"All healed? " Peter asked, as him and Malia sat on the ground, their backs pressed against a tree trunk.

"Pretty much," she answered, then she asked a question of her own, "Now what?"

"I think the best thing to do is to avoid all confrontation with them," he suggested.

"And for how long do you think we can keep that up?"

Running away from the berserkers exhausted them to their core, their legs couldn't carry them no more, so they settled for trying to even their breathing out, in hopes of coming with a plan during that process.

Malia flashed her coyote eyes blue and thoroughly scanned the area surrounding them. Peter waited patiently for her response and asked as she reverted her eyes back to her human ones, " Saw anything?"

"No, but we can't stay here for too long," she said. She paused for a moment, then she asked," Ideas on where we are? Or what this could be?"

"Not sure but considering we should have reached the house by now, I'd say we were driving in a loop, now I don't know of any creature that could create time loops like that," he stated.

"The sky is still pitch black," Malia said looking upwards.

"What are you getting at?"

"If it was just a time loop then, wouldn't the sky look natural, just looped?"

Her question stirred some cogitation in Peter's mind, "If the sky isn't real then, maybe nothing else is, maybe it's all an illusion,"

"Well, the accident and the berserkers were pretty real," she added.

"We need to find a portal,"

"A portal?"

"Some sort of doorway back to the real world, the way we see it under normal light, I don't know how to explain it," he tried.

"So, an exit from the illusion?"

"You got the point," he whined before getting up to his feet making sure to look around him, " C'mon, we really got to get outta here,"

She copied his actions and stood from her resting place, by then their breathing had slowed back to their normal rates.

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They poured their efforts into keeping alert over any unfitting detail around, watchful of their own steps. They cemented in place when they heard another low, long growl, they just couldn't pinpoint its provenance.

"Where is it coming from?" Malia asked as she looked around for the source.

Peter took the time to do the same and come to terms with the answer he came up with," Everywhere..." he said, defeated.

****

Meanwhile and apparently, in another universe, Alec walked close to a vending machine, deliberating his pick from the various choices available.

When, all of a sudden, the lights went completely out, then he heard Liam's voice yell out for Lydia to watch out. The lights came back on, then what sounded like three gunshots came through the same direction and Alec darted towards his friends to help in whatever way he could.

As he turned around the corner however, he was met with an unknown figure. Well, he'd never seen one in person, but he'd heard all about the story of the Oni, he distinctly remembered the part where one of them took the life of a member of the pack, that part stuck with him.

It puffed in from thin air, tarnishing the once lit way with murky, opaque smokes of shadow. He had to think fast after that, the creature in front of him was ruthless. It wasted no time to brandish its poisonous sword and swinging at Alec one first time, in an attempt to decapitate him before he ducked promptly.

He jumped back, head hunched forward, just intime to dodge the blade falling short from disemboweling him.

He knew the only way to really get rid of an Oni was through the use of silver, the question for him was, where the hell could he find any of it then and there? So, for that time being, he resorted to bending out of shape to evade any injury at their hands, he also knew that the cuts they made were nastier than mere ones. It pushed him towards the makeshift exit door, that opened on the backside of the hospital. Alec rolled back on the ground, again avoiding a slashing in the nick of time.

He got back on his feet; he looked around himself to see he was in the empty lower level of the parking lot. it was time for him to hit back, just hard enough to allow him the time to get around it, he needed to get back by his friend's side, they'd have a solution, surely. Better fight those things together rather than solo.

He heard a second low and steady clicking sound behind him, his legs refused to further move back, he snapped around sharply to see a second Oni posted behind himself, ready to attack. Only that time, Alec didn't have time to react accordingly, and was lacerated enough to cause him to fall on the ground. The other enemy grabbed his sword with both hands, and he lifted it, as far as he could manage above his head, ready to stab it with full force right into Alec's throat.

The young wolf lied helpless on his back, he saw his life flash before him, unable to heal fast enough to take any action to save his own skin.

A new loud gunshot blared and rumbled the silence of the night, The bullet flew right through the chest of the Oni that was preparing to execute Alec, giving sight to a bright yellow light from the wound, it shone brighter each second that passed, until it engulfed the creature entirely before it went up into smithereens.

Alec lifted his head off the ground, curious about the identity of his savior. He wasn't ready for the shock he was in for. All he could utter was the name of his hero," Daniel?"