Chapter 23: Like Mother, Like Son

"Lydia," Stiles sang silently, reaching out for her individual spark of life as he had with Derek. He'd had too much time to practice, and yet, was making slow but steady progress in learning to handle his new ability. "Come here, Lydia."

A warm hand covered his own, drawing his attention back to Danny who was making a valiant attempt to practice their charms homework, though he was continually getting distracted by whatever he had playing on the phone in his lap. "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked, retracting his hand once he'd gotten Stiles' attention. He glanced back down at his phone with a frown, tapping at it quickly.

Stiles' tried not to feel the hurt that welled up inside of him when Danny pulled away. Danny wasn't his boyfriend anymore and he had a mate, let alone a boyfriend, in Derek, so he knew he had no right to be feeling the way he did, but still, it stung more than he wanted to admit.

"I need to talk to Lydia for a little while, so I'm going to see if she can take over for you," he finally explained, sending another request along their connection.

Danny shivered as some of his request bled into the bond they shared, warmth slipping through his body. "You couldn't just send her a plane, or an owl, or your patronus?" While Stiles had been practicing how to use his new ability, Danny had been trying to learn how to shut out Stiles' magic. He didn't know if he truly wanted to, but it was better to know how to and not need to, than to not know and need to.

"I'm practicing," Stiles replied primly, turning his head to his lifted shoulder and batting his lashes. A grin slid across his lips as the pulse was returned, leaving his mouth tasting of strawberries. While he'd been practicing himself, Lydia had been practicing to see if the bond worked both ways. In most things, they'd found that it had. They'd also discovered that it only worked from one of the pack going to Stiles, but not from one of the pack to another member, such as Lydia to Danny. Their next project was to build a bond using each other's magic that could traverse between members without needing Stiles as a middleman. "She's headed this way now."

Smiling with a roll of his eyes, Danny began to collect the study material he'd neglected. "Oh good, now I can go watch Violet and Garret figure out how to enchant weapons." He deposited an older cell onto Stiles' lap.

"Or you could go make-out with Ethan in the green house?" Stiles suggested with a raised eyebrow, fingers already moving ceaselessly over the new item he'd been given.

Danny pursed his lips. "Ethan and I... are… taking a break," he replied slowly, working his tongue around his mouth as if it left a sour taste along his tongue. "Or I could go watch your best friend and Issac drool over Allison and Kira, and trip around each other because they're confused and don't realize that bisexuality is an actual thing."

Using all his strength to force his face to remain straight, Stiles choked down his laughter. "Yes, or you could go do that. Another thing you could do is try to find some information on the first task for me? Pretty please? Something has got to have leaked by now." He smiled broadly, batting his lashes up at Danny. "The task is only a week away and none of us have heard a word about it."

As Lydia pushed into the Hospital Wing, Danny sighed dramatically. "I think… no," he said decisively, brushing passed her as Stiles' face fell. Turning back at the door with a shake of his head, he called, "Just kidding. I'll see what I can do. Oh, and your favorite shows are on that phone I left with you in case you get bored with Jackson or one of the others."

"Thanks, Danny!" Stiles shouted, his smile returning full force.

"Only for you," he called back, letting the door slam shut behind him.

Propping her hands on her hips, a creature with fluffy feathers perched on her shoulder. It reminded him of a pigmypuff. "What did you call me out of my extracurricular for? I already had watch with you for today."

Stiles waved her toward him, his arms raised, his hands clenching and unclenching in his show of neediness. Sighing, she stepped forward into his arms, leaning into his hug and pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth. "What can I do for you, Stiles?"

"Can you help me up to the Divination Tower?" he asked, resting his head in the crook between her shoulder and neck.

Lydia jerked back, staring at him with eyebrows that frowned as much as her mouth. "The Divination Tower? What would you need in the Divination Tower? Can't you just send someone up there to get it?" she asked, sitting on the edge of his bed, "You're legs still aren't healed enough for that trip."

"I need to use one of the crystal balls, and it would be strange if one just went missing. You know how Professor Argent is. She would know one was missing the moment it was taken from the room," Stiles explained, ringing his hands together. He'd explained his dream to Lydia, Derek and Scott, but he didn't know how much more he would be able explain. He didn't understand it all that much himself.

Lydia rubbed at her brow wearily. "What would you need a crystal ball for?"

"Well… my dreams are clear, but I don't get them all that often, so I thought maybe a medium would be a good way to go."

"Why a crystal ball then?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "Dad said that Mom had an affinity for crystal balls. I figured, just maybe, so will I."

Lydia groaned, sliding from the bed to her feet. "Fine, alright, I'll take you. Are you going to change?"

Blinking at her as if wondering if she'd really just asked that question, he said with as much sarcasm as possible, "Yes, I'm going to struggle out of my comfy pajamas into my clothes just to be uncomfortable up all those stairs." Sliding from the cot, he used Lydia's arm to stand on shaky legs. He still hadn't regained their total function, and even now, he couldn't rightly feel them. He slung the robe Derek had left the last time he'd been on watch around his shoulders, grumbling dispassionately at the way the hem kissed the floor and how it sagged around his shoulders. "You know, this is exactly why I'm always stealing Scott's clothing instead of Derek's. I actually fit into the stuff."

Lydia grinned. "But you sure do look cute, and I'll bet the size difference makes from some amazing cuddling."

Sticking his tongue out at her childishly, he took his first tentative step forward. She pulled his arm around her shoulders, supporting a portion of his weight. "We're not that different in size! He's just a little bit taller than me."

"And a lot more built than you, you scrawny little pixie," she told him without malice.

"I'm not a pixie. I'm like a druid or something, like Deaton except not."

"You know that made no sense, correct?"

Stiles sighed. "Yeah, I know." He stumbled over his feet, catching himself against another cot. Tears stung his eyes, even as Lydia pulled him up straight again.

Staring at him worriedly and wiping away a tear that had escaped from the prison of his lashes, she murmured, "Come on, let's get you into that tower. You can do it."

…..

"Here looks good. It's right by the fire too," Lydia said, easing Stiles into a chair.

He collapsed gratefully into the plush cushion, leaning his head against the back of the chair to keep his tears at bay. His legs trembled, aching from the strain of climbing so many stairs after not having been used for so long. The loss of his freedom and independence ate him from the inside out.

Lydia set a crystal ball, already cloudy through and through, onto the center of the table. Taking a seat across from Stiles, she stared into the crystal. "It's only a little cloudy to me, right now. What about you, Stiles? See anything?"

Taking a deep breath, Stiles sat forward, crossing his arms on the table top. Silence fell about them as they stared into the globe, waiting impatiently for something, anything to happen.

"I don't thi-" Lydia started, but her words fell away as Stiles' vision went black.

…..

Stiles prowled along the forest floor, his paws falling softly on the fallen leaves and needles. Small animals –'prey' his wolf supplied- scurried out of his path, disappearing into the safety of darkness. The moon, waxing ever closer to full, blinked in and out of view through the tangled branches overhead.

The unmistakable scent of human, full of youth and strong, flitted across his nose. Excitement and daring and arousal permeated the scent. Laughter rang high through the trees, his ears swiveling to pinpoint the human's location.

Creeping forward, he crouched low, following the human's movement with narrowed eyes. There were two of them, a male and a female. They laughed and snarled at each other, throwing a round, medium sized object between them. A ball. "This muggle game is so stupid," the girl quipped even as she caught the ball, pulling back her arm to return it.

"You're still playing though," the boy pointed out, fumbling the ball with a wheeze of air when it slammed into his breast bone.

"Only because it's the only thing to do out here."

"There's plenty to do if you have an imagination."

The boy would be good in the pack, if he survived the turn. The girl too, he mused. His wolf raked at him, urging him to give them both the bite, to begin the turn within them, to release the wolf that lurked just beneath the surface of their skin.

The girl threw the ball at the boy's face. "Don't be a pervert."

"I wasn't-"

Stiles lunged forward, digging his teeth into the boy's hand. Blood splashed across his tongue, screams filled his ears. "Liam!" the girl screeched, holding her wand close to her body. She stammered, her arm trembling as she attempted a spell. Dirt and leaves exploded between them, and Stiles leapt through the falling debris.

He was tackled to the ground by another body. A clawed hand curled in the scruff of his neck, dragging him through the trees and slamming him into a tree. He struggled back to his paws, snarling deep in his throat. The girl's screams were still filling the forest, red sparks bursting over their heads in the night sky.

A man stood before him, eyes red as the sunset, claws sprouting from curled fingertips. "This is not your territory, Hale boy!"

"Nor is it yours," Stiles replied calmly, his hackles settling back into place.

"It is more mine than yours. Your territory is in Beacon Hills. Leave this to me. You've already stolen two of my betas."

Stiles laughed nastily, exposing his teeth in a sneer. "You didn't keep a tight enough hold on them. They are my pack now."

The man glowered. "As, it seems, are all of the young ones that you've been turning. If you're not more careful, you are going to end up killing one of them, and then we'll all be screwed."

"My territory and pack are being threatened. I need them."

"We are surely being threatened by the same thing, or the same family, then."

"It appears so." They stared each other down for several long moments, listening to the girl sobbing, the boy groaning in pain, off in the distance and the rustle of the trees.

The man turned, gearing up to lope off into the forest, but paused, turning back. "A piece of advice for you, Hale boy, I would keep that peculiar mate of yours close. There are people who are invested in destroying your pack, and will not hesitate to use him to their advantage."

Stiles balked. "What? Stiles? Is he in danger?"

A smirk lifted the corners of the man's mouth. "He is always, and has always since the day he came into this world, been in danger. Be careful, Hale boy, or I may just steal him as my own."

Stiles released a bark of fiery.

…..

Someone violently shook him, calling for him in sharp, piercing cries. "Stiles! Stiles, wake up! Stiles, come back to me! Stiles!"

He floated in and out of the darkness, his head rolled back against his neck. Blood coated his hands, filled his mouth. Pain exploded through his abdomen as if he'd been stabbed. Lydia's screams filled his ears. Fire burned through his body.

There was blood every, coating everything. The bodies of his friends surrounded him, their dead eyes staring accusingly up at him.

There was Allison, an arrow protruding from her abdomen. There was Kira, her arm ripped from her body, blood pooling beneath her. There were the twins, their bodies broken at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower, Danny clutching at the front of Ethan's cloak. There was Cora, severed in half as Laura had been. There was Jackson, his throat ripped clean from his body. There was Malia, her lower jaw ripped from her body, her snout covered in crimson. There was Isaac, Erica and Boyd all crumbled over each other, slashes exposing the white bone beneath their faces. There was Scott, torn to shreds across the leaf strewn grasses of Hogwart's grounds.

And then there was Derek, his body burned nearly beyond recognition, his flesh just barely clinging to bone.

Stiles stared down at his trembling hand, a scream crawling up his throat.

"You should have stayed out of it," a voice, too sweet with triumph cooed over him. A wire wrapped ever so gently around his throat, fire burning along it's edge. Throat straining against the wire, his scream continued long and interrupted. "You should have let him to me." The wire snapped taut.