Chapter 20: Insatiable

Deaton was holding Ethan underneath a showerhead to cool him down as he tried to keep his jaw open. Allison, Kira, Aiden and Isaac were off to the side and watched with pained fascination.

"Hold still," he said trying to force him to keep his mouth open. "Don't fight it, hold still," he said as he stuck his hand into his mouth. Ethan painfully grunted and his eyes burned bright blue but Deaton didn't stop. "Almost there, just hold still." He dug in deeper until he got ahold of it. He then pulled his hand out and revealed a fly. Ethan began to cough as Deaton went and threw the fly down into the drain. He then turned to the other two. Aiden, he had already gotten. "Isaac, you're next."

But Isaac shook his head and held his hands out to him. "Wait, alright."

But Deaton just grabbed him and held him under the showerhead like he had for the twins. He then forced his mouth open and shoved his hand inside. "Don't fight it. Hold still," he told him sternly as he had the other two. Deaton reached in and pushed his hand as far as he could until he got ahold of it. "Got it," he said ripping his hand out leaving Isaac to cough and gag in relief.

Allison watched the fly fall into the drain with horrified fascination before she took Isaac aside and checked him over. "Are they okay now?" she asked Deaton.

"I hope so," he mumbled to her. "The part that's so worrisome is all of this was most likely just a distraction for what was happening to Stiles."

Kira shook her head. "There's really two of them now? How is that even possible?" She couldn't believe it, even with all the new things she had thrust on her in the last few weeks.

"And how did the other one just take Lydia?" Allison asked him.

Deaton shrugged. "We turned around and they were gone. So was her car?"

"So no one notices him just kidnapping her right out of the house?" Aiden asked a little angrily.

Deaton gave him a look. "Most of us were concentrated on the bizarre sight of the creature materializing from out of the floor." For once, even Deaton found himself a little thrown by what was happening. His tone made Aiden look away.

"Hold on," Kira stepped in. "How are you so sure which Stiles is which?"

"That's what they're trying to figure out now."

Stiles was just laying down on the bed as he let Melissa check on him. To be honest, he didn't feel that different from before he had been possessed at Eichen House. He didn't feel the tug and pressure from the nogitsune as before, but he still felt that there was something not right with him. He didn't seem to be his former werewolf self. He seemed human as far as they could tell, or as human as one could be when they materialized from out of the floor. Melissa was shining a light into his eyes though she seemed to try to keep as much distance from him as possible as she analyzed him. She turned the light on and stared at his arm but didn't seem to want to directly touch him. Stiles could see that she looked a little freaked out. He didn't blame her, because he was just as freaked out as she was. He just sighed and lifted his hand for her and waited patiently as she moved to check his pulse when she was ready to.

She lightly touched his wrist and tested him before letting him go. "Well…medically you seem okay. You're definitely a real person," she said before laughing nervously.

Stiles nodded. "Okay, so I'm real, but…am I really me?" he asked her.

Melissa just stared at him. She wanted to believe that. But, she couldn't forget that a few hours ago, this very same face had been smirking at her and had nastily mocked both her and Scott. Deep down, she knew that it wasn't really Stiles but…that didn't mean that it was something she was bound to forget so soon.

Scott walked in and Stiles quickly moved to sit up. "Is she here?" he asked him.

Scott sighed and nodded. "Yeah."

Then Stiles sighed and nodded. "Okay…let's do this." He then saw Scott and his mom give each other hesitant looks. They both didn't like this and had argued when Stiles had asked Scott for it and looked like they were going to argue with him over it again. But Stiles shook his head. "Guys, we have to do this. It's the only way to be sure."

He moved to get out of the bed but he started to wobble as he got to his feet and Scott quickly moved to catch him before he could fall. It seemed that Stiles wasn't used to walking again yet so Scott held him as he and his mother guided him out for the living room. They got there and saw Noshiko waiting there patiently for them.

"Do you recognize me?" she asked Stiles.

Stiles nodded. He recognized her alright. When Stiles had knocked the Nogitsune's game pieces out of the way, just before everything went black and he ended up in Scott's living room floor, it angrily grabbed at his head and Stiles had been hit with images and memories of the times that his body had been taken. Where the Nogitsune went, who it talked to and what it did. Kira's mother was a firm memory left in his mind.

Stiles separated from Scott and Melissa and slowly made his way over to her. But, there was a loud bang as the front door was open and shut as Kira ran inside.

"Stop!" she cried at him.

But Stiles didn't stop. "It's okay," he said to her. "I'm the one that asked her to come."

"You're the one that's going to get stabbed with swords," she cried out to him horrified before she turned to her mother. "Mom, don't do this to him."

"It's already done," she said sternly, not taking her eyes off of Stiles.

Stiles felt a slight chill to the side and turned to see that an Oni was there, staring him down. Everyone gasped just as another one appeared in front of Stiles. Before anyone could react, it grabbed onto him as the other moved to block Scott from moving for them. Stiles stared right into the glowing eyes of the Oni as its grip on him tightened and he felt his insides freeze up. After a few seconds, it let go and Stiles collapsed to the floor. The Oni then disappeared.

Kira quickly ran for Stiles just as Scott did. Kira's mother yelled to look behind his ear as they bent down over him. Kira went and looked and they found the kanji for 'self' there like the ones that appeared on their ears.

Scott sighed in relief. "It worked."

Stiles was still shivering but he fought through it as he tried to push himself up. "Am I actually me?"

"More you than Nogitsune," Noshiko told him.

That wasn't a clear 'yes' answer, but for now, he'd take it. He nodded before he went and glared out. The Nogitsune was out there, looking like him, and he had Lydia. "Can the Oni find him?"

"Tomorrow night. It's too close to dawn now."

"Can they kill him?" he asked hopefully.

"That depends on how strong he is. Before, when he had you, his power had reached surprising heights. Hopefully, this separation has weakened and crippled that power. Enough for the Oni to destroy him."

"Why would he take Lydia?" Scott asked her.

"He would only take her for an advantage."

Scott narrowed his eyes. "You mean for her power."

She nodded. "The power of a banshee."

Lydia took a deep breath and looked up to see that she was in some kind of tunnel. She tried to remember what had happened but it was all a blur. The last clear thing she could remember was being in Scott's house, watching Stiles hack out a mountain of gauze bandages onto the floor and watching something crawl out from them. She had been watching it intensely before she remembered feeling a tug on her shoulder and looking over to see Stiles pulling her away. They left the house and after that…nothing. Now, she was sitting here in this dark and dank tunnel, with countless voices yelling and screaming around in her head. Lydia got to her feet and tried to find some way to drown them all out. But, it seemed like their shouting only got louder.

"Can you hear them?" Lydia gasped and she looked off to her left to see a shadowy figure slowly approaching her. A figure with a disturbingly familiar voice. "It's louder than usual isn't it? That's because a lot of bad things happened here." As he stepped closer, Lydia's eyes widened when she saw that it was Stiles, except…it wasn't really him. In her eyes, the image of Stiles flickered for a moment, replaced by the bandaged monstrosity of the Nogitsune, before it flickered back to Stiles as he kept calmly pacing towards her. Lydia then started to try and get away. The Nogitsune kept his calm pace for her. "What are the voices telling you? Are they saying that Stiles is dying? He is you know," he teased out joyfully. "He's dying."

Lydia quickened her pace as she tried harder to get away. "Then what do you need me for?!" she shouted out to him as she kept moving. "You think I can tell you something?!" But she stopped when she reached a sealed gate that she couldn't open.

The sounds of her trying to get it open echoed through the tunnels and were soon followed by the Nogitsune's amused dark chuckling. "Oh, I know you can."

Lydia tried harder to push the gate open. "I'm not telling you anything!"

"You won't have to." Lydia gasped as the sound was practically in her ear. She turned to stare right at the Nogitsune wearing Stiles' face. "You'll be screaming."

And scream is exactly what she did.

After what happened at Scott's house, Kira was taken back home by her mother. This was the first time that she'd back here since her parents told her about her mother's past with the nogitsune. But she couldn't stay with Scott tonight, not when they were dealing with so much right now.

"How are they going to find him?" Kira asked her as soon as they walked through the front door. She watched as her mother went to one of their cabinets. "And what are we supposed to do until then? Sit around and wait."

Noshiko pulled out a board and looked back at Kira. "Sit," she said looking down at the table before holding the board up. "And learn."

Kira looked at the board and saw that it was the game of Go. She went and sat down impatiently. "You want me to teach me how to play a board game? Now?" she huffed out.

Her mother just kept looking at her calmly. "Scott says that he saw Stiles and the Nogitsune playing the game of Go. That's a very important detail. Perhaps even crucial. The game starts with an empty board. Black is always placed first." She went and brought out one of the bowls filled with the black pieces. "Then white," she said opening the other one with the white. "Place stones to create territories. You capture your opponent's stones by completely surrounding them."

But Kira shook her head and stood up. She had had it. "This is life and death mom! It isn't a game!"

Noshiko stood up and faced her daughter, still as calm as before. "It is to him. Since the moment he chose Stiles to possess, he's been playing a long and treacherous game. Laying out his territory and taking away opposing pieces. From the looks of things, he appears to be winning. Kira, if you really want to help your friends, help them survive…learn to play."

Kira let a small breath loose. She didn't want to admit it but, what her mother just said, sort of made some kind of sense. And, to be honest, she didn't know how else to help them. She wanted to help them, help Scott and especially Stiles. It was her fault that this even happened to him if what Scott said about what he heard from the Nogitsune was true. Maybe this was the only way, so she just sucked up her frustration and sat back down.

The Sheriff was sitting in his office, going over everything that had happened recently. First, he was still Sheriff due to the intervention of Agent McCall, who had been the one to try and get him fired from his position in the first place. Then, there was the fact that apparently Kira's mother was conjuring night demons to try and hunt down his son whenever the sun sets. And finally, there was the fact that he had gone face to face with his son just the other day but it wasn't really his son before he nearly put a bullet in Argent when he wanted to put a bullet in Stiles. He wanted to be out there, looking for his son and getting him out of whatever hell he is going through but he didn't know the first thing to do about that. He feared that he would lose Stiles, just like he had lost Claudia, and just like then, he couldn't do anything about it. There was then a knock on the door and Parrish moved to open the door and cut in on his thoughts.

"Go home Sheriff," he said to him. "If anything comes up about Stiles you know I'll call you in a second."

But he didn't move. "I'm not going anywhere."

Parrish shrugged. "Well, neither am I since my shift doesn't end until dawn," he said in an upbeat manner. "Need a coffee?"

The Sheriff shook his head but finally moved to face his deputy. "No. You're a good guy Parrish. That's what they all said about you in your previous station." Which he agreed on. With everything that had been going on with his son in the last few weeks, he'd found it hard to concentrate on his job. It felt good having a guy like Parrish who was dependable around, and that it seemed that he could be trusted. "Though," he said after that thought crossed his mind. "No one could tell me exactly why you left."

Parrish shrugged his shoulders again as his gaze dropped a bit. "Maybe I needed a change? I, don't really know. I guess…I kind of felt drawn here. And I knew there were openings."

"You know why there were openings?" he asked the young man. Between both Matt Daehler and Jennifer Blake Beacon Hills had seen a marked drop in the amount of deputy policeman within the last year.

But Parrish shook his head. "The statistics don't bother me."

"Well they worry me." Actually, they did more than worry him. They terrified him. As Sheriff, it was his job to watch over and look out for his deputies. However, he couldn't really do that with psychotic werewolves, killer bipedal lizards and homicidal mystical ritualists about. His son and his best friend had made it their personal mission to handle it, which only made him feel worse about how much they were taking on, when they shouldn't.

"Then maybe you need to get some sleep. Go home Sheriff," Parrish advised before he went off.

He just let out a deep sigh. Maybe Parrish was right. Besides, he wasn't doing any good just sitting in his office, moping and waiting for news. He moved to get his jacket and felt around the pockets but saw that it was empty. "Oh, if I could just find my keys," he mumbled to himself.

"In your coffee cup." The Sheriff turned around and saw Stiles standing there at the door with Scott. "You always drop them in your empty cup," his son said to him.

He narrowed his eyes. He wanted to believe that his son was standing there, but after what happened at Derek's loft, he knew that he shouldn't jump to conclusions. He looked over at Scott who quickly nodded his head. To confirm that this really was his son. Without another second to spare, he went on and ran over to give his son a tight hug.

Stiles returned the hug eagerly. "Hey dad," he mumbled. "Miss me?"

The Sheriff let a chuckle loose as he tightened his hold. He knew now without a doubt, it was really Stiles. Only he could say something during a moment like this to change the mood.

Scott went and walked off a bit to give them some space. He was happy that Stiles and his dad were back together but, he still felt a little awkward like he was intruding on them.

The Sheriff broke the hug and looked back at Scott. "Is it over?" he asked hopefully. If Stiles was back then he guessed that it meant the nogitsune was gone.

But Scott went and reached into his coffee cup to pull out the Sheriff's keys and shook his head. "Not yet."

Stiles scratched at the back of his head. "You may want to sit down dad. We have a lot to tell you."

Scott and Stiles quickly filled the Sheriff in on what had happened. Stiles started explaining about him running into Malia at Eichen House and how the Nogitsune held her hostage in order to force him to have control over him to save her. Scott then explained about the Nogitsune worming its way into all of their heads before he told them about diving into Stiles' head. It was a measure of how they were able to make sense out of everything that happened to the Sheriff that he didn't stop them during any of it. It was when they finished that the man seemed to let it all really hit him.

"Okay…so let's see if I got this straight. You and Lydia dived into Stiles' head which made him get spat out of his own body, and now there are two Stiles out there. One of them my son and the other the Nogitsune that looks like my son?" He had asked all of that very slowly.

Scott and Stiles turned to look over at each other. They gave each other a nod.

"Yeah, pretty much," Stiles muttered out.

His father's eyes widened a bit but he nodded just the same. "Okay…and, this other Stiles, he kidnapped Lydia?"

"Yeah," Scott nodded. "Took her car too."

The Sheriff nodded this time. "Okay," he said again before he cleared his throat. "Okay, I'll take care of this. Just, wait here, okay?"

"Okay," both Scott and Stiles said to him.

"Okay." He then left to speak with some of his deputies and shut the door behind him, leaving the boys alone in silence.

"Can't you track her scent Scott?" Stiles asked him after a moment of it.

But Scott shook his head. "I tried. Back at the house, it was like her scent was just…cut off. And I don't think the Nogitsune has one."

"Really? How?"

Scott shrugged. "Don't know. I mean, he didn't have one when he was possessing you."

Stiles ran a hand through his face as he went to stare at the floor. "Void," he mumbled.

"What?" asked Scott.

"I remember…it's what he calls himself. Void."

"That's what Argent said that Katashi called the type of kitsune it was. Doesn't void mean nothing?"

"Empty actually," Stiles said a little darkly. "And that's what he is…empty. No heart. No soul. Just…empty. Guess that includes having no scent either."

"Hey," Scott said taking him by the shoulder so that Stiles would look at him. "We'll find her. We just got you back. We're not going to lose anyone else, I promise."

The Sheriff came back to the room making both the boys look up immediately. "We put an APB out on Lydia's car. We have every unit on the road looking for her," he told them.

Scott sighed. "Is there anything else that we can do?" he asked. He hoped that there was something.

But the Sheriff shook his head. "At this hour, no, not really."

"He took her for a reason dad," Stiles coughed out. "If we could figure out the why then we can figure out the where."

The Sheriff checked to make sure that no one could hear them. The last thing they needed now was for any of this to get out. "Okay," he said dropping his voice. "What would a nogitsune need with a banshee? You were wrestling around with that thing, do you know anything about it that could tell us anything?"

Stiles shook his head. "No. We didn't exactly sit down and have drinks as he shared his plans with me." He then let a huff out. "But I do know that he doesn't take anyone unless without a reason, usually an awful one. He had Barrow take Kira to try and hurt her mother. He took Malia back at Eichen House to force me to let him take me again."

"So what do you think he wants to do with Lydia?" his father asked.

Stiles shook his head. "I'm not sure. Kira's mother said that he might want her for her power. She's good at finding bodies. Maybe he needs to find one?"

The Sheriff then turned to Scott. "What do you think Scott? I mean, you know more about this thing than the rest of us."

Scott widened his eyes. "I do?"

"Yeah, didn't you get the whole story from Noshiko?"

"Well, yeah but that all happened like 70 years ago during World War II. That was so long ago."

But Stiles blinked. "Wait, what did you say?"

Scott looked over at him. "Noshiko, she told me about the internment camp."

But Stiles cut him off. "No, before that." He looked over at his father. "You just said the 'whole story'?"

"Yeah," said Scott. "Why, what is it?"

Stiles remembered hearing those words spoken when he was in Eichen House. "There's a girl, at Eichen House. Her name's Meredith. I think she might be able to help."

"Help? How?" Scott asked him.

"She knew who I was," Stiles mumbled. "And…what I was."

Scott's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. "Are you sure?"

Stiles nodded. "I think so. When I met her, she wasn't looking at me, but she talking about me. Like she knew who I was…and what I was," he said remembering how Meredith referred to him as the 'wild poisoned one'. "She seemed to know about the rest of us too."

Scott blinked. "Even if you're right and this girl does know about us somehow, how can she help us find Lydia?"

"Because I think that she is like Lydia. I think Meredith might be a banshee." Stiles could see that Scott was thrown by that. "She had this look on her face. In her eyes. It's the same kind of look that I've seen on Lydia whenever she goes into one of her fugue states. She said that we should know the whole story and that she should tell us."

"Are you sure?" Scott asked. It didn't seem possible that Stiles could just run into a Banshee in a mental institution like this.

"Pretty sure. Like…maybe 85 percent sure."

"Stiles," his father huffed. "We can't just go to Eichen House and make a request to talk to a patient because you feel pretty sure."

"I know dad…but you're going to have to trust me on this."

He still felt like this was a long shot but the Sheriff felt that he didn't have a right to question these boys at this point and immediately asked Parrish to put in a request at Eichen House.

Parrish called the institution and hung up the phone a few minutes later before going to them in his office. "Meredith Walker," he confirmed.

"She still there?" asked the Sheriff.

"Yeah but they moved her to the closed unit."

"Why?" Stiles knew, first hand, that people don't just get moved to that place for the hell of it.

"They said behavioral issues."

Stiles thought that Meredith seemed like the quiet type. She was always off to the side and kept to herself. "What issues?" he asked the deputy.

He let a sigh loose. "She wouldn't stop screaming."

That made both Scott and Stiles share a look. Stiles' theory seemed to have some new weight now. But that look turned to despair. If Stiles was right about Meredith, there would only be one reason why she would be screaming.

Derek and Chris heard the news from Scott and Allison. Stiles was back, or rather they had their Stiles back. But there was still another Stiles out there that wasn't theirs. Neither really knew what to make of that but they knew that the other one had to be stopped as he had taken Lydia. Derek moved to leave the building when his full senses were back but Chris didn't let him leave just yet. He stopped the elevator before Derek could go.

Derek just kept his gaze to the floor and didn't look the hunter in the face. "You had a gun to my head. You could've pulled the trigger, but you didn't. Why? Why didn't you?" he asked as he went to face him.

Chris sighed. "Because I actually meant what I said before. You're not my enemy anymore Derek. And I'm not yours." He then let a tired sigh out. "Deep down, I think we both want that which is why you helped me back at the station and I tried to not hurt you here. Maybe, it's high time that we stop trying to treat each other like we still are. That's what made all of us fall in line with the Nogitsune's plan to begin with."

Derek brushed off the uncomfortable feelings he was having right now. Part of him thought that Chris had a point, but still, actually doing that was easier said than done especially with all of their history. But he knew that wasn't the pressing problem right now. "Well, we should be out there, looking for him, right now. Especially if he could do something like this."

But Chris shook his head. "I'm not sure that's actually going to be necessary."

Derek narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"Because if he could do something like this," Chris started.

And Derek realized now what he meant. "Then he's stronger than ever."

And the Nogitsune was already strong enough. They remembered how it went down when they confronted him in the loft. He brushed off each of their attacks like they were nothing. Handled even Scott and a bunch of armed Yakuza like it was child's play. To manipulate them like this, it showed that its power was greater than they imagined.

"And now he'll be coming for us," Chris pressed. He watched as Derek moved to put his back to the elevator. Chris let the doors go but before they could fully close, he put his hand to stop it again. "There's something else."

"What?" Derek mumbled.

"Back during…it," he settled in describing their tense confrontation. "Before you collapsed, you mentioned something about your family. You said that you were getting your family back, what were talking about?"

Derek just raised his eyes at him and silently stared. He remembered saying that. It was in the heat of his unbridled rage that he let that slip. Despite what had just happened, he wasn't ready to trust Chris enough to tell him about the fact that his sister was pregnant with the child of an emerging Beast. He just stayed silent. Chris seemed to understand that Derek wasn't going to say anything about it because he eventually let the door go and allowed the elevator to finally close.

When Chris faced a closed elevator, he took a deep breath. Clearly, Derek wasn't going to trust him enough to say anything, which meant that it was either important, personal or both. Given the fact that he had said that he mentioned it as a motivation for trying to kill him, he would respect Derek's need to not say. A good hunter would look into this lead with everything they had, but he wasn't hunting Derek's family.

The Sheriff quickly went off to Eichen House so that he could talk with Meredith though he suggested he go alone. He didn't want his son anywhere near this place again any time soon and bringing Scott would raise some questions. When he got there, he was greeted by an orderly named Brunski. When the man heard his name, he made some off-handed comment about how he had gotten to know his son quite well when he was there. Stilinski gave the man a look before he told him to just take him to the closed unit. Brunski rolled his eyes before he led the Sheriff off for Meredith's room.

"Sounds pretty quiet now," the Sheriff said as they reached the place.

"We had to send a guy down to sedate her," he explained as he got his keys out to open the door. "Trust me, this little nut job would not stop screaming." He smiled a bit in amusement as he went and opened the door. "Five milligrams of Haldol, would take her out like you wouldn't believe," he said before letting an amused chuckle out. Amusement that Stilinski didn't share. They got to her room when he stiffened. "What the hell?"

The Sheriff looked into the room to see that the orderly he had been talking about was on the floor, with the sedative needle stuck into his neck and the plunger was pushed down. The room was empty.

"Where'd she go?" he asked. "How could she get out of here?"

Brunski knelt down to the incapacitated orderly and found the answer. "She got his keys."

Neither of them noticed that Meredith was off to the side, quickly and silently opening the door and slipping out.

It was bright and sunny the following morning and the twins were running through the woods trying to see if they could find any trace of Lydia. Aiden suggested the woods as this was the place where the Nogitsune had ran to get away from Scott and where Stiles had ended up when he had sleepwalked and hallucinated. Aiden and Ethan hadn't really talked about what had happened to them yesterday. Not about what they said to each other or about what they almost did to one another. It was like an unspoken agreement between them that they not touch the subject.

"Anything?" Aiden asked.

Ethan shook his head. "Nothing. Not even a scent."

This looked to be a dead end. They were about to head on off but there was an echoing click that had Aiden push his brother down.

"Did you hear that?" Aiden asked him.

Ethan moved to scan the area. "Sounds like-"

"A round being chambered," Aiden finished for him.

It was a sound that, as werewolves, they were all too familiar with. And they knew what to do whenever they heard that sound. They didn't spare another moment and made a break for it. Where they stood a second ago became showered with bullets. They barely got off three feet before they felt the bullets pierce their skin.

Ethan fell and looked below his shoulder to see that he was bleeding but his blood was black. "Wolfsbane," he muttered out painfully. He then looked and saw that his brother wasn't moving at all. "Aiden," he called out to him but barely moved as their spot went under fire again.

The gunfire lasted about a few more seconds before it all just stopped with only a few more bullets grazing them. Ethan grit his teeth tightly as he pushed himself to his feet and pulled at his brother to try and get far away. He tried to move as far and fast as he could but he could feel everything around him getting blurry. The wolfsbane in the bullets was starting to affect them. It was barely a minute later when Ethan just fell to his knees and dropped Aiden. As Ethan coughed up some more blood, he faintly heard the sounds of another round being chambered. The shooter was about to let loose another barrage of gunfire. He braced himself for the strike when he felt a hand grab him. He panicked before he turned and saw that it was Derek.

Derek lifted Ethan to his feet before he quickly bent down and grabbed onto Aiden. "Run!" he yelled.

A second later, where they had stood began being pelted with bullets. They ran off for a deeper part of the woods, hoping to find some cover from the gunman.

With the apartment smelling like chemicals, Allison asked if she could stay over with Scott. He agreed as Stiles was staying with him too. Isaac had offered to share his bed with her in the guest room but she didn't think it was a good idea. Isaac quietly accepted that and surprisingly didn't push it further. Scott told Allison that she could have his bed as he would be in the living room with Stiles so that he could watch him. When morning rolled around, the Sheriff called to let them know that a car matching Lydia's license plate had just been towed and brought to the impound lot. Scott told Allison and Isaac to be careful as he was going to stay and watch over Stiles as he was still sleeping and didn't want to wake him as he felt that he could use the rest after everything that happened to him. None of them were going to school today also, not when Lydia and the Nogitsune were still out there.

Allison brought them to the lot and Isaac checked to see that no one was watching as he went and broke the lock off from the front gate. They found that there was only one car in there right now.

"That's Lydia's car," Allison said as they walked on over to it.

Isaac's nose crinkled. "The scent's strong with emotion."

"Fear?" she asked.

But he shook his head. "Anger."

Allison sighed. "Sounds like Lydia. See what else we can find." She looked over just as Isaac bent down to check the bottom of the car. Memories of the previous day came back to her, especially the night before then. "Uh, just out curiosity, do you remember the other night?"

"You mean the night before last night?" Isaac asked still looking underneath the car.

"That night…before you weren't you?" she asked uncomfortably.

Isaac went to stand up and face her. "Yeah. I remember."

They then opened the car and went on inside.

Allison cleared her throat. "That night, were you…you? Or where you, not you?"

He brought his head down a bit. "You mean, the night when we were us?"

She nodded. "Yeah." She then moved to look away from him a bit. "I…just want to know if, it was actually you, with me. Or, if that wasn't really you anymore…that it was somebody else with me?"

Isaac kept his gaze firmly on her. "Did you want it to be someone else?" he asked as he remembered what set him off that night. Scott's scent. All over her room, on her bed. "Or hoped it had been someone else?"

She quickly shook her head. "No. No, of course not," she said to him fast paced.

He let a small smile fall on him. "Good," he nodded as he looked away from her a bit. "Because, it was me. And I do remember it. I really remember," he finished softly.

The two of them just bowed their heads as a sort of embarrassed silence fell upon them. Allison turned her head because she didn't want to face him just yet when her eyes narrowed at the window. It seemed familiar to her. It took a moment before she realized that it seemed similar to how her was back when she and Scott were secretly seeing each other. Back when they would leave each other messages. She quickly breathed onto it and saw that there was writing in the condensation. It was a message from Lydia. It read: Don't find me.

Coach Finstock was angry as he heard the news over the phone as his class was coming in.

"Ten Thousand dollars?" he asked incredulously. "They pulled an arrow out of my stomach. What, did they fill it up with diamonds?" But he grew displeased hearing the hospital response to that. He gave up. "Alright, fine. Just…send me the bill. Fine!" he said before he finally hung up and angrily faced his class. "Alright, listen up kids! Today we're….you know what, today, we're going to discuss the corrupt institution of healthcare."

But he was cut off when Danny raised his hand. "Uh Coach, we have an unexpected guest."

He looked over and the Coach along with the rest of the class followed it to see Meredith Walker sitting off in the back corner.

His heart was pounding and his eyes were open wide in shock. Stiles was running through the streets as a scream sounded through the air. That was Lydia's scream. He moved up where the scream seemed to be coming from and found himself in front of a gate. Eichen House's front gate. He pulled the gate open and moved to step inside. Though once he opened it, the steps of the building were covered with bodies. Dead bodies with a terrified or shocked look permanently stuck to their faces. The ones that were face down had a long red deep swipe across their backs, like they were made by a sword. The screaming was still going so Stiles quickly moved his way through the bodies, unable to avoid fully stepping over all of them, before he got to the courtyard. In the center was Lydia, head pointing up into the air, screaming. Surrounding her were more bodies and Stiles' eyes widened at the sight of them. They were all people he knew. He saw Scott, Kira, his father, Derek, Isaac, Allison, the twins, Malia, Melissa, Danny, Argent, Deaton, Coach and many others from school, the station and the hospital. They were all lying on their backs, lifelessly staring up at the sky with dried blood decorating their corpses.

"Lydia!" Stiles shouted.

But Lydia kept screaming until a sword found its through her. The blade stuck out from her chest before it was pulled back through her back and Lydia fell to the floor, revealing her killer: Himself.

"About time she shut up, wasn't it?" his mirror image said as he stared at the bloodied blade in his hands before he stared up at Stiles with his dark eyes.

Stiles narrowed his eyes as he knew perfectly well who this was. "Why?"

Void shrugged. "It's all a part of the game. Pieces tend to be lost trying to win, you know that. But, it seems like you've lost." He then held his free hand up and Stiles saw an orb of purple electricity sparking in his hand. "Everything." He then tossed the ball of electricity right for him.

Stiles then took a deep breath as he moved to get up from the couch as he found himself in Scott's living room. He had tried getting up too fast and felt everything spinning and couldn't really keep his balance up. He barely got three steps in before he was beginning to topple over. Scott had heard his friend from the other room and came rushing on in and caught him before he could fall.

"Hey," Scott said as he tried to steady Stiles. "You okay?"

Stiles blinked. "I was sleeping?"

"Dude, you were practically knocked out." Scott knew that Stiles needed the rest.

Stiles rubbed furiously at his eyes before he wiped at his nose. "How long was I out?" he quickly asked him.

"Just a couple of hours. You should sit down."

Scott moved to try and get him back to the couch but Stiles quickly shook his head and kept himself where he stood.

"Where's my dad?" he asked Scott.

"He's at Eichen House, questioning everyone, looking for Meredith. I promised I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

Stiles took another deep breath. "Alright, but what about the others?"

"Allison, Isaac, the Twins, they're all looking for Lydia."

Stiles let his gaze wander and he just started shaking. "I just feel like we're waiting around for a ransom call."

"We'll find her," Scott told him.

"Yeah," he said in a low voice as he shook more heavily. Stiles' shaking then included him starting to rub his hands along his arms but that wasn't doing the trick. He went to the couch and pulled on the sweater that was laying on there.

Scott eyes narrowed a bit. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just, I can't seem to get warm," he said in a shaking tone of voice.

"Well, maybe you should sit down and take it easy." Scott moved to try and help Stiles back to the couch but he felt a sharp sting as the veins in his hand went black as he started to siphon off pain. A lot of it. He then pulled his hand free. "You're in pain."

But Stiles shrugged. "It's not that bad. It's more like a dull ache."

Scott looked Stiles over. "Where?"

"Sort of everywhere," Stiles said nonchalantly.

Scott moved to grab him again but felt the palm of his hand was practically ice. "Dude, you're freezing!" he gasped out. Stiles just sat down and shook in place as he tried to avoid looking at him. Scott then moved to sit on next to him. "Tell me the truth…how much does it really hurt?"

"I'm fine Scott," he said a little louder than necessary. But he then dropped his voice a bit. "Really. It's nothing I can't handle."

Scott looked at Stiles sitting there, at the spot the Nogitsune had sat the day before. He remembered the demented fox saying something about Stiles having a lot of pain inside him. Enough to feed him. Stiles said it was just a dull ache he was feeling. Scott touched him for a moment but what he felt in that moment was hardly an ache. Yet, from just looking at him, you could hardly tell he was hurting at all. Was Stiles putting effort into hiding it, or was he just so used to pain that it really was a dull ache to him?

But his thoughts were quickly interrupted by his phone vibrating. He took it out and saw who was calling. "It's Kira," he told Stiles before he picked up. "Hey, what's up?"

Kira was calling from the school, and was currently in Coach's Economics classroom. "It's Meredith," she told him. "She's here, in Coach's class and you need to get down here too. Like right now."

Meredith was being surrounded by the class as the Coach dropped down in front of her and was snapping his fingers to try and get her to lift her eyes off the desk which she had been staring at firmly since everyone first noticed her.

"Sweetheart," Coach mumbled to her as he kept snapping his fingers. "You want to tell me which insane asylum you escaped from?"

Danny went to kneel down next to him. "Uh Coach, insane asylum isn't proper terminology anymore," he told him.

Coach nodded before facing Meredith again. "Okay. Sweetheart, what nuthouse did you escape from?"

"Eichen House," she mumbled.

Everyone leaned and stepped back in both surprise and shock. Most, if not all the people in the room knew of the institution's reputation. The only one that didn't distance themselves from Meredith was Coach.

"Want to tell me what you're doing so far from there?" Coach calmly asked her.

Meredith kept staring at the desk but her eyes widened a bit. "Trying to help. I can hear them," she said pointing to her ears. "They scream."

Everyone began to get a little freaked out. Even though what she said didn't make much sense to them, something in her words seemed to send chills down all of their spines. Kira stayed off to the side and just watched Meredith with bated breath.

The only person that didn't seem too bothered by any of this was Coach. He just leaned in closer. "That's got to be terrifying," he muttered to the girl. "Why do they scream?"

"They scream when someone's about to die."

Coach's eyes actually widened at that. "Are they screaming right now?" he asked. Meredith nodded. "How many?"

Meredith finally looked away from the desk and straight at him. "All of them."

Kira let out a deep winded breath. This sounded a little too close for comfort, especially if what Stiles thought about Meredith was right.

Coach then told everyone to stay in the classroom while he went and escorted Meredith to his office. Kira quietly followed after them and waited out in the hall close by. She knew that Scott was already on the way and hoped that he and Stiles would be able to find some way of getting Meredith out of there. She knew that they couldn't be much longer now. Just then, the doors opened and Kira looked over, expecting to see them, but instead saw that it was three men, dressed in scrubs. They were orderlies, and they were heading right for Coach's office. No doubt to take Meredith away, and Kira couldn't let them, not yet.

She ran over to the office door as Coach was starting to come out. "Coach!" she quickly said to him. "You can't let them take her back. It's, hard to explain but if you let her go back then really, really bad things are going to happen. To Lydia, to Scott, to Stiles and maybe everyone else including you. So please, please don't let them take her," she pleaded to him.

Coach just widened his eyes at her. "Who are you?" he asked her.

She actually was taken aback. She had a class with him, she was surprised that he didn't know her by now. "I'm Kira. I'm new."

But Coach just looked over towards the orderlies that were heading for them. At the sight of them, particularly the one in the middle, he let out a heated sigh. "Oh hell," he muttered to himself.

The orderlies got to them the one at the middle smiled at the sight of him. "Finstock. Coach Bobby Finstock, this is a delightful surprise," he said in mock happiness. "Hmm, what is that saying? Those that can't do, teach."

Coach rolled his eyes at him. "Oh, that's funny Brunski."

But Brunski didn't seem to be done poking fun at him. "Now, is it Professor Finstock when you're off the field? I'm glad to see you made it pro at something Bobby," he said, still teasing him.

"It's Coach. Coach Finstock," he said in a small voice. "Professors teach college."

Brunski's face started to get a little harder now. "Oh. Well, you let me know when you make higher education. Now, Coach, where's Meredith?"

Coach just gave Brunski a hard look before he sighed in defeat. "She's fine," he mumbled. "She's sitting in my office." He then opened the door and everyone saw that Meredith was now gone.

"Find her," Brunski ordered the others who rushed off to do what he said.

Chris called Isaac to ask about her daughter but he told her that she took off to try and work on something but hadn't gone back to the apartment. Chris had an idea where his daughter went and moved off for their weapons lockup. Prior to them officially moving to Beacon Hills, Chris and his men had gone and set this place up with spare weapons and ammunition to fall back to if something were to happen to their stock at home. Since most of their weapons had been confiscated by the FBI, he had to come back here to re-arm themselves. Thankfully, it was off the books so Agent McCall hadn't found and raided it with his men when Chris had been arrested.

He entered the place and quickly found Allison on the work bench. She was busy taking her crossbow and adding a targeting scope to it. "I had a feeling I'd find you here," he said as he walked over to her.

She spared her father a look before she resumed working. After hitting the dead end with the car, Allison went there to try and make herself feel like she was doing something productive. "I needed to do something. I hate waiting. Feeling useless." At that last part, Allison was pressing on her tools a little harder than necessary and her work began to be getting sloppy.

Chris went and put his hand over hers to still it. "Leave it for now," he told her gently. His eyes drifted over to the floor, towards one of their safes. He bent down in front of it. "I have something else you can do. Something that we should've done a while ago." He then finished with the combination and opened the safe as he grabbed a case that was inside. He brought it to Allison and opened it to reveal bars of solid silver. "It's time for you to graduate."

Allison knew what this was. It was the ceremony that marked a hunter's completion of their training. Where the Argent would craft a silver bullet as a testament to their commitment to the code. Of course, they had a new code now. Her code. Meaning that this would be the first time that the ceremony was done under it and she smiled at how it was fitting that she'd be its first one.

Void was enjoying leading Lydia around in the tunnels. Her fear and apprehension were a good precursor to what he would unleash in the future.

"There's nowhere to hide Lydia," he said as he calmly pursued her as she kept moving through the dark. "And you could only run so far and so long."

Lydia just kept a stern look on her face and tried hard to not succumb to her fear. "They'll find me," she said as she saw some light ahead and headed for it. "They're going to find me." She came up and found another gate that wouldn't budge. She tried to push and pull to try and free herself but it stayed firm. Right now, she would kill to be able to be as strong as a werewolf right now.

Void watched her struggle for a moment before he sat down on the steps above her. "You think so?" he muttered down to her. "I myself was kind of wondering what they're doing right now. What useless lead they're chasing? I wonder if some of them have bigger problems to deal with right now." He then let a smirk crawl on his lips. "After all, I prowled around in Stiles' skull. I know how they work. If I had to hazard a guess, the pack is out spinning their wheels on some half-baked plan. Maybe some of them are trying to distract themselves with some meaningless gesture. Or have some personal unresolved crisis to work and sift through. Just passing the time, waiting for nightfall," he said smiling up at the ceiling as if he could see the sky above them.

Lydia let herself calm down a bit before she slowly turned to face the Nogitsune. "What do you want?" She didn't understand what the Nogitsune was doing. From what she'd heard and seen, this thing was already stronger than ever. And now that he was out with a body of his own, why was he still lurking around?

Void's eyes went and looked down at her. "More," he answered firmly. He then stood up and started to leer down at her.

"More what?" she asked, narrowing her eyes a bit looking braver than she felt.

"Oh Lydia, you're the genius so I'm sure you've read them. The trickster stories. They're all about food Lydia." He then started to step closer to her. "The coyote, raven, fox…they're all hungry. I'm the same, I just crave something a little different." He then held up his hand and let sparks flare up in his hand before they formed a dark purple ball of electricity that dimly lit up the passage.

Lydia squeaked at the sight of it. "What?" she almost cried out.

"What you feel, right now. I eat what you feel. It's…delicious. Divine. Empowering." At the last word, the foxfire in his hand swelled up and seemed to get bigger and brighter. "Through Stiles, I found a well spring that was more fresh and rich than any I've ever tasted in 1000 years." Void smirked as he looked straight into his foxfire before opening his mouth. The giant sparking ball seemed to dissolve into smaller sparks and flew into his mouth until it was all gone. Void then made a point to swallow a little loudly which made Lydia turn away from him. "And I want more. No, I need more, much more. You know what that makes me, don't you Lydia?" He then moved so that he was hovering right over the side of his face. "Don't you?" Lydia shut her eyes as a small squeal escaped her. "I'm insatiable."

At that, Lydia tried very hard not to scream, even though she wanted to so very much. Both from fear…and from her internal instincts.