Disclaimer: Hahahahahahahahaha... No
Spending her Saturday crouched on the floor in her history classroom watching her history teacher cough up black blood was not actually the strangest thing she had ever done with a teacher. She'd had to decapitate one with a javelin once the last time she had tried going to school in New York. Watching Hodge die was on that list to.
Kyla had come to the school when she had received a panicked text from Kira saying that she and Scott were going there, and that her dad had been hurt. To be honest, Kyla had spent some time slightly avoiding most of the group members. She was trying to put off explaining her demigod genes for as long as possible, but the situation was looking like she might have to say to hell with it and just blurt everything out at once.
"Mom!" Kira shouted at the Asian women who was holding Mr. Yakumura. "Are you seriously giving Dad magic mushrooms?!"
Mr. Yakumura gulped from the bottle of Rishi mushroom that his wife was holding to his lips and then coughed out a huge glob of black gunk. Kyla shrugged and tried no to fee to grossed out. Being a demigod and a Shadowhunter meant that your threshold for gross went up exponentially. If doig something disgusting meant a solution to a problem, then pretty much no one was going to argue.
Mr. Yakumura stood and leaned against the desk wheezing. "Are you okay?" Kira's mother asked. The man nodded.
"Stiles did this?" Scott asked. His voice was filled wit a sort of resigned horror. Kyla wished she could figure out a way of reassuring him that the Stiles he knew wasn't responsible for all of this, but with ever second it was seeming less ad less likely that they would ever get the actual Stiles back.
"He wanted the last krieken," Mrs. Yakumura said, raising a thin dagger like object from the inside pocket of her jacket. Kyla couldn't even pretend to know what that meant. She had learned all she could about demons, Greek mythology, and Roman mythology because it all had a direct impact on her life. Asking her to learn about all supernatural things Japanese was pushing her limits a little. "I've kept this close to me ever since your friend disappeared."
"Mom you need to talk to us?" Kira begged desperately. "About everything.
Scott held up an old black and white photo of a Japanese women who looked almost exactly like Kira sitting by a truck while a young man in military dress stood next to her. Mrs. Yakumura snatched the photo from his hands and stared at it in shock. "Where did you get this?"
Kira watched her mom with confusion. "Is it Grandma?"
Mrs. Yakumura shook her head and Kyla got a sinking feeling in her stomach. She thought she knew exactly what was coming. She had seen it the moment she looked in to the women's eyes. Guarded, wise, distant and a little bit sad. Every warlock or deity that she had ever met had those eyes. The eyes of someone who had lived for too long. "It's me."
"But," Scott spluttered. "if that's you then you'd have to be like ninety years old!"
Kyla watched the older kitsune carefully. If she was guessing correctly, then this women was a whole lot older than ninety. She was proved right when Mrs. Yakumura spoke. "Try closer to nine hundred."
Kira gapped for a moment before she managed to recover herself. "Okay sure," she said. "Why not?" She looked at her dad with a resigned and slightly overwhelmed expression. "Dad how old are you?"
"Forty-three," their history teacher said calmly. "Though I've been told I look mid thirties." He tried his best at a smile.
Kyla simply let out a deep breath and pulled a desk forward so that she could sit on the edge of it. She could sense a pretty long story coming. Kira stared at her. "And you!" she started. "How is it that you are not freaking out right now?"
"Your friend has met many beings far older and more powerful than me Kira," Mrs. Yakumura said before Kyla could answer. The kitsune's eyes met Kyla's and one edge of her mouth quirked upwards slightly. "Your Nephilim marks may be more prominent Kyla Drawright," she said. "But I am still old enough to recognize a demigod when I see one." Kyla kept her mouth shut as Scott and Kira stared at her. Kira's mother turned to the desk and emptied out maybe a dozen pieces of a katana blade on to the hardwood. "The blade was shattered the last time it was used to kill a nogitsune."
"When was that?" Kira almost sounded like she would really rather not know the answer to that question.
Well as a great philosopher once wrote, "you can't always get what you want" because Mrs. Yakumura answered anyway. "Nineteen forty-three."
"All of this has all happened before hasn't it?" Scott said as realization dawned on him.
"Yes," Mrs. Yakumura answered, somewhat stiffly. Kyla had heard stories of foxes and wolves not getting a long very well. Like with most stories she guessed that there was some truth to that.
Mr. Yakumura apparently decided that they had reached a point in the conversation for a few sage words of wisdom. "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." She ad heard that quote before but couldn't remember where for the life of her. It would have to be Googled later so it didn't drive her insane.
His wife continued speaking. "it was in an internment camp during World War II in Oak Creak. Not too far from here."
Kira and Scott looked at each other quickly before the alpha spoke. "Hold on," he addressed to his history teacher. "You told Allison and Isaac that there was no internment camp at Oak Creek.
Kyla rolled her eyes. "He lied. Shocker. Think about it Scott," she said. "I've known you guys for barely a week and I've done enough research to know that Allison's family has a history of violence. He didn't know if she could be trusted. Besides, Isaac being there wouldn't have helped," she paused and looked at Kira's mom. "Foxes and wolves don't always get along."
Scott's eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "What about you?" he demanded. "Can we trust you?"
Kyla shrugged blandly. "You were the one who came to me for help," she pointed out. "I didn't come along and volunteer it. I haven't given you a reason not to trust me, but if you don't," she shrugged. "I'll leave and take a trip to see some cousins in Los Angeles." Scott was silent and she chose to take that to mean that she should stay.
"There was a camp, yes." Mrs. Yakumura continued. "They covered it up."
Mr. Yakumura dug through his desk and pulled out a journal and a stack of photos and other papers. 'When I was a grad student my passion project- well more of an obsession really was finding out the truth about Oak Creek." He looked up and said, "that was how I met your mother Kira." Kyla had to hold in a laugh, thinking privately that a show like that would be much more interesting than the one that had just wrapped up on TV.
"Where did the nogitsune come from?" Kira asked. Thinking it over, Kyla was pretty sure that she already knew the answer to that question.
"Isn't it obvious yet?" Kira's mother asked.
There was a beet of dead silence before Kyla concluded, "it came from her."
Kira's mother launched in to her story of the Japanese internment camp during World War II. She told of how she used her trickster abilities to steal food and supplies for the others. It was actually pretty fascinating. It wasn't everyday that you personally got to hear a first hand account of history. Of course, Kyla had heard a few from various gods, titans, and monsters, but they were all spiked with made up elements. The women took a break from her story to say. "I need your help with this Kira," she was arranging pieces of the katana. "there isn't much time and this is something that must be done before dark."
Kira shook her head stubbornly. "Not until you tell us everything"
"Tell them Noshiko," Mr. Yakumura advised. "Tell them what they need to know."
His wife looked at Scott with reticence and a small amount of distaste. "Wolves and foxes do not always get along," she said momentarily glancing back at Kyla. "And not just in fables and stories."
"My mother fights has been fighting an ongoing battle against Lycan and his children for a millennia," Kyla said. "Her side of the family helped to curse them all to change on the full moon. Yet here I stand with a wolf pack, hunters, a banshee, and a kitsune, ready to fight against something that threatens all of us. The most allying force is a common enemy."
Mr. Yukamura nodded. "Allies no matter how strange should always be welcomed. Especially when fighting a war."
Well then, if they were fighting a war, Kyla was on even footing. Especially if tis war was one with little chance of winning. She had been fighting a war that could never be truly one since the day she had been born. Just then her phone flashed at her that there was a text message. It was from Allison saying that Derek and her father had been let out of jail and were coming over with the Sheriff. "I'm going to the Argent's apartment," she said hopping off the desk. "Allison said that Derek, her dad, and Stillinski are going there. She wants help finding non-lethal hunting weapons."
Scott nodded and Mr. Yukamura silently offered her his car keys. Kyla gave him a quick, grateful smile as she plucked the keys from his hand. She had had to run to the school that morning and it would have taken a while to get back to the Argent's apartment on foot. Finding 's car, Kyla opened the door, climbed in, and took off.
Fifteen minutes later, she was helping Allison spread an array of non-lethal weaponry and hunting supplies over the round, wooden kitchen table. The Argent family arsenal was impressive. It was nearly as big as the one at the New York Institute.
Kyla concentrated for a moment and her hunting pack appeared. "Here," she said, digging out lengths of rope, and several high powered stun guns, flash bang grenades, canisters of tear gas, dart guns loaded with tranquilizer, and tazers. Leo had had almost too much fun modifying this arsenal for her, but it had kept him occupied for a good six hours or so. "Add this to the pile."
Her quiver appeared completely loaded with blunt tip arrows that released sleeping gas. "You use a bow don't you?" Kyla asked Aliisn, separating out nearly a half quiver of arrows.
"Yeah," Allison said, lifting her own quiver from where it had been hanging over the back of a chair next to a compound hunting bow.
"Here," Kyla said, handing her the arrows. "Inside the tip is a capsule of gas that will release when the arrow hits a target," she explained quickly. "The nogitsune is powerful but while it's inside Stiles's body the gas will be able to knock it out. I don't know how long the effects will last but it's better than nothing."
Allison nodded, taking the arrows and adding them to her quiver. She looked down at Kyla's quiver which had already completely refilled. "What jus happened?" she asked with confusion.
Kyla didn't stop her organization of the supplies on the table. "It's kind of a long story," she rushed out. "Now isn't really the time to tell it but I'll explain later to everyone."
The brunette girl looked like she wanted to say more but was cut off by the arrival of the Sheriff, Derek, and her father. "In here!" she called. All three men came to join the girls around the weapons at their disposal. "This is everything non-lethal that we could find."
"Take it all," her father advised them all grimly as he began reaching for supplies.
Kyla pulled her hunting gear from her bag, slipping behind a large armchair to ditch her jeans and pulling on the hunting gear over her tank top and underwear. She buckled her feet in to her boots and wrapped the Shadowhunter gear belt around her waist. The time to get really damn serious had arrived. Loading her belt wit supplies took seconds. As a last thought she flipped her hair over, arranging it in to a high pony tail and then twisting it in to a bun secured with a silver clip.
"So," the Sheriff said as all of the other members of the hunting party made their own preparations. "What's the plan here?"
Argent answered which was a relief a.) because Kyla didn't actually know what the plan was. and b.) because she had used her teeth to pull open the gear fastenings along her arms so that she could draw on runes of protection, agility, speed, and strength. "Right now our best bet is for Derek to try to pick up Stiles's scent at Eichen house especially if he went through some kind of emotional distress there. Besides we can use Kyla's abilities to help track him."
Kyla nodded, finishing the runes on her right arm and changing over to her left. If she was determined to find something she would find it.
The Sheriff looked at her as though he was only just noticing that she was there as well. "What are you?" he asked in confusion and then shook his head. "Never mind. Is it a good idea for all five of us to go to the same place?"
"Well, where else has Stile's been showing up?" Argent asked. He was doing what all good hunters did. Isolate a place to start your search and spread outwards from there. Cover all locations likely if possible.
"School," Allison answered. "The hospital-"
"Hold on." Derek said, cutting off her list. "We did this already. He disappeared we started looking for him, then walked right in to a trap at the hospital."
Kyla finished her runes and felt their power begin to buzz through her body. She stored her stele in her boot as she considered what Derek had just said. "He's cutting off the board," she concluded. "it's like Pavlov's dogs. He's seen how you react to stimulus and now he's using that to control your actins. Getting us to repeat the moves you've already played."
"So what do we do?" Allison asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. "Just sit and wait for him to come to us?"
"Bad idea," Kyla said at the same time that Derek began to speak. "We can't." He glanced at her and Kyla indicated that he should go ahead. "The Oni will come for him when the sun goes down."
Sheriff Stillinski looked around at all of them. "Scott's working on that now with Kira."
"That's the problem," Argent said broodingly. 'We're all tying to out fox the fox." Kyla groaned internally. Where was Annabeth when you really needed her? Or Jace really. At this point even Reyna or Malcolm would work. Really just someone who kicked ass at strategy would work.
Derek just sighed and went back to contemplating the weapons in front of him. Kyla got the feeling that the guy could probably benefit from eating a large home cooked meal and maybe binge watching something on Netflix. She resolved to make him some lasagna or something when she got the chance. In fact, maybe when they had this all sorted out she would just do one huge meal and make everyone sit and relax. It was what she did when Jace and Alec had had a tough hunt and it always seemed to work wonders. Kyla was really remarkably good at cooking considering that her mother was the enemy of all things domestically normal.
"Listen," the Sheriff said solemnly. "I'll understand if anyone wants to back out."
They all exchanged glances. Allison and her father merely took on determined expressions and set their shoulders. Pulvis et umbra summus. Kyla remembered telling Mr. Argent at the police station. We are dust and shadows. Derek just shrugged as if to say my day can't really get any worse and said. "Well I'm not going to be the first wolf to run from a fox." He grabbed a stun grenade of the table and shoved it into his bag.
"Apparently I'm carrying a light saber," Argent said resignedly, holding up what looked to Kyla like a very extremely high voltage cattle prod. She wondered errantly if Argent had ever seen Star Wars. A quick hypothetical situation of what would happen if Simon and he ever met flashed through her mind and she shuddered. That situation would almost definitely end badly.
Allison grabbed her things. "Dad, it's you, Derek, and Kyla at Eichen. Sheriff, you ad me at the hospital." She said it with authority and everyone moved to follow her instructions. Kyla remembered hearing over the past few days that the Argent family separated their duties by gender with the men as soldiers and the women in position to make decisions and be leaders.
Derek easily hefted his heavy duffel bag of equipment and Kyla swung her pack over her shoulders like a back pack. Argent lagged behind for a moment as the door swung shut behind his daughter. He stuffed several clips of ammunition in to his jacket pocket and grabbed a silver hand gun from a case on the side table. Derek halted and Kyla almost walked in to him. "Making sure you have a few lethal options?" There was an almost mocking edge to his voice that Kyla didn't quite understand. By nature of who was involved in this hunt they had opened the doorway to "lethal options". Derek himself was a lethal option.
Argent locked a clip of bullets in to the gun. "I like to prepare for the worst."
They weren't in separate groups for very long. They had barely arrived at Eichen House, and Derek was just starting to push past the scents of Argent and Kyla when Argent got a text message from Allison saying that the nogitsune had broken in to the Sheriff's house. This news had naturally sent them all back to Argent's car and in that direction.
Derek had found himself crammed in to the back seat next to Kyla as Argent drove and all of their supplies took up the rest of the room I the car. He frowned, "I can smell something burning," he said. Given that his family had burned to death, Derek was a little bit more conscious of fire than some people might be.
Kyla made a soft hum in the back of her throat. "It might be me," she conceded. "Shadowunter Marks are basically burned in to our skin. I put ne ones on before we left Argent's apartment so it's probably that." She shifted a bit and unfastened the piece of gear that protected her right wrist and then twisted around so that she was facing Derek, and held her hand out to him. "You can check if you want."
Slowly, Derek reached forward and took the offered hand by Kyla's wrist. His fingers closed all the way around it, and he could feel the harder edges of the radius and ulna bones that ran up to her elbow. He tugged slightly and pressed his nose against the soft skin above her pulse point, feeling the blood pounding below the skin speed up slightly as he breathed in. There was a slight ting of burnt skin on her it was true, but mostly her hands smelled like lemon soap. He breathed in again and Kyla's ever present combination of moonlight and sunshine rushed through his head, but the smell of fire was still something separate. Derek let out his breath and Kyla shivered slightly at the feeling as Derek slowly lowered her wrist.
"What I can smell isn't coming from you," he said, trying to locate the source. "There isn't any smoke or anything burned. It's like someone just made a fire appear."
Realization crossed Kyla's face and she opened the top of her hunting pack, extracting a jam jar. Derek was confused for a moment and then incredulous as he saw that the jar held a large collection of merrily dancing green flames. Kyla carefully passed the jar to him and he stared at it's contents warily. He had never seen green flames in the natural world, especially not the kind that could be kept in jam jars. "We call it Greek Fire," Kyla explained. "It'll burn any where, even under water. That's part of what makes it so dangerous, it just keeps on burning."
Derek handed the jar back to her and studied her as she reached her arm in to her pack far father than she should have been able to. "What exactly are you?" he asked bluntly.
Kyla's shoulders sagged a little bit. "I'll explain later," she said. "I promise that I'll explain later. It's just that it's kind of a long story and you'll probably end up having questions. Finding Stiles is the priority now.
Derek would have pushed further but the car stopped and they all went to meet the others in Stiles's room. A chess board was laid out on the desk looking as though someone was almost done playing a complicated game. Most of the pieces were labeled with names and multi colored sticky notes. It looked like someone had labeled the werewolves red, the hunters purple, the Kanima/Jackson yellow, and the druids (Deaton) blue.
"What is al this?" Argent asked the Sheriff as he examined the board. "What are the sticky notes?"
"This is what Stiles used to try to explain to me about all of..." Stillinski paused for a moment. "You."
Allison looked up. "Well maybe it's a message from Stiles," she suggested. "The real Stiles."
Argent looked back down at the board and picked up a bishop labeled as Isaac that had been lying at the side of the board. Derek had noticed something that worried him a little bit more than the fact that Isaac had been marked as out of commission. "Do you think there's any reason why my name is on the king?" he asked resignedly. The way his luck had been lately he couldn't imagine that it could possibly mean anything good.
Kyla peered at the board. "Well, you're well protected," she offered, trying to pick out a bright side. "Though if I was playing black at the moment and you were my king I might be a little worried by the fact that if the guy playing white actually knows how to play chess then your one move from checkmate." People with lives so twisted with the supernatural just weren't born to be optimists. "I'm actually kind of wondering why my name is on the queen."
Derek looked down to see that she was right. The queen piece stood right next to the king that had been labeled as him. A piece of white paper had been attached to it with stark black letters on it spelling out Kyla's name.
"The queen has a larger range of movement than any other piece on the board," Stillinski observed. "Maybe he's saying that you haven't been around long enough for him to predict what you're going to be able to do."
"Maybe," Kyla said bighting her lower lip as she thought. "But like you said, I'm unpredictable to the nogitsune and Stiles because I haven't been around long enough. So how did I get added to the chess board? I can't have been on it when he showed you this the first time. I wasn't even in town yet."
"This isn't a message from Stiles," Argent said through gritted teeth. "It's a threat from the nogitsune."
Allison stood up straight as realization set in. "He's at the loft. That's what he's trying to tell us."
"And he wants us to go there," her father agreed.
"Night's falling," Derek pointed out. He had noticed the shadows extending through the windows as the sun faded away. His keen eye sight could pick out the first shadow of the moon appearing in the sky. "This could not feel like anymore of a trap."
Kyla nodded. "Not even if we were in a horror movie and we'd all just heard creepy noises from down in the dark spooky basement filled with inexplicable smoke and inconveniently placed cobwebs with ominous music playing."
The Sheriff shook his head stubbornly. "I don't think it is."
"I think you're opinion might be slightly biased Sheriff," Argent said frankly.
"Hear me out!" Stillinski demanded stubbornly. "What we're dealing with here, is basically something that lacks motive. No rhyme, no reason right?"
Derek heard Kyla mutter something under her breath and focused his hearing on her words. "It doesn't matter how old something is. Even something that's been around for a couple millennia has motives."
"Meaning what Sheriff?" Argent asked, having not heard Kyla speak.
Stillinski launched back in to his explanation and Derek listened to the theory. They were basically playing blind. Any idea was pretty much a good one. "What were after isn't a killer, it's a trickster. The killing is just a byproduct."
Derek felt is eyebrow raise. He could think of a few bodies in the hospital morgue who would disagree with that statement. "If you're trying to say it won't kill us I'm not feeling too confident about that."
"It won't," Stillinski persisted doggedly. Pun not intended. "It want's irony. It wants to pay a trick. It wants a joke."
"Strangely that doesn't make me feel better about this," Kyla broke in. Derek found himself completely in agreement with her.
"Well the sun is setting Sheriff," Argent pointed out. "What did you have in mind?"
The rest of them all waited outside the loft as the Sheriff went in ahead of them to put his plan in to action. "Does anybody have a better plan?" Kyla asked hopefully. "And by better I mean not this one. Speak now or forever hold your piece." No body spoke. Derek seriously wished he could come up with something, but nothing sprang to mind. Kyla just nodded like she had expected that. "Well, it's been nice knowing you all," she said. "If we all die as a part of some twisted joke played by a Japanese fox spirit, then I will look forward to having some good company in the afterlife."
Derek privately hoped not. Wherever he ended up in the afterlife was probably going to be it's own special corner of hell. Kyla deserved something better. Everyone was silent, as they prepared to hunt the fox.
A/N: So what did you think? I'm trying to get an even balance between what Kyla thinks and feels, and what Derek thinks and feels. How's it working out? Kyla has promised to explain her demigod side. That'll be interesting. I'm not exactly sure how to write possessed Derek from the next episode in his interactions with Kyla. If you guys could send me a few ideas before I start this tomorrow it would be helpful. Review for me!xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxooxoxxooxxoxoxooxooxoxoxoxxooxoxo
