A/N

Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading, and for the fantastic reviews! I am thrilled you guys are enjoying the story, and I apologize in advance for the cliffhanger. For people caught up on Supernatural, welcome to the Hellatus. For everyone else, the Teen Wolf hiatus is almost over! About that, when I originally started writing this story, (August, if you can believe that) I had in mind that it would go through the hiatus and end as the show picked back up. However, the story turned out to be much longer than I had originally planned, and I'm not sure how it will end up or when it will end. I try to keep these things semi-canon compliant, and end them before the canon timeline starts, but I took a lot of liberties with this one, so I'll warp canon a little if I write a sequel. Anyways, I will not be posting from Christmas to New Years, so I'll try to upload one or two chapters before that to tide everyone over until the new year. As of December 23rd, I will have been publishing for a year, how crazy is that? You guys are fantastic, and as always, review, check out my other stories, may the force be with you, and enjoy!

Ch. 21

Midnight in Peril

Of course. Of course. Of course of course of course of course.

Of course Dean would run with Sam's body. Really, Jody shouldn't have expected anything else.

Of course Lydia would run blindly into trouble, if it meant saving her friends from death.

Of course Scott would open his eyes just as Lydia disappeared, and would misinterpret her absence as betrayal.

Of course Kevin and Derek would stand by Stiles, even in the face of danger, because when had they ever disproven their loyalty?

Of course Stiles would look at his enemy and not even blink an eye, even by the light of the moon, his scarred hands telling his story for him.

And of course, of course, it would be him, him with the vile eyes and the skin crawling smile, that would stand on the other side of the giant tree that in some cultures represented eternity.

Theo always did have a flair for drama.

Stiles stared back at him for what felt like an eternity, his placid face barely controlling his rage.

Theo made the first move. His grin broadened in a way that chilled bones, and his arms spread wide in a gesture that was supposed to be inviting. "You came!" he said, positively gleeful.

Stiles resisted the urge to throw up. "You didn't give me much choice." he retorted. "Who were you going to hurt this time, huh? My friends? My brothers? You already took my best friend so I guess you would have had to get creative."

Theo smirked at the heavy contempt in Stiles' voice. "Well, I'm glad it wasn't necessary." he said, and he began to take a few treacherous steps around the tree stump towards him.

Stiles, Kevin, and Derek held their ground.

"What do you want, Theo?" Kevin asked. "Besides world domination, clearly."

"What do you think I want, Kevin?" Theo asked mockingly, still walking towards them. Derek traced his movements warily. "How do you know it isn't just world domination?"

"No, I meant what's in it for you?" Kevin asked with a vindictive gleam in his eyes. "Working with the Doctors. I know you want whatever you can get your hands on, but really, why stoop to the level of some steampunk wannabes who clearly have some sort of fetish for metal-"

That was all Kevin had time to say before Theo lept over the remainder of the tree stump and wrapped his clawed hand around Kevin's throat, lifting him into the air.

"You. Don't. Know. Anything." he said vilely, ignoring Kevin's strained breath, kicking feet, and the hands that tried frantically to slap away Theo's grip. "Don't move," Theo said to Stiles' raised sword and Derek's sheathed claws, "or else I punch his throat full of holes. Are we clear?"

Stiles looked at Derek, who nodded, eyes never leaving Theo's face. The two backed up, raising their hands and their weapons in the air, their twin looks of contempt failing to intimidate Theo in the slightest.

"Excellent." Theo said, and he threw Kevin to the ground, who convulsed, gasping, and reached for his throat in desperation as he continued to shallowly breathe. No sooner had his breaths stabilized to something less shuddery that Theo picked him up by the scruff of his neck, and, instead of lifting him in the air, merely turned him towards Stiles and Derek and held claws up to his throat as a threat.

"Now," Theo said, immune to Stiles' boiling rage, "Let's talk about what I want."

"DAMMIT!" Jody exclaimed when she saw the broken glass. Would it have killed Dean to open the window instead of jumping out of it like some kind of action hero? This room was on the ground floor.

"I'll go get Melissa." Danny said, and he took off running. Jackson and Ethan, meanwhile, marched over to the window and began picking up the glass, making sure none had landed on the still unconscious Sheriff Stilinski.

Five seconds later, Melissa came running in. She took one look at the window and whirled on Jody, with all of the rage of an underpaid nurse.

"Do you mean to tell me that one of the visitors I broke several rules to allow just up and stole my patient?" she asked, her voice deadly quiet.

Jody didn't even flinch. "Yes." she said. "I'm sorry. I should have seen it coming."

Melissa's anger deflated into exasperation. She glanced quickly at Sheriff Stilinski then pressed her thumb and her forefinger to the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. She looked beat, and Jody realized that the missing John Doe was the last thing on her mind.

"You didn't know who he was." Jody stated, gesturing to the empty bed.

Melissa scoffed, but there was no heat behind it. "Of course not. And your boys over here-" she gestured to a rather embarrassed Jackson and Ethan, "said they didn't either. I thought, what with you being a sheriff and them being werewolves, that you were here to visit Sheriff Stilinski."

"Partially." Jody said, and she allowed herself to mourn a little for her fallen friend. She and Melissa looked at him simultaneously. "Is he going to get better?"

Melissa McCall sighed, and there were layers of defeat in her voice when she spoke. "I don't know. No one knows. According to Stiles, the Doctors did this. He said they might as well be holding the sheriff hostage."

"I see." Jody said, and she had no doubt that that was true. "That was his brother, you know." She nodded again towards the empty bed. "And I should have known Dean would try to save him. I'm sorry for your trouble."

Melissa looked astonished, horribly so, and Jody wanted to apologize but she really didn't have time.

"C'mon." Jody said to, as Melissa had put it, 'her boys.' "Get into the squad car. We've got a couple of Winchesters to find."

As Lydia stumbled through the forest, she began to wonder what had come of Isaac, and if he had found Stiles like he had promised. After talking things over, they had agreed that they both needed to commit to a side.

"I choose neither." Isaac said, a ferocious glint in his eyes. "I owe my life to both Scott and Stiles, and I'm not going to facilitate in tearing them apart. I'm going to get to the bottom of this. And I invite you to join me."

As Lydia stumbled through the forest, she thought long and hard about her answer.

"Unghm" Scott groaned as he opened his eyes. His head hurt. His head really hurt. And for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. Then it all came back to him, the minutes of unbearable pain, and his eyes flew open instantly.

"Kira?" he called, surprised to find his voice perfectly intact. "Liam?"

"Here." Came their weak replies, along with lots of groaning and shuffling.

"Parrish? Brett?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Parrish said, and Brett merely coughed.

"Theo? Lydia?"

"Indisposed, I'm afraid."

Scott bolted upright to find Deaton looking at him with concerned eyes and a tight frown. "What do you mean, indisposed?" he asked, and the anxiety in his voice made him cringe. "Where are they?" He was slurring his vowels, and the world swam slightly, but Scott didn't care. There was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he needed to get to the bottom of it immediately.

"Seeing as they were unaffected by your affliction, I decided to send them to find the nemeton." Deaton said, with the slighted hint of hesitation, like he knew what Scott's reaction would be.

He was right. "You did WHAT?" Scott yelled, or he tried to, but his voice cracked embarrassingly. He tried to stand up, but ended up stumbling into an awkward bear crawl before righting himself, cheeks burning.

Deaton quirked an eyebrow. "I sent them towards the nemeton. And you are welcome to follow them. But first, I think you have a pack to attend to." He inclined his head behind Scott to the remainder of the pack, all in various stages of the slow process of standing up.

Scott looked torn between wanting to listen to Deaton and wanting to bolt after Lydia and Theo. However, he got over this, because in a heartbeat he was helping a stumbling Parrish to his feet, slinging the officer's arm around his shoulder and hoisting him up to his now steady feet.

"I don't like the idea of Lydia and Theo going off by themselves." Scott whispered into Parrish's ear as he set him down.

"Because you don't think they can find the nemeton?" Parrish asked, also whispering.

Scott looked grim. "Because I don't trust Lydia. I think she's hiding something. I want you to find out what it is." he said, and he turned to help Kira to her feet before Parrish could stammer out a reply.

Stiles sighed, deeply enough to rattle his ribcage. "I'll bite." he said venomously, and if looks could kill, Theo would be dead and in the cage with Michael and Lucifer. "What do you want, Theo?"

Theo shifted his hand slightly, moving his claws a fraction of a centimeter closer to Kevin's exposed neck. "You know, you should really be more polite." he chided with a snide smile. "Or my hand might just slip..."

Derek took a threatening step forward, but Stiles grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and yanked him back. It's not worth it. He conveyed with a subtle shake of his head. Theo smirked at his small victory.

"You know, you should really be more careful." Stiles retorted, his eyes darting from Theo's throat to Kevin's terrified face to the outline of trees surrounding them, as if still trying to plot his escape. "If anyone were to walk in on this, well, what would they think?"

Theo's snide smile melted from his face. "They'd think I was a hero." he said, and the passionless, factual tone he spoke with unnerved Stiles even more, because he was right, of course he was right. "Because to them it looks like I've finally gotten the upper hand on my enemies."

"Is that what you want?" Stiles asked, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice, but it was too damn difficult. He was beginning to feel very tired, and he realized that he had not gotten a wink of proper sleep since before he had kidnapped Theo, 48 hours and a million years ago. "To kill me? Win over Scott completely? Bury my ashes and erase my memory until there's nothing left but a half-dead tree stump?"

Everyone unconsciously cast their eyes to said stump. It looked innocent enough, but the bodies of the chimeras were on the other side of it, barely hidden from view. If Stiles looked carefully, he could see the outline of a hand that looked eerily like the one that had dug into his shoulder.

Theo's sneer was back. "Close." His grip on Kevin's throat tightened like a vice. "But not quite. I already told you I wanted a pack."

"You have one." Stiles said through gritted teeth, and his body shuddered through imaginary cold as he remembered two vividly different conversations in the pouring rain, where he had made the same mistake twice.

He had underestimated Theo Raeken.

He wouldn't make that mistake again.

"I want a better one." Theo said, eyeing Derek with a ferocious look that Stiles did not like at all. "I told you that you were the only thing holding Scott's pack together, and it wasn't a lie. You might be out of touch, but let me fill you in. Malia's in the wind. Lydia's acting less than trustworthy. Kira is disgruntled at having to be blindly obedient, and everyone else is starting to have their doubts about Scott's leadership. I've made the rounds. I've talked to all of them behind closed doors and curtains, and they've all told me that they think Scott made a mistake in letting you go, that it's his fault you brought new hunters and old wolves to town. You say you're not the glue but you've managed to uproot what would have otherwise been a stable pack."

Stiles scoffed, buying time as his suddenly sluggish brain tried to catch up to the truckload of information he had been given. The fact that Theo was doing his best to infect the open wounds Stiles had left behind was no surprise, but it almost sounded like he was trying to manipulate Stiles into thinking it was his own fault.

"I see what you're doing here." Stiles drawled. "And I won't let you. That," he gestured wildly in the direction Theo had come from, where the pack must be, "is not my fault. That's on you. You managed to turn some of the most honest people I know into backstabbers. Are you proud of yourself?"

"Yes!" Theo said with a blinding smile. "Because I didn't do anything. They were already backstabbers. I just told them that it was okay, that I was their shoulder to lean on if they were feeling particularly murderous."

Stiles' face fell, Derek's too, as they put the pieces together.

"We're back to this, aren't we." Kevin said, albeit with immense difficulty. The strain in his voice was heartbreaking, but Stiles was paying more attention to the beginning of a dull ache in his own head that was definitely from dehydration. "It's not necessarily Liam, but you're going to get one of them to kill Scott."

"One of them, all of them." Theo said with a lazy shrug. "It doesn't really matter. I'll be happy enough to just sit back and watch."

Stiles swallowed his horror, which was more difficult than he expected given his suddenly dry throat. Sure, he and Scott might technically be enemies, but he would never... The picture Theo had painted, of Scott kicked to the floor in a fury of claws, was beyond words, and Stiles' chest began to constrict a little at the thought of that... of his friends doing... no no no no...

"And you'll be there to pick up the pieces." Derek snarled. "Like some kind of hero. And you'll have your pack, just like your old plan."

"It was a good plan." Theo said with a far-too-innocent shrug.. "It just got interrupted. If it isn't broken, don't fix it."

"Well since you're taking questions," Stiles sneered, because the part of his brain that would have said it wasn't a good time for sarcasm seemed to have shut down, "I'd like to ask something. How the hell do the Doctors fit into this?"

Theo's smile had morphed into something small and genuine, and it was more terrifying than anything Stiles had ever seen before. He was staring off into the distance like recalling a good memory, and Stiles sickeningly noticed that he had the same look when bragging about murdering his sister. "They want what I want." Theo said with a small shrug. "Our motives are one and the same. We're perfect allies. I want a powerful pack, and they want me to have a powerful pack, and together, we'll-"

"Please don't say 'take over the world.'" Kevin whimpered, rather bravely, from his compromising position. "Anything but that."

Anything warm and compassionate fell from Theo's face in a heartbeat, and he looked rather miffed to be interrupted by his supposed prisoner. "You'll find out soon enough." Theo said, ignoring Kevin and looking Stiles dead in the eye. "Because sooner or later, you'll join me, too. Like Kira, Liam, Brett, Parrish... even Malia once I get around to tracking her down."

"Did they know what they were signing up for when you met them behind all those closed doors?" Stiles asked, wincing as his small headache grew into something much more painful. "Cause I'm sure they do know. We've been standing here for quite some time, Theo. They're probably within earshot."

Theo shook his head. "Wolfsbane and mountain ash around the entire clearing. With a little something the Doctors cooked up. No living thing can hear a word we're saying. Not even Lydia."

Stiles' heart might've literally stopped beating. Or maybe that was the new chest pains. "Lydia?" he asked, and he could hear the stress in his breath. Kevin and Derek must have heard it too, because they shot him twin looks of panic before looking at each other knowingly.

Theo's teeth shone sinisterly in the moonlight. "She followed me here." he said, barely containing his glee. "She'll be at the clearing in a few minutes. Whatever you were thinking of saying to her, I wouldn't. Scott doesn't trust her anymore and neither do I. But soon, hopefully I can trust you."

Stiles scoffed. He summoned every ounce of Winchester strength he possessed and compartmentalized his sudden pain and weariness, standing straight at his full height, brandishing his sword threateningly.

"You know, that's it." he said. No snark, no humor, just cold, dead, truth. "I'm done playing around. Thanks for all the details to your evil plan, Theo, but no thanks. I've kicked your ass before, I can do it again. You can threaten me all you want, hell knows it's been done before, but you do this," he pointed to Kevin, who wore beads of blood on his throat, "and you threaten Lydia, and you corrupt my friends, and you plan a civil war, and then you act as if I'll just go along with it. News flash, I won't. You can tear my pack apart, and I will pull it back together with my teeth. This is your last warning. I don't know how you think you'll succeed, but if you think I'll help you, if you're looking for void Stiles, I don't know how many times I have to tell you that it's gone. The darkness the nogitsune left behind was nothing I didn't already have. But you wanna know something interesting?"

Theo quirked his head to the side, as if to say go one, and Derek and Kevin, uplifted by Stiles' speech, began to shift themselves into fighting stances.

Stiles held up his dark katana, and though there was an almost full moon, no light reflected off of it. It almost seemed to absorb the moonlight. "This sword should not exist. I took it from an owner who turned to dust at sunrise, and by all strains of logic, it should have vanished too. It's owner was a dark spirit intended for good will who got corrupted by the same thing that corrupted me, the same thing that's buried underneath this tree. This is the sword of an Oni, Theo. I trust that you know what that means."

Theo took half a step back as he, Kevin, and Derek looked at the sword with morbid curiosity. Kevin clenched and unclenched his hands, as if he were having a hard time processing that he himself had fought with that sword.

Stiles smiled grimly. "There's nothing left of the nogitsune," he continued, "except for a dark corner of my brain, and what it taught me. Most of it, I already knew. But when I hold this sword, I can feel the power. And this close to the nemeton, this is less of a sword than a force of nature. This is a demon's sword, forged of everything you're too scared to look for in the dark, everything I hunt. This is what I'm going to use to kill you, Theo." Stiles smirked darkly, and Theo reeled. "Like I said, this is your last warning. It's twenty minutes after midnight, want to run home before your glass slippers disappear?"

It was like a spell was broken. For half a heartbeat, there were four people staring daggers into eachother's eyes, with various degrees of humanity. Half a heartbeat later, the forest was flooded as wave after wave of people emerged from the black treeline, pouring into the now accessible clearing. Theo's line of mountain ash must have been broken by a stray human foot as person after person appeared, each looking more confused than the last, filling out the space with utter chaos. Through the commotion, Theo hastened to distance himself from Stiles, and Kevin slipped from his grasp, running towards Stiles and Derek and passing a haggard Lydia, a broken-looking Jody, and someone he did not recognize who looked more tired than should be allowed.

The wave of people ended, and seemed to have subconsciously formed a circle around the nemeton, and the two people who stood at opposite sides of it. For once, everyone was there. Kevin wasn't sure how the hell it happened, but he was standing in between Derek and Ethan, along with Danny, Jackson, Jody, Dean, Sam, alive and well, some curly-haired dude that must be Isaac, and... was that Crowley?

Ignoring the question, Kevin looked across the circle, and locked eyes with a very drained looking Scott, who stood with Kira, Liam, Parrish, Brett, an uncomfortable looking Lydia, and Deaton, who was holding onto Castiel's arm with an iron grip. Okay, Kevin was missing something there.

Kevin and Scott might have had some awkward eye contact, but everyone else was focused on the main event, mainly Theo and Stiles, staring eachother down from opposite ends of the massive tree.

"Well done." Stiles said to Theo, and he looked everywhere but at Scott, whose eyes he felt bore into him. "I think you just managed to start World War Three."

Theo cocked his head to the side, analyzing Stiles. "Doubtful." he said. "This battle will be over before it even starts. Tell me, Stiles, are you feeling at all dizzy?"

"No." Stiles said, but his feet swayed even as he spoke, and the weariness and pain he had compartmentalized slammed back into him full force, causing him to sway even more. The back of his head was screaming, and almost unconsciously, Stiles slowly raised his hand to it, before pulling away sharply. It was sticky with dried blood. Now when had that happened? The Doctors had knocked him out to kidnap him, sure, but there was no blood- he would have remembered-

-no no no no no no no-

"You sure about that?" Theo asked with a smirk. "You don't look so hot. I mean, I don't blame you, it's been a hell of a day- getting arrested, escaping, and locking us up in your warehouse particularly stick out- but you really don't look good. Maybe you should lie down, take a breather."

"Maybe you should shut up." Stiles said, but the words were about as lightheaded as he was. His chest was constricting uncomfortably, the clearing was tilting in a way that suggested it was about to spin. It was all too familiar. If he didn't know better, Stiles would say that he was about to have a panic attack, but no, no, that was impossible-

Something was wrong. Something to do with getting hit on the head. He remembered lying on wet pavement and watching angels fall, and then waking up in chains with Kevin and Derek looming over him. Something must have happened while he was still unconscious. But what?

Something was very, very wrong, and the darkness was starting to feel claustrophobic, and the sword in his hand was too heavy, and the moon was like a glaring neon light-

"Stiles?" Theo asked, getting his attention. His smirk grew long and sneaky, and his eyes flashed yellow wickedly. There was a collective gasp from the crowd, and Stiles used his remaining energy to focus on why. At first he was confused. Then he saw it.

It was like a child had picked up a red marker and traced it along Theo's forearm, such was the nature of the cut. There was no weapon to be seen that caused it. Instead, an invisible blade cut across Theo's forearm, making a long, shallow cut that blistered and burned from wolfsbane. It dribbled blood in thin waves, and didn't look like it even hurt, but it had appeared out of nowhere, a stroke of an invisible paintbrush.

A wave of nausea slammed into Stiles, and he stumbled, gripping the edge of the nemeton for support. He felt something sticky on the back of his neck, and knew his head wound had started bleeding again.

Kevin nudged Derek's shoulder. "It's the vampire blood!" he hissed. "It has to be. Theo made that cut in front of our very eyes in captivity, and now Stiles is reverting back to the state he was in before he took it!"

Derek's glare turned stone cold with fear. "He's going to have a panic attack." he whispered frantically. "We have to help him."

He wasn't the only one unsettled. A commotion had broken out among the crowd upon seeing their either fearless leader or fearsome enemy stumble from some unknown wound. Murmuring and discrepancy replaced the previous stillness.

"Stiles," Theo said with a vindictive smile, uncaring about the blood dribbling down his arm. "You're running out of time. It's half past midnight, want to run home before your carriage turns into a pumpkin?"

Stiles wanted to stutter out a clever reply of where Theo could shove his fairytales, but of course, more pain slammed into him and he reached his breaking point. His chest felt like it was going to explode. His head was a hurricane. His insides felt like they were being eaten. He wasn't sure he was breathing, but he was sure that was him screaming. His knees buckled. He pitched forward. His feet left the ground. And chaos broke out over his gushing head as he sprawled forward onto the heart of the nemeton, his cheek pressed up against the ancient tree stump as his body caught fire.