Derek Hale Imagines

The War Carries On

War is coming to Beacon Hills.

You love that you still say that in a tone of surprise, as if this very town has not always been at the brink of a vast and impassible precipice, as if you have not spent every waking moment waiting for the shoe to drop, the fighting to begin. Tension coils itself around every crack in the sidewalk, every cinder block in every building. There has never been a Beacon Hills without war, and there never will be.

Does that stop you from fighting, then, knowing it's all for nothing? Never. In a way, you suppose that makes you just as bad as The Enemy for never putting down your weapons. You'll fight this battle until you're old and gray, if they haven't killed you by that point, and then you'll direct some other bright new thing to go on fighting in your stead. That way, the wheels will keep on turning, and no one will ever be able to truly rest.

You're already seeing the second iteration of this, the latest wave in an endless tide of battles and fights, bleeding and falling and dying. The hunters are coming back for another cycle, and it's up to you and your friends to either stop them or hold out long enough to force someone else to sacrifice themselves for you. It wouldn't be the first time.

You're in the special position of getting to walk the wire between the two sides. As a human, you're not supernatural enough to elicit a bloody death at the hands of Gerard Argent and his goons, but the fact that you've already sworn to save your werewolf and banshee friends means that you'll never be normal enough to blend back into the background.

Basically, you're only a target so long as you're seen. Right now, you get to be a spy of sorts, ducking into meetings of hunters at the high school or eavesdropping on weapons deals as if you were well and truly ordinary in the mind as well as the body.

You've done it before, and you'll do it again. You've spent enough time on this side of the conflict that you volunteer your time without a second's hesitation. If Scott McCall hears about an altercation on the other side of the forest that's too dangerous for any wolf to visit, you know where you'll be spending your midnights on watch duty. If there's a gathering of foes in a building blocked off by mountain ash, you can already count on spending another afternoon breaking and entering.

It has never fazed you much, this rampant disregard for your own safety. It's what you can do best, after all, and if you aren't in danger in the public front because you don't respond to wolfsbane like your friends, you can at least be of some good. It makes sense to all involved.

All, that is, except Derek Hale. Perhaps this is what comes with dating the young man for three years now, but every time Stiles or somebody volunteers your help in the ever growing conflict against the hunters, Derek always seems to stand up and argue you out of it. You clearly don't mind, but it's only upon hearing your decisive opinion in favor of the latest risky venture that Derek ever backs off.

He's complaining again today at yet another one of the McCall pack meetings. Gerard Argent has caught on to Scott's tactics of listening in to his weapons deals to get a better sense of what attacks the hunters are planning, and the older man has moved the exchange to the town hall. The air vents are running wolfsbane through the air at a constant rate, so nobody can get in.

Nobody supernatural, that is. You're the perfect candidate, and so it goes without saying that you'll be sneaking in and taking notes on what the Argents are saying. The idea has scarcely been raised, however, before Derek interrupts.

"Not a chance. If the hunters are already resorting to these kinds of tactics, they know we're coming. We can't send Y/N into a death trap, especially not by herself."

Lydia lifts a shoulder. "Well, we have to send somebody. Y/N won't die upon breathing, that's a point in her favor."

Derek's eyes narrow. "Not the point. You can't keep using her as a canary in a coal mine every time it suits you. If it's too dangerous for the rest of you, it's too dangerous for her."