The Darkness: 4

Part 8

Italics- Lydia's voices

Lydia

"Who are these people?" Oliver whispered as they entered the lair. Lydia rushed over and gave Scott a hug. She smiled at Kira, Malia, Derek, Peter, Argent, and even Stiles. "Where's everyone else?" She asked confusedly. "I just wanted the people who were there," he explained.

Lydia glanced at Theo and wanted an explanation. "I want to see the powerful nogitsune," he broke a smile. "What about Deaton?" She asked, "He's the main person we need." "He couldn't come so he gave me all of his stuff," Argent explained, holding a black crate she figured had all of the Druid utilities.

She pivoted and stepped onto the centerpiece, eyeing the team to stay calm. "Pack, meet team Arrow," she introduced them, with a faint smile. "This place is better than the vault and bunker," Malia muttered.

Lydia caught Scott and Oliver's heavy stare and felt the tension rising between the two. Oliver stepped up and stood face to face with him. "You're the one who was robbing the bank," Scott said, sniffing him. "We were saving the people in the bank," he corrected. Scott glanced at Lydia who nodded before taking a step back, "You weren't lying."

Oliver scoffed in disbelief and turned to look at Lydia who was nodding. "They're your friends?" Laurel asked and Felicity looked at her to see her response. "More like family."

"Why'd you claw me?" Oliver asked curiously, "Didn't Stiles tell you who I was?" "Was I supposed to?" Stiles replied, setting down one of Argent's crates. "No, that did not pass," Scott said, "sorry. Are you okay?" "Yeah, I am," he nodded. "I used the Nine Herbs in case the claws dug deep enough to turn him," Lydia informed them. Oliver glanced at Lydia and went off to the corner and she followed him.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "You can't go around telling everyone my secret," he said. "She didn't," Derek spoke up, "We followed the Oni." "You guys sent the ninjas who marked us?" Felicity asked, touching behind her ear.

Oliver turned back to Lydia with wide eyes. "You have to learn to receive help, whether you like it or not," she told him, before returning to the centerpiece.

"What is this nog- no," Oliver stuttered. "Nogitsune," Kira corrected, "an evil fox." "We have to tell them the stories before they know what they're facing," Lydia pitched, "First the creation, Argent's first deal, then..." "Me," Stiles finished. Lydia dozed off to Rhys's memories of his life in World War II as Scott and Kira told the story.

Lydia needed all the strength she had to mask her scent in the room. She leaned over and drank her lichen tea just in case the deceiving energy emitting around her failed at any moment and Kira sniffed her out. She noticed that Theo, Malia, and Argent had been marked in which they weren't before and she knew they were taking precautions. Luckily, being the nogitsune, didn't remove hers.

Argent began to talk about his first deal with the Japanese mafia and how the Oni killed the nogitsune. Lydia could remember every detail, from the Oni killing the guards to the katana being driven through her former self's chest and blood pouring onto the fountain. Argent finished his story by taking out a jar of Latharia Vulpina from the garden.

Now, it was Stiles's turn. He explained his point of view of being Void while the rest of the pack said their view of the fight. He said how the nogitsune tormented his mind and made him feel helpless. He also added how they used his mother's condition and Malia to give up, including that he remembered everything he did. In Lydia's case, it wasn't the same. Just a few riddles and Thea's life on the line made her accept.

On the inside, Lydia gagged from Stiles's presence. He was her ex-boyfriend and former possessee. Even though he was an unexpected host, he was quite weak with it. Lydia was able to overcome the corpse and become the nogitsune while he just wasted his time, playing Goh.