i did my research and i don't know for sure, but apparently the wolves that got temporarily possessed attacked the people that wronged the ones they care about. I'm not 100% sure that's true but i'm running with it.
—
"You want to handcuff me?"
Ryder kept Austin behind her as the Sheriff took careful steps towards his son.
"If my son is still here, if there's still a part of him standing here in front of me, then he'll put these on willingly and he'll come with me, because he knows I'm here to protect him from himself and from others."
Stiles allowed Noah to cuff him, only to drop his head, hiding a smirk.
"You're not my son."
Derek growled, charging at the nogitsune with full force, only to get thrown off to the side like he weighed nothing.
Allison gasped as a hand grabbed her wrist, forcing her to step back as Void Stiles glared at them.
The cocking of a gun turned their attention to Allison's father, leaving them shocked to see the man pointing a loaded gun at him,
"Argent, listen to me. Don't do this."
"Why not? I've done it before." The man shrugged, "Werewolves, berserkers. I can easily add a nogitsune to the list."
"You're not going to shoot my son."
"You said it yourself, Sheriff. That's not your son."
"Ryder—"
"Don't move." She cut Allison off. Her voice caught Void's attention, his brown eyes snapping to her in what looked like anger before a second gun clock forced him to look away.
His mouth dropped into an 'O' shape as Stilinski pulled out his own gun and aimed it at Argent.
"Put it down."
"Dad, he's going to shoot me. He's going to kill me, Dad." Stiles' voice quivered, it almost shocked Ryder how easily he could change his ways.
"Don't listen."
Stilinski continued to shout, "Put it down. Now! Do it! Put it down!"
"Pull the trigger. Come on." Void taunted, smirk forming on his face slowly.
"Listen to me, you put the gun down now!"
"Shoot me."
Argent's gun began to lower as he realized what was happening.
Austin's blue eyes narrowed suspiciously, "Guys—"
"Put the gun down now!"
"Dad." Allison called out.
"Shoot me! Shoot ME!"
"Strife."
Allison's words caught Ryder's attention, the Miller teen loosening the tight grip she held on her wrist as the youngest Argent stepped forward.
"Stop, stop it! This is what he wants. This is exactly what he wants."
"Not exactly. I was kind of hoping Scott would be here." He looked over at Ryder, "But I'm glad you all have your guns out."
The room began to darken, a cloud of smoke appearing from thin air before it formed into what they now knew as the Oni.
"Because you're not here to kill me. You're here to protect me."
The Oni surrounded them, swords slicing through the air as they prepared to fight.
Derek rose from his place in the corner, roaring in their faces as Argent and the Sheriff began shooting at them.
Ryder fought with as much strength as she could, not doing much as the two Oni in front of her held nothing back as they whipped their swords at her.
Suddenly, it all disappeared.
The Oni no longer trying to hurt them.
Panting filled the silence of Derek's loft, no one truly knowing what to say as each one of them was just as confused as the other.
"What happened?"
"They disappeared. They literally just vanished."
"And so did Stiles."
•••
Austin dropped Ryder off at home.
It was late and Argent felt like it would be best if everyone got at least some type of sleep before they would have to venture off again to look for Stiles.
The girl was agitated, rightfully so. It felt like this game of hide and seek wouldn't end.
Ramona and Aaron were far from pleased to see that the girl had taken herself out of the hospital. They were preparing to go see her just as she walked into the house.
She claimed she would take the heat of their yelling after she showered, mumbling about how she felt sticky and nasty after fighting with killer ninjas.
So that's where she was, rinsing the soap off of her skin before she ducked her head under the shower head, letting the water run down her face with her eyes closed.
She could have sworn she heard the sound of buzzing, brushing it off to be her delusions from lack of sleep.
The girl let out a choked sound at the feeling of water making its ways up her nose, coughing hardly as she struggled to get it out, inhaling instead.
"My God." She mumbled to herself, grabbing her towel to dry herself off.
As she looked in the mirror, her brown eyes drooped down, flashing bright yellow before she blinked it away.
"What the hell?"
•••
"Ryder." Ramona knocked on the bathroom door.
She had heard the shower turn off around an hour ago, fully assuming that her daughter was just sitting in the bathroom. It wouldn't surprise her, Ryder had done things like that since she was little.
If she were somewhere for too long by herself, she could quite literally sit there for hours thinking about whatever came to mind. She had no problem entertaining herself with her thoughts.
Ramona soon realized that she couldn't hear her daughters heartbeat, which only furthered her concern.
"Ryder, open the door." She knocked harder.
The banging seemed to have caught the attention of her husband, the man soon walking upstairs to see what the commotion was about.
"What's going on?"
She didn't answer him, instead tugging harshly on the door knob to open it, swinging the wood back to see a mess.
Ryder was gone, the mirror was shattered and the window was open.
"Oh, shit."
•••
Peter was just leaving Derek's loft when a low growl could be heard in the distance.
The Hale hummed himself, blue eyes casually surveying his surroundings as he waited impatiently to see who was targeting him.
Peter Hale was no saint by any means. In fact, he undoubtedly had a lot of enemies, but he wasn't aware that he had any left in Beacon Hills.
The growl grew louder, before footsteps followed quickly after.
His body flew to the ground as someone shoved him back with full force.
Peter groaned, leaning up on his hands. He was wholeheartedly shocked to see Ryder stood in front of him with glowing eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"You're a horrible person."
"I'm fully aware." He nodded, "But what did I do to you?"
She could feel her blood boil at his nonchalant tone, swiping her clawed hands at him, satisfied at the hiss he let out from the feeling of his skin getting cut.
"Is this because I'm a bad father?" He began to get up. "I wasn't there, Ryder, I know that. But I'm here now if you want to drop that Doctor your mom fell in love with."
She roared at him, yellow eyes flickering as the man stepped back in slight fear.
Peter looked up to see the sun beginning to rise, "Does your mother always let you out if the house this late?"
Her hand rose again, ready to strike him,
"Stop! Doing this isn't good for either of us!"
Her eyes fade, "What?"
Peter used this as an opportunity to grab the side of her face, smacking her head against his car. He caught her before she hit the ground. Letting out a low groan, Peter carried her body to his car.
"I knew you hated me but goodness I didn't think it was that much."
•••
Austin pulled into Ryder's driveway. He was fully exhausted after he spent nearly the entire night in search for Ryder. It was almost six in the morning when he got a call from Josie letting him know that Peter Hale was the one to bring the girl in.
He was confused, wondering why she would go to see Peter out of all people so late in the night.
Entering the house, the sound of harsh, mucus filled coughing lead him to the living room.
He stopped shortly to see Ryder laid with her head on Ramona's lap, exaggerated cough leaving her lips.
Aaron rubbed at his daughter's back, "What's wrong with her?"
"I don't know." Ramona held back tears as Ryder next cough came out more as a scream.
She tells back into her moms embrace with a satisfying sigh.
Looking down into the bowl on the floor, Aaron held back a disgusted look at the small fly that landed in the water.
"You... swallowed a bug?"
The chiming of Austin's phone alerted them of his presence.
"Hey, Austin." Aaron greeted, gesturing for the teen to take his place in comforting the blonde.
"Why is he here?" Ryder glared at Peter.
"I'm the one that brought you here, thank you very much."
"You aren't welcome."
"Oh and he is?"
Austin's head jerked back at Peter's accusing tone.
"Yes, he is."
"I need to go." Ryder forced herself to sit up, wiping her tired eyes.
"You aren't going anywhere." Ramona stopped her.
"Mom, I have to help Stiles."
"Stiles has people to help him."
"You think." She snapped, "More than half of them don't know what they're doing."
"And you do?"
"Well, I don't lack common sense."
"You remember what just happened, right? You were gone all night and you show up unconscious with Peter Hale claiming that you tried to kill him." The woman snapped at her.
"Would that really have been a bad thing?"
"This is no time for jokes, Ryder!"
"I'm not joking, seriously. He wouldn't be missed."
"Ouch." The man in question placed a hand to his heart to mock offense.
"I need to help them find Stiles."
"Uh—actually." Austin timidly interrupted, "They found him and um...they actually want both Ramona and Peter possibly help them at Scott's house."
•••
"He doesn't look like he would survive a slap across the face, much less the bite of a werewolf."
"You don't think it would work?"
"It could." Ramona said, hand subconsciously rubbing over her flat stomach, "But it's—"
"More a war of the mind than the body."
"Do not cut me off." The Anders woman scoffed.
"Did either of you actually consider the possibility that Stiles might want to die before actually becoming a werewolf?" Ryder spoke from her spot in between Austin and Melissa.
"That's not an option." Scott immediately told her.
"It should be." Ryder scoffed, "Hell, my life is probably ten times worse now that i'm a wolf. This shit isn't fun. Stiles was given the opportunity by Peter and he said no. What makes you think he's changed his mind?"
Her concern for Stiles' opinion on the matter was pushed to the side, "We'll have that talk once he's safe."
"So you do this, save him, then what? What if he doesn't want to talk to?" Austin stepped behind Ryder, "This is a big decision. Whether it saves his life or not, Stiles deserves a say. It's his life. Is there nothing else that can help?"
Peter hummer thoughtfully, "There are better methods to winning this battle."
"What kind of methods?" Deaton asked.
Peter took hold of Scott's hand, forcing the McCall to push out his claws, "We're going to get into his head."
"You would need someone to go in with you." Ramona spoke up, looking around for volunteers.
Peter's eyes were set on Lydia, the Martin girl sighing before she pulled him to the side, whispering softly to him before they pulled away from their two person huddle.
"So, do we have a plan?"
"Scott is going to try and dig through pale and sickly Evil Stiles's mind to unearth pale and sickly Real Stiles. Then guide him back from the depths of his own subconscious. But he's not going to do it alone."
"What do you mean?"
"Ramona wasn't lying. Somebody needs to go in with you."
•••
"So what do we do if we find him?"
"You're going to have to guide him out somehow. Try to give him back control of his mind, his body."
"Could you elaborate on the "somehow"? It's not feeling very specific at the moment." Lydia said.
"Improvise." Peter deadpanned.
"What if this is just another trick?"
"When are you people going to start trusting me?" Peter rolled his eyes.
"Do you truly think you deserve trust?"
"Well, no."
"I meant him." Scott gestured to the shell of a teen boy who had duct tape covering his mouth.
"Oh."
"Scott, we're running out of time."
•••
They had been waiting for about twenty minutes for any sort of progress.
Melissa's suddenly voice filled the rooms silence as she sat up, "Look at that. Do you see that? She's bleeding."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"What's happening?"
"What is happening to her?" Austin followed.
"Lydia, can you hear me? Lydia, you're stronger than this. Okay, you need to concentrate."
"Lydia. Lydia!"
•••
"Did it work? Did it work?" Scott immediately questioned as he and Lydia gasped.
"What happened? Why didn't it work?"
"Because it's not science, Lydia. It's supernatural. I did my part. Now give me the name." Peter demanded.
Ryder frowned, "What?"
"What name? What are you talking about?"
The McCall's question went unanswered, though he didn't seem to bothered to figure out what they were speaking about at the moment.
Suddenly, Stiles sat up, gagging as he ripped the tape off his mouth. They stared in both shock and disgust as he began throwing up cloth, creating a pile on the ground before he collapsed with a huff.
A head poked out from the pile on the floor, groaning as it clawed at Ryder's leg who happened to be in front of everyone. It sounded like he was in pain, but that didn't stop Peter and Scott from shoving him back against the couch.
"Hold him."
Scott grunted, "I'm trying."
"Wait, stop!" Scott shouted, "Wait, wait, wait!"
He cautiously removed the wrap from his face, the others watching in anticipation as he took his time uncovering his face.
"Scott?"
Ryder sighed softly as she looked at Stiles Stilinski's flushed face. The teen seemed panicked, alarmed as he liked around frantically.
"Scott."
"Where are they?"
It was then that Ryder realized that both Void and Lydia were gone.
"Lydia! Lydia!"
—
A/N: three more chapters until this book ends !!