Author's Note:

Thanks to everyone who's continuing to follow this story! I appreciate every view, hit and review that each one of you provides! Thank you guys so much!

kinky-kitsune: Derek is definitely concerned about Sydney, and he's a little worried about how far Peter's involved. Thank you so much for the review! I hope you continue to enjoy!

poorxbrokexcollegexkid: Peter will probably never learn his lesson haha! Thanks for taking the time to review!

ALEX: Sydney is strong! Derek's seriously confused because it wasn't too long ago that he was helping her haha. I think you'll be pleased with how the next few chapters turn out! Thank you so much for your amazing review and I really do hope you continue to read and enjoy!

The Last of Us

Summary: Sydney didn't know what was in store for her when she knocked on his door but she knew why she was there. With no one left to turn to, would he be her hero or would she ultimately become the villain she could only dream about.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Teen Wolf, Sydney however is all mine.

Chapter 38:

Derek cradled Sydney's body now and tried to focus on her breathing but the sound of two sets of feet approaching were enough for a distraction. He wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting, maybe for the Oni to come back and attack again, but when Scott rushed into the loft with the kitsune next to him, Derek let out a tiny sigh of relief. At least Stiles hadn't gotten a hold of Scott.

"What happened?" Scott demanded to know, concern lacing his tone.

Derek focused on Sydney and wondered what on earth he was supposed to do. She was probably still very mad at his uncle but what other choice did he have.

"They disappeared. They literally just vanished." Allison's soft voice was almost calming to Derek now but that didn't stop him from being afraid for Sydney.

"And so did Stiles…" The sheriff added and Derek found himself more concerned with her position in front of Stiles than he had been about her injury.

He hadn't been expecting her to be in his loft at all, especially not in a defensive position in front of Stiles. What the hell was that all about? Maybe if she had been opposing the nogistune, then at least he could have believed that someone had tipped her off, Scott maybe? But that wasn't the case. She had been standing on his side. She was with Stiles.

Derek didn't even hesitate to pull his phone out of his pocket. As soon as the cell phone was in his hand he leaned into the floor next to the unconscious Sydney and gently moved her head so that it lay against his lap. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the remaining occupants of his loft and began dialing the familiar number of his uncle. He waited maybe ten seconds before Peter picked up.

"Derek?"

"Yeah hey, can you get to loft real quick."

"Sydney?"

"Well, what's left of her anyways." Derek sighed and heard the familiar dial tone. Peter hadn't wasted any time in getting a move on and all Derek could do now was wait.

He took her hand in his and gave a gentle squeeze, attempting to draw out any pain that he possibly could. His eyes watched the veins on her arm as they turned a blue-purple colour and Derek held on just long enough to draw the pain to her wrist before letting go.

It had been obvious when he entered the loft that there was something wrong with Sydney, she was in a crouched position, ready to defend Stiles if an attack came. Derek wasn't stupid, there was no way Sydney would have been defending Stiles like that, no, she looked like she was prepared to die for him and yes, Sydney was a loyal, caring person but Derek knew she belonged on their side.

"Come on Syd, what have you gotten yourself into?" He murmured and relaxed his butt against the floor, running his fingers through her hair in an act meant to provide comfort to her.

The scene was all too familiar to Peter as he entered the loft. He was rather tired of walking into Derek's place to see his nephew cradling the limp body of his mate but what was he supposed to do? Peter had tried to keep possessed Sydney in the apartment but she had given him the slip.

"What happened?" Peter asked softly, closing the distance between him and them. Derek looked up at him, watching as Peter squatted down, his hands remaining at his sides.

"We showed up expecting Stiles, why was she here too?" Derek shot back, knowing that Peter was more aware of what was going on than he let Derek believe.

"You haven't figured it out by now Derek, really?"

"She's part of it, isn't she? She's like Stiles."

Peter leaned forward and studied Sydney's body, searching for the reason she was now passed out on the floor. Derek lifted his hand and motioned towards her hips and Peter had to lift his head up further to get a better look.

The wound was on the opposite side of her body, originally obscured by a bad angle but Peter saw it now. He threw a leg over her torso and moved to crouch next to her on the other side, taking in the sight of the deep, wide gash along her hip.

"I don't think she's exactly like Stiles but she's definitely not herself."

Peter extended his hand out towards her injury and poked at the skin surrounding the gash. He leaned towards her even more and looked into the wound. It was raw and red, just like he had been expecting but what he wasn't expecting to find was that her blood, where it should have been a crimson colour, or even black would have been less alarming, Peter found that it was the same blue-purple colour that he could recall from her memories.

"She's not healing." Derek offered and Peter glanced at him, fighting off the urge to make a snide remark. It was obvious that Sydney wasn't healing, yet again, and Peter was dumbfounded as to the reason why.

"Help me get her to the couch, I'll clean her up and hope that it doesn't get infected."

"Is that a best case scenario?" Derek questioned but was already carefully setting her head on the floor, Peter gently shoving his arms under her neck and knees.

"Well best case scenario, she heals on her own."

"So then what's the worst case scenario?"

"Honestly Derek, we might have to consider the possibility that we're going to lose her."

"And you're okay with that?" Derek pressed and Peter carefully lifted Sydney up off the floor, straightening his legs as he rose to his full height.

"I don't know that we have any other choice."

Derek fell silent but followed his uncle closely as Peter crossed the main floor of the loft and headed in the direction of the couch that was tucked away in the corner. Gently, Peter lowered Sydney's limp form onto the cushions, Derek readjusting her limbs so that they weren't in awkward angles.

It was still weird to see his uncle care for someone as much as he seemed to care about Sydney. Watching Peter gently brush her hair back tugged at Derek's heartstrings and he wondered if maybe there was something really special about Sydney that he had missed when he caused her to leave his pack.

"What caused her injury?" Peter asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

"One of the onis, they got her with their swords."

"Well, let's get this cleaned up, no sense wasting valuable time." Peter announced, his voice much more confident than it had been seconds earlier.

Derek nodded his understanding and took off for the staircase, making his way up the steps quickly.

Peter's eyes were locked on Sydney's peaceful expression and he found himself wondering what was going on in her head. He hadn't intended for her to get hurt, he wasn't entirely sure what his plan was once she was possessed but this wasn't it. No, Sydney was his mate, his life and if she succumbed to the darkness in a way that she would never be able to escape from, Peter didn't know what he would do. This was one mistake he had easily regretted.

"I love you." He murmured and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Derek had paused at the top of the staircase, listening as his uncle admitted that he actually loved the woman on the couch. Smiling at the thought that maybe Peter Hale could be happy, without causing all sorts of chaos, Derek quickly made his way down the spiral staircase and dropped the supplies onto the floor next to the couch.

Peter quickly grabbed hold of the disinfectant and twisted the cap off. He glanced at Derek who nodded for his uncle to go for it. Both men were well aware of how awful the stuff stung but that didn't matter, Sydney needed to be taken care of.

"Let me go grab a cloth." Derek announced and clambered away from the couch, heading to the opposite side of the loft.

Peter turned his attention away from her face and scooted down so that he was nearer to her injury. When Derek reappeared with a cloth in his hand, Peter slowly poured the disinfectant liquid into her wound, watching now as it bubbled and fizzed.

"Hmm." She moaned and her hip twitched the slightest little bit. Derek gently pressed the cloth against the wound and dabbed lightly, hoping to clean it.

He pulled the cloth away and Peter went ahead and poured more of the liquid into her wound, less bubbles, less fizzing. Derek took a chance and gingerly swiped the cloth across her injured hip, wiping the dirt and germs off of her raw flesh.

"No more." She mumbled and her head moved slightly.

Derek glanced at his uncle, who was trying not to smirk as he poured a third dose of disinfectant onto her gash. Sydney's arm moved and she slowly took a swipe at Derek's hand as he tried to dab her wound one final time. When her hand came in contact with his forearm, her head rolled to the side and she opened her eyes, blinking rapidly as she tried to clear up her vision.

"Stop." She whined but her voice was still extremely low.

"We're cleaning out your cut." Derek stated, his tone nearly matching hers.

"It hurts."

Sydney made a move to twist her lower body but at the movement in her hips she let out a loud yelp. Taking a look at her torn open hip, she let out a small gasp but relaxed back into the couch.

"Sydney." Peter's voice called out to her and she shut her eyes. "Hey, look at me."

"Stop talking." She groaned and lifted a hand up, resting her forearm over her eyes. "I'm tired."

"Okay, go to sleep Syd." Derek cooed at her.

"I am."

"Good."

"You keep hurting me."

Peter fought off the chuckle forming in his throat as he scooted back up towards her face. She turned her head at the sounds and uncovered her eyes, looking right at him. He smirked at her and she reached her hand out, the one connected to the arm she had been using to cover her eyes, and set her palm against his cheek.

"Hey." Peter breathed the word out.

"I'm still mad at you."

"I know. You'll probably always be mad at me."

"Stay with me?"

Derek seized his opportunity and peeled open a package of gauze, gently setting it over her cut. She winced slightly but her attention never left Peter's as she simply stared at him, waiting for his answer. Derek continued to dress her wound, waiting for his uncle to speak too.

"Always."

Peter reached out and took hold of her other hand, gently running his fingers across her knuckles. Derek continued to work away at covering up her wound and before either of them knew it, she was snoring softly, the same peaceful look from before taking over her features.

XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX

Back in the basement, the same basement as before. Sydney already figured that it was a dream, or a vision, whatever it was, she knew it wasn't her that it was happening to. Once again she believed she had been sucked into Stiles' head.

This time was different though. There was no weird supernatural beings, no dead fireflies in her hand, no steel jaw traps on her leg. No this felt almost real. She let the legs of the body she was riding along in move forward, towards the wall where the weird symbol had been in Stiles' nightmare. There was a hole there now and a lady bent down, holding two pieces of the broken wall together to form the weird, backwards '5' symbol.

"Why that kanji? Why 'self'?" She felt her lips moving but she knew they didn't actually belong to her. It sounded exactly like Stiles, which only served as confirmation that she was back in his head.

"To signify that he died as himself." She answered calmly.

Sydney studied the woman's face and realized why she had looked so familiar. There was no reason for her to play nice now, not when she had threatened Stiles, and her, in the hospital shortly after Stiles escaped from the MRI machine.

"Because Reese wasn't a monster. Not like you."

"If I'm such a monster, why'd you call off the oni?" Stiles' voice sounded wrong in her head but she couldn't change it, she couldn't control it. He was the one who was leading her. "What happened to the woman who called out for chaos, strife and pain to descend upon everyone and everything? What happened?"

Chaos, strife and pain. Sydney focused her attention on the broken wall, witnessing the body lying lifeless in the hole. The person's face was covered with the same grotesque and dirty bandages as the man who had taunted them in the basement the first time. If she had control of the body, she would have flinched at the sight.

"I don't want that anymore." The woman admitted and Sydney's movements propelled herself forwards, the woman now standing at her full height.

She still didn't know who she was, or what was really going on, but she figured that this woman was a huge part in the Nogitsune that was currently loose, running amuck on Beacon Hills.

"I do." Stiles' voice drummed in her head.

She could only watch as he moved in to attack the woman, taking hold of some sort of weapon. When he freed it from her, Sydney's eyes studied it. It looked like a long, sharp piece of metal with no obvious function except maybe it was used to stab. The edges were somewhat dull compared to most knives and it was black in colour.

She couldn't help but feel like maybe they really were losing Stiles. Sure she had tried to fight her way out of her own head but in the end she had given in, the only thing that had brought her back was an incredibly deep wound from an Oni sword.

"Did you bring this here thinking you could hide it from me? Bad idea."

She felt it before she saw it, the searing pain of her abdomen being sliced open. She figured that at any second the entire liquid contents of her stomach would spill right out of her and dribble down to the floor. It continued to burn but Stiles seemed unaffected.

"What have you done?" The strange woman demanded and she could feel Stiles' chest heaving, the pain only worsening as a sick, strange buzzing sound began to increase in volume.

"Chaos is come again."

She tried to scream as the wound spread open slightly but instead of her stomach contents spilling out, flies swarmed around the room, endless amounts of flies. The buzzing grew deafening and she felt them circling, as though they were preparing for some sort of mission.

When the flies bounded towards the openings to the world outside of the basement, she got hold of one of the bugs in her line of sight. With another ear piercing scream, Stiles' body jerked forward.

Sydney jolted awake, her hands immediately moving to her stomach and feeling out for the wound where flies apparently lived. There was no wound on her stomach, nothing that she should be too alarmed about but there was an immense pain on her hip and Sydney found herself remembering the attack from the Oni, Peter and Derek cleaning out her really deep cut from the sword and the promise that Peter was going to stay with her, always.

"You're up!" Derek's voice was rather chipper now considering the circumstances.

"Yeah." Sydney nodded and made her way into a sitting position, her hip burning from the movements. "Where's Peter?"

"Bathroom I think." Derek answered her question and rushed towards her, slipping an arm around her and helping her to her feet.

She felt the muscles straining and pulling in her hip as she walked towards the table, clutching Derek with every ounce of strength she had. He cautiously freed her from his grasp when they got near enough to the table so that she could lean against the edge with her good hip, at least that way she should stay upright without his help. Her eyes took in the sight of the game board and the pile of pieces residing there.

"Do we really have time for chess?" She asked now and tried to laugh, the stress from the attempt proved to be too painful and she resorted to smirking at him instead.

"Are you okay?" He asked, ignoring her lame joke.

"Yeah, I don't know." She shook her head but locked onto his eyes. She caught a glimpse of the still open wound on the back of his shoulder but pushed it to the back of her mind. If he wasn't concerned about, well then neither was she. They clearly had bigger things to worry about, like what the hell happened to Stiles, why had he simply disappeared and more importantly, had what Sydney witnessed while she was sleeping been real or was it just a dream?

"I don't know that I liked what I saw."

"You mean me and Stiles? Yeah, that scares me too Derek." She admitted in a low tone. "I try to resist the pull but it doesn't matter, if she wants my body she takes it."

"She?"

Sydney's eyes were drawn away from Derek now at the sound of approaching footsteps. She would have been able to tell it was Peter simply by the scent, but seeing him, watching him walk towards her now was almost reassuring. Maybe they could all figure it out, together.

"What are you doing?" Peter asked and walked by her, pausing only to smile at her but his questions were directed at Derek. "And more importantly, why aren't you healing?"

"It's from one of their swords. It'll heal."

"By playing chess?" Peter teased and Sydney let out a laugh, immediately wincing at the movement of her body, more pulling on her wound sent shooting pains through her abdomen. Peter reached out to her and took hold of her hand, gently tugging her towards him.

She limped around the table and pressed her body against his, holding on with everything she had. Sydney relaxed slightly as Peter's arm banded around her shoulders.

"Back in his room, Stiles had a board with my name on one of the pieces-"

"What piece?" Sydney cut him off but Derek leveled his gaze on her, signaling for her to keep quiet and wait for him to finish speaking.

"If this is a game to him, then I need to figure out the plays."

"I could probably-"

"Not so easy to do when it's a game without rules." Peter offered and Sydney fell silent. She debated how much Peter knew of what was going on with her, how deeply connected to Stiles, or the Nogitsune, she really was. Hell if she focused hard enough, she could probably figure out his next move too. If that were the case, was he trying to keep it from Derek now?

"What does that mean?" Derek questioned.

She readjusted herself against Peter's side and tried to get as close to him as she possibly could while putting the least amount of pressure on her leg and hip. Peter's grasp loosened the slightest bit and Sydney let out a groan before putting all of her weight on her good leg and leaning into Peter, her nose now nuzzling against the side of his neck, seeking comfort for the constant thrum of pain.

"You're dealing with the kind of spirit that's lived too long to play by human rules. It's a fox spirit that chose to become human and supposedly, that's something they can do only after about a hundred years. If a kitsune is an annoying pain in the ass, then a nogitsune, which is a dark kitsune, is a freaking disaster." Peter moved his arm away from her and grabbed hold of his jacket nearby. Before she could object, his arm was right back around her, stabilizing her as she struggled to stand without sharp, shooting pains coursing all up through her body.

"I think you're looking at this wrong." Sydney stated and reached out to grab one of the pieces, Peter taking hold of her hand before she could lay a claim on any of them. "Maybe Derek has a point here. He said Stiles had a chess board with his name on one of the pieces."

"Amoung other names." Derek added and nodded in Sydney's direction, implying for her to continue her train of thought but now she was intrigued.

"Was my name on it?"

"Actually yeah." Derek nodded and Peter even started to seem very interested.

"So what piece were you?" Sydney asked and turned her attention to Derek.

He extended his arm out and wrapped his fingers around the black plastic king piece, putting it on the board in an upright position, the remaining pieces still in a pile in the middle of the board.

"You were the king?" Peter butted in and narrowed his eyes on Derek. Apparently the man figured he should be the king, the accusatory tone to his voice had not gone unnoticed by Sydney.

"I was. Syd was just a pawn though." Derek continued on, taking hold of a black plastic pawn and setting it up right near the king.

"The hell I'm just a pawn, I'm the motherfucking queen." She grumbled but Derek simply smirked at her. Maybe she really was just a pawn, after all, she was the one being possessed too, she was the one fighting for control of her own body. Yes, okay it definitely made sense that Sydney was a pawn, that didn't mean she didn't like it any less.

"A queen in her own right." Peter jeered and she let out a low growl at his remark.

"Yeah well I bet you were a useless pawn too." She muttered and Derek fought off the urge to laugh.

"Actually, he was a knight." Derek offered after he regained his serious composure.

"I was wrong, this is stupid. You can't figure out what the nogitsune is up to based on a lame board game." She barked, clearly upset at the idea of being a simple pawn while Peter was a knight and Derek the King.

"Besides, chess is Stiles's game." Peter added and she noticed that he was smirking now too. "It's not the game of a Japanese fox."

Sydney let out a groan as Peter began to walk away now but she followed him willingly, even keeping up with the pace he was moving at. She held on tightly to his hand, holding her breath as the pain shot through her torso.

"Syd, do me a favour, next time you're going to go all commando for Stiles' team, try to give me a warning?" Derek baited and she let out a huff at him, as if she could just willingly announce to anyone and everyone what the nogitsune was planning. She didn't have that type of ability.

Peter circled around the table and paused behind Derek, taking in the sight of the sword wound on his shoulder. It almost looked as bad as Sydney's but his had healed the slightest little bit, plus the blood that was there earlier wasn't a blue-purple colour, it was the usual deep red.

"Do yourself a favor and put something on that before it gets infected." Peter countered.

Sydney snorted at Peter's words but let out a yelp at the pain. Peter shook his head at the both of them before snaking his arm around her middle, helping her alleviate the pressure on her wound as the two of them made their way out of the loft, leaving Derek to his game of chess.

XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX

She continued to hobble along next to him as they made their way up the stairs inside the apartment building. Okay so maybe she was still slightly perturbed at Peter but with the burning, searing pain and now the itching in her hip, she decided in her head that maybe he was her best option. She didn't figure she'd do too well on her own in this condition, especially if she wasn't healing.

He shoved his key into the lock and opened the door, gently slipping his arm around her and helping her inside. Sydney let out a groan as he stopped their movements and reached back to shut the door behind them.

"Where would you rather lie down, the couch or the bed?"

She took in his words and silently debated her answer. If she laid down in the bed, she could easily have some privacy, especially if she asked him to leave the room. If she chose to stay on the couch, she could keep an eye on Peter and in turn he could keep an eye on her, maybe catching on before the darkness tried to take over once again.

"Don't care." She murmured after a few seconds of thought. "How about the bathtub?"

"And would you prefer that with or without water?"

"Oh my god, please help me have a bath."

She gripped him tighter and moved as swiftly as she could next to him towards the bathroom. Peter gingerly bent over and let her sit on the edge of the tub before she let go of her hold on him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes." She nodded and tried to block out the imaginary pain that she was certainly going to be experiencing in real life soon enough. It didn't matter though, she wanted a bath, she wanted to wash away the dirty, grimy feeling on her skin. If she could convince Peter, she even wanted to let the hot water lap up around her wound, without the bandages to protect it. Sydney had come up with a theory on the drive home. She figured that pain seemed to keep the voices at bay.

"Okay, here we go."

She slowly stripped off her top, a hiss of pain erupting from her throat as she turned to drop it against the floor. She tried to reach around behind her to unclasp her bra but stopped halfway there and grunted. Damn hip was ripe with pain.

"Would you like some help?" Peter questioned and tried to hide his amused expression. It wasn't too often that Sydney struggled and Peter found the sight to be quite entertaining.

"Yes, please."

Peter circled around her and stood behind her, gently taking hold of the clasp in his hands before releasing it. She slid the straps down her arms and gingerly removed the article from her body, tensing now as his hands pressed against her back.

"You're much less hostile when you're in pain." He murmured and couched down, resting his chin on her shoulder. She let out a shudder, quickly followed by a small yelp. Sydney leaned forward slowly and turned the hot water on, hoping she could enjoy a nice, hot bath soon enough.

"Compliant is the word you're looking for." She threw back at him as she leaned back.

"All right then, let's get you naked."

She let out a scoff at his words but let him lift her to her feet. She grabbed at her jeans and fumbled with the button and zipper. The pants were ruined, there was no way she could fix the huge, gaping hole on the hip, which sucked because she had really liked those jeans.

Peter's hands slid down her sides and pushed the jeans, as well as her underwear, down over her hips, his one hand roaming over the skin on her good hip, the other hand gently prodding the edges of Derek's patch job.

"It concerns me that neither you nor Derek are healing." He proclaimed, slipping his finger under the edge of the adhesive strip holding the gauze down.

"That just means you're going to have a lot of practice taking care of wounds." She replied and leaned into him, putting all of her weight on her bad leg as she lifted her good leg into the bathtub, pausing slightly to pull her legs free of her jeans and her foot free of the sock. Peter gently peeled off the gauze and took a hard look at her hip as Sydney straddled the tub.

"I'm surprised I can't see your hip bone." Peter remarked, a sense of wonder to his tone.

"Yeah, that's a damn shame."

She used him as support as she lifted her bad leg up, letting out a pained moan, before making it into the bathtub where she now stood. With a grimace, she slowly lowered herself down into the rising pool of water, biting down on her lip as the clear, clean liquid seeped into her deep, deep cut.

She glanced up at him but he was kneeling beside the tub before she knew it, her arms crossing over her bare breasts as he leaned over the edge and studied the wound, now half submerged in the water.

"Is this what brought you back?" He asked and pointed towards the raw, exposed flesh.

"Yeah."

"I see how that would make sense."

"How?"

"Pain makes you human."

Sydney flashed him a small, almost nervous smile, and gently lowered herself into the water, watching as it turned from clear to a murky brown colour. Peter reached out to the towel rack and grabbed hold of a wash cloth, handing it to her so she could tend to her wound.

"Call me when you're done, I'll come help you out." He offered and she simply nodded her understanding, watching sadly as he stood up and disappeared out into the apartment, leaving her alone in the bathroom.

Derek taking care of Sydney until Peter arrived and the two of them helping her out, how do you guys feel about that? And Sydney and Peter being back together? Leave me a review, PM me if you want. I love to hear thoughts, theories and concerns!