Work Text:
The walls close in around Theo as he runs, skidding around another corner of the hospital. He hears a voice from every direction, soft singsong whispers sending chills up his spine with every echo. When he reaches the elevator, he spams the button. This is his hell, he can control this, it’s-
A hand punches through his chest, ribs fracturing and body freezing as it draws back, tearing his heart out with it. He can’t breathe, can’t move, hitting the ground with no support, feeling nothing at all when his head slams against the marble. Tara’s standing above him, heart clenched and dripping in her hand, face emotionless as she stares down at him.
He can’t apologize. It wouldn’t matter anyway. The words die in the space where his heart should be.
He wakes back in the dark, surrounded by cold metal. It doesn’t matter anyway. No one’s coming to end my hell this time.
---
“He’s been like this for a week, why isn’t he waking up?” Liam demands.
Scott sighs. “We’ve tried everything. I can’t get into his head the normal way, the doctor’s have done what they can, and whatever caused this is nowhere to be found.”
Liam collapses in the chair next to Theo’s hospital bed, where the chimera has been laying, unmoving, for the longest seven days of Liam’s entire life. In the middle of the night, he’d woken to a mournful howl, leading him to a run down factory at the edge of town, where he found Theo in the back of the truck, asleep. When he tried shaking him awake, it didn’t work. Calling Scott at nearly three in the morning isn’t his proudest moment, but he panicked.
“Malia and Peter are searching the preserve right now,” Scott says gently. “They caught the trail of something last night and will do whatever they can. When they catch up to it, we’ll do what it takes to get Theo back, I promise.”
“What if there’s nothing to be done,” he murmurs.
He believes Scott, always does. A promise from a true alpha is one of those things that’s impossible not to trust. If there’s a way to save Theo, he and the rest of the pack will do it.
The same pack who Theo once tore apart is coming together to save his life. He’s one of their own, and if Liam’s learned anything, it’s that losing a member of one’s pack is worse than losing a limb. Malia spends almost every hour of the day in the preserve; Lydia pushes her banshee abilities to their breaking point; Stiles and Derek contact everyone they’ve ever met for answers; Peter and Argent search every bit of family - both families - research they have; Liam skips every day of school to sit with Theo in the hospital, until he falls asleep, head leaning into the chimera’s side.
He’s never felt so close to and distant from Theo and his pack at the same time.
His eyes trail Theo’s pale, sweaty skin, at the machine’s monitoring his vitals, the hospital gown clinging to his lifeless body. The chimera’s taken more risks for Liam in the months after pulling him from his underground prison than anyone else. He throws himself in front of danger and death like his only goal is to protect Liam and not himself. When it counted, Liam couldn’t do the same for him. Hell, he never knew Theo was sleeping in his truck all this time.
The heart rate monitor spikes and falls, chemosignals shifting rapidly like they’ve done every day. Whatever’s going on in Theo’s head, it’s scaring the hell out of him.
---
Theo makes it to another floor of the hospital this time, locking himself in an exam room and throwing a chair through the window, glass shattering across the ground. The chair hits vertical bars and disappears. He jumps up on the table and rattles at one of the bars. Just beyond is the McCall’s living room, the pack sitting in a circle on the floor with snacks, talking and laughing amongst themselves.
He hits the bar again. None of the pack looks up, and the metal doesn’t budge. He slides off the table, taking a few steps back. Fuck. I need to get out before Tara finds me.
Tara is behind him when he turns to leave. The laughter of the pack trickles out of earshot. That’s a joy he’s never been a part of, and never will. He doesn’t have time to beg before his heart is torn out and he’s waking up in the dark. Alone again.
---
Liam swirls the glass, blue liquid at the bottom shimmering in the fluorescent lighting. He glances up at Deaton. “This smells like shit.”
“I visited an old friend who’s dealt with a similar problem,” the vet says. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but that will get you into Theo’s dream. You’ll have as much time as you need, unless you die, then you’ll wake up.”
“Are you sure about this?” Scott asks. “I’m meant to call Stiles in a few minutes, he may have found something we can try instead. This seems risky, for both of you.”
Liam shakes his head. “We don’t know how long he can stay like this.” He adjusts in his chair and takes Theo’s hand like Deaton told him to. The chimera’s skin is freezing. He takes a breath and lifts the glass to his lips. “This is going to work. I don’t care about the risks.”
He tips his head back, downing the bitter drink in one swig. Both Scott and Deaton watch intently as he sets the glass on the side table and wipes his mouth. Nothing’s changed.
“How long does this take?” he asks, rubbing his eyes. The fluorescent lights are off, the room illuminated by dark blue light from behind hazy windows. Everything else is the same, save for his alpha and vet nowhere in sight, his hand on the bed holding nothing.
The door creaks open. “Theo?”
When no one answers, he gets out of the chair and slinks towards the doorway. The hospital is always busy, sometimes to a point he can’t be around all the noise. Nothing is quite as creepy as silence .
A bang resonates from down the hall, shoes squeaking on the floor. There’s another person here.
Liam steps out of the room and collides with someone, both hitting the ground. The other scrambles away and to their feet, chemosignals uncontrolled and heart pounding.
“How are you here?”
Hearing Theo’s voice and seeing him awake makes up for every night of restless sleep he’s had every night. The chimera is pressed back against the wall, eyes fixed on Liam’s, chest rapidly rising and falling. He’s covered in dirt, his tight black shirt rolled up to his elbows to reveal bruises up and down his forearms.
Liam gets to his feet but doesn’t approach, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “I’m here to get you out of here.”
“ Theeeeo~”
A voice trails through the halls and both boys freeze at the sound.
“You can’t be here,” the chimera says shakily. “ Run. ”
History repeats itself, as it so often does. They sprint down the halls of the hospital, away from whatever voices are beckoning Theo towards it. When they reach the elevator and Liam starts hitting the button, desperately hoping the dream-hospital pays their electric bills, a hand tugs him back, pulling him to Theo’s side.
Down the hall is a figure. Not a person, a shape, a cluster of shadows moving inch by inch, knocking out every little light it passes. Red eyes pierce the darkness, the only mark separating it from a trick of the light.
Liam doesn’t realize he’s clutching Theo’s arm until the figure vanishes into smoke and he looks over at the chimera, frozen in place, tears slipping down his face.
“What-”
He grunts in pain when something goes through his chest, searing pain erupting through his entire body. Theo screams something Liam doesn’t hear, looking up into the cold eyes of a dead looking woman, dark brown hair and torn clothes soaking wet and dripping to the marble. Her hand wrenches back. His gasp doesn’t come out. She’s holding his heart.
“Tara no, ” Theo yells desperately, catching Liam as he sways, pressing their bodies tight together. “ Please, let him go, there are people who still need him. Just kill me .” His final word comes out as a broken sob as Liam’s eyes shudder closed.
He wakes with a gasp, hands coming to clutch at his chest. His knees hit the ground. Someone catches him underneath the shoulders before he can completely collapse. Scott kneels in front of him, brushing the sweaty hair from his eyes.
“What three things cannot long be hidden?”
“She took my heart,” Liam says, breathless. “She… Tara. She ripped it out and I died, ” his words catch at the back of his throat. “ Fuck, that’s his sister. She’s killing him over and over.”
Scott helps him back into the chair. Next to him, Theo hasn’t moved, but the monitor is beeping so incessantly there’s barely a break between tones. Nausea sweeps over his body as he presses harder against his own chest, able to feel his heart beating underneath his palm.
Heart is still here, I’m alive. I’m alive.
“What did you see?” Deaton asks.
“Red eyes,” Liam murmurs. “Red eyes and shadows, that turned into Tara and killed me. I was in the hospital, just empty and dark, everything blue for some reason.”
Deaton hums. “I know what we’re dealing with.”
“What?”
“An Oneiroi. I’ve never heard of one found outside of Europe, they’re rare even there.” He sighs. “Most aren’t problems, humans can barely pick up their presence, but some choose not to create warm and happy dreams. They’ve found that negative emotions give them the most power, and using nightmares draws out the worst feelings in people. They latch onto an emotionally vulnerable person, and once they have nothing left to take, the person dies.”
Oh God. “How do we stop it?”
“You have to keep Theo from falling any further into himself. If the Oneiroi gets him to believe there’s only nightmares left for him in his future, there’s nothing we can do to bring him back.”
“Not an option,” Liam says stiffly. “Put me back under.”
---
Believing anyone but Tara is looking for him is a silly wish. Down every hall, he sees glimpses of Liam, but when he approaches, the beta runs away. He’s afraid of him.
And god, Theo can’t blame him but he hates himself for it nonetheless.
The hospital stretches endlessly, every corner he turns to another hall, then another. He could be going in circles and wouldn’t care. He’s abandoning his werewolf senses to search out his sister, keeps moving forward in this hope he’ll lose her long enough to be alone for just a second. A second’s warning of his imminent death by her hands is more of a pain than a comfort.
This time when he runs into Liam, he doesn’t end up on his back on the ground. Instead, he’s caught around the waist, other hand coming up to cradle his face and draw him in for a searing kiss.
Alarm bells and warning signs go off. Liam would never, this is fake.
He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care if his unrequited crush gets him killed. At least he can die thinking there’s at least one person who would mourn for him. His hands drag Liam’s mouth further into his own, like the closer they are, the less it’ll hurt when they pull away. The sun doesn’t burn as bright as Theo’s entire being with every shift of their bodies against each other.
For a brief second, his heart feels like his own instead of someone else’s, his own instead of something he stole.
The feeling is fleeting.
He’s shoved back, the smile on Liam’s face something akin to his own when he revealed himself as a chimera to the McCall pack. Back then, it felt so good. Now, it’s devastating, watching the cruel joy flicking in the beta’s eyes.
“Theo!”
His attention snaps to the side, to… Liam? There’s a tear in the center of his shirt, above his heart. Tara ripped out his heart. She killed him instead of me. The Liam before him is still smiling, glancing between the newcomer and Theo’s frightened expression.
“It’s so easy to tempt you with what you want who doesn’t want you in return,” he teases. “You know I don’t love you like you love me, right? You know it’s a trick, a manipulation, you fell right into it. Anything more than friendship is out of convenience, not feelings.”
“That’s not true,” Liam yells, approaching the two cautiously, blue eyes not leaving Theo’s. “You have to know that by now.”
Next to him, Liam - the one he kissed - scoffs. “We’re in hell, Theo. Everything is carefully planned, calculated, a trick. Anything you’re given that you want will be taken away.” His hand skims up Theo’s arm, fingers twisting in his short hair. A shiver goes up his spine. There’s a dull red in Liam’s eyes instead of the piercing blue he’s fallen into so many times. “Tell me, if he said he loved you, would you believe him?”
He glances desperately between the two Liams, between the boy standing with a hand extended to him and the one with an arm clinging to his waist. For someone who spent so much of his life manipulating others, the trick takes him an embarrassingly long time to see.
“He’s not real,” Theo mumbles. “Liam doesn’t love me.”
“Correct!” the red-eyed Liam exclaims. “Because you’re where?”
“In hell.”
“In a dream.” Theo looks to the other Liam, hand still out towards him, body tensed so hard he’s quivering where he stands. “You’re in a dream. That’s not me, it’s a spirit trying to take something from you.”
The arm around his waist tightens, a finger turning his face to the Liam clinging to him. “And what am I taking from you? What do you have left?”
Theo can’t feel his heart anymore. Tara hasn’t stolen it. He never had one. Never had a heart, a pack, real werewolf abilities, the closeness to another person he so desperately craves. The soft touches against him right now are empty. This is his hell, a palace of his memories. Another person can’t be holding onto him with anything but lies because that’s all he is, the only thing he’s ever had for himself . No one has laid a hand on him out of anything but malice. Not his parents, not the dread doctors or his chimera pack.
And certainly not Liam.
“What do you have left?” Liam asks again, brushing his lips across Theo’s throat. The other growls at the movement, but doesn’t make a move towards them. “Tell me, and you can go with him, the Liam who claims to love you but doesn’t exist.”
A groan escapes his mouth as he tilts his head back, fangs grazing his neck above where a heartbeat should be racing, but isn’t. There isn’t a werewolf alpha in the world who’d do this, claim him and make him into more than a broken experiment.
None of this is real.
“You love him, don’t you?” Liam murmurs, lips pressed to his collarbone. “He freed you from Tara when you were useful, and sent you back to her when you were no longer.” He chuckles, hand around his waist tugging their chests together. He can feel Liam’s heart beating, but not his own. “You took how many bullets for him, made yourself the bait how many times, and in turn he hasn’t taken a single step to stop any of this.”
“Theo, please, I do love you, so much but he’s-” blue-eyed Liam’s mouth snaps shut, arm falling to his side. His offer is gone. His love is fleeting, leaving so fast it’s like it was never there.
Liam hums against his throat, he can feel him smiling against his skin. “It was never there.”
It’s then he realizes he’s crying. A gentle hand brushes his tears away, but Liam’s smile isn’t warm or soothing, it’s what he still recognizes as his own. He doesn’t care enough anymore, kissing the beta again, lips wet from his fallen tears. Nothing here is real. Neither of the Liam’s are here. It’s his mind giving him hope to crush when Tara appears to reset the loop.
When Liam pulls away, thumb on his chin and other four fingers at his throat, he knows the answer. He knows what he has left. All three of them know it.
“What do you have left?” Liam asks, claws extending, digging into the base of his throat. It doesn’t hurt when he knows it should. Why should anything hurt, though? He’s already dead and in hell. His thumb sweeps across Theo’s bottom lip, teasing. “You’re here. So, what does that mean?”
He lets go. He has nothing left.
“It means I’m alone,” he croaks out. “It means I have nothing.”
Liam’s grin widens, the other version of him yelling something muffled. The arm around his waist finally pulls away, and he nearly cries out at the loss. “That’s a good boy,” Liam purrs. “And you’re right. You have nothing.” He steps away from Theo, eyes flaring red. “Thank you.”
Silence falls. In a blink, Liam is gone. Both are.
He’s alone.
With nothing.
When pain starts splitting open his heartless chest, he falls to the ground, curling in on himself with a sob. Tears clump his lashes when they flutter shut, hospital fading to black for the last time.
He who has nothing leaves nothing behind.
No one’s mourning him.
---
Liam wakes up on the ground with a scream. There’s someone at his side, sitting him up and wrapping him in a fierce hug. He holds on for dear life, sobbing. It’s Scott, whispering his mantra over and over, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how welcoming the scent of his alpha is, how commanding his voice is.
The Oneiroi of Theo’s nightmare beat him. It kept him from moving, from speaking, so it could taunt Theo, pulling him close and kissing him like Liam never knew he wanted. Getting out the few words he did, fighting through the creature’s control, wasn’t enough in the end.
He wasn’t strong enough to save Theo.
A high pitched mechanic whine filled the air. Scott gets Liam to his feet, pulling him away from Theo’s bedside as nurses rush into the room. Through teary eyes, he sees the unmoving line on the monitor.
Theo’s hand is lying palm up at his side, his fingers twitching before stilling.
The flurry of activity in the room stops.
Someone says the time.
Liam’s own heart is crawling up to his throat, nausea building in his body. He can hear Scott’s heartbeat, Deaton’s and the nurses’ in the room, speaking softly to Scott.
He can’t hear Theo’s heart.
It’s gone.
He’s gone.