Archive of Our Own

Only Lydia realizes Stiles is dying, even if she doesn't understand the why or how. She dreads him dying on her and leaving her alone in these tunnels with that sadistic monster.

the loft

Peter tries to tell Chris that Stiles is in danger and the Nogitsune is still connected to Stiles, somehow. He doesn't trust Chris enough to tell him how he knows. His mate needs saving! He will do anything to save his mate! He feels something hooked into his Stiles, draining away his life.

Chris doesn't trust Stiles or how he now appears to be separate from the Nogitsune. "Scott has Stiles' plan and Allison's silver arrows. We'll get Stiles and Lydia back in one piece. Why don't you wait here at the loft until we come back? I'm not putting any additional civilians in the line of fire." He also doesn't want Peter at his back. Argents and Hales don't make the best partners.

Peter growls. "You mean you don't trust me and you don't want me in the way or where I can betray you! I would never betray Stiles... and his crew!" He turns around and storms off in anger. He doesn't go to his apartment. He goes to Stiles' house and waits in his usual vantage point. Across the street. Being close to his mate's sanctuary calms him and his wolf, even if his Stiles isn't there.

The tunnels under Oak Creek Detention Center

The Nogitsune used Lydia as bait to trap Stiles. It wants him where it can see him and ensure he doesn't find a way to stop it.

Stiles is dying, so Stiles doesn't understand why it wastes time and energy capturing him. Noggy. The term Nogitsune terrifies him. Calling it Noggy relieves his fear of it. 

Stiles hears continuous whispering in his mind telling him to give up, and Noggy will walk away, letting the pack live. 

Stiles in no way trusts a trickster demon, but he's too weak to fight, for long. He is so weak that he finally gives up the ghost of his fight. Both figuratively and literally.

As he dies, he hears Lydia whispering, “please don't die. Please don't leave me here. Alone! Please, Stiles! Please!”

Across from the Stilinski house

Peter suddenly feels cold, and he feels pain deep in his chest. "Stiles?" He gasps for breath as he falls to his knees. He clutches at his throat as he struggles to breathe and begs the universe to spare his mate. Stiles doesn't deserve to die alone, or even at all! He's the bravest person that Peter has ever met. He now wishes he had told the boy that he would follow him and his plans to the ends of the earth just to be with him.

in the tunnels

Stiles opens his eyes and looks around, only to see that time has stopped. “Lydia! What’s going on?” He stands and sees his body in her arms as she cries over him.

several weeks later 

While time is severely slowed down among the dead, Stiles has researched Noggy in Japan and Beacon Hills. He's played a practical joke on the Space Needle in Seatle and the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower. He returns to the scene of the battle with Noggy.

Stiles walks around the area and observes the living hasn't moved much. He reappears down in the tunnels where he died. He moves closer to get a closer look at Lydia. She's cradling his head and crying. That must be expensive mascara since it's not running down her face like the Crow. He wonders if she's crying over the fact that he's dead, the plan isn't working, or she's alone in forgotten tunnels under the villain's sanctuary, and there's no way they will discover how to get down here to save her.

A nearby ghost child tells him to put his hand on her torso, and he can feel what she's feeling.

He does and finds she's grieving the loss of life and that they lost. She also mourns the loss of her friend.

courtyard

Walking into the back courtyard, Stiles sees Scott and his pack killing the last Oni. He knows it's the last one because he sees two dark vapor puddles on the ground and two odd fireflies flying away. That means they lost solid form and it'll take them twenty to fifty years to rebuild their humanoid form.

Allison is dying in Scott's arms as Kira looks on. It must hurt to see your boyfriend tell another woman that she's his first true love and he still loves her. Allison’s ghost sits up and looks at Stiles.

He holds his hand out to help her up. “Welcome to Ghost World and I'm you're host, Stiles." He smiles and shakes his head. "Not really. I always wanted to say that. Don't worry. I like being dead a lot more than I ever liked being alive.”

Ally hugs him. “Stiles. We don't have a lot of time. You can only kill demons with silver, but the silver must stay inside their bodies. Tell my dad I love him.”

Stiles shakes his head as he points around to the living moving in a time frame that's hugely slower than the one that exists for the dead. “You might have noticed that we’re both dead. I can’t. Not unless he's dead as well.”

She looks off into the distance. “We don’t have much longer. Lydia can bring you back with my death scream.”

tunnels

Lydia looks off into the distance as something catches her attention and she whispers, “Allison? Not Allison! I can't lose both of my best friends.”

courtyard

Allison says, “we haven’t got long. I can’t move on until I have your forgiveness. I’m so sorry that I betrayed you to Gerard. I’m sorry I shot you with a tranquilizer on the field that night. He hurt you because I made it possible because I wanted to hurt Scott and didn’t care who I hurt to do it. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me?”

Stiles nods. “That’s all I ever needed from you and Scott. That you know that I didn’t make anything up and Gerard did hurt me. God, how he hurt me! I forgive you. Everyone, including Scott, was lying to you. You didn’t know which way was up. It's not all your fault.”

She smiles and says, “thank you, Stiles. You need to go back to their world now. The land of the living." She opens her mouth and joins her own scream to Lydia's.

tunnels

At the same time, Lydia gets in Stiles' lap and screams her Banshee Scream at him. “Allison!”

The combined screech pushes him back into his body.

He takes in a shaky breath of air, painfully forcing his lungs to work after months of disuse. His lungs find it hard to remember breathing. He thought panic attacks hurt! Damn!

Lydia sadly looks into his eyes and says, “Allison's dead. I used my death scream to resurrect you. We have to stop this demon before you die again. Maybe, this time, you can take its energy.”

His research taught him how to keep a steady balance of energy and magic between the demon and its host body, so neither dies or gets too weak while making the host immune to Noggy killing him by draining him. Stiles leans back, closes his eyes, and relaxes until he feels where it's pulling on his life-force. He taps into it and creates a channel like the Panama Canal.

Noggy's vastly more powerful than Stiles and keeping the levels of magic steady makes him much stronger, magically, and weakens Noggy. Stiles takes in a lot of its magic to stabilize them. When he feels stable, he opens his eyes.

Lydia smiles and helps pull him up on weak and wobbly feet.

He leans heavily on her as they slowly work their way to the second floor where the others are searching for it. Stiles doesn't know how he knows everyone's on the 2nd floor. He just does. Once there, Stiles feels the coldness of Noggy's presence as well as its unimaginable rage and frustration. It's desperate to remain free and terrified of imprisonment. Stiles slows down even further as he whispers, “it's near.” He continues to look around for it. "I don't see it, but it's close. Why don't I see it?"
 
Noggy steps out of the shadows and tosses Scott through a wall before Stiles and Lydia even register that it's there.

Was it invisible? Foxes are natural chameleons and blend in with nature.

Is it possible?

Does it have invisibility or does he revert to its shadowy form?

Lydia and Stiles nervously back away from it down the hallway as it advances on them.

It glares at them, shouting its arrogance, and slowly stalking them as they back away.

Lydia says, “We found a Divine Move. We're not going to let you win! Ever!”

Noggy snarls, “Divine Move? Divine Move! You think you can't beat me at my own game! I'm over a thousand years old! You can kill the Oni, but you can't kill me!”

Stiles leans forward and says, “no one's indestructible Noggy! Many valiant heroes and their trusted allies have killed many a god. All the old myths show that to be true!”

It says, “this is real life, human! The hero doesn't always get a happy ending. It's called a tragedy. You've read all of Grimm's Fairytales! Now, you're  living in one, or should I say, dying in one.” It cocks his head with a sarcastic sneer as he realizes what Stiles called him. “Calling me Noggy doesn't weaken me!”

Liam helps Scott to his feet. They then silently circle to Noggy's other side before Liam steps forward in distraction and sneers, “no! But you forgot about the scroll. We can change you. You can't be a fox and wolf at the same time.”

It falters and mutters, “change the host.” It sharply looks over his other shoulder as Scott grabs him.

Scott snarls at Noggy, “your first mistake was killing Allison.” He bites down hard and fast into his arm like a rattlesnake.

The pain of the bite rushes through Stiles as he feels lycanthropy rushing through his system. He knew this plan would probably kill him along with Noggy, he just didn't mention that tidbit. He looked forward to this sacrifice, to his death. Dying in combat to save his friends who have already abandoned him. Not having to see their faces again. Freedom from conflicts. Stiles thinks, "We must stop him at all costs. I’m expendable. It very well could be the fate of the world at stake here! I can't let it hurt my dad or Peter!" Peter? Why would he think about Peter now?

Noggy looks at Stiles in anger! And triumph? Scott bit Stiles as well!

Stiles grips his arm as he mentally screams, "Crap!"

Everyone's focused on Noggy, so no one notices Stiles' pain. Even if they do, they assume it's due to Noggy's possession of his body.

Stiles flashes back to Scott touching him and feeling pain after Noggy took his Shadow and split his life-force.

Scott asks, "How much does it hurt?" Scott quickly dismissed it though.

Allison's dead.

That thought keeps going through his head. Stiles realizes she came to save him instead of hurting him. He feels that her death is because of him and Noggy. Becoming a werewolf, alone, is his punishment! He deserves this! He expects, wants, to die with the demon since they share the same life-force. He steps toward the floundering Noggy thinking, "I don't want to live with this guilt and pain. I want to die! I don't deserve life!"

Kira drives her enchanted steel sword through Noggy’s chest.

It doesn't hurt Stiles, surprisingly, but it completely severs their connection. The silence in his head is deafening. Noggy's only remaining magic is what was inside him. That means that Stiles keeps the Noggy's magic that was inside him when Noggy dies. Does this make him a stronger Witch since he's not a demon? God! He hopes he's not a demon! Stiles inwardly screams, "Kill me now! Let me die!" He feels the echo of its pain. He moves to follow it into death.

Lydia pulls him back and whispers, “no! We need you! Stay with us! It'll kill your dad if you die.”

The others are watching Noggy die and don't notice Lydia pleading for Stiles to live.

Stiles whispers, “but I'm not worthy. It's my fault! Her blood is on my hands.”

As Noggy makes one more grab at its connection to Stiles, cracks appear in its form. It turns into dust and collapses before reverting to a firefly.

Lydia says, “You are worth so much more. It's not your fault! Kira's mother is guilty of calling it forth. Don't let Allison's death be in vain! Let it mean that she saved you.”

Stiles nods and pulls back, blocking it with the echoes of Lydia's scream bouncing around inside him. That's what gave him life. Wait! That's not from Lydia’s screech, that's from Allison's death? He's not sure which.

Noggy's firefly form is imprisoned in the wooden Nemeton-wood-carved box by Isaac.

Stiles is overcome with weakness and falls into darkness. He's not sure if it's from the sudden relief of pain or the abrupt severing of Noggy's broken connection and his shadow snapping back into place. Or the pain of Scott's bite. Possibly it’s the massive magical energy surge. Fireflies can't hold as much magic. Or grief for Allison, and relief that he's still alive.

Across town
Peter suddenly feels warm again, and the pain stops. He takes in a deep ragged breath. Calming as his lungs fill with sweet lovely air. "Stiles must be safe. Noggy must be dead. Thank god! I wasn't looking forward to going to the other side to find my mate and drag him back here."

Copper Creek

Stiles doesn't know how long he was out, but when he opens his eyes, Scott’s looking down with concern. Is it from relief that Stiles isn't another casualty or that he's alive? That's not necessarily the same thing. He feels the loss of Allison emanating from them. The sadness and grief are suffocating.

As they exit the facility, Argent says, "Stiles, it's not your fault."

Argent then schools them on what to tell the cops in their statements about Allison’s death.

No one notices the traces of blood on Stiles' arm or the smell of the wolf.

He can smell their chemo scents, so he knows the bite took and he's already changing.

Argent reiterates that it's not Stiles' fault.

Stiles knows it is and nothing they say will change that.