echo house
The details were blurry. But one thing was clear; her days were numbered.
Just when her nights had been peaceful, where a full night's sleep was in reach, her nightmares had been replaced, it wasn't enough that she woke up to a nightmare where Stiles Stilinski isn't himself, but now she had to sleep through nightmares too, unlike her others where she had to live through torture, this time, she died from it. Maybe those details were blurry, but there were a few things she knew for use after living it a few times over. She died at the hands of the Oni. A stab wound to her stomach, tearing through her flesh. Allison was there, everyone was there. It was Allison's arms she died in, and it was Lydia that they were there for. Where "there" was, she wasn't so sure, nor did she know when this was going to happen, but it all pointed back to Void. The Nogistune that possessed Stiles Stilinski. He would be the end of Kinsey Argent.
But she wasn't scared of it anymore. After living it through, seeing how it would all happen for the first time when she'd hit the tiled floor of the animal clinic she knew that she was dying just how she had hoped she would. For goodness. She wouldn't die in vein, she'd die a hero. Kinsey could remember a time when she told him that if she were to die, she would do it saving those she loved, and it seemed that her death wouldn't disappoint her.
Both tempted to speak, neither willing to break the silence. Sharing parting looks before they'd even arrived at the place that would be separating them, those days were numbered too, yet it felt like he'd be gone forever. There were things they wanted to say, but not enough time, words or breaths for them to say it. For a while they found themselves at a loss for words, unable to try and fathom what was happening to them.
Sheriff Stilinski didn't know how he was supposed to react when he was called to the animal clinic late the other night, walking into a building where his son, if he could even call him that, was unconscious on the floor, one brunette girl had come to, the other was still working on it. Deaton had tried to explain it all, as had Scott, but to him, it felt like he was learning a foreign language. He wanted the basics. What had happened to his son. What he had done to people, people like Coach Finstock, all of the innocent people in his station. And the still unconscious brunette who had a gash on her head, even though Scott had sat her up and Deaton had tried cleaning up the wound that his son had left, she still looked terrible.
He believed that was what had been the turning point for his son. After seeing that he'd hurt the girl, he knew it had all gone too far. It hurt knowing what he had done to the others, but when it came to Kinsey, that was when he drew the line, something needed to be done, and now. Stiles hadn't been able to look her in the eye when she had finally woken up, how scared she'd been, as if she had seen a ghost. He watched as she stared at him, trying to figure out which Stiles she was looking at, even she couldn't tell anymore, and it hurt. It hurt both of them.
The night was cold. Dark. Raining. Fitting. Frankly, Noah still couldn't believe what he was doing, even if he had agreed to it, it didn't feel real, it felt wrong. It was wrong. He shouldn't have had to take this precaution, his son shouldn't have to live what he was living through. They deserved a normal life, at least he thought they did, they were good people, they had been through more than enough in their lives. They didn't need another obstacle to jump over, they just wanted as normal as a life one could get in this town, but their wish hadn't been granted.
The silence continued through the rest of their drive, even when the two had pulled up to that place that would be separating them, even when they had stepped out of the car, they both still lacked the words needed for this kind of situation, neither had been it before, it wasn't the kind of situation anyone ever imagined themselves in. They were too focused on ignoring that chill running up their spines, the fact every hair on their bodies stood as tall as soldiers.
If it hadn't been for the dark looming figure that had pulled itself off of the metal gates their gaze may have remained on the edifice known as Eichen House, their silence may have continued till the last possible second. But they knew when they saw the face of the silhouette beneath a dim street light, silence wasn't an option. She wasn't here to wave him off on his staycation, bidding him farewell. She was here to argue against it, like the Hale heir she was.
Stiles's face dropped with guilt when he saw her face. Not just the residue of the gash that he'd indirectly inflicted upon her, but the disappointment in her eyes as she looked back at him, he didn't have to question why. He knew it was because he had kept his little trip away from her, but after what he had done to her, he tried to keep his distance, it was the least he could do for her, the nogitsune hadn't been gentle. Not only that, but he expected something like this. She would argue against it, insisting they find a different way, but as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing. This was his only choice. It had gone too far.
Sheriff Stilinski sighed as he walked around the car with his son's sports bag in hand, both were ready to confront the wrath of the girl, ready to ask how she had known to be here and the time to be here too, but they'd missed their small window of opportunity when a dirtbike approached them. Scott quickly jumped off of his bike, just as disappointed as Kinsey that they were standing outside of Eichen House, for reasons nobody needed to confirm for them. All he knew was that she had called him, telling him that something called her to Eichen tonight, that she had one of her gut feeling that he didn't dare ignore, nor did she.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Scott asked as he looked between the two Stilinski's.
"Because we wanted to avoid something like this." Sheriff Stilinski deadpanned.
He'd asked how the two of them knew in the first place, and all Scott had needed to do was turn to the brunette girl standing beside him, which seemed like enough of an answer. He didn't bother to ask if she had some kind of inside connections to find out that Stiles was expected to arrive at this time tonight, or if she had somehow pried it out of someone. It was that thing that Stiles had tried to explain to him before, how she and Lydia knew things before they had even happened. He'd failed to fully comprehend what his son had told him, but what he'd learned was to not ask too many questions about these kinds of things, it was better to keep somewhat in the dark when it came to the gift, or curse, that the brunette withheld.
"This is insane." The brunette girl herself spat out. "You can't seriously be doing this."
72 hours. That's how Stiles tried to justify himself. That it was only 72 hours. Clearly, Glen Capri had taught him nothing. A lot could happen in one night, but three? That was tempting fate. If anyone knew about fate right now, it was her. She didn't know if she even had three days left of her life. Time was of the essence. Maybe it always had been, but after what she had seen, after now living through her own death multiple times, that phrase had a whole new meaning. Kinsey didn't know exactly how long she had left, but in what could be her last few days she knew that she wasn't willing to let Stiles spend them inside an institution.
"This is the same place Barrow came from. The guy who had a tumor inside of him filled with flies." Scott continued to argue his and the brunette girl's case.
Kinsey turned to Sheriff Stilinski, the person that both of them believed had come up with this, scared of what his son who wasn't his son was capable of. "You don't know everything yet."
He wasn't the only one who didn't know everything, it seemed like she may be the only one who did. She doubted Lydia had had the same premonition of her own death, if she had, she would be wrapped in the best bubblewrap money could buy, hidden in a basement somewhere out of harm's way, anything to stop her from that had clearly been sealed for her. But Kinsey knew that her fellow harbinger of death would know soon, if not before it happened, then most definitely when it did happen. She would feel it. Just like they'd felt the deaths of others.
Nobody knew what would happen but her, and if she could, she would keep it that way. She refused to let people die trying to save her. If that meant she would have to discreetly begin giving her final words to her loved ones, it would be that way.
"I know enough." The man disagreed. "Nogitsunes, kitsunes, oni, or whatever they're called."
"Wow," Stiles mumbled. "That was all surprisingly correct."
The man sighed, turning from his son and back to the girl. "I saw an MRI that looked exactly like my wife's. And it terrifies me." He stated plainly, it terrified all of them, they didn't know if the MRI results were simply an effect of the nogitsune, or if that was just another problem that they would face when the nogitsune was gone. "Unless you can give us some kind of Angel death-predicting reason that this isn't a good idea then I'm sorry Kinsey, but we're out of options here."
Kinsey bowed her head, staring at the floor, she didn't have a death-predicting reason that might have changed their minds, allowing Stiles to spend those final days of her life with her, but she just couldn't share that reason yet. Or maybe ever. She didn't know how else to stop them while keeping her secret a secret. The man tried to reassure the other two teenagers that he was going to a specialist in L.A. tomorrow, hoping that it would give them more insight, but that only made Scott more unsure why the man insisted on putting Stiles in this place.
"He's not." Stiles interrupted his best friends rambling. Both Kinsey and Scott turned to look at him with furrowed brows. "It was my decision."
Scott stammered for something to say. "Stiles, I can't help you if you're in there."
"And I can't hurt you." He followed. Though it was the wolf he was talking to, his words and gaze pointed towards the brunette girl who he had hurt, something he would never forgive himself for, she could see that in his eyes, if only he knew what else the nogitsune would do to her. Then maybe he would begin to understand why she didn't want him to lock himself away.
"Deaton's got some ideas. Argent's calling people." Scott didn't give up on trying to convince them that it was a bad idea to lock Stiles away, even if it were for three days, they were doing it all, anything possible to try and avert a crisis. "We're gonna find something. And if we can't..."
Stiles repeated the words, he knew what he wanted them to do if they couldn't find what to do to free him from the Nogistune that possessed him, more specifically, what he wanted Scott to do for him. He leaned closer to the wolf, whispering something in his ear that was inaudible to his father and the brunette girl that stood beside them, only able to see how Scott's face washed over with even more horror than what was already on it. When Stiles stepped back, that was it. They had lost their fight against him going into Eichen, he left both of them behind without even a peer over his shoulder, he couldn't do it, he couldn't look at either of them a moment longer.
·❥·
They had two problems. They being everyone who was trying to get the nogitsune out of Stiles's body. First- the lichen that Deaton injected into Stiles was not a cure for what Void was doing to him, only supressing what was inside of him, something that would wear off in a matter of days. While it was in his system, the Oni would keep away from the boy, at least that was what Argent had told the veterinarian and the three teenagers standing in his animal clinic, all discussing the latest occurrences in the case of the possession of Stiles Stilinski. While Chris was right about it protecting Stiles, for now, he added that Eichen House had an interesting history, informing them that even the Oni might not be safe there. That wasn't something that filled the three teenagers with confidence as they all looked at one another, wondering what exactly his cryptic words had meant this time. What exactly Stiles had gotten himself into by believing that was the best place for him to be while the Nogistune remained inside of him.
The second problem- Deaton had checked with Chris's contacts in Japan, the yakuza boss that he had seen killed when he was just a young hunter like his daughter and niece had never found the shugendō scroll. A scroll that Scott needed a little more clarification on, he lacked the uncle and father that Kinsey and Allison had to fill them in on things like the Japanese mafia.
As Deaton told the wolf, the Shugendo were ascetic mystics of Japan, and as Chris added over his phone call, it had contained information on how to exercise a Nogistune. In Kinsey's terms, the ones that Scott found much easier- it was a scroll that they needed to get their hands on as soon as possible. That seemed to correlate much easier than Deaton and Chris's explanation.
"I did get a name of the man who last purchased it," Deaton informed the hunter. "Kincaid."
Kinsey's eyes lit up at the name, she knew it. As did Allison. "He was with Katashi." Both of the girls said in unison, beaming like little children that they knew something useful, they had been feeling a little useless lately. Especially the brunette whose boyfriend was still in the hospital in an almost identical condition as he had been when Scott had taken his pain, slowly, very slowly healing from his wounds. "He's the guy me and Isaac met with to buy the gun," Kinsey added.
Katashi wanted the scroll for himself.
Though they felt like they were on a roll, Argent informed them that he had already spoken to the Sheriff about it, nothing like the Shugendo scroll had been found amongst Katashi's things, he was a paranoid man, he would have kept something like that close to him. Probably on him at all times. With that thought in mind, Allison asked what one of these scrolls might look like. Deaton pulled a similar scroll out of one of his drawers, handing it to the older brunette, it was much bigger than she expected, leading to her question whether they could come in different sizes. Any size, as Deaton had told her. The answer she'd hoped for. She had a feeling that she knew exactly where the scroll was hidden.
Chris and Derek sat back to back in adjoining cells at the Sheriff's Station, still locked up as part of one of Stiles's latest tricks, or at least the nogitsunes latest tricks, making sure that both of them were somewhat out of commission as two of the most educated people on things like this, both knowing the kind of history they were dealing with when it came to fox spirits, as well as the danger that they were all facing with the fox inside of Stiles. The trickster. Argent was trying to patiently wait for Derek to give him some information on what was happening to Katashi's belongings, information that his daughter had asked him to retrieve, information that his niece had suggested Derek might be able to find out, granted it would take the two of them putting aside their differences, something she hoped would be easier to do now that Derek had saved her uncle's life. Though Chris was grateful for that, he was still running out of patience waiting for Derek to hear something of value.
The wolf snapped at him, telling him to be quiet and wait for a moment longer. He focused his hearing until he could hear across the entire station, Parrish talking to another deputy, Stilinski was out for the day, Katashi's case has been taken over for federal investigation, every piece of evidence for the case needed to be put in lockup, just like Chris expected, they were moving all of the evidence. Though Argent asked for more details, that was all Derek had managed to get out of the conversation between two deputies, but it was more than they'd had a few moments ago. Something to tell those who weren't locked in a jail cell.
There was a moment of quiet, before Derek spoke up again, prepared to discuss morality. If all of this Nogitsune stuff was true Stiles was guilty of murdering people, whether he was under the influence of the Nogitsune or not. Argent tried to compare their situation to Jackson, how he too hadn't been himself, but someone controlling him, but this wasn't like that, not in Derek's eyes, they had gotten lucky that time, now he wondered what happened if they didn't get so lucky. An answer only Kinsey seemed to know. People like her died.
Jackson wasn't the only kind of experience Argent had with something like this. He asked the wolf if he had ever heard of Berserkers, people who dressed up in bearskins, attempting to channel the ferocity of the bear while going into battle. But they tapped into it, becoming the animal itself, losing all humanity in the process, they weren't tempered by the moon like a wolf, and neither were Nogitsune's.
A couple of summers ago a family had approached him and Kate, their son was involved with a group of kids who were playing around with rituals, channeling the animals through their skins. Their son completely his humanity, tearing people apart, it took three of them to put him down, every bullet that they had. The man claimed he had no remorse for killing that boy, as he'd told his parents, their son was long gone, there was nothing left of him in that body.
"Would you feel any remorse putting Stiles down now?" Derek asked curiously.
"Stiles? Yes." The man nodded. "I wouldn't be able to look Kinsey in the eye knowing that I was the one who killed Stiles. She's been through enough. I'm already worried that this whole thing might be the last straw for her. But remorse for the Nogitsune? No."
Derek paused for a moment, considering whether he should know what he and Scott knew. If in some miracle they all made it through the Nogitsune and its reign of terror, it wouldn't be the last straw for Kinsey, but what he knew might be. "I think there's something you should know."
·❥·
One night, one night inside Eichen house, the echo house, was all it had taken for Stiles to know that he wasn't safe, that he should have listened to the arguments of his best friend and Kinsey. They should have known that if the brunette girl didn't like the idea, it wasn't a good one. In less than an hour of being inside of Eichen house, he had come to his decision, witnessing a suicide had sealed the deal for him, traumatizing him. To most of the people in this place, it was just one more to add to the list, a normal day.
At least that was what his roommate Oliver had told him. Though he wasn't sure he could trust a person who had been introduced to the five-point restraint system, tying him down to his bed, it seemed as though he'd been there for a while, he wasn't even sure what day it was.
Stiles had met some strange people in his life, but compared to what he had seen of this place so far, he hadn't seen anything yet. He had sat up all night, watching the slow sun rise while Oliver talked himself to sleep, raving on about all of the strange happenings inside of this place, how it didn't matter where in the building you were, you could hear the echoes, including the echoes of people dying, that was how he'd known there was another suicide.
But he couldn't sleep. Not without his pillow. His father was right to assume he wouldn't get one decent night's rest without it, he never had been able to, it was the first thing they packed before staying in a hotel, but on this odd occasion, they had been too concerned with the destination to think about what they were taking there. It was at home, where Stiles wished he was sleeping.
Once the doors had opened the following morning he had made it his mission to use the phone, to call someone who could get him out of here, he didn't care how many people it took, he just needed to get out. His first person on the list was Kinsey, it should have been his father, but with the man going to L.A to talk to the specialist, he couldn't wait for the man to return, he needed to get out as soon as he could. If anyone could do that, it was Kins.
Oliver gave him a personal tour of the facility, explaining that the most violent patients were all locked away in the closed ward, a place that Stiles planned on avoiding during the remainder of his stay. As they walked to the phone box Oliver took it upon himself to introduce his roommate to some of the patients, Hillary, who had OCD. Gary, who thought he was Jesus Christ. Dan, who also thought he was Jesus Christ. And Mary, another Jesus Christ. Most people in this place were convinced that they were the biblical figure himself.
Since Oliver had done the favor of explaining the insanity of this place, Stiles did him the favor of explaining exactly why he didn't want to stay here a moment longer, it wasn't safe here, for him or anyone ever. Not Hillary, not all of the people who believed they were Jesus Chris and not the boy he was talking to either. This place didn't even seem safe for Oliver, who swallowed bugs for breakfast. As the two reached the payphone a girl stood talking on the phone, leaving them both to wait behind her, even though he knew he shouldn't Stiles couldn't help but eavesdrop, it was better than listening to Oliver explain about another five people and how they were Jesus Christ.
"I really think I should tell them. They're going to want to know the story. The whole story." She mumbled through the phone, Stiles kept trying to pull himself away from listening to her but he kept being drawn back into eavesdropping. "I really think they should know." She insisted again. "Yes, I do. One of them is standing right behind me."
Stiles's brows furrowed as he watched her put down the phone, hanging up as she walked away, right past him as if she hadn't been talking about him, at least he assumed she was, it couldn't be Oliver. There was no they when it came to Oliver, it was clear that he didn't have a friend, he was alone in this place, his strange behavior didn't help him.
He turned back to the strange roommate of his, asking who she was. Meredith, he answered, he told him how she was a little weird. But he was a little weird, Meredith was a lot of weird. Stiles didn't dwell on it as he picked up the phone, about to dial the number belonging to the brunette that he knew off by heart now, only to find that the line was dead. A fact that Oliver was already aware of, because this place always turned the phones off for 24 hours after a suicide, though he had refrained from mentioning that after Stiles had mentioned multiple times that he needed to use the phone to call someone.
The boy scoffed at Oliver, keeping his eye on Meredith, wondering who she was talking to if the phones were dead. He had another 24 hours inside of this place before he could call Kinsey and escape somehow, 24 more hours with Oliver as his roommate, like a parrot on his shoulder, only this parrot was yet to prove its usefulness.
"What are you going to do now?" Oliver asked, plodding along behind the boy on a mission.
"I'm getting out of this nuthouse."
"That's not really the appropriate way to describe a facility like this."
Rather than listening to Oliver, Stiles spotted something that took his interest more than how he should properly refer to a place like Eichen House, which most definitely was a nuthouse to him. A brunette stood on the porch, her back turned to him, but he still knew who she was. "Malia?"
The brunette turned to look at him with her arms folded, she didn't greet him with a smile, she looked at him as if she didn't even know who he was. She did. But she wasn't quite interested in talking to the boy. A hint he didn't get. "Hey. It's Stiles. Do you remember me? I'm friends with Scott and Kinsey. Remember. We were the ones who helped you out with..."
Before another word could come out of his mouth Malia swung for him, her fist landing onto his jaw, knocking him to the ground with a grunt. She didn't care to be reminded of the role he had played in restoring her to her human form, she knew, how could she not have. Both of had been promptly tackled by the facility staff, two holding each teenagers, Malia's arms trapped under a strong grip form two large men while Stiles's face was pressed down onto the ground, on top of a grate. One that he recognized, its round openings. He remembered them from a dream he had only now it was from a different angle. Back then, he had been looking up at the grate.
He'd been here before.
·❥·
Surrounding Chris Argent's desk, the group tried to come up with a plan for the little information that they had, from what the man had told them, Silverfinger's belongings were being moved in at least a few hours, in an armored vehicle, leaving them with only one option, one that nobody particularly thought was a good option, but choices were running thin. None of their plans were ever risk-free, it was natural for their plans to be stupid at this point, like most of their old plans, this one too needed manpower, help from people who weren't always considered an ally. Once again, those allies were Ethan and Aiden, lately, they were two of the only people who the pack could rely on, even if it usually came with a consequence or more.
They were sure Isaac was rolling in his hospital bed just at the thought of Scott asking the twins for assistance, he would have been standing with folded arms arguing every possible thing that his mind thought of to not need to ask them for help. Insisting that he and Scott would be all of the manpower required to rob an armored vehicle, of course with some assistance from Kinsey, Allison, and their arsenal of weapons as a backup. When he came back to it, when he was fit and ready again, Kinsey was certainly going to have a lot to fill him in on, and she was in for a long night of Isaac complaining about all of the things they had done without him. At least that had been her initial thought, and then it dawned on her, she might not live long enough to see Isaac back to himself again. He might be the one person she couldn't speak her goodbyes to.
Kinsey shook off the thought, focusing back on the conversation happening around her, Scott and the twins in agreement that the three girls standing around the table were completely in over their heads to think that robbing an armored vehicle was a good idea, frankly, the three of them were surprised that Lydia had even agreed to have a part in this, even if it was for her two best friends, she was usually the first to tell them how idiotic their plans were. Especially Kinsey.
"None of us know what route they're going to take. If Kins and Allison can get one of Chris's GPS trackers on the armored car, then we can follow it." Lydia deadpanned. Allison looked to the girl that stood beside her who nodded in agreement, prepared to do that.
The older huntress pointed at the map in front of them, a mark drawn over Roosevelt bridge, the place that their entire plan revolved around, a place where they found best to attack an armored federal vehicle as if any place was appropriate for that. "So when they get here we-"
"Attack them? Aiden suggested. With a roll of her eyes, Lydia turned around to the wolf with a sharp disagreement. Instead, his and Ethan's bikes were going to be in the middle of the road looking as though they'd gotten into an accident. When the driver gets out to help them- "We attack him?" Aiden interrupted the redhead's explanation of the plan that she and the Argents had already discussed before either of the wolves' arrivals.
In unison, the three girls disagreed with him again opting for a more subtle and less bloody plan, Kinsey had already tried to add a bit of gore into the mission, she had been shot down just as quickly as he was, now, she had gotten on board with the plan that Allison and Lydia had worked hard to create. Neither of them was quite the fanatics for the gore, they weren't werewolves like Ethan, Aiden, and Scott, and they didn't have the Hale attitude like Kinsey. Lydia continued explaining their plan. Scott would break open the back doors of the van while Aiden distracted the driver with some complicated bike talk, while Ethan retrieved Katashi's finger.
"It's not his actual finger, is it?" Ethan asked with concern.
"You are so out of our league." Kinsey shook her head, her arms folded with disapproval. Taking Isaac's place in the unhelpful comments, someone had to, it seemed Aiden was helping with the addition of unhelpfulness too as he continued suggesting that they attack the driver.
"Guys, this is going to work. We can do this." Allison tried to boost the confidence of the group as she looked around. Everyone had swapped roles in this mission, everyone taking the personality of another. Lydia had become the new Stiles, taking a large part in planning a criminal mission, Allison had become the pep talker of the group, optimistic like Scott usually was. Kinsey seemed to have taken the personality of her boyfriend though they hardly differed in the first place, Isaac had a personality just as influenced by the Hale's as her own. Scott had become the Lydia of it all as he remained unsure that this was a good idea, that they were breaking a law or two. As for the twins, well, they hadn't quite earned the title of someone else yet. "We're losing Stiles. My dad's in jail for murder. We need to do this."
·❥·
Stiles stood in the men's shower room, looking at his reflection in the mirror, the red mark that looked like lightning bolts, running up his back to his neck, the ones that Morrell had told him it was a lichtenberg figure known to appear after lightning had struck someone. She hadn't eased the boy's concern for his safety, telling him that after the shot of Wolf Lichen Deaton had given to him the mark on his neck was both significant and strange. And most concerning of all, when the mark faded, the Nogistune inside of him would return, taking back control over him.
Though her information had terrified him, she tried to help. She gave him ampethamines to try and keep him awake, sleep was exactly what he didn't want to do, while asleep, he was left in a state of vulnerability. And he wasn't the only one left vulnerable if he slept, but the girl who had often found herself lost inside a dream of his, the possibility of that happening again still open, Morrell told him of that risk, the risk it had to Kinsey too.
Stiles looked down at the pill in his hand that Morrell had given him, taking one of them, hoping it would work, for the sake of both him and Kinsey, if sleeping meant putting her risk than he'd remain awake for as long as possible, it wasn't as though he had been sleeping before he came here anyway. When the boy looked back into the mirror Stiles noticed Malia showering behind him, the steam from her shower filling the room.
"Don't worry, Stiles, you didn't just accidentally walk into the girls room." The coyote reassured him as she turned back to her shower.
"Thank God." Stiles shouted to the girl, clearing his throat as he moved to leave the room. But he couldn't help but ask. "So what are you doing in the boy's room?"
"Showering." Malia deadpanned. "But if you need to know, they keep the water temperature in the girls' room too low. It's much hotter in here. Ever since I turned back human, I just can't seem to get warm."
Stiles fumbled around for some scientific explanation about a lower core temperature, trying to avert from the fact there was a naked girl just a few feet from him, though he'd seen her naked before, that time she had been wearing Kinsey's jacket as she tried to shield anything that her jacket failed to. Malia interrupted his fumbling, explaining that she used to have a full body fur coat when she was a werecoyote, that might just be the reason that she couldn't get warm.
Once the brunette had turned off the shower and covered herself with a towel, she approached the boy who nervously peered over his shoulder, making sure she was covered before he turned to her completely with a question he'd been wondering since her fist had connected with his jaw this morning. Why she had punched him in the first place.
"Did you think I was going to thank you?" Malia asked with a scoff, to which he shrugged, maybe he thought, they did kind of safe her life. That was how he saw it. But the brunette didn't see the same thing that he did. "You're right, Stiles. Thank you." She began, he nodded with a smile but she wasn't finished. "Thanks for invading my home. For putting me on the run. For turning me to a human again so that I could look at my father every day and try to figure out how to explain to him that the reason my sister and mother are dead is because I almost ate them on a full moon."
The boy stammered for something to say. "Thank you so very much." Malia spat out again.
With a guilty feeling inside of him, wondering how he had never thought of that side of things he and his friends were just trying to help, but Malia insisted there was only one way to help her; to find a way to change her back. To her surprise, Stiles might have just known someone who could teach her how, but she knew there would be something that she would have to do first. So Malia asked him what he wanted. Which right now, was nothing more than to get into the basement. She helped him, he would help her.
·❥·
Nightfall. Go time. Everyone had their place, each knowing the part they played in their mission. Even their last-minute recruitment, Kira, who Scott insisted had earned her place with the skills using a katana, a weapon she'd only been learning to use for a few weeks, and already she felt as if she had picked it up, that was something she'd happily proved to Scott as well as the two girls who she sought the approval of the most. The pair of trained huntresses who knew what talent looked like, a good fighter, trained in weapons just as, if not more lethal than the katana.
Once they had seen what Kira could do, she had all of the approval that Allison and Kinsey had to offer, and frankly, the younger brunette wasn't opposed to learning how to use a katana too, maybe if it hadn't resembled the sword that would kill her so much, she would have taken it up as her final weapon to learn before her death. Every thought that she had she had to remember she might not live long enough to see it, her time was counting down, she just couldn't see the numbers on the timer.
Scott, Kira, and the two Argent girls kneeled between two cop cars, watching the armored truck through a sight at the end of a gun that Allison had picked up before leaving the apartment, she needed the kind of eyesight that Scott had been blessed with, able to see every small aspect of the plan as it panned out. Once it was clear, Allison handed the GPS tracker to her cousin. She'd been chosen as the stealthiest amongst the group, her movements quiet, calculated.
Kinsey stood up with the tracker, Kira wished her good luck before she began running towards the armored vehicle sitting outside of the Sheriff's station, it was her first mission with the pack, the first time she was able to see everyone in action. The werewolves. The huntresses. It made her giddy like a little kid, she tried to contain her excitement to be involved in the mission as she focused on the tactics that Allison and Kinsey used, hoping to pick up a trick or two. The three of them watched as Kinsey ran, how even in her heeled boots her footsteps remained quiet, only proving just how perfect she was for the task, Kira could see now why everyone had immediately turned to her when they asked who would be the one putting the tracker on the van.
Just as the brunette clicked the device in place the station door opened, everyone's hearts had dropped in their chest as deputy Parrish walked out, Kinsey quickly rushing to the other side of the vehicle, her back pressed against the wall, hiding in the small space between it and the van. Kinsey looked over to the three hiding between the cop cars a few feets away where she'd left them, all three just as nervous as she was as she slowly began reaching for the dagger inside of her brown heeled boots.
Parrish opened the passenger door, prepared to transport the evidence, only to find the driver's unconscious body, a gash on his head as it rested on the steering wheel. He drew his sidearm as he began walking around the back of the truck, scanning the parking lot as the three teenagers quickly ducked, hiding from him while Kinsey slowly moved further behind the van. As Parrish's back was turned the two back doors of the truck flew open, a large figure jumping down from it, knocking the deputy out cold.
Scott's face dropped as he looked at the abnormally large man that had just knocked Parrish out, the one who stood a few inches from Kinsey as she edged back out of her hiding spot, he mumbled under his breath, asking Allison who that was. And she knew. Kincaid. His stature had been a detail that both she and Kinsey failed to mention to the group when coming up with this plan of theirs.
Inside the building, Chris sat opposite the woman who had pretended to be his lawyer, though he wasn't so lucky to be sitting in front of someone that could help prove his innocence along with Derek's. Araya Calavera sat before him with her hands cupping one another, a smug smile across her face, a leader of another group of hunters that he knew well.
"You want to talk about the code?" Chris asked, his hands cuffed to the table.
"Ours is more than a code of behavior. It's a code of honor." Araya retorted. "These things bind our families. You don't abandon such things lightly."
"Where in the code does it say my wife had to kill herself?" Chris snarled.
Araya insisted that Victoria honored them, the hunters, and the code with her dying breath. The man seethed as he spoke about his late wife, for the first time to someone who wasn't either his daughter or his niece, and on this occasion when he'd chose to talk about his wife with someone who wasn't a part of their family, they chose to disrespect her and attempt to try and justify her death. But after months since his wife's death, now he knew more with a changed perspective of the world thanks to his daughter and niece he knew that the code wasn't worth dying over. Their old code had been idiotic, narrow-minded, wrong. He much preferred their new code. Chris had objected to her comment, he insisted that Victoria would have honored her daughter by living, something that she hadn't had the chance to do because of this code Araya spoke so highly of.
Another smirk grew across Araya's face as she spoke. The Argent family is very complicated. She knew that, and behind that smirk, it seemed that she knew a lot more than he would have liked. Especially after what Derek had told him today, their family just got even more complicated. His face dropped with the question, wondering what she knew, whether she somehow knew about Kinsey, and if she did, how much she knew. He demanded to know what she wanted, what she was fishing for, asking the question of whether this regarded his niece, he knew it wasn't about his daughter, it never was. It always revolved around his supernatural niece who took after her mother with the amount of trouble that followed her. He supposed he couldn't be surprised any longer with who her father was, it was destined to cause trouble, Kate knew that when she slept with the enemy, let alone bore a child of theirs.
Araya stood up, insisting that she didn't fish. She hunted.
Kincaid retrieved Katashi's silver finger from the back of the armored van, his back turned as he remained unaware of the three that had gathered behind him, prepared to retrieve what they'd come here for. Allison held up her crossbow, Kira with her katana drawn as Scott interrupted his moment of victory. "We need that finger." He deadpanned.
Kincaid turned around, looking across the three faces with a stifled laugh, three teenagers. He recognized one of them, he remembered having his claws dug into a relative of hers not so long ago. Allison drew a bead on him with her crossbow, offering Kincaid $150 thousand dollars in a briefcase in exchange for the finger, but Kincaid laughed at the offer the girl provided, the scroll inside was worth $3 million, a number that Kira's face dropped at.
"Give me the finger." Scott deadpanned. Kincaid raised a brow. "You know what I mean."
From up above the huntress jumped down onto Kincaid's back, her Chinese ring dagger held to his neck, a little payback as she liked to see it as she asked whether he remembered her with a snarl in her voice. Kincaid easily shrugged off the brunette who felt as light as a feather to him, tossing her to the floor as she looked at him with a scowl, it wasn't quite the payback she had in mind. He bared his fangs, his eyes glowing their cold steel blue as he looked at the other wolf.
"I guess negotiations are over."
As the man growled at them, prepared to attack Allison shot an arrow into his body, though it had little to no effect on him as he ripped back out of his body. Kira tried to take a swing but he picked her up by the throat, throwing her aside like she was nothing but trash. As both Argent girls tried to fight against him, he backhanded both of them in a single swing, both had been thrown against a brick wall, groaning as they slid down it.
Scott tried to take several swings but the larger wolf barely flinched, grabbing Scott's arms, pinning them to his side as he headbutted the younger wolf that left him staggering for a second until he came swinging back, but with a punch to the gut and a chop to the back, followed by a kick to the stomach the wind was knocked out of the wolf leaving him gasping for air.
Kincaid kneeled over the teen wolf. "You have the eyes of an Alpha, but where's the strength?"
"Up here!" The twins spat out, standing above the fray before they pounced on the large wolf who resembled Ennis, someone they had used as their personal punching bag when learning to fight, fighting against him was breakfast for them.
As the two twins had begun beating the everloving crap out of Kincaid, Lydia rushed to the aid of her two brunettes best friends, pulling both of them off the ground holding tightly onto them as they each watched Ethan and Aiden battle the larger wolf who failed to fight back against either of them, thrown around like a piece of meat. This was the kind of payback Kinsey wanted. They were breathless just watching the three werewolves fight, and suddenly, Lydia realized why she never agreed to come to these things before, she was the only one smart enough to not try and fight an oversized wolf unlike everyone else who'd tried and failed before the twins.
Once it had gotten too much Scott tried to yell for them to stop, though, with the wind still out of him, he struggled to get it out, but another voice had spoken up, stopping them instead. The girl who thought just seconds ago that she wouldn't get any more involved than she had, but it was her voice that Aiden listened to when she yelled for them to stop.
"You want him to come after us?" Aiden asked the girl.
"Scott, we've seen guys like this. Trust us. He's dangerous." Ethan added.
The Alpha who had managed to pull himself off of the floor with some assistance from the older Argent looked down at Kincaid. "So are we." He spoke as Kinsey helped pull Kira off of the floor. "And he looks smart enough to remember that."
Scott reached into the large wolf's pocket, pulling out the prosthetic, he tapped it against his palm, watching as a tiny scroll fell into his hand, just like Allison thought it might, he looked up at her with a smile as she stood proud. He looked back at the twins. Insisting that they were here to save a life, not to end one as he dropped the silver piece to the ground.
·❥·
After a lot of hard work, Stiles and Malia finally made it to the basement of Eichen House, it may of taken another fight. This time between the coyote and Oliver, rather than Stiles having to feel the sensation of a werecoyotes fist in his face again, frankly, he could still feel the tingle from her punch this morning. As the two walked into the basement Malia turned back to him, asking if he knew what he was looking for, and while he wasn't quite sure, he had a feeling it had something to do with the marking on the wall behind her. The Japanese symbol for "self" sratched into the wall, one that had been left on a handful of his friends, almost all of them. To Malia, it looked like nothing more than a backwards number five.
Malia approached the marking, stroking her fingers across it as she asked him what it meant, to help him she needed to know more, but Stiles wasn't sure he could tell her more. If she'd found out more, she might not have liked him, and if he told her what he had done to Kinsey, well he might just get another punch after all. In the few hours that the two spent together trying to get to the basement, most of their conversations had revolved around Kinsey. Stiles's undying love for her, how she had kind of, in little to no words told him that she felt something too, and how Malia felt as if the brunette was a friend to her, how she felt like she knew Kinsey already. Even if the two had barely shared more than three conversations.
The coyote reminded him what she was, how she had murdered her entire family, if there was anyone who wasn't in a position to judge him, it was her. With a stifled laugh Stiles nodded as he agreed to tell her more, for some reason, that reminded him of Kinsey. It was the kind of thing that she would say, she too felt like someone who couldn't judge, not when her father was Peter Hale, her mother Kate Argent, belonging to a family whose feud was older than she. Kinsey was someone who wouldn't judge him for what he was going through either. Frankly, Malia and the brunette he'd left outside of those gates were similar in multiple ways.
The two searched through old papers stored in the basement, they didn't know how long they'd bene looking when they had found an illustration of something that Oliver had been screaming about earlier- the practice of drilling holes into a patient's head to treat depression and other mental ailments, something that Malia had told him they were going to do to him, that had been the start of the fight that allowed her to take the keys to the basement from Brunski.
After seeing that, Stiles didn't want to look through any more papers, there was nothing here to help him. He was stuck like this, left hoping that his friends managed to find something while he remained in this hell hole. He placed his knuckles down to his mouth, sitting in frustration for a moment, wondering what he was going to do until he remembered Morrell's words. He asked the coyote to check the lines on his back.
"They're fading," Malia informed him, just like he was hoping wouldn't happen. The silence she heard told her that those fading lines wasn't such a good thing. "Is that bad thing?"
Stiles hummed in agreement, bad was an understatement. As the brunette puld back down his shirt, he felt her cold hands touch his skin, sending a shiver through his body. The brunette had quickly apologised, reminding him again that she hadn't been able to get warm since turning back into a human. A detail he'd underestimated until he felt what she was talking about. She was stone cold. Stiles held out his hands, offering to warm them up for her in his own, though the werecoyote was heistant at first, she agreed, placing her hands in his.
As Stiles tried to warm up her hands Malia had a thought. She removed her hands from his as she jumped up from the old couch they'd been sitting on, walking back over to the kanji that had been carved into the wall. Stiles jumped up to follow her, watching as she tapped her knuckles on the wall, a hollow sound echoing through the room. Stiles turned around, grabbing a pipe off of the floor, busting through the wall.
Both in shock, Stiles dropped the rod. In the hollow behind the wall sat a skeleton, bandaged up and covered in cobwebs. He had seen it before. It was the thing he kept seeing inside of his head, the thing that Kinsey had seen too when she was sucked inside of his dream, asking both riddles that neither knew the answer to. It was the Nogitsune.
Malia reached into the corpses pocket, removing a photograph. Without even looking at it she handed it to the boy behind her, asking if he recognized the two people she'd caught a glimpse of. His brows furrowed, jaw slack as he looked at the picture. He recognized one of them. Stiles insisted that he needed to get it to Scott as he stood up, only to feel the sharp shock of a tazer in his back, dropping him to the floor.
The coyote shot up, looking at Oliver as he held the tazer. "You took Brunski's keys. I took his stun gun." Oliver smiled devilishly. Malia tried to step back, but she was against the wall where the Nogitsune hid. With the brunette cornered Oliver tazered her in her stomach, dropping her to the floor too. He pulled a syringe out of his pocket, Haldol, as he named it, injecting it into the coyote's knee until she was unconscious, falling weak.
Oliver stood up. "Like I said, Stiles, I heard they use to do trepenation in here."
"Oliver," Stiles mumbled weakly. "What are you doing?"
He picked up an electric drill, holding it aloft. He was going to let the evil spirits out. When Stiles opened his eyes again, his vision was blurred, disoriented until the figure in front of him came into focus. Oliver stood over him with that same smirk across his face. Stiles looked around, he found Malia strapped down to a chair a few feet from him, still unconscious from the Haldol. His tormentor, Oliver, began having a coughing fit, placing a hand over his mouth as he choked up a lung, when he removed his hand, a pool of blood sat in it, as did a dead fly.
Oliver shrugged it off, wiping the blood as he fired up the drill, moving towards Stiles's skull until a rough voice has sounded in both of their ears, suggesting her start with the girl. Oliver didn't hesitate to listen as he moved over to Malia. Stiles's eyes followed Oliver, but they landed on the Nogitsune that stood across the room. He'd gotten into Oliver's head too.
"Every Dracula needs a Reinfield." The Nogitsune spoke.
As Oliver reached closer Malia's head, the drill whirring in his hand, Stiles begged the Nogitsune to stop him, and the Nogitsune agreed to, only when Stiles allowed him to take control. To let him into his mind. Stiles tried to fight against it, continuing to beg for Malia's life, as well as the control of his own. He kept fighting, screaming, trying his absolute best to not let the Nogistune into his head, but it stood between him and Malia. He couldn't let her die. In that moment, he'd taken the not so wise words of the girl he loved. To save everyone else before saving himself.
He let the Nogistune in.