Stiles found himself being violently awoken under a surge of ice cold water. He gasped and sputtered as his vision slowly came back from the black abyss. He was in some sort of metallic tub in a brightly lit room, and someone was holding a metal spray on the coldest possible setting over his face. He tried to move, but a firm hand pushed him back.

"Stay still. I've got to wash your eyes," Dr. Deaton said.

And then there was a towel on his stinging eyes and it was horrible.

"Derek," Stiles finally said when he could a word out through his chattering teeth and shivering.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

The spray shut off. Dr. Deaton helped Stiles out of the tub and tossed him a towel. Only the upper half of him, thankfully, was soaked. Stiles rubbed his puffy eyes with the towel until they stopped stinging.

"God, what happened?" he asked as he pulled at his wet tee.

"You tell me. I found you on the side of the road by the forest. Asleep. I told Derek that you could relapse…"

"What? He never… oh that douchebag."

Dr. Deaton waved a hand. "It doesn't matter—tell me what happened."

Stiles shook his head. "I don't…remember." He thought back. What was he doing before? He remembered his first ice bath with Derek, the very personal dressing session, and then they were by the river... Everything came flooding back in that second.

"Holy shit!"

"What?"

"Derek!"

Dr. Deaton just impatiently gestured for him to keep going.

"He-he—" Stiles waved his hands in the air.

"Words. Use your words."

"Disappeared!"

"Disappeared?"

Stiles nodded vigorously. "One second we were the forest—a really weird part of the forest too—and the next he was just poof gone. And then…I don't remember anything."

Dr. Deaton took a seat on one of the stools behind him. "You're going to have to explain from the beginning."

So Stiles told him—omitting certain conversation—how they further they traveled upstream the greener the forest became. It was like everything was already in spring but it was still cold as hell. And he told him about Derek's weird feeling—like something was off in the world—and how Derek suspected the place wasn't real.

And when he was done it took several minutes for Deaton to process what he was saying. But finally he nodded as he seemed to be coming to some conclusion. "Is there anything else?"

Stiles racked his brain and then remembered. "Oh yeah, and we maybe figured that it was some sort of sleep demon spirit thing. Like the sandman—but evil. And invisible."

"Ah, I had a suspicion when you told me about Derek's feeling."

Stiles raised his brows. "So you know what it is?"

"Well now I do. You should have told me this before. I could have told you a lot more."

"We just figured it out."

Deaton just raised a brow.

"Okay, okay."

"The thing is, it's not invisible. Follow me." Deaton stood up and led Stiles out of the washroom and into the main room with the metal table and most of the operating equipment. "Stay here." He walked into his office and came out a minute later with a laptop. He booted it up, waited for everything to load, and then searched for a specific file. It was a scan of a really old, decaying map of the world. There were several lines that stretched across continents crossing each other and strange markings and symbols that Stiles didn't recognize.

"You see these little house markings?" Stiles nodded. "They represent shrines. They're all over the world. You see how there are different insignias under the little roofs though—that repeat in different parts of the world? They're ancient glyphs to represent the gods and deities that people worshipped. People had different names, looks, and legends for these deities but the deities themselves remained the same at the root. This makes for an interesting mythology lesson, but I won't get into that. You see, this map compiles all the evidence of the gods from different cultures and arranges it under one conglomerate of information. From here you can see where certain gods and deities cropped up in folklore.

"Now, the markings for the shrines are not derived from any folklore but rather they were discovered and marked by the people in my other line of work. The shrines are supposedly where these gods lived and where they currently hold power." He put a hand up when he saw Stiles about to ask a question. "However, these shrines do not exist in our universe. They exist on a plane parallel to our own. But that wasn't always the case."

Stiles had a million questions lined up, but the last sentence stunned him into silence. Dr. Deaton just nodded.

"A very long time ago, the gods and the humans co-existed. I could get in to all the horrible things that happened because of it, but all you really need to know is that the biggest taboo of all was broken between the two species and that is why the gods were removed from this existence—by force."

"What was the taboo?"

"Intermingling of species."

Something clicked in Stiles' brain. "Werewolves."

Deaton nodded. "And other things. But, yes, precisely. The gods were removed by force, but they couldn't do the same to the abominations. They were half-human after all. Many tried to hunt them, but obviously they didn't get them all."

Stiles waved his hands. "So, okay, this is…super interesting and all—and I'm definitely going to pester you later to tell me literally everything—but Derek."

Deaton nodded. "You need to understand this first. The gods may have been removed from this plane, but they couldn't completely sever their power. In fact, some people in my other line of work say that during certain times the gods are able to sort of astral project themselves in this world. Like during certain moon phases or the solstices—when the veil between the two planes is at its thinnest. However, there are certain places on this earth where their power is always strongest. Like, doors between the universes—well, more like windows."

"The shrines."

"Technically, it's where the shrines used to be. When we found out about this, they were documented and sealed. The seals themselves exist on this plane." He pointed to the map. "The spirits can wander these areas but they cannot interact or use their powers. I suppose it contributed to the abandoning of many religions, beliefs, and practices over the centuries."

Stiles bit his lip as the information processed. "So what would happen if one seal was broken?"

Dr. Deaton smiled and glanced at the door to the backroom. It was dark. But Stiles knew that the wolves were in there. "I think it's obvious."

Stiles sighed. "So this guy finds out about this shrine and then he goes and breaks the seal? And then this deity escapes and kills him. And then kills his son when that kid goes and looks for him."

Dr. Deaton shrugged. "The spirits are vengeful."

Stiles scoffed. "Understatement of the year."

"Well it's true. Even now this spirit lacks sufficient power to fully become a part of this world, which is why you perceive it as invisible when it's simply not exactly here. I think it's trying to gain more power by taking the wolves and putting people to sleep—and, of course, killing."

"So if I fix the seal, everything will go back to normal?"

"Probably."

He was going to take what he could get. "So how do I do that?"

"Logic. And a little bit of magic. The seals are physical objects that are enchanted. I doubt this professor knew what he was doing enough to remove the spell, so I'm going to assume that he simply removed the object from the area where the shrine existed, thus breaking the connection. If you put it back, and reestablish the binding spell, everything should go back to normal."

Stiles bit his lip. "Why does this feel like an 'easier said than done' type of thing?"

Dr. Deaton frowned. "Because the hard part is probably going to be finding where the seal was. If you don't know what you're looking for, you won't find it. That's how it's stayed hidden for so long. Of course, it's not impossible to find—it was never meant to be impossible—but most people tend not to care to look or to even attempt to look."

"What about the magic part?"

"Mountain Ash."

"So I just sprinkle a bit on whatever this object is and then be on my merry way?"

"And some words."

Stiles smiled and nodded. "I'm not a wizard."

"You don't have to be a wizard. You just have to believe that it will work."

"Oh, more of this."

"You did it before didn't you?"

Stiles sputtered. "That was a fluke."

"No, it worked."

"I… What about you? Can't you do it?"

Deaton glanced at the back door. "I don't think it's best that I leave."

Stiles exhaled, crossed his arms, and leaned against he metal table. He shook his head and then waved his hand. "Go on then, what am I supposed to do?"

So Deaton laid it all out for him, right down to the weird Latin words he was supposed to say that were more than likely going to feel like he was performing some sort of exorcism—in fact that wasn't too far from the truth. One of the problems was that the seal, according to his knowledge, was located between a fold in space. But from what Stiles told him, he couldn't guarantee this. His best bet was to keep going along the path he had before. There would be small wooden house (to represent the shrine) over running water—and that is where the seal should be. The biggest problem, would be finding the sealing object. More than likely, the spirit would be looking for it.

"What if it's already found it?"

Dr. Deaton shook his head. "It hasn't—or we would all be dead. You have the advantage here, Stiles, believe it or not. It can't completely step into this world and use all of its powers because the seal itself isn't completely broken. Yet, it's bound to a sort of pseudo physical form when it walks around."

Stiles thought back to the police station. "It can't just walk through walls and stuff. There are physical boundaries."

Dr. Deaton nodded. "Yes. You need to give yourself more credit, Stiles. You're smart."

"Well…" Stiles tried not to smile. "A little—wait a second. The police station."

"What about it?"

"The thing broke in to the station. Like it was looking for something. It went into the impound lot. You know whose car is in there for evidence? The professor's."

"It's in the car?"

"No…or it would have found it… It's somewhere else." The gears were turning behind Stiles' brown eyes. And then—the light bulb turned on. He grabbed the paper with the spell, sputtered something along the lines of "cars and sons" and then ran out of the vet's office.

It was when the cold air bit his soaked tee that he realized that his jeep was still in the forest—and he didn't have a jacket. Dr. Deaton came out a second later with his jacket and a shaking head. "I think you forgot something."

"Right." He zipped it up.

"And take this. It should keep you awake."

Oh right. Relapse. Derek is such a douchenozzle. Good thing he's pretty. "Thanks." In his hand was a light blue stone on a silver chain. It had a clasp so he wrapped it around his neck. "Please do not tell me this was, like, made out of that spirit's ectoplasm or some shit."

Deaton just side-eyed him, said good luck, and then went back into his office.

Stiles thought of saying something sarcastic like, fat lot of help you've been! But then he realized that, yeah, Deaton was actually helpful this time. Like a lot. Well when the whole town is basically like a chapter out of Sleeping Beauty then I guess being helpful and less mysterious is the better option.

Stiles looked to the road. At least a mile to the main road and another mile to the Hale house. He started off. Since this was obviously a fairytale—wherein he had to rescue Princess Derek from the clutches of an evil demon—he was going to assume that next day of his life, which was actually mostly over with the sun setting and all that, was going to be the most treacherous by far. And as Stiles set off on this quest to retrieve his noble steed and find the magic seal, he couldn't help but feel the old creeping of doubt settle on his brain. Because Stiles was not a hero. But everyone—his best friend and his father and Derek—was counting on him to be one. The prognosis wasn't very good, but a two things kept him going: the need to fix things with Scott, and Derek's face when he woke up to Stiles carrying him princess style to safety.

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading! This chapter, I'm assuming you figured out, was probably the most informational based and maybe the most difficult to understand. Honestly, I kept having to go back and make sure everything made sense. If you have any questions just ask! And, I apologize for this being more transitional than action-y.

-J

p.s. I always feel like writing little notes to you guys at the end of the chapters but somehow I always forget. Here's to hoping I remember next week!