A/N: Second part in my two-shot, takes place at the end of season four. Enjoy!

-Kenxi

It took nearly a full minute for the reality of things to settle in.

The process wasn't a sudden epiphany of realization, but a numbing, slow one. It reminded Scott of the way the sun set—the light ever so slowly diminishing into nothingness before going completely dark. And now, things had gone suddenly very dark indeed.

While staring at the ground, trying to run through what had just happened exactly, he could hear Stiles telling the others something about giving him a moment alone. Scott could sense his brother beside him, following his gaze to the floor where Peter was.

"I was going to kill Liam, Stiles. I nearly killed Kira…" Scott faltered, unable to go in that direction of conversation. "It was like it was me doing it, and I wanted to do it, but at the same time it was a completely different person. Like it wasn't…" Again, he trailed off. Really, there wasn't much he felt he could talk about at this point. If he talked about it, if he said the words, then it would make it real. He just wasn't quite ready for that yet.

Next to him, he could see Stiles nod as if in understanding. "Like it wasn't you at all," he finished softly. Scott finally pulled himself out of his stupor enough to shoot a look at him in surprise. Stiles was still staring at the ground, a pained look in his dark eyes. "Like you were suddenly beyond powerful and there was nothing you couldn't do. Like you enjoyed it. Even though it wasn't really you."

Scott blinked at him, stunned. How was it that he seemed to know so well as to what had happened? Why did Stiles, of all people—

Oh. Of course.

Stiles, of all people, had been chosen to be the victim of the possession of the Nogitsune. Of course Stiles would understand. Nearly the same thing had happened to him. Scott looked away again, feeling a sudden, terrible pain in his heart. Stiles had once told him that Scott would never understand what the Nogitsune had done to him, what it had made him do to others. And now, Scott did understand. And the pain of it was too much. How on earth had Stiles borne his pain at all?

Scott felt his knees go cold and then he was on the ground, gasping at the awful horror of it all. He was kneeling, his hands out on the cement in front of him, trying to catch his breath. He could feel the tears sting his eyes, but none fell. Stiles was immediately there with him, one hand on his chest, the other on his back, holding him to his sanity.

He had only ever had one panic attack before, and that time Stiles had also been with him. Stiles was always there for him. He had always been there for him. Scott sucked in another breath. What if Stiles had died? What if Scott had killed him? The thought almost caused him physical pain. Stiles was his brother, his best friend.

"Hey, take it easy, Scott, we're okay. We are all okay." The way he says the words takes him back to when the Nogitsune had finally been killed and Stiles had woken up after passing out. He had asked him if they were all okay. And now here he was telling them that they were. His breathing eased, the tight feeling in his chest lessening. Everyone was okay. Well, the ones that mattered.

Scott fell back against a broken column, feeling exhausted. "That was some panic attack, huh?" He huffed out a breath and slumped even more against the hard rock.

Stiles eyed him. "That wasn't a panic attack, Scott."

He wasn't the least bit surprised; he had been pretty sure of that, too. It wasn't like he had been about to pass out from not breathing enough. The feeling wasn't the same as the one time he had actually had one. This was so much worse. It was like he had been about to be crushed from the grief of it all, of what he had done. Panic attacks were more physically demanding. But this, this sudden feeling of the truth being manifested to him was harsh and painful and, even though it was far more mentally damaging, it still seemed to take the breath right from his lungs.

Kind of like a panic attack.

So he just nodded and fell back to staring at the floor again, like it was his default or something. The two of them just sat there in silence for a minute, neither of them having to say anything.

Scott finally broke the quiet with his voice. "How did you do it, Stiles? How did you move on from what you'd done?"

For a moment, his friend said nothing. Scott was afraid he had just blown the dust off of painful memories, but then, "I don't think I really did. I don't think I ever will, not really. That kinda thing stays with you forever, you know?" Stiles stared at his hands with a strange expression on his face, like he was thinking about what the Nogitsune had used them for. "We can't change the past, Scott. We can't just make it go away—make it better, somehow. But over the course of time I've had to learn that even though we can't take away those things from the past, we can still choose our path for the future. We still have our freedom of choice and we can use that for good instead of doing nothing." By the end it seemed like Stiles was telling himself these things just as much as he was Scott.

He stared at Stiles in awe. When had his best friend become so wise? Sure, he'd always been smart, but this was so much deeper, so much more raw than just smarts. This was faith, not fact. Maybe that was the difference between being wise and just smart.

Again, they lapsed into silence. Then Scott slowly pulled himself to his feet, holding a hand out to his brother. Stiles looked up at him, the dim light of the moon casting shadows on his face that reminded Scott of when he'd been possessed by the Nogitsune. But the pain in his eyes was so real that it diminished all resemblance with the trickster, leaving his invaluable friend behind.

Stiles took his hand after a second, and then the two just watched each other for a moment.

"How's your head?" Scott asked, noticing the bruising on his face that he had caused.

Stiles reached up to gingerly to touch the side of his face that Berserker Scott had wacked. "It's fine. Barely hit me." He let a small smile pass his lips, even though Scott remembered well just how hard he had smashed his "fist" into Stiles' face. Still, mentioning it would only make Stiles feel bad for Scott feeling bad, he knew, so he let it pass and together they began walking towards the way out of that horrible cave of nightmares.

Just as they were nearing the exit, Scott stopped Stiles and turned to face him. "Look," he said, "I know that I didn't understand what happened with the Nogitsune before, but I do now. I get it, Stiles." Stiles shot his gaze away from Scott's face. Despite that, Scott continued. "I may not have went through near as much as you did, but I get it, man. I finally understand what hurting someone you love can do to you, even if it wasn't really you." Scott, too, lowered his eyes. "So if, you know, you ever want to talk about anything. Just know that I'll understand. Maybe not completely, but I can try."

Stiles finally met Scott's eyes with his once more, a small smile on his pale face. "Can we, like, cry on each other's shoulder, too? Maybe watch The Notebook, eat a bunch of chocolate—"

"Stiles."

He just threw his hands up in surrender, still smiling, but the look in his golden brown eyes told Scott all he needed to know.

Scott lightly punched his friend in the arm and began walking out into the desert, the sun already rising and bringing light into the world.

So maybe their lives weren't perfect. Okay, far from perfect. But like Stiles said, they still had the freedom of choice to do things, change their future.

And there were definitely gonna be some changes made.

A/N: Hope ya'll liked it. Don't think I'll do anymore with this, but if you'd like me to, let me know. Also, write about your favorite bromance moments in the comments! I'd love to hear from ya'll. Hope you enjoyed it!

-Kenxi