"Welcome to your life!
There's no turning back,
Even while you sleep.
We will find you actin' on
Your best behavior.
Turn your back on
Mother Nature.
Everybody wants to rule the world!"
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She was restless. From the second she made it safely inside her family's new house, she was set on edge. She vaguely remembered her mother briefly asking her how the party was and she's pretty sure she said it was fine, but her mind was racing so fast that she may not have said anything at all. All she remembered was rushing upstairs to her room and locking her door before she got dressed into some pajamas and tried to get some sleep.
* * *
On Saturday morning, she got up, got dressed, grabbed her car keys and her purse, and headed out of the door, only stopping to say goodbye to her parents as she walked out the door. “Whoa, sweetheart, where are you going in such a hurry?” her father asked, looking up from the newspaper he was reading in the living room. “Oh, uh, I'm just going to meet up with my new friends Lydia and Jackson at this cafe downtown to have breakfast,” Allison stammered out, trying not to act suspicious. “Is that okay?”
Her father stared at her analytically before smiling kindly at her. “Of course, it is. The whole reason we moved here is so that you could make some new friends.”
“And get a proper education,” Victoria chimed in.
“Yes, that, too,” Chris chuckled. “You go have fun with your friends, okay?” Allison nodded and smiled tightly before shuffling out of the door.
________________________________
Allison arrived at the cafe five minutes before Derek did, and once he showed up, a cute blonde waitress who looked to be in her early twenties led them over to a booth and asked them what they wanted to drink before handing them a few menus and leaving them to make their decisions. “I brought it back,” Derek said randomly, even as his eyes were trained on the menu. Allison glanced up in confusion. “What are you talking about?” she inquired, awkwardly.
Instead of giving her a verbal answer, Derek set his menu down and grabbed her jacket from off the seat, and held it up so she could see it. “Oh, right,” she nodded in remembrance, as he handed it back to her. “Thanks, I guess.”
“You're welcome. Now, let's cut to the chase,” Derek huffed. “I promised to give you answers. But there are a lot of those, so I'm gonna ask you what you want to know about specifically before I just start rattling things off to you.” Just then, the waitress returned with their drinks, saying “Are you two ready to order yet?” “Uh, not yet. A few more, please?” Derek asked. The waitress smiled and nodded before walking off again.
“Okay, well, you gave me a lot of information the night before, most of which I either disregarded because I thought you were crazy or didn't fully understand because I was scared out of my mind,” Allison said once the girl was out of earshot. “So let's start with Scott being a…” “A werewolf,” Derek finished. “Right. You said that he was bitten by an Alpha and that Alphas are the only ones who can create new werewolves with their bite, yes?” Allison continued. “Yes,” Derek answered. “And you also said that Stiles was also bitten and that you are an Alpha,” she said.
“Right,” he acknowledged.
“But you're not the one who bit them?”
“Nope,” he nodded.
“Well, then who did?” Allison said with a furrowed brow. Derek exhaled deeply, “We’ll get to that, but first, we really should order something before the waitress comes back.”
Allison looked ready to protest, but then she heard her stomach growl and winced sheepishly when she saw the slight quirk of Derek's lips. Yeah, he definitely heard that. So she relented, for now, and picked out something to eat, and after placing their orders, the two of them went right back to their conversation. “So, how does one become an Alpha?” she questioned, taking a sip from her coffee mug.
“Either it's passed down through birthright or you steal it from the current Alpha,” Derek responded. “And how does one steal the power of the Alpha?” Allison said, even as her gut told her she knew what the answer was. Her suspicions were only confirmed by the grim look etched on Derek's face. “The Beta or Omega has to take the life of the Alpha and absorb their Spark,” he explained lowly.
Allison ran her fingers through her hair and groaned in exasperation. “Oh, my God. I'm never gonna remember all of this.” “Maybe you could keep a list,” Derek suggested. “So that you can keep your own track record of everything we discuss.” Allison perked up slightly at the idea and nodded in agreement. “That doesn't sound too bad. Hold on, I think I have a notepad and pen.”
She fished through her purse until she found what she was looking for, then she pulled out the pen and notepad and flipped it open, and began writing down all thing things she could remember from their conversation last night. As she did so, Derek struggled over how he was going to broach the subject of his space-time shenanigans. Telling her that werewolves exist and that her family hunts them for a living is one thing, but trying to explain that he comes from an alternate timeline where both of them died will be a tougher pill to swallow.
“Okay, so just to recap: werewolves exist, both Born and Bitten, and my family hunts them. You are one of two Alphas in town. Alphas are the only ones who create other werewolves with their bite and these werewolves are called Betas, and the other Alpha turned Scott and Stiles into Betas to make them his pack?” Allison listed off. Derek nodded in affirmation. “And then, you also said that you could tell the type of werewolf by the color of their eyes. Alphas are red, Betas are bright yellow, and Omegas are dark yellow/amber. You also said silver doesn't affect you,” Allison noted.
“Not the traditional kind, no,” Derek snorted. “But listen, before we get any further into this, there is one more giant piece of information you need to know, and you might wanna write it down.”
Derek heard Allison’s breath hitch softly as she shifted uneasily in her seat waiting for him to continue.
Derek leaned closer to the table and in a low voice, he said, “I'm from the future.”
Her heartbeat faltered and for a second, Derek was afraid that he'd finally made her snap. “You… what?” she rasped. Derek sighed, “Listen, I know how it sounds, but it's true. I may not look like it, but I'm technically supposed to be 24 years old. To be even more honest, I'm supposed to be dead.”
“Okay, werewolves? Fine. Time travel? I'm gonna need a little proof,” Allison huffed in disbelief.
“Well, that's a little tricky. I mean, I have a basic record of most of the major events that happen after Scott’s first transformation, but some of them I don't know about because I either wasn't there for them or I wasn't there to hear about them. Also, it's not like I made a chronological list of events in the sequence they happened just in case I ever time traveled,” Derek answered, then he furrowed his brow. “However, in hindsight, I probably should have considering I was de-aged not too long ago. But since I've been back, I've made a lot of changes that might mess with the order of events from the original timeline.”
“Like what?”
“Like how I became the Alpha,” Derek mumbled sadly. Allison studied his features and tried to decipher what he meant by that when the waitress returned with their plates, snapping her out of her reverie. Derek’s demeanor quickly changed when gave the waitress a charming smile as he said thank you, making the girl blush. The second she left, Allison nearly got whiplash from how fast the smile dropped from his face as he focused back on the current situation. “I told you at the beginning that I was going to be honest with you about everything,” he resumed. “That includes the bad things, too. I'm not gonna lie to you and say that the Hunters are the bad guys and the werewolves are the good guys because that's not true. I'm also not gonna say the reverse because the truth is that each faction has good and bad in them.”
Allison narrowed her brown eyes suspiciously and crossed her arms over the table. “So which one are you?”
“Neither. Both. It just depends on the situation,” Derek answered honestly, yet vaguely. “And what is that supposed to mean, Derek?” Allison interrogated, not satisfied with his answer. “It means that if you go into this thinking that you can apply human morals to supernatural entities and cultures, then you're a damn fool who’d better start re-evaluating what they identify as morally right and morally wrong,” Derek snarked. “No offense, but this life is far too complicated to be as black and white as humans depict it to be.”
"Derek, earlier you said you became the Alpha after your sister died," Allison muttered. "How?"
"I was trying to save my sister, but I failed. Again. I was at Deaton's and didn't want to accept I was back here, so I didn't get to her in time. Peter surprised her -- she wasn't expecting him -- he clawed my stomach when I tried to warn her. And because she was focused on me, he was able to stab her in the chest," the Alpha explained glumly. "I tried to get her away, get her back to Deaton so he could help her heal... But she was losing blood too fast and I was too weak. So she ordered me, and then she begged me, to take the Alpha Spark so Peter wouldn't get it."
Derek huffed out a breath, unamused, as he stared at his hands. "And I failed at that, too. Scott and Stiles got bit because I failed. Last time it was only Scott. This time it's both of them. That's another reason I came to you. I need help. I've already made things worse." Derek tilted his head as he considered the new circumstances he was dealing with, as the corner of his mouth lifted in complete amusement. "Who knows? Maybe Stiles being a wolf this time will help Scott be less...Scott-like than he was. That would be great. Not likely, but a nice thought," he mused.
All the while, as he spoke, the future huntress looked on in devastation and felt a pang of sympathy grip her heart fiercely.
As Allison looks at the man in front of her, she feels an aching sadness for him. Not pity, but simple human compassion. And surprise, because he isn't trying to sugarcoat his actions or what he views as his inadequacies that have brought about terrible things. Granted, he seems to take a lot onto his shoulders. More than he should. But at least he's willing to take responsibility.
Then without even thinking about it, Allison stretched her arm across the table and placed her soft hand on top of his, and squeezed it tenderly catching the werewolf completely off-guard. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I can't imagine what that must have been like or how hard it must have been to deal with."
"Yeah. It's not something I wanted to relive again, but all I can do is push forward and make the best of a bad situation. But thank you, Allison," he spoke.
Derek lifted his eyes to the girl he never got a chance to know well in his previous...life? Incarnation? Timeline. He hates that he was burdening her with this life, but he knew he needed help, and while Stiles is smart, he needs a different version of smarts than the boy has. Also, the fact that she is the next in line to be the matriarch of the infamous Argent clan doesn't hurt but instead helps.
After a silence where they each got a little lost in their own thoughts, the waitress interrupted to check on them, breaking the moment. "So you got sent back, tried to save your sister, but ended up having to take the Alpha Spark, and somehow Peter still ended up an Alpha and bit two teenage boys instead of one?"
"Yeah."
"Ok." Allison takes a breath, "so what do you remember? As you talk it out, it will probably become clearer to you. Don't worry about continuity at first. That can come after."
"You still believe me? You're still willing to listen, even though I told you what I did and what I'm responsible for screwing up?" Derek balked.
The Argent girl cracked a small smile before retracting her hand back to her side of the table, saying, "Since we met, you have been nothing but honest with me about who you are and what you've been through. And you seem like a good person. I guess I realize that you're someone I can trust. So... what else should I know about this future timeline, besides what you just told me?" "Uh, if we're gonna discuss everything that I can remember from my timeline, we probably shouldn't do it in a diner," Derek mumbled across the table.
"You're the one who said to meet here," Allison argued.
"Only so that you wouldn't think I was trying to kidnap you or something," Derek shot back.
Allison sat back with a begrudging huff. He had her there, and again, she appreciated, albeit was still very shocked by, the unbridled honesty he was displaying. She may not have known where she stood currently on the whole werewolf situation, but even without that, Derek has been the first person that she has really gotten to know since her family moved here. And yeah, her family hunts his kind, which is kind of a bummer, but even after hearing about what happened with his sister and his earlier statement about being neither good nor bad, Allison still got the feeling that he was one of the good ones. "Okay, fine. We can go somewhere with fewer people to talk about the, well, everything," she relented.
"Okay, well, to understand most of what happened in my timeline, I first have to explain to you what happened before I moved to New York. About my family... and yours," Derek informed. "What are you talking about?" Allison questioned.
"Come with me and I'll show you. There's something you need to see," Derek responded.
TO BE CONTINUED...