What's up, dudes? New chapter comin at you. FAIR. WARNING. I mayyyy have taken a pretty famous Stydia scene and removed the -ydia from it, but this is my story y'all and for me and the character I've written it just makes a little more sense to have it this way.


"We've got to get out of here, dude. We have to get to Derek before she does." Stiles didn't respond to Scott, he just kept staring at the pile of broken glass on the ground below them. "Stiles?"

"My – " he choked, "we, uh...we gotta – Lydia, Em..."

"Ok, you get them downstairs, get them to one of your dad's deputies." Scott grabbed his friend by the shoulders. "You got it, Stiles?"

"Yeah, I – I'll meet you there."

Scott stopped in front of Emma and knelt down to her. Lydia laid in her arms completely frozen, white knuckles clenched on to her shirt.

"Hey Em, how you holding up?" His tone was gentler now, hushed.

Her face had gone white with shock. "Scottie," she hadn't called him that since they were kids, "w-what the hell is going on? Where – how could? Sheriff?"

He wrapped his arms around her, "I'm so sorry, Em. We didn't want you involved in any of this. Get Lydia help and get home. Stay safe."


She didn't think things were going to get any crazier after that, but they did. Trying to explain how it was Ms. Blake that jumped out of a second story window and kidnapped a full grown man was like fighting a losing battle when they were focused on a piano murdering someone. No one listened. Emma realized she had been right in her assumption about the teachers, the concert pianist was their choir teacher meaning that in a morbid twist of fate, there were plenty of paramedics to look after Lydia. Stiles grabbed Emma and turned her toward him, his hands resting firmly at the base of her neck and thumbs at her jawline to hold her line of sight.

"Promise me you're going home, Emma. I need you safe, promise me."

She held on to his forearms, "Stiles what is happening? Not just tonight, the murders, that fight in the locker room – Boyd? What are you guys hiding?"

"You – you saw that? How much Emma, what did you see?"

"More than you guys are willing to tell me. I have secrets too, Stiles, but mine aren't getting other people killed."

"Yeah and you can't be one of them, alright? Go home, text me when you get there and lock everything, ok?"

Emma wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Don't be one of them either, you hear me Stilinski?"

"Em," he called as she turned to leave.

"I'll text you when I get home."

As she tried to leave a second time, a small hand latched to her wrist. Lydia's.

"Emma?" Her voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper, no doubt raw from the scream she unleashed not even half an hour ago.

"These guys are going to take care of you, ok?" Lydia hugged the panic blanket closer to her as her legs dangled off the back of the ambulance. A silent 'thank you' fell off of her lips as the tears that had been brimming throughout the entire traumatic experience finally ran down her face.


Stiles

As long as you're safe I don't
need an explanation.

I'm home safe now so promise
me you will be too.
9:53 PM

Home now.
1:27 AM

Good.
READ.


Another two days had passed and the situation had only disintegrated further. Sheriff Stilinski, Melissa McCall, both missing. Both taken. Nobody was eating, nobody was talking. Emma wondered, was this what it was like when others looked at her? Was this weakness how they saw her all the time? She scowled at the thought while sorting through her locker, Stiles and Lydia stumbling behind her toward the locker rooms.

"Ok, come on," Lydia coached a hyperventilating Stiles. "Just try and think of something else, anything else!"

"Like what?"

"Happy things," Lydia knew she was grasping at straws, "good things uh...friends, family – ugh, I mean, not family. Oh god. Stay here."

Emma heard her name being screeched from down the hallway.

"Emma! Emma, please, it's Stiles!"

Books hit the ground and her feet carried her as fast as humanly possible toward Lydia.

"He's having a panic attack – I don't know what else to do! I might actually have a panic attack over not being able to stop a panic attack."

"Lydia, do me a favor. Shut up for a minute," Emma sat down in front of Stiles. "Stiles look at me, ok? You've got to steady your breathing with me now. In–out–in– "

"I can't...I can't – "

"Shh, Stiles. Look at me." Emma cradled his face in her hands but his breathing still escalated. She turned back to Lydia, "You keep your mouth shut about this."

Before Lydia could even question what it was made plainly obvious. Emma was kissing, and now pulling away from, Stiles. All traces of irregular breathing disappeared in the still silence between them.

"H-how'd you do that?" Stiles stuttered through the fresh air in his lungs.

"I just – know a thing or two about panic attacks. You um, you couldn't self regulate so I needed to, distract you so you could level out."

"...Thanks, that's really smart."

"No, I'm just experienced...with panic attacks, not – oh god I left all my stuff on the floor in the hallway." Emma bolted out of the locker room, but not before turning to Lydia and saying, "Maybe sign him up for a few sessions in the guidance office?"


Again more of her friends disappeared. Emma didn't see Lydia or Stiles for the rest of the day, Scott had left too, Cora hadn't been to school in days. She didn't know Chris Argent was now missing too, that he was the third taken. She didn't know about the Alpha Pack or the Darach past the ritual sacrifices. Emma didn't realize how insignificant of a scratch she'd made on the maelstrom that was Beacon Hills, but she did know that something was very, very wrong. The things she had seen, the secrets she knew her friends kept from her, it was all too much for a group of teens to be wrapped up in.

"Essentially you, Allison, and Stiles need to be surrogate sacrifices for your parents,"

Deaton explained to Scott and Stiles.

"We die for them?"

"But – he can bring us back. You can...you can bring us back, right?"

"You remember the part where I said it was dangerous?" There was silence between the three of them. "If it goes right, the three of you will only be dead for a few seconds, but there's something else that you need to think about. This is a dangerous thing for more reasons than one, you'll be giving power back to the Nemeton, a place that hasn't had power for a long time. This kind of power is like a magnet, it attracts the supernatural, the kind of things that a family like the Argent's can fill the pages of a Bestiary with. It will draw them here, like a beacon."

"Doesn't...sound any worse than anything we've already seen."

"You'd be surprised at what you have yet to see."

Ice filled the metal water troughs already garnished with mistletoe as Stiles, Scott, and Allison removed their shoes.

"Alright, what did you bring?"

The three pulled out the objects they'd selected as anchors to each of their parents, each serving as a light that would guide them in the direction of their location. A badge, a bullet, a watch.

"Ok, the three of you will get in, and each of us will hold you down until you're essentially – well, dead. But it's not just someone to hold you under, it needs to be someone who can pull you back. Someone that has a strong connection to you, a kind of emotional tether." Lydia started to make her way toward Allison but Deaton stopped her. "Lydia, you go with Stiles."

The group exchanged confused glances before Allison broke through, "Are you sure? I mean, Scott and I both have to go under."

"Given those we have present currently, this is the best, and safest option."

Slowly the substitute sacrifices lowered themselves into the ice baths, teeth chattering, body convulsing in a desperate attempt to generate heat. Just a few seconds, they reassured themselves, grasping on to their items like their lives depended on it. Except lives did depend on it, their parents lives. Each knew what they were about to subject themselves to was a necessary evil, an end to the means of saving their families. Who were they to not value the sacrifices each parent had made in raising them? Any pain, no matter how long it lasted, was worth what they would accomplish. They nodded to each other, to their tethers, and to themselves before finally being pushed below the surface. It was all going to be worth it.


Emma ripped herself up from her bed spread, violently clawing at her chest, her throat. What was happening to her? It was unlike any panic attack she'd ever experienced before in her life, it felt like she was burning inside. Nothing she did, no amount of water she drank or cold compress she applied to her chest could make the scalding she felt to her core subside. Every breath felt like needles running down her windpipe. Her joints ached, they creaked, they froze and locked the harder she tried to push them. She fought for what felt like hours, she missed school, and yet none of that seemed to matter through the fog her brain was in. She hadn't moved all day, just laid there in perfectly unexplained misery. Emma wondered, had anyone found the Sheriff? Had Stiles had another panic attack? How was Lydia? Day after remorse hit her in a pulverizing wave yet still wasn't enough to dull the buzzing.

I don't need this extra stress on my heart. Why did I have to kiss Stiles, why did I say those things? I don't know anything about stopping someone else's panic attack.

Emma did know though, it was one of the few things in all of the craziness of Beacon Hills she was sure of. She had been for years. She couldn't see him hurting like that. Not like she had.

Then, after what she had counted as sixteen hours, the burning in her chest finally subsided.


A/N:

Getting back into this story has actually been a lot of fun for me. Originally I stopped writing because life got in the way and I lost my inspiration for it, but I think I've found it again. I write each chapter while rewatching the episodes it pertains to so I can get things as accurate as possible, and let me tell you what a trip it's been watching the old seasons again. God I love this show, and Finstock is the best damn thing on it.

Let me know what you guys think!