CHAPTER 20

They were back at the hospital next to a window looking into a computer room. In the reflection of the glass Lydia noticed a doctor looking over a clipboard. She turned to see Mr. Stilinski and Mrs. McCall talking to him. She turned again and saw Stiles in a hospital gown sitting on a table leading to an MRI machine, Scott next to him. They were silent, looking unsure of what to say. While past Scott looked nervous, Stiles just looked defeated. From next to her, Scott closed his eyes in recognition. Lydia squeezed his hand. "You okay?" she asked. Scott opened his eyes and nodded.

"Stiles." The doctor said, going over to the boys. "You're going to hear a lot of noise during the MRI. It's due to pulses of electricity going to the metal coils inside the machine. If you want we can get you some earplugs or headphones."

"Uh no. No I don't need anything" Stiles said, shaking his head. He scratched his temple, looking vulnerable.

"Hey. We're just on the other side of that window, okay?" His dad said in assurance.

"Okay." Stiles responded, but his face didn't change. The sheriff smiled in reassurance, but his eyes were full of fear. Stiles clapped his hand on his dads shoulder, inaudibly telling him he was okay before him and Scott's mom followed the doctor from the MRI room to the technician room on the other side of the window. Lydia and Scott were left alone with Scott's younger self and Stiles.

"You know what they're looking for right?" Scott seemed to shake his head vaguely, not making eye contact with Stiles, as if he knew but he didn't quite understand what it was.

"What are they looking for?" Lydia asked, but Scott just nodded towards Stiles.

"It's called frontal temporal dementia. Areas of your brain start to... shrink. It's what my mother had." Stiles said, not looking at Scott. Lydia looked over to Scott "When the hell did this happen? He doesn't-"

"No. It was the nogitsune. It was trying to distract us with this, while also trying to make Stiles lose hope. But we didn't know any of that at the time. It's actually a possibility since his mom… well, you know, you saw. This was the day after he went missing while sleepwalking remember? This was the test I told you about." Lydias stomach churned at the thought that, though this wasn't happening now, it was a possibility for Stiles' future. One day this scenario could be very real. It could lay dormant in his genes. After witnessing firsthand what it did to his mother, she didn't want to even entertain that thought of losing Stiles that way. She knew when she got out of this hell, she'd be doing a lot of research on this topic to make sure she knew the signs just in case.

"It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers… and there's no cure." Past Scott closed his eyes before blinking rapidly as a tear escaped his eye. He wiped it away quickly, looking devastated but clearly trying to be brave for his best friend. "Stiles if you have it- we'll do something." Stiles looked unsure, but Scott looked up and met his eyes. "I'll do something." He said with determination. Stiles nodded, but he looked scared. He reached out and pulled Scott into a hug. Scott hugged him back tightly, as if trying to assure both his best friend and himself. As if he was hugging him for what could be the last time. Stiles eyes were closed and he looked like he was fighting tears. It was the most vulnerable Lydia had ever seen Stiles, and she had the overwhelming desire to look away, knowing she was intruding on a private moment. She felt sick that he could be so scared and look so defeated. Like he'd already lost hope. No. She wouldn't see him in pain anymore. They had to get him the hell out of here. They had to rescue him from himself.

The doctors voice came over the intercom, saying they were ready to start, and the past version of Scott looked at Stiles once more before exiting the room. He didn't seem to join their parents in the technician room but instead he walked down the hallway, looking down at the floor the whole time.

"Scott, please. Roar. Let's get him out of here." Lydia said, moving next to Stiles and placing his hand on his. It went through, but she knew it wouldn't for long.

Scott suddenly remembered the first time he'd heard about this technique. It was right after he'd been turned, but before he'd even realized it. In fact, he hadn't realized it at all. Stiles had. He'd researched about werewolves all night long and started raving about wolf facts to Scott the next day. How wolves hunt in packs and how they howl to signal their location when they were separated from each other. Stiles had always been pretty observant; apparently to the point where he realized Scott had been turned into a werewolf before even he knew it himself. He remembered how he'd yelled at Stiles for wasting his time when he had to get ready for his first date with Allison. How he'd accused him of trying to ruin the perfect moment in his life and how he'd gotten so frustrated he'd pushed Stiles against the wall and almost punched him. Stiles' face in that moment wasn't something he would be able to forget. It was one of the first times they'd ever fought. And yet Stiles had forgiven him fairly quickly. Just like he always did. He'd come through for Scott. Now it was time to do the same for him.

Scott blinked rapidly and made eye contact with Lydia. He nodded, resolve driving his features as he inhaled a vast amount of air. He used everything he was feeling- all of his guilt at not being there for Stiles in his times of need, his pain at seeing how often his friend was hurt, his anger at himself, his grief he'd felt for the last week at comatose Stiles- he used it all as fuel.

His eyes seemed to ignite as he let out an ear-splitting roar so loud it left Lydia covering her ringing ears, surprised at the ferocity.

The ground seemed to vibrate and the walls shook with the thundering noise, and just as the room went quiet again, Stiles looked up at Scott. Not through him, or around him, but at him. His eyes crinkled in confusion as his gaze went from the door where past Scott had just left, to the present one in wolf form. "Scott?"

Scotts heart nearly jumped out of his chest. He transformed back as he walked over to his best friend. "Stiles!" he said, smile lighting up his features. Lydia cautiously put a hand on his shoulder. Relief washed over her as it made contact with his hospital robe. She squeezed his shoulder as if to confirm it was real.

"God it's good to see you." She said, but as she looked up to Stiles, he was looking at his shoulder in confusion before casting his eyes around the room.

"What the hell?" He whispered.

"All right Stiles I need you to lay down now and be very still." The doctors voice came through the intercom. Suddenly, Lydia's hand sank through his shoulder and she nearly fell over, thrown off balance. "What-" she said, looking at Stiles in confusion. His eyes were scanning the room, never really landing on Scott or Lydia, who were now both right in front of him.

The slightest bit of fear entered his eyes, and he swallowed, bringing his legs up onto the table and laying down. "I'm losing my freaking mind." He whispered as the table began moving him into the MRI machine.

"Okay Stiles, this is going to take about 45 minutes to an hour. Now remember, try not to move. Even just a little bit."

"What just happened?" Lydia asked. She tried to grab Stiles hand, but it sank through to the table. She went to the side of the machine, close to the mouth of the MRI. "Stiles? Can you hear me? Stiles!" Stiles stared at the roof of the machine as Scott looked over at her in worry, "Lydia?" he asked.

"I don't- I don't understand. He saw you- he heard you. We reached him… so why didn't it work?"

"Stiles you're going to hear that noise now. It's going to be a loud clanging. Kind of like a hammer hitting an anvil." Suddenly a loud noise radiated through the small room that was horrifyingly familiar, and Lydia jumped at the sound, covering her ears. She remembered that sound haunting her the day after Stiles was found in the woods, hypothermic and discombobulated. It had gotten louder and louder until she couldn't hold it anymore, and she'd screamed. She knew it was a warning, but she couldn't figure out what it meant, and she'd been so scared that she'd be wrong again. This had to be what she'd been sensing.

Scott was staring at his best friend. They were so close to getting through to him. Now that they'd figured out the real Stiles had been with them all along, it should have been easy. He'd done the same thing that was required last time they were here. The same thing that had woken Stiles from his mind last time they'd been forced to enter it. What went wrong? What was different in here?

Scott noticed the minute Stiles face began to fall, he looked like he was beginning to have a panic attack. "Stiles?" he yelled over the sound of the MRI. "Stiles- hey hey hey- calm down Stiles it's going to be okay." He said, hoping that some part of him could still hear him. Stiles seemed to be mildly panicking, and squeezed his eyes tight in an effort to keep himself calm.

Without warning the world tilted sideways and Scott seemed to be falling into darkness. It wasn't like before when a memory switched, it was more a whirling motion of stumbling down an unfamiliar path. When the dizziness passed, Scott opened his eyes to find himself still in the MRI room, but it was different. Stiles stood in front of the machine in his normal clothes, and the room was immersed in darkness. Lydia stood next to him, waving her hand in front of Stiles face, to no avail.

Out of nowhere, the blurry figure of the nogitsune emerged from the shadows and darted behind Stiles. Stiles turned his head and saw him jumping out of his eyesight, and started walking around the MRI machine so he wouldn't lose sight of him.

"Have you figured out my riddle yet?" The creature asked, coming around the other side of the machine. "If you answer correctly, we might consider letting them go." He said tauntingly as Stiles stopped and faced him from the other side of the table.

"Letting who go?" Stiles asked, voice shaking just a little.

"Your friends," it whispered "Your family." it looked over through the glass window where Scotts mom and Stiles dad appeared shadow-like, talking to one another. "Everyone who ever meant something to you. We're going to destroy allll of them Stiles!" The nogitsune said, voice rising before creeping back to a whisper. "One. By. One." Scott kept his guard up and stood in front of his friends, but Lydia was looking at Stiles. She saw the fear creep into his eyes as tears began to spill over.

"Why?" Stiles asked, tears falling freely now as his voice shook, betraying his fear. Scott turned his head back to his best friend in pity. He hated that Stiles had to deal with all of this alone. That no one had really known what was happening until it was too late.

"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?" The fox turned his head to Stiles, waiting for his response. Stiles shook his head in frustration as tears continued to slip down his face.

"I don't know-"

"Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?" It said again, a bit louder this time, as if annoyed.

"I don't know." Stiles whispered, desperation on his face.

"EVERYONE HAS IT." The nogitsune began screaming, and Stiles turned away from him in terror, putting his hands over his ears. "BUT NO ONE CAN LOSE IT" The bandaged man-like creature howled, tearing at his bandages fiercely. "WHAT. IS IT?!" it screamed again. Stiles was clutching his head as the nogitsune tore at his wrappings, flinging parts of them to the floor. "WHAT. IS IT?!" It screeched, leaning down as he grasped the last of the bandages.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Stiles shouted, but then his eyes snapped open and his face went blank. And Scott knew. He'd figured it out. "A shadow." He whispered in horror as he began turning to face the creature once more. Everything seemed to go quiet at once and Lydia gripped Scotts hand as tears running down his face at the pain this was causing his brother. In front of them, the nogitssune was removing his last layer, and looked up slowly. It was wearing Stiles face with a vicious and cunning look displayed across it. Half of his face immersed in shadow as he smirked. Stiles screamed and seemed to be pulled back into darkness, disappearing into a black hole.

"STILES!" Scott screamed, but the room was spinning again and Scott found himself and Lydia back in the brightly lit room of the hospital, looking back at Stiles' body in the MRI machine. His eyes snapped open, and he tilted his head. Stiles was gone.

"We need to figure something out. Now." Scott said, looking from nogitsune to banshee. "He's living these like it's the first time- and no one should have to go through this at all let alone a second time."

"I know. But the roar didn't work. So how else do we reach him?"

"I don't know. But we need to work fast. We've been in here to long as it is."

Lydia nodded, and they were gone.

...

A/N: Hey everyone! You had to know it wouldn't be that easy O.o please don't hate me haha Anyways new chapter in a few days. Please review :)