Thanks to everyone who reads this it means a lot that you've stayed with me this far :) Thanks also for the reviews and in response to some of you guys;

DrewSb and Shadow-wolf78 thanks for commenting on all the chapters I'm glad you guys like and review all of them it's nice to know how everyone thinks! :)

Art33mis- Glad you found this and liked it! I was glad to hear that when you found my fic you couldn't stop reading! It made my day haha

and as for the guest the other day (you know who you are :) ) I do plan on making a nod to that scene and I agree with you on why he rejected the bite :)

Still have lots of writing to do for this story but hope you like it and please review!

CHAPTER 19

The world brightened and Scott and Lydia found themselves in the middle of a cemetery surrounded by people in black clothing. In the middle of it all sat a coffin, behind witch sat Mr. Stilinski and a ten year old Stiles, eyes downcast. A pastor seemed to be talking about Mrs. Stilinski as if he knew her, about how wonderful she was and how she was gone too soon. Lydia cast her eyes away and back to Scott.

"So what do we do now?" Scott asked. Lydia threw her head back in frustration and sat down on the grass. Scott raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and joined her on the ground nearby as Lydia began plucking the grass from the ground. "Okay then, I'll take that as another 'I don't know'. Why don't we go over what we do know?" He asked.

Lydia sighed. "Well my original thought was that Stiles was throwing these memories at us because it was his defense mechanism for people like Theo to keep them from getting to the real him. That he just didn't know it was us in here. But then that wouldn't quite make sense with the type of memories he was throwing at us. They've all been at points in his life where something was seriously wrong. He's always getting hurt in some capacity."

Scott nodded. "Right. And we've also figured out how to move between memories more quickly by getting away from Stiles because they focus on things from his point of view."

"Exactly. But then we realized that if he was trying to distract someone like Theo from getting to him, why use memories that are emotionally alluring to someone who cares about him? Clearly Theo didn't. Which begged the question if he actually knew it was us. If he does, then why has he been hiding from us, and if he doesn't, then why these memories." Lydia put her head in her hands. "I just feel so helpless. Why haven't we found him yet?"

Scott put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey. We'll find him. We have to." He said with determination. Lydia nodded, but didn't look up. Scott cleared his throat. "Okay so the only other thing we really know is that we've never been able to touch Stiles or any of the people in here. We've assumed that when we find Stiles, we'll be able to touch him and bring him back. But if you touched him in the last memory for just a second, what could that mean?" Lydia lifted her head in thought.

"Oh my God" She whispered. How could I have been so stupid! Remember on the hospital roof? My second theory. How Stiles might be having bad memories surface in his mind because he was in a state of fear when Theo entered it. So if that's true, then who's to say that his mind has trapped him in the same loop?"

"What do you mean? That he's trapped somewhere in here because of fear?"

"Yes and no. I think he's being tricked by his own subconscious into reliving his most fearful moments, but that also means that maybe Stiles has been here the whole time. The real Stiles."

"But how is that possible if we haven't been able to even touch him, get his attention, anything?"

"Think about it. Last time we went in his mind, he couldn't hear us then either. The nogitsune had him in that white room distracting him with that game of go. But this time he's distracting himself with these memories and he can't get himself out. We never touched him when we were rescuing him from the nogitsune, we don't know if he was tangible. Maybe he wasn't until we got his attention. For us it's like he's not even there because he's so wrapped up in what he's seeing and feeling he can't notice us."

"…Maybe he has." Scott said, thinking.

"What do you mean?"

"A few times now I could have sworn Stiles saw us, but it was only for a second and I always thought it was just wishful thinking. That i'd imagined it. But what if it wasn't? What if for the briefest of seconds, Stiles was breaking through his fear and could hear or see us? Just like when he flinched in the jeep."

"And in Eichen house." Scott looked at her in confusion. "When you growled at Oliver, I could have sworn Stiles looked at you, but it was so quick I just brushed it off because my hand had gone through him. I should have realized it sooner."

"Hey I didn't figure it out either. But there's one thing I don't understand. If it's been Stiles with us every time, reliving these moments of fear, why hasn't he realized? How could he regress to different points in time and not notice? How can he be there-" Scott said, pointing to the ten year old Stiles sitting in silence at his mother's grave as people began heading to their cars. "And not realize that ten minutes ago he was 16 years old talking to a mass murdering psychopath? Why string him through all these memories in the first place, and not just one in repeat, like Theo attacking him or something."

Lydia went quiet, thinking. Then she muttered something so quietly, even Scott's super-hearing didn't pick it up. "What?" he asked, and Lydia looked up, a slight smirk on her lips.

"If you're going through Hell, keep going."

"Isn't that a Winston Churchill quote?"

"Yes. Ms. Morrell said it to him in his office. Maybe it's something like that. Like he's trapped in his own hell, and subconsciously he's trying to escape but he's trapped. So he just keeps moving from memory to memory. But whenever he gets to a new memory he can't fight it because his mind reverts back to the way it was in that same moment. Everything is the same, so he doesn't know any different. He's back in that moment, and nothing besides what is happening in that moment is clear to him. We've just been coming along for the ride. That ten year old Stiles kneeling next to his mother's grave?" Lydia said, walking towards the two Stilinski boys. "That is our Stiles trapped in the thoughts of his ten year old self. In this moment he doesn't know that he's 18 years old or that his mom died eight years ago. That Stiles' is in the state of mind where a couple days ago he watched him mom die in front of him. He's reliving burying her body as if it's happening right now for the first time."

Scott looked at his best friend in sympathy. It was bad enough having to live through these memories once, but having to physically and emotionally get thrust back into them again?

"Come on you gotta get up now. Stiles, you need to get up." Mr Stilinski was saying as little Stiles stared at the coffin his mother lay in. Scott's eyes were drawn to the lost look on Stiles. He looked heartbroken and so young. "Hey." Mr. Stilinski said. "You still got me." Little Stiles nodded and got up, letting his dad lead him away from the grave site. Scott remembered Stiles saying to him how he couldn't lose both his parents. He remembered the overwhelming panic he had sensed through chemo-signals when his dad was dying from the chimera attack. His dad was the only family he had left. It made sense that he was always worried about him. This was the day he realized that he still had his dad- that he only had his dad. "So how do we reach him? How do we make him see us?"

"Well we can try the same way as last time. It worked didn't it? Scott- roar." Scott smiled and began transforming. But the world was dimming and by the time he was in his wolf form, they were in a much smaller space. The back of an ambulance to be exact, and with two people already in it, there wasn't exactly all that much room. Stiles was closing the back door to the ambulance when Scott and Lydia appeared on the bench opposite of him. Right below them lay an unconscious Cora on a stretcher. "Okay, okay okay, we're okay, we're alright, are you okay, how you doing?" Stiles said quickly, looking at the unconscious Cora. He paused. "What- Why do you look like you're not breathing?"

"What?" Scott said, listening to Cora's heart barely beating. Stiles brought his head closer to Cora's chest as he tried to listen to her breathing. "Because you aren't breathing are you? Oh no oh God, oh God okay you're not breathing come on. Okay…" He said, putting his hands on the top and bottom of her head nervously. "Okay you can do this here we go, tilt the head, fingers on the chin clear the throat." He said, doing the steps as he recited them from memory. "Great nothing, I see nothing. Okay, alright so uh, just pinch the nose and.. blow." He said as he took a deep breath and blew into Cora's mouth.

"Scott, you're still transformed. Roar. Get his attention." She said quickly.

"But he's saving Cora's life. What happens to her if I get his attention now?" He asked, Lydia looked at him like he was a kid.

"Scott? This is Stiles mind remember? This is a memory. Cora? She's fine. She's in South America somewhere. Stiles is the one whose comatose out in the real world. Now roar."

"Uh… I can't right now."

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked, aghast. "Are you seriously having performance issues right now?" Lydia asked. Scott flushed from his cheeks to his ears. It was an odd thing seeing it on Scott's wolf face. It should be when he's most intimidating, but seeing him blush took any fear of him away from her. Not that she was scared of him in the first place. It was just Scott under all that wolf-ness after all.

"No it's just that, it's so cramped in here I don't have room to build up a good breath and belt it out you know?" He said, blushing harder.

Lydia's eyes were on the roof of the ambulance as she mouthed 'unbelievable' inaudibly to herself.

"Come on Cora breathe." Stiles was saying, bringing his mouth down on hers once again. Finally, Cora inhaled a breath and Stiles sat back, mouth open in surprise and relief. He took a deep breath "You know next time I put my lips to your mouth you better be awake." He said. Lydia, who had brought her gaze back to Stiles, now looked right back up at the ceiling, eyes closed. She could feel the irritation bubbling beneath the surface. She wasn't even sure who she was annoyed with at this point. Scott? Stiles? Cora? Herself? All of the above? It was up in the air.

"You just hold on a little longer okay? Trust me if anyone's going to get us out of this it's Scott." Scott looked up at Stiles. He was still surprised at the amount of faith he had for him. Just a few years ago they were at the bottom of the high school popularity list. One bite from Peter had completely changed all of their lives. Who knew so much could change in just a few years? But if there was one thing that hadn't, it was Stiles being there for him; being his best friend. He'd always believed in Scott, even when Scott hadn't believed in himself.

"I can't believe I just said that. You know I actually used to be the one with the plan. Well at least a plan B." Lydia looked back at Stiles. He sounded upset, like something weighed on him deeply. Given the circumstances, she didn't blame him. There was almost always something to worry in their group of friends. "I don't know, now I'm thinking maybe you were right, you know maybe-maybe we are pretty much useless. Maybe all we really do is show up and find the bodies." Stiles was tapping his thumb on his hand, a nervous tick. In the close knit quarters it wasn't hard to see Stiles eyes well up. "I don't want to find my father's body." He whispered, voice shaking. Scott remembered that his dad had been taken by the durac at this point. After what they'd just witnessed at the cemetery, he didn't really blame Stiles for being so scared. Stiles brought his arm up and wiped his eyes before taking another deep breath.

"You know you're a lot easier to talk to when you're completely unconscious." He said, laughing just a little to himself.

Lydia cleared her throat, hand brushing her eye quickly before opening up the back of the ambulance. "Scott get out here."

"What, why?"

Lydia looked at him incredulously. "Because we're still trying to get Stiles back remember? You said you needed more space, so get. out. here." Just then a loud noise rang out behind Lydia, and she tuned towards the noise as Stiles shrank back out of sight. Behind her, Lydia saw the merged form of the twins as they sauntered past, and she stepped away from them towards the ambulance. "Aiden…" Scott heard the hurt in her voice, before she tilted her head to the side. "You know I never really saw them merged? It's a bit creepy... I guess I just assumed they'd look like themselves just… bigger. You know, since they're identical." She said. When they were out of sight, the med bay began darkening and Lydias head whipped towards Scott. "Damn. Out of time." She said, holding out her hand to him. Scott grabbed it carefully, trying not to scratch her with his claws. He began to let them recede as to not let them cut her, but she snapped her head towards his. "Scott McCall don't you dare let yourself de-transform the minute we get to the next memory you are roaring and we are getting Stiles back." She said ferociously.

Scotts eyebrows skyrocketed and he smirked. "Yes ma'am." He said sarcastically. Lydia slapped his shoulder, smirking, and they were gone.