Stiles' POV
Obviously the pack wanted to have a meeting about all these new developments so twenty minutes later it's not really surprising that I found us all crowding up Derek's loft apartment. I made sure to sit a safe distance away from the rest of the pack. Derek comes in from the kitchen with a whole bunch of drinks on a tray and sets them down on the low coffee table he'd bought when he discovered we all seemed to enjoy invading his space. Just as he takes his seat in the arm chair he always sits in the door slides open to reveal the good doctor.
"Who called uncle Emmie?" I ask surprised. Of course I should have realised they would want Deaton here. His knowledge is invaluable. I come out of my thoughts to see everyone giving me a weird look. They seem to be questioning my sanity which I guess is only fair after all I am questioning it myself. "Don't tell me none of you have watched the British BBC hit Merlin?" I cry incredulously. "The name by which the druids know Merlin is Emyris. I figured our own druid should be given an appropriate nickname too", I explain when they still looked lost.
"Ah, okay", Isaac mumbles. "Good to see you uncle Emmie", he smirks at the vet who gives him a stern stare.
"Thank you Stiles for that, um unusual welcome", the druid says kindly.
"Hey if everyone else has a nickname, then what's yours?" Scott asks from his position on the sofa between Allison and Kira.
"Well unless you guys have one for me that I don't know about I'm guessing Stiles. Because that is a nickname anyway, you might remember", I say biting down on my lower lip. "By the way next pack meeting all of you will be watching all five series of Merlin with me." Looks of horror appear on some faces but no one protests given it is such a small form of compensation to spend time with me.
"So Stiles", Deaton says attracting all attention back to him. "I've been invited over because we'd all like to get some details on recent events from your perspective. What happened after Lydia saw you fade away?"
"Are we talking the first or second time?" I ask evasively.
I swallow audibly before Derek stops me, "You don't need to tell us everything. Just tell us what you can." I guess my emotions are pretty clearly displayed to the wolves because they all smile encouragingly.
"Okay", I breathe. "I woke up in this other place, a desolate deserted wasteland. I travelled around for a few days before I realised where I was. The days were so hot but the nights were bitterly cold."
"Days and nights?" Deaton asks quizzically.
"Well I'm not sure if that's what they were but they're what I used to mark the time. It seemed about right", I explain quietly. "I spent rather a long time wandering through the wastes. Sometimes I managed to evade the demons but more often than not they found me. They tortured me until either they grew bored or I managed to escape. Word travelled quickly that a live human was in there with them. I was the new shiny toy, the hot commodity so yeah, I spent a lot of time wishing I could die in a place where I couldn't die", I say in a small voice.
"You couldn't die?" Isaac murmurs confused.
"No", Deaton takes a moment to explain for which I am grateful. I don't think I would have been able to. "The void is a place for the dead. It's not some much a place for the living. You remember I told you that? Well in a place where everything is dead what need is there for them to die again? They can't go anywhere else so death doesn't exist in that realm. Stiles, how long do you think you were there? Was it days, months, years?"
"Time travels differently there", I say to answer the question I can see Allison about to ask. "It wasn't days or months. It wasn't even just a few years. My best guess would be that it took me a few hundred years before I passed the last adamantine gate, the ninth gate. That's when I found Allison about to move on. She wasn't heading to the gates though she was drifting in a different direction."
"A few hundred?" Scott whispers hoarsely. "How are you not like, I don't know a skeleton or something?"
I turn to glare at him, my temper flaring and dying almost instantly. "Really Scottie?! We just covered the no death thing and now you are incredulous at the idea that I didn't age?" I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my chin on them.
Scott looks down sheepishly, "Ah, yeah right man. Sorry I didn't think."
"Do you ever?" Kira teases him before kissing his cheek.
"Can we get back on topic here", Lydia suggests.
"Of course", Deaton nods at the idea. "Maybe you could tell us how it was you restored Allison's life force?"
"It wasn't anything really. I learnt a lot in my stretch in there", I say darkly. "A lot more than I really wanted to actually. There were other trickster spirits there, other nogitsune I mean, along with a whole other load of demons. I learnt that while the nogitsune was using my form to perform those acts I would have to the power to reverse them but only if I was able to locate the person before they left limbo or the other intermediate realms. Finding Allison I knew what must have happened and I gave her my message before I reversed the death my form had inflicted upon her. I waited there in the lowest plane, limbo to reverse any other deaths the nogitsune might cause. That's where I was when I managed to contact Lydia when they arrived in Bardo."
I stop speaking and pull my arms tighter around my knees still staring at the ground. I didn't know what else to say but evidently I didn't need to because after a moment the doc asks his next question. "So after you reversed the deaths you made your way out of the intermediary realms? Time moves much quicker there. Did something else happen that slowed you down?"
"What do you mean?" Derek growls.
"I didn't say anything to the pack but I know Scott picked up on my agitation this week at the surgery. Time moves much quicker in the intermediary realms. It moves only a little bit slower than here. I was becoming increasingly worried that Stiles hadn't turned up", Deaton admits.
"Stiles? What happened?" Scott whines.
I throw my head back and laugh because the answer is so awful but they won't leave it alone. "You really wanna know?" I challenge them. "I restored those who died at the hands of the nogitsune but it came at a price." I pause as I hear the sharp intake of breath all around. "For each person I restored I had to accept their pain, the poison that killed them and their fate. You spend five days reaching the brink of death and recovering only to have the cycle repeat." As suspected the room is silent, hardly anyone is even daring to breathe. I struggle to control the emotions that are storming violently in my chest causing these outbursts but I can't. I stand suddenly and start pacing across the room to the window and back to the door.
"Stiles, we're sorry we didn't know", Lydia whispers in a wavering voice that I can tell without looking at her means she is close to tears. It reminds me of the voice she used before I abandoned her to find the bestiary and got trapped by the kanima in the swimming pool. I hear two others sniffing lightly which I'm guessing to be Allison and Kira but I don't look up to confirm my suspicions.
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask me about", I ask coldly already having been grilled for long enough. I just want to get out of here already.
"Just one other thing", Deaton assures me. "You told the others earlier that you are different. Can you explain how you are different?"
"I am different", I snarl at the man. I disappear in golden mist momentarily before reappearing with the largest knife in Derek's kitchen. Before anyone can say anything I shake off my shirt and drive the knife in my shoulder before dragging it down diagonally to the other side of my body. I hear the gasps and see the pack coming towards me. "Stay back", I growl at them.
I see the astonished looks on their faces again as they see the wound knit its self together. Thankfully they've all sat down again. There is golden blood dripping slowly down my chest and off the knife onto the wooden floor. I raise my hands and the pack give surprised yelps as they find the sofa and chairs they are sitting on levitate into the air. After a moment I let them float back down. "Is that enough for you?" I sneer at the man trying to help me.
"There's more?" he asks while I watch him pale slightly.
"Yeah there's more. Sourwolf get over here", I command. I can see Derek fighting against my control but he is powerless to resist me. "Take the knife", I tell him as I hold it out to him. "Now plunge it straight in my heart", I order him. He moves slowly fighting not to obey.
"Don't do it", Allison yells at Derek.
"I'm trying to stop myself", Derek shouts back in a half growl half grunt.
"Don't bother, if I tell him to do something he'll do it. So would any of you. Would you rather I ask someone else to do it? Maybe I should have Lydia do it?" I ask them angrily. They want me to talk about everything painful that's happened to me recently well I'm just fine with that. But they have to accept that it's hard for me and I'll deal with it anyway I can. Lydia pales and shakes her head at my suggestion. I gasp as Derek finally succumbs and the knife enters my heart he releases his grip on the knife and I reach up and pull it straight out. "Lastly emotions", I wrinkle my nose in disgust. "You werewolves, even you Kira a kitsune can smell them but me I can feel them. And I can share mine with others. Being around you is torture to me, so I'll bid you adieu", I sneer before disappearing in golden mist once more.
Derek's POV
Once Stiles releases the hold he has on me I drop to my knees in front of him staring at a small puddle of the golden substance that is now his blood. I hear his words as if they are reaching me through a long stone tunnel. They arrive slightly distorted and echo. Suddenly he disappears in golden mist again and Deaton reaches down to put his hand on my shoulder. When I still don't budge he calls over Scott and Isaac to help get me back to my arm chair.
"Derek. Derek, are you okay?" Scott asks from in front of me. I don't answer. I don't know how to answer. How can I be okay? I just stabbed the annoying, pesky teen that I've developed feelings for, in the heart no less. Even if he can heal from such a wound it still doesn't sit right with me. I don't quite feel right yet. My body doesn't seem to be responding properly just yet. I'm a puppet whose strings have been cut trying to find a way to move all by myself.
"Give him a minute", Deaton advises. "I think what the young mister Stilinski did is probably still having side effects."
"What did he do?" Lydia asks astonished.
"Forget what he did. How did he do it?" Allison shouts.
"Is that even Stiles? That doesn't feel like the Stiles I know", Scott questions loudly as he turns to look at the druid.
"Calm down and I'll try to answer your questions", Deaton tells us. "Scott, I'll answer your question first. Yes I believe that is indeed the friend you once knew but clearly he is not the same person he once was. Much like after the bite you changed, Stiles is going through something similar. However this Stiles seems to be of a darker nature, something closer to the nogitsune than I would have imagined. I did warn you of this when we learnt where he was. Miss Argent, I am sorry to say I can't answer your question as fully as you might like. He seems to have acquired certain abilities. I can explain them only as well as I can explain how the werewolves can heal so quickly or how Miss Martin senses death; which unfortunately is not at all. And Miss Martin I think you all know what he did, you saw it for yourselves. Perhaps you could rephrase your question if I haven't already provided you with a sufficient answer."
"How... how did he make me stab him?" I ask looking up.
"I can't say for sure but I would guess that ability works by taking possession of your body in some manner and forcing his will upon you. From what I saw you tried your best to resist but were overwhelmed", Deaton pauses. "Actually", he adds thoughtfully. "I think that might give us a starting point for any research we do to assist the young man."
"You want us to help him when he clearly just asked us to leave him alone? Are you serious he could kill any one of us easily?" Isaac mutters scared.
"Are you saying you won't help him? Stiles did everything he could to help you when you were stuck suffering abuse from your father. He helped you even when you tried to kill him. He even helped you when I wouldn't talk to because I found out about you and Allison", Scott rages, his eyes turning red.
"Of course I want to help him", Isaac tries to say forcefully, but his wolf is whining at the anger from his alpha. "I just meant maybe we should wait until he comes to us for help. I just don't want to make him angry. To be honest he scares me."
"Excellent observation Mr Lahey", Deaton says loudly. "I merely meant to suggest we start researching so when he comes to us we can help him. Focusing our search on creatures of myth that have influence over willpower seems to be the best starting point."
"And in the mean time what do you suggest we do?" I ask the emissary.
"That's easy. Give him space and have hope. That's progress and all that's left is to help him learn control of this new side he has acquired", the vet replies.
A/N: Sorry for the wait but updates are likely to be slower than they used to be.
