A/N: Wow, I haven't updated in far too long. I've been horribly stressed with school that I thought I deserved an emotional break and writing would help. I realized how much I missed writing for this story. I hope yall review this and my other TW story. I need some inspiration because once I get it back, I'll be writing like mad once again! Anyways, I'd love your reviews, ideas, and thoughts please. Thank you for all my readers who are sticking with Katherine and me. Much love to you all! Song is for the end scene in Stiles' room!

Chapter Sixty Eight:

The Fox and The Wolf

Chapter Song: Things We Lost In The Fire by Bastille

I'd been taking up residence in Sherriff Stilinski's office for most of the morning. I was curled up on a chair writing in a journal, trying to figure out how the hell we could save Stiles from himself. It was a sticky situation, but Sherriff and I both agreed we had to cach him first. And it wouldn't be easy. Deaton had explained the scroll to us and to our dismay, he admitted there wasn't much we could do. But, it did say the only way to expel a Nogitsune was for the host body to change. We all concluded that it meant Stiles' body had to be turned into a werewolf. I fought it. I fought it hard. I know Stiles didn't want that. When we live in a town that's Halloween ever freakin' day, it was sometimes nice to be the normal one. Or, at least somewhat normal. I heavily sighed, getting tired of thinking about this too much. I inhaled the smell of paint and wood. It was still prominent in the building since the parts that did get destroyed by the bomb Stiles planted had been rebuilt. Great, we could blame Stiles for that one too.

"I know, kiddo." Sherriff comforted from looking at Stiles' MRI scan on his desk.

"He doesn't want this. I'm not letting Scott…" I lowered my voice and looked around to make sure no one was paying too much attention to the Sherriff's office, "give him something he doesn't want."

"But at the same time, he doesn't want to die." Sherriff grimaced at the word. The thought of his son's life being taken away sent chills down his spine.

"And I'd never let that happen to him. I just…I don't know." I sighed once more before tossing the journal and pen onto the Sherriff's desk. "All I know is, I'm not letting my best friend die because of a damn fox." Sherriff nodded before his attention was taken away from me. He glared out the window and craned his head to see three people out in the lobby talking. I followed his gaze to see a newly exonerated Chris and Derek talking to Deputy Parrish. I lightly smiled, knowing that Stilinski had tweaked a few details in the papers to let them out. Sherriff stood up first and I followed him out the door to see Parrish holding Chris' cattle prod.

"The charges were dropped…although I'm not exactly sure who's responsible for that." Chris mused to Parrish.

"I am. I'll take care of this Parrish." Sherriff assured. Chris shifted over towards Derek so I could stand beside him.

"Sherriff, I'm not kidding, this things a few watts from being a light saber."

"Bye Parrish." I sarcastically smiled, slapping my palms down on the desk. Sherriff eyed Derek, Chris, and I and led us into his office, closing the door behind him. We all gathered around the big, wooden desk that was piled with papers—not so much police cases though. Most of them had to do with Stiles.

"The specialist I saw in LA told me the thing that every doctor says when he's trying to avoid a lawsuit, 'we can't say for sure'." Stilinski sighed, picking up the printed results of Stiles and Claudia's MRI. "And then I spoke with Melissa. These are brain scans. My wife's and Stiles." Derek took Claudia's brain scan and I took Stiles. We observed them side-by-side. My brows pushed together and I couldn't help but notice one thing:

"They're the same." I muttered.

"I knew they were similar. But those are the same. Exactly the same."

"And I'm guessing this isn't possible?" Derek asked, his eyes shifting between papers.

"Not even remotely." Sherriff stated with a bit of hope evident in his voice.

"So the tricksters still playing tricks." I guessed.

"But why this trick?" Derek wondered. Sheriff sighed and leaned on his desk.

"When I was in the army, an officer told me 'if you want to defeat your enemy, you don't take away their courage. You take away their hope'." He explained.

"You don't look like a man who gives up hope easily." Chris finally opened his mouth.

"Stiles isn't one to pick a fight." I realized with a frown.

"If this thing inside him, is using his mother's disease as some sort of psychological trick, then this isn't just a fight for his body. It's also a fight for his mind. Right?" Sherriff believed. I ran a hand over my face, wanting to scream the tension out of my lungs.

"You know he's left people severely injured." Chris reminded.

"And others severely dead." Derek added. I looked over to him with narrow, judging eyes.

"That's why I need the three of you. I need people who are experienced in this kind of thing. I need you to help me stop him."

"And by stop him, you mean trap him." Chris clarified.

"Well we're not killing him." I spat. Sherriff paused, surprised at my small snap at Chris, and finally nodded to the middle aged man, giving him his cattle prod back.

Not to long later, we all assembled at the Argent apartment. Allison led her father, Derek, Sheriff, and I into the home office.

"Wow. Is this normal spring cleaning for you guys?" I gawked at the offices' desk covered in weapons.

"This is every non-lethal weapon I could find." Allison said.

"Take all of it." Chris nodded.

"What's the plan here?" Sherriff reluctantly asked, watching Chris pick up a heap of ropes.

"If we're planning on tying Stiles up and playing a game of Fifty Shades of Grey, I'd suggest otherwise." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Our best shot right now is for Derek to try to pick up Stiles' scent at Eichen House. Especially if he went through something stressful there." Chris said.

"Of course he went through something stressful there, it's a god damn asylum." I spat. Stilinski put his hand on my shoulder to calm me.

"Should all five of us be going to the same place?" He asked, finally taking his hand off.

"Where else has Stiles been showing up?" Chris asked.

"School, hospital…" Allison listed.

"That's about it." I agreed.

"Okay, hold on. We did this already." Derek paused everyone.

"We don't exactly have time to review our game plan." I suggested. Derek rose a brow at me.

"He disappeared. We started looking for him. Then walked right into a trap at the hospital. He's getting us to repeat the same moves." Derek went on further.

"So, what do we do? Wait for him to come to us?" I facetiously asked.

"We can't. Not if the Oni find him when the sun goes down." Derek replied.

"I was joking…wait are you serious?" My brows furrowed.

"Scott's working on them right now, with Kira." Sherriff informed.

"That's the problem. We're all trying to outfox the fox." Chris stated.

"How the hell do we go about this differently then? Let the fox play our games?" The room became silent. That's exactly what we had to do. And I didn't understand why it scared me so much. In my peripheral, I could see Sheriff looking at the panic that failed to hide in my eyes. I shifted my vision down to me feet, hiding the gaze of anyone who tried to look at me.

"Listen, I'll understand if anyone wants to back out." Sherriff stated.

"I'm not gonna be the first wolf to run from a fox." Derek shrugged, grabbing a taser. My throat tightened. Were we really going to tase Stiles? He was too frail for that.

"Apparently, I'm carrying a light saber." Chris tried to lighten up the mood.

"Dad, you and Derek hit Eichen House. Sheriff, it's you and me in the hospital." Allison directed.

"I'll take the school." I nodded. Derek opened his mouth to protest but I cut him to the chase. "I'm not backing out of helping save my best friend."

"We all meet in the school, okay?" Allison directed. We all agreed before the Sherriff and her went on their way.

It wasn't easy thinking of places Stiles would leave clues for us. I started off with my best bet: searching the locker room. It was nearly four in the afternoon and we had a little bit more than an hour left of light. Once that was gone, so was our chance of finding Stiles before the Oni did. I was rummaging through Stiles lacrosse locker; throwing jerseys, dirty socks, and bottles of empty deodorant on the floor beside me.

"Ugh!" I let out a frustrated groan. Nothing! There was nothing here! Maybe I should check Stiles' regular locker? Or maybe…

My phone began ringing inside my pocket. I reached for the phone to see a picture of Allison and I flashing across the screen. My brows furrowed, realizing it seemed to early for her and the Sherriff to give up their search at the hospital.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Stiles. He's at his house." She immediately stated.

"What?" I gasped.

"He's in his room, he's in the house. Be careful and meet us there." She urged. She didn't have to say anything else; I hung up the phone and collected my car keys off the ground before breaking out into a sprint to my car.

I reached the Stilinski household first to find the front door cracked open. I parked my car in the driveway, barely shutting off the ignition as I flew out of the car and up the front porch. I didn't think twice before bursting in the door, my hopes were high of finding Stiles if Allison was one hundred percent positive he was here, specifically in his room.

"Stiles? Stiles!" I shouted, eager and hope-filled voice bouncing off the walls. I began thinking that if and when I did find Stiles in his room, I would decide whether or not I'd have to protect myself or not. All I needed to do was catch him. Maybe if I pretended that I thought he was the real Stiles, he'd stick around long enough for me to catch him off guard. I ran into Stiles room to find it deserted. His bed was made as it was the days before, but the comforter was bunched up where Stiles had previously sat. In his place, was a note.

Have to be faster than that! Maybe next time.

I puckered my lips in anger and threw the note back on the bed. I let myself tumble onto the bed, sitting down and cradling my head in my hands. I felt more than defeated, I felt outnumbered…by one person. It was several of us against one, and we were getting our ass kicked. I shook my head, chomping down on my bottom lip as I took my head out of my hands and landed my eyes on Stiles' desk. His chessboard was set up.

"That's not right…" I muttered to myself. I distinctly remembered it being put away last time I was over. I pushed myself off the bed and walked over to the board to see that everything had changed. Kate, Deaton, and Jackson's pieces were tossed on the floor. Still marked with post it notes, the pieces were able to identify. Ethan, Aiden, and Isaac were all now added to the board as black pawns. Isaacs pawn is off the board while Derek, who was now the king and close to checkmate, was surrounded by four black pieces—Ethan, Aiden, Peter, and I. I was now a black pawn instead of a white knight. Close to the middle of the board sat Allison, Scott, and Chris. Allison and Chris' pieces were both kept the same—they were still white knights while Scott was a black pawn. To the side of the board was the Sheriff as a white pawn and Lydia as a black castle. As the board looked, we were all surrounding 'king' Derek as if we were protecting him as our leader. But since he was one place from checkmate and so close to being thrown off the board, I was concerned at the irony Nogitsune Stiles was trying to hint at us. Derek being almost off the board wasn't the only thing that concerned me. I looked back at my piece once more, wondering why I was what I was. Why was I the only bishop piece and why was I now black? The more I looked at the pieces, the connection clicked in my brain. Every white piece on the board was fully human. And every black piece identified someone supernatural. So, if Peter had cleared the air and had explained to me why I turned on the lunar eclipse and was immune to the bite, why did Nogitsune Stiles somehow think I was still supernatural? Unless, there was the possibility that Peter had still kept information from Derek and I.

"Stiles? Stiles! Stiles!?" Sherriff yelled. I could hear the heavy footsteps of Allison and the Sherriff coming towards me. I didn't turn towards them. I couldn't manage to see the distraught look on Sherriff's face when he realized his son had slipped past him yet again. I continued to look at the chessboard, seeing an eerily familiar set up to how each character was placed. It reminded me of the night Boyd died; the night where Derek had his Beta's surrounding him.

"No. Not again." Sheriff sighed. "Not again!"

"He's gone." Allison tried to catch up. "He—he was just here. How could he be gone? Where could he go?" She cried. Why didn't I think of this sooner? What was more secure than this one place?

"The loft." I realized and turned around. "He's at Derek's loft."

Kat's Outfit:

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