armor on the floor in the corner and scooping it up. "Any chance you know where I live?"

"Servant's quarters two floors down."

He rolled his eyes. "Super."

Stiles never made it two floors down, because guards wouldn't let him down the stairs after he got out of Derek's room. It took a lot of convincing and at one point, he had dropped all of the armor on one of the guards, who looked a lot like Boyd. But eventually, the truth came out.

Someone had poisoned the Queen. Laura was dead, and when he told Derek, he was kicked out of the room.

He understood, though. Losing her once was painful enough, Stiles couldn't even imagine having someone back for a couple of hours before having to go through losing them again.

All that was left to do was polish some armor and head to bed. Hope that he would wake up in a different time.

Derek's training session was cancelled the next morning. Sir Jackson was not happy with the news. Jackson wanted to go into battle, and at the very least, if he couldn't have that, to deal with his anger with a sword, but everything was on high alert while Laura's murderer was still out in the open.

If Derek was right and they were living the past over again, then they should really be questioning Peter, the King's advisor and brother-in-law. He was taking over while the King was preparing for battle.

"His wife and kids are still alive, Stiles. He became a psychopath when he lost them in the fire." Derek said, firing an arrow in the air and watching as it hit the target.

"Maybe he's just power-hungry. You know that the only thing that's stopping him from being king is the current one and you. He won't execute himself for treason."

"Do you know how to test for poisons?" Derek asked him, grabbing another arrow and pulling back the bowstring.

"I don't know if I can here. Maybe the apothecary can show me how? We can't just sit here and watch this place fall apart."

"Don't get too attached to this place", Derek warned, releasing another arrow.

"Can't with this wardrobe. I'm starting to get self-conscious with people hearing when I'm walking around." Stiles told him, pulling some arrows out of the target. "I'll head over to the apothecary when we're done here and I've drawn you a bath."

He noticed Derek smile a little to himself as he grabbed another arrow.

"Yeah, yeah", Stiles grumbled. "Don't get too comfortable."

It turned out that the apothecary was Lydia in a light blue outfit, fiddling with chemicals when he walked in. She got personally offended when he asked her if she could identify poisoned drinks.

"Why, of course I can!" She exclaimed. "I created a sample that turns black when it comes into contact with even the smallest poison residue. It worked with the Queen's drink", she stopped for a moment of silence, "and I'm quite certain that it could work with any substance. But it's difficult to create, and very expensive to purchase."

Stiles mentioned that the Prince was requesting it, and she nearly exploded with excitement before handing him a sample.

Interesting that Lydia was more of a mad scientist in whatever crazy book they landed in. Stiles started taking spoons of everything that they ate to make sure that it wasn't poisoned. Everything was good so far.

Two weeks later, the king died in battle against Chris Argent. Scott was one of the knights who had brought in his dead body. When Stiles tested Derek's wine with dinner, he found that it was poisoned.

"This is ridiculous", Derek said when he was shown the blackened sample. "It couldn't have been Peter."

"Then why don't you make him tell you otherwise?" Stiles asked "Prove me wrong."

Derek set down his knife and fork. "Fine." He got up and left the room. Stiles followed him to the King's Royal Chambers, where he found Peter writing on a scroll.

"Derek, what a pleasant surprise."

Derek took out his sword and whipped away the quill with the flat side before aiming it at Peter's chest. "Did you kill Laura?" He asked "Did you try to kill me?"

"Of course not!" Peter exclaimed

"Maybe he's telling the truth", Stiles said.

"I can't hear it", Derek told him. He lifted Peter up and pushed him against the wall, his fingers on the side of his throat. "Did you kill Laura?"

"No", Peter answered.

"Pulse is rising", Derek noted. "Did you try to kill me tonight?"

"How could I have? You're right here!"

"Answer the question", Derek demanded.

"I didn't try to kill you." Peter told him.

"Why are you lying?" Derek shouted. "Why did you lie before? I sat there with you, told you that Laura was dead years ago and that I needed something to go on, and you just sat there. You were faking the entire time."

"What are you talking about?"

"We've been testing the food and wine", Stiles called out. "There was poison in the wine tonight. It was you, wasn't it?"

"You're just a serving boy!" Peter exclaimed. "These matters don't concern you!"

"They concern me", Derek said firmly, keeping Peter in place. "Why would you destroy your own family for power? What made you like this?"

"I can make it a better kingdom", Peter answered. "We can make it a better kingdom", he corrected. "Just listen to me."

If the lesson was that Peter couldn't be trusted, then why weren't they back by now?

"You knew when you helped to raise us that Laura would take over. You never seemed to mind before. Why now?" Derek asked

"This family has gotten too weak. We're always working on making treaties with the Argents, agreements. We're strong enough to overpower them completely. Our forces are greater than theirs."

Stiles took a look at the scroll that Peter was working on. "Hey, this invalidates any and all present and future peace agreements, since the Argents violated the treaty line."

"So you just want to kill them all?" Derek asked "And everything that stands in your way? What happened to you, Uncle Peter? It wasn't the fire?" Derek let go and drew his sword again.

And then it made sense to Stiles as Derek pointed the blade towards Peter's neck. They were here so that Derek could see that Laura's death and Scott turning wasn't an aftermath of the fire that he felt responsible for. It was going to happen all along.

"You are not king anymore!" Derek said through tears before beheading Peter.

They found themselves back at the Hale house in their usual clothing. Chris Argent ran into the house with his shotgun and the book slammed shut.

"It's too late", Argent said to his fellow hunters. "The boy's already tapped into the magic. They've learned whatever it has to offer. We don't need it anymore."

They left without another word. Stiles and Derek were left there on the floor.

"I'm sorry that you had to do that", Stiles started, having the feeling that Derek wasn't going to say something first.

"It's okay", Derek said softly, getting up from the floor. "Things are back to normal now."

It was quiet as Stiles walked around the room. He missed the sound of bells ringing in his feet. "You know, just because I'm not your servant anymore doesn't mean that you can't tell me things."

"I'll never see them again", Derek said. "The little kids, my cousins. They couldn't do what I can, but they were family."

"What do you do when you miss them?" Stiles asked "To make things feel familiar?"

"I don't do anything."

"When I miss my Mom, I cook. Do you want some dinner?"

"Did you see her there?" Derek asked him

Stiles shook his head. "No, but I still miss her, and I know I'm hungry."

"Okay, that sounds good, now that nobody's out to kill us for now."

Stiles looked at the book in his hands. "Looks like it's just a history book. What do you think Argent meant about magic?"

"No clue."

"You're doing the dishes", Stiles pointed out.

"I know."

"I'm making extra dishes dirty so you can clean them", he added.

"I had a feeling."