Scott squeezed his eyes shut as the stabbing pain flooded his body when Kira grabbed the sword handle. He gripped the examination table behind him, trying to keep himself from breaking it, but that's when he heard Kira exclaim in pain. His eyes shot open, and he was shocked by what he saw.

Stiles was grabbing Kira's wrist, and bending it backwards, before he slammed her forward, knocking her head against the hard metal table. That's when Scott saw the shift in his eyes as he came over to him. He felt a shudder go through his body as Stiles approached him and drummed his fingers against the handle. That's when he saw the shift. This wasn't Stiles. "Okay? It's okay." "Stiles" assured him.

"Please don't. Stop." Scott begged, but nothing he said got through as "Stiles" grasped the sword with one hand and put his other hand on his shoulder. He barely saw Stiles twist the handle before the pain was blinding and he could feel darkness creeping at the edges of his eyes.

"Does it hurt?," "Stiles" demanded, still twisting the sword around in Scott's guts "hey, look at me. You really should've done your reading, Scott. See, a nogitsune feeds on chaos, strife, pain," Scott had to pay attention, maybe something he said could help, even if his vision was getting more and more blurry. "this morning you took it from Isaac; then from Coach and then a dying deputy. All that pain...you took it all."

Scott felt the twisting finally stop. He heard a large snap and a piece of metal fall to the floor , but before he could look and see what it was,"Stiles" slapped his wet hands against both sides of his face and demanded. "Now, give it to me."

Scott felt all the pain leave his body, and he felt his eyes almost close, but the grip that "Stiles" had on his face was enough to keep him awake.

"You really gotta learn, Scott. You really have to learn not to trust a fox." "Stiles insisted after he had let go, the pain flooding back in waves. "Mm-mm. No, cause they're tricksters. They'll fool you. They'll fool everyone."

"Not everyone." Deaton spoke, seemingly coming out of nowhere. But Scott couldn't tear his eyes away from the needle that Deaton pressed against Stiles' neck, causing him to fall to the floor unconscious while gasping for air.

"What was that?" Scott demanded as he watched Deaton pick up the handle of the sword off the floor before the vet directed his eyes toward the wound. "Was that a cure? Is he okay?"

"The fox is poisoned, but it's not dead." Deaton met Scott's eyes while he spoke before turning back to glance at "Stiles". "Not yet." The vet looked back down at the gaping wound I'm Scott's abdomen before meeting his eyes. "I'm gonna have to get that sword out."

"What about them? Are they okay?" Scott demanded, looking down at his girlfriend and best friend, who were both unconscious and showed no sign of moving; despite all of the pain, he was at least still awake.

"Your wound is the most time sensitive. Your skin healed around the blade of the sword. I've gotta call a few people. Stay here, don't move." Deaton insisted, but before he could leave the room, Scott stopped him.

"Wait, who are you calling?"

But the vet seemed to completely ignore him as the alpha's vision finally went full black; He was out before he even felt the floor.

•••

"Alright, help me lift him." Scott heard Deaton say, feeling a pair of hand wrap around his ankles and another pair grasp under his armpits. He had to bite back the explosion of pain he felt in his stomach as he was lifted onto the cold, metal examination table.

"Lydia, Derek, I need you two to take Kira and Stiles into the other room and monitor them. It's best if you restrain Stiles as well."

Scott heard multiple footsteps come in and out of the room before he heard the soothing sound of his mother's voice. "Scott? Honey, are you with us?"

Scott forced his eyes open enough to make out the forms of the veterinarian and his mother, but it felt like the more he returned to consciousness, the more his stomach hurt; the more his heart hurt. How could he have been so stupid to trust the nogitsune that had a hold of Stiles' body? And now Kira was hurt because of it.

"Can you tell me what happened? Or does it hurt too much to talk?" Melissa asked as she gently turned him on his right side so he could see her face.

"We were trying to keep Stiles safe from the Oni-" Scott hissed as gloved fingers traced over the wound, "and they ambushed us. When we got inside...I don't know if he was taken over again-" he winced as Deaton pulled the fabric that was once his shirt off of the wound, pulling at some of the scabbed over skin, "or if he was lying to us the whole time. Are they okay?"

"They'll be okay. Let's get this sword out of you. Let yourself pass out if you need to, this is gonna hurt like a bitch."

Scott barely felt her touch his wound before the pain grew to be too much and his vision went dark again.

••••

When light finally started to break through Scott's vision, it was almost immediately tainted by the stabbing in his gut. However, he still forced his eyes open to look at the vet clinic and saw Kira, who was awake and smiling, sitting next to him. "Hey..." he forced a smile while lacing a arm loosely around his abdomen, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, your mom said I don't have a concussion. Lydia and Derek went home, your mom and Deaton are with Stiles now."

That's when all of the emotions came back. The fear, the twisting, the look on Stiles' face... Scott forced himself into his elbows and demanded. "How is he? How is Stiles? Is he awake?"

"He's starting to wake up, but you're gonna hurt yourself by moving. Please lay back down." Kira insisted, going to gently push against his chest in order to make his body lay down against the metal examination table, but Scott refused to back down and stayed upright.

"Help me up, I need to see him."

"Scott, we don't even know if it's him."

"I don't care. I need to make sure he is okay. He's gonna freak out if I'm not there."

Kira nodded, and Scott allowed her to help him down. He draped his left arm over her shoulders and allowed her to take the lead as they made the trudge to the other examination room.

When the pair entered, the sight left them on baited breath. Asleep, no one could deny that was Stiles Stilinski... but when he woke up, would it be Stiles they saw, or the thing that was destroying him from within?

"Hey, honey." Melissa spoke, breaking Scott out of his thoughts. "He's probably gonna wake up any second now, but you don't have to stay if you don't want to. He'd forgive you."

Scott shook his head before breaking away from Kira's hold and approached his unconscious friend, who was lightly stirring. "He'd forgive me, but I wouldn't forgive myself."

His mother nodded, and started to go to the waiting room to get Scott a chair, she definitely saw his legs shake without Kira to support his weight, when the broken voice hit all of them, stunning them into silence.

"S-Scott?"

Scott ran over to the examination table, and started taking off the restraints immediately, blocking out the voice in his head that was warning him, that it could still be the Nogitsune. As soon as they were off, he wrapped his arms tightly around his best friend, taking in the shaky breathing and the warm skin that slightly twitched involuntarily under him. Stiles. This was definitely Stiles.

"I'm so sorry...I'm so, so, sorry." He felt Stiles tuck his head against his shoulder as he chocked out his words, his eyes pressed directly against his shirt sleeve. "I'm so scared, Scott."

Scott wanted to assure Stiles that he wasn't the one who hurt him, who broke off a sword inside of him, but if he was completely honest with himself, he was having some issues differentiating that as well; so, he held him tighter, trying to see if he could will the repressed demon out of his friend, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to. "We're gonna figure it out. We're gonna save you."

"I don't want anyone to get hurt..I've already hurt you and Kira... I don't want something bad to happen to anyone else." Stiles admitted, still holding on tightly to Scott, and not showing signs of letting go anytime soon; Scott could tell that in that moment, he was holding Stiles to the surface mentally. He knew that once he let go, it would still be Stiles, but his best friend didn't think that.

The pair stayed there for a few more minutes, before his mother's voice finally broke it off.

"We should get all three of you home. It's been a long night for everyone."

•••••

Scott winced as he walked behind his mother, and while he was healing, it takes awhile for a giant hole in your stomach to stop hurting; he sat down at the table, grabbing one of the bananas off the table and started eating it. His blood sugar definitely was low.

"You should get some sleep." Melissa insisted before pressing a kiss to his head and putting thier phones on the table. "I'm gonna go clean this." She smiled, taking the bloodstained jacket into their laundry room.

Scott nodded, and continued to eat his banana when her text alert went off. Instinctively, he picked it up, and nearly dropped the banana on the floor when he read the text from the sheriff that was displayed in front of him.

Noah: I'm checking Stiles into Eichan House, per his request. He doesn't want Scott to know.

"Why in the world?..." Scott muttered as he opened her phone, scrolling upward through the messages, trying to find a shred of context. There had to be a reason for this.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and Scott didn't even look up as he spoke.

"Stiles asked to be put in Eichan House... he doesn't want me to know." He finally looked up at her, feeling the anger and the hurt fill his chest and his voice. "What did he think?! That I wouldn't notice he was suddenly gone?!" He shook his head, trying to fight back the tears in his eyes as he put her phone back on the table and grabbed his helmet. "I'm gonna go talk to him."

"You're still healing."

"I can't just let him do this. Not without knowing why." He explained, trying to rush out while still calming down his mom. "See you later."

"Wait..." She insisted, before wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Be safe."

Scott nodded, and put his helmet on as he ran out the door, jumped on his motorcycle and drove as fast as he could straight to Eichan House. He was lucky that he remembered the directions and breathed out a sign of relief when he saw the sheriff and Stiles standing outside of the metal gates. He turned off his bike and held his helmet in his arms as he approached them.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He questioned, looking directly at Stiles as the sheriff answered.

"Because we wanted to avoid something like this."

"It's only 72 hours." Stiles added, avoiding eye contact with Scott, who decided that the sheriff was gonna be the one who he got any sort of answer from.

"This is the same place Barrow came from, the guy who had a tumor inside of him filled with flies. You don't know everything yet."

"I know enough. Nogitsunes, kitsunes, oni, or whatever they're called."

"Wow, that was all surprisingly correct." Stiles piped up, giving his dad a nod, who continued speaking.

"Scott, I saw a MRI that looked exactly like my wife's. And it terrifies me. I'm heading down to L.A. tomorrow to talk to a specialist."

"Why are you putting him in here?" Scott demanded, when his friend finally made eye contact with him, and started to answer him. "He's not. It was my idea."

"Stiles, I can't help you if you're in there." Scott pleaded, but Stiles' response just broke through to his core.

"And I can't hurt you."

"Deaton has some ideas, Argent's calling people...we're gonna figure this out, and if we can't-" Scott started to insist, but Stiles cut him off.

"If you can't...if you can't then you have to do something for me, okay?" Stiles stopped to put his hands on Scott's shoulders, and Scott watched as his best friend's eyes filled with fear and determination. "Make sure I never get out."

Before Scott could respond, protest, even tell Stiles that 'he could not do that', Stiles leaned over and buzzed the gate, which opened and let his best friend and his father disappear behind the metal gates, leaving Scott by himself, his helmet feeling heavier and heavier under his arm.