"When life has cut too deep and left you hurting

The future you had hoped for is now burning

And the dreams you held so tight lost their meaning

And you don't know if you'll ever find the healing

You're gonna make it"

The Sun Is Rising by Britt Nicole

It had been about three weeks since the Nemeton had been reactivated. During those three weeks, despite spending quite a bit of my time avoiding my main group of friends in favor of spending time with the new girl Kira or Isaac without the others around, I had begun to notice slight changes in the actions of Scott, Stiles, and Allison, such as jumpiness and tiredness, but that was the extent of it. I had also spent time with Deaton and Riichi to control the finer aspects of our powers and spent the occasional night with my new booty call when wanting to work off tension. And said booty call was actually quite funny when we did talk.

I pulled up outside of Scott's house before school, intending to pick up Isaac and get coffee before we had to start the day. I exited my car, fixing my shirt as I walked up to the front door. Right before I was about to knock, I heard a loud thud from inside the house.

"What the. . ." I muttered. I waited a few seconds to listen for more. It wasn't accompanied by any screaming or yelling, so I knocked instead.

A few seconds later, Melissa opened the door with a smile. "Sara, you here for Isaac?" I nodded as I walked inside. "Fantastic, he's upstairs. Make sure he and Scott don't hit each other again."

My mouth gaped open as I watched her walk away, not giving me the chance to ask what she meant. I walked up the stairs to find Isaac groaning as he picked himself up off the floor in front of Scott's room.

He froze when he saw me. "Sara! Right, hey," he said. Isaac quickly stood up straight and brushed off his pants.

Scott entered the hallway with an awkward grin and waved. "Hey," he greeted. The two teenage boys shared a side glance.

"I'm not going to ask," I told them, shaking my head. "Come on, Izzy. I need coffee." I was about to turn around but spotted a framed painting on the floor when it was supposed to be on the wall. I pointed at it. "Really?"

Isaac shared another glance with Scott, picked up the painting, hung it back up on the wall, and hurried after me, grabbing his bag as we passed the guest room that had been converted into his room.

When I pulled out on the road, driving towards the nearest coffee shop, I glanced at Isaac in my passenger seat. "You gonna tell me what that was?" I asked.

"What what was?" he asked, playing coy.

I rolled my eyes. "You're a terrible actor, Izzy, but fine, I'll clarify. Why were you and Scott fighting?"

"We weren't fighting," he said, looking out the window. "We were just. . ."

"Throwing each other against a wall for fun?" I raised an eyebrow at him, making sure he knew I didn't believe a word he was saying.

"Okay, we were hashing some things out." Isaac picked at his pants. "You know, about Allison. . . and you."

"Me?" I repeated. I pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop. "What about me?"

"You're just gonna keep pretending Deaton hadn't said anything, huh?"

"No idea what you're talking about." I climbed out of the car, making Isaac groan in mild annoyance.

He got out and followed me towards the door. "You have to address it at some point, or you know, at least talk to him about something other than what answer he got on question two."

"Do you want me to buy you a coffee or not?"

He dropped the subject.

Once at school, Isaac went off in search of Boyd, and I found Stiles outside. He looked exhausted, with dark bags under his eyes and jerky movements, more so than usual. "You okay?" I asked, looking at the human strangely.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, I just didn't sleep well last night," he answered, fixing his backpack over his shoulders.

I looked at him sternly, my grip tightening on my coffee cup. "Stiles."

"Alright, alright," he conceded. "I had a nightmare. I think what we did with the Nemeton might still be affecting us, or at least it's affecting me. Have you seen Scott?"

I shook my head. "Not since I picked up Isaac. He should be here though if he's not on his way. Come on."

Together, we walked through the outside of campus looking for Scott. And we found him, but he didn't see us. He looked focused on his shadow as he ran down the stairs in our direction. Stiles and I hurried over after sharing a worried look.

Stiles stopped him by putting his hands on Scott's shoulders. "Hey, hey, you alright?" Stiles asked. Scott was a little breathless as he looked at us then nodded. "You don't look alright, Scott."

"I'm okay," he said.

"No, you're not," I cut in. "What were you running from?"

"It's happening to you, too," Stiles said in realization. "You're seeing things, aren't you?"

"How'd you know?" Scott asked.

I heard footsteps coming up behind us and turned to see Lydia and Allison walking over. Allison looked a little worse for wear. "Because it's happening to all three of you," Lydia said.

As we walked into the school, Scott, Stiles, and Allison explained what they had been seeing. Scott was seeing his eyes glow, his claws come out, and a giant werewolf as his shadow. Stiles was having terrible nightmares and sleep paralysis. Allison was hallucinating her dead aunt Kate.

Lydia and I were walking ahead of the three and opened the doors. "Well, well, look who's no longer the crazy one," Lydia remarked with amusement.

"We're not crazy," Allison argued.

Lydia and I turned around. "Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fine," Lydia countered.

"It makes sense for you to have side effects because of what happened," I said amicably, waving my hand for Lydia to calm down. "You literally died for sixteen freaking hours and came back to life. Life's not going to be fine and dandy after that."

The school bell rang overhead.

"We keep an eye on each other," Stiles said. "And, Lydia, stop enjoying this so much."

Lydia made a face, pretending not to know what he meant as he walked away. "What?"

I looked at Scott. "We've got History, come on." I waved for him to follow and he did like a good pup. We hurried after Stiles and made our way to the History classroom.

The moment we walked in, I choked on my coffee. Scott looked at me in alarm and patted me on the back. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm good," I replied, clearing my throat and trying not to go into a coughing fit.

Standing at the front of the classroom was Ken Yukimura, Kira's dad, dressed in a suit and writing on the board. I sat in the desk behind Scott, Stiles in front of him. I glanced around the classroom while setting my bag on the floor at my feet and spotted Kira sitting one row over at the back of the class. She gave me a smile. I used my head to gesture to her dad at the front of the room and she nodded, her expression shifting to embarrassment.

"Good morning, everyone," Ken greeted. I turned around to face the front. "My name is Mr. Yukimura." He walked around the side of the desk, talking to the class. "I'll be taking over for your previous History teacher. My family and I moved here three weeks ago. I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira, but in case you don't, there she is."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing as Ken pointed to Kira in the back. The poor girl grimaced and awkwardly waved when everyone turned to look at her. I shot her a grin and a thumbs up which she sufficiently glared at.

Ken moved on. "Now, let's begin with American history at the turn of the twentieth century."

As Ken began teaching, I saw Scott tense up in front of me, staring at the floor beside him. Oh, no, he's seeing his shadow change again. I reached forward, setting a gentle hand on his upper arm. Scott glanced at me and leaned back in his seat, trying to make himself remain calm. I felt him relax under my touch.

Crisis averted, for now.

After class, I went with Scott and Stiles to our lockers. "Maybe we need a little more time to get back to normal," Scott said, leaning on my locker.

"Yeah, try not to forget we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures," Stiles reminded us. "There's a pretty good chance things are never going back to normal."

"There's likely more creatures already in Beacon Hills now," I told them. "It has been a few weeks." I wasn't going to bring up the fact that Noshiko and Kira were kitsune, but the boys definitely needed to know that other creatures had already arrived. Meanwhile, Stiles was having trouble undoing the lock on his locker, forcefully pulling on it. I brought my hands up to his. "Hey, relax. Let me, okay?"

Stiles slowly nodded and backed away, giving me the combination to unlock it. Once unlocked, I turned my focus back to Scott whose eyes were glowing. "Scott, your eyes," I said quietly.

That drew Stiles's attention back to us while he switched out his books. "What?"

"What?" Scott also asked. He looked up at me. "What about them?"

"Your eyes are glowing." He was about to turn his head, but I grabbed his face with my hands. "Look at me, focus on me, or just close your eyes."

Scott's breathing quickened as he lowered his head and closed his eyes. "I can't. . . I can't control it."

"Okay, keep your eyes closed and head down." I grabbed him by the arm.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," Stiles said, grabbing Scott by the other arm, and we pulled the werewolf into a nearby empty classroom.

When we entered, Scott left our grips and stripped off his jacket to try to cool down, a small growl leaving him. Stiles and I moved closer, but he looked back at us, holding up his hand. "Get back. Get away from me."

I didn't listen, still moving closer. "Scott, it's okay." He stumbled and I grabbed his arm, turning him to make him look at me. His fangs began to grow. "Look at me. Focus on one thing, okay? Focus on me."

"Sara," he growled. "Get back."

"No. You won't hurt me." I grabbed both of his wrists with my hands, squeezing them tight and noting how his claws were growing as well. "Focus on me." I stared into his glowing red eyes, and my eyes turned bright orange. "Just breathe. Deep breaths, okay? Look at me and take a deep breath. In and out." His breathing was strangled and shallow, but he still tried to follow my directions even as he tried to pull out of my grip. "You won't hurt me, Scott. Focus on me and breathe."

Finally, his breathing slowed and his eyes flickered back to brown, so I let mine do so as well. My grip loosened on his wrists, and he stumbled back, catching himself before he fell to the floor. His claws and fangs retracted.

Stiles inched forward to my side. "This isn't just in our heads," he said. "This is real. It's starting to get bad for me, too. I'm not just having nightmares. I'm having these dreams where I have to literally scream myself awake. And sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm ever actually waking up."

"What do you mean?" Scott asked.

"Do you know how you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in dreams. More and more, the last few days, I've been having trouble reading. It's like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters in order."

I realized that's why he was having difficulty with the lock on his locker. "Like even now?" I wondered.

Stiles looked at the blackboard at the front of the room. "I can't read a thing."

I sighed, looking between the two boys. "We need to figure out how to fix this and fast before anyone gets hurt."

At lunch the next day, Boyd and I actually sat with the whole group, informing Kira that we were helping them with something and that she'd be on her own for lunch. I felt bad, but I couldn't just invite her to join us because our chosen topic of intrigue had to do with the supernatural. Stiles and Allison both had incidents since the previous school day, with Stiles stuck in a daydream in the middle of class and Allison almost killing Lydia.

Stiles, Scott, and I sat on one side of the picnic table while Isaac, Allison, and Lydia were on the other side and Boyd had pulled up a chair from a different table to be between Isaac and me.

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott posed.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles added.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" Allison continued.

"They're all locked up because they're insane," Isaac answered. Boyd and I huffed and rolled our eyes. Of course, that would be Isaac's input.

"Ha," Stiles snarked. "Can you at least try to be helpful, please?"

"For half my childhood, I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing for me."

Scott put his head down on his arms, quietly groaning at them arguing. I rubbed his upper arm, wanting to smack Stiles and Isaac for being so hostile towards each other still. Stiles also should know that abuse wasn't something someone just got over once it stopped.

"Hey, dude, are you still milking that?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah, we are still milking that," Isaac said, rightfully glaring at Stiles.

"Hi." We all looked up to see Kira standing at the other end of the picnic table with a smile. "Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about. And I think I actually might know what you're talking about."

"Wait, really?" I blurted.

Kira smiled at me. "Yeah, there's a Tibetan word for it. It's called bardo. It literally means 'in-between state.' The state between life and death."

"And what do they call you?" Lydia asked.

"Kira," Boyd answered. Isaac, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia looked at him with odd expressions. He looked a tad embarrassed as they all stared at him. "She moved here three weeks ago. Sara and I have been sitting with her at lunch."

I looked back at Kira. "I told you you'd be full of interesting info. Have a seat." I gestured to the small empty space next to Stiles.

"Oh, okay," she muttered awkwardly, slowly sitting next to Stiles, only partly on the bench.

"So, are you talking bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia asked.

"Either, I guess." Kira shrugged, shifting in her seat. "But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

"Wrathful deities?" Isaac repeated. "And what are those?"

"Like demons?" Boyd suggested.

Kira nodded. "Exactly."

"Demons," Stiles said. "Why not?"

"Hold on," Allison cut in, "if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?"

"Death," Kira answered as if it was the most obvious thing ever. She smiled at us, still thinking our conversation was completely hypothetical. "You die."

My jaw dropped open a little. "Death. That's fantastic."

"I don't suppose you know of how to stop or reverse the states?" Boyd asked, trying to sound nonchalant and glancing at Scott, Stiles, and Allison.

Kira thought about it. "Well, if you somehow transcend or overcome the visions, then you enter the transformation stage and are reborn into your next life. Your visions and how you approach them determine the desirability of your rebirth. So, say you have a lot of bad karma, your next life will be bad, but if you've trained for your visions and become better, then you'll be fine."

Scott and Stiles made a plan to go talk to Deaton after school to tell him about what had been going on and hopefully get some insight from him. Lydia didn't plan on leaving Allison's side, so they were going to study together. Isaac had decided to stay home. And Kira invited Boyd and me over to her place to study for a test we were having in a few days.

An hour after school ended, Boyd was incredibly nervous on the drive to Kira's house, tapping his knee and staring out the window.

When I pulled up outside of Kira's house, before I got out of the car, I turned to Boyd. "Alright, dude, spill," I told him. "What's got your panties in a twist? And don't tell me it's nothing. I'm tired of hearing that answer from you boys. It's obviously something, so don't lie to me."

Boyd sighed, leaning back in the passenger seat. "I've never been to a girl's house before," he answered quietly. "Yours doesn't count."

"Well, I'd hope mine doesn't count considering you were visiting my brother each time you came over, and you're a little too serious for my taste." He sent me a half-hearted glare, and I smiled. "What's up with werewolves being smitten so easily? Seriously, you took one look at Kira and almost immediately began trying to make her smile, which you don't do with anyone else, Mr. Stoic Statue."

He shook his head, trying not to laugh. "What is up with you and nicknames?" he asked.

"They make everything more fun." I shrugged then hit his upper arm. "Come on, let's go. Already at the meeting-the-parents stage. So proud."

Boyd groaned as we climbed out of my car, and I laughed at his reaction. I led the way up to Kira's front door and rang the doorbell. Shortly after, Noshiko opened the door and politely smiled. "Sara, good to see you again," she greeted, opening the door wider and allowing Boyd and I to enter. "Who is this?"

"This is Boyd," I introduced, gesturing to the towering hunk of muscle as Noshiko closed the door behind us. "Boyd, this is Noshiko, Kira's mom."

Boyd extended his hand. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am."

Noshiko smiled at him and shook his hand. "You too. Kira's in her room." We heard footsteps running towards us from the hall and turned to see Kira enter the entryway. "Or not."

I wanted to laugh at Kira skidding to a stop in her fluffy socks, and Boyd's large grin only added to my amusement. They were both so awkward, I found it adorable. And Noshiko's look of realization when glancing between Kira and Boyd only made me want to laugh even more. I shrugged at Noshiko, not like the other two noticed. Noshiko nodded and left the three of us alone.

I straightened my messenger bag. "Alright, where do you wanna start?"

About an hour later, Boyd had to use the bathroom, leaving Kira and me alone in her room sitting on her bed with our textbooks and notes scattered in front of us.

"Hey, Sara," Kira said quietly, grabbing my attention from the question I was answering on the study guide. I looked up at her, lifting an eyebrow. Her pencil was still over her paper as she looked at me. "How long have you known Boyd?"

"Uh, I've known him since we were kids," I answered. "But we didn't start hanging out until midway through last semester. Why?"

She shook her head, looking away. "No reason."

A small smile pulled at my lips. "'No reason' like if I know what he likes in girls? Or how to impress him? Or how to ask him out? Those 'no reasons?'"

A blush spread across her cheeks, and she shook her head again. "I'm not looking for a boyfriend."

"You're not looking for it, but you're definitely crushing. Boyd's a good guy. I approve."

Later that night, I woke up to the sound of knocking at my window. I picked my head up and reached for my phone on my nightstand. Briefly blinded by the light, I saw the time stamp read 2:42 AM. I groaned and set my phone back down.

"I swear if it's you, Isaac, I'm going to. . ." I trailed off when I turned to see Scott kneeling on the roof outside my window. My disgruntled frown morphed into a confused one. Scott waved with an uncomfortable half-grin. "Scotty? What the hell?" I crawled out of my bed, grabbing my knitted cardigan and pulling it on as I walked to the window. Undoing the latch, I opened the window, letting him crawl inside. "Everything okay?"

He didn't say anything. His feet touched my floor, and he turned to wrap his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. Letting out a small squeak of surprise, I slowly brought my hands up his back and returned the hug. Being in his arms felt nicer than any other hug I had ever gotten. The warmth of his body and the strength of his arms made all my thoughts disappear, and I relaxed into the hug, setting my head on his shoulder. I found myself never wanting to leave the hug.

But I had to ask, "What's wrong, koinu?"

Scott sighed and pulled out of the hug, much to my dismay, but I tried not to show it. "Sorry, I just. . . I had to. It's been an. . . interesting day."

Reaching out, I grabbed his hand. That was his way of saying today sucked ass. "What happened?" I asked, staring up into his eyes.

"A few things," he replied vaguely.

"Well, you've woken me up, so I've got time." I smiled, coaxing a small one out of him. "Come on, tell me all about your woes." I steered him towards my bed and we both sat on it. I curled my legs up under me while he stayed on the edge.

Scott picked at the sleeves of his jacket. "My dad is trying to get Stiles's dad fired."

My face dropped. "What?" No wonder he needed to talk to someone, like damn.

I wasn't surprised, in all honesty. Agent Douchebag's douchiness wasn't going to surprise me. Instead, it made me angry. He came back to Beacon Hills and starts trying to fire the sheriff? Stiles's dad no less, not just any sheriff. If the sheriff was utterly incompetent, then I'd understand, but Noah handled things far better than anyone else could. And now that he knew about the supernatural, he was in a better position to help the city than he had been before.

He nodded, staring at the floor. "Yeah, so Sheriff Stilinski was trying to solve one last case while he's still the sheriff and asked for my help to try and get the scent of a girl named Malia who died eight years ago in a car crash with her mom and sister on the night of a full moon."

"Oh, no," I groaned, sort of seeing where his story was going. "He thinks a werewolf killed them, huh?"

Scott nodded and turned his gaze up to me. "Except, she's not dead. Stiles and I went out looking for her body to try and help, and we found a coyote near the wreck. When I chased after it, its eyes glowed blue."

"Like Derek's," I realized. Killing innocents was the only way to change the color of a werewolf's eyes. Or werecoyote in this case. "The girl shifted and killed her family."

He nodded again. "She's been a coyote in the woods ever since. And I want to help her change back. But I'm going to need help. I don't trust myself to shift right now. The past three weeks have seemed fine, and now it just seems like everything is crashing down again."

"We can figure it out together. Anything for you, Scott. Name it, and I'll be there."

Koinu - puppy

We are now in season 3B! Arguably the best season, but whatevs. Hope you all liked the chapter!

Reviews:

RubyGemGreen: Wait, people are shipping Sara and Stiles? That's. . . hm. I can see it. Thanks for reviewing and reading!

Captain Boshtet: I'm glad you like Sara and Kira since I wanted to help flesh out Kira's character more due to the writer's woefully underutilizing her, and with Noshiko and Sara I tried to make it as nuanced and tense as possible, so I hope that showed. The awkwardness will continue off and on between Scott and Sara of course depending on the situation and what they're thinking, but the repercussions with her and Brett won't be completely obvious at first. But yeah, I allowed my husband to talk me into putting the tree up lol, otherwise it wouldn't be up until like December 1st, but our dog likes laying under it so she's the real gift.