#argents

What if Gerard Argent stepped out during one of his hunts?

What if Chris and Kate had a brother they never knew existed?

What if that kid—Deac—grew up never knowing a damn thing about the Argents or the supernatural?

~*~

Daniel Kay didn’t grow up as a hunter. 

No code.

No legacy.

No brainwashing bedtime stories.

He always knew when something was amiss.

Not dangerous. Not criminal.

Just other.

He could sense the shift  under someone’s skin.

He called it instinct.

SWAT called it good training.

Everyone else just called him lucky.

~*~

Then came the FBI raid.

Stiles was on-site with the Bureau.

Deac was assisting with SWAT.

Stiles Stilinski was there—loud, brilliant, hiding the kind of power that hummed under your skin when you got too close.

And when Deac went down—hard, bleeding, seconds from dying—Stiles didn’t hesitate.

He pushed. 

Raw, instinctive, messy, magic. 

The kind that digs into your bones.

And that was the moment everything stopped lying just underneath the surface.

~*~

What if the magic didn’t just heal Deac. It lit him up.

The sense he’d spent his life ignoring turned into something sharper.

His intuition felt like it was on overdrive.

He could see the overlap. Two worlds colliding.

And Stiles? Stiles looked like he’d swallowed a supernova.

Deac didn’t know what he was, but the world around him suddenly did.

And somewhere, miles away, Chris Argent felt something shift—

The forgotten Argent—the one who slipped through the cracks—had just woken up.

~*~

“We protect those who cannot protect themselves”

I want to preface this answer with a caveat: this might be the most speculative meta I've ever written. While I'm going to try to draw as much evidence as I can from canon, I don't think it would be out-of-the question for people to disregard it on its surface merits.

So, here goes. I don't think that the Argents would join the military and they would strongly discourage their children from joining the military. I'm sure that during the time of the draft there might have been some Argents serving, but it would be under duress. If you accept the same head canon that I do, that Victoria was also from a hunting family, she would not be either. I think the reasons would be historical, practical, and philosophical.

Historical: Of all the characters in the Teen Wolf series, Marie-Jeanne Argent née Valet had the most emotionally true (if not entirely rational) reaction to the discovery that her beloved relative turned out to be one of the most prolific serial killers in that world let alone a terrifying demonic werewolf. As we see in The Maid of Gévaudan (5x18), she reacted with outright condemnation, hunting him down over three years and destroying all trace of him with a damnatio memoriae, which in reality meant destroying her own past, too. We can assume that the Argent Code was written by her, including the part where any hunter who was Bit by a werewolf had to kill themselves. This is extreme behavior (even if valid) and it is echoed in the revulsion non-corrupted Argents like Chris and Allison had when discovering Kate's and Gerard's crimes. It was certainly less permissive than the Hale family's tendency to react to deaths caused by their family which ranged from outright condoning ("But still beautiful, just like the rest of you") to dismissive (after all, how many people did kooky Uncle Petey kill, including the guy he shoved alive into a burning barrel, and still have the keys to the family home?).

Considering that Sebastian became a demon wolf while he was serving in the French king's war with England across an entire ocean in their respective colonies, I don't think it's a stretch for Marie-Jeanne in establishing her code to steer her descendants away from military service. It might even have been a requirement.

Practical: While both the military and hunters use weapons, military service wouldn't seem to bear much resemblance to hunter training. It appears to me to be much closer to espionage or criminal work. Hunting werewolves requires training in specific weapons (bows, tasers, and poisons), technology (hypersonic emitters), and techniques (torture, infiltration, intimidation, and cleaning up evidence). In addition, the soldiers of the Argent family exhibit a level of discernment when it comes to tactics and targets that the military simply would not tolerate. Chris points as much out to Kate in Code Breaker (1x12):

Chris: No one asked you to murder innocent people. There were children in that house, ones who were human. Look what you're doing now. You're holding a gun on a 16-year-old boy with no proof he spilled human blood. 

Later on in Relics (6x04), Chris explains that he should have intervened when he saw how Gerard was training Kate. That implies to me that while Argent soldiers are supposed to follow the lead of the matriarch, they're also expected to do more than just follow orders. While civilization demands we hold individual military soldiers to answer for their conduct, I can tell you from personal experience that military training does not have a goal to instill a sense of individual agency.

Philosophical: In my encounters with real-life military people, it is my experience that they see themselves and the military as a whole as an immanent part of society itself. They enable civilization to exist; they uphold society's laws and mores as one of its pillars. I am sure that many people on this site would disagree with that assessment, but I'm talking about the perception within military culture itself. The military focus on being a vital part of their country, and when they err it is when they come to believe that they are the most important part and thus have a greater right to say how a country and a civilization will behave.

One of the things I've noticed about the Argents and the other hunting family feature, the Calaveras, is that they don't consider themselves part of the greater society. They see themselves as protecting it from monsters that the average person cannot comprehend, and while they certainly do infiltrate law enforcement and emergency services, they don't seek permanent authority over the mundane social institutions. This is one of the significant departures that marked Monroe as different from previous organized hunters, and one that made her more dangerous. Victoria, Araya, Chris and Allison (and when they weren't being selfishly corrupt, even Gerard and Kate) saw themselves as operating outside of it all as a necessity. They work with criminals like the yakuza; they hire mercenaries; and they understand that they will never be fully accepted.

Chris: We're gonna be pariahs in this town. Victoria: We can handle it.

Monroe, on the other hand, organized hunters to protect society, but she wanted to change society as well. She accused the werewolves not only of being monsters by virtue of their natures and by their acts, but by the power that privileged them ("No one should have this power"), and she accused people like Sheriff Stilinski of abetting that unfair advantage. (I will never forgive Teen Wolf for giving up on exploring that difference half-way through 6B.) Since Gerard was only interested in using Monroe, he didn't train to see herself the way he and his family saw themselves: protectors working from the outside.

Sarah is older than Scott and only a year younger than Derek. (because big age gaps scare me). She works at the hospital with her mother and is a pharmacist and also a Druid of Scott's pack.

Timeline : In TW S1, after Sarah rescues Derek from Kate.

Sarah :

I run to the basement where they've been keeping Derek. Scott follows close behind me, and even when he is the supernatural one, it seems like I am running faster.

"CeeCee," Scott says, "Be careful." Even when I pretend like I don't like it when he calls me that, on the inside, I do. When Scott was a baby, he couldn't pronounce my name. He used to say 'CeeCee'. Even when he learnt the correct pronunciation, he still calls me that.

"Are you sure that this is the place?" I ask him as we come to a stop outside the door. My heart's been hammering and I've been out of my mind with worry. I had met Derek not a long time ago, but him and I, there's a bond developed between us. I'm sure that we have a connection. Like when he growls at every man who looks my way, when he almost became a wolf and killed that one man who tried to steal my purse, yup, I know he's into me.

And so am I. I like being with him. To the world, he's a dry, humourless, dead-inside person, but to me, he's just a man who's been alone for too long. People look at him like he's some kind of monster, but to be honest, my father was more of a monster than he is.

I hear voices inside, and put my ear to the door. Scott doesn't have to.

Derek: "Are you gonna torture me, or are you just gonna talk me to death?"

Kate: "Oh, sweetie, I don't- I don't wanna torture you. I just... wanna catch up. Remember all the fun we had together?"

Derek: "Like the time you burned my family alive?"

Kate: "No, I was thinking more about the hot, crazy sex we had. But the fire thing? Yeah, that was fun, too. I love how much you hate me. Remember how this felt?"

I take away my ear. I have to save Derek, not vomit at this door. Whatever Kate had in mind after she said that, it is disturbing. Still, a pang rocks my heart when I realise that she saw the innocent, kind part of Derek which I'll most likely never see.

Not the time to be jealous.

Kate walks away, and Scott and I burst open the door. I cough due to the dust, but Scott stands in front of Derek with his jaw clenched. Derek sees him first and then I step into the light. Derek's eyes widen.

"Why is she here?" He snaps at Scott, making my heart crack.

"I'd suggest you to be a bit more grateful, Derek! Since she was the one who insisted on saving your life as soon as possible after she located where you were being tortured!" Scott snarls at him. I give him a soft smile. If there's anything Scott doesn't tolerate, it's the disrespect of his sister.

"I am grateful for that." Derek grits his teeth. He refuses to make eye contact with me. "But do you remember that she's human? She can't heal like us! What if something happens to her-"

"Look at me!" I snarl at him. "I'm done sitting safely in my house while a crazy werewolf hunter tries to hurt my brother and my-"

I break of mid-sentence. My? Derek? Mine?

"You!" I grit out. "And don't even get me started on that crazy alpha wandering around beacon hills." He's looking at me now, his eyes full of emotion, a rarity when we talk about Derek. "You need me, Derek. Admit it."

I don't give him a chance to speak and step up to him, removing his cuffs. Once I free his hands, he doesn't move, just keeps them on my waist and I wrap my arms around his neck. He touches his head to mine and says, "You have no idea how much I need you. I need you to control myself. You're my anchor, Sarah McCall."

"I thought your anchor was anger." I tease him playfully. He kisses my head. "That was before I met you."

"Can you two stop? I don't wanna vomit here." Scott says from behind me. "Derek, we need to talk to you. About Peter."

I try to move away but he holds my hand. "Derek, you cannot support Peter. You cannot be with him." I warn.

"If he's going to kill the Argents, I will." He says firmly.

"I'm not going to let you kill Allison!" Scott shouts at the top of his voice. "What is wrong with you, Scott?" Derek snarls at him exasperatedly, "She is from a family of hunters! Do you know what hunters do? They. Kill. Us. You're not in love, Scott! You're 16 years old!"

I flinch at his loud voice and he gives me an apologetic look. It feels like he's trying to explain that to himself other than Scott.

Scott is comtemplating and looks confused. "What if I told you, Peter was the one who killed your sister to become the Alpha?"

There is a shift in the air. I can feel it even without the wolfish senses. Derek's demeanour changes, and his eyes get darker till the shine into a vibrant blue.

"Derek," I whisper to him, "Calm down." The blue fades from his eyes but he still looks angry.

After we escape from there, I first take Derek to his loft to take a look at his injuries. Most of them are healed, but not all of them.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." He says quietly as I patch up one of his injuries. "I know you were just looking out for me."

"Looking out for you is an understatement. I had gone mad with worry." I snort.

"I'm sorry." He says again. I don't reply.

After he's all patched up, we start thinking of a plan to catch Peter.

"Wait, you're not accompanying us, are you?" Derek asks me, wide-eyed.

"Of course I am. You idiots will mess everything up without me." I say promptly.

"Sweetheart, you probably don't want to hear this, but-" Derek sighs, "It's too risky. Peter won't stop at anything to get what he wants."

"And I will remain careful." I assure him. "You don't have to babysit me, Derek. I can take care of myself."

"I know," he hugs me, "I'm just worried about you. You're one of those few people I actually care for."

"How much do you care for me, hmm?" I tease him as we separate. "This much?" I hold my fingers with a little gap in them. "This much?" I widen the gap. "Or this much?" I hold my arms apart, gesturing to the space between them.

"This much." He says and his lips crash down on mine. I've never kissed him before, and kissing him feels surreal. He kisses me passionately and lovingly, like his entire world is me. I kiss him back with all the care and passion I've felt for him since the day I first saw him near the Hale house.