Chapter Eight : Nightmare

I was speeding down the road, Scott in the passenger seat. I didn't even care about a ticket, I would not, I could not let Stiles do this. I mean a mental fidelity that still took part in lobotomy, no this would not happen.

I pulled up in front of Eichen House, Scott and me both jumping from the car. "Why didn't you tell us?" I asked fear lacing into my voice.

"Because, we wanted to avoid something like this." The Sheriff said, long faced.

"It's only 72 hours." Stiles fights, his voice low.

Scott huffed out a breath of disbelief, "This is the place Barrow came from. The guy who had a tumor inside him filled with flies. You don't know anything yet."

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

"No, that's actually all surprisingly correct." Stiles remarked to his father.

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

"But why are you putting him in here?" I argue.

"He's not." I turned my head to look at Stiles. "It was my decision."

"We can't help you if you're in here!" Scott and I yell at the same time.

"And I can't hurt you." Stiles fights back, calm.

"Deaton has some ideas." Scott said back.

"And-And Argent's calling people." I add. "We'll find something and if we can't..."

"If you can't" Stiles leans in between Scott and me. "If you can't then you two have to do something for me, okay? Make sure I never get out." He pulls back.

"Come on Stiles." The sheriff told his son, leaving Scott and I in the cold.

We watched as Stiles and his father entered the building. I blinked allowing one tear to fall. I think Scott noticed seeing as he put his hand on my shoulder pulling me into a hug. "Come on, we have to meet Deaton." I nnod into his shirt pulling back.

~

Scott Allison and I stood on the other side of the counter from Deaton. Allison's father on the phone. "Did you have any trouble with ikeda?" Chris Argent spoke from the other line.

"Only minor. The white wolf was exactly where you said it would be." Deaton explained. "But we have two problems now. First, the lichen is not a cure. It'll wear off in a matter of days."

"But while it does work, the oni won't go after Stiles, right?" Chris asked.

"I hope. Eichen House has an unusual history. It might not be all that safe for the oni there as well."

"Not to mention the whole place is made of mountain ash." I add.

"Okay, what's the second problem?"

"I checked with your contacts in Japan. The yakuza boss you saw killed by the oni never found the scroll."

"What scroll?" Scott asked, tightening his grip on the contour.

"A Shugendo Scroll. Shugendo were the ascetic mystics of Japan." Deaton explained.

"The scroll had information on how to exorcise a nogitsune."

"So we need to find that scroll?"

"Exactly. And I did get a name of the man who last purchased it. Kincaid." Deaton spoke into the phone.

Allison widened her eyes, "He was with Katashi. He's the guy who met with Isaac to buy the gun."

"So what? Did Katashi want to scroll for himself?" I asked the group.

"Sounds like it. But Stilinski already told me nothing like it was found among his things." Chris said. "And a paranoid like Katashi would keep it close. Probably on him at all times."

"Wait Dad. What does the Shugendo Scroll look like?" Deaton stood and opened a draw behind him pulling out a tightly wrapped bit of cloth. There was even tighter wrap pages of parchment inside.

"Something like this." He said handing it to the Argent girl.

"Do these come in different sizes?"

"Any size."

"Then I think I know where it might be."

~

"Guilt often becomes Physical. You feel it in your gut." Ms. Morell's word from all that time ago ran around my head. It was back when Jackson was still the Kanima. It was one of the sections after Matt shot Scott at the station. I told her how being the doppelganger made me feel so guilty. How not telling anyone could get someone killed. How it made me want to burn down a building till every.... thing, trying to hurt people was gone.

"Cait?" I heard Scott's voice from a distance. "Caitlin!"

"Yeah?' I perk up.

"Did you see anything?" Ethan asked from the other side of the elevator.

"No just thinking."

"About?"

"Guilt."

I didn't get the chance to elaborate because the doors opened to Allison's floor. Scott took my hand and gave it a light squeeze before knocking just below the 82. Allison swung the door open wide enough for all four of us to walk in. "My father said all the Katashi evidence is being moved to federal lockup by armored car tonight. Probably within the next few hours." Allison explained as we walked closer to Lydia and the twins. Not the old old Alphas they came with me and Scott, the twins being my sisters.

"We're going to rob an armored car?" Ethan asked in disbelief.

"Well. We're gonna try." Lydia said dragging out the word 'well'

~

"Well this is a terrible plan." I remark leaning in the door frame.

"It's not that bad." Lydia defends but I just give her a death glare.

"It's not that good." Aiden tells his girlfriend as he circles the map.

"Look, no one knows the route they're going to take." Evlynn spoke out.

Chloe cleared her throat, "If Allison can get one of her Dad's GPS trackers on the armored car, then we can follow it."

"So when it gets here." Allison bends over and places her finger on the map.

"We attack them?" Ethan asked from his seat behind Lydia.

"No." Lydia rolled her eyes, "Your bikes will be in the middle of the road, looking like you guys got into an accident. And when the driver gets out to help..."

"We attack him?"

"NO." Evlynn, Allison Chloe and Lydia express at the same time. I notice Scott trying to hide his smile, when I'm straight up holding my breath trying not to laugh.

"You'll distract him." Chloe said.

"Then Scott and Cait will break open the back door." Evlynn finished.

"Let's hope." I say flatly.

Lydia just widens her eyes at me, trying to hold back a sassy remark, "Then Aiden, will get Katashi's finger." She said through gritted teeth.

"It's not his actual finger, is it?" Oh my god.

"You are so out of our league." Lydia directed to her best friend.

"Okay, why aren't we just going to Stilinski for help?" Aiden asked, shifting his weight.

"Scott, you want to explain that one?" I say, the all fun reminder that Scott's father was and is a dick.

Scott just rolls his eyes, "Because if he gets caught, then it's the Sheriff tampering with federal evidence."

"Guys this is gonna work. We can do this." Since when is Allison the positive one?

"Ally's right. We're losing Stiles. Her dad is jail for a murder he didn't comite. We need to do this." Chloe said, taking a step closer to me.

A white pain shifted through my mind. A team of Eichen offices hold Stiles down while he screams. "I can't go to sleep! I can't go to sleep!" He's right he can't, the fox could take over. He was shifting uncontrollably on the floor till one of the works shoved a needle into his throat. His body started to shake before his eyes closed and he went still. How was that place a medical faculty. I mean trepanation? That's illegal. "CAITLIN!" Allison screamed at the top of her lungs.

When I opened my eyes, my head was in Scott's lap, Chloe and Evlynn were holding both my hands, and Ethan stood at my feet. Lydia, Aiden and Allison stood above everyone else. And everyone was screaming my name. "What did you see?" Lydia asked, dazed.

"Stiles. At Eichen, they-they were trying to put him to sleep. But he kept screaming and screaming about how he can't go to sleep."

~

I knocked on Scott's door but for some old reason there was a seconded car in the driveway. I know both his parents work later than this. When I looked back to the now open door Kira stood before me. "Kira? What are you doing here?"

"Is that like your go to question?"

"Scott asked the same thing?"

"Word for word."

"You gonna let me in?"

"Oh right." She laughed before stepping to the side so I could enter the house.

"Anyways, hey cait. Kira, that's not the best idea." Scott said coming in from the living room.

"What's not the best idea?" I asked, knotting my eyebrows together.

"I want to help."

"That's not the best idea."

"Because of my mother." Kira spoke looking to the ground.

"What? No!" I defend, looking to Scott for help.

"Of course not. We both know that's not your fault."

"Yeah but it still feels like it is. And if I can help, shouldn't I?" Why was she so moral?

"Kira." I sigh, "People who help us tend to get hurt." My mind flashed to an image of Theo and creating the dark kitsune inside of Kira. "Badly."

"Okay, but I've been practicing." Kira dropped her red bag to the floor.

"Practicing what?" Scott asked, eyes thin.

"I've been picking this up really fast. Like crazy fast." Kira pulled a sword from her bag, swung it and almost cut open Scott's shirt.

"Jesus Christ, Kira. You sure about that?" I asked, clutching my chest due to the drama queen inside.

"Sorry. But watch." Kira reposined her feet so she was a safe distance from both me and Scott. She held the sword out in front of her, before swinging it around her body. I wasn't even sure how to describe it. If there was a way to cut open the air, Kira would have torn it apart. Honestly it was kinda hot.

Kira stopped moving with the sword pointed at the floor. I looked her up and down wide eyed, "Scott? Can we keep her?"

"Oh yeah, she's coming."

~

Scott Allison Kira and I sat in between two cop cars in the parking lot of the station. Allison placed down her bow after checking the scope. "Okay, Kira, you're up." Kira looks at the small device in her hands before standing and walking away from the three of us.

She quickly put the tracker on the bottom of the car before Parrish came outside. "Damn it Parrish." I whisper under my breath.

"Do you know something about Parrish?" Allison asked, fear on her face.

"If you're asking if he's a bad guy, then no he's not. He's the true neutral, but no idea about that. His job is to maintain the supernatural balance, look not the point." I mutter back to the Argent. I look back and see Kira hiding by one of the tries, and Parrish with his gun out. "Should we do something?"

Before any of us could move a man comes out the back of the car and knocks Parrish out. "Who the hell is that?" Good question.

"Kincaid." Allison replied. Scott started to run to the car. "Scott!" Allison whispered yelled after him, me doing the same but it didn't stop the young Alpha.

"Okay, new plan we go with him." I say as Allison and I both start after him.

Kincaid was digging around in the car and took out one silver finger. "We need that finger." Scott's oddly calm. Kincaid turns to face us. Allison had her crossbow draw and aimed at him, and my hand was held out ready for a flame.

Kincaid laughs, "Why should I give it to you?"

"There's a briefcase in there with $150,000 in it." Allison said.

"The scroll inside this prosthetic finger is worth three million." Sliver was the only thing protecting the scroll. Allison melts sliver before going to save Lydia, and she picked up the arrow questioning that it was made of silver when I showed her how she died.

"Oh my god." I whisper to myself.

"Give me the finger." Scott says, breaking my train of thought. Scott paused, closing his eyes, "You know what I mean."

Kira jumps down from the top of the car onto Kincaid's back. His eyes turn a piercing blue as he throws Kira to the ground. My god do I hope she played the trickster. "I guess negotiations are over." Kincaid said as he grew fangs and claws.

"Does that mean Cait gets to play with fire?" Allison jokes, firing an arrow into Kincaid's shoulder. I light my hand as he pulls it out, throwing the flame by the man's head, but he doges. Kira stood and tried first but that was a bad idea from the start. Kincaid threw the young kitsune into a wall as Scott and I moved forward. I'm never sure how to fight, but I let the earths guide me. The ground beneath Kincade started to shake as Scott advanced. I tried to focus Kincaid back as he kicked Scott to the ground. I step over the rolling body of my alpha and take a few swings at the blue eyed wolf, but it doesn't help. He claws my arm pushing me into Allison, knocking both of us down.

Kincaid bends over Scott as he coughed up blood, "You have the eyes of an Alpha. But where is the strength?"

"Up here." Aiden yells jumping down from a platform above us. Lydia Evlynn and Chloe run in from where they were helping Kira Allison and me from the ground. I wince when I take my first step over to Chloe and Kira, holding up the kitsune.

Ethan and Aiden almost beat Kincaid to a pulp before Scott struggled to stop them. Lydia comes to the rescue and yells at the two, causing them both to stop.

"You want him to come after us?" Ethan asked, pointing to the downed wolf.

"Scott, we've seen guys like this. Trust us. He's dangerous." Aiden adds pulling Kincaid from the ground by his neck."

"So are we." I say pushing off the wall and letting go of Kira. "I mean if I wanted to I could burn the two of you alive."

"Cait's right. He looks smart enough to remember that." Scott adds, standing from the ground. He steps forward, taking the finger from Kincaid's pocket, dumping the scroll into his hand. "We're here to save a life. Not end one."

"Scott Can I see the finger?" I huff out, "You know what I mean." Scott hands me the small sliver procstic. I turned it over in my hand, before lighting it on fire. I counted how long it took to melt in my hand. "Pure silver." I whisper to myself as the flame dies. "Allison, didn't your father say Kakashi seemed ready to take on every oni by himself?"

"Yeah.-" She lauded seeming to realize what I was thinking. "And my arrow. Wait, do you think silver could kill an oni?"

"Just maybe. There's no pain in testing it. Well there's a chance of pain but- Maybe. Just maybe."

~

Lottie, Chloe, Evlynn, Scott and I stood in the back room of the clinic as Deaton read over the scroll. "Unfortunately, there isn't much here."

"Does it say anything?" Scott asked his boss.

"My Japanese isn't great." Deaton's eyes shift back to the scroll. "But it appears to say that one method of expelling a nogitsune is to change the body of the host."

"Change the body?" Lottie asked, over a nervous laugh.

"Which begs the question, how do we change Stiles's body?"

Then it hit me like a wall, "The fox and the wolf. We give him the bite."