The

Chapter 9

Problems and Solutions

Stiles spent almost a whole week in research mode after figuring out that he has magic, a week in which he has learned so much about himself and tried his best to separate truth from fantasy. Something that has proven to be very difficult when you are researching things that most people assume is all just myths and fairytales.

He had started by rereading the copies of the book he had borrowed of Deaton, and from there he has pretty much searched through the entire internet to find the answers to his questions, along with reading every book he could find in the local library that so much as hinted about magic.

He has found several books and websites that looked promising, but nothing that could either prove or disprove any of the information he already had. According to Deaton's book, it is very easy to distinguish Sparks from any other magic user, since a Spark rarely has any limits when it comes to practicing magic. So of course Stiles figured that the only way to find out if he is a Spark or another kind of magic person is to try and break as many magical impossibilities as he can or can't. According to most myths, lore, and even fictional sources, magic can be used for a lot of things but there are almost always some things that are impossible even with magic. Something that should be absolutely impossible even with magic is to create new things out of nothing, it's possible to change one thing into something else, but not to create something new out of thin air.

It took him several days to learn how to use his magic on command, and he started by trying some simple spells from another book of Deaton's, but they never worked quite right. That is not to say that they didn't work, because they did, they just never worked the way they were supposed to. It didn't matter if he was trying out easy or difficult spells, elemental or otherwise, his magic always reacted in a weird way. He had started with easy things, like the very stereotypical spells to light a candle, and how to levitate feathers. He managed to get the spell to light a candle work, after a couple of tries, but he also managed to set the entire dining table on fire. Stiles is still adamant that the most important thing about the whole thing was that he did in fact light the candle, the table just happened to be in the way… His dad had not agreed with him.

Trying to levitate feathers went a lot better but it still backfired a bit, he did get the feather to fly, along with everything else in his room. The twins had come running to his room when they had heard a crash and they had opened the door to Stiles sitting on the floor, with every single one of his possessions including his furniture, flying around him in the small bedroom. The crash came from his bed slamming into one of the walls, but overall Stiles thought that it was a more successful experiment than the candle.

After his disastrous, in his dad's opinion, tries with spells, Stiles decided to try to do the same things again but without the spells. This time lighting a candle and levitating a feather was almost ridiculously easy. Instead of concentrating on a spell, he just sat in his backyard with a candle in his hands, and with Ethan and Aiden in the background with the garden hose and the fire extinguisher, just in case. He looked at the candle and felt for the warmth inside of himself again, and then he imagined in his head that he was lighting the candle. When he had opened his eyes he saw that the candle had been lit, and he had blown it out and tried it again and again until he could do it without having to close his eyes to imagine it.

After his success with the candle, he tried to levitate the feather again, but his dad still wouldn't let him practice inside and the feather kept blowing away outside, so he decided to try levitating a stick instead. He did it the same way as with the candle, he tried to feel his magic and then he imagined that the stick was floating, and so it did. After the stick, he tried making other things levitate. He started with a small rock, then a big branch, and then just for fun he tried to levitate both Aiden and Ethan at the same time. Something that neither of them appreciated, at least the first time, but if he told them that he was going to do it before he made them float around. It was more fun for Stiles to not warn them though.

To say that he was happy with the results of his magical practice is an understatement, and considering the controlled and structured kinds of magic were more difficult for him, Stiles is almost certain that he might actually be a spark. That would explain why he finds it easier to perform magic acts by just imagining it, rather than to use a spell to accomplish the same results. It would also explain why the magic came so easy to him so suddenly, and because he already knows that werewolves exist then it's not that big of a leap to assume magic exists as well, and since it's not that big of an obstacle for him to believe in magic then it shouldn't be that difficult to use magic either.

If his research is to be believed the powers a Spark has aren't something they're born with but something that can show up later in life, usually when there is a lot of unrest amongst supernatural creatures. Which is something that is definitely a good description of Beacon Hills recently, and then it wouldn't be too strange if Stiles suddenly became one, or realize that he is one.

It would make his life even more difficult and dangerous than it already is, if the book is right and Sparks were hunted to the point that everyone thought that they went extinct, than Stiles needs to be careful and not just anounce to everyone he meets that he might be a Spark. Unless he wants to be on the run for the rest of his life, or be hunted down to either be killed or to be used for his powers.

After figuring out how to use his magic, and how to control it, Stiles started to read more about familiars. The more research he has done about supernatural creatures the more certain he is that the only possible explanation for Lady, is that she is some type of familiar. It would make a lot of sense considering everything that has happened with her, like the fact that he has always felt drawn to her, that he decided to talk to her rather than just bring her out of the house, and the fact that she has grown so much in such a short amount of time. And to be perfectly honest to himself, he kind of wishes that she is his familiar, it would be awsome to have such a connection to another being, someone that would know and understand everything he thinks and has to go through, and is still happy to stay. Stiles already thinks of Lady as his very best friend, he would do anything for her, and he knows she would do the same for him.

It should not have come as a surprise that when everything is going great, something was bound to happen, like being confronted by Scott, having his friends find out about the supernatural world, and Lady biting Scott. Even if he would have preferred for things to keep going right, he had in the back of his mind been waiting for something to go wrong.

~~~

When he gets the phone call, Stiles honestly doesn't know what to think or how to feel, although he should have anticipated something like this happening.

After hanging up on Allison, Stiles turns towards Lady and tries to look scolding but he's sure it's not working well enough because he could swear that if she had had a human face she would definitely be smirking proudly right now.

"You bit Scott?" Stiles sighs.

"Yes" is the very helpful answer he gets from her.

"Right, well apparently your venom has gotten potent enough that Scott is apparently close to dying," he begins, and he knows that he should feel something about it, maybe anger at Lady, or worry about Scott, but he is just scared. Because he knows that he can't bring Lady with him to save Scott, not if he wants her to stay alive and safe, Deaton would definitely decide that she is too dangerous to let her live, and since she is 'just' a spider none of them would have a problem with hurting or killing her. At the same time he can't let Scott die either, no matter what he feels about Scott, he would definitely feel guilty if Scott died when he could have done something about it. "So, I'm going to Deatons' and I'll see if I can do something to help, but you are going to stay here," maybe Stiles can manage to heal Scott with his magic, and that way he won't have to involve Lady at all, and at the same time keep her safe.

'You are not leaving without me human!' Lady thinks to him, apparently, she's had enough of talking aloud.

"I can't take you with me, Lady, they know you bit him, and they think the only way to cure him is to use your venom, and I know that they won't be careful with getting it. They might hurt you, or worse, just for biting him in the first place, and I refuse to be a part of anything that could be in any way harmful to you," Stiles's voice is firm, he needs her to understand that he can't take her with him this time.

'Please, Lady, stay here just this once. I can't lose you, and I just might if you don't stay here', He tells her through their bond, and hopes that his desperation for her safety will be enough to get her to listen to him.

"Very well, human. I shall stay here," is the answer he gets from her, and he can't help but give her a small smile.

"Thank you, Lady," he says and then he turns to look at his friends. He feels so much sympathy for Mandy and Sean, to have their whole world changed so quickly and irrevocably, nothing will ever be the same whether they want it to or not. Unfortunately, Stiles doesn't have time to ease them into their new worldview just yet, and he regrets that because he truly doesn't want to lose them. He looks at all four of his friends and can't help but feel a pang in his chest, no matter what happens from now on, he'll make sure all of them will be fine.

"Right, well I have to get to the clinic," he looks at the twins, "Aiden?" Said twin looks at him, "I'd like it if you came with me." He gets a nod from Aiden and then he looks at Ethan, "And can you take care of Lady for me, Ethan? And make sure Mandy and Sean are alright, and that they get home safely if they want to go home?" he asks and gets a nod from Ethan as well. Then he grabs his backpack, his keys, his phone and then makes his way to the front door with just one last look at his friends and his spider before he walks outside with Aiden just behind him. He doesn't have a bad feeling about this, but he also doesn't have a good feeling, he can only hope that everything goes as well as possible. He starts his car and starts to drive.

~~~

When they get to the clinic, Derek is waiting outside for them. Stiles does his best to ignore the werewolf until he starts growling at Aiden, and he sighs as he realizes that he needs to deal with this before dealing with Scott.

"Cut it out Derek, if you want me to help Scotty, then you'll leave Aiden be or we'll just leave again," he's not lying but not really telling the truth either, he isn't going to let Scott die just because they're not friends anymore but he's also not going to let anyone threaten or hurt any of his friends either.

"You would let Scott die for this?" Derek sounds incredulous, and Stiles can't blame him, when they first met Stiles and Scott had been pretty much inseparable. But that was then.

"After everything Scott has done to me, do you really want to try me?" his tone was dark and made his point because Derek looked shocked but took a step back and let Stiles and Aiden walk inside the clinic without further problems.

Stiles walked inside and continued past everyone, apparently Scott dying means every member of the pack needs to be present. Although he supposes that makes sense, he'd want to be there for his friends if they were dying. He walks over to where Scott is lying, he's asleep but sweating and mumbling. He really looks as if he's dying, and it brings up all of the memories of Scott's worst asthma attacks when he'd genuinely thought that his best friend was about to die, but it also doesn't stop the anger and betrayal he feels for the wolf either. He's brought out of his thoughts by Lydia of all people, "Where is the spider? We're going to need it to cure Scott." Her tone of voice grates on Stiles, something he never would have thought possible before, but she's talking about Lady as if she doesn't mean anything, as if she's just a thing that can be used and not as if she is a sentient being. But then Stiles remembers that most people don't know that Lady actually is sentient, and that is the only reason that he isn't using his magic on Lydia right now because she doesn't know better.

"She's not here," he answers her instead with as little emotion in his voice as possible, as he places a hand on the bitemark on Scott's arm. It looks horrible, worse than any of the pictures he had found on the internet when he did his research on wolf spiders, and he is amazed that his little mostly harmless spider had done this. He's very glad that his own bite from Lady had barely even hurt after the actual biting was over, and he wonders if that has to do with intent or if she just wasn't that venomous when she had bitten him. He also feels a little bad for Scott, but only a little because he does deserve some pain after all of the shit he's done, and it's not as if Stiles actually thinks that Scott is going to die anyway.

"What do you mean it's not here?" Lydia sounds almost panicked then, "Didn't Allison tell you to bring it with you?" Alright, that is enough no one gets to talk about his Lady like that.

"She is not here because she doesn't need to be here. And also I wouldn't trust any of you with her safety," he makes sure to truly empathize that Lady is not an "it", but then continues, "If you refer to Lady as it one more time, I'm going to make you regret it," and the darkness is back again and very effective as Lydia looks shocked and steps away from him. Stiles turns back to Scott and just as he's about to feel for Lady's venom he's interrupted by Deaton, "No offense meant Stiles, but without your spider, Scott will die, and the longer you're here the sooner he'll die. It's better for everyone if you go and fetch your spider as soon as possible, if it's not already too late," the way it's said Stiles is sure that Deaton is trying to make him feel guilty for not bringing Lady, but the vet also doesn't know that Stiles has magic and can probably fix Scott all on his own. Especially since it was Lady that bit him, and Stiles will always be able to feel her presence whether that is her or her venom. So Stiles ignores Deaton, and everyone else as he places his hand back on Lady's bite and uses his warmth, his Spark, to feel for Lady's venom.

It doesn't take him long to find the venom, it's practically taken over Scott's body and Stiles is sure that if he'd been human then he'd be dead by now. But Scott is a werewolf with fast healing that temporarily keeps the venom from killing him but not from feeling the pain. He is vaguely aware of people talking around him, but he concentrates on his magic, on Lady's venom, and on Scott's life. If he fails Scott will probably die, but if he succeeds then everyone will have questions that he doesn't want to answer. He nudges his magic inside the bitemark and uses it to gather all of the venom in Scott's body so that it's all collected just inside the bite, then he opens his eyes and sees a small container so he takes it in his hand and brings it to Scott's arm, and then he imagines the venom pouring out of the wound and into the container.

Scott's eyes snap open and he gasps a deep breath, and the next moment he has Stiles by the throat against a wall, and Stiles can't help but laugh. Well, wheezing might be a better description as he has a hand squeezing his throat but still, he can't help but feel a little bit of amusement mixed in with his usual negative feelings with Scott.

It took a minute, maybe two, for Stiles to heal Scott, to save his life, and in return, he gets Scott trying to kill him. Well, at least things are back to normal again…

Suddenly Scott is thrown off of Stiles and then Aiden is there to help him up from the floor, and to drain the pain Scott caused.

"Alright then, I'll take that as my cue to leave," he says when he is standing up again. He can't wait to go back home. He just hopes that his relationship with Mandy and Sean hasn't been irreparably destroyed. Stiles doesn't think he could stay in Beacon Hills if he suddenly lost two more friends, but he tries to stay positive, maybe they'll be able to accept all this weirdness. At least he'll still have his dad, Lady, and the twins. He'll probably be okay in the end, even if the way there gets worse than this.

He knows that the only reason he and Aiden manage to get outside of the clinic is that everyone is too shocked to react at first, but as they reach the car he hears everyone coming outside, and he hears someone trying to talk but he honestly doesn't care. He doesn't want to hear anything they have to say, so he uses his magic to slow them down, they won't notice it but it will give him and Aiden the time they need to get inside the car, start it, and drive away.

He feels lighter somehow, even if he's unsure about his friends, he has people he cares about that care for him in return, and he has shown the pack that he isn't helpless and that he doesn't need them. Whatever happens from now on is all up to him, and that feels better than he could have imagined.

He and Aiden talk during the drive, not about anything important, but essentially small talk. Not awkward small talk between strangers, but small talk that you have with someone that you feel comfortable with talking to about the most ridiculous things, and it helps him feel optimistic about the immediate future.

When they get back to the house, Stiles starts to feel dread again. What if Mandy and Sean are still inside? What if theyaren't? He doesn't even know which one he wants to be true, he just wants this day to be over, and to preferably pretend it never happened.

~~~

Lady refused to feel bad about her actions,even if her venom might kill Scott, he deserves all the pain and Lady certainly would not mourn him should he die. She also does not like that her Stiles had left her behind, but at least she can understand why she does not trust the other humans either. However, she will admit that her human has a better chance at protecting himself from them than she would. She might have grown, and she might have gotten a more potent venom, but she still wouldn't be a match for several humans that would want nothing more than to harm her. It does not keep her from worrying of course, but at least he had one of the look-alikes with him.

She kept a close eye on the humans still in her territory, the look-alike that was still there was talking to the other two, and she hoped that he managed to convince them to not abandon her human because she does not think that she will get away with biting another one. Not that that is enough to stop her if they truly hurt her Stiles in any way, but she prefers to not do things that make his life more difficult for him.

As usual, she does not pay attention to what the humans are saying, but she does keep at least two close eyes on their actions and behavior. She thinks that they are acting normal, but she is not an expert on humans so she can't be sure, but they are still talking with the look-alike and she thinks that is a good sign, and they're not being loud or violent. Hopefully, they will behave themselves so that she will not have to do anything that might upset her Stiles more than biting Scott has. She knows that he will forgive her for it and that he could have been more upset than he was but still, she knows her actions hurt him, and normally she would think that unacceptable but when it comes to keeping him safe she will do whatever she needs to do. No matter how much it upsets him, besides she needed to show Scott that her Stiles is not alone and protected.

She settles in to watch the humans, and to wait for her human, she truly wishes that she could have gone with him. She could have convinced him that she could stay hidden from the humans, but she knows she would not have been able to keep that promise if someone even looked at her Stiles in a way she did not approve of. Instead, she stays here and keeps her eyes on his favorite humans in his absence and just hopes that he will come home unharmed and as quickly as possible.

~~~

When Stiles goes to bed that night he's almost dizzy from the events of the day and exhausted beyond belief. His day had started normally, it had been a good day. Then Scott had to come and make it into a bad day, and then it had turned disastrous in little to no time at all. He still doesn't understand what exactly happened today, he'd gone from having casual everyday plans with his friends, to have to explain everything about werewolves to them, to having to save Scott's life while keeping Lady as safe as possible.

He still cannot understand how his life had evolved the way it has. How had it gone from homework and video games to werewolves and magic? After days like today he is very close to wishing that none of these things had happened at all, so that could go back to the point of his life when his biggest worry had been whether or not he'd manage a whole day without getting detention from Mr. Harris. Then again, even with all the drama and life-threatening situations he'd been through recently, he's still happier now than he had been in a long time. Besides, with his incredible luck, any wish he made would come true, and it's just best to leave those types of things well enough alone. He might have magic and could probably fix something like that, but he's seen enough tv and read plenty of books to know that nothing good comes from fulfilled wishes, so he'll have to contain himself. Instead, he lies on his bed, with Lady at his side of course, and thinks over the events of the day. Trying to make sense of everything.

When he and Aiden had gotten back to the house, it was to find that Ethan had managed to calm down Sean and Mandy and explain some things in better detail, so they were all still there and seemed normal. Lady had been the first to notice their return, well aside from Ethan who had probably heard them, and she had been quick to come to him and make sure he wasn't injured. Stiles had been relieved that he had remembered to heal the bruises on his neck that he got from Scott, or his spider would have never had let him out of her sight again.

He had talked to his two human friends for a while, and while they were shocked and still a bit disbelieving about everything, they had said that they didn't look at him or the twins any differently. They were still their friends, and while werewolves and talking spiders was a bit much for anyone, they thought that they could get used to it in time. The humans went home soon after Stiles and Aiden got back from the vet clinic, but with assurances that they would reschedule their plans for tomorrow instead.

The rest of the day had been pretty uneventful, he had to turn his phone off because of all of the calls and texts from the pack that he just couldn't deal with now, but other than that he and the twins had done their homework, eaten dinner, and watched a movie before they all decided to call it a night earlier than normal. It had been an exciting day in the worst way, but he at least hadn't lost any of his friends.

"I love you Lady, but please don't bite anyone else, at least not anytime soon," he said to his spider, whilst petting her. He might have had a long and trying day but he was really enjoying this time with just his spider. He almost misses when it had just been the two of them, but he is so grateful and happy that he also has human friends now, well human and werewolf friends.

"I shall do my best," is the answer he gets back, but he can tell that she means it, as long as she doesn't believe someone to be a threat to herself or to Stiles then she will be on her best behavior.'

"Thanks, I guess I shouldn't expect anything else huh," he teases her, "Well, I guess I should try and get some sleep now, goodnight Lady," he says and turns off his bedside lamp.

"Goodnight human," is the last thing he hears before he falls asleep. He must have been truly exhausted if all it took to fall asleep was to close his eyes.

~~~

Life went on for Stiles, and after only a few days both Mandy and Sean had accepted the supernatural as fact and were more than happy to help Stiles figure out the extent of his powers.

The pack, minus Scott, had cornered him in the parking lot one day after school and had managed to convince him to meet them at Derek's loft later that day. A fact that displeased all of his friends, especially after he had explained everything that had happened since Scott got turned into a werewolf, but Stiles had put a lot of work and effort into keeping these people alive that he felt like he had to at least listen to them.

So he met up with them, with Lady and the twins accompanying him, because none of his friends would let him go alone. They had started off the meeting by apologizing over Scott's behavior, that he had been rejecting Derek as his alpha and that he was now more omega than anything else, and that that was the reason that he was acting the way he was. He didn't think that was a good enough excuse, but they went on, telling him that if they'd known that Scott had lied about the reason why Stiles had stopped coming to pack night, then they would have done something about it. That was something that hit a bit close to home for Stiles because he had longed to hear from just one person that they wanted him around and that they enjoyed spending time with him, but now he had moved on from these people. Sure they could probably move past this and try to be friends again, but if they truly wanted him around then they could have actually come up to him and asked if what Scott had said was really true. Instead, they had chosen to believe Scott, that Stiles had chosen to just turn away from them all and not even tell them why that he had essentially just run away from them because he was afraid of them and everything else.

In the end, everything ended well enough with his former pack, he had told them that they shouldn't apologize for Scott but for their own actions, and then he proceeded to tell them that even if they do apologize for fo that he won't be able to forget how they had treated him. Stiles decided to tell them that he had magic and explained some of the things he could do, but he refrained from telling them that he was a Spark just in case, because he didn't quite trust them with that information. He left the loft feeling better about himself, he had stood up to the people who had hurt him, and then he had gone home and spent time with his new friends, his new pack.

He was on friendly terms with the pack now, even if he weren't friends with them, and he had his new pack and he had his Lady. He felt like his life was well on the way to being the best it possibly could be.

He spent his days in school, and afterward, he would go home, and depending on the day and the amount of homework they all had, they'd either go out and do something fun or spend the rest of the day at one of their houses. Usually, Stiles's house though, because that's where Lady felt most comfortable. He practiced using his Spark every day, sometimes he tried difficult or "impossible" things, other times he just tried to do small tricks, but the more he used his magic the more powerful he felt. He knew that he would be able to protect himself against supernatural threats now if he had to, and as his powers grew so did Lady. No one really noticed at first, but then one day they had all been in the Stilinski's living room when Lady had come down from Stiles' room and started to complain that her enclosure was too small to be comfortable. That had everyone really looking at her, and just as Stiles had been shocked the first time he noticed her growing in size, now everyone was shocked as they stared at his spider. Stiles remembers thinking that it was a good thing that they were on break from school because there was no way that he could have brought Lady with him if she was this size. She had gone from almost 3 inches to almost 6 inches in size, and again no one had really noticed it happening.

After that Stiles began to figure out how he could possibly bring Lady with him when he went outside, he started practicing how to make things invisible to everyone, and then just invisible to some people. However, as he used more and more magic on or around his spider, she grew larger and larger, almost as if she was feeding on his magic. After a while, Lady noticed that she herself could use some of the magical residues from Stiles' Spark to do little tricks of her own. Suddenly she could move much faster than any spider, and she also learned how to control her size, so that while she might really now be closer to 8 inches, she could both shrink down to her original size as well as grow even larger than she is now.

They had had a lot of fun the first time they showed off her new ability to his father and his friends. They had all been in the living room, including Stiles' dad, eating pizza and watching movies, when Mandy noticed that Lady wasn't there. That was unusual as his spider had become a great fan of pizza, and would never let herself miss an opportunity to steal some from the closest person. Lady having decided that she wanted everyone's attention that night, had chosen that exact moment to walk into the living room, not that unusual in itself, but this time she had walked inside and been the size of a chihuahua. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to just stare at the impossibly large spider, and it took several minutes for anyone to react.

The first person to say something was Sean, "What the fuck!?" Stiles couldn't have stopped laughing if he tried, and he felt in that moment that nothing could destroy what he had here.

He had the best friends he could think of, his dad that really should have given up on him ages ago but hadn't, and most importantly he had his Lady. The one being in the world that he probably couldn't ever live without anymore, and the one that had probably saved his life. Because if he had gone on the way he had before he met Lady, then he would have most certainly gotten himself killed one way or another, just to prove to people that didn't care about him as much as he had wanted and as much as he had about them, that he wasn't useless.

Here he was now, with his family, his pack, and he would give everything to keep this, and he would give up his Spark without a second thought if it meant he could stay like this forever.