Chapter 34: The Third Trial

"It looks like Kate hasn't particularly enjoyed missing her pinkie and thumb," Lydia pointed out, watching the woman fumble her fork in her left hand. It clattered loudly against her plate. She simply glared at it, working her jaw. "I wonder what she told them happened. Maybe she told them she was messing around with some spells she shouldn't have been."

Stiles shrugged in disinterest, grinning as he saw Melissa making her way down the middle aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. He leaned back, grinning up at her. "Morning, Mama McCall, how are you feeling today?"

She smiled patiently at him, stopping to ruffle Scott's hair affectionately. She was glowing around the edges, as if a fire had been lift beneath her skin. Stiles would have been worried if he didn't know the reason behind it. "Fine, thank you for asking, Stiles. Are you ready for the last Task?"

"Well, whether I am or not isn't going to stop it from happening, is it?" he asked a little hopefully, turning pleading eyes to her.

She laughed, patting him on the top of the head like his mother used to, like she still did in his dreams as she gave her lessons. "I'm afraid to say that it won't." With another ruffle of Scott's hair, she turned towards the staff table, eyes focused on the Sheriff where he sat with Chris Argent and Rafael McCall.

"I don't know what's up with her," Scott muttered under his breath, "She's all glowy and beautiful and more motherly than usual. Not that she'd not those things all the time, but it's weird how much she is right now. I can't think of what's happened."

Stiles glanced over to Derek. After what he'd done to Kate and Peter, Stiles had coaxed the secret that Derek had been intending to hold with him to his grave from his fingers. They hadn't told the pack save for Lydia because she would have figured it out one way or another, and Melissa had only started showing a little in the last month. She and the Sheriff would announce their happy surprise to them when they were good and ready to.

Spring was beginning to show its face in the form of a rose bud here and there and a handful of green leaves attached to the Whomping Willow. By the time Melissa delivered, Summer would be in full swing, and it would nearly be time for their seventh and final year at Hogwarts to begin.

"Maybe, if you learned to use your nose and not just your eyes, you would figure it out," Derek commented absentmindedly around a strip of bacon, his eyes focused on the book he had propped up in front of him. The rest of the pack turned bemused eyes towards him. He didn't look up. "That's all the information I'm giving you."

"Spoil sport," Cora muttered.

"You should have figured it out a long time ago. You were born, not made. Anyway, learning is part of the fun."

"I beg to differ," Erica interjected.

Stiles was opening his mouth to retort when Deaton stood from his chair, looking over the students as the hall went silent. "Everyone, if you will please exit the Great Hall, the Third Task will begin momentarily once we have made the space ready."

Stiles, Kira and Allison shot to their feet, staring at him in something like horror. "We're having the Trial in here?" Stiles shouted.

"Yes. I suggest you three run and ready yourselves. Your Trial will begin in ten minutes."

"What?" they cried together, glaring at him.

Deaton narrowed his eyes at Stiles, his gaze flickering to Kate's hand for a mere millisecond before returning. "Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent, Kira Yukimura, go prepare for your Trial or it will begin immediately and you will not get any time at all."

…..

Stiles was going to vomit. Actually, he was pretty sure that all three of them were going to vomit, and then they'd absolutely have to postpone the Trial for virtue of all three champions having come down with the flu, or maybe he'd convince the other two to shove some puking pasties into their faces with him and go from there. His knees were all but knocking together, and even as he reached out to the rest of the pack for comfort, he couldn't dispel the feeling that this Trial was going to end up with someone's blood being spilled, whether it was his or Peter's or Kate's.

He didn't want to think about what the look Deaton had thrown him earlier had meant. He only needed to know that it hadn't been pleasant.

Calcifer mewled worriedly at him from the Sheriff's shoulder, spewing a gentle stream of fire in his direction. Stiles threw him and the Sheriff a wan smile, bile rising in his throat. His head jerked back around as the doors to the Great Hall slowly began to creak open.

Deaton stood just out of the sweep of the doors. He was grim as he began to speak. "Champions, this is your last Trial. You will each be assigned a proctor. They will be there to not only administer the Trial, but to pull you out if they believe you cannot complete it or that your life is in danger. A proctor had been chosen from each school. Allison Argent, you proctor will be Peter Hale. He has returned from his leave of grieving, and has graciously offered to be your proctor. Stiles Stilinski, your proctor will be Kate Argent. Kira Yukimura, your proctor will be Moshiko Yukimura."

Fear clouded Kira's face. "I-isn't that against the rules or something? She's my mother! She's impartial to my well-being!"

"Sometimes a parent is the best choice to push a child to the limit, and in this case, I believe that to be more true than usual," he told her curtly, "Your proctors will draw out your worst fears. It is up to your proctor whether they go full force, or remain as the minimum. They may increase the level of the spell at any point in time throughout this Trial. Guidelines have been set up for each proctor to ensure the trial is conducted fairly."

Swallowing thickly, Stiles said, "You haven't told us what the Trial is going to be."

Deaton blinked. "Oh, haven't I? Champions, your next Trial will be to face your worst fears and to overcome them."

…..

The three if them stood with their backs to their proctors, watching as Deaton and Professor Natalie Martin cast barrier spells between each of them and in front of them. "These will be for not only your own protection from each other, but for the protection of the students and staff members who will be watching you battle with yourself." Deaton paused, standing in front of the doorway as his eyes skimmed over each pair in turn. "This is as dangerous for you as it is for your proctors. If you die in your mind, your body will die as well. The same goes for your proctors, as they will be hovering on the edges of your consciousness. Be careful. Be mindful. And do your best. We will be waiting here when you succeed."

Stiles and Allison were shoved to their knees while Kira carefully dropped to hers. They each trembled. Glancing to each other, their expressions hardened, and they nodded.

Turning his eyes back to the crowd behind Deaton, Stiles found his pack, stopping on each member in turn before focusing on Derek. Kate pressed the tip of her wand to the back of his neck, right at the base of his skull. Derek nodded to him as Deaton called for the Trial to begin.

He was plunged into darkness, and somewhere in the distance, Allison began to scream.

…..

Fire roared to life around him, sending him sprawling back against the dry leaves blanketing the ground. The house before him, his father's house, or was it Scott's, or the Hale house, was engulfed in flames. They rose into the night sky, obscuring the stars, but sending up stars of their own. Embers tumbled through the night sky on a breeze that ran its gentle fingers through his hair.

From within the house, screams carried over the howl of the fire. He could make out each voice of his pack: Derek's, Lydia's, Scott's.

"No!" he screamed, lunging forward. His feet slipped out from under him, his knees cracking against hard earth. He scrambled forward on hands and knees, reaching towards the hands that shoved through the small barred window leading to the basement.

A form stepped in front of him, blocking his path. The screams grew louder, more ragged, more agonized. Kate stared down at him, a smile twisting up the corners of her lips. She threw her head back, reveling in the screams of those behind her. "Those are the sounds I love. Oh, they gives me the shivers. They're almost as beautiful to hear as when I burned the Hales." She rolled her head forward to stare at Stiles once more. "They're screams were nothing compared to your bitch mother's though, and oh, did she scream."

Stiles shot to his feet, eyes burning as red as the fire. "Shut up!" he snarled, his alpha's authority leaking into his words with his magic, but unlike with the pack, that only stymied her for a moment.

"Why? It's only the truth. She screamed and screamed. She cried for her alpha, but the Hale bitch never came. She left your mother to be gutted and murdered, just like Derek will eventually leave you."

"No, she didn't, she wouldn't! She protected her alpha and her pack until the moment she died! She died protecting me from a fire you'd tried to set upon me! I remember! You can't lie to me, and I will die before I ever let you do that-" He thrust a finger towards the burning house with its slowly silencing occupants. "-to my family and my pack!"

"Oh, I'd like to see you try and stop it. What can you, a useless pup playing at alpha, at leader, at emissary, at lover, ever hope to do to me? You're weak. You're useless. Your alpha thinks so, your pack thinks so, your family thinks so. You couldn't even protect the one that was the most human out of all of you. What can you do to me?"

Danny was beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He was immaterial and wispy, his voice far off and breathy, but his own all the same. "Stiles, don't. You don't have to stoop down to her level. You're better than she is."

"I have to, Danny. This is the only way it's all going to stop. She not going to stop hunting us until she's dead. It's the only way. I'm sorry."

Sighing, Danny cupped his cheek. "I understand. Just... don't leave Derek alone. If you died, Kate wouldn't have to spill blood with her own hands to get what she wants."

"I'll try my best," Stiles told him, pressing the tip of his wand into Danny's sternum. "Requiescat in pace. We will see you in the next life." With his whispered spell, Danny faded alongside the burning house. The black world grew silent around them. Stiles turned back to Kate. "We're going to end this here and now, Kate."

A grin spread across her lips, her hand tightening around her wand hilt. "Oh, this will be fun. I'm looking forward to spreading your innards across this forest."

…..

Stiles startled from the blackness he'd been thrust into. Warm liquid spilled down his back, and blood leaked from the deep fissure that Kate had carved into his chest. He coughed weakly, the copper tang of blood slipping across his tongue. Turning, he stared up into Kate's blank eyes.

Her hand had gone slack, her wand laying several feet away from them. Blood spilled from her mouth and the hole Stiles had blasted through her chest. Stiles threw himself backwards, away from Kate's body. Slowly, she dropped to her knees and then face first into the stones.

"Stiles!" Derek shouted just as Scott and Isaac shouted, "Allison!"

Stiles' head jerked around to stare over at Allison and Peter, watching as Peter, arrows embedded across his body, one protruding from his forehead, dropped away from her.

The crowd was stunned into silence, staring at the two bodies littering the Great Hall, at Stiles as he scrambled away from what he'd done, at Allison and Kira as they clawed their way from the darkness of their own minds.

In the next moments, there was a flurry of activity. Kira and Allison came to screaming. Deaton dropped the barriers. The three champions were carted away to the Hospital Wing, Derek and the pack fighting against the restraining hands of the teachers. The bodies were covered with sheets, and a place was found to put them away from prying eyes.

The Triwizard Tournament had ended in blood as it so often seemed to do.