No one was handling Allison's death well.

I stood back in the loft again, when Derek lit a lighter against Ethan's wounds, Aiden standing by the windows when Derek finished, putting the lighter away. "You should be okay in a few hours. Unless whoever shot you manages to find you again."

Aiden started to walk for the door. "Lydia's with Scott. We need to go."

"Are you gonna try to convince her to go with you?" I asked.

Aiden looked back at us, Ethan by his side. "I'm gonna try to convince her to run and hide. Like any sane person would do."

"And Danny?" Derek asked, looking at Ethan.

"Allison's dead," Ethan said. "Stiles is dying. What do you think?"

"I think Danny won't believe you. And Lydia would never run and hide."

"Because of Stiles?" Aiden asked.

"Because of Scott," Derek answered. 'You've been trying to find a way into his pack. Trying to earn his trust, trying to fight for him. You've had it wrong the whole time. You don't fight for a leader. You fight for a leader's cause."

"What cause?" Aiden asked.

"Scott's always been about one thing," I told him. "Saving his friends. He will do anything and everything to save the people he cares about. When there's no chance of winning, he keeps fighting. When all hope is lost, he finds another way. And when he's beaten down, he stands up again. You want to leave? Fine. But I'm going to fight for his cause." I walked past them to the door, turning back to face them as they all looked at me. "But if you want to earn a place in his pack? You want redemption?" I opened the door, stepped out. "Find another way to stand and fight."

I slid the door closed, going to stand and fight.

And I knew where they would be.

*

Outside of the clinic, Stiles and Kira were stepping out of his Jeep, Stiles almost falling in the process.

I caught him before he fell.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Stiles asked.

"Hi to you too, Stiles," I said, wrapping one of his arms around my shoulders as we walked inside, Kira following.

We walked into the clinic as Lydia said, "Something's happening. I had this sudden rushing feeling, like we're running out of time."

'Yeah," Stiles said, making them look toward us as I unwrapped his arm from off my shoulders. "Yeah, I kind of got that feeling too.

*

Out of the Jeep, Lydia helped Stiles to the doors of the school.

Scott was about to walk in when Stiles said, "Wait, Scott." He looked over each of us. "I know what you're all thinking. If this works, it might kill me too. But even if it does, you have to go through with it. Stick with the plan, okay?"

"The plan is to save you," Scott told him. "That's the plan I'm going with."

Scott, Kira and I walked in first with Lydia and Stiles following into a snow-filled room, snow continuing to fall around us. Very formal, with a bridge, statues and trees.

The big, thick, dark colored doors creaked closed behind us.

This compromised everything.

"Oh, this is definitely not part of the plan," I sat with a slow sigh.

*

Kira held her hand out to catch the falling snow.

Behind us, the real version of the Nogitsune, wrapped in cloth, walked closer, all of us turning as Kira pulled out her katana sword.

"Like I promised, Stiles," the Nogitsune told him. "We're going to kill all of them. One by one."

An oni appeared in front of Kira, swinging his sword. Kira held out her own to stop his move.

*

"What the hell is this?" I asked, looking at the foreign place with falling snow that was supposed to be the empty, dark halls of the school. "Where are we?"

"Between life and death," the Nogitsune answered.

"Bardo," Lydia realized.

"But there are no peaceful deities here, Lydia. You're dying, Stiles. And now everyone you care about is dying too."

"What?" Stiles asked. "What do you mean?"

"I've captured almost all the territories on the board, Stiles. The hospital." Scott's mother. "The sheriff's station." Stiles' father. "And now the animal clinic."

Deaton.

*

"Do you know the ritual of seppuku, Stiles?" the Nogitsune asked.

"No, and I don't want to," Stiles said.

"When a samurai disembowels himself with his own sword to maintain his honor, but it's not the cut that kills him. The killing stroke is made by his kaishakunin, who beheads the samurai with his own katana. Scott . . . Scott is your kaishakunin." What? "I'm going to make your best friend kill you, Stiles. And you're going to let him. Because just like you, they're all going to die. Everyone touched by an oni's sword." He leaned into their faces. "Unless Scott kills you first."

"Why?" Stiles asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"To win the game."

As the oni swung their swords, Stiles and Lydia backed into safety, Kira held her sword ready, and Scott and I shifted.

To save Stiles.

To kill the Nogitsune.

To avenge Allison.

*

I kicked an oni away, Scott slashing another as we both backed next to Kira, Scott asking, "How is this happening? How are we in this place?"

"You're asking me?" Kira asked. "A month ago, I'd never even touched a sword."

'I don't think we're really here," I told them.

"What do you mean?" Scott asked.

I didn't get a chance to answer before three oni tried to attack us at all sides, Scott, Kira and I all spinning away at the same time, going back into battle.

*

Kira used her weapon wisely.

Scott was ducking under two swords simaltaneously.

I ducked under a sword, punching his head to the side.

"This can't be real," Lydia said.

"Yeah, tell that to them," Stiles responded.

*

As Kira fought with her sword, another oni forced it out of her hands with his own.

Two oni held their blades ready to kill Kira.

*

Scott backed away from an oni's sword just enough to where the oni missed.

As an oni tried to kill me with his, I rolled through the snow underneath, the snow sticking to my dark clothing and hair as I stood, but slowly melting at the body temperature.

Stiles took Kira's sword in his hands, posed at his stomach to kill himself.

"Stiles, no!" Scott yelled, all fighting coming to a stop. "Stiles."

"What if it saves you?" Stiles asked. "What if it saves all of you?"

"What if it's just another trick?" I asked in return.

"No more tricks, Tara," the Nogitsune told me. "End it, Scott. Let your friend fall on his own sword. Do for him what he cannot do for himself. Do it, Scott. But his kaishakunin. Give up the game."

Stiles was about to push the sword into his own body when I looked further past him.

A school book laid on the snow-covered ground.

"Stop," I said, everyone looking at me in confusion.

I wasn't focusing on them.

I was focusing on the school desks further behind.

I was right. We weren't really here. We were in an illusion, in an empty classroom. The Nogitsune was in each and every one of our heads, making us believe we were really here.

"You have no moves left," the Nogitsune told us.

Stiles was the only one that followed my gaze, seeing what I saw, then looked back at me.

I barely moved my head in a nod.

With Stiles pulling the sword down,  I told the Nogitsune, as I faced him, remembering my grandmother always playing the game of Go, and knowing all of the terms she had used to say, "I do." He threw the katana to Kira, Kira catching it easily. "A divine move."

The Nogitsune snarled, sensing the change in the air.

*

Lydia held Stiles from falling as I told them all, "Stop fighting them. It's an illusion. You have to stop fighting them. It looks real, and it feels real, but Scott, you have to trust me, it's an illusion."

I faced the Nogitsune again first, Scott giving me an unsure look as he looked at me.

I nodded. taking his hand in mine.

That was enough to shock him into trusting anything I would have said, no matter how ridiculous.

I took in a deep breath, both of us looking forward as we started to walk forward aaginst the oni standing in the way, all of them slicing, slashing their swords into our bodies.

It felt real, agonizing, Kira following first, Stiles and Lydia following behind her. With each cut, it made it less and less bearable to make it to the door, the only way out of the illusion. With each of us groaning and screaming at the pain, it felt as if the time was ticking by so slowly, as if it was years before we made it through, when it had to have been seconds.

Scott and I both growled at the Nogitsuen as we ran forward, pushing the Nogitsune to the door, all of us leaving into the dark, deserted school hallway.

Scott was no longer shifted. There was no Nogitsune in sight. No snow or a Bardo illusion.

All of us were unwounded.

It really had been an illusion.

"We're okay," Scott said. "We're--"

He was thrown into the locker wall, falling to the floor.

Kira and I turned to the Void Stiles as he raised his eyebrows tauntingly as us with a smirk as he hit Kira to the floor.

He looked toward me, Stiles and Lydia. "This was my game. You think you can beat me at my game?"

*

"Divine move," Void Stiles told me, walking angrily and quickly toward us, Stiles and Lydia backing away just as quickly. "Divine move. You think you have any moves at all?" I growled, turning in a kick as he grabbed my leg, then my arm, throwing me into a wall, landing hard. He turned his attention fully to Stiles and Lydia, still walking forward with angry, quick steps, making them continue to back away just as quickly. "You can kill the oni. But me? Me? I'm a thousand years old! You can't kill me!"

"But we can change you," Lydia said.

That immediately brought Void Stiles to a stop, the anger fading to confusion. "What?"

"You forgot about the scroll," Stiles said.

"The Shugendo scroll," Lydia said.

For the first time, Void Stiles showed an ounce of fear. "Change the host."

"You can't be a fox and a wolf," I said from behind him, holding his shoulders to keep him still, to keep him from fighting.

Scott grabbing his arm, biting into it. Void Stiles screamed. Scott stepped aside as I pushed Void Stiles closer to Kira, who drove her katana throw his back into his heart.

Electricity flickered and thunder crackled as Kira removed her sword from Void Stiles' body.

Void Stiles fell to his knees, the fly flying out of his open mouth, buzzing its way down the hall toward Isaac, who closed it in the triskele box made out of the powerful wood of the Nemeton, twisting the lid closed.

Shaking, the tremors in Void Stiles' body ceased, his skin cracking into pieces as he fell into dust over the floor, the dust slowly disappearing.

The Nogitsune was dead.

Finally.

*

Stiles' fear came true, his unconsciou body falling to the floor.

*

No, he was just unconscious. We could still hear his hearbeat even before his eyes opened to see Scott, Lydia, Kira and I kneeling around him, Isaac standing behind me.

"Oh, God, I fainted, didn't I?" Stiles asked. No one answered. "We're alive? We all alive?"

Nodding a barely noticable nod, Scott answered, "Yeah. We're okay."

As Stiles sighed a sigh of relief, Lydia slowly stood, looking down the hall to the doors sadly as she felt yet another close death.

*

She had run outside, Stiles, Scott, Isaac, Kira and I following.

Lydia ran into Stiles' arms as we looked down to Derek, Argent, Ethan and Aiden.

A crying Ethan.

A dead Aiden.

The twins had always been about one thing ever since they broke away from the Alpha pack, losing their Alpha power. Redemption.

Aiden had gotten it by his death trying to save us.

Just a moment too late.

Just like the bridging of the gap between the Hale werewolves and the Argent werewolf hunters, just before Allison's death.

Always a moment too late.

*

Outside the loft buiding with a bag over my shoulder, walking closer to the car, I stopped when I sense Scott behind me.

"You're really leaving, then?" Scott asked.

"That was the plan," I admitted, slowly turning to face him. "It was before . . .Before what happened."

"Before Allison and Aiden." 

"Yeah." 

A long moment of silence passed before Scott said in a low, soft voice, almost a whisper, "Please don't go." 

I sighed, shaking my head. "I know you need someone, but I'm probably the worst, the last person you need right now." 

"Not just because of what happened," Scott told me, taking a few slow steps forward. "Because I still need to learn. You said it yourself, you could teah me strength, teach me anything I need to learn to be an Alpha. And you're probably the best, the first person I need right now." 

I exhaled, looking away. "Fine." I let the bag slip off of my shoulder, down my arm, into my hand before letting it drop lightly to the groun. "I'll stay if you agree to believe that I can take care of myself, no distraction of my safety, no nothing." When I stopped walking slowly forward, I stood in front of him. "Because the more you worry about me, the more danger you're in." 

"Fine," Scott agreed. "If you agree to give us a chance." 

Well, I had practically walked into that one, I thought, tilting my head with a small smile, looking down, then back up as he gave me a small, sad smile back.

But after he lost Allison, Aiden, nearly losing Stiles, his first love, one of his pack, and nearly his best friend, I couldn't leave now.

If I taught him, if he was no longer worried or distracted by my safety, if I gave us a chance . . .

Then things would be balanced.

Until the next time some evil force threatened the worlds of us, of everyone we cared about. 

Because in a town like Beacon Hills, there would always be a next time.