Scott had claimed that he knew where the Nogitsune took Lydia but by the time they had everyone gathered together and ready to fight, the sun was beginning to set, meaning the Oni were bound to attack at any moment.
Jordan had called Ayla's phone a couple of times wondering where she had gone. Quickly, she had made up an excuse that she was with Kira and Allison having a movie night. In reality, Ayla was in the back seat of Stiles' jeep, sitting next to Isaac as they made their way to an abandoned building that was once apparently used as a Japanese internment camp.
Scott tried to force Ayla to stay behind as she was still just a human who didn't have much experience with all of this, but she refused. Instead, she packed up the two small knives she had taken from the Argents and prepared herself to fight if need be.
The more time that passed, the worse Stiles looked. It was getting so noticeable that everyone around him was clearly worried but just didn't want to say anything for fear that it might upset the boy.
"Hey, you okay?" Stiles asked Scott, who had been glancing at his friend every few seconds.
"Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to worry about me." What he really wanted to say was 'worry about yourself because you look like death himself.'
Luckily Isaac was there to voice what everyone was thinking. "Alright, I'll say it. You look like you're dying. You're pale, thin and you look like you're getting worse. And we're all sitting here thinking it."
Isaac wasn't wrong, Stiles had very dark and prominent black under-eye bags, his lips were almost completely white and chapped, and his voice was harsh and jagged.
"Just because we were all thinking it doesn't mean you had to say it like that!" Ayla scolded the boy. There was a silence that overcame them but Ayla couldn't help herself, she had to ask. "When we find the other...you, is he gonna look like he's getting better? What happens if he gets hurt?"
"You mean if he dies, do I die?" Stiles rephrased for her, before shrugging, "I don't care. Just so long as no one else dies because of me." Everyone in the car was taken back by this.
Ayla expected the boy to want to live, despite everything that had happened. Scott gave his best friend that same look of concern that Ayla had.
"I remember everything I did, Scott," Stiles began, looking over his shoulder at the boy next to him. "I remember pushing that sword into you. I remember twisting it, I remember what I did to Ayla...and I remember liking it."
"It wasn't you," Scott tried to convince Stiles but the boy refused.
"Yeah, but I remember it. You guys gotta promise me." Stiles was mainly talking to Isaac and Scott now, "You can't let anyone else get hurt because of me."
Though neither of them agreed out loud, they all came to a silent understanding that they would do as Stiles asked of them.
When they arrived at Oak Creek, the old internment camp, Allison and Kira were waiting for them at the front gate. The six of them gathered in a group, an unspoken heaviness filling the air.
Hugging her friend tightly, Ayla let out a sigh. Maybe it was the fact that they were going into a fight that made her realize but, Ayla missed the girl, they haven't hung out in a while and she felt as though they hadn't even really spoken to each other. That definitely was going to have to change.
"We've done this before, guys," Scott said, trying to bring up the moral. "A couple of weeks ago we were standing around just like this and we saved Malia, remember? That was a total stranger. This is Lydia."
Allison nodded. "I'm here to save my best friend."
"I came to save mine," Scott gave Stiles a warm smile.
Isaac of course had to ruin the sweet moment with a witty comment. "I just didn't feel like doing any homework."
While walking into the courtyard, Ayla bumped shoulders with Allison, who gave the girl a frightened look. "Woah it's just me."
"I'm sorry, just jumpy I guess."
Ayla nodded showing that she understood. "Hey just think about the awesome girls' night we're all gonna have after this."
They shared a smile but it hadn't lasted long since they were quickly met by Kira's mother and two Oni standing at her side. Scott and Stiles had disappeared into the building to find Lydia themselves.
"Kira, turn around and go home. Take your friends with you.
Ayla gave her friend a look, but it was clear Kira wasn't going to back down from her mother. So Allison loaded an arrow in her bow and Ayla clutched onto the small daggers.
"I can't." Kira shook her head. "When I looked at the game I realized who I was actually playing. You."
"Call them off," Allison threatened her bow.
Kira's mother gave them a pitted look, "You think you could take him alive? You think you can save him?"
"What if we can?" Ayla asked with a glare, clutching onto the daggers so hard that her knuckles were turning white.
"I tried something like it 70 years ago. Your friend is gone."
Stepping up to her mother, challenging her, Kira asked, "Are you sure? Or if Stiles doesn't have to die, maybe Rhys didn't have to die either?"
Noshiko smiled at her daughter. "I see I'm no longer the Fox now, Kira. You are. But the Nogitsune is still my demon to bury." The two Oni that stood next to the woman suddenly disappeared into their black smoke. Concerning Noshiko, clear by the worried look she had on her face.
The woman held out her hand and the light of the small firefly she was holding went out.
"What, what does that mean?" Isaac asked.
"It means there's been a change in ownership." Ayla's heart dropped at the sound of Stiles' voice, but only it wasn't Stiles, it was a dark spirit who wanted to do nothing but cause chaos. "Now they belong to me."
There it stood, the Nogitsune, wearing Stiles' face, with a group of Oni standing right behind him.
This was it, time to save Stiles and Lydia and so they fought the spirit. Kira with her sword, Allison with her bow, Isaac with his claws, and Ayla with her daggers.
The redhead only had two Oni on her compared to the others who had more. She swung her daggers to block the blows. Over and over again she swung, able to hold them off, that is until Ayla slipped on a rock and fell backward onto the ground.
"Ayla!" Kira yelled.
A sword came down, but Ayla rolled over onto her stomach just fast enough for the sword to miss her head. Bouncing right up and turning back to the Oni, Ayla gripped the dagger tighter. The spirit went to jab its sword into the girl but Ayla jumped to the side so it again missed her. The second Oni also went for a hit and she jumped again, this time, however, Ayla used the first Oni as leverage to bolt herself into the air, flipping over the second, placing her hands on its shoulders as she went.
Somehow, Ayla landed on one knee with no pain at all, and when the girl looked up at the Oni, unknown to herself or anyone around her, her eyes glowed a very light baby blue and she fought.
Ayla had no idea how she was doing any of this, how she was able to fight like she had been training for years when in reality, she took only about 2 years of self-defense classes. She was more skilled with a gun due to both her father and brother being in the military, she had never touched a dagger before this. But the small blades just felt so natural in her hands.
"How do we stop them?" Isaac yelled to Noshiko.
"You can't!" she answered back.
The three Oni that surround Isaac, slashed their swords against his body as Isaac yelled out in pain. Due to his supernatural powers, it was taking a lot longer for Isaac to go down.
Ayla did her best to hold down the two Oni that continued to attack her, but she got herself pinned down to the ground again. Trying to get out of the hold, Ayla swung her daggers, but the Oni shoved it out of her hand leaving the girl utterly defenseless. The dark spirit stood over her, holding its sword in front of its body, ready to bring it down for its final blow, the only way to stop it was for Ayla to wrap her hands around the sharp blade.
Letting out a scream, Ayla cringed as the blade dug into the palms of her hands and blood dripped onto her face. The Oni was stronger than her though, and the blade was coming closer and closer to her throat. Ayla turned her head to look up at the night sky. If she was going to die the last thing she wanted to see was the stars.
The ground began to shake suddenly as one of the other Oni was struck and killed by one of Allison's arrows. Suddenly, everything seemed to stop as all the attention turned to the spirit disappearing in a yellow glow, or perhaps it was the sword to Allison's torso that made everything freeze.
No one knew what to do as the Oni pulled its blade from the girl's body before they all vanished into the black smoke. Ayla let out a sigh of relief as she was finally able to drop her arms to the ground, her hands continuing to bleed but she didn't pay any attention to that as she turned to look at the girl who was cradled in her ex-lover's arms.
He tried everything he could to take away the girl's pain, to make her more comfortable, while begging Allison to stay with him as the last bit of air left her lungs and Allison's body went limp in Scott McCall's arms.
The boy sobbed as he held her against his chest, clutching the girl like his life depended on it.
No one could speak, could think of what to do next.
Ayla quickly crawled over to Isaac who was only a few feet away, pulling him into a tight hug as the girl he had begun to love, had just died in front of him. Wrapping his arms around himself, Isaac tried to find any form of comfort, but even in Ayla's arms, he found none.
Tears escaped Ayla's own eyes as she looked over to see Mr. Argent at the front gate, trying his best not to break down at the sight of his daughter.
Everything had happened so fast that it was hard for any of the teens to process.
No one was sure how they were supposed to act in this situation. They had never witnessed someone they love be killed in front of their eyes. Well at least the others hadn't. Maybe that's why Ayla was relatively calm?
Bending down in front of Scott, he looked up at her with tears in his eyes. Ayla nodded, her own tears running down her cheek as she lightly closed Allison's open eyes.
Scott gently sent the girl down and stood up, needing some air. Argent got to work right away trying to get Scott to create an alibi but it was clear to him and everyone else that the boy was not in the right state of mind to do so.
"If you get confused, what do you always repeat?" Chris asked the boy.
It took Scott a couple of minutes but he was able to say to the man, "It happened so fast."
"That's right. Say it again. Scott! Say it again." He pushed.
"I'll do it," Ayla said, walking up to them, clutching her hand, trying to stop the bleeding. The two turned to her with a confused look. "I'll talk to the police. My brother already thought I was with Allison and Kira having a girl's night, so it makes sense..."
Chris gave Ayla a nod and began coaching her on what to say and how to say it as he helped patch up the wounds on her hands. The story was that the two girls were driving to the movies when these two guys with masks tried to steal their car. One of the men had a knife and stabbed Allison and Ayla, and not knowing what to do, called the girl's dad first.
When they arrived at the police station Ayla's face was expressionless.
Trying not to break down again, she acted as though she was numb. No one would expect anything and just assume she was traumatized, which she had been. It wasn't the first time Ayla had seen a dead body, but the sight of it all...it never got easier to deal with.
Jordan had just gotten back from a call so he had no idea of the events that had supposedly taken place. "Lollie?" he called out to the girl before rushing over. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Taking a deep breath the girl shook her head. "Uh... no not really." her voice cracked, relieving her mask. "Allison...she's dead." Then the tears poured as Jordan quickly pulled her into his chest and held her tightly.
Ayla had done her best not to cry, to keep herself composed so she could remember everything Argent told her to say. The last thing she wanted was to let down a grieving father.
"What? How?" Before she had a chance to explain, Ayla was called into the sheriff's office for her questioning.
Lydia and Isaac gave the girl reassuring nods as they waited outside the room.
Jordan insisted on being the one to question the teens with the Sheriff so he could do it delicately and make sure that it wouldn't affect his sister more than the event had. So Ayla told them the story that was made up, explained everything but also made sure to do so in a way that wouldn't sound too rehearsed.
"Can you remember anything else?" Staring off into space, not even meaning too, Ayla was having a hard time processing all this. "Anything else? Ayla?" Jordan's voice was soft, like if he spoke any louder the girl could potentially break.
"I'm sorry," her voice cracked, tears threatening to spill down her face again. "It just happened so fast." Jordan nodded, showing an understanding that the interview was over.
-
Later that night, after everyone else had left the station, Ayla was the last to remain. Waiting for Jordan to finish his paperwork so he could take his sister home.
Across the room, Ayla sat alone by the window, staring at the darkness, trying not to fade away, her brother's jacket loosely hung around her shoulders. It had been about 30 minutes since she moved from her spot.
The sheriff approached the deputy's desk with concern. The young man was clearly in a state of shock as he reread the case report. Ever since his sister arrived at Beacon Hills, it just seemed to be one thing after another. He couldn't help to think that Beacon Hill may not be the best place for her to be.
"How is she doing?" Stilinski asked, nodding his head towards the girl.
Dropping his pen, Jordan let out a sigh. "I don't-I don't know. I'm not exactly equipped to deal with all this. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, I'm worried that I'm gonna mess her up."
"Try not to worry too much, when it comes to raising kids...no one has any idea what they're doing at first." Stilinski patted the deputy's shoulder, giving him a weak smile. "But you being there for her, caring enough to be worried, that's how you know you're doing it right."
Jordan nodded, feeling slightly better from the man's words. Glancing back over to Ayla, Stilinski knew there was more to the story than a car robbery gone wrong, that something worse had happened, but he couldn't tell Parrish that.
"We need to try and keep this quiet for as long as we can. Once the press finds out about this, they're gonna be all over those kids."
"You want a squad car outside your house?" Jordan asked.
Stilinski nodded, "Yeah, might be a good idea tonight. Put one at your house too."
Jordan went to agree with the sheriff when out of nowhere, two dark spirits appeared in a cloud of black smoke before them, killing an officer that had been standing too close. Standing up from his desk, Parrish drew his gun, shooting at the Oni. Having no idea that they could not be killed by bullets.
Terrified by the sudden gunfire, Ayla jumped from her seat. The Sheriff quickly grabbed the girl and hid her in his office, telling her to stay low to the ground and not come out no matter what she heard. She agreed despite fighting the same spirits just hours before.
Placing her hands over her ears, Ayla tried to drown out the loud gunshots and screams of terror, but it was no use. It took 5 minutes before Ayla broke her promise to the sheriff and slowly peaked her head up to look through the glass window that separated her from the rest of the station.
One of the Oni was closing in on her brother and Ayla knew she had to do something. Grabbing a close by chair, Ayla ran at the spirit, hitting it over the head, of course it didn't do much to the spirit but it distracted it just enough so it would leave Jordan alone.
Turning to the girl, the Oni held up its sword, ready to charge at her. This time it was Jordan who protected his sister, stepping between her and the blade earning himself a slice on his side.
"Get down!" The Sheriff yelled, holding up a large shotgun.
The force of the bullet blew back the Oni, giving the Parrish siblings enough time to duck and cover. Jordan quickly covered his sister's head as a stray bullet jammed into the side of the desk they were hiding behind.
Bullets continued to fly from the other officers, but the spirits kept on hitting them harder. Ayla swore the fighting went on for hours but in reality it was only about 20 minutes, with no end in sight.
The sun wasn't going to rise for a few more hours, meaning the Oni had a large amount of time to kill everyone in the station if they wanted to. Ayla knew they just had to hold out till then as there was no way of actually killing these things except for whatever Allison had done before she died.
After more fighting, pointless gunfire and injured officers, the Oni finally disappeared into their black clouds of smoke, leaving the room officers traumatized and in need of serious medical attention.
"What the hell happened?" Stilinski asked, sitting on the ground beside the siblings.
"They left. They just...They left. Why did they let us live?" Jordan groaned in pain, holding onto his side.
The older man looked down at the gash in his arm, seeing black smoke coming out of it. "I'm not so sure they did."
With the Oni gone, Ayla was able to tend to her brother's wounds. Pulling off his jacket, she placed it right over the wound with a lot of pressure to try and stop the bleeding. Parrish let out a hiss in pain from the lack of warning.
"Sheriff?" Ayla looked over to the man with worry.
"I'm okay, just focus on your brother."
Ayla continued to apply pressure to her brother's stomach as she pulled her phone from her pocket.
"Who-who are you calling?" Jordan asked.
"Scott," she put the phone to her ear but it instantly went to voicemail. After trying two more times, she threw the phone to the ground. "Shit!" She screamed. The older Parrish leaned his head back, closing his eyes. "No! Jordan! Jordan come on, keep your eyes open!" Grabbing his face, Ayla tried to shake him awake.
Though she hadn't been hit by a sword Ayla's whole body felt weak as a dull pain ran through her. She wasn't above admitting that she was scared, because she was. Ayla was terrified, but she also felt fear that didn't seem to be her own, a fear that she was going to have to die soon but somehow, Ayla knew this wasn't her fear that she was feeling.
"Parrish, keep your eyes open!" the sheriff yelled at the younger man.
Black smoke continued to flow from the wound Ayla was doing her best to try to keep covered.
"What is this? Is this poison?" Parrish asked.
The Sheriff leaned back, grunting in pain "Whatever it is, ah, it's working fast."
"No no no! Sheriff-" jumping over her brother so she was between the two men, "-you gotta hold on, everything will work out, we just have to wait it out." She tried to sound optimistic but her words were falling thin. "We just have to...we..."
Suddenly the girl's body completely froze. Something in her was signaling that there was danger coming. Ayla wasn't sure how she knew this but an overwhelming feeling of loss and anxiety came over her, and the feeling of having to choose between life and death.
On the other side of town, at the high school, Stiles, Scott, Kira, and Lydia were all fighting the Nogitsune who had set up its last trick. Everyone that Stiles and Scott ever loved and cared for was attacked by the Oni, destined to die if Stiles didn't sacrifice himself and allow Scott to kill him.
Stiles was giving in to the pressure and placed a large sword at his stomach, ready to give his life for the people he loved.
"What-what's wrong?" Stilinski asked that girl. The look she had on her face was a similar look Lydia would get when she was hearing or feeling something, he wasn't sure if she had any abilities like the others did but he knew that something was definitely wrong with her.
"Something is happening," Ayla said almost in a whisper as she stood up from her position on the ground, staring at seemingly nothing in particular.
"Ayla?" Jordan asked, looking at his sister.
She jumped slightly but not because of him, but because of something she felt in her body. Ayla stayed like that for a couple of minutes until her eyes flashed a baby blue before rolling to the back of her head and she fell to the ground.
When she opened her eyes again Ayla wasn't in the sheriff's station, she was at the school, the Nogitsune wearing Stiles' face was standing in front of her.
Ayla had that same terrifying feeling in her chest as the creature moved closer to her. She tried to back away but she was leaning against someone else to keep her upright, it was Lydia.
"Divine move! Divine move! You think you have any moves at all? You can kill the Oni. But me? Me? I'm a thousand years old. You can't kill me!"
"But we can change you," Lydia said as the two stopped.
The Nogitsune turned its head to the side slightly, "What?"
"You forgot about the scroll. The Shugendo scroll. Change the host."
"You can't be a fox and a wolf." The voice wasn't Ayla's, it was a teenage boy's voice coming from her. That's when she realized, this wasn't her body, maybe she was dreaming, or having a nightmare, but Ayla wasn't herself.
Scott jumped up from the ground and bit the dark spirit's arm, causing it to scream out in pain. Kira, then stabbed it through the torso, causing it to fall to the ground. The Nogitsune opened its mouth to scream and a small bug flew out of it, trying to fly away but before it could get far, Isaac trapped it inside a small wooden box.
The dark spirit in front of the two fell to its knees, its face going extremely pale and began to crack before falling face-first to the ground. However, before it could hit, it turned into the same black smoke that disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Ayla felt her body get heavy again and darkness clouded her vision as she fainted.
"Ayla, Ayla wake up!" Jordan leaned over her now.
The girl was very confused about what had just happened to her. She had fainted and woke up in someone else's body, but she couldn't control anything or protect herself. Why was she in another person's body and who was it?
"JP?" the girl asked. Her vision was a little blurry and her head felt like it had been repeatedly smashed against the ground. "What happened?"
"You fainted," the sheriff explained to the girl, kneeling beside her in her brother's arms.
That's when Ayla noticed that the wounds that her brother and the Sheriff had practically healed in the short time she was out.
"How?" she asked, gently running her hand over Stilinski's arm.
"We don't know."
Standing up, Ayla looked around at the other officers, "Is everyone else okay?"
The sun had risen now and something inside Ayla told her that it was all over, that she didn't have to worry anymore because she was safe, that those she loved were safe.
-
A few days passed before she spoke to anyone from the pack. Ayla needed her space to figure out what had happened and to process things. She learned of Aiden's death from one of the 5 voicemails that Kira had left the girl.
On the fourth day of her isolation, there was a knock on the front door. Really not in the mood for any company, Ayla pretended not to be home, but that didn't stop the two girls who were waiting outside her door. Lydia had found the spare key in a potted plant that was left on the front steps and let herself and Kira into the home, scaring Ayla half to death.
"What the hell?" Ayla yelled from her spot on the couch.
"You have been ignoring everyone's phone calls for days, you haven't been in school and we are worried about you," Kira said as the two girls set down the bags they had been carrying
"So you break into my home?"
"I found a key, so technically, we didn't break in." Lydia smiled, placing the extra key on the coffee table. "Where is your brother?"
"He's at work, it's his first shift back after what happened. Hey, what's in the bags?"
Lydia gave the girl another smile, "We are having a girl's night."
Ayla let out a sigh, "Guys, I don't know-"
"Allison told me how you two planned a girl's night with all of us once this was all over," Lydia cut her off. "So we are having a girl's night."
And so they did.
The three of them spent the remainder of the night talking about almost anything and really getting to know each other as Lydia and Ayla hadn't talked much in the time she was at Beacon Hills.
They watched horrible romcoms and ate all the junk food in the house. Kira told them all about her and Scott and how she wasn't really sure what they were to each other. Lydia and Ayla gave her advice and teased the girl. Later on in the night, Kira asked Ayla about her dating history and the girl actually felt open enough to tell the two about Kyler and what had happened to them.
Lydia and Kira instantly gave the girl a hug and comforted her about it. This was when Ayla felt the safest. Surrounded by girls whom she felt she could truly get close with, who she could bond with.
Finally, Ayla truly felt a part of the pack, just as Scott had said she was.