chapter nineteen
you can't trick the trickster

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TWO DAYS.

Stiles had been missing for two days. And it had been the longest two days of Odessa Stone's life. At least it felt that way for her. And everyone around her knew it, they just didn't understand why. And she supposed it was her own fault. She hadn't told anyone about her research and what she had learned, but that all needed to change, starting today.

Her connection with Stiles almost felt unexplainable. She couldn't put it into words. It was like her body was trying to tell her what was happening to him without actually knowing what was happening to him. When Derek had told her and Scott what he and the others were thinking, she couldn't believe it at first.

They thought that Stiles was now the nogitsune. A dark fox spirit that was ruthless, heartless and cruel, now had in its clutches the most humane person there was. Odessa didn't know what to think of it, and if she were being honest, she didn't want to think of it.

If Stiles really was now in the possession of the nogitsune, things were starting to be put into perspective for Odessa. She already had a hunch as to why she reacted differently with the oni. Now she just needed to fill Scott in. And she didn't know why, but she was nervous. The blonde couldn't help it. She didn't want her problems to overshadow the big problems they were facing as a pack, but even with that thought, she knew she couldn't keep what she had learned about herself a secret any longer.

Making up her mind, Odessa made her way to Scott's room, knocking on his door lightly. She peaked her head into his room, and sighed silently in relief that he was dressed for the day, "can I talk to you," she asked, getting straight to the point. If she was going to tell him, she needed to do it before she chickened out.

With furrowed brows at her serious tone, Scott nodded mutely, gesturing for her to sit on his bed with him.

Sitting down, Odessa only kept her head down, watching her fingers chip at the simple pale pink color she had applied to her nails a week ago. the blonde swallowed the nervousness, taking a sharp inhale, and started with, "I haven't been completely honest with you."

Scott didn't jump to conclusions inwardly, only watching her, "what do you mean?"

"Ever since we found out what I am... I've been up most nights doing research—reading about what an Ember is and what I can really do," she could feel her chest becoming lighter and heavier at the same time at her finally telling someone, but still felt that familiar nagging still weighing on her, "one of the abilities I have is forming a personal and emotional connection to the people around me who are important to me. The two most prominent are you and Stiles..."

The McCall couldn't help the small smile rise on his cheeks at her words. However, seeing her unwavering frown, his smile dropped, matching her expression, "why are you telling me this like it's a bad thing?"

"It's not," she perked up, meeting his eyes for the first time since she sat down. The blonde exhaled, frustrated with herself at how she was explaining it to him, "It's not. I just... do you remember how you felt when the oni did... what they did to you?"

"I just felt cold and still... maybe a little scared."

Taking his answer with a nod, she explained herself, "when I was attacked, it was like I knew they were there before I knew they were there. My hands started to shake and I couldn't breathe... and when they let me go, I wasn't still or cold. It was like I was trapped inside my own body as it panicked. Time seemed to stop, I guess."

"Odie," Scott watched her in concern as she dazedly trailed off, her eyes to the floor, "what's going on?"

"I felt the same way when I saw Stiles," she shared, revealing what she had wanted to tell him since she walked through his door, "the night your Dad was stabbed and we went to the hospital. We found him in that room... and it was like... as soon as he turned around, my body just froze. When you heard my heart and I just brushed it off... that was the same feeling I felt when the oni came to the house to check me."

"...What are you saying?"

Lifting her brown eyes to his, she mumbled, "I think my powers can sense the nogitsune in Stiles... with my connection with him... and I don't think the nogitsune knows that."

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Telling Scott about what had been bugging her was a weight off of her shoulders. Even though she didn't reiterate on her staying up most nights and how she found Stiles at the coyote den with her connection to him, still having someone know what was on her mind was a big relief.

She also hadn't told him anything about her Ember powers dwindling. It was like the topic was on the tip of her tongue, but couldn't find a way to tell him. It was bad enough she came to Beacon Hills because she sucked at controlling her werewolf powers, now she had trouble with her other abilities. She didn't want to burden them.

With Isaac in the hospital, Scott, Odessa and Melissa decided to stop by before school and see if they could help the Beta in any way they could. Whether that's taking his pain... or soothing his body to help with healing. If only Odessa told them her powers weren't cooperating. Now it looked like she would have to lie to them.

Coming out of the elevator, the blonde noticed how dark the halls of Beacon Hills Memorial were. She could only guess the power still wasn't back to normal from the incident that occurred two days prior. Odessa made sure to stick tightly to the McCall's as they walked down the hallway, stopping as they were met with a familiar sleeping figure.

Scott pursed his lips at the sight of his ex-girlfriend asleep against the wall uncomfortably. He placed a soft hand on her shoulder to wake her up, and asked, "have you been here all night?"

Allison nodded, shifting in her seat as she woke herself up, "yeah, they won't let me see him because I'm not family. I told them he doesn't have any."

"He's got us," Melissa pointed out, bringing something out from her pocket, "and I've got a key card."

The three teens followed Melissa to the secluded room, mostly likely because Isaac suffered severe burns from the electricity. They watched the woman swipe her access card as the doors slid open to reveal an unconscious Isaac. The boy was hooked up to wires with medical supplies around him. After heeding Melissa's warning to be quick, the three traveled inside the room.

"I thought he'd be healing by now," Allison furrowed her brow, gazing at the almost black burn going down Isaac's face.

Scott glanced at Odessa, who was on the other side of Isaac, "so did I," he placed his hand on the burnt flesh of the Beta's arm.

"Is he in pain?"

The McCall nodded to the brunette beside him before squeezing Isaac's arm, starting to take his pain. Odessa watched carefully as the more pain Scott took, the faster the beeping of the machine by her head had gotten. She finally stepped in when she watched Scott tilt his head back in pain.

"Scott," she called, watching him gasp, "stop, I'll do it."

"Can you calm him," Allison asked her, her hand over her mouth at the sight of both Scott and Isaac in pain.

The Stone gulped nervously at the question, before stammering, "uh, I don't think making him calmer would do anything. He's in pain," she glanced up to Scott, who was eyeing her closely, "I'll take his pain," she placed her hand on Isaac's other arm before squeezing, closing her eyes to concentrate. After a few seconds of black veins traveling from Isaac's arm into Odessa's, the blonde couldn't help but drop her head, breathing out in her own pain that was making its way into her. Taking the deepest breath she'd ever taken, she pulled away, eyes going to her two friends in front of her, who looked to her in concern.

"It won't heal him," Scott almost wheezed, "but it helps with the pain."

"Did Stiles really do this?"

"Whatever's controlling him did it," Odessa corrected the Argent. She pursed her lips at the mere thought of the hazel eyed boy, "whatever's inside him."

Allison sighed, "well, then how do we get whatever's inside of him the hell out of him?"

The two werewolves locked eyes as the Alpha answered, "we're working on it."

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"Listen up! Anybody catches the slightest glimpse of Stilinski, you contact the first available teacher. Got it? Got it!? There's a card on my desk for Isaac Lahey, and every one of you losers is not only going to sign it, you're going to write a personal message so profound and deep, it's gonna bring a tear to Coach's eye. Who's fist? Ah, Danny! That's how you do it, buddy. Keep it PG."

Odessa couldn't help but lean her head against the locker behind her as she listened to Coach's speech. Not only was her body not in sync with her today, the smell of boy stench and testosterone coming from inside the boys locker room was enough to make her negative attitude jump through the roof. She just couldn't escape the nagging feeling she had in her chest. The blonde couldn't help but regret not telling Scott everything. And what frustrated her was she didn't even mean to not tell him. She just couldn't bring it into the conversation. Odessa had been scolding herself all day for not being able to talk to anyone properly.

"No Stiles, no demonic ninjas."

Ethan nodded to his brother and stressed their point, "things are getting too quiet."

"Yeah, I know," Scott agreed, glancing down to the girl next to him, who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but school, let alone the boys locker room. He had a feeling there was more to what she told him earlier that morning but didn't press on it. She would tell him everything when she was ready, "yeah, it's making me nervous, too."

Suddenly, all four werewolves perked up at the sound of a sort of pulsing going through the air.

Odessa, not recognizing the sound, glanced around at the three boys, "did you guys hear that?"

"It's an emitter," the Alpha muttered, "one of Argent's."

The four teens didn't hesitate to step out of the locker room, looking into the hallway to pick up where the emitter was sounding from.

"It's coming from the basement."

The werewolves quickly traveled to the basement and looked down the narrow hall they came across when coming down the staircase. Not having to look very hard, Odessa felt her breath hitch at the sight of someone's back facing them. When the figure turned around, the blonde gripped Scott's arm tightly. The McCall didn't hesitate to bring her behind him slightly at the familiar face in front of them.

"Okay, I know what you guys are thinking, but it's me," Stiles held his hands up in front of him, almost as if he was surrendering, the flashing emitter in his hand, "I swear to God, it's me."

Growling from behind her interrupted Odessa's gaze as the twins didn't hesitate to let their blue eyes glow and charge at the boy. They picked Stiles up by his neck and pushed him against the cabinet behind him.

"Wait, stop," Scott shouted, running to the twins. He grabbed Ethan with one hand and threw him to a nearby file cabinet before pushing Aiden off Stiles, "I said, stop!"

The Ember behind them let her yellow eyes glow at the roar Scott produced in retaliation from Aiden's growl. She still hadn't moved from her spot by the staircase. In all honesty, she was scared to move. She was so confused. Odessa couldn't move her gaze from the Stilinski and didn't detect one shred of the evil resistance she had felt many times before. So why was her gut telling her to still be wary of him?

"It's me, Scott. I swear it's me," Stiles graveled to his best friend, "I don't know where I've been the last two days or what I've been doing, but this is me. I promise."

The Alpha eyed his best friend carefully before bringing his gaze behind him to the girl in the room, making the rest of the boys do the same. Odessa felt as if her feet were glued to the floor. As soon as her brown eyes met his hazel hues, she was begging the Ember inside her to give her something to work with.

"Odie..."

At the sound of his quiet voice, the blonde plucked up the courage to move closer, everyone's eyes following her every move, which made her nervous on top of everything else. Not looking away from him, seemingly studying him, she asked the question she seemed to ask him every time she was with him, "are you okay?"

Usually, when Odessa would ask him that, Stiles' eyes would soften at her worry for him, but this time, they didn't.

And no one noticed.

"Yeah," the boy answered without looking away from her, pursing his lips, "yeah, I'm okay."

"You know what happened at the hospital," Ethan breathed heavily, still somewhat recovering from being thrown by Scott.

Stiles sighed, "I know more than that," he walked to the bag that was laying on the floor and crouched down, "you see this," he held up a folded piece of paper and started to unravel it, "it's a blueprint of the hospital's electrical wiring. You see all these markings in red? That's my handwriting. I know I did this," he glanced to his friends who crouched down to take a better look, "I caused the accident. And everything in this bag, it's all stuff that could be part of something bigger."

Odessa furrowed her brows when looking through the top, most visible, layer of the duffle bag. There was rope, extension cords and other power tools. She watched Ethan pick up a tool with a look of disbelief.

"What the hell have you been up to?"

"I think something worse," Stiles nervously told them, "a lot worse."

The teens placed the duffle bag on a nearby table and started to look through it. As Odessa scanned her eyes through the bag, she observed how truly cluttered it was. Inside was more than just punches of rope and cords—there was duct tape and different papers filled with blueprints of different areas of Beacon Hills. It made her wonder what the overall plan was for the nogitsune regarding Beacon Hills and everyone who lived in it.

"What the hell were you doing," Aiden scoffed incredulously, taking out items from the duffel bag, "building a Terminator?"

"Thank you for that."

Scott ignored the sarcastic remarks around him as a piece of paper caught his eye, "guys, this is a map."

Odessa looked down to the map, only to see a red line going through the original printed trails. She leaned down to place her finger on the drawn in trail, "isn't that the cross country trail?"

"That's the Tate car," the McCall observed, recognizing the area, "where Malia Tate's family died."

Stiles sighed regrettably, "you mean that's where her Father put the steel jawed traps."

As the five teens packed up the stuff from the duffel to go to the cross country trail, Odessa was held back by Scott, who held an uneasy expression.

He looked behind him to make sure no one was listening before he faced the blonde, and spoke lowly, "is that him? Do you... detect anything," he wasn't sure how to put what Odessa could do into words.

"From what I can feel, it's him," the Ember sighed, wanting to trust her head, but her gut was telling her something different, "let's just be cautiously optimistic."

She should've gone with her gut.

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The five teens split up on their way to the cross country trail. After filling in Coach, Odessa, Stiles and Aiden ran together into the trail to warn the others, meeting Scott and Ethan who were in charge of stopping everyone who was running along the, now dangerous, path.

Odessa panted from running through the trail, keeping herself behind Stiles. It was as if her body was keeping her from taking her eyes off of him. It was hard to explain. This was Stiles, after all. The Stone wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. She could see how much all the chaos around him was affecting him, seeing as he's the one who created it, whether he wanted to or not. Even with those thoughts, it seemed the Ember in her saw something else. All in all, Odessa felt trapped. She just simply didn't know what to do.

"Scott," Stiles shouted, seeing his best friend come into view, "stop, stop, stop! Everyone stop," the boy yelled to his classmates in front of him with Odessa, Aiden and Coach next to him. He bent down to feel the ground beneath the leaves and picked up a long chain that was hiding from view.

Coach clapped sarcastically slow when they saw the chain wasn't connected to anything, "congratulations, Stilinski. You found a length of chain. Can somebody now please tell me what the hell's going on?"

As Coach walked forward, Scott noticed his foot trigger a wire, "hey, Coach!"

But the warning came too late. An arrow, that seemed to come out of nowhere, came shooting through the air and straight into Coach's stomach. The students looked in shock as Coach looked down to the arrow, before uttering, "oh, crap," before falling to the ground, his students coming to circle around him.

Odessa kneeled on the opposite side of Scott and next to Stiles as they looked at each other in a panic. They all had an idea of what they had to do, but couldn't execute it with all the eyes that were trained on Coach. And his excessive screaming wasn't helping either.

"Get it out of me," the man screamed painfully, "get it out of me. Get it out of me!"

"Coach—"

"Oh, my God, I'm going to die. Get it out of me! I'm going to die!"

"Coach," Stiles exclaimed, pressing his hand on the man's stomach, "Coach, you're not gonna die."

"I'm going to die!"

"It will hurt less if you stop moving, Coach—"

"Get that thing out of me!"

Scott glanced between his best friend and the Ember, as the former gave him an affirmative nod. Seeing that, Aiden looked up to the looking students and shouted, "get back! Get back! Give him some room! Get back!"

Once the students were out of the way, Scott took Coach's hand and started to take his pain, Odessa looking on uneasily. Both the Alpha and Coach started to gasp at the painful sensation before the latter passed out.

Watching Coach's eyes flutter shut, the blonde exclaimed, "Scott, that's enough. He just passed out."

"I could've killed him," Stiles spoke, bringing their attention to him. He gazed down at his shaking hands that were covered in blood, "I could've killed him, right? What if it was his head or his throat?"

"But it wasn't," Scott panted, "and he's going to be alright."

Aiden perked his head up, glancing around to the others, "I think I just heard an ambulance coming."

"And my Dad..."

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Odessa leaned her head on Scott's arm as the two watched the Stilinski reunion that was happening in front of them. Police and paramedics were called to the cross-country trail to get Coach into the ambulance, taking him to Beacon Hills Memorial. The Stone also observed some investigators on the trail, seemingly going to check out the chain and the tripwire that caused an arrow to go into Coach's stomach. She had a feeling they wouldn't come up with a conclusion with who set up the trap.

"Scott," the two turned around to Ethan, who hissed from his place facing the trunk of the Jeep, "you better look at this."

New contents of the duffle bag were discovered as Ethan showed the items, which included wrapping paper and string. Scott glanced at the items with furrowed brows, "this is the same wrapping paper we used for Coach's birthday present."

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

Thinking for a moment, Odessa inhaled sharply at the realization of where the bomb could be. And it seemed Scott had the same idea. The Alpha and the blonde glanced back to their friend, who was wiping Coach's blood from his hands while talking to his Dad. The former looked back with wide eyes and answered.

"On a school bus."

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Bolting into the Sheriff's station, the Ember couldn't help but look around with wide eyes at the destruction the bomb had caused. When officers came to diffuse the bomb on the school bus, they found that the bomb wasn't on the bus, but was planted at the Sheriff's station after finding Sheriff Stilinski's name tag in the box that was perceived to be the bomb. Odessa, Scott and Stiles went their separate ways in trying to help as many hurt officers as they could. Everything in the station was ruined and many officers were bloodied and scattered around the floor.

"Get me an ambulance here, at the Sheriff's station," the Stone could hear Stilinski key his radio nearby as she knelt down to one of the hurt officers, pressing her hands on his wounds to slow the bleeding, "we've got an explosion. We got multiple officers down. Multiple officers down. We need an ambulance ASAP. On the double."

Odessa dropped her head at the sound of the officer's heartbeat slowing to a stop as she heard Stiles' voice sound from the other side of the station office.

"Scott?! Scott," the Alpha in question came to the other side of the dying Deputy his best friend was knelt next to, the blonde not far behind him, "can you do something? Take his pain? Anything to make it easier?"

Odessa quickly shook her head at the idea, "that's not a good idea, Scott. You've taken a lot of pain today..."

"I'll be fine," Scott waved off before holding the Deputy's hand and squeezing. Odessa watched with a clenched jaw at the sight of not only Scott wincing in pain, but the Deputy as well. The dying man tried to sit up and say something, but ultimately collapsed back to the ground, breathing his last breath.

The three teens looked on in shock at watching someone die so up close, even after Scott took his pain, before Sheriff Stilinski shooed them away, telling them to leave the station. As they were about to leave, they were stopped by Kira, who urgently ran into the station.

"The oni," the girl panicked, "they're coming."

"Stiles, we gotta get you out of here."

The hazel eyed boy only nodded to his best friend, eyes still on his Dad, who was trying to tend to his men as best as he could. It was only when Odessa took his hand did he start walking to the exit along with the rest of his friends.

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The teens could only think of one place to go that would be the safest, the Animal Clinic. Along with Scott's house, Deaton made sure to line the building with Mountain Ash. While the oni could still get through, it would hold them off for a while.

Stiles' Jeep skirted to a stop outside the Clinic, rain pouring down their heads as they all jumped out of the car and ran toward the back entrance. They tried to open the door, only for them to be stopped by the one thing they were trying to avoid—the oni. Odessa's features hardened at the snarls that came their way as Scott yelled to his best friend, who was still at the closed doors.

"Stiles, get inside!"

The Stilinski caught the keys that were thrown his way and didn't hesitate to use them as the fight began.

Odessa stood next to Scott and didn't hesitate to shift with him, growling at the oni, who charged without warning. Instantly dodging the sword that was swung her way, the Ember Wolf kicked the oni in the back, sending them forward in surprise. With that one distracted, Odessa assisted Scott with swiping at the remaining oni with her claws and dodging the swords that came barreling her way.

It was three against three as Kira, surprisingly, joined the fight. With a swipe to one of the oni's faces, Odessa used that to her advantage to bring their face to her knee, sending them to the ground. With them down for a moment, the Stone let herself watch Kira use an oni sword and use it against them, sending them to the ground. Her attention was then brought to the loud slice that sounded near her, only to watch the oni stab their sword through Scott's stomach. Time seemed to stop as the blonde yelled for her friend, even though she couldn't even hear herself shout.

Kira, enraged herself, kicked the oni to the ground. Seeing the opportunity, Stiles ran forward, "all right, come on," he shouted, bringing one of Scott's arms around his shoulder, "get him inside! Get him inside!"

Odessa followed closely behind as Kira took his other arm to guide Scott inside the Clinic. Once her three friends were inside, she closed the door and pressed her back against it, heaving a heavy breath, the adrenaline from the fight finally leaving her body. The blonde moved closer to the others as Scott grunted against the metal exam table with Kira next to him. As Kira was about to slowly take the sword out of Scott's stomach, her head was grabbed and slammed on the exam table, sending her to the floor and knocking her unconscious.

Odessa shrieked in surprise as her stomach filled dread. She swallowed harshly as Stiles slowly turned her way, "Stiles..."

"You really thought I wouldn't have known," the boy started simply, walking toward her, making her walk backwards until her back hit the wall behind her, "you really thought I wouldn't know what an Ember can detect?"

The blonde's lip quivered in fright, "please..."

Her pleas were ignored as Stiles grabbed her arms and held her against the wall, ignoring Scott's disgruntled yell for the girl, "I've been around a long time, little dove. Nothing gets past me," as he spoke, she couldn't help but feel the familiar effects she felt from the oni start to build. Her body trembled as her heartbeat started to race and pound harshly, her vision starting to get blurry from the dizziness she was starting to feel. Just as she was as weak as he wanted her to be, Stiles leaned down to the side of her head, somewhat taking in her scent, "Stiles is right, you know... you are beautiful, little dove."

Too weak to stand, Odessa was finally let go of and fell to the floor, too lightheaded to retaliate or help herself. All she could do was watch helplessly as Stiles walked painfully slow to the McCall, who watched the whole thing with shocked eyes.

Stiles tapped his fingers on the handle of the blade that was still lodged in the Alpha's stomach, "you okay?"

"Please don't. Stop."

"It's okay," Stiles ironically reassured Scott before grasping the handle and the boy's shoulder with his other hand. The nogitsune started to twist the blade mercilessly, unaffected by the yells of pain that was produced, "does it hurt? Hey, look at me. You should have done your reading, Scott. See, a nogitsune feeds off chaos, strife and pain. This morning, you took it from Isaac, then you took it from Coach. And then from a dying Deputy. All that pain. You took it all," he grabbed Scott's head tightly, "now, give it to me."

Black veins traveled from Scott's cheek into Stiles' arm as Odessa watched weakly from her place on the ground. She finally understood why the oni and the nogitsune affected her differently from everyone else. The nogitsune feeds off of everything an Ember didn't stand for. They were complete opposites from each other. Odessa should've known she couldn't have tricked the trickster.

"You really have to learn, Scott," the nogitsune playfully reprimanded, "you really have to learn not to trust a fox. Know why? 'Cause they're tricksters. They'll fool you. They'll fool everyone."

"Not everyone."

Deaton appeared from out of nowhere, it seemed, as the man pierced Stiles' neck with a needle, sending the boy to the ground, knocking him unconscious.

"What was that," Scott asked breathlessly once the sword was out of his stomach. The boy instantly looked to Odessa, who looked as though she was going to pass out any second and wondered what the nogitsune did to her exactly to cause such a reaction, "was that a cure? Is he okay?"

"The fox is poisoned. But it's not dead," Deaton looked down to the boy, unaffected, "not yet."

With those last words, Odessa Stone finally gave in and slipped into darkness, not knowing if she wanted to wake up to the reckoning caused by the nogitsune or stay asleep until he was gone forever.

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this took me forever
but it's long so enjoy <3