Chapter Text
He opened his eyes, inhaled enough air to fill his suddenly aching empty lungs and then felt the breath leave just as quickly in a startled gasp when he saw the Blue. It had been so long. He had loved the Blue once with everything he was.
He was outside when a breath ago he had been at his office. He knew he was standing upright when a breath ago he had been seated. He could feel the pressure on his legs. The ground felt steady beneath his booted feet and as he swiftly glanced down he saw sand. Blue Sand. Blue Sky. Always Blue, always beautiful, always breathtaking.
The blue sky was growing darker as if it was dusk when a breath ago it was lunchtime. Blue Moon hanging in the Blue Sky so huge he need only stretch out his arm to touch it when a breath ago shimmering golden sunlight had leaked through his office window blinds with stubborn determination.
He measured this place in breaths. Long ago in a different lifetime his Papa had taught him how to deal with the overwhelming sense of awe the Blue inspired. “One breath at a time my Janek, one breath in, one breath out”. It was a sweet memory, a good one.
One that could bring peace if only it was remembered. But Janek Stilinski the young guide who had adored the Blue had been forgotten for a very long time.
John was in charge now and he didn't speak to Janek anymore.
The Sheriff of Beacon Hills stared in open mouthed astonishment at his surroundings. Literally a second ago he had been sitting at his desk eating his inescapably healthy homemade lunch courtesy of his uber health zealot of an only child and now he was in a desert?
A goddamn blue desert with an enormous full moon shining down at him. What the actual hell?
It didn’t take the Sheriff long to understand where he was. Stiles didn’t just get his smarts from his Mom, in fact when it came to leaps of logical intuition then the kid definitely took after his old man. He hadn’t been elected Sheriff because he looked pretty in that damn uniform. (No one looked pretty in that damn uniform. If he had the budget they would all have been wearing leathers years ago. But he couldn’t convince the Mayor of that!) As County Sheriff, he had the best clear up and reduced crime rates for the last twenty years.
When the realisation came rage and grief flooded his body as if it was happening all over again. As if he was losing her again and there was not a damn thing he could do about.
The surroundings might look different this time but there was no doubt what it actually was. The Spirit Plain. He was in the Spirit Plain after swearing on his young son’s life that he would never come back again.
The last time he had been dragged to the place, and his heart hurt even thinking about it, it had been the usual default blue jungle shit. The very one he had visited with his parents when he was a kid learning about his guide gifts at his Papa's knee. Not big Sentinel and Guide Council fans his parents. Too many bad memories of guide discrimination and Sentinel smug acquiescence from the old country to let them trust easily.
“Build your shields high Janek, only allow your Sentinel free passage through them. No one else must know about your gifts little one. Strong as the walls of Jericho Janek, which only fell to Joshua and his trumpet”. Your Sentinel will be your Joshua little one" His Babcia would whisper in his ear every morning before school and every evening before bed.
No, he had meant his vow that he wouldn’t come back to this benighted place. Since that last agonising involuntary pull when he had finally lost her. God damn it. Why could he never catch his breath in this hellhole? He bent over for a second, hands on his knees, trying to calm down.
“One breath in Janek, One breath out." His Papa's voice soothed as he guided.
The last time he had been drawn into this place, it was by Claudia’s sheer stubborn need to say goodbye. His Claudia. His shining star and his nemesis when she wanted to be. Jesus no wonder Stiles was like a damn terrier when he got his teeth into something. He got the stubborn gene from both his Momma and his Dad. Claudia had been a latent Sentinel who had never come online. Then that evil illness had taken away any chance that she would.
John hadn’t been at her bedside when her frail body had passed. But their baby boy had sat with her, his wide amber eyes locked onto hers as that body had simply stopped. And that was something he would regret with every fibre of his being until his dying day, the fact that their eight year old child sat there by himself and watched his Momma leave him.
But John had been with her when she had died. Deputy Stilinski had been coming off shift to go to his wife and child in the hospital when he had come across a road traffic accident. He had been sitting in the damp road holding the hand of the badly hurt young teenage girl whose car had been hit by a drunk driver, when he had been yanked to the spirit plane and there in front of him was his Claudia. The beautiful girl he had married and not the pitiful emaciated figure that had been bedridden for months in that hospital. The Claudia whom he had met that first day in her pretty orange summer dress, with the glorious cascade of chocolate curls and those wicked sparkling amber eyes that she had gifted to their son along with the constellation of pretty moles decorating their milk white skin.
He knew what it meant. He knew why he had been pulled there. No, it wasn’t happening. He fell to his knees shaking his head in grief stricken denial, “ No Sweetheart, no don’t leave me, don’t, you can’t I need you, we need you, please Claude don’t leave me” the words spun out of control as she walked up to him and took his face in her hands. So soft her hands, always so soft. She leant into him and kissed him so sweetly. He savoured the gentle familiar touch and his eyes closed involuntarily, tears sliding down his face and when he opened his eyes he was alone. His heart broke that day and any interest in Sentinel and Guide matters died along with his darling Claudia.
He shut down the memory. He couldn’t deal with it now. He had to make sense of what was happening right now. Those vivid painful memories would only hinder his determination to find out what the hell had brought him here, and to get back to his corporeal existence faster than anyone could say Stiles’ real name.
Awareness shot up his spine as if someone had walked over his grave. He felt the presence behind him or rather multiple presences. His hand went for his holster as he swung round but it came away empty. His fists were clenched as his instincts made him want to lash out, to deal with the unseen threat. This place threw off his normal good sense anyway. He wasn’t going to take any chances when he had been pulled here forcibly and he still didn’t know why.
Surprisingly the first things to catch his trained eye were the two dogs who sat there wagging their tails at him. He would swear to God they were grinning at him. One was a beautiful chocolate brown German shepherd. “Pies” John blurted out as he stared at the German shepherd memories of a small fluffy puppy playing with him in the back yard when he was a child.
He had named the puppy “dog” in Polish but to be fair he had only been about five himself. The animal’s smile seemed to grow smug and he rested his head on his paws as he stared intently at John. The other one gave a warning yip as if he was disgruntled at being ignored. John studied it for a second then came to the conclusion that it was definitely a coyote. He supposed a spirit coyote would fit right in with a blue desert spirit plain.
His breath stopped again and he swung back to stare at the German shepherd who seemed to get even more smug. “You have got to be kidding me. Spirit animals. My spirit animal? Now?” Shock turned to anger as he blurted out the words in outraged disbelief.
Even if John had deliberately blocked his memories and most of his knowledge of Sentinel and Guide matters, he knew there was only one reason why two spirit animals would come together before one person.
Irrational rage hit him again and he snarled at the big dog “Well where were you when I needed you Pies?” The dog growled warningly back at him but John ignored that as he finally saw the man barely able to stand directly in front of him. God almighty, this fucking place was playing tricks with his mind. Why hadn’t he seen the poor bastard first?
Sunburnt dirty bruised and battered the clearly exhausted guy fell to his knees. The Sheriff winced at the thudding sound as he hit the ground hard. The guy had wrapped the remnants of his shirt around his head. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in weeks, there were remnants of dried blood amongst the dirt on his face and there was some sort of blue light in his chest.
Merciful God was it actually embedded in his chest? John winced with horror, and unconsciously rubbed at his own sternum. He wouldn’t complain to Stiles about his over protective behaviour toward John’s own cardiac issues ever again. Bring on the god damn tofu.
"Sir, how can I assist you?" John began as he moved carefully towards the distressed man, his professionalism kicking in even as he scanned the guy for weapons, noted the injuries, whilst his mind ran through scenarios of how he could help him.
The guy looked up at him with indifference as if he had shut down, as if he didn’t have any strength left to even care that there was someone else with him, those deep dark eyes were bleak but paradoxically filled with immense pain. Damn, the injured man’s eyes, they were exactly the same shade of brown as Claudia’s and Stiles. The frown grew on the Sheriff’s face. Something was nagging at him. He knew that guy’s face even with all that stark pain etched into his features.
Stark? Stark? For a second the Sheriff was stunned into immobility. He knew that face, everyone on the blasted planet knew that face. Stark, Tony Stark, Anthony Edward Stark, lost months ago after that clusterfuck in Afghanistan. If nothing else, this unexpected trip to the spirit plain meant he would be able to aid this poor bastard. John stubbornly refused to think about any other implications of why he was the one dragged into the situation. That Tony Stark could be his … No, Nope, so not going there, at all. Ever.
The guy was in poor shape, he needed help fast. How the hell was he supposed to help him when they were both stuck on the spirit plain? He would have to get the emergency services. But how and where the hell was he?
The Sheriff tried again, using the voice he reserved for little children, and victims. He refused to acknowledge that the voice used what little guide empathy he had left.
“Mr Stark, Mr Stark, come on Mr Stark, Tony, you have to focus for me. Tony please. Come on, you can do this. You are the famous Tony Stark, you can do this. I need to know where you are Mr Stark. I can get help to you, I promise you I will get help to you but you have to tell me where you are. I need to know where you are”
Stark raised his head slowly as he was forcing himself up through immense crushing pressure. Those intense eyes stared at John as if trying to bring him into focus. The man drew a deep breath as if he was scenting the air around him and then those wary amber eyes softened, a genuine smile lit the guy’s lips as he croaked “Gulmira my Guide”, then John watched as Tony Stark collapsed backwards as if in slow motion whilst the coyote howled and took a running jump landing straight onto that blue thing in Stark’s chest and then they both disappeared from the Spirit plain.
After a few bewildered seconds, John Stilinski turned to scowl at the remaining spirit animal who had stayed in the same spot still watching him with unnerving intensity.
“I can’t save his ass if I am stuck in this blue hell- hole can I? So do your stuff Pies but I’m warning you I am no-one’s guide so you can stow that shit right now. The guy was obviously delirious and hallucinating.”
The Sheriff knew damn well that dogs did not have the capability to physically laugh, but it didn’t stop the blasted mutt from emoting his amusement at him as the big beast took a flying leap straight at the Sheriff’s chest.
Stilinski was still rubbing at his aching chest thirty five frustrating minutes later as he tried to get hold of someone who would actually take his damn call and go out and rescue bloody Tony Stark.