A/N: Sorry guys for the long wait. Lately life has been treating me like I killed its mother, and I still have two more stories to finish. Thank you for your patience; here is the final chapter of "The Trading Game".

They were a few feet from the fiery entrance to Hell when Jackson called to the succubus queen.

"Why are you taking both of us? The deal said you only got one! Let Lydia go!"

The succubus in the nurse's outfit laughed. "Why, the deal was that I get one of you and your father gets the other…and he is down there waiting for you! Therefore both of you must go. Had you let him live, one of you might have stayed. Now come along, children. Mustn't keep Mother waiting. Once We are safely Below, We can decide which of Us gets who. I'm thinking I'll let him have you, My son. I'm a little put out that the Prince of Puppies has soiled your essence."

Jackson and Lydia looked at each other with a lost expression. Derek snarled and rushed the succubus. She waved her hand negligently at the Alpha, and Derek was thrown across the room as in a hurricane wind.

"Do not presume to lay hands on Me, mortal! Unless, that is, you'd like to make a bargain? No? Then perhaps I'll destroy you here and now, and weaken that mongrel Lycanus even further!"

Derek was struggling to his feet when he suddenly fell back to the floor, screaming in pain. He clawed at his shirt like a man on fire, tearing it from until it fell in tatters to the floor. The tattoo on Derek's back glowed a fiery red, and the succubus drew in a sharp breath at the sight of it.

"Drat, that was unexpectedly clever." she muttered. Jackson and Lydia were on the point of entering the fireplace when they were suddenly tossed to either side. They slammed into opposite walls and were knocked out cold. The cloaked and hooded that was Deaton in the possession of Lycanus strode out of the fireplace and into the room. Scott ran over to Lydia and checked her vital signs. He knew Jackson would recover, but Lydia had no accelerated healing abilities. He glanced up at Lycanus as the demon spoke to the succubus queen.

"My thanks, Princess of Prostitutes. Saying My true Name in the presence of My Sigil? I couldn't hope that you would be that stupid, and once again you surpass all expectation! You will feel My teeth in that tender flesh of yours for daring to harm My chosen son!"

Lycanus made a slashing motion in the air with one of his mutated clawed hands, and Lilith screamed as five slashes raked themselves across her face. They did not bleed so much as drip reddish light. Lilith snarled and stamped one of her dainty feet. Lycanus howled as a huge crunching noise came from his torso, the bones that made up Deaton's body snapping under lethal force.

The howl became a growling laugh as Lycanus straightened up. "You dare? You forget that I wield more power than you, trollop! My children roam the world, while yours are gathered up by Hell! I am supreme!"

Lilith laughed. "Your children are almost extinct! This lot represents a third of all the werewolves left in the world! Cambion blood yet runs in the Argent bloodline, a variant specifically designed to enhance their strength and reflexes…along with a burning desire to destroy your pitiful mutt children wherever they be found! Their job is almost done! The last Alpha is here, and he will bear no children! When he dies, your earthly power will be finished!"

Lycanus snarled. "So it was you that that arranged for the Argents to battle My wolves! I should have known! You probably fed that human brat to Heinrich Heller yourself! But once again you have failed to thwart Me. Young Hale is indeed the last Alpha…but he will be an Alpha that the world has never seen before! In accordance with the bargain I made with Heinrich Heller, in the 13th generation of his descendants, an Alpha will be chosen…that's you, My boy. When you agree to receive My bite it will sharpen yours, and from that day forward, every human you turn will… become an Alpha. And you will turn them by the hundreds, and they will turn others by the thousands…and then we'll see who is more powerful!"

Derek finally regained his feet. The tattoo on his back was no longer glowing, but now seemed to be alive, the tendrils of the spirals uncurling and lengthening to entwine his arms and legs.

"No. I'll never do that! I'll kill myself first!" he said bluntly.

"But dear boy, you forget! I play to win! I hold the soul of that which you hold most dear…and I promise you that he will spend the next thousand years wishing bitterly that he had never been born!" The wolf's black lips peeled back from the enormous fangs. "There is no flesh so sweet as that of a young pup…"

"No! You can't! Don't hurt him!" Derek now realized the awful trap that had been set for him.

"Hurt him? My teeth will rend his soul until he is nothing but a cloud of mindless agony hanging in the black sky of Hell!

Jackson and Lydia came to their senses, and Scott pulled them off to the side.

"And as for you two pups…you will be the first to receive your Alpha's gift and continue My work! When the last human is extinct and this becomes a world of Werewolves, I will be free to roam the Earth forever…and the sooner that happens, the sooner I will return your young friend my boy…don't worry that he will be bored…I will devote all of my attention to him…"

Derek looked miserable. He knew he would do anything that Lycanus asked if it would keep Stiles safe.

Lilith was turning a bright scarlet as she listened to her fellow demon's plans. "You miserable excuse for a hellhound, you cursed cur! Jackson is My son, and he will not run in your pack! I will purge your seed from him Below. And I will inform Our Lord about your plans…let's see you match power against the First of the Fallen!"

"Strumpet! The Morning Star knows and approves of My plan! Does not Revelation foretell the coming of a great Beast?"

Lilith's eyes widened.

"Then I am forced to destroy you and tell the Father of Lies that you planned to usurp his power. It is probably even true."

Lilith lifted one delicate hand and sent a beam of pink energy straight at Lycanus. It was pure destroying light, and had it reached the Dark Man, it may very well have vaporized him. Lycanus angrily sent his own crimson energy back at her, the two forces cancelling each other out while the demons grew even more furious. They stopped at the same time and glared at each other, panting.

"This is an even playing field. I'd wager that more here are allied with Me than with you. All I'd need is one to willingly pledge their soul to Me, and you would soon be little more than a legacy of body odor and venereal disease. Your children despise you, but do any here favor Me? Remember, Duchess of Debauchery, that you may not interfere with the negotiations under penalty of dissolution!"

To everyone's surprise, Scott spoke up. "I'll do it. For a price."

Lycanus chuckled in triumph.

"Scott, no! You're in over your head!" shouted Lydia.

"Stay out of it. Do we have a deal?" he asked.

"Certainly My boy. And what do you wish in return?"

"Three things." Said Scott smugly.

"Three? FOR ONE SOUL?" roared Lycanus.

"I think that so close to the endgame, you'd be willing to be a little generous. If not, then have at Lilith as you are…"

Lycanus growled. "Be careful boypup…My teeth are beginning to hunger for you. Very well, make your demands."

"I'm a little worried that my requests are out of your league. What happens if you can't fulfill your end of the bargain?"

"Short of waging war against Heaven or Hell or cracking the planet in two, there is little I would be incapable of performing. Under the rules of Pact-making, I can perform true miracles to seal a bargain. I can create or destroy matter and energy. I can unwind Time and reorder history, I can travel to every location in the universe at the same time…I can slaughter thousands or steal back lives from the clutches of Death itself!"

"Braggart!" shouted Lilith. Scott and Lycanus ignored her. She was powerless to act until the deal had been struck or turned down.

"Oh, nothing like that. From what you say, two of the requests you will find easy enough…it's the third I'm worried about. It may be beyond your skill. If you can't do it, then we keep what you have given us and I get ownership of my soul back and you go to Hell empty-handed and leave all of us alone, renouncing any previously made bargains affecting any of us or our families, forever, and that includes ties by marriage…and all of this with no hard feelings or thoughts of revenge."

"You pay attention to detail…I like that! But I will require more than just your soul as the stakes. If your Alpha fails to cooperate, I would like to count on you as a second…and much more willing…option. The pup Jackson will agree to transfer My Sigil from Derek to you should this be necessary."

Scott considered, then glanced at Jackson steadily.

"Yeah, I'll do it Scott. I hope you know what you're doing!" Jackson muttered nervously.

"Agreed. After the third request is fulfilled, I'll take the Sigil and you can bite me and I will take Derek's place as your uber-Alpha… if Derek turns the job down. I'll turn as many people as I can if I have to."

Lycanus' eyes narrowed. "You agree too quickly boy. You have a trick planned. I should warn you that this is a binding agreement. You will be compelled if you do not cooperate, and I may inflict any punishment I desire for refusal."

"Me? Refuse? Not at all. I agree to the demands and officially pledge my soul under the proffered terms."

Lycanus placed his hand on Scott's chest and seemed to glow with power. Lilith was gritting her teeth in fury. Lycanus turned and attacked her again, and she reciprocated…but this time the battle went in Lycanus' favor as his crimson energy reached the succubus queen and blasted her to smithereens of pink light. They whirled around before funneling down into the fireplace entrance to Hell. The flames whooshed back together, and the fireplace was run of the mill once more. Lycanus turned to Scott.

"Make your demands, pup. Try to worm your way out of this bargain by giving me a task I cannot complete!"

"First request; restore Stiles to how we was right before he met you in the forest…in perfect health and alive with his soul back in his possession.

"Done!" growled the Great Unknown. Lycanus tossed a blue orb into the air which dropped into Stiles' body, and Stiles immediately came to. He freaked when he saw the company, and tried to hide behind the couch. Derek ran to him and hugged him gratefully.

"Second, I want you to resurrect Derek's family and Stiles' mother… with their memories intact up to the day before the fire for the Hales and the day before her death for Mrs. Stilinski."

"Done!" shouted the Prince of Werewolves.

A family photo containing the entire Hale family save Derek (who took the picture) from the foyer floated into the room to hang in the air above them. Another small photo wrenched itself from Stiles' wallet to float next to the first. Lycanus directed a crimson beam of energy from his eyes at the photos, which began to vibrate in place. Red light shot out of them, and with an ear-shattering roar they exploded outward. When the light faded, the silent figures of the deceased Hale family stood there motionless…along with Stella Stilinski. Derek was staring in shock, and Stiles was openly crying.

"That recreates their pitiful fleshy sacks, now for the souls!" Lycanus looked upward and roared, the house itself shaking down to its foundations. A new figure appeared in the room, robed in white and carrying a flaming sword. His feet did not touch the ground; he hovered a few inches above.

"Lycanus. Why do you summon Me?"

"I'm calling in a favor, Azrael. I need the souls of these beings restored, under Regulation 3,604 section C paragraph 12 line 8."

"Demonic pact? Usually humans don't make such unselfish requests. Very well! I don't have that one though, he likely resides down below with your lot." The angel pointed to Peter Hale. "And We misplaced her years ago." He pointed at Mrs. Stilinski.

"You are the Angel of Death, Azrael. Your staff is hopeless, but you should be able to find her."

"Hopeless! Do you have any idea how many people die every day! Plus, there's a hiring freeze that will last until Armageddon! Oh blast and botheration! Fine, but the damned soul is your responsibility!"

"Fair enough, I'll manage that one. Less forms to fill out when it's an Internal, anyway."

Azrael swung his sword through the air.

A cluster of clear crystalline orbs descended from the ceiling and whistled into the Hale family members, with the exception of one which emerged from Stiles' chest (he gave a short shriek) and into Mrs. Stilinski.

"Ah! There's the one that went missing!" murmured Azrael. "I'm off. I'll see you at the next staff meeting." A flash of light, and he was gone. Lycanus snapped his fingers at the fireplace and a jet of flame shot from the hearth releasing a crimson orb that found its way into Peter Hale. They started to wake up, but at a gesture from the Prince of Werewolves, they fell instantly asleep, falling bonelessly to the floor.

"Tricky, that was. I approve however, since most of this lot are werewolves! They will wake when Our business is concluded. Your third request?" growled Lycanus.

"Remember, if you can't do it, we keep what we've asked for and you get nothing!" Scott said simply.

"I should like to hear such a request. Go on then. Stump me!" Lycanus growled.

Jackson and Lydia looked at Scott with horrified expectation. Stiles stood with Derek, their arms around each other's shoulders as they moved among the bodies of their sleeping loved ones. They were both too overcome with emotion to do more than stare down at them.

"You can go anywhere? Anywhere at all?" Scott asked once more.

"Anywhere and back in a moment! The ends of the universe in an instant! I could be at the Throne of God in one second and ask Him about His golf game! The next could see me at Lucifer's worktable and comment on His latest origami! Nowhere is forbidden to me! If you wish is for me to travel somewhere, then give me the destination!"

"Okay. My third request is that you get lost." Scott said softly.

Lycanus goggled at him. Then he gave a great sigh, and began to shrink back into himself.

"It is well for you…that you specified…that there would be no revenge."

The black sticky fur seemed to pull inward as the body took on a more humanoid shape, the great jaws collapsing inward and the limbs realigning themselves while they watched in sick horror. When there was nothing but a muscled skeleton standing there in a cloak, a new epidermis began to knit itself from nowhere, and before long Dr. Deaton stood before them re-fleshed and blinking in confusion. The Sigil of Lycanus faded from Derek's back, and one after the other the sleeping people on the floor began to wake.

"Mom?" said Derek and Stiles at the same time, running to the people they had missed most in the world.

Stella Stilinski embraced her son. Her dark brown eyes looked deep into his, and she ran a hand through her own short dark hair in confusion…a mannerism that Stiles had long imitated while forgetting who he learned it from.

"Genim! How on earth did you get so big! Where's your father? Wait, why are you so upset? Has someone hurt you? I'll kick their ass!" Stiles was bawling too loud to speak.

"Derek? You're…grown! Gods! You're an Alpha! But your father!" The pale raven-tressed beauty (thinner and slightly taller than Stiles' mother, and with much longer hair) looked back and forth between her husband and child. Her blue-grey eyes were wide in shock. Laura Hale approached them, appearing to Derek six years younger since her body was re-created from an old photo. This Laura had never been an Alpha as her father had never died. Erick Hale looked his now adult son up and down in wonder.

"Derek, how did this happen?" he asked.

"Mom? Why is Derek suddenly my big brother?" asked the lovely 19 year old brunette, giving Derek one of her famous arm-punches.

Derek was too overwhelmed to speak, even after Grandma and Grandpa Hale, Henry and Michael and their twins, Aunt Alice, Roger and Janet (resurrected with her pregnancy intact) and even Uncle Peter (who in this life had never suffered through the fire that turned him evil) came over and exclaimed at how Derek had changed and to ask furtively who the hell the other people in the room were.

Jackson and Lydia took this as their cue to leave, and Jackson drove them home in his Porsche once they collected their things. They crammed Scott in the back seat, but only after the gang gave him a suffocating collective hug. Stiles introduced his mother to Derek, saying "Along with you and Dad, this is the most important person in my life, Mom." Once she had taken a few minutes to digest this, she awkwardly gave Derek a hug, and then followed Stiles out to his Jeep (along with a dazed Dr. Deaton) with a muttered comment that Stiles had excellent taste. Stiles yelled out to Derek that he would call tomorrow and drove home with the express purpose of blowing his Dad's mind.

Derek whistled and got his family's attention.

"Okay, you probably are all wondering what's happened, and it's a long story. It started like this…" Derek left out only Peter's involvement, implying he had died in the fire with the rest of them. As it was an omission rather than a direct lie, the room full of werewolves failed to detect it.

Three months later, Janet Hale gave birth to a baby boy whom they named Scott Hale in honor of the hero that they owed so much to. The Stilinski household, the Martins, the Whittemores and the McCalls were all invited to a magnificent (and meat-heavy) feast that featured an enormous fireworks (courtesy of some more Lydia-magic) display at the end. Jackson brought Danny as a guest (after finally sorting out the feelings he had about his lifelong friend), Allison came along with Scott and Derek also invited Dr. Deaton to join in as well. Before the party got in full swing, Scott, Stiles and Jackson were asked to partake in a small private ceremony that welcomed them into the Hale Pack.

"You're family now, boys." Said Erick Hale gravely.

Afterwards, Scott was startled to see that his mother had recognized Peter from their one date, and was chatting him up while he explained his recent loss of memory and expressed genuine interest in going out again. "Oh, good grief." muttered Scott. "That's the worst pairing ever!" he groaned and snuggled up to Allison who said only "I agree. They'd look nauseating together!" before lifting up his chin and smooching him sickeningly.

Steven and Stella Stilinski bonded unexpectedly with Alice Hale when they discovered a mutual love of vintage music, and they spent the evening dancing on the deck while one record after another played the hit songs of yesteryear.

Later that evening, after chatting with Henry and Michael about the ups and downs of a human/Lycan relationship, Jackson approached Derek and Stiles who were singing (badly) an endless karaoke of 70's platinum singles. Two sets of slightly drunk eyes rolled at Jackson's new t-shirt, which read: "Werewolves do it by Moonlight."

"So, Derek. I wanted to ask you a favor. Could you give Danny the bite? We talked a lot about it and re really wants to join the pack."

"Um, sure, I guess. Why does he want it? You guys having problems with…getting hurt?" asked Derek.

"No, nothing like that. It's just…I worry about him too much. Every time he gets injured on the Lacrosse field I get really jacked up about it. I always trade it away for him, but I'm always thinking about what would happen if I couldn't be there if he got seriously…I can't even say it out loud. It would really set my mind at rest, and he's okay with the idea. I've turned into such a worrywolf, I must be driving him nuts." Jackson glanced over at Danny who was now sitting next to Lydia while she read 'Brokeback Mountain' and he paged through 'The Notebook'. Both were sniffing and wiping their eyes.

"I know just how you feel, Jackson." said Stiles, hugging Derek from behind before jumping and forcing the older Lycan to carry him piggy-back. Derek's spine gave a painful crackle.

"Yeah, Stiles. Your concern for my health is overwhelming! Jackson, I owe you so much. Don't give it another thought. Send him over when he's ready."

"Thanks, Derek. You know, you were right all that time ago when I was feeling sorry for myself about being given up for adoption. I felt…so goddamned alone, and you told me that I had a real family that cared about me, and you would do anything to have it. I know what you mean now, and I am so grateful for my folks and so honored to be part of the Hales too. I have more family than ever, now."

"Was it worth everything you had to go through to get it?" asked the Alpha.

Jackson nodded, his handsome face lighting up with a huge smile. "Absolutely. I wouldn't trade it for anything."