Know Thy Enemy
His breath heavy Scott finally caught up with the Nogitsune, in a vault under the school. No one was sure how he was able to get down here or into the vault but Scott didn't really care. He just wanted this thing gone. "Why are you doing all of this?" There was a growl in Scott's voice as he walked into the vault.
"So, you saved your pack just in the nick of time, did you?" The Nogitsune stood up from where he was looking at one of the shelves and smiled. "Everyone calls you the undying supply of hope, don't they? They look at you for hope. In every situation, every dark situation, they turn to the positive Scott McCall to pull them through. But who do you turn to Scott? Who do you get your hope from?" He walked around the room, barely glancing at Scott. "Who would have guessed that you get your hope from the pessimistic Stilinski? I find that…interesting."
Scott had to take a breath to keep himself calm, feeling more out of control than ever before. "I get that you're after my anchor to make me go crazy. But why? Shouldn't you just be after chaos?"
A laugh escaped the Nogitsune as he went to another shelf. "Do you know where I come from? You should, I mean it's war 101. Know thy enemy." He looked over his shoulder at Scott. "If you're going to be an alpha you're going to have to know how to do your research. Oh wait, I guess I took your researcher away." He gave terrible smile. "Maybe I can give you a pass this one time." The Nogitsune turned back around, continuing with his work. "I came from an angry and lost Kitsune, calling for me to come seek revenge and cause some chaos when she lost her anchor. My first form was a lost anchor. Ever since I've been drawn to anchors and I find that they are the best at causing chaos."
Scott closed his eyes, remembering Stiles trying to push his way into Scott's room to help on the first full moon. And calm overtook him. "Well you've never faced a pack like mine. You underestimate us. You underestimate me. And worst of all, you underestimate Stiles." Scott reached into his back pocket. "You've never seen a friendship like ours. You've never seen a pack like mine."
The Nogitsune stopped his search of the shelves and turned to face the werewolf. "You know, I've never dealt with a true alpha before. Stiles keeps reminding me of that." He turned back around long enough to pick up a dust covered box before stepping towards Scott. "And Stiles is one interesting fellow. He's managed to get into my mind as much as I've gotten into his. I've never had anyone fight me this hard. Most fight this battle of what's real and what's a part of my game. They just slowly lose their minds. I thought it would be easier with Stiles, especially with his mom. But no, he keeps fighting saying that you're going to save him." The monster smiled. "It's almost as if you're his anchor as much as he is yours. It's…interesting. It definitely makes the game more fun for me."
Scott slowly pulled out the syringe and took a step towards the thing using Stiles as a mask. "I'm done playing your game." With werewolf speed Scott plunged the needle into Stiles' neck. The Nogitsune laughed at first and ripped his hand into Scott's chest but stopped as his veins started to turn a terrible black color. "Mistletoe." Scott managed to whisper before they both fell to the floor.
What felt like hours but was only minutes later, Derek came running into the vault, his own syringe in hand. "Scott?" He knelt by the boys seeing Scott barely keeping himself conscious as his body slowly healed. "I have the kanima venom like you asked for. Are you sure this will work on him?" He held the needle up to Stiles neck, close to where Scott had just injected the boy.
Scott slowly managed to pull himself up into a sitting position. "It has to. We need to keep him trapped and this is all I've got." He looked down at the unconscious figure and his brain almost let him believe that Stiles was just sleeping. "The mistletoe work." He smiled a little. "Lydia was right."
~(A few hours earlier)~
The smoke was beginning to be too much for everyone in the building. Derek looked frantically for his phone but there was no signal, no one had signal. The Nogitsune must have blocked their phones from getting any help. "We don't need phones, we're wolves." Derek managed to get out between coughs. With all the air he had the werewolf let out a monstrous howl, hoping Scott would hear.
Scott came to on the floor, his stomach killing him but healing. He was pulling himself up on the metal table when he heard the howl. He perked up, knowing it was Derek. Not long after he reached outside did he hear howls from the rest of his pack, as least those that could howl. Scott let his alpha wolf form take over, healing the rest of the way almost instantly, before taking off to the sound of the howls.
When he saw the house in flames his heart sank. But the line of mountain ash preventing him from running in to save anyone was what really set in the panic. Scott went to the line, knowing he had beat this once before, closed his eyes and started to fight the supernatural force. He was flung back. His pack began to whine, pulling at his heart strings. They needed him. With another deep breath Scott tried again, this time remembering only months ago when he looked to his side to see his best friend ready to sacrifice himself right alongside him. He remembered the relief when Stiles called him later that night after they had won against all odds, beating an alpha pack and a Druid all while saving their parents. He remembered Stiles' pep talk about him being a true alpha and that stupid smile of Stiles. He thought of the friend that's always there. And suddenly the force fell under his claws and he ran into the fire, helping to free his pack.
The last to be carried out was Lydia, who was on her hands and knees in the corner of the room looking at the floor intently. "Lydia, come on, we've got to go!" Scott started to grab her but she grabbed him back, forcing him to his knees. "What is it?" He worried she felt death coming.
"Look at the dust." She pointed to a message that seemed to be written in the dust, slightly distorted probably from the flames moving the dust around. "I think Stiles left us a message."
Scott used his werewolf strength to force Lydia to stand up, hearing the house's creaks becoming more dangerous. "Or it's the Nogitsune messing with us again. Come on, we don't have time for this!" Scott was coughing as he forced Lydia out of the house with the other pack mates.
"No! Scott, I'm telling you! I think Stiles managed to surface or something."
Derek shook his head, standing up now that he was recovered from the smoke. "Even if Stiles did surface, the Nogitsune would know. Why would he just leave a message there?"
Scott hung his head between his knees taking deep breaths. "Maybe Stiles is stronger than he thought, stronger than we all thought. What did the message say Lydia?"
"Something about mistletoe, I think it might be a weakness of the Nogitsune's. And maybe something about kanima venom? That one was more unclear. But it makes sense, if we hit the thing with kanima venom at least it won't be able to move, right? We can trap it, maybe for a little while. You guys are strong and just a scratch keeps you down for quite a while. Imagine if we inject it into the blood stream. At the very least it could give us time to interrogate it until Deaton comes back. We need to know more about this thing if we're going to fight it." Lydia was the smartest one here, smartest one in Beacon Hill probably. No one could disagree. It was their only shot.
When the Nogitsune came to he was sitting on a couch, his head was lying back at a weird angle and he was unable to move. His veins still felt as if they were on fire, an after effect of the mistletoe. Little did they know he loved the pain, even the pain he was sure that was about to come, but Stiles hated every minute of it (taking the blunt of it all). "Hello?" He yelled out in a sing-song voice.
Scott, Derek, Peter, and Lydia all came into the room. "I told you, you underestimate us." Scott smiled. "Now you're going to tell us a little about yourself whether you like it or not."
The Nogitsune smiled, a true genuine smile, as if he was going to really enjoy this. "Go ahead Scotty, torture me. Dig your claws into my flesh. Oh wait, I mean Stiles' flesh. He can feel it you know." He laughed at the growls that filled the room. "Do it. Or have the creepy uncle over there do it. I'm sure he wouldn't have any qualms with ripping into this meat suit. He might even enjoy it."
The oldest in the room smirked. "Maybe I would."
"Peter." Derek's voice was a warning.
Scott remained calm, thinking of Stiles protests of just killing Jackson back sophomore year but then managing to stick to the Save Jackson plan when Scott momentarily considered the opposite. "We aren't going to torture you. We have another way." Scott looked over at Peter as the older wolf flexed out his claws. "Like an old friend once told me, we always have a Plan B." Scott stood behind the body of his friend, Lydia taking the seat by the pale boy. "I'm going to find my friend and we're going to fight you from the inside."
There was barely a scream from the chapped lips before Peter placed Scott's hands on Stiles' and Lydia's necks and everything went white for the three. It reminded Scott of when they had been sacrificed for a few seconds before he found himself struggling against restraints. "What is this?" He looked around to find himself trapped in a dark basement, tied down.
Lydia was next to him caught in a coyote trap. "Didn't Stiles say something about being trapped in a basement?" She looked around, remaining calm. "Maybe we have to relive what he was? Or maybe that's where the Nogitsune is keeping him trapped in his mind…"
Scott ripped himself from the restraints. "I can't smell anything, I can't smell Stiles. How are we supposed to find…" Scott's sentence dropped off as he finished freeing Lydia and they were standing in a field looking out on a pile of bodies being caught on fire as one mangled body pulled itself free, yelling words of revenge and laughing manically. Scott went to run to the body but as he ran, Lydia running after him, he found himself in the woods.
Spinning around Scott instantly recognized the woods. The woods him and Stiles had spent quite a bit of time in. He turned to the left. "That's where I was bitten." He walked towards the area, seeing the area in a mess as if there had been a scuffle. It looked like it did that night…
"My fault…" The voice was small and broken but Scott heard it.
Turning around Scott saw Stiles in a heap on the ground slightly rocking back and forth like a madman, holding something small in his hands. "Stiles?" He tried to call out to his friend, Lydia did as well, but Stiles didn't seem to even notice they were there. "Stiles what are you…" That's when Scott noticed that Stiles was holding Scott's old inhaler. "Stiles, hey, it's not your fault. I don't blame you."
Again the boy on the ground seemed to ignore the others. "It's all my fault. They hate me. They have to hate me. I deserve this." He wasn't crying or shaking, only speaking as if it were the clear and utter truth. But then there was a shadow with red glowing eyes moving in the background…the alpha. "I deserve to die."
"Scott do something!" Lydia yelled as they realized they couldn't run up to Stiles no matter how hard they tried. "Come on, you have to snap him out of this! You have to make him realize that isn't real and we are. You need to get his attention." Her eyes ran back and forth as she thought. "Wait, we just went through this. Today, how did Derek and everyone signal you, let you know where they were?"
Scott looked at Lydia like she was crazy. "They howled."
A smile spread on the red head's face. "That's it Scott. That's how wolves signal their pack. You have to signal Stiles. He's your pack, right?"
Nodding, smiling with the short one, Scott let his body shift into his beta form before letting out a mighty howl. "Stiles!" He called out after the howl before howling again, just to make sure.
The result was Stiles snapping his head up, looking at the two as if seeing them for the first time. Then he looked over at the alpha, which morphed into the bandage covered being he'd seen back in the basement and the MRI. "You're doing this." Stiles shook his head, trying to clear it. "This isn't real, I'm trapped in my head. Scott…"
"I'm here, I'm real buddy. You have to push this thing out." Scott took a step forward and the Nogitsune went to attack.
Before the Nogitsune could get very far Stiles grabbed it by the arm. "This isn't the real world, this is my world." Stiles flung the monster into a tree before turning to his friends, slightly shocked at what he'd just done. It must have been the presence of his friends to give him the strength he needed. His eyes went to the red head first. "You got my message." He gave soft smile as she nodded. Then he turned to Scott. "How do I push it out? How do I fix this?" He looked so desperate and so tired. "Hurry, I don't know how much time we have before he takes control again."
Lydia took several steps forward but didn't touch Stiles, still slightly afraid. "On the phone Deaton said one could separate the two souls, making the Nogitsune a shadow of its host. It's risky but it's all we've got for now. You have to push him out of your mind. I'm not sure how, Deaton said there were a lot of riddles he just couldn't unravel. Something about knowing thy enemy and…"
"I've got it." Stiles smiled. "He was created because a kitsune lost its anchor and wanted revenge. He's the absence of balance, the absence of an anchor. Right?" The others nodded at him but weren't sure where he was going with this. "Come on you guys, you don't really think someone can mess around in my head without me catching a glimpse at their mind as well, do you?" He turned to Scott putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Wake up and plunge your claws into my stomach."
"What?!" Scott took a step back. "You've actually lost it."
Stiles just smiled. "No, I trust you. You would never kill me Scott. And you would never turn me. I know that. I trust that. So trust me, okay? I have a plan." He winked before everything turned white again and Scott and Lydia were blinking themselves into the real world.
Lydia turned on the couch to stare at Scott as Stiles' body laid there lifeless. "Are you really going to do that Scott?" She put a hand on Stiles' arm. "You can't…"
"Do what?" Derek took a step towards the teens. "What happened in there? Is Stiles okay? Did it work?"
Scott walked slowly around the couch. "Someone call an ambulance." He waited for the beeping under Lydia's shaking fingers before plunging his clawed hand into his best friend, his brother's abdomen…
/Sorry it took so long for this update, this will probably be the usual length between updates now. Sorry. I hope you guys like this new chapter, I struggled with it a bit to make it different than the show but to have some aspect it in me know what you think! Anywho, thank you so much for reading, please review, and have a great day!
