...
Scott, Stiles, and Allison sat up from the water with a gasp. They looked around as they stood up from the water, the water cascading down their clothes and onto the floor as they stepped out. They weren't in the animal clinic anymore. Instead it was a big, open space bathed completely in white. White square tiles on the ceiling, white walls, white pillars, scuffed white linolium. It was like an empty department store. There was nothing but them, the tubs, and when they looked behind them, the Nemeton. Together they walked up to the large, ancient stump. Scott looked at the many rings on the surface and then looked at his tattoo, remembering when Derek asked about it.
"What does it mean?"
"I don't know. It's just... Something I traced with my fingers." Scott reached over to the old table beside them and drew a small circle with one finger and a bigger one around it with two in the dust and dirt.
Scott looked back at the tree as the other two got closer behind him. He reached a hand forward and laid it on the rough surface. Suddenly they're transported to their past.
Stiles looked up and found himself in the woods at night. He looked around when voices caught his attention.
"We're seriously doing this?" Scott asked with worry in his tone.
"You're the one who's always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town." Stiles shot back.
"He's kinda got you there Scotty." Y/n agrees.
The younger version of Stiles, Y/n, and Scott were walking through the woods.
"I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow."
The younger Stiles started running.
"Stiles!" Scott calls but he doesn't answer.
"I'll go after him."
The younger Y/n followed him with grumbles of protest.
"Wait up! Stiles!"
"Stiles, stop!" Y/n's forceful tone finally gets him to slow to a walk, looking behind him. Y/n catches up just as a dog barks at him, scaring him into falling back, which happened to be right into Y/n, sending both teens to the ground.
"Hang on, hang on! This little delinquent belongs to me."
"Get off me, you oaf! You're crushing my ribs."
"Dad, how are you doing?"
"Well, young man, I'm gonna walk you back to your car. And you and I are gonna have a conversation about something called invasion of privacy. And you, missy, I'm gonna give you a ride back home."
Stiles watched the scene until one of the flashlight beams shined on him and made him step back. The people are gone and he backs up into something, turning and finding the Nemeton.
...
Y/n chewed on her bottom lip as she waited with Lydia, Issac, and Alan. She had her arms folded and her leg bounced as she sat back in a chair. Alan sat beside her and put a calming hand on her knee which stopped moving. "It's taking too long." She muttered. "They should have been back hours ago."
"You of all people should know that time passes differently where they are. It'll be okay. They'll come back."
"And if they don't, then it's my fault."
"You know that's not true. They knew what the risks were. They chose to do this. Don't blame yourself for something that hasn't even happened."
"I know I have no control over what happens after they pass that threshold, but I can't help but feel like there's something more I could be doing to help them."
"Being here for them, for him, is enough." She didn't feel like denying it again, so she just closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder. He put his arm over her and held her in his side. He knew she wasn't going to stop worrying until they either came back or... They didn't. Either way he'll be there, as he always is, for the girl he raised.
It was another few hours of waiting until something changed. Y/n was sitting in the room with them when she suddenly perked up with a little gasp, looking at the tubs just as the three sat up from the water, coughing and gasping for air. Alan, Isaac, and Lydia also rushed in the room.
"I saw it. I know where it is." Scott said.
"We passed it." Stiles added. "There's- there's a stump, this huge tree. Well, it's not huge anymore. It was cut down. But it's still big, though, very big."
"It was the night we were looking for the body."
"Yeah, the same night you were bit by Peter."
"I was there too, in the car with my mother. We almost his someone." Allison said.
Scott looked at her. "It was me. You almost hit me." Allison gasped in disbelief at the connection. Scott looked at Y/n and Alan. "We can find it."
The two shared a look. "What?" Allison asked.
"You guys were out for a long time." Isaac said.
"How long is a long time?" Scott wondered.
"16 hours." Y/n informed.
"We've been in the water for 16 hours?"
"And the full moon rises in less than four." Alan said.
The three were given towels to dry off some and Scott mentioned going back to the Alphas. Stiles shook his head. "No, dude, you're not going back with them."
"I made a deal with Deucalion."
"Does anyone else think that sounds a lot like a deal with the devil?"
"Why does it matter, anyway?" Isaac wondered.
"Because I still don't think that we can beat Jennifer without their help." Allison was against Scott's reasoning and she looked at Alan.
"He trusts you more than anyone. Tell him he's wrong." She insisted.
"I'm not so sure he is. Circumstances like this sometimes require that you align yourself with people you'd normally consider enemies."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Y/n quoted and Alan nodded at her.
"So we're just gonna trust him, the guy who calls himself Death, Destroyer of Worlds? We're gonna trust that guy?" Isaac asked.
Alan shook his head. "I wouldn't trust him, no, but you could use him to your advantage. Deucalion may be the enemy, but he could also be the bait."
The front door creaked open making everybody look towards the front. Y/n gave Alan a glance before they both went out to see who it was. To their surprise Ethan stood there. "I'm looking for Lydia."
"What do you want with her?" Y/n asked as the said girl stood behind her.
Ethan looked at Lydia. "I need your help."
"With what?" She asked.
"Stopping my brother and Kali... From killing Derek."
The group split up then. Lydia went with Ethan to Derek's loft, convincing him to run with Cora before Kali showed up. Allison, Isaac, and Scott went back to her house to get something with Chris' scent on it. Y/n and Stiles rode together in the Jeep to get as close to the Nemeton on their own as they could.
Scott called Stiles asking what he should get for Noah's scent. "Anything." Stiles said.
"Just grab anything?"
"There's some laundry."
"Stiles, I'm not smelling your dad's boxers."
"What about his socks?"
"Socks? Okay, I'll smell the socks." Scott hung up with that and Y/n scrunched her nose up.
"That's nasty." She joked. He huffed a laugh but didn't say anything. They drove in silence for a while, but that didn't last long as thunder rumbled through the air. They both looked up through the windshield to see dark clouds roiling angrily in the direction they were heading. Y/n could feel it, even from here, that the storm was being caused because of Jennifer, the energy of the currents fueling it. It wasn't long before they were in the thick of it. Visibility was little to nothing as they drove through the storm. Stiles squinted trying to see anything farther than three feet in front of the Jeep.
"Come on." He muttered. Suddenly a branch blew past them from the strong winds and Stiles jumped. "Whoa!" They both looked back for a moment. But a moment was still too long.
"Stiles, look out!" Y/n yelled. It came so fast. A tree was in their path, showing itself too late for either of them to react fast enough before they hit it. Stiles' head hit the steering wheel while Y/n's hit the dash board, both of them being knocked out from the blow. The storm raged around them but they didn't stir, Y/n barely even flinched when Lydia screamed in the distance.
Jennifer killed Kali and fatally wounded the twins. She used Lydia's scream to draw Derek back and then she convinced him to go with her to kill Deucalion in exchange for saving the parents. Scott went with Deucalion while Allison and Isaac went to find the Nemeton with the wind whipping against them. When they did find it they went down into the root cellar and found the three kidnappees tied up, but still alive. They had to hurry because the ground was starting to cave in above them due to the extreme weather. The teens quickly untied the adults and they rushed to get out, but the old wooden stairs were no match against the storm and they collapsed leaving the five trapped down there.
Y/n finally stired with a groan, gingerly touching the new wound on her head before she automatically began to heal it with her magic. She looked around in a slight daze, the bash against the head making her thought process a little sluggish, but then she remembered what happened and what they were doing. She looked beside her and found Stiles still passed out. She used her magic again to heal him before she tried to wake him.
"Stiles. Stiles, come on, you gotta wake up." He scrunched his face with a groan and blinked his eyes awake, his eyes going straight to her. "Hey, we're running out of time, we have to go."
"Crap." Stiles scrambled to get out of the Jeep and Y/n followed.
"Which way is the Nemeton?" She had to yell over the wind.
"That way!" He pointed towards where it should be.
"I'm gonna go ahead! See if I can't buy some time for Scott to get this storm to stop!"
"How?" He gave her a questioning look.
"I learned a lot in Paris!" She just smirked. "I'll meet you there!" She winked as her eyes turned violet. A sudden rush of leaves surrounded her before they moved and she was gone, Stiles staring where she had been with wide eyes.
"God, she's awesome."
With the same rush of leaves Y/n reappeared near where the Nemeton was before she coninued on foot. She ran when she heard Chris telling the others to look out and she wasted no time to slide into the opening, landing in a crouch before she dove forward and placed her hands on the falling beam, using her magic to hold it up. "Hey, guys, how ya doin?" She idly questioned.
"Better now that you're here." Allison said and Y/n smiled at her. Then she turned her focus back to holding the roof up.
She was basically having a power battle with Jennifer right then. The darach and the witch. Jennifer was using the power of her twelve sacrifices and the telluric currents while Y/n was using the power of generations passed down. It was a pretty even match, although Y/n was slowly losing her grip with the elements pressing down on her with everything they had. She yelled with clenched teeth when it shifted more and Isaac jumped up to help, but even the added strength of the werewolf wasn't enough as it still continued to press down on them.
"Is it me, or is this place getting smaller?" Isaac asked.
"Not helping!" Y/n responded and closed her eyes. She could feel small roots under her finger tips from where they grew around the beam and decided to give something a try. If the Nemeton could help one like Jennifer, maybe it would be willing to help one like her, one more connected to something like it.
Help me, please. You helped her once. She's taken so much. She's tried and is trying to take my friends, my family. I won't allow it. With or without you, I will not allow her to take anymore. Please. I don't want my family to die. Please, mom, help me.
She didn't feel anything at first and so she thought it was just a waste, but when the weight wasn't as heavy on her shoulders she opened her blazing eyes to see twelve more figures in the cellar with them, all bathed in a lavender glow. They each had their hands pressed against different parts of the roof, sharing the burden with her. They were the victims that Jennifer took. Heather, Emily, the boy from the pool, the three doctors, Tara, the History teacher, the orchestra pianist, Kyle, the Music teacher, and even Harris, they were all there to help her. She never liked Harris from the beginning, but in this moment she appreciated him.
The other five in the cellar looked with wide eyes at the spectral hands they could see. They couldn't see their full bodies like Y/n could, but they could clearly see the twelve pairs of hands helping bear the weight and buying them more time.
The eclipse came and Isaac's wolf strength sapped away. "I can't do it." He started to sag a bit and the others also put their hands up to replace what Isaac lost.
"It's okay. It's okay." Y/n assured. Just then Stiles dropped down and used his new metal bat as a support beam which worked.
"I always said aluminum was better than wood." Noah commented and Stiles pulled him into a hug.
"Not out of the woods yet." Y/n reminded. The spirits had left, the weight they were supporting now being held by the bat, but now she was trying to keep the dirt from burying them. It felt like forever before the eclipse was over and soon after the storm died down. Y/n could feel Jennifer's power and hold had been broken. They were no longer in danger. She let her hands fall with a relieved sigh and her eyes faded to e/c.
"Is it over?" Allison asked and Y/n nodded.
"You mind if I take a quick nap?" She asked before she fell over, Stiles catching her before she hit the ground. She looked up at him with tired eyes. "Hey there, hot stuff. Nice save with the bat." She let her eyes flutter shut as Stiles chuckled at her.
Soon after Stiles' phone rang and he answered. "Scott?"
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, we're okay. Y/n's exhausted, but we're all okay. How about you, you okay?"
"Sort of."
"You think you can come get us?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Great, okay. Um, uh, bring a ladder." Everyone chuckled at his request.
...
After everything settled down Derek decided to leave Beacon Hills with Cora. "I honestly don't know if he's ever coming back, and part of me hopes so, but another part hopes that maybe he'll be okay somewhere else. My dad doesn't look like he's gonna be leaving for a while." Rafael knocks on Scott's bedroom door. Scott opens it and Rafael gives an awkward smile only for Scott to shut the door again. Melissa stifles a smile from around the corner. "Doesn't mean he's welcome." Scott walks through the doors of the school. "Stiles and I both feel it every day, just like Y/n told us we would, and it makes me think about that quote Jennifer used to start our first class, because when I feel it, yeah, it's like..." Scott pauses and watches his fellow students. "I'm looking 'into the heart of an immense darkness'."
"So what do you do instead?" Alan asks.
"I look for my friends." Scott smiles as he looks around the hall. Lydia leans against the lockers with Aiden leaning on the metal next to her and she plays cool as she usually does with him. Ethan and Danny walk out of a classroom hand in hand, staring at each other with little smiles. Allison laughs at something Isaac said as they walk down the steps together. Stiles and Y/n come up on Scott's left, Stiles giving his friend a pat on the shoulders as he looks at the couple. The three smile at each other and Y/n links her arms with theirs as they walk down the hall together.
~~~
Published: 6/16/21
Edited: 4/12/22
3a is done, guys. You know what that means ðð