To be defeated by a name

Chapter 9

"Why did you think you couldn't come home after Ibiza?" Derek asked, jumpstarting the conversation. Stiles took note of the fact that he was one of the only ones in the room who didn't look betrayed and Stiles knew he understood how he had felt after the ordeal after what had happened to his family, having left to go to New York for six years with Laura.

"I'm not gonna lie, the entire event changed me. I changed my name as a way to escape and that, in turn, meant that Stiles Stilinski was presumed dead. After getting out of the hospital I spent the next 18 months training myself in any way I could - physical combat, weapons training,  foreign languages, you think it, I did it. I'll admit that my entire mindset was pretty messed up at that point and during the time I was training I also made contact with the terrorists responsible for the attack and managed to get myself a meeting with the man responsible."

"What were you going to do to him?" Scott asked. Stiles laughed internally at his question as he could tell from the looks on everyone else's faces that they had figured that out for themselves.

"Kill him, Scott. I wanted him to die for what he had done." Stiles replied bluntly.

"But what about reasoning with him?" Scott questioned. Stiles could feel his blood beginning to boil. 

"Listen to me closely Scott. Men like Adnan Al-Mansur don't reason with people. They kill because of a cause and won't change their minds just because I 'talk' to them okay? The only way to stop men like that is to put a bullet through their heads before they put one in yours."

Stiles could see Scott was going to say something else, his no-kill mindset going into overdrive at the information he was being supplied with. Luckily Peter intervened.

"So did you manage it then?" He asked, something like pride shining in his eyes.

"No. I infiltrated their base but US special forces ambushed us and one of them managed to put a bullet in his head before I reached him. Turned out I had been on their radar for a while and had used me to get in a place they hadn't managed to infiltrate with years of experience on their belts." He answered. He didn't bother to keep the bitterness from his voice since he knew the werewolves would be able to smell it on him anyway.

"After that, I went through a debriefing with the CIA and after days of going over the same things repeatedly, what happened to get me there and everything that had happened to me in the past - since they had managed to pull up records of my real name and everything that has happened in Beacon Hills - I was sent to a training facility in the middle of nowhere to be trained with a bunch of other recruits by a man named Stan Hurley. Since I completed my training I have been part of a black-ops unit named Orion which specialises in counter-terrorism."

Stiles had got the all-clear from Irene on the drive down on the disclosure of his job and team since she knew he didn't trust easily and believed in his judgement. He knew he could trust his friends to keep this to themselves, after all they had been through together, betraying his trust now would be like a stab in the heart.

"How did Lydia know you were alive?" Chris asked next, thankfully skirting around the whole implied assassin business.

Stiles locked eyes with Jackson and after a brief nod from the latter, he answered the question.

"Around 4 months ago I had a day off and used it to go to the cinema where I happened to bump into Jackson of all people. Since then we have been meeting up once a month as a way for me to find out how you have all been and then, a couple of days ago we met up again and Lydia, having followed Jackson to find out where I was going, inadvertently discovered I wasn't dead."

"How could you keep this from us, Jackson?" Scott then demanded, face red in anger as he turned to face the beta.

"Look Jackson didn't have a choice okay? I pretty much threatened his life if he spoke about it with any of you."

"You didn't want us to know that bad huh?" Malia's betrayed expression had Stiles feeling like he was causing more pain than he intended by telling them all of this.

"It's not that I didn't want you to know but more that I didn't think I could face you after all this time. We all know that you would have come looking for me if Jackson told you and I wasn't ready then. Not like I am now." He admitted honestly, not wishing to lie to the pack any more than he already had.

"Which is all thanks to me I'll have you know," Lydia exclaimed, causing Stiles to smile despite himself.

Stiles knew, just because they were all happy to have him back, he would have to work at getting the pack's trust back, after all, he had let them all think he was dead for 4 years and had come back a very different person than he had started as. Scott especially, knowing how hurt his brother was by his death and needing to come to terms with who Stiles was now and what he did as a living.

Coming back was never going to be easy.