Rescues and Revelations
Stiles puts his water bottle on the table and looks at the twins, he wonders how this is going to end but he sincerely hopes that it doesn't end too badly. He then decides to just get this over with, the worst thing that can happen is that he gets killed before he even gets to the bank.
"What do I know about werewolves?" He says back to them trying carefully to keep himself from revealing how nervous and terrified he actually is and looks at the twins as they share a look. He thinks they look nervous but he could be wrong. "Why do you want to know what I know about werewolves?" he asks.
"Because," starts the twin that is most likely Aiden, "We like you, Stiles," he continues. The other twin, probably Ethan goes next, "We are werewolves, and so is McCall and most of his friends. Aiden and I are part of a werewolf pack that consists of only Alphas, but the only reason we're with them is because of the fact that they rescued us from our former pack, and we owe them our life, but they want us to hurt you because McCall cares about you." the twin that is now confirmed to be Ethan finishes. Stiles doesn't answer right away, he is too deep in thought. If he is right then the only reason Aiden "bumped" into him this morning, was to get close to him, probably so that they could kidnap him as well so that the alpha pack had something else to hold over Scott and his gang. So the question now is, are the twins truly here because they like him and want to help him stay safe, or is it a plot to get him t trust them so they can get him easier? He looks closely at Aiden, and then Ethan's faces, they look sincere, then again they could also be excellent liars, but for some reason, Stiles felt like they were telling him the truth. Sort of like the same way he just knew which one was Ethan and which one was Aiden, he couldn't explain it but he felt it.
Stiles has a bag of mountain ash in his backpack by his feet, so he could tell the twins the truth, and worst comes to worst he can just trap them in a mountain ash ring and then be on his way to the bank. Or he could get the twins on his side and get extra help and intel on the rest of the alphas which would be a big plus.
He decides to give it a shot, he is so far from being skilled enough to lie to werewolves anyway.
"I know," is what he says after some time, the twins look a bit confused and share yet another look, and Stiles idly wonders if they can talk telepathically like Lady can with him but decides to shove that though deep into his head, it's not important right now anyway.
"You.." starts Ethan, but doesn't finish. A few seconds later it's Aiden that finally says, "You know?"
"Yes, I know," he begins and takes another sip of the water before he continues, "I'm the reason Scott even is a werewolf, to begin with. I convinced him to go with me to the forest to look for a dead body, and he got bitten by a rogue alpha, then things happened, a lot of them that I don't have the time to get into right now, but I was essentially the one who taught Scott how to werewolf. So yes I know," he says and takes another sip of water if only to have something to do. "Then Scott decided that I was too human to be a part of his life, and ended our lifelong friendship to try and keep me away from the supernatural world. Which didn't help because I'm too curious for my own good, and decided to learn everything I could about anything and everything supernatural on my own," he tells them.
"And when Erica and Boyd went missing, I just knew there was something weird going on so I did some investigating and found you guys and the three other alphas. I know you have them in the abandoned bank, and my dad and the local hunter are there for a rescue mission that I'm supposed to be at right now." he finishes and looks at them. They look surprised, confused, and even a little hurt.
"I knew when you made contact this morning, that you were probably getting close to me to get to Scott, and I tried my best to keep away from both of you, but I actually liked you. There is also the fact that I know why you are with the alpha pack, and I kind of hoped that I could convince you guys to leave them, and maybe even help me make sure they don't hurt anyone else," Stiles says and waits for a response.
It's Aiden that answers, "You knew I was trying to get close to you and you still let me?" he asks.
"Yeah, I knew you couldn't do much at school anyway. Besides, it really pissed Scott off, which was a nice bonus. Then we started talking, and I figured that either you were lying to try and trick me or this was who you actually were, and on the off chance that you weren't pretending to be someone you're not, I decided to give you a chance. And I had fun and I liked both of you, so it wasn't like it was difficult to spend a day hanging out with you guys."
"Huh, well I didn't see that coming. We thought that there might be a chance that you knew about werewolves in general, but we had no idea you knew about us, or our pack and their hand in the kidnapping of two members of the hale pack." Said Ethan. Then Aiden snaps his head up and looks to Stiles, "You even knew about the kidnapping and where we keep them, and you still let us inside your home?" He asks, and yeah that is a good point. He probably shouldn't make a habit of inviting people he knows has killed people into his home, but hey it seems like it turned out well enough this time.
"Yeah, I did, which might not have been the smartest move. I was hoping the becoming friends' thing was real and would keep you from killing me or something," he tells them with a smile. "Now that we got that whole thing out of the way, it's my turn to ask a question," starts Stiles, "Like I said we have a rescue mission planned and I have to get there to help out, so the question is, are the two of you on my side or on your packs side?" he finishes.
The twins share yet another look before Ethan answers, "We're on your side if you'll have us. You're the first person to be unnecessarily kind to us while still knowing about the things we've done."
"Besides you're our friend, it wouldn't be right to let you go on dangerous rescue missions on you're own. We also have all the information you'll need to make things go as smoothly as possible," adds Aiden.
And hey look at that, apparently, Stiles is really good at this making friends thing. He smiles at the twins and stands up, the other two stand up as well, and Stiles moves forwards and hugs them. He feels them tense under his arms before they relax and hug him back. "There is only one condition to being my friend," Stiles says as he takes a step back with a big smile, "You'll have to get used to hugs, 'cause I'm big with the hugging," he finishes. The twins both give him a big smile back.
"Alright guys, I have to get going. Are you coming with me or waiting here?" He asks them.
"We're coming with you." That is the answer he gets back.
So the three of them make their way back outside, to Stiles's jeep, and get inside. Stiles starts the car and pulls out of the driveway. The ride is filled with chatter, something Stiles is endlessly thankful for because his nerves are making it really difficult to concentrate on anything other than Erica and Boyd. He learns a lot about werewolves that he didn't already know, he is also told that the alphas have Derek's younger sister captured and locked in with Erica and Boyd, along with descriptions on how to best get them outside of the bank.
Stiles gives his phone to Ethan and instructs him in writing a text to his dad, to update him on the situation. Before he knows it they're just a few blocks away from the bank, so he searches for the place his dad had instructed him on where to park his car. Then they get out to meet up with the sheriff.
Stiles's nerves get worse the closer they get to the bank, but Ethan and Aiden do their best to distract him and comfort him.
Stiles had had help with planning the rescue, both his dad and Chris had done their very best to make sure the plan was as foolproof as possible and as safe as possible. He isn't sure if having the twins on his side will end up being more helpful or if it won't make much of a difference after all. It doesn't matter to him though, because at least he has them on his side, which is better than having them against him.
The sheriff and Chris take Aiden with them to help them get inside easier, while Stiles and Ethan wait outside for their turn. The plan is for his dad, Chris, and now Aiden to go inside and check the place out, and to distract or incapacitate the alphas, if they can't find a way to get to the captured teens without being detected. Then one of those three will send a text telling Stiles and Ethan to go inside, and with Ethan's help locate the alpha packs prisoners, get them out and then drive them to the Stilinski's house.
Around five minutes after the other three went inside the bank, they hear gunshots. Stiles doesn't even have the time to worry about the safety of his dad, Aiden, and even Chris before Ethan starts talking.
"They've got Ennis locked up and they know where Kali and Deucalion are, Aidens says that the sheriff said that we can go inside now, they've got everything under control and they just have to keep the other two out of our way," says Ethan, and then Stiles grabs his backpack with the bag of mountain ash and the other things he had packed as a just in case of emergency, he also grabs his gun i''s always better to be careful and prepared. Then the two of them walk inside, it doesn't really take them long to locate the vault where they kept Erica, Boyd, and Cora, and with Ethan's strength and knowledge they get the door open quickly.
The first thing Stiles sees is the three werewolves chained to the wall, looking like they're on the brink of death, and it makes him incredibly worried. "Can you break the chains, or do I have to pick the locks?" Stiles asks Ethan, without taking his eyes off of the chained-up teens. He hopes that it looks worse than it is because he'll never forgive himself if they're too late.
"No they're drenched in wolfsbane, and they're also made of stronger steel than normal chains, to make sure they wouldn't be able to break out of them," says Ethan.
"Alright," Stiles starts and then opens his backpack and grabs his lockpicks. Picking locks is a skill he'd learned a long time ago, because it looked cool in the movies, but also because you never know when you'll find yourself on the wrong side of a locked door. Then he walks over to Erica because she looks worst of the three, and gets to work. Less than a minute later it clicks open and Stiles does his best to remove the chains from Erica as quickly and carefully as possible, and she remains unconscious the whole time. Then he instructs Ethan on how to clean her wounds as best as possible, while he moves on to Boyd's chains.
In about 20 minutes total, all three of them are free of the chains and cleaned up as best as can be while still in here, and they're still unconscious. Stiles decides on what he thinks is the best course of action, "Ethan, we need to get them out of here," just as he says that he hears more gunshots, and he wonders what the situation out there is like. "Come here, take Boyd and bring him outside to my car and then come back, in the meantime I'm going to try and wake Erica and Cora up, so it'll be easier to bring them outside," he continues, and he hears a roar and sincerely hopes it doesn't mean anything too bad, then he sees that Ethan is about to argue with him so he continues speaking. "No Ethan, don't argue. We need to get them out of here and we can't both leave them here alone and unprotected. I have mountain ash and I know how to use it, so we'll be okay until you get back." He finishes and makes a shooing gesture at the twin.
"Fine, but I'm not comfortable with this and if you get yourself killed while I'm gone, I'm gonna kill you myself," Ethan answers, and Stiles just gives him a smile and a wave before turning back to the unconscious girls.
"Alright ladies, time to wake up," he starts and his voice is shaking, he can't ever remember being this afraid before, but he has to find a way to wake them, he just has to. "You picked the literal worst place to nap in, seriously I can literally not think of a worse place right now," he continues and tries to shake both of the girls but he doesn't get any real response. Just sometimes after Ethan has left with Boyd, Stiles hears a loud crash and looks up from the girls. There in the doorway is one of the alphas, Kali, she looks angry enough to rip him into pieces small enough that no one would even realize that the pieces had ever been a part of a human being much less been a part of Stiles. Of course, Stiles chooses this moment to remember the mountain ash, he really should have made a ring of it the moment Ethan had left but he had been too distracted, and now it just might be too late. His bag is too far away for him to reach it from where he is sitting on the ground between the two teens, and the chances of him reaching it, taking out the mountain ash, and make a circle of it, before Kali gets close enough to hurt him or the girls is impossible. No way is this going to end well.
It doesn't matter if it's impossible, either he gives it a try and has a chance no matter how small to succeed, or he gives up right now without trying. Stiles hasn't given up in impossible supernatural situations before, so why should he start now?
With his mind made up, he slowly shifts his body towards the bag just a little bit, of course, the alpha notices and makes her way towards him, but lucky him she takes slow strides towards him she probably wants to look as menacing as possible. Something she absolutely manages, Stiles doesn't have time for menacing, however, and does his best to ignore her, and as she takes the first actual step inside the vault, Stiles lunges towards his bag and looks for the mountain ash that just so happens to have buried itself in the bottom of the bag. When he's found the bag he looks up at Kali who has now realized that the human is up to something, she is standing too close to the unconscious werewolves for Stiles's comfort, and he has to make a choice. Make a circle around himself, or around the girls. There is no possible way to do both before Kali reaches him. Of course, it's not really a choice, at least not for Stiles, he's always had crappy self-preservation instincts. He takes some of the mountain ash in his hand and throws it towards the girls. He's never been one to make wishes before, he's always been afraid that they wouldn't work and why make a wish that is just going to end in disappointment anyway? But at that moment he makes a wish, and he hopes that this one wish will come true with everything that he is, that the ash will form a circle that will keep the alpha away from them.
He almost can't bring himself to watch what happens, but he does. Just as Kali is about to grab Cora, probably to eliminate any threat she can before they even become active threats, Stiles sees the black ash flying through the air. He is astounded to see that it starts forming into a round shape, and when it lands on the ground in a perfectly formed circle. Kali hits the barrier made from the ash with such force that she flies into the wall behind her, and both Kali and Stiles are shocked enough to stay rooted in their spots for a short moment. Then Kali lets out a horribly terrifying roar, and stands up and charges toward Stiles that is still on the ground with an empty bag, he'd used all of the mountain ash on the circle, and he realizes that he is about to be attacked by this crazy werewolf with no way to defend himself.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, he doesn't want to die, not here and not like this. His dad needs him, and he doesn't want to put his friends through this, to have to mourn him and go to his funeral. God he doesn't want any of that to happen. After what feels like a lifetime, but is, in reality, less than a second later, he feels something in his chest. It feels like a second heartbeat, but at the same time, it doesn't feel anything like a heartbeat. More like drumming, or humming inside, he realizes that this is what he felt when he wished for the ash to form a circle. He tries to embrace the feeling, tries to tug a little bit to see what happens, and suddenly he is filled with warmth and the feeling that he can do anything as long as he wants it badly enough.
So he pulls at that warmth and tries to remember what he did with the ash, but before he can try anything, he feels Kalis claws digging into his shoulder blades and boy does it hurt! He can feel the claws digging deeper, and he is pretty sure he can feel the blood running down his back now, and wonders absentmindedly how deep her claws are into his shoulders anyway.
"Did you really think you had a chance against me, human?" hisses Kali in his ear, she spits out the word human as if just the existence of the word is insulting to her. Stiles doesn't know what to think, he is terrified, but he still doesn't want to give up, even as Kali moves one of her hands to his throat and squeezes. "You thought that you and your little human friends could possibly do anything to stop us? We're the alpha pack there is no one or thing more powerful than us!" She tells him, and Stiles can feel his oxygen disappearing and he starts to see black spots. He knows that if no one shows up right now, or if he himself doesn't do anything to fight back then he is going to die.
That thought motivates him, there is no way that he is going to let this horrible bitch be the reason that he dies. He tries to concentrate, something that is very difficult on a good day, and nearly impossible when he is being strangled, but not completely impossible. He tries to locate that warm feeling he had earlier, it takes some time that he technically doesn't even have, but he does find it. Then he concentrates on that warmth only, and ignores everything else, all sounds and all the people just disappear, and it feels like the warmth is welcoming him, but also chastising. It kind of feels like a parent welcoming a child home, but still nagging over being too late. He feels the warmth and he tries to direct it, it's difficult but he thinks that he manages okay. He tells the warmth to embrace Kali and pull her away from him without harming him further, and suddenly he feels the claws leave his shoulder and he can breathe again. He opens his eyes and sees Kali pressed against the wall opposite him, and she is unable to move, he can still feel the warmth and he knows that as long as he concentrates and wills it, then Kali will stay the way she is now.
"No, I didn't think I'd have a chance against you but turns out we were both wrong. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go and help my friends," Stiles has never been good about keeping quiet, and of course, he can't stop himself from antagonizing or insulting the bad guys, but he thinks that he managed to restrain himself a lot this time.
Stiles decides to leave her where she is, for now, he'll worry about what to do with her later but now he needs to try and wake the girls up. He tries shaking them again and pleading with them to wake up, and everything else he can come up with, but nothing seems to work. Until he remembers everything he had read in those books, and he's hit with a realization that shocks him to the core.
Holy shit, he thinks. Then he uses the warmth again, this time he directs it to the girls, but he doesn't make a wish, he believes with everything in his being that they will not only wake up but be completely fine. A few seconds later both of the girls wake up with gasps and sit up. The wounds from the wolfsbane chains are completely healed, and neither of them looks as pale as they did when he first saw them.
Before he gets to say anything to them, he hears people coming, and then his dad, Chris, and both of the twins come inside the vault. They all stop when they see Kali, unable to talk or move, then they turn to Stiles and ask what the hell had happened in here.
"It doesn't matter right now, what's important is to get Erica and Cora away from here, oh and I need to check up on Boyd too," Stiles begins and stands up then he turns to his dad and Chris, "If you two could do with her, whatever you did to the other two, then that would be great," he points to Kali and shifts his warmth so that it'll let her be moved by the two men, then he turns to the twins and the girls, "In the meantime, we're going to go to Boyd and get him fixed," he says and grabs his bag before walking out of the vault, the four other teens follow him. He thinks someone asks him a question or two, but he can't concentrate at all. He tried to calm down, to breathe normally, and get his heart to stop beating so hard but he can't. Instead, he uses the warmth to send a thought to Lady, who has been in his shirtsleeve since they left home. 'Lady?' he asks, 'Can you hear me?'. 'Yes, I can hear you. You foolish human. You will never get hurt like that again, or I will bite you.' He hears her answer. He laughs out loud, not caring over what his companions will think. This might have been the worst day in his life, but boy is the ending pretty great. 'I'll do my very best to not get hurt again, and I'm very grateful that you didn't bite me this time', he says back to her. He is not lying, he thinks that he might genuinely be able to keep himself from getting too hurt from now on. He just hopes that his theory is right, because he'll be very disappointed otherwise, but then he feels for the warmth again. He feels the warmth responding to him, and he laughs again.
Then he thinks to himself, Oh my God, he smiles the biggest smile he can manage, I have magic!
Lady does not like it when her human is in danger! That is the loudest thought in her head right now, her human had gone on a "rescue mission" as he called it and he had gotten hurt!
The only reason she had let him convinced her to let him go in the first place, was because he had promised her that he would be careful, that he would not be alone. Yet he sent one of the look-alike-humans away with one of the asleep ones so that he was alone! Then one of the bad people came and attacked him, and he got hurt, he was almost killed!
Lady had been very close to leaving the safety of Stiles's shirt sleeve to show the horrible human that no one hurts her Stiles, but just as she had started to move Stiles threw his attacker across the room. She didn't know how he did it, nor did she particularly care, she just mourned the chance to bite the attacker. After Stiles had trapped the attacker he went to the asleep humans, and somehow made them not asleep. She knows this is new to her human because she could feel his shock when it first happened. After that Stiles's father and the other scary human showed up in the vault and following them were both of the look-alike-humans, and all of them also looked surprised at what they had found. She hoped that at least one of the other humans would talk to Stales, make him see sense, and to make sure nothing like this ever happened again, but her human took advantage of the compliance of the humans that came from the surprise, and told everyone what to do and then left to find the third asleep human that was still asleep.
On the way however she heard her human speak to her, inside of her head, the way he has told her that she speaks to him. She wonders if it has anything to do with the way he managed to throw the attacker across the room without moving, or the way he woke the sleeping humans up, but still, it doesn't much matter to her. What matters is to get her human home and in bed, and to keep him there for the rest of his lifespan! She will not have him put her through more worry than he already has, but she knows he will not listen fully to her about this. So the best she can do is make him promise that he will be more careful in the future, and he does promise her this, she hopes he understands that she means it when she says that she will bite him if he breaks this promise.
When they get to Stiles's jeep they see the asleep human lying in the back seat, her human walks up to him and does the same thing to him that he did to the other two. She hears all of the humans make surprising noises when the asleep one wakes, and she thinks they start questioning him about it, but her human doesn't really pay attention. She can feel his heartbeat beat slower than usual and gets worried, she tries to speak to him but he either pays her no attention or he can't hear her, the same way he can't hear the humans. She tries poking at his arm and patting him while speaking at her, but still, he pays her no attention. At home, she would take to drastic measures and climb up to his face and tap at him until he notices, but she doesn't know if she dares in front of so many humans that do not know of her. They might think she is a danger to him and attack her to keep him safe.
After some time of no response from anyone her human starts to sway, and one of the look-alike-humans walks to him and helps him sit down on the ground while trying to talk to him and get his attention. The other look-alike-human walks away to look for Stiles's father for help, she hopes he hurries because she cannot wait any longer. She needs to show herself to the humans and hope that her Stiles's father will come quick enough to stop any attempts to remove her.
With her mind made up, she makes her way up to his arm under the sleeve, when she gets to his shoulder she smells the blood from the wounds that the attacker caused, they are still there, and to her, it looks horrible but she does not know much about human wounds and what is deadly and what is easily healed from, she will leave that to her human's father when he comes. She moves past the shoulder and up his neck to his hair and tries to stay out of the human's sight for a while longer, just when she is about to walk from his hair to his face, she sees her Stiles's father coming and is immediately reassured, and decides to wait until he is closer before continuing. When she feels that he is close enough to be able to interfere with the other humans she makes he way to her human's nose.
Again she starts to tap at him with her pedipalps but gets no real response. Then she hears the humans making loud noises, and she knows that they have seen her, she sees a hand get close to her and she throws three of her legs up in the air towards the hand, to show that she will defend herself if it comes any closer. Before the hand reaches her, she hears Stiles father speaking, he tells them that she is no threat, that she is Stiles's friend. The hand moves away and her human's father sits down next to them, he speaks to her human, and when he doesn't respond he turns to her and talks to her instead.
"Hey there Lady, I know this must be very scary for you, and that you're very worried about Stiles. I am too, but I need you to try and get to him through that bond of yours. Scream at him in his head if you have to, just try and see if he will respond to you better than us. Can you do that, Lady" she likes that Stiles's father would trust her with something like this, of course, she has already tried speaking to him, but perhaps she needs to try harder. She just isn't sure how, she has never had to force him to listen to her before. He has always been willing to hear her out, even when he couldn't actually hear her, so now she just needs to find a way to speak to him that he cannot ignore.
She turns away from the sheriff and looks her human in his eyes as well as she s able, then she puts both of her pedipalps on his nose, and tries to speak to him, she pulls all of her current emotions to the front of her head and tries to push them into the words she wants to speak to him, and at that moment she feels a warmth that feels like no other and still reminds her so much of her human, she concentrates on that warmth and then she speaks to him.
'Stiles, you will not ignore me now human! I will bite you if you do not speak to me!' she tries but she still gets no response, so she follows through on her threat, she brings her head down to his nose and sinks her fangs into it, and directly after that she speaks to him again, 'I will not lose you now! Do not leave me, Stiles, do not leave your father and friends, we need you and we need you alive!' she practically screams to him, and finally, she gets a response.