Chapter Text
Chapter I. New York
Stiles stands silently in a corner of the warded courtroom as the top-secret trial against the Argents comes to an end.
To say that the Argent trial, the entire case really, was a mess would be putting it lightly. From the start, the fact that the initial proof they had (the true, verifiable, incontrovertible proof) was against two people already dead, did not help matters any. Very rarely were posthumous trials allowed. Two facts convinced the special ADA to pursue the case: first that it was well-known that while Gerard and Katherine Argent were the ring-leaders, they did not act alone; the second, the connection Argent Arms might have with those crimes. As several agencies and police departments throughout the country were known to do business with Argent Arms, the idea that they might be connected to serial killers and what was described as a possible homicidal cult was simply unconscionable.
ADA Casey Novak was one of a handful of ADAs across the country to have been read-in on the supernatural and chosen to handle these special trials, usually in connection to cases handled by the Shadow Crimes Unit. Managing to include the fact that Kate Argent’s reported death back in 2011 was fake, and showing proof of her actual death in 2015, mostly so they could add her other attempted murders of Hales (they’d have included her attempts on Scott McCall, but all calls and letters to him, to get him involved with the case, went unanswered). Thing is, this also allowed Novak to pursue a case against the Calaveras for abetting, though that one didn’t go far, with the Mexican authorities refusing to hear about extraditing their own citizens (even a family well-known for being involved in criminal ventures) to the US for a top-secret trial. Novak also pressed charges against Eliza Dumont, and a number of other agents of various agencies whose names had been discovered either in former-agent Dumont’s possession, or written in various documents connected to the Argents’ case.
And then Eliza Dumont was killed while in custody. It was set up to look like a suicide, but Novak, Hotch and his team all knew better. It took a good deal of effort, but between their different skills and talents they were able to discover that the supposed legal representative who’d visited her last was in reality her cousin, and he’d killed her on orders of his aunt, the Dumont Matriarch. An arrest order was issued for Lance Dumont and all his aliases (in between Stiles, a hacker friend of his known as Skye, and FBI technician Penelope Garcia, they were able to find them all). The man retreated to Canada and his family, though the Canadian government, unlike the Mexican one, seems to be willing to deal with the SCU if it means getting dangerous criminals out of the streets.
But the Dumont case is still coming. Today is about the end of the Argent trial. It’s been two years since Stiles sat in an interrogation room in an FBI safe-house and revealed the truth about all the crimes the Argents had committed that were being covered up, about the possible multiple moles not just in the FBI, but other organizations, to keep up with those cover-ups. Since Stiles first met Agents Hotchner and Seaver, and joined the SCU as their cadet.
Nowadays he’s a junior agent in a team conformed by Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, Special Supervisory Agent Ashley Seaver, Doctor Spencer Reid (another transfer from the BAU), Special Agent Grant Ward, Special Agent Skye (no last-name) who doubles as their technician, and the newest member of their team: Probationary Agent Kira Yukimura. Each member of the team has their own story, and while only Ashley, Stiles and Kira are truly counted as supernatural, they each were involved with the shadow world before ever joining the team.
Skye was part of Stiles’s network before joining the team. An expert hacker, most of the world didn’t even know she existed before she joined the SCU. No one knows what her birth-name might be as she used her talents to erase any and all trace of her own existence, though the one time she was asked (upon joining the team) she told Hotch and Seaver that it did not matter, as that wasn’t her name anymore, but the name of a girl her parents never wanted. She’s also made certain comments that lead Stiles to believe that while she might be human, her parents are (or were) supernatural, and she was rejected by them because of it.
Skye was also the one to bring Grant to their attention. The youngest son of a politician (which one, no one but Hotch knows, and he’s kept the secret) and a hunter who bought their freedom by essentially giving him away. He was raised by the Ward hunters, one of the families in service of the Argents, to be one of their soldiers, always knowing that his parents saw fit to sacrifice him for their own benefit. He was very talented, yet never liked being a hunter, so when given an out, he took it. He seems to take great pleasure in using his hard won skills against hunters, and to protect those they once tried to make him hunt. Also, he was instrumental in getting enough dirt for Novak to build a case not just against the Argents, but everyone connected to them in any way.
Christopher Argent is probably the only Argent in America to not be going to prison. Even then, he’s lost everything. Argent Arms is no more; after the loss of all the contracts, the numerous lawsuits due to the ‘illegally modified’ ammo and weapons, the heavy fines and simply the very public trial, he has nothing. Even his name counts against him nowadays. Stiles even got a particularly interesting call from his dad recently:
“So, Mel came to visit today,” the sheriff informed his son, almost conversationally.
Of course Noah Stilinski knows about what’s going on, he knew long before the trial came under so much public scrutiny, even before it began, really. Since he was one of those involved in the gathering of the original evidence (his name was the only one on those files, since Stiles had been a teenager at the time), ADA Novak saw fit to inform him when she took the case, both to ask if there was any more information he hadn’t included (either because it might have seemed unnecessary, wasn’t fully vetted, or because it was too supernatural for him to have been able to ‘sanitize’), and so he’d be aware and ready in case there was an attempt at reprisals. As it happened, Noah had had a few more things he sent along, though thankfully there had been no reprisals or threats of any kind.
“Really?” Stiles honestly had no idea what might be going on. “What did she have to say?”
“To talk about the Argent trial,” his dad answered.
Stiles blinked. He knew Melissa was made aware of the trial too, though not quite as early as his dad. When Novak’s and Seaver’s repeated calls to Scott went unanswered, they tried calling his mother, but she refused to work with them. In any case, with Scott not being involved, Stiles couldn’t fathom what interest Melissa might have in the trial.
“She wanted to know if I thought it was all true,” his dad continued. “The crimes the Argents are being accused of. Especially Christopher.”
Ah… that’s right. She was dating Christopher Argent, wasn’t she?
Christopher Argent was a complicated case. Being the face and head of Argent Arms meant that all the lawsuits involving their modified guns and ammo affected him indirectly. Between that and the fines, the Argent coffers were probably close to empty. At the same time, he’d been quite cooperative in the building of the cases against both Kate and Gerard, and even against Victoria, which counted in his favor (it was also what lead to Novak deciding to keep Allison’s name out entirely, despite the limited evidence of her having been involved with at least some of the crimes).
Christopher was one of very few members of hunter families who had no standing (or pending) warrants anywhere. Though again, because so many hunter crimes involved the weapons Argent Arms modified to leave no traditional evidence, that did count against him. In the end, aside from the situation with the company, the worst crime to his name was the assault, kidnapping and threatening of Thomas James, the former Beacon Hills High Principal. But even on that, the man was pretty insistent that Victoria Argent was the one who truly hurt and threatened him, while Christopher was the one to insist he was let go, on the condition that he left California and never come back (something James was very willing to do).
“What did you tell her?” Stiles eventually asked.
“That as far as I knew they were all true,” his dad confirmed calmly. “There was a bit of back and forth between us. It’s clear that she really wanted me to tell her that maybe things weren’t quite as bad as the news made it seem.”
Stiles snorted. He just couldn’t help himself.
“Just what did Scott tell her about the Argents?” he asked, though he didn’t actually expect an answer.
He did tell her they were hunters, didn’t he? Then again, considering how Scott had always seen hunters in general, and the Argents in particular, he probably gave her the whole spiel, made sure she believed it, that she saw the Argents as the heroes, fighting to protect helpless humans from the inhuman monsters… What a terrifying wake-up call the trial must have been then. That is, of course, if Melissa decided to believe it, if she didn’t bury her head in the sand and chose to hold onto her own beliefs instead of what everyone else told her was true…
“I honestly do not know, son,” Noah admitted. “In any case, I didn’t call to worry you. In the end, whatever Melissa decides to believe is on her, not you.” Which was true. “No, I called you so you’d be prepared in case she decided to call you next.”
He made an assenting noise, though truth be told, he seriously doubted Melissa would be calling him, Stiles wasn’t sure she even had his number!
“Are you safe, dad?” Stiles questioned.
If there was one thing that concerned the young FBI Agent, it was his father’s safety.
“I am,” Noah assured him. “Parrish ensured everyone at the station was well-aware of the situation, when the trial became public… well, at least the parts that humans are allowed to know about.” Of course, even with some parts of the trial being so very public, others remained top-secret, for obvious reasons. “He also ensured that I’m never alone whenever I so much as set foot outside the office.” which Stiles agreed with wholeheartedly. “Peter drops by the house regularly. And I’ve a feeling either he, Malia or Liam might be running patrols by the area even on the days I don’t see either of them.”
Stiles knew Malia had become close to his dad during their short relationship. The sheriff had done his best to help Mr. Tate deal with the fact that his daughter was supernatural, but in the end the man’s grief for his wife and daughter was too great. He loved Malia, there was no doubt about that, but he just couldn’t deal with everything. Malia’s relationship with Peter was still pretty complicated, and while Stiles had no idea when or how his dad ended up in the middle of it all, he knew he’d been a lot of help for them.
Also, since becoming saner (or as sane as Peter Hale could ever be), the elder Hale had been taking great interest in the safety of his pack. Malia was his daughter, while some like Noah, Melissa and Natalie Martin, being human, were more vulnerable than others. While Mel refused to allow him near, and as far as Stiles’s knew, Mrs. Martin tended to prefer to pretend ignorance to the supernatural, it was clear his dad at least was appreciative of Peter’s efforts. Stiles was grateful too. He truly did believe that with Peter on the job, his dad would be safe.
“Very well, you stay safe,” Stiles told him. “And eat healthy!”
The sheriff snorted at the last part, but agreed. The call ended shortly afterwards.
So there Stiles stands, in a corner of the warded courtroom, as Judge Pearson declares the sentence. As expected, Argent Arms exists no more. All hunters, Argents, Wards, and from any other family connected to the Argents, who were found to have pending warrants, have been arrested and sent to jail already. All other members of those same families, who weren’t found guilty of specific crimes but were still connected to the hunting, have been heavily fined and will be under watch for years (at least).
The most important part though, is that everyone knows that while the Argent trial might be the first. It won’t be the last by far.
Reporters are waiting when the doors open and all who were present for the trial start walking out. Chris Argent walks as fast as he can, ignoring the reporters, their microphones and cameras. ADA Novak, Judge Pearson and Mr. Barba (the Argents’ lawyer) face the media and give some well-rehearsed speeches on what’s been agreed will be public knowledge.
At the back of the group, carefully keeping out of the spotlight, are two people Stiles has come to know well in the months since the Argent trial became not just national news, but international as well. He’s completely unsurprised when the two people approach him. He bows his head respectfully to the woman: blue-eyed, brunette, with her long hair carefully combed to one side, kept in place with a clip of a big red rose in full-bloom, dark-red lipstick standing out on her pale face. She’s wearing a tight-fitting black dress, with thick-soled boots and a heavy tanned-leather jacket on top. The ensemble is odd, yet somehow she makes it work. She looks short, and while she’s certainly shorter than Stiles, it’s made all the more obvious with the considerable height of her companion: a bit over six feet tall, with a strong built, rectangular face, lightly tanned skin, light facial hair, green eyes and brown hair; he’s wearing a black suit with a white crisp shirt underneath with the top two buttons undone and no tie. To him Stiles just directs a small nod, which he returns.
“Lady Kemp, Ser Arek,” he greets them.
“Agent Stilinski,” the woman states, nodding gracefully at him in return.
She’s Alexis Kemp, Matriarch of the Kemp Hunter Clan, seen by many as the ‘original hunter clan’. Unlike so many American Hunters, the Kemps and those they work with do not hunt werewolves. Instead they hunt real monsters: demons and other creatures that tend to be far more dangerous, as well as old, sometimes even older than humanity itself. The man always in her shadow is Arek (Stiles doesn’t even know if that’s the man’s name, though he doubts it, it’s probably just an alias), her personal bodyguard.
“I was hoping to see you, Maese Stilinski,” she murmurs softly.
Stiles tenses, just a fraction, at the change in her choice of address, at what it means. She’s not talking to him as an FBI Agent, but as a mage and as an Emissary (it’s funny because since there’s no Hale Alpha, there technically cannot be a Hale Pack, and thus he cannot be the Hale Emissary; and yet everyone who’s anyone at all knows where his loyalties lie, and that it’s not with Alpha McCall…).
“Would you like a cup of tea?” he offers.
Because the middle of a hallway in a full courthouse with reporters looking for their next big story, is most certainly not the place for top-secret discussions to be had. Stiles might have managed to keep himself seen by most as nothing more than a young FBI Agent; there, but not particularly important. Yet Alexis Kemp isn’t exactly an unknown, even outside of Europe. Especially since the romantic relationship between the British prince Harry and the American actress Meghan Markle seem to make it so all reporters around the world are suddenly very interested in all members of the royal houses and the nobility of the countries that still have them.
Around the block from the courthouse there’s a small cafe, Crystal’s, that caters to the supernatural community. The back has a number of small rooms and nooks individually warded to allow for private meetings and such. The three of them end up in one of the smaller rooms in the far back of the building, one of the most private there are. Stiles and Lady Kemp sit at the one table near the middle of the room, while Arek sits on a single chair by the door. The mage is very aware of the huge show of trust it is for the bodyguard to be even that relatively small distance away, instead of at his lady’s back, like he usually is.
“You wished to speak to me, Lady Kemp?” Stiles prompts.
“Yes,” she nods, taking a small sip from her tea. “I wish to make you aware of certain recent developments that have taken place in Europa.”
Europa, that’s how the supernatural world seems to prefer to refer to the continent. Much like how they still use words like Maese, and Ser…
Stiles raises a brow, considering the implications. It’s not like he’s not aware of a good deal of what’s going on beyond the borders of the US, his network having grown greatly in recent years. And even without that, there’s Jackson, who seems keen on doing some networking of his own, in his work as a lawyer in London. He and Ethan have worked a few cases with the supernatural branch of MI5 and MI6, making a number of interesting friends and connections in the process. Still, the fact that Lady Kemp wants to share information with him… it’s huge, probably even more so than her bodyguard standing away from them.
“There was a meeting of the Council earlier this month,” Lady Kemp informs him. “It’s been made official, the Argent Clan is no more. Those members who could prove, beyond shadow of doubt, to have taken no innocent lives have either been retired or absorbed into other clans, as was their preference. The rest… depending on their crimes, they were either dealt with, or made to surrender to local authorities, with sufficient proof and confessions of their crimes, when at all possible.”
So that’s what the whispers Stiles has been hearing lately are about! He, and Jackson confirmed he’s been hearing something on the grapevine as well, heard about a considerable number of arrests made lately by Interpol, and various other law enforcement agencies across Europe, mainly in France, Germany and Spain. There were also rumors about something big happening in the north of France, though no one knew what exactly, as there were no bodies, no pictures, and no one was talking (then again, if the Council, if the leaders of the highest ranking Hunter Clans were involved, that’d certainly explain there being no definite proof of anything). The last time anything like this happened was back in the 1950s, when the Jäger Hunter Clan was ended, in much the same way.
“Sounds like the Hunters are cleaning house,” Stiles quips with fake humor.
“You must know, Maese Stilinski, that the kind of thing that happened here, the crimes perpetrated by Katherine and Gerard, they’d have never been allowed in the old days,” Lady Kemp informs him. “Our ancestors would have executed those two, forcibly retired Victoria and forbidden Allison from ever becoming a hunter herself, had they ever been involved.” She shakes her head before taking a sip from her tea. “It’s a deep blow to our pride, to the honor we as hunters possess, that something like this was allowed to happen. That we weren’t aware of it until way too many lives had been lost already.”
Stiles cannot help but think that while that sounds all well and good, it doesn’t change all the lives lost, destroyed, by Kate, Gerard, and the rest of the Argent hunters. Lady Kemp seems to understand this, for she nods at Stiles without another word.
They finish their tea, and depart shortly afterwards. It’s only after the lady and her bodyguard are gone, that Stiles notices the envelope left behind on the table closest to the door, the one Arek sat by. It’s a small, simple, white envelope, without anything written on it. Inside there’s an SD-card. Stiles looks it over, wondering what it’s all about; only belatedly realizing that, as interesting as their little conversation was, the card is the true reason for their little meeting. He makes a mental note to talk to Skye and get her to find whatever might be in it (being careful to ensure that there are no viruses or traps of any sort before, of course).
Stiles is on his way out of the cafe, not bothering to stop to pay for the room, as he knows Arek will have already done that, when the cashier calls to him. Cori Henderson is the cashier, a witch, part of the well-known (in his circles at least) Secret Circle coven. The coven owns the cafe, and several others in different cities, each which is apparently managed by one of the families.
“The Muse asked me to give you this, when you dropped by,” the blonde young woman tells him as she hands him a folded piece of paper.
The Muse, Cassie Blake-Conant, one of the members of the triumvirate that leads the Secret Circle. Stiles has only really met her once, years prior, as she apparently prefers to stay closer to home, with her soulmate and husband and their children. Stiles knows she’s a very powerful witch, the most powerful in her coven, she also possesses the Sight. Which makes any message coming from her of particular importance:
The wolves howl.
The hunters have come.
The ones in the shadows.
Blood will be spilled. Lives will be lost.
By the rise of the blood moon, it’ll be too late.
Stiles says nothing, just nodding his head at Cori once before very carefully folding the note and slipping it into the inside pocket of his suit-jacket. His expression remains completely neutral even as, inside, his mind is working a mile a minute as he considers all the possible meanings and implications of that message.
It’s clear that the Muse has Seen something, something she decided was important enough, and relevant enough to him, to merit sending that message. The first part sounds simple enough. A pack is going to be attacked by hunters, hunters that exist in the shadows. Monroe and her ilk? They haven’t so much as heard a whisper from them in two years, not since their attempt to kill all supernaturals in Beacon Hills failed. Stiles knows there are some who believe that they’ve given up, Stiles isn’t quite as foolish as to think the same. He believes that the Argent trial has kept them in hiding, they’re waiting, wanting to see how the world handles things, before making their next move. Will this be it?
Blood spilled, lives lost… it’s bad, yet at the same time only to be expected with such an attack. The problem is that there are so many werewolf packs. And with the lack of specifications… as far as he knows this could be happening anywhere around the world!
At least one thing they do seem to have is a timeline… sort-of. The rise of the blood-moon is clearly a lunar eclipse. Those don’t happen more than once to thrice a year. Also, they aren’t exactly visible everywhere, so that might help narrow down locations. He’ll have to get working on that. Might even ask his team to help.
