𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖙𝖍, 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊
* * *
* * *
( 𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖔 𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖘𝖊 )
For the past few days, Isabelle had been out of touch with nearly everybody. Her boyfriend, Stiles, was outed to be the Nogitsune very openly only to have disappeared again.
So while he was on the run and everyone was running around like headless chickens trying to find him, she focussed on something a little different. Her and Daniel had been practising their magic to the fullest extent. She knew she still had a long way to go but she had come so far so early.
Her powers were still linked with her brother, made things easier to control if things got a bit too out of hand. Their main focus was to broaden the mind; if they could expand the mind's capabilities, they stood more of a chance of controlling it, and whatever lay in there.
Of course, they didn't have a test subject to practice on but they made do. Scott had been keeping her in the loop of what was going on when they found Stiles and had later confessed that he was still the Nogitsune and had been playing a trick. Deaton, however, somehow managed to poison the fox inside of him so for now they had the real Stiles.
Scott had made his way to pick her up very quickly, only demanding she got onto the back of his motorbike. She did as he said, securing the helmet before shooting off. Scott pulled up outside Eichen Hiuse where Stiles and his father were stood outside the gate. The pair clambered off the bike.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Scott demanded.
"Because we wanted to avoid something like this." The Sheriff sighed.
"It's only 72 hours." Stiles reasoned.
"This is the same place where Barrow came from. The guy who had a tumor inside him filled with flies." Elle reminded him, stepping towards her boyfriend. Stiles stared into her eyes as if trying to remember them.
"You don't know everything yet." Scott argued.
"I know enough. Nogitsunes, Kitsunes, Oni, or whatever they're called."
"Wow, that was actually all surprisingly correct." Stiles said, impressed by his father's memory.
"Scott, I saw an MRI that looked exactly like my wife's. And it terrifies me. I'm headed down to L.A. tomorrow to talk to a specialist."
"Then why are you putting him in here?" Elle frowned,
"He's not. It was my decision."
The two other teenagers faced him, "Stiles, I can't help you if you're in here."
"And I can't hurt you."
"Deaton's got some ideas. Argent's calling people-"
"-Me and Dan are onto something."
"We're gonna find something. And if we can't..." Scott finished.
Stiles leant in close to the two so his father wouldn't hear. "If you can't... If you can't, then you have to do something for me, okay? Make sure I never get out." He pulled back from the two, giving Elle one last lingering kiss on the forehead, knowing anything else would be too hard, before turning around to go through the gate.
They watched as it closed behind the Stilinskis. Scott tugged Elle into a long overdue hug. "I can't lose him Scott."
"We're not going to. We will figure this out somehow."
"Yeah. But at what cost?"
* * *
Allison opened the door to Scott, Ethan and Aiden. "My father said all of the Katashi evidence is being moved to a Federal Lockup by armored car tonight. Probably within the next few hours."
"We're going to rob an armored car?" Aiden asked.
"Well, we're going to try." Allison moved out of the way to reveal Lydia and Isabelle.
* * *
Stiles stumbled into the boy's bathroom, splashing his face with water, "Okay. Okay, just got to stay awake, Stiles. You just gotta stay..." he looked into the mirror to see the very naked back of Malia Tate.
"Don't worry, Stiles, you didn't just accidentally walk into the Girls' Room."
"Thank God." Stiles mumbled as he looked back at the sink to avoid the mirror's view. "Um... Okay, so what are you doing in the Boys Room?"
"Showering."
"I can see that. I mean I saw that. Well, actually I didn't see anything really. I just... There was too much steam to, uh... Not that I would prefer there to be less steam..." God, why was he such a wreck? He'd have thought he'd have gotten better after Elle but maybe it was because of her he felt nervous with other girls.
"Stiles, I don't care. In the woods, there was no Boys' and Girls' Room. And if you really 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 to human, I just can't seem to get warm."
Stiles faces the empty doorway. "Maybe you just have a low core temp. You know, you might just be sick or..."
"I used to have a fur coat."
"Or, it could be... Hey, it might be that. It's probably that."
"Now you're staring." Malia strode towards him, still completely nude before stopping about half a metre away and wrapping a towel round herself.
"No, I'm really not." Malia was pretty but she wasn't Isabelle.
"Then what are you doing?"
"Uh... I was kind of wondering why you punched me."
"Did you think I was going to thank you?" Malia scoffed.
"No. Maybe. We did kind of save your life."
"You're right, Stiles. Thank you. Thanks for invading my home. For putting me on the run. For turning me back to human 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. Thank you so very much."
"We were just trying to help." Stiles mumbled.
"You want to help me? Find a way to change me back."
"You want to go back? To being a coyote?"
"What do you know?" The werecoyote growled.
"I might know somebody who could teach you. How to change." Scott.
"Okay. What do you want?"
Stiles sighed. "I need to get into the basement. Which means that I need to get the keys off of that orderly. The big one."
"Brunski."
"You help me, and I'll help you."
* * *
"This is a really bad plan."
"It's not that bad." Elle argued.
"It's not that good." Aiden baited back.
"None of us knows the route they're going to take. If Allison can get one of her dad's GPS trackers on the armored car then we can follow it. So when it gets here..." Lydia pointed to a spot on the map where the truck would cross a bridge.
"We attack them?" Ethan guessed.
"No. Your bikes will be in the middle of the road, looking like you guys got into an accident." Isabelle told them.
"And when the driver gets out to help..." Lydia began.
"We attack him?"
"No." Both teenage girls answered.
"You'll distract him and Scott will break open the back door." Allison told the werewolves.
"I hope." Scott muttered.
"And you'll get Katashi's finger."
"It's not his actual finger, is it?" Aiden asked the girls,
"You are so out of our league."
"Why aren't we just going to Stilinski for help?" Ethan asked them.
"Because if he gets caught, then it's the Sheriff tampering with federal evidence." Scott said.
"Guys, this is going to work. We can do this. We're losing Stiles. My Dad's in jail for murder. We need to do this." Allison prepped them all.
* * *
Stiles thrashed about in a cell on his own, screaming.
"Shh! Hey, hey, hey. Shh! Shut up." Malia woke the teenage boy.
Isabelle? "How did you get in here?" He blinked a few more times. Malia's face came back into focus very close to his own. He could have sworn he saw his girlfriends face instead of it being the werecoyote but it must have been the lights.
"I broke the lock." Malia answered, not realising Stiles asked the question mistaking her for someone else, "If I concentrate I can be pretty strong. Get up." She dragged an unsteady Stiles to his feet. "There's another way to the basement. Through the Closed Unit. Where they keep the real psychos."
* * *
Stiles and Malia had made it to the basement. "Do you know what you're looking for?"
"Something to do with that." Stiles pointed her to a backwards five scratched into some panelling on the wall.
"What does it mean?" Malia traced the symbol,
"Self."
"Maybe you should tell me more."
Stiles let out a breath, "You might not like me if you know any more."
"Try to remember that I'm a werecoyote who murdered her own family. I won't judge. I promise."
* * *
After explaining everything, they emptied all the old boxes they could find to go through old notes and procedures. "This place definitely used to be a lot more fun. Electroshock, ice baths. Trepanation?"
"That's what Oliver was talking about. Trepanation is when they drill into your head." Stiles answered.
"No wonder they don't want anyone down here." Malia sighed and threw the notes onto the ground.
"There's nothing here. Could you do me a favor? Could you just check the lines on my back? Just tell me if they're fading." He raised the back of his top to his shoulder blades.
"Yeah, they're almost gone." Malia traces them lightly with her finger but stopped when Stiles froze. "I'm guessing that's bad."
"Hmm." Stiles hummed, shivering at the coldness of Malia's fingers.
"Oh. Sorry. I told you I'm always cold." Malia nearly whispered, wringing her hands together.
Stiles dropped his top back down. "That's okay. Here." He took Malia's hands into his own to warm them up, "Boy, you really are."
Stiles was too deep in his own head to realise Malia was staring at him. He finally noticed when he leant back, he was about to ask what was wrong when she leaned in and kissed him.
Stiles pulled back quickly. "Stiles?" In front of him was Isabelle. Her blonde hair falling onto the ugly grey tops they had to wear while her hand were still engulfed in his own. She was exactly who he needed right now.
Stiles leant in and clashed their lips together. Passion was building as he pulled back for air before leaving a trail of kisses down her slim neck.
Malia pulled back as they stared at each other. Malia was overwhelmed but excited and ready. Stiles still believed his girlfriend was with him. Until the illusion broke and he saw Malia with irritated and puffy red lips. He leant back, shocked. When was she here? Actually, when was Elle here?
He suddenly thought back to the topic of guilt in the group therapy he had to do that day. It hit him in the stomach like a tonne of bricks. Stiles didn't think he could ever feel as bad as he did in that moment. He felt a pull in his naval as if he was about to be sick. But he blinked quickly to form his thoughts and when he opened them it was like they never closed and Isabelle was with him again.
What? He could have sworn that was Malia. But when he thinks back, Isabelle was with him the whole time so why did he think it was someone else? Isabelle was definitely with him. So why did he still feel this overwhelming guilt?
"Was it okay? You want to try it again?" He asked, not sure if she was up for making out in a mental facility.
"I want to try something else." Malia said, and pulled her top over her head revealing her chest covered in a grey bra.
"Something else?"
"Yeah." Malia reconnected their lips, laying flat on her back as Stiles was hovering between her legs. Their hands clasped together above her head as Stiles interlinked their fingers. Soft pants filled the air as Stiles left kisses further down her chest than just her neck.
* * *
"I borrowed a few pointers from the five point restraint." Stiles heard as he came to from being stunned. He realised he was strapped to a chair and tried to free himself.
"Oliver, stop this. Oliver, listen to me." Oliver held a drill to Stiles' head about to get closer. "Stop! Oliver! Oliver! Stop!"
"Start with her." A raspy voice called out.
Stiles spotted the Nogitsune in the corner. "You did this. You got into his head. And mine."
"Every Dracula needs a Renfield."
"Just let her go." Stiles whispered as Oliver began restraining an unconscious Malia.
"Let me in. Stiles. Do you want her to leave here alive? Do you want us to leave? We can walk out of this place."
Stiles tried so hard to break the restraints. "Just let her go please."
"Let me in." The drill was inching closer to Malia's head and Stiles let out a scream as tears ran down his face. All he could picture was the beautiful Elle in the chair. "Let me in, Stiles! Let me in!"
Stiles continued to cry as he called out to help save who he thought was his girlfriend. "Just let her go please!"
"Let me in, Stiles! Let me in! Let me in and I'll let her live. Let me in!"
Stiles went limp.
"Oliver." Oliver pauses the drilling and looked over to see Stiles breaking free of the restraints. He stalked toward the boy, grabbing the drill and whacking him round the face with it.
The void had taken over.
Stiles placed the drill onto the table but paused when a voice called out. "Stiles?"
He smirked and walked away.
* * *
"There isn't much here, unfortunately." Deaton unrolled the scroll.
"Does it say anything?" Elle pressed.
"My Japanese isn't great. But it appears to say that one method of expelling a Nogitsune is to change the body of the host."
"Change the body?" Scott mumbled to himself.
"Which begs the question, how do we change Stiles' body?"
"By turning him into a werewolf."
* * *
"Do you know where you're going?"
Malia was striding down the hallway, Morrell right behind her, "No, but I know who I'm looking for."
"Scott McCall."
Malia stopped, "You know him?"
"I can tell you where to find him."
With that information, Malia strode out of Eichen House, eyes flashing a dazzling blue.