Stiles unzipped his brown leather jacket and turned his head to the side slowly, cracking his neck. He was standing outside of a circle of mountain ash, arms folded, waiting patiently for the Alpha in front of him to stir.

"Knew you'd follow the same trail", he said when the Alpha finally saw him.

The Alpha got up and moved to lunge at Stiles, but Stiles didn't move or react. His arms remained crossed and his mouth turned into a small smile. The mountain ash threw the Alpha to the other side of the circle. "That's not very nice."

Red eyes were now staring back at him, but Stiles stayed there. "You can't keep me here for very long. I'm an Alpha."

Stiles uncrossed his arms and walked around the circle for a moment. "In this room, you're an Omega. I decide if and when you leave." He stood still. "Tell me where Deucalion is."

"I don't know where he is."

Stiles tilted his head to the side. "Wrong answer." He held a hand open and watched as the lightning flew from the tips of his fingers to the werewolf, who started writhing and shouting in pain. He closed his hand in a fist and stepped closer to the circle. "Where is Deucalion?" He repeated

"I don't know!"

Stiles held out his hand again and the Alpha was electrocuted again. "Try again."

"I haven't seen him in days", the Alpha responded through his teeth.

Stiles flashed a smile. "Now we're getting somewhere. Where did you see him last?"

"I don't remember."

Stiles let out a sigh. "And we were doing so well." He electrocuted the Alpha again, and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Now, we can do this for days, weeks, even. And I've got nothing but time, but I'd rather torture Deucalion. So why don't you tell me where I can find him?"

"Go to hell."

He stepped into the circle of the mountain ash and kneeled to get down to the Alpha's level. Stiles grabbed the werewolf's chin with one hand, forcing it to look him in the eye. "I'm already there."

He pulled out a fistful of wolfsbane and blew it into the Alpha's eyes, watching him lose consciousness before letting go and stepping out of the circle, leaving the connection intact.

***Six Months Ago***

Lydia pushed open the door and Stiles carried the body into the veterinarian's office. He set Scott's body down on the table. "There has to be something that you can do", he said frantically. "You have to help him."

"What's on his skin?" Deaton asked, getting out a stethoscope and checking the pulse.

"I used a fire extinguisher on him. It's not important. You have to do something to fix him."

Deaton took the stethoscope out of his ears and shook his head. "It's too late, Stiles. He's gone."

Stiles looked at Deaton, then at Lydia and Allison before shifting his focus to Deaton again. "You have to do something. I don't care what it is, you've wanted Scott to take over. He's your favorite out of all of them. You can do weird things that I can't even put a name to, you know about beings that we've never heard of. Derek", Stiles swallowed at the name, "He", Stiles corrected. "He said that you found him when Peter came back from the dead. It's possible. If Scott's gone, you can just bring him back."

"That ritual calls for a full moon in a sacred place, and for an Alpha."

"We have an entire town filled with Alphas, okay?" Stiles said, pointing towards the down behind him. "Take your pick. Bring him back."

"There's nothing I can do", Deaton said steadily. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing?" Lydia asked. "I just spent the night hearing dead peoples' voices and that's pretty impossible. You're telling me that with all of these books in here", she gestured towards the bookcase. "There's nothing you can do."

"They're veterinary books", Allison tried.

Lydia went over to it and pulled out a book on Veterinary Medicine. She pulled on the book sleeve and opened the plain black book. "Runes", she read. "Don't think you need that to fix a sick cat."

"I'm sorry for your loss", Deaton told them before leaving the office.

Stiles barely noticed him leaving- all he saw was his now dead best friend, lying there, pasty with burn marks covered in fire extinguisher. All he knew was that they had saved a pack of werewolves and an Alpha who probably wouldn't hesitate to kill them in a week, and he was thirty seconds too late to keep his best friend alive.

He couldn't shake the vision of the flames out of his head, couldn't stop thinking about the kerosene that was soaked into Scott's skin.

Stiles dropped to his knees and let out a sobbing yell, unable to register the sound of Allison crying or the feeling of Lydia holding him.

"He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."

Stiles was numb as he heard the words. He thought that he saw his father grab Mrs. McCall's hand, but it didn't matter. The scene kept replaying in his mind, something compelling Scott to drop the last flare in a circle of kerosene, running towards Scott as Lydia and Allison went in the bus to find something to get rid of the flames. Stiles pulled his jacket over his head and shoved Scott out of the way, trying to pat out the flames.

He could still feel the itching of the burn that ran down his arm. He could still hear the hissing of the fire extinguisher as Lydia doused Scott with it before hitting Stiles with the fluid in the back.

Allison's car was out of gas and they keys were in the ignition of the bus. Stiles sped as fast as he could, ran a dozen red lights, and tried to get him to Deaton in time. Allison must have driven the bus back while Stiles was crying. That probably wasn't a good decision- she was hurting too, and she shouldn't have been on the road like that.

He didn't listen to the rest of the funeral. He just noticed that at some point, people were putting flowers on Scott's casket and telling him and Mrs. McCall that they were sorry for their loss.

He saw Deaton standing in the distance in the corner of his eye, with sunglasses and a black leather jacket. Stiles didn't even realize that he was running towards him until his father's voice echoed out. "Stiles, what are you doing? Stiles!"

Deaton raised his eyebrows, and looked genuinely surprised when Stiles punched him in the face. "You have no right to be here", he yelled at Deaton. "Get out!"

"I came to pay my respects." There was a steady tone in his voice.

"Your respects?" Stiles let out a laugh. "Kind of useless at this point, isn't it? You don't do anything. You never do anything!"

"It's understandable that you're upset. I didn't kill him."

Stiles shook his head. "You weren't there either."

"I'm not Scott's keeper."

"You were his mentor. You were like a father to him", Stiles shouted.

"Calm down. You're making a scene."

"You didn't even try to save him! You abandoned him", Stiles told him. "Just like you abandoned the Hales. You were supposed to help them, guide them, give them advice. Where were you this summer when we were looking for Erica and Boyd? You were sitting in your office, taking care of paperwork? Did you visit Peter after the fire? Did you keep an eye on Laura and Derek to keep them safe?"

"They were difficult times."

"I don't care!" Stiles yelled. "If you were there at all, you would have stopped Peter from killing Laura, you would have pulled Scott out of the forest before Peter bit him. You would have stopped dozens of people from dying, and if you cared about anything at all, you would have told someone about what's really going on with the people dropping in this town. But no, you just tell me when I confront you, when I say that I know that you know something."

Deaton didn't move, and he didn't answer. And Stiles kept going. "If you had been there at all, you would have helped Derek, you would have helped Erica. And I get that you wanted Scott to be better, that you wanted to help him be this great leader, but you couldn't even keep him alive to do that!"

He watched Lydia and Isaac pulling people away from the scene, trying to get them away before they heard too much. It was just as well anyway.

"You could have had two Alphas saving this town. They could have worked together and taken Deucalion down, kept this place safe from whatever dark druid is killing people. And now? Now there are none. Scott and Derek are gone, and you could have stopped it from happening."

"I loved Scott like a son", Deaton told him.

"He didn't need another father to bail on him", Stiles bit back. "Leave your books and get out of town. You're not needed here anymore. You're free." He spat out the last word.

There was an arm pulling Stiles back before he could punch Deaton again. Lydia pulled Stiles into her arms, rubbing circles in his back. "It's okay." she whispered. "It's okay."

They surrounded Stiles in a circle. Peter, Cora, Isaac, and Boyd, with Lydia and Stiles in the center. Peter and Cora stepped in front of Stiles, flashed their eyes at Deaton, and didn't break their gaze until he walked away.

Everyone else went back to school the next day. Stiles went to Deaton's practice instead, taking all of his books and shoving them in his car, driving away with them. He hid them in different parts of his room so that his father wouldn't find them and ask questions.

He chewed some Adderall and started reading them. He didn't look up until the sun had gone down and he heard knocking on his door. It was Lydia.

"I'm sorry", she told him, letting herself in and holding out a stack of papers. "I brought your homework."

"That was nice of you", Stiles said, closing the door behind her. "Thanks for bringing it by." He took the stack and rested it on the side.

"I never got the chance to apologize." She told him, sitting on his bed. "I didn't hear him in time. It's my fault."

He sat next to her. "I should have known that he would end up being a part of all of it", he said. "Isaac and Boyd are alive because of what you could hear."

"Ethan too", Lydia added. "I didn't know the twins were Alphas."

Stiles raised an eyebrow. "I assumed you knew."

"No, I like to keep my life as normal as possible. The last thing I wanted in a rebound was supernatural and murderous."

"So just cocky then", Stiles joked. "Sure."

She smiled for a second. "If it comes down to us and them, I hope you know what side I'm on."

"I know."

"I saw something...that night. It's going to sound crazy. But before we put out the fire, I swore I heard a cackling noise. And a demented figure in the middle of the fire."

He narrowed his eyes. "You think there's something that affected the werewolves?"

"I think it was attacking all of them, hoping that three would give in."

"The usual signs weren't there." Stiles sighed

"I think it only went after him when it realized that we were saving everyone. I know it doesn't make much sense, but can you just keep it in mind?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll keep it in mind."

She smiled. "You're going to share the bounty of knowledge with me, right?"

"After I'm done with it."

"Do you think there's anything about me in these?" She asked

He had been thinking about what she was for a while. He didn't think that Peter was possessing her- whatever she was, it was like she was magically drawn to dead bodies. Like their spirits had a feeling like their bodies wouldn't be found, and called out to her.

"We're going to figure it out. After all, you're the genius right?"

"True", she said, picking up one of the books. "But you're no slouch either." She took out the book sleeve. "You're going to have to replace these with something a little more your style." She crumpled it up and tossed it in the garbage. "Like comic book related or something."

"Or I can just print out a fictional interpretation of what it is and pretend it's science fiction."

"I could always help you make a database on your computer. Make it easier to access." She suggested.

"I can handle it", he assured her.

"You don't have to do it by yourself", Lydia said quietly. "It'll never be okay that Scott's gone, but you don't have to do everything alone."

He wanted to answer her, to say thanks, but he couldn't. "How are Isaac and Boyd?" He asked. "Allison?"

"Allison's depressed, Isaac and Boyd are losing control and attacking Ethan and Aiden", Lydia said bluntly.

"They lost Derek and Scott in the same day, and Boyd still doesn't have an anchor. It makes sense."

"Isaac's blaming himself for not being there", Lydia told him.

"Well, Isaac can wait in line", Stiles said bitterly.

Lydia was silent for a moment. "I'm going to help you with this", she decided. "We have to come up with a plan before something decides to go after more humans."

He nodded. "Someone has to protect this town, and we just ran out of options."