Early the next morning I got a call from Sherrif Stilinski, he was planning on letting Argent and Derek out today and asked if I could come in case they needed a ride.

Stepping into the police station I was amazed at how fast they had repaired it after the bomb. It looked completely normal to me. I still felt unsettled walking in here, the bad memories just kept stacking up. I watched as Parish lectured both Argent and Derek, looking completely unamused "Sorry, but I can't let you walk out with this. It's way above the legal voltage limit,"

"I only use it for hunting,"

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure you could use it to jump-start a 747" Parish told him stoically, Derek looked like he agreed.

"This property belongs to me and the charges were dropped. Although, I'm not exactly sure who's responsible for that,"

The sheriff stepped out of his office "I am. I'll take care of this, Parrish,"

"Sheriff, I'm not kidding. This thing's a few watts from being a lightsaber,"

The Sheriff nodded in agreement, taking the taser and smacking it closed "I said I'll take care of it. Arielle, you want to join us?" He asked while nodding his head towards his office. Derek snapped his head towards me in surprise. I brushed his shoulder comfortingly as I walked past and said hello to Parish before following the Sheriff.

Both men looked confused as I felt as to why we were there "The specialist I saw in LA told me the thing that every doctor says when he's trying to avoid a lawsuit. "We can't say for sure." And then I spoke with Melissa. These are brain scans. My wife's and Stiles'. I knew they were similar. But those are the same. Exactly the same," He told us holding them up to the light and over each other, there were no differences that I could see.

"And I'm guessing this isn't possible?" Derek asked concernedly.

"Not even remotely," Sheriff agreed.

Argent tossed the scans onto the desk "So the trickster is still playing tricks. But why this trick?"

"When I was in the Army, an officer told me, "If you want to defeat your enemy, "you don't take away their courage. "You take away their hope.". But Stiles might. If this thing inside him, if it's using his mother's disease as some sort of psychological trick, then this isn't just a fight for his body. It's also a fight for his mind. Right?"

"You know, he's left people severely injured," Argent said.

I looked over in warning as Derek added "And others severely dead,"

"That's why I need the three of you. I need people who are experienced in this kind of thing. I need you to help me stop him, The Sheriff implored. I was surprised he was asking me, probably because I had experience with the supernatural. Unfortunately, after my run-in with him, I was starting to doubt that I could do anything against him.

"And by stopping him, you mean trap him?" Argent asked. In answer, the Sheriff started to hand him the taser, only letting it go when Argent nodded.

"You need to call Allison," I told Argent and he looked at me in question "We will need supplies if we're going to trap him, and it will be faster if we get her started on this before we get there," He nodded and made the call while they got into my car, the Sheriff following in his cruiser. Poor Parish must be so confused.

I concentrated on driving but felt my mind wander when Derek tentatively grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I thought he would pull away but his hand remained on mine. I felt myself relax a little more in comfort.

Allison met us at the front door once we were there and led us to the office "This is everything non-lethal I could find," She told us and nodded to a bunch of ropes and things like Flexi cuffs. I'm not sure if this will do it, the nogitsune is strong. Argent said we would take it all and split it up between us. I noticed Allie didn't look at me the entire time.

"What's the plan here?" Sheriff asked.

"Our best shot right now is for Derek to try to pick up Stiles' scent at Eichen House. Especially if he went through something stressful there," Argent explained to us.

The Sheriff looked worried "Should all four of us be going to the same place?"

"Where else has Stiles been showing up?" Argent asked.

Allie thought about it "School, the hospital,"

"Okay, hold on," Derek interjected "We did this already. He disappeared. We started looking for him. Then walked right into a trap at the hospital,"

"He's getting us to repeat the same moves," Argent agreed.

"So, what do we do? Wait for him to come to us?" I asked.

"We can't. Not if the Oni find him when the sun goes down,"

"Scott's working on them right now, with Kira." The Sherrif included.

Argent ran his hands over his eyes exasperated "That's the problem. We're all trying to outfox the fox,"

We all paused for a second to think "Listen. I'll understand if anyone wants to back out," the Sheriff said quietly blinking back tears.

Derek contemplated it, but he liked Stiles no matter how much he denied it. I knew he would agree "I won't be the first wolf to run from a fox," he said firmly grabbing a taser and some other items.

"Apparently, I'm carrying the lightsaber," Argent joked.

"Dad, you and Derek hit Eichen House. Sheriff, it's you and me and Arielle in the hospital. We all meet in the school,"

"I'll just head to the school right now," I told them. Derek protested. I smiled at him "I highly doubt he wants to go to school in his state, and it's better if we check everywhere all at once. I'll let you know if I find anything," He pulled me into a tight hug.

Allison and the Sheriff had already taken the elevator so I made my way down the stairs. By the time I got to the ground floor, I had already gotten a call from Allison saying that the nogitsune was at the Sheriff's house. We all agreed to meet there. The Sheriff was on the phone with Argent and Derek.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{{{{}

We all made it there around the same time. Argent went first to make sure there were no traps or bombs. There was nothing. We made our way to Stiles' room where we all stood very confused. On the middle of Stiles' bed there was a chess board with sticky notes on the pieces.

"What is all this?" Argent asked, "What are these sticky notes for?"

"This is what Stiles used to try and explain to me about all of you," Sheriff nodded. Man, Stiles' brain is just so confusing. Allison mentioned it might be a message from the real Stiles. Argent looked unconvinced as he picked up two pieces that were off to the side.

"You think there's any reason my name's on the king?" Derek questioned.

"Well, you're heavily guarded. Though I guess the alarming detail is that you're one move from being in checkmate," Sheriff explained.

"It's not a message from Stiles. It's a threat from the nogitsune,"

"Well, then he's at the loft, right? That's what he's trying to tell us?" I asked.

"And he wants us to go there," Argent said contemplating the board "Night's falling. This couldn't sound any more like a trap,"

The Sheriff started to sound desperate "I don't think it is. Hear me out. What we're dealing with here is basically someone who lacks motive. No rhyme, no reason, right? Meaning what? Our enemy is not a killer. It's a trickster. The killing is just a by-product," He rushed out. I could see he was holding hard onto his hope. I wanted to believe him.

Derek shook his head "If you're trying to say it won't kill us, I'm not feeling too confident about that," I started to worry the nail of my thumb.

"It won't!" The Sheriff said passionately "It won't. It wants irony. It wants to play a trick. It wants a joke. All we need to do is come up with a new punch line,"

"The sun is setting, Sheriff. What do you have in mind?"

"Wait, if Derek is check-mated though, does that mean he is going to be killed?" I asked them all. Everyone looked at the board "If it's his goal to have Derek there for some reason, maybe he should stay here? That would mess up his plans,"

The Sheriff and Allison nodded like it made sense. Derek was looking very grumpy at my suggestion. I looked at Argent who was looking at me like he was solving a puzzle "There's one problem with that," He told me and showed me the pieces in his hand, Isaac and I. We all stared at them confused. I looked back down at the board and realized that I never saw myself on it. "I can understand why Isaac isn't on the board, but why aren't you?" Everyone stared at me. I opened my mouth to defend myself but I didn't even know why I would have to.

"So maybe she's out of commission?" Derek questioned.

"Or he knows she won't kill him?" Allison added.

"Or maybe," Argent grumbled "She's been helping him,"

I blinked hard "Wh- When would I have helped him?" I asked, I was a little frightened at the thought, had I helped the nogitsune?

"He kissed her," Allison said causing the men to all take a step back, "Scott told me, the other night,"

"He was just doing what he did to Scott, taking all the pain I had gathered!" Everyone looked at me skeptically "I swear!" They finally relented and started to make a plan. I had a feeling I was not welcome to make any additions.

Derek pulled me to the side before we left "Are you sure your okay?"

"I swear I am fine Derek. I'm just as confused as everyone else. If I somehow helped him, I don't know how I did it," He nodded and hugged me to him, I relaxed into it inhaling his scent "Lets both be careful tonight Derek, I don't want you to get hurt," He squeezed me tighter and that was that.

()()()()()()()()()()

We all ended up going to the loft. Allison texted Scott about what was happening. He was on his way too, but it was getting dark and we couldn't wait for him to show up. The Sheriff went in first.

"Hi dad," Stiles said. I hoped it was him, I didn't want anyone to get hurt. My hand found Dereks. I could hear the clink of the handcuffs "You want to handcuff me?" Stiles asked sadly.

"If my son is still here, if there's still a part of him standing here in front of me, then he'll put these on willingly and he'll come with me because he knows I'm here to protect him from himself and others," I assume he stood still because the click of them closing reached us. I gave Derek a relieved smile, too soon it seemed "You're not my son," he whispered. We could hear the cuffs break, I had no idea he was that strong.

We all filed in, which is obviously what he wanted since he was smirking at this development. We surrounded him in a half-circle, and he stared at Allison who he seemed to know would attack him first. She shot him with her stun gun without hesitating. His body shook but it didn't look like it fazed him as he pulled it out of himself, dragging her forward with it before ripping it out of her hands. There was something so beautiful about his resistance and the control he had. I was mesmerized until he nearly smashed Derek's head in like it was nothing.

I ran to his side looking him over "I'm alright he confirmed," We both looked up at the click of a gun. I was horrified to see Argent holding a gun up to Stiles' head.

The sheriff looked like all the air left him "Argent, listen to me. Don't do this," he begged.

"Why not? I've done it before. Werewolves, berserkers. I can easily add a nogitsune to the list," He said.

The Sheriff's gun came up level to Argent's head "You're not going to shoot my son," He warned. I felt Derek's muscles spasm like he was debating getting involved.

"You said it yourself, Sheriff. That's not your son,"

"Put it down. Put it down," The Sheriff yelled.

"Allison, get your dad under control," I barked at her, he would listen to her.

Then Stiles started to tear up "Dad, he's going to shoot me. He's going to kill me, Dad," his voice was trembling. I got up slowly and focused on the three in front of me.

"Put it down. Now! Do it! Put it down!" The Sheriff yelled again. He was getting to the end of his rope, and I had no doubt he would pull the trigger to protect his son.

I was horrified when Stiles next spoke "Pull the trigger. Come on," He taunted Chris. That's when I saw how much Argent did not want to. Allison finally called for her dad to stop but Stiles was still yelling at Argent to shoot him and the Sheriff was yelling for him to put his gun down, he looked terrified that Argent would follow Stiles' directions.

I had taken another step closer to them when Allie called out for them to stop since this is what he wanted, strife.

"Not exactly.," Stiles explained shrugging "I was kind of hoping Scott would be here. But I'm glad you all have your guns out. Because you're not here to kill me" He said confidently turning around to where the sun was going down. "You're here to protect me," The Oni materialized in front of us. Stiles stepped back behind Argent and the Sheriff, who automatically trained their weapons on the Oni. They started to shoot them while Allison, Derek, and I surrounded him protectively. We began to fight them and were doing fine until one got past us and stabbed Stiles. Everyone else was occupied so I ran to him to see if he was alright.

He looked at me with tears in his eyes "Arielle, it hurts," I trembled, I didn't know if this was another trick. I started to lift his shirt to see the wound when he gripped my wrist harshly and tugged me out of the room with him, passing the Oni and the fighting. He practically threw us in the elevator. I backed away from him and he raised his hands in surrender "It's me, Arielle, I couldn't let you get hurt. Then he fell against the wall clutching his side where he was stabbed.

I shook my head and went to him instantly "Okay hold up your shirt for me," He did and I began to heal him until he was breathing easier. "Is that better?" I asked.

"Yeah much, now let's get out of here," He said, his demeanor changing completely. Well crap. I struggled against him as he dragged me to the Sheriff's police cruiser, tossing me in the back he shut the door and hotwired it. The doors automatically lock to keep prisoners in so I started to try and break the back window. "Calm down, Arielle," he warned.

"Why, what the hell do you want," I asked.

"I just want you out of the way, that's all," He told me looking through the rearview mirror at me. At my sound of frustration he sighed and pulled over into a parking lot "If I let you out are you going to run?" He asked.

I debated it "Are you going to hurt me?" I asked.

He laughed "No, I'm not going to hurt you," I didn't know whether or not to believe him but I nodded anyway. He opened the car door cautiously, probably expecting me to smash it against him. Not that the thought hadn't crossed my mind. He watched me shifting his weight to lean against the car "See is this so bad? Would a monster do this?" he asked.

"To gain trust he would," I shot back.

He smirked again "I'm not planning on hurting you,"

"Why?"

"Well, I am choosing to become a human, but I will live for centuries. Doesn't that make me a God?" I scoffed, but he ignored it and took my hand "And doesn't a God need his Angels?" I tried to take my hand back but he tightened his grip "As long as you don't keep getting in these life-or-death situations you will live as long as I do. Doesn't that sound much better than watching countless human lovers die, or even other supernatural creatures? They may live a long time, but not as long as you and I,"

"Your crazy," I whispered.

"I'm right," he told me with no emotion "Plus we would be perfect together. All that pain I took from you a few days ago, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You have generations of pain and anguish passed down to you through your genetics. Can you honestly say you have ever felt better than you did that day?"

I felt a tear slip involuntarily, he reached out to catch it with his thumb and pressed it to his mouth. His eyes rolled back. I gulped and shook my head no "That's right, and the more I take from you the easier you will breathe, and who knows, maybe that will curb my hunger to bring chaos. I mean I will need a little here and there, but maybe it won't get to this big of a state. I do have to finish what I started, but after that, we can be free," He promised.

I shook my head no, not wanting to speak. He sighed "Well I want you to think about it okay? Now how would you feel if I took some of that pain and worry away now?" He tugged me into his arms. I tried to press away from him "Arielle," He warned "I told you I didn't want to hurt you. I will have to if you don't cooperate with me. You'll take a nice little nap if I do this,"

I stilled in his arms and thought about it, I didn't want to get hurt and it sounded like he was going to knock me out one way or another. I relented. His lips brushed mine softly, and then brutally. Involuntarily my hands gripped his hair, everything felt so good right now, I never wanted it to end. He pulled back despite my whimper of protest. He smiled at the noise "Night love," He whispered and then kissed me again. Everything went dark.