comment_fic 796-800: Teen Wolf & Highlander
Title: the light that lit and shadowed the faces of history
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Billy Collins
Warnings: future!fic; mentions of character death & violence
Pairings: implied Allison/Scott
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 645
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, your past is trash, throw it out
Note: So, I haven't actually seen season 2 yet but I've read A LOT of fic.
He leaves Beacon Hills the day they bury his father and he never goes back.
.
Scott tries calling him. So do Allison, Isaac, Lydia, and Danny; even Jackson, a few times. They all leave voicemails.
Derek doesn't.
.
Honestly, a part of him had always known it would come to this.
.
He settles in Pittsburgh because it's where the engine falls out of his jeep. He applies to NSU and from there goes to Pitt, where he does a variety of things before settling on history.
Those who don't understand the past are doomed to repeat it.
.
One of his professors is a werewolf. Three of his peers are witches. Five of the people in his undergrad dorm were shifters of some kind.
All of them avoided him and would not have been able to articulate why, but he knew.
Blood leaves a stain and it never washes out.
.
In his dreams, wolves howl. oh, little red, they call, won’t you come out tonight? it’s such a brilliant moon.
Sparks cause fires. Fires burn.
Blood stains.
.
Pack is family. Family dies.
He studies and he learns and he ignores the moon.
.
He graduates in the spring and moves on.
A dozen people breathe easier and will never be able to explain why.
.
He sticks to the east coast for awhile, from Florida to Maine and back. He lives on the edge of society like a scavenger, and he ignores the moon and he ignores the spark, and while a few humans try messing with him, nothing else does.
Blood stains. So does the stench of fire.
.
The wind whispers, sometimes, about the Hale pack. It’s growing. Stronger and steadier. Like it was before the fire. The wind whispers about the Argents, too, the greatest hunters and one of the oldest names in the world. The matriarch, they say, she’s mated to a wolf. The matriarch, they say, is more dangerous than any hunter in two hundred years.
But the Hale pack, they say, is blessed. Nothing goes to Beacon Hills looking for trouble. Not anymore. Not since the blood, and not since the fire.
.
Once he’s walked every inch of the Atlantic coast, he turns towards the Gulf. He stands in hurricanes but it doesn’t wash away the blood.
.
Magic is in the blood, and so is lightning.
.
He doesn’t set foot in California. The pack closest to the state line sniffs him out but doesn’t approach. He skirts the line the whole way to Oregon and then trails the Pacific up through Washington and follows the Canadian border all the way back to Maine.
Then he starts over, this time crisscrossing the heart of the country.
.
This isn’t the life he thought he’d have, all those years ago, when he dragged Scott into the woods.
This isn’t the life he thought he’d have, all those years ago, when his father tried to help him and ended up dead in his place.
This isn’t the life he wanted, but it is what he has.
.
The Hale pack, they say, can’t be wounded.
The Argents, they say, have allied with the wolves.
little red, wolves howled once, come dance in moonlight with us.
Sheriff Stilinski died a hero saving his son’s life. The son vanished; no one knows what happened to the boy, but it’s such a shame, isn’t it, that a hero died instead.
.
Blood stains until nothing else can show. Sparks burn until ashes remain.
He can’t go home. He won’t die.
Nothing touches him and he survives.
.
He leaves Beacon Hills the day they bury his father and he never goes back. Once he gets tired of the States, he goes north and then south, all the way to Cape Horn.
Then he goes east to Africa because he’s got nothing but time.
Title: red moon
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: mentions of violence
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 70
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, "How far are you willing to go?"
There's blood on the moon and he can't catch his breath, watching and waiting, hands clenched into fists.
There's blood on the moon and he's not sorry.
There's blood on the moon and his pack is alive.
There's blood on the moon and smoke on the wind and this isn't the first time he's killed for those who are his.
There's blood on the moon and it won't be the last.
Title: you mattered
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: Stiles and his pack aren’t mine. title is a reference to Animorphs
Warnings: character death, violence, stream of conscious
Rating: PG
Pairings: none
Wordcount: 275
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, death is never glorious
He wants to think he's dying for something worthwhile, something that matters, something that will be remembered.
But he's just dying. He knows that.
Blood in his mouth, down his chin. Blood on his hands, coating his fingers, gushing out of his gut. So much blood. And still more.
He's dying alone so they can get away, and that's important, isn't it? Dying so others live... that means something.
Doesn't it?
Dying at 17. Dying alone.
Howling in the distance. Mournful.
Yeah, they know. Maybe they'll remember.
Laughter getting closer, those fuckers who wanted his pack. No, not getting them, his family, his friends. Not this time. (Probably someday, because the pack is stupid, and maybe they'll want revenge? Is he worthy of vengeance?
No, please no, don't get killed avenging because then it won't matter.)
Pain. Blinding, white-hot, raw. And cold. Cold all the way through.
How is he still bleeding?
Howling - getting closer. Laughter, closer still.
No. He's dying for this, and it matters, so he gathers up everything he has left, throws back his head, and screams, Go!
The howling cuts off. The laughter is punctuated with a kick to his shoulder that burns all the way down his body.
He lets his head fall back to the dirt and smiles, blood on his teeth. He can die happy, now, because he's dying for them.
Dad, he thinks, I'm sorry.
Mom, he thinks, I'll be there soon.
One of the fuckers kicks him again and he barely feels it. The blood's run out, and he's not even cold anymore.
Howling, further away. He closes his eyes and listens until everything is silence.
Title: that heartbeat after the lightning
Fandom: Highlander
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: implied violence and death
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 145
Point of view: third
Prompt: Highlander, Methos, at the oddest times he remembers who he was and wonders who he'll be
Every time he picks up the blade, he thinks for just a moment, Today?
Every time, he answers, No.
.
For a thousand years, the answer had been a yes that resounded through continents. Two are left alive who remember. Two are left alive who wait for the yes to return, hungry and willing.
One is left alive who understands.
.
Every time he sees a white horse, he thinks, Today?
Every time, he answers, no and the horse trots canters gallops away.
.
For a thousand years, he rode the pale horse and carried the blade.
For a thousand years, he was mighty and undefeated.
For a thousand years, he was feared.
.
Every time he is challenged and wins, in that heartbeat after the lightning, he thinks, Today?
One time, the answer will be Yes.
He will smile and climb to his feet, and he will again be Death.
Title: pyre
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: character death, violence
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 350
Point of view: third
Prompt: Teen Wolf, Derek, "Oh.. no-n-n-n-n-no. Oh god... Oh god...No, not again!"
Note: I haven't seen season 2, but I've read a lot of fic.
Fire is the one thing that never leaves him, and this time, kneeling in the ashes, he swears that he'll track down every hunter and punish them all.
.
Beacon Hills is cursed, so Derek heads out in the night, two moonrises after the fire. It wasn't an Argent this time, but that doesn't matter. Hunting is in the Argent blood, so Chris is left with a gaping throat in the same basement where three of Derek's pack were beaten and tortured.
(Allison died in the fire, trying to reach Scott. She was part of the pack, even though Erica kept her distance and Boyd never took his eyes off her.)
Derek doesn't care if his prints are all over Argent's house. He doesn’t care about much of anything anymore.
.
Melissa McCall and Sheriff Stilinski bury empty coffins for their children in the rain.
The very next day, Sheriff Stilinski follows Derek and Melissa McCall starts damage control.
.
Lydia almost got out. Jackson died immediately, before the fire even sparked. Boyd and Erica died fighting, and Scott tried to get to Allison. Isaac took a bullet for Stiles.
The front door was clear, but every path to it blocked by rowan and wolfsbane.
The pack howled for their alpha, and with his last breath, Stiles willed mountain ash across the front step so that Derek would live.
.
Derek knows he won't live long. He'll either be taken out by hunters or werewolves who want to stay hidden.
But until he's dead, he'll kill every hunter he can find.
.
"Derek," Sheriff Stilinski calls quietly, hands visible and eyes lowered. "Derek, tell me what to do."
Sheriff Stilinski is a good man, and there are monsters out there that need killing. Melissa knew a lot, and she told him everything his boy had been hiding for over a year.
His boy, burned to death by monsters.
Derek doesn't try to dissuade him. It wouldn’t have worked, if he had.
.
Most of the hunters get gutted or shot. A fair few, though, are lit aflame. Every time, Derek howls, and it almost sounds like his packs are howling again.
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Billy Collins
Warnings: future!fic; mentions of character death & violence
Pairings: implied Allison/Scott
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 645
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, your past is trash, throw it out
Note: So, I haven't actually seen season 2 yet but I've read A LOT of fic.
He leaves Beacon Hills the day they bury his father and he never goes back.
.
Scott tries calling him. So do Allison, Isaac, Lydia, and Danny; even Jackson, a few times. They all leave voicemails.
Derek doesn't.
.
Honestly, a part of him had always known it would come to this.
.
He settles in Pittsburgh because it's where the engine falls out of his jeep. He applies to NSU and from there goes to Pitt, where he does a variety of things before settling on history.
Those who don't understand the past are doomed to repeat it.
.
One of his professors is a werewolf. Three of his peers are witches. Five of the people in his undergrad dorm were shifters of some kind.
All of them avoided him and would not have been able to articulate why, but he knew.
Blood leaves a stain and it never washes out.
.
In his dreams, wolves howl. oh, little red, they call, won’t you come out tonight? it’s such a brilliant moon.
Sparks cause fires. Fires burn.
Blood stains.
.
Pack is family. Family dies.
He studies and he learns and he ignores the moon.
.
He graduates in the spring and moves on.
A dozen people breathe easier and will never be able to explain why.
.
He sticks to the east coast for awhile, from Florida to Maine and back. He lives on the edge of society like a scavenger, and he ignores the moon and he ignores the spark, and while a few humans try messing with him, nothing else does.
Blood stains. So does the stench of fire.
.
The wind whispers, sometimes, about the Hale pack. It’s growing. Stronger and steadier. Like it was before the fire. The wind whispers about the Argents, too, the greatest hunters and one of the oldest names in the world. The matriarch, they say, she’s mated to a wolf. The matriarch, they say, is more dangerous than any hunter in two hundred years.
But the Hale pack, they say, is blessed. Nothing goes to Beacon Hills looking for trouble. Not anymore. Not since the blood, and not since the fire.
.
Once he’s walked every inch of the Atlantic coast, he turns towards the Gulf. He stands in hurricanes but it doesn’t wash away the blood.
.
Magic is in the blood, and so is lightning.
.
He doesn’t set foot in California. The pack closest to the state line sniffs him out but doesn’t approach. He skirts the line the whole way to Oregon and then trails the Pacific up through Washington and follows the Canadian border all the way back to Maine.
Then he starts over, this time crisscrossing the heart of the country.
.
This isn’t the life he thought he’d have, all those years ago, when he dragged Scott into the woods.
This isn’t the life he thought he’d have, all those years ago, when his father tried to help him and ended up dead in his place.
This isn’t the life he wanted, but it is what he has.
.
The Hale pack, they say, can’t be wounded.
The Argents, they say, have allied with the wolves.
little red, wolves howled once, come dance in moonlight with us.
Sheriff Stilinski died a hero saving his son’s life. The son vanished; no one knows what happened to the boy, but it’s such a shame, isn’t it, that a hero died instead.
.
Blood stains until nothing else can show. Sparks burn until ashes remain.
He can’t go home. He won’t die.
Nothing touches him and he survives.
.
He leaves Beacon Hills the day they bury his father and he never goes back. Once he gets tired of the States, he goes north and then south, all the way to Cape Horn.
Then he goes east to Africa because he’s got nothing but time.
Title: red moon
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: mentions of violence
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 70
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, "How far are you willing to go?"
There's blood on the moon and he can't catch his breath, watching and waiting, hands clenched into fists.
There's blood on the moon and he's not sorry.
There's blood on the moon and his pack is alive.
There's blood on the moon and smoke on the wind and this isn't the first time he's killed for those who are his.
There's blood on the moon and it won't be the last.
Title: you mattered
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: Stiles and his pack aren’t mine. title is a reference to Animorphs
Warnings: character death, violence, stream of conscious
Rating: PG
Pairings: none
Wordcount: 275
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, death is never glorious
He wants to think he's dying for something worthwhile, something that matters, something that will be remembered.
But he's just dying. He knows that.
Blood in his mouth, down his chin. Blood on his hands, coating his fingers, gushing out of his gut. So much blood. And still more.
He's dying alone so they can get away, and that's important, isn't it? Dying so others live... that means something.
Doesn't it?
Dying at 17. Dying alone.
Howling in the distance. Mournful.
Yeah, they know. Maybe they'll remember.
Laughter getting closer, those fuckers who wanted his pack. No, not getting them, his family, his friends. Not this time. (Probably someday, because the pack is stupid, and maybe they'll want revenge? Is he worthy of vengeance?
No, please no, don't get killed avenging because then it won't matter.)
Pain. Blinding, white-hot, raw. And cold. Cold all the way through.
How is he still bleeding?
Howling - getting closer. Laughter, closer still.
No. He's dying for this, and it matters, so he gathers up everything he has left, throws back his head, and screams, Go!
The howling cuts off. The laughter is punctuated with a kick to his shoulder that burns all the way down his body.
He lets his head fall back to the dirt and smiles, blood on his teeth. He can die happy, now, because he's dying for them.
Dad, he thinks, I'm sorry.
Mom, he thinks, I'll be there soon.
One of the fuckers kicks him again and he barely feels it. The blood's run out, and he's not even cold anymore.
Howling, further away. He closes his eyes and listens until everything is silence.
Title: that heartbeat after the lightning
Fandom: Highlander
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: implied violence and death
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 145
Point of view: third
Prompt: Highlander, Methos, at the oddest times he remembers who he was and wonders who he'll be
Every time he picks up the blade, he thinks for just a moment, Today?
Every time, he answers, No.
.
For a thousand years, the answer had been a yes that resounded through continents. Two are left alive who remember. Two are left alive who wait for the yes to return, hungry and willing.
One is left alive who understands.
.
Every time he sees a white horse, he thinks, Today?
Every time, he answers, no and the horse trots canters gallops away.
.
For a thousand years, he rode the pale horse and carried the blade.
For a thousand years, he was mighty and undefeated.
For a thousand years, he was feared.
.
Every time he is challenged and wins, in that heartbeat after the lightning, he thinks, Today?
One time, the answer will be Yes.
He will smile and climb to his feet, and he will again be Death.
Title: pyre
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: character death, violence
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 350
Point of view: third
Prompt: Teen Wolf, Derek, "Oh.. no-n-n-n-n-no. Oh god... Oh god...No, not again!"
Note: I haven't seen season 2, but I've read a lot of fic.
Fire is the one thing that never leaves him, and this time, kneeling in the ashes, he swears that he'll track down every hunter and punish them all.
.
Beacon Hills is cursed, so Derek heads out in the night, two moonrises after the fire. It wasn't an Argent this time, but that doesn't matter. Hunting is in the Argent blood, so Chris is left with a gaping throat in the same basement where three of Derek's pack were beaten and tortured.
(Allison died in the fire, trying to reach Scott. She was part of the pack, even though Erica kept her distance and Boyd never took his eyes off her.)
Derek doesn't care if his prints are all over Argent's house. He doesn’t care about much of anything anymore.
.
Melissa McCall and Sheriff Stilinski bury empty coffins for their children in the rain.
The very next day, Sheriff Stilinski follows Derek and Melissa McCall starts damage control.
.
Lydia almost got out. Jackson died immediately, before the fire even sparked. Boyd and Erica died fighting, and Scott tried to get to Allison. Isaac took a bullet for Stiles.
The front door was clear, but every path to it blocked by rowan and wolfsbane.
The pack howled for their alpha, and with his last breath, Stiles willed mountain ash across the front step so that Derek would live.
.
Derek knows he won't live long. He'll either be taken out by hunters or werewolves who want to stay hidden.
But until he's dead, he'll kill every hunter he can find.
.
"Derek," Sheriff Stilinski calls quietly, hands visible and eyes lowered. "Derek, tell me what to do."
Sheriff Stilinski is a good man, and there are monsters out there that need killing. Melissa knew a lot, and she told him everything his boy had been hiding for over a year.
His boy, burned to death by monsters.
Derek doesn't try to dissuade him. It wouldn’t have worked, if he had.
.
Most of the hunters get gutted or shot. A fair few, though, are lit aflame. Every time, Derek howls, and it almost sounds like his packs are howling again.