Scott returned to the car before Rowen could ask any more questions, but the teenager that he was with, he had to be Eli. In some instances, he looked just like Derek. Even though his eyes were brown and Derek's were green, they still had that familiar shine in them that were either welcoming or threatening depending on which side you were on.

So when they both got back in the truck, Eli in the back with Rowen and Scott returned to the driver's seat, Stiles wasn't surprised at all when Scott made the introductions for the teary-eyed teenager.

"Stiles, Rowen. This is Eli Hale. Eli, this is Stiles and Rowen Stilinski."

"Oh, you're Derek's son." At that moment, he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Derek had a son.

"And you're the name that everyone in Beacon Hills can't keep out of their mouth." Stiles couldn't stop his mouth from opening in shock because this was the same kid who still had fresh tear tracks on his cheeks and here he was, snarking at him with a smirk on his face.

'Definitely Derek's kid."

"Remember how I said the jeep is under new ownership?" Scott asked before gesturing to Eli, which only rubbed salt in Stiles' metaphorical wound because this kid had to be fourteen, max. He looked twelve if he was being honest with himself.

"How is that legal?" Stiles demanded but instead of getting an answer from Scott, Eli piped up from the backseat and the annoyance he had felt when he first met Liam crept back into him every time the teen spoke.

"It's just as legal as listening in on police scanners, going through evidence, and invading crime scenes."

"Okay, how much did you tell him?"

"I didn't." Scott insisted as he started driving towards the highway that connected Los Angeles to Beacon Hills with a sixty-five mile stretch of road.

"Your dad compares me to you a lot," Eli offered as an explanation before his glance shifted to Rowen who was fully distracted with some show on his personal phone, "never mentioned the kid though."

While struggling to speak, Stiles felt his stomach sink as he uttered the words. "That's because no one knows that she exists."

Luckily for Stiles, the rest of the drive to Beacon Hills was silent aside from the alternative music coming from Scott's car radio and the rumble of the truck tires when the roads went from the highway pavement to the rough pavement that was still in desperate need of a revamp.

'Some things never change.'

It wasn't until they pulled up to one of the much nicer houses in fact, that the red Toyota finally pulled to a stop as Stiles heard the faint hiccup of Eli's breath hitching. Despite that, all four of them made their way inside, Scott stopping at the trunk to help Stiles get their luggage before Eli turned the key in the door and pushed it open.

"We're working on packing things up," Scott explained as Eli started to turn on the lights, "but you and Rowen can stay here since there are a few rooms in the back. We all have been in and out."

It didn't take long for Stiles to unpack his things. It actually took longer to unpack Rowen's things and put them in one of the vacant drawers just above his things. She was staying in Eli's room on the sole fact that it had the smaller bed and he had heard Scott say something to the young Hale to the effect of "I have an extra bed at my mom's house" but he couldn't bring himself to stay in Derek's room.

Even though the sheets were clean, everything was in boxes and the bedroom looked straight out of an HGTV episode, just knowing that this time last week one of his old friends had been there and was just living his life, made Stiles' stomach churn. He had taken up residence in the spare room as a result.

But after unpacking and trying to sleep with the nightmare lingering over him yet again, going to hunt down his old keys from Eli so he didn't have to shell out another four hundred dollars for a rental seemed easy, the sight of a woman coming into the house unannounced made him freeze in his tracks.

For a brief second, he was seventeen years old and approaching the elusive Malia Hale, known as Malia Tate back then and fifteen years later, here he was again with the exception of his deeper voice and her shorter hair.

"Malia?" He managed to call out and sure enough, when she turned to face him, her brown eyes shining in the warm yellow light.

"Stiles," She breathed out and for a second, he thought they would be okay as he managed to pull an apology he owed her for a very long time out of his back pocket until she added, "and kid?"

"Malia, I can explain-" he started but her eyes shone bright blue and he rushed toward him, her claws wrapped around his neck as she pinned him against the wall and her fangs snarled as she spoke with anger dripping from her tongue.

"You better have a good explanation as to why you left me for fourteen years with no contact! You're my fucking anchor and I needed you, Stiles!"

"Malia, stop!" Scott shouted and when she let go, Stiles managed to regain his breath while leaning against the wall, only to turn and see Rowen frozen in fear in the doorway, her eyes filled with tears.

But before he could get to her, Scott rushed her into the spare room and shut the door, leaving him with Eli trying to calm down a very pissed-off Malia, which he had caused.

"Are you insane?!" Eli hissed as her claws started to return to fingernails, but her fangs stayed out toward him, "Rowen has never been around a werewolf!"

"I couldn't do it anymore, Malia," Stiles finally confessed once the tension in the room dissipated just the tiniest bit, "I couldn't be reminded of everything that happened here."

"Pretty sure that Rowen is a damn big reminder. She's Lydia's kid, right?"

"That's different."

"No, it's not. You were fine with remembering Lydia, it was me that was the issue," Stiles hated how right she was but also that with her bringing up his wife that the divorce papers lingered over his mind like a disease, "Did they even tell you how it happened? How my cousin was killed?"

"He was killed?" Stiles could hear the squeak in his voice as the words came out. He should have known that the supernatural had gotten him but actually being killed meant there was a culprit, someone who had to pay.

'An unsub.'

"We're still unsure of why Isaac passed it on. He hasn't been the most communicative, but Liam and his girlfriend, Hikari, had the Triskelion box in Japan. The Nogitsune was released and it killed a deputy who was a kitsune so it could take his tail and summon the Oni."

Stiles had to swallow down the oncoming panic attack. He had gotten good at keeping them at bay since he had left Beacon Hills, but it felt like he had returned and the anxiety with it. Regardless, he managed to ask if it had been the Oni that killed Derek, but she shook her head.

"Jordan burnt the nogitsune in hellfire and Derek…," she trailed off and Stiles could have sworn that a tear started running down her face, "he and Scott were holding it down and he pushed him out of the way so we didn't lose them both."

The room went eerily silent like the safe moments of unconsciousness that he had experienced away from his nightmares fifteen years ago, but before he could lock himself into the bathroom and let the panic overwhelm him along with the guilt that now yet another person was dead because of something that had started with him, Malia's voice returned.

"There's something else. The reason Scott came back was because of these visions and there was a whole ritual at the Nematon after Eli led us to it… Allison is alive. She was trapped in Bardo, but she's alive."

Stiles could have thrown up or passed out. He wasn't sure which one. He had been given the whole story and it felt as though in some sick way, the Nogitsune had won by trading Allison for Derek.

'The nightmares, they have to be connected to this. Why the hell else would they be back after so long?'

But instead of letting his emotions take over, he turned his head to where the spare room door had opened and Scott walked out with Rowen in tow, who was now back to her calm, quiet self.

"Is there a reason you didn't tell me?" Stiles pleaded, his voice quivering.

"We wanted to tell you everything at once. She's staying with her dad for now but Stiles? She isn't the only one here."

"If you guys also revived Aiden, I'm going to fully lose it."

But instead of bringing up one of the many werewolves they had lost over the years, Scott brought up someone else, the possibility that Stiles had known was there.

"Lydia had to help us bring her back, and she's at your dad's house now."

"Mom's here? Let's go see her!" Rowen shouted before tugging at Stiles' empty hand in order to try and pull him to the door, "Daddy, let's go see mom!"

But Stiles was frozen where he stood, looking at Malia, Eli, and Scott as he processed the information that Allison was alive and well after fifteen years…and Lydia was here, safe and alive which confirmed his worst fear.

'Her leaving me wasn't another supernatural setup.'