Tears Don't Fall - Sterek

32

"Derek? But he's..." Stiles' lip quavered a little, tears threatening to spill once again. 

"Stiles, I need you to listen to me closely, do you understand?" 

Stiles nodded, a little terrified of what Deaton was about to say. 

"This is rare...I almost can't understand how this is possible, but somehow it's happening." 

"I...I'm not following." 

"The triskelion, it bonds things, right? You and Derek, you're mates...you're bonded, although not officially, but still. The silver...it's using your emotional bond to Derek to seek him out, to almost somehow find a way to help you find him." 

"The silver...that's why it burns?" 

Deaton nodded. "The triskelion mark used to be anticlockwise, until we circled it with white ash. Notice how it then became clockwise after drawing from the white ash's healing ability. I'm struggling to understand how it's possible, or where Derek got the triskelion necklace from. What's also bizarre is that there needs to be three things for this to work correctly. You, Derek...and something else, theres one more key. If we find the third connection..."

"We can find Derek's body." Stiles nodded, his face certain but full of sadness. 

"I hate to say this, but we have to talk to Peter." 

Stiles held his stare briefly before nodding. He grabbed his necklace before they jumped into his jeep, heading to Derek's place...Derek's old place. 

"How old is this thing?" Deaton slammed the jeep door shut as he got out. 

Stiles ignored the comment about his beloved jeep, knocking on the door. This place brought back too many memories of Derek, it was killing him. Holding back his emotions, he looked up as Peter swung the door open. 

"You..." Peter sneered. 

"Me..." Stiles willed himself not to say anything bad. 

"What could you possibly want?" Peter smiled, slightly sinister. 

Stiles held his tongue, not wanting any emotions to spill, letting Deaton step in. 

"We need your help." He pushed Peter aside, his briefcase in hand. 

Stiles followed closely behind, ignoring Peter's unwelcoming glare. 

"What do you know about this?" Deaton grabbed Stiles' hand gently, making him hold the necklace up to Peter.

"It's a triskelion?" Peter seemed confused. 

"Derek gave it to Stiles a short while ago. Notice that it's silver." 

"Derek obviously wasn't very smart then, was he?" 

"Oh, he was smarter than we thought. There's something odd about the triskelion, you see - it's drawing power from Stiles' bond to Derek, however we're missing a third of the equation here." 

"This...thing, is trying to help Stiles find Derek? That can't be-" Peter stalled in his sentence. "What's that mark on your chest?" He prodded Stiles. 

"Ow! Be careful" Stiles protested. "It burnt me. It burns my skin whenever I wear it lately." 

"Its anticlockwise...disagree if you must, but thats not a good sign." 

"We know." Deaton paused him. "Once we enclosed the pendant in white ash, and Stiles touched it again, it become clockwise." Stiles held out his palm to prove it. 

"How's that possible?" Peter seemed to think for a moment. "The ash tree..." 

"What?" Stiles felt like he was living in cookoo land. 

"The roots of an ash tree...it all makes sense. Derek's ability to transform, the silver, the burning, the ash, the triskelion...don't you get it?" 

"Yeah, still not following." Stiles rolled his eyes. 

"The druids hid the original triskelion in three pieces. It was hidden under the roots of the ash tree. This particular tree had three roots. The air root, the water root, and a root in Hel, (a God with a connection to another world). Under each root, a piece was hidden, hence the original 'three' rule. The mythology reads that the God, Odin hung himself from the tree. As a result, the ash from the tree brings enchantment, gifts of healing and power. Thats why the mark flipped back to clockwise when you used the ash. In most cases, it represents healing, but only once an individual had come into contact with their true identity." 

"Thats it" Deaton cut Peter off. "The bond...Derek had come into contact with his own identity when he gave you this, Stiles. He must've given it to you as a symbol of his acknowledgement that you were his mate." 

"Precisely" Peter agreed. "Which means..." he stopped mid thought. 

"Which means what?" Stiles was anxious yet again. 

"Figure out what each bond of this particular triskelion means and it'll lead you straight to-"

"We already know, it'll lead us to his dead body-" 

"Dead? Oh no, you've got it all wrong Stiles." 

~ 

In and out of consciousness, he struggled to keep his mind from floating away. The white blur his mind seemed to be in was eating away at him, bringing up flashes of old memories. 

He was unable to decipher if what he was seeing was real or his mind playing tricks once again.

Stiles sat down next to him, gently touching his knee. "Derek, if this is all just a dream, why do you look so worried?"

 "Because I don't remember waking up" he shook his head. "So tell me, how do you know? How do you know if you're still dreaming?"

"Fingers...in dreams you have extra fingers." 

Derek grabbed Stiles' hand, revealing the extra digits. 

He remembered the clawed hand coming down onto his already bleeding chest. Falling off the edge of the balcony into the depths of nothingness. He remembered how Stiles had clung to his body, how his pulse was only strong enough to keep him barely alive. How he clawed his way out of there somehow with the little life he had left. 

He had no idea how he got to where he was now. It was all a blur.  

His body lurched forwards as his eyes shot open, his face panicked. 

"It's real..." 

. 

. 

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Everything written in this chapter about the triskelion and the ash tree is all true Celtic mythology. I know it may be a little confusing or hard to follow, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask :) 

Thank you for all the comments and votes so far!