"Are you Aurora Argent?"
Rory spun around from her car to face a girl with deep brown eyes that struck a chord of recognition with the brunette causing her to frown gently,
"Yeah, I am... Do I know you?"
"I'm Malia"
It suddenly made sense to the witch, of course, it was Malia. Her face had been staring up at Rory from her sketchpad for the last few weeks with no discernable reason as to why.
"Stiles told me about you in Eichen" Malia informed the girl,
"Said you could help me. You and Scott McCall"
"Yeah" Rory nodded to her,
"I can definitely help you. Get in"
Malia slid into the passenger seat nonchalantly as Rory pulled out of the parking spot that she was in and drove to the McCall house where she was already heading to.
"How have you been?" Rory questioned the girl in curiosity,
"I mean, since being human again"
"It's strange" Malia informed her,
"I mean, I get cold easy and it's hard looking at my dad"
Rory glanced over at the werecoyote in curiosity for a moment before nodding,
"Right - the whole used to have a fur coat thing"
Malia was surprised for a moment, expecting that Rory would say something about her not being able to look at her dad due to what had happened that full moon night all those years ago, but a small smile twitched at her lips at the comment about her fur coat.
"Yeah" The girl nodded,
"It was easier to stay warm as a coyote"
Rory pulled into the McCall driveway and the pair jumped out of the car, walking into the house without knocking - a habit that Rory had picked up due to all the time that she'd spent at Scott's house,
"Scott?"
"In here" Scott called back from the kitchen, turning to look at Rory and Malia when they entered,
"Hey"
"This is Malia" Rory informed him causing the boy to nod back,
"She has something for us"
A brunette girl was walking into the Sheriff's station, her car keys swinging back and forth on her finger as she stopped in front of the desk that Parrish was standing behind,
"Hi"
Parrish smiled back at the girl softly,
"Hello again, Aurora. They're being released right now"
"I know" Rory shrugged gently as she was joined by Derek and Chris.
Parrish was handing back the two men's belongings but hesitated when he got to the taser,
"Sorry, but I can't let you walk out with this. It's way above the legal voltage limit"
"I only use it for hunting"
Derek and Rory both glanced over at Chris with the same expression before they diverted their glances away; the werewolf went back to putting his wallet into his pocket and the witch began fiddling with her car keys.
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure you could use it to jump-start a 747"
"Actually, you'd need-" Rory cut herself off under the glances that she received from her uncle and father, she glanced between the pair before looking back to Parrish, offering him a small smile before shrugging,
"Huh, nevermind"
"This property belongs to me and the charges were dropped" Chris told the younger man sternly,
"Although, I'm not exactly sure who's responsible for that"
"I am" Noah announced, making his presence known to the group. He glanced at Parrish, dismissing him,
"I'll take care of this, Parrish"
"Sheriff, I'm not kidding" Parrish said as he turned to the man,
"This thing's a few watts from being a lightsaber"
Rory frowned, recoiling slightly before opening her mouth to correct him only for Derek to cup his hand over her mouth to stop her from speaking.
"I said I'll take care of it" Noah repeated causing Parrish to hand over the taser to the man and nod before walking away. Rory smacked Derek's hand away from her once Parrish was gone as Noah turned to them,
"The specialist I saw in L.A told me the thing that every doctor says when he's trying to avoid a lawsuit. 'We can't say for sure.' And then I spoke with Melissa. These are brain scans. My wife's and Stiles'. I knew they were similar. But those are the same"
"Yeah, the exact same" Rory observed with a curious frown on her face.
"And I'm guessing this isn't possible?" Derek questioned the pair.
"Not even remotely" Noah informed him with a shake of his head.
Rory scoffed slightly as she shook her head,
"So, this stupid trickster's still playing tricks?"
"But why this trick?" Chris questioned with a frown, placing his hand on Rory's shoulder.
"When I was in the army, an officer told me, 'if you want to defeat your enemy, you don't take away their courage. You take away their hope'" Noah informed them.
Chris frowned slightly,
"You don't look like a man who gives up hopes easily"
"But Stiles might" Rory commented as she and Noah exchanged a glance, the man nodding back at her.
"If this thing inside him, if it's using his mother's disease as some sort of psychological trick, then this isn't just a fight for his body. It's also a fight for his mind, right?"
"You know, he's left people severely injured" Chris pointed out to the man cautiously.
"And others severely dead" Derek tacked on causing Rory to smack him on the arm harshly.
"Dude"
"That's why I need you three" Noah informed them,
"I need people who are experienced in this kind of thing. I need you to help me stop him"
"And by stop him, you mean trap him" Derek corrected with a tilt of his head earning a nod.
"And how exactly do you suggest we do that?" Rory questioned in curiosity.
"I was hoping you'd have an idea" Noah told her nonchalantly.
Rory hummed slightly before nodding,
"Partially"
"This is everything non-lethal that I could find"
"Take all of it"
Rory looked around the desk to see every possible non-lethal weapon that they had stocked, ranging from rope, to tasers, to cuffs.
"What's the plan here?" Allison questioned as she placed down a smoke grenade.
"Our best shot right now is for Derek to try and pick up Stiles' scent at Eichen House" Rory informed her cousin,
"Especially if he went through something stressful there"
"Should all five of us be going to the same place?" Allison questioned with a frown.
"Where else has Stiles been showing up?" Chris asked.
"School, the hospital" Rory listed with a small shrug.
"Okay, hold on" Noah said causing them all to stop talking and look over at him,
"We did this already. He disappeared. We started looking for him. Then walked right into a trap at the hospital. He's getting us to repeat the same moves"
"Then what do we do? Wait for him to come to us?" Rory questioned with a frown.
"We can't" Noah shook his head at her,
"Not if the Oni find him when the sun goes down"
"Scott's working on them right now, with Kira" Allison informed them.
"That's the problem" Chris commented suddenly,
"We're all trying to outfox the fox"
"Listen," Noah began,
"I'll understand if anyone wants to back out"
"I wouldn't be the first wolf to run from a fox" Derek says nonchalantly as he picked up a small weapon from the table.
"Apparently I'm carrying the lightsaber" Chris said sarcastically as he picked up the taser.
"Dad, you and Derek hit Eichen House" Allison said before turning to the Sheriff and her cousin,
"Sheriff, Rory, we'll hit the hospital"
"Actually, I'll go straight the school" Rory corrected with a small shake of her head,
"I'll be fine by myself"
Allison gave the girl a hesitant look while Derek placed a hand on her shoulder, making the girl look up at him,
"We'll meet you in the parking lot"
Rory nodded before glancing back at the others,
"Okay. Let's go"
Rory walked through the empty halls of Beacon Hills High School, her boots slicked slightly with each step she took, the skirt she was wearing swished and her shirt clung to her torso - the rain that had started trickling out of the sky softly had soaked through her jacket and made her hair stick to her head.
"Rory"
The girl spun around to a moment, looking around to attempt to locate where the voice had come from only to not see anyone and then hear the voice again but from the other side of the hallway.
"Rory"
The witch took a deep breath and closed her eyes, when she opened them again they glowed blue and she saw two trails of energy that were intertwined together over and over again; one blue - the same blue that she'd seen in the vision she'd had when Stiles had gone missing on the coldest night of the year - and one red.
She frowned for a moment before following after the energy trail.
"Don't"
Something grabbed onto her arm causing Rory to snap her head to the side to see Laura Hale standing there, holding onto her arm tightly.
"You can't save him, Aura" Laura told the girl sharply,
"Trying will just end up killing you"
"Let go of my arm" Rory said gently as she tried to tug her arm from Laura's grip.
"Aura, please"
"I said let go" Rory snapped, her eyes glowing blue and causing Laura to disappear from her vision.
Rory rushed out towards her car and yanked the drivers door open, going to follow after the two trails of energy only for her phone to ding. Rory pulled in out from the inside pocket of her jacket seeing a text from Allison,
'Meet at Stilinski's. We found something'
Stiles' room was different from the last time that Rory was in it, there was no longer many red strings strung around the room, connecting different pieces of a giant puzzle to a pair of scissors that were stabbed through the boy's bed, it was cleaner, tidier and there was a chessboard sitting on his desk.
"What is all this?" Chris questioned as they all stared down at the chessboard,
"What are the sticky notes for?"
"This is what Stiles used to try and explain to me about all of you" Noah explained.
"Maybe it's a message from Stiles" Allison suggested with a small shrug,
"The real Stiles"
"You think there's any reason my name's on the king?" Derek questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, you're heavily guarded, though I guess the alarming detail is that you're one move from being checkmate" Noah observed before humming and tacking on,
"But then again, so is Rory"
Rory shook her head slightly,
"It's not a message from Stiles"
"It's a threat from the Nogitsune" Chris agreed with a vague nod.
"He's at the loft" Allison realised,
"That's what he's trying to tell us"
"And he wants us to come there" Noah added.
"Night's falling" Derek pointed out,
"This couldn't sound any more like a trap"
"I don't think it is" Noah shook his head slightly.
"I think your opinion might be slightly biased, Sheriff" Chris commented.
"Hear me out" Noah started calmly,
"What we're dealing with here is basically someone who lacks motive. No rhyme, no reason, right?"
"Meaning what?" Derek questioned.
"Our enemy is not a killer. It's a trickster" Noah informed them,
"The killing is just a by-product"
"If you're trying to say it won't kill us, I'm not feeling too confident about that" Chris said with a small shrug.
"It won't," Rory said, realising what the Sheriff was saying,
"It wants irony. It wants to play a trick, it wants a joke. All we have to do is come up with a new punch line"
"The sun is setting" Chris pointed out before questioning,
"What do you have in mind?"
The large roller door to Derek's loft slid open, revealing Noah Stilinski who walked in and stepped down the first step hesitantly as the figure in the middle of the loft turned around to face him.
"Hi dad"