Normal-Stiles jumped up trying to perform his own patented brand of damage control, "Look Dad, I have an evil twin."

The Sheriff looked between the two a few times then settled on his son, "What. Did. You. Do?"

"Why do you automatically assume I did something?" Normal-Stiles whined.

"Stiles!" They both flinched. The sheriff rubbed his forehead as if he had suddenly developed a migraine. He probably had.

Stiles opened and closed his mouth (doing a very good impression of a fish) trying to figure out the best way to answer. Malia came to his rescue, "You see, Sudo-Stiles, comes from and alternate reality where everything totally sucks. Well, except he's a werewolf and Laura Hale is alive. Not anymore, because they're here and not there. So that dimension still sucks. Oh, and apparently everyone there is dead." The girl had obviously been taking lessons on rambling explanations from her boyfriend. She added as an afterthought, "Sir."

Sheriff Stilinski held up his hand to stop her, his eyes closed, "Let me get this straight. Laura Hale is alive, that would be you?" He asked pointing toward Laura. She nodded in affirmation. He pointed to his not-quite-son, "And you're a werewolf?" Another nod. The sheriff continued, "And the two of you are from an alternate dimension?"

"And Lexie," Ethan piped from the back of the room, gesturing at the passed out girl lying beside him.

"Fine," the Sheriff grunted, "The three of you come from a dimension where everyone on Earth is dead?"

"No." That was Laura.

"No?" The wolves quaked under his questioning glare. Sheriff Stilinski would have made one heck of an alpha.

"Just the important ones." That time Not-Stiles answered.

"Who?"

"Uh… the Pack." Laura hesitated. The Pack cringed, well if that wasn't everybody's worst fears confirmed.

"So everyone in this room?" The sheriff was taking this rather well.

"No." Back to the other Stiles.

"No?"

"Just mostly." Still Not-Stiles.

"Mostly?" It was like watching a tennis match, where the pair from the alternate reality was playing doubles against the sheriff.

"Yeah," Laura told him, looking around the room, "I don't recognize her, them, or her." She said as she pointed to Malia, Liam, Mason, and a surprised Cora. She went on, "The Yukimuras left town after Kira died, so I don't know if they were killed too." The Yukimuras did not seem too happy about that revelation and held their daughter close to them.

"Oh, and me," The other Stiles added.

"Ok," the sheriff summed up simply. "So the Pack is mostly dead and you three magically appeared here."

Everybody was nodding. Someone even said, "With a flash and a bang!"

"Yeah, Dad," Normal-Stiles clapped him on the back, "I think that about covers it."

"One question." Sheriff Stilinski scratched his head, "How?"

"Good question, Dad." The Normal-Stiles congratulated his dad. He looked around at the gathered pack, waiting hopefully.

When no answer was forthcoming, Scott gathered up his courage enough to be blunt, "We don't exactly know."

"Ah-huh," was the sheriff's only comment.

"Has anyone seen Peter?" Derek asked the room at large. The Pack shook their heads, all coming to the conclusion that the missing werewolf was somehow responsible.

Scott growled. He still hadn't cooled off from his earlier emotional roller coaster and Peter wasn't his favorite pack-member. No one really liked the man but no one openly hated him, except maybe Lydia. He wasn't even grudgingly a member of the Pack. Scott didn't care enough to begrudge him anything. Usually, Peter stuck close to the sidelines, occasionally proving himself useful. The only reason he had become a part of the pack was because he'd stuck around and hadn't called any attention to himself. Scott wasn't particularly happy with Peter at that moment, though.

The Pack was picking up on his anger and starting to wolf out too. Scott took a few deep breaths, trying to reign in his temper. Besides, they didn't know anything for sure. It was all conjecture and circumstantial evidence. Who said you couldn't learn anything from TV; go Law and Order. Peter deserved the benefit of the doubt.

As Scott calmed, so did his pack. He figured it was time for action. "Derek," the man tensed at the command in his alpha's voice, "find him. Take back-up." Cora and Braeden stood with him. Scott didn't trust either woman very much. He jerked his head for Boyd to follow them. Where Boyd went, so did Erica. It had been that way since they were captured by the alphas. Who knew constant mortal peril was such a great bonding tool. "Isaac."

"Deaton?" Isaac knew his alpha well.

"Deaton." Scott affirmed, "Tell him to bring his med kit; he might as well find out what's wrong with… Lexie." He said trying to remember the girl's name.

Allison got up to go with him. "Actually Allison," They both stopped. "Could you do me a favor?" The Hunter was a little disgruntled with her ex; but she nodded once in consent. "Jackson," Scott called over his shoulder, "go with Isaac." They both left to collect the vet and Allison was even more frustrated that Scott hadn't gotten on with his request. "Could you take Danny, Lydia, and Malia to do research?"

Malia asked, a little awkwardly, "What am I gonna do? If you haven't realized; I'm not really the researching type."

"A second set of eyes never hurt anything." Malia, understanding flashing in her eyes, caught Scott's subtle hint. He trusted her to watch out for the more human element of the pack. She gracefully submitted to her alpha's orders and went with them.

"I'll check if other hunters have heard of anything like this." Chris spoke as he followed in his daughters wake.

The Yukimuras stood as well. "We'll check our own sources for information." Ken paused long enough in his exit to tell Scott.

"Ethan. Aiden. Why don't you check in with the supernatural community?" Scott asked.

"Is that a suggestion or an order?" Aiden snarked back.

"Excuse him," Ethan told Scott, "He gets fussy when he stays up past his bed time." As he ran to catch up with his twin, Scott heard him sigh, "It's going to be a long night."

Normal-Stiles couldn't help his commentary, "Ever notice Lydia always goes out with total douches."

"I don't know," remarked Scott, "Jackson's been decent since he got back from London."

"What do you want me to do?" Liam asked Scott excitedly.

"I think it's time for you and Brett to take Mason and Lori home." Scott told the youngest members of the pack. The puppies drooped in total disappointment so he said, "After that you can see if you can find Ms. Morell."

"Why Ms. Morell?" Brett queried his new alpha.

Scott cracked up at their faces when he jokingly told them, "She's a witch."

O0o.o0O

The room was significantly bigger with so few people left. The atmosphere had changed too. It wasn't as inviting and it was more than a little hostile. Even Melissa was uncomfortable, "I'm going to go bring in the food before we get wild animals. Uh, the kind that doesn't live here… I'm going to go now." She stumbled over words in a spectacularly Stile-like way.

"I'll go with you," Sheriff Stilinski volunteered.

"So, what now?" Kira asked, unsure why she hadn't been given a task. She was kind of stranded there without her parents anyway.

Normal-Stiles almost face planted as he randomly ran from the room. Scott marveled, not for the first time, at his best friend's ability to survive his own uncoordinated nature. That was another disturbing difference between this world's Stile and the other. Not-Stiles stood and stretched with the predatory grace gifted by the Bite.

"I suppose we talk." The other Stiles addressed Kira, but was really talking to Scott. Scott didn't trust the strange man that seemed so familiar. He knew he wouldn't underestimate the man either. The werewolf combined Stiles' quick mind with battle harden instincts. And he had some obvious anger issues to boot. Laura was a virtual unknown. In fact the only thing anyone knew about the trio was what the two wolfs had told them. While they hadn't lied the whole night, Scott wasn't going to take them at face value. Werewolf hearing couldn't detect technicalities, omissions, or half-truths.

Not-Stiles was still pacing as he talked. Habits must transcend dimensions. Scott's Stiles did the same thing to help him think through a problem. "I'm impressed Scotty," The nick-name set Scott's teeth on edge; it wasn't being used for the sake of affection, but to make a distinction. He was being distanced from another, lost Scott. Not Stiles continued,"You handled the inclusion of a wolf to Allison's group with surprising tact. She wouldn't have taken the implied need for help well. Using the buddy system so that everyone would have back up was a nice touch, too."

"We're never lucky enough that it's just one problem at a time." Scott explained, not taking his eyes off of the doppelganger. He was counting on Kira to keep an eye on Laura.

"I know the feeling." Not-Stiles gave a slightly bitter laugh. "So why give the pups a mission then?"

"Liam and Brett will make sure Lori and Mason get home safely and they might actually be able to get ahold of Morell. Otherwise, they'd all be out getting into trouble. They're too much like us." The other Stiles cocked his head in askance. "Like when we went out to the woods to find a body on the full moon." Scott offered.

"We never did that in my world." Duh, Scott thought, there was no body to find in that world. "I presume this was before you got your Bite. We were always too busy on full moons after that." Not-Stiles was shaking his head at their stupidity, "I think my dad would've killed me for interfering in a case. I could never see my Scott running around the woods; he always had problems with his asthma there. You didn't have asthma?"

"No, I did. My Stiles actually convinced me to go that night. It was the night that Peter bit me." Laura tensed, probably realizing that it was her body Scott had gone to find. "How did the other me get the Bite?"

The other Styles laughed again, "After Scott and I failed to make the team; I started picking up hours with Deaton. The time we didn't spend working, we volunteered. I wasn't there with Scott the day he volunteered at Peter's ward. Apparently, you had traits that called out to his wolf and woke him up. The next thing we know, he's dating Melissa and helping my Scott through the transition."

Scott shuddered at the thought of his mom going out with the psycho. "You didn't mind the murders?" He supposed they might not have known, even as he accused.

"They deserved to die." Laura gritted out. Scott felt sick, Peter must have brainwashed them. "They helped cover up my family's murder."

"What about the ones before that?" Scott glared at her in disgust. The effect was immediate. Laura laid out along the ottoman, she had been sitting on, bearing her neck to him.

Not-Stiles stood still and informed him, "Peter never harmed an innocent person. They all admitted to guilt and none of them were under duress when they said it. No one lied. Their deaths were all quick and painless. Peter did a lot of investigation. The only one who never admitted it was Derek. He knew Peter was going to come for him so he challenged him and won. That was that." Scott couldn't believe Stiles, any version, was defending Peter Hale.

Kira asked Stiles, "How did Derek know, Peter was going to come for him."

Stiles looked at her sadly, "He turned me." Scott wasn't sure if he liked the way Not-Stiles looked at her when he explained, "An alpha needs a power base of at least three. He had me, he no longer needed Derek."

"You recognized Erica, Boyd and Isaac." Scott said, remembering the bomb shell Laura let drop earlier.

"We weren't too fond of Derek after that. He needed a loyal power base." Laura told Scott, "We supported Peter when he came back, but he wasn't our alpha. When Peter won against Derek he got those three too. We hadn't known what Derek had done to Jackson."

"What happened to them?" Scott asked.

"Erica and Boyd ran away after Peter came back, they couldn't handle taking orders from someone who had killed their alpha. Ironic huh?" Not-Stiles said, unknowingly echoing what Scott's Stiles had said earlier. "The alpha pack kidnapped them. Isaac was kidnapped too when he went looking for them. Braeden died getting Isaac out."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Scott commented.

"What do you mean?" Laura questioned.

"We thought we saw her die too rescuing Isaac." Scott said letting them think on that for a minute, "So I assume you went looking for them like we did?"

"Yeah but we were too late," Stiles agreed.

Laura growled, "We made them pay." Scott realized he never wanted to seriously be on her bad side.

"We systematically took them out one by one, as a pack." Stiles elaborated.

"How can you allow two of them in the pack?" Laura fumed referring to the twins.

"Laura!" Stiles warned, "It's a lot easier to forgive someone when they haven't killed your family." Scott figured that was probably true.

"You haven't said what happened to Isaac." Kira pointed out.

They both looked upset. Laura wiped her eyes, "We just lost him."

"That's not true. We lost him a while ago. He hasn't… hadn't been the same since Allison's death." Stiles bit out Allison's name.

"He lost too many people. His mom, brother, bastard father, Derek-" Laura started but Stiles took over, "Erica, Boyd, Allison, Danny, Kira, Chris, Melissa. He was just going through the motions at the end. Hunters got him."

Scott noticed his name was missing from the lineup of the dead. But before he could bring it up, his Stiles burst into the room, "I have a jar of dust," He cried happily, showing off his jar of mountain ash. Not-Stiles quirked an eyebrow at his alternate self. "It took forever to find it in all the boxes."

"If you don't mind, would sit by your unconscious friend?" Scott asked the two other wolves politely. He was glad his Stiles had read his mind. He had started to worry, though, when it took so long. Scott had all the trust in the world for his oldest friend; but occasionally the ADHD would kick in and Styles would get distracted.

Laura seemed unhappy but Not-Stiles pleasantly said, "Of course," He was the one speaking for their pack. "I would do the same thing if I were in your shoes." They sat on the couch on either side of Lexie. Scott hoped Deaton would get there soon; she was in a sweat and shivering. Normal-Stiles hummed as he poured the ash in the most lopsided circle ever. Scott was glad they had decided to go with wood floors otherwise that would have been one ugly stain. Scott grinned fondly at the closest thing he had to a brother.

"Is it safe to come in?" Melissa and the Sheriff popped their head out the kitchen door. They must have come in through the porch.

"We're setting up the barrier now." Scott pointed at Stiles.

"No," She corrected walking into the room, "Are you done with the life altering truths?"

Scott scratched his head, "I don't know. For now at least."

Melissa had two paper plates of food in her hands. She offered them to the two other young people. She was such a mom, Scott thought, amused. They fell on the food like, well, a pack of wolves.

Melissa took a glance at Lexie and ran off to get throw blankets. She handed them over to the other pack, ever careful of the ash squiggle. "Make sure to wrap her up. I think she might be going into shock." They did as Melissa ordered.

"What do you think caused your unexpected travel plans?" The sheriff questioned.

"We were kind of busy with other problem at the time. So your guess is as good as ours." Not-Stiles shrugged.

"What other problems?" Kira asked. The small group was curious as to what had caused their wounds.

"If you want to know," everyone nodded, "We just spent the last month running from hunters and all sorts of other assassins. Some dick took out bounties on us and Peter's been missing for like a week." The dead pool flashed across Scott's mind.

"Isaac thinks- thought an assassin got him." Laura supplied, "Lexie thinks that Peter abandoned us."

"Wouldn't happen, not in a million years!" Not-Stiles defended, "We're his pack." Sheriff Stilinski looked just as shocked as Scott felt earlier.

Normal-Stiles on the other hand was sputtering. "Face it, man, the asshole left you swinging in the breeze."

"Shut your face," snarled Bizaro-Stiles, "You don't know him."

"Oh yeah," Normal-Stiles said getting worked up too, "How do you know he isn't a total dick behind that mask?"

"Because he adopted us!" Shouted a much fuzzier Not-Stiles. The room was silent at the outburst. Not that it was particularly difficult in a huge room with only eight people in it and one of them wasn't even awake.

"That was one of those truths I was worried about." Melissa chimed, knowing she would have stopped the adoption if she had been able to do so.

Scott understood. It wasn't so much that the other Stiles believed in the man, it was he couldn't bear to lose another parent. Scott felt he had seen something a little too personal. He didn't want to pity this cold person; he didn't want him to be real or human. That would make it easier to see his friend in there. His best friend warped by pain.

This made Scott remember what his Stiles had said at the motel where he'd nearly killed himself. Stiles was his brother, someone worth going through fire for. Scott had been so low at the time from all the death around him. The other Stiles had survived more loss than Scott had by that point. Heck, there was no comparison, and Scott had never lost anyone truly close. He briefly wondered if they had shared a similar conversation in the other life.

Laura was hugging Not-Stiles, trying to give him comfort. "I'm sorry." Normal-Stiles apologized, "I had no right to comment. If dad was missing I would spend every waking moment looking for him. Not being able to go find him would drive me insane." They both looked towards, Sheriff Stilinski. The way the werewolf had looked at Melissa was nothing compared to how he looked at his not-quite-father. There was definitely sorrow there and whole lot that was left unsaid. The Sheriff stepped on the barrier, breaking it, and wrapped the younger man in a hug.

"Group hug," Normal-Stiles called and Scott was surprised to find himself also hugging this stranger. Werewolves were a tactile bunch but it usually only related to family, the Pack. His wolf must have recognized the other Stiles as kin. Well if his wolf had claimed them, as an alpha Scott had no choice but to help now. First he'd have to do something about calling him Not-Stiles.

"So Twinsy, what do we call each other?" Stiles said breaking away from the hug. Way to ask what was on everyone's mind, Scott silently cheered. "In my head I keep referring to you as Not-Me." Stiles admitted. Scott was amused at how similar they both thought.

"Yeah," the other Stiles was still unabashed, crying as he untangled himself from everyone. Scott was a little amazed that everyone had jumped into the impromptu hug-fest. "I keep thinking of you as Other-Me." He sniffled, "Well, I guess you can call me Genim. It's what Peter calls me, I've gotten used to it. Unless you want it."

"No!" The sheriff frowned at his son, as the boy went on, "I don't even want anyone to know that's my real name." Genim laughed at Stiles pain, "I'm never going to live it down. How does Peter even know it?" Stiles asked pulling at his hair.

"Hello, he adopted me," Genim gave his other self another duh look, "as in he had to sign official paper work."

"I think it's nice that at least one of you goes by the name your mother gave you." Sheriff Stilinski remarked. They both rolled their eyes at this at the exact same time. "I hadn't realized, there're two of them now." The Sheriff groaned.

"Oh no," Melissa joined in, good naturedly. Scott hadn't quiet thought of it that way. In his mind, they were different enough that they definitely felt like two separate people. Maybe it was a little bit like knowing the twins. Same face,way different personalities. He didn't get to think on it long.