Chapter 7
“Allison.” Tony looked between Scott and Stiles, the two looking down at the table with identical expressions. It was apparent that whoever Allison was, she had held a great impact on them and by their reactions to her name last night and their current solemn looks, something had happened to her.
“Fascinating,” Thor said only to quickly continue when he received incredulous looks, “Yggdrasill is not something so easily dealt with. You two are so young, yet incredibly strong.”
“Uh, thanks…” Scott trailed off, fixing the god with a calculating look.
“As fascinating as it may seem, brother, waking Yggdrasill has dire consequences,” Loki tilted his head, “You mentioned that you knew of them, yet you continued on-”
“Are you being serious?” Stiles scoffed, aggravation evident in his tone, “Is he actually being for real right now?” He looked between Tony and Steve.
“You two mortal children have messed with something that you don’t truly know about.”
“Oh so we were just supposed to sit back and let someone else mess with it?” Stiles leaned forward, a darker glint to his eyes as he began to argue with the Asgardian. “We didn’t have a choice.”
“Alright, that’s enough.” In any other situation, Tony would have poked fun at the way that Steve put on his commanding ‘Captain America’ voice however this time it was definitely needed. He watched as Scott put a hand on the other teen’s shoulder, gently pulling him back away from the table. “Arguing about something that already happened is not going to get us any closer to figuring out what exactly is going on. I think what we need is for you guys to tell us exactly what happened that led to the…the sacrifice.”
Tony would have stumbled along those last words as well, the thought of these kids going through this making him feel sick to his stomach.
Scott and Stiles looked at each other, the latter biting his lip in consideration. Tony could practically see the wheels turning in their heads, silence filling the small space. Even Loki and Thor stayed quiet, allowing them time to think.
“Okay,” Stiles whispered, nodding his head. “Fine, we’ll tell you what happened. Everything.”
“It started at the beginning of the school year, weird things started happening.” Scott said.
“Weird things like what?” Natasha asked.
“Animals killing themselves, the weather changing, people going missing.” You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
“One’s an incident, two’s a coincidence, and three,” Stiles looked Tony in the eye, “Three’s a pattern. These things were happening for a reason.”
“We just didn’t see it at first,” Scott stated, leading Stiles to grumble something under his breath, “Fine, I didn’t see it at first. I was a little distracted, we were dealing with something else at the time. The Alpha Pack.”
“I’m sorry,” Clint interrupted, “Did you say an Alpha Pack? As in an entire pack…of Alphas?” The archer questioned, speaking for everyone.
Scott sighed, “Yes, a literal Alpha Pack. I didn’t really believe it at first either but yeah, they were a thing.”
“They…they fucked up everything.” Stiles shook his head, his fists clenching on top of the table. “They were the reason why she wanted the Nemeton. Why she even knew about it in the first place.”
“You mentioned her earlier, the Darach?” Natasha asked, leaning forward in curiosity.
“Yeah,” Stiles said, “The Darach. She was our English teacher for a while, honestly I’m pretty sure that was how she was figuring out who her targets were and also, to keep an eye on us.”
“Why would she need to keep an eye on you guys?”
“Oh my god, we’re never going to get through this,” Stiles seemed to still be worked up from the earlier argument with Loki, his nerves continuing to grow as the constant stream of questions interrupted their explanation.
Scott put his hand on his friend’s shoulder once more, keeping his eyes on Steve, “We kind of made a name for ourselves, within this particular…uh, world, I guess? She knew who we were before we even knew who she was.”
“Let’s try and save questions for the end, capiche?” Tony looked around to his teammates, narrowing his eyes in such a way that basically said “shut the fuck up, thanks.” He didn’t want to deal with another outburst from Stiles right now, no matter how justified it may turn out to be.
“God, thank you,” Stiles mumbled, leaning back in his seat and looking up to the ceiling.
“Anyways, well, she wasn’t really who she said she was. She had been an emissary for the one of the alpha’s original packs, which basically is their advisor, but when Deucalion wanted to create his Alpha Pack, he wanted her killed-”
“When an alpha kills a member of their pack, they gain power. Each of the alphas literally slaughtered their packs just for power.” Stiles spit out the last word, a level of vehemence and anger something that Tony wasn’t necessarily expecting.
Scott frowned, looking at Stiles in concern; however the latter made no move to continue speaking. “Deucalion was their leader and the most powerful, so he told Kali to kill Jennifer, but she never made sure she was actually dead. The Nemeton kept her alive, it had power from…um,” He glanced towards Stiles, “Someone had died there recently. The small amount of power it had healed her but it made her a monster. She wanted revenge and she thought the only way she could get that was through the Nemeton’s power.”
“She didn’t know what she was messing with,” Stiles said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “She knew it had power but she didn’t know what it could do. I honestly don’t think anyone knew. She started making sacrifices, like I said earlier. She killed so many people. It was supposed to end with the Guardians and she took our parents. One by one.” His eyes grew glossy as he tried to blink his tears away.
“Anyways,” Scott took a deep breath, “She took them to the Nemeton and the only way for us to find them was to work as surrogate sacrifices. When we died, well, it was like a shared dream, I guess. We each saw when we encountered the Nemeton and it was on the same night. The night I got bitten.”
“We were all connected, I think that’s why it worked. Like I said, we knew what the consequences were, we knew we were giving power back to it.” Stiles said, “But we had to do what we did to save our parents. It was either us or them, it was going to be awakened regardless.”
The two exchanged a long glance, piquing Tony’s interest as he realized that while they shared some crucial information with them, they were still holding back. They were holding back a lot.
“You were bitten?” Loki asked, “I was under the impression that lycans were born, passed through the bloodline.”
The teenagers looked taken aback by the demi-god’s question, “Really? From all of that, that’s what you took from it?”
“Yes, I was bitten.” Scott ignored Stiles’ comment.
Loki and Thor stared at him, their stares scrutinizing, “I do not believe I have met a bitten lycan, they are unheard of in Asgard.”
“Yeah, probably because he’s more of a werewolf, not so much a lycan.”
“Yeah, I guess there’s a difference..?” Scott nodded his head, blinking his eyes to reveal the blood red iris.
Curiosity overtook Loki, cocking his head slightly, “An alpha?” He inquired.
“A true alpha.” A sly grin broke across Stiles' face.
“A true alpha,” Loki’s eyes continued to scan Scott, something flashing in the god’s eyes, “I don’t believe it.”
“What? What does that mean?” Sam asked and Tony could relate to his confusion. It seemed that the only ones who were on the same page were the two from a different universe and the two from another world. How fitting.
“A true alpha is incredibly rare in Asgard and even more so on Midgard,” Thor spoke, “Not even lycans are capable of achieving such…such power at such a young age, and how long have you been bitten?”
Scott looked over at Stiles, furrowing his eyebrows, “Hmm…I would say maybe about…oh wow, it’s already been a year.” His eyes widened slightly in shock. “I didn’t even realize with everything going on.”
“A year?” The god of thunder looked taken aback, “Loki, I-”
“Having the ability to gain such a title is an incredible feat, completely unheard of. It is entirely possible that whatever was capable of bringing the boys here was after this particular power,” Loki explained.
“Of course,” Stiles mumbled bitterly under his breath, “Power. It always comes down to power.”
“I don’t understand,” Rhodey shook his head, putting his hand up in an attempt to cut the conversation off for a moment, “What exactly is a true alpha?”
“Yeah, you’re gonna have to spell this out for us, none of this exists here,” Peter shook his head, “I literally have no idea what half of what you just said means.”
“A true alpha’s power is significant because it was not stolen or passed down,” Scott explained, “It was earned.”
“It takes an incredible act to gain this, similar to how a person has to die a heroic death to reach Valhalla,” Thor added on. His words sparked something in both boys, the two straightening up slightly.
“Okay,” Steve said slowly, “And how long ago was it that you guys woke the Nemeton?”
Scott looked thoughtful for a moment, “I don’t know, about four months ago? I think?”
“You think?” Bucky narrowed his eyes.
“Forgive us for not adding it to the anniversary calendar, we’ve kind of been dealing with a lot of shit recently.” Stiles scoffed.
“Like the deadpool?” The soldier continued, his stoney gaze set intensely on the two boys.
“God, you’re really stuck on that, huh?” The teen retorted.
“Deadpool?” Peter asked, looking surprised, “Like the merc?”
“The who?”
“No,” Tony was quick to shut that right the fuck down. He let out a large sigh, carding his fingers through his dark hair. Great, thank you Bucky for putting that into the open. He shot a glare at the man, “A literal deadpool, a kill list.”
“For money,” Steve shook his head in disappointment, “A lot of money.”
“Yeah, that tends to be how they work,” Clint commented, his eyes trailing to the two teenagers. “How they managed to get their names on a deadpool is more what I’m wondering.”
At this, Stiles let out a scoff, “Okay, let’s get this straight, I’m not on the deadpool. Just Scott,” And then bitterly, he added, “Among others.”
“Oh sweet Jesus.” Tony heard Rhodey mumble from beside him and he could only laugh. Sweet Jesus indeed.
Fluttering through his mound of papers, Stiles pulled a single sheet out, scanning whatever its contents were. “This is it,” He stated, laying it down on the table. Natasha was the first to scoop it up, the assassin’s features not betraying whatever she was feeling as she looked at it.
“Hey, I thought you said Tony didn’t give you that back.” Steve raised an eyebrow at the boy. Yeah, what the hell? Tony fixed him with a similar look.
“He didn’t.” Stiles supplied, “I wrote that one.”
“From memory?” Scott deadpanned, his eyes widening, only receiving a shrug in reply.
Tony leaned over, taking a look at the handwritten list in Natasha’s hands. Sure enough, he recognized some of the names that were scrawled on the paper, his eyes traveling over to the 25 million dollar symbol sitting beside Scott’s. God.
“How did this happen?” The spy asked curtly. “How did they get these names?”
Scott sighed, “We’re not exactly sure, we’ve kind of been working on figuring that out.” Everyone listened intently as the teenage boy went over the same things they had informed Tony and Steve about the day before. “But everyone on that list is…well, they’re something and we have no idea who the benefactor is.”
“117 million, holy shit.” Sam pulled the paper in his direction. “Can you trace the money?”
“We’ve tried that,” Stiles pointed out, “It’s all in bearer bonds, besides, they stole the money. Doesn’t matter where it’s from anyways.”
“From who?” Bruce questioned, the scientist looking awfully interested.
“Derek,” Scott answered, “He’s our friend.”
“Perhaps this deadpool is connected to who brought you here,” Thor said thoughtfully. “Tell me, what other events led up to your arrival?”
At this question, Scott and Stiles’ faces grew pale and Tony found himself realizing that he was getting tired of seeing this kind of horror on faces so young. These kids have obviously been through a lot and there was a sick feeling in Tony’s stomach that it was going to get worse before it got better.
“I know it may be hard to talk about, especially with people you barely know,” Sam said carefully, always the therapist, “But anything that could possibly figure this out is helpful in getting you two home.”
Stiles’ eyes were fixed on the table, his gaze stony, his mouth set in a tight line. His silence was honestly a little disconcerting, at least to Tony, as the boy had been the one to respond to their questions with knowledgeable answers.
“I don’t…” Scott cleared his throat, “I don’t think the details are necessary,” His gaze stayed on Stiles, the teenager obviously worried about his friend’s silence, “But whoever has this list, they’re after us. No matter who gets in the way.”
“How many of them are children?” He was shocked to find that it was Loki asking this question, the demigod now holding the paper in his hands. Oddly enough, he seemed shaken by it.
“Most of them,” The hispanic teen said, his voice thick.
A silence overcame the room as they absorbed the situation. Not only had the two teenagers been forcefully transported to a different universe, they happened to be dealing with a kill list that specifically targeted them and their friends. Among other things, apparently.
“When we arrived, I could feel that something was amiss here,” Loki spoke, cutting through the quiet air. Gesturing towards the paper, he continued, “This only furthers that feeling, the thickness of something in the air.”
Scott sat up a little straighter, looking at the demigod with furrowed eyebrows, “Of what?”
“Dread,” A new voice responded, catching everyone’s attention. They looked towards the entrance of the living area to find Wanda standing there with a solemn look on her face, Vision standing close behind her. “Melancholy.”
Both Scott and Stiles grew tense at the woman’s presence, their eyes focused on the two.
“Wanda, I-” Steve didn’t have a chance to continue as the young woman continued to speak, her voice carrying over his.
“I feel it too, before you two even arrived,” She shook her head, her Sokovian accent growing stronger as she spoke, “And when you got here, it only grew stronger. It is overwhelming.” Wanda took a deep breath, stepping closer, doing so slowly as to not cause any trouble. “I am so sorry.”
Tony took a moment to look from her to the boys, the two of them still unmoving. He didn’t feel the need to intervene just yet because while the incident last night was not anything he wanted repeated, he was past the point of seeing Wanda as a reckless threat. She had control on her powers now.
Right?
“What do you mean it’s overwhelming?” Scott asked carefully.
Swallowing hard, Wanda fiddled with the ends of her sleeves, “Everything,” She whispered, “I don’t know what came over me but everything I was hearing just got to me and I couldn’t help but ask.”
“Everything you were hearing?” Stiles asked, causing Tony to once again look over at him. The kid looked unbelievably stressed, shaking his leg rapidly.
“I can’t make out most of it but I kept hearing that name,” She sighed, “Usually I can just…turn it off, but every time I tried with you two, the voices only grew louder.”
“You’re in their heads.” Loki said flatly.
“Not purposely!” Wanda cried out, putting her hands to her ears. “I don’t want to be!”
“In our heads?” Stiles' voice broke slightly, horror evident in his tone.
“Oh god,” Peter whispered. Shit, shit, shit, this was going downhill fast. Tony could feel it.
“I’m not trying to be, I promise,” Wanda pleaded.
“She’s telling the truth.” Scott said firmly, “I can tell.”
This didn’t seem to calm Stiles down any, however. He still looked horrified, his face pale which only seemed to accentuate the dark circles under his eyes. It looked like he was mumbling something under his breath, his fingers tapping against each other, one by one.
“Fuck, I can’t do this right now.” He heaved, standing up in clear panic. The boy gave one look around the table and a final glance towards Wanda and Vision before he dashed out of the living area and down the hallway.
“I’m so sorry,” Wanda held her hands up, her eyes wide with unshed tears. “I didn’t want any of this to happen.”
For once, no one added their own commentary in. It wasn’t their apology to accept. Instead, everyone looked towards Scott, the kid staring in the direction of where Stiles had just disappeared into.
“I know,” He said softly, “He does too.”
“I think someone should go find him,” Both Steve and Sam made a move to stand up only for Scott to shake his head quickly.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” He said quickly, “I’ll talk to him after he calms down, I don’t think there’s anything that you could say that would help him.”
-
“I’m losing my fucking mind.” Stiles doubled over, his hands tangled in his hair as he sat beside the bed in his room. “I’m losing my fucking mind.” He repeated, his voice cracking.
He was tired of this feeling, he was tired of being scared. Even more so, he was tired of finding himself wishing that he still felt some semblance of power.
Power was overrated. Stiles knew that for sure. Hell, he had learned it the hard way.
But power had a way of making someone feel secure, making them feel like they were more than just a little speck of dust in the grand scheme of things, like they had control. Ever since his possession, Stiles couldn’t help but think about how for a while there in the beginning, he wasn’t scared. The strength and energy that had been running through his veins was enough to make him feel secure for the first time in a long time.
It had been so freeing only it didn’t last for long. Soon, that freedom was replaced with abject horror and that power was replaced with pain.
Stiles never talked about it, but the feeling of dying was something that stuck with him. The dread settled deep into his bones and grew with each cough and chill that ran through his body. His true self hadn’t been dormant in his possession, he felt everything. Every fight, every hit that came his way. His body ached but the Void didn’t feel pain. Only Stiles did.
He may have survived physically but the Nogitsune had taken something from him, something that he wasn’t ever sure if he would get back.
Stiles took in a deep, shuddery breath, trying to get his heart rate under control. He had been able to do it earlier, shove down his panic and at least attempt to get through the day without flipping his shit. The time between their conversation with Thor and Loki (and Wanda, Stiles squeezed his eyes impossibly tight at the thought) and his escape to his room for the night was long and tenuous.
To be honest, he couldn’t really recall much of what had happened throughout the day, only truly present when he had eaten lunch and dinner. He was aware of the concerned looks being shot in his direction, at his silence, but he hadn’t been able to question it. What could he possibly say? “I’m sorry I freaked the fuck out again over the thought of someone hearing what’s going on inside my head?”
Like that would go over well.
He whimpered softly, tightening his hold on his hair as he tried to bring himself out of his thoughts. Getting lost in what’s going on up there was only going to make him spiral more and Stiles wasn’t sure if he wanted to hit rock bottom right now. Not when he’s in some superhero secret headquarters. That would be embarrassing, right?
“Pull yourself together Stiles,” He muttered, repeating the mantra he had used earlier.
Scott had tried to talk to him earlier, to see if he was alright. He had been too tired to put in any real effort in lying to his best friend but he had just responded with an affirmative. If Scott didn’t push, that was his own choice.
“Pull yourself together.” He snapped, a little more viciously.
Stiles knew that he wasn’t alright but admitting that aloud was not something he could bring himself to do.
He sucked in a deep breath, willing his heart rate to stop being so fucking fast, biting down hard on his lip. Apparently his heart rate had been high enough to alert FRIDAY, who apparently could scan him through sensors on the fucking wall. She had suggested calling someone earlier, he didn’t want to have to talk her out of it again.
His fingers loosened their hold on his hair, his scalp slightly sore from the earlier force. Logically, he knew that hurting himself wasn’t the right thing to do but in the moments where he was feeling hopelessly insane, something echoed in his head;
“Pain makes you human.”
Scott had said that, when they were all losing their shit following the sacrifice, pulling himself away from transforming into whatever he was scared of. And it worked.
Stiles needed it to work too.
With a small cry, Stiles leaned back against the bed, dropping his head back, “Why is this happening to me?” He whispered.
He had hoped that some good could come out of their unwanted multiversal travel, that there was some chance he could crack the deadpool and figure out the who and the why. All the papers he had scribbled earlier were supposed to find these answers yet they were abandoned on the floor by the door of his room because he couldn’t keep himself together.
His hopes and wants really didn’t mean anything, as they were still being met with challenges that even his active imagination couldn’t think up. Ending up with literal superheroes, an explosion that ended up being an attempt to kidnap them, and now finding out that their mode of transportation was apparently the fucking Nemeton. He was never getting away from that fucking tree.
He blinked thoughtfully, the nerves not quite leaving his body, however they did lessen as his mind wandered to the Nemeton itself. Somehow, it was much more powerful than Stiles could have ever thought. The idea of it being a branch of Yggdrasil both fascinated and terrified him. How did a small town in California end up being centered around such a powerful entity?
Their sacrifice earlier in the year had been the source of its renewed power and they had been warned that it would become a beacon. He looked around, his eyes clouding as he formulated different theories in his head.
A beacon. Stiles had figured that it was strictly for supernatural creatures and the influx of things like wendigos and kitsunes that had been attracted to Beacon Hills had only supported this theory. However, with this new information, he wondered if the beacon extended further than just that.
Had someone been able to pick up on their signal? To peer into their world and somehow pick him and Scott out of it?
Stiles stood up, thoughts racing around in his head as he began to pace the floor with a renewed vigor. Say he was onto something and they had managed to attract someone in the multiverse, what exactly was it that pulled their attention to them specifically? Beacon Hills may be a small town but with the craziness going on, it was hard to believe that he and Scott had been pinpointed through a coincidence.
No, no, they were definitely targeted. The real question was why?
To be honest, he could think of a million reasons why someone could be after them. However, these reasons pertain specifically to their world. He wasn’t quite sure what kind of information could travel through the multiverse but whoever wanted them had to have been drawn to them for more than just their antics and questionable decisions.
They had to know something deeper about them.
His brows furrowed. There could really only be one thing that he and Scott shared that went deeper than anything. Eyes widening, Stiles came to an epiphany. He knew why they were here.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” He flinched, a yelp leaving his mouth as he spun around.
Before him, standing in his way of the door, was a little girl with freckled cheeks and big eyes. Dirt streaked both her forehead and the red blouse she was wearing, the girl staring up at him with an empty gaze.
“She’s going to be upset.” Her voice sounded almost robotic.
“W-Where did you come from?” He stumbled over his words, his terror breaking through his voice.
The little girl stepped forward, causing Stiles to skitter back. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this.” She said, her eyes unblinking. “You shouldn’t have done that.” This time, she spoke a lot more forcefully.
“D-Do what?” He questioned, “What’re you talking about?” This couldn’t be real, this can’t be real.
“You’re not following the rules!”
“What rules!” His voice was shaking. “I don’t know what you mean!”
“The rules of the game,” She insisted, growing closer to him. “You broke them.” Stiles stepped back until he couldn’t anymore, his chest heaving as his back pressed against the wall. The little girl kept her wide eyes on him, no emotion on her small face. “You broke the rules.”
“This isn’t real,” He frantically shook his head, sliding down the wall.“This is all just in my head.”
“You broke the rules!” She shouted, her pitch high. How was nobody else hearing this?
“Stop, stop!,” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force his hallucination to disappear. He had to have been severely sleep-deprived to be imagining things like this. Silence soon overcame the room and he took a deep breath. Was it over?
Slowly, the teenager opened his eyes, his vision blurry with unshed tears. The space in front of him, where the little girl had previously occupied, was now empty. Stiles’ chest relaxed with a wet laugh, she really hadn’t been real. He was just losing his mind. “Oh my god,” He said in relief, scrubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands.
It was a shame that he had been wrong, because just as Stiles uncovered his eyes, he didn’t have a chance to react to the small hand pressing against his forehead and the last thing he saw before everything went black was the little girl staring down at him.