Chapter Text
When the first wolves broke through the trees, Stiles and Shawn were both ready, taking down a Feral each. The bowmen held off as many as they could, but as soon as the attackers got too close, the Hale wolves came to join the fight.
The Ferals were fully shifted and more ferocious than they’d ever been, if that was possible. The Hales wolves could easily take them on though, the Ferals’ lack of human thought slowed them down, made them less clever.
Derek wouldn’t let Stiles get too close to the action, so Stiles stayed back, shooting where he saw a feral get too close to one of his pack mates.
It was no surprise when he ran out of arrows. He realize he had two choices: hunt around to try to scavenge some, or pull out his daggers and fight alongside Derek.
He chose the latter, falling into place by his mate and fighting alongside him like they’d been practicing. Stiles would never be over how well they fought alongside each other. Moving so well in tandem, they watched each others backs and made up for the other’s weaknesses.
Derek definitely had the brute force of the two of them, but Stiles was faster with his hits, and wolfsbane laced daggers meant even a cut weakened the creatures more than Derek’s claws could. Having Stiles nearby proved to once again sharpen Derek’s focus as the instinct to protect his mate took over.
Danny and Isaac had just taken down the last Feral from the first wave when the group heard the distress call from one of the designated guard locations closest to theirs. Derek and Laura exchanged a look.
“This could be serious, I’m coming with you, Laur. We should split up our pack, leave half behind just in case,” Derek said.
Laura nodded and told her second in command as well as the rest of the wolves she normally patrolled with to stay behind, along with some of the humans they were paired up with. Shawn, Boyd, Erica, Isaac, Scott, Danny, and Stiles would follow her and Derek to whatever outpost was the cause of the signal.
Following the sound of the distress howl, they raced through the woods at top speed, Stiles, Danny, and Shawn doing their best to keep up, though they still fell behind. When the group of werewolves stopped ahead before a small clearing, Stiles and Danny slowed and shared an apprehensive look. Shawn stopped ahead of them holding out his arm and motioning for them to be quiet. Whatever was in that clearing had all the wolves ahead visibly tense.
Laura and Derek were at the front of the group, and Laura seemed to be holding Derek back. Danny, Shawn, and Stiles fell to the back of the group, hidden by the darkness and a cluster of trees, when a familiar laugh made the hairs on Stiles’ arms stand up. Though he could barely see the man through the wolves in front of him, Stiles knew exactly whom they were dealing with.
“Surprised?” Gerard smirked, addressing the Hales, two of the feral wolves circling him protectively, snarling and snapping. “You all thought you figured out my dark secret, when really that was only the beginning. This group of wolves you all call the ‘Ferals’? A pack came to me a while back, desperate for power. And while I normally wouldn’t lower myself to working with mongrels, we had the same goal in mind. The decimation of the Hale pack.”
Derek growled, looking as if he was ready to strike, but Gerard only laughed again, “oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Derek,” Gerard said. “You make a move to hurt me and the rest of my wolves will be on all of you in within the minute. Right now they are doing their job of keeping the rest of you distracted out there while I finish what I started here.”
“’Finish what you started,’” Laura deadpanned, eyes narrowed.
“This plan has been in place for a very long time, since before any of you were born. Of course, it was derailed a little when my son found out my secret, but no matter. Chris’s discovery is just a bump in the road.”
“Why are you even telling us all this?” Laura asked, jaw clenched, “you telling us your grand scheme is a little on the cliché side isn’t it? Besides once you tell us your plan we can find a way to stop you.”
Gerard smiled calmly, “oh no, that won’t be an issue. See I am going to tell you everything, but every single one of you will be dead before you can act against a word I’ve said. Taking my secrets with you to your graves.”
At the back of the group, while Gerard began his rant, Stiles nudged Shawn.
“Do you think he’s noticed us yet?” He asked, as quietly as possible.”
Shawn shook his head, “I don’t think so. He seems solely focused on Laura and Derek. I think they’re what he wants, they’re part of his plan somehow.”
“We have to do something, go back, get help. We can’t just stand here and watch this,” Stiles whispered vehemently, gripping the strap of his satchel nervously. Which is when it hit him, “mountain ash.”
“What?”
Danny, who had been nervously flitting his gaze between Gerard and Isaac, tuned into the conversation.
“Deaton said the mountain ash will create a barrier that no supernatural creature can cross. If we make a circle of it around the clearing, they could having a fighting chance against Gerard, and even if he called the rest of the Ferals they would be stuck outside the circle,” Stiles murmured excitedly.
Shawn nodded, but paused, “what if by making the circle we end up making it worse by trapping them in there with Gerard? We don’t know how powerful he is.”
“The circle of mountain ash will make whatever juju he’s using ineffective,” Danny offered.
“You sure about that?” Shawn asked. “How?”
“I read about it. It’ll cut his connection to the other wolves, more than likely freeing them from his control. This is actually a brilliant plan, Stiles.”
“I know that you all know about the black magic,” Gerard said nonchalantly, like they were discussing the weather. “Before the whole debacle of my exile, and for all of my time as leader of the Argent village, I was feeding off my village’s faith in me as a leader as my ‘power source’ so to speak. In turn I circuited that power back into the community to continuously reinstate their loyalty to me. It was quite the convenient cycle.
“But within the last generation, things had begun to change. The people I ruled over no longer feared the wolves like they once had, they started to question me, started to question everything. When the Ferals came to me a little over a year and a half ago, I saw the opportunity to gain even more power. Our deal took the humanity from them, leaving them as savage beasts, but also more powerful.”
“And what were your plans for them after everything was said and done? You’d kill them too?” Derek asked, jaw clenched.
“Of course. Though they are useful, I planned to purge these lands of that which is unnatural. The Ferals are no exception to that.
“The knowledge of black magic was passed down from my father to me. But he never used it in the way that I do, he was too cautious. Too afraid. You see, in my old age I got to thinking about succession. It was obvious early on that Chris would never be the kind of leader that I was. No, he would want to rule the people just and fairly,” Gerard spat the word like it was poison in his mouth, “and I did not want all my hard work to go to waste.
“So I thought of my daughter, Kate, next. She would have been perfect, so ruthless and so loyal to me. But she was killed by the damn Ferals before I even had the chance to teach her anything,” Gerard turned his gaze to Scott. “Next was Allison. She had the potential, but in the end she was too much like her father, and too in love with you.”
“You’re the reason I got bitten, aren’t you?” Scott stated, realization crashing over him in a cold wave. “You wanted to get rid of me so that I’d be out of Allison’s way?”
“Yes, and no,” Gerard replied. “You see the succession became a non-issue. I found a way to extend my life almost infinitely, and with that extension of my life would come complete control over my village again as well as my people’s loyalty back. Scott, I had you turned simply because you knew too much. You should’ve kept your mouth shut about seeing your little friend, Stiles alive in the woods and maybe you’d still be human.”
Scott growled and attempted to lunge forward, but was quickly restrained by Derek, who gave him a look.
“Speaking of the boy, Derek,” Gerard continued, unfazed by Scott’s reaction to his words, “He had quite a bit of a part to play in this too. He still does. As you know, Stiles volunteered himself to be taken as tribute. You see I’d been keeping tabs on Stiles throughout the years because there’s a spark in him that I knew I would either be able to use to my advantage, or would have to snuff out.
“ You see every fifty years you switch from coming at the winter solstice to claim your tribute to coming at the summer solstice and vice versa. I knew you were coming, but I…refrained from letting the village know that. I just wanted to put the town in a state of panic, wait for some idiot to sacrifice himself to the greater good. I sent Chris to the Stilinski house to discuss the fact that a girl Stiles knew would be the tribute solely because I knew he would overhear. Word on the street was that she was in love with another boy and Stiles knew that, so he took her place, always willing to sacrifice himself for a friend.
“Imagine my joy when it was you of all wolves who picked him. My plan was working perfectly.”
“How exactly,” Derek growled, “is Stiles being my mate ‘part of your plan.’”
“Two ways. One: you have a weakness now. Something you didn’t have before. Two, when I am through with you and your sister, Stiles is next. I’ll set my wolves on him. When we bring his body back to his father, I’ll tell him you did it. I need the sheriff on my side, believing you killed his son.”
It was Scotts turn to hold Derek back as a growl escaped through the man’s bared teeth. Laura stepped in front of her brother, setting a hand on his chest as a means to soothe him.
“Would you get on with it? Why do you need to kill Derek and I specifically?” Laura asked, voice full of agitation.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Gerard said with a mocking smile, “I’m getting to that. You see, three is a powerful number. The three of you are the most powerful in the pack. I will kill you by ranking, saving your Alpha for last. When I kill each of you, whatever power you have over the pack will be transferred to me. And when I kill your Alpha, his spark will be transferred to me.”
Gerard was definitely keeping his cliché, villainous monologue strong as Stiles slipped back into the trees and started pouring the mountain ash. He had to be far away enough so that Gerard wouldn’t hear him, but close enough so that he didn’t run out of mountain ash and blow the whole plan
Luckily for Stiles, the two Ferals with Gerard seemed to have all their attention focused on Derek and Laura, so there would be no guard dogs to give away his position. Looking at his satchel, though Stiles tried not to lose hope. There was no way in hell there was enough to circle the entire clearing, even if it was small.
Deaton’s words came back to him, it’s all about belief, in the end. So Stiles closed his eyes, took a breath, and imagined himself walking around the entire clearing, enclosing them all in mountain ash.
When he opened his eyes, he could’ve sworn he was a few feet back from where he started. Confused, he reached into his satchel for the ash, heart sputtering when he felt that the bag was empty.
Panicking, he looked around, his heart almost jumping into his throat when he looked behind him, and then in front of him, to see a trail of mountain ash already in place. He had no idea how the hell that just happened, but it did.
Fighting down the urge to jump for joy, Stiles quickly made his way back to the edge of the pack to find Shawn.
“Don’t look so scared,” Gerard’s mocking smile was still firmly planted on his face. “Besides, you’ll be with dear old mom and dad again, won't you? I wish I could promise you a quick and painless death, but no such luck.”
“We can handle the pain, dying doesn’t scare us,” Derek growled.
“Physically, perhaps, but what about emotionally?”
“Emotionally,” Laura repeated, a scary calm settling over her.
“I’ve changed my mind. I think I’ll kill your mates first,” Gerard said, voice dripping with poison. “And I’ll make you watch. Draw it out so that every werewolf in the area will hear their screams, and know what’s coming. When I’m done with them, the two of you will be begging for me to kill you, too. Me, being the merciful leader that I am, will gladly oblige.”
“That’s enough!” Shawn grit out, pushing through the crowd. “This ends here, Gerard.”
“Of course it ‘ends’ here. Because I am ending it here,” Gerard spat.
“No. This is it for you; sooner or later you knew it would happen,” Shawn said, determined. “You’ve knocked everything out of balance. You argue that werewolves are ‘unnatural’, but look at you. Black magic of all things? That’s a whole other level of supernatural you’re talking about. As in demons. The mere existence of werewolves makes you want to commit genocide, but you have no qualms with messing around with the very inhabitants of Hell itself?”
“If you’re trying to get me to reevaluate my morals, I assure you, it’s not going to happen. Or if you’re trying to distract me while you try to piece together some ill thought out plan to try to take me down, I’d stop if I were you. You don’t stand a chance against me, none of you do.”
Shawn raised a brow, hand tightening around the bow he previously held limp at his side, “ill thought out, huh? Well, I hope not. Stiles, now!”
Stiles sprung into action from where he was sneaking around the edges of the group, shooting the wolf to Gerard’s left square in the forehead as Shawn took care of the other. He could hear the others gasp behind him, as well as Danny’s murmurs of comfort, letting the wolves know that Shawn and Stiles knew what they were doing.
Gerard locked gazes with Stiles, a cold fury in his eyes, “you think that was smart? I told you I’d have my wolves upon you within the minute! I…”
He paused, looking around frantically.
“The connection’s broken,” Gerard muttered to himself. “How is that possible? Unless all the wolves are dead.” His eyes flitted over each member of the group in the clearing anxiously before he began to back up slowly, trying to make a run for it.
“Catch him!” Erica yelled as she, Boyd, and Isaac moved to chase after the man. They stopped abruptly when the man was mysteriously and inexplicably thrown back, tumbling to the ground.
“It worked,” Danny breathed, unable to keep the hope out of his voice.
Grunting, Gerard slowly righted himself, body tensing completely when he noticed the mountain ash. Spinning around, he almost spat out the words, “MOUNTAIN ASH?” before he was rushing at Stiles.
Scott intercepted Gerard, holding him back as he continued to spew venomous words at Stiles, while Derek slipped into the space between Gerard and Stiles, baring his fangs menacingly.
“It’s fine,” Stiles said calmly. “Cut off from his source of power he’ll be weak. He can’t hurt us anymore.”
Shawn took over from there, yanking Gerard out of Scott’s grip by his shirt, and bringing a dagger to his throat. Laura stood back and gaped in surprise at Shawn’s actions, all while moving to stand in front of her pack protectively.
“I told you. This ends here. You’ve taken so many lives, caused so much pain,” Shawn croaked, desperation filling his voice. “Over the years you’ve killed so many of my pack mates for unjustifiable reasons, it makes me sick. You separated me from my parents, forbid me to see my family. My sister has a child, a niece or nephew that I’ve never met because of you. She was pregnant when I was chosen, did you know that? And my parents have probably thought I’ve been dead all these years.
“My children,” his voice grew louder and more certain as he continued, “have never met a single one of their grandparents because of you. My wife, the woman I love more than anything, and Derek, a man who is my brother in more ways than just through marriage, lost all but two other members of their family because of you.”
There was a collective gasp from those in the clearing. The Hales both growled and stepped towards Gerard; Derek was held back by Stiles gripping his arm and Laura was stopped in her tracks by her husband giving her one look over his shoulder.
“Its fascinating,” Shawn went on, “what they found in your study. Your son showed me an entry you wrote in your log of the village records, bragging about how you burned almost all of the Hales alive.”
“I was doing what had to be done!” Gerard gasped, failing in his efforts to fight Shawn off.
“You murdered innocent people. And there is a death sentence on your head,” Shawn said easing up so that he could turn to face Laura. “Would you like to do the honors, Laur?”
Laura nodded stonily, her icy gaze locked on Gerard the entire time as she walked up to where Shawn held him. He struggled as he was passed from Shawn’s hold to Laura and refused to meet her eyes. Shawn passed over the dagger, and Laura pressed it up against his chest, right over his heart.
“Hey, Gerard?” She started and he looked up, meeting her eyes in shock of being addressed. “Go to hell.”
It seemed whenever Stiles made the circle; the Feral wolves lost whatever power Gerard was supplying them, just as he’d lost his power too. They all shifted back to beta form, instead of being full-blown wolves, in the middle of the fighting. Those who weren’t taken down fled almost immediately, though few made it out alive.
There were many injured, but most of them were wolves so they didn’t pay it much mind. Ms McCall, Deaton, or one of their many volunteers quickly treated the injured humans, Stiles joining them as Derek followed Laura to help Peter with the aftermath. Most of the human’s wounds weren’t bad due to the fact that they had wolves protecting them.
Peter’s face was solemn as Laura recounted what happened in the clearing, Gerard’s plans and the confirmation that he was responsible for the fire seemed to hit the man fairly hard. Stiles could see the exhaustion in his eyes, but he remained the vision of a leader as he, his niece, and his nephew helped their people and the Argent villagers picked up the pieces of the night.
Laura and Shawn eventually left to get their kids from Peter’s house; they’d left them with his wife during the fighting. The couple let their children sleep in their bed that night, and though they didn’t think it was quite time to tell them what happened in the clearing, Naomi and Matty could sense something was up. So when their parents clung to them, to each other, thinking about all they could have lost that night, their children clung back, happy to be safe in their parents’ arms.
Not too long after Derek sought Stiles out in the slowly dissipating crowd, grabbing his hand and pulling him in to a bone-crushing hug.
“I could’ve lost you out there,” Derek choked before pulling back enough to kiss Stiles feverishly.
“But you, didn’t,” Stiles affirmed. “I’m still here. I’m always going to be here.”
Stiles did get his life-affirming sex after both he and Derek showered off the blood and dirt from the night. Though it wasn’t fast and dirty like he’d been expecting, it was still more intense than any other time between them. It was desperate and passionate and he gripped Derek so tight he was certain that even Derek’s werewolf healing couldn’t keep away the marks. Derek had buried his head in Stiles’ shoulder, his moans slowly turning into almost-sobs. Stiles felt like they spoke almost the whole time, gasping sweet nothings to assure each other, and themselves that they were fine, it was all over, they were going to be okay.
Chris returned to the Argent village, bringing Scott and Jackson with him, the next day. He would be back with the council and Stile’s father later in the week to write up peace negotiations. The times of feuding between the Argent and Hale villages were over.
Gerard’s body was brought back to the Argent village as well, where it was burned, along with any and all of Gerard’s possessions, including his books. Chris wanted to assure that Gerard would not be bringing himself back from the dead in any way, shape, or form.
The people had a lot of healing to do, but in time things would revert to the way they were supposed to be.
The peace accords were signed on a Wednesday. Free travel was permitted to and from each village, and if the right path was taken it was easy to go back and forth, barely a fifteen-minute walk. The wolves would no longer take tributes, but instead intermingling was greatly encouraged so that the villages could keep strong ties with each other through intermarriage.
Shawn got to see his family again. They came to his and Laura’s house where Naomi and Matty got to meet their grandparents, aunt and uncle, and three cousins. It was obvious that Shawn’s parents adored Laura; they didn’t blame her for the fact that they hadn’t seen their son in over ten years. Derek and Stiles were invited too, and the whole thing was just one big sob fest. Derek swears up and down that he didn’t partake in any of the crying, but Stiles knows otherwise. Besides, it was a good cry. A happy cry.
The villages lived on in peace, as did Derek and Stiles. Derek went back to working his uncle’s council, as well as doing the occasional night watch with Stiles by his side. Stiles went back to working with Deaton at the clinic, on patients as well as learning everything Deaton could teach him about whatever spark inside him allowed Stiles to do what he did with the mountain ash.
Two days after the signing of the accords found Derek and Stiles at the Sheriff’s kitchen table for dinner. Stiles would continue to live with Derek in the Hale village as planned, but his father insisted the two of them stop by once a week for Friday dinner. It actually went very well. Stiles could tell that his father respected Derek and could see how happy they were.
“Stiles,” his father had said, stopping him as he followed Derek out of the door when they were done with dinner, “he looks at you the way I used to look at your mother, he loves you. More than anything, and from what I can see, you feel the same. I am so happy for you son.”
As Stiles lay in bed on a rainy Sunday morning, looking at a sleeping Derek wrapped around him, he thought about the fact that everything he’d been through, everything that happened, was all worth it.