Written In The Stars

by HaleOnThis

Summary:

Stiles grows up being looked down by everyone and goes through things a child should never have to. He must learn to stand up for himself and fight for himself and his adventures do just that.

I'm horrible at summaries, so just give it a shot.

Notes:

I do not own Teen wolf or any associated characters. However the idea behind the story is original and inspired by my fascination with stars. So I hope you enjoy.

[ Supernatural creatures are the majority (common), humans are minority (rare) in this AU.
In this AU at the age of 14 every person will present as an Alpha, Beta, or Omega for their species. Ex - Alpha werewolf, or beta human. Omegas have been stigmatized, especially omega humans, and are often picked on because of how weak they are considered to be.] Also I made Stiles’ b-day oct 22 because why not.

Chapter 1: The call of the stars

Stiles picked up his backpack that was leaning on the worn out sofa in the living room and made his way to his jeep that his mom had helped him pick out. He cherished the car the most from all of his possessions, since it always reminded him of her. Stiles didn’t really want to go to school but he knew that if there was any way he wanted to get out of Beacon hills it was through good grades and making sure he got accepted into a college far from his hometown.

The small town had a lot of good memories associated with it. He especially liked the memories of him sitting in the coffeeshops that his mom would take him to, to make him feel better when he was feeling lonely or sad. Or all the memories of him playing with the deputies at the police station, where he spent most of his time after his mother’s death. But for every good memory there were five horrible ones. Like Beacon Hills Hospital, where his mother had died. That memory was still fresh in Stiles’ mind and one that often tormented him. Or the fact that ever since his mother’s death, his father has been doing nothing but drinking and working. And of course he can’t forget his elementary school, where all the kids would play tricks on him, all but one, who went by the name of Scott McCall.

After 10 years not much had changed. His elementary school bullies became his high school bullies, his father still running on booze, and Scott, well if Stiles was being honest, Scott had changed. When it came to highschool, Scott joined the popular kids by default thanks to puberty, presenting as an alpha, and then he joined the lacrosse team so he became one with the people who would torment him. It didn’t help that Stiles presented as an omega, which everyone knew was the weakest in the hierarchy. At first Stiles and Scott would still hang out every now and then. Scott would invite Stiles to parties that Stiles knew no one wanted him at. Stiles still went though because it was time he got to spend with Scott. But after awhile Scott would just leave Stiles at the party and hang out with the popular kids. Eventually Stiles would just decline the invitations that Scott had so ‘generously’ extended to him. After that it didn’t take Scott long to phase out Stiles from his social circle. So it was just him now; but he wasn’t mad. He was excited. This was his last year in highschool, and so far he had a 4.0 GPA and he’s going to keep it that way. If everything goes to plan, he’ll be able to go to university far from this place and finally be able to leave it all behind. It was easier said than done, the popular kids, or “The Alphas” as everyone around school had started calling them since they were all alphas, had made it their mission to disturb Stiles every opportunity they got. It didn’t help that Stiles was human, made him easy to pick on. Needless to say it made studying at school difficult. The group consisted of: Jackson Whittemore (Alpha kanima), Isaac Lahey (Alpha werewolf), Vernon Boyd (Alpha werewolf), Erica Reyes (Alpha werecat), Lydia Martin (Alpha banshee), Scott McCall (Alpha werewolf), Allison Argent (Alpha human) and their leader Derek Hale (Alpha werewolf).

Jackson Whittemore is the adopted son of one of the richest married couple in town. So ever since childhood the boy had everything he wanted and needed. Everyone was always around Jackson so that they could get an inside look at the luxurious life. Stiles remembers Jackson from grade 1. Jackson had just come in, and as soon as the teacher read his name out loud to the class, everyone except Stiles gasped. Everyone knew he was the rich kid. So of course the kids swarmed to him. Stiles often wondered if he would be more popular if he was rich.

Isaac Lahey is “the cute boy” of the group. Everyone knew Isaac as the cute boy ever since they were young, even if he did have bruises on his face as a kid. Then it was made public news that his father was abusing his wife and kids.It became the talk of the school in grade 3. But people fell to his support in no time, helping him through his time of need and making sure he had everything he needed. While Stiles had nothing against people helping Isaac in his time of need, he wondered where were they when he needed them, because when his mother died the school did not hesitate to take a moment from it’s daily routine of tormenting him, but instead made it worse. Stiles often wondered if he would be more popular if he was more likeable.

Vernon Boyd, or “Boyd” as he would tell teachers when they would call him for attendance. Boyd was the mysterious one of the group. He didn’t speak much, or do much. He liked to keep to himself and liked it if people he didn’t know did the same. No one really knew much about him and people were scared of him because of that. But that didn’t stop them from undressing him with their eyes. He was attractive and powerful and Stiles wasn’t going to argue with that. Boyd was attractive and powerful, powerful enough to lift Stiles up and throw him in the dumpster behind school. Stiles wondered if he would be more popular if he was strong.

Erica Reyes; she was something else. She wore her acrylic nails like claws and makeup like war paint. People charmed by every step she took, unable to take their eyes off of her. She knew that she was hot and she was going to take full advantage of it. People would do everything she said without any questions even though they knew she was in a relationship with Boyd. People didn’t seem to care about that fact. So Stiles often wondered, what if he was more attractive, would he be more popular?

Lydia Martin. The smartest student in the school. Lydia had always been on top of every class. She hated being corrected, and would only talk to people she deemed “worthy”. She wouldn’t even give you the time of the day unless you were worth something. People were always taken aback by her combo of beauty and brains. Stiles was always second to her, and he had never been able to beat her marks. No one dared question her or even look at her without her permission. Not many things would scare that girl, if anything. Stiles wondered if he would be popular if he was the smartest in the school.

Scott McCall. Once Stiles’ friend and now a part of the group that makes him question his existence. Scott was just like Stiles, a quirky kid, but the difference was that Scott was an alpha, an alpha that happened to look really good with his shirt on and off. So people fell head over heels for Scott in highschool and Stiles couldn’t help but wonder if people would like him more if he was an alpha too.

Allison Argent. Although people were scared of Lydia, Allison striked just as much fear into people’s hearts. She excelled with all weapons, with her speciality in bows. She was on the school’s archery team and people had seen first hand how amazing her aim was. So people found her talent and skill cool. She didn’t mind the attention and fame but it was obvious that she liked being feared better than loved. Stiles would often wonder, what if he was good at something? Would people like him more?

Which brings us to the leader, Derek Hale. There wasn’t a single soul in Beacon hills who didn’t know Derek. Derek was smart in every subject, not the smartest, but never failed a class. He was a part of every sport team for the boys, all except the badminton team. He would have joined but he just didn’t enjoy the game. He was attractive and he knew it. And thanks to his parents' wealth he was also rich by default. So no wonder everyone liked him; well everyone except Stiles. Stiles might have liked Derek if it weren’t for the teeny tiny fact that he and his friends were bullies, and Derek had the power to influence his friends to change. They listen to his every command, and yet he sees what they do, sees how they treat people and does nothing about it.

Stiles was always scared of Derek, if Stiles was being totally honest. Stiles had been beaten up by Jackson, humiliated by Lydia, thrown in the dumpster by Boyd, made fun of by Isaac, betrayed by Scott, threatened by Allison, but nothing, nothing from Derek. He didn’t care enough to beat Stiles up or even bat an eyelash towards him, and he definitely didn’t give a damn to help him either. So Stiles thought, if Derek did ever do something to him it would mean that Derek would be really really pissed, and that probably would be how Stiles died. Or that’s how Stiles imagines it at least.

Today was the first day of his last year and Stiles was really excited. Just one more year and he could finally leave this town behind. Stiles entered the school gates and immediately made his way towards his locker, to find his locker had already been vandalized with “your stupid”. Stiles scoffed at it; it wasn’t the first time he was seeing this. Jackson and Isaac had done this many times before, this was kind of their M.O. However they had lost creativity over the years. It started out with funny names they would call Stiles, but eventually it just turned into phrases like, well “Your stupid”. And he knew it was Jackson or Isaac because firstly they used ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’. No one else in their group was that stupid. Secondly the others didn’t play pranks, they were more direct, one might even say, more “hands-on”. But that didn’t mean Jackson and Isaac didn’t take part in beating Stiles up, they definitely did, it’s just that it was only those two who did stuff like vandalize Stiles’ lockers.

Stiles used his locker, put the books from his bag into his locker, and took the ones he needed with him. He started to make his way to his first class, which was English class with Ms.Crow. She was a nice lady kind to all, but very oblivious. It seemed she never noticed any of the bullying that happened in her class. Isn’t that funny, she can spot a literary device from a mile away but seems to have trouble noticing the obvious signs of bullying.

Just as he was about to enter the class, the door was blocked by Jackson and Isaac.

“Do me a favour and disappear.” Jackson said while Isaac just grinned. Stiles assumed Jackson was getting a head start on his daily quota of “pick on Stiles”.

“Come on Jackson, just let me in, I'll stay out of your way.” Stiles said, keeping his head down.

Jackson seemed to get a little angry at the response Stiles gave. “You existing gets in my way.” He responded.

Stiles knew that if he continued this conversation it was going to end with him having bruises all over his body that he would have to tend to later. So he decided to just observe class from outside. Previously he would just wait until the bell rang and then everyone would take a seat, and he’d walk right in without any problem. Sure he got scolded by teachers for being a little late, but he could handle that. Jackson however got creative, he would just find Stiles after class and beat him up then saying “better not see you in class next time. I can’t focus on learning when there’s a freak in the room.” So instead Stiles would observe class from the hall. The teachers would mark him absent and he’d get a call home every month saying that he’s been missing too many classes but his dad was either at work or too drunk to notice. Stiles was also called down to the office now and then. The principal would ask him to justify why he’s been away from so many classes. Stiles tried explaining to them that he was being bullied and that the kids responsible wouldn’t let him attend. When the principal heard this, she laughed and said “Stiles you’re going to need a better story than that.” In that instant Stiles knew he wasn’t going to be trusted so he just lied and played “the dead mother card”. It worked wonders on adults most of the time, not so much on teenagers. The principal always let him go though because Stiles’ grades were always good, even though he had to pick up assignments ten minutes after the bell dismissed the class, and hand them in a day advance to ensure he wasn’t late, and ten minutes after class to make sure he wasn’t targeted. The system worked amazingly. It had its flaws like if the assignment was a presentation Stiles had no choice but to go in, stand in front of his peers and give his presentation and ultimately be beat up after school or class. That happened every now and then but he’d rather take a beating than lose 10% of his mark.

So Stiles took his seat in the hall and took out his paper and pencil, ready to make notes when he noticed a strange man walking in the halls. The man, who looked no older than 25, was wearing a robe,not something you see everyday, but Stiles supposed he could be a monk or a priest of some sort. The man was walking, but it didn’t look like he knew where he was or where he was going. Stiles ignored the man and put his focus back to the teacher, he couldn’t risk being distracted especially since he already had the disadvantage of being so far from the teacher.

But it wasn’t long until Stiles was disturbed by the man. “Hi, excuse me. Perhaps you could help me. I’m trying to find the room with the devices that make beautiful noises.”

Stiles thought that was an odd way of asking for the music room. “I think you mean the music room, 2 lefts, take the stairs down, a right, then a left and that should be it.” Stiles said in a hurry fully knowing that there is no way that the person understood what he said. To his surprise the man nodded his head to acknowledge that he understood and started to follow the directions that Stiles had just said.

The rest of the day was more or less the same. Either being forced to observe class from outside or if he was lucky he got to enter the class. Lunch was always the hard part for Stiles. Teachers wouldn’t allow him to eat in class, the cafeteria was off limits thanks to the Alphas making a mockery of him. So Stiles would be left with the hallways, which worked great until the hall monitors would ask him to leave. Which meant the only place left was the washrooms. At first it was kind of gross, but Stiles got used to it, and he adapted to it. Not the cleanest place, but at least it was safe.

In his last period Stiles made sure to leave 5 minutes before the bell rang so he could get to his car without anyone giving him trouble. And he guessed he was in luck today because he made it without any trouble. Stiles got in and made his way to the coffee shop that he and his mom often visited. Stiles liked to just sit there and relax. Plus it was one place where the kids from the school didn’t come since it was considered to be an old people’s place. And they weren’t wrong, it was mainly the geriatric population that came to this particular coffee shop but it was only because it was the closest one to the retirement home. Stiles didn’t really care though.

Stiles arrived at the coffee shop, got himself a coffee and sat down on the chair outside of the shop. Just enjoying his cup and the moment of silence. Albeit that it didn’t last long.

The weirdly dressed man from the school had also come here. Stiles didn’t let his eyes linger too long but he feared it was already too late since the man had already started to make his way towards Stiles.

“Ah, so we meet again.” the man with the robe said.

“I guess we do.” Stiles said before going back to his coffee.

“Your instructions were most helpful. I was able to find the room with no problems. Thank you again for that.”

“No worries.” Stiles said and hesitated before starting to speak again: “i know it’s not my place...but why were you looking for the music room? Hardly anyone goes there willingly.”
The man sat down in the chair across from Stiles and started to speak. “A friend of mine passed away a long time ago. Almost 11 years now. She had told me that this town was the most beautiful place she had ever seen and that life would not be complete if i had not seen it.”

“I’m sorry, for your loss. But i can’t imagine what your friend saw in this town. Doesn’t seem so special.” Stiles said.

“I said the same thing, but she did always have a way of finding beauty even where it didn’t exist. She used to say ‘We often get used to beauty, so…’” the man was interrupted by Stiles. “So when it comes to noticing it, we often don’t.” the man looked at Stiles with a smile. “My mom used to say that.” Stiles said.

The man looked to his wrist and then back at Stiles.“Well it’s time for me to get going. Lots to see and do.” The man said getting up from his chair, putting his hand out to shake Stiles’.

“Well best of luck on your trip.” Stiles offered to the man as he shaked hands with him.

“It’s not goodbye yet. I’m sure we will meet again, Stiles.” The man said as he walked away and before Stiles even realized that there was no way for the man to have known his name the man was gone. He shrugged it off justifying it with weak excuses like "he probably heard the name at school while someone was making fun of him."

Stiles left the coffee place and went home to get started on his homework. He noticed his dad still hadn’t come home which Stiles took relief to because he couldn’t be bothered to clean up vomit or spilled liquor off of the floor right now. Stiles went straight to his room and started on his work. He managed to finish it rather quickly. He looked at the digital clock sitting on his desk, the time was only 9:30pm. Which means Stiles had an entire hour to himself before he had to go to sleep. Stiles decided he would read and then go to sleep.

The next day the cycle repeated again. Everything was ‘normal’ business since that day, and if Stiles was being honest he was really missing the stranger now, at least he had a genuine conversation with the monk looking dude.

Weeks went by and nothing had changed, Stiles was still getting pushed around by Jackson and his lackeys. Derek was still doing nothing to stop him and Scott was still pretending it wasn’t happening. One day Jackson had even beaten Stiles up in the parking lot in front of Scott, and Stiles noticed that the man did not even bat an eye towards Stiles. But this week was special for Stiles, well today, October 22 was special and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it for him.. It was Stiles’ birthday. Stiles didn’t really celebrate his birthdays with parties after his mother passed, not that anyone would come even if he did. Instead Stiles would buy a cupcake, drive up to his favourite spot in beacon hills that overlooked the entire town, and just spent the entire afternoon talking to the wind, pretending he was having a conversation with his mom. This was her favourite place too, well she had many favourite places but out of all of them this was Stiles’ favourite. He and his mom would often come up here during the night and look at the constellations, Stiles could probably name all of them by now. So Stiles would often just park his jeep there and sit on the hood and forget his worries. The place was always empty, well usually empty, so Stiles found it to be soothing.

Stiles was talking to the wind and just being free when he heard twigs snap and his head turned quickly in the direction of the sound. He was shocked to find the stranger from weeks ago, still in the weird monk outfit. Stiles was the first to speak. “It’s you again…”

“Ahh so we meet again.” The man said moving towards Stiles slowly and gesturing to ask if he could take a seat on the hood of Stiles’ car as well. Stiles nodded and moved a little to give the man some room.

“The night is beautiful, the stars are really shining bright today.” The man said.

“Yeah, they really are.” Stiles said, not really having observed them earlier.

 

The two quickly fell into a comfortable silence. Which was broken with: “Libra is really radiating tonight. You know what that means, it must be someone special’s birthday today.” the man said pointing to the constellation.

Stiles huffed a little air. “I’ve never heard that one before.”

“You haven’t? Hmm it’s quite common where I come from. The old myth goes, that each zodiac sign choses special children, special little children that they look after because they are destined for something creatures of Earth have never seen before. And every year on their birthday the zodiac sign of that child shines extra brightly to make sure that the child knows they are being looked after. So, I guess Libra’s special child’s birthday is today. ” The man explains.

“Huh...what do you know. It’s my birthday today, any chances Libra is shining for me?” Stiles said in a jokingly manner with a smile on his face.

“I shine only for you Stiles.” The man whispered, but Stiles was able to hear it.

Stiles jerked his body away from the stranger after what he heard and questioned the man confusingly. “What did you say?”

The man took a deep breath and got off the hood of Stiles’ car, putting his hands up to show that he meant no harm to Stiles. “I’m a friend, not foe Stiles.”

“How do you know my name. We never exchanged names.” Stiles responded

“I know the name of all the children I choose.”

“What does that even mean? Look man, I don’t want any trouble, I’m going to get in my car and head back home. I’ll forget this ever happened, so just step away from the car.” Stiles said slowly as he moved towards the car.

The man started moving away from the car but as he was moving he spoke: “The stars have chosen their soldier, there is no running from it Stiles.”

Stiles had already gotten in his car, he turned it on and started to reverse so he could exit. As he exited he saw the man from his rear view mirror. Stiles breathed out air from his mouth and let relief fall over his body. Stiles drove straight home, and went straight to his room, ignoring the mess by the sofa which he could only assume was vomit and alcohol from his father’s digestive tract. As soon as he opened the door, the man was there, sitting on his desk with a book in his hand. The man looked up from his book and gave a smile to Stiles before starting to speak.

“Alright then, time to get packed. Your training starts tomorrow.”

“How...when...WHO ARE YOU?” Stiles whispered loudly trying not to raise any suspicion from his drunk father downstairs.

“Alright i see this would go a lot faster if i just explain somethings to you. Firstly, my name is Libra. I chose you as a potential soldier for the holy war the day you were born. Well actually you were bound to be chosen thanks to your mother. Regardless, the next step: we test if you actually possess the strength to become a holy warrior. If you do, you will gain power and will get the honour to fight in the name of the Libra faction and help the Zodiac’s. If you fail the test you will die. It’s quite simple.”

Stiles’ eyes widened. Of course he knew that there were scientifically unexplainable creatures alive on earth like Banshees, Werewolves, Kanimas and so many other things that go bump in the night, but this sounded way too far-fetched. “Wait, so you want me to fight in a war that I have no idea of, want no part of, and i get no choice in the matter? That sounds so fair.” Stiles said the last part sarcastically. “And what the hell did you say about my mother.”

“Alright i rarely say this, but i guess i was wrong. It didn’t go smoother after explaining it to you. Well there’s always plan B.” The man said placing a hand on Stiles and just like that Stiles had fallen asleep.

When Stiles awoke he felt a little groggy. He woke to a room that was completely white, not a spot of colour, dust, or anything remotely solid. No gates to be seen anywhere, just a very large, white room.
Stiles stood in silence for a minute before taking control of his breathing that was going rampant. Stiles noticed a tiny flicker occur in the lights of the room and not long after in the middle of the room, a projection or hologram of sorts appeared. It read: “Trial 1: Aries”.

Notes:

Please let me know what you think. If people are interested I'll continue, I suspect this will be a long fic. Thank you for reading and once again make sure to tell me/show me if youd like to see more.

Chapter 2: Zodiac of Chaos - Aries

Notes:

So it seems theres plenty of people who enjoyed it and so I will e continuing. I am thinking maybe post once a week. Let me know what you think.

P.S:
[Guys please do not post this on other websites without my permission. It really does hurt my feelings when I see that happen to other authors/writers and don't know if I could personally handle that. Thank you for understanding and thank you for reading.]

Stiles’ heartbeat quickly peaked, his breathing quickened, and needless to say he was alert. The room was changing, the walls' colour no longer the angelic white it was before, instead became a red that exuded bloodlust. The wall to his right had a weapon rack, and Stiles knew this wasn’t going to be fun.

Stiles heard a deep voice, a deep angry voice coming from the room but from no particular source.

“Not this again. Libra we’ve been through this. He is human! We don’t test humans here.” The voice said, clearly talking to the other man who had not long ago just knocked out Stiles.

“Aries he is not like the others. He has potential. I can sense it. A light that none other have had before him. Give him a chance.” Libra said

“Look at him Libra, he is nothing but skin and bones. You mean to tell me he will beat one of my Gladiators without any abilities or power to help him? Let the boy go Libra, and let him live his life, instead of dying here.”

Stiles’ eyes widened at hearing again that he may die here. “Yep, i’m 100% on board with the voice guy. I prefer not to die, soooo yeah just send me home, and we’ll forget this ever happened.” Stiles said with a smile, and hoping for the best.

Libra looked at him with an emotionless face, “You’re not going anywhere. You will pass these tests and join my faction. And That’s that. Oh, and another word out of you and I'll stitch those lips together.” Libra took his gaze off of Stiles and started speaking again, except this time, Stiles couldn’t understand what the man was saying.

“Aries, et eius fillium.” Libra said. And not a second later, there was a man standing in front of Stiles. The man was clearly muscular to the point where each muscle was protruding from the body, and looked no older than 35. He had a beard that screamed “manly”. And to say that Stiles was not aroused would have been nothing but a lie.

The man looked at Stiles, fixing his eyesight on him, and eyeing him head to toe before looking back to Libra. “Alright, i’ll let him take the test but his death will be on your hands.”

“I can manage that.” Libra said.
Stiles was feeling no safer than he was before, especially since he keeps hearing about his potential death! “Oh you can manage that, can you? That’s amazing news! You know who can’t manage that? Hmm let me see… oh yeah, ME!”

Libra looked back at Stiles. "I thought I said not a word out of you!”

Stiles wasn’t having it though; “Look, I don’t know who any of you are, and to be honest I would love to find out if it weren’t for the fact that everyone keeps mentioning how I might die! So how about..” Stiles was interrupted.

“Stop your bickering. No one cares! Now listen up. My name is Aries, and this is your first trial. The rules are simple, pick a weapon from the rack, pick a gladiator to fight from the line, and fight the duel. If my gladiator wins you die, if you win my gladiator dies. Is that understood?”

“I..” Stiles was going to speak again, but he was stopped again.

“Ok good, pick up a weapon.” Aries said, not even giving Stiles a chance to reply to the question.

Stiles went to the rack and saw all the weapons. A javelin, scythe, greatsword, cutlass, scimitar, spear, and so many other weapons just lined up on the rack. He was skilled with none. Stiles kept looking it over, and decided to go with the spear. At least he could hold it up, and not to mention it would help him keep distance.

“Alright, now, to my right and left are my men. Pick one to fight from this line. And we shall test your strength today!” Aries said.

Stiles looked at each man, each wearing armor from head to toe and holding their weapon of choice. In the middle was Aries, standing wearing nothing but a simple shirt and short, and they looked like rags. If Stiles was being honest he’d rather fight the man himself, he was wearing no armor, and had no weapon in his hand, seemed like the safest choice. But was he even an option? Well technically the rule was to pick a man from the line, and Aries is standing in the line. But Stiles had to be sure.

“So, i just pick anyone from the line, and they’ll have to fight me?” Stiles asked, facing Aries.

“Yes, now hurry. We don’t have all day!” Aries said.

“I pick you.” Stiles said not hesitating.

Aries looked confused. “What?”

“I pick you. I want to fight you.” Stiles said with confidence.
Aries started to laugh! “Libra, I thought you were supposed to pick smart children. Yet he is living proof of the fact that your pupils are not as smart as you say they are.” Aries said in his laughter. “It’s funny though, your mother picked me too. I guess mother like son.” Aries said moving towards Stiles.

Stiles had found that if he had stalled out a scenario long enough, he could often find a way out of the mess he had gotten himself into. So here goes: “How did you know my mother?”

“No more talking. Now it’s time to fight. Patience was one virtue I never really cared for.” Aries said charging at Stiles with his fist, making direct contact with Stiles’ abdomen sending him flying backwards.

Stiles hit the wall on the back, and the pain overwhelmed his brain. ‘So much for stalling’ he thought to himself.

“I guess that’s the end of that. At least your mother fought back. She was strong, she held her own; you, you’re pathetic and weak. You shame her by just existing. Do the world a favour and just die now...”

Hearing those words brought back memories of Jackson saying those exact same words to him. His entire life he had been bullied by people stronger than him and it always ended the same, with Stiles on the ground. And now was no different, his life depended on him fighting and he was once again on the floor.

“...the world doesn’t have room for weakness. You’re either strong or dead. There is no in between.” Aries finished saying

Stiles closed his eyes, took a breath in and started to push himself off the ground slowly so he could stand up. He was holding tightly onto the spear, using it as a crutch.
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that. At least be original. Like I haven’t heard ‘go kill yourself’ before. Hmph. Jackson could do better, and he’s working with half a brain. So yeah, you’re going to have to do a lot better than that to get on my nerves. As for the punch, didn’t even feel a thing.” Stiles said, clearly in pain.

“Look at yourself, you’re barely standing up! But I’m surprised you can even get up. Smart choice would have been to stay down, young one. At least then you would have lived to see another day perhaps but it seems you were destined to die by my hands. And so today we shall carry out what is destined to be.” Aries charged at Stiles again using the same formation he had last time, aiming for the same place he had last time. Stiles took notice of that, and he quickly moved slightly to the left, propping his spear so that it was where Stiles should have been. Before Aries even knew what had happened, he had a spear going through his fist. But Aries didn’t hesitate, flinch or even show any signs of pain.

Stiles was working off of pure adrenaline at this point. He used all the strength that he had and kept pushing the spear further into Aries’ fist until half of the spear had gone through the skin.

Aries still looked unphased, almost as if the spear wasn’t even there. He lifted his hand, broke the spear in half and took out the piercing end from his flesh. He smacked Stiles again, and before Stiles could even react, he was sent flying, hitting himself right into the weapon rack.

“I take it back Libra, he’s not stupid. He’s suicidal.” Aries said, anger starting to show on his face.

Stiles’ eyes widened, hearing that sentence just gave him an idea. Stiles grabbed the longsword from the weapon rack, and stood back up. The sword felt lighter than Stiles expected, perhaps his adrenaline was still aiding him.

“Look brother, he has yet survived another hit. I must say he is impressive indeed. Unfortunately those are the last words you’ll hear.” Aries said laughing.

Stiles started speaking as he moved towards Aries, slowly.“It makes you…” Stiles said before the air in his lungs escaped as coughs. “It makes you feel better doesn’t it? You hit those weaker than you and suddenly you feel powerful, you feel in control.” Stiles coughed again. “I have dealt with people like you my entire life. You’re all the same, you think you’re strong because you can prey on the weak. I’m going to show you that you are just as vulnerable as the rest of us!” Stiles screamed as he charged full speed at Aries.

“You truly do have a death wish” Aries stood in his place and as Stiles approached Aries, Aries took hold of Stiles’ hand and turned him around, in one swift motion. Aries pulled Stiles closer into his own chest; now Aries’ abdomen tightly pressed against Stiles’ back, with Aries’ hand interlocking Stiles’ neck in a choke hold. “Look brother, look at him die and hopefully you will learn not to choose humans....” Aries said unable to finish his sentence.

Stiles could barely move, but he had a plan. He had to stick to the plan. He was going all in, it was the moment of truth, Stiles thought to himself. Stiles lifted the sword from his hand, quickly and in one smooth motion, he pierced his own flesh with the blade. He went all the way, until he felt the blade exit, and hit flesh again, Aries’ abdomen, then he pushed further, and kept going until the hilt of the sword was touching Stiles’ abdomen. The blade,now completely entered through Stiles’ abdomen, and exiting through Aries’ back.

Aries had stopped talking and he pushed himself away from Stiles to unskew himself. The moment the blade left Aries’ flesh, he coughed up blood. Stiles turned around to see Aries, and looked him right in the eye, a look unwavering, and just for a second he saw it, on Aries’ face. It was fear.

Stiles’ body couldn’t hold itself up anymore, and the blade was the last blow it could handle, so the next thing Stiles saw was blackness, and the last thing he felt was the ground.

Notes:

For the near future, the story will focus heavily on Stiles and him becoming more independent/stronger.
The main sterek plot will start after that and we will tackle that when we get there. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 3: Life Holds Meaning

Notes:

New chapter!! Next chapter in 3 days...cuz I have almost finished it.

Stiles woke up feeling better than he had in years. The pillow his head rested on felt like a cloud, not that he knew what a cloud felt like, but assumed it’s how it would feel. Stiles’ eyes didn’t want to open, but he didn’t have a choice, as comfortable as he was he knew it wasn’t home. Stiles sat up straight, and looked around the room, seeing a man, Libra, with his eyes focused on a book. Stiles coughed, and with that Libra looked up at Stiles.

“Ah, awake are we? You gave quite the performance out there.” Libra said with a smile on his face.

“I’m still alive.” Stiles said with wrinkles forming on his forehead.

“Yeah...i guess you’d see it as a bad thing.” Libra said

“I didn’t…” Stiles tried to say but was cut off with Libra raising his hand.

“Spare me the lies. I knew where it was headed the moment you picked up the sword. It was your only chance of winning, the only strategy that Aries wouldn’t expect. Which shows me that you can think. But it also shows me that you don’t care about yourself.”

“I care! Of course I care.” Stiles said in a hushed whisper.

“Do you remember that friend of mine that passed away a long time ago?” Libra asked still sitting in his chair, but no longer holding the book in his hand.

Stiled nodded his hand in a “yes” motion.

“Well let me tell you a story about her. You see, she came to us and said to us that she heard of the holy war and wanted to help.” Libra started but couldn’t continue because he could see the confusion on Stiles’ face. “You don’t know what the holy war is. Alright, well you see there are 13 zodiacs, from eldest to youngest: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.”

“You said there were 13 of you, that’s only 12.” Stiles questioned.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. Patience Stiles! Okay where was I...ahh yes, Well the 12 of us were planning for the birth of our youngest brother, Ophiuchus. He was born and we were all so happy to have him, his beauty challenged even the brightest of stars.” Libra paused.

Stiles noticed Libra’s eyes, he’d seen that face before, a face that was mourning a loss. “He was murdered, wasn’t he? And ever since then you and his murderers have been at war.” Stiles asked quietly.
Libra nodded his head in agreement, not at all surprised that Stiles could figure it out just from his face. “They killed our innocent baby brother. Aries lost it, he held back nothing and he destroyed so much of their land. And so began the holy war between angels and zodiacs. Which brings us back to my friend. Well she said she’d help in anyway she can. And she did exactly that, she would tend the wounds of the injured soldiers, cleaned for us, did whatever was needed to make our lives easier. And she did it all with a smile on her face. Then one day, a soldier, a friend, she was treating died. She didn’t cry, not a single tear. Instead she came to us and requested that she be tested with the trials so she can go to the front lines and fight with the rest. We accepted her request. She was tested, and during one of the tests she used her powers unintentionally... a huge mistake. Her powers showed us who she was. You see her soul was made in heaven, wings forged in heaven; she was nothing but pure angel, and seeing it enraged us all. We took our anger out on her. We tortured her for days thinking she was a spy. We beat her, and humiliated her infront of all the soldiers. One day I went to her and asked her, was it worth it? She looked straight at me and said: ‘He was a child, not even a day old and my brothers and sisters killed him. So if this is what it takes to right the the wrongs done by them, then I will accept it with a smile.’ I got mad at her; I thought she was lying. So not long after, we did something, something we all would live to regret…” Libra’s eyes started to tear up. Taking a deep breath in he continued: “We clipped her wings off. And you see the moment an angel’s wings are taken from them, they fall to earth, and they can never return to heaven.
Later we found out that she was telling the truth. We were speechless… But there was nothing we could do, she had already fallen! So she was forced to go to Earth. She joined your people and as 100 years passed she travelled, she settled in the town of Beacon hills, she fell in love and she was happy. And she was still as beautiful as the first day I had met her, she kept her youth thanks to the soul forged in heaven. But it wouldn’t hold out too much longer. I visited her often, each time apologizing to her. She would look at me and smile everytime and tell me about how she’s so happy with her life, with her husband, with her baby boy. How everyday she looks at him she sees home. She said as long as her baby boy was with her, heaven was never far away, she eventually changed the word heaven out for home.Then her heavenly soul started to fade, and I could see it, she was dying. Some days she wouldn’t even recognize her family, let alone little old me. She didn’t deserve any of it, all she ever tried to do was undo the wrongs done by her people, and all she got in return was hate. And she never once cried, not when she was tortured, not when she was hurting, not when she was dying. And I think it’s because she stopped caring about what happened to her. I can’t help but see that part of her in you.”

Stiles had started to tear up, almost as if his brain had picked up on something he hadn’t comprehended yet; “What was her name?” Stiles asked.

“You know her name, young one, she was your mother afterall.” Libra said.

Stiles closed his eyes and started to cry. In between the cries he spoke: “Why...why tell me...this?”

“Because if you keep not caring about what happens to you, you’re going to end up dead a lot sooner than you need to be, young one.” Libra said moving closer to Stiles’ bed and putting his hand over Stiles’ hand. “And you may not care what happens to you, but there are people out there who will.” Libra said.

Stiles scoffed, wiping his tears away. “There’s no one...no friends. Dad’s too drunk to even notice or care.”

“What a human way to think! Stiles, the people in your life right now are not the only people you affect. Think of all the people you’ll never get to meet, think of all the heartache you won’t be able to feel, or all the good friends you’ll miss out on. Think of all the good and bad memories that you have yet to make. Think of all the bad jokes you could make. Think Stiles, the future is just waiting to be discovered.” Libra paused… “And so I’ve decided to not let you finish the rest of the trials, you’d just use reckless tactics again and we’ll be back at step one.” Libra said.

“Why do you even care? You were okay with me dying before.”

“I care because I promised your mom I would look out for you! She was my friend, and whether you care for yourself or not I will always care. I would never let any creature kill you.” Libra said.

“Then where have you been my entire life! Have you not seen how they treat me...so much for keeping your promise.”

“Stiles...Zodiac’s are not allowed to interfere unless you’re close to death, like you were after you stupidly decided to stab yourself.”

“I want to do the trials.” Stiles said.

“No; out of the question.”

“You have my word. I will not try to kill myself. But I’m going to become strong, and then I'm going home.” Stiles said with his eyes unwavering.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Libra smiled and agreed. In fact Libra had no intention of stopping Stiles, he couldn't even if he wanted to. Once trials began the only way to stop them was death or completion.

The door opened, interrupting both Libra and Stiles was Aries. “Young one, your tactic was smart and yet stupid. I must say, you had me scared for a while, and I don’t scare easily.”

Stiles smiled and looked at Aries from his bed: “I told you I'd show you that you’re just as vulnerable.”

Aries smiled; “I always knew that you were special!”

Stiles and Libra rolled their eyes.
“You’ve passed my test, you have my approval, but I must warn you my test is the easiest of them all. You’ll be going to Taurus next and take my advice, be patient with him.” Aries said and then heading for the door, but just before he exit he turned around and said: “I’m sorry. Your mother...she was… we don’t deserve your forgiveness, and one day I expect you will want revenge and we will be ready for when that day comes.” Aries said.

“ She would want us to forget it. You have my forgiveness, and all though I don’t speak for my mom, something tells me she never blamed any of you. Not for a second.” Stiles said.

“You are definitely your mother’s son. Never forget that and we might make a soldier out of you yet.” Aries said exiting the door.

“Rest young one. Taurus’ trial is tomorrow, and he will hold nothing back.” Libra said.

Stiles closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Notes:

How was it? Uneventful maybe...but it goes uphill from here.

Chapter 4: Zodiac of Stubbornness - Taurus

Notes:

It's just come to my attention that there are probably a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. I apologize, I do my best to edit but it's not my first language. So it's a little hard. That might also explain some of the weird dialogue.

I hope it's still good though!

 

P.S: Thank you all for reading and liking and commenting. It means the world to me and it really does motivate me to write more.

Stiles woke up to bickering between Libra and another man who was clearly someone important if the golden armor indicated anything. Stiles sat straight up and waited for the two men to notice that he had awoken. The two men were still arguing, not that Stiles understood anything, it was in another language after all. They were speaking what sounded like latin, if Stiles had to guess. After a minute of waiting Stiles decided to take matters into his own hands, so he faked a cough, hoping the two would realize.

The two men looked at him, and both smiled, while the man in the golden armor stepped forward and offered Stiles his hand while he spoke: “Hi, my name is Taurus, and I must say Stiles I have heard a lot of good things about you from Aries. And my elder brother rarely praises anyone, let alone a puny human.”

“Thanks?” Stiles said confused, how was he supposed to respond to that? “Um, is it time for your trial?”

“Yes it is. We will see you in the trial room soon.” Taurus said and then turning to leave the room.

“Come on get dressed up and meet us in the room when you’re ready.” Libra said following Taurus.

Stiles put on the clothes that he saw on the edge of the bed. It was a black shirt, a kurta, and a black bottom piece (a salwar). Both pieces had gold outline streaks running on the sides. Stiles definitely liked the feeling of the clothes and he could definitely use more of these in his wardrobe. Stiles walked out of the room, and then into the room marked “trial room”.

“Alright let’s get started.” Taurus said as soon as he saw Stiles. Taurus flicked his fingers and the room changed colours to gold from its natural white state. Stiles noticed the same flicker in the room that he noticed when Aries started his trial in the room. And just like that Stiles could no longer see Libra or Taurus. In fact he couldn’t see anything, it was all just gold. There was nothing to grab, or touch other than the walls and a hologram timer in the middle of the room that started counting up.

Stiles knew the test had started but he wasn’t sure what he had to do. No instructions were given. Stiles gave it some thought, and he figured it must be a puzzle of some sorts, he would have to find the hidden door, or the exit and the sooner he finds it the better he does. Stiles started searching for any button or hidden doors, or even trapdoors. An hour went by and he found nothing. Stiles felt like he had searched the entire room. Another hour went by and still no luck. Stiles started hitting the walls, and hoped something would happen. Still no luck though. Another 2 hours go by and Stiles was still in the room, the timer still counting. Stiles started to feel like there was no lever, button, or door to find. It must be something else he thought. Stiles decided to take a seat and just think it through.

After a minute of just sitting and thinking he remembered Aries’ words; “...be patient with him”. That’s what Aries said about Taurus. Stiles smiled, he knew what he had to do. The task was actually quite simple. He just had to wait….he had to just wait. So Stiles went into the middle of the room and laid down, looking up at the hologram timer which read “4 hours 10 minutes and 35 seconds. Stiles closed his eyes for a while and opened them, still facing the timer. Stiles noticed it immediately. The timer now read “3 hours 50 minutes and 10 seconds”. That’s it, he just had to wait it out.

Stiles waited and waited, eventually falling asleep. He woke up and found the timer read “5 hours 10 minutes and 2 seconds”. “Shit!” Stiles shouted. “I guess that means I have to be awake for the entire time.” Stiles sighed, and started to motivate himself to stay awake and do nothing for 5 hours.

It wasn’t easy, Stiles just sat in the middle, focusing on his breathing, and making sure to stay awake. The clock counting down.

The clock was down to 2 hours now, and Stiles could feel the end was near. What felt like a year later, the clock was down to 30 minutes. Stiles started to get excited, but he focused on his breathing and he watched the timer go down to 20 minutes, 10 minutes. 1 minutes. 30 seconds.
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...and then it was over. The room reverted back to its original state.

Libra and Taurus were there too.

“I passed!” Stiles said cheering out loud! He was celebrating, but when he looked at Taurus there was no indication of celebration. So Stiles looked at him and said… “What?”

“Stiles, the test isn’t over.” Libra said.

“A test’s purpose is to see what you’ve learned. How can I test you on something without teaching you first.” Taurus said with a smile.

“Of course, why would it be that simple?” Stiles said, sarcasm in his tone.

And just like that he was back in the room with the timer. And the timer started counting up again just like last time. Stiles smiled because he knew what had to be done now. He just had to sit and wait. That’s exactly what he did...but the timer kept going up. It wasn’t going down. “The rules have changed.” Stiles whispered. So Stiles went to the initial strategy and started looking for things, and he found that the timer decreased as he stayed active. “It’s the opposite...I have to stay active this time.” He was doing anything to stay active, and in no time the clock was at 0 again.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOH” Stiles celebrated again, but he looked at the face of Libra and Taurus and he knew it wasn’t over yet. “You’re kidding me!” Stiles sighed and just like that he was back in the room. He had to figure out what the rule was this time; it took him 2 hours to figure out the rule, and so he had to wait another 2 hours to get out of the room. He celebrated his victory again, happy that he was out of the room. But he wasn’t out for too long, before he was back in the test room. He was figuring out the rule of the room when it hit him… ‘how can i test you on something without teaching you first.’ “the rooms aren’t the only test...there are two tests.” Stiles whispered. After that he worked hard to figure out the rule of the room. It took him a total of 3 hours to get out of that room. As soon as he did, he sat down and just looked at Taurus and Libra. He waited patiently, and stared at them while they stared at him.

Stiles saw Libra say something to Taurus, but he couldn’t hear them.

“I think he’s figured it out.” Libra said to Taurus.

“Yes, but it’s not enough to figure it out. He must have confidence in it, brother. So let’s see how confident he is.” Taurus said to Libra.

Just like that Stiles was back in another room. Stiles wasn't shocked. He was actually expecting it. So he figured out the rule for the room and got out in shortest time yet, 10 minutes. And as soon as he got out, he just sat down and started staring at the two men again.

Stiles saw Taurus move forward towards Stiles, smiling at him. “Well done young one.” Taurus said.

“Are we done?” Stiles said with an emotionless face.

“Yes we’re done.” Taurus replied.

“Have I passed?” Stiles asked.

Taurus looked back at Libra then back at Stiles and said: “you’ve passed, only if you can tell me what you’ve learned...in two words or less.”

Stiles opened his mouth to answer Taurus, but quickly closed his mouth and just looked at Taurus instead and slowly blinked his eyes.

Taurus got the message and laughed out loud as he patted Stiles' shoulder. “You’ve got a good one on your hands Libra. He’ll make a fine addition.” Taurus said as he left the room.

Libra came forward. “Well done. Most people get stuck in his test. Some even end up spending their entire lives here, they die doing this test, and you do it in less than a day. It’s amazing young one, but why didn’t you answer him?”

“There were two lessons he was teaching me...the first one was obvious...patience. That one I learned from the rooms, but the second lesson wasn’t as obvious. Every time the room ended I celebrated immediately, I got too excited about something I didn’t even know for certain. He was teaching me that my actions speak louder than my words. So when he asked me what have I learned in one word; it was a test in itself to see if I had learned the second lesson for sure, because no one word could describe both lessons, but my actions could. Simply stay quiet and that meant I had learned both patience and about my actions.” Stiles explained to Libra.

“Impressive indeed.” Libra said.

“But you already knew that...didn’t you?” Stiles said.

“I did. Just wanted to see if you did.”

“Boy am I glad that’s over.” Stiles said.

Libra laughed and walked Stiles out of the room. “Get some rest, the next test is tomorrow.”

“Alright. And thank you for clothes by the way. They’re beautiful, and so comfortable!” Stiles said.

“You’re welcome. See you soon Stiles.”

“See you soon.” Stiles smiled and walked into his room, and went to bed. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep. His eyes were already heavy from the mentally exhausting day.

Notes:

Gemini is next, and I wonder what shenanigans Stiles will br a part of next.

Chapter 5: Zodiac of Mischief - Gemini

Notes:

Warning: chapter contains violence and perhaps emotional triggers

I hope all of you enjoy this chapter!

“Wakey wakey” Stiles heard someone say, as he started to wake up. Stile rubbed his eyes, and when he opened them he was seeing doubles of the person standing in front of him. So he rubbed his eyes again, and really opened them wide, and when he saw who it was, his eyes started to tear. “Mom?” Stiles said in a broken voice.

Stiles saw his mom look at him with confusion. Then she started speaking to him. “I’m sorry, you must be confused. I am not your mother. You must have me confused with someone else.”

“But...you look exactly like her.” Stiles said.

“Well then you’re mom must be really pretty.” the woman said laughing and then stopping abruptly. “I’m not sure what to tell you young one. They must have really done a number on you with the torture, if you’re thinking im your mom.”

“Wait what did you just say? Torture? What do you mean torture?” Stiles said.

“Wow, it must have been really bad if you don’t even know where you are or what happened to you. You’re in the dungeon for a reason sweetie. Not sure what you did to be here but the zodiacs always have a reason.” the lady said.

Stiles looked around and he didn’t even realize that he wasn’t in his room anymore. He was in a room made purely of stone. Definitely had a dungeon vibe. Stiles figured out what was happening. It was a trial. He didn’t know who’s trial it was but he was seriously hating on them right now. Stiles got up and looked at the lady, taking her hands in his. The woman’s eyes arched up, but before she could push away Stiles started speaking. “Your name is Claudia. My name is Genim Stilinski, but you’ll call me Stiles as a nickname. You don’t know me right now but you will be my mom. And you’ll hold me tight in your arms everyday. You’ll give me coffee when i’m young so that I can pretend to be a grownup. Then when I’m older you’ll take me to actual coffee shops so we can just sit and talk. You’ll make me feel better on bad days, you’ll be there every time I need you. You will love me so much, and I just wanted you to know that I loved you too. I loved being hugged by you because it was the only time I felt safe. I loved every moment I spent with you and I didn’t tell you that enough and I’m so sorry that I didn’t get to tell you all this before and that's something I'll have to live with.” Stiles started to tear, and before he could finish what he was going to say, Claudia pulled Stiles in for a hug. And to Stiles it felt no different from his mother’s hugs, he felt so safe.

“I’m so sorry they are doing this to you, just so they can get to me. I don’t mind them torturing me but I can’t imagine the harm they’ll do to you. I am so sorry.” The woman whispered to Stiles.

Stiles pulled back from his mom, and wiped away the tears. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by all of that?”

“My people killed their brother and they are torturing me to get even. I can only imagine this is part of their plan. They want me to get emotionally attached to you, and really think that you’re my son from the future. And I'm sure they have messed with your memories to make you think that I am your mother but I'm not. Aries or Taurus or Virgo, or one of them is going to come in and kill you in front of me. It’s just another way to torture me. In a way it is working; I feel horrible that there is no way I can protect you from them, that they will hurt you just to get to me.” Claudia said.

Stiles thought it through, there was no way to make the woman in front of him believe that she was indeed his mother. Stiles put aside his thoughts because he’ll take this time with her, even as a stranger.

--- Libra’s and Gemini’s point of view from outside the room ---

“This is a new low even for you brother!” Libra said

“We can’t live in the past Libra. We can never undo what we did to his mother, our friend, and he needs to realize that there is no right side in wars. Now is a good time as any. Plus It is my job as Gemini to play mind games, and this is the one that will test him best.”.

--- back to Stiles’ point of view ---

The two were interrupted by a man that Stiles recognized. It was Aries, except Stiles could see it in the eyes...it wasn’t the Aries he knew, this one had anger ingrained into his eyes and there was nothing but anger.

Aries opened the door and as soon as he did Claudia jumped in front of Stiles and started to speak. “Please don’t hurt him. If he deserves it then please hurt him for his crime, do not punish him because of me.”

Aries grabbed Claudia and threw her aside, beating her up. Stiles tried to stop Aries but he wasn’t strong enough. He couldn’t do anything to stop it. Aries beat Claudia relentlessly. After a good 20 minutes Aries left, with just as much anger in his eyes as he came with.

Stiles rushed to Claudia and tried to help her up, but she kept her distance from him. “Stay away from me. If they even think i’ve fallen a liking to you, they will torture you just to get to me. I’m happy that this time it was me, but unfortunately that won’t be the case every time.”
Stiles didn’t understand….what was his trial? Was he supposed to just sit here and watch as his mother was beaten and tortured? Was that it? Were they testing if he was strong enough to handle this intense amount of pain, because the answer was no, no he couldn’t. Stiles couldn’t handle this much longer...so he needed to figure it out quick.

Stiles thought while Claudia healed thanks to her angelic soul. Stiles figured that this was all just an illusion to mess with him. The only thing was how does he break the illusion? It could be as simple as knowing it’s an illusion, but if that was the case then he would have broken it already. It had to be something else. He could try killing himself, maybe that would do the trick. But he promised Libra he wouldn’t, and he didn’t want to break that promise. Then an idea came to Stiles’ head...another idea that he wasn’t fond of yet it wouldn't be breaking his promise..

“You’re an angel aren’t you?” Stiles asked his mom, already knowing the answer.

“Yes child.”

“How come they torture you instead of killing you?” Stiles asked, and as soon as the words left his mouth he felt the same sorrow as when he was at his mom’s funeral.

“Zodiac’s want me to suffer and pay for my crime. They want all angels to pay for their crime. That’s why they hire creatures of earth to fight against angels. Werewolves and whatnot. The creatures of earth may not be as strong as the Zodiacs, but because the job of angels is to protect all earthly creatures, including the supernatural we can’t harm them. It is the best army against angels.” Claudia said, with no sign that she had just been beaten up mercilessly by Aries.

Stiles finally knew why the Zodiac’s weren’t fighting their own war, strategically speaking it was the best way to go. But Stiles couldn’t help but wonder… “It doesn’t make sense. Why kill the baby? I mean there is absolutely no reason to, but i’m assuming the Angels aren’t exactly going around killing whoever they want. They must have had a reason.”

“The Angels have a prophecy about the Zodiacs. It states that when 12 zodiacs have been born the world will be in equilibrium between good and evil. That is why the first 12 Zodiac’s were celebrated, we rejoiced at the birth of each. But the prophecy goes to say; When 12 have been reached there shall be no more and no less. One more and the world falls into chaos, one less and the world falls into conformity. So when the angels heard about the 13th zodiac being born, they took action. They knew that it would start a war, but as creatures that protect Earth, it was worth it to them.”

Although Stiles still had the reckless idea, he did find this conversation to be enlightening.
“Would you mind helping me with something, I fear that I am too much of a human to do it myself.” Stiles asked.
“What is it?” Claudia asked.

“Can you break a piece of the wall, or the bars for me?” Stiles asked.

“If you’re hoping to escape,I should tell you that you’re strategy is flawed. The bars and the walls are just for show. The real thing keeping you in is their magic.”

“No, not trying to escape...well yes trying to escape but not in the way you think.” Stiles said.

“Alright.” Claudia said breaking one of the bars from the cell and handing it over to Stiles.

Stiles merely looked at it and thanked his mom for her help.

“I know you won’t believe me, but I am your son. You’re going to have a great life after you get out of here. A husband that loves you, a son that cherishes you, and together the 3 of you will be a family.” Stiles said

--- Libra’s and Gemini’s point of view from outside the room ---

“Oh Stiles I do not like where this is going.” Libra said.

“Brother what aren’t you telling me?” Gemini asked.

“His strategies can be reckless at times. During his fight with Aries he stabbed himself in order to land a devastating blow to Aries.” Libra said while sighing.

Gemini’s eyebrows arched; “He was able to land a blow on Aries? That’s impressive indeed, but what’s the point of a victory if you aren’t alive after to rejoice in it.”

“That’s the point. He doesn’t care about life or death. Much like his mother, once he gets an idea in his head, he goes all in. And I fear that the pole we just saw him with is going to be a weapon for one of his suicide attempts.” Libra said.

“Well if he does that, he will awaken from the illusion for sure. So he will pass my test if he shocks his body that hard. If he lives after...that's an entirely different problem.” Gemini said.

“Promise me brother, if he tries to kill himself you will not pass him.” Libra asked, hoping Gemini will agree.

“I can see that you worry about him...fine I will not pass him if he breaks the illusion by trying to kill himself and lives after. Although that does make it harder to break the illusion. The point of the test is to drive people insane to the point where death is the only option that would give you sweet relief. So he will have to figure out another way before he decides to kill himself, and trust me brother eventually he will decide to kill himself. They always do.”

--- back to Stiles’ point of view ---

Stiles held the pole in his hand and waited for the right moment. While waiting he talked to his mom like the good old days. Even though she didn’t believe that she was speaking to her son, he still cherished the time with her as always.

Eventually he saw Aries coming towards the cell and he knew it was time to initiate his plan.
He picked up the pole, looked at his mother and said “I love you. Please remember that!” He took the pole and thrust it right through his mother’s chest. Stiles’ face was emotionless but his eyes betrayed him and let out tears.

Aries on the other hand lost control at the sight of losing his punching bag so to say. He looked at Stiles, and just from the pure rage oozing out of his eyes Stiles knew this wasn’t going to be pleasant.

Aries pinned Stiles down to the ground, and under his weight Stiles couldn’t move, not even to struggle not that he was trying to. Stiles merely waited for the punches to make contact. And they did, the skin to skin contact not hurting as much as the sting that he felt after. But eventually it all felt the same. He couldn’t tell when the punches landed anymore, the pain was so constant that it all felt the same to him. And just like that, his eyes shut. Mere seconds later, his eyes opening back in the white test room.

“That’s it, no more trials for you.” Libra said as he walked straight to Stiles. “YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T KILL YOURSELF!”

“Brother calm down. The boy should be celebrated after all he did just pass my test.” Gemini said to Libra.

“Gemini you said that he would not be passed if he tried to kill himself. You gave me your word.” Libra shouted in anger.

“Brother you forget your place. You are in MY room. You are currently under MY supervision, and lest we forget this is MY test! So please refrain from telling me what I can and cannot do. I did in fact promise you that he would not pass if he attempted to kill himself and had he done so I would not have passed him. However it was Aries’ hands who tried to kill him. So from where I stand he has broken no promises to you. Celebrate that he utilized whatever loopholes he could find. He thought like a true Gemini, better than any of my previous students and my test is not for the weak Libra, you knew that coming in. They all decide to kill themselves, and that’s the easy way out. He had to find another solution and he did. We shall applaud him, not belittle or guilt. Is that understood little brother?”

Libra sighed, “Yes brother.”
“Good! Now that we have cleared that up. We should allow the young soldier to rest. He goes to brother Cancer tomorrow and we all know that is an emotional roller coaster.” Gemini said in a voice that sounded relaxed yet still powerful.

“Very well. Go rest Stiles, I shall be in shortly.”

“Before you leave Stiles. Me and your mother were close. Best of friends at one point. She used to call me Genim. I can’t believe she named you Genim, even after everything we did to her. A part of me can’t help but think it’s her way of reminding us about what I’ve done, torturing me, but knowing her she did it to show us that she forgave us a long time ago. I also wanted you to know. That my illusions hold truths to them...so all of her answers were real. That’s all.”

Stiles didn’t know what he should say in response, instead he nodded and made his way to his room but he did not go further than the inside of the door. He left the door open a little so he could hear what they were saying.

As soon as Stiles stepped inside, Libra started to speak. “He can’t pass a test because of semantics. That is not how we do things here brother. You gave me your word.” Libra said in a hushed tone.

Stiles felt a little hurt that Libra would go behind his back like that. Stiles understood that Libra has his reasons but instead of discussing it with Stiles present, he chose not to. Stiles couldn’t help but feel like he was back at high school as the kids whispered rumors about him behind his back. He felt silly thinking it was anything like that but it didn’t stop from feeling like that.

“I thought we cleared this already.” Gemini rolled his eyes. “If you are so mad that he passed, just fail him when he gets to your test. Make up some reason for his failure. It’s not like he’d be able to do much about it considering he’s human. And who knows if you’re lucky he might even fail a trial before he gets to yours. You know sister Virgo can go a little overboard sometimes.” Gemini said in a very relaxed tone.

“I will not have a false ruling in my trial. We do not conduct ourselves in that manner.” Libra said.

“Ugh. You and your morality. Always jabbering on about doing the right thing and following rules and yet here you are not being able to follow your own rule. It was simple, you said he couldn’t kill himself, and last time I checked he didn’t. So no rules were broken. By your standards he should pass and that’s exactly what happened.” Gemini was getting really bored repeating the same thing over and over again. “Look little brother, I will admit to you that he is a special one, and not just because he is lady Claudia’s son but because his mind works unlike any other. He will make a great addition to the army, WHEN he passes all the tests. And mark my words, he will pass them all. You can wish that he fails one, but he will not. His eyes show it all. So I will say this for the last time, the only way that boy will not become a part of the Zodiac army is if you fail him in your trial. Now, I will hear no more of this nonsense. I am tired, and I must go.”

“Very well brother.” Libra said in response and making his way to Stiles’ room.

Stiles quickly made his way to the bed and jumped on it.

Libra squinted his eyes at the boy in front of him then sighed before continuing to speak; “You heard all of that didn’t you?”

Stiles didn’t have to say anything it was made plenty obvious from his face that he did indeed hear it. “I hope you know that when it does come to my test, I will not fail you on purpose, i would never do that.” Libra said. It wasn't that Libra didn't want him to do the tests and neither did he want Stiles to fail any. It was just the methods he was using; Libra is known for thinking rationally and everything about Stiles isn't.

“I’m kind of getting sick of this.” Stiles said.
“The trials are supposed to be difficult, so it’s only natural you feel sick.” Libra said trying to comfort Stiles.

“Not the trials; that I’m okay with. It’s the fact that no one seems to be telling me the whole truth. It’s always just partial truths and the rest you tell me when it’s convenient for you guys to tell me. Do you know what that makes me feel like...actually don’t answer. I’ll tell you what it makes me feel like. It makes me feel like I’m back at high school with the kids whispering rumors behind my back, excluding me on purpose. It makes me feel like I’m less than...and compared to all of you I might not be as strong, or as smart, or even as important, but if it concerns me or my mother I have the right to know about it. I don’t care if it will hurt my feelings, or if it’s a sensitive topic.” Stiles said not taking a single breath.

“Are you done?” Libra asked with his eyes arching.

“No;I'm not done…”

The room stayed silent for a moment, broken by the words spoken by Libra. “Are you going to finish?”

“Well I can’t think when you put me on the spot like that, but the point here is that just be straightforward with me, no more half truths.”

“Alright then. You might want to take a seat. There is something I need to fill you in on and you may not be too happy about it.” Libra said.

“I’m already sitting.” Stiles said with a blank face.

“Well, how do I say this...You’ve been here what? 3 days now? The thing is 3 days in our realm means 3 months on Earth.” Libra said slowly, trying to drag out the sentence as much as he could. He imagined it would soften the blow if he said it slower. He was clearly mistaken.

Stiles’ face became the epitome of horror.“3 MONTHS! Oh NO NO NO NO NO! This is a joke! It has to be!”

“Not a joke. Unfortunately this is the truth. Time works differently here.”

 

“That means I’ve already missed half the semester. How am I ever going to catch up? How am I ever going to graduate?....My dad! He’s probably worried sick about me.” Stiles stayed silent for a while. Libra could see that the boy was thinking, analyzing every single option in his head and suddenly Stiles spoke again: “Take me back.”

“Stiles, you can’t go back. You’ve begun the trials you need to finish them or else the zodiacs will demand your death.” Libra said with what seemed to be sadness on his face.

“I have finished 3 trials...which means I still have 9 more to go. If it takes me 1 day per trial, that means 9 days here and 9 months on earth. That makes a total of a year...I’ll miss my chance to graduate, not to mention my dad’s going to kill me when I get back. So either I die from the zodiacs, or my life goes to shit. Awesome, love the choices I've been given.” Stiles said throwing his hands in the air and letting them fall to his side.

“I know this may not be all that helpful, but people in Beacon hills don’t seem to be looking for you. Even your father has not yet noticed your absence. So why are you eager to go back there? What can Beacon hills offer you that we can’t?” Libra said fully expecting Stiles to get louder and angrier than he already was.

Stiles wasn’t exactly shocked to hear that no one was looking for him. It’s not like people at school or even in the town really knew him or even cared about him. But hearing that his dad didn’t even notice his absence, and it’s been 3 months. That one hit Stiles right in the heart. He knew his father had become an insufferable drunk, and just overall miserable but Stiles always thought that deep down his father cared, or noticed all the things that Stiles did for him. Turns out he was wrong. So maybe Libra was right to ask what Beacon hills had to offer, ‘cuz looking back at it Stiles can’t really find much. That’s why he wanted to leave the town and although this is not what he had planned, it might be what he needs. “You’re right.” Stiles said with a defeated tone.

Libra’s eyes widened and jaw dropped at the surprise of hearing that. “I am?... I mean of course I am.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “There is nothing waiting for me back there. And as much as I had other plans I'm not sure how well they would have worked out. At least like this I can become stronger and maybe even learn more about my mom. Clearly there is more to her than I ever knew.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear you’ll stay. You should rest now. Tomorrow you will meet with Cancer.” Libra said as he headed towards the exit.

Stiles nodded his head, and layed in bed, his brain in deep thought but eventually falling prey to sleep.

Notes:

WELL THAT WAS A RIDE! Let me know what you guys thought? Are you a Gemini, what do you think? Did i do you dirty or was I accurate?

Chapter 6: Beacon Hills

Summary:

[ This chapter recalls everything that’s been happening in Beacon hills while Stiles has been gone.]

Notes:

I know I'm a little (very) late but with everything that's been happening all my assignments got made online and so there was a lot of hassle setting up a lot of the stuff my school required. But we are back on track now!

First day missing (evening of Stiles’ birthday) -

Stiles’ dad came home and for some reason it felt weird. He couldn’t place his finger on what was out of place, and it was starting to bug him. After a few hours he fell asleep, that’s being generous; it would be more accurate to say his body shutdown from all the beer and booze he’d been chugging. Sheriff Stilinski woke up the next day feeling wet and sticky. Something was still nagging him in the back of his head, but he was too hungover to care. He decided to clean himself up and the mess he had created on the sofa from the vomit. A piece of him knew that he was lucky to have not choked on his own vomit during his sleep. He was surprised though, he usually didn’t wake up with vomit on him, or even around him. The Sheriff made his way out of the house after doing all the cleaning. He noticed that Stiles’ cars was still not there. The voice in the back of his head getting stronger. Something was telling him that things aren't adding up. He didn’t think much of it though ‘cuz he rarely ever saw his son anymore. So he went to work, continuing his normal routine of working, and then getting hammered after.

Not much was different at school. No one seemed to notice anything off. In all of Stiles’ classes he was marked absent. But that was the norm, he rarely showed up to class anyways, unless he was attend to hand in an assignment. So the teachers felt nothing was off. The students were the same, they hardly saw him in school; so no they didn’t notice anything, why would they?

Days turned to weeks and no one seemed to notice the boy was nowhere to be seen. A month later Stiles’ jeep was found exactly where it was left by no one other than Jackson. At first Jackson had thought that Stiles was nearby, so he decided to wait for him and mess with Stiles. But after waiting 20 minutes, Jackson got tired and instead decided to mess with the car, by cutting the wires for the brakes. Jackson left right after.

Another month passed, nothing had changed at school or class. And as Stilinski’s marks started dropping the teachers did start to worry a little, but none worried enough to look into the matter. That was just the case unfortunately. It was around this time that Stiles’ jeep was found by two strangers who were hiking in the area. They had called a tow truck, and they had impounded the car. A notice had been sent to the address under which the car was registered, and a car poster was posted in the police station just in case. It was almost like the universe was trying to help the people of the town find Stiles, but the people were oblivious. They happened to ignore all the signs, all the clues, and that’s what lead them here. Sheriff Stilinski was working in the same office as the poster board, where pictures of lost pets, wanted criminals, missing people, and now a car that had been found were hanging. But he had missed it.

Another month passed, and although Stiles’ dad was still clueless about everything, people at school had started to make their own truths about Stiles. After Jackson had cut the brakes of his car, Jackson didn’t see Stiles anymore and so he assumed Stiles was either in the hospital because he got into an accident, or going through some legal problems because he was driving without functional brakes. But this story got morphed the more it got told; people started saying how Stiles had actually died during a car accident because he wanted the attention that bad. Other people started saying that he was in the hospital for one reason or another.

Scott heard the rumors and immediately became worried. The first time he heard the rumor was when he was walking down the hall and heard some people talk about how Stiles was in the hospital after getting into an accident. Scott was worried but decided the best thing to do was to ignore them. If something was wrong Stiles would have told him, Scott said in his mind to help himself feel at ease. But as the day went by Scott heard more and more rumors about Stiles; so feeling at ease wasn’t an option. At lunch he had taken a seat at the normal table alongside his friends.

“Did you guys hear Stilinski's been in some kind of trouble? There’s rumors going around about him.” Isaac said as he put some fries into his mouth.

Scott’s eyes turned up, “Yeah i’ve been hearing it all around school. But i’ve heard so many different things, I don’t know which one is true.” Scott said.

“Probably none.” Lydia said. Everyone looking at her with a confused look. “Do i need to explain everything to you idiots?” The group didn’t respond. “Fine! Think about it; All of these stories about him are popping up out of nowhere. The only explanation is that people are hearing an old story and putting their own twist on it. This means that they don’t actually know the truth. I’m sure the truth is out there somewhere but it’s not in this school. No one in this school even talks to Stilinski so the only person who would know the truth is probably his dad or his mom.”

“His mom’s dead.” Derek said without really giving any thought. The group gawked at Derek.

“Yeah, she is; but how do you know?” Scott asked, because he knew that the only person Stiles told that to was, well Scott.

“His mom and my mom were friends.” Derek said emotionlessly. The group had accepted the answer and continued the conversation. Jackson had told them how he had found the car but failed to mention how he had cut the brakes of the car.

“Why are we even talking about this? Who cares what happened to that freak? I think the world’s a better place without a freak like him in it.” Erica said, and Boyd agreeing quickly.

Scott didn’t say anything, instead nodded his head and went on with his day. Scott decided he would go to Stiles’ house after school and just make sure everything is okay.

At the end of the day Scott was going to go to Stiles’ house, but then was reminded he had practice for Lacrosse. So he quickly changed and went to practice. After practice Scott had completely forgotten about Stiles and going to check up on him. Instead he went home, took a shower, and fell asleep. Scott still heard rumors at school but he had just tuned them out, saying that none of these people actually knew Stiles, and that if something was wrong Stiles would have called Scott, or that Stiles’ father would have told his mom and she would have told him. Not to mention if Stiles was in the hospital, his mother would have definitely told him by now. So Scott ignored it all and just went on with his days as he normally would.

Notes:

Cancer is next!! Release date is sunday!

Chapter 7: Zodiac of Loyalty - Cancer

Summary:

Back to Stiles' point of view and back to the trials

Notes:

Hey guys, I love all the interaction that's happening with the story and so I want to address some of the comments!
1) YES, I TOO WANTED TO SLAP ALL OF THE CHARACTERS AS I WAS WRITING THE STORY!!
2) Stiles and Derek are the end goal and I promise you it's not abusive in any way or form! And it wont be an easy transition either!! Not if I have anything to say about it!
3) one order of BAMF stiles coming up...soon!

Stiles woke up feeling better than he had in years. Was it because he was learning more about himself? Or was it because he had started to let go of things and people that had been chaining him to the ground. Either way he liked the feeling of waking up and being in control of his own life, well partially. "This better not be a dream or a test. I swear I will…"

As he was speaking he saw that at the foot of the bed was an armor, a complete set of armor...in his size from the looks of it. Stiles knew this wasn't a good sign. Instead of putting it on Stiles ignored it and went out to the hall. He looked around the empty white hall and decided to take a tiny tour of the large house. Afterall he had only seen two rooms so far, the trial room and his bedroom, which were basically opposite from each other.

Stiles started to walk down the hall and noticed that there wasn't really much to indicate which direction he was going in. After walking for a few minutes he looked back and saw that the path behind him had completely changed. "That's not weird at all." Stiles sighed, "getting lost in 5 minutes. That's a personal best" he continued to say. He kept walking and came across his first room with the door labelled in a writing he couldn't read. When he tried to open the door it disappeared and suddenly it was just a wall. You wouldn't even be able to tell there was ever a door there unless you had seen it. Stiles kept walking until he saw another door and just like the first one, the door vanished when Stiles tried to open it. Stiles assumed it was a way to keep guests out of the rooms they were not wanted in. Stiles thought that if that was true then it was just better to go back to his room 'cuz he wouldn't really be able to do anything else really. So he decided to walk back...but Stiles couldn't really tell if he was going back the way he came...there were no landmarks or signs or anything to indicate where he had come from. It was just guesswork now.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, Stiles still didn't find his room. He was getting kind of tired and if he was being honest, very frustrated. As if the universe had heard his thoughts, Stiles could hear footsteps coming his way. So he stood still waiting for the person to arrive so that he could ask for directions.

Stiles saw a man come around the corner and as the man saw Stiles his eyes widened. "Ah, Mr. Stilinski you nearly gave me a scare. What are you doing out here?" The man said?

"Well I was just walking around and I seem to have lost my way. And you are…?"

"How rude of me. I am Cancer. And this castle is not a place that a human should be walking around alone. It's pretty easy to get lost and stay lost if you don't know what you're doing. Why don't I escort you back to your room and then we can get started with my trial. How does that sound?" The man said in a calm voice.

Stiles quite enjoyed this man's nice and relaxed demeanor, it was unlike all the other zodiacs he had met so far. They were all "do this or else you DIE." This was a nice change. Stiles followed the man closely and not 2 minutes later he had arrived back to his room. Stiles could have sworn that the room was supposed to be on the other side, but when he looked at the door on the other side it said "Trial Room". . This entire mansion just didn't make any sense. As they entered Stiles was turned around by Cancer and Cancer was now looking directly into Stiles' eyes. No one said a word, it was silent and it was only a moment later that the silence was broken by Libra entering the room. Cancer nodded in the direction of his brother and then immediately looked back to Stiles and said: "well we're ready to begin, are you?"

Stiles felt awkward for a second, this man just went from looking into his soul to as if nothing happened and Stiles was taken aback by that to say the least. "We aren't in the trial room. Is that okay? I mean if that is then yeah I'm ready."

"For today's test this is the perfect place. My test is a simple game of chess. Do you know how to play?" Cancer said with a small smile.

"Yeah I do...wait it's just chess?"

Cancer nodded his head in agreement and he snapped his fingers and suddenly there was a table with chess pieces all ready to go. Stiles noticed that the pieces were not the typical ones you'd see, instead they looked awfully familiar to the people he knew. However the pieces closer to Cancer's side were the typical pieces that you'd expect to see. "Why are my pieces different?" Stiles questioned.

"Oh well these pieces simply reflect the people you have connections to...stronger the emotional connection the more important the piece." Cancer said.

Stiles looked back at the pieces and saw pieces in the shape of his tormentors, there was no way he had any emotional connection with them, so this was already off to a rough start. "Them…" Stiles pointed to the pawns on the chess board "there is no way we have any emotional connections."

"Fear is an emotion Stiles." Cancer said again with his nonchalant smile still on his face. "Well let's get started." Cancer said as he picked up one his pawns and moved it ahead 2 spaces.

Stiles didn't really have much of an option and decided to follow his opponent's lead. He moved a pawn piece 2 spaces such that his and cancer's pawn pieces were head to head. A mimicked move.

The game continued on for a while and Stiles was the first one to lose a piece...a pawn in the shape of what looked like Jackson.

"I sure hope that was one of your tormentors." Cancer said...still smiling.

Stiles' head shot right up after hearing that. What did the man mean? Why would it matter? "What do you mean by that?" Stiles asked. Cancer simply shrugged and let Stiles decide his next move but Stiles was starting to doubt the game...there was no way this was just chess. All the trials up until now had been tricky and difficult, a game of chess...that just didn't fit the pattern. He figured there was more to it and started to think about how the pieces here could be connected to the people they look like. "How did he even know all the people I'm emotionally attached to, Stiles thought. "Wait is that why he looked into my eyes...he was looking through my memories and getting information on who to make the pieces look like." Stiles thought to himself and it was all starting to click. From there the next conclusion was just a hop and a skip away: If the piece dies here then the person dies too. Isn't that how it's been in all the movies ever. "If the piece dies here, what happens to the person in real life?" Stiles asked Cancer.

"Let's find out" Cancer said snapping and suddenly there was a mirror in which you could see that Jackson was being carried to the hospital. One more snap and the mirror was gone. Stiles was in awe...and not in a good way.

"How can you involve others in this...they have nothing to do with this! Stop this now!" Stiles said.

"Well if you want it to stop that's quite easy, just beat me…" Cancer was interrupted.

"I thought you were different but I guess I was wrong."Stiles stopped looking at Cancer with disgust and decided to be more serious. "Fine you want to play chess, let's play chess" Stiles said confidently. A very little known factoid about Stiles, he had never lost a match to anyone, except his mother so this was going to be a piece of pie.

A few more moves had gone by and Cancer had noticed the playing style...the strategy, identical to someone else's. He smirked and said "seems our beautiful Claudia passed on more than just her eyes to you."

Stiles looked up "I have never lost to anyone except her, so unless you're better than my mom you better get ready to lose, you manipulative idiot."

"I love the confidence...but I am the one who taught your mother how to play chess. Hahahaha. She could never really beat me." Cancer said with a cocky smile. It didn't last long as Libra had chimed in, " if I remember correctly brother, she passed your exam with flying colours!"

Cancer was clearly upset at his brother's words, not because of any insult but rather because it made him look less cool in front of his guest. "She passed the test, but did she really beat me?"

Stiles on the other hand was in deep thought about his mother's playing style, it wasn't very rational to begin with. The point was to make seemingly unrelated moves and hide your actual moves inside that mess. But he couldn't afford to do that for much longer, the longer the game went on for, the more likely it would be that more pieces of his would die...and he wanted this game to end. He focused on his pieces...there was nothing. He had no ideas, and at this rate there was no hope of winning. Libra and Cancer's conversation had completely been ignored by Stiles. After minutes of thinking and carefully planning, Stiles had layed out two: options for himself: 1) play the game normally and do my best to win, 2) admit defeat and end the game. Each option had pros and cons; the first would give him the best chance to win and protect his dad, the king piece. But it would cost the lives of other people, people he didn't like but people nevertheless. The second option would lead to his father's demise but end up saving a lot of people...people he didn't exactly feel like saving and it would probably mean he fails the exam. Stiles' eyes betrayed him once again, his eyes started to tear up...almost as if his body already knew the decision he would make. He lifted his fingers and picked up the king piece, and instead of placing it back down to a different spot he simply put the piece down on it's back as he said "I surrender." At this point Stiles was holding nothing back, the tears were just pouring out and his nose had snot dripping down out of it.

"Hahahahha it seems I simply wasn't able to break you. Ahh well I'll have plenty of chances to do so." Cancer said laughingly.

Stiles stopped crying, wiping away his tears and snot. And as he sniffled he said " wait… wait I'm confused! What's happening?"

Libra chimed in: "You just passed his trial."

"But how? I just lost."

Cancer comforted stiles by placing his hand on the boy's shoulders and said: "I am Cancer, Zodiac of Loyalty. My trial teaches people about caring and respect, even if it's something you learn indirectly."

"But...but I betrayed my family, how..how could you say I was loyal?"

"Sometimes the people we think we need to be loyal to are the ones we need to let go of the most. They might have earned that loyalty but what did they do to maintain it?" Cancer asked and before Stiles could answer Libra started speaking: " By sacrificing your father to save the people who you clearly do not care for showed that you have the ability to give up on relationships and make judgement calls not simply on the basis of 'because they are family' but rather the value."

"And stiles your father is safe. Actually, no one was ever in any danger. It really is just chess. The hologram earlier was just a fake illusion."

Stiles started to have doubts about these tests...today he had been the most scared he had ever felt. He had actually thought that he had killed his father, and that would be a scar he could never heal from. "What if the next tests required me to do something similar but...next time it might not be an illusion." Stiles thought to himself only to be removed from his thinking by Libra.

"What has got you thinking, young one?"

"Its just….I'm just...I… I don't know." Stiles' brain was firing at all cylinders, his body wanted to Express his pain, his confusion, his sadness but he just couldn't find the right words. And before he knew it, he was back in tears.

Libra saw the young man, and he knew exactly what was wrong. It wasn't the first time he saw someone like this. "I know exactly what you need. Come on follow me." Libra said with a reassuring smile. Together they walked to a room not too far from the test room. It was a library, well not quite as big, but it was filled with enough books to be considered one. Stiles had loved reading since he was a kid, it started all thanks to his mother reading to him every night, after that reading became a comfort thing.

"This room belonged to your mother, whenever she wasn't helping someone she was in here reading. We don't really come here often but we decided to keep it the same, as a memory of her. Feel free to do as you like, I'm sure she'd be more than welcome to share it with you."

Stiles' eyes had stopped leaking water, and now they were beaming. As Stiles started looking around, Libra started to walk out, but before he could Stiles spoke out. "Wait a second!"

"Yes Stiles?"

"My mother, do you think…" Stiles took a deep breath in, "do you think she'd be proud of me?"

"No. I think she would be angry. I think she would be mad, horrified, scared, and distraught. She would never want her child to go through these, and the mere fact that you're here would make her blood boil." Libra said honestly remembering the promise he had made to be upfront with him; and from the reaction Stiles gave it was obvious it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

Stiles was feeling bitter sweet, "Thank you...for not lying. I really do appreciate it."

"Oh and Stiles one more thing, please try not to burn the room down."

"How would I even do that?"

"The same way you managed to set your kitchen on fire while trying to make cereal." Libra said.

Stiles wasn't embarrassed of that moment, wasn't his proudest moment but in his defense cereals are really hard to make...right? Libra had exited the room after causing mild embarrassment in Stiles, on the other hand Stiles wasted no time delving into the books his mother had collected in hopes to get to know her better.

Notes:

This character, Cancer, is based on my Ex. They were so strong and loyal and just calm all the time. You could see their smile and it would just calm you down; but when the gloves came off they were a force to be reckoned with.
To all my peeps out there, loyalty is not bred it is earned! Surround yourself with people who respect you and treat you the same!
See you all soon!!

Chapter 8: The Zodiacs

Summary:

A little bit of background on the Zodiacs!

Notes:

Yes I missed last week...some of you wont let me live it down, you know who you are hahahah.
Anyways to make it up I'm uploading 2 chapters!!

Stiles didn't know where to begin, feeling too excited, so much so that his small framed body could barely contain all of it. He shook his body in all directions looking like a fish out of water, In hopes of calming his body down. It didn't work!

His eyes had already started scanning the room and one particular book had caught his attention...a brown leather book with a title "The Zodiac Tribes" written on it. It looked almost hidden but in plain sight. His interest piqued and he picked the book up from the shelf and started to open it; as he flipped the pages he admired the notes that had been scribbled on them. He knew instantly that it was his mother's for sure. He stopped on one page and read the note that she had written: "Nope! Nopity, nopity, NOPE! Not happening." It was right beside the sentence: "the student must then drink the blood of the ancestors of the tribe to become one with them." Suddenly Stiles understood his mother's hesitation and disgust clearly shown on his face. Stiles kept on flipping through the pages until he came to a chapter called "History of the Signs - evolving stars". The passage read:

"The world was born centuries ago through a means that no mortal could comprehend but today we shall try to uncover not the world itself but one of the major celestial beings that govern it: the zodiacs. It is known that there are 12 zodiacs and that this number hasn't changed for millenias and is expected to never change again. Although it is not known for certain why new signs may not form, it is easy to hypothesize based on current knowledge. Zodiacs are part of the classification known as Celestials; meaning they base their survival off of a source of energy other than those found on Earth. For Zodiacs, their main energy source is light from stars although artificial light seems to suffice as well. The zodiacs are also associated with their constellation in the sky. So it is hypothesized that until new stars come into the sky it's impossible for a new zodiac to be since it won't have a constellation. This is the current hypothesis for why there have been no new zodiacs, simply due to lack of enough new stars."

Stiles got quite intrigued and wanted to learn more; information like this could be of great use in the future trials or just in general. He looked to see who had written the book and the author's name was nowhere to be found. He flipped to the table of contents and looked for a topic that'd be of interest.
"Table of contents:
1 - Zodiacs Anatomy (pg1)
2 - Zodiac tribes (pg57)
3 - History of the signs (pg103)
4 - Trial system (pg206) "

To Stiles the last topic seemed most interesting, perhaps because it was most relevant. He quickly flipped to the page and started reading:

"The zodiacs have had a system for recruiting people onto their tribes since the Centurion War (pg 157). It allowed them to imbue people with certain talents. However they found that imbuing a person a talent other than their own signs' would lead to no change in the human. So they decided to make the trial system to see which tribe the human belonged to since there was no tracking system in place. However this turned out to be a very time consuming and tedious task since they would have to test every single individual. So, the zodiacs came up with a system called the 'Systematic Indicator of General Natural traits' or SIGN for short. This is a tracking system to ensure the zodiacs rotate their constellations from oldest to youngest in the sky and depending on which constellation you were born in, that was the gift you were imbued with. This new tracking system made it much easier for the zodiacs to imbue gifts properly and create their own tribes. And although they are called separate tribes, each tribe works together to ensure proper functioning (refer back to pg68).”

Stiles found this to be a little hard to digest and confusing; “wait a second, book with no author says what now!” Stiles said out loud in a room with just him and books. “If they don’t need this trial system anymore, why exactly am i doing it? Can’t they just give me the gift of Libra and then call it a day?” His face and eyes widened when he thought about how many times he almost died during the trials: “THEY TRIED TO KILL ME….MULTIPLE TIMES!” Stiles said in clear anger. “OH WAIT UNTIL THEY GET A PIECE OF MY BONY FISTS UP THEIR ASSES!” After he had calmed down a little bit, he started to think about the war, "why make people go through trials? If it's a war they should want as many people as they can get, whether they have skill or not is irrelevant. Sheer numbers should be priority...if the soldiers die in the trials, what use are they." Stiles hadn't gotten any closer to figuring it out and his eyes was starting to feel the side effects of being stuck in the squinting position. He decided this problem was one that had to be discussed with one of the constellations. He quietly put the book down and picked up another at random, not really caring what came his way. He read the title: "Super: creatures of the dark". He shrugged off the vague name and started to read; the book had no table of contents and delved straight into the book. The beginning was rather boring for Stiles since he knew about most of the information. It was talking about the different kinds of species on earth: werewolves, humans, wraiths, banshees, and so on. Stiles skipped a few pages and landed on a page with a picture, it wasn't a really old picture but the quality hinted it wasnt recent either, seemed like it was from his parents' generation maybe. The picture also felt rather familiar to him, he read the caption in the book: "Figure 7: a picture that shows multiple species intertwined into a single pack in 1988." Stiles' eyes went back to the picture looking at the trees in the background and it had hit him! "WAIT A MINUTE! That's the edge of the forest in Beacon Hills." He said loudly " which means this must be the Hale pack from that time. Huh what a small world."

Stiles read and read until he fell asleep only to be woken by footsteps.

"It's just me." Aries said with a playful tone. Stiles rubbed his eyes and spoke in a hushed voice "is it time for my trial?"

"Yes, Sister Leo is ready for you."

"Ahh alrighty, lead the way Mr.muscles." Stiles said as he closed the book and stood up. "Ahh how come you came, is Libra busy?"

"Hes already at the room, I wanted to come and retrieve you myself. I'd like to see how this trial goes."

The two started making their way to the trial room.

"So it's safe to assume that it wont be very fun for me...any tips?"

"Unfortunately not, but I wish you the best!" There was silence and not moments later they arrived at their destination. Aries opened the door, and motioned for Stiles to enter. There were two figures, a man and a woman, already in the room and as soon as Stiles stepped in the woman wasted no time in speaking.

"Hello Stiles. My name is Leona Brightstar."

Notes:

Next chapter will be up in 5 mins!

Chapter 9: Zodiac of Pride - Leo

Summary:

Back to the trials!

My name is Leona Brightstar, call me Leo for short. Libra here tells me of your great potential and I have heard Aries speak highly of you too. He has even come to witness the trial. Which brings me to tell you, my trial unlike the others is one that will either be the easiest or the hardest. Oh and one last thing, unlike the other trials you do have a time limit, 1 minute. That's all! The goal is simple, there will appear a random task on the screen once we begin, you have 1 minute to complete the task, no matter what it is. If you do, you pass, if you don't, you fail. Any questions?"

Stiles started speaking like his life depended on it...in a way it did. "Yeah actually lots of questions! I was reading this book and it said that you can just give me the power of Libra since I was born under that sign. Why not do that? Also...why make all your recruits go through this? I mean doesn't that just limit your army? And also how do you all eat light from stars? Why have so many rooms if there are only 12 people living in it? Are all of your names…"

"I should have clarified. Any questions about the trial? The rest you can ask Libra. Nor do I care about this or have the energy to deal with a teen who speaks 1000 words per minute." Leo said concisely and to the point.

"No..I guess not." Stiles replied with disappointment clearly filling his expression.

"Then we shall see you soon." Soon after the room changed and the Zodiacs were nowhere to be seen. Instead they were replaced with a large screen floating in the center of the room. It read: Task- translate the following: tays bumhle ni eth afec fo fedeat.
It might as well have been gibberish because Stiles didn't recognize the language and there's no way he could get it right in a minute. It'd be a miracle if anyone could do this in a minute. Stiles started sweating and his brain firing at all cylinders to try and figure out how he could solve this; if Stiles was good at one thing it was bullshitting but if he was being totally honest he’d rather avoid bullshitting to a celestial being who possessed the power to literally smite him to his death. He was 100% sure though that because of his mother there would be no way the Zodiacs would ever harm him...but then he thought about how Aries was ready to murder him less than a week ago and he knew clearly who Stiles’ mother was, so perhaps it wasn’t the safest bet. He was taken out of his thought process by a loud buzzer going off.

“Great...I wasted my entire time thinking about something clearly not related to the topic at hand...great job Stiles; way to focus!” Stiles said to himself clearly annoyed at himself, at the task, at the Zodiacs.

Leo walked up to him as the room reverted back to its original state… “Now is your time to shine, translate it” Leo said in a demanding tone.

“I …” Stiles began before being abruptly cut off.

“You have one chance! Don’t waste it on gibberish or stalling. Tactics like that are for cowards and Gemini; and from what I am told you are neither.” Leo said knowing very well what Stiles was going to do, it’s what everyone wants to do when they are expected to know the answer but don’t. They stall; they make up wild lies. Very few are willing to give up their pride and say three simple words: “I don’t know”. Little did Stiles know, that’s all he had to say...those three words would save him.
Aries watched from the side, as did Libra. Both emotionless, unflinching faces, and eyes locked onto Stiles’ lips. It was Aries who spoke first, for no better reason than this was taking way too long.

“Sister, might you tell him his punishment. Perhaps that will motivate him to speak faster.” Aries said with an evil grin.

“Punishment? What punishment...isn’t the punishment that I failed the test?” Stiles said bewildered.

Leo laughed heartily, “failing is the consequence, not the punishment. The punishment shall be...hmm shall we make it interesting; death would be too boring. How about stuck in the worst moment of your life..forever?”

Stiles looked at her in horror, he had plenty of horrible moments, but he knew very well which was his worst...without a doubt it was his mother’s death and he did not feel like being stuck in that moment forever. Rage started boiling inside of him and the anger from feeling incompetent didnt help the situation.

Leo, unaware of Stiles’ internal turmoil, started to speak as if to demand that an answer be spoken… “Listen here…” She was cut short by a voice of despair.

“NO! YOU LISTEN! YOU GIVE ME AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK AND THEN ASK FOR AN ANSWER...DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT MAKES ME FEEL? OOOOOOHHHHHHHH BUT WHY WOULD YOU CARE? YOU’RE GREAT CELESTIAL BEINGS! THEN YOU GO ON TO SAY THAT YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME RE-LIVE THE DEATH OF MY MOTHER FOREVER…”

As soon as that was said, the three Zodiacs’ faces dropped; they had completely forgotten about the fact that the worst moment in his life would of course be related to Claudia, how could it not be! Aries had never seen Leo’s face so red...was it anger? Sadness? Aries thought to himself.

“...YOU KNOW WHAT I DON'T EVEN CARE! OF COURSE I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION! THERE'S NO WAY ANYONE COULD UNLESS YOU SPOKE THE LANGUAGE ALREADY! YOU ARE ALL DESPICABLE IDIOTS WITH NO HEART, AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IS A MONSTER, I’M SICK AND TIRED OF LOOKING AT ALL OF YOU! IM TIRED OF LISTENING TO ALL OF YOU!.

Leo’s face was as red as a tomato and she finally gave out. She grabbed stiles by the collar and lifted him up, looking him in the eye, and at this point in time Stiles had become completely quiet. He became aware of the fact that if he spoke another word it might very well be his last.

Leo spoke calmly: “Monsters...you say we are monsters. Very well, let me show you what these monsters can do!” Leo opened her eyes wide and her eyes started to glow yellow, as yellow as the sun itself. Stiles couldn’t help but look into them and as he did, he felt his eyes burning away and still he couldn’t stop looking. Leo opened her mouth and said no words, but shrieking waves coming out of her mouth deafened Stiles’ ears. It hurt, hurt every cell of his being and yet all he wanted to do was keep listening to it; he couldn’t help it. Then it all stopped all at once.

“Those so called monsters that you were so sick and tired of, now you won’t have to ever hear or see them ever again. In fact, you won’t hear or see anything ever again." Those words weren't meant for Stiles to hear but she spoke them directed at him.

Leo put stiles down back on the ground and made her way out of the room, just as she was about to exit through the door she turned around and said to Libra, "brother, pass on my congratulations to your pupil, he has passed my test...”

Notes:

Please dont hate me....okay you can hate a little but I mean what did you expect? It couldnt staybsinple forever...he shall overcome, I promise!!

Chapter 10: Point Blank

Summary:

Events unfolding in Beacon Hills

Notes:

Sooooooo....that happened....Hasn't this year just been the most eventful....your boy had to move back to Korea and lets just say that was stressful as hell. But everything is okay now...lets get this show back on the road!

*back in Beacon Hills*

"Derek tell everyone we are having a pack meeting this Friday night. Invite your friends too, they need to hear it too." Talia said as she continued to make breakfast.

"Sure thing mom. What's it about?" He said as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"Hopefully it's nothing but things have been weird in town lately and we're just going to get everyone on the same page."

"Sounds like a plan." Derek said as he bit his toast and started to walk away with the bread held between his lips. "Later mom" he mumbled.

Derek made his way to his car that he got on his 17th birthday. Started her up and made his way to school. He quickly parked where he always parked and looked around to see if the rest of his friends had arrived, he got really good at picking out their cars. As he looked around he noticed Jackson's sports car, and Lydia's nice economically friendly Toyota. How those two ended up together, Derek would never understand. He felt weird though, like something was missing. He couldn't quite pinpoint it and his wolf had taken note of it too...something wasn't quite right. If he was being honest he had been having this feeling for quite sometime and it really was a bit annoying. He shook it off and continued to walk into the school. He tried to keep a low profile whenever he could but at school everyone knew him or at least knew of him and they all wanted to talk to him. It got boring and tiring really quick, so he tried his best to ignore the people and eventually people idolized him from afar but it didn't stop certain people from coming up and starting a one sided conversation.

He saw his friends huddled around Isacc's locker and so he quickly made his way there. As he walked up he did a small wave and started to speak "my mom said you should all come to the pack meeting tomorrow night. She wants to talk about some weird stuff."

"Really dude? On a Friday?" Jackson said clearly disappointed.

"Yeah man, does your mom think we have nothing better to do on a Friday night?" Isacc added.

Derek shrugged and responded in a I-couldn't-care-less tone "you don't have to come, but keep in mind my mom asked for you to be there...so your absence will be noted."

"Yeah, last time we skipped on one of her events she made me chop onions for four hours. I think I'll cooperate" Boyd said; the others quickly following behind him and showing their approval by nodding. And as if destiny, the school bell rang indicating the first class was about to begin.

The group quickly dispersed and started to make their way to their classes. The day went by quickly and Friday classes were no different. Everything was mundane, life had been very quiet...but it didn't feel right. Something felt off, but Derrk couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. And Derek was really starting to get sick of this feeling. It was frustrating knowing that something was wrong but not being able to figure out exactly what. As Friday classes came to an end Derek sent a message to his friends " pack meeting - dont come at your own risk. Meet you guys there." He made his way home and saw the entire pack had gathered in the living room. Fitting 70 people was a struggle even with a house this size. The Hale pack was the largest pack in the town afterall.

Derek made his way to his room, put his stuff down and went back to the living room. He looked around for his sisters and immediately walked towards them the moment he saw them near the lamp in the corner of the room. "So when is it all starting?" He said.

"Mom said 5 minutes? Where are your friends?" Cora said

"Probably on their way."

"You better hope they come quickly" Laura added.

"Their problem if they don't."

Talia made her way into the room and all chit chat stopped, all eyes on her. "Thank you all of you for coming today. I wish I could say it was for good news but the town…: she was interrupted by Derek's friends entering, who all bowed their head to show their apologies.
"As I was saying, today's meeting is not a good one. I must warn all of you that there is an unknown creature walking around town. No one has seen it yet. Our trustful druids have felt the energy of something lingering around for five or so months. At first it was thought that it was just passing by, but the energy still lingers in the town. It is possible that they have gone and it's just the energy that remains but we really can’t be sure. However, no unexpected deaths or situations have been reported recently and that’s a good sign.” Talia was interrupted by a man who had walked straight up to her and whispered in her ear.

“I’ve just been told that the druids have managed to find the residence that the energy was last seen at. I’ll personally accompany the druids and do my best to ensure that no harm comes to our pack. In the meantime I ask that everyone stay alert and travel together. Safety is our first priority. Thank you all for coming. Please enjoy each other's company as I attend to these matters.”

On her way out Taliah signalled Derek and his siblings to follow her with a face that could scare Death himself away. So they didn’t hesitate and immediately made their way out of the room and as soon as they had caught up, their mother started talking once again.

“Do you guys remember aunt Claudia?” Talia asked.

They all nodded affirmatively
“Mom, why are you bringing up aunt Claudia all of the sudden?” Cora asked.

“Cora, you stay home! Help your father take care of the pack” Talia said. Cora wasn’t too happy to be excluded but she clearly didn't have a choice in this matter so she did as she was told. As soon as she had gone Talia resumed to talk to Laura and Derek. “Lets go, I’ll explain everything on the way…” She walked towards the exit; Derek and Laura looked at each other before following their mother to the car. Once they got in, Laura’s curious mind started asking questions immediately: “Mom, are you going to explain what’s happening, or what?”

“The house I was talking about earlier, it’s Claudia’s house. Which means that we as the Hales must help no matter what the situation is. It simply can’t be helped.”

“Wait...is anyone hurt?” Laura questioned.

“We don’t think so, otherwise they would have reported it by now. But I’m bringing you guys along just in case something goes wrong. They have a son, I’m not sure if you remember, but he’s the same age as Derek, so only a year younger than you Laura. If his father is injured in any way, both of you must get him to safety first no matter what. Do you understand?”
Derek knew immediately that the boy she was talking about was Stiles, and merely at his description, Derek’s wolf had started to lose control. He was starting to get anxious without a reason again.

“Yeah mom...but you said nothing’s been reported. And I mean wouldn’t the Sheriff have done so by now if something was wrong?” Laura said and Derek agreed after having thought about it and it oddly provided him with some sense of ease.

“I am just being cautious. We have no way to know what has happened; we haven’t kept in touch with them unfortunately but this can help change that. I just hope that they are okay.”

The rest of the ride was silent and once they had made it to the house they saw five druids standing in front of the house. The Hales made their way out of the car and towards the druids. One druid who looked like he had seen his fair share of battles started talking.

“The energy coming from this house is immensely powerful, the house is basically drowning in it. I wouldn’t be shocked if the creature is in the house. But I only sense one living thing in the house...and it’s giving off a Human aura.”

“Can we be sure it’s not a shapeshifter?” Talia asked.

“Not unless the shapeshifter had help from a mage or witch to mask his aura. It’s very unlikely. Not to mention that a shapeshifter could never release this much energy, it's just unthinkable. This much power in one person is just unheard of. So I’m inclined to say that it is indeed a human inside.” The druid said in a matter of fact tone.

Talia trusted the man, he had advised her in many tough decisions and she may not have always listened to him but the inputs he offered were always valued. So she made her way towards the house, the druids right behind her and both Derek and Laura right behind them, his wolf bouncing with energy and anxiety. Beads of sweat had started to form on Derek's skin even though it wasn't especially hot. As Talia knocked on the door, she reminded her children of the plan they had agreed upon earlier.

The group waited for the door to open, but no one came. She knocked again...still no response. Their senses weren't picking up any strange sounds or smells from inside the house and there didn't seem to be any immediate threat.

"Maybe he's sleeping? We could come back at a later time. It doesn't feel like anything is wrong or out of place." Derek said quietly.

"I'm afraid, we need to get in there, we don't know what creature left this energy trail. The sooner we start analyzing the better." The druid stated.

Talia stared at them contemplating her choices. She decided it was better to be safe than sorry. She'd rather be labeled "crazy" then potentially ignore a threat. She especially couldn't half ass anything with the Stilinskis; not after all that Claudia had done for the Hales. She put her hand on the doorknob and applied just enough strength to break it.
"Abazcus take your team to the source immediately and waste no time. Kids you're with me, stay close and stay alert. First sign of danger, yell and retreat! Understood?" She said sternly.

Everyone nodded and felt a bit safer knowing that their leader wasn't panicking, rather had clear instructions laid out for them.

Everyone entered the door one by one, the druids wasting no time to go to source, climbing their way up the stairs to the second floor of the house. Talia followed right behind and kept her kids behind her. The druids stopped in front of a plain wooden door and Abazcus whispered "this is it, its strongest here." Talia pushed the door open and immediately flashing her Alpha eyes...but it was nothing. An empty room, just like the druids had said.

"Mom, the footsteps...someone is coming this way…" Derek whispered turning his back to his mom, and facing the wooden door that had just been opened.

Talia turned around and saw a man walking up the stairs, she relaxed the moment she saw the familiar characteristics. It was John, she took a breath in and moved in front of her kids once again. "Before you even say anything, I can…" Taliah's nose was assaulted with the stench of liquor. How did she not smell that earlier? She could see the kids had picked up on it too. The man wasn't fazed though, not at all. There were intruders, sure he knew some of them but nevertheless intruders.

"Taliah? Wh...what are you doing?"

Chapter 11: The Pharmatician

*back to Stiles*

Aries and Libra stood shocked and baffled by what just happened. They had seen their sister use her curse towards many but never on a human. Well this human did have a tendency to be a little much but all that aside still a human.

Stiles stood still, doing nothing, thinking nothing...he simply didn't know what had happened and a part of him was denying it.

Aries noticed Stiles' eyes had started to tear up; no doubt that the external calm facade was breaking apart, starting with internal turmoil. Aries quickly picked up Stiles and as he ran out of the room he spoke "I'll make the seal, he'll be ready by tomorrow I promise." Libra caught in awe...was he dreaming? First his sister curses a human and now his war hungry brother wants to be the one to help him. "What in fresh hell is going on today?"

Stiles felt the muscular shoulders and the tears on his skin. He knew he was being carried somewhere and at this point in time he couldn't care less where to.

Aries arrived at his own room and put Stiles down, he took the dust laying on one side of the weapon rack and made a symbol on Stiles' neck.

Stiles felt the warm fingers tracing a shape on his neck, he didn't hesitate and just then he felt even greater warmth...it was soft, caring, and kind. They were lips…

Aries kissed Stikes' neck on top of the symbol and as he did the symbol disappeared into Stiles' skin.

Stiles heard tiny sounds, he started seeing fuzzy lights and eventually it all came into focus...he could hear and see again.

"Listen closely...this isn't a permanent fix. You could last two or three days with what I just did. In that time you have to either get Leo to remove the curse or visit our physician and beg for his help. In my opinion you have better chances with the physician."

Stiles had all of two seconds to process the information before relying: "Would you mind taking me to him? I tend to get lost in these hallways."

"I wish I could but I can't...Don't get me wrong, I'd love to take you but none of us know where his room is. It kind of just appears when you need it most."

"Why does this sound like another test?" Stiles responded with an emotionless face. He had exhausted all of his emotional energy at this point and didn't really care anymore.

Aries put his right arm to the nape of his neck and put on a fake smile. "That's just how it goes around here...but you don't have much time. Your next test is tomorrow. If I were you I'd better start apologizing to Leo or start looking for the physician...still if I know my little sister at all, then I know that it's probably easier to find the physician. Start walking and opening doors, one of them has to be the right one?"

"Why does that sound like a plan I would come up with?...well, even if it weren't for the test tomorrow I kind of want my senses back, so I better start knocking on some doors."

Stiles walked towards the door and into the hallway. He saw all the doors and walked to the nearest one, and low and behold it was exactly it…"Pharmatician" read the sign immediately inside the room. "Not sure how much trust I can put in someone who thinks 'pharmatician' is a real word, thought Stiles; then again there weren't a lot of options.

"GET OUT YOU PARADOXICAL ABOMINATION!" Stiles heard a high pitched voice as he walked into the door.

Usually Stiles obeyed ominous and creepy voices but today was not his day and so he found himself walking towards it instead. As he approached, he saw a man whose height accumulated to just a bit less than Stiles' knees. "I...I uh have a curse…"

"That's the least of your worries…a puny curse. Hah! Look in your soul and see that you are more twisted than the roots of a jabberwocky tree in the fall, during copulation season."

"Okay...let's pretend that was English...and moving on. Can you remove the curse? Or not?"

"The curse will never work on you...it'll be gone on it's own in an hour but your soul, that one is trapped." Said the man.

“Okay...i’m getting really tired of everyone speaking in riddles...can you all, just for once, speak normally?” Stiles said, emphasizing ‘normally’.

The man looked at him, tilting his head and pulling down his monocle, that Stiles had failed to notice before, and continued to observe Stiles. It felt way more intrusive than it should have, it felt like he was getting a full body physical checkup from a doctor but somehow even worse.

“Very well then...I’ll speak in terms your puny human brain can understand-” “Leo’s curse, won’t work on you! Her curses are powerful but even she can’t curse a celestial being.”

Stiles raised his eyebrows and as if the man knew what would come out of his mouth, he continued to speak - “Yes, you are human, but technically not...technically you are an angel. Well, if we are playing technicalities, you are human, angel, and zodiac. But your soul doesn’t want to show those parts; and rightfully so. You can’t be all three at once...so your soul picked for you, it picked the least stressful of the three.”

Stiles still had more questions; why did it seem like things were always getting more confusing and every answer leads to 10 more questions.

“Having said that..” The man moved around stiles, poking and prodding his body “...you still have the soul parts of the others so the curse will be wiped.”

Stiles' face hadn’t changed, still exuding confusion. The man sighed and said: “In simpler terms: curse no work, 10 hour rest, yay!” in the most sarcastic tone Stiles had ever heard. “Now get out! You don’t need me anymore and I need to get back to actual work!”

 

Stiles was totally confused at what had just happened...did it even happen? That was way too easy...confusing yes, but still too easy! Stiles’ wasn’t going to complain though, he’ll take what he could get! At this point did questioning things even help? Isn’t it better to just go along with all this nonsense? Why try to make sense of it? Stiles turned around, and started to walk out the door and he heard the man say one last thing: “my name’s Apollo, something tells me we are going to be meeting a lot.”

Chapter 12: Zodiac of Love - Virgo

It was exactly like Apollo had said; well he didn’t really feel the side effects of Leo’s curse for long to start with thanks to Aries, but when the curse vanished, Stiles felt his body become lighter and it felt cleaner somehow. It wasn’t a feeling he felt before, but he knew that it had to be the feeling of the curse fading away.

It was early in the morning and Stiles had decided that he was going to cease the day...shortly after his brain reminded him that he had a trial today. So ceasing the day meant potentially dying...again.

“Brother, stop exaggerating, he won’t be so stupid! And so what if he is, it’s not like I can help it! The decision is his and his alone, now move so we can get this started.” Stiles heard from outside his door...and Stiles was no slow snail, he knew what they were talking about, it just had to be his trial. And as the girl walked in, the room filled with a rosy smell that overwhelmed his sense of smell. He wanted to stop smelling it but with every inhale the temptation to smell it got stronger.

“I’m Virgo. I don’t beat around the bush, I don’t like playing tricks, and the more straightforward you are with me, the easier your trill will be. Waste my time, and I promise you... I’ll waste yours. Are you ready to get started?”

Stiles heard maybe a fifth of what the girl had said, and even then that was probably being generous. It took a bit of effort to come to his senses and finally respond to the question. “Ummm..yeah..for sure. What you said.”

Virgo sighed, having seen men do the exact same thing in front of her a million times before, simply agreeing to things without understanding the consequences. It was the effect of her curse...unlike her siblings, she has no control over her curse; it’s always there although to different intensities! She knew where this was headed and was starting to hope that for the boy’s own sake, he’d sober up quickly. Virgo started to walk and led both her brother and Stiles to the room for the trial. She sat down in the center and started to speak.
“My trial doesn’t test anything. It doesn’t have hidden meanings, or trivia, or any kind of special connection to me. It just requires you to do a simple task, that's all I need from you.”

Stiles was still a bit drunk on her smell, but the adrenaline was starting to help wear off the effects of the scent. This time he at least understood everything before he nodded and let her continue speaking.

 

“Your task...simple one at that...ignore 4 of my 8 commands. If you can do so, then you’ve passed. It’s that easy. Ready?”

The scent...it was stronger...Stiles knew it got stronger...he could smell it a lot more and he was starting to feel dazed again. Not sleepy, or out of it, but not quite rational and his mind was scattered but regardless he nodded and agreed.

“My first command is to jump up and down.” Virgo said with a neutral tone.

‘Easy! Don’t jump….I can do that!’ Stiles thought…”that’s one fail” He heard Virgo say!

‘Fail! How could that be...he wasn’t jum…” He then felt it...his body..it was jumping! But he hadn’t decided for it to start jumping, it did that all on it’s own.

“My second command is to slap yourself.”

Stiles started to think again about how he won’t do it! But his mind was still foggy and it was getting harder to think straight but he was feeling confident about this one.

“That’s 2 fails.” Virgo said.

“Another fail? How could that be! He hadn’t moved his h…” Stiles was in thought before he felt his cheek burning red hot from the slap that he had just given himself apparently.

“STOP!” Stiles shouted…. “I can’t control….I can’t control it. My body, it just..my mind...it’s not clear. Give me a minute.”

“The third command is to tell me your darkest secret.”

Stiles tried to keep his mouth shut, but not a second later he was speaking: “I sometimes wish it was my dad who died instead of my mom.” Stiles wasn’t going to cry, but this was really starting to get him there.

“At this rate, you’ll fail the test! Are you even going to bother trying?” Virgo paused slightly before speaking again.

“My fourth command is to carve my name on your chest with this knife.” Virgo said, ignoring Stiles’ comments and heavy breathing and handing him a knife. Stiles’ body without his permission started to clutch the knife and take it and before he knew it, he felt the sharp burning sensation of the knife cutting his chest. He wanted to scream...but his external appearance wouldn’t let him. It finally stopped, and he saw blood, all over the floor and his hand. He knew it had been done.

“Please...stop! Just one minute!”

“My fifth command is to tear out all of your nails.”
And the pain began all over again, Stiles could feel his nails being ripped apart from his flesh. And moments later, it was over!

“You….you said….simple.” Stiles heaved out.

“What’s simpler than doing nothing! In fact that’s the whole point! Back to it. My sixth command is to smile while you talk about your mother’s death.”

And just like clockwork, his mouth started to move on it’s own and started to talk about his mother’s death like it was nothing. Stiles could see the looks on Libra and Virgo’s face...it was confusion, how could he cave in so easily for something so serious.

“My 7th command is to fall on your knees and beg for forgiveness for what you said to sister Leo.” Stiles at this point was the puppet and Virgo was pulling all the strings.

“It seems, you’re going to fail like many before you. My last command is to tell the truth. Call your mom the worst thing you can.” As soon as she finished, she heard it loud and clear, Stiles saying “No…” Even with the fact that he was fighting the urge to really do as told, he kept it in! He kept the profanity inside and kept murmuring in his head to keep the thoughts from taking over. And not soon after, it was over. The temptation to say it was gone. Stiles fell to his back and took a deep breath in.

Virgo went out of the room while smiling. Now there was just Libra and a broken Stiles in the room. “So, what now? I failed...I could only hold out for 1 of the commands.”

Libra looked confused, “you passed the test from where I stand so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Sister knows it just as well as I do. Trust me, if you failed, she would have said so.”

“How….how could I have passed. She was clear...I had to ignore 4 of 8 commands. I could only barely manage to ignore the last one.”

“Well let’s see. She asked you to carve her name on your chest and you only carved ‘virg’ which isn’t her name, so you passed. Then she asked you to tear out all of your nails, and you tore out 9...which isn’t all. So, you passed. Then she asked you to smile while you talked about your mother’s death...which you did talk about, but not while smiling. And well since you didn’t insult your mom on the last command, that makes 4...so you pass.” I mean...I wouldn’t call it a win from the state your in, but it is still a pass…”

Stiles heard it all and a part of him was relieved to hear that. “...I know this isn’t the right time, but I...nevermind...can you just take me back to my room.”

And Libra snapped his finger, and there they were, back in his room. Libra left right after saying his farewell for the day and Stiles passed out from exhaustion

Chapter 13: Beacon Hills Resurgence

** Back in Beacon Hills **

“John...You look like you have seen better days.” Talia said in a clear sarcastic tone. Derek and Laura were holding their breath and being as polite as they could be as to not insult the man in front of them. Abazcus had on the other hand not even bothered covering his nose, being familiar with the scent of war and all the smells that come with it, this smell didn’t even hold a candle to that. He rushed to the room with the energy that was basically spilling out and as soon as he went in, he scoured the place with his eyes and found nothing out of place. There was no sign of life and definitely no magical being. He came back out and spoke in a comfortable tone: “Seems like Mr. Stillinski is the only one here. That room has magical energy just oozing out of it but there seems to be no source. We should analyze it as soon as we can. I recommend that Mr. Stillinski stay elsewhere for the time being.”

Talia nodded and agreed, “John, if it wouldn't be too much to ask, would you mind staying at our house for a few days. We believe there is something potentially dangerous here.”

John nodded yes without even thinking about it. He started to walk down the stairs again before Talia stopped him and said “John...what about Stiles? Where is he?”

At the mention of the name, Derek panicked...if they were staying at his house then he would have to see Stiles everyday for a few days and his heart started to drop. Although he didn’t know this feeling he knew that it wasn’t a good one.

“Stiles….Yes..of course, Stiles….He’s….uh...He’s.” John couldn’t remember where Stiles was. Did Stiles tell him where he went? “I can’t remember….Stiles….I don’t remember where he is.” John said.

“Mom, he’s clearly drunk. I don’t think he can remember anything. We can call Stiles from his dad’s phone after we get him out of here.” Laura said. Talia agreed and pointed for Derek and Laura to take Mr. Stiles back to their house. “I’ll accompany Abazcus until the analysis is finished, you guys go ahead.”

As soon as they had stepped outside of the house Laura asked John for his phone. The sheriff had no objections and easily gave it to her. The phone had no lock on it and she could easily get into it, and then it took no time for her to make a call to the number with the name “Stiles”. She heard the ringing and she kept hearing it...it was weird, there was no ringing and then she heard it…”This number you have dialed is currently unavailable please try again later.” She shrugged it off, and instead copied down the number onto her phone. When she handed the phone back to the sheriff, Derek gave her a look, which she understood immediately as “so?”. She gave him a shrug back as to say “He didn’t pick up.” Strangely enough for them body language was enough to communicate. She drove back home with the Sheriff and politely demanded that he bathe if not for his own sake for the sake of all the wolves in the house.

“Abazcus, what is it?”

“Talia...this isn’t good. No matter what we try we can’t decipher it. The magic sequence is unlike anything we ahve ever seen. Not to mention it’s been here so long and still is so powerful. Whatever created this magic signature is definitely a threat if we are on it’s bad side.”

“What is our next step to find out who it belongs to? What it belongs to?”

“There’s no next step...we can only wait for it to find us.” Abazcus said.

Talia sighed, hoping that whatever this thing was would never come back but knowing the luck of the town there was no way that was going to happen. “I just hope we aren’t on it’s bad side.” Talia said. “Alright, pack up, let’s go back and get everyone on the same page.”

They were all packed up and then Abazcus had an idea. “Wait…We...could try one more thing.”

“What is it?” Talia said.

“I can reverse summon it. There is enough magic here, I can use the magic to make a call of sorts to the person or hting that left this signature. And if we are lucky they’ll answer it.”

“No, if we’re lucky they’ll answer politely.” Talia said. “Alright, let’s try it!”

Abazcus prepared everything and in no time he was casting his spell. Talia could see the aura in the room changing. Five minutes passed and there was no response. They were about to call it an end...when finally a golden figure appeared in front of them.

“Bold of you to assume you can summon me!” The man in the golden armor said.

“We mean no harm. We simply were curious as to what left this amazing and beautiful magical signature” Abazcus said using his sweet words, hoping that the kiss-assery would help the situation in their favor.

“You are wise to use sweet words, but your bodies reactions don’t match your words. I can feel the air growing thicker with your fear.”

“We..” Abazcus tried to talk but then the golden armored man lifted his finger and with that Abazcus was unable to talk. Not because he was speechless but his body physically couldn’t make a sound.

“Why is he doing all the talking, when the leader is right here.” The golden armored man said.

Talia kept her cool and kept her emotions in check. She did her best, but the magical aura coming off of him was so dense and thick she couldn’t help but be nervous. “We...mean no harm. We mean that.”

“That’s cute, thinking you could harm us even if you wanted to do. Let’s make this short, tell me what it is you want.”

“We just want to know, do you mean us any harm? Have we angered you?”

“You are no enemy of mine nor friend. Fear not, I shall not hurt a single soul in this town...but if you dare to think you can summon me again I will tear you all down with the blink of my eye.” The man said, smirking slightly..”oh and one more thing. Talia of the Hale pack, there is a question that will need answering later. Let me be the one to answer it: He’s doing fine, thriving actually.” and with that he was gone.

Chapter 14: Gathering of the Zodiacs

Notes:

Hey guys!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND SENDING ME SO MUCH LOVE! I APRRECIATE EVERY SINGLE ONE YOU! I forgot how strong Korean work culture was....soooo...I may be uploading a bit slower since I work such late hours and lose a lot of my energy there. Sorry, but I will not be disappearing!!

There were also some questions regarding Stiles' future and I just wanted to clarify somethings!
1) Stiles is technically "human"...and without giving any more spoilers that's all I will say. Asking me more about it will ruin a few surprises and so I hope you guys can wait to find out!

2) Yes, Derek and Stiles are end goal....will there be others along the way??? Let's find out together! HAHAHAH

3) BAMF Stiles coming soon...please wait a bit longer (He's almost here...kinda)

Okay...yeah that ought to cover it! Happy Reading!!

“What is the meaning of this meeting? And for heaven's sake why are you in your battle armor little brother?” Aries said looking directly at Libra dressed in his golden armor...in fact all of his brothers and sisters were doing the same. Libra could feel the stares of all his siblings but he was not even a bit phased.

“Stiles has passed six of our tests...and let's face it, he will pass all twelve tests. I am not even a bit concerned about that. However, it seems that his tiny little town will be involving themselves in his business soon enough. I need your permission to wreak havoc if needed.” Libra said with his voice unshaking.
“Brother, are you asking us if you are allowed to use your curse? Because shall I be the first to remind you that your curse may be one of the deadliest amongst us?” Scorpio said calmly.

“If the need for my curse comes, then yes I’ll use it but as we agreed in the past, I may only use my curse with all of your consent. So, do I have it?” Libra said.

“No...as a celestial protector of the boy you are not to intervene with the boy’s affairs unless he is on the brink of death. You know the rules by heart little brother. If you have forgotten I’d be happy to teach them to you again in a way so that it sticks permanently.” Aquarius chimed in. “Plus, if he can pass all of our tests, he doesn’t need your protection. Stay out of it brother!”

“I agree, you need to concern yourself with this tiny matter especially over a human who has no decency or control over his mouth.”

“Sister Leo, he…” Libra tried before he was interrupted

Gemini had raised his hand and put one finger to his own lip, signalling Libra to hush. “You think him weak, pathetic, or perhaps you think he needs pity?” Gemini said as he walked closer to Libra. “Brother, that little boy holds power that none of us could even imagine. His soul is fragmented!”

Everyone in the room turned silent and looked at Gemini. “You mean...he has duality? He has two different souls?” Aries said out loud “Explain yourself brother!”

“I have been speaking to our dear little doctor and although his soul has decided to be human, he has two other fragments waiting to come out!”

“It’s bad enough to have two fragments, you mean to say he has three? Then there is no question about it, we should kill him now...the damage he could cause to everyone…” Aquarius was cut off by Aries.

“Touch a hair on his body and sister I will drown you in your own waters!” Aries said in a roar.

“Well well, it seems our brother has grown fond of our little human.” Gemini said, smirking. Aries sat down with anger still on his face. “Oh relax, no one will kill him! We simply must make sure that his other soul fragments aren’t released. Meaning, he must stay human...no matter what! It’s not an option! Having said that...we might need Libra to use his curse if the time comes...when the time comes, so we should unbind him, or else we might be fighting a lot more than just the angels.” Gemini said.

The other zodiacs looked at each other and started to mull over the thought of the problem that Stiles may cause. After a while of thinking, they all ultimately agreed to consent.

“Alright, it seems we all agree...shall we start the unbinding then?” Gemini said, smirking.

The zodiacs all took out a piece of a golden key and started to merge it together...a key broken into eleven pieces. After the key had been completed Gemini took it over to Libra and quickly stabbed it into Libra’s heart. “Remember brother, this curse is as much a toll on you as it is on others! Do not be consumed by its temptation as you had been before!” He whispered into Libra’s ear as he pushed the key further in.

Libra simply nodded as his body was starting to burn. He was feeling parts of body as if he had never felt them before. It was all an overwhelming sensation and then at an instant it was over. He knew...he knew the curse was back in him.

“For future reference...if you want something from our brothers and sisters, you have to trick them. Logic will get you nowhere.I helped you today, but I may not always be there younger brother! You are smart, but not clever. Learn to be clever!” Gemini said as he walked away.

Chapter 15: Zodiac of Intellect - Libra

“Stiles...wake up!” Stiles heard as he started to open his eyes and then started to rub them as he saw blurry figures standing in front of him. As his eyes started to clear up, all the figures focused into one clear person standing over him as he layed in bed.

“It’s almost test time. I highly recommend you eat food, get dressed and when you’re finished simply say my name.” Libra said in a whispered tone. Stiles nodded his head and just like that, Libra was gone. He continued to rub his eyes as he got up and sat in his bed with legs dangling over the side of the bed. Yawning a few times...he saw the food and clothes and he wasted no time in getting dressed and then eating the food. Just as he finished, he took a small breath and said “Libra”. The room he was in had vanished and in its place, the test room had appeared.

“Welcome to my test Stiles. I know that you are born of my sign and technically speaking you shouldn’t even have to do my test...however, I have decided that we shall conduct normal testing. My test may be one of the easiest yet hardest tests and I know that it is...so I will warn you before you begin: rules are meant to be broken. Having said that, the rule and the task are one and the same: Complete the puzzle. That’s how you pass my test...understood?”

Stiles nodded and awaited the trial to begin. Soon after the room started shifting into different forms, almost as if it was trying to figure out what to turn into. The room finally stopped shifting and there was a white cube in the center of the now dark room. The cube was glowing, almost like it was calling Stiles to pick it up. Stiles wasted no time in doing so and noticed that as soon as his hand touched the cube it started to glow in different colours...it was a pattern. A simple series of sequential patterns, Stiles thought. He pressed the areas on the cube that lit up in the sequence they had lit up. As soon as he pressed the last spot, the cube zapped Stiles...a minor shock. Not enough to cause harm but definitely enough to let him know he got the answer wrong. Moments later, the cube was at it again...the sequence had changed. Stiles tried it again and it resulted in another shock. It felt different but the same...a feeling he couldn’t describe. After a few more attempts, with different answering strategies, he still always received a shock. Stiles put the cube down. As soon as he did, the cube had gone back to its glowing state but there were black numbers which had started counting down from thirty. Stiles was no genius but a countdown was never a good thing...so he picked up the cube in hopes that it would revert back to the test.

As he thought, the cube started the sequences again as soon as he picked up the cube. He input the sequence as he saw and he was zapped again...but this time it hurt...it actually hurt. He felt it...the electrical power was much stronger than before. Then it clicked…”each wrong attempt increases the power of the electrical output…”Stiles said out loud...and not much later another though came to him…”...if I make enough wrong attempts I’ll pass out from the electrical shock and that means the timer will run out on the cube...which will probably be a loss. That means I’ll probably have to solve the test soon….think stiles think.” Stiles had studied enough math, physics, and science to know random facts but more than that, he knew how to use his knowledge. “How many tries do I have left? Assuming I started with a one milliamp shock output for the sensation and now feel slight pain...probably means i’m at about 5 milliamps. I did 5 tries so that means a milliamp per try. 20 milliamps is where it’ll get dangerous, 50 milliamps are where it starts getting really painful. I’m guessing 40 amps is about when I'll start to pass out, so 35 more tries...best case scenario.” Stiles had 35 tries to figure out the answer. He saw that the cube had done a sequence while he was thinking but he hadn’t paid attention and put in a random answer and he felt the shock.

“For fucks sake!” Stiles said unable to let go of the cube as his hand muscles continuously contracted and spasmed from the shock. After a few seconds it stopped. “That was way more than 6 milliamps...which means, it’s not a linear scale. And most likely some kind of exponential situation...which means I have no way of knowing the rate of increase and that means no way of knowing the number of attempts left…”but he knew there weren't many left. This attempt hurt and caused spasms which meant maybe 2 or 3 more before he would start passing out. Stiles saw the sequence beginning again and he paid attention, he put in the sequence and as soon as the last portion of the sequence was entered, he was sent flying away from the cube. His body was barely able to move, vision blurry, but his mind was perfectly intact… “that was enough shock to send me flying...the next one...next one will definitely be enough to kill me.” Stiles thought. Stiles’ vision started to clear up and then he saw the cube...glowing its heavenly white color. Stiles found it odd…he couldn’t quite put his finger on it but the cube looked strange. Something was missing...what was missing...Stiles’ brain started working overtime, he was so close. The answer was on the tip of his tongue but he just couldn’t get it out of his mouth. Stiles’ eyes widened…”the numbers….there are no numbers. It’s not counting down.” Why isn’t it counting down? Think Stiles...think...he had a suspicion, but whether he was right or not, he didn’t know for sure. The way Stiles saw it, he could enter the sequence again and die from shock or try something new and see what happens. So Stiles struggled and writhed to pick himself up from the floor. His muscles were clearly weak from the shock that they had just received. He went to the cube slowly, and picked it up...the cube started the sequence and at the end of it, Stiles put it down. The cube started to glow and barely a second later there was a countdown. Stiles’ eyes honed in on the numbers and just let his body drop to the floor as he focused on the numbers. Each second that went by his heartbeat became faster and faster.

“3...2...1...0…” Nothing happened...The cube simply had 00 written on it and other than that nothing happened. Stiles started looking around and saw that the room was slowly becoming white again...it was over. A sense of relief came over him and he let his body relax on the floor.

Stiles saw a pair of feet in front of him, he was too lazy to turn his head up and look at who it was, but he didn’t have to. He knew it was Libra.

“What a close call that was…” Libra said “but in the end it’s a pass!”

Stiles sighed and said “Easy my ass...which part of that was easy! It wasn’t even obvious! I mean now that I think about it, it was pretty obvious but seriously, hindsight is 20/20!” Stiles said with his body still spasming every now and then on the floor. “Also...electrical shocks? Really? You couldn’t have picked any other form of torture? This is what you had to go with?”

Libra smiled, and started to squat down. He lifted Stiles’ head and said “the element that the cube uses to punish people is based on what you are least afraid of. Yes...you heard me right...it’s the element that you are least afraid of. Or at least the cube thinks so! That’s irrelevant though...you passed. Go rest, tomorrow is a rest day...your next test will be the day after tomorrow. You can do as you please for tomorrow!” Libra said, and then vanished.

Stiles simply just lay on the floor for a bit longer before he knocked out and fell asleep on the floor.

Chapter 16: Guardian From the Stars

“While healers heal, the fighters fight, but while the lovers love, enemies unite”... these words echoed through Stiles’ ears. An inkling of a poem that his mother used to read to him. He couldn’t remember her voice, but the echo sounded similar, or so he thought. It seemed like ages since he had her voice, he wasn’t even sure if he could pick out his mother’s voice anymore. But this voice, this echo, was just as soothing. The hums, the vibrations of the voice...it felt like a lullaby. He felt relaxed and he felt his tensed body start to relax. His body had started to feel more and more relaxed and eventually whatever soreness or injuries he had, he couldn’t feel them anymore. He was glad, this may be the most relaxed he had felt since arriving here.
Stiles kept his eyes closed, he didn’t want to ruin this moment. He feared that the moment he opened his eyes he would have to think about reality and he just wanted to be left in this relaxed state for as long as he could be...which was apparently five whole seconds!

 

“I know you’re awake! Open your eyes and start helping out! After all this is for you, you know!” a voice said in a very neutral yet bossy tone.

Stiles opened his eyes and shifted his head towards the direction from where the man's voice had come. It was Apollo...the pharmatician. “Did….I just use that word...god, the longer I stay here, the crazier I’m getting.” He thought to himself.

“Move your ass!”

Stiles got up slowly and although he was shaky, he realized that his body’s injuries were all gone. There wasn’t a single scar or bruise on him. The others had healed him before, but nothing to this level! There were always scars or bruises leftover and definitely pain! “What...my body...it’s all healed. I don’t feel any pain!”

“Well, I sure hope so! Otherwise I wouldn’t really be doing my job!” Apollo said! “Now, hold this string!”

Stiles without questioning put the strings in his hands and as soon as he did Apollo chanted something that Stiles couldn’t quite make out. After waiting five or seconds he heard Apollo sigh. “What happened?” Stiles asked?

“Well clearly nothing! I was hoping to get some answers about you, but your body is being stubborn! This should have worked! I am sure of it!”

“What exactly did you just try to do though?”

“It’s simple, I just shot massive amounts of radiation into your body to see if one of your souls would come out to protect you! But no luck!”

“Radiation….you mean like...the stuff that can kill people if it's in too high amounts? ARE YOU CRAZY! ALSO WHY DID YOU NEED A STRING TO DO THAT? HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?”

“The string...ohhhh I couldn’t find the trash can, so I gave it to you. Consider it a present. Now let's move onto the next experiment! Torture! I am sure one of the two parts will definitely come out then!”

“TORTURE! YEAh...you’re on your own there buddy! I don’t know about your kinks but pain is not one of mine! Also, consent my dude, so not cool to just assume stuff!” Stiles said.
Apollo smiled, “fine fine, no torture! It didn’t look like your soul parts wanted to come out anyways. Which is a good thing! If they ever came out, the whole world would try to kill you. Hhahahahaah” He laughed.

Stiles was completely unamused at the sound of hearing that, but apparently it was a joke and Stiles couldn’t hold back his laugh regardless of how unamused he felt. The man in front of him had the most infectious laugh. Stiles doesn’t ever recall laughing after his mother had died. This was his first time since then...and he only had to go a million miles away from home to do so. As the atmosphere in the room became lighter Stiles started to feel lighter and lighter. He felt more relaxed and he would dare even say “at home”.

“Can I ask you a question?” Stiles said as Apollo had gone back to some random experiment he had been working on. Apollo simply shrugged his body, indifferent to the question asked.

“I keep asking them...the zodiacs I mean...I keep asking the zodiacs questions but I always get half answers and I don’t know, you just have this energy about you. It makes me think I can ask you anything and you’ll tell me the answer I need to hear and hold no punches back.” Stiles went on saying.

“And the question is?”

“If they are looking for soldiers for their army, why do all these dangerous tests? Shouldn’t they just deploy whoever they can find? I mean that seems the most logical thing to do, doesn’t it?”

Apollo stopped tweaking with the machine in front of him and looked at Stiles…”So you aren’t just a pretty face after all.” Apollo got up and grabbed a book from the top shelf on the right side of the room. He gave the book to Stiles. “Read this, and if after this you still have questions, come find me..oh and Stiles, I was serious about earlier. The world will try to kill you if your souls ever awoke but from the looks of it you’ll be human no matter what happens.” Apollo said before breaking the tension. “Anyways, you should go read the book. The only reason I brought you here was to fix you the best I could...which I did. So bye bye!” And with that Stiles was back in his room...with the book in his hand.

Stiles looked at the book, “The new SIGN system: Details and Innerworkings”. Stiles looked for the name of the author...and there was none. He got a dejavu feeling, like this had happened before. He opened the book and started reading! The book wasted no time in getting into the details and contents.

“The system called the 'Systematic Indicator of General Natural traits' (SIGN) was evolved to make it easier for the zodiacs to impart their gifts onto people without having to carry out a trial. However as years went by, this system became obsolete and in fact started to show flaws. One of the biggest flaws was that sometimes a person born under one constellation sign would show affinity for a different constellation sign. Meaning that if imbued with the gift of the constellation under which they were born, nothing would happen. In rare cases the person may show symptoms of Star Sickness (the body starts to burn up and eventually the person dies from overheating). Although this was indeed a flaw, the zodiacs had decided to ignore it as the alternative was too troublesome and tedious of a task. That is until they came across special children. The zodiacs had eventually started witnessing children who would have affinity for all 12 zodiacs. These children could accept the gift of all zodiacs without any consequences. These children are referred to as: Poly-decans. However the zodiacs also knew that there would be no way of knowing if the children had this potential unless they were tested using the old trial system, which is also how they originally came to witness their first poly-decan child.”

Stiles started to process the information and it was starting to seem more clear as to why they were testing him like this but it still didn’t explain why the tests had to be so dangerous. And as if fate was on his side, the very next section had started to explain just that.

“Poly-decan children could therefore be a force to reckon with if they could accept all 12 zodiac signs’ powers. The problem lies in the fact that supernatural creatures of Earth can’t really contain the power of 12 zodiacs within their soul without the end result being the death of the child. Finding a poly-decan child is rare enough, but finding one who can hold the power of all 12 is even rarer. Now although there haven’t been any official children who could hold all 12 zodiac powers, the previous poly-decan child held eight without any problems. This suggests that each individual does have their own threshold. The most interesting thing about poly-decan children is the testing difference. Normal children experience tests that are mild and usually easy to solve. But if these tests are administered to the poly-decan children, the poly-decan children’s potential would never be seen. In order to see the potential of a poly-decan child, they must go through tests that push them to the limit mentally and physically. The number of tests they pass is directly correlated to the number of zodiac gifts they can accept without dying. Having said that...how do zodiacs know to administer the mild version versus the extreme version of the tests? Well, they don’t! If they have a feeling that the child may be poly-decan, they can choose to use the extreme versions of the test. If they don’t then they can use the mild version. It’s simply a game of chance, which is why these children are so rare. If the zodiacs can find a poly-decan child that can be imbued with all 12 gifts they will have created a new species essentially. The zodiacs gifts would combine within the soul, hypothetically, and as they merge together a new soul would surely form, leading to what we hypothesize would be a super form of the zodiacs...a holy warrior of sorts.”

It finally all clicked in Stiles’ head...they were trying to make Stiles a weapon. They wanted Stiles to be their trump card...their solution to this war.

Chapter 17: Color of Love

Summary:

Back in Beacon Hills

Derek didn’t know what to think! Stiles’ father was currently taking a shower in his house and god knows, soon Stiles would be joining. His heart started beating even faster...it was out of his control and Derek couldn’t understand why. The signs of frustration were easily seen on Derek’s face but since he lived in a house full of werewolves, even if they couldn’t see it on his face, they could hear it in his heart. Laura came towards Derek, “Derek, why is your heart beating so fast? You doing fine?”

“Fine!” - lie, Laura didn’t need her werewolf senses to know when her dear little brother was lying, but they sure helped. What they didn’t help with was as to why he would lie. “Derek...do you want to try that again?” Laura said making it abundantly clear that she caught his lie.

“Listen...I don’t know either! My heart just keeps beating fast everytime Stiles’ name comes into my mind. And nowadays it seems to be coming up a lot...it’s like he’s decided to live in my head rent free.” Derek said, deciding to be fully honest about the situation.

Laura didn’t detect any lies, and she decided to believe her brother. “Are you worried about him? I mean I know you two are in the same class but I didn’t think you guys were close.”

“Worry...I wouldn’t word it like that, I’m just curious i think...about if he’s...” As he was about to finish his sentence, his mother walked into the house yelling “Everyone downstairs NOW!” and Abazcus right behind her.

Laura and Derek knew that tone, and when their mom used her Alpha voice, it was best to just obey. They hurried downstairs and it seemed that they were they last ones to enter the room as the rest of the family had already gathered.

“Where is the pack?” Talia asked.

“They all went home after you left.” Cora said.

Talia sighed, “Well we can fill them in later but for now you all listen carefully! The magic that was left in the house came from a being that we couldn’t fight even if we wanted to. This is my warning to all of you, DON’T GET ON ANYONE’S BAD SIDE WHO EXUDES SO MUCH ENERGY THAT IT MAKES YOU WANT TO KNEEL!”

Everyone looked at her in shock.

“DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND?” SHe yelled!

“Yes, we do!” Everyone said in sync, they weren’t answering a family member. They were answering to their Alpha. “Okay..you can all go!”

And as everyone was about to leave, she
“Also, the person or thing...whatever you want to call it that came to us...left us a message before leaving. But before I say anything are there any questions?”

Everyone was quiet, and then Laura started speaking. “Stiles...Derek was wondering if Stiles is doing fine?”

Talia and Abazcus shared a look with each other before Abazcus spoke: “The message he left us was, ‘He’s doing fine, thriving actually.’' So I guess we have our answer as to who ‘he’ is in this situation.

“Where’s John?” Talia asked Derek and Laura.

“Upstairs, in the guest bathroom, taking a shower.” Laura answered quickly and Talia wasted no time rushing up. The rest of the family decided to follow..they could listen in on the conversation from downstairs too but something about being there appealed to them.

Talia approached the door and there it was, the scent of the alcohol again. The entire family had their noses clenched.

“God, did he drink the whole liquor store or what?” Cora said in a whispered tone. The rest of the family gave her eyes like daggers. “What...you can all smell it too!” She reciprocated. Everyone just shook their heads and went back to eavesdropping on their mother confronting the sheriff.

“John! We need to talk” Talia said as she knocked on the door.”

“Uhh...right now?”

“Sooner the better...open the door John or I will.”

“I’m sure it can wait 10 minutes.”

“It’s about Stiles”

Everyone heard the door open. With the Sheriff covered in a towel, the stench of alcohol still covering him, he spoke: “What about him? What happened?”

“Actually we were wondering if you knew.” Talia asked.

“I...I..I don’t know. You are the one who wanted to talk about him. How would I know what’s wrong?”

Talia looked confused...the expression on John’s face was genuine and his body’s reaction was genuine. “John, when was the last time you saw Stiles?”

The Sheriff answered rather quickly for someone who seemed rather confused: “I saw him leave the house on his birthday.”

Everyone was silent...The sheriff noticed that something was wrong. “Why is everyone so quiet? Where is Stiles?” Adrenaline clearly taking over and killing whatever drunkenness was leftover.

Talia looked to everyone and said, “alright everyone we officially have one person missing...missing for about five months.” Talia said.

The sheriff’s heart skipped a beat after hearing how long it had been. “Five months, you’re mistaken. It’s been a week or so.” In technicalities the Sheriff wasn’t wrong, if they did the calculations it does mean about a week in the zodiac’s realm..but they were on Earth, and that meant five months.

“John, today is March...doesn’t the weather strike you as a bit odd if it were November?” Talia added.

The Sheriff’s feet gave up and he fell to the floor, looking like a complete mess in front of everyone. Although everyone was clearly understanding of the situation, Cora had other thoughts.

“Wait, is no one going to ask how he didn’t notice Stiles was missing for five months? Or are we going to just ignore that part?” Cora said in a very sarcastic tone.

Everyone gave her dagger eyes and she shrugged and continued her train of thought. “Was his memory taken? Was he charmed? Was he cursed? What happened? I mean it’s a valid question!”

Talia looked at her daughter and smiled, realizing what she meant. “She has a point, if Stiles was their target then they would make sure that his family wouldn’t notice him gone. So they would do something to make sure no one would notice him gone...or well no one close to him at least.” Talia paused before she had an idea…”John, if you let me, I can figure out what happened..maybe...if we are lucky. Just let me sink my claws into your brain stem.”

The sheriff looked alarmed. Everyone noticed it immediately!

“Don’t worry, I am highly trained and as long as I am the one doing it, you won’t even feel a thing.”

“Will it help find Stiles?”

“I think so!”

“Then do it, whatever you need!”

Talia moved closer to the Sheriff and she exposed her claws and slowly started sinking them into the back of the Sheriff’s neck. Moments later she was seeing flashbacks of the Sheriff’s experiences. She started to maneuver through the memories and see what the situation was. After she had finished absorbing as many of the memories as she could, she retracted her claws and there were tears rolling down her eyes. She looked at her kids and said “Everyone, OUT! NOW!”

They all scattered the moment they heard the alpha’s voice. As soon as the kids had scattered Talia picked the Sheriff up, and looked at him and said “Get dressed! You have two minutes.”

John’s heart beating faster than it ever has...he noticed the change in Talia’s voice and he knew something was wrong. He got ready as quickly as possible and opened the door again after he had fully dressed himself.

The moment he stepped out of the room, Talia started yelling. At this point it was useless to tell everyone to scatter. They could hear it regardless of where they were in the house.

“YOU LEFT HIM TO DEFEND FOR HIMSELF! HE’S A KID JOHN. AND WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING? GETTING DRUNK THIS ENTIRE TIME! YOU WERE SO OUT OF IT YOU DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE HOW LONG IT’S BEEN SINCE HE’S GONE. JOHN THEY DIDN’T NEED TO PUT A CURSE OR CHARM ON YOU, WHY WOULD THEY WHEN YOU WERE DRUNK THE ENTIRE TIME. GODDDD WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF WE NEVER CAME TO YOUR PLACE? WOULD YOU HAVE EVEN NOTICED HE WAS GONE?”

John’s eyes started to tear...his brain had started to process all that was happening! But his body was faster than his brain this time.

“Save your tears! God, John, what have you become! The man I saw in the memories, was not the man I knew!” Talia said.

Derek heard everything...his heart had started beating faster...why was it beating faster...something was wrong. He knew something was wrong. His body started to burn up and it felt like his wolf...that's when he realized what was happening. He was about to lose control...his wolf was demanding control and it wouldn’t take no for an answer. It only took a second for his wolf form to come out...and he howled. Everyone was looking at him now!

Talia heard the howl and she rushed down the moment she heard it because she knew that someone had transformed. She saw the dark black wolf and knew immediately who it was.

Derek was struggling to get back in control. It took all of his power to suppress his wolf form but he had finally achieved it and the last thing he heard was his mom speak: “Derek...your eyes...they’re purple.”

Chapter 18: Zodiac of Bravery - Scorpio

Summary:

Well, the tests are going to be a lot more blunt now that Stiles knows the truth! Lots of twists and turns coming....

Notes:

The plot from now on may get a bit confusing....that's just cuz my writing isn't refined nor is it concise. Please tell me when the plot gets convoluted or confusing. I'll try to improve as much as I can but I do think that I am at my ability's end with this. I hope you all can still enjoy this! Thank you all for reading!

“Should I fail him?” the man standing in a golden robe said to Libra.

“As much as I want you to, we all know that we can’t. I have already wanted him to stop so many times but each time, something gets in the way.” Libra responded.

“Tell me brother, what will happen if he can truly accept all 12 of our gifts? We have never met anyone like that before.”

“Only time will tell...anyways since it’s your turn try to take it easy on him, Scorpio.”

“You know as well as I do, brother, that’s not how this works. If he’s alive after all these tests, there is no guarantee he will be sane. If he’s alive and sane, there’s no guarantee he will be after receiving all of our gifts. Easy...there is nothing easy for that boy’s future.”

Libra sighed… “why would it be. He’s never had it easy, so why would it start now?”

The two heard a bell go, and they knew it was time for the testing to begin, and right on time, was Stiles, walking through the door. Libra could sense that there was something different in the way that Stiles stood there. He had confidence that he didn’t have before...or power? Whatever it was, it was a bit intimidating if Libra was being honest. His thoughts interrupted by Scorpio speaking.

“Are you ready?”

“For which part? The test or the part where you guys use me as a weapon?” Stiles answered. Libra didn’t even have to think about what Stiles meant. He knew instantly that Stiles knew everything and that there was no point in playing any games.

“Why are you pretending like we kept a secret from you? Didn’t I tell you from the start you would be fighting for us in the war?” Libra said stepping up and using his more dominant voice.

“Acknowledging me as a soldier is one thing but using me as a weapon, that’s a whole other thing. I agreed to be a soldier, not a weapon?”

“What’s the difference?” Libra asked.
“A soldier protects, a weapon kills.”

Libra’s eyes changed expressions...it wasn’t one Stiles had seen before, not on Libra. He seemed different, there were no more niceties left in the facial expression, it was just horror. “That’s funny, cuz in a war both sides remember the enemies’ soldiers as killers, not protectors or guardians. Weapons kill, no Stiles...a bad weapon will kill. A good one, that one will annihilate. And I’ll tell you something now, we have enough killers...what we need is an annihilator.” Libra said walking up to Stiles and pushing him back as he spoke until Stiles had hit a wall. Libra could see the sweat rolling down Stiles’ neck. “Scorpio, run your test before he passes out.” Libra said and walked out of the room immediately.

Scorpio started speaking to break the silence that had been left in the room after Libra had dramatically exited the room. “Brother Libra sure knows how to be dramatic. Although the things he says are true, I would hardly put them like that...oh where are my manners. I am Scorpio, nice to meet you.”

Stiles stared at the man in front of him and analyzed the face. It was rugged yet boyish, it had a cute smile on his face and if anyone else had seen it they would have fallen for it cuz it was the perfect smile. But Stiles saw it for what it truly was...fake...a mask put on to hide whatever it was that needed hiding.

“Since you already know what is happening, I am guessing there is no point in trying to comfort you. Instead I will be as honest as I can. Let's get things cleared up…” As Scorpio was speaking Stiles saw the face change. These Zodiacs had a tendency to hide behind masks and so he wasn’t shocked when Scorpio showed his true facial expression. It was cold, dark and blunt.

“...it’s not because you are the son of an angel, or the son of Claudia. It’s not because you had a hard life or because you have a messed up soul. The fact that you are poly-decan is a random coincidence. Secondly, I never did anything to your mother. I never laid a hand on her, talked to her, comforted her, got to know her, any of it. I don’t know more than what my brothers and sisters have told me. She was here while I was away. All of it happened while I was away. So, unlike my brothers and sisters I feel no guilt not towards her and not towards you. Lastly, what you said about us being monsters to Leo sister. You are right, we are monsters! Me especially...since I owe you nothing. Let’s get started.”

There was no rest time for Stiles. As soon as Scorpio had stopped speaking, he had vanished and the room had already started shifting. Stiles’ breathing was rapid and uneven, perhaps due to the threat that he had just received but if he was being honest he preferred this a lot more. ‘What was that saying’ Stiles thought, ‘better the devil you know.’ He was used to being spoken to like he was inferior, like he was weak...so this felt oddly nice and comforting to him. Stiles tried to focus on his breathing, but there wasn’t much success to it. The room had stopped changing at this point, and there was no more time left to focus on and control his breathing. Instead it was time to dedicate his energy to staying alive in this task.
It was a basic room with four doors. One on each wall of the room. Each door had a drawing on it. The door right in front of Stiles had what looked like an alcohol bottle drawn on to it. The door on the right had a wolf’s face, the door on the left had a school, and the door behind him had an angel with what seemed like cut off wings. Stiles knew that the door located behind him was probably the one that was designed for him. “Isn’t this a bit too obvious?” Stiles said out loud. He walked to the door and tried to open it. But it wouldn’t open. Stiles eyes’ became wide and he started to be more aggressive with the door. He moved onto the next door and decided to open it. But with the same result, the door wouldn't budge. He ended up trying all the doors and none of them would open. “What’s the point of even putting doors if I can’t open them?” Stiles said to no one in particular.

Stiles sat down and just lied down in the room! He thought that there was no timer, so what’s the point in rushing. He might as well relax and enjoy this peace. He had started to think about happy thoughts at first, curly fries, a reading room filled with his favorite books...and his brain did the thing. You know the one where it goes from one thought to another that is completely unrelated. Well for some reason his brain related curly fries and books with his school tormentors. Stiles heard a creek, ever so silent but noticeable. He decided to ignore it and thought he was just being paranoid given the circumstances. His brain didn’t take too long to drift back to the same old toxic thoughts. The creek got louder...and this time Stiles was sure he wasn’t imagining it. He looked in the direction from which the sound came...it was the door on the left. The one with the picture of a school on it. Stiles’ brain clicked it immediately. He let his mind wander to the same old thoughts of his school life and although painful memories, right now they may be the answer to the test. The door started opening and he could see the other side...it was his school. An exact replica of the halls, it was like he had never left, well it’s not like he would expect anything to change in that small town just because he left anyways. He walked through the door, and as soon as he did, the door shut behind him.

The halls were empty, and it was just him inside. Moments later he heard the bell rang and the students flooded the hallway. He had forgotten exactly how many students attended his highschool. Since it was one of the only highschools in his town basically all the kids ended up going there and so even though the hallways were average sized, they looked small with all these kids. Stiles’ head felt tingly...he felt as though something was about to happen. Kind of like a sixth sense feeling and he was on the money. He saw Derek and his clique walking towards him and Stiles froze in terror. They kept getting closer to him but Stiles couldn’t do anything. He froze and a part of him just wanted to shrink and take up the least amount of space possible, but his body felt bigger than it had ever before. He felt like a target at a gun range, unable to move or defend itself simply waiting to be shot at. As they had gotten closer Stiles started to panic and his heart started to race, he knew what was going to happen next, but why was he panicking, this wasn’t new, he had been through this a million times, why was this time different!
Stiles kept waiting for the metaphorical punch to come and hit….or even the physical one. But nothing ever came, instead he noticed that they had simply walked through him. He went unnoticed. He was relieved to notice that no one could see him...he was a ghost or phantom of sorts.
Stiles turned around and saw that instead of targeting him, they had targeted him...well other him. It was a memory...Stiles was in a memory of his own.

Jackson had started to make fun of Stiles and the others quickly chimed in. Stiles remembers this day. It was the day right after the decathlon team had won and Stiles was of course ridiculed for doing well. How that made any sense, he didn’t understand. As Stiles continued to watch, he felt pity for himself. The way that he didn’t stand up, the way that he just stood there and took all those insults. Then again what could he do when it’s one versus the whole school. As Stiles was in thought about how hopeless the situation was, he noticed the scenario had changed. Stiles was no longer being just insulted but also beaten up. “This didn’t happen...I’m sure of it.” Stiles thought to himself. The boy in front of him, the exact replica of Stiles, was being beaten to the point where bruises would be definite. “Well, it’s not like I can do anything to stop it.” Stiles thought.
Just like that, the situation changed again. Stiles’ replica was being beaten even harder...and this time he felt the pain too. He felt every kick and punch...even though it wasn’t directly aimed at him. Stiles’ thoughts didn’t waver, he kept on thinking about how sad his life was. The fact that not a single soul stood up for him that day, or on any day. The situation changed again...this time the group had weapons of all sorts. Now Stiles was sure of it. Derek and his group were stupid and crazy but even they had enough of a brain still left intact to not be this idiotic. But this memory version of them, well they weren’t as smart apparently. They had used their weapons to continuously beat Stiles and kept continuing. Stiles felt the pain of each bat hit, and he was starting to feel sorry for himself. That’s when he saw it...the look in his own eyes. He was waiting, he was waiting for someone to stand up for him then and he’s still waiting for someone to stand up for him now. But why wouldn’t anyone stand up for him? Stiles’ eyes started to tear and he lost all control as he saw the blood on himself, and saw how desperate he looked. He did all that he could to try and stop his high school tormentors, but in this phantom like state he couldn’t do anything but watch.

Stiles started yelling at the top of his lungs. “I’LL STAND UP FOR YOU! YOU HEAR ME! I’LL DO IT! YOU WANT SOMEONE TO BE THERE RIGHT? I’LL DO IT! TRUST IN ME! TRUST IN YOURSELF STILES.” HE shouted and shouted and cried, but it was evident that no one heard a thing. Stiles was in full tears and his eyes closed from the tears welling up in his eyes. As he opened them, he saw the white room, with Scorpio standing in front of him.

“So, how hard was that?” Scorpio asked.

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter whether you know what you learned from my test or not, but as long as you did learn something.”

“Stop being cryptic.” Stiles said as he was wiping away his tears. It seems that since he got here, all he seems to do is cry in front of the Zodiacs. This wasn’t like him...he didn’t like to cry especially in front of people but these tests, it seems they get harder and harder. They seem to find his weak spot every time, and it turns out he has plenty of them.

“Listen, you passed my test. I’m just shocked it took you only one door. Most people go through at least two or three before they catch on. I mean, I don’t think you caught on, but subconsciously you knew what you needed and I trust that those instincts will make themselves heard in the future just like they did today. I just hope you listen to them the next time. Good job Stiles.”

Stiles didn’t want to feel comforted by the man kneeling next to him, but he couldn’t help it. He felt like an emotional train wreck right now and Scorpio was being rather nice.
“Thanks...I mean….I guess you aren’t all monsters.” Stiles said.

Scorpio laughed as he got up. “Aww, it’s no fun, if you get all mushy too. Plus, you don’t know us all well enough to come to that conclusion yet. Give it time, I’m sure we have plenty of memories to make.” Scorpio said. “Anyways, that’s it for me. Take care Stiles.” and that was that...Scorpio was gone.

Stiles got up, and left the room, and the room right opposite to the test room was his room. He entered and just jumped into bed. He started thinking about his test just now, and all the feelings that had come rushing back...feeling of desperation, isolation, pain, but most of all the need for anyone to stand up. “I guess, I could...I mean I could stand up for myself too, right?” Stiles whispered.

Chapter 19: Zodiac of Freedom - Sagittarius

Stiles woke up and for some reason it felt like there were infinite things he could accomplish today. He felt his body was lighter, and for some reason the world didn’t seem as scary as it was the day before. Was it because of the test? Was it just a fleeting moment? Or was it because he’s changed? Whatever it was, this feeling was comforting and soothing. Stiles was still in bed laying down with his eyes wide open just waiting for the feeling to slowly fade away or become dull. But something was strange, it wasn’t...going away. Stiles heard his door open, and he turned around to see who was at the door. It was a woman, a tall woman with what felt like happiness and candy and...well magic. Stiles moved to get out of bed but he was stopped.

“Don’t move. Just sit still and let yourself get used to it.” The woman said.

“What?” Stiles said

“My aura...it makes you feel like anything’s possible. One minute you’re dressing the next thing you think you can fly and decide to jump off a building.”

Stiles was dumbfounded...he knew that there was a reason for his feeling today.

“Let the feeling die down. It won’t take long, an hour max. Just stay in my presence till then.”

Stiles stayed quiet. So did the girl…The silence was deafening so Stiles started speaking first. “Um, so like...are you going to introduce yourself or...I mean obviously you're a zodiac. I got that much but like which one? Well clearly you aren’t any of the ones I have met before so that rules out, Aries, Libra, Gemini, Scorpio, Taurus, and Virgo. Which means…” Stiles was interrupted.

“I am Sagittarius”

Stiles looked at her from head to toe. Not quite what he was expecting but this definitely wasn’t it. If Stiles was being honest, he was expecting...a man...not a woman. The woman had clearly caught onto the look.

“Unlike my brothers and sisters, I don’t have a human form or body. So they make these hyper-realistic skin suits for myself to wear. In short, I am not a woman or man, so don’t try to label me. Some days I am one and can just as easily change to another...it all depends.”

Stiles was dumbfounded. But it wasn’t hard to keep his composure, after all it’s not exactly something to be shocked about. He was more taken aback by the fact that they had no physical form. “So...wait, why don’t you have a human form? Do you not like it?” Stiles questioned.

“It has nothing to do with that. My curse...it requires...space...to put it gently.”

This wasn’t the first time that Stiles was hearing about curses. He did after all get cursed by Leo not too long ago. “These, curses...what are they?”

The woman sat down on Stiles’ bed and started to speak. “The curses are our weaknesses, our powers, and our vows. They protect us, keep us in check, and help us when we need it most. Although they are called a curse, they are more like a blessing.”
The answer was vague and Stiles’ face was definitely showing that he didn’t understand a word. “Ok….that was….helpful, and I totally understood what you meant! But why don’t you try and explain it a different way...you know for the other people?” Stiles said with a smile and eyebrows arched.

Sagittarius looked around to see who these “other people” were...A smile on their face slowly appeared.
“When a zodiac is born, it must make a promise to the universe. The promise it chooses to make decides the curse it will get. Take Sister Virgo for example. Her promise was to spread love and happiness. The curse she got was lust and seduction. The bigger the promise the worse the curse. It is our job to keep our curses from consuming us completely, because if they do, our promise to the universe is broken. And if that happens...lets just say it’s not a pretty sight for anyone.”

Stiles started to understand...well definitely more than the first explanation, if it could even be classified as that. “So, what’s your curse?”

“My curse is blinded freedom. My vow is to help people find themselves, be free, accept others for who they are, and feel like anything is possible. It turns out a part of that happens to be space, physical and mental. This is a vow that I took on without hesitating, a vow that I took blindly. Hence, my curse is one that can make people feel they can do things that they think are possible but aren’t.”

“Wait, isn’t that counter intuitive? I mean you can’t help people feel free if they die! How does that work?” Stiles said, confused.

“Some vows are harder to keep than others...the zodiacs are in a constant battle with their vows. For me and Virgo, for example, our vows are domineering and most of the time they can seep out of bodies and exude an aura that affects the people around us. It’s not always strong, but it’s always there. Others can either control theirs better or have an easier vow to control, and hence you don’t feel their effects in their presence.” Sagittarius said and stood up as soon as they were finished talking.

“Seems like, you are used to it! Means we can get started! Stiles, I hope you pass my test with flying colors. I want to see you create history unlike any before you! Having said that, let the test BEGIN!”

Both of them had suddenly appeared into the test room and it had already started warping. Stiles was all too familiar with this feeling and knew exactly what it meant. Well the feeling but also the fact that Sagittarius had just announced that the test had begun.

The room had become an open landscape...and Stiles was at the top of a mountain. Stiles looked below, and saw the biggest flag, big enough that you could see it from the very top of the mountain. Stiles thought about how large that flag must have been...this mountain was no joke, it wasn’t mt.everest or anything but if he had to guess, it wouldn’t be too far off. It had writing and said “X marks the spot” written on it. Which Stiles took was part of the test...or it seems the goal was to descend the mountain and well get to the X, which was right next to the flag. Ok easy enough... One minor problem, the mountain itself had the steepest and smoothest slope...meaning climbing it would be literally impossible for an expert climber let alone an average human. And then there was the other minor problem...Stiles was scared of heights. “Soooo...i guess this is my new home. I can live here, it’s fine. I mean who even cares about some stupid test. This is fine, perfectly fine...yep 100% a-okay!” Stiles said. After ten seconds of denial, he thought to himself: “Hey hey hey…I just overcame my fear in the last trial...you want me to do it again? OKAY FINE, YEAH I’LL OVERCOME THEM ALL! Just watch me...as soon as I figure out how.” Stiles started looking around in his environment to try and figure out what he could do to get down. Everything around him was... well actually there was nothing around him.

“I could technically jump and aim for the ‘x’...if I land on it then technically I’ll clear the test before I die, and so the room will fade and I’ll be safe?” Stiles asked out loud to no one in particular. As he finished his thought, he quickly discarded the idea… “no...no way. There’s gotta be a better way than risking my life. Come on Stiles...think! If you can solve university level multivariable polynomial equations in your head, then this should be as easy as pie...a 16000 ft pie...but still a pie!” His thoughts started dwelling and Stiles was easily distracted when not focusing, and so it wasn’t long before his mind started dwelling on other things. “You know...pie actually sounds great. The things I would do to get a nice hot slice of apple pie! At this point, it doesn’t even have to taste good...who am i to be picky?” Stiles started thinking about pies to the point where his mind was only flooded with the thought of food, instinctually closing his eyes to picture it. The thoughts became so intense, so much so that he was sure he could smell the pie. Stiles opened his eyes, and there it was...there was an actual pie in front of him. Stiles’ thoughts became clear and his face had a smirk on it. He knew exactly what was happening, especially since he knew what Sagittarius’ curse and power was. Free your mind and focus…”If I focus on one thought I can make it real in this room...doesn’t that make it too easy?” Stiles thought. And then he remembered all the tests before him. “It can’t be just that easy. There’s a trick to it.” Stiles grabbed the pie and started to observe it. There was nothing wrong with it visually. Then he took a bite without swallowing. He let it longer no more than a second before spitting it out...realizing the taste wasn’t apple. It was raw wolfsbane; a plant that is severely poisonous to humans if not prepared properly and this one definitely wasn’t. Stiles knew it wouldn’t be that simple. It seems that whatever he imagines will definitely appear, but there is no guarantee that it will be exactly as he pictures in his head. Then again, everything has a loophole, and so this must too, he just needed to figure it out.

Stiles knew that in situations like this, you have to think backwards. Which means he needs a solution before he can start workshopping it. So, he needed to figure out a way down and that required thinking...critical thinking. Stiles took a deep breath and started to focus. Once he started his train of thought and focused enough on it, he was an undefeatable machine. “Climbing is out of the question, especially if I get faulty equipment. And If I jump, my terminal velocity will definitely be enough to kill me. But that we can fix...we can lower terminal velocity by using something like a parachute. Even if the parachute has multiple holes in it, if it’s a big enough parachute it can lower it enough. The only problem then is, that the bigger the parachute, the more likely it might fold in on itself. In which case, I’ll have no control and who knows what will happen. Plus there is no guarantee that the parachute I get will be faulty with holes.” Stiles decided to test that thought and thought of a parachute...focusing all his mental energy on the thought of a parachute. In the end he did get one, it was just small, like toy size. Stiles smiled. “Well...this will definitely not do.” Stiles decided to think of a parachute again and he got nothing. “So I only get one.” Stiles thought. “Well there goes the idea of making a parachute…well...technically I can still make one with regular fabric but that’s a bit sketchy. Especially if the high wind pressures cause a tear in the fabric, then I’m definitely screwed. Okay, we need a new plan then.” Stiles kept thinking and he really was focused but nothing was coming to mind. Really, the only option seemed to be to make a leap of faith. Half of Stiles’ mind was ready to say “what are you waiting for, just jump already.” but the other half was more on the fence and really making him try.

Stiles started rushing his brain although there wasn’t really a timer on him. And nowhere did Sagittarius mention that he had to do it in a certain period of time. So, technically there was no need to rush it. Stiles slowed his breathing by taking deep breaths and started to relax his mind. He needed to think outside the box. It suddenly hit him…deep breadths. His altitude must be at least 5000 meters (about 16000 ft). That’s a good estimate, yet his breathing was normal. “There is no way my lanky ass lungs should be able to breathe just fine at this altitude. Especially without training. So, why can he breathe at a normal pace without any difficulty. “There are three possible reasons. One, I am way more athletic than I gave myself credit for and actually have lungs of steel. Two, the quick change in atmospheric change in pressure knocked me out and I’m currently in an unconscious state, or alternatively I started hallucinating due to lack of oxygen. Lastly, I’m not actually as high as I think I am; and I’m going to bet all my money that it’s not option one. Option two, although plausible, the Zodiacs wouldn’t incapacitate you from the start, would they?” Stiles started to think back to the flag and the ground...he had perfect sight of them from his height. For that to be possible they had to be quite the big landmarks. Stiles put all his apples in one basket and started to run from his position towards the ledge. He ran straight forward and just as he was about to jump off the cliff he stopped. Swaying his arms in order to prevent himself form falling.

“Libra, this may look suicidal, but it’s not. And I know I made a promise, but this time. I am sure of it, 100% sure that it won’t kill me. Not just that, it’s the answer. I KNOW IT, so I just want to be clear, if by chance you’re listening or watching, just know that I’m not trying to kill myself. This is me, being 100% confident.” Stiles took a step forward and let his body drop...it took all of 2 seconds to fall to the ground, but during those two seconds his heart was beating faster than it ever had. He landed a bit awkwardly and so he fell forwards landing right on his butt. Other than the small ankle twist from the awkward land there were no major injuries. Stiles was smiling from cheek to cheek...he felt confident. He had solved the problem and for the first time it felt like he had done it without risking his life.

As Stiles smiled he started walking towards the flag and he was right about to touch it when the flag and the “x” underneath it disappeared. Just for a second his heart had panicked, he wondered if he had done something wrong. Suddenly the room reverted back to the normal color, a sign he was well aware that the test had ended.

“Well done Stiles. Although Libra wasn’t watching, I’ll be sure to relay the message forward, I’m sure it had some meaning that only you two understand. Other than that, you pass my test...oh and one last thing. You better start learning our language, you’re going to need it when the time comes.” And with that Sagittarius was gone.

Stiles looked astonished...Sagittarius hadn’t even bothered to fix his wounds even a little. Just vanished. “Do any of you have any sense of common decency?” Stiles wondered to himself. “Savages...all of you!” He said and smiled right after. Sense of victory and accomplishment coming over him, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Chapter 20: Zodiac of Perfection - Capricorn

Notes:

This chapter is just a lot of talking and I know it's not the most eventful, but I think it was necessary to slow down the pace a bit because it was getting so overwhelming for me. Sorry about that, but I did add some plot twists so I hope you enjoy those!

Stiles walked back to his room with his twisted ankle, sat down and the smile on his face, showed no signs of fading. He knew it wasn’t anything special, a simple puzzle solved...but for him it was huge. It was the first time he did something he was actually completely proud of. He couldn’t explain it, but something in him felt right as he made that leap of faith, like he knew everything would be okay. There was no fear, just pure adrenaline, not a single worry about the result. He was just living in the moment.

Stiles’ thoughts were disturbed by Libra walking in and immediately throwing a book at him. Stiles caught it and read the title. “Zodiac For A Dummy...AKA Stiles”.

“Thanks for giving me extra work! ‘Cuz of your talented ass, I had to write a complete grammar book on our language yesterday! Do you know how long that took?” Libra said.

“I feel like it wasn’t that long considering you did it in one day.” Stiles responded.

“How dare you insult me like that! I did it in eight hours!”

Stiles looked at Libra with a smirk. “Weird flex...but okay...on another note. How long does it usually take for someone to learn this language?”

“Anywhere from five to ten years for complete fluency. But you need not worry, you’ll only need the basics for now.”
The way that response was worded worried Stiles…”needed only the basics” implied that there was an urgency to it, kind of mandatory. Now that he thought about it Saggitarius had the same tone. “Why does it feel like I’m being forced to learn it?”

“Because you are. At the end of your trials, you need to receive our gifts, and you can’t do that unless you speak a bit of our language. If it was just one gift, it wouldn’t matter but, considering how you’ll definitely be getting more than one, it’s mandatory for you. Not to mention, all supernatural creatures related to space and time speak this language. So, it’s a pretty useful language to know. Oh and one more thing, our grammar is super convoluted, complex, and an utter mess, so good luck figuring that out.” With that Libra was heading out the door.

Stiles opened the book, and the first chapter was titled “ I “. Just the singular word. Stiles continued reading, and the first sentence alone was daunting: “In the language known as Altin, there are exactly 839 ways to say “I” and each of them have their own connotation so don’t fuck it up. Memorize them first and go from there.”

“Great...homework...just what I needed, makes me almost wish I had died from the cliff jump. Then again, it could be worse...it could be 840 ways to say “I”.

Stiles continued reading the book, and it seemed the universe really did love playing jokes on Stiles. The very next sentence in the book had read as follows: “I know what you are thinking, 839? Why such an odd number? Well, good question, actually there are 840 ways, but the last one is rarely used.”

“Of course there are...why wouldn’t there be?” Stiles sighed and continued reading the first chapter, which seemed to go on forever. As he was reading, his door had opened but no one was standing there.

“Well, that’s not creepy at all!” Stiles said looking up at the door. And suddenly there were arrows lighting up a pathway. “I guess...I need to follow them.” Stiles said unsure of his decision to follow the creepy arrows. “Yeah, sounds like a rational decision. Follow the creepy arrows. Nothing weird about that.” The more Stiles walked, the more his brain said to stop walking but his body wasn’t listening to any of the warnings...was it curiosity or was it stupidity. Either way his body showed no signs of stopping soon. Step after another and his heart only beating faster and faster… “...a dead end? Really? All that suspense for a freaking dead end?” Stiles started laughing hysterically. He was sure he was about to die from how fast his heart was beating...and it was all over a dead end. As he was laughing, the walls started to change.

He was standing in a space which seemed to stand still while everything around him moved. There seemed to be a pattern to it, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. The walls were moving, they were like a maze. A second later, a man had appeared in front of him.

“Now, you know where the center of the house is. Memorize it. If you know the center, you can always find your way to anywhere in the house. If you don’t, then you might as well consider yourself dead.” The man said.

“Elegant appearance, douchey attitude, horrible manners, and a ‘I’m holier than thou’ personality...you must be a zodiac.” Stiles said grinning. “You know, there are better ways to show me around the house?”

“There’s a million ways to kill people as well, but they don’t all give the same feeling, now do they?” The man said with a sinister smile on his face. “My elder siblings have been going rather easy on you and what for? For Lady Claudia’s sake? You are two different people and should be treated as such. My test will make up for where they lacked.” The man was saying and was stopped by Aries walking in.

“Oh, so we’ve gone soft? Is that what you are saying little brother?” Aries asked.

“Brother, soft doesn’t even begin to describe it. He survives up until my test with his sanity intact. If that’s not a sign of you all going easy, I don’t know what is!”

“Could it not be that he’s just that strong? Why must it be that we have gone weak?”

“Look at him brother! A human bag of bones, with a past of cowering and hiding. What possible strength could he have? A weak human like him...he couldn’t even be fed to the hounds. They’d pity him before they’d eat him.”

“Brother, watch your tongue! You are family, but even you have your limits.”

“No, no. Let him continue.” Stiles said! He knew exactly what this man was doing. He was trying to make himself feel better by trying to insult others. He fed off the energy of others being intimidated by him. And, Stiles wasn’t having it. Not today. “Look in my eyes and say it. Tell me how weak I am and see what happens. You think I’m scared of you? I stabbed Aries with a sword by stabbing it through myself. You think I’m scared of death? Hahahah, Mr you have a lot to learn about me if you think that. Yes, I was...no, still am weak but I’ll give you one warning now...fuck with me and I swear to god I’ll fuck right back. Because unlike before, I have completely lost my mind! You think, my sanity is intact? Look at me, and say that again! Push my buttons, I dare you...test me and let's see who gets fed to the hounds!”

The man had started to back down as Stiles’ voice got louder and louder.

“What was the plan? To scare me with your teeny tiny words of hate? Out of all your brothers and sisters, I’m the least scared of you so far! You know why that is? Because the rest of them had the balls to back up what they were saying, you...you are all words...all bark, no bite. SO why don’t you be a good little puppy and bite on the chew toys you're used to biting rather than barking up a tree that might get you killed.” Stiles said changing his facial expression to show as much hate as he could. He had learned this trick from his psychology class. When others try to intimidate you, it’s best to go all out and act as crazy as possible...It negates their intimidation but even more it makes you seem like you have a nut loose. Which tends to get them to back off and often reverses the roles.

The man started grinning and laughing. “Hahhahaha, he’s crazier than I am.” I think we’ll get along just fine...I’m Capricorn by the way.”

“Stiles...but you already knew that...didn’t you, you piece of trash.” Stiles said.

“It was cute the first time around, keep doing it, and I might actually get mad.” Capricorn said with a smile, but the aura he was exuding scared the shit out of Stiles. It was completely different from before...this man was a killing machine for sure, no doubt about it. Intimidating him...there was no such thing.

Stiles stopped talking the moment he felt the aura change. He didn’t even dare lift a finger let alone say words. The feeling of fear was overwhelming him, but where it was coming from, he had no idea.

“That’s enough little brother.” Aries said. “You’ll end up killing him before the test even begins at this rate.”

Capricorn backed up, and suddenly the feeling of fear was gone. Stiles’ body started to relax and become loose again. No doubt that man could kill him with that aura alone...an aura so strong...strong enough to give people a heart attack.

“Speaking of tests. Your test took me especially long to prepare. I wanted it to be special! I wanted my lesson to be engraved into your soul. So I went out of my way to make sure it was perfect, down to the last detail! Not a single thing out of place! So that not a single detail was left unattended. I hope you enjoy living through it as much as I did making it!”

“Why do I get the feeling that I am going to almost die again during this test...then again, that seems to be a recurring pattern in these tests, so shouldn’t be all that surprising at this point. All right let's get it over with.” Stiles said sighing and just giving into what he considered his unchangeable fate.

A snap of the fingers later, and the three were in the test room. “The rules are simple, don’t make a single mistake. Everything needs to go perfectly! ONE MISTAKE AND IT’S ALL WRONG!”

The room changed and it started looking awfully similar to what Stiles could describe as an escape room. Not that Stiles had ever participated in one, but he’s seen enough pictures of them...not enough to be considered an expert but definitely enough to know what it looked like.

Stiles walked around before he started to touch anything. The warning he got from Capricorn was enough to have him on his toes but even without it, he’s been doing these tests long enough to know...better safe than sorry. He looked around and noticed that the room was his...except for one tiny detail. The picture taken of him as a child on the table...it had another child in it...Derek was in it. Apart from that everything was rendered perfectly. Stiles wasn’t sure if it was part of the test or not, but he knew it had to do with something, it always did. It hit Stiles… “Not a single thing out of place!”, that’s what Capricorn had said. So either Capricorn is an egotistical asshole with a superiority complex and a hint of a ‘stick stuck up his ass’ syndrome...or this is exactly how it was meant to be. “Both very plausible options” Stiles says smiling.

“Okay, so let’s go with the assumption that this was all how it was meant to be. Then what? What would that mean for me? No, actually the better question is why that picture? Why was it out of place?” He kept on thinking on what it could mean, but since no answers were coming directly to him, he decided to keep looking around for other clues as he kept this in the back of his mind. After looking around, he hadn’t found anything else out of place, or strange at all. Which only reinforced that this clue was all he was going to be given to solve the puzzle.

Stiles sat down on his bed and closed his eyes as he relaxed his body and let his back fall down onto the sheets of the bed. As comfort hit his body, he started to relax more and more. He was being tempted by his body to fall asleep, but Stiles put conscious effort to make sure not to sleep; he kept his brain busy with the clue and repeated it again and again in his head. Hoping that something would click. “Why a picture of me as a kid, and why was Derek in it?” Stiles kept on thinking and knew that to solve the puzzle he had to simply figure out the answer to those questions. No doubt after that it’ll be smooth sailing.

No matter how Stiles looked at it though, he couldn’t figure out why Derek was in the picture. “Why would Capricorn put him there, was it to provoke me?” Stiles said. “No way...that’s petty...but then again...petty seems to be genetic for them.” Stiles’ brain had already started wandering as it usually did. “Wait...do they even have genes? Are they even genetically related or do they just use the brother and sister titles just ‘cuz...FOCUS. These are all questions for later.”

***Outside the Test Room***

“God, he’s insufferable. How my siblings have even managed to tolerate him is a miracle. Us testing him, god why does it feel like it’s the other way around.” Capricorn said. His thoughts were interrupted by Libra walking in and speaking.

“He’s an acquired taste. But an addictive one.” Libra said. “How goes his test, little brother?”
“Going? It’s not going. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, he’s wondering whether or not we, the zodiacs, are genetically related or not. Tell me brother, was he dropped as a child?”

Another person had walked into the room.

“Little brother, I love you dearly, and would destroy the world for you if you asked me to. But that boy has done nothing to deserve these remarks, so keep quiet and watch him do his thing or I’ll make you do it myself. Got it?” Aries said.

“Of course you’d say that, rumors have it that you seem to have imprinted on him.”

Libra’s eyes widened.

“Cappy, you seem awfully brave today. So if you have something to say, say it. Beat around the bush and I’ll beat you just as much.”

“Brother, is violence all you know? It seems you express all your emotions with violence. But since my truthful remarks are bothering you, I’ll stop.”

***back in the test room***

Stiles was still walking around his replicated room. If he was being honest, it felt really nice being back, well not technically back but still. It felt oddly comforting and for some reason he seemed to miss it without even realizing it. Stiles had been walking and ended up near the picture again. He picked it up, and took the picture out of the frame.
“Oh...that’s new.” Stiles said. This version of the picture was perfect, not a single rip on it. The picture in his room had a tear. It was big enough that the picture lost some details but it was still one of the only pictures Stiles had of his childhood. Stiles turned the picture around and saw nothing else out of place. Well, the whole picture was an enigma by itself. Stiles thought back to his version of the picture. He remembers tears in the picture and remembers it was a bit torn up but it didn’t look like anyone was missing from the pic....Stiles got an idea. He took the picture and tried his best to replicate the rips from his version onto the version in front of him. Slowly the picture started to look like the one he was more familiar with. Stiles was so focused on creating the rips exactly like his memory that he couldn’t really focus on how the picture was turning out. As soon as he had made the last rip, his eyes focused on the picture and as if his brain had anticipated the results, his body had reacted by tensing up immediately after looking at the picture. His brain started throwing flashbacks in his head of him with another boy. The flashbacks went by so quickly and his head was overwhelmed. Stiles started fainting but before he completely fell to the ground he saw the room turn white and he couldn’t help but smile.

Chapter 21: Zodiac of Bargaining - Aquarius

Notes:

This chapter is a bit dark --- violence + threats --- so please read safely!

“Wasn’t your test supposed to be hard? Seems like you have gone soft too” Aries said.

“When he wakes up, I promise you, his world will not be the same. I must say I was rather cruel this time around big brother. I know I didn’t have to be, but it’s a truth he must face sooner or later. And I promise you, the sooner the better. Plus, he’s been lied to enough, I think it’s time he starts figuring out everything, without the lies fogging up his pathway.”

“It seems, you hate him a lot less than you let on.”

“Hate him? No...I pity him! His entire existence is the pinnacle of sadness. Born into a loving family only to have it torn away piece by piece. Friends that betrayed him, a childhood full of lies that no one ever bothered to clear up. I pity him brother... because despite knowing his past, despite knowing what he’s been through, we’re about to do the same as the others in his life have done to him...use him and then throw him away.”

“We aren’t just using him!” Aries said, starting to get mad.

“Brother, tell me...after he has done his job, what will you do? Will you continue to show this affection of yours for him? Because by that time, he will not be the Stiles you know. Not to mention the amount of hate he will harbor for all of us. Trust me brother, where you find happiness in mass murder and genocide, others find sadness. And us forcing him to eradicate an entire species...that too of his mother’s...we’d be nothing but like the rest of the people in his life...liars...trash at its finest. So, I beg of you older brother, come to your senses and abandon your feelings for we can’t afford to have them when we know very well what it is that we are forcing him to do.” Capricorn paused before continuing “He’s already met the minimum requirements and so whatever happens from here won’t be in his favor. Leave him be Aries, he has enough on his plate.” Capricorn left no room for arguments and just left after saying his opinion on the matter.

Aries’ eyes widened at the mention of his name. The zodiacs rarely used their names with each other, it was always by one title or another. So hearing his own name really got his attention but had no time to respond to his brother. Aries was never really one to chat anyways, actions were always more important to him. He ignored what he considered nonsense from his younger brother and made his way to Stiles’ room.

Aries walked in and saw that Stiles had already been awake and sitting in his bed, with his back to the headboard and reading a book that no doubt Libra had given him. He was wearing a simple outfit but one that highlighted his body perfectly. Aries was captivated and knew that he was in trouble. He had never felt like this towards anyone let alone a human being.

As Aries walked in, Stiles looked up and asked “What brings the mightiest warrior to my room?” with a smile on his face.

Aries’ heart started pumping and just stood there.

“Earth to Aries, Earth to Aries….or well I guess we aren’t on Earth...or are we? Whatever, you know what I mean.”

Aries snapped himself out of it… “I...I…” Why was speaking so difficult all of the sudden? “ I...came to get started on your weapon.”

“Weapon?”

“Well, it’s tradition among the Aries clan to get a weapon upon initiation. And although you aren’t really a part of my clan, you will be getting my gift, and I guess that counts. Plus, you can’t be expected to go into battle without a weapon, now can you?”

“I guess that makes sense. So what weapon am I getting… Please don’t say long sword or spear ‘cuz that would just be cruel.”

Aries laughed and said, “well that’s where this stone comes in handy.” as he presented a clay like stone to Stiles. “The moment you touch it, it will turn into a model of a weapon that is best suited for you and well, then we just create an exact replica of it. Easy as that.”

Stiles looked at the stone, shocked that such an item even exists but then again it wasn’t really that far fetched was it? Stiles took the stone from Aries’ hands and as soon as he laid hands on it, it changed shapes and it’s new shape was unmistakably a bow.

“Well, you are pretty bad at close range combat, so this might actually be perfect for you.” Aries said. “Plus, with a bit of practice, you might actually be pretty good as an archer.”

“For some reason, you guys seem to think I have an infinite amount of time. I need to do my tests, learn a new language, and now archery as well?”

“Well, time is never a problem for us. We can manipulate time as we wish! If you need more of it, just say so and we’ll give you more of it. Your days will suddenly feel like they are worth a week! How efficient is that?”

“That kinda sounds like cheating for some reason.”

“Well, for you it’s considered ‘catchup’ considering you’ve been wasting your potential. But trust me, time manipulation has its own side effects so it’s not as easy as it sounds. But it will definitely help you hone your skills faster. When I say faster, it’s not actually faster...it’ll feel like a month to everyone else but it could feel like years to you. I don’t know the exact logistics, that’s more a Libra thing, I just know that it works. So, if you want it, it’s at your disposal.”

“Well, if I have it, I might as well use it, no point in letting go of a great opportunity like this.”

“Speaking of opportunities, I wanted to talk to you before Aquarius’ test.”

“What about?”

“About Caprico…”

“Actually, I’d rather not talk about that.”

“Why not?”

“It felt too real...a part of me is thinking it was real, but it can’t be. How could it be real? None of it makes sense and I can’t go through all that right now. I just don’t want to think about it.”

“Ok then let’s talk about Aquarius. Aquarius is very...well no easy way to say it, kinda definitely for sure wants you dead. Soooo maybe don’t be provocative this time?”

Stiles was surprised...it seemed like Aries was actually genuinely worried for him. The mood became very different, and Stiles was starting to feel like Aries was becoming uncomfortable so he did his best to change it back to the lively atmosphere it was. “WHEN HAVE I EVER PROVOKED FIGHTS? I’ll have you know, I am peaceful, docile, and perhaps the nicest human in this house.”

“You’re the only human in this house.” Aries said grinning.

“My point still holds!”

Aries laughed and Stiles followed cue.

“Well, I’ll be taking my leave, no doubt Aquarius will be joining you soon.”

“Alright, and thanks for everything today. I really appreciate it!” Stiles said with a warm smile on his face.

Aries simply nodded his head as he left the room.

Stiles went back to his book but it was a mere minute before the door opened again.
“God, can a man just read a book in peace?” Stiles had actually been able to read quite a bit of the book and was making some leeway on it, but it seemed that there just wasn’t enough time to do everything...he might just have to consider Aries’ plan afterall.

“You need to be a man for that sentence to hold any validity.” The girl said with a smirk.

“I guess you aren’t here to pamper me?”

“If that means suffocating you with a pillow then yeah, I’m definitely here to pamper you.”

“Great, another person with a vendetta against me. Let’s add you to the list. Shall we.”

“A long list I imagine.”

“Yeah, Guiness world record worthy.” He said.

“Not an accomplishment I’d be proud of.”

“Alright Miss., just hakuna your tatas and let’s get this started.”

“Well, your test about me is about to begin.” Aquarius said.

“I think you meant, the test with me is about to begin.”

“Nope, it’s exactly as you heard it. I decided to make your test simple, just answer the questions about me and you pass.”

“Really? So...there is no death? No life threatening moments? Humiliating experience?....wait a minute? WHAT? How the hell am I supposed to know anything about you?”

“Well it wouldn’t be hard if it was just a simple questionnaire.”

“Yeah, but this seems like an impossible task.”

“Yes, that’s what makes it fun!”

“Wait, that’s not fair.”

“Life’s tough like that, you’ll get over it.”

“You know, on Earth, we have these astrology sections in newspapers, and I’m starting to see why you get a lot of hate.”

“Life’s tough like that, I’ll get over it. Now, moving on, if you fail my test, your trials will stop and you’ll be able to receive the gifts of the zodiacs whose test you’ve passed. If you pass, you’ll go to the hardest test out of all of us only because he’s the last in the order and people have usually gone insane by then...actually it’s kind of a miracle you are still alive, let alone sane.”

It started to click in Stiles’ head what was happening. “Wait a minute...you’re actually worried about me aren’t you?”

“What? Where did you get that idea from?”

“Well three things! First, you make a test that isn’t dangerous at all...and let’s face it, that’s not like any of you. Second, you want me to fail your test on purpose so that I don’t have to do the next test...I mean ten powers are enough, who needs twelve...and most important of all, you literally have no idea how to be subtle.”

Aquarius rolled her eyes and then said “believe whatever you want. Let’s just get this test done with.”

“Wait...you still aren’t going to give me the real test?”

“Give me one good reason why I should?”

Stiles stayed silent.

“Exactly.” Aquarius responded with a straight face. “Even if you did have a good reason, who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do? Why do you think you have any authority here? Is it because Aries favors you? Is it because we wronged your mother and now you feel owed? Is it because you think you are special? Oh...wait...don’t tell me it's because you think you’re getting stronger and can finally start standing up for yourself?”

Stiles still silent.

“Oh my god, it’s the last one, isn’t it!” “That’s pathetic! You think that if we were to return you back to Earth, things would change? You think that you would be better than your bullies?”

Aquarius put on a sinister smile. “Very well then! You’ve piqued my interest. I am the zodiac of bargaining and I will test you with all my might. Prove me wrong Stiles, prove to me that your words are true, prove to me that if you had the power you would take actions. Show me what you can do!” As soon as she was finished talking she snapped her finger and Stiles couldn’t help but fall asleep.

---- in Stiles’ dream (THE TEST) ---

Stiles woke up from the sounds of the alarm clock. He instinctively swung his arm to disarm the alarm clock of it’s deadly sounds. With the sounds gone, Stiles slowly woke up and started to stretch his arms out, his body bending to get rid of the restlessness remaining in his body. He went to the bathroom, got ready, and went down to his living room to see his dad had passed out like he usually was. Nothing had changed there. Stiles read a book as he ate an apple and then decided he would deal with his father’s mess later. He went to school and did his daily routine of waiting out the bullies. Eventually he had to go in and he decided now was as good a time as any. As he was going in, Jackson had spotted Stiles.

“Hey freak! You still haven’t killed yourself?” Jackson shouted. His friends didn’t really respond or say anything else so Stiles kept on walking.

“Hey freak, I’m talking to you.” Stiles ignored it and kept on walking. Jackson increased his pace and quickly caught up to Stiles and stood right in front of him. “Woah, did you grow a pair of balls overnight? You think you can just walk away from me?”

Stiles would usually be scared but for some reason he wasn’t scared. It was like his body knew something that he didn’t. Something felt off but not to his body. Stiles looked up in confusion from the mixed signals his brain and body were giving him.

Jackson ministerperted the look… “Oh, so now you think you’re better than me? You must really want to die Freak-linski.” Jackson said, raising his arm and getting ready to punch Stiles.

Stiles’ body took over and instinctively looked directly into Jackson’s eyes.Stiles eyes were blood crimson red. And the look was that of a predator. Jackson petrified just stood there.

Stiles walked around Jackson and kept walking into class. “That...that felt different for some reason.” Stiles thought.

“What are you doing Jackson? Everyone’s looking at you.” Lydia said.

“Stillinski...he…” Jackson couldn’t even finish before Lydia interrupted. “Yeah yeah we know, he’s a freak. Now let's get going.” Jackson did as told.

Stiles went into class and decided to sit at the table in the middle of class. Once again his body felt natural but his brain was telling him something was off. He decided to ignore it and just waited for class to start as he fidgeted with his pencil.

The alphas entered the class and they all sat in their seats. Boyd came over to Stiles and said “Move.”

Stiles looked at Boyd then looked back at the table. “This your property?”

“Move. That’s the last time I’ll say it nicely.”

“This is you being nice?” Stiles said instinctively. His body was acting on its own. Where it got all of this confidence, he had no idea.

“Boyd grabbed Stiles by the shirt and lifted him up with one hand.”

Stiles’ body took it as a threat and immediately responded as such. He twirled his legs upwards to grasp onto Boyd’s neck. He held onto Boyd’s arm and then with all his force pushed the large man down. Both of them on the ground, Stiles squeezed his legs and started to expand his claws into Boyd’s arms. Boyd howled in pain and Stiles immediately let go and went back to a safe distance.

Boyd looked at Stiles and Stiles stared back. “Find a different seat, or I’ll make one for you on the ground!” Boyd knew that he was fighting out of his league, he couldn’t beat him.
The rest of the class looked at Stiles and Stiles didn’t care for it. “Mind your own business.” Stiles said. Boyd got up and went back to a table at the back of the room.

Stiles smiled as he went back to hsi chair and everything felt like it was finally in its right place.
The rest of the day, he went unbothered by everyone. The last bell of the day rang and Stiles was heading to his car after having put his things in his locker.

As he approached his car, he saw a group of people waiting at the driver door of the car. He recognized them immediately...the usual suspects.

“You really thought you could just lay your filthy hands on me, and then get away with it?” Boyd said.

“Awww little Boyd couldn’t fight his own battles so he brought his little friends to help him. How cute!” Stile said using a baby voice to agitate the group. Isaac and Jackson moved forward but were stopped by Boyd. “I don’t need anyone fighting my fights.”

“Of course you don’t! You’re a big boy! And big boy’s can do everything themselves. Isn’t that right?” Stiles said, still using his baby voice.

Boyd was angry to begin with but now even his aura was exuding anger. He leaped forward to tackle Stiles but Stiles reflexively moved out of the way. Boyd fell to the ground and immediately got back up and rushed towards Stiles to punch him. Stiles, without hesitating, dodged and then quickly landed a punch of his own directly to Boyd’s face. That was all it took, one good punch and Boyd was seeing stars.

Stiles looked at the rest of them and then set his eyes on Derek. “Control your pack, or they might end up getting themselves killed.” Stiles said as he pushed his way through the barrier of alphas. As he was doing so, Isaac whispered “psycho”. Stiles closed the door without getting into the car and walked towards Isaac. His eyes glaring red.

Derek stepped in front of Isaac to protect him.

“Watch your mouth, if you can’t handle the consequences. It’s easy picking on the weak isn’t it? Then again, like father, like son.” Stiles knew that would hit a nerve. Isaac lost his control immediately, and moved from behind Derek to lunge at Stiles. Derek wasn’t fast enough to stop him. Stiles caught Isaac in mid-lunge and held onto his throat. He lifted him up and slowly started to expand his claws into his throat. “Psycho...I’ll show you a real psycho!” Stiles started to expand his claws more and more but kept his eyes fixed on Derek’s eyes.

“You’re killing him, you fucking idiot. Stop!” Allison said out loud.

Stiles threw Isaac back to the ground and retracted his claws. “If I even see any of you bat an eye in my direction, I’ll take it as an intention of harm and rid the world of your filthy lives.” Stiles said in a calm tone. The rest of them just stood there silent.

Stiles yelled loudly and roared with his alpha voice…”IS THAT CLEAR YOU FUCKING MORONS?”

They all reflexively responded...all but Derek. Stiles smiled because them answering him meant that they were intimidated and actually scared.

Weeks passed and the group kept their distance. Then it all went downhill again when Stiles accidentally bumped into Jackson in the hallway.

“I’m so sorry...I didn’t know...I wasn’t look...”

 

“And yet you’re looking at me directly in the eyes, you idiot. You remember what I said? You even looking in my direction is a threat! You have a death wish? Feel like dying today? What do you say Jackson, should we put an end to your stupid life?” Stiles said.

As Stiles was speaking, he was starting to feel sick, not physically...just like a feeling that something was wrong. Like this wasn’t him. Like this wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing. Something he was forgetting. Stiles looked at Jackson’s eyes as they started to tear, and he got a flashback of him being bullied.

Stiles’ mind started to clear up and he was starting to realize what happened but it was too late. He had already picked up Jackson and started to dig his claws into the man. Moments later Stiles started to feel dizzy and he fell to the ground.

---- Stiles Dream finishes ---

Stiles woke up on the ground of the test room. “Was...that all a dream?”

“A dream implies it had no meaning. This was more like showing your true colours.” Aquarius said.

“What! I would never kill anyone.”

“No, the weak you would never kill anyone. The moment you get a bit of power, apparently you become a revenge hungry killer.”

“That’s not me….you’re lying. It was just a dream.” Stiles started saying with hsi heart rate increasing. Denial running through his veins more than blood.

Aquarius walked to Stiles and lifted his head up…”Trash...every single one of you! You all think you could do better if you had more power, but none of you ever do.”

“IT WASN’T ME!” Stiles shouted.

“Look at you...the same eyes as your ‘dream’. Do you want to kill me too? Do you think you can kill me? What was it you said…if I even see you bat an eye in my direction, I’ll take it as an intention of harm and rid the world of your filthy life.” Aquarius said laughing. “Ironic as it is, you passed my test hahahaha. I can’t wait to see how the rest of you unravels as Pisces picks into that soul of yours.” Aquarius started walking towards the door and before leaving said “Good luck...freak-linski.” and then started laughing again as she left.

Chapter 22: Blessings and Curses

--- Back in Beacon hills ---

“Derek...your eyes...they’re purple.” Talia said. Everyone else just looked at him in awe and surprise. Everyone knew that purple eyes were never a good thing because they were a curse of sort but no one really taught the kids why it was bad or why it was considered a curse so it was just one of those things that people just knew was bad but never really questioned why.

“Mom...what does that mean?” Derek asked.

“It means something went really wrong sweetie but don’t worry you’re not in any real danger.”

“Mom...I don’t feel good. Something feels wrong with my wolf.”

“I know sweetie, I know.” Talia said! SUddenly there was too much on her plate but as the leader she was used to stress. She took control “Cora, Laura take your brother to the hospital. Cover his eyes so that only the doctor knows he has purple eyes. Understood?”

The girls nodded their heads and led their brother to the car.

“John, you get in that room ‘cuz I’m not done with you yet! Get in there and sit and do nothing until I come back!” She said with an aura that only an idiot would challenge so John nodded through his tears and did as he was told.

--- at the hospital ---
“Hi, uh my brother had an accident and so we were wondering if we could see a doctor ASAP.” Laura said in the sweetest tone.
“Yes, of course. Please have the patient fill out the form and if they are unable to do so please fill it out for them and then bring it back up here.” The nurse said giving her a clipboard with a bunch of forms clipped.

Laura quickly filled out the information to the best of her ability and went back up and handed in the form. The nurse looked at it and saw the section ‘reason for visit’ was filled out as “eye accident”.

“I’m sorry, can you be a bit more specific with the reason for visit, just so we can get you a doctor with the right skills to help you out. Is it a blunt trauma, a chemical agent of sorts?”

“None of the above, it’s just an eye irregularity that popped up out of nowhere.”

The nurse was clearly not impressed by the vague answer but she had already been working long enough and decided to just accept it. She updated the section and submitted the form and asked Laura to wait until she hears their name called.

They waited for about 30 minutes before they were called and then escorted to a room that was a bit more private. After a bit more waiting the doctor came in and said “Hi, I’m Dr. Deaton, how can I help you today?”

“This is my brother Derek, his eyes...well I guess it’s just easier to show you.”
Derek opened his eyes and the glowing purple colour was evident.

“Ahh I see. Well I have good news and bad news. The bad news is there is nothing we can do to fix his condition. The good news is that his condition isn’t fatal at all. He should be able to have a normal life.” Dr. Deaton took another look at the clipboard in front of him and saw that the man was a werewolf. “I see he’s a werewolf so one more thing to be cautious of.” Deaton Looked directly at Derek and said “Don’t ever call on your wolf from now on. He won’t listen to you anymore. Think of this as your wolf breaking it’s bond with you. It’s deemed you unworthy for whatever reason. If you try to call upon its power or transform, you may never get the chance to come back as he won’t let you transform back.”

“Wait, you're telling me I’m not a werewolf anymore?” Derek said in surprise.

“Well technically you still possess all the traits of a werewolf. For example you’ll heal faster, are still stronger, and faster. The only thing you can’t do is call on your wolf form. That could be dangerous. So technically you are a werewolf...just not completely. If that makes sense.”

“And why did it decide to break the bond?” Cora asked.

“Well usually, the bond takes years to break, it doesn’t happen overnight. Meaning there must be something that your brother has been doing for a really long time that the wolf simply didn’t like and today was the last straw.”

“And there is no way to reverse it?”

“Appease the wolf side. It’s happened before that the wolf will reform its bond with proper care and rebuilding of trust. But if I am being honest, you have less than a 1% chance. It’s very rare for the wolf to trust again once the bond is broken. From what we understand medically, the wolf makes the decision only if it’s 100% sure of it and knows it will not have any regrets. Moreso, the wolf rarely reforms the bond even after correcting the wrongdoing. So, truthfully, this is your new normal. I know it’s a bit of a shock, but all things considered you will be able to live just fine. You can use contacts to cover the purple eyes and it should be good to go.”

“So that’s it? There’s nothing I can do?” Derek said.

“Unfortunately you have done enough to break the bond, now it’s all up to your wolf side.” Deaton didn’t mean for the sentence to come out as aggressive as it sounded but Derek took it as such.

“Are you saying this is all my fault?”

Deaton stayed silent for a second before proceeding. “Yes...in fact it is. The wolf always has a good reason to break the bond. So I don’t know what it is you did but since your wolf has decided that you are unworthy of it, I am not going to sugarcoat it for you either...it was your fault, the faster you can come to terms with it the better chances you have of getting your wolf back.”

Derek thought the man would apologize instead he stood his ground and fought back and if he was being honest he was intimidated. Usually he wouldn’t be, but he could feel that his wolf wasn’t there anymore, like a part of him was missing...and it was the part of him that he relied on for strength. So he backed off, knowing very well that he couldn’t do much in the situation.

“Is there any other issue that needs to be looked at?” Deaton asked.

“No...that’s all.” Laura said as Derek stayed quiet.

“In that case, I’ll take my leave. The nurse will be in shortly and she’ll just have you fill up your exit form and then you can be on your way.” Deaton said and took his leave.

Just as Deaton had said, the nurse came in shortly after and had them fill out some papers and then led them out. They all drove home in silence which could only be described as “deafening”.

--- .back at the Hale home ---

Talia made her way to the room that John was currently in after seeing her children make their way out of the house. To be fully honest, she didn’t need them to go to the hospital. She knew exactly what had happened to Derek and what it meant. She knew that it wasn’t a dangerous thing and she knew that she would have to talk to him...but she was about to lose all control of her anger and she’d rather not have her children witness it.. So, she sent them to a professional who could explain what happened.

The moment Talia walked into the room John tried to talk: “I seriously…”

“Save it John. There’s nothing you can say to make me believe you, not after what I just saw. Instead you’re going to listen to me now and listen carefully because I promise you what I am about to say is going to make your world collapse.” She paused, took a deep breath in before continuing. “Let’s recap what I saw from your memories. You became the local town drunkard and let your child grow up on his own. You continued to ignore him and he continued to look after you. You did the bare minimum to keep yourself alive and even less than the bare minimum to keep your son alive. Some random strange entity enters the town and takes your son. Which isn’t your fault, but you don’t even notice that he’s gone for five months! Then you have the gall to try and come up with excuses. You know what the worst part is John? No one knows if Stiles is alive anymore. You’re a police officer, you should know better than most, the chances of finding a lost person alive after three days are as little as zero. So, my question is: are you ready to blame yourself for the death of Stiles?” Talia knew it was a harsh question and that it was a question no parent could ever answer but it’s the question that the Sheriff desperately needed to hear.

The sheriff stood in silence and tears started to roll down his face. He knew he fucked up, he knew that he was in the wrong and nothing could be done to amend that. His knees gave up on him and he immediately fell to the ground on his knees. Barely even noticing the fall because his brain was too busy processing all the emotions.

Talia moved forward and bent down to get to the Sheriff’s eye level. “I almost feel sorry for you, but you aren’t the victim here! Stiles is! So clean up whatever this breakdown is, get a grip on yourself and help find Stiles. Maybe, just maybe we aren’t too late. Talia left out a crucial part of the information...the information that she had an inkling that Stiles was actually alive...the strange entity had said so. But had she told John that, it may not have had the same effect. So she deliberately left out some details...but it’s not like she’s 100% sure that Stiles is safe too, the creature could have lied to them. It could have been a trick for all she knows. So there was no point in saying that Stiles was okay, ‘cuz no one was 100% sure that, that was actually a fact.

Talia left the man to gather himself and give him time to process whatever it is that he was feeling. She went back to the living room and waited for her kids to come back. After a good while, they returned. She ignored everyone and went straight to Derek. “Derek, I know it’s not easy and that it will take time to readjust but it’s not the end of the world.” She said and hugged Derek while speaking.

“Mom...I can’t use my wolf anymore.”

“I know honey, I know. But that’s okay! You are more than just your wolf!” Talia said. She was comforting her son ‘cuz that’s what he needed the most right now. Later is when she will start to interrogate about what it was that caused the breaking of the bond. “Derek, go rest. Just take a few days off from school too and just process all of this.” Derek did as he was told and went to his room to just call it a day.

“Cora, can you stay here with me for a while.” Talia said.

The other two siblings made their way upstairs.

“Sure mom. What’s up?” Cora said, basically unphased from all of the events that had transpired today. She was very hard to shake or surprise. She seemed to take in information about her surroundings very well and was able to also ignore them too. Which meant that she got really good at not caring even if she should be caring.

“I would ask your brother but he’s going through his own problems right now, so I wanted to ask you. Do you know anything about Stiles that may help us? I mean, I know you guys aren’t in the same grade, so I don’t have high hopes but anything would help.” Talia said.

Cora thought for a while and organized all her thoughts. Truthfully speaking she noticed Stiles a handful of times. It was kind of hard not to when your face is basically purple from bruises or when someone yells his name across the hall to make fun of him. Everyone at least knew of Stiles, but not for good reasons. “Mom, he wasn’t really someone who was liked in school. A lot of the kids kind of treated him like a ragdoll, others kind of just ignored him. From what I know he was a kind of a lone-wolf kind of thing. Pretty sure he preferred it that way. Uhmmm actually no, now that I think about it there was that other person he used to hang out a lot with, but then stopped. Oh god, his name is on the tip of my tongue...McDonald’s? I don’t know something like that.”

“Do you mean McCall? Scott McCall?”

“YEAH! That’s the one. They used to hang out together all the time. He probably knows him best, He’s one of Derek’s friends too so maybe Derek might know something as well.”

“Okay, thanks Cora. And how are you doing with all of this?”

“To be honest, I don’t really know how to feel. I mean I wasn’t particularly close with Stiles so I’m not too affected and with Derek, I know that he’ll be alright so I guess I’m not too worried.”
“That’s my strong girl! Alright, go on then.” Talia said and saw her daughter head upstairs. She then took out her phone and called Melissa McCall from her contacts.

“Hey Talia, how can I help?”

“Hey Melissa, sorry for disturbing you, but is Scott there by any chance?”

“Yeah, he is. Is everything alright?”

“He's not in any kind of trouble or danger. I was wondering though, could I possibly come over and ask some questions?”

“Yeah I don’t see why not. What’s it about though?”

“It’s about Stiles.”

“Is something wrong with Stiles?”

“Stiles is missing Melissa...has been for five months.”

“No, that can’t be. Scott would surely have noticed and said something. Those two are like brothers.”

“I’m not sure what’s going on either, but it’s official. Stiles is missing and the more information we can get on him, the easier it will be to find him...or well that’s the hope. I mean considering the time line, it might already be too late, but we have to try. I have to try” Talia put the emphasis on “I”. As calm as she looked on the outside, on the inside she was going through her own turmoil.

"I understand. You can come anytime today, we should be home."

"Thanks so much Melissa."

Talia hung io the phone and started to make her way to the car and her brain had already started thinking about the past, about her old friend, about Claudia. Talia started remembering little details but the thing she could neve forget was how Claudia had saved her baby and noe she couldn’t help but feel responsible for all of this for some reason. She felt like she owed it to Claudia to at least try and help Stiles!

Talia and Claudia met at the hospital when they were getting checkups while pregnant. They became best friends very quickly and it was obvious that their friendship would last. Their pregnancies were only a few months apart but it was enough of a connection to bring the two together. Soon after, the two had become inseparable. And to Talia, Claudia was a saint who she could never repay. Talia's pregnancy had become complicated and the doctors told her to expect the worst for her delivery date. Claudia had told Talia that she could deliver the baby for her with a little bit of "magic" as Claudia had described it. Talia was desperate! The doctors were telling her that there was practically no way for her baby to survive and that it would take a miracle to save him. Claudia was offering just that, a miracle! She didn't elaborate too much on what the miracle would entail but Talia took her chances on Claudia because she had never felt as safe around anyone else before and Talia’s wolf had never been wrong before. And thanks to Claudia’s miracle, Talia was blessed with a beautiful boy, Derek. So when Claudia got sick and eventually passed away, Talia too felt the loss and started to distance herself from the family who were a constant reminder of her best friend, her miracle worker, Derek’s saviour! She went through her own process and now a part of her was starting to regret it! Her ignoring the family for her own selfish reasons are a part of the reason as to why things turned out the way they did.

As she arrived at the McCall's residence she snapped put of her thoughts and started to make her way up towards the front door. She rang the doorbell as soon as she reached it and not mich later the door opened with Melissa on the other side. "Scott, get down here, Ms. Hale is here to see you." Melissa said as she gestured for Talia to enter the house.

Both now standing at the living room entrance waited for Scott to make his way down.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Stiles is basically a part of this family and I would love to be able to help in any way possible."

" For now we lack information on his whereabouts, if you happen to know or find out anything that you think might be of help that would be good.” Talia said and as soon as she finished Scott had made his way down to where the two women were standing.

"Is someone missing, Ms. Hale?" Scott asked, inferring that, that's what the conversation was about from what he had overheard.

"Yes, actually there is...Stiles, he's been missing for 5 months.

Scott didn’t quite process what had just been said because to him it didn’t make any sense. There was no way Stiles was missing, ‘cuz if Stiles was missing he surely would have noticed. “Missing?” Scott said.

“Yes, no one has seen or heard from him in a while, so I was wondering when was the last time you saw or heard from him?”

“Just. yes…”Scott stopped to think about his answer. Out of habit he was about to say “yesterday” but after thinking about it he realized it wasn’t yesterday. He thought back to the last time he had seen his best friend… “about six...months ago.” Scott said.
“Six months! Scott, that can’t be right. You and Stiles have basically been attached to the hip. What do you mean you haven't seen him for six months...and why wouldn’t you say anything if you haven’t seen him?” Melissa asked, confused about the whole situation.

“Well, the timeline holds up. He’s been missing for about five months as we know. Scott, is there anything strange we should know? Anything relating to Stiles. Is there a reason why anyone would target him? Any reason why he would be taken?”

Melissa caught on quickly...she heard this a lot in the hospital. If it was a missing person because the kid had run away the questions were always along the lines of “any reason they might decide to run away?” but the question Talia just asked was “any reason for anyone to take him.” So this case just went from a missing person to an abduction. “Wait a minute...take? Do you mean to tell me you think he was abducted? Kidnapped?”

“Actually...yes. It doesn’t look like he ran away. In fact it looks like someone deliberately wanted him gone and targeted him specifically.” Talia responded, trying to keep her words vague.

“Wait, does this have anything to do with that strange creature roaming around?” Scott asked.

Talia was always amazed by the McCalls, as naive as they were, they were not as easily fooled. “Yes, we believe it might be.”

“In that case, I don’t know anything.” Scott quickly responded...a little too quickly. He didn’t quite think about what he had just said in the spur of the moment.

“In that case?...what’s that supposed to mean Scott?” Melissa asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Nothing…I just meant that I don’t know.” *LIE* His heartbeat gave him away.

“Scott McCall, you better tell Talia everything she needs to know. I don’t care if you think its important or not.”

Scott kept quiet for a moment and then sighed, knowing that he had basically cornered himself into this. “A bunch of kids at school would often make fun of him.” Scott said and then quickly added to it: “but none of them are stupid enough to actually kidnap him or anything. They were just harmless pranks.”

Scott looked at his mom and he could see the disgust in her eyes but he wasn’t quite sure why she was so mad. Talia was the first to speak.

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that from Cora. Something about the other kids making fun of him and basically excluding him.”

“Scott...when you say ‘they’...who are you talking about?” Melissa asked.

“Actually, yes, that's a good question. Maybe they know something.” Talia added.

“Well...technically speaking...everyone?” Scott whispered. He didn’t have to say it loudly though, everyone heard him.

“Everyone? You’re telling me that everyone was making fun of Stiles….wait a minute? Where were you during all of this?”

“I….I...I was just there. Mom, me and him lost touch after a while and then we just stopped talking except for a few times. I would invite him to go to parties with me that our friends held but he went once or twice but then stopped coming even though I invited him. And then at one point I stopped inviting him because I knew he’d say no to them for whatever reason. Then it was just a matter of time before we stopped talking completely.”

“You’re trying to tell me...that you invited Stiles to parties where only people that made fun of him would be, and you can’t seem to understand why he stopped coming to them? Scott McCall do you hear yourself talking?” Melissa said as angry as she could.

“Mom...I…”

“Stop talking! We will discuss this later. Right now tell her any student names that you can think of that were involved directly in the harming of Stiles...mental or physical.” Scott’s mom said with as much authority as she could muster up while angry. Scott stayed still and silent.Which only made Melissa angrier. “I swear to god Scott, you better start speaking, ‘cuz I have half the mind to just lose all my anger on you.”

Scott knew it was bad ‘cuz he’d seen his mom angry before but he’d never seen her pissed before. He started speaking immediately. “There’s umm.. Jackson.”

“FULL NAMES SCOTT… JACKSON WHO?” Melissa shouted.

“Jackson Whitmore!” Scott said with his heartbeat raising. Talia didn’t do anything except listen, it was not her palace to tell Melissa how to discipline her children and most of all, this seemed to be getting her information so she’ll take it.”

“Go on then!” Melissa encouraged Scott...encouraged was a nice way to put it, it was more of a threat.

“theres also Isaac Lahey and there's Boyd…" Talia started to sense a pattern. These were all names she was familiar with. "...umm theres Erica Reyes...Yeah those are the only people I can think of." Scott said.

Talia didn't even have to bother writing these names down. These were people she knew and could contact easily.

"Good, now go to your room until I calm down and I know what to do with you." Melissa said. Scott simply listened to his mother's command in fear of making the situation worse. As soon as he was gone they two women started speaking.

"I hope that this information was of help because Stiles is an amazing kid and I'm going to go and have a discussion with Scott about everything. If new information pops up i will let you know."

"Thank you so much Melissa, and I know this isn't an easy situation to be in as a parent. I hope that Scott realizes his mistake and from the sounds of it he wasn't involved so thats a good start."

"But he didn't help either, so he gets no credit in my books"

Talia nodded her head "well, i better get going. I will keep you updated on the case."

Melissa nodded and closed the door behind Talia as she exited and then quickly made her way to Scott's room. Ad soon as she got in, Scott had started speaking.

"Mom…" Scott was interrupted by his mom's voice. "I don't want to hear a single word until I ask you a question. Got it?"

He nodded his head in agreement.

"Did you ever make fun of Stiles?"

"No. Of course not mom!" His heart staying consistent.

Melissa, content with the answer, asked the next question. "Did you ever see first hand kids make fun of Stiles?"

"I mean.." he was again interrupted by his mom's voice. "These are yes and no questions."She said with a glare.

Scott thought for a few seconds and then answered: "yes. I did.".

"Did you ever do anything about it?"

"I…" Scott tried to say but his mom gave him the glare. He knew she wasn't looking for an explanation, just a yes or no. "No. I didn't."

"Did you ever make fun of him?"

"No! I would never. You know that mom!"

"I don't know Scoot, do I know that? Because the person in front of me is not who I thought you were. I thought you would help your friend not ignore him i thought you'd be understanding not a fucking coward Scott." She said, yelling the last part.

"Mom, I swear ill do better. Mom, I promise i can be better." Scott said, kind of starting to realize what he had done was wrong. He thought that as long as he wasn't the one personally doing it then it would be fine but he was starting to feel shit, now that someone had laid it out for him.

"It's a bit late now, don't you think? Stiles is missing and for all we know the worst could have happened. And if that is the case I seriously don't know what I'll do because Scott I don't think I could handle the guilt. Can you?"

Scott's eyes started to tear, starting to feel responsible for all his actions and the lack of them. Melissa could see that her point had gotten across, and if she was being fully honest, it didn’t bother her one bit that her son was feeling hurt. That’s the right response to have, and for his sake she hoped that Stiles would be found safely. She left the room with the boy tearing up and went down to see if she could help in any way.

Notes:

Now we just have one more Zodiac to go and then the real mess can get started....please keep in tune 'cuz the story is just about to pick up. In about 2 or 3 chapters expect a reunion of everyone and expect THINGS TO GO DOWN! YAYYYY!!! DRAMA... our favorite!

Chapter 23: Zodiac of Nature - Pisces

Notes:

Okay so I am a bit excited, because I have had this story in my head for a year now and I initially started this because I thought I would just write it for my own sake. But now, I have all of you, and you guys show me so much support and kindness! I really appreciate all of it! And I really hope you continue to like this! We are finally coming to some amazing parts! More will be explained in the next chapter...and omg I have already started working on it, and i feel like it will be as long as this one if not longer. LET THE EXCITEMENT BEGIN!

Once again, I hope you guys continue to show me support even though I know I have no schedule and have no consistency, lol! In my defense, that's like 99% of my personality.

Stiles woke up from a nap that he desperately needed but he still wasn’t feeling like himself. He felt broken, he felt like a part of him was gone. As he was thinking the door opened.

“The part you think you're missing...it’s a side effect of the tests. Your sanity is starting to unravel and it’s because the tests are making you realize you aren’t who you thought you were.” The boy said.

Stiles looked at the boy...and it was obvious he was clearly younger than Stiles and Stiles’ brain couldn’t help but wonder who this boy was.

“I am Pisces and no Stiles, I’m not younger than you. I’m older than you by give or take a million years. What you’re seeing is the product of my curse. Debatably the worst curse between my siblings. Well, Libra definitely has it a bit worse, but I guess it’s perspective.”

“Your curse…” Stiles stuttered.
“I am the Zodiac of Nature...and what is more natural than the cycle of Life and Death. So my curse is to be constantly going through that cycle. In a way I am equilibrium...I keep balance...the hardest thing to accomplish in an ever changing world.”

“Ahhh...I see...and …” Before Stiles could even ask the question the boy had started answering.

“I can read your mind, that's how I know what you’re going to say. Well not read your mind but similar. Since everything is connected I simply just listen to the signs and it gives me a good idea of what’s going to happen next.”

“And…” again interrupted by the boy.

“Yes, and it works on everything. From inanimate objects to animate. If it’s connected to nature, I can listen in on it.”

“And…”

“Yes, that too.”

“Okay you gotta stop that! It’s so annoying.”

“You think that’s annoying? I have to live through everything twice. You think it’s a breeze knowing what will happen and not being able to change it. What a dumb human, only ever thinking about himself.”

"Wait so…"

"Yes, I can be potentially wrong. I never am, but since I'm only predicting, I could be."

"Earlier you said…"Stiles said, but then stopped midway assuming the boy would automatically finish the question on his own.

"I am not immortal but then again in human terms I might as well be. But good question! It's an important one...just keep in mind no Zodiac is inmortal. Having said that we have been here before humanity and will be here after it. But over the years our names have changed, our curses have changed, and most of all we have changed.”

Stiles looked at the boy, just thinking about what he wanted to say and this was his way of testing the limits of the boy’s power. It seemed that the boy could predict what happens next if he was given the first part of the sentences but what about if it was only thought in his own head...could the boy still figure it out? Stiles waited a good minute for the boy to pick up on the cue but there was no response. Instead Stiles started to speak: “When…”

“There is no given timeline for us like there is for Earth. It is true that we chose to align ourselves with Earth...for mere amusement I assure you. And it is true that the angels work tirelessly to help protect you all, only ‘cuz their god makes them. But regardless of that your end will come with time. Cosmically speaking, you don’t have much left but fret not, in Earth years, you have plenty of time left.”

Stiles had found one loophole in the boy’s power. It seems that he couldn’t predict something if the person doesn’t actually start the conversation. Which meant the thoughts are perfectly safe, he could think whatever he wanted. But he was curious about another thing…

“How does it work with…”

“Inanimate objects...well it’s a bit different but overall works the same. Other people or animals will eventually interact with the inanimate objects. I can pick up on those intentions and Bob’s your uncle.” Pisces said with a neutral tone.

“So for the rest of the time…”

“No, actually there is no rest of the time. Your test is about to begin in like 5 seconds. So just close your eyes and do your best, not that it matters.”

Stiles did as told, by now he knew better than to do anything else. He closed his eyes and after ten-ish seconds he opened them again.

When he opened his eyes, the environment was completely different. It was a jungle...but the land was rising ever so slowly...wait he thought and looked down. “The land isn’t rising...I’m sinking.” Stiles had been standing in quicksand. “I guess that’s my test.”

Stiles knew exactly how to get out quicksand….he learned it in science class. He followed the procedure and got out of the quicksand. He looked at the bottom half of his clothes and it was all dirty...understandably so. He was sure the test was to get out of the quicksand but he was still here so he guessed there was more to do. He decided to walk, and see what was around.

As he was walking...Stiles heard many jungle noises and each sound made him a bit more anxious. All the potential animals that could potentially eat him in this very opportune moment. Before Stiles knew it, the sounds were getting closer and closer. An elephant had come out of the brushes and made its way into the clearing in which Stiles was currently in.

Stiles started to sweat a bit, the worry was more about his current situation than anything but the whole situation wasn’t exactly in his favor. The elephant didn’t seem to be violent at all, and it didn’t seem like he was malnourished at all. Stiles was a bit perplexed but looking at the elephant with its long tusks, majestic grey toned skin and eyes as black as could be. With all of its glorious features, one drew attention the most, a large wound on it’s back leg. It definitely was recent, and it definitely was big enough to be a problem and from the looks of it, most definitely infected. It needed to be treated quickly, otherwise there wasn’t much that could be done to save the poor animal.

Stiles started to realize that he was in no threat from the animal, his thoughts interrupted by his eye level dropping again. “Oh...yeah, slowly dying…” Stiles thought about it and realized he didn’t need to get out of this test on his own. He had a new friend to rely on.

“Hey there, ol’ pal, ol’ buddy. So you see, I'm in a bit of a situation. I can technically get out of it on my own, but someone is stopping me.” Stiles said, pointing towards the sky and putting emphasis on the word ‘someone’.

The elephant tilted it’s head slightly, and just for a slight moment to Stiles the elephant was just like a puppy, a very big puppy. Knowing very well that his words were not so well received by the elephant, Stiles decided to try a different method. Stiles started gesturing, moving his arms to try and signal that he wanted to help the elephant and he hoped that his new buddy wouldn't try to trample him or anything similar.

The elephant had understood him the first time around and put it’s trunk out to help Stiles. Stiles started to smile, and just as everything was looking good, things started going downhill. Other animals had started entering the clearing from the brushes...and well these animals were clearly predators at their finest. From the looks of it, a wolf pack, a group of lionesses and... a platypus? Ok, so maybe not all of them were the finest examples of predators.

The elephant became distraught and retracted the trunk that it had so generously extended towards stiles.

“It’s like I move 1 step forward, and 15 steps back. God!” The predators seemed to ignore Stiles completely and focused their gaze onto the elephant. Stiles knew where this was heading, it wasn’t exactly a mystery considering the situation. Stiles knew that he could run right now and have a chance of living but the predators would definitely kill the elephant and is his life not worth more than the elephant’s? He debated through it in his head and no matter how he looked at it the answer was the same...run...it’s just that his body was telling him to stay.

The predators started moving towards the elephant and as they did so, the elephant limpidly moved back. Stiles shouted at the top of his lungs. “STOP!” He knew that using loud and aggressive tones towards predators wasn’t a smart choice, but when did he ever make the smart choice? The predators looked at Stiles with a look that Stiles could only describe with the sentence: “umm okay, well that was unnecessary.”

Stiles started speaking again, now that the predators’ eyes were on him. “You, no eat, elephant!” Stiles said babying his words as much as possible without losing the meaning in them. Then again, the point of doing so eluded him, it just seemed to be something his brain had immediately jumped to, for some reason assuming that simpler sentences would get across better than complicated ones. Not exactly faulty logic, but perhaps it would work better if he was communicating with...well not animals.

The animals ignored Stiles again and continued to move towards the elephant, ever so slowly cornering the animal. Stiles was panicking. He needed to appeal to the predators somehow, and it needed to be quick. Well, it was either that or fight them. He wasn’t so worried about the platypus but something told him the other animals wouldn’t be so easy to fight. The only weird part was why weren’t the predators interested in each other, Stiles started to think. It made no sense, biologically speaking predators don’t hunt the same prey and even if they do they always scare off the other predators if needed. This wasn’t adding up...why would...it hit him. “I am equilibrium...I keep balance.” It wasn’t a lot to go on but it was his only piece of information and if he was right then he knew what to do. Stiles stood still and just sat down a bit of deja vu hitting him. He had learned this lesson before; Stiles waited for the next part knowing very well it wasn’t going to be pretty.

The predators started to move faster and pounced on the elephant. Stiles saw the elephant get ripped apart piece by piece. The animals were savagely having their way with the elephant that was shrieking and yelling. Stiles could do nothing but just sit and listen. His eyes closed on their own and he turned his back to the elephant. Eventually the yells and shrieking stopped. He knew it was done. He turned around to see the predators all covered in red and wasted no time in moving towards Stiles. Stiles looked at them and said “Balance...it’s never really equal is it?”, smiling as the words left his mouth. The predators, not even bothering to listen, simply ravaged Stiles’ flesh. He felt every single tooth piercing his skin, he felt every single bite and he could feel his body giving up. He had lost all the power to yell, the pain left his body as fast as it came. He opened his eyes and the boy was standing right in front of him.

“You’re right! Balance is never equal! Balance does not mean one on one, it’s never that simple.” Pisces said.

“But that wasn’t your test.” Stiles said.

“No, no it wasn’t.”

“You wanted me to know how helpless I was.”

“Yes, Yes I did. But the sooner you realize that, the better because that is your fate. Helpless.”

“And if I…”

“Refusing your fate...you think you’d be the first to try? By all means, go try! But the world is a cruel mistress. Even we suffer under her, but yeah, I’m sure you’ll be different.”

“I..”

“Stiles, I hate to cut you short. But I’d rather not waste time. You passed my test! And normally I would congratulate you but you just made history! You are the first polydecan to pass all 12 tests. Not that we needed you to pass all 12 but this is even better than we expected. So I'd rather not waste time on talking. Instead we’re going to get started with what we had in plan, not that you have a choice.” Pisces waved his hand after his little monologue and everything changed around them.

The Zodiacs had gathered together and stood together.

“So, I guess it’s that time then.” Libra said.

“Yes it is, brother!” Aries added.

“What I’m more interested in, is why he’s here.” Gemini said, pointing at Apollo in the corner of the room.

Apollo looked at the rest of them and simply waved as he smiled.

“Good question...you never come to these. What’s so special about this time?” Aquarius asked.

“It’s Stiles...of course it’s special.”

“Bullshit!” Gemini added. "You know something we don't."

"If I tell you what I know, will it stop you from proceeding?"

The group unanimously said "no".

"Then I don't see why it matters if I know something or not." Apollo said. The zodiacs seemed like they weren’t satisfied with the response but then again he had a point.

Stiles was standing in a different room now...it was just as white but this one had markings on the floor. 12 lines in a circular manner, all connecting to him as he stood in the center of the room. The lines started to change...they were starting to light up, some faster than the others. The first line lit up and Aries appeared on the other end.

“Hello Stiles…”

“Aries...what’s happening? What is this?”

 

“The gifting process...bare with it!”

“I..” Before Stiles could even finish speaking Aries had started his own chanting and not soon after Stiles felt his body being overwhelmed. He could feel the power but it was so much, his body was feeling sharp pins and needles all over his body. It hurt...but it was manageable.

Shortly after the sensation stopped.

“That was… not that bad but definitely glad it’s over with.” Stiles said, breathing a bit heavily.

“That was just the first gift...you have 11 more to accept. Each gets worse and worse since it gets harder and harder to contain them.” Aries replied

“Then…”

“There isn’t enough time to explain, you simply accept them, Stiles. There is no other option.” Aries spoke, and as he had finished speaking he saw Taurus appear.

“Good to see you again Stiles” and just like that he had started chanting. In no time the pain was back, and just like Aries had warned, the pain was worse, way worse than the first time. It eventually stopped...after what had felt like a century. Not shortly after the next part started and it was back. At this point Stiles couldn’t even think, the pain was too strong, his body felt like it was ripping at the seams. Like his body just wanted to explode.

From there on it was just a barrage of power flooding his body and he felt every moment. He wanted it to stop...he was in tears, yelling but no one seemed to listen. After Taurus it was Gemini, then Cancer, Leo, Virgo. It didn’t stop there though all of them had their go...Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces too.

It all ended and in the end Stiles was left on the floor covered in his own drool and blood. His body was shaking...no it was whimpering.

“Brothers and Sisters, I fear the worst for our dear Stiles. It seems he may not have survived the process...mentally that is.” Scorpio said in a neutral tone, as if the misery of the man on the floor meant nothing to him.

The rest seemed a bit more hurt by the result for one reason or another but none as devastated as Aries. He ran to Stiles and started to check for signs of awakeness, for life...for any little piece of hope to hold onto.

Stiles’ body stopped whimpering all of the sudden and Aries was knocked flying back by a force that no one really saw but only knew it came from Stiles’ direction.

Stiles’ body started to stand up and he stood looking at the Zodiacs who had gathered themselves in front of him.

“Stiles…” Libra said slowly and interrogatively.

“No!” Stiles..or rather his body responded. “It amazes me that I am related to the 12 biggest fucking morons in the fucking universe. You absolute pieces of shits! The only one of you who has any fucking sense is Apollo there. You absolutely pathetic, incompetent excuses for celestial beings!”

All the zodiacs looked at the boy. It was evident that it wasn’t Stiles anymore but who!

“He’s the only one who actually freaking recognized me! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! YOU ALL MUST BE BRAIN DEAD! No, that’s an insult to them!”

The boy kept speaking but was then interrupted by Aries. “I don’t know who or what you are, but I swear to god if he’s hurt in any way, I will rip your soul piece by piece.”

“How freaking cute Aries, or should I say ‘brother’? If you think you can even lay a hand on me, then come and try. Let’s see who is stronger, shall we?”

Aries didn’t even hesitate at the invitation for a fight. He dashed forward and went in for a hit; to no avail though. He was quickly stopped and Stiles was now holding Aries by his throat, looked him in the eyes and said. “Brother, you may be the Zodiac of Chaos, but I am the Zodiac of Calamity.”

Chapter 24: Big Bad Alpha

Talia had just made her way back home and she was starting to feel the effects of exhaustion. It had been such an eventful day for everyone and now it seemed like there was way more work to do. The worst part was that there were dead ends everywhere. She decided to stick with the info she had and follow that path to the end before thinking about other options. She had to get the people that Scott had mentioned back here, which shouldn't be too hard, since she knew them all personally. She went upstairs and knocked on Derek's door. "Hey, can we talk?"

Derek didn't really respond but Talia could hear his heartbeat in the room. It sounded like a drumbeat and to Talia it meant that her baby boy was still healthy, and that's all she really needed to know. "Derek, I'm coming in." Talia said and then walked into Derek's room. She saw him in his bed, laying on his back with eyes wide open. In her eyes he looked like just a kid, her baby boy but anyone else could see the mountain of a man on the bed.

“Derek, I know this might not be the time, but I need you to tell all your friends to come over tomorrow in the morning before school. It’s about Stiles.”

Derek just looked at her and his heart rate just went up at the mention of Stiles’ name. Talia didn’t miss the increase in the heart rate.

“Derek everything okay?”

“No mom...everything’s not okay!” Derek said...suddenly starting to feel angry. “I’m going through something and the only thing you can think about is someone else’s kid? You didn’t even bother to come to the hospital with me. Instead you went looking for a kid that’s not even yours. I’M HERE MOM! STILES ISN’T.” Derek said.

Talia couldn’t believe what she was hearing...what was her son saying. He’s probably only lashing out because of all the bad news he got today, or at least that’s how she decided to rationalize it. “Derek, I know it’s not easy going through what you're going through right now, but you will be fine. There’s absolutely no danger to you as long as you don’t call on your wolf.”

“THAT’S NOT MY POINT MOM! I WAS SCARED, I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING! BUT THE WAY YOU KNEW IMMEDIATELY THAT I’D BE ALRIGHT TOLD ME THAT YOU KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO ME. AND WHAT DID YOU DO...HAND ME OFF TO SOMEONE ELSE TO DEAL WITH BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T BE BOTHERED! BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO BUSY DEALING WITH SOMEONE ELSE’ KID.” Derek said...he didn’t exactly know where all of this was coming from but his mind wasn’t exactly thinking things through before saying the stuff out loud.

Talia could sense where the hurt was coming from, her son was scared and she was preoccupied with other things and didn’t bother to help him. She knew it wasn’t a big problem but at the time he didn’t know that and it made sense that he would be scared. Who wouldn’t be if out of the blue they stopped feeling their wolf. Talia didn’t want to put aside her son’s feelings for the second time today so she tried to acknowledge him. “I’m so sorry for not paying more attention to you Derek. I was very mad earlier at the Sheriff because of something I saw in his memories and that’s no reason for me to have ignored you like that. I am so sorry Derek. I really am.”

Derek just looked at his mom. “This isn’t even the first time! Ever since I was a kid, it’s Stiles this, Stiles that. If it’s not talking about Stiles then it’s talking about his mom. ‘Oh Derek, look at Claudia, isn’t she just amazing. Look at Stiles, isn’t he just perfect, looks just like an angel.’” Derek said, mimicking his mom’s voice. He knew that he sounded immature and that he sounded like he was throwing a tantrum for no good reason, but he still couldn’t stop it all from coming out. “Do you know how many times you ignored me so that you could go hangout with her or her son. Do you know how many times it felt like you just didn’t care about me. Of course if i ever brought it up, i’d be the dumb one because how could I ever think that. I don’t know mom, maybe it’s because you’re never fucking around.”

Talia realized that the wound was clearly deeper than just skin. She listened to her son and each word hit her like a bullet laced with wolfsbane. She knew that her son was hurting and that these words shouldn’t be taken personally but she couldn’t help but do exactly that. There were no words she could say that could make the hurt go away and she knew that. “Derek, Claudia was my best friend and she’s the only reason why you’re alive today. I was thankful to her because she helped me have you even when the doctors said that your birth would be an impossible one. When everyone else told me to stop carrying you, she held my hand through it and found a solution. Whenever I needed someone to lean on, she was there. She was basically a sister. She saved both of our lives and I won’t apologize for talking about her or her family.”

“Mom, you’re not getting it! I don’t care if you talk about her, but can you at least pretend to care about your own family more than that freak Stiles’?”

Talia paused and now she was getting angry because she understood why Derek was angry and she wanted to validate his feelings but not at the cost of the Stilinski family’s name. “Derek, what did you just say?”

“I said, can you at least pretend to care about us!”

 

“No after that. The part where you insulted Stiles and his family.”

“Oh my god! SEE THIS! This is what I mean! Even now, you’re taking his side! What do you want me to do mom, apologize for calling him a freak?”

Talia had a gut feeling and her wolf was basically shouting for her to ask the question but she was too afraid to ask...she was afraid of the answer she might get. If it was this morning, she would have had full faith in her son, but seeing this new attitude, she’s not fully sure. “Derek...have you...bullied Stiles at school?” Talia asked.

Derek looked at her and closed his eyes while sighing. “Mom...I can’t stand the sight of him. Why would I willingly waste time on bullying him?”

Talia relaxed for a second and Derek started to speak again. “Plus I don’t really need to, the whole school already does it.”

There it was...she felt it. She felt herself lose a bit of faith in her son. “You knew he was getting bullied?”

“Who didn’t? Probably even Cora knows and she’s not even in our grade.” Derek said. He knew he was leaving out certain details but it wasn’t like he was telling lies. Talia on the other hand knew that her son was good at playing word games, he had been doing it ever since Peter had taught him how to manipulate words for selfish reasons of course. She took his word with a salt of grain. A thought popped into her head...the names. All the names that Scott had said, they were all Derek’s friends. Another pit of nervousness started in her stomach, why hadn’t it occurred to her earlier. Why didn’t it cross her mind till now that Derek...she didn’t even want to think about it. Maybe her brain was trying to protect her from the answer, did she already know the answer to what she was about to ask? “Derek...did you know….your friends...they…” Talia couldn’t finish the question before she caught onto Derek’s heartbeat starting to rise. It was an omen, and it was one that she wasn’t excited for. “Did you know that your friends were involved in bullying him?”

“Bullying him?” Derek said.

“Yes, bullying him!”

“Mom, talking about a person is considered bullying now?”

“It depends on what you were saying.”

“Jokes...it was all jokes. Why are you so obsessed with a dead man? God only if he had died sooner.”

Talia became livid, the conversation up until now had been judgement free because Derek was speaking about his feelings which she could understand. But this was just out of line and she was not having it. “DEREK HALE! YOU WILL WATCH YOUR MOUTH! I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOUR! NOT TOWARDS ANYONE DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” Talia bared her red eyes at Derek.

Derek felt it, he knew he had messed up. It wasn’t his smartest choice but he did it in the heat of the moment. It’s not like he really wanted Stiles dead, he just couldn’t care less about the kid. His whole life, his parents only talked about Stiles and his family. They did it enough that he got tired of it. Everytime he wanted to say something they would just ignore it and move on to another story about the great Claudia Stilinski. And now that he was thinking about it, his mother was always shutting people down before they got to say anything about what they really felt, and he had enough. “Great, there are the red eyes. Yeah mom, you can go ahead and force me into submission and stop me from talking so you don’t have to hear it. But sooner or later you’re going to have to.”

“Derek, I can’t force you to like people. I can’t force you to do anything. But if you are going to go around and wish death upon people then you can stay in this room until you are ready to be a decent fucking human being again. I don’t care how much you hated the family, I don’t care if it was personal or not, you don’t wish death on any one! That’s just common fucking manners!” The conversation was loud enough that the whole house was hearing it, then again in a house full of wolves not much went unheard. No one else dared to speak though, they stuck it out in their own respective rooms. Each letting the leader of the pack deal with it. They knew very well that Talia was a force to be reckoned with when she was mad, she was alpha for a good reason.

Derek and Talia just stared at each other for a while, neither willing to admit defeat. Now that he couldn't feel his wolf, he didn't feel the need to please his alpha or submit to her as strongly as he did before. Which might just be a pro in this situation for him.

Talia grew impatient waiting for her son to back off from this stare-off but it seemed as if that wasn't going to happen anytime soon so she decided to take matters into her own hand. "Tomorrow, gather all your friends here. I don't care about pre-existing plans or not. If they aren't here there will be big consequences. You will message that to your friends immediately. After you have done so you will not leave this room until you can tell me clearly what it is that you did was wrong, why it was wrong, and then apologize for doing it. If this seems unfair, tough break. If this comes across as authoritarian-like, tough break. If, and god Derek I really hope you don't fall under this category...if I find out you had something to do in Stiles' bullying in any way...I will personally make it my job to discipline you until you have gained SOME common sense back." Derek was frozen in place, something about the aura that his mom was giving off made him want to stay in place. It was definitely a scary aura. He listened to her words and did so quietly, afraid of making even the slightest peep. He didn't need his wolf to know that this...this wasn't his mother anymore, it was the pack leader.

Talia finished her words with a tone that said it all..a tone that meant business. She started walking out the door and right before doing so, she turned and said to Derek, "if you think for a second that anyone in this house cares for you less than they do for Stiles, then you are an idiot. And if you think I care less about you than I care about Stiles, then you're a bigger idiot than I thought."

Derek waited for his mom to exit before he started to obey what he had been told to do. He messaged his group chat of friends, letting them know that they had all been 'summoned' for tomorrow morning and it was not optional. The message went unread for a while before one by one each member had liked it in acknowledgement that they'd be there. Derek quickly closed his door and went back to his bed. He didn't know how he could possibly tell his mom that he was sorry without faking it because he didn't feel sorry...not a single bit. Why should he? All he said were words, and they weren’t even directly said to the kid. Derek was left laying down on the bed for the rest of the day.

--- the next day ---

Derek was woken up by the sound of the alarm bell ringing and Derek was not looking forward to this. Derek got up and went downstairs, not bothering to change or freshen up. He didn’t find enough reason to. When he got downstairs he found his friends sitting in the living room and they were all staring at him. He raised his eyebrows, confused why they were all staring at him like that. Lydia was the first to signal with her arms, she pointed to her eyes.

Derek had completely forgotten...his eyes, they were purple. He didn’t really think about them, not like they were getting in his way or something. He just shook his shoulder and went closer to his friends. “Long story, I’ll explain later.” Derek whispered. And as if it was perfectly planned, his mother stepped right in.

“Good, now that we’re all here, let’s get started.” Talia said.

The group of kids simply listened as Talia spoke. “Now, recently we’ve found out that Stiles has gone missing. A fellow classmate of yours.”

Jackson’s heart started to spike. Taliah didn’t miss it, no one did.

“Before I continue, I’ll open the stage to anyone who wants to say anything before we start.” There was silence, no one really said anything so Talia continued speaking. “Alright then. It has been about 5 months since he was last seen and there has been no trace of him since then. It was strange to me that his car had also gone missing, so I asked the police to run his plate number. Luckily for us we found that the car had been impounded and currently at the local junk yard. They already got the car and are running a full inspection on it and doing any other forensics test that might help us figure out what happened. Results should be out shortly.``

Jackson’s heart started beating even faster, he started remembering all the gossip about how Stiles died in a car accident and if that was the case, it could have been ‘cuz he messed with the car.

Everyone was looking at Jackson now, his heart rate was abnormally high. “I didn’t know you cared so much about Stiles, Mr.Whitmore.” Talia said rhetorically.

Jackson tried his best to calm down but his heart wasn’t listening. Jackson did his best to respond normally, “It’s just very shocking is all.” *LIE* ….everyone could tell that it was clearly a lie. But Talia decided to ignore it and move on. She knew the truth would out itself in due time. “After some digging I was told that Stiles was getting bullied at school. Now, once again I’ll open the stage to anyone who wants to say anything before I continue, and this time, might be the last chance any of you get, so think hard.” Talia said and then paused to see if any of the kids wanted to speak up. They didn’t...it seemed that none of them had really understood the gravity of their situation. Stiles shrugged her shoulders. “Well many…”Claudia too was versed in the game of twisting words and she did it better than her brother Peter. One can become two and two can become many, in her world this wasn’t considered lying, it was considered making the prey feel cornered. “...many witnesses have said that they have seen you guys partake in activities that may have led to physical and or mental harm to Stiles.”

At the word of “witness” Scott’s heart started rising too. He knew, it was him, he was one of them.

“Now, before throwing judgement around, I want to get both sides of the story, so we will now be interviewing each one of you one by one to see what happened. I am saying this as the leader of the Hale pack, and legally speaking I can’t force you to, but not willing to cooperate is an answer in itself and prompts me to look harder. So, you guys decide amongst yourselves who will come first. I will be in that room there...it’s been soundproofed, so fret no. What is said to me will be 100% confidential unless it demands attention or affects someone’s safety. “ With that said, Talia made her way to the room located right across from the living room. It wasn’t too big, but big enough for two people to fit in. Talia used to use it as storage space but she had it cleaned out yesterday after she got the feeling that her son wasn’t being fully honest with her. So she cleared it out and soundproofed it and now she has an interrogation room.

The group just looked at each other…and Jackson was first to speak. “What the fuck? Stiles is missing and we’re being blamed for it?”

“No one is blaming you, but with that heartbeat you sure do look guilty.” Lydia pointed out.

“I can’t help it. She’s never been this scary before” *LIE* They all rolled their eyes at Jackson. “It’s not just me either. Scott’s heart is doing the same.” They all looked at Scott.

“I was one of the witnesses.” Scott said...he knew the truth would come out sooner or later and he’d rather get it out of the way. They all looked at him and once again Jackson took initiative to speak first. “YOU RATTED US OUT?”

“No...yes...I mean I did. But I didn’t know this would happen. And I know none of us had anything to do with Stiles’ disappearance and I told her that too. SO let’s just answer her questions and get it over with.”

Scott’s heart started to calm down after having relieved his burden of bearing the truth. Jackson’s heartbeat on the other hand was climbing.

 

“You moron!” Jackson said.

“Why are you so freakin frantic all of the sudden? It’s not like you were involved in him disappearing so just answer her questions and you’ll be fine.”

Jackson’s heart was no better than before. Lydia decided to get it over with…”no point in dragging this out” she said and walked into the room. As soon as she walked in, she saw nothing special and took a seat in the chair that was clearly meant for her. She sat down and waited for her Alpha to start speaking.

Talia wasted no time…”What happened to the car?”

Lydia was confused, her eyebrow raised and forehead crumpled… “His car? How would I know anything about that?”

“Did you ever hit Stiles?”

“Not even once.”

“Did you make fun of Stiles?”

“Not even once.” Lydia said confidently.

Talia knew that Lydia was trying to make this as concise and easy as possible and that her answers weren’t trying to irritate her but to make this as quick as possible. “Did the others make fun of him?”

Lydia’s heart skipped a beat...it was enough of an answer for Talia. “That’s all Lydia, the next person can come in.”

One by one, they went in and the procedure repeated itself, eventually came Jackson’s turn. He walked in but his heartbeat was already beating fast. Talia already figured out what was happening. His body was betraying him more than any of his friends’. Talia started the questions, as she had with everyone else.

“What happened to the car?”

Jackson’s heart couldn’t beat any faster than it already was, Talia regardless got her answer from the skip of the heartbeat. Jackson stayed answerless.

“Did you ever hit Stiles?”

His heart skipped another beat.

“Did you make fun of Stiles?”

Talia was really good at detecting lies, but this boy wasn’t even making it hard. He had no control over his body’s reactions at all. “That’s all you can leave.” The boy came and left without even saying a single word.

After Jackson was Derek, him being the last one. Talia had already been through this, it was a mere formality. After Derek’s ‘questioning’ Talia walked out and showed them all her phone.
The phone had clearly a mail of sorts open but the font was too small to be legible. Everyone squint their eyes and tried to get a better look. Talia clearly saw the difficulty and decided to read it out loud

“Dear Talia Hale,
This is a message from the Beacon Hills Police Department. As requested a full forensic investigation was carried out on the vehicle with the licence plate: 60GM387. Also at your request we are now relaying this information to you via email. After a careful investigation it was found that the vehicle had been tampered with. The brake wiring was not fully intact; there is evidence of old wires as well as rusting. The old wiring and rust are unlikely to be the cause of the brakes being malfunctional. Due to this, further investigation was carried out and it was found that the wires were cut with a tool that can create non rigid endings. The lab infers that it is most likely scissors or pliers of some sort. The wiring was cut at a strange angle and from the location it indicates lack of technique/knowledge of cars. Because of this we conclude that it is highly probable that it is not from a mechanic of any kind, instead it is most likely a cause of tampering and intent of harm. Fingerprints were also found on the wires but it cannot be concluded if this person was the perpetrator but the chances are highly likely.

This information has been made public at your request but can not and should not be used as evidence for any reasons unless mandated by a court. It is also your right to get a copy of the full report, in which case you should file form 6a on our website: BHPD.com/forensincs/forms-applications/form6a/read?f=iKjrSRXsbUE.

 

Do not reply to this email.

Sincerely,
BHPD - Forensics Department”

Talia looked at them all and said “So, I don’t particularly know what happened and honestly before today I didn’t suspect any of you. But after all the answers I heard...and didn’t hear…” She said as she looked at Jackson specifically “... it’s clearly evident that there is something you all need to explain.”

“Wait...you can’t possibly think it was one of us who did that!” Derek said. “Mom, you must be out of your mind!”

“Don’t talk to me with that tone.We will get to you in a minute.” Talia said in Derek’s direction. “Anything you’d like to add mr. whitmore. Might I remind you there were fingerprints on the car’s wires.”

Jackson struggled to speak…“I...I didn’t think...I didn’t think this would happen.”

The rest of the group raised their eyes at what seemed to be a confession. “So, let me get this straight. You cut his brake wires and thought, hmmm yeah he’ll be alright. Nothing could possibly go wrong.” Talia mocked him.

“yes… I mean no...but I thought the biggest thing would be he crash into a tree.”

“And that somehow is better because?”

“I….I don’t know.”

“Well when you figure it out, you should let the court know. Because when Stiles, or Stiles’ body is found there will most likely be an investigation and you are looking most suspicious right now Mr. WHitmore. I highly encourage you to seek legal help from your parents. As for the rest of you, my wolf gave me the feeling that there was only one of you to blame. And although only one of you was involved in this specific accident, it seems there seems to be a history of bullying. Which brings me to your punishment; I will be letting all of your families know what has been happening which they will then handle themselves. However your punishment will be decided as a pack. If it were up to just me, the punishment for intent of harm and murder is no less than dismissal from the pack but then again it’s not up to me. You’re all dismissed.”

“But. Ms. Hale…” Lydia started but was shut down immediately by Talia: “I SAID DISMISSED!”

Derek knew his mom wasn’t kidding and the aura she was exuding was one of the scary ones. He decided to go with his friends and just avoid home for as long as he could. As he left, Derek’s sisters came down. “Is it true mom...is everything we heard actually true?” Laura asked.

“I’m afraid it is.”

“But why would Jackson try to kill Stiles. And why would Derek not do anything?”

“It seems Derek has his own stupid reasons but stupid or not it’s unacceptable to wish death upon anyone. That’s just common sense, or at least I hoped it was.”

 

“So, when will the pack meet? I have already called them beforehand. It will be tomorrow.”

 

“What happens if the pack asks them to be removed from the pack.” Cora asks.

“In that case they will be removed.”

“Even Derek?”

 

Talia sighed and took a deep breath in. “Yes, it seems even Derek.”

Derek and his friends decided to congregate together near the ravine located close to his house.

“I swear to god, if I ever see that freak again I’ll personally beat the shit out of him. Can’t believe we’re in this mess ‘cuz of him.” Jackson said.

Everyone looked at him…”You tried to kill him! What were you thinking?” Lydia said.

“I wasn’t trying to kill him, it was just a prank.”

“Well, clearly your prank did more harm than intended and for some reason I don’t think your statement of ‘it was a prank’ will hold up in court when your on trial for murder.” Lydia rebutted. THe group stayed silent.

“So, what do we do then?” Erica asked.

“Nothing...we wait for the pack’s decision. We will accept whatever punishment they give us because that will be the least amount of trouble for us. If we get removed from the pack then we won’t have to worry since we are all alphas and can create our own, or we can all make one together. But the best outcome for now is to just stay still and stay low.” Lydia said.

Derek agreed verbally and the rest followed.

“So, is Stiles dead? Like does anyone know?” Boyd asked.

“No, missing or taken by someone it seems.” Derek clarified.

“Then what the fuck was your mom saying about the car and death and all that.” Jackson said.

“There’s a chance that the car accident was a part of it...I don’t know all the details either. Honestly it’s just hearsay for now. But the point is, the freak is missing and the whole town will soon become aware of it. And we will be suspect number one even if we weren't involved. Hopefully the rest of the pack can see that we weren’t.”

“Wait are we just going to ignore the fact that Jackson tried to kill Stiles.” Scott said.

“Are we just going to ignore the fact that you fucking snitched on all of us.” Jackson refuted.

Everyone looked at Scott, and he started to get a bit angry. “HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY COMPARE THE TWO! AND HOLY SHIT I CAN’T BELIEVE ALL OF YOU THINK THIS IS JUST NOTHING! HE LITERALLY TOOK OUT THE CAR BRAKES! HE MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY DIED, YOU COULD BE IN PRISON RIGHT NOW! DO YOU KNOW THAT!”

“Shut up McCall. Now’s not the time for you to grow a conscience. Not after all this time. You’ve been watching us beat him up for years, and suddenly you’re worried for his health. Get off your high horse.”

“Holy shit… I… I can’t believe that I fucking… Holy shit, i’m an actual fucking moron. Like I actually thought you guys were decent people. I’m so fucking stupid. Allison… let’s go, we can’t be around this kind of behaviour anymore.”

Allison stood there and before Scott could speak again she said “We chose our friends and we can’t just abandon them when times get tough...oh wait...I guess that’s your signature move isn’t it? First you left Stiles, and now you want to leave this group? Scott, you can’t just keep leaving when times get tough, friendship is sticking it through the hard times and helping each other. Whether you like it or not. So i’m not going anywhere.

Scott stood there dumbfounded, he really wasn’t expecting that, especially from Allison.

---back at the Hale house---

“Talia we...we found another energy signature. It was so faint that is why it took us so long, but it’s human. Which means Stiles is most likely in the possession of the creature.” Abazcus said

“So what’s your game plan?”

“There is nothing we can do, we don’t know if they are even of this world let alone how we could get to them. It seems like our search ends here. We can’t fight that thing even if we wanted to. If we even try we’d be dead before we’d even get to move a muscle.”

“So then that’s that? We just give up on Stiles?” Talia asked.

“Alpha Hale, if you have a strategy then I am all ears but I fear we are out of options. It’s simply out of our hands.”

Talia sighed knowing very well that the man’s answer was a logical and reasonable one. She couldn’t just go declare war on a creature that was clearly capable of wiping them all out. Then there is the ‘ask nicely’ strategy which she doubts would work. So what could she possibly do? Nothing, like Abazcus said, it was out of her hands. Perhaps it was time to accept that Stiles was gone...forever...just as if he was dead. She simply just has to relay all of this information to the rest of the pack to prevent future nabbings of any kind.

A day had passed and it was finally the day of the pack meeting. Once again the pack had gathered at the Hale house and the mood was light as everyone was chit chatting. Derek and his friends were there too and this time Derek was smart enough to wear his contacts. As soon as Talia walked in, everyone could sense her aura, it was practically visible at this point. They all stopped talking and gave her their full attention.

“It seems I have a lot of bad news to relay today. I know it will feel very systematic coming from me but please any of those who feel highly affected, please make sure to seek help from a mental health professional if needed. Having said that, I must inform all of you that Stiles Stilinski, son of Jon and Claudia Stilinski has been missing for 5 months and we are unsure whether he is alive or not. It is suspected that the creature took him but it is not clear why. One more matter...it seems some of our kids have been involved in bullying, specifically bullying Stiles. It turns out most kids from Beacon Hills High were involved, I urge that you speak to your children about this. I bring this up because it seems that a few kids have been pointed out to be directly involved. This includes: Jackson Whitmore, Lydia Martin, Erica Reyes, Isaac Lahey, Vernon Boyd, Scott McCall, Allison Argent, and Derek Hale. Although bullying has not been specifically listed as against pack rules, they did physically harm a person who was of no threat to them, they instigated fights with another person, tormented them, and worst of all one of them had even tampered with Stiles’ car which could have caused a major accident. This can’t be taken lightly as it could have led to major damage to not just our pack’s reputation but more importantly it could have been the very reason that another person got injured if not worse.” Talia took a breath in… “In light of all of this, we as a pack must decide the punishment of these kids. If you are all looking to me for advice, I would say that we as the parents failed our kids and we are just as much at fault. Therefore punish them as you would punish yourselves.” Talia knew what this meant, she had said this specifically to make the kids’ punishment least harsh as possible because people hated blaming themselves and even more than that, people hated punishing themselves. She felt guilty doing this of course, but it was her son, if the pack decided to kick them out she would have no choice but to kick him out. So, for his sake, she was using her words wisely. A few hands went up in audience and Talia picked one out.

“Well if he’s missing because of the creature but not because of them, why do they even have to be punished?” Mrs. Whitmore asked.

“Well..” Before Talia could continue another person started speaking. “Yeah, I have never even heard of this person’s name before. How can we be even sure our kids were really involved?” Mrs. Martin asked.

Scott stepped up and started speaking, “because I was there, I saw them do it all and I didn’t help him. Not once. He was hurting because of me, because of us. We bullied him to the point where I think he stopped coming to classes, because now that I think about it, I didn’t really see him in any.”

“Okay, so we’re just supposed to take one person’s word for it? Also, if everyone in the school was involved, punishing only these kids would be unfair. Either punish them all or punish no one at all.” Mr. Whitmore added.

“As far as pack punishment goes, you can decide to not punish them, I will happily accept that. However, I have a legal obligation to report all evidence I have found to the sheriff’s office and they may launch an investigation. In which case there may be legal repercussions for the kids.”

“That’s acceptable for us!” Mr. Whitmore said.

“All those in favor, hands up?” And as soon as Talia had asked, many hands went up, any one could see without even counting that it was the majority. “Well, it seems that the majority have agreed to not punish the kids. In which case, the pack meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for coming out.”

The pack slowly started to leave the Hale house, and Derek’s friends went away too. After everyone was gone Derek tried to go back to things the way they were before the whole Sitles debacle. He waved his hand at Laura as he went upwards and he could swear he heard a scoff.

When he got up he saw his uncle, Peter, waiting for him. They had always been pretty close so Derek kind of felt close to him. “Hey there uncle Peter, what brings you by?”

“Your mother tells me you’ve been a big bad alpha recently.”

“I didn’t even do anything. I wasn’t involved in any way!”

“If your group of friends did it and you stood there, then you did it too. Now, this just says so much about your ability to be an alpha...in the sense that you aren’t ready to be one. Then again it seems like you won’t have to worry about being an Alpha any time soon by the judge of those beautiful purple eyes.”

“How can you tell?”

“Your contacts are not on right, they’re moving. Learn to put them on right at least. Oh and Derek, Stiles is dead.”

Chapter 25: Wrath of the Stars

Notes:

Been a long time no see...
Sorry for the long wait.
Here's an explanation for my flaky behaviour -
I got a bunch of comments and messages that prompted me to think about how I was planning to turn the relationship dynamics between Derek and Stiles considering their situation. For a long time I wasn't able to come up with a plot that made perfect sense and actually worked with the Sterek tag. Fortunately, I've found a way for it to work out after a lot of thinking. Unfortunately, there are some plot holes and even then it won't be fully satisfactory for a lot of people. Having said that, I'm going to go ahead with this because I really do think it will work.
So, hopefully you guys enjoy the story overall, even if you aren't a fan of the ending that I have planned.

And here is the plan: I will be trying to upload a chapter a week and come midterms/exam season it might be a bit delayed.

“What did you just say?” Gemini said, his voice clearly portraying all the anger that it could. “A Zodiac! If you think that you’re playing a joke right now, think again ‘cuz you’re one wrong move away from death.”

“I hate to interrupt, but the young master here isn’t lying. He is indeed a Zodiac.” Apollo said, clarifying a bit of everyones’ anger. “You see, the moment he walked into my room, I felt it, something was wrong. His soul...it had three pieces and after running an aura check, I knew immediately that a part of it was zodiac in nature. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was how. After throwing some radiation at him, I figured it out immediately. It was young master Ophiuchus.”

Everyone looked at Apollo, but not a single happy face to be seen in sight.

“I’ll repeat myself once again! If you think this is a joke then I will happily relieve you both from your lives.” Gemini added.

“Explain yourself!” Libra said.

Ophiuchus let go of Aries’ throat. “When I was dying, she was one of the bystanders. As the archangels were busy killing me she performed some kind of forbidden ritual and it allowed her to harbor my soul in hers. So all they did was kill my body. And we all know, zodiac’s can live without a body. That filthy wench put her dirty disgusting hands on my soul, just the thought of it makes me want to eradicate her whole species.”

“She partitioned her own soul?” Libra said already having a hunch on who this ‘she’ was.

“In essence, yes! But there’s more to it. Since I had just been born, I had not even been assigned my star cluster yet, hadn’t received my curse yet…”

“You were going to fade away.” Leo chimed in.

“Exactly. But she knew how to fix that too. She came to you. Hiding herself best that she could. Since my soul hadn’t fully developed I couldn’t use starlight to keep myself going. So she started to find any leftover zodiac energy from you guys to keep feeding me like her pet. Some days it was a buffet and others I went hungry for days. Eventually I started using sunlight and then life became easier for me since I didn’t have to take food from her filthy hands and then when I thought I had enough energy I tried to escape her fucking soul but to no avai...l I failed. She tried to overwhelm me with her freaking angel soul, and I wasn’t always as strong as I am today, so it worked.”

“That’s why she showed her powers… during the trials I mean. It must be why her soul shined through, she was trying to keep you in check.” Aries said.

“That makes enough sense. She may be a filthy angel but she was definitely cunning and smart. She would never be stupid enough to show herself otherwise. Regardless, it happened. Then the real problem began...the torture. You guys constantly torturing her meant she had to keep me sealed away while bearing the pain. She adapted to it though, she stopped healing her own wounds as much as she could and put that energy towards keeping me in check.”

“I have a question.” Virgo interjected.

“Sister, wait till the end.... After your torture came to an end, you had clipped her wings. She fell and now we had a new problem. Her soul started fading. And if her soul faded, mine would die with hers since it was connected. Days, months, and years passed before she figured out what she had to do. She needed a clean soul.”

“A clean soul...that just means she needed a human soul. There is nothing cleaner than that.” Libra said.

“Exactly, so she…”

“Stiles...but wait how did she make sure that her child would be a human?” Scorpio asked.

“She couldn’t. There’s no way to control that. Stiles wasn’t her first child. Over the years she had many children, she even tried to find humans. She tried all that she could but it wasn’t working, so she gave up. I decided to hibernate for a while because the less energy I used, the longer she could go on and as much as I hated it, we were stuck in this codependent state. Then she focused on raising her children. Each one thrived and thanks to her angelic soul they were blessed with one gift or another...but just as things were starting to be forgotten. She fell in love with a man, and had a child...a clean soul...a soul untouched by supernatural influences...she had a human child.”

“Stiles…” The zodiacs said in unison.

“Yes. She forced me out of hibernation and for the second time she did the unthinkable. She bound my soul to his. In the process she couldn’t stop muttering the same word over and over again; sorry. She kept on chanting it like I would ever forgive her for making me live in 2 prisons.

“Brother, I believe the apology was meant for Stiles, not you.” Aquarius said unwittingly.

“Why would she be sorry for him? This boy got the privilege of having my soul, if anything he should be honored.”

Everyone looked at the boy in awe, how could he be this dense and arrogant they all thought.

“Why a clean soul?” Libra said.

“That’s simple.” Apollo said. “Clean souls are submissive in nature, they don’t fight for dominance. If she bound his soul to say a werewolf’s then there would be an internal struggle over which one should be expressed. But with a human soul, they can coexist.”

“Exactly. And then soon after she died, his life became absolutely miserable and I was stuck in this fucking prison unable to do anything except watch. IT WAS A LITERAL HELL.” Ophiuchus got mad. “Those puny earthlings put their hands on a vessel that had the blessing of having me in it. Brothers and Sisters mark my words, they will pay for all their actions, not one of them will come out unscathed. They dare touch me? They will all learn that I AM CALAMITY! I WILL RUIN THEM! ALL THOSE WHO DARE OPPOSE ME, I WILL KILL THEM ALL.”

The zodiacs all saw their youngest brother's aura...his real aura. It was incomprehensible, compared to them he was on a whole new level.

“As much as I hate this boy...harming him is harming me, using him is using me. Without him I am nothing, and I know this boy better than anyone else. He wouldn’t hurt any living thing unless he absolutely had to; but me on other hand, I’m much more volatile.” Ophiuchus paused before continuing again. “Now, I already know what your plan is for the angels. I could wipe them out in less than a second, but those peasant earthlings...I’m going to savor killing them.”

“Wait, your star cluster.” Gemini said.

“I never got it!” Ophiuchus said while laughing. “Isn’t it perfect! Nothing to bind my powers to, nothing to hold me back. Not like the rest of you, yielding your power to manifest as curses. Fear the unbound brothers.”

“The angels were right, weren’t they?” Gemini whispered.

Ophiuchus stared at Gemini and widened his eyes. “Brother if you don’t like me, that’s one thing but if you think I deserve to be put down like a mutt for simply wanting to exist as myself then you are no different to me than the angels. And I will wipe you out with them.” Ophiuchus turned his gaze to the rest of the zodiacs…“That goes to all of you...any of you who stand in my way will become the target of my wrath.”

“What of Stiles?” Aries asked.

“Fret not Aries. He’s alive, barely but alive. You all really did a number on him but if it weren't for him verging close to death as bad as this, I wouldn’t have been able to take over. So in a way, thank you. From the look of his soul, he’ll live but from now on I am the driver and he’ll just have to sit on the passenger side for a while.” Ophiuchus laughed as he said the last part.

“I don’t get it...Why all the hiding? Why did she not tell us you were alive from the start?” Virgo said.

“You essentially killed her while she was fighting your war, how would it look if she came to you with my soul attached to hers? ‘Cuz I know it would look a lot like soul eating. And then what would you have done? I mean let’s not pretend any of us are saints, you didn’t believe her when she told you she came to repent, why would you believe her if she told you this. She knew very well why it had to be a secret. Again you demonstrate perfectly why I think none of you are fit to be in charge.”

“Isn’t there a way to unmerge you two? There must be something!” Taurus wondered.

“Ahh that’s where I come in, I believe. Young master’s soul is indeed merged and I can unmerge them, but it will take time. I have everything I need to make the potion, but it has a rather long fermentation period. I will begin immediately.” Apollo said quickly.

“And when that happens, I will be my whole self again.”

“What will happen to Stiles?” Libra asked.

There was silence in the room.

Libra knew what it meant. “It’ll kill him…” he said out aloud.

“Are you all saying you’d rather have Stiles alive than me? Is that how this silence should be interpreted?” Ophiuchus asked and it was in a tone that the zodiac’s couldn’t ignore. Almost as if the alpha was talking to his betas.

“No, of course not brother.” The zodiacs all said.

“From now on, I will be in charge. Aries is no longer your leader. What I say goes! And first thing first, is me going to the land of Angels to see the looks on their faces as they see who has returned to wipe them out!”

Chapter 26: Curses and Curses

Notes:

New week, new chapter!

*Inside Stiles’ soul*
Stiles could feel himself fading away, he could feel himself losing control of his body. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like it should hurt a lot but it was quite the opposite; he felt a kind of peace that he wasn’t familiar with. He somehow felt relieved whether that was good or not he would leave that up for someone else to decide. Parts of him felt heavy and other parts were as light as a feather. His brain couldn’t make sense of any of it, it was a feeling unlike any other. Stiles slowly started to open his eyes and as he did, he saw nothing...complete blackness, void of any light. The longer he stared the more he thought the void was expanding or perhaps he was shrinking. Something was happening and he was not liking it, the calm feeling starting to fade.

A sudden wisp of light started to float around Stiles...as tiny as a seed. Stiles could swear it was speaking. Barely audible, Stiles tried his best to focus.

“Sorry….I’m so sorry. Sorry, I wish I could have been better, I wish it didn’t have to be like this but…I’m sorry.” Stiles heard...he recognized the voice immediately. In this entire universe, Stiles could forget everything and everyone but not that voice...not his mother’s voice.

“If you can hear this, then your body is no longer yours...and although I can’t be there for you my sweet baby, I can give you one last parting gift.” The wisp started growing bigger and bigger until it had enveloped all of Stiles inside of it. The color of the wisp was monotonously gray. Stiles felt the heaviness of the air around him and inside the wisp it was thick enough to force him to shut his eyes; even lifting his eyelids was hard, feeling almost like an impossible task.

As Stiles let the feeling of heaviness take over him, the voice spoke again “Use it to wake up…Wait for when he’s weakest...wait for him to be off guard and then take back what once was yours.” As the voice finished speaking, silence started to creep back in.

*Back to Ophiuchus’ point of view*

“Brothers and Sisters, prepare for war…actually prepare for genocide!”

“Ophiuchus, think this through!” Aries said.

“Thinking! Since when have you been big on thinking?”

“Since I massacred innocent people.”

“Spare me the morals. If you don’t want to join me then don’t. I don’t need you…” He looked at the others “...any of you! Just stay out of my way.”

“What if we don’t?” Libra said.

Ophiuchus tilted his head and squinted his eyes…”what am I missing?” He took a sniff of the air and suddenly his eyes widened. “Ahhh, you’re curse! Brother, let me help you with that.” Ophiuchus walked to Libra, touched his chest and suddenly there was dark mist oozing out of Libra’s entire body and it was making its way into Ophiuchus. It didn’t seem to faze him one bit as it did so. The rest of the Zodiacs were in awe.

“Isn’t that better?” He paused before grinning at the rest and asking “Anyone else want to threaten me with their curse? I’ll be more than happy to absolve you of your anchors.”

“You…” Aquarius stuttered.

“Calamity has arrived, sister! Embrace it or die!”

“Fine, we get it. You're strong, we aren’t. Have your war, kill your angels, make peace with whatever demon it is your fighting. But know this, you're not our brother. His soul was pure light, and I see no semblance of that in yours. So do what you want, but stop calling us brother and sister, it makes me sick to my stomach.” Aries said.

“Love has made you a fool, broth…Aries! But your honesty is admirable, so fine. Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. That goes for all of you!”

They all stayed silent and let their ‘brother’ go on his quest for revenge. As soon as he was gone, they started to commune again.

“This is getting out of hand. He wants genocide…” Taurus started but was interrupted.

“We too wanted genocide, did we not?” Scorpio questioned.

The rest stayed silent for a little while before starting again. “Fine, but how much do you want to bet he won't stop at the angels?” Libra said.

“And what do you propose we do? He literally took your curse, the strongest curse might I add, one that took 11 of us to subdue.” Capricorn interjected.

Silence again… “Stiles.”

The zodiacs looked back and they saw Apollo standing there. “Stiles is the answer.”

“Excuse me? That human?” Capricorn said.

“Yes. Like I said, three souls! Human and Zodiac make two.”

“Apollo, spit it out! For god's sake, this is not the time for your riddles.”
“Angel…his last part is angel. So, there is a chance that perhaps, if there’s enough energy in that part of his soul, he can take over again. It just has to be when Ophiuchus is at his weakest.”

“And when do you suppose that will be?” Virgo asked.

Apollo put his finger to his chin, eyes looked up, forehead crinkled, and head slightly tilted right. After a while he simply shrugged his shoulders…”Could be today, could be never!”

The rest looked at him in awe.

“So what…we just hope that Stiles does his thing?” Aries said. “And what if he gets hurt in the process?”

“For a bunch of people who were ready to make him a weapon, use him, and then throw him away, worrying about him shouldn’t be a top priority…leave it to him. He can handle it!” Apollo said with a smile as he skipped and hopped away as if there wasn’t a zodiac with unbound power with genocidal tendencies on the loose. Everyone else simply looked at him as if their pharmatician had gone absolutely crazy, crazier than normal that is.

Chapter 27: Easier Said Than Done

Notes:

Happy Valentines Day!!

Ophiuchus stood in front of the door that would lead him to enemy territory. The doors at the zodiac house were magical, allowing the person to go wherever they desire and the doors stay in the place they go to until the person comes back through the doors. Before opening the food he snapped his fingers and slowly blue armor started to appear over the lean body. “Not ideal, but this’ll do!”

He opened the door and saw the gleaming white light on the other side. He walked through and allowed himself to be transported to the land of the Angels. As he arrived, he found himself in the middle of a grassland. He looked around, seeing nothing in sight for miles. He jumped up, launching himself into the air and levitating there for a while as he looked around. Finally, he saw the large towers in the distance. He pointed his finger at the largest tower and pretended to aim for and shoot the tower. He waited a few seconds and smiled as the tower came down crumbling. He simply snapped his fingers and he was at the location of the tower. He arrived and saw the area was empty. But he could hear the sounds of the Angels. He started to shoot with his fingers randomly all around him. Finally stopping when he noticed there was no actual result.

“Welcome back sister! It’s been a while” a voice said.

Ophiuchus didn’t hesitate and shot directly in the direction from where the voice came.

“We have been preparing exactly for this day! The day when the treacherous angel returns possessed by the wicked zodiac.”

Ophiuchus looked around and still didn’t see anyone. “Show yourself and face your death! I’ll do the universe a favour and cleanse it of your presence.”

“We will happily show ourselves.” And just like that, there they were. All the angels! Ophiuchus could see them and again with hesitation he started shooting his finger gun at all of them. Damage was clearly being done to the surroundings but none to the angels. “WHY WON’T YOU JUST DIE!”

“Simple, you actually mean us no harm!”

“I can assure you that I really do wish you harm…to the point of death!”

The angel walked towards Ophiuchus and looked into the eyes of the boy in armor in front of him. “Yes, I’m sure you do…” Eyes lowering to the chest “... but he doesn’t.”

Ophiuchus tried punching the man but the punch stopped right before it made contact as the angel lifted his palm. The angel started speaking, “I’ve indulged you and your family enough. A bunch of idiots throwing a tantrum because forces larger than them decided he wasn’t meant for this world. Boo hoo!”

“JUST DIE!” Ophiuchus started shouting as he continued to try to punch the angel in front of him only to miss all of them.

“You’re playing dirty…using a human soul and body so that we can’t fight back. No worries, we have a solution for that too.” All the angels started screaming, but unlike other screams this one was harmonious. The screams were overwhelming, Ophiuchus was sure that if it was just one, he could handle it but with him surrounded he couldn’t do anything. How are they this strong, how is the man in front of him so calm he wondered.

*Stiles’ point of view*

Stiles could feel his body get lighter and lighter. Slowly his eyes started to open and his fingers twitched. The thick air he was surrounded by was no longer dense but he was still inside the large wisp, he could feel it. “Not yet…” he heard his mother’s voice say. Although he didn’t really do anything he could hear and feel all that was happening on the outside.

On the outside the angel had started to beat on Ophiuchus. “Oh come on, how is it that you morons never seem to learn! A war where you keep sending humans to us so that we can’t hurt them and yet they end up in your infirmaries. Did that never strike you as odd? Then again maybe I’m giving you all too much credit, zodiacs aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, are they?”
Ophiuchus wasn’t interested in all this talk but he felt helpless. He had only but just gained freedom from what felt like a prison and now he felt like he was right back there. His emotions started becoming unstable.

“It’s true that we can’t kill humans…under normal circumstances but let’s say they corner us or threaten us, you think we’d just lay down and die?” The angel said as he started to run the sharp end of a knife he pulled out of thin air along the length of Ophiuchus’ arm. Blood clearly started to drip out of the very neat line of cut.

“See, we’ve been holding back ‘cuz we knew you weren’t dead…I mean at first we really thought you were but then the world’s order kept tilting and getting out of whack. Well after that the only explanation was you weren’t dead. And well coincidentally one of our angels disappeared. Who would have thought that one of our very own would save the likes of you.”

“Save…” Ophiuchus said with all the energy he could muster up. It took a lot of energy for him to even say one word. Did these angels really need no time to breathe, how the hell were they singing this long?

“Why? Does death sound better?”

The angel lifted his hand and suddenly the other angels stopped the melodic singing. “Don’t get too excited, one wrong move from you and they start singing again. Then again, not like you can do any damage to us, only really to our city and that much is fixable.

“I’m unbound! How can you just ignore all my attacks! It doesn’t make any sense! I AM THE UNBOUND.”

“Hahahahaha! You’re an infant throwing a tantrum! Don’t get carried away just ‘cuz you have a bit of power! But if you’re so curious, it’s because the human inside of you is still blocking most of your power….You aren’t ‘The Unbound.’” The angel said that last part with a face that was clearly meant to be mocking Ophiuchus. “You’re brothers and sisters are bound to stars, literal cosmic stars…and each of them bound to multiple stars…you, you’re bound to a human! Of course you’re going to have more power than them but bound nonetheless.”

Ophiuchus stood silent for a second. “This…how’s any of this fair?”

“Fair…nothing in this universe is fair. Some are born with power, others born helpless. Some are made as angels, and others…well you. But if you want to talk about unfairness, then look no further than the poor boy you’ve possessed.”

Ophiuchus’ eyes crinkled. “How is any of this unfair for him? He gets my presence…my power which makes him stronger than he ever was! How is that unfair?”

“Because of you, our sister had to put a literal devil inside her own son’s soul. And let’s not forget why she had to do that...after all she died because of you. If that wasn’t enough you’re possessing him right now, taking over even when it’s not your body. Sounds like the short end of the stick if you ask me.”

“He’s a mere human! Who cares about him! He lives, what 60 years? 70 years? 80 years if he’s lucky?”

“Isn’t that even worse! You’re literally stealing away such precious time…so how about this? Let’s do the right thing. The way things were supposed to be! We can remove you from his body, and then restore balance in the world. Just like it’s supposed to be.”

“You’re asking me to roll over and die!”

“Well technically, I’m asking you to stay still and die. You won’t have to lift a finger.”

“No!”

The angel in front of him became serious again…”Very well, then let’s do it the hard way. I’ll rip you apart piece by piece.”

“You wouldn’t dare! You’d end up harming a precious human, not to mention your precious sister. Good guys are so predictable!”

The angel looked sinisterly at his knife…”Who said we were good?...We would do just about anything to keep the balance of this world. Sorry to disappoint but that includes killing our sister and a mere human.” Without any delay the other nagels started singing their melodious song and once again Ophiuchus was stuck in place..just like that he was stuck again…imprisoned. It seemed his entire life was just one jail after another. At this point it didn’t even phase him.

The angel took the knife, said a few words which weren’t quite audible and the blade suddenly had a glow to it. “This…will hurt!” He took the knife and stabbed it right into the chest of Ophiuchus and he couldn’t help but want to scream but his entire body was stuck in a stasis like state.

Inside, Stiles had heard the entire conversation, felt the cut, and now he was feeling the impalement of his chest with a dagger. But it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. No, that wasn’t it, it was hurting just felt like it was going somewhere else, not to him. He figured most of it was being felt by Ophiuchus.

The angel took the dagger out and without hesitation stabbed it right back! This time a clear black fluid oozed out of the wound instead of blood. “Ahhhh! That’s it! Bleed him out!”
Stiles felt this one, he felt like a part of him was dying. He was in so much pain it was overwhelming!

The angel took out his dagger and stabbed a different location, and continued poking holes all over. Each time Stiles feeling worse and worse; it became too much to handle. Stiles’ eyes started to glow a purple and just like that his mother’s voice was back “let it out my beautiful boy!” And that was all that Stiles needed! He let go of the last hold he had on his anger.

Stiles was back in control of his body, he looked around and spoke. His voice sounded deeper than it really was…much much deeper. “BALANCE, YOU SEEK BALANCE?”

Chapter 28: Angels, Zodiacs, Humans

“I have suffered at the hand of humans, zodiacs, and now angels. Balance! YOU WANT BALANCE? You speak of ideals that you can’t even keep! Ideals you can’t even protect! And then you have the audacity to decide who lives and dies. FINE! THEN I’LL DO THE SAME.”

Stiles started chanting words and little by little a circle of magic started appearing underneath him. He doesn’t know how he was doing it but his body just knew what to do. All the while he was fighting off Ophiuchus, who was trying to take over again.

*Inside Stiles’ Soul* - Stiles talking to Ophiuchus

“Let me handle this! Aren’t you tired of living in a prison? One after another, your entire life is a series of cages! Choose now, living like a caged rat, or let me help you out and free all of us!”

“How would you know what to do?”

“I don’t know, but my body just does! Trust me this once and you won’t regret it. Keep fighting me and I swear whatever power you think you have will disappear faster than you can blink.”

Ophiuchus thought it over…and he decided that the boy in front of him was not the same as the boy he knew. He decided to take his chances, nodded to him and said “Fine, what’s the worst that can happen anyways?”

Stiles continued his chanting and the circle around him got larger and larger as he continued his chanting until it got big enough to envelop the entire city around him.

The angels singing seemed to have no effect this time around, and the main angel seemed to be a bit scared from the looks of it. “Stiles…I know it’s you! Think this through! If you finish this incantation, you’ll kill all of us. Do you really want that on your hands?”

Stiles’ eyes still glowing, looked in the direction of the angel talking…paused and then continued the incantation.

“STILES STOP THIS MADNESS!” The angel was clearly losing control of the situation, the situation he once thought was fully managed.

Stiles ignored it ‘cuz something in his bones was telling him it would all be fine. It came to an eventual end and Stiles felt at ease but nothing really changed other than that.

The angel looked around and saw that the incantation came to an end and smiled. “I guess, it’s easier to kill you than Ophiuchus. So for the sake of everyone, just die you filthy abomination!” The angel said as he charged to stab Stiles.

Stiles was scared and he saw his life flash before his eyes and instinctively closed his eyes waiting for the dagger to make contact…but it never did. Stiles opened his eyes and saw a boy standing in front of him with the boy’s steel like palm blocking the way of the dagger. For some reason he knew exactly who it was… “Ophiuchus”

“I’ll say, having my own body does feel a lot better than possessing yours.” Ophiuchus said with a smile. The boy was no taller than Stiles himself but had more muscle. His eyes were black, hair matching, and the skin was white with clear blue veins visible on the skin that wasn't covered with armor that Stiles assumed the boy had conjured.

“Too soon my dude, way too soon.” Stiles said smiling. He knew very well that Ophiuchus had possessed him, but Stiles also heard the boy’s story and started to understand the reasoning behind the boy’s actions. Ophiuchus’ life was no easier than his own, Stiles felt alone and imprisoned in his own house, school, and town. Whereas Ophiuchus was imprisoned literally his entire life and never got to experience anything for himself simply because others had decided his fate! Stiles didn’t hate the kid as much as he thought he would, in fact he kinda connected with him. Although Stiles doesn’t agree with all the actions and the thoughts the boy had, Stiles couldn’t help but think if the angel’s prophecy would be just as true if they had left the boy alone. Would he be this bloodthirsty?

“Well, I got you out of my body, but any ideas on how we get out of this town?” Stiles said. “‘Cuz as much as I love it here, I don’t think the residents are that fond of us.”

Ophiuchus looked around, and pointed in the direction from which he came. “The door, it’s that way. We leave the way we came.”

Stiles nodded with agreement and not a moment after Ophiuchus had leaped into the air and went into the direction of the gate. Stiles stood in spot and wondered what had just happened. The angel in front of him started to charge again.

Stiles suddenly felt being flung up into the air and then heard a voice… “Sorry, forgot...you’re human! To be fair, you did just do magic earlier.” With Stiles in the arms of Ophiuchus, they flew in the direction of the gate, with the angels not too far behind them.

“It was my mother, she did the spell I think.” Stiles screamed over the rushing wind to try and get Ophiuchus to hear his words.

“Yeah, unless she has another spell on stopping the angels on our trail, I say we can discuss this later!” Ophiuchus pushed against the air one more time in hopes to gain more speed, and a loud boom could be heard as he did. He had hit peak speed but it wasn’t fast enough, the angels would definitely catch up at this pace. Stiles looked around and for some reason this felt like a test of the zodiacs for him. A tough situation, life and death stakes, and only a creative solution would get him out, the only question was how to go faster. Stiles thought back to any piece of knowledge that could help and as much as he hated it he knew what they had to do.

Stiles started to fidget with the armor on Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus himself looked at him weird. “Oh, I don’t know what signals you’ve been getting but…”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Your armor is slowing us down, you moron!”

Ophiuchus nodded. “Good idea!” With one hand Ophiuchus snapped his finger and suddenly his armor was gone…and his clothes…only leaving the underwear.

“Just the armor would have done!” Stiles felt cold all of the sudden! Stiles looked and saw that he was also in the exact same situation. “WHY AM I NAKED?”

“What? I just thought, the less weight the better!”

Stiles took a deep breath in and was waiting for this moment to be over.

They went slightly faster but the angels were still catching up. Stiles started thinking again and said to Ophiuchus “How did you get to the city so quickly when you got here? Didn’t it take you just like a second?”

Ophiuchus answered “I used wave teleportation. I shoot a wave, and the object it makes contact with I can teleport to it if I want.”

“Why aren’t we doing that now then?”

“Well, that’s kind of inhuman speed…I don’t know if your body could…”

 

“JUST DO IT FOR FUCK SAKE! NOW’S NOT THE TIME TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!”

Ophiuchus shot a wave at the door and as soon as it had made contact, he teleported to it, went into the door and closed it behind him. The door disappeared as he closed it. He put Stiles down and as they both looked up, they both saw the 12 zodiacs standing in front of them with eyes wide, jaws open, and weapons up.

Notes:

this chapter is a bit short, but next chapter coming in 2-3 days!

Chapter 29: Fading of Time

*Back in Beacon Hills*

The seniors at Beacon Hills High were finishing up exams and had started preparing for their graduation ceremony. Five months had passed since the pack meeting and most people if not everyone had forgotten about the whole thing surrounding Stiles. The town went on, just like any other day.

“Talia, is there any news?” John asked as he saw Talia walking towards the questioning room at the station.

“John, we’ve been over this a million times. Me and my search team have decided to stop looking. Whatever took Stiles is beyond our capabilities. Even if we find where he is, how do you suppose we get him back?”

John just stood there silent, with a tear forming. He started to speak again “but…but. He’s alive. I just know it.”

“That was never the problem. We can’t help him, that’s the problem!”

“Talia…he’s my son!”

“Exactly John! He’s your son! Where were you when he needed you? Where were you when he was being taken away? Where, John? WHERE?”

This time the tears weren’t just forming but rather a full on waterfall had started.

Talia let out a deep breath, “I know John, I know it’s not easy but the best you can do now is let go and live on. Do as you had before, forget or drown yourself in whiskey. Whatever works for you.” She said and then walked away. John left standing in tears.

Meanwhile at the Beacon Hills High -
“Alright class, settle down. We’ll do the attendance real quick and then get started on the exam in front of you.” She went down the list and then came Stiles’ name. At this point, the teacher’s wouldn’t even bother saying the name. She finished attendance and the students began doing the exam in front of them.

“God, that exam was brutal! How do they expect us to retain a year’s worth of knowledge? That’s some bullshit I tell you.” Isaac said. Lydia simply ignored the remark, knowing very well that the boy had only studied the day before for the exam. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

“So what’s the plan for the summer guys?” Jackson said and everyone looked at Derek after.

“I think we need to keep a low profile. I know we are out of the clear but It’s best if we just wait it out a bit longer just to be safe. So let’s not do anything big like a party. Let’s just hang out at someone’s house.”

 

“Well my house is always available,” Jackson volunteered.

They all nodded and decided to go to Jackson’s house. They made their way to his house and as soon as they got there they just hung out.

Eventually this had become a habit and it became their safe house, away from the rest of the town. A day became a week, and soon weeks had gone by. Graduation had come and gone.

They were fully fledged adults. They had all decided to go to the local university, with the exception of Lydia who had gone to study at Cambridge university in the U.K. In no time at all, 5 years had gone by and Lydia returned to her hometown to start her own local legal firm, competing against the expensive services offered by the Whitmore and Whitmore Consultancy.

Derek had started studying business but in the end he felt more comfortable working with cars and so took up the mechanic trade skill. Eventually opening up his own little mechanic shop.
Boyd followed Derek’s lead and worked with him in the shop.

Isaac was working in the local bookstore and the coffee shop near the retirement home. Erica worked with Isaac in both stores.

Jackson…Jackson had not taken up any occupation. He decided to rely on his parent’s money for the time being and would just spend most of his time at either Derek’s shop or at the Coffee shop.

Whereas Scott had started working as vet’s assistant and working towards his way to being an actual vet. Scott hadn’t talked much to the rest of the gang but as time went by ignoring each other had become simple nods as they crossed paths.

Another five years had passed and nothing had changed. All of them living their adult lives and having a routine life that screamed small town life.

On a Saturday evening that the whole group had decided to take off and meet up on, they were all relaxing and talking at the local Beacon Hills Trail Park. The summer breeze keeping them cool and the setting sun keeping them warm; a mixture of the perfect weather.

“So, we all agree to…” Derek was mid sentence as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and saw the caller ID was “Laura”. His sister hadn’t called him often after the pack meeting 10 years ago. In fact most of his family had started to avoid contact with him, worst of all was his mother who wouldn’t even bat an eye in his direction. Seeing that his sister was reaching out, he took the call immediately: “Laura…Hey, how are…”

“Derek…home…now!” She said and then hung up the phone.

“Ten years and still angry.” Derek sighed.

“Three angry words are still better than no words, right?” Isaac said.

 

“That’s three more than Boyd usually manages.” Jackson added and everyone laughed.

Lydia on the other hand could feel something was wrong and without even knowing it she let out a scream and she stopped it as fast as she could.
“Derek, go home now!” Lydia urged him.

Derek understood exactly what this meant; he had totally misunderstood the tone on the phone. It wasn’t anger, it was urgency. Derek got into his car and made his way to the Hale house. This specific trip felt like it was hours long, did he really live this far away, he thought.

As soon as he entered the house, he saw that his entire family was sitting in the living room with their hands all touching his mother.
“Mom, what's wrong?” Derek asked.

Cora spoke through her tears “It’s a curse. She’s been cursed.”

Chapter 30: Four Months Plenty

Stiles looked at the zodiacs in front of him and then at himself and then at Ophiuchus and understood the looks on their faces. “It’s not…I’m not…just someone snap their fingers and get me clothes please!”

Libra about to snap his fingers but was stopped by Aries. “I mean…it’s not that much a rush is it?”

Stiles looked at him with eyes arched. “Aries…clothes…now!” Aries smirked and snapped his fingers and Stiles was clothed again in an instant.

They all looked at the boy next to Stiles. Aquarius was the first to comment… “from aura alone, I can tell that’s Ophiuchus but why is it so much weaker than before. And the question remains, does he still want to kill everyone and everything?”

Stiles looked at the boy, and prompted him for an answer.

Ophiuchus looked at the rest of them. “That’s so two hours ago!” He said.

“What’s changed?” Capricorn said.

Ophiuchus, not wanting to admit that he simply wasn’t as strong as the angels, decided to play with his words a little. “You know..I thought about it and decided that who really cares, right?”

Stiles rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to correct the boy who looked about the same age as him.

“And..how did you get unattached from each other.” Libra said as he started to physically inspect the two.

Ophiuchus and Stiles looked at each other and then Apollo made his way through. He knocked on Stiles’ and Ophiuchus’ skull three times.

“OW! What was that for?” Stiles said and not much later he saw his and Ophiuchus’ chest start to glow.

“Seems the tether is still there. It’s…it’s become his anchor.” Apollo explained.

“His anchor?” Aquarius said laughing. “Does he look like a constellation to you? How could he be a zodiac’s anchor?”

“Well, that much I can’t explain but Stiles is in fact Ophiuchus’ anchor. Which also explains why Ophiuchus exudes a smaller aura than before and still carries no curse. He’s not bound to the world but to a human of the world.”

“I am way too tired for all of this! My body is hurting in literally every spot you could imagine because 12 morons decided to pump me full of cursed zodiac power, then another moron took over my body, went into the angel’s realm, declared war on them, and then started a whole race which could have spelled my death.” Stiles said in the most antagonizing tone.

They all looked at him with confusion.

“What I’m trying to say is, move, I’m going to sleep!” Stiles said as he motioned for them to separate like the red sea and simply walked to his room, now being able to navigate through the maze of a house that the Zodiac’s had built.

While Stiles slept the Zodiacs had gathered to have a discussion about what happens next.

“I’m going to start by saying, I’m not apologizing for my actions or my words. What I said and did, I meant. Having said that, my outlook has changed drastically.”

“Ophiuchus, we’re glad that you’re fine now. Even more, we’re happy that you get to live a life that you can have control over…” Virgo started but quickly stopped by Aquarius.

“Forget him, what do we do with Stiles? He has the power of 12 Zodiacs running through his veins. Not to mention he has a Zodiac bound to him which we do not fully understand the consequences of.”

“Way to ruin the sentiment sister” Virgo said sarcastically but quickly added: “It matters not what runs through his veins or what he is bound to. He’s human, he has limited arcane power as is so I imagine he dies from the toxicity of our power before he even gets to learn to control it.”

“Exactly sister, imagine the cataclysmic events he could cause. We designed him as a weapon…the ultimate weapon might I add. We need to dispose of him quickly!”

Aries’ eyebrows raise up after hearing that. “Dispose of him? He is not trash that you can just get rid of.”

“Could have fooled me.” Leo added sternly.

“Might I suggest…we train him.” Apollo said from the back of the room.

All the zodiac’s kind of startled and looked at the man.

“Give me four months with him. 120 days to be exact. Not only will he learn to control his power, he would dare not use it unless absolutely needed.”

“And you guarantee that.” Libra asked.

“A pharmatician’s promise!”

The Zodiac's looked at each other and Ophiuchus spoke first. “Well, if you kill him, then technically speaking I won’t be bound to anything and that really doesn’t sound good either, past events considered.”

They all agreed and Scorpio said, “Train him Apollo. Let’s reassess in four months”

With that the meeting was adjourned and they all made their way out of the room.

Chapter 31: 4 to 40

Stiles woke up feeling better than he had in a while. He dared not open his eyes 'cuz he was afraid of ruining this blissful and peaceful moment with reality. To no avail though his eyes were forced open by a pain radiating from his toes all the way to his upper thigh. He reflexively woke up to look at what was causing the pain but found nothing there. He continued to examine his leg and no matter how hard he tried, there was nothing there to see.

"It's kind of like phantom pain"

Stiles looked up to see Apollo standing there. "What?"

"The pain, it's not actually there but at the same time it is. So kind of like phantom pain. The only difference is your pain is telling you that your body is dying."

Stiles sighed, he knew waking up was a bad idea. "Do you want to explain more or are we going to just leave it at that?"

"Do the math. 12 zodiacs power crammed into a being that can't contain it. If that doesn't add up to death by arcane toxicity...well actually no ifs, it's definitely arcane toxicity."

"So I'm dying 'cuz I am too powerful?"

"Yeah in a way, you could say that."

Stiles chuckled, "gotta say that's a bit ironic. I mean I die when I'm weak and then when I finally get power I start to die 'cuz I'm too strong. I just can't seem to catch a break."

"Well the good news is I know how to train you so that you will be able to handle and control that power. Plus I have given the Zodiacs a timeline of 4 months. So like it or not we have to prepare you within that time or else I can't guarantee your safety. Do you understand?"

"I don't get a choice, do I?"

"No, not really."

Stiles started laughing as if he had gone fully mad and then slowly came to a full stop. "Okay, why the hell not?"

"Great. First things first, wear this." Apollo hands Stiles a ring.

"What for?"

"It'll block the pain. The pain will get stronger the more you use the magic and I don't need that hindering the training. So instead, we block all perception of pain."

Stiles looked at the ring and as he wore it he commented under his breath "Where was this when I was going through the trials, or when they decided to ram my ass full of arcane?"

Apollo clearly heard the comment, "it's not a toy. The ring comes with side effects as does all magic equipment. The only reason I'm allowing the use is because this time the price of the ring is way less than the pain you'll feel."

"What's the cost of using the ring?"

"It can be anything from as small as skin irritation to as big as organ failure. Really depends on how long you use it."

Stiles looked at the ring that he had put on, the ring that from the moment made contact with his finger had started to kill him ever so slowly.

"Don't worry, 4 months is barely anything. The worst that'll happen is probably nausea." After a quick pause Apollo started speaking again "Follow me, we're going to waste no more time standing here."

Stiles followed the man and in no time at all they were standing in front of a door that Stiles recalled from a conversation he had with one of the Zodiacs. "Is this that infamous time room thing?"

"Yes, yes it is. We are about to make our 4 months really count! 4 months out here is about to feel like 40 years. Do you understand?"

"I'M GOING TO BE SO FREAKING OLD!"

"Relax, you don't actually age in the room. Time is simply faster or slower and you'll experience it the same mentally. In other words your body will be moving as fast as the time is making it easier for us to cover more ground in a smaller amount of time without any of the actual physical effects of aging."

Stiles pretended that he understood exactly what was happening but if he was being fully honest it was about 50%. "Yeah, for sure. So do I just step in or..."

"Yes and once you enter, the instructions will be in front of you. Follow the instructions as closely as you can. Okay?"

"That sounds easy enough."

"Okay good." Apollo said as he pushed Stiles into the room. A mere moment had passed before Apollo got a strange feeling. "Feels like I forgot to tell him something." He thought about it, unsure of what exactly he had forgotten to mention. "Well if it was really important I'm sure I would have remembered." He said out loud and then walked away.

Stiles saw the room and it really wasn't much to see. There was a table right in front of him and he saw the note on it. Stiles picked up the note and started to read it. "Concentrate on feeling the arcane in your body, when you can do that try to manipulate it to move into your hands. Then focus on being able to use it like a gun. When you can manage to shoot this paper with an arcane bullet, your next instruction will pop up. Best of luck."

Stiles sat down on the bed in the room and tried to focus on the task he had been given. He tried for hours and hours but to no avail. He couldn't feel the power that's inside of him let alone manipulate it. He decided to take a break and leave the room...but he looked around and saw that there wasn't actually a door out.

--- back to Apollo ---
Apollo seemed to be working on some mechanical machine when suddenly he remembered "I forgot to tell him, once he goes in he'll be in there for the entire 4 months...well 40 years for him, or until he finishes all 70 tasks. Whatever comes first!" Apollo pondered on this thought for a second and no more than that. "Meh. He'll be fine. He has a bed, a bathroom and unlimited food supply. What else do you really need?"

--- back to Stiles ---

"I swear to god, I'm killing him when I get out of here."

Chapter 32: The three Rs

Stiles wandered in what seemed like a room but was now no better than a jail cell. He decided to make the best of the situation and do what he came here to do.

He sat down in his bed and tried to follow the instructions on the paper to see if he could feel the arcane flowing through him. After a million attempts and then some he still felt nothing. Humans generally have low potential when it comes to the arcane so it was no surprise and Stiles knew this very well. He knew that as a human omega this would be as hard as it gets.

"Even if I can't do it through talent, I can still brute force my way through.” He thought and got started on the task right away. After about a month of the given 40 years Stiles was able to fully feel the presence of the arcane but still had no control over it. It wasn’t until the six month mark that he could actually manipulate the arcane even the slightest and another six to be able to control it with a fluency that allowed him to target the arcane outwards. At this point, a whole year in the room, Stiles had passed his first task. As soon as he had ripped the paper to shreds with arcane the next task had appeared right in its place. Stiles picked up the task and started reading.

“Now that you can control your magic with some level of fluency, you need to learn that not all arcane is the same. You have 12 different arcanes in your body. Learn to identify the differences, the different feelings, the different powers, and the different implications each has. Each of the Zodiac’s arcane has its own strengths and weaknesses. Familiarize yourself with them. Then learn to only bring out one type of arcane out at a time. Imbue 12 different arcane, one by one, into this scroll to pass.

The task sounded hard to Stiles and he was not wrong. It took him twice the time it took for the first task to complete it. Just like that the next task had appeared…and soon Stiles completed that too. One after another Stiles was learning to do things with the arcane that he didn’t think possible. Time went by so much faster than he thought it would and in no time at all he was at the 30 years mark, having completed a total of 70 tasks within that time. When he finished the last task,a new scroll popped up.

“That’s it on my end. The door should open now.” and just like that there was a door making itself available for him to exit through. Stiles walked through and after what felt like a lifetime, he was seeing the Zodiac’s house again. Nothing had changed even after all these years, he thought. Then he realized that for them it had only been about 3 months, not 30 years. He continued walking, and found his way to Apollo’s room. He opened the door to the find the man working with some string. As soon as Stiles stepped in Apollo started speaking.

“You’re early.”

“Are you impressed?”

“Less impressed, more worried.”

“Why worried?”

“If you can learn full control in 30 years, that means you’re more of a monster than I gave you credit for.”

“Well, your training definitely made me stronger, so it’s all really your fault.”

“Less of this chit chat. Won’t you show me what you’ve learned?”

Stile smiled and with no other gestures being done the walls had started to spin rapidly clockwise and the floor spinning counterclockwise.

“That can’t be all of it.”

As the room kept spinning Stiles had made the room completely dark and had made an illusion of the solar system within the room.

“Cool trick. But come on, picture projection? You can do so much better.”

“This isn’t a picture. It’s live, this is the current solar system as of a minute ago.” With that said Stiles dropped all the magic he had running so the room came to a stop and the illusion disappeared. What was left was Apollo’s face in disbelief.

“You, how could you possibly know their locations?”

“I can feel it. I can feel all of the celestial objects. At first it was overwhelming but give it 15 years and you learn to tune things out when you want to.”

“That shouldn’t be possible! I didn’t teach you that.”

Stiles shrugged, “Well, I only followed your instructions so you’re the only person who could have taught it.”

Apollo, still unsure of how the boy had learned how to do that, was starting to get curious about what else had the boy learned unintentionally. However he wasted no time and told Stiles to visit the Zodiacs quickly and figure out what his next steps are. “Make your way to the others and talk about the next steps but Stiles, If they say they want to get rid of you then I want you to challenge them. That’ll give you a chance to become the leader if you wish to, I mean you might also die but by now you’re used to that. As the leader there is nothing they can do against you. However, if they still want to use you as a weapon against the angels or whoever, I want you to consider your options. You could be their weapon, challenge them, or you could also run...with the amount of power you possess now, you could easily outrun them. I’ll leave it up to you.”

Stiles nodded and made his way to the first Zodiac room in his way, Aries.

As he knocked on the door, the door opened kind of on its own. THe sight in front of him made Stiles blush, his cheeks feeling the immediate warmth the extra blood in his cheeks provided.

“STILES! YOU’RE BACK!” Aries shouted as he made a half leap from where he was standing towards Stiles. Stiles now completely enveloped by Aries’ arms and body.

“Uhm…it’s nice to…see. Actually, would you like to put on pants and a shirt maybe?”

Aries looked at Stiles and the redness on the boy’s face made him feel happy. Aries felt better about himself in a way that he hadn’t particularly felt before. “Why, I kind of like seeing you blush. Plus, you’re in my room, so my rules. In fact, I think that means you actually have to take some clothes off.” Aries said back.

Stiles wavered before he sighed and that was when clothes appeared on Aries. The clothes did very little to hide the muscles but at least all the private parts were covered.

“I’m counting this as sexual harassment!” Aries pouted.

“That’s a very concerning definition of the word. I highly recommend…” Stiles was interrupted before he could finish.

“Wait, you’re early. Don’t you have a whole month left?”

“I finished early.”

“You finished early! You say that so nonchalantly. You realize that very few can finish Apollo’s training sessions that easily. He’s a beast when it comes to creating a training plan.”

“Well, thanks to him, I am able to control the arcane well enough that it’s not killing me anymore…and while we’re on that topic we need to discuss what happens next. And by ‘we’ I mean all 13 of you plus me.”

Aries thought it over. “The others will all be back tomorrow, until then we could…you know…just hang out?” Aries did his best at sounding emotional, he wasn’t really the best at expressing himself unless it was sexually. Unfortunately Stiles was more than just a sexcapade for him.

“Aries…I feel like I owe it to you to let you know that…”
“You’re rejecting even the possibility of it? I mean come on, give me a chance. Really, what else do you have to do in the meantime? Give me just this one day? If you don’t like it, then great, I’ll leave it be. But I refuse to have regrets about not acting upon my desires.”

Stiles didn’t really understand what the muscular god saw in him. In Stiles’ eyes, Aries was on a different level, just walking next to Aries would make him invisible to people’s eyes. Stiles could only imagine what people would think if the two were dating. It simply didn’t make sense to Stiles, so he tried once again to refuse. “People like you and people like me aren’t a good match. It doesn’t make sense for us to be, so why force it?”

“People like me? What do you mean?”

“Look at yourself Aries and then look at me.”

Aries looked and he really couldn’t see what the boy was going on about.

“You’re hot okay! I’m not. Hot people like you will get bored really quickly or move onto the next thing. I can’t…” Stiles was interrupted.

“Oh…So just because I look a certain way must mean I act a certain way too. I guess, just because I come off across as sexual then I guess I must be a coneiving man slut who goes from person to person. And you know, what of it? What if I do like sex? Is that a crime? Just ‘cuz I like sex means I don’t know how to be loyal? Damn Stiles, say what you really think.”

“Aries, that’s not…” Again Stiles was interrupted as Aries’ magic pushed Stiles out of the room and the door closed violently in front of Stiles’ face. On the door a single note appeared, “NO ENTRY: STILES”. Stiles sighed and felt the guilt overcome. “Sweet bejesus, way to fuck that up Stiles”.

Stiles decided he needed to right this wrong because he realized that Aries was feeling something similar to what he had felt from others, being judged on appearance, being told no before even being given a chance, and most of all the disrespect without any basis. Stiles hadn’t really thought about a relationship, he never thought it would be a possibility for him but he wasn’t against the idea and Aries was a decent guy, so objectively it definitely made sense to give the man a try at the least. He made his way to his own room and did a little bit of prepping. After an hour or so he had everything ready to go so he sent a little magical card on its way to Aries’ room.

Aries saw the card enter through the tiny crack under the door and landed itself right on his lap. Aries opened it and saw the message, “Meet me in my room, 5 mins. MUST COME - Stiles''. A part of Aries wanted to not go so that he could really continue being angry but his body was already walking out the door as he was even having those thoughts. He found himself in front of Stiles’ room in no time and knocked without even thinking.

The door opened and the room was dark, lit only by the small star-like lights on the ceiling of the room. A table in the middle of the room with flowers in the center and plates set up. And Stiles standing next to a chair that he had pulled out, gesturing for Aries to take a seat.

“Stiles, what…”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dismissed your feelings like that especially since I know exactly what that feels like. I’m also sorry for comparing you and labeling you. I sincerely…”

“Forget that, are you taking me on a date right now?”

“Aries…I seriously need you to know that I don’t see you the way it came off earlier.”

“Stiles, I really appreciate that…but back to my earlier question. Is this a date?”

“Well, I’m willing to give this a chance but I’m going to be honest with you…I don’t know if we have a future or if we are a good match. I haven’t ever thought of you romantically. But like you said, it's worth giving it a shot.”

Aries only smiled and sat down in the chair in front of him. The conversation began and Stiles found himself talking about his training and about the difficulties he had to overcome. Aries found himself explaining what had transpired between the Zodiacs and the angels since they had last met. They kept talking and it started to feel more and more natural to both of them.

Chapter 33: New Beginnings and Old Endings

The Zodiacs had gathered the next day to discuss the matter on hand, that is what should happen to Stiles. The meeting for the first five minutes was silent, no one really knew what to say. Aquarius and Stiles’ eyes interlocked and the moment they did Aquarius knew that what Stiles was showing, this weird calm persona, it wasn’t complete. It seemed like it was missing something, what exactly, Aquarius wasn’t sure.

When the conversation started it was all in Altin [Zodiac] ‘cuz no one wanted Stiles to be a part of it.
Aquarius was the first to speak, “Is no one feeling his aura? It’s monstrous compared to before. Kill him before he becomes a threat to the equilibrium and balance of this world.”

Pisces started speaking next, “Sister, as far as balance goes, there is no threat here. I would know. He need not be contained or dealt with. Secondly, isn’t that exactly why we hated the angels?”

“I don’t care about this balance talk, he’s simply impudent, incompetent, intolerable, and insignificant. I say all things aside, he should be punished for disrespecting me. My curse was merely not enough!” Leo added.

“I didn’t know we were using pettiness as a reason to kill people.” Gemini snarked.

The arguments kept coming and there were some against Stiles and some for him. Either way, no one asked Stiles what he thought should happen instead they all left him out of the loop.

Stiles stood up and started speaking in Altin - “Edvure niem plis istem sugey nos?” [Does it not matter what I think?]

There was a slight pause, the group finally realizing that Stiles had understood everything they had said earlier.

“Pruvio esteb.” [You’re biased] Virgo added.

“Lubrio pruvio estem nos? [Are you all not biased?]

“Iggrum isbech trvuios angelica molos sulo ibtrem sivre sol med im tri sib tro esbriem-trepe eschem ploro.” [ The angels are hardly a priority anymore, we have our brother and so we don’t need a weapon.] Aries added

“I still vote for death,” Leo said in English.

Stiles sighed, he tried to avoid this but he was left with no other choice simply because he was getting tired of this back and forth. The only way to make them obey him now was if he was the leader. “Then how about this, I’ll challenge all of you. If even one of you can beat me then I’ll do what you want. No questions asked. However, if I win, then I get to lead from now on.”

Everyone sat quietly clearly taken back by the challenge and by the implication the results have.

“Stiles, you can’t possibly be serious. I mean, you’re strong but you can’t possibly take on all of us.” Aries said.

“Let me handle that. Just tell me what your verdict is. Will you accept it or not?”

“I mean, if he can beat the strongest of us, he need not fight all 12. And if he does prove victorious then he becomes the leader…I have no objections to this.” Gemini added trying to make the 12 vs 1 into a one on one.

One by one the others agreed, to which Leo smiled knowing very well that she would be the one fighting Stiles.

“Great, so which one of you am I fighting then?”

“That would be me!” Leo said with excitement.

“I thought it would be Aries, considering he’s the leader right now.”

“I don’t like the leadership role, but I am the strongest among my brothers and sisters.”

Ophiuchus grinned quietly, “were…were the strongest.” But he dared not say it louder because he really didn’t feel like fighting Stiles, so this worked out well for him.

“Great, works for me.” Stiles snapped and they were all in the trial room.

“First one to say mercy, loses.” Stiles stated

“I’ll kill you before you get the chance to say it.”

“Wow, you need some chill pills…and maybe some antipsychotics too.”

“Such insolence.”

“Hey, there’s no shame in taking meds. We all need them, some more than others.” a smile clearly making its appearance on Stiles’ face; a blatant taunt.

“Is this your idea of fighting?” Leo said clearly, getting angry.

“I mean, you're also just standing there, so why don’t you make the first move?” Stiles had practiced magic for years and he had learned two things about himself during all those years of practice. First was that he preferred a defensive style, reactive more than active was his motto when it came to fights. Second was that he was truly a monster, just like Aquarius had shown him. It took him a while to get a grip on it but even then he has his moments where he loses control of the part of him filled with anger and resentment.

Leo didn’t wait any more and merely rushed into Stiles with a sword that she had materialized from thin air. In a matter of a second Stiles was impaled completely with a sword that was as hot as the sun. Smell of burning flesh starting to fill the room, Leo spoke. “This is what you deserve!”

Stiles looked down at the sword impaling him and then back at Leo with a tiny grin. In that brief second Leo had realized that she fell for a trap. The look in Stiles’ eyes was like that of a predator who had cornered his prey. Before she could even move there was a dagger to her throat but it was from behind her. Stiles whispered so lightly that the contents of what he said reached only Leo’s ears. “One more movement, and I’ll slit your throat open here for all your brothers and sisters to see.” Leona still kept her calm, not showing any signs of fear. Stiles saw this and figured he knew why she was so calm. “Not scared? Is it ‘cuz you think I don’t know how to make a Zodiac bleed? 30 years of research gives you plenty of time to figure out lots of things.” The facade that Leo was showing started to fade and Stiles did not hesitate to pick up on that. “Hmph, that’s what I thought. Now make the decision, do you want to end this fight by being dead or by forfeiting?”

Leo thought it through, and as much as she hated it, she didn’t have a choice. “Mercy” Leo said out loud.

As soon as Stiles heard that, he lowered the weapon and the double image that was in front of Leo had disappeared. Stiles reigned in the murderous intent and repressed it, only showing the happy side of him again. The other Zodiacs were in awe of what had just happened, the fight lasted all of 2 minutes if that.

Stiles walked up to them after having left the room. “I know some of you may think that you could beat me, in that case I welcome you to challenge me. But I will say this, from now on, I will only accept challenges to the death. If you aren’t ready to bet your life on it then don’t bother coming to me. Having said that, I have no intention of killing anyone nor is it something I look forward to. In fact quite the opposite, I’d rather that we all get along, but I know that some of us have history for that all I can say is that we need to get over it. Second lastly, the war with the angels is officially over. It’s a pointless war now and not to mention one that is clearly wasting the resources of this great facility. Which brings me to my last point, from now on we will be acting as a consultancy of sorts. Whatever problem other people need solved we will do our best to solve if it’s in our power to do so. Any questions?”

Ophiuchus put his hand up and Stiles nodded. “What’s for lunch?” Stiles smiled and gestured for Ophiuchus to follow him. “I was thinking curly fries, it’s been 30 years since I had good food! Apollo’s only been feeding me healthy stuff! It was basically a form of torture I tell you.” He spoke as the two walked away.

“Did he…just…”Taurus started.

“Gemini, I think you have competition now…seems like he’s just as fake as you are.” Aquarius added.

“He’s not even trying to hide it, could hardly consider it being fake. More like being oblivious” Gemini said.

Chapter 34: Problematician

Notes:

two chapters in a day! I was feeling very creative this weekend hahahaha.

Unfortunately, I'm finishing up some school work before my holidays begin. Because of that I may not get a chance to post again for a while. Please subscribe, and hopefully I'll be back within the month with more updates <3.

Thank you for your support and I hope you continue to enjoy!

Stiles took it upon himself to announce to the angels that the zodiac’s would no longer be causing any problems for them. The angels took the message surprisingly well but stated that the prophecy still holds and that they had no choice but to hunt down Ophiuchus. Stiles simply smiled, “You don’t have to worry about that, I will take responsibility for him.”

The angel laughed. “A puny human…what makes you think you can take responsibility?”

Stiles’ eyes glowed and let his true aura envelop him, “Right now, between the angels and me, who do you think is more powerful?”

The angels in front of him all gasped, in fear of the aura they were witnessing. Stiles continued, “Feel happy that I am even allowing you to live. But like I said, I'll take responsibility for Ophiuchus.” Stiles took a step closer towards the angel so that they were face to face before he said “If you get involved I will personally wipe out your species. Is that understood?”

The angel had no choice but to nod in agreement ‘cuz the aura that the man was exuding was one that even all of the angels combined could not deal with.

Great, let’s consider this matter settled. With that said Stiles went back to the residence of the Zodiacs and ordered that they all convene once again. In less than an hour they were all present and in the meeting Stiles took the lead once again. “Like I mentioned earlier, we will be helping as many people as we can. We do this as part of our reparations because let’s face it the war that was started has harmed people, the environment, and the balance that we all rely on. To rectify as many wrongs as we can, we will pay the price. AND from now on we will all aim to help! Understood?”

They all agreed as none of them really had anything against this.

“On a related topic to the war. The angels have agreed to stop hunting down Ophiuchus and so the war has come to an end. Understood?”

Once again they all simply nodded.

“Great, you’re all caught up. Send out a universal message that there is an entity at the Zodiacs’ residence willing to solve any problem at all without any cost as long as it’s within our powers.”

Scorpio stood up to speak and Stiles gave his full attention. “Everyone? Isn’t that too much?”

“I meant it when I said, anyone.”

“I have no problem with that, but think about the workload, that’s not something 14 people can simply handle”

“That’s….actually a good point.”

“Okay, anyone that has a major problem. A problem on the scale of life and death.”

“That’s…horrible wording.”

Stiles sarcastically glared at Scorpio…”Do I look like a social director? A press manager? Or of the sorts? Everyone’s a critic these days, damn!”

Scorpio grinned at the clear sarcastic comment “Fret not, I’ll take care of it.”

“Okay, that takes care of all the business I had. Anyone want to add anything?”

No one said anything and with that the meeting came to an end.

In no time at all the word spread around the area just as Scorpio had promised and Stiles was getting problems to solve. He was taking care of issues that definitely needed attention, he helped revitalize environments, save species, break magical curses, help create rules and regulations to help keep balance in the world of the celestial beings. Eventually earning himself the name of “Problematician”. And in no time at all the word had even spread to Earth, where the people only knew him as the Problematician and nothing else. So Stiles started to help where it was okay to meddle, and what needed his attention. When it came to Earth, not everything was something that he could help with due to the laws of the celestial beings but where he could help he definitely worked his magic.

*Back in Beacon Hills*

“What do you mean cursed?” Derek asked

“She was working on a case and she went into a house that seemed normal but now it seems that a curse had been placed on it.” Abazcus said from the side.

Derek looked in his direction with anger, “Isn’t that your one and only job? To identify magical things? How did this manage to get past you?”

Abazcus managed to give the boy a scowl “I didn’t know we were playing the blame game. If that’s the case, ask her why she was in that house in the first place then.” Abazcus was a fully grown man who had gone to multiple battlefields, killed many foes, and had scars that only he could see but he still knew how to be childish.

Derek looked confused at the remark that a two year old would have replied with. What did Abazcus mean by that, he thought. Everyone was kind of glaring at Derek at this point. Derek looked around before speaking “Will someone tell me?”

Cora was the first to speak this time “Dumbass, she was out looking for a way to get back your eyes.”

Derek felt immediate horror; she was trying to get his eyes back and ended up getting cursed.
“I thought she didn’t…”

“Whatever you thought was wrong…plus that’s not what we need to focus on right now. The main focus is to keep the progression of the curse as slow as possible so that we can find a cure for it in the meantime.” Abazcus said.

“Okay, just tell us what we need to do Abby?” Cora spoke.

“From the looks of it the curse is blood deep, so we need a cold environment and the rest will all be magic based. I’ll get the barriers ready and put her into a magic induced coma. In the meantime Laura will be in charge of the pack. Are we all on the same page?” Abazcus said.

Everyone nodded in agreement and soon Talia’s room was as cold as it could be to help slow the progression of the curse. Abazcus had already induced the coma in Talia and was now bringing the comatose woman into the room to place her into the bed. After everything had been done, Abazcus called the pack doctor and had him come to assess the situation as well.

Deaton arrived on the scene soon after. He went straight up to Talia’s room and started doing his assessments. At the end of it he concluded the same as Abazcus and added that he would add an IV for her which he also did as soon as he got all his supplies.

“How long do you think she’ll have to be like this?” Laura asked.

“I wish I could say, but it depends on how fast we find the cure or find a way to break the curse really. With the current progression she can be stable for up to 3 or 4 years before the curse kicks in regardless of what we do. However worse comes to worse, it’ll be like this until the end.” Deaton said with clear sympathy in his voice.

Everyone was silent and all silently and unanimously agreed to start researching. However, days went by and nothing was found. A week later and no new clue about the information had been discovered by anyone. Soon the weeks had become months and almost two years had gone by and they had gotten no closer to solving the problem. Talia’s condition had been slowly deteriorating but she was still in a stable comatose state.

Abazcus had started to get desperate and started to resort to channels he would consider “unreliable” and would only use if all else had failed. Right now, “all else had failed” was the only way to describe the situation. Through the channels he learned about a celestial entity called “the problematican” who solved all life and death related problems. To Abazcus it seemed that this was a relatively new entity because there had been no previous information regarding them or perhaps an old entity rebranding themself. Either way Abazcus didn’t like the sound of putting all of his trust into someone he didn’t know anything about but it’s not like he had a lot of choices left. He decided to bring it up to the pack and get a majority decision before he did anything else.

As the pack gathered Laura as the acting pack leader got the attention of the pack before handing the speaking position over to Abazcus. He started to speak, “As everyone knows the situation regarding Talia has not gotten better even slightly. On the contrary it has gotten worse and each day it worsens. At this rate, I am not hopeful about the outcomes and I’m also sad to report that I have nothing left in my arsenal of weapons and tricks to help the current situation.”

Derek started to speak without any regard for the rules of speaking turns, “So what’s next then?”

“It’s a risk but I think we should consider help from outside the pack. And before we all outright say no. I want to mention that the help would be coming from a celestial being. There is a new celestial being that is offering to help anyone who has a life and death situation. Unfortunately this is our only remaining option. Of course, I would usually ask Talia and follow her wishes but given the circumstances that’s not possible. Which means that the decision falls on us as her pack. I urge that we all consider what we would want for ourselves, we would want people to try and save us and use whatever resources they had. So I urge you to consider this not as our last resort but as our potential saving grace.” With that said Abazcus stepped back and Laura took the lead again.

“All in agreement?”

Without hesitation the entire pack raised their hands. There was never any doubt in any of their minds that Talia would have done the same and went all out for them and had gone all out for them.

“That settles it then. Abazcus will make contact and we can hopefully finally end this chapter in our lives.” Laura added before the pack was adjourned and the Hale house was again empty.

Abazcus got started and reached out to the channel and asked the shady person on how to contact the entity. The informant told them the entire procedure and it sounded familiar to the procedure done when he had summoned the all-powerful entity years before when looking for Stiles but in his mind this made sense. At this point only powerful entities like that could be helpful. He did the procedure as told and was quickly transported to a hall that was enormous. He was no bigger than an ant in this room. At the end of the room there was a solid gold empty chair that was once again as massive as the room. It seemed like a chair meant for a giant and Abazcus could only imagine the creature that would take a seat in there. He looked around and noticed that the room was empty but in less then a minute the door on the right side of the room just behind the chair opened and through it walked out…a small very small person. The person kept walking to the chair and eventually took a seat on it. The person had a small hood on and a mask that was faceless, just a plain beige mask void of any features.

 

“I’m the problematican. What can I help with?” the person said to Abazcus.

Abazcus was in awe, not at all what he had expected. However the aura the being in front of him exuded was a testimony to the person’s power and he dared not challenge a being of such power. “Our pack leader has been cursed, and no matter how much we try it doesn’t seem to be getting better.”

“Pack name”

“We are the Hale pack.”

Stiles paused just for a brief moment before he took composure again. “Is the leader still Talia Hale?”

Abazcus shocked that the being even knew of their pack leader. “Yes, but currently the acting pack leader is her eldest daughter.”

“Alright, then they should be present too. I’ll make it so that Laura and Talia are present. Anyone else you want included in this procedure?”

“If possible could you include the entire direct family. I’m sure they would find it a great comfort.”

“I can”

“As you see fit.”

Stiles snapped his finger and the entire Hale family was present. They all were in awe just as Abazcus was earlier. Abazcus filled everyone in to help get everyone on the same page.

Stiles saw the man doing his best to fill the people in and appreciated the initiative that the man showed. Stiles on the other hand was taking in the new yet old faces. Seeing the familiar faces but aged really made him feel the nostalgia but didn’t let it phase him. Stiles still followed his own procedure though and kept his calm while doing so. “Before we begin, I will reiterate what’s happening here. Your pack leader, Talia Hale, has been cursed and through the best of your attempts have not been able to break it. You have contacted me to break the curse. Is that right?”

Everyone nodded.

Stiles, who to everyone else appeared as just a hooded figure with a mask that came across as ‘creepy’”, walked over to Talia and examined the curse and concluded the type of curse and best course of action. “The curse is a conditional curse.” Stiles said. What took Abazcus a month of rigorative testing to figure out took this strange being only a mere second of observation. “One, I could transfer the curse to one of you and you could meet the condition for her instead. Two, I could break the curse completely by sacrificing a part of your life span. Three, we leave it alone and let it run its course. The first option comes free of charge. The other two not so much.”

Everyone looked at each other, the second option of course sounding as the better option. “How much would it cost?” Abazcus asked.

“I regret to inform you, it’s not money that it’ll cost. For the second option like I said, I need life span to put into her as hers has been cursed to end early.” Stiles stated.

“How much of our lives?”

“The curse has about a year left remaining on it. Which means using Nagini’s Rule of curse tethering, it’ll take anywhere about 10 years or 11 years.”

“What is the condition of the curse if I may ask?” Abazcus said curiously.

“Good question. The condition is definitely one you’d probably want to avoid. Seems like the curse demands death of the curse bearer for breaking or entering a boundary they were not supposed to.”

The group of Hales started to talk amongst each other and all came to the conclusion that Abazcus would take the burden of the cost for breaking the curse. “I’ll take on the cost.”

“No, you will not.” Stiles said

“Why won’t I?” Abazcus replied.

“If it was that easy, everyone would be able to break curses easily. You need to find a life that matters as much as hers. Not more, not less. Unfortunately, you don’t even amount to a fraction of how important her life sums to be.”

Laura spoke, “Does any of ours?”.

Stiles knew from the beginning that it would come down to this and as much as he dreaded the name, he simply had to say it. “Only one person in this room meets the criteria…” Stiles pointed to the muscular man… “Derek Hale.”

“Oh hell nah! Him! You’re telling me that the guy who bullies people and hangs out with people who bully people, and attempt murder is the only person whose life is worth the same as my mom’s? The woman who risks her life for others? The same woman who spent all her life caring for others?” Cora said, going off at Stiles.

Stiles wasn’t aware that the actions of Derek and his pack had been put into the light of day for everyone to see. A part of him was happy but the other part, not so much. “It’s not for me to decide who is worth what. Some of you have potential much greater than that of your mothers. Some of you don’t measure up even an inch. Him, he measures almost perfectly. So either take it, or leave it. Those are your choices.” Stiles said and then walked back to his chair. As he sat down he started speaking again, “I’ll give you time to decide on the side. In the meantime I shall continue with my other work.” With a single snap, the whole pack was moved to the side of the room and right as they did, a bunch of strangers with small wings took their place.

Stiles saw the fae and greeted them. “Welcome, ignore the group to your right. They’re in the middle of making a difficult decision. How can I help you?”

The fae wasted no time, “Someone keeps destroying our circles, our way in and out of our homes. At first it seemed accidental, but now, now after months of repeated cases we believe there is someone out there hunting us down. Please, help us protect our home!”

Stiles took the request without even thinking about it, knowing very well what was happening to the Fae circles, as this was not the first time he was hearing of this. “There is no one out there hunting you. Your circles are on holy burial grounds. Change their location and you should be fine. Find a new place to settle.” Just like that, the matter was solved. As the Fae were removed from the room, a new bunch of strangers had made an appearance.

“Oh wise one, our planet is on course towards an entity that seeks to destroy us. Please aid us so that our young ones may live.”

“I can’t save your planet as all things have a beginning and end. Your planet is on its natural end! But as you said, I’ll aid so that you can live. There is a planet, not perfect for your species, but ideal enough that you can call it home. It is located 1600 light years from your planet.” Stiles snapped and started talking again. “It’s done. All your necessities and people have been moved. Go back to your people, and enjoy a new start. I shall warn you though, your species will last but only a few more centuries. At that point, there is nothing that I or anyone else could do to help you. Keep that in mind as you create a new world.” With that the strangers gone, once again.

The Hale pack saw this happen over and over again. People came in with requests and the entity completed it at no price. Of course some actions had costs but they were more like prices that needed to be paid as consequences not something he took for himself. Truly amazed by this entity’s power they knew, he was the real deal.

Abazcus already familiar with the fact that entity was no joke got the pack to focus again. “We need an answer. He won’t wait much longer.”

Derek responded. “I’ll do it. If it helps mom, of course I’ll do it.”

Cora hesitated but spoke nonetheless “Derek, think it through. 10 years is not a small amount of time.”

“Like you said, mom’s life is worth more.”

Hearing it back, Cora understood exactly how much it had hurt her brother. “That’s not what I…”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m doing it. What’s the other option? We let mom die? We let her suffer because she wanted to help me?”

Laura spoke this time, “She’s going to be so pissed when she wakes up and finds out what happened.”

Derek chuckled, “Yeah, no way she won’t yell. Her eyebrow will even do that thing where it goes in two different directions when she gets really mad.”

The siblings started to tear up as they laughed and knew exactly what the consensus was.

Chapter 35: Timeline Tracking

This is not a chapter - this is just for all of us to keep track of the timeline because I realized it’s getting complicated, so let’s see if we can try and work out where everyone is in Beacon Hills and in the realm of Zodiacs up until this point. O = Ophiuchus

 

Chapter 36: Color of Life

TRIGGER WARNING - PANIC ATTACK DESCRIPTION
TRIGGER WARNING - PTSD CONTENT
TRIGGER WARNING - ABUSE

Derek stepped forward and spoke to the entity in front of him: “I’m ready.”

Stiles admired the man’s courage and loyalty and yet still a part of him felt fearful ‘I guess old habits die hard” Stiles thought to himself. He knew very well that there was nothing to be afraid of because with his training and new found confidence there wasn’t much that could get in his way.

“So are we doing this?” Derek said.

Stiles snapped out of his thoughts and started to speak. “Very well, before we begin, I’m going to examine your soul to make sure that there aren’t any anomalies I need to worry about.”

Derek’s heart fluttered and Stiles saw Derek’s face change.

“What’s the matter?” Stiles asked.

“My wolf and I are not on agreeable terms. Will that be a problem?”

“Has your wolf severed the bond completely?”

Derek signed before answering “Yes…”

Stiles pondered on it for a second… “A minor inconvenience, very easily fixable once I talk to your wolf. Leave it to me.” Stiles had done many reconciliations for people whose wolves had severed the bond. Majority of the time it just takes a bit of listening. So he wasn’t too worried. Stiles pointed towards Derek and as he did he spoke again: “You’re about to see your wolf for maybe the first time in its soul form. Some find it emotional, others find it traumatic because it doesn’t always look like the wolf form that you are used to. Understood?”

Derek nodded and with that Stiles shot an arrow of light in the direction of Derek piercing him right through the center of his temple. Not long after smoke started to come out of the hole left behind by the arrow. The smoke started to gather and slowly established itself into the form of a wolf with the darkest hue of black that anyone had ever seen. Purple eyes that were undeniably gorgeous and most of all the sheer size of it was massive. Luckily the room they were in was gigantic because otherwise this would not have worked. Easily the size of a small house, the wolf stood proudly.

The Hale family looked shocked, while Derek was still trying to comprehend what he was seeing. Stiles on the other hand was unphased while he started to talk.

“Purple eyes huh?” Stile said to the wolf.

The wolf didn’t say anything but simply sniffed the air.

“No threats here, I just want to see if we could perhaps reconcile the issue between you two.”

The wolf howled and Stiles understood the meaning immediately. “I’m sure he has. But without him you also are not at your strongest.”

The wolf glared at Stiles “Woah, no need to get defensive. It’s just facts... How about this, you tell me how he betrayed your trust and power. And We can take it from there.”

The wolf growled slowly, almost a deep hum. Stiles taking his time to listen and the Hale family looking ever so confused. Stiles started to translate what the wolf was saying for the family: “He kept on watching someone get hurt and made fun of. Even though he had the power to stop it he never once stepped in. The breaking straw was when I realized that the person he let get tortured was his….” Stiles’ eyes widened, thankfully covered by the mask. He regained his composure and started to talk to the wolf again.

“What does he need to do in order to right his wrong?”

The wolf made a very simple demand. Stiles was rather shocked at how simple it was. “Consider it done.”

The wolf made his way towards Stiles and sniffed him one and Stiles knew that the wolf had figured out who he was. Thankfully none of the others could understand what the wolf was saying. The wolf simply sat down horizontally behind Stiles, looking like a guard dog straight out of hell.
Stiles spoke to Derek. “Your wolf wants you to feel the pain that the kid you bullied felt. Then and only then will he merge with you again.”

“How could I ever feel his pain?” Derek asked.

“Leave that to me.”

Derek couldn’t imagine how bad this ‘pain” could be. After all it was just words really. “Go for it.:
Stiles hesitated before doing the spell needed for this ‘cuz in all honesty he wouldn’t wish the pain he felt during those days on anyone. But it was to save Talia Hale, and she's innocent in all of this. Stiles quickly put the thoughts all in the back of his head and then conjured the spell towards Derek.

Derek felt a flash of heat and then it simmered down so he felt could handle this easily. Soon after his heart started pacing faster and it wasn’t long before the feeling of anxiety kicked in. Then not long after, he felt the panic attack. But it was over shortly and Derek started to feel that although it wasn't the best feeling; he could definitely handle more of that. Soon after, the same feelings kicked in repeatedly but each time it seemed to get worse and worse and no matter what Derek tried, nothing helped ease the anxiety or the pain. At one point the feeling was just always there. It felt like a constant stream of anxiety that he just couldn’t seem to shake and it was driving him crazy. He just wanted to scream at the top of his lungs but his body was also shaking to the point where that wasn’t going to happen.

Stiles saw the effects the pain was having so decided to cut the pain short. The amount Derek had felt was merely a fraction of it but enough to get the point across he thought. The large black shadow wolf behind Stiles snarked at Stiles and Stiles knew it was ‘cuz he cut the experience short. Stiles made a remark while rolling his eyes “as if he could handle it.”

Derek didn’t even hear what was happening, his heart was still taking its time slowing down and if he was being fully honest he could barely remember where he was let alone who or what his surroundings consisted of. As Derek started to calm down, his brain started to realize that the pain Stiles felt may actually have been something.

The rest of the Hale family stood on the side not really able to do much except watch the process of a mystical being talking to a shadow wolf that appeared out of their brother which somehow will help them with their cursed mom. A weird situation for all of them is the easiest way to describe it but hardly the most accurate.

“Is it over?” Derek asked

“Over for you, but I wonder how long it lasted for the poor boy you tormented.” Stiles said back, holding back the little crack in his voice because he would not let this break him.

Derek pondered on that for a second and decided to keep his mouth shut. This was not the place to be speaking back and frankly he didn’t really have anything to say anyways. He was truly starting to realize how wrong he was just after a mere 10 seconds in Stiles’ shoes.

Not long after the shadow wolf started to walk back towards Derek and as it got closer, the smoke started to make its way back into Derek’s body. As the shadow wolf disappeared completely, Derek’s eyes glowed red again.

“Alright, well that’s happy news but unfortunately must be followed by you giving up 10-ish years of your life.” Stiles said as he gestured with his hands to indicate he was approximating.

“Take it.”

Stiles began once again and this time the spell was a lot quicker and a lot less painful for Derek. Stiles could see however the loss in Derek’s lifespan and a part of him felt pity while the other part felt distraught. This didn’t feel like revenge, or it didn’t feel like he thought it would. Then again, he wasn’t doing it for revenge. Regardless, Stiles finished the spell and soon after Talia’s eyes were opening.

“I got cursed, didn’t I?” Talia asked groggily as she woke up. She looked around and the questions started to flood into her mind. As she was going to speak again, Derek came in front of her and flashed his red eyes to her. Without even saying a word, she hugged her son and said “I don’t know what happened, or how it happened but I’m glad you got your eyes back.”

“You…you got yourself cursed ‘cuz you were looking for a fix for my eyes….I thought…I thought you stopped caring about me a long time ago.”

“Derek, you’re my son. Why would I stop caring about you? I’ll never stop, no matter what!”

Derek’s eyes started to tear up but Talia wouldn’t let the tears shed longer than needed. She wiped her son’s face and tried to smoothly change the topic. “But wait… how did you break the curse? Also, where am I?”

That was Stiles’ cue to step in. “I think that’s where I come in.”

Talia looked backwards and saw the faceless entity. “And who are you?”

“The problematician. I solve problems that no one else can. Life and death kinda problems.

“You broke the curse?”

“I undid it, yes. But your son paid the price for it.”

“Price?” Talia asked.

“10 years of his life.”

Talia looked at Derek and now it seemed like it was her turn to shed tears. “Derek Hale, explain yourself.”

“Mom, it was either that or you, dead.”

“Me dead! It’s always kids first! ALWAYS! HOW DARE YOU THINK THAT I WOULD WANT YOU TO SACRIFICE 10 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE AWAY LIKE THAT FOR ME? HOW COULD YOU?” Talia asked angrily with her eyebrows going in opposite directions somehow.

And although she was angry, all her kids started laughing. “See, I told you this would happen.” Derek said, pointing towards Talia’s eyebrows.

Laura and Cora couldn’t help but join in on the laughter.

“It was a sacrifice that all of us were willing to make. I just happen to be the only compatible soul.” Derek said smilingly.

Stiles on the other hand was starting to feel like a third wheel. “Sooooo…you guys are kinda finished needing me. Which is kinda the cue for all of you to leave. I’m gonna count to 5 and then I'm gonna make y’all disappear.” With that, Stiles started counting down and right on one he spoke again “ Peace peopl-inskis”.

At the sound of that Talia’s head turned and her eyes widened as if she had figured something out. She had heard that phrase a million times before from young Stiles. It was something he would say because young Stiles believed that everyone was a part of the Stilinski family. But it all happened so quickly and within a flash she was somehow back in her home.

“Mom…what happened?” Cora asked.

“I think I just found Stiles.”

Chapter 37: Next Steps

Stiles started to walk out of the massive room as it hit him that he had just said “peoplinski” in front of Talia Hale. A woman who he remembers once solved a case with his dad simply because there was something weird about the smell at the crime scene. The same woman who remembers the birthdays of all her pack members. Stiles’ eyes widened because he would not even entertain the thought that there could be a possibility that Talia didn’t connect all the dots. In Stiles’ mind she already knew it was him. Stiles started planning what was next, because if Stiles knew anything about Talia Hale, it was that she would take action immediately and they would be back here in no time at all. So, Stiles formulated one of his devious plans to trick him, a plan that revolved around the youngest of the Zodiacs, Ophiuchus. Stiles made his way to Ophiuchus and explained exactly what needed to happen, not really asking the boy for his help rather demanding it. Ophiuchus didn’t really have anything better to do, his vendetta-days were cut short and life at the Zodiac manor was rather a bore so this was actually a blessing for the young Zodiac.

“Stiles, relax! I got it. How hard can it be?”

Stiles put his hands to Ophiuchus’ temples and said “If you fuck this up for me, I will lock you in a time room with no exit! Do you understand?”

“Geez okay, I got it. Just let me know when to start.”

— back in beacon hills —

“Mom, what do you mean you found Stiles”. Laura asked.

“We need to go back to that room. Take me back there now!”

Abazcus was the first to speak this time, “But why? We don’t need any help now!”

“If I’m right. Then that hooded figure was Stiles and if that’s the case then he’s alive.”

“Mom, I think the curse may have gotten to you. Think about it…Stiles is human. The entity we saw did magic.”

“Laura Hale! Have my instincts ever been wrong before?”

Laura pondered on the question and she couldn’t think of a single time when her mother’s instincts had led the astray. “Ugh, fine! We’ll go back!”

Abazcus didn’t really make any arguments against the plan, at worst they’ll just be sent out again by the entity. So he did the ritual and went back into the gigantic room again. Once they arrived, they saw the same hooded figure standing there, looking exactly like the one they had left but moments ago.

Ophiuchus was wearing the hood looking at the Hale family with Stiles’ voice in his head telling him to start the plan so Ophiuchus began the conversation as he was instructed by Stiles earlier. “Back so soon? Don’t tell me you want to sacrifice another 10 years of your life?” Stiles made Ophiuchus say this so that the Hales wouldn’t suspect it was a different person, rather the same entity who had helped them earlier.

Talia was the first to speak. “Take off your mask!”

Ophiuchus stared at Talia through the mask, and then grinned under the mask, deciding to go off script he teleported right in front of Talia Hale and spoke: “And who do you think you are to make demands of me?”
Stiles, viewing the room from outside, planted his face right into the wall and pretended to mash his head against it multiple times before starting to view again, unable to intervene,

“Stiles Stilinski, you take off that mask right this instant.”

“Stiles Stilinski?” Ophiuchus repeated “Now why does this name ring a bell? I know I've heard it somewhere….hmm perhaps could it be…the same person the wolf was talking about earlier? The same person that your son bullied?”

Talai Hale didn’t waver… “Take off your mask.”

Ophiuchus only went off script because he wanted to teach the Hales a lesson for what all of their ignorance had meant for Stiles’ life. “Alright, I’ll take it off. But you have to answer a question first.”

“Ask away!” Talia said.

“Do you ever regret having such a monster as your son?”

Talia’s confidence didn’t waver as she answered. “Stiles, I know you're mad and you are allowed to be. But please come back to your family, come back to your home.”

Derek standing in the back felt the question push a knife through his heart. He had started to just believe that his family didn’t hate him as much as he had thought but suddenly, with a single question all of that progress broke apart.

Ophiuchus took off the mask before speaking “I have many names and many faces. I am the broken, the unbound, the calamity…but what I am not is your precious Stiles Stilinski. Even from the glimpses I had of him I could feel the kindness, I could feel the warmth of his heart. He loved that town from what I could tell but it seemed the town did not love him so.”

Talia was shocked that the man underneath the mask wasn’t Stiles. She was so sure it was. “Earlier, why did you say ‘peoplinskis?”

“Think of it as a farewell gift from your dear friend Claudia.”

“How do you know Claudia?”

“Claudia and I go way back. Centuries actually.”

“Centuries?”

“Claudia was an angel, well she was an angel when we met. She was a fallen angel when you two met…did you think that regular magic could save your precious Derek at birth like she did? She sacrificed a part of her life to give to him.”

Talia hesitated again, all the pieces were clicking. All the answers made sense but still she had this gut feeling that something was wrong.

Ophiuchus saw the hesitation and he wanted to cause a bit more suffering but this time in Derek. So he moved towards him. “You know Talia, I could be Stiles if you’d like me to be. I mean it’s not that hard to pretend. What, I gotta be clumsy, annoying…oh can’t forget the most important part. Gotta be bullied.” He said the last part as he circled around Derek. “What do you say Derek? Feel like living good ol’ days? I could be your punching bag.”

Derek started to shiver as he felt the coldness of the man's touch. “That’s not who I am.”

As Ophiuchus came around he shapeshifted into an image of Stiles. “Are you sure? You may never get this offer again.”

Derek’s eyes glowed red at the mere sight of what looked like Stiles standing in front of him.

“Woah, easy there big boy. Don’t get too excited!”

Talia interrupted the man “I’m sorry! I thought you were him. I was wrong…We’ll take our leave now, so if you’d be so kind.” She said emotionlessly.

“You can’t just willy nilly come and leave. You come into my house, ask for my help…get it…at no cost may I add. Then leave my house only to return and say that I am someone else. Followed by pretending like you could order me around? Sure sounds like you thought this was your territory, Alpha Hale.” This time Ophiuchus let go of the restraints on his power while he was talking.

The whole room felt the pressure in the room change under the man’s power. They could all feel the weight of the power and it was heavy, heavy enough to make it hard for them to even move.

“Now, I don’t want to tell you how to live your life. But I highly recommend living it away from me. You’ve gotten the help you needed and although I’m generous….I’m not very forgiving. Understood?”

Talia felt the power dynamic change…no not change. She finally felt what the real power dynamic was. This wasn’t a place that she can just barge into and expect things to be done her way. She had gotten too comfortable, too confident. She stayed silent and Ophiuchus took that as his answer.

“Oh, as for Stiles. I know whether he’s alive or dead. I know exactly what happened to him after he was taken from your pathetic little town. “

Talia’s eyes widened in surprise. She tried to speak but the force of the man’s power was making it really difficult so it came out all slurred.

“Oh, now…it wouldn’t be fun if I just told you. It’ll be so much more fun watching you all try to figure it out. Have fun!” Ophiuchus snapped his fingers and then they were all gone.

Stiles barged in the moment the Hales were sent out. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? WE HAD A PLAN!”

Ophiuchus laughed “Your plan wouldn’t work in a thousand years. What? Tell them that Stiles died and they just take my word for it?”

“And your plan was to let them look for me?”

“Exactly, a lifetime of pointless searching. They’ll never find you as long as you live here. Especially now that they’re scared to come back here.”

Stiles hated that the boy was right. Plus not much could be done now…that was a lie. Stiles could go to Beacon Hills and wipe all of their memories and do it the way he originally planned. Or he could just erase himself from their lives. Honestly, a lot could be done but at this point he just wanted nothing more than to forget about it.

“So….curly fries?” Ophiuchus asked.

Stiles rolled his eyes before answering, “Of course!”

The two started walking out of the room and Ophiuchus started gossiping like a teenage girl about things that didn’t really matter. Stiles listening and giggling along.

Chapter 38: Celestials

Summary:

This chapter contains description of seizures...read with caution!

As the Hales were sent back to their house, Laura couldn’t help but look at her mom with a look that Talia responded to with “It was worth a shot!”.

“Mom, that….” she fumbled to come up with a word to describe the being she witnessed “...thing…could have killed us all with a blink of an eye and you somehow decided it was a good idea to make demands from him?” Laura very rarely spoke back to her mother, afterall… Talia wasn’t only her mother but also her pack leader so the natural instinct to speak back was very much repressed but this time her wolf and her were on the same page; so much so, that it needed to be said.

Talia understood where Laura was coming from, it could have gone very wrong and it’s very fortunate that it didn’t end up badly. Talia however still had to make sure it was clear that her doubts were still there. “But isn’t it odd…I mean he knew things about Stiles that I don’t think we ever told him. I guess Derek’s wolf could have told him but most of the conversation was translated for us and I don’t remember any of those details. I’m not saying he is Stiles but they at least know Stiles. Also Abazcus…think back to when we first tried to summon the entity all those years ago. The entity said that Stiles was thriving and doing well. Not to mention, this entity admitted they know Stiles’ whereabouts. Which makes me think there's more to the situation.”

The rest of the pack was shocked. Their pack leader had just walked them through her thinking and if they were being honest it actually made a lot of sense. Laura, although starting to be convinced, still raised the point: “Regardless, that was not the way to go about it. Mom, remember what you said to me all those years ago…’DON’T GET ON ANYONE’S BAD SIDE WHO EXUDES SO MUCH ENERGY THAT IT MAKES YOU WANT TO KNEEL.’ I think it’s time you also listened to those words because back there we were one mistake away from being wiped out.

Talia remembers the words well and somehow in the heat of the moment, in the excitement that she may have found Stiles, she lost her cool and forgot exactly who she was dealing with.

While the daughter-mother duo were having their open discussion. Derek’s heart was starting to pace faster and his red eyes were starting to glow. It only took a matter of seconds before it became so bad that he dropped to the ground and his body started seizing.

Everyone stopped talking and immediately kicked into action. This wasn’t their first time dealing with an emergency situation and they all knew their roles. Talia started to position Derek onto his side with his arm underneath his head. Laura made the call to Dr.Deaton. Cora got the first aid kit from the living room, and Abazcus started his soothing spells. It was amazing to see how quickly they sprung into action.

Derek’s seizure continued and even well after Deaton had arrived the seizure was going strong. Deaton was shocked to see Talia standing in front of him, as his last memory was of her in a coma. He put that on the backseat for now though, a patient needed his help.

“Deaton…what do we do?” Talia’s voice shakily asked.

Deaton took one look at the patient, realizing it was Derek and immediately understood after seeing that his eyes had returned back to their ruby red color. He knew that he could only treat the symptoms but nothing could be done long-term. He didn’t know how exactly to tell the rest of the pack but right now he could make the seizure go away. “Right now, it’s best if we just intervene with medicinal treatments. I’ll give him some lorazepam. It’s usually given to humans at a low dose to help stop seizures but because he’s a wolf I’m going to give him a much larger dose.” After struggling a bit, Deaton was able to give the injection and the effects were almost immediate for Derek. The Seizure stopped but Derek didn’t quite wake up. Instead he just fell asleep.

“Deaton, why isn’t he waking up?” Talia asked.

“He’s in the post-ictal state of a seizure. His body is a bit exhausted and so it’s taking a rest. Plus the medication I gave him is also helping his body relax a bit. Him being asleep is perfectly normal for now.”

“Okay…” Talia felt a bit better hearing that “...but why the seizure? Do you know?”

“Usually, I would need to do some imaging to get a better idea of what happened but because I can see Derek has gotten his red eyes back, I think I know what’s happening.”

The Hale packed looked at the physician for the answer but the doctor stood there clearly unsure of how to give the news but it had to be given so he started regardless of how hard it may hit.

“Sometimes when a bond is reforged after it’s broken there can be a few complications. One of those complications is that the wolf and the person now have 2 opposing identities and them trying to merge again is very hard on the brain but one overtakes the other to help ease the strain. This is called identity rejection. However in Derek’s case, neither identity wants to take the back seat. So both identities are fighting it out, which causes a lot of brain activity to surge spontaneously, leading to seizures. There’s nothing we can do to help the internal struggle that Derek feels, all that we can do is stop the physical seizures and prevent them, however the rest will still happen. Not to mention, the longer this happens the worse the symptoms will get.”

Talia felt that her situation seemed to never improve. Always out of the frying pan and into the fire. But before Talia could throw a pity party, Deaton asked a few questions,

“How did he get his eyes back?”

“Some entity helped him reconcile with his soul wolf.” Cora quickly answered in the hopes that any information could be of help.

Deaton was shocked at the reply. What kind of creature could force out a soul animal, talk to it, reason with it, and succeed at it. Naturally he was curious, “What entity?”

Abazcus stepped up and said “The Problematician, that’s what he goes by.”

Deaton had heard of the name through some of his sketchier friends but he didn’t put any merit to it. Afterall, it was all rumors. “Perhaps, they could…”

— back with Stiles and Ophiuchus —
As the two were giggling and gossiping it hit Stiles that he forgot to do something very important. He told Ophiuchus to hold on a minute and quickly vanished.

Stiles appeared in front of the Hales, again with his very creepy looking mask on. He seemed to have interrupted Deaton talking but he could care less to be honest. He looked around and saw Derek on the floor laying down.

“Oops, that’s on me! I’ll fix it though!” Stiles started chanting in Altin and then everyone saw Derek’s eyes open. Stiles quickly checked the man’s reflexes and found that it was now all normal. “Alright, that should fix it. Again, my bad!” With that done. He snapped his fingers and disappeared again.”

—- —-- —- — - – —-- — — – – —-- — — – - - – - — —--

“That man…he just…he just did celestial magic.” Deaton said in shock. He explained to the rest that it was believed that celestial magic was no longer found on Earth as celestial beings had stopped creating artifacts imbued with their powers. So, no one had access to that kind of power anymore unless they were a celestial.

Abazcus chimed in with his two cents. “That makes sense…that he’s a celestial, I mean. Because the things we saw him do were on a scale that I couldn't even imagine. He even broke the curse for us.”

Deaton was confused though. “Celestials don’t help Earth dwellers without a cost though. So what did he take?”

“Nothing…” Talia answered. “He helped, and that was it.”

Deaton was in shock. “Then he isn’t a celestial…it’s in their nature to pursue equilibrium. If you need something done, then a price must be paid.”

“Well, Derek did have to give up 10 years of his life, but it wasn’t like the entity took it for themselves. He used it to break the curse.” Abazcus added.

Deaton seemed so confused by all of this. If the information in front of him was correct, then celestial beings still meddled with Earth and if that’s true then the power from their actions must still be on Earth. Deaton started thinking back to many years ago, the pack had found an energy signature unlike any other and that’s when it hit him… “The celestials have Stiles…don’t they?”

Talia became happy that she wasn’t the only one who had come to that conclusion. “See! What’d I tell you?” She said as she looked at the rest of the pack, clearly behaving much younger than she actually was.

“But why would they need Stiles? Why would they need a human, of all beings?” Deaton asked.

Cora started speaking… “Humans are the purest form of life.”

 

Everyone looked at her. “What? We learned that in class.” Cora said back.

“Actually…that makes a lot of sense….I mean it’s only an assumption but I think it may just be right.”

Talia was the first to ask about the assumption.

“I don’t know all the information, just here and there…I’ve heard that there is a war going on with some celestial beings. The problem with the war is that celestial vs celestial…it may be never ending…Unless…they take the purest form of a soul they can find and mutate his soul such that it’s a beast beyond recognition with powers capable of the inimaginable…such as summoning a soul animal and talking with it as if it was nothing.”

Deaton wasn’t completely wrong, he had gotten certain details right…a great achievement for someone who was only working with one hundredth of the actual information.

“So, you’re saying…that thing we just saw…that was Stiles?” Laura asked, because her mother had not too long ago made the exact same conclusion.

Talia was still bathing in the feeling of how right she may have been.

“It’s a mere guess…but yes. I do think that we just met Stiles…or atleast a version of him.”

The conversation continued and Derek slowly started to wake up as hsi body broke down the drug. As he opened his eyes he saw everyone talking about Stiles and everytime Stiles’ name was thrown out into the conversation he felt a feeling he had never felt before. One that he couldn’t explain even if he wanted to. He decided to let it be, and kept listening in on the conversation…as soon he had heard that the celestial being they had met could have been Stiles and he felt conflicted right away at that thought. A part of him was attracted to the idea while another was repulsed…although he didn’t quite understand why he was attracted or repulsed. He just knew that this is what he felt at the moment.

As the conversation died down, everyone saw Derek waking up, and suddenly a new conversation had stirred up.

 

“Derek, how do you feel honey?” Talia asked/

“A bit drowsy…tired. What happened?”

“You had a seizure but then it got fixed…and I have a feeling it won’t happen again.” Deaton added.

Derek didn’t even want to ask what that was all about because he was too tired and frankly he had enough on his mind as it was.

A month had gone by and Derek had been getting closer with his family again. Everyone seemed to be talking to him more, calling him, checking up on him, and he felt like he had his family back.

Derek was on his way to a family dinner as he got a strange feeling in his stomach. He couldn’t describe what it exactly was, but for some reason it felt like an omen to him. As always, he decided to ignore it because life was going good for him again and he didn’t want to jinx it,

As he was going to the Hale house, he saw the Stilinski house in which only the Sheriff was living in now. Most of the town had labeled him as the worst father and not many people were actually talking to him. As he drove by the house, Derek saw through the window a very weird thing…he saw the outline of two people but couldn’t really make it out clearly. To his knowledge only his mother would visit to actually help out with whatever she could ‘cuz she felt bad for the man who had lost his wife and son. Derek rationalized that it was just his mother and decided to go and pick her up on the way as they would both end up going to the Hale house.

So he parked in the driveway, and knocked on the door but with the force of the knock the door had opened easily as if the door wasn’t even closed to begin with. Derek took one look at the lock and noticed that it was broken. He went in and immediately saw a man standing above the Sheriff with a sword that gleamed with a blinding light. As Derek threatened the man with his red eyes, the man smiled and glowed his eyes white, with which came out the pure heavenly white wings.

“That’s cute.”

Notes:

I know this is technically a spoiler...so don't read the rest of the note if you don't want to hahaha.

 

In the next chapter there will be a lot of action, and drama. ESPECIALLY RELATING TO THE WHOLE GANG, STILES, AND FINALLY THE ANGELS ARC WILL FINISH! <3 long time to get here but we did it!

Chapter 39: Return to Earth

Notes:

I made Claudia's maiden name Zadkiel. I couldn't find the cannon version so kinda just winged it.

Derek stood in awe of what he just had witnessed. His body started to shake a bit and his eyes’ red colour faded away on its own as fear took over.
“You’re…you’re an angel” Derek managed to say.

“Wow, figure that one out all on your own, buddy?” The angel responded and then looked directly at the Sheriff who had bruises and blood all over him. “Wait right here for me, would ya? I’ll take care of this quickly.”

The angel walked towards Derek and as he got closer Derek could feel the aura that was essentially choke holding him at this point and Derek couldn’t help but kneel as the man stood right over him. The angel lifted Derek’s chin so they could make eye-to-eye contact and the angel once again showed his heavenly white eyes to Derek. This time it was different though, Derek didn’t feel like it was to threaten him or to make him submit but rather felt more invasive.

“Oh…this is just perfect!” The angel said as he laughed. “Seems like, you’ll serve a use after all! Listen up you overgrown mutt; run to mommy and daddy and tell them what you saw here. Tell them, if they want any chance of keeping their land habitable that they better get the problematican down here.”

Derek still kept kneeling in place as if waiting to be told that it was okay to move.

The angel looked and sighed “Well then…go!”

Derek’s body, without even hesitating ran towards the car and of its own volition made its way to the Hale house. The angel in the meantime sat down on the sofa pushing the Sheriff to the floor and using him as a footrest.

—---- Stiles’ point of view —----
Stiles and Apollo were sitting together as they worked on some magical project together as they had their little talk, Stiles heard the door open ever so loudly with Aries standing on the other side dressed up fully in his golden suit. Stiles knew this meant trouble.

“Where are we going?” Stiles said in a serious tone.

“Beacon Hills” Aries replied without hesitating.

Stiles’ eyes widened a bit at hearing that because for him it’s only been a couple of days since he helped out the Hales, so what could possibly have been going wrong?
“The angels, they’re attacking your house and your dad. No doubt they are using him as bait to get to you.” Aries continued.

Stiles for some reason felt the urgency to help...more than he thought he would. Stiles quickly manifested his mask and then with the blink of an eye they were gone. As both of them arrived at his house, Stiles looked around and the nostalgia hit him quick but faded even quicker. As he turned to look in the living room, he saw the angel sitting and using his dad as a footrest. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so he wasted no time in asking: “What do you want?”

The angel a bit taken back by the directness and the lack of emotion in the guy’s voice as well as actions. It seemed to the angel that the man didn't care at all what happened to his father. “You don’t seem shocked to see me here.”

“I’m not shocked…but more than that is that I could care less. So tell me what you want and we can get this all over with.” Stiles was half bluffing. Although he didn't wish harm upon his father, he also knew that there was basically no danger.

“Your….I want all of your power! Every single drop of it!”

Aries spoke on behalf of Stiles this time “Over my dead body!”

Stiles however quickly signaled for Aries to step back and took over the conversation again. “Alright, you can have it. I’ll give you my word, and even sign a contract or whatever you want but you can never come back to this town again or hurt anyone from this town. Is that understood?”

The angel mulled over the offer and honestly it seemed like a steal! He gets to have all the power and all he has to do is never step foot in this filthy town again. He liked the sound of it. “I’ll let them go as soon as a blood pact is made.”

Stiles quickly made the blood pact… seconds after the angel had let go of Stiles’ father who still seemed really out of it, probably from the generous amount of punches and kicks he had received earlier.

“Very well then, you wanted my powers…you can have them.” Stiles aimed his palm in the direction of the angel and let his powers slowly get absorbed by the angel.

“This feels so good! I can feel each magicule filling me up!”

“Yes, but at this rate, it’ll take forever, So let’s speed things up a bit shall we?” Stiles said as he let his aura loose and the magic was radiating from him in large amounts. The magic quickly started to pour into the angel.

“That’s much more like it!” The angel said.

Stiles grinned and let even more of his power loose, “Remember…you wanted every single drop of it.”

The angel started laughing and saying “YES! EVERY SINGLE DROP! I’LL BE THE STRONGEST IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE WITH THIS MUCH POWER!”

The power kept gushing out of Stiles and it moved ever so quickly into the angel. At one point Stiles felt it, the load and burden on his soul had lightened. He had forgotten this feeling long ago, the feeling of not having all the magical power weighing down his entire existence. He also knew that this meant the angel was reaching its potential. So Stiles further accelerated the rate at which he was letting out his power. “Take every single drop! I never wanted any of it to begin with!”

The angel could feel the sickness from the power that was overloading him but it was masked with the euphoria that it came with. After a few minutes it had all come to an end and the angel felt so sick but the mere endorphins and the rush of the power were keeping him alive.

“Hahahahha, with all this power, I can be the ruler of all dimensions and no one can get in my…” The angel was cut short by an empty vomit attempt...a dry heave followed by “What’s…happening?” He asked.

Stiles sat down on the sofa and started to explain “People keep assuming that just ‘cuz a tiny human can handle these powers that my powers are easy to handle. Whoever wants to try and handle them is more than welcome to but from what I know…the amount of power I can hold is at least 12 times the normal amount of any celestial being. Which means that unless you can withstand that much power, you won’t survive long with all that magical power that you just absorbed. I give you…five minutes at most.” Stiles said, looking at the clock in the living room. At this point Stiles was but a mere weak human as others would describe him, and yet he didn’t fear anything at all. He was human, and yet still perfectly in control of the situation.

“You are just trying to trick me!”

“Magical toxicity is a very serious thing. I would never joke around about that.” Stiles said grinning. “Plus I bet you can already feel the power tearing you apart cell by cell.”

It was true, the angel did feel a feeling that felt oddly similar to what he would say “getting ripped apart” would feel like. “So…fix it!”

“I can’t…you took all my power…remember!”

“Then take some back. I’ll give you whatever you need. Just fix it.”

“Uhm….no! I think I’ll just watch instead. I’ve never seen an angel get pulled apart into pieces before. I imagine it would be beautiful in its own way.”

The angel tried to threaten Stiles once again to do undo what he had done, the angel took his dad hostage once again. “I’ll kill him!”

Stiles stood up and he slowly walked towards the angel who was now standing near the exit of the living room as Stiles and the angel had switched spots. Stiles slowly made his way towards the angel and as he arrived as close as he could get, he walked past the angel and into the kitchen. He grabbed an apple and then came back in, only to sit back on the couch. “Blood pact…remember.” Stiles said un-phased by the man’s attempted threat and took the largest bite of the apple he could muster after speaking.

The angel started to sweat and it was visible to all.

“Oof, sweating already!” Stiles mocked him.

The sickness was getting worse and worse. The angel made his attempts to get Stiles to help him out but to no avail because the angel's blood pact meant he couldn't harm Stiles or anyone from this land. Stiles watched as the angel got ripped apart cell by cell. It was oddly satisfying to watch the angel succumb to his own powers. As the sickness got worse the angel started to glow with the power trying to escape from his body and eventually the angel was tearing at the seams. The skin eventually gave up and the power started to leak out. In less than a minute after that, the angel existed no more. Instead, where the angel stood there was nothing; just a ball of power hovering in its place.

Stiles got up to take his power back and as he was about to, the door opened. There stood the Hale pack looking at the mysterious being that they had seen just a month ago. As soon as the door had opened, the ball of power had started to rapidly move towards Derek who was standing in front of everyone and right at the entrance of the door. Stiles saw this and panicked because he knew that if the power got absorbed by any single one of them…it would be a death sentence. He pushed his human body to it’s limit and jumped in front of Derek and the ball of power entered into Stiles just in time to save Derek.

Stiles stood up from that and said. “Oof, that could have ended really badly!”

Everyone was looking at Stiles in awe but he couldn’t really figure out why everyone was shocked. “I mean I know I'm amazing but why all the staring.”

Cora was the first to speak: “Stiles…you’re magical!”

Stiles felt his face and felt his skin instead of the mask that was supposed to be there. He looked down and saw that the mask had come off after he jumped but he hadn’t felt it come off. “That’s what I get for trying to save someone's life!”

“Stiles, where have you been?” Talia moved to the font and said.

“Don’t worry about it people! You’re all about to forget this all happened anyways.”

“Why would we not remember?”

“Are you going to wipe our memories with magic?” Cora asked.

“Ding ding ding! Correct answer! The beauty of me missing is that no one knows where I am. If you all know…that kinda beats the point. But that’s fixable! Just a little bit of memory tweaking and it’ll be like this never happened.”

Derek made a comment under his nose “Run away…sounds about right.”

Stiles’ hearing wasn’t exactly supernatural but it was more than enough to hear the comment. He didn’t quite understand what it meant but something inside of him wanted to go ballistic just from hearing it. “Run away” Stiles thought, when had he ever run away before? When had he ever got the option to run away or escape his problems? But the worst part of the statement was who was saying it. How dare the man who was essentially the leader of the people responsible for bullying him be the one to say such a sentence to him. Stiles could feel the fire inside him starting burn up and a part of him wanted to let the fire out of control but he held it in. He smiled and simply asked Derek what that comment had meant.

Derek looked up at Stiles and spoke, “Ever since we were kids…whenever you had to face a problem the first thing you always did was run away. Typical weak human.” Derek didn’t really seem to notice the aura that Stiles was giving off, because if he had noticed Derek wouldn't be so brazen.

Talia was the first to shush him. “Derek, manners!”

“I ran away?” Stiles said, confused.

“Yeah, like when we were five. Maybe you don’t remember but I do. We were playing on the swings and I said let’s see who can jump off further. You jumped and landed, but when I jumped I didn’t stick the landing so I broke my leg and also broke some of my ribs. Instead of helping me, what did you do? You ran away!”

“Ahhhh I see.” Stiles understood the situation very clearly. He knew exactly what was happening because unlike Derek, Stiles had already had to confront his past in many of the tests that he had gone through while training. Stiles has lived his past more than he would like to admit and this memory was one of the few memories that was also played for him. “Any other times? I mean once wouldn’t be enough for you to think it’s a habit of mine. So what else?”

“When we were kids, you would lie to my mom all the time that I had hit you even when I didn’t lay a hand on you, you would pretend to be sweet in front of my family but then make fun of me behind their backs, you were somehow always doing shit but never had to pay the consequences. Just like now…running away when it’s time to pay for your actions. You and your stupid mom ruined everything”

Stiles pondered and thought to himself, how someone could have all these old memories but somehow has deluded themselves so much that the truth is barely there. Stiles couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, not to burst your bubble or anything…but every single one of those times I didn’t run away. I ran to your mom.”

Derek looked surprised and immediately looked to his mom for confirmation and he saw Talia nodding affirmatively.

“When you broke your leg, I ran to her to call the ambulance. I didn’t run away. I made fun of you? I called you a dumbdumb…we were like 6 years old. It’s what kids do. I didn’t pay for my actions? Each time you got in trouble, I got punished twice as much from my mom. She always said ‘If Derek gets punished, you get double his punishment because Stiles I know it was your idea.’ Oh and Derek, insult me all you want, but say something about my mom again and I swear to every god out there that I will rip out your intestines and force feed them to you with my two bare hands. Understood?” Stiles said that last part glowing his eyes the darkest black they could get.

Now it was clear who was in charge. Even Derek could feel that his behavior up until now could have gotten him killed and that he was being tolerated… not permitted to behave like this.

Talia, clearly understanding that the situation was degrading quickly decided to step in. “Stiles…he didn’t mean…” Talia was cut off short by Stiles. Talia understood immediately that Stiles was fed up and that his patience had been tested to it’s limit.

“Were you going to say, he didn’t mean it?” Stiles said grinning. “Alright, let’s test that theory out!” Stiles pointed his finger towards Derek and suddenly Derek couldn’t move. As Stiles moved his fingers Derek moved with them. Stiles, using his magic, pushed Derek to a wall, and under his breath chanted a simple truth spell. “I’ve just put a truth spell on you! Let’s see what you think about me and my mom. Shall we?”

Talia tried to butt in but Stiles quickly pushed all of them back and made it so that they could not speak. “It’s listening time now!” Stiles said.

“Derek Hale, do you believe that me and my mom were a nuisance?” Stiles started his questions.

Derek, unable to resist, responded honestly “Yes!” His body was no longer his.

“My mom gave up part of her life to save yours at birth. Do you even feel a little grateful for that?”

“No.”

“You bullied me throughout my entire life, have you once felt sorry about it?”

“No.”

“Do you, Derek Hale, think that this world would be better without me, Stiles Stilinski, in it?”

“Yes.”

“Those are all my questions and let’s just say…I’m not shocked. These answers weren’t for me Derek. I wanted your family to see what you were really thinking because it seems like they think you’re somehow a nice person.” Stiles let go of Derek and now they were talking face to face, eye to eye. Stiles refused to be scared of the man in front of him. “They think that a part of you is worth saving. But guess what…you, just like your friends, are all spoiled kids who didn’t like that there was someone different from you, so decided to pick on him. You, just like your worthless friends, all deserve to be punished for what you did but nothing happened to you guys, did it? You, just like those morons you call friends, are all assholes who as adults still haven't figured out how to confront their mistakes. So don’t come at me for petty reasons because I promise you…I’m not the same weak human you once knew.”

Derek’s body, even though now under his control, refused to move. His body understood the situation well even if Derek didn’t. Derek still stubbornly spoke even though every fiber of his being told him not to. “I bet it’s not even your power. Everyone knows, humans can’t use magic. So, who’d you have to suck off to get a relic to use powers? A celestial being like him I bet.” Derek said as he pointed his head towards Aries.

Hearing that comment, Aries was ready to pummel Derek to death but was stopped by Stiles’ hand. “I got this!” He said.
Stiles had completely lost it now. He had held back until now and honestly it was a miracle that he had. Stiles let go of his control and let the darkness take over. Stiles snapped his finger and in an instant the whole group of bullies were right there in front of him. “I’m sick and tired of being the nice guy! So, guess what…Just this once I’m gonna be the bad guy!” Stiles grinned as his eyes turned completely black.

“Uhm…Derek! Want to explain what’s happening and am I looking at who I think I’m looking at?” Boyd asked first but before any answer could be given Lydia started screaming at the top of her lungs and then suddenly she was silent.

“Guys, I think…I think we’re all about to die!” She said.

The rest of the Hales were still unable to move and unable to speak or do anything to intervene. They were helpless in the situation and it was a feeling that none of them were fond of or familiar with.

“Die? No, no, no! That’d be too easy! You will all feel the pain that I felt and then you can all die!” Stiles snapped his fingers and suddenly they were all in a trance that made them go mad with anxiety and panic attacks. They felt the physical and emotional pain that Stiles had not only suffered during school but also all of the aftereffects that it had led to. They felt each and every single moment from the beginning.

— Back at the Zodiac’s mansion —

Libra and Ophiuchus all simultaneously felt that something had gone wrong with Stiles. They all dropped what they were doing and quickly teleported to Stiles to help. When they got to Stiles they saw Aries standing there with Stile whose eyes screamed ‘murder’.

“Brother, what’s happening?” Libra asked.

“He’s getting his revenge!” Aries answered.

“He’s losing control! You know what happens when he loses control!”

“This is nothing brother. Leave him be!” Aries said, commanding his brothers to stay out of it.

“Aries…listen to reason. He will destroy this whole town if he continues to emit this much power.”

“Good! This town deserves it! It dared to cause harm to him, naturally it shall pay for it!”

“Aries…there are innocent people here! Some are even kids!”

“Tough times brother. If this is what Stiles wants then I will make sure it’s what happens. So do not get in the way or I will be forced to fight.”

Ophiuchus laughed, “We all know that I will win that fight, even if Libra doesn’t.”

Aries pondered on it and he knew that Ophiuchus would win indeed but he would last long enough to give Stiles the time he needed. “Then I’ll simply distract you as long as possible.”

“Brother, don’t be a fool. Think about what Stiles will have to deal with after. He will think that he murdered thousands of innocent people. Let us act proactively and help him while we can.”

Aries hadn’t even thought about that, he only thought about how he, himself would feel and killing has never really bothered him. Aries did know that it would bother Stiles, the boy could barely kill a bug without crying…let alone a whole town. Aries started to realize that Libra was right, that Stiles would indeed think like that and as he thought more about it, rational thinking took over Aries for the first time in his life. “Even if we wanted to, we don’t have enough power to stop him, even combined.”

“Speak for yourself.” Ophiuchus grinned. He quickly made his way to Stiles and started speaking in Altin.

“Stiles, tremores amorta inte prepor memoria avel existeme crevesti avora inferiores semel?” [Stiles, are you willing to ruin all your memories of this place for people like them?]

Stiles with his black eyes looked at Ophiuchus and said in a deep hollow voice, “Memoria? Esten memoria?” [Memories? Which memories?]

“Memoria ave su prel su secante. Memoria ave me, ave du, ave moray, ave estem, ave noctum, ave lichtim…indif memoria ave Claudia.” [Memories of your childhood. Memories of me, of you, of us, of our past, the bad and good…most importantly memories of Claudia.]

Stiles looked visibly much better and less angrier because a part of him understood Ophiuchus’ reasoning well but a part of him wanted to start fresh. “Vitale prevel continuidades” [Life moves forward.] As he finished saying that Stiles amplified his magic and let the people under his spell really have the pain. Their suffering amplified as much his power did. The Hales watched as the people they knew writhed in pain and screamed but couldn’t do anything. Instead all they could do was watch, watch them suffer in pain, watch Stiles and the strange beings talk, it felt as if they too were being tortured.

Ophiuchus looked at Libra and Aries. “Reasoning didn’t work. So I guess it’s time to rebel.” Ophiuchus put his hand on Stiles and just like old days merged with his soul. As the two became one, Ophiuchus could see Stiles in his soul…hiding behind his power. “Ahhh that’s why you wouldn’t listen.” Ophiuchus moved closer to Stiles and sat beside him. As he sat beside inner Stiles, inner Stiles started to speak.

“Just once! Just once, can’t I have it my way?”

Ophiuchus knew very well what this feeling was, he had felt it all his life. Nothing seemed to go the way he wanted things to go and it was always other people telling him or controlling him. He knew this pain best. “It’s not about having it your way though...it’s about revenge, isn’t it”

Stiles continued to sit there and didn’t say anything because he knew very well that Ophiuchus was right.

“Every now and then, we lose sight of what actually matters. It happened to my brothers and sisters, it happened to me, and now it’s happening to you. They wanted to start a war because they felt wronged. I wanted to commit genocide because I felt wronged…and you…you want revenge because you feel wronged. Given, we did it on a much larger scale than you but still.”

“So, what? I Just walk away? Pretend that what they did to me didn’t affect me or didn’t hurt me?”

Ophiuchus thought it over for a second before replying…”What I’m saying is that the way you’re doing things now will hurt more than just the people you want to hurt. Isn’t there a better way? Like showing off how powerful you are now? Make them scared of you? You don’t have to destroy an entire town, right?”

“They don’t believe it’s my power…he even said that I was sleeping with Aries just so I could use his powers.”

Hearing that comment made Ophiuchus want to let the whole town suffer. How could these people be so clueless, he thought. “I swear to god, these fucking low lives…you know what. The best thing to do in this case…take over.”

“What?” Stiles didn’t quite understand what that meant.

“Take over the Hale territory. I mean, if it’s under your control then they can’t do anything and you get to fix everything that’s wrong with this town. Plus, like this you can protect your dad better too. If the land is under your protection, no one would dare to attack. Even if they do, then you’d know right away as opposed to now, where a second party has to tell you. Best of all...it’ll put those miserable low lives under your territory….meaning if they want to stay they gotta follow your rules on your land.”

Stiles thought it over and honestly it wasn’t a bad idea. Regardless of the last point, it would be helpful to have the Hale territory under his name just so he can protect his father. He didn’t know that, that was something he needed to do…he hated his father for making him grow up faster than he wanted to. He hated his father for not being there but some part of him still felt like he had to protect his father. Stiles chalked it off as a natural instinct and agreed to the plan. “So…how exactly do I reign all of this power in?”

Ophiuchus started to look at Stiles in confusion…”Uhm…I thought you would know that!”

“How would I know that?”

“HOW WOULD YOU NOT? YOU LITERALLY MOVE PLANETS FOR OTHERS BUT THIS IS YOUR LIMIT?”

Stiles nodded his head in agreement “Touche…but still don’t know what to do!”

“Well…how’d you let it out?”

“I don’t know…I kind of just let it pour out. You know…whoosh whoosh.” Stiles said the last part waving his arms like tidal waves.

“This universe is so screwed. They literally put the power of 12 zodiac’s in the hand of a moron.”

“Okay…I’m right here you know. Also, it’s not as easy as you think!”

“Okay…well can’t you just…I don’t know…un-whoosh things?”

Stiles’ face became emotionless and an empty look at Ophiuchus was the only thing that Stiles could do to show how unhelpful that was.

Ophiuchus responded with “What? Got any better ideas?”

“Anything is better than that!” Stiles thought for a second and then it hit him…”Wait, how’d you get in here?”

“I merged with your soul…I guess a part of you still remembers me. It let me in pretty quickly.”

Stiles knew what he had to do to get his control back. “Ophiuchus…leave. I got it from here.”

Ophiuchus saw the look in Stiles’ eyes and knew that Stiles had it under control from here. So he left and as soon as he unmerged he was met with Aries and Libra questioning him. “So?” The two celestials said together.

“Worry not brothers…Stiles is coming back to us!”

The two celestials sighed in relief and just as they finished their breath they noticed that the magical aura around Stiles was lessening. The magic that was building up like a bomb had started to dissipate in towards Stiles.

“He’s…He’s reabsorbing it?” Aries said.

“Universal magic law; magic needs an outlet.” Libra said.

Aries wasn’t quite as well versed with magic laws even though he used magic quite often. “Brother, simpler terms.”

“He’s going to make the magic explode like it was going to, but he’s giving it a different outlet. He’s merging it with his own soul.”

“Won’t that kill him?”

“Any other person, yes…but him, I don’t think it would leave as much as a scratch.”

“It would still hurt though, wouldn’t it?”

“He’s handled years of bullying, panic attacks, death of a mother, torturous tests, and 12 zodiacs pouring their powers into him. Pain is basically his best friend at this point. I would be shocked if he felt any pain at all.”

Aries and Ophiuchus stood in silence after hearing all that. They never really thought of how much the young boy had gone through because he never showed it. For some reason they always saw him with a smile, whenever they imagine Stiles, there he is standing with his warm smile.

Moment’s later, Stiles collapsed and all of his active magic had come to a stop. The Hale pack was free at last and Derek and his friends were no longer suffering. As soon as their trance had ended, the group took a while to recover from the exhaustion that their body had felt; supernatural healing definitely made the process faster. Something that Stiles didn’t get the benefit of while he was going through the pain.

Stiles woke up to the celestials standing over him and the Hale pack standing on the other side. Stiles stood up and said “I’m…sorry. I lost control and that’s on me. However, I will not apologize for the actions I did while I lost control because I meant all of them. I felt wronged by them…by this whole town.”

“Stiles…we…” Talia started but was stopped by Ophiuchus holding his hand up.

“He’s not done talking yet.” Ophiuchus said.

Stiles nodded towards Ophiuchus and then continued speaking. “As I was saying…This town has a lot of good qualities but it also has lots of bad ones. Which is why I have decided to personally take over and fix it. More than that, I want to regain control that I lost…the control over my childhood…” he said looking towards his dad. “...the control over my life…” he said looking at Derek and the group. “...and most of all, the lost trust in the adults who I thought would be there.” He said, looking towards the whole room.

“Stiles…what are you saying?” Talia said.

“I’m saying that… as of today I am the sole owner of the Hale territory.”

Jackson was the first to rebuttal. “Last time I checked, your name doesn’t end with Hale.”

“It doesn’t need to. Talia Hale, the current leader, will happily hand it over to me.”

“And why would she do that?” Jackson smirked.

“Because she loves all her children equally, even when one of them is trash.” Stiles said the threat and immediately Talia understood exactly what he meant. She could feel that warm aura, the same aura that her best friend used to have. Except this time, the warm aura was a trojan horse. Of course Stiles was bluffing, but he had gotten pretty good at lying and intimidating.

Talia didn't feel like gambling with her son's life so she gave in to the bluff that Stiles was making 'cuz just moments earlier she had seen the same man make an netire room full of people suffer.

“What does he mean by that?” Cora asked.

Neither Talia or Stiles answered.

“Mom..what does he mean?” Laura said desperately wanting an answer.

“I Talia Hale...revoke my rights as leader of Hale territory and pass it to Stiles Stillinski.” Talia’s eyes glowed their natural red color and then Stiles’ eyes started to glow a beautiful crimson shade of red.

Everyone was shocked at what just happened. “Mom…how could you just hand it over to him.” Derek said, right after he just tried to annihilate all of us.”

Stiles ignored all of that and addressed the room. “From here on, this is no longer Hale territory. It will now be named after a person who loved this town, gave it her all and lived each day to make it a better place for all. Henceforth this territory will be referred to as Zadkiel territory…named after Claudia Zadkiel.”

Chapter 40: Hierarchy

Derek’s heart sank because it just hit him that he no longer had any claim to the land that his mother was alpha to. He knew that Laura was first in line to the claim but he also knew that Laura had no interest in being leader so naturally it would go to him. Now, now it belonged to an outsider, not to mention a human outsider at that.

Stiles could feel all of the emotions in the room. He felt the sadness, the regret, the anger. He knew that he wasn’t a welcomed leader so he did what he did with the Zodiacs. He offered the room a chance. “I realize that I am not a welcomed leader. Frankly I could care less about that but…there is something to be said about fairness. Which is why I’ll allow anyone to challenge me right now to a one on one. If you beat me then I’ll happily pass the alpha position to the winner.”

The room looked at Stiles with disdain. They all realized that it was an empty offer because none of them could beat him. Then a stubborn voice was heard.

“If you want to be fair then fight without your borrowed powers, freak.”

Stiles looked at Jackson and smiled. “I don’t have any borrowed power so that request is easy to fulfill.”

“Bullshit! Humans doing magic? What crack have you been smoking?”

Stiles had gotten bored of the conversation and just for the amusement factor decided to do as was being requested. So he rolled his eyes and said “Alright, no borrowed powers. I guess.”

Derek’s head rose and for a moment he was hopeful as were all of his friends because they just realized that against a human they could all win easily. So they all raised their hands and challenged Stiles.

Stiles smiled cheek to cheek. “They always want to fight someone weaker. Cowards!” He moved a bit closer to the group and said “only the first…only the first challenge will be until one of the two says mercy. After that, the challenges will be until death.”

The group of alphas smiled, all of them flashing their red eyes at Stiles. “I’ll go first then!” Jackson said.

Stiles waited for Jackson to step up and as he did Stiles explained the rules. “It’s easy, first one to say ‘mercy’ loses. I won’t use any magic at all and you…you I guess can do whatever. Sounds good?”
Jackson didn’t even hesitate to begin the fight and immediately started to punch Stiles as he finished talking. Jackson pinned Stiles to the ground after the first punch and then just kept pummeling Stiles punch after punch. Stiles on the other hand just stood there. He didn’t even bother to block the punches because if he was being honest they didn’t really feel like anything. He had felt way too much pain that this didn’t compare even a little bit.

Jackson kept going and at one point Stiles’ face was bloody beyond recognition. So Jackson stopped, assuming he had won. Jackson then started walking towards the other group and as he was doing so, Stiles stood up behind him.

“We aren’t finished yet!”

Jackson turned around and said “Just die already!” as he threw another punch towards Stiles. This time, Stiles caught Jackson’s punch and responded “My turn.” Stiles lifted his other hand and slapped Jackson as hard as he could.

Now, Stiles wasn’t as strong as when he used his magic but he had trained enough to still be physically strong. The slap to Jackson’s face was strong enough to make the alpha bleed.

Jackson felt his brain shake from the slap’s impact and it did little to damage him physically but mentally he was enraged. He couldn’t believe that the human boy in front of him was able to make him bleed. Sure, he would heal quickly but it was more a principal thing because now he looked weak in front of everyone. Thinking about this made him madder than he had ever been and his response to this was rage. Jackson let loose his wolf form and unleashed all of his strength onto the human; jumping towards Stiles’ direction with fangs and claws out.

Stiles quickly saw the transformation and a part of him was mentally prepared for this. He side stepped to dodge the jump attack from Jackson’s rash attempt of an attack. Stiles was barely out of the line of hit. Calculated to be exactly an arms length away from Jackson, Stiles once again slapped Jackson. This time the impact not only made Jackson bleed but also shook him off balance. Jackson got up, feeling a bit dizzy but that feeling lasted for a second and he was back to attacking Stiles. Hit after hit Stiles dodged and slapped Jackson again.

After a minute of this back and forth, Jackson was on the ground; even with his werewolf healing the constant shaking of the brain had apparently been enough to make Jackson faint.

“Stop!! You’re going to kill him!” Lydia said from the sidelines.

“Where was that worry when he was doing the same to me?” Stiles looked in her direction and responded. He then held Jackson up and kept slapping him, holding his own power back a bit as not to completely overdo it.

“It’s over! Clearly you won! Stop it!” Lydia continued.

“The rules were clear! He has to say a very specific word, until then it’s fair game!” Stiles said, this time not even looking in Lydia’s direction. Stiles’ barrage of slaps continued as he held Jackson up. Finally, ever so lightly Jackson managed to say mercy as he recovered for a mere second. Stiles immediately let go of Jackson and walked back to where Aries was standing.

Jackson’s body fell to the ground and although it was a mere second, he could have sworn it felt like forever. Jackson completely shutdown his body and went into a hibernation kind of state to allow his body to heal faster. The rest of the pack went to him quickly and took what pain they could from him to help.

“I’m more than happy to accept more challenges. But keep in mind, that from now on…it’s only fighting to the death!”

Derek looked at Stiles and flashed his red eyes at the man.

Stiles grinned and said “Is that a challenge?” with his eyes glaring wide and a wave of murderous intent filled the room.

Derek suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine. The boy in front of him was more dangerous in his human form than he was with magic apparently.

“Listen, I don’t want to be feared…but I'd rather be feared than disobeyed. So, do as I say and we will all get along swell!”

“You want a dictatorship?” Lydia asked.

“Dictatorship means that I hold all the power and do not allow others to wield any. I’m more than happy to step down if you can beat me. Kill me and the position is yours…easy as 1 2 3. Plus, you don’t have to stay in the pack. Feel free to leave at any moment. I will not hold you back, I promise!” Stiles said as he pointed at the door.

“I’d rather be alone than be in a pack with you!”

“Of course, I can totally understand that. I acknowledge you want to leave and will permit it. You have 24 hours to get off my territory. You will be compensated for your house at market price but other than that, please be sure to take all your belongings with you.” Stiles said trying to be as formal as possible.

“You can’t be fucking serious!” Lydia was confused, why would she have to leave?

“I mean as pack leader and leader of this territory, I get to decide which outsiders get to reside in the pack’s land. YOU don’t want to be in the pack, and I don’t want YOU to be on my land unless you’re part of the pack. Soooo….”. Stiles said as he moved his hands up and down as if they were pendulums swinging just out of sync.

Derek continued to look at Stiles again, eyes unwavering. Stiles could feel the glare and before they could meet gazes eye to eye, Talia stepped in front of Derek and started speaking. “Stiles, a duel to the death? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“A bit much?” Stiles responded with eyebrows raised… “I am human, magic or not, I am still a human. Every time I duel someone, I risk my life. For you guys it’s nothing…a mere second of healing and you’re good to go. Me…I have to worry about getting infected, getting poisoned, broken bones, bleeding to death, life-lasting injuries and of course death. So no…it’s not a bit much. Because if you want to challenge me, then be ready to risk your life like I always do.”

Talia understood the boy perfectly; this society wasn’t designed for humans.

“Oh and Talia…because it’s his second time staring me down, would you mind explaining to your son that staring at the leader of a pack with his eyes like that is as good as challenging him to a duel. This is for his own sake.”

Talia moved out of the way and as she did everyone saw Derek’s head lower in submission.

“Well, I’m guessing we don’t have any more matters to discuss. So you can all go.” With that said, everyone started to leave. After a while it was just Stiles, the zodiacs, and his father in their home. Stiles’ father was still unconscious from the beating he had received. Even more so was that he was still covered in blood. Stiles finally took a deep breath in and sat down on the sofa.

“What do we do with him?” Aries asked, pointing at Stiles’ father.

“Leave him be…I’ll clean up here. You guys can do whatever it is you guys do.”

“I’d rather stay by your side right now.”

“I’d rather not…mostly because you smell awful!” Ophiuchus said as he squeezed his nostrils shut.

“The smell suits him, don’t you think?”

Stiles smiled before speaking “Aries, I just need some time alone with him. Plus, this talk will go a lot smoother without you guys glaring him down with your death stares.”

“As you wish! But…don’t forget…” Aries said, fumbling a bit.

“Aries, don’t you worry! I’ll be there. After all date night is my time down!”

“Then I’ll see you soon.”

As the zodiacs left, Stiles waited for his father to wake up. He could have used a healing aura to help aid the healing but not doing that gave him some extra time. In other words, Stiles was stalling.

Two hours later, Stiles’ dad woke up and as he woke he looked around to find that his house was a complete mess. As he started to stand he saw someone laying on his sofa. It took a while but he realized it was Stiles and his eyes started to tear. He was in a shock of sorts but his body had caught on to the situation much faster than he had.

“Hey daddio, long time!”

Chapter 41: Bonds

Summary:

Stiles is now functionally speaking....a full on badass!

“Stiles…is that really you?”

“Yep, it’s me… in the flesh!”

“I’ve looked everywhere for you but I couldn’t find you and then when I finally had a clue of where you were, there was no way for us to…” Sheriff went on but was stopped by Stiles.

“Dad…you look awful!” Stiles said, trying to change the subject.

John looked at himself and scoffed “...been worse I guess”

Stiles laughed because he had seen that ‘worse’ in person. In fact he had cleaned up after that version of him. “Let’s get you as good as new, shall we?” and with a snap later the Sheriff looked like he had never been abused by an angel at all.

“Stiles…you can do magic?”

“You have no idea what else I can do. This is child’s play! But that’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is the fact that I’m the pack leader now.”

“Stiles…you…you can’t do that!”

Stiles felt anger starting to build up again because after all he had gone through and did, people were still telling him what to do. “You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do!”

“Stiles…I’m still your father!”

“Father? That’s funny…because I don’t remember you being a father when I needed you!”

“What? Stiles…I’ve always been there!”

Stiles scoffed and rolled his eyes…“uhhhh… really? Was you getting drunk and passing out in your own vomit every night your way of being there for me? Or maybe it was the time when you didn’t realize I was missing for like a whole 3 months?”

“Stiles…I…”

“No! You don’t get to talk! Dad…I realize that you lost someone you loved but I did too! I lost mom just like you did, and unlike you I didn’t get the chance to mourn her because I was too busy taking care of you and your mess every day and night. You were supposed to get your shit together and then be a dad so that I could have some normalcy.”

“Stiles…I!”

“Stop…take a second to think about if what you are about to say will make any of this better?”

“No…I just…”

“STOP!!! This conversation only has ONE ending…because we both know that not a single thing I’ve said has been wrong.”

Stiles’ dad just looked at Stiles and he was starting to realize just how bad he had messed up. His eyes started to tear up but before he could fully let his emotions show, Stiles spoke again.

“Oh, spare me the tears, dear ‘father’ of mine. I refuse to feel like I’m the one in the wrong after all of this. No way! And…Yes I am the pack leader, like it or not! Now you get to choose if you want to stay or not. Although I would prefer if you stayed, I will not stop you if you decide to leave.”

John simply nodded in agreement, which Stiles took to mean that his father had decided to stay. Right after which Stiles left and made his way to his room. He looked at the bed that he had not slept in for a while and decided to call it a night.

— next day —

Stiles woke up and knew that the day ahead of him was a busy one. He quickly took a shower, changed clothes and before his dad could even attempt to talk to him, Stiles quickly left the house. He was going to take his car but he didn’t see it in the driveway. He chose his backup mode of traveling…teleportation. In no time at all, Stiles was standing at the Hale house and he knocked on the front door.

All of the Hales could smell Stiles’ presence at the door and he wasn’t really doing much to cover it up either. Cora opened the door and Stiles could tell that she was a bit nervous.

As Stiles walked in, he greeted everyone and saw that the Hale pack had already gathered. He assumed that Talia was explaining what had happened. He had assumed correctly, because Talia nodded in his direction which told him all that he needed to know. Stiles made his way to the front of the living room and stood in front of everyone.

“I am Stiles Stilisnki and I will be your new pack leader. This territory will now be referred to as Zadkiel territory and hence this pack will be called accordingly. I understand that not all of you want me as your leader and I am not one to force anyone to stay in a place they don’t want to stay. So I offer you a chance to leave the pack with no repercussions or losses. There will be no bad blood and most of all you will not be leaving empty handed. Instead of confiscating your land as per regular traditions, I will buy your land and houses from you at market price.” Stiles took a pause and started again “having said that…once you are out of this pack, there is no coming back. Even if it is life and death, I will not accept anyone back into the pack once they have chosen to leave. So….take a moment to think and we will reconvene in 10 mins or so. In the meantime I will talk to Talia to square up the rest of the formalities.”

Stiles walked away towards Talia and as soon as she had gotten in ear range Stiles whispered “We need to talk…now!”

Talia didn’t hesitate but rather followed Stiles because Stiles’ tone didn’t leave room for thinking it was a suggestion. It was a command, and she understood it.

It was finally just the two of them in the kitchen and before they began their discussion Stiles murmured something under his breath and then blew a small wind as if to blow out a candle, towards Talia’s direction.

“I’m going to take over Hazelene territory as my first action.”

Talia was surprised because he didn’t even hesitate to say it in such a public place and more so was that as his first action he wanted to declare a war on the neighboring pack right away.
“Stiles..surely you know that’s not something the pack would agree with!”

“I don’t need them to agree. I need them to stay here for about an hour. None of them can leave this house. Anyone who does will risk death. I can’t be held accountable then…is that understood?”

“Stiles…you’re telling me that you are going to take over that territory in less than an hour? If that was possible, don’t you think I would have done it already?”

“Whether you believe me or not, that’s your issue. However, what I ask of you remains the same. Understood?”

Talia sighed and gave in. “Fine…no one will leave the house. You have my word.”

“Perfect! That’s all.” Stiles said and as he did he walked back into the living room and noticed that everyone was silent. “I presume that all of you have come to a decision then?”

The room stayed silent and Stiles nodded his head. “Alright…all those who want to leave the pack, hands up please!” Stiles looked around and not a single hand went up. “Great that settles that. Now, for the next hour. What I need you to do is stay in this room. Do not move a muscle. If you do, I cannot guarantee your safety.”

The pack looked at him and suddenly everyone was asking him questions. Stiles raised his hands to stop everyone from talking and responded with a simple “Talia will explain the rest.” With that Stiles snapped his fingers and he had disappeared from the room.

A second later he appeared right in front of the Hazelene territory’s pack leader, Amira.

Amira was the youngest ever to be a pack leader in all of history; even more impressive was how she came to be the leader. Her motto was as simple as “take it for yourself”, which is also how she got her position. She was born to packless parents and her mother died during birth and father died shortly after from heartbreak. Orphan Amira grew up being thrown pack to pack as no one felt that she belonged. Some found her too strange, others found her to be an abomination, while others thought she was cursed with bad luck. For one reason or another she was abandoned by all the packs. By the age of 10 she had decided that it was a wolf eats wolf world and so she quickly honed her skills in the dark. By the age of 14 she was basically an assassin. By the age of 15, she had assassinated the previous leader of the Hazelene territory and took over. Since then she has been the pack leader for almost 10 years. During that time, Amira has trained her pack well in the arts of assassination and has created an army of werewolves that are not to be underestimated. Stiles was well aware of all of this because he had done his research on almost all pack leaders that were still in position. He knew it would come in handy sooner or later.
Seeing Amira look at him eye to eye, sent a shiver down Stiles’ spine, not an easy thing to manage to do. “Quite the gaze you have there!” Stiles said almost flirtatiously.

Amira sniffed the air and her eyes glowed red. Just as they glowed, 10 wolves had come out of the dark and had circled Stiles. “What do you want?”

“I need your pack’s land. My pack has plans and your territory is a part of it.”

“And, I should just hand it to you?”

“That would be nice…but I know better.”

“Then, why are you still here?”

“Because I know I can win.”

Amira smiled “That’s a level of confidence I haven't seen before. But what makes you think I'd want to do a one on one? My pack is clearly stronger, I’d be stupid to accept a one on one.”

“Your pack is stronger?” Stiles said, raising his eyebrows. He smiled and then one by one he started to name the Zodiacs and one by one they appeared behind him dressed up in their golden armor suit emitting their immense auras. One of them was enough to flood the room but 13 of them made the air so dense that breathing became a challenging task. “This is my pack…what do you think? Still wanna fight pack to pack?” The sarcastic tone was ever so clear in Stiles’ voice. “I mean, I don’t mind, I just don’t want to have to clean off all of that blood from the floor after we’re finished. That would be such a nuisance.”

Amira was clearly left with no option but to fight one on one. “The fight stays between me and you. They do not interfere. Those are my conditions.” Amira said, clearly targeting Stiles because he was emitting the human aura and she could easily handle that.

“That sounds fair. Leader to leader. Need not spread the bloodshed. Having said that, my condition is that the fight is until someone gives up. Not til death.”

Amira took this as another sign of weakness. Of course the human was covering his bases to make sure she wouldn’t outright kill him. “Sounds fair to me!”

“Let’s begin then!”

Just like that the duel had begun and in an instant Amira was standing behind Stiles and had pricked him with needles all over his back and then had jumped back to her starting position as if she were a shadow moving in the room. “The poison will work quickly. We can have the antidote administered as soon as you give up.”

“Ah..poison. Of course.” Stiles said not doing anything else.

“You won’t give up? Don’t be a fool, it’ll kill you!”

Stiles stood in silence and let the poison take its effect. A few minutes passed and Stiles was still standing.

Amira was shocked to see that the human in front of her was still alive. “What are you?”

“I’m…about to give you a taste of your own medicine.” Stiles said smiling and then he conjured up a potion of his own and in one swift motion he appeared right in front of Amira, jammed the vial of potion into her mouth and then forced her to swallow. As soon as the contents of the vial was empty he went back to his position. “I took your poison and made a few adjustments…. Let’s just say, it’ll work fast.”

Within seconds Amira was on her knees and she could feel her body starting to burn up. All of Amira’s bodyguards so to speak started to growl.

Sties looked in their direction and spoke: “Woah woah, unless you have the antidote for the poison I gave her, I’d retract all those teeth.” Then he looked at Amira as he walked towards her. “Say the word, and It’s yours.” he said as he shook a vial in front of her.

Amira tried to raise her hands and grab the vial but Stiles smiled and moved his finger as a motion of “no no”. “You know what you have to do first! I’d give you about 20 more seconds before the poison makes it to your heart.”

Amira spoke quickly “I give up.” Amira was never one to be prideful. She knew she lost this battle and would rather live to fight another day. Stiles quickly gave her the vial and she drank it. And she didn’t feel even a bit better.

“It’s not working.”

“Oh…that’s because you drank water. Also you’re not poisoned. It’s just a shit ton of morphine mixed with wolfsbane. So I guess a bit of poison? You’ll be good as new in a minute or so.”

Amira started to get angry “You tricked me.”

“Oh get over yourself. I could have actually poisoned you. Would you have preferred that?”

Amira looked at the boy coyly before responding "So, what happens now?"

"Nothing...not immediately at least. I will need this land for expansion of my pack but as you probably know my pack isn't actually that big yet. In the meantime you are allowed to stay on the land. However while on this land you are not allowed to hunt or assassinate people. If I get the slightest suspicion that you are, you will be vacated! Understood?"

Amira had finally caught on...the boy didn't want to become the leader of her pack or need her land. It was all just a front for stopping her assassination business. "It's easy to tell people to stop...but you forget this is all that they know. It's what they were born into and bred for." She said, smiling all snarky.

Stiles walked closer to Amira and into her ears he whispered something only she could hear. The smile disappeared after whatever it was that Stiles had whispered.

"You're a fool if you think you can make that happen."

"That's my problem. Yours is to do as told."

Amira agreed and with a nod between the two of them the conversation came to an end. Stiles quickly teleported back to the Hale house to do a quick check and update. "The first step is finished and it is now most dangerous to exit the house as the packs will likely start to rebel now"

"Packs?" Talia questioned "You said just the Hazelene territory."

"Hmmm...I did say that. But I did say that would be my first action. It's time for second, third and fourth actions."

Talia knew exactly which packs Stiles would be going after. It was all the packs around their own territory. She didn't know exactly why he needed this much land but she couldn't exactly do much right now except obey. As soon as Stiles finished explaining he left to go to the next pack's leader.

He teleported quickly to Baxter territory, named after its leader.

From what Stiles knew, Baxter was a man of knowledge. He hated violence and would rather negotiate deals to end disputes. Other than that there wasn't much special about the land or its leader. Stiles didn't have the luxury of talking things out though, plus he didn't want to end on a compromise.

"Human in aura, but that's not all there is to you is there?" Baxter said to Stiles. The shock that should have been there wasn't. Stiles knew his plan was working because Baxter wasn't shocked. Some little bird had updated him on the situation.

"Amira must have spoken very highly of me!"

"She did. She also said that you'd likely be after my alpha position."

"I could care less about that."

"My people?"

Stiles looked around and truly there were no soldiers among them. In fact, most of them were young kids or young adults. "Maybe, if I was starting a daycare."

Baxter laughed..."if not my position or my people then what?"

"Nothing, you need to concern yourself about."

"Oh, but how else will we negotiate?"

“Since you love negotiating, let’s do some! I can either kill you and take this land or you can hand it over and still be alive at the end of it. That way your pack gets to live here unharmed, you’re still pack leader and all at the very little price of transferring the land over to me.”

“We both know, it’s not that simple.” Baxter waited a second before continuing again “If what Amira said is true then I am not truly against it you know.”

“We’re not talking this out. Pick one of the two options.” Stiles said.

Baxter, who had clearly failed to get the boy in front of him to talk, sighed. “Fine, take it but promise…not a single soul of my pack gets harmed.”

Stiles nodded.

“You’re going to Sandy next?”

“I am!”

“Their pack is already preparing for your appearance.”

“Why're you telling me this?”

“I really was being sincere when I said I agreed with your idea.”

“Then be prepared for the changes!”

Baxter smiled and then turned his back to Stiles which Stiles took as his cue to leave.

Before leaving he quickly sent a message to the Zodiacs to be on guard at the Hales house and then he quickly teleported and he was once again in a stranger’s room. Well, stranger wasn’t completely true. Stiles had done his research on all of these leaders so he knew who they were but still…

“Before you move an inch, know that my pack’s warriors are probably nearing your territory now. If they don’t get my message in 20 minutes, then consider your pack dead.

Stiles tilted his head and then smiled.

Sandy got shivers down her spine. That smile…there was a beast hidden behind it, she could sense it.

“You might want to call them earlier than that! If you want them to return alive that is.”

“Why would I do that? Aren’t you being a bit cocky?

“Not cocky…I’m just warning you.”

“My pack’s warriors are trained! As opposed to your pack full of civilians.”

“Libra…” And just at the mention of his name Libra appeared at the side of Stiles. “This is Libra. He has 12 other siblings. And you see, he isn’t even the strongest physically among them. You see, the other 12 are currently on guard duty…at my pack’s residential area.” Stiles paused and smiled, a smile that truly let his bloodlust show. “Let’s play a game. Well, since you’ve threatened my pack, it’s only fair I do the same.” Stiles started walking towards Sandy as he spoke the last part.

Sandy was shocked by the creature that was standing in front of her. She dared not move a muscle as Stiles approached her.

Stiles continued to speak as he approached Sandy: “For the next 30 minutes, if you so much as try to move a muscle, especially to reach for your phone or any kind of communication methods for that matter…Libra here is going to separate your head from your body in one single swoop of his finger nail.

Stiles who had finally reached Sandy and was now eye to eye with her and without any hesitation in his eyes he said "Don't feel like you've lost 'cuz that implies you were at least in the game. Trust you me, this is one game you don't want to play." Stiles smiled and sat down on what looked like where Sandy would usually sit, clearly trying to provoke the alpha more than he already had.

Sandy started to shed a tear because she had realized the implication of the choices that Stiles had offered. She could try to warn her packmates but that would wind up with her and her packmates dead. Alternatively she could sit idle and just let her packmates walk into certain death and then live with the guilt.

Stiles sat and could already see the gears turning in Sandy's head. He knew that naturally she would beg and even try to bargain. But Stiles wasn't having any of it, the only way out of this was through her actions not her words.

"LET THEM LIVE!! KILL ME! THEY WERE SIMPLY FOLLOWING ORDERS. I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!"

Stiles lifted his right pointer finger and started wagging it to indicate refusal of the proposal.

"Fine...the land. It's all yours. I...DON'T CARE! I'LL PUT IT IN YOUR NAME OR WHATEVER. I'LL DO IT NOW!"

Stiles continued to wag his finger before speaking "You started this, I just wanted to challenge you and get it over with. It was you who threatened my pack first, just remember that!"

Sandy realized there was no getting through. The monster in front of her had no intention of listening. She wiped her tears and then took a deep breath before trying to take her phone out of her pocket and as soon as she had tried, Libra zoomed in with full intention of decapitating the woman.

Stiles saw the woman reaching for her phone and smiled before quickly changing positions with Sandy via teleportation.

Libra's hand sliced cleanly through Stiles' neck and his head flew off to the side. Sandy looked in horror but she didn't stop for long. She quickly called her packmates to warn them and just in time she had called them to stop their useless attack.

In the meantime Libra stood right next to Stiles' headless body fully emotionless without a worry on his face. Sandy looked up from her phone and saw that Stiles' head had started rolling towards his body, eventually making its way to the neck and reconnecting itself. Then mere seconds later Stiles was up as if nothing had happened.

"God that hurt like a bitch! LIBRA EASIER NEXT TIME"

Libra simply shrugged his shoulders.

Siles looked towards Sandy and started speaking directly towards her. "I was so sure you wouldn't try to make the call. If I knew you would I wouldn't have done this in the first place."

"You....you were... testing me?" Sandy said "is this just a game to you?"

Stiles laughed "Of course it's a game. What am I supposed to do? Take you seriously? You don't even register on my threat radar. You are like an ant, actually no...smaller…. you are the dust under the bed that I just can't be bothered to care about. So do me a favor...and stay under the bed. Cuz trust me, you don't want to be on my radar. Is that understood?"

Sandy nodded her head, clearly terrified by the tone of the man's voice.

"Good, now be a good little dog and put the land in my name before I lose my magnanimity."

Sandy did as told and as soon as it was over Stiles was gone along with Libra. They wasted no time and made their way to the last piece of land he needed.

Stiles stood in front of the leader and this time he was less than courteous. "Pass it over Aren."

Aren didn't even pretend that he hadn't been told this was coming. His lack of surprise gave all of that away anyways. "Will you at least tell me what it's for?"

Stiles let out a big sigh and then spoke with conviction and a commanding voice. "PASS. IT. TO. ME! I swear on all the hellish gods, if I have to repeat myself, I will single handedly eradicate your pack, then you, and then all traces of your pack before I burn this land to the point where even bacteria would consider this inhabitable." Stiles glared and then rhetorically asked "ok?"

The man was petrified and stood in place because unbeknownst to Stiles, during his monologue Stiles had started to let his aura come out slowly which definitely overpowered the room. Aren didn't hesitate to do as told and Stiles was pleased that his message got across.

"Smart choice." Stiles said and then left promptly, returning to the Hale house. As soon as he returned he was the center of attention. All eyes looking at him and just for a second, as short as it was, Stiles felt shy. He let the feeling go as quick as it came and took control of his position again.

"I have just secured the land of the 4 packs around our territory and although I haven't ceased the alpha position of their packs I still own the land."

"But...how?" Talia asked.

"Well, after ‘talking’, everyone naturally decided it was better for the land to be mine." Stiles said, purposely leaving out details.

Talia was skeptical from the start. She knew the packs around her and although Baxter might have done talking Amira and Sandy would never. So when Stiles said he talked she read between the lines and knew fighting was involved. "You didn't happen to ‘talk’ them to death by any chance?" She said targeting Stiles.

Stiles was surprised by the comment and how witty it was. "No, they are very much still alive. But it was a pretty close call." Stiles smiled and then started to talk again. "Now, you all are probably wondering as to why I needed their land. Well, that's simple, I am going to perform a forbidden spell known as Safe Haven."
—---

The zodiacs all looked at Stiles with shock and fear. Talia knew that if those monstrous celestials were scared then she definitely ought to be concerned too. "You're friends seem worried. That doesn't really invoke confidence."

Stiles was really starting to get annoyed by Talia because it seemed she had self appointed herself as his advisor. Leo's body language seemed that she agreed with Stiles. However he kept the annoyance to himself because he understood that an adjustment period was required and it would take time for her to adapt to her new role as just a pack member. Instead Stiles looked to the Zodiacs and asked them what their concern was.

"Stiles, it's forbidden for a reason!" Virgo spoke up.

"If you invoke Safe Haven you realize the implications right?" Scorpio added.

Stiles looked at them and said "I promise you that I know what I am doing and that this isn't just an idea that I got."

Taliah saw the Zodiacs relax after hearing Stiles speak. It seems that Stiles' confidence was all that they needed to hear and their worries faded away. The amount of trust they had in Stiles was incomparable to anything she had seen. Mere words and their worries had been quenched. Talia was truly in awe.

"They seem a lot less worried now. So are we good now?" Stiles asked sarcastically towards Talia.

"What exactly is this spell? I mean they seem to know but none of us do."

Libra stepped up 'cuz he simply couldn't miss an opportunity to explain something and show off his knowledge. "Safe Haven makes a designated area a violence free zone. From the biggest acts of violence to even the smallest acts of violence like a slap become mirrored acts. Meaning if i try to slap you then I end up slapping myself. But in order to invoke the spell you need a minimum size of land that is comparable to a city or a large island. Then there is the fact that all of the land must be under the name of the person performing the spell. Followed by the large amounts of magic needed to carry it out. Lastly, the person carrying out the spell will suffer through the pain of all acts of violence that were carried out up until the time of the spell's cast date. As you can imagine the last part is really a deterrent for most. However, the biggest problem are the implications...war becomes one sided."

"What do you mean?" Talia asked.

This time Aries spoke first. "Well, let's say an enemy decided to use a long range weapon from outside the border of the spell. They are not compelled to follow the no violence rule. We however would not be able to retaliate because any act we try would simply come back to hurt us due to the spell."

"Stiles....that doesn't really..."Talia was cut off by Leo.
"I don't recall him asking you for your permission. Nor does he need it." Leo might have hated Stiles for the things he said but unlike others Stiles had the resolve to stick with it. She knew that he still saw the zodiacs as monsters but she also knew that he had learned to see another side of them as well. And for that reason only, she had given her respect to the boy...as insolent as he may have been in the past.

Stiles gave Leo a nod and a smile because coming from her, the comment held way more meaning.

"She is right. I don't need your permission. And yes, I realize the consequences of my action. Trust me when I tell you, I have it figured out."

The Hale pack looked no less worried from the words that Stiles spoke. After all they were the words of a new leader, a stranger to them regardless of his status. How much trust could they possibly give him. Derek spoke back with rhetoric after hearing Stiles' words.

"You want blind trust?"

"I would think it an easy task for someone who played blind when I was getting tortured by your underlings here." Stiles shot back.

The rest of the pack was so quickly reminded of the situation from long ago. And the picture became that much clearer. The pack came to realize that their new leader was the same boy they had decided to ignore. They had condemned him when it was their packmates at fault. The horror quickly setting in about how their new leader may abuse their power for revenge and may have already started.

Stiles wasn't slow on picking up on the change of energy in the room. Suddenly everyone smelled like fear and although he wasn't 100% sure as to why, he could make a guess. The only thing...he didn't actually care. Instead he brought all his attention back to the matter at hand.
He quickly teleported to the open field behind the Hale house and put the palm of his hands together as if to pray. He let his aura take over him and started chanting a spell. "Avid novos imprat tien..." and as he chanted a red and black circle started to appear around his feet. About the size of a sinkhole at first but as Stiles chanted, it got bigger and bigger.

The Hale pack could sense the massive aura even from inside the house. Derek could sense it especially, something about the aura drew him closer to it. Made him take deep breadths of it and let it linger in his nose as long as he could hold it. It was a want that felt like a need. He wanted to smell it but his wolf made him feel like he depended on it.
Derek quickly caught himself in a trance and his eyes flashed red as he succumbed to it.

The red and black circles started to grow exponentially faster with each second that Stiles chanted the spell. It took about 5 minutes before the circle stopped growing and Stiles knew he had covered all of the land that was under his name. He knew the spell would cost a lot of energy but he never thought it would be this much. He practically felt dizzy and he had yet to go through the pain aspect. This truly was not a spell meant for regular people.

As Stiles' chanting came to a halt, the circle came rushing back to Stiles and was then filled with a beam of energy, assumed to be the energy that Stiles had poured into it. The beam glowed even through its pitch black color. And in the center of it all was Stiles.

The Hale pack looked at what was happening from the safety of the house and although they were aware that Stiles' power was on a whole different level, this merely cemented it. "He...there's no way he's human." Cora said as the rest of the pack was silent.

Derek looked at Stiles and he felt his fears surfacing but what exactly he was afraid of he couldn't say.

Talia...Talia was struck with guilt in the moment. This power, it had remnants of the warmth she had felt before from her dear friend. That warmth now clouded with hate,
anger, and a lot of something she couldn't pinpoint. She felt that because she failed to bring justice for the boy and manipulated her pack to not punish their children for their wrongdoings had led to this. She wasn't completely wrong but the blame was not all hers to take.

Stiles started feeling the writhing pain slowly seep in. The start, feeling like a needle pricking his skin and by the end of it he had known what the coldness of a bullet feels like on his skin. Stiles didn't think much of the pain, he had been through worse if he was being honest. At this point pain is the same as the static he feels when his leg falls asleep.

As the beams started to fade, Stiles felt fine but for some reason his body refused to get a hold on itself. His legs gave way and he was on his way to meet the ground but Apollo was there before Stiles could even get halfway to the ground. The other Zodiacs are not far behind.

"Apollo...you're here!! Yayyyy." Stiles said smiling, sounding half drunk.

"Right back at you...who knew that one of my students was so capable that they could complete the Safe Haven spell and still live to see another day."

"Hehheheheh..." Stiles said as he booped Apollo's nose.

"Come, let's get you to a proper bed. You need rest."