Through The Portal: A Friendlier Reality (Teen Wolf)

This story is based on a request by my good friend and Watt Tier patron TF Station!

Upon hearing rumors about a mystical portal that had appeared in the woods on the outskirts of Beacon Hills, Scott McCall knew it was his duty to investigate. He was the alpha of the Beacon Hills pack, after all, and he took his responsibility of keeping his town safe very seriously. Unfortunately in the recent months the pack’s number had dwindled a little, what with both Stiles and Lydia heading out of town to university, Jackson and Ethan going back to London, and Derek back on his highway travels. It was only Scott, Liam, Corey and Mason left, and the other three were all going through a stressful time in their senior year of high school, so the alpha was reluctant to bother them over a mere rumor. On the other hand, Scott knew it was foolish to investigate alone, so he decided to take a chance and recruit the assistance of Theo Raeken.

The relationship between Scott and Theo was anything but simple. It was no longer the intense animosity that it had once been, but it was also a long way away from friendship. Even though Scott was a naturally trusting person, even he wasn’t quite able to forgive and forget that Theo had once tried to kill him and his closest friends. The other man was insistent that he was on the road to redemption but Scott continued to monitor Theo with a close eye and hadn’t formally accepted him into the pack as a result. Maybe one day he would be able to fully trust the chimera but it seemed like that day was still a long way off.

As the pair scouted through the densely-packed forest, Theo attempted to strike up conversation with some small talk and despite wanting to keep the other at arm’s length, Scott couldn’t help but indulge. Deep down (or perhaps not even that deep), he wanted Theo to redeem himself. He wanted to give him another chance, even if there was a very good chance that it was a stupid idea. Hell, Scott could practically hear Stiles yelling at him for being an idiot already. His best friend hadn’t trusted Theo from day one and he’d been right to, but that was what made Scott and Stiles work so well together: one was all heart, the other was all mind. They were a great team but life aspirations were keeping them apart, so rather than working with his best friend, Scott was left with someone who still made semi-regular appearances in his nightmares.

“Hey, do you see that light over there?” Theo asked suddenly, snapping Scott out of his silent musings. He turned to face in the direction that the other man was pointing and, sure enough, there seemed to be a pink glow spreading through the trees. The beams of light rippled, suggesting that whatever the source was, it was in constant motion. Considering the rumors he’d heard back in the town, Scott was pretty certain that they had just stumbled across what they had been looking for.

“Let’s check it out,” Scott declared, beginning to make strides towards the light source. “Just do me a favour and don’t get too close, okay? We don’t know what this thing is, or if it’s dangerous.” Then, with a sigh, Scott added: “This is Beacon Hills. It’s probably dangerous.”

After about a minute of walking Scott and Theo finally broke through the trees and entered into a small clearing. It would have been an unremarkable location if it wasn’t for the circle of swirling light that stood before them. Ten foot high and ten foot wide, the portal was an aurora of bright pink and yellow, and the sweet scent of flowers seemed to radiate from it. As far as supernatural occurrences went, it didn’t appear to be the most threatening thing Scott had come across, but he’d learned long ago not to underestimate something based upon its appearance. Theo and his handsome good looks were a perfect example.

Of course, the other man didn’t have quite the same level of caution towards potential threats that Scott did, so while the alpha werewolf hesitated a good ten feet away from the portal, Theo took several steps closer. “Where do you think it goes?” he asked, leaning in closer as if hoping to see something through the hypnotic lights.

“Theo, I don’t think--” Scott’s warning was cut off by sudden activity from the portal, as a tendril of light shot out and wrapped itself around Theo’s waist. A mere second later and there were already three more tendrils wrapping themselves around Theo’s limbs and pulling the chimera closer to the portal.

“Scott, help!” There was genuine panic and pain in Theo’s voice, and Scott knew that he couldn’t stand idly by and watch. Mustering up his speed, he darted forward and attempted to grab at the other man, but as soon as he was within six feet of the portal, several more tendrils burst forth and captured him within their grasp. His flesh burned at the various points of contact and even as Scott attempted to struggle and muscle out of their grasp, the tendrils tightened around him and pulled him closer and closer to that whirlpool of pink light.

Theo was the first to disappear through the portal, his cries of alarm cutting off the moment he was engulfed by the impossibly bright blaze. Scott had just a few seconds to contemplate where Theo had been taken before he too was pulled into the portal. As soon as he had been entirely swallowed by the light, Scott was completely blinded and could no longer produce any sounds from his mouth. Every inch of his flesh blistered and there was a sudden pressure upon his bones, particularly those of his arms, legs and head. His body felt like it was on the verge of giving out on him and although Scott had never let himself give up on a fight before, he wasn’t sure there was anything left he could do. Was this really how he met his end? Would any of his friends even know what had happened to him?

Eventually the pain was simply too much for Scott to handle while remaining conscious and he slipped into a brief respite where he neither felt any discomfort nor anything of much at all. It was impossible for him to grasp how long he was travelling through the portal, nor what it was doing to him, but it certainly wasn’t his end as he’d been fearing. Eventually the portal spat him back out into the clearing and Scott slowly rose back to consciousness, albeit with some stark differences.

The first thing Scott noticed was that the moon had somehow been replaced with the sun, communicating that the experience had definitely warped him through time. The next thing was just how muted all of the colours seemed to be: the trees, the leaves, the dirt… all of it seemed to lack the vibrance that it should rightfully have had. As Scott attempted to rise to his feet, he discovered a whole series of oddities: he was only able to stand on all fours, his limbs were completely different shapes from how they should have been, and his skin was covered in a sea of silver fur!

Scott’s attempt to curse in confusion produced only a growl, not too dissimilar from the noise he made while shifted into his werewolf form. That’s it, I’ll try and shift back! Try as he might though, Scott’s attempts led nowhere. He seemed to be stuck in whatever warped form he had! Panic flared up inside the young man as he considered what being trapped in an animal form might mean for him. How would he be able to tell anybody who he really was? He just had to hope that Theo was okay and could identify him-- wait, Theo!

The shock of his unexpected transformation had consumed Scott’s focus for the past several minutes, so he’d completely failed to notice that his enemy-turned-potential-friend had also appeared in the clearing. He was unconscious on the floor, but curiously he was wearing rather different clothes than the all-black style he tended to frequent. As Scott approached, he noted that Theo even smelled different too. He had become used to the chimera’s scent, but that supernatural odor had seemingly vanished and was instead replaced with a pungent cologne.

Although he wasn’t proud of it, Scott knew that he was reliant upon Theo’s help. The portal had vanished so Theo would need to find out what had happened and create some other way to get them back to their rightful selves. First of all though, he needed to wake up, so Scott began to bark in the hope that it might snap the other man back into consciousness. When that didn’t work, Scott swallowed up his pride and licked at the other man’s face. Once again though, Theo remained unresponsive. Damn it! Wake up, Theo!

Finally, after another twenty minutes in which Scott was distracted by the various scents of the woodland around him, his potential saviour finally began to stir...

x

The sun was high in the sky when Theo finally jerked back to consciousness. He stared up at the treetops, desperately trying to recall what he was doing in the middle of a forest and on the uncomfortable hard ground. The last thing he remembered was getting pulled into that portal and then the most extreme pain he had ever experienced. He’d thought he was dying, but there was no doubt that he’d end up in Hell and this picturesque scene with blue sky and green leaves didn’t exactly fit the bill, so where was he? As Theo pushed himself up into a seated position and looked around, he realised that he was still in the same clearing he had been in, only the portal was no longer present.

Concerningly, neither was Scott. Instead, Theo’s only company in the clearing was a canine: a wolf-dog hybrid with beautiful grey fur and a plain black collar around his neck. It was prowling around the clearing and whimpering, throwing its head around in clear irritation. Once its eyes caught sight of Theo though, the canine began to bark and bounded towards him. Its movements were so frantic that it almost barrelled right into Theo and he had to grab at its collar to keep it from knocking him back to the ground.

“Hey there buddy, let’s calm down now,” he encouraged in a soft voice, using his free hand to massage behind the pup’s ear. As he did so, he took notice of a small nametag on the collar and quickly shifted to get a proper look at the name on it. When he did, a chuckle escaped his lips. Out of all of the possibilities, the canine’s name happened to be Scott. What are the chances? The reminder of his not-quite friend prompted Theo to glance around again, looking for his Scott. No matter where he looked though, Theo simply couldn’t see another living being in the vicinity other than the dog that was breathing hot and heavily right into his face. He tried to make use of his heightened senses from being a chimera to see if Scott was somewhere further out but strangely he seemed unable to actually access those abilities, almost like he was back to being a regular human or something.

As he looked back to the canine and locked eyes with it, the wheels in Theo’s mind began to turn. Could it be? “Scott? Is that you?” Was it possible that getting pulled into the portal had transformed Scott into a dog? The canine whimpered briefly in response to the name and then began to bark, neither of which helped prove or disprove Theo’s growing suspicion. All it took was for Theo to look down at himself to feel certain about his suspicion though, as his clothes were notably different to the get-up he had been in when he’d joined Scott to investigate the portal rumours. His jeans were tighter around his muscular quads and the half-unbuttoned shirt with its flowery pattern was much brighter and more expensive than anything Theo had in his drab wardrobe. He even had a watch that, judging by how shiny it was, appeared to be out of his usual price range too!

Ignoring Scott’s renewed whimpering, Theo fished the cell phone out of his pocket. As the lockscreen was illuminated he was greeted by an image that seemed to be the ultimate confirmation of his suspicions: the background was a picture of him and Stiles cuddled together, with the grey wolf-dog positioned between them. There was absolutely no way such a picture would ever exist considering the intense hostility between Stiles and him, so there was only one possible explanation: the portal had deposited Theo in an alternate universe and he was occupying the body of an alternate version of himself!

“It’s really you, isn’t it?” he asked, scratching behind the canine’s large ears. “Oh buddy, this is probably quite the shock for you, huh?” Despite himself, Theo couldn’t help but grin. He was thankful that it wasn’t him who’d been forced into the body of a dog, and he had to admit that the former alpha werewolf made for quite the handsome hound.

Finally climbing up to his feet, Theo brushed the dirt from his lower half. It appeared like he (or his alternate self) had tripped while walking his faithful dog in the forest. An investigation through the pictures folder even brought up a photo of Theo and Stiles in front of a home that he recognised as being a short distance from the high school. It seemed that their relationship was going so well that they’d even bought a property together! This is definitely a bizarro world, he remarked to himself, although he was certainly amused at how things had played out. He’d recognised Stiles as being handsome from the moment he’d returned to Beacon Hills, so being in a relationship with him was actually an exciting notion.

“Let’s try and see if we can work out how this happened to us,” Theo told his transformed friend in a soft voice, beginning to walk back towards where the forest would give way to the town. Of course, Scott wasn’t to know that Theo was in no hurry to find a way for them to get back to their reality. It seemed like his life was pretty damn awesome in this world and he wanted to experience some of it for himself. He’d even get to see if Stiles was any good in the sack! Maybe one day he’d tire of a reality where he seemed to be everyone’s friend, but until then Scott would just have to be patient and enjoy his time as Theo’s best friend!