Chapter Text
Scott McCall hadn't seen his best friend in over a year.
Not since they fought the Nogitsune, not since Allison died, not since Void Stiles disappeared and took the real Stiles with him.
The pack searched for him, of course they did. But the Nogitsune never got caught when it wasn't part of his plan.
At first they all thought he'd turn up eventually, strike again when they didn't expect it. That didn't happen, though. Days passed, weeks, then months.
New threats appeared in Beacon Hills, the deadpool, the berserkers and Kate. Scott and his pack had to face these threats without Stiles.
Life had to go and on. That didn't mean that they ever stopped looking for him, that they didn't tell all of their allies, everyone they could trust who left Beacon Hills, to look out for him. Argent, Isaac, Derek, Ethan, Braeden, even Jackson. Scott begged all of them, if they ever saw Stiles again, to contact him immediately.
But they didn't find anything. Every once in a while there would be a trace, someone would call Sheriff Stilinski's hotline, thinking they had seen someone who matched Stiles' description, or there would be a case that looked like something like the Nogitsune could've been involved, but nothing ever came of it.
Scott tried hard to not give up hope but it was virtually impossible when they hadn't even been sure how much of Stiles was left before he disappeared. Now, an entire year later, Scott wasn't sure if he wanted to find whatever Stiles had turned into. But he knew he had to, he owed it to him.
A part of him didn't believe it anymore, with every wrong clue, every trail that led nowhere, he lost hope that he'd ever find out what happened to Stiles. He could feel himself turning cynical, he didn't want to but he could still feel it, every time they found something new he already expected nothing to come of it.
So when Chris Argent called him, talking about how he might've found something, Scott didn't really believe it. Still, he told his pack about it, and they followed Argent to the location he named.
Scott didn't tell Sheriff Stilinski about their plan. They had too many false alarms, too many crushing disappointments. Stiles' dad was barely keeping it together as it was, Scott wasn't sure if he'd survive another dead end.
So they all piled into Scott's car which used to be Stiles'. Scott started driving the jeep a while ago, for some reason he was ridiculously attached to that old thing, maybe because Stiles used to be. Maybe Scott was trying to keep it warm for Stiles, if... No... For when he came back.
They drove up north towards the Canadian boarder. The coordinates Argent gave them lead them through forests and mountains until they arrived at the narrow end of a lonely road.
Argent was waiting for them, leaned against his own car. Scott wondered where they'd go from here, the road ended here but they didn't seem to be... anywhere. There was nothing but trees around them.
They all got out of the jeep, approaching the older man. Scott hadn't seen Argent in almost a year. He left shortly after Allison's death, not too long after it became clear that Stiles wouldn't come back.
He looked older and rougher. Grief and loss could do that to you and few people had lost as much as Chris Argent. The expression on his face was heavy, tired, but also focused. He was determined. The machine gun in his arms said that he was preparing for a battle.
"Scott, took you long enough to get here.", the man greeted, his voice neither nice nor rude. It was a neutral statement.
"Are we allowed to ask were 'here' is? Because 'here' looks suspiciously like 'nowhere' right now.", Lydia pointed out sharply. After the Sheriff and Scott, Stiles' disappearance probably hit her the most.
Scott didn't pretend that he ever understood what was going on with Stiles and Lydia. Sure, Stiles used to be in love with her, had been for years and Lydia used to ignore him for almost just as long. But Scott knew that they had grown closer over the years, he watched it happen. And then Stiles disappeared.
Lydia spend countless days holed up in her grandmother's lake house, trying to get a clue about Stiles' whereabouts, or if he was even alive. That's the thing, they were convinced that if Stiles had died, Lydia would've known, but none of them knew if that also applied to Stiles' soul dying. Maybe their friend was long gone but Lydia couldn't tell because the Nogitsune still walked around in his body. Maybe she'd never feel him die.
"This is where the street ends, Wicked's facility can only be reached from the air. On foot you usually get lost in the woods. Unless...", Argent explained, looking to Scott.
"Unless you have a werewolf that can follow a scent.",Malia finished and Argent nodded along.
"What's Wicked and why do you think they have Stiles?", Scott asked. Argent hadn't given him a whole lot of details, the other man was quite paranoid about communicating when there was a record of it.
"Wicked is a hunter collective. They aren't a family, more like a company. They are quite extreme and my family rarely associated with them-", Argent started to explain and Scott wondered what they could've done to be even too hardcore for the Argents.
"They don't just hunt and kill, they capture, enslave and experiment.", Argent went on and Scott felt a pit in his stomach.
"A former associate of mine used to work with them and from him I got intel on their latest project. They kidnapped supernatural teens all over the country, some even in other parts of the world. Werewolfs, vendigos, kitsunes, werejaguars, banshees. Whatever you can think of."
"What did they do to them?", Malia asked and Scott could hear her heart race. His own was doing the same. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good, especially if Stiles was involved with them.
"I don't know. But knowing them, it's nothing good. Wicked's mission statement used to be about finding a cure for the supernatural. That's how they used to justify the experiments. But now... It's about weaponization. About using the powers of your people for their benefit.", Argent told them and it was obvious by his tone that he was disgusted with their practices.
"And we're going to break into their facility? How do we even know if they have Stiles?", Liam asked, his voice shaky, uncertain. He smelled anxious. He was only here for Scott, he had never met Stiles, only heard stories.
"We don't. But my associate told me that they got their hands on a Nogitsune possessing a human boy. How probable is it that there is more than one?",Argent asked, the question obviously rhetoric. Nogitsune's were incredibly rare, especially ones that fit Stiles' description. Scott didn't dare hope, not yet. But he'd lie if he said that a part of him didn't want to believe that he'd be here.
"So we're going in there. ", Kira stated, looking up at Scott.
Scott focused his eyes on the forest ahead of them. "Yes. We're going."
They had to walk for a while. An hour, maybe more. Scott was following the scent of everything that wasn't the forest. Anything human or artificial. Until they arrived at a single warehouse in the middle of nowhere.
The building looked like a huge grey block of concrete, just dropped in the middle of the woods.
Scott lead them inside, going ahead. They all kept their ears open for any signs of life but there wasn't anything. The hallways were lit but empty, the AC was still on and there were computers still switched on but there were no people. Someone had definitely been there recently but it looked like they had all left in a hurry.
"It's abandoned.", Kira whispered as they made their way through the hallways and Scott tried to keep his heart rate steady. He didn't want to think about the possibility of missing Stiles by days, maybe hours. Apparently Lydia felt the same.
"How old is your intel?", she asked Argent, narrowing her eyes at him.
"A day, not older. I called you as soon as I heard. ", Argent replied, looking just as puzzled as them.
"What were they doing here?", Malia asked, looking at a shelf along the wall. It carried neat rows of jars filled with the strangest things. Claws, fangs, scales, organs that Scott couldn't name. It made Scott sick.
"Guys?", Lydia called out. Scott hadn't noticed her wandering off but now she was two hallways away.
"Lydia?", Scott yelled back, following after her until he found her, facing an open door. That's when he heard them, the heart beats.
"Guys, I found them.", Lydia whispered, looking over to them. They all followed her through the door into a large room filled with dozens of tables, each carrying a person.
It was haunting, the only lights in the room came from the monitors that were connected to the bodies. The only sounds were their beeping.
"Are they dead? ", Kira whispered, her eyes looking around, horrified.
Lydia was the first to wake from her frozen state, making her way inside, walking from body to body looking at the monitors. "No, they're alive, they're... Comatose.", She explained, eyebrows pulled together into a frown.
"Not all of them.", Scott commented, following her in. There had to be more than thirty bodies but he could only hear 9 heartbeats. The rest were dead. Dread settled in Scott's stomach.
Slowly they all piled inside and started to walk through the rows and rows of bodies. Scott noticed that they were all male except for one girl and they were all around his own age. They were also all incredibly meager, like they were starved, even though they were all connected to breathing and nutrition tubes. Even the ones that were still alive looked like they should be dead.
The ones that were actually dead... Well, they didn't look much different.
"He's here! Stiles is here!", Kira suddenly called out and Scott's hear skipped a beat. He tore his eyes off the dead body he was staring at and hurried over to Kira,they all did, gathering around a table with a boy on it. It was startling how much he didn't look like himself, Scott barely recognised him. His skin was deadly pale, his body looked frail and brittle, but his heartbeat was strong. He was alive, thank god, he was alive.
Scott hadn't believed that he'd ever see his best friend again. Not really.
"What's wrong with them, what were they doing to them?", Malia asked, reaching for one of the tubes that lead down Stiles' throat.
"Don't touch him. We don't know what killed the others, maybe they're on life support. ", Argent warned them and Malia jerked her hand back.
"We can't just leave them like this.", Kira argued, looking around aimlessly.
"Give me a minute, guard the entrances. ", Lydia stated. She had moved to a computer by the entrance of the room and started to look through it. Liam followed her orders, taking a spot by the door, keeping watch.
"What've you got there?", Argent asked, taking a look at the screen as well.
"Their files. ", Lydia replied, her eyes scanning through the text on the screen at lightning speed. "It seems to be some sort of simulation. They're keeping them comatose and in a drug induced fever dream of sorts. I don't exactly understand the science behind it but they're all sharing a hyper realistic hallucination.", She then explained after reading through the files for a moment.
"For what?", Scott asked. What was the point?
"I don't know... But...I think I know what happened to the bodies. They seem to flatline if they die in the simulation.", Lydia added looking up, her eyes wandering from corpse to corpse.
"Can we stop the simulation, though? Can we take them off the drugs?", Malia asked, her eyes resting on Stiles.
"I think so. ", Lydia replied, not sounding all that convincing.
"You think so?", Scott repeated, raising his eyebrows.
"Do I look like I'm a scientist? ", Lydia snapped and Scott pressed his lips together.
"You're the closest thing we've got.",Kira pointed out and Lydia looked to her, then at Stiles and then she let out a heavy sigh. She pulled her hands through her hair, shaking her head slightly.
"I don't know what else to do. Letting the simulation run it's course might just lead to more of them dying. ", she then explained so it was decided. It was time to wake them up.
They removed the IV's, tubes and electrical sensors from the ones that were still alive. One by one, until they looked like they were just sleeping.
"It might take some time for them to wake up. ", Lydia stated once they were all done. She was standing in front of Stiles. She had taken one of his hands into hers. "Do you really think it's going to be him? When he wakes up, I mean.", she then asked, looking to Scott.
"I don't know. All we can do is wait. ", Scott admitted and Lydia nodded slightly, not taking her eyes off of Stiles.
They didn't have to wait for long. The other boys woke up quickly. Judging by the scent, they were all different supernatural creatures and they burned through the sedatives quickly.
The first one to wake up was a boy with jet black hair and broad shoulders who looked like he might be Korean. He jerked a few times before opening and closing his eyes several times.
Kira was the first to notice. "Hey, he's awake-", she called out before the boy suddenly sat up, taking a gasping breath.
"Where am I?! What's-", he gasped out his chest heaving, his eyes looking around wildly. "Who are you?!", he asked Scott when he rushed over.
"We're friends, we're here to help-", Kira tried to explain but she got cut off by another boy waking up several rows away.
"Minho-", the other boy yelled, rolling off the table and stumbling towards them. He was tall and lanky, with blond hair and large panicked eyes.
"Newt?!", The black-haired boy, apparently his name was Minho, yelled out, jumping off the table and whipping his head around until he saw the other one. They both ran towards each other but Scott could see how their eyes wandered, they had no idea where they were or what was going on. The stench of their panic was everywhere around them and it just got worse and worse the more of them woke up. They all seemed to know each other but none of them seemed to recognise their surroundings.
"Where's Thomas?!",the blond boy, Newt, asked, his tone sharp and volatile. Him and Minho were both glaring at Scott, maybe they sensed that he was the Alpha.
"Who are you?!", Minho snapped.
"Thomas?!", the girl yelled out and Minho and Newt's heads snapped around. They both rushed to her side but it was quite obvious that adrenalin was the only thing keeping them going for now, and it was quickly running out.
"Teresa?", Minho asked, helping the brunette girl off her table. She seemed pretty out of it, still. Just barely standing on her own two feet.
"Where's Thomas?! What did they do to him?", She asked weakly, but equally distressed.
Scott wished that he could do something to help but they knew none of their names and with all of them yelling. Things were quickly descending into chaos.
"Listen, we just got here, we don't know your names yet, but whoever you're looking for, he might be-", Scott tried to explain but they boy called Newt didn't seem to listen to him. He started to limb through the rows of tables, seemingly searching for a specific face. Then he froze.
"Tommy!", he yelled and then he threw himself at the only person that wasn't awake yet. Stiles.
"Get your hands off him!", Lydia snapped, still holding onto Stiles' hand and Scott didn't even get the chance to ask why the boy called their friend Tommy because in that moment Stiles' body jerked up and he took a gasping breath, pulling his eyes open.
He started to cough and tremble, Scott could see him jerk his hand out of Lydia's.
"Stiles?!", Lydia called at the same time as Newt asked:"Thomas?"
They both looked at each other, totally confused as Stiles struggled to catch a breath. His eyes shot around frantically, until they found Newt's and Scott could tell that seeing him calmed Stiles. He wrapped his arms around the other boy, slipping off the table. Both looked like they were seconds away from collapsing but their eyes were sharp as they glared at Scott and his pack.
"Stiles? You're save. You hear me? You're okay, we found you.", Scott tried to calm him but Stiles' panic only mixed with confusion and with a shock Scott realized: Stiles looked at them with no recognition in his eyes. He had no idea who they were. His best friend had forgotten all about him.
"What the hell is a Stiles?", the boy asked, a confused frown on his face. Seemingly he had also forgotten about himself.