threeisapattern | maybe the real supernatural magnet was Stiles all along

maybe the real supernatural magnet was Stiles all along

The thing about kanimas is that they're supposed to be super-rare, maybe one-in-a-generation. Most people, if they get the werewolf bite and their body rejects it, they die. It takes a special kind of mental unwellness to turn into a kanima instead. And Stiles has already been there, done that when Jackson transformed into one back in Beacon Hills.

So someone explain to him why he's staring one down in the middle of an otherwise deserted park. (So he was practicing some soccer drills on his own and it got late. So sue him if he kind of doesn't want to suck when he has a cute guy and the cute guy's family in addition to his dad vowing to watch him play.) For a second, he genuinely wonders if this is some kind of waking nightmare, and he glances down to count his fingers as a check (ten, no more and no less). In that time, it gets in way too close, and Stiles straight-out sprints for his bag to grab his phone and the little vial of emergency mountain ash he keeps with him at all times.

He has Billy's number dialed and his thumb on the top of the vial to flick it open when he feels a slash against his back, meaning he has a few seconds before his body stops responding. He hits the call button and throws the opened vial in the air as his muscles go slack and he drops to the ground. He doesn't think anything breaks, but he lands on his shoulder painfully hard and that's something he's going to have to deal with if he survives the next few minutes. Through some miracle of luck, desperation, and probably magic, the ash lands in an unbroken circle around his body, and he squeezes his eyes shut and believes with all of his might that a handful of wood ash has the power to protect him from the supernatural.

It works. The kanima hisses as it slashes at the barrier a couple times, and as Stiles watches it, he realizes that there's a voice trying to talk to him from his phone. It landed about a foot from his head and he must've managed to hit speaker before he dropped it, thank god, because there's absolutely no way he could pick it up right now.

"Hey, Billy? I really need your help right now, like - SOS."

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The ground does kind of feel more comfortable all of the sudden, which is weird as hell but Stiles definitely isn’t complaining.

“I mean, we kind of defeated the last one with the Power of Love by having his girlfriend break through to him enough to partially transform him back. I don’t see that happening here - “

Well. Wait. Billy’s abilities extend beyond throwing magic around.

“Wait, can you hear its thoughts? Or get in its head?”

"You hear how it sounds when you tell me stories, right?"

Now probably isn't the time to roast Stiles about the absolute insane past he's had, but he also can't really help it when the stories sound like that.

"Oh! Yeah, yes, or, I think so."

He turns around again and takes a deep breath, he can feel Stiles, but he can basically always feel him. He searches further, watching as the kanima gets closer again. Come on, Billy. Look faster.

The kanima keeps moving, he looks pissed, or maybe he just always looks like that. Maybe creepy half-were-beings aren't able to look happy. Billy puts his hands up, ready to blast him if he gets close. He's not going to be able to do this. Why does it work with everyone else, when he doesn't even want it to? This is his fault for not practicing harder, how could he think he doesn't need to fight? What was he thinking? He closes his eyes, breathing out in frustration.

And all of a sudden he's looking at himself. He can feel himself running, breathing heavy, growling. Oh my god. He did it!

Stop! A few inches from Billy and Stiles, the kanima suddenly stops moving, midstride, upright, still snarling, frozen perfectly where he is.

"This is so weird. Like even for me this is weird. And gross. Did your friend look like this?"

He hadn’t expected Billy to be able to actually take over the kanima, though he guesses it makes sense. The kanima seeks a master or whatever - it just found one. At least temporarily. (If the connection continues, that’s a problem they can deal with later. At least Billy’s not going on a murder spree.)

“Yeah? Yeah, pretty much. They’re not pretty.”

Emotional turmoil, ugly-ass manifestation, whatever. He takes a deep breath now that the situation’s under control and hisses it back out because his shoulder still fucking hurts.

“Okay. Do you think you can force it to change back to human?”

Hearing Stiles hiss in pain makes Billy look back, the kanima's eyes moving to look at Stiles as well. Splitting attention, not the best idea right now. He can't help anyone until they deal with the situation at hand.

"How do I do that?"

So far the most Billy is getting from this kid is that he could seriously use some therapy. Angry parents, fighting at school, girlfriend trouble, it's all horribly cliché, like watching one of those teen dramas.

"Listen, everyone has a shitty life, do you really want to end up killing someone over it? I feel like we can probably fix this." He mostly says it in his head, their head? But the out loud bit is so Stiles can follow along.

"How is this our life?"

Is that helpful? Absolutely not, but sometimes you just have to acknowledge that your life sucks and is completely batshit insane. "I don't know, I just - " He squeezes his eyes shut and takes another deep breath. "Can you loop me in or something? Maybe I can talk to it."

"Probably."

Honestly, he has a lot more confidence than that, that he can definitely loop Stiles in. Most of the time it takes more effort not to read his mind than to read it. But that also means letting Billy have access again. Hopefully everything else going on means they won't have to worry about that right now.

"Don't think about anything you don't want me to see."

Billy shuts his eyes because this is a little more difficult that just one person, his hands glow blue, his feet lift, deep breath.

The effect is immediate. The rest of the world disappears, everything going quiet and bright. Billy opens his eyes to a white room, he turns to his left and sees Stiles standing next to him, then turns to the right, but doesn't see the kanima.

"Maybe we have to find him?"

The wildest fucking thing is that this isn't the first time he's been in a shared mindspace like this. It's not dissimilar to the last time, except there's no Nemeton to be found or Nogitsune battling him for control of his mind. Just a pretty plain white space stretching out as far as the eye can see, and (thank god) the illusion of movement. His shoulder still hurts, but the pain is further away, muffled somehow.

Stiles grabs hold of Billy's arm and tugs him in close to wrap his arms around him and kiss him. Is that necessarily the first thing he should be doing in this situation? Absolutely not, but he's been having a rough time. "Thanks for coming for me."

It's not that he didn't think Billy would, if he could, but Stiles is unfortunately intimately aware of the fact that other people have lives, and Stiles' crises have slipped through the cracks before.

Considering the last time Billy and Stiles shared a mind, that wasn't exactly the reaction he was expecting. But he is really not going to complain. He keeps his arms around Stiles for a few moments longer. It's not like they are on a timeline here, he's pretty sure time moves differently in his head than in the real world. They have a minute for this.

"You didn't even have to ask...I mean obviously you did, so I would know you needed help but--uh, always. I'll always come for you."

Hopefully the point gets across, he's still just a little bit flustered.

Given that they’re basically in each others’ heads, it would be impossible to hide the pulse of gratefulness at Billy’s words. It’s nice to hear, even if he knows that Shit Happens sometimes. Stiles gives him one more squeeze in his arms before letting go.

“Uh, so I know it’s going to sound insane again, but I’ve kinda been in a situation like this before. I mean, in a weird… mind space. I think we just kind of turned up near what we were looking for? So maybe if we just focus on it and start walking, we’ll find the kanima. Or whoever’s inside it.”

"I'm just glad one of us knows what's going on."

On top of everything else Stiles has experienced, it doesn't surprise Billy he's already been here, or a place like this. He files it away for later to ask Stiles about the other mind readers he's been in contact with.

"Okay, focusing on the kanima." He takes Stiles hand before they start walking. Stiles might have been here before, but he's still not really sure what might happen and he doesn't really want Stiles getting lost somewhere in his mind.

"In your experience, is this like a safe space or are people still dangerous here?"

“Still dangerous,” he says, thinking of the Nogitsune. “Maybe not, like, murder dangerous. But keep an eye out.”

He nudges Billy’s shoulder with his own as they start walking. “Have you done anything like this before?”

"Well if he's still dangerous here, then so am I."

If he's going to be a superhero, he might as well have the quips to go with it.

He smiles, "What? Dragged other people to a place that I entirely made up with my own mind? Shockingly, this is a first for me."

“I know my stories somehow usually sound more insane, but figured I’d ask.”

It’s not like this is the first time Billy’s ever used his mind powers, after all. “Yeah, Mr. Dangerous? Is that why you’ve got the superhero outfit going on?”

"I didn't exactly know what I was going up against, I wanted to be prepared."

And it gives him the added bonus of being able to show off in front of the guy he really likes. Win-win.

As he turns forward again, he notices in the distance, a tiny speck that shows up against the white. A person, or being, still far away from them, but getting closer.

"Uh-huh. My hero," he says, but there's more than a bit of affection in the teasing sarcasm. Billy actually is being his hero right now, so it's not like he can begrudge him a superhero costume.

Stiles picks up the pace a bit when he notices something in the distance and then nearly trips over the root of a giant tree stump that wasn't there two seconds ago. It was huge once, and even cut down, it radiates a kind of ancient power that curls out towards Stiles.

"Nope!" Stiles says immediately as he tugs Billy sideways to walk around it. "You are three thousand miles away, you are not my problem anymore."

Even if he is teasing, it still makes Billy blush. He wouldn't have minded continuing that line of conversation but apparently their minds have other ideas. And Billy is quite literally pulled in a different direction as Stiles runs away from...a tree?

They get a bit off track to avoid the root that rattled Stiles, by the time Billy turns around to look back where the speck they saw was, it's gone. He's not sure if it's because it ran off, or because Billy's attention slipped. Either way, it seems like they have time again.

"Should we talk about that? It can also wait, but if you wanted to talk about it..."

"It's a sacred tree. The beacon in Beacon Hills, pretty much." Yes, he hears how weird the phrase sacred tree sounds. It's not like he can change how weird his life is at this point. "It's what attracts the supernatural to the town. It used to be a lot more powerful, or something?"

And it's somehow in front of them again. Maybe because they're talking about it, maybe because the Nemeton itself didn't want to be ignored. "C'mon, man."

"Okay, sacred tree that calls to supernatural beings. Got it."

The idea of a powerful beacon isn't that unheard of. It actually even makes sense that it would be a tree, historically nature has always held more power than people realize. What is weird is that it's here right now.

When the roots show up in front of them again, Billy stops, what's the point in running if it's going to keep following? Maybe they need to face it to continue. It reminds him a bit of the road.

"Did it usually follow you around before?"

“I think it’s… in my head?”

It didn’t not follow him around before. Kind of. He remembers sitting on the Nemeton with the Nogitsune, when he heard Scott’s roar snapping him out of his own head. There was a connection made when he, Scott, and Allison sacrificed themselves to it to find their parents. Maybe it’s still there.

He sighs as he gives up trying to sidestep it, seeing as how it’s not working so well. “Like, it might - actually have a connection in my mind.”

The look on Stiles face whenever he talks about his history makes Billy want to figure out time travel just so that he can stop any of that from happening. He'd risk permanently changing the past forever if it meant making his guy smile. He probably needs to dig deeper into what that means for him. For right now he tugs on Stiles hand slightly.

"I could try to blast it but I'm not sure what that would do to your mind. Is there something else it could want?"

“Yeah, that’s definitely a bad idea. It’s not evil or anything, just - “

He ends up sitting down on it, because if they’re not moving past it then he might as well rest his metaphorical body. “I guess it could want power or worship or something. If it wants another sacrifice then it’s out of luck, because I’m not fucking doing that again.”

Again.

Good thing Stiles told him not to blast it, because now he kind of wants to. He watches Stiles sit on it, but keeps his own distance. As much as he wants to be near Stiles, he wants to be prepared if this is a trap.

"Why can't we just have a fun and easy trial? Why is it always something awful?" He's mostly talking to himself. This isn't the road. And this isn't a trial. Even if it is getting a little harder to remind himself of that. At least there doesn't seem to be a countdown.

"Do you think a gift would appease it? I can try to conjure up something."

“If you can think of something a tree would want, be my guest.”

It’s probably for the best that Billy keep some distance, given that he’s basically a powerhouse. Not that the Nemeton’s ever taken anything it wasn’t offered, but still.

"Is water too obvious?"

He could also see if the darn thing wants some Miracle Grow but most living things need water and it's not like there is an abundance of it in this weird mind space.

“It couldn’t hurt.”

The tree doesn’t exactly have dirt in this weird mind place, either, but maybe it’s the thought that counts. Literally, in this case.

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