Allison was peacefully sleeping in her bed, was, until there was hard knocking over at her door. She wiped at her eyes before she got up and went over to the door to find that it was Isaac.
"What the hell have you been doing?" he asked the moment it was open.
"Sleeping," she said shortly at him. "What the hell are you doing?"
Isaac's face fell a bit. "You didn't get any calls or texts?"
At that, Allison went on for her room with Isaac following after her. She went off and grabbed her phone. "My phone's off. I never turn my phone off." She quickly turned it on and suddenly found a whole lot of missed calls and texts from Scott's phone. She opened the latest one. One that was about Stiles. "Sleepwalking? Is he okay?"
"Yeah, they found him a few minutes ago. They're bringing him to the hospital." Isaac then looked off to listen in case her father heard them and got up but he found that there was no sound of another heartbeat which meant that he wasn't here.
But Allison kept her attention on her phone. "I don't know how this happened. I never turn my phone off," she said scrolling through all the texts she had gotten. But, she suddenly found a voicemail message from an unknown caller. Not just one though. There were near a dozen of them. She played the first one and started to hear a man speaking a foreign language. To Allison, it sounded like it was Japanese. But the man didn't sound like he was trying to talk to Allison. It sounded like he was reading her something.
Isaac was listening to it to. "What is that?"
__________
Aiden was outside the hospital with Derek helping to jumpstart Stiles' jeep while everyone else was inside. Derek had brought his van over and was getting his jumper cables.
"Do you think he was just sleepwalking or was there something more to it?" Aiden asked Derek as he was hooking the cables over to his car.
"In this town, there's always something more."
Aiden nodded as he went to put his hands into his pockets. "What if I told you that I know something more?" Derek turned to face him. "I kind of overheard...well I listened in on Stiles talking with Scott a few days ago. How he thinks that he was the one that he left the message in the chemistry classroom. The one telling Barrow to kill Kira. And, that he might've been the one to cause the pile-up on Halloween."
"Really?" Derek mumbled.
"Yeah," Aiden said with his expression unmoved. "Then I thought...how all of us, every werewolf and even Lydia were attacked by the Oni, but Stiles wasn't."
Derek rolled his eyes. "Because he's not supernatural anymore."
"Yeah which is supposed to be impossible and we still don't know how or why that happened. And get this, Scott told me how he ran into the nogitsune tonight. He couldn't see who it was and he lost him in the woods...and Stiles just so happened to be found in the woods."
Derek let a small smirk find its way onto his face. "You really think that Stiles...Skinny, sarcastic Stiles, is the nogitsune? A powerful, dark spirit."
Aiden just kept staring at Derek resolutely. "I'm not the only one thinking it, I'm just the only one saying it."
Derek scoffed. "This thing is looking to possess someone and it chooses Stiles?"
"Deucalion wanted to have Stiles," Aiden argued. "Peter also wanted to have Stiles. You also wanted him once, didn't you?"
"Yeah, when he was a werewolf. Stiles may be resourceful and smart but he's not as impressive without his," Derek then froze. "Power," he finished before he looked down at the jumper cables he was holding and brought them together to create some sparks. And like that, something else sparked in his mind.
__________
Scott and Lydia were sitting out in the waiting area with his mother and father when the four of them noticed Sheriff Stilinski finally coming out of the room and he walked towards them.
"He's sleeping now. And he's just fine," he grunted out. Scott and Lydia sighed with relief. "He doesn't remember much. It's all been like a dream to him." He then looked over at McCall. "Thank you."
Scott looked over at his father as well. While he had his problems with him, he was able to find and save his best friend when he couldn't. "How did you know where he really was?"
"From the message that you said Stiles left on your phone," he started to explain. "How he said that his eyes were watery. That same thing happened to me in the coyote den. It was the repellent. They sprayed it in order to keep other animals out. I couldn't go near it without my eyes watering too. It was just a good thing that he mentioned it over the phone."
"It was more than that," the Sheriff said to him.
"It was a lucky connection," McCall said nonchalantly.
"McCall, could you shut up please," the Sheriff cut in. "And accept my sincerest gratitude?"
Agent McCall gave him a small look before he held his good hand out to him. "Accepted."
The Sheriff returned his hand with his own and they shook.
Melissa looked over to her son and Lydia. "Alright, you two have school in less than six hours. Go home and try and get some sleep."
"Okay," Scott said as he leaned in for a hug. He doubted he would be able to get much sleep after all this though.
Lydia moved to follow after him. "I don't know what happened," she whispered to him. "I was so sure."
"Yeah, well, I wasn't much help either," Scott muttered. "But, it doesn't matter. He's okay." Just then, Lydia turned around and started looking about. Scott knew that reaction. "Lydia, do you hear something?"
Lydia was hearing something. It was a loud and repetitive banging sound. It sounded almost like metal hitting metal. But it soon ended and Lydia shook her head. "No," she told him. Her hearing of things had caused enough trouble for one night. "I don't hear anything."
Scott heard Lydia's heart. She was lying but it was clear that she was still angry at herself for their trip to Eichen House. He just walked with her to leave the hospital.
_________
Stiles started shifting around in his bed and slowly opened his eyes to see that his father was sitting off in a chair on the other side of the room, his head wobbling a bit with his eyes closed.
"Dad?" he called out.
The Sheriff straightened up in his chair and saw that Stiles was rubbing at his eyes. "Hey, how you feeling?"
"Okay, I guess." Stiles took a deep breath from his nose and realized that he had a bit of a sniffle.
His dad gave him a small smile as he saw Stiles move to wipe at his nose. "Yeah, it looks like you might have caught a little something from being out there."
Stiles tried to sit up but he felt as if he was heavier than before and his throat was feeling a bit dry. "My throat," he said as he rubbed it.
"Right, you haven't eaten or drank anything since yesterday afternoon. Just a sec," his dad said before leaving the room.
A moment later, he came back with a cup of water and Melissa was trailing behind him with a clip board.
"You feeling better Stiles?" she asked as his father gave him the water.
"Peachy," he grunted before he went to take a sip of his water.
Melissa readied her clipboard. "Okay, Stiles do you remember anything about last night? About getting up and going to that cave?"
Stiles narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "No. Uh, the last thing I remember...I was in my room. I was getting ready for bed and...the next thing I knew, I was in that basement. Or, I thought I was in a basement."
"You were sleepwalking. Has that been happening to you lately other than last night?" she asked him.
Stiles seemed hesitant to answer the question, given that his father was sitting in the room with him.
The Sheriff saw his son's look. "Stiles, please. We have to know what's going on with you, so please, tell Melissa everything."
Stiles closed his eyes and sighed to himself. He nodded before he opened his eyes. "A few times. Sometimes at night, other times during the day. I would just, end up somewhere and not remember how I got there or what I did."
Melissa made a note of that. "Are you still having nightmares?"
Stiles shrugged. "A few here and there but, I'm not really able to remember much of them now."
She nodded. "Any signs of irrational or erratic behavior?"
"Yeah," he mumbled. "Possibly to the point of homicide."
That made both Melissa and the Sheriff's eyebrows raise a bit.
"Having trouble focusing?" she then asked.
"Yeah, I went back to my Adderall but it's not working like it used to."
"Any idea why?"
"No idea, though it might have something to do with being a surrogate sacrifice to a mystical tree."
She nodded. "I vaguely remember that," she said sharing a small smile with the Sheriff.
Stiles let out a soft yawn. "Yeah."
Melissa's face softened at that. "Uh, how much have you've been sleeping?"
Stiles shrugged. "About eight hours."
"A day?" she asked.
"A week," he said.
"What?" his father said making him look off towards the window.
In the sunlight, Melissa noticed how Stiles' skin tone had gotten paler and he seemed a bit thinner too. "Have you've been eating okay?"
"Yeah, though not as much as I used to. I haven't really had much of an appetite."
"Any other things that have been bothering you?"
"Well, I've gotten quite a few headaches, here and there. It just happens out of nowhere. Sometimes it lasts for a few seconds, other times...it gets so bad that I try to take some medicine to try and make it stop."
"Or drink," his father said pointedly making Stiles look over at him, paling. "I found the bottle in your bed Stiles." Stiles looked away from him and began to rub his fingers together nervously. "Don't worry, I'm not mad but I wished that you would've said something."
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Melissa led the Sheriff out into the hallway. "I know this is a tough time for the both of you but there's something I feel I should tell you." She looked down at all of the factors and symptoms she dotted down. "All of this, I've seen this before and...I think you should know-"
The Sheriff cut her off. "You can stop right there. I, already know." He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notepad. He opened it and revealed a list written down with symptoms. "You're not the only one that's been making a list. I've been noticing a few things here and there. Stiles, he's been trying to hide it, but ever since the whole werewolf thing, I've worked at noticing things that seem wrong with him."
"So, you already know what this might mean?" she asked hesitantly.
He closed his eyes and then nodded. "Claudia." He sighed and then opened his eyes. "I think we have to run some tests."
"I'll...make the arrangements."
"Thank you," he said to her softly.
They then looked over through the door's window to see Stiles rubbing a bit at his forehead.
__________
Scott was barely aware of anything going on around him at school. All he could think about was Stiles. Of all the times that Stiles had been in trouble, from when he had been kidnapped by Gerard to when he and their parents were nearly killed in the root cellar, he had managed to pull through. This time though, sleepwalking to the middle of the woods, he had nearly died and would have if his mom and dad hadn't found him when they did. First he lost the nogitsune and then he nearly lost his best friend, all on the same night. Stiles had tried to contact him but he didn't answer his call and while Stiles had still asked him to find and help him, he had failed him. After gym, he went and sent a text to Deaton asking if he had anything new to help them with what was going on in the town but he responded that he had nothing yet.
Kira had been trying to get a hold of Scott all day. She had heard about what had happened to his friend Stiles and wanted to see how he was doing. She finally found him coming out of the locker room. "Scott!" she called out to him. But Scott didn't seem to hear her. He just kept walking off like he was in another world.
"He's a little preoccupied." Kira turned over and saw Derek Hale moving for her. "But I could help you."
"Why would you want to help me?" she asked him.
"Because, I want you to tell me everything that happened at the power station with William Barrow. Actually, I want you to show me."
_________
Isaac and Allison were over in the history classroom showing Mr. Yukimura the voicemail that Allison was given over her phone. They hoped he might be able to translate and make sense of it for them. He listened to it calmly but Allison could tell from the look in his eyes that he understood what it was.
"You're right," he told them. "It's Japanese. Who left this on your phone?"
Allison shook her head. "I don't know. All the messages are the same and they all say Blocked ID."
"Can you translate it?" Isaac asked him.
"Mostly. The man speaking is giving instructions actually. The first line is: All evacuees are required to stay at least ten feet back from outside fences."
Isaac and Allison shared a confused look.
"What does that mean? What fences?" Isaac asked.
"The fences around the Japanese Internment Camp during World War II," Mr. Yukimura explained. "After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put into camps. This man is reading instructions to prisoners upon their arrival." He then handed Allison her phone back.
"But where does something like this even come from?" she asked.
"I have no idea, because it's fake." That made Allison and Isaac narrow their eyes. "It mentions the name of the internment camp as Oak Creek. There was no internment camp named Oak Creek in California."
All of this only made everything they were dealing with all the more confusing.
__________
Derek was being led by Kira through the empty power station as she was taking them towards where Barrow had her though Kira was still lost a bit on why. They finally made it to some generators behind steel cages.
"It was around here I think," Kira said as she looked around. "But everything kind of looks the same now." The last time, she hadn't exactly been eager to take the place in.
Derek then held his hand up and stopped them. "Hold on," he mumbled.
He was picking up a familiar scent. It was Stiles' scent. The two of them then noticed a streak in the middle of the floor. It moved off like a trail and led to an open cage where they saw something was stuck on one of the generators.
Kira's eyes narrowed at it. "What is that? Is that a baseball bat?"
It was. And one that Derek had seen before. "It's Stiles' bat," he told her. He moved over and tried to take it off the wall to see that it was stuck, tight. He put a little more strength into it and then managed to pull it off. He realized what had happened. "It's magnetized." Derek then noticed the scratches at the end of it and looked back at the streak on the floor. He put down at the edge and slowly ran it along the path of the streak and when it got to the end, it flew right back and got stuck to the generator. Derek's eyes widened as he stared at it and he then looked back at the equally stunned girl. "Kira, I need you to tell me everything you know about fox fire."
__________
Lydia was standing with Scott but her mind seemed to be miles away. Every sound around her seemed to vibrate in her ear and be amplified. She actually flinched when someone closed their locker right next to them.
"You okay?" Scott asked her.
"Uh, yeah. Just a little hyper sensitive to loud sounds today." She then flinched when another locker shut closed across from them.
"My mom sent me a text a while ago. They're doing tests on Stiles all afternoon. I was going to go there around 6 to visit, you want to come with me?" he offered.
Lydia just looked down at the floor. "I should probably just go home." She almost jumped when another locker shut but this time, further down the hall.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Scott asked. He couldn't have another one of his friends suffering under his watch.
She just looked at him. "Yeah. I'll text you later." She then went off leaving Scott looking after her as she moved down the hall. As Lydia walked, it soon stopped being loud sounds she was reacting to. It became any sound nearby. Pounding sounds...and they seemed to be pounding in a rhythm.
__________
Scott was moving through the hospital hallways and quickly spotted his mother and Stiles' father standing off to the side, talking. He noticed that neither one of them were dressed in their work clothes and they had mirrored glum looks on their faces.
"Hey," he called out to them. "Are the tests finished?"
His mother turned to him with her arms folded over her chest. "Uh, no sweetie, they still need to do one more. It's scheduled for tonight."
"Oh. Uh, can I talk to him?" he asked.
"No. He's taking a small rest now honey."
Scott let out a small sigh. "Do we know what's wrong yet?"
His mother looked back at the door where they could spot Stiles sleeping in his hospital bed through the door's window. "He has quite a few symptoms. Some that don't match up. We think that after tonight's test, we'll know for sure what is wrong with him."
"What test is there left for him to take then?" he asked her.
Melissa looked at Scott with an uncomfortable and slightly pained look. "They...he's going to be given an MRI."
Scott's eyes narrowed in confusion. "A brain scan? Why?"
She then looked over and caught the Sheriff's eyes. He let out a tired sigh before he straightened himself up. "They're going to see if he might have Frontal Temporal Dementia. It's...what his mother had."
Scott's face fell as he just stared blankly at him. He had known that Stiles' mother had been sick and died in the hospital but he never knew how and from what. "What's that?"
It was his mother who answered him. "It's a condition where the brain starts to deteriorate. Parts of it began to shrink and erode over time. It could cause a few mental afflictions and Stiles has been having some. Intense headaches, lapses of memory, insomnia, irritable and impulsive behavior as well as hallucinations are among them. It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers. And...there's no cure," she finished looking down to study her feet.
Scott started shaking his head. "No, that can't be. You said that this happens over time. Stiles is healthy as ever. He hasn't had any problems until-" But Scott froze right there.
"After that night," the Sheriff finished for him. When Stiles had become human again.
Melissa went to wipe a tear threatening to fall from her eye. "We did some blood work and it looks like Stiles' immune system is weaker than it should be. All of this, and especially last night, it's really been taxing on him honey. The other doctors can't make sense of it but I think all of us here can.
Yes, Scott could. Stiles suddenly getting weak and sick, it was because he had become human again. The bite had cured Scott's asthma for him making him breathe and do things normally. For Stiles, his ADHD all but disappeared and didn't have a problem focusing, even on several things at once. It looked like it had healed more than they thought and it looked like the shock of turning human again was actually taking a toll on him. Scott began to walk off to try and make sense of all the thoughts and feelings bouncing through his skull. Stiles had been suffering through all those waking dreams and hallucinations where he was having breakdowns. Then he was starting to lose sleep and begin thinking awful things about himself. And despite all of that, Stiles still kept on working hard to help with him regaining his control and saving Malia and Kira. But Scott just waved off what Stiles was going through as just being a little sleep deprived. Now, his friend was at the stage where he was nearly frozen to death and that he might very well have a terminal disease. More than ever, he wanted to go and talk to Stiles. The last thing he had ever said to his friend besides updating him on what happened at his house, was that he should go home and get some sleep. Just dismissing him. Scott couldn't have that. He wouldn't have that. He had to do something...and he could. There was one thing he could do for him, even though it was the last thing he wanted to happen to Stiles, again.
__________
Derek stopped the van at Beacon Hills Memorial and he and Kira went to get out. But, only he was moving in for the hospital while Kira was lingering behind.
"I don't know if I should go in," she told him.
"Why not?" Derek asked.
"Because, well...you're going to tell Scott that Barrow might've used fox fire, created by me, to jumpstart the nogitsune's power inside Stiles."
"Yeah," he said as if he didn't see the problem.
"Basically, that I helped a dark spirit take control of his best friend."
Now Derek seemed to see the problem. "You should probably wait here."
Derek then left while Kira settled down and prepared to wait. He moved through the halls of the hospital and moved for the waiting area for the floor where he knew Stiles was. He quickly spotted Scott sitting there, alone, with his head bowed down as he examined the floor. Derek could smell the despair oozing out of him. He walked on over to him and Scott raised his head to look at him.
"Hey," he said glumly to him.
"Hey," Derek said back. "Are the tests finished?"
Scott shook his head. "No, they're about to run one more. They're...they're giving Stiles an MRI."
Derek's eyes widened. That kind of test wasn't given out lightly. "Why, what's wrong?"
__________
Stiles was slowly walking on inside the MRI room in a hospital smock with Melissa's hand over his shoulder as she helped him inside.
"Melissa, really, I'm fine," he mumbled tirelessly to her.
She nodded. "I know. This is actually more for me than you."
Stiles let a small but sad smile loose and his hand that moved to Melissa's other hand and gave it a small squeeze which she returned with a sad smile of her own. As he sat at the edge of the machine, his father was standing off with the doctor going over the paperwork. The doctor was squinting as he read Stiles' name.
"How do you even pronounce that?" he asked.
The Sheriff sighed. They were used to people asking that question when it came to Stiles' name. "Just call him Stiles."
The doctor nodded. "Sign here," he said as he gave the clipboard over to him before turning to Stiles who was already moving to lay down as he still felt a little tired from his nap. "Okay, Stiles, during the test there's going to be a loud sound throughout the test. I can give you some earplugs if you like?"
Stiles shook his head from where it was laying. "It's fine. I'm used to tuning out sounds."
The Sheriff and Melissa shared a look as they understood the double meaning behind that.
The Sheriff went and grasped his hand. "We'll be just outside. Okay?"
Stiles returned the grip. "Okay."
The Sheriff and Melissa walked out with the doctor and began looking on in from the console room behind the glass. Stiles was still calmly laying on the slap as it was being wheeled into the machine. The light inside was kind of bright and he was squinting his eyes a bit.
"Okay Stiles," he heard the doctor speaking through the intercom. "This is going to take about 45 minutes to an hour. Just remember, try not to move." Stiles had been trying to get comfortable but stopped after that. He went to adjust his head. "Even just a little bit." Stiles stopped moving entirely. The doctor then started the machine up. "Okay, Stiles you're going to be hearing that noise now. It's going to be a loud clang. Kind of like a hammer hitting an anvil."
A moment later, Stiles started hearing that clanging sound. He tried to relax as he let the machine do his work.
On the other side of the glass, the people there were anything but relaxed. The machine began to slowly bring up a digital mapping of Stiles' brain. The doctor lowered his gaze when he looked at it and the Sheriff quickly noticed. He looked at it and couldn't help but feel a disturbing sense of dejavu.
After a moment, the doctor regained himself. "You see this," he said as he pointed to a section of the brain that was highlighted. "This tissue here and there...both those spots are showing signs of atrophy."
The Sheriff let out a hard breath as he kept his eyes on it. "Atrophy," he muttered.
He then shared a look with Melissa and knew that she was thinking the same thing. Stiles was terminally sick after all. And there was no hope for him to get better.
Inside the MRI, Stiles' eyes started to water. Even though the clanging sound was still going loud and strong, he could hear the word echo in his head. Atrophy, and it was sounding out in his dad's broken voice. As it echoed, he felt the banging pressure against his skull just like before along with some ringing. He couldn't move so he shut his eyes to try and push the pain away.
He shut them as hard as he could as the pounding got harder and the ringing got louder until it all just stopped. He then opened his eyes to find that he wasn't laying in the machine but was standing up. Everything around him seemed darker all of a sudden. He then saw some movement at the corner of his eye and turned to just catch a shape moving around the MRI.
"Have you figured out my riddle yet?" Stiles knew that voice. The thing was back again. "Answer correctly...we might consider letting them go."
Stiles shook his head. "Let who go?"
It turned over to look at the window. "Your friends...your family." Stiles then turned to look and see his father standing with Melissa. "We're going to destroy all of them Stiles," it said a little joyously. "Everyone, one by one."
"Why?" Stiles cried.
"Why not?" That wasn't the thing. It came from the side. Stiles turned around and his eyes widened. It was Mr. Harris. He was standing there in his usual suit and haircut but Stiles could see that his throat was bloodied and there was a red gash at the side of his head. "It's not as if it would be the first time you've destroyed lives Mr. Stilinski, like mine," he said bitterly.
Stiles shook his head. "No...that wasn't me."
"Really?" Stiles gasped as he saw someone slowly walk into the room. It was Tara, dressed in her deputy uniform with blood running from the wound in her neck. "What about me? After everything I did for you growing up...you let me die."
Stiles started to cry harder. "I didn't. I wasn't there. I didn't know until it was too late. I would've stopped Jennifer if I knew," he cried out to her.
"Oh?" Stiles then turned around and saw two more people. He recognized them. They were the husband and his pregnant wife that Matt had killed. Both pale with blood all over their clothes. The husband stepped forward. "Like you did for me and my wife. Let our child become an orphan because you didn't stop our killer. You knew who our killer was and you let him go."
"No, I didn't let him go. I wanted to stop him!" Stiles shouted at him.
"But you didn't!" screamed his wife. "Because you went and just let your friend tell you what to do. My husband and I died, so that your so called best friend could have a night with his girlfriend in the back of a car."
"Because of Mr. McCall's stupidity, we had to pay the price," Harris said. "Though yours trumps his Mr. Stilinski. After all, like it's said in your so called #1 movie: The fool or the one that follows him, who's the bigger one? You knew what was the right thing to do but you just ducked your head, gave up and went along with McCall's decision. If you had done what you know should've been done, we would be alive right now."
"So would we."
Then behind the couple appeared were a handful of police officers. Stiles knew them. They were all the deputies that Matt and Jackson had killed at the station that night.
"But we're not," one of them spat.
"We're dead and our loved ones mourn us," said another deputy.
"Because of you!" shouted another.
"Just stop," Stiles cried as he turned away.
But he froze and his eyes widened. He was now looking at someone else. It was Heather. She was also pale and had blood all over her head and neck. As she did when he saw her on that metal slab in the morgue.
Heather shook her head. "They're wrong. It wasn't your fault Stiles. You tried, no, you fought to save me. You did everything in your power to try and stop me from dying. And when you didn't, you tried to stop my killer. It's isn't your fault. I don't blame you." She then went and put her pale and cold hand to his cheek lovingly and Stiles stared at her contently. "I blame Scott," she said softly. Stiles face fell a bit after that as he kept staring at her. "It's his fault. He's why I wasn't avenged." Suddenly Stiles looked up and saw all of Jennifer's victims appear together behind Heather. "Why we weren't avenged. That woman killed us all and Scott was just going to let her go. He wanted to let her free all so that he could keep his hands clean."
There was movement behind him and Stiles turned around to see all of Matt's victims standing together now.
"He's why we're all dead," said the husband. "To try and impress his girlfriend's psycho family."
"And now, he's why you will die," Heather said to him. "Because he hasn't and won't ever do the one thing that you know can and would save you and that you've tried to do all this time. It's why you didn't even bother to ask him, isn't it? Because, deep down, you know he still wants to make them think he's 'different'."
Next thing Stiles knew, the crowds of people were gone. In their place stood Erica and Boyd on either side of Cora. The three of them were standing there staring at him calmly but resolutely. Stiles was shaking a bit as he kept his unblinking eyes on them.
"We were tortured Stiles," Erica said to him. "Remember? Strung up and fried with electricity in his girlfriend's basement. And we were then forced to watch as her grandfather stabbed, beat and bled you in front of us. And what did your best friend do about that?"
Boyd answered. "Nothing. You're the one that saved yourself. Saved us. You've only ever tried to protect us. And Scott, he protects them? Befriends them? Our torturers and killers? He made Allison a part of the pack and kept her on even after she hunted all of us, both times. And he's a stone throw away from letting the twins in too. He's replacing you, with them."
"Just stop!" Stiles roared out with tears in his eyes.
Cora's face went into a vicious glare. "I lost my whole family," she spat. "For years I thought that I was all alone. With no place for me to really call home. You saw my pain...I thought you understood Stiles. That you cared."
Stiles shook his head a bit as he kept his teary eyes on Cora. "I do," he said with his voice cracked a bit. "I more than care."
Cora's glare disappeared and a tear began to fall from her eye. "Then how can you just stand by and let Scott pretend as if the Argents are allies? Worse, are friends. Chris Argent threatened and tried to kill Scott, Derek and you. Allison tried to kill you and my brother for stopping her crazy mother from killing Scott. They leave for the summer and suddenly its forgive and forget? You have to let them act like they didn't look the other way when Kate and Victoria did the things they did because Scott says so? Deep down, you know the only real reason that they stopped was because it was only two of them against all of us. But, when they get the chance, they'll hurt you. Hurt all of us. This is what Scott being the Alpha is supposed to mean. That anyone can try to hurt and kill or actually hurt and kill and Scott lets them off with a slap on the wrist."
His eyes blinked and he looked around and saw that everyone was gone. Well, not everyone. Stiles turned and saw the thing was back. "We can finally change that. They will finally pay. All of them will pay. Just like you know they should."
"No," Stiles shook his head. "Just go away. It's not true!"
"Really now?" it said in amusement. "We know better, deep down, don't we? You just go and agree along with Scott no matter how much it hurts you. It pains you...what he did. What he has done to us." Through the gauze, the thing's teeth were arched as if it was smiling.
Stiles suddenly had images of the Argents and their hunters attacking them, trying to kill his friends. Then he saw Scott trying to talk Derek into not killing Peter because of Allison's family, saw him work with Gerard, argue with him about trusting the Argents, turn and leave him to go with Deucalion. He saw Scott let Gerard go. Then he saw Scott turn away from Jennifer to let her go. Him letting Deucalion go. Scott grabbing him by the shoulder to let Allison go. After everything they each did and tried to do to them. To him. A flash of searing anger filled Stiles as he saw all of it.
Stiles felt the pressure in his head returning. "How?" he said through it. "How can you know that?"
It started to tear the bandages off its face. "Everyone has it but no one can lose it! What is it?!"
"I don't know," Stiles mumbled as he increased the pressure on his head.
"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it!"
"I don't know!" Stiles shouted.
The bandages fell completely off. "What is it Stiles?"
Stiles' eyes opened as he realized that the voice was familiar. He heard it every time he opened his mouth. His eyes fell upon the darkness in front of him being cast by the light behind him. The same darkness that it's hand sprout out from before. He realized the answer to all of his questions. "A shadow," he whispered.
He then turned around as the thing straightened up. It was him. He stared back at his own face staring back at him with a gleeful smirk on him. It was the face of a strong, confident and darker version of himself. Stiles felt all of his own strength and resolve melt away at the sight.
Stiles' eyes then opened to find himself back in the MRI but his eyes weren't their usual honey brown color.
They weren't even his shifted gold color. They were pitch black. That was because the one seeing through them wasn't Stiles. It was the nogitsune who lived over 1,000 years of time and had gone through countless names. But, he would now be called what he truly was. Void. He was Void. He took in everything and saw that he now had full reign of this body now. There was no diverting of his strength and power for quelling the resistance of a determined teenage boy and his guardian mutt. The boy was broken and the mongrel had been fully sealed away so that it could never interfere. He then let his power extend to start the beginning of his next trick.
The lights in the MRI room and console room began to flicker before they went out. It happened for a moment before they all came back on.
"What was that?" Melissa asked as she looked around.
"It looked like a power surge," the doctor said as he looked equally as confused.
But the Sheriff stiffened as he looked back into the room. "Where's my son?"
The other two looked into the room also and saw that Stiles was now gone.
__________
As Lydia was driving, she was starting to hear that pounding sound from before. She shook her head and turned up the volume of her radio up. But it did very little to stop the banging sound. If anything, it only got louder. It kept growing louder and louder until it drowned out the music entirely. Lydia pulled over to the side and then covered her ears to try and drown it out but it was just too loud. Too much. She then let go of her ears and then screamed.
__________
In the waiting area, Derek had been made to sit across from Scott as he listened to everything that they had learned about Stiles' condition. Derek had to admit that Stiles' past wasn't as simple as he had thought since he first met the energetic, eager and sarcastic teen.
"I knew Stiles was having problems but I didn't think it was this bad," Derek breathed out.
"You're not the only one," Scott mumbled.
"Scott, you can't blame yourself. It's not as if you haven't been dealing with your own problems lately."
"But I should've known something was wrong. I should've seen it," he said rubbing at the bottom of his jaw. "Do you think that him being cured might've done this?"
"I don't know. When I went away, I'd gone through some old family contacts about what happened to Stiles. They all said the same thing. Once you're bitten, you can never be unbitten. No one's ever heard of anyone turning back to human after they'd changed."
"So that's why you left? To try and find out what happened to Stiles?"
"No, there was another reason I left but the reason why I've been away for so long actually was because of Cora."
"Your sister? Where is she?"
"Well, Beacon Hills wasn't her home anymore. She didn't want to stay here, and I understood but I wasn't going to just let her go somewhere and not make sure she wasn't safe. Which was a good thing because...it looked like something happened to her recently and she needed my help with it."
Scott narrowed his eyes. "What? What happened to her?"
Derek kept his gaze on Scott. While it was agreed that the less people that knew, the better, Derek knew that he could trust Scott. But, with everything that was going on with Stiles right now, maybe now wouldn't be the best time to tell anyone the truth about Cora. The two of them, and Peter, had been on the trail for his mother's claws when Cora was starting to get sick, which was a concern given what had happened to her because of Jennifer. Derek wouldn't move on unless Cora was checked. They found a doctor and it was found out that Cora wasn't ill, she was pregnant. It didn't take Derek long after that revelation to know that the father had to be Stiles, given how the two of them were when they all left Beacon Hills. Peter was shocked but was happy, in a way that Derek hadn't remembered seeing him in years. He argued that Cora's child was the best chance for their family's legacy to live on. His uncle then stressed that Cora had to be away from them in their mission as not to risk her and the child. Especially after they learned that the Calaveras had the claws. The unborn child of a werewolf from a long standing family like theirs and an emerging Beast would no doubt make Cora a highly sought target for hunters and even other packs. He also saw that Cora seemed...brighter as well. As for coming back to Beacon Hills, Derek didn't know if he would be able to keep himself from mauling Stiles the moment he set his eyes on him for just touching let alone knocking up his younger sister. Now, with Stiles' condition, it wasn't the right time to either bring it up or act on it.
"It's not important right now," Derek grumbled. "Maybe after we get through this first, then I'll probably tell you."
Scott nodded. "Yeah, but I don't see how we're going to get through this. Stiles, the Oni, the nogitsune. I don't know where to start in trying to fix any of this."
"Well I'll help any way I can."
Scott started to rub his hands together. "You remember when you were teaching me about chemo signals? It reminded me of the time that you tried showing me to use anger for controlling the shift."
A small amused smirk found its way to Derek. "Uh, I think you ended up teaching me more about that."
It found its way to Scott. "Can you teach me again?"
"Think of it more like...trade secrets. Listen, remember I said that Cora was the reason I've been away but not the reason I left. I felt that I needed to talk to my mother."
"Your dead mother?"
Derek nodded. "She told me something that, changed my perspective on a lot of things. She said that my family didn't just live in Beacon Hills, they protected it. And this town needs someone to protect it. Someone like you. You and your friends."
Scott sighed. He didn't feel like he was off to a great start. "And someone like you to teach a few trade secrets." Scott then froze for a moment as something suddenly hit him. He then stood up quickly making Derek narrow his eyes. "He was trying to protect us," Scott realized aloud. "Stiles, he was protecting us."
"From himself. He was trying to warn us." Derek realized that Stiles must've been trying to put everything he had into his struggle. Both to try and fight against the nogitsune, and to send out the chemo signals because he knew that they would sense it. They both ran up to the roof where they had felt the chemo signals from him. "What exactly are we looking for?" Derek asked as they moved about on the roof.
"I don't know. But, I don't think Stiles was just struggling with himself. I think he was struggling not to do something."
Scott looked around when he noticed that there were some crates set up next to the cage around the generator. Like a kind of stool. Scott moved to stand on it and was able to reach the top. He moved his hand around to see if there was anything there and felt something. He pulled on it and revealed it to be a bag full of tools and equipment. Scott and Derek then looked around until they noticed the tampered wire. One that was already sparking. Scott quickly jumped away and the two of them tried to move to warn the hospital but they only got a few feet away before the sparks started shooting out and the generator began to blow.
__________
The lights inside the hospital were now dead and only the emergency ones were now on. People were in a panic as they ran off to try and make sense of the chaos. The only one in the whole building that was calm was Void as he got accustomed to having complete control of his new vessel without any sign of resistance whatsoever. He was calmly putting on the clothes that the Sheriff had brought over for his son and had finished tying his shoes before he went off to enjoy the chaos that he had wrought. He was heading for the elevator when the doors of it opened. He stopped when he saw that there was a woman standing there, staring at him just as calmly as he was staring back at her. One that both he and his host recognized. Mrs. Yukimura. Void started to move closer to her with a dark look on his face.
"You know me?" she asked. Void nodded. "Then you remember that I won't be deterred by your choice of host, even if it is an innocent boy."
Void let a smirk slide onto his face. "Are you threatening us?"
At that moment, two Oni materialized at either side of her and Void's eyes widened, but his expression was still one of amusement.
"Now I'm threatening you," she told him.
Void nodded his head down and began to chuckle as he stared down at the ground. "Oh, then let us warn you," he said before he raised his head back up. His smirk had widened and his dark eyes seemed to shine in the low lighting. He then quickly raised both of his hands up and two purple sparks flew out and for the Oni. Mrs. Yukimura ducked her head as the Oni were hit and let out deep clicking hiss sounds as they were struck before they vanished in puffs of black smoke. She then looked down to find two fireflies at either side of her. Their lights flickered a few times before they died out and they vanished. "This choice of host isn't a shield. He is a sword and it will cut deeper than yours ever could. Your little fireflies won't help you stop us."
Mrs. Yukimura let a shocked but angry look appear on her face just before the nogitsune turned away to leave in a different route. "If the Oni won't stop you, I know someone who can," she cried at him.
Void stopped and looked over at her. His smirk deepened. Then, he kept walking.
__________
On the roof, Scott and Derek kept watching as the generator kept firing sparks all over the place before the cut wire finally severed itself fully. It began to fly off and out of control while shooting sparks at its end. Down below, the people were starting to run in a panic. One of them was Kira, who was standing still and watching in horror as the wire went flying for her direction.