Prologue

Stiles was eating some junk food in the corner of my room instead of studying, which is what he's supposed to be doing here.

"Stiles." I had to scream three full times before he listened "What's so distracting to you right now?"

Stiles just looked at me. I knew what he meant with that. He said nevertheless:

"Gerard Argent kidnapped and did something to me and Derek. Me and fucking Derek. And I cannot remember a thing."

"Deaton will figure it all." I said.

"I wonder if he should," he answered.

"It's over now".

"What's with the sudden wishfull thinking attitude?"

I laughed. The first sign of a normal Stiles in a while.

Later that day, after a little quality time with Kira, I visited Lydia in the store she's working. She's Stiles girlfriend now. And a banshee. She might know something new.

To my utter shock, Stiles broke up with her days ago. He didn't told me and I can't think of a reason for that. Okay, maybe I can. He was trying to protect her. Which means he remembers something.

I ran to his house, wolf instincts telling me unintelligible things. He wasn't there, no signs of struggle. But I had to find him.

Scent led me to Derek's house, of all places. Maybe the two of them remembered something. It was the time to search help.

Chapter 1

Stiles and Derek were at an abandoned building somewhere.

"Kate Argent?! You sure?"

"No. I just like to drop bombs for you not to react to. And I'm pretty good at it, ain't I?"

Derek was looking at a table where papers were spread. Stiles stood at the other side of it. Their eyes met for a brief moment and both stared away as if it burned.

"So." Stiles saw a thrill in Derek's eyes. "Scott saved us from Kate and Gerard. I thought he was alone. Gerard."

"Me too. After all, he's the one who did all that torture thing on us."

"I don't think it was torture. You know it wasn't."

Now their eyes didn't turn. Stiles broke the silence.

"I was sticking with denial and now you ruined it. Thanks, bro! They were experimenting on us. But why us? What for?"

Derek threw some more stuff at the table. A map, small papers with the Argents logo.

"I've been tracking Gerard's moves."

"Yeah, boy, we need to talk about Batman complex some of these days." Move to be by his side and watch what Derek was showing him. Derek looked at him serious.

"Can't you take this seriously? Do you remember how bad was there, in captivity?"

Stiles nodded yes.

"Let's try to avoid that happening again."

Stiles smilrked. "Then maybe we should figure out what do we have in common, since it looks they took just the two of us." Put his hand on Derek's shoulder but it apparently burned too, because he took it out immediately.

"Elaborate on that. Meaning: you start." Derek said.

Stiles became very awkward, head down.

"We're both males that are around the true alpha. I think this is it."

"Let's do this right. Our lives are on the line." Paused to think. "Let us go deeper. We both have lost someone and feel responsible for them."

Stiles was bemused. "Derek, I don't think this is about our psichological issues."

"You mentioned the true alpha state. Well, Deaton told me this is all about the mind."

"Deaton's helping us?!"

"I forced him." The littlest smile "Us. Who'd have thought?" The rage and the iron that always seemed to be a part of Derek's voice softened.

"I can't bring anyone into anything anymore, after the Nogitsume. You're already in this." He looked at the man by his side. Took a step away. Joked. "I'm more surprised you're including me, oh, lone ranger one!"

"Surprisingly, you're actually kinda smart."

"And I here thinking we had dropped the 'surprisinglys' and 'kindas'."

Scott now entered, saying:

"And I thought you trusted me."

Derek got out for them to talk. Deaton was outside.

"You know they found him cause of you, don't you?" said the vet

"That's why I'm responsible. Gerard found what I found counter-spying me."

"Why were you so into how things in the pack can affect the leader?"

Deaton's voice was casual but there was fear behind it.

"Because Scott is not as strong as he should be."

Deaton understood. "Because of Stiles."

"He's suffering. And I'am in Scott's pack now. I know this is coming from me. Scott's weakness."

Footsteps were heard.

"Your secret is safe with me" said Deaton right after Scott and Stiles got out. "And I might have an idea about how to bring all your memories back."

Stiles was standing at the door frame as if frozen. "I'm probably leaving on a dangerous mission and can't let things like this between us."

Lydia was sitting on the bed. "So answer me." She asked again, angrily. "Why did you broke up with me? Can you answer now?"

"Something happened. When I was a hostage. I thought I'd die. It made me realize some things."

"You were dying." She deduced. "But not alone."

After a pause. "No, I wasn't."

"No irony, no sarcasm."

"No. You deserve better."

She noticed her forehead wrinkle, the anger's boiling point reached.

"What is better? My boyfriend having feelings for a... sore wolf?"

"These feelings, they'll vanish with time. But I just can't lie to you."

"Stiles, please leave."

And he exited crying, leaving behind a broken-hearted girl.

Stiles arrives home to a scene of destruction. A were-jaguared Kate is kicking Scott and Derek's asses.

She's one. They're two. One being a true alpha. And yet she's winning.

She will kill Scott, sees Stiles, smiles and trespasses the alpha with a dagger. Scott is dying.

She leaves.

Deaton's clinic. Scott's unconscious.

"Wolfsbane." says the vet.

"She'll be a true alpha?" Derek asks.

"No. She can't. As far as I know, at least."

"She might've found a way." Stiles is thinking. "By experimenting on me?!"

"On us. On how a member of the pack affects the alpha."

"I'm not a wolf."

"No, you're not." Scott's living and breathing. "I won't die this easily. Besides, I heard Lydia screaming."

"It's my fault. You two were at my house." It's Stiles.

"It is not your fault Stiles." Derek assures. They look at him curious. He leaves.

Scott: "Deaton, is it ready already?"

Deaton: "Yes. Drink this."

Scott sips the cup offered by the veterinarian.

Scott puts his claws into Derek and Stiles back necks.

Peter Hale is there, as a consultant.

"Y'know, Derek, you actually brought us together, me and Gerard. When I become an alpha, one druid will have to folow me and I'll be able to cure Gerard." Says Kate to tangled Derek and Stiles.

"Family cutesy, Kate? Really?! Doesn't fit you. Kill us already." Stiles provokes.

Derek looks at him.

"I don't have to." Kate speaking "You won't remember a thing. My were-jaguar bite will turn all of this into vague images. That druid will be dead soon, so his herbs won't help you."

"Deaton is braver than you think." Stiles proclaims.

"We'll see." It's her answer.

At the same time as Scott is bringing Derek and Stiles memories, Kate is tapping Lydia's mind.

In his memories, Stiles sees through a monitor Kate telling Derek she killed Stiles. She shows photoshopped pictures of him multilated.

Derek breaks from his chains and attacks her. Her squad saves her. Kate runs and a glass door closes between them locking Derek in the room. From beyond the door, she speaks:

"My vigilance on you proved useful. It is as I suspected."

They wake up.

Stiles speaks. "I know where Lydia is. And it might be a trap. Kate hinted us to look Deaton. Maybe what she said brought us here instinctively, even without us remembering it. She's expecting us."

Derek looks confused. "Why would she make us forget just for us to remember lately? It doesn't make sense!"

Stiles thinks for a while. "I think she was expecting something. Also, she and Gerard didn't tortured us together, maybe she's hiding things from him."

Scott: "Then you should stay, perhaps..."

Derek: "No, I think he is the target."

Scott is confused now. "Yeah, I saw what happened. In your remembrances. But this is strange. She could've killed him back then."

Stiles : "You saved us. And as long as I love how my head sits confortably over my head, I can't leave Lydia kidnapped."

The group is at the top of a building. The two wolves jump on another building. Stiles looks worried.

Kate sees Derek and Scott through monitors entering the building. She smiles.

Guards fight the wolves. When the fight ends, Scott's not there, he left the room to search somewhere else. Wolfsbane pours by sprinklers in the room where Derek is. The were-jaguared woman looks at a downed Derek from beyond a door with a of glass window. She enters.

"Know what I've realized? You're weak enough for me to beat you like this. And that's simply because Stiles is poisoned. The mate you've chosen. And now I know I must just keep you poisoned of wolfsbane."

"You can not be a true alpha."

"As it turns out," she gets closer to the lupine "I can".

Scott and Stiles find Lydia.

Stiles : "Derek and Kate?"

Scott smells the air. "Gone."

Later, Lydia's house...

Stiles : "Thought you'd only talk to me again when I would be dying from werewolf bite, which is bound to be happening."

"The dramatic here is me. I saw she taking him."

He expects silently but desperately.

She continues: "I told him you love him."

He looks stunned and hugs her.

"You're not mad?" she asks.

"A little. Okay, more than a little. But I'm more thrilled by your support. But why did you say it?"

"It was the right thing to do. And I thought maybe this would give him strenght. I felt it. And I'm a banshee, remember?"

A weak Stiles comes to Scott's house. Melissa answers him:

"Stiles! What are you doing here?! You should be at the hospital!"

"I'm better now, Misters McCall. Where's Scott?"

"You're definitely not better. He's upstairs."

Stiles goes up.

"Why'd you called me here, dude? Any news or ideas?"

"I'm not feeling okay."

Stiles looks at the door, preparing to call Melissa.

Scott holds his arm. "Don't call her. This has something to do with Derek. My pack. I feel it."

Stiles looks worried.

"Lydia brought me material found at Kate's place. I digged and I think I know what's happening here. She's poisoning him for hours now, controlling it to weaken you."

"To what end?"

"I don't know. Yet."

"You're the human that affects Derek, I think this is why she kidnapped you two to test."

"This makes no" Stiles starts to talk and falls unconscious.

Scott screams. "Mom, he passed out again!"

Hospital...

Kate gets in the room where a weakened Scott's looking to a sick Stiles.

"He's poisoned. You can save him. And Derek."

"What's the trick?"

"You're weak, so you'll pass me the true alpha state."

"You did all this just to achieve this simple thing?!"

She approaches his friend's sickbed.

"It is worth it. You still don't know the real sheer power of a true alpha. I'll be a true Deucalion."

Stiles wakes up. "You'll die if you pass this thing to her."

She's unaffected.

"Think well, Scott. I would take it, but I can't. So pass me or they die."

"Actually" starts Stiles "No. You fell in my trap."

That said, she realizes the room is surrounded in mountain ash.

"How...?"

"The nurse you didn't pay attention to completed it."

"You'll die, Stiles. You'll die from poison." She says.

"I know. Do you know you'll loose too?"

Scott desperates and tries to convince Stiles to give up his plan.

She jumps over Stiles, menacing him.

Lydia arrives carrying Derek. She destroys the barrier and Derek jumps on Kate, being juggled down.

Kate: "You're all just hylarious pests."

Stiles and Derek keep looking at each other.

Scott turns and fights. Derek helps him.

They're loosing to her.

Stiles gets up. Derek will stop him but is thrown by Kate.

Stiles achieves a medicine and eats it.

"It gets a werewolf stronger. My plan is for it to strenghten..."

Kate's in shock.

Scott. "But Stiles, this, in your state..."

Stiles passes out.

Derek strikes Kate.

Scott: "You wanted the true alpha, I'll give it to you."

And he bashes her repeatedly, breaking bones and opening wounds.

"I feel stronger." He will kill her. Derek holds him. They look at each other and Derek finishes the job, breaking her neck.

Derek runs and grabs Stiles. "Stiles!"

Scott too.

They're at Derek's loft.

Stiles wakes up.

"Where's Scott?"

"He preferred leaving us alone."

"How am I...?"

"Alive? Lydia found me, so we knew where to find your antidote."

"I can't believe it was so easy for her to catch the big bad wolf."

Derek smiles and then Stiles smiles back.

"So... What happened between you and Lydia?" Derek asks.

"I'm in love with someone else."

Stiles notices he's not only in Derek's loft, but also in his room, lying in his bed.

"Stiles, she told me one thing"

"I know." Stiles interrupts. "It's true, unfortunately."

They study each other's faces.

"Me too". Is all Derek says.

They keep staring at each other.

"I'am older, and we hate each other." Derek objects.

"I'm getting used to dysfunctional." A little laugh.

Derek kisses his forehead.

Stiles laughs. "I'm not your son, please don't do this."

"And this?" Derek asks, before closing in and pressing his lips against Stiles's, a gentle kiss.

Derek stops abruptly. "Stiles... you're a good guy, and I'm... I'm me."

"Whoa, what are you saying all of a sudden?"

"I'm leaving this town. Maybe it'll be safer without me in here. Scott will be able to make a better pack without me arou"

Stiles stops him putting fingers in his lips: "Wait, have you met Scott? He needs your help." They glare. "I need you. Now that I know. It's hard to admit, but I I am into the murderous annoying wolf that has put my life in danger and also saved it several times."

They are now with their faces close to each other.

Derek look him in the eye and smiles: "This is so wrong." And they kiss vigorously.

Scott's sleeping. He's having a nightmare, apparently. He wakes up to find Gerard in his room.

To be continued