The Nogitsune was tied up, with his mouth taped shut, on Scott's couch. Deaton, Lydia, and Melissa stood in the kitchen. "Why'd you call Peter?" I asked Scott.

"To see if Stiles can survive the bite," he told me.

"Oh," I said, a little surprised.

I watched Peter inspect Stiles. "It doesn't look like he'd survive a slap across the face." He shook his head. "The Nogitsune is taking a toll on Stiles' body."

Scott walked up to him. "So he wouldn't survive the bite?"

"Maybe, but there are better ways to win this battle." Peter took Scott's hand and made his claws come out. "We're going to get inside his head."

"How?" Scott asked.

"It's a little alpha trick, Ava's seen me do it."

I remembered when Peter and Derek had used Talia's claws to contact her. "It looks a little painful."

"Once in there, you find Stiles and bring him out," Peter told Scott.

"Bring him out, how?" Scott asked.

Peter shrugged. "Improvise." He looked around the room. "Maybe someone should go with you. Lydia?"

She looked uncertain. "I'll do it," I offered.

Lydia shook her head. "No, I'm the one who found him. It'll be okay." Peter motioned for her to sit down on the couch, Scott stood behind it.

"Claws in both of their necks, you'll figure it out," Peter said.

"Scott, we're running out of time," Deaton said. Scott nodded and dug his claws into Lydia and Stiles' necks.

OoOoO

After about twenty minutes of them being under, Lydia's nose started to bleed. "What's happening? Should we pull them out?" Melissa asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Deaton said.

Peter knelt down in front of Lydia and grabbed her head. "Lydia, can you hear me? You're stronger than this. You have to fight! Lydia!" He yelled her name so loud that it practically shook the room. I looked at him confused, why was he so invested in Lydia's well being?

Finally after what felt like ages they woke up. Lydia and Scott gasped for air, like they'd just been drowning. "Did it work?" Scott asked. He ran around the couch to look at Stiles, who was still passed out.

"Why didn't it work?" Lydia asked standing up.

Peter grabbed her arm. "Because it's not science. Now, give me that name?"

"What name?" Scott asked.

"A deal is a deal, even with me. I did my part," Peter said. Suddenly Peter's investment in Lydia making it out of Stiles' head made a lot more sense; of course Peter would never do anything for free.

"Malia," Lydia whispered.

Suddenly Stiles sat up and started clawing at the tape on his mouth. He leaned over and pulled a bandage out, the bandage kept coming. He dropped to his knees as the bandage continued flowing out of his mouth. Once it was all out, he fell back. A hand emerged from the pile, and slowly the bandages formed into the shape of a person.

Once the creature stood up, he took a step towards us. Scott and Peter lunged at him, pushing him back into the couch. "Wait, wait!" Scott said, realizing the creature wasn't trying to fight, it was whimpering. Scott pulled at the bandages on his face and found Stiles inside.

"Where's Lydia?" Deaton asked. We all looked around and realized that the person we thought was Stiles had disappeared and so had Lydia.

Scott ran towards the open front door. "Lydia!" He called.

The Stiles that was still wrapped in bandages was trying in vain to pull them off. Peter stood over him, as if waiting for him to attack at any moment. I approached him slowly. "Stiles?" I asked quietly. He looked up, momentarily letting go of the bandages he was holding. "Is it really you?"

"Yeah, Bates, it's me," he said. I dropped onto the couch next to him and threw my arms around his neck. For a moment he did nothing, and I worried that maybe this was just another one of the Nogitsune's tricks, but then he hugged me back and I knew this was Stiles.

I let go of him and started unwrapping the bandages from around his arms. "Would you all stop staring and help me?" I snapped at the others. Melissa was hesitant but she joined me.

"I've got to go the school and help Ethan and Isaac," Deaton said.

"Isaac?" I asked, turning around. "What happened to him?"

"He and Ethan are fine now, the Nogitsune was using them as a distraction." I nodded and went back to helping Stiles.

"How do we know this is the real Stiles?" Scott asked Deaton.

"We don't, not yet," Deaton admitted. "Be careful."

"The only way to know for sure is to let the Oni mark me," Stiles said.

Scott nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

I looked between the two of them. "Just the fact that Stiles is suggesting that proves it's really him, don't you think?"

"If it's really Stiles, the Oni won't kill him," Scott said.

"And if it's not we risk never being able to get Stiles back."

"You're the one who swears I'm me," Stiles said. "Even I'm not sure, but I'm willing to do this."

I groaned. "Clearly I'm out voted."

"I'll call Kira's mom," Scott said.

"When you're laying on the floor, feeling like you have hypothermia, don't say I didn't try to stop you," I mumbled.

OoOoO

I waited downstairs with Scott for Mrs. Yukimura to arrive; Melissa had moved Stiles upstairs to rest. I hadn't heard from Derek and I was beginning to worry about him.

Mrs. Yukimura arrived shortly after nightfall, with Kira hot on her heels. "Mom, you can't do this!"

"It's already done, Kira." Scott went upstairs to get Stiles.

"Well, it's nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks this is crazy," I said.

Melissa and Scott brought Stiles down stairs; he looked weak and was relying on Scott to hold him up. The air grew icy and I sucked in a deep breath. My heart was beating fast even though I knew I wasn't going to have to fight this time. The Oni materialized in the room and Stiles stepped forward shakily. Two of the shadowy figures surrounded Stiles and one of them grabbed his head, after a moment he fell to the ground, and the Oni vanished.

I knelt down next to him, he was shaking, and his skin was ice cold. "Check behind his ear!" Mrs. Yukimura instructed us.

Scott helped me flip him over and we saw the mark. "It worked," Scott said.

"Am I really me?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I told you so."

OoOoO

Derek was back at the loft when I got there. "Hey, you didn't text me back earlier, everything good?"

"The Nogitsune made me attack Chris, but I'm okay."

"You attacked Chris and lived to tell the tale?" I asked, a little surprised.

"He knew it wasn't me, we're not enemies anymore."

"Sorry I didn't follow you, I just thought you were in a bad mood."

"It's not your fault. How's Stiles?"

"Alright, I think. He's himself at the very least, the Oni marked him and everything, it's really him this time," I said. "Lydia is missing, the Nogitsune took her."

"Want me to go with you to look for her?" He asked.

I shook my head. "I've got to get some sleep. I've got a killer headache. I can search for her in the morning."

"You should go to school tomorrow, there will be more than enough people looking for Lydia."

I shook my head. "Yeah, okay, I'll decide after I get some rest." He nodded and I started to turn away.

Before I could head upstairs he grabbed my arm. I turned around and he pulled me into a hug. "Everything is going to be okay."

"I know," I said. "Sometimes it just doesn't seem like it. It seems like every time things are starting to look up, they just fall apart all over again."

I looked up at him and he smiled sadly. "I can't even argue with you, because it's true."

I laughed. "It's an endless cycle of suck."

"We could always leave, visit Cora in South America, or your cousin and Jackson in London."

I sighed. "Maybe a vacation is called for, but Beacon Hills is home now."

"Yeah, I know."

I leaned up and kissed him quickly. "Okay, now I really do need some sleep." I headed towards the stairs, then stopped and turned back to see Derek standing in the same spot. "You coming?"

"I thought you said you needed to sleep."

I shrugged. "Well, I've already decided I'm not going to school tomorrow."

OoOoO

I woke up late and Derek was already gone. I turned on my phone to be bombarded with messages in the group text in which Scott and Kira had been passing information about the whereabouts of Lydia and another girl who's name I didn't recognize.

I got up and dressed quickly, and was in my car a half hour later. Only I had no idea where I was supposed to go. No one knew where to look for Lydia. So instead I found myself driving to Scott's house.

I pulled up and went inside, where Scott and Stiles were sitting on the couch. "Hey, Ava," Stiles said tiredly.

"Didn't you get some sleep?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Not really. You look better, though."

"Yeah, I slept in. Any word on Lydia?" I asked Scott.

"Not yet," he said. "But we're going to find her."

I sat down next to Stiles. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just cold, and achy," he said. I opened my arms and he leaned into me. I rubbed his arms through his jacket trying to warm him up; I could tell it wasn't working. "Thanks," he mumbled, sitting back up.

"I have gloves and a scarf in the car," I offered.

He shrugged. "Nothing is helping."

Scott's phone rang and he went into the other room to take the call. "Are you in a lot of pain?" I asked. He stared at me, and nodded slowly. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my own protection sachet and pressed it into his hand, his skin was like ice. "I don't know if these work or not, but I think you need this more than I do." He took it and I gave him another hug.

Scott came back into the room. "Meredith is at school."

"Who's Meredith?" I asked.

"We think she's another banshee, she escaped from Eichen House this morning. She might be able to help us find Lydia."

"Then let's go get her," I said, standing up. "I'll drive."

OoOoO

When we got to school Kira was waiting for us outside. "Where is she?" Scott asked.

"A bunch of orderlies showed up to take her back, I tried to get Coach to stall but he wouldn't listen to me," she told us. "I think she went this way, come on."

We followed her inside and heard a crash in the music room. When we opened the doors we found Coach standing over an orderly, holding a taser. The orderly had crashed into some cymbals when he'd fallen. We all looked at the sight surprised. "What are you kids waiting for? Get her out of here!" Coach shouted at us.

Stiles grabbed Meredith's arm and pulled her with us as we ran out to the parking lot. Everyone loaded up into my car and I turned around. "Okay, Meredith, right? Do you know where Lydia is?"

"Who's Lydia?" She asked confused.

I sighed. "We're back to square one, again. And there's a escaped mental patient in my backseat," I murmured to myself. I took a deep breath. "Any other ideas?"

Scott looked just as exasperated as I felt. "Let's just take her back to my house."

OoOoO

We returned to the McCall's house and ushered Meredith inside, where we were confronted with Scott's dad and Isaac. "You're not in the hospital?" I asked Isaac confused.

"Yeah, I'm good now," he said.

"What are you doing here?" Scott asked his dad.

"I could ask you all the same thing."

"Free period," Scott said. "We're studying."

"And who's she?" He asked, motioning to Meredith.

"Exchange student," I said. "From…France, she doesn't speak much English."

"Yes, I do," Meredith said, confused. I shushed her and pulled her out of the room, before Scott's dad could ask any more questions. Stiles and Isaac followed as I led her up to Scott's room. I sat her on the bed.

I gave Isaac a quick hug. "I'm glad you're not dead." Then I turned back to Meredith. "Okay now, let's talk about Lydia."

"I told you, I don't know who that is," Meredith said with a shrug.

"Red hair, about this tall," I motioned to about my ear. "Wears cute shoes. Also a banshee." Finally Meredith nodded. "Okay, good, this is progress."

"Now you've just got to tell us where she is," Stiles said.

"Okay," Meredith said. "If she tells me."

"If she tells you?" Isaac asked. "Can't you ask her?"

"I did!" Meredith said happily.

"Good, that's good," I said. "And what did she say?"

"That she doesn't want to be found," she told me.

I leaned my head back and groaned. "Of course."

Stiles steered Isaac and me towards the corner of the room. "Okay well, that didn't go to plan."

"Maybe Lydia really doesn't want to be found," Isaac suggested.

"Okay, maybe, but that's not going to work," I said. "We have to find her."

"We could torture her, she must know where Lydia is."

I tilted my head. "That is," I paused when Stiles looked at me with eyebrows raised. "A step too far, even for me," I amended.

"Or just scare her."

"No!" Stiles said.

"Okay, let's think, she's a banshee," I said. "So, Stiles, you've helped Lydia hear things before, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, okay, I can do this." He walked back over to Meredith.

I hit Isaac on the arm. "We're not torturing a teenage girl!"

"You thought about it for a second," he said.

"No, I didn't." He gave me a skeptical look. "Okay like a millisecond. I just want this to all be over."

"Agreed."

We walked back over to Meredith and Stiles. "Aren't you going to get that?" Meredith asked him.

"What?" He asked confused.

"The phone?" She said, like he had just asked a stupid question.

"Your phone, Stiles," I said. I looked at Meredith and she nodded. "It's ringing, answer it."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his silent phone. He held it up to his ear, and pretended to take a call. "Hello? …Yeah, she's right here." He held it out to her. "It's for you."

She took the phone and held it to her ear. She listened for a moment and then nodded. "They said coup de foudre."

"Is that…Spanish?" Stiles asked.

I rolled my eyes. "It's French. It means lighting bolt." I shrugged. "Or love at first sight."

"I know where she is," Scott said, from the doorway.

I turned around startled. "Okay then, let's go."