Chapter 5:

The thuds pulsing through his head caused Stiles to stir. With a groan, Stiles sat up, eyes screwed shut and the heel of his right and pressed firmly against the middle of his forehead. Shaking his hand slightly in a vain attempt to loosen the pressure that had built there, he squinted open his eyes reluctantly. It was night time, and he was in Derek's room, in Derek's bed, with Derek.

Stiles stared.

With a snort, he shook his head, a rueful smile sliding over his lips. He'd totally rip my throat out if he was older. Stiles thought in amusement. With his teeth. The smile fell from his face as he realised why his head hurt so bad. Dehydration. From crying. Stiles closed his eyes as embarrassment washed through him. "Oh, God…" He moaned quietly to himself, as he eased out of the bed. The floor was cold when his bare feet touched it, sending a shiver of hair-raising goosebumps up through his body.

There was a whine from the bed behind as Derek shifted around. Stiles froze as Derek rolled into Stiles' recently vacated space, watching as the teen hugged his pillow and buried his face in it before his breathing evened out into sleep once more. Stiles held in his sigh of relief until he had left Derek's bedroom, and shut the door behind him.

His feet softly padding down the corridor was accompanied only by the sounds of the house settling and the sleeping breaths of a wolf den. Keeping as quiet as he could, Stiles continued to make his way to the kitchen for a glass of water, which he drank with relish. It was as he was turning to head back to bed after placing the used glass in the sink, that he realised the room had begun fading away like his bedroom before he was left in the school. His breathing hitched before racing alongside his heart.

"Nortia!?" He yelled. "What's happening? Nortia!" He spun in a circle as the room began to solidify again, showing that he had returned to his bedroom. "Nortia!" He snapped as anger rushed pulsed through his veins.

"Stiles." The Goddess cooed in her airy voice from behind.

With sharp snap of motion, Stiles turned to where she sat on his bed. "What happened?" He demanded with a glare.

"You've made a change, now you can see the affect it had." She told him with a smile.

He looked at her in confusion. "Then why were you sending my stuff to the past?" He asked, brows furrowed.

Nortia tilted her head. "Because you were going to stay, but then I figured you'd like to see what affects saving Paige had first." And before Stiles could question her on the meaning behind 'first', she faded from view with a simple suggestion. Go explore. Her words echoed through his mind.

The first thing he did, was drive to the Hale house out on the Preserve. The whole drive there, he was flickering between hope and excitement. But they were destroyed once he got there and saw that the house was still the same burnt husk as the original timeline.

Stiles stepped out of his Jeep, face written in disbelief and fear. "No…" He whispered. "But I changed it, why..?" He didn't notice as tears started to slide down his face. He didn't notice his tears, but he did notice the rustling to his right. Turning towards the sound, he saw Peter step out.

"Well," He started. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" He walked closer until he was stood directly in front of him. "You're supposed to be dead. Why aren't you?" He questioned Stiles as he gripped Stiles' chin in a death grip.

"What..?" Stiles asked in confusion and fear. "What happened? I saved Paige, so why..?" Peter's eyes lit up with understanding.

"Ah…" He said. "So you thought by saving Paige, the fire wouldn't happen." He pulled Stiles face closer to his. "Why don't you tell me how your life was before that little time adventure, hmm?"

Stiles felt as another panic attack overtook his when the pale blue of Peter's human eyes bled red. Peter watched in apathetic annoyance as Stiles panicked, his vision dotting out until everything went black, having eventually passed out.

"Wasn't expecting that." Peter sighed, staring down at the unconscious form of the boy he'd had his first Beta kill over a year ago. He bent to pick the boy up and threw him into the back of the Jeep before getting into the front and driving back to his current home, where the rest of his pack rested.

When Stiles came to, it was in an unfamiliar room. Sitting up with a jerk, he remembered the burnt Hale house and the red eyes of Peter. He scrambled out of bed, only for the door to be opened and Scott to be standing there, blue wolf eyes staring at him. Stiles felt as if his heart had stopped beating.

Scott shouldn't have blue eyes. The only wolf colours he could have, should be gold or red. He should never have blue eyes.

"What..?" Stiles uttered with wide-eyes. The only thing he seems to be able to do right now is mutter shocked nothings. "Why..? They're blue…" He choked out.

"Cause I killed you." Scott said, voice cold and empty of any real emotion.

If Stiles hadn't already done so twice in the past day or so, he would probably pass out from another panic attack. As it was, he was too shocked to feel much panic, to feel much of anything really.

Scott tilted his head slightly, hearing something Stiles couldn't, before he strode forward, grabbed Stiles by the arm, and proceeded to drag him out of the room and down the stairs to the living room of a house, almost as big as the Hale house pre-fire. He was then tossed onto the floor in front of Peter. Peter with the red Alpha eyes.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. Both literally and figuratively." Peter mocking greeted. "Now, timeline differences, if you'd please." The threatening tone of voice and flashing eyes did not leave Stiles with the impression he had a choice in the matter.

"First," Stiles pushed. "Where's Derek?"

Peter raised an eyebrow. "Dead. Killed in the fire." He paused at the expression that crossed Stiles face as the devastation of that hit him. "Judging by your reaction, that didn't happen before you decided saving Paige would work." Stiles mutely shook his head.

"Was it Kate Argent?" Stiles asked shakily, eyes steeling as he stood and gripped his hands into fists. "Was it Kate Argent that set the fire?" He demanded.

Peter smiled. "That hasn't changed then."

"How!?" He yelled. "Paige was alive, so she couldn't have manipulated Derek!"

Peter sat up straight. "So that's why you though saving Paige would stop the fire." With a harsh breath out, he sat back and crossed his fingers. "I hate to break it to you, but Derek wasn't the only person in the Hale family that thought she was pretty."

"But only Talia, Alex, Laura, Cora, Derek and you lived there permanently! Everyone else just visited!" Stiles shouted, throwing his hands out as he did so. It was something he had learnt from Derek, who had told him about his family whilst Stiles was still crying and Derek was trying to calm him down.

Peter raised a brow. "I also had relationships throughout my life."

"So she used you this time!?" Stiles questioned aggressively. "Fuck! I thought you'd be the last person to be manipulated by a pretty face!"

"It's been known to happen." Peter told him in an icy tone. "I do have a daughter as a result of one such instances, you know."

"You mean Malia?" Stiles asked.

"Ah." Peter nodded. "So you know her in your original time line then." Peter ascertained, before calling out. "Malia! Be a dear and come in."

Stiles' breath caught as he turned towards the doorway as his first girlfriend stepped into the room. There were no remarkable differences to her appearance, her hair was still long as opposed to the short style she'd been rocking when he met Nortia, but there was one thing. She was missing an eye, and a burn circled the closed lid. Stiles felt a whimper leave his lips, already figuring it was a wolfsbane induced wound, having previously known that some injuries do stay.

"Yeah, dad?" Malia questioned, arms crossed and hip cocked.

"This is Stiles." Peter waved towards him. "He knew you in a different time line. A time line where we had a larger family before he decided to mess around."

Malia flashed blue eyes at him as a snarl tore through her. She was about to attack him when Peter raised a hand.

"Calm down. If he changed things once, he can tell us how to change them again." He turned back to Stiles. "Can't you, Stiles?" Peter sneered his name.

"It was Nortia." Stiles said, eyes not leaving Malia's. "She's a Goddess who said I could change one thing because she didn't properly maintain my fate, or something." Stiles finally broke contact with Malia to turn back to Peter. "I don't know how to fix this."

Peter hadn't liked that answer, which is how Stiles found himself chained up in the basement, opposite the Argent family. Chris, Victoria and Allison, all in various states of damage.

"Stiles?" Allison had questioned, her voice dripping in shock and pain. "I saw you die…" She said.

"Yeah?" Stiles asked, self-deprecation heavy in his tone. "Well, that was this worlds me. So."

The rattling of Chris' chains grabbed his attention. He pulled his eyes away from Allison's confused face, and towards her father's stern one. "What did you do?" He demanded.

"I tried to make it better, but I made it so much worse." Stiles replied, voice breaking on the last three words. Chris closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, whilst Victoria rolled her eye in aggravated annoyance.

The sound of the door creaking open, grabbed everyone's attention as footsteps began to echo down the stairs. When Scott came into view, Allison's face washed into a look of horrified fear and her parents expressions became that of loathing fury.

Having reached the bottom of the stairs, Scott ignored the Argent family and dragged a chair towards Stiles. The scraping, scratching painfully into his head. Sitting down and watching Stiles, eyes still Beta-blue, he sighed before speaking. "What was the other time line like?"

"Better." Stiles muttered, staring Scott defiantly in the eyes, non-too pleased about the fact that Scott had killed the Stiles of this time line.

"I will hurt you, Stiles." Scott told him. "I've killed you after all."

Stile snorted. "Killing and torture are two very different things. Anyone can kill, it's a whole new ballpark when you wanna torture someone."

"I've tortured Allison before." Scott stated calmly. Stiles' eyes widened, before they darted towards the mentioned girl, the fear and shaking he had only just noticed, makes more sense now.

"You asshole!" Stiles shouted, whipping back towards Scott. "What the Hell is wrong with you!?" He spat, yanking himself forwards in his chains, which rattled loudly, as he tried to reach Scott so he could punch him. "What warped you so fucking bad, huh!?"

"Killing you." Scott shrugged. "It felt good. So I tried hurting someone, and the only people we had were the Argents'. I started with small things at first. Just little cuts, really." Scott went to open his mouth again, but Stiles had heard enough and spat at him. It landed on Scott's knee. There was a moments silence before Scott moved. Faster than Stiles could see, he was up and slamming a fist into his face.

Stiles grunted before spitting the tooth that was knocked loose onto the floor, which was followed by a trail of blood. He glared at Scott again. Scott sat down.

"What happened in the other time line?" He asked once more.

Stiles laughed. "Well," He chuckled. "For starters, you were the Alpha."

Scott's eyes narrowed. "Bullshit." He said.

"No, really." Stiles insisted with a smile. "You were. A True-Alpha, in fact." Scott continued to glare. "That means you were a stronger Alpha than any other, and you didn't need to kill a previous Alpha to get that power." Stiles told him. He could tell that Scott was interested. His Bro-For-Life seemed to be a power hungry monster in this time line. Stiles put it down to Peter being his Alpha and using some form of voodoo mind-control to twist him so much. "It's not possible now, though." Stiles smiled brightly as Scott glared darkly, eyes glowing a brighter blue than before. "You killed me after all. If you'd not hurt a single person, you would've been an amazingly strong Alpha."

Scott snapped forward and hit him again, softer this time, but still painful. "Time line differences. Now!" He growled out, clawed hand wrapped around Stiles' throat. Stiles smiled through bloodied teeth.

"It won't change the fact that you're Creepy-Uncle Peter's bitch." Stiles taunted. Scott pushed Stiles' face to the side and pulled the opposite arm taut before he bit down just below his shoulder. Stiles screamed. He'd seen himself bitten by Scott before, but that was the face-stealing Nogistune him, and Scott was an Alpha trying to save his life. The scenarios were completely different, and Stiles never thought he'd long for something like the Nogitsune to be happening, but he did. He hoped Scott was possessed by Peter's crazy ass and couldn't control himself, and he didn't actually want to hurt Stiles, or Allison, or anyone.

"You wanna talk now, bro?" Scott spat mockingly.

Stiles let out a single sob of pain.