It's been at least 10 hours, and no one has found Lydia or the nogitsune.

For most of the day, I stayed with Stiles and made sure he got a good rest and took things easy. Everyone else went out and searched for the two of them, but no one could even find a clue as to where they could have gone. I was starting to worry more and more about Lydia, but I kept telling myself that she would be okay. She could take care of herself.

Eventually, I needed to get out of the house. Granted, I wanted to stay with Stiles as much as I could, but I felt so useless sitting there and not helping look for Lydia. Stiles told me multiple times that he was okay and that I should go help, but I kept telling him that I wasn't going to leave him. However, after Allison called me and informed that the police found Lydia's car, Stiles insisted that I went with her to check for clues, so I finally gave in.

They found Lydia's car in some type of locked lot, but it wasn't hard for Allison and I to bust in of course. I mean, Allison busted into the old bank to save me, so of course a simple padlock would be easy for her to break through.

I watch her as she throws the chain to the side, lowering the clippers as she throws the gate open. She walks ahead of me towards Lydia's car as I follow behind, my eyes scanning the ground for any type of clues as to what could have happened or where they could have gone.

"I don't understand why it would be here of all places," Allison breathes, looking around and under the car like me.

"He didn't want us tracking them," I sigh, knowing that this was going to be a dead end. The nogitsune was smarter than that. "Of course he left it here in the middle of no where."

Allison opens the passenger door as I open the driver door, the two of us getting inside. I pull my door shut as I search for the keys, finding them still dangling in the ignition slot. Allison notices this as I lean back in my seat, sighing.

"I knew there wasn't going to be anything here," I shake my head. "If he doesn't want us to find him, then we won't."

"He's smart, but we're smarter," Allison says to me, leaning against the cup holders in the middle. "We'll find her."

"If we don't, the Oni will," I groan before looking over at Allison. "What happens when they do? They'll kill him, Allison. What will that do to our Stiles? I'm not the only one who's thinking the same thing, am I? Stiles looks like he's dying, and he probably is-"

She speaks softly. "We don't know that for sure."

"Did you not see the same Stiles as I did?" I say, my voice starting to grow a little bit louder and more frustrated sounding. "He's pale and his eyes are literally sunken into his skull like a corpses'. That's not the sign of a healthy person."

"We can't assume things, not now, Corey. We did something no one has done before; we separated the two of them. I didn't even know it was possible to do that until yesterday. We don't know for a fact what is going to happen, but I know that whatever we did, the nogitsune didn't like it. If he would have, he wouldn't have taken Lydia. He needs her for her banshee ability, but we're going to find them and end this."

Allison takes my hand then, nodding her head solemnly. Hearing her words made me realize how right she was; we weren't sure what was going to happen, and I needed to stop assuming that whatever was going to was going to be bad. I needed to have a little bit of hope.

I sigh as I stare down at the keys hanging from the transmission, an idea finally hitting me. "When Deucalion had taken me a few months ago, he wanted to take Lydia too...cause she made me stronger. They planned on making her wreck to get her, but somehow, I was able to throw her an image of where I was and what was going on in my mind, and I could see what she was doing too. I'm not sure how we did it, but it saved her life. What if I could figure it out again?"

"You never told me that," Allison breathes, looking intrigued. "You have no idea how you did it the first time?"

I think back to that night, remembering Jade's hand over my mouth as we waiting for Lydia's headlights to shine through the trees. "It was like I wanted to tell her so bad that I just did it. It was just a random act that I pictured in my head, and then it was real."

Allison stares at me for a long moment, narrowing her eyes. "Close your eyes, Corey. Focus."

I do as she tells me, listening to my heart racing in my chest and my steady breathing. Slowly I start to clear my head, trying to remember how I could have done this the last time. There's a long moment of silence that lingers in the air of the car before Allison whispers, breaking my clear thoughts.

"Find her."

Suddenly then, a picture flies across my mind. It was hard to catch what I saw, but I knew for a fact that it was Lydia. She was crying; her mascara was smeared down her cheeks. It was hard to tell where she was, but the walls around her were crumbling. I keep my eyes closed for a moment to see if I could see anything else, but there was nothing. Not even a flash of a scene.

I open my eyes sighing to myself. "I can't-"

Suddenly, I stop myself. When I opened my eyes, I heard something. I wasn't sure what it was, but it was almost like...soft whispers. Allison watches me with curious eyes as my gaze falls down to the keys hanging by my fingertips. One of the silver ones catches a ray of light as I reach out slowly, brushing my fingers across them to hear the whispers turn into soft spoken ones. It takes me a moment to realize what they were saying, but then I realized that it was Lydia's voice.

"Don't find me."

Before I can help myself, I'm speaking back. "Why?"

The whispers slowly change into new words, barely audible. "You know why."

I was confused for a brief moment, but then another image flashes across my mind; an image that has been haunting me at night for the past couple of weeks. For the millionth time, I watch that sword impel Allison before it was gone, and I knew why Lydia had shown me it. This was it. Wherever Lydia was, it's where Allison is supposed to die. She could sense it, just like how I had seen it those many nights ago.

"Corey?" Allison asks me, snapping me from my daze. My eyes are wide as I turn to her, shaking my head. "Are you okay? What happened?"

I gulp, not being able to hold it in any longer. "S-She said not to find her."

"You heard her?" She breathes with a questioning look. "Why would she say that?"

I wanted so badly to tell her the real reason, but I couldn't. It would mess up the timeline, and if I were to tell her, she'd accept it as fate. I wasn't going to let her die; no matter what.

"I-I don't know," I say quietly, looking down at my hands. My stomach was knotting up at the thought of losing Allison. "She wouldn't show me where she was either."

Suddenly then, Allison's phone rings, causing me to jump. She answers it before her eyes got wide, bringing the phone back down to tell me the news.

"They know where Lydia is."

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The reality of the situation didn't hit me until I stepped out of Stiles' jeep.

When my eyes laid upon where we were, I knew for a fact that this was the place that Allison had died in my vision. The gate was here, the broken down building, and the cracked concrete. Being here now made me feel as if I was living in a nightmare, which I technically was.

I choke up. I was frozen still. When I hear Allison get out behind me, I quickly turn around and shake my head. "Allison, please, we can't be here-"

"Lydia's here," she furrows her eyebrows. "Is this about what she told you? Corey, it's okay. We're going to get her and then get the hell out of here."

The sound of the sword going through her in my head makes me wince. "I have an awful feeling, Allison, okay? We need to leave, now."

"We aren't leaving Lydia," she says, growing suspicious of my odd tone. "I'm here to save my best friend, and I'm not leaving until I do."

Allison pulls out two of her Chinese ring daggers then and hand them to me, grabbing her bow before walking towards the gate with Kira and Isaac. Scott and Stiles run off to the side to go find Lydia from a different direction as Jade stays behind with me for a moment.

"What's wrong?" she asks me, noticing as well how weird I was acting.

I shake my head, whispering lowly. "This is it, Jade. This is where Allison was when she died in my vision."

Jade looks back towards where Allison walked off before back to me. "I'll stay close to her. We won't let it happen, okay? Fuck the future."

Before I can say anything else, she turns and runs off after the others, sticking close to Allison like she said she would. I gulp before following after them as well, terrible nerves about to eat me from the inside out. I was half tempted to drag Allison out of here, but she wouldn't let me even if I tried. I wanted to tell her so bad, but I couldn't. She wouldn't care.

When I finally catch up with the rest of them, I look ahead and see Noshiko and the Oni standing there. My gut twists as I stare at them, imagining them stabbing Allison.

"Call them off," Allison snaps as she pulls her bow back, aiming an arrow at Noshiko.

Noshiko shakes her head. "You really think you can save him? I tried 70 years ago, and it didn't work."

"You are just telling yourself that because you know we have a chance. You don't want to admit that there could have been a way to save Rhys," Kira remarks, spitting it in her mothers face.

Noshiko smirks slyly. "I can see I'm no longer the fox. You are, Kira. But the nogitsune is still my demon to bury."

The Oni burst into smoke then, presumably to go kill the nogitsune. I worried to death for Stiles, but I couldn't do anything. I wasn't a werewolf and I wasn't good with weapons like Allison was. However, the smirk on Noshiko's face gets wiped clean off when she looks down and opens her hand, revealing a bright green firefly.

"What's it mean?" Isaac asks as he glances over at Jade.

Noshiko looks up, but doesn't say anything. The words get taken from her mouth when a new one speaks from behind us, and I knew that it was the nogitsune. "There's been a change in ownership. Now they belong to me."

Everything starts to crash around me as I turn around, seeing the Oni standing there behind Stiles' face that wasn't really him. The next thing I know, the Oni are running at us and everyone runs forwards to fight them off. Allison fires her arrows, but the Oni just slice them out of the air.

I see Jade and Isaac fighting off two of the Oni with their claws and glowing eyes that shone through the dark as Kira uses her katana to fight as well. I'm frozen in my place, not sure what to do before I see one of the Oni come at me, causing me to act on instinct, remembering what Allison had taught me. I throw my arm back and release one of the daggers in my hand as it flies forwards and impels the creature, but it didn't even phase it. It just stops and rips it out before letting it drop to the ground.

I hold the other dagger in my hand out, not really sure what to do. I wasn't a fighting machine like Allison or the others; I couldn't go up against a creature wielding a katana with a Chinese ring dagger.

However, just before the Oni can reach me, Jade comes between it and I, fighting it off as I back away. She looks over her shoulder at me, eyes burning dark red before shouting. "You need to get out of here, Corey! It's not safe for you-"

"I'm not leaving!" I shout back, my eyes searching for Allison to see her standing in the corner shooting her arrows at an Oni that was slicing it's sword across Isaac's chest. Jade notices it then as she pulls all of her stength together, using it to shove the Oni she was fighting to the ground.

She looks back at me one last time. "Don't get yourself killed protecting her."

Before I can say anything back, she turns and runs over towards Isaac, throwing her claws at the Oni as it leaves Isaac alone. Isaac sits there for a moment before regaining some of his strength, getting back up and helping Jade fight off the Oni.

Allison's eyes connect with mine then, and it was one of those moments that made me realize that maybe this was one of our last moments together. It felt like forever as she looked at me, but that was before her eyes grew wide and she cocked her bow back, but I wasn't sure why until I feel a sharp slice go across my arm, making me scream out as I fall to the ground.

My eyes water from the pain as I bring my hand up to my wound, feeling a sticky warm substance. I look down slowly to see a huge cut five inches above my elbow, blood dripping down my arm and covering my hand and staining the ground below me. Pain was an understatement for what I felt right now.

"Corey!" I hear Allison shout in almost slow motion as I look up, seeing the Oni right above me. It's bright glowing green eyes burn into mine once again like they had before as it brings it's sword up over it's head, ready to finish me off. I told myself that I wasn't scared, but I was. I didn't want to die again. I didn't want to feel the same pain as I had before.

In that small moment of watching the sword come down, I remembered something out of the blue. I saw Allison's pale icy face, eyelids closed as I stare down at her, praying that they would open. Her lips were a bright blue and water droplets sat waiting to fall from her cheekbones. I wasn't sure why I thought back to this memory out of all of the others, but then I realized that this was the time I almost lost her; the time I first told her that I loved her.

That was the night that everything changed for me. Allison brought me back from the other side and she told me that she felt the same way about me. Something about the way she said those three words gave me chills, and I wanted nothing more than to go back to that night right now. I wished that none of this was happening right now; that I was as happy as I had been in that moment.

But then reality set in, and I was a goner. This whole time I was worried about protecting Allison...I forgot that I didn't even know my own fate.

At least, that's what I thought before I see a shiny, gleaming arrow plummet into the creature's chest. A gasp leaves my throat as I watch the Oni grab at it's chest, dropping the sword right in front of me. A bright green light omits from its chest before bursting, disappearing into the dark night for good. I've seen this before; I saw this happen once already.

Panic floods my body as my eyes flash to Allison, seeing her standing there with a victorious smile on her face. I knew what was coming next.

I scream. I scream my lungs out for Allison to move; to get out of here. As I do this, I try to bring myself to my feet to save her, but my arm wouldn't let me. I lost my energy fast after losing so much blood. Fear and utter pain fills my body as I watch the nogitsune nod towards Allison, indicating what I already knew what was to happen.

I thought it was over. I knew it was. I was going to lose Allison, and I'd have to sit here and watch her slip between my fingers like sand.

But then there was Jade, keeping her promise to me. Her deep red eyes glow through the darkness as she jumps between Allison and the Oni headed towards her, all of my worries for Allison shifting to Jade. Despite how much I had hated her last year, all of that was gone. She was my best friend; always has been, always will be.

The Oni tries to bring it's sword away from Jade, since she wasn't its original target, but the sword impels her in her left thigh rather than her abdomen. Isaac screams from across the pavement as he brings himself up onto his feet, face filled with utter terror. I knew that blow wouldn't be deadly for someone like Jade, but she was injured pretty good. She was vulnerable.

By this point, I had brought myself up onto my knees with the help from a piece of rubble from the crumbling building. Allison cocks her bow back again with another silver arrowhead, eyes stern as could be as she aims it at the Oni that was standing above Jade. She fires it, but the creature just slices it in half of course. She needed to get them when they were off guard.

Jade winces as she lays there on the ground, the sword still implanted in her. She tries to take it out herself, but the pain was too much for her. Isaac fights his way over to her as Allison tries to help, but the Oni were fighting back hard. I try to get up on my feet to help them as much as I could, but it was like my body wouldn't let me.

That was when everything happened too fast. I looked away for one moment, just one simple moment, and then the next thing I hear is the same sound I had heard every night for the past few weeks: the sound of the sword piercing Allison. When I looked back up however, it wasn't Allison I saw this time with the sword sticking through her.

It was Isaac.

The look on his face was something I'd never forget; even worse, the look on Jade's. The memory of her talking about how she liked him flicks through my head for a brief moment as the Oni lets go of the sword, backing up to let the boy fall hard to the ground. Utter shock fills my entire body; I couldn't process it.

"Isaac!" Jade screams as she crawls over to him, not caring about her thigh anymore. I watch as the Oni disappear into thin air, along with the nogitsune. It was as if they did their deed for the night and were done.

Allison dashes over to me as she holds her hands over my wound, trying to stop the bleeding. At this point, I forgot all about it. My eyes stay focused on Jade and Isaac as she brings him up into her lap, her ugly sobs echoing in my head. I haven't seen Jade cry like that since...since her friend died in that car wreck years ago.

She grabs his wrist then as she takes some of his pain, clenching her teeth from the pain. "You're going to be okay; you have to be okay-"

Jade cuts herself off as she leans closer to the boy's face, shaking her head as she lets her face fall onto his chest, letting her tears fall. I knew Isaac was gone; I could tell by the way his eyes were staring at the dark starry night sky.

Allison wraps her arms around me as she cries as well, but I couldn't help thinking that this was all my fault. It was all of my fault. Just like how I had saved Deaton in exchange for Boyd's life, I traded Allison for Isaac, and I made Jade have to go through it.

Isaac was dead because of me.

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now you can put all of your guesses to rest

special thanks to witchywillows the GIF's up there. she had entered them in my contest awhile back and I've had them sitting here waiting to be used for this chapter for awhile now. they're too beautiful not to use.

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