EAD ~ TW TT

Title: TW TT AU
Author: Saydria Wolfe
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Genre: AU
Relationship(s): various past romances, currently gen
Content Rating: PG-13
Warnings: No Beta, Dark Themes
Word Count: 4,371
Summary: Everybody was time traveling! Hiyah! Seriously, I mean everybody.

 

 

“What do you mean our father is dead?”

Kate raises one unimpressed eyebrow and makes a show of checking her watch. “He actually shouldn’t be dead yet but it is definitely too late to save him.”

“You murdered him?” Chris asks, finally stopping the pacing. “Why?”

“You said it yourself, he’s the most controlling man on Earth. He Hunts not because they are a danger -if that was true then we never would have touched the Hales- it’s not because they’re unnatural either because he’s mentioned he’s thinking about getting the Bite. No, the only reason he Hunts is because he can’t control the prey.”

Her brother narrows his eyes and frowns but doesn’t argue.

“Our – all three of our – favorite Argent is outside of his control. You deliberately set Allison up that way and for very good reasons but how long do you think he’d let that stand? You think he’s going to just let her run off to the Olympics? Waste all that talent getting rich and famous?”

Chris looks at his wife.

Victoria just shrugs, untroubled. But then why would she be troubled? Gerard was the biggest threat in the family to the matriarchy. Constantly manipulating – and when that failed, murdering – matriarchs to get his way, all Kate did was save her the trouble of killing him herself.

Chris, the bastard, squints at her, “You had a Vision?”

Kate wobbles, immediately fighting the impulse to step back and the result making her unsteady. She looks away, seemingly from the flash of victory on his face, but really to hide her own, “You know I haven’t had any Visions since grandmother died.” But seriously, Visions are a much tidier explanation than time travel.

And one Chris is less likely to lose his shit over.

“So you don’t actually know he’s a danger to Allison,” He presses.

“Yes, we do,” A voice says from the doorway. They all glance up and Allison slides nervously around the jam. “I asked mom for mace a few months ago.” She tells them. They all nod, they remember. “It was for grandpa. I, uh, he- I don’t like- The way he looks at me.” She raises her chin defiantly, as a future matriarch should. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

Chris flushes in fury and nods once, “You will never have to see him again.”

Allison smiles, wide and relieved, bright and innocent. Maybe a little too innocent? Kate silently scents the air.

No, not too innocent. Her… trip’s just left her paranoid. That’s all.

“What are you doing here, Aunt Kate?”

Kate smiles in a way designed to irritate her older brother, “I decided to come with you guys. I came over to let you know.”

“To Beacon Hills?” The Disney Dimples make an appearance.

“Yup! We leave tomorrow, right?”

Vikki sighs even as Allison nods enthusiastically.

“I think I need some new boots for the woods. Maybe a pair for riding. Let’s go hit the mall, girl chick!”

Allison squeals and scampers off to get her purse and suddenly Kate can breathe again. Yeah, she can do this. She can save her.

She can save them all.

~*~

He can’t breathe.

He’s drowning. In his own blood, as his body floods the area with blood in order to heal the wounds but it’s too much blood, too many wounds.

The greatest wound of all is the smell.

Human flesh cooking with the bite of burnt hair. He never wanted to smell that again. Not after. Not after-

“Off through the new day’s mist, I run! Out from the new day’s mist, I have come!” Derek sits up as the ringtone abruptly cuts off and plays through a second time. He reaches immediately for his phone.

It’s the phone he broke while digging Laura’s grave.

What?

It takes a minute but he gets the unlock code right – Cora’s birthday – and it’s a text from Laura.

Landed safe in Beacon Hills! The car still starts! XOXO

No, Christ no. Not again.

He calls her, the phone rings through, straight to voicemail. “Laura, don’t go in the woods alone. I mean it, don’t go into the woods. Swear to me, Laura, please. Please! I’m coming, wait for me.”

He hangs up and immediately stands. He sleeps in sweats and a t-shirt, that’s good enough for an airport. He steps into a pair of flip-flops and grabs his evac bag.

He’s got a sister to save.

~*~

“We. Should. Be. Allies!” She chokes, scratching ineffectually at the hand around her neck and holding her aloft.

Duke scoffs. “Allies with a Kitsune? I know better. Now. Tell me where those lovely tails of yours are and I’ll let your daughter live.” He lowers her enough to answer.

“Like you let my husband live?”

“He attacked me. The results of his actions rest on his head and his head alone.”

“Swear it. Swear Kira will live.”

“I’ll take care of her as my own.” He promises. He kind of always wanted a daughter.

She glares at him for a stretch but in the end she sighs. She’s in no shape to fight one alpha werewolf muchless the four currently standing in her home. “You don’t know what he’s capable of. You need me.”

“You don’t know who I’m after,” He reminds her after a hearty chuckle.

She rolls her eyes, not entirely dignified despite her advanced age. “There is only one force that requires the tails of a Celestial Kitsune. A Nogitsune haunts your steps.”

Deucalion rolls his eyes at the Mysterious Old Lady tone and verbiage. Honestly, she looks younger than he does.

“I wouldn’t say he haunts my steps.” More preparing for future possibilities, really. “Now, your tails.”

“Upstairs.”

He releases her and she leads them upstairs to her daughter’s room. She moves the bed and lifts a false floorboard to reveal a small trunk, red with golden accents.

He opens the trunk to find two books both handwritten and a tray of knives. He can feel their power the moment the lid cracks.

Perfect.

“Any last words?”

“The green book,” she says resignedly. “It’s for Kira. She’ll need it when she learns what she is.”

“Very well.”

He hands the whole chest the Ethan who’s shifting nervously.

“Uh, Deucalion? I mean, she did everything we asked, shouldn’t you just let her… uh.”

“The first rule to dealing with a Kitsune, young one,” Noshiko sneers. “Is to never leave us the opportunity for revenge.”

“Quite,” Duke agrees. He reaches up and snaps her neck. Then he keeps on wrenching until her whole head comes off. Once it’s completely separated, he drops it on the other side of the bed from the body. It hardly matters anymore. “Now, I’m afraid it’s time for us to start the fire and depart.”

Ennis smirks and they get to work quickly. The work is old hat after the number of kills their ‘pack’ has.

Marin Morrell is waiting for them in the treeline.

She blinks up at him, astonished, but then he’s different now than he has been for the majority of their acquaintance. No glasses, no cane.

“You can see,” is how she finally greets him.

He smiles and rests a hand on her cheek, “And you are even more beautiful than I recall.”

Her cheeks tint pink in pleasure but there’s no scent to it. No sound of blood moving in her flush. How long has she been fooling him with her sorcery and he been none the wiser?

Alas.

He snaps her neck too.

Her head comes right off easier than any he can recall but then, she’s no werewolf. She’s not even a kitsune, no matter how hard she tries with the ‘tricksy business’.

Ennis catches her body as she tips and together they throw the matching set on different parts of the fire.

“Pity, she really was quite beautiful.” Ennis laughs like it’s the best joke he’s ever heard. “Text Kali, will you? It’s time to allow the kit to come home.

~*~

“So what hunts are you guys planning?” Allison asks and she slams her car door. They’d hit a gas station outside LA on the way to Beacon Hills. It’s the first time at least one of her parents has not been in arms reach since Kate joined them.

If she didn’t know better- but no. Kate’s the fun adult in her life, of course Allison would turn to her for answers her parents aren’t likely to give.

“Hunts? What makes you think we’re planning hunts?”

“Uh, you said it? I heard you say it at least once, I think, but when I got close enough to actually hear you guys were talking about grandpa.” Allison scrunches her nose.

Kate laughs, “We aren’t planning any hunts right now.” Not any Hunts either for that matter. “Maybe for Christmas? Or we could go skiing, that would be cool, right?”

Allison scoffs. “Are you sure? Because hunting is a family sport. Dad always says it’s a family sport and I’m a part of this family, too.”

“Awe, Alli-cat thinks she’s being left out. How cute!” Allison scowls and Kate laughs. “I promise, girl chick, we aren’t planning anything.”

“Nothing?” It’s plaintive, Kate can’t resist.

“Well, I might have heard a rumor about a certain girl chick getting a car of her own. I mean, maybe. I might have heard such a thing.”

As expected Allison latches on to that with a bright grin, “Really?!?”

“Really really. Word of advice: Don’t let Chris pick your car.”

“He does like big boxy black things,” Allison agrees with a frown. “An SUV or a Jeep would be smart though. I might need something that can go off road considering where we’re going but definitely not black. Red, maybe. Oh! Or powder blue?”

Kate looks at her niece sharply. That tone. It was… wistful? And ‘Jeep’ and ‘powder blue’ in one line of thought brings something very specific to Kate’s mind. Someone specific, rather, but Allison hasn’t even met him yet.

“I’ll see if I can get Chris to let me take you car shopping but you gotta do something for me first.”

Allison focuses on her with Mission Face in full effect. “Ok?”

“Open the fun-yuns.” Allison laughs so she goes in for the kill. “And I expect hand feeding, here. I need both hands on the wheel.”

“Alright, alright, let me get the bag.”

~*~

A rush of power wakes Peter up.

Staring right into the eyes of his alpha niece as they begin to glaze over. Her throat is slashed.

“Oh, god,” He has to swallow his gorge. “Not again.”

He lowers her to the ground as gently as he can. His rage is spent. His grief is just begun, but this time he won’t tear her in half for use as a lure. The damage to her throat is quite enough.

It’s nice and clean at least. Not like his… was that his second or third death? Was it Deaton or Deucalion?

Come to think of it, Derek wasn’t particularly kind about it when he killed him either.

At least there’s no fire this time. And he still has his fingernails.

Maybe he needs to make friends with more than the letter ‘D’. Might up his chance of survival and he’s going to need all the help he can get if he’s going to save Stiles.

What was that one kid’s name? The big quiet one Derek Bit? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to rip his alpha’s throat out. Right?

His girlfriend though, she’d dance on his ashes.

“‘Again’? Uncle Peter?”

He whips around to the source of the sound.

A slightly darker than the night, Derek shaped shadow silently jumps down from a nearby tree. Because he’s a dramatic bastard -but, hey, he comes by it honestly- Derek slowly opens his eyes to reveal the bright red high beams of an alpha.

Without even thinking about it, he flashes his own eyes right back.

“What do you mean ‘again’?”

Play it crazy or play it straight? Seriously, how is that even a question?

“She abandoned me. Left me to rot in human hands, knowing I wouldn’t die but I couldn’t get better without my pack.” He tips his head as creepily as he can manage. It’s pretty damn creepy. “I kill her every night in my dreams. This time I think I’ll kill you too.”

And Derek? That asshole throws his head back and laughs.

Laughs!

Goddammit, his villain face is good! It really is. “What, pray tell, amuses you so?”

“You know the thing about being a True Alpha-”

Peter sucks in a breath because Derek was never supposed to know. After the thing with Paige, Talia and Deaton agreed to hide the knowledge from him but he knows!

“-is that Truth Seeing Eyes? They’re what you might call standard equipment.”

There is something very Stiles in the hand gesture Derek throws with that pronouncement. It needs a little hip wiggle to go with it to really work but Derek could never pull such a thing off.

“You time travelled,” Peter concludes.

Derek nods.

“Did this happen in your time too?” He gestures to Laura’s body because this is not his Derek. He’s too calm. Way too controlled. Not nearly angry enough.

And his Derek died and was burned to ash six months before his Stiles even found the ritual to send him back. But. Minor details.

This Derek nods again. “I begin to wonder if this was her fate. I did everything I could from the moment I woke in this time to stop it. I even took a plane.” As if Peter knows the significance Derek obviously has assigned to that statement. “But here we are, a third time.”

“I was awakened when I received her Alpha Spark. I was supposed to awaken before the Fire.”

Derek is silent for a long time.

Peter stands to bring his attention back to now.

“I didn’t even think about going back that far. The Fire. Paige. I could have stopped it all.”

“Those events made you who you are, Derek,” He tries to soothe.

“I didn’t want anything that would cost me Stiles,” Derek corrects with a snort. “But here I am. Without him.”

“Well I don’t have him either,” Peter grumbles.

Derek raises a single challenging eyebrow but still nods, accepting the hint that his Stiles was his.

“Is your nurse still drugging you?” Derek asks suddenly. “In my… world, she was drugging you to maintain control of your assets, is that a thing here?”

“In mine the Argents were paying her and she was skimming my accounts,” He rolls his eyes. Humans. The only creatures with greed on the entire planet. It’s unnatural. “I don’t know about here. We could find out easily, especially since I haven’t fixed this,” He gestures at his face.

“Good,” Derek finally unfolds his arms and comes closer. “Don’t fix it. We’ll get you ‘reconstructive surgery’ to make you pretty again once she’s in jail and you’re back in the community.”

“You want to make me legit?” Petter scrunches his nose. “You asshole!”

Derek just laughs.

~*~

It takes a while but eventually Kali and Ennis wander out of the penthouse they are currently staying in in New York, leaving Duke alone with the Twins.

The Twins stay in their room the entire time of course. They don’t wander. They don’t sight-see. They don’t talk to people. The mental, physical, and emotional discipline required to maintain their ability to merge is incredible. And terrible. The only thing they can reliably even think about is each other.

And that has to suck for a pair of 16 year old boys, one of whom is gay and the other is incredibly straight.

They are so very different in so many ways. Despite being identical on the outside or maybe because of it, he has no idea. How did he never notice the strain that put them under before? How did he never care? He wants to put the blame on Marin but, well.

He can’t. Not honestly.

Duke leans in the doorway to the loft room the twins are currently sharing.

Aiden spots him first and stills, drawing Ethan’s attention. Ethan grabs the remote and stops their stereo before giving Duke his focus.

“I have come to realize our,” He pauses. “Pack. Does not meet the goals for which it was ostensibly created.” Ethan snorts at him but he continues cautiously. “A Council of Alpha’s may be wise-”

“But a pack of murderers isn’t,” Aiden agrees. “Not really.”

“It’s not natural,” Ethan contributes.

“Agreed. And it places unfair burdens upon certain members of this Pack. The worst of those, I am certain, fall onto the two of you. So. I intend to end our current arrangement and I’m telling you first because I would like to offer you the chance to become my betas. My sons, if you will, and take up the lives of, shall we say, more normal teenage werewolves. School, sports, dating. Separate rooms and separate interests. Everything your current alpha-status denies you. Within reason, of course, you are still 16.”

The twins exchange a look that Duke can’t read but that’s to be expected. It’s not like he’s seen their faces before he regained his sight and travelled back in time. They died so young before. So empty. So desolate. All that potential with nothing and no one to show for it.

He can’t allow that to happen again.

Unless it interferes with his mission, of course. Then he’d murder them himself and gift his.. protege their hearts, if asked.

Not that Stiles would ask.

Regardless.

“Think about it. I will be telling Kali and Ennis at lunch tomorrow. If you decide not to be there, I understand,” Because things are bound to get violent. Hopefully the pups will give him a decent fight. He could use it, for his mental balance if nothing else. “I will be making new living arrangements tomorrow morning and will be leaving New York within the week, once I have the kit in my care. I have several stops to make on my way to… my final destination.” Several things he has to set right. Or as right as he can.

Another look passes between them and Aiden nods to him. “We’ll let you know.”

Not exactly the reaction he was expecting but, it’ll do.

He nods and leaves.

~*~

“Class this is our new student, Allison Argent.” Vice Principal Daniels says to her Junior’s AP English class. Just like last time. “Do your best to make her feel welcome.”

This time the class is slightly less full and Lydia’s in it. Without Jackson. Huh. She’s sitting between Stiles and the windows, ignoring pretty much everything, and Stiles is vibrantly aware of her. Allison takes the same seat as last time. Behind Scott because that puts her beside Stiles.

The mousey little man who’s name she still can’t remember starts talking about the syllabus and Kafka and she turns to her purse for a pen. She put three in there last night in the hopes that one would be there when she needs it but no, it’s gone. Because her mom is a total pen klepto. She looks up half expecting Scott to be waiting to offer her a pen and smirk his wolfy superiority at his friend just like last time but he’s not. He’s focused on the syllabus in front of him, probably doodling a bit.

On second thought, there was no talk on the radio about a body being found in the woods. Does that mean Laura Hale didn’t die? Is Peter not the alpha here? Did Scott even get Bitten?

She can’t even begin to guess. There’s no way to tell short of stabbing Scott -which she won’t do, not in class at least- because there was no phone call for him to eavesdrop on outside the building. Her mother dropped her off rather than her driving herself because she’s not even getting her own car until after school today with Kate rather than yesterday with her dad like she did in her timeline. It’s such a small detail in the scheme of things but fuck, are these all major timeline changes or are the police just being more discrete? God, how can she find out without blowing her cover?

Something taps on her desk and she looks down to see a blue bic clutched in long fingers.

Stiles flips his hand over, wordlessly offering her the pen.

She looks up into his eyes. Whiskey colored with eyelashes her aunt would murder for smile at her but there’s no recognition there. A bit of empathy, almost like he knows of her mother’s pen thieving ways. No. More like sympathy for the unprepared new girl.

She blushes hard and accepts the pen with a self-conscious smile.

Stiles smiles gently and then doesn’t look at her again until they are put into a four man group to discuss the assigned reading.

“It’s about alienation,” Danny says. “He was a human, now he’s a bug. Can’t get any more alien than that, right?”

“I think it’s more about finding your identity,” Allison argues. “What does it mean to be human now that Gregor’s not human but he kind of is because his brain is still the same? How do you define what you are? What you’ve always been?”

“Are we maybe being too literal?” Stiles asks. “I mean the books kind of like, dream like, right? What do bugs mean in dreams?”

“Generally bugs in dreams are symbolic of the dreamer’s anxieties or fears. Identifying the type of bug will tell you more. Ants for example represent dissatisfaction, feelings of being neglected or unimportant. Or, literally, feeling antsy. Beetles represent destructive tendencies or feeling compromised – in the dreamer’s morals or beliefs, for example. Maggots represent anxiety about death. Mosquitoes represent someone draining the dreamer of energy or the dreamer falling to someone’s attack.”

Stiles is staring at Lydia in wonder, “How do you know all that?”

Lydia and Allison answer at the same time:

“I read.”
“She reads.”

And then look at each other and burst out laughing.

The boys exchange a look. Danny is obviously weirded out but Stiles is digging it.

“Okay, and roaches?”

“Cockroaches are complicated.” Lydia admits. “Dreaming of having a pet roach is different from dreaming about them in your kitchen. Even the type of roach can matter when analyzing dreams. In this case I would say for Gregor it represents his need to confront an undesirable aspect about himself. He hates his job, his boss is a nightmare, so on and so forth.”

“Is this dream stuff legit though?” Danny asks uncertainty.

Lydia hums, considering where in Allison’s timeline she would make it sound like she was bored. “Well, we know Kafka was influenced by Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, so there is some basis for it.”

“Yeah, that was in the unit intro Mr. James gave us,” Stiles agrees and if Allison didn’t know better she would say Lydia is preening.

It’s so weird. Lydia. Preening over Stiles agreeing with her. Christ, is Lydia a time traveller to? It’s just- There’s no basis for it, not really, but this Lydia is so different. She’s not keeping up the airhead act, she’s not talking down to anyone. She’s being friendly, in a very Lydia sort of way, but it still counts!

God, how do you even start that conversation? ‘So, know any advanced magical rituals?’ Or ‘Do you know you’re a banshee?’ Maybe ‘Vampires are a thing, who knew?’ Yeah, no. That’s not going to work.

Allison takes a deep breath and keeps her head down. She just- she’s gotta figure it out.

Lydia turns in their group’s official copy of the assignment and they walk out together. Stiles and Lydia both let her, as the most physically dangerous one, leave the room first. It makes her heart light, their faith in her, even though realistically she realizes they can’t have done it on purpose. But still.

Stiles breaks off to wander after Scott but Lydia stays. She stands shoulder to shoulder with Allison, just like old times.

“God, I’ve missed you.” Lydia says as they make it to her locker.

“What?” Allison asks surprised. As she watches misty white light rolls across Lydia’s eyes like a fog from the outer sides of eyes head toward her nose. Allison feels examined and its just as strange and intrusive as it used to be but also amazing because it’s Lydia!! Allison swallows hard and places a hand on Lydia’s bare forearm to both ground her and speed things up so she doesn’t get caught using her phenomenal cosmic powers at school. “It’s been so long.”

Lydia swallows, her eyes clearing, and she steps back. “Yeah, it has. God, we need a plan.”

“Oh, do we.” Allison agrees. “I’m car shopping with Aunt Kate -and she is so different, omigod– tonight but you should come over tomorrow. We can talk everything out and then, plan.”

“I’ll bring the Twizzlers and Red Bull,” Lydia agrees with a nod.

“We can make a weekend of it.”

“Six?”

“Six.”

~*~

The knock on the door makes Petra freeze.

Carefully, carefully, she scents the air. Patchouli, cedar, and lemon oils. She knows that scent. She hates that scent.

With a snarl she throws herself out of her chair and across her computer desk. Claws out she opens her heavy metal front door.. Where she freezes. Once again.

“Miss Petra Shai?” the spectre from the past asks. He looks so different. Well, it’s definitely him, the murderer of her pack but it’s also not him? Somehow? She is very, very confused. And strangely curious because he smells- he smells healthy when he didn’t before. And he can see when he couldn’t before. And werewolves, werewolves don’t just do that. That’s not natural. Something fucking weird is happening here. “My name is Deucalion Lane, you may remember me?”

She snorts at him but leans back a bit, lowering her claws but remaining weary.

“Ah, I see that you do. I have an offer for you.”

 

 

Back to EAD 2018.

(Dream reference: http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamthemes/bugs.htm )