Scott gave me directions as I drove, but in-between each "right here" and "next left" the car was silent. "Is everything okay?" Stiles asked, looking between Scott and me.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said.
There was silence for a moment before Isaac took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm just going to say what everyone is thinking. You look like you're dying Stiles. When we get to the other you, is it going to look like he's getting better?"
"What happens if something hurts him, will it hurt you?" Scott asked.
"Like if he dies, will I die?" Stiles asked. "I don't care. I remember everything I did as the Nogitsune, we have to kill him. No matter what happens to me."
It was quiet again. "You're not going to die, Stiles. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
"You can't make that promise, Ava," he said.
"Yeah, I can, and I intend to keep it."
I parked outside the gates of the old interment camp; Allison and Kira were already there. I grabbed my bow and arrows out of the back of my car. We all walked to the gates in silence. "Someone say something, we're not going to a funeral," I said.
"We've done this before, a few weeks ago we saved Malia, a total stranger," Scott said. "Now we're here to save our friends."
"Think about how many times we've won," I said. "Lizards, and alphas, and escaped convicts, and druids. This isn't the day that streak ends."
"Today I'm going to save my best friend," Allison said.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Scott asked. We all walked through the gates. Kira's mother and two of the Oni were waiting for us on the other side.
"Kira, turn around and go home," Mrs. Yukimura said.
Kira shook her head. "I can't."
Scott motioned for me to follow him and Stiles inside. I left the others to deal with Kira's mother. "Do you smell her?" I asked Scott.
He nodded. "She's definitely here." We ran down the hall and found her locked in a room.
Scott opened the door and Lydia whirled around. She looked terrified. "No, no, you weren't supposed to be here!"
"Lydia, what are you talking about? We're here for you," Scott told her.
"Didn't you get my message?" She asked desperately. "Who else is with you?" She asked. "We've got to help them!"
She pushed past us and started running up the stairs, we followed her. Scott was the fastest and got ahead. "Wait, wait," Stiles said. He leaned against the wall and then fell.
Lydia and I stopped. She looked at me. "Ava, go, they need help!"
I nodded and started running again, clutching my bow. I heard Lydia's scream from behind me before I made it out of the building. Scott was cradling Allison, I could tell from the look on his face she wasn't going to make it.
Isaac was on the ground a few feet away bleeding, but he had pushed himself up to look at Allison. I took a few steps towards him and then my knees gave out. I dropped to the ground next to him and he grabbed my hand.
"Everything was supposed to be okay," I whispered.
OoOoO
I sat in between Lydia and Scott on the couch outside Sheriff Stilinski's office. We'd been brought down to give our statements. Isaac had been the first one taken inside. I didn't even noticed when the let him go and took Scott into the office. The only reason I knew when Lydia went in was because she'd been clutching my hand.
"Miss Bates?" Deputy Parrish called. I looked up startled. I nodded and let him help me to my feet and into the office. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"She's really gone," I whispered.
"Ava, can you tell us what happened?" Stilinski asked.
I looked up at him and shook my head. "I wasn't there, I was inside. When I came out Scott was holding Allison and there was blood…there was blood everywhere."
"Why were you all there in the first place?" Parrish asked. I reached for the confusion clip in my hair absent-mindedly, to make sure I had really put it back in place.
"It was supposed to be fun," I mumbled. "Urban exploration, or whatever."
"That'll be all, Ava," Stilinski said. "I called Derek to pick you up, he should be here."
I pulled the clip out of my hair and put it in my pocket. "Thanks."
Outside the station Derek was waiting. "Hey," he said. He grabbed my shoulders and looked me over. "Are you okay?"
I shook my head. "How did this happen? How did I get here?" I asked. "This isn't fair, it's been so long since I cared about people. I didn't think I could anymore."
"You're human."
"I don't want to be human!" I snapped shaking his hands off my arms. "I don't want to lose people, I don't want it to hurt."
He tried to hug me, for a minute I pushed him away, but then I gave in. As soon as his arms were around me, I started sobbing. He rubbed my back. "I'm sorry about Allison. I wish there was something I could do."
OoOoO
Once I had calmed down Derek dropped me off at Deaton's where he was talking to Scott and Lydia about capturing the Nogitsune. "What's the plan?" I asked. "How do we stop this son of a bitch?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Lydia said.
"He's been captured before, can't we do it again?" Scott asked.
"I'm not sure," Deaton said. "The spirit was trapped in the Nematon before it was cut down. It doesn't have the same amount of power anymore."
"There's got to be something, Julia thought the tree still had power, didn't she?"
"Ms. Blake was also a psychotic monster," Lydia reminded me.
"True," I said.
"When the tree was still alive, its wood was used to make things, like boxes to contain powerful objects," Deaton said. "However these boxes are rare and hard to come across."
"Powerful objects like what?" Lydia asked. "Claws of an alpha?"
"Which alpha?" Deaton asked.
"Talia Hale," I said. "Peter and Derek have her claws, they're in a little box."
"With a triskele on top," Lydia added. "Maybe it was made from the Nematon."
"It was," Deaton said confidently.
"How do you know?" Scott asked.
"Because I made it."
"I'll call Derek." I told them, I stepped into the hall.
Derek answered on the first ring. "What's up?"
"Can you bring us the box with Talia's claws?" I asked. "Just the box, we don't need the claws."
"Why?" He asked.
"It was made from the Nematon. Deaton thinks we may be able to use to trap the Nogitsune."
"I'm almost to the loft, I'll grab it and meet you," he told me.
"Okay, thanks, I'll text you when I know where we're going." I hung up and went back into the room. Stiles and Kira had just walked in through the other door. Lydia was holding her head. "What's wrong?"
"I just got the sudden feeling that we're running out of time."
OoOoO
We headed back to school where Lydia was positive the Nogitsune was waiting for us. Stiles stumbled out of his Jeep, and I caught him. Lydia joined me trying to keep him up. We followed Kira and Scott to the main doors.
"Wait," Stiles said. "I know that you're all thinking, if this works, it could kill me. You have to promise me that you'll go through with this, no matter what. This ends tonight."
"Yeah, it does, and it ends with us all alive. I'm not losing anyone else to this thing," I told him.
"The plan is to save you," Scott told him. "That's the plan I'm going with." He pushed open the doors and we stepped into a Japanese garden covered in snow. Under any other circumstances I would have appreciated the beautiful scene, but the same chill that the Oni had always given me ran down my spine.
The doors shut behind us with finality. "This was definitely not part of the plan," Stiles said.
From behind an arch the bandaged creature appeared. "I warned you this day would come, Stiles," it said in a gravely voice. "We're going to kill you all, one by one." He raised his hand and one of the Oni appeared in front of Kira.
"Where are we?" Scott asked.
"In between life and death," the creature told him.
"Bardo," Lydia realized.
"Very good, Lydia. But there is no one here to help you return home this time. You're dying Stiles, and everyone you love will go down with you. I've already captured the other territories on the board, the sheriff station, the hospital, the animal clinic."
"Then why don't you just kill us and get it over with?" I asked.
"It wouldn't be fair for me to kill you without at least offering you another option," the creature said. "Everyone who is touched by an Oni's blade tonight will die, unless Scott kills Stiles first."
"Why are you doing this?" Stiles asked.
"To win the game."
The Oni drew their swords, and so did Kira. I raised my bow and Scott shifted. My first arrow hit it's mark, shattering one of the Oni's masks and it released a green light as it collapsed on itself. However I wasn't as lucky with the rest of my shots, the Oni were prepared, dodging the arrows or cutting them down in mid air. Kira and Scott fought, but there were too many of them and they were everywhere at once.
I had a sudden sinking feeling that the Nogitsune was right, we were all going to die tonight. But I wasn't about to go down without a fight. I shot my arrows until I ran out, and when they were gone, I fought with my hands. I heard Kira's sword clatter to the ground, and I knew it was over. Scott was restrained and Kira and I backed away from our foes.
Stiles scrambled for Kira's sword and held it to himself. "Stiles, don't!" I cried.
"What if it saves all of you?" Stiles asked.
"Scott, do for him what he is unable to do to himself," the creature urged Scott. "End this."
"It's just another trick," Lydia said. "He'll never let us go."
"No more tricks."
The Oni released Scott, but he made no move to do anything. Stiles looked at the sword closely, then he threw it to Kira. "We have to stop fighting them. It's an illusion." We all looked around, unable to see what Stiles was seeing. "It looks real, and it feels real, but believe me, it's not."
The Oni and the creature blocked our way to the doors, but Scott continued forward. The Oni swung the swords, cutting him, and he grimaced, but carried on. Kira followed his lead. I helped Lydia carry Stiles again and we did the same. One of the swords hit me across my stomach and I doubled over. Pain shot through my body and I screamed. Stiles pulled me back up and forced me to keep going.
Ahead of me Scott made it to the door and pushed it open. As soon as he did the winter wonderland disappeared and we were standing in the middle of the hallway. "We're okay," Scott said. I looked down and realized he was right. I was okay.
Suddenly Scott was thrown into the lockers. I whirled around to see the Nogitsune. Kira was caught off guard and he easily disarmed her. "Did you really think you could beat me at my own game?" He asked. I reached for my arrows but my quiver was empty, that much had been real at least. The Nogitsune backed us down the hall. "You can kill the Oni, but you can't kill me! I'm a thousand years old!"
"But we can change you!" Lydia shouted.
The Nogitsune stopped. "A thousand years long enough to forget a little scroll with your biggest secret?" I asked tauntingly.
"Change the host," the Nogitsune said, surprised.
"You can't be a fox and a wolf," Stiles said. Scott jumped him from behind and sunk his fangs into his arm. The Nogitsune screamed. Just in case the bite wasn't enough, Kira ran him through with her sword to finish the job. The Nogitsune fell to his knees, his mouth still open, and a firefly flew out. The bug flew down the hall and right into the Nematon box that Isaac was holding, he closed the lid. We all looked at the Nogitsune's body expectantly, it began to quiver and then it dissolved into black smoke.
Stiles collapsed and fell through my arms, suddenly as heavy as an armful of bricks. I yelped. "No, no, you can't die!" Lydia and I dropped down next to him. I pressed my fingers to his neck and breathed out a sigh of relief. "He's still alive. He just…fainted." I laughed and smacked his face. "Stiles, wake up, it's over!"
After a moment he came to. He looked around. "It worked, we're alive."
I pulled up to a sitting position and hugged him. "Yeah, we're alive. Everything is going to be okay now."
OoOoO
In the calm after the storm we started to move on. Scott asked for a few days to himself, and after Lydia found out Aiden had died during the fight she asked the same. Ethan chose to leave town, and left without telling anyone goodbye, I didn't blame him.
Isaac came to the loft a few days after everything had happened. "I think I'm going to get out of town for a while. Mr. Argent is going to France; he offered to let me tag along. I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I thought I'd tell you. You can pass it on."
I nodded. "I understand. I know you and Allison were getting close, I'm sorry."
"She was your friend too."
"Yeah, she was."
Isaac sat her bow on the coffee table. "Chris asked me to give this to you, he said Allison would have wanted you to have it."
"Thank you," I told him. I could hardly look at the bow. I'd put it up for a time when thinking about Allison didn't hurt so much.
"It's not your fault, it's not anyone's fault, just the Nogitsune's."
"And he's gone, but it doesn't make it hurt any less," I said. "Doesn't make me stop wishing I'd stayed behind to fight the Oni with her, or that I was better at magic so I could have protected her. But at least he can't hurt anyone else anymore."
"I know."
"I'm going to miss you, Isaac."
He hugged me tightly; it felt like everything that was never said between us was said with that one hug. "You'll see me again."
"I'm gonna hold you to that."
"See you around, Ava."
"Bye," I said quietly. I watched him walk away and I felt like he was taking part of myself along with him.
OoOoO
A few days later I went to school. It was weird sitting down in French and seeing the desk next to me empty, and in art Lydia and I were the only two people on our row without Isaac and Allison. The empty spaces made their absences that much more prominent.
At lunch I noticed Kira wasn't sitting with Scott and Stiles, so I joined her. She looked surprised. "I'm trying to give them space. I don't know how much they need."
I picked up her lunch and carried it over to the others. "Scott, Stiles, this is Kira. She's the new girl."
"This starting over thing seems like déjà vu," Scott said.
I smiled. "It worked the last time, didn't it?"
Stiles motioned across the lawn where a very confused girl was walking in circles. "Haven't you heard? Kira's not the new girl anymore."
"Is that Malia? Like werecoyote Malia?" I asked, Stiles nodded. "Interesting."
