The Cat and the Fox: City of Shadows

Chapter One: One Year Later

Truth be told, the name Stiles Stilinski wasn't said too much anymore.  It was hardly a thought that crossed the minds of anyone in Beacon Hills.  Scott McCall still thought about him every day, but he rarely mentioned his name just because of how the others felt.  They were still mad at him for leaving without a goodbye, but Scott couldn't blame him.

The guilt must have been unimaginable, from how the sheriff explained it, Stiles had nightmares every night about Allison and Aiden's deaths, the looks of pain on all of their faces as he hurt them.  It was unreal to think about.

Scott wished he could hear his best friend's voice, hear his laughter, the sarcastic remarks towards their enemies.  It didn't matter to him if it had been his face on the Nogitsune or not.  Stiles was still his best friend and he didn't deserve to be pushed away like that.

As much as he wanted to say Derek, Lydia, and the others still talked about him, it was like his name was now taboo to the Pack, if you'd still call them that.  Once he left, the Pack fell apart.  Maybe it was for the best, without Stiles it was only Scott and Derek at that point.  Lydia stopped being involved at meetings to the point that when the text went out for one they stopped notifying her.  Isaac stayed in Paris with Argent.  Ethan left town after his brother died, it was just hectic to put it lightly.

Perhaps it was because Stiles left that he felt like everything fell apart, but deep down he knew that this was a time bomb waiting to go off.

Maybe it was better that it fell apart now rather than later.  Who knows what might have come about if they were still doing that stupid routine of playing vigilantes in the night.  Well, at least, if the rest of them were.  Scott, he still played the hero the best he could.  An Alpha with no pack meant the eyes were mostly for show.  He held back against most of his opponents, only because he didn't want to risk fatal injury, but there had been no major threats ever since they saved Stiles.

Once in a while Derek would make his presence known, making sure Scott was alright, but even their interactions had become very limited.  For whatever reason, Derek had been working with Peter to find someone, although he wouldn't explain who it was.  The only good thing that had really happened was Malia Tate starting school with him.  They became friends, and while Lydia and the others might have stopped interacting with him, she kept him plenty of company.  There were no romantic connections between them, (although she was extremely pretty) Scott just couldn't move on from Allison right then.  Kira, they had a moment, but she had problems of her own to deal with, what with her mother claiming that something had gone wrong that night, but she didn't know what.

Now Kira and her mother were out of town, searching for the answer that might not have even been there.

Scott was sitting in his room currently, looking at the picture of the Pack, just before the Alpha Pack had come into town.  Erica and Boyd were in the group, mostly because they still followed Derek at that point.  It was so much different back then.  Scott, Derek, Lydia, Allison, Stiles, Erica, Boyd, and Isaac.

A.N:*Boyd and Erica didn't leave the Pack initially after escaping Gerard, they stayed and helped the Pack defeat Gerard and the Kanima*

Looking at the photo, seeing his best friend, he couldn't help but wonder how he was.

Of the mysteries that would loom in Fox Stilinski's mind for the majority of his time in Gotham City, it was that of the strange voice that spoke to him on occasion.  At first he assumed it was trauma from his time with the Nogitsune, or some way of him processing the pain.  However, it seemed to have its own sentience.  It retorted at his comments, knew stuff Fox often didn't.  In a way, this voice was like a pair of second eyes for Fox, which honestly helped in more ways than one.