Chapter 12: The Final Lesson
Hope was vanishing. Maybe he was wrong, maybe he had picked the wrong boy. After years of research and looking, James couldn't be wrong. Stiles was the right one, he had to be. With a heavy sigh James continued to drill into the bone, the teen no longer screaming but still awake, tears still streaming down his face.
"Please…" The word was different. Stiles' words were usually filled with venom, some kind or hatred or sarcasm. But this word was different. This word was tired and begging. This word gave James hope. "Please just stop." As much as the begging pleased James, he couldn't stop. He was waiting for something else so he kept drilling into bone. "I'll do it, okay, I'll do it." The voice was barely a whisper, but it was enough. James stopped his drill with a smile. "Thank you."
The older man stood up to reach for his supplies to begin cleaning and patching up his new apprentice. "No, thank you Stiles, I hate having to hurt you. I never want to hurt you again. You see, you aren't just some random kid. You know that, don't you? You were chosen. I chose you." He smiled and held up some clean, non-poisoned or tainted water. "Build your strength and then your real training will begin." James gently laid Stiles down on the cot.
Before James could leave the cot Stiles grabbed onto his pant leg. "What do you mean I was chosen?" But he received no response, the older man just smiled before walking away.
The woods seemed as though they hadn't changed at all. It unnerved Stiles a little. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want his friends to be here. What if it just became another blood bath? But he had to do this. They had to get Liam. So he made his way through the woods alone disarming every trap he came upon. As he walked, Stiles' mind started to wonder. A small, very small, part of him had felt almost bad for the man he was about to fight. A small part of him might even mourn his loss…
When Stiles came to, after one of his few nights spent peacefully, he saw the man who'd been torturing him sitting by his cot with a warm, wet cloth and some medicine. "I need to clean your wounds again. Then you can eat and take something for the pain." His voice was softer than it had ever been; it was almost as if there was guilt hidden beneath it.
"Why are you being so nice?"
The man smiled as he began his work. "You accepted me, you accepted your work. That was a big step for us. Soon you will be almost like a son to me, just as I was to my mentor. It was a relationship I cherished, especially after my own father passed." His eyes went dark. "He was torn apart by vicious wolves, but that's what they do Stiles. They kill without any thought of the consequences. They don't realize that the people they kill have families."
Stiles had just stopped the torture, he knew saying this could start it all over again, but his mouth began to move before he could stop it. "Werewolves have families too. What about the families of the wolves you kill? If anyone ever killed Scott, his mother…" Stiles stopped himself, afraid he might mention how upset he would be if Scott or any of his friends were killed.
"They're better off with the grief. They're lives are in danger. Melissa could be taken or used as bait any day. She could be caught in the crossfire, collateral damage of her son's life. No, for people like her it's healthier for them to grieve than to live a life like that." He continued his work gently, no anger showing through. He wasn't acting like a crazy psychologist hunter right now. Now he was willing to talk and Stiles knew how to talk.
Moving to allow better access to a particularly bad wound on his leg, Stiles ventured on. "Okay, then what about me? Why bring me into the life more? How am I any different than Melissa? She's a human who knows about werewolves just like me." Stiles wanted to know why he was chosen.
With a sigh the hunter paused in his work to look up at Stiles. "You're different. You see, I come from a long line of men who have a very specific job. We pick the next best hunter. Not someone like the Argents who are known and feared by all but a ghost who leaves only whispers; someone who kills without leaving anyone to talk about them because they're smart. We create a whole new kind of hunter: someone who uses science with the supernatural, who can invent they're own skills, who can make a weapon out of nothing, who can take any physical blow the enemy could every possibly throw at them, and someone who understands them."
"So you chose me to be a super hunter because I understand werewolves?"
The man laughed. "Not exactly, but yes in some way, you have spent so much time with so many different monsters you know how they think and act. You have an insight not many hunters could ever train for. But it's not only that. There's the obvious: you're smart, you know how to do research, you can think on your toes, and you always have a plan with a back-up. But what really drew me to you were your choices. First, even after seeing your best friend become the lacrosse star that got the girl you refused the bite. Not many teenage boys would have done that." He began to wrap the wound he had turned away from. "Then there was the whole Nogitsune issue. You dealt with it as a true hunter should. I went to a Seer about you; she heard what you told your friends. You didn't care about yourself. You didn't care if killing the demon killed you. You just wanted it dead before it could take any more innocent lives. You put the mission before your own life. You put the innocent before your own life. And that is a trait hard to come by." He looked back up at Stiles. "You never wanted to be the monster. You wanted Scott to kill you, I know that. You understand the monsters, you're close to them even and yet you still would never want to be them. Why do you think that is Stiles?"
Stiles tried to swallow but his mouth was dry. He didn't know how to respond. He couldn't answer the question. So he just shrugged. "I don't know."
"It's because this was your destiny."
After that the two were silent as the man nursed Stiles back to health.
The clearing was only five feet away and Stiles stood between the trees frozen. How could he do this? What if being a hunter really was his destiny? No, no he had his friends. His friends were his family now. He had to help them. He had to help himself. As much as this was about saving Liam, it was about saving Stiles. So with a deep breath, Stiles walked out into the clearing.
Seeing Liam in a circle of mountain ash wasn't surprising, but seeing him unharmed and completely conscious was a little surprising. "Stiles!" The younger teen jumped up with excitement and a big smile on his face. "Stiles, he's…"
"I know." Stiles turned at an angle to see the man in a tree. "I know all your tricks. You won't be able to trick me. I disarmed all your little toys in the woods. My friends will be here soon. We aren't stupid. And contrary to what you once tried to teach me, working together is better than working alone. And I like my team, no matter what you tried to do to make me hate them."
As soon as the others entered the clearing there was a snap and mountain ash came down as the doctor hunter jumped down from his tree leaving the hunter and Liam in a circle of mountain ash away from the rest of everyone. "You're going to watch while I torture him like I torture Stiles. I'm sure Stiles has been hesitant to share about our time together but I'm willing to clear that all up for you Scott." The man smiled at the young alpha. "I will show you how he got every scar. And then I'll show you how he killed his first werewolf." The man pulled a blade up to Liam's jaw as he pulled on the boy's hair. "Unless you want to give away your human."
Scott looked over at Stiles nervously, he didn't like this plan. "I…" He doubted it, everyone could tell. "Why are you doing this?" Scott took a hesitant step forward only to stop when the man pulled the knife closer to Liam's skin, drawing blood. "Just wait, okay?"
"I'm done waiting. I want Stiles and if I can't have him then I'm just going to have to kill all of you myself before turning on him." His eyes went over to Stiles who was clenching his fists.
Just as the man was beginning to dig the knife into the Liam, Scott stopped him. "Stop! Okay, okay I agree! You can have Stiles, just stop hurting him!" Scott winced at the thought of the poison laced blade cutting through skin. "He's my beta, I can't lose him."
With that the man laughed. "Toss him over the ash and I'll give you your beta." With a little hesitance Scott obeyed, grabbing Stiles by the shoulders and tossing him over the line of mountain ash. "What did I tell you Stiles? They only look out for their own." Instead of dropping the knife he began to pull it across Liam's throat to kill him.
"Wait." Stiles spoke up but his voice wasn't loud or urgent like the calls from the rest of the pack. And it was Stiles' voice that made the man stop. "Don't, let me do it. Let Scott see the consequences of his betrayal. Let me kill his beta." There was a coolness in his voice that sent shivers up everyone's spine. "I want to kill him. You were right."
Slowly, the man began to hand over the knife but then stopped as he started to laugh. "Did you really think I was that stupid? I would never think it was going to be that easy!" He threw his knife at Stiles, hitting the vein in his leg and sending him to the ground while pulling out a gun to aim at Liam. At the same time, as if on a trigger, metal traps laced in poison went off capturing everyone by the leg but Scott. "I want you to decide Scott. You can take Stiles now and get him to a hospital, let him live. Or you can let Stiles bleed out and save Liam. The choice is yours."
Scott looked at Stiles on the ground, trying to secure the knife which seemed to be the only thing keeping him from bleeding out that second. "Take Liam Scott. I'll be okay." Stiles tried to stay calm and collected but he was shaking and his voice was showing it. His skin was paling and sweat was covering his forehead and upper lip. "Please Scott, just please…" He didn't have a lot of energy left for this. He needed to save his energy for the rest of the plan. "The rest of the pack is still here. Trust us."
Knowing he could trust his pack and he could especially trust his best friend, Scott nodded. "Okay, okay, give me Liam."
A loud bang went off and Liam screamed out in agony before the man kicked him out mountain ash circle. "Take your sick dog, he has two hours before my special wolfsbane hits his heart and kills him in the most painful way imaginable. And I'd hurry if I were you because cleansing his body of that poison is going to take quite a while. I hope you have enough time or you might end up losing them both and maybe even your whole pack." With that Scott grabbed his beta and ran off. "They will always choose their own kind over you Stiles. If you don't bleed them, they will leave you to bleed." He reached down to grab the knife keeping Stiles alive but also killing him.
Stiles put his hands over the knife. "Don't, if you pull it out I'll die."
"That's the point."
Hoping to give the rest of the pack enough time to escape their metal traps (Derek was almost there) Stiles shook his head. "But if the point was just to kill me then why let me go? Don't you want me to be your apprentice?"
His eyes softening a bit, the man tightened his grip on the knife but didn't let go. "You had time. I hoped that after seeing the pack after our time together you would see that they weren't really family. I hoped you would see the blood, the attacks, and not the friends you deluded yourself into having. You aren't a werewolf or a supernatural being of any kind. You can't be a part of their pack. You're just a human shield. I thought maybe you were smart enough to use your gifts and to realize your destiny, but I was wrong. Now I'm going to slaughter your friends while you know that the only reason I was able to get to them was because of you. Whether you wanted to or not, you got your friends killed. So, really, I accomplished my goal." He smiled something terrible before pulling the knife out, sending a splatter of blood over himself and Stiles…just as Stiles wanted.
"You're so predictable." Stiles whispered, letting out a weak laugh before falling over limp and letting the dark spots in his vision start to take over. But just before he lost it, Stiles was able to reach the line of mountain ash to break it, allowing the now free Derek to charge into the circle as all of the others began to break their traps as well.
The pain was unbearable. The blowtorch was so hot it almost felt cold, confusing all of Stiles' senses. He just wanted it to end. "You can't give up." A deep voice made Stiles look up over his captor's shoulder. "You have to make it back to us Stiles. Don't be weak." It was hard to believe, but Stiles was seeing Derek across the room. Why was he seeing Derek?
"Yeah don't be a pussy." And that was Jackson? When was the last time Stiles even saw Jackson?
Red hair flew passed his line of vision. "You're smarter than this guy Stiles. You can get into his head just as easily has he can get into yours. Use that brilliant brain of yours. You're not second in our class for nothing." Lydia winked from across the room.
A giggle came from the corner, making Stiles notice Erica and Boyd standing close to Isaac. But how could they, they were dead. "Yeah, come on Batman, figure something out." Erica gave a wink more seductive than Lydia's.
"You can take this guy, I'm sure of it." Isaac, freaking Isaac, was there now leaning against the wall like they were by the lockers at school. "At least long enough for the rest of us to get here."
"Nah, he's going to die." Aiden popped up by the door, looking smug and alive instead of dead.
Ethan shook his head at his brother. "Be nice Aiden, the kid has been tortured for a year. He could have been killing people like us instead of taking this. We're supposed to be encouraging hallucinations, anyways." He only got a shrug from his twin.
"Maybe this hallucination means something like the ones you had with the Nogitsune?" Kira appeared with her sword. "It will be okay, I'm sure." She gave a sweet smile.
A snort came from another corner of the room to reveal Malia. "How is any of this okay? We need to fight! We need to attack the jerk back! Why are we all just standing around saying things? Why aren't we doing anything? We should be doing something!" He growled, her eyes turning blue.
"I'm okay." Stiles let it slip, making the torture worse for himself.
A lacrosse ball flew passed his ear. "Sorry, hey, when you get out, we should play. Maybe I can teach you to be a good player in return for you helping me learn control. You are getting out soon, right?" Liam seemed so innocent and hopeful. It made Stiles smile.
Hands grabbed Stiles' shoulders. "You're going to be okay Stiles." Scott smiled a hope-filled smile, full of optimism and sunshine as always. "Even if we don't find you, but we are looking, you are going to be okay. You just have to believe. Remember when Dr. Deaton had you spread the mountain ash around the club? You were the only one who could do it. And it wasn't only because you weren't supernatural. It's because you're the only one would could believe strong enough. So keep believing."
A hand laid on top of Scott's hand on Stiles' shoulder. "You can do it Stiles." The voice made him jump. It was Allison. "I wasn't only human but a hunter and was a part of this pack so why is it so crazy that you could be a part of it? And every part is important. Every part is needed. They need you Stiles, just as much as you need them. Why do you think you're seeing all of them now? Pack survives everything. Don't believe him, believe us." She smiled.
"Are you paying attention?!" The booming voice of the man with the blowtorch drew Stiles away from his hallucinations.
Stiles just smiled. "I'm going to believe my pack instead of you." And the torture continued but when it got too bad Stiles only had to look up into the comforting faces of his pack to know it was going to be okay one day.
/I'm sooooo sorry for the long wait! Life has been crazy busy! I haven't had much free time since coming back to school. I somehow got stuck with all of the night shifts the first week back but hopefully that will die down. And only one more chapter you guys! I have it like half-ish done so hopefully it won't be too long! As always thank you for reading, please review, and have a great day!