COACH WAS GOING TO BE JUST FINE. The EMTs arrived in time and managed to get him into the ambulance and off to hospital in record time. Before any of us knew it we were staring at the back of the van as it drove off like nothing major had actually happened and suddenly we back on earth — no longer faced with life or death. Once my heart had returned to a regular rhythm and I'd calmed down enough to take in my surroundings I realised that the Sheriff had arrived to the scene.

It was just Aiden and I standing together and while I scrubbed the blood off of my hands with a cloth I watched the Sheriff and Stiles interact with one another off towards the side — away from all the mess. Stiles' father had pulled him into a tight hug while he rested his head on his sons shoulder. The frown lines were still deep on his face as tears swelled in his eyes. Behind us, Scott and Ethan had continued searching through Stiles' trunk, looking through the duffle bag in more depth.

I pressed my lips together, balling the cloth in my fist while I watched the Sheriff and Stiles. I was hoping Stiles was about to tell him what was happening with the Nogitsune and that it wouldn't be left down to me though as thought to myself they both turned to glance at me. The Sheriff gave me a pressed smile but I could see the relief in his eyes and in return I forced myself to produce a small smile. I really hoped — prayed even — that Stiles was Stiles but I just couldn't allow myself to trust him so easily.

"You really don't trust him, do you?" Aiden said to me curiously from my side.

I glanced at him, meeting his perplexed gaze and I shook my head, "Do you?"

"No." He responded honestly, "But I don't know Stiles, not like you and Scott."

I pressed my lips together, "Scott likes to believe in miracles and second chances. I tend to be more skeptical."

I heard him chuckle under his breath and when I turned again he was trying to conceal a smile, "You mean Scott's glass is half full and yours is half empty?"

I nodded, "That's one way to put it."

There was a short silence until Aiden broke it again as he lowered his head to speak to me, his voice quietening, "Do you really think it's not Stiles."

I exhaled deeply, "I'm praying that it's him .. god, I hope it's Stiles..."

"But you can't be sure." Aiden nodded after I lost my words.

"I have no idea when he was the Nogitsune and when he wasn't. It's enough to frighten me."

He pressed his lips together while we continued to hold each other's glance until Ethans skeptical — slightly concerned — voice interrupted our moment.

"Scott, you better look at this."

Aiden and I turned and looked at his brother before we walked over to the trunk of the Jeep. I tossed the stained cloth inside and stiffened beside Scott as Ethan handed him a roll of wrapping paper. I furrowed my brows in confusion for half a second as Scott glanced at me until I recognised the pattern and the colours of the paper. I remembered being with Stiles when he bought it.

My eyes widened, "Oh, my, god."

"This is the same wrapping paper we used for Coach's birthday present." Scott said.

I nodded while looking at him, "On Mischief Night, the box of shrapnel."

"Wasn't that William Barrow's thing?" Ethan said, "A bomb made from nails and bolts all wrapped in a birthday present? Where did it go off?"

I dropped my head back, covering my face with my hands in panic while I swore to myself multiple times. This was a reminder of how long the Nogitsune had been sitting in Stiles' body for — how he'd ever so slowly adjusted his behaviour one day at a time. When Stiles had first explained the prank for Coach's birthday to me I thought it was genius. Now, I realised I wasn't even Stiles' idea in the first place. The Nogitsune had planted the seed in his head which was how Barrow tied into all of this. We never saw the connection at first because all along we'd been staring at half of the picture.

"On a school bus." Scott responded in a panic.

"There's a bomb on one of the school busses." I muttered, "A freakin' bomb. An actual bomb, probably in a damn birthday present."

For a split second the four of us stared at one another, too shocked to move as much as a muscle until we dived into fight mode. It was always fight and it always would be .. never flight.

Ethan began to quickly shove everything back into the duffle bag while I made a beeline for the Sheriff, accidentally bashing into Aiden's shoulder as I ran passed him. There was no doubt I caught peoples attention when I ran over to the Sheriff with my frantic gaze. I did want to give him and Stiles some time but as always, we were robbed of it because of some sort of emergency.

This was no exception, especially something of this severity.

As I dashed over the Sheriff and Stiles looked at me and the Sheriffs eyes widened. He held his arm out to stop me as I slowed down, placing his hand on to my shoulder, "Alex? What's wrong?"

I looked to Stiles however, "Have you told him?"

Stiles flapped, his mouth agape while he stuttered for a flew seconds. He eventually shook his head, "I-I just started — why?"

"There's not enough time." I said to him before I turned to the Sheriff, "There's a bomb on one of the school buses, it's wrapped in a birthday present and it has screws and bolts inside."

The Sheriff furrowed his brows incredulously while he scoffed in disbelief, "Wha-what the hell is going on here?"

"Sheriff, I promise we will tell you but right now a bunch of kids are about to die."

The Sheriff lowered his head and shook it, "I want to ask." He said, "I really want to ask but right now I don't want to know."

I looked at him genuinely, "I'm sorry."

He sighed but he shook his head as if to say it wasn't my fault. He patted my shoulder quickly before he began shouting around to the other police officers in attendance and radioing over for assistance.

"Alex." Stiles said to me then and I turned to meet his gaze, "What's going on?"

"The Nogitsune constructed a bomb similar to what Barrow used to make." I told him, "It's on a school bus."

His brows furrowed, "How do you know?"

"There's wrapping paper in your bag—his bag. It's the same one you used to prank Coach with on Mischief Night."

Stiles' eyes widened while Scott, Ethan and Aiden ran over to us. Chaos erupted as the cops hurried to get into their cars and speed off towards the school parking lot. I felt my heart readying itself to explode in my chest with anxiety — I felt sick to my stomach.

"We should get to the school." Scott said to us.

Ethan glanced at him, "What can we do if the bomb goes off?"

Scott shook his head, "I don't know but the least we can do is make sure people are no where near that bus."

The five of us ran back to Stiles' car as quickly as we could and crammed into it, sitting in anticipation while Stiles drove back to school quicker than ever before. There was truthfully nothing really that we could do to stop the bomb from exploding, we weren't invincible, but maybe we could try and keep everyone as far away as possible.

The closer we drew to the school however the more I doubted we'd be able to do that. There were squad cars everywhere, even parked on the street. Ambulances and fire and rescue had even arrived in anticipation.

Stiles abandoned his car and we jumped out, watching the horror unfold around us. Several police officers were running into one another, scrambling to try and figure something out within the short amount of time they might've had. Who knew if this bomb had a timer on it?

People were shouting, teachers were running, students were crying. It was pure chaos everywhere you looked and it was horrible to see. Everyone was terrified.

I could hear the Sheriff yelling in the background as Mr. Yukimura shouted for everyone to move away from the isolated bus. A police barricade had already been set up around the parking lot, stopping anyone from getting too close to the bus and Scott glanced back to us and gestured over towards the barricade with a nod of his head.

We pushed our way through the crowd that had already formed — everyone having seemingly forgotten that they had classes to attend — and stood at the front of the barricade as we watched the chaos unfold.

"Did I really do this?"

Scott, Aiden, Ethan and I looked to the right to see Stiles. He had guilt written all over his face, his eyes wide and worried while he chewed on his fingernails anxiously. He was doing everything Stiles would do but it scared me that the thing that had possessed him had coerced him into doing this.

What else could he have done?

"You didn't know." Scott tried to reassure, "This isn't your fault."

"Isn't it?" Stiles responded, "Maybe I could've stopped him, or stopped myself at least."

"You don't know where you've been the last two days, I don't think you'd of been able to stop yourself." Aiden said to him.

I saw out of the corner of my eye as Stiles leaned forward to look at Aiden but I kept my eyes forward. The Sheriff had stepped behind the first barrier while a younger officer with a bulletproof vest on stood in front of the bus where the bomb was located. I'd seen him a few times at the station but he was relatively new, I remembered seeing him the night Stiles first went missing, the Sheriff had called him Parrish.

When everyone saw him get on to the bus with a thick black duffel bag silence ensued. It was almost as if no one dared breathe — myself included. The fear was indescribable and I thought the tension was going to eat me alive.

I bit into the side of my mouth, too afraid to look away from the bus and instinctively I grabbed Aiden's arm. He moved though and instead wrapped it around my lower back, providing me with solace, while we waited in anticipation. I could feel everyone's chemo signals around us, the Sheriffs included.

Eventually, his radio went off.

"It's not a bomb, sir, but there is something in the box."

I'd never felt such relief but it made me wonder why the Nogitsune had gone to such extreme lengths to plant a fake bomb on a bus. I didn't understand what he was getting out of it but I didn't want to think about it. I just wanted to sit on the relief while my heart tried to regulate itself back to a normal rhythm.

Parrish — who'd gone on the bus to look at the supposed bomb — walked to the front of the bus and held the contents of the box up for us to see. I didn't expect to see the Sheriffs name badge that sat on his desk at work and my brows furrowed while I looked to my friends, perplexed. I could see that gears were turning in Scott's head but like me, I wasn't sure if he'd reach a conclusion.

"Oh, god." I heard the Sheriff mumble then. He spoke to himself, a deep sense of unease emitting from both his chemo signals and his body language, "There is a bomb .. just not here."

My eyes widened and I looked away from Scott to the Sheriff to see he already had his gaze on us. His blue eyes were full of panic and once again, since all these supernatural things had started happening in this town, he looked lost, completely and utterly unsure of what to do.

___________________________

The drive to the Sheriffs station was wild and erratic. Scott, Stiles and I followed the sea of police vehicles across the town, riding well over the speed limit as we tried to reach the station before the bomb exploded. The Sheriff had briefly mentioned of how he'd signed for a package this morning — supplies for the next blackout, should it happen — and the box wrapped in brown packaging paper had been long forgotten about on his desk after he'd had the call about Coach Finstock being shot in the chest with an arrow.

I wanted to say that I couldn't believe the Nogitsune would've planned something like this but as this day continued to pass the more I was beginning to realise that there wasn't nothing that he wouldn't do — for a reason that we still didn't know. Scott had mentioned Kira had found some information about the Nogitsune last night and apparently it only behaved like this if someone offended it. I wasn't sure which of us had managed to offend a creature we didn't even know about but we must've majorly pissed if off for it to be planting bombs.

As if it couldn't even get any worse this bomb was delivered to the Sheriffs station with the Sheriffs name on it. Stiles' father... The Nogitsune rigged up a bomb targeted to kill the father of the person he'd possessed. If the Nogitsune was willing to go to such extreme lengths like this, I could only imagine that he wasn't about to hold back on anything. None of us were safe and that terrified me.

When we arrived at the station all the lights were out and the windows had blown through, glass covering the ground outside but there was no evidence of a fire. Like the array of police vehicles that had been in front of us, Stiles abandoned the Jeep in the middle of the small parking lot and we dived out the car, following the Sheriff into the dark station in a hurry. We'd been too late to stop the bomb or even remove it from the station. There was evidence everywhere that it had exploded and glass crunched underneath my shoes as I entered the building.

For a minute time seemed to drastically slow down. It was like everything was moving in slow motion, the array of voices and cries of pain slow and dull. This was horrific. There was no other way to describe what I was seeing. It was quite possibly the worst thing I'd ever bared witness too and it made me feel physically sick to my stomach.

Debris was all over the floor, shattered glass, splintered wood and a mixture of nuts, bolts and screws rolling around on the tile. Electricity sparked from the hanging lights that had fallen from the ceiling following the blast and desks had been destroyed. On the floor, people in uniform laid there, blood stains on their clothes and skin while others crawled or tried to get up — desperate to try and find their way to safety — however some of them didn't move. I couldn't look at the unfortunate ones for too long as a thick lump rose in my throat, tears burning my eyes while my stomach churned.

"Get me an ambulance here at the sheriff's station. We've got an explosion. We got multiple officers down. Multiple officers down! We need an ambulance A.S.A.P. On the double."

Helplessly, I continued to walk around watching as people tried to cope with what had just happened to them. Stiles had long disappeared and had since called on Scott — leaving me to my own devises to navigate my way through all this chaos and pain. My chin began to tremble but no matter how desperate I was to help these people, I was frozen until all at once I was thrust back into real time at full speed like an asteroid hitting the earth. 

The noise in the building doubled and the bigger picture was suddenly more visible. Those who were not hurt or had just arrived hurried to help their injured colleagues. I saw first aid kits being dispensed and people holding pressure on wounds that had been created as a consequence of the impact. A lot of voices blended into one leaving me to struggle but I did hear a voice that was exceptionally familiar and he spoke a familiar name.

"Derek? Derek?" Chris Argent said and immediately I hurried to locate him. I had no idea what he was doing here but Derek was here too and I needed to find him.

I spotted Chris first, his back to me and he looked to be holding to Dereks arms. I ran over to them quickly, calling my cousins name desperately. Fear had been quick to consume me, it didn't matter that Derek was supernatural a bomb still could easily of killed him.

When I reached them Derek was breathing heavily and he grimaced in pain, his eyes heavy while he tried to stand under his body weight. My stomach churned with dread and I pressed my lips together as a tear dripped down my cheeks, "Derek?" I said desperately while I grabbed his arm, "Derek, are you okay?"

He nodded his head sluggishly, "I'm fine." He said to me quietly, "I'm fine."

"No you're not." I responded as I shook my head, "You're hurt, where? Where are you hurt?"

"Alex." He began to grumble but he didn't get very far as I'd located his injuries. His back was covered in shrapnel and glass — piercing every inch of his skin from the top of his back to the bottom. It tore hundreds of holes into his leather jacket and it littered his skin like a deformed piece of art work.

"Oh, my, god." I mumbled, "Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god."

"What is it?" Chris said then, moving an inch to the side to see what it was that I was looking at. I felt him tense beside me and I tried to push my feelings to one side for my rational thoughts to give me an idea. My brain wouldn't work however and all I could think to do was push Derek down on to the bench behind him. He sat down willingly, telling me immediately that he most certainly was not fine.

I didn't know where to start. He needed it all pulling out but I had no idea what do to. Ideally he needed to get to Deaton.

"What can we do?" Chris said, and when I glanced at him I saw he was asking me rather than Derek.

I looked to Derek's back again and shook my head, "I-I think he needs to go to Deaton."

Derek shook his head, "I'm fine." He repeated.

"Shut up, Derek." I responded, grabbing his hand. I didn't even have to focus on taking his pain, I was able to take it just by touching him. The second hand pain swarmed my body and I closed my eyes, screwing them shut as I seethed, "You're in agony."

Derek tried to fight me but he was in too much pain to succeed. Instead, I forced him to sit there and let me take his pain. He never really let anyone help him but this time I refused to sit back and watch him battle through his pain. There was too much of it for him to be able to handle it alone.

I wanted to take it all but eventually it made me dizzy, so dizzy to the point where I began seeing dark spots. Maybe I'd taken too much but if it helped Derek I didn't care. It was Chris who took my hand from Dereks and he held my shoulder supportively while I stepped back, watching me carefully.

"I'm okay." I reassured the man, glancing at him when the dark spots in my vision disappeared, "We should take him to Deaton."

Chris nodded but as he was about to respond I was ambushed my Scott, Stiles and Kira — wherever she'd come from — and they looked at me with wide and panicked eyes.

"We need to leave." Scott urged me.

Kira nodded, "The Oni are coming."

I looked at Stiles and held his gaze. I couldn't read him but I was torn between going with him and helping Derek. I knew I couldn't let the Oni find him because they would kill both the Nogitsune and Stiles but I didn't want to leave Derek.

"Alex, go." Derek said, pushing me away from him gently, "I'll live."

He was right. There was no major injury but that wasn't the point. Derek had been by my side several times and I wanted to ensure he would be all right but the Oni were strong and Scott couldn't go up against them alone.

I looked at Derek, giving him a stern yet caring glare, "You better be."

He nodded in response before he pushed me again towards Scott, Stiles and Kira and I glanced at Chris for reassurance.

He nodded, "I'll make sure he's okay." He said to me.

I left with them knowing that. It was what I needed to hear in order for me to turn around and follow them out of the station. The night had fallen quickly like it had the previous nights but a heavy downpour cursed us, the rain bouncing off the floor as we ran across the parking lot to Stiles' Jeep.

Kira and I jumped in the back and Stiles quickly pulled out the parking lot and on to the main road. We drove in the rain, trying to figure out a plan when the animal clinic was suggested by Scott. It was a solid idea — especially with the mountain ash barrier like there was in Scott's house. It would slow down the Oni enough to hopefully buy us some time.

"It's an animal clinic?" Kira asked in confusion.

"Yeah, the place is lined with mountain ash. Just like my house." Scott said to her, "It will buy us some time."

"But they can get through it?" Stiles asked of us worriedly.

"Eventually."

Stiles glanced to us fleetingly before looking back to the road, "Nobody's got any better ideas?" When none of us responded he nodded, "Okay, sure. Animal clinic."

"The only idea I've got is backup." I said to them, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I searched for Aiden's phone number, pressing the call button and holding it to my ear. It rang but the longer it continued to ring for the more worried I became that he wasn't going to answer.

"Who are you calling?" Scott asked me.

"The twins." I said as Aiden's voicemail message began playing. I ended the call before trying again and returning the phone to my ear, "We need all the help we can get if the Oni can break through."

"Hi, it's Aiden, I can't take your call. Leave a message if it's important."

The beep followed as I shook my head and looked out the window. We were close to the clinic, I recognised the road.

"Aiden, we need your help. The Oni are coming for Stiles. We're headed to the animal clinic, it's lined with mountain ash but they can break through. If you get this in time don't call, just come straight to the clinic."

I hung up and put my phone away, praying that he listened to it in time to come and help. I wasn't sure if Scott and I could hold them back on our own.

Kira looked at me, "Any luck?"

I shook my head, "Voicemail."

Stiles pulled around the back of the clinic so we could get through the back door and he slammed his breaks on like always. The stop was abrupt and not three seconds later all four of us were diving out of the car and running through the torrential rain to the back door.

Scott barely had the time to get the keys out from his pocket before the familiar yet so foreign snarl of the Oni was heard. The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I turned my head and searched through the rain for the dark figures — finding them surrounding us and moving through the shadows.

"Stiles, get inside!" Scott urged him quickly as he stood at the door. He threw the keys to him  before glancing to me fleetingly and I nodded in response.

We didn't have a choice. We'd have to fight against the Oni together if we wanted to keep Stiles alive.

I shifted quickly, feeling the bone structure in my face change, the teeth elongating and the claws emerging. My vision enhanced to the infrared and beside me Scott growled threateningly.

It was the two of us versus the three of them but we gave it all we had. I tried to get a shot in towards one of them but the way they wielded their sword prevented me. We were basically fighting air, just dodging their blade while trying to find a disadvantage to them.

I noticed that Kira had joined us and it made me feel somewhat better but I couldn't concentrate on what she was doing. I had to keep my eyes forward, it was already hard enough to see through the heavy downpour.

When the Oni thrust its sword towards me I intercepted by hitting its arm upwards and away from me. It was only then did I have the opportunity to get my first hit in and I kicked it's stomach with as much force as I could.

The body stumbled backwards and hit the floor before disappearing into nothing but smoke. I gathered that it had gone and so when I turned around I was more than surprised to see it standing directly in front of me.

I was even more surprised when — not even a second later — a mind numbing pain stabbed through my stomach.

I gasped for air suddenly before looking down to my stomach, seeing the blade of the Oni impaled deeply into me.

I heard Scott's voice but I couldn't focus enough to understand what he was saying. All I could feel was the sudden pain that brought me to my knees and triggered my transition back to my human self. I put one hand on the ground to try and keep myself up while the other clutched to my stomach where the blade still resided.

I was deaf to the commotion around me, my friends voices were audible but I could recognise what they were saying. I felt Scott and Stiles grab me by my underarms and hoist me up to my feet but I was no where near stable enough to use my feet. They practically dragged me over to the doors and I rested my head on Scott's shoulder — putting my weight into him because I knew he could hold me.

Every movement hurt, it felt as if the sword was edging deeper and tearing my insides.

The door was closed behind us and the loud slam brought me back into reality. They carried me through to the back and I reached out for the exam table and leaned over it while gasping desperately. After a moment I used it to turn myself around and I rested against it before groaning in agony.

"Scott." I said deeply, grabbing his shoulder.

He looked at me worriedly while he placed his hand on my arm, "Are you okay? What is it?"

I exhaled deeply, "Take it out."

"Okay." He nodded to himself while taking a breath, "Okay, okay okay." He grabbed the handle while I took deep breaths, "Ready?"

"Yes." I nodded but the second the words passed my lips I shook my head, "No. No, wait."

A loud bang interrupted us and Scott and I turned to see Kira on the floor — collapsed in a heap unconscious.

Scott turned to her, "Kira?" He called worriedly.

When she didn't respond I pushed him away and pointed down to her, gesturing for him to check that she was okay. I was too out of breath to tell him to go and check on her.

He crouched down by her and shook her shoulders while I watched but that was when I realised Stiles had disappeared. It was just one damn thing after another but all I could focus on was the pain that I was still in. I looked up to the ceiling and exhaled deeply before closing my eyes, trying to think of a memory of some kind to lessen the pain but I was distracted when I heard Scott grunt followed by what sounded like a person falling to the floor in a heap.

Looking down, I saw him lying on the floor beside Kira unconscious and a tearless sob slipped passed my lips. This had gone from bad to worse in seconds and when Stiles walked out of the shadows with the most terrifying look on his face I'd ever seen in my life I knew I was in serious trouble.

It baffled me how it was in his body but when it was present Stiles didn't even look like Stiles. His brown eyes — those pure and soft eyes — were gone and instead replaced with the coldest glare I'd ever had the misfortune of seeing. It was pure evil — he was pure evil and it sent a shiver down my spine.

Everything about him was different, even the way he held himself and I found myself pressing my body further into the table behind me. I wanted nothing more than for it eat me alive and make me disappear.

He walked over to me slowly but I didn't dare look away from him. I had no idea what he was going to do but I was scared — petrified even.

I sobbed quietly when he stopped directly in front of me, the sword in my abdomen the only thing separating us, and he drummed his fingers on the blade curiously.

I shook my head, "Don't."

He continued to run his fingers over the sword, glancing up to me fleetingly, "You okay?"

"Stop." I pleaded quietly, "Please, just stop."

"It's okay." He dismissed coldly, grabbing the handle. He readjusted his grip a few times before he reached forward and grabbed my shoulder, squeezing it tightly.

A tear rolled down my cheek while I looked down to the blade in my stomach, trying to prepare myself but when he started to twist the sword inside of me I erupted into screams. I tried to bite my lip to stop myself but all I did was make it bleed — the pain was too intense.

"Does it hurt?" The nogitsune asked me before he snapped, "Hey, look at me."

I tried to push on his shoulder to get him away but my strength had decimated with the pain I was enduring.

He continued to twist the sword but he removed his hand from my shoulder and grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look at him, "You should've done your reading, Alex." He said to me, "See, the Nogitsune feeds off chaos, strife and pain." He chuckled dryly, "Now, you were skeptical earlier. I thought you were going to ruin my plan. I planned for Scott to be the one standing here but you surprised me when you took Coach's pain and then you did it again at the station. You selflessly took on the pain of your cousin who you love so very much and then .. then, when I looked further I saw all that pain you had."

I grabbed his wrist that held my jaw firmly and tried to pull it away while exhaling out of my nose deeply but he was too strong for me. My body felt two seconds away from collapsing as he carried on slowly twisting the sword in my stomach. All I could do was whimper in pain.

"I'll admit, I've never dealt with internal pain before but yours is just too strong to ignore." He said to me with a menacing smile, "It makes me all the more happy to see you standing here instead of Scott because you and I both know how much pain this will cause Stiles as he's forced to watch."

"L-leave us a-alone." I stammered, fighting for breath.

He tutted while shaking his head, "No can do." He said, "Now, all that pain you took, that you feel .. give it to me."

The Nogitsune began withdrawing both the pain I was in and the pain that I had taken from my body and it pulled all the air out of my lungs. He shook in front of me, absorbing it all while all I could focus on was trying to breathe again. The both of us panted for two completely different reasons and I wanted nothing more than for it to be over but he continued until I could barely see anymore.

My world was spinning and I tightened my grip on his wrist while clutching to the table I was leaning against until he was finished. When he was, he ran his thumb over my cheek but there was no meaning behind it — if anything it was condescending while his cold eyes stared straight into my soul.

"You really have to learn, Alex." He cautioned me, "You really have to learn not to trust a fox. Mmm-mmm." He nodded while grinning sadistically. It had been him all day and while I'd been skeptical it wasn't enough. He'd pulled the wool over all of our eyes. "Know why?" He continued, "Cause they're tricksters. They'll fool you .. they'll fool everyone."

"Not everyone."

I turned to see Deaton standing beside Stiles, a calm and collected look on his face as he injected something into the Nogistunes neck before retracting the needle. Immediately, his hand dropped from my face and he released his hold on the handle of the sword while his breathing increased heavily. He fought for air and stepped backwards, his body swaying side to side and he groaned as he began to lose consciousness. He joined Scott and Kira as he fell to the floor, eyes closed and breathing shallow.

I groaned in pain myself, trying to hold my body up while I looked at Deaton, "What was that?"

"The fox is poisoned but it's not dead." He told me, glancing down to Stiles fleetingly, "Not yet."

"Not yet?" I repeated, "What do you mean, not yet?"

Deaton ignored me and instead wrapped his hand around the handle of the sword. He looked at me reassuringly but all I could manage was to shake my head. I didn't feel at all stable on my feet, in fact, I felt like I were seconds away from passing out myself.

I'd closed my eyes before I heard hurried footsteps echo in the clinic, rubber soles squeaking on the tiled floor. I barley had the strength to open them again, the pain too intense but when I did I saw Ethan and Aiden running through the door into the back.

"Alex!" Aiden called quickly. He rushed over to my side, beating his brother and when he reached me I fell forwards but he caught me quickly. He held me up by my underarms, wrapping his arms around me and I put all my body weight into him.

"What happened?" Ethan asked.

"The Nogitsune has been fooling you all day." Deaton told them, "And everything he planned led up to this. All for some chaos, strife and pain."

I groaned loudly when Deaton pulled the sword out of my stomach, my body retracting forwards while I rose my hand to nurse the area of pain. Aiden's grip around my body tightened and he scooped one arm under my legs, lifting me up and sitting me on the metal table before he climbed up himself and positioned my body to lean on him.

I exhaled sharply, coping with the pain as it began to fade and I looked down to Stiles' body on the floor, "When he wakes up will it be him or will it be Stiles."

"It'll be Stiles." Deaton responded, "For how long, however, I'm unsure of."

I sighed as I dropped my head back and closed my eyes. One thing I knew for certain was that the next time I saw the Nogitsune I was going to kill him.

___________________

A/N; Alex and Aiden man🥺 I just love them so much to the point where I want to do something with it but Alex and Stiles😩

Also, why is it that when the Oni stabs Scott in this episode he doesn't die but when they stab Aiden and Allison they die?? I don't understand.