Either Way (You’ll Figure It Out Someday) | G | pre-Sterek | 9612 words | complete
In Mexico, in the dead of night, Derek Hale learns how to turn into the wolf.
Here’s how it happens.
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When Derek dies, he wakes up in Bardo.
He’s still leaning up against that little ruined wall he died on - maybe it came here with his consciousness or something - but there’s no doubt that this is the place Scott described back when he first activated the Nemeton. Bright white fluorescent lights buzz overhead in a vast, low-ceilinged room, both endless and claustrophobic. The whole place is white; impossibly, there are no shadows.
Derek tries to sit up, but his body seems to creak. There’s no pain anymore - not when death is so close, is already here, has already come–
Jesus, he’s freaking dead–
–but every atom of his body is screaming against the movement anyway, like his muscles have been replaced with cotton balls and his bones are made of lead.







