SONG OF THE CHAPTER: Hello by Adele

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FIFTY NINE;

THE CRUELTY OF LOVE

        "Hey, Dad."

         Stiles Stilinski stood in front of his father, the two of them lapsing in silence only moments after they made eye contact. It was odd, indifferent, to be directly in front of a person that had meant so much to him and felt so little for him. He wondered how the others had done it; he wondered how Sage and Scott had done it. He wondered how the two of them had pushed through the sight of someone they loved being twisted and turned into the unmaking reflection of a stranger. The boy standing in front of him was inexplicably more than just a case that he was sent in on. He was so much more than just another victim to a senseless crime. This was his son. This was the little boy that he had watched grow up, make mistakes, fall in love. This was not a monster -not a murderer. It was not a creation of destruction. This was Stiles.

        Yet, as the man watched the lack of movement in the boy in front of him, Sheriff Stilinski couldn't help but feel as though he was looking at a nameless face. While a father stood in front of his son, four people waited outside of the loft, refraining from interrupting the conversation between the two the moment that Sheriff Stilinski opted on a few moments to try and get through to Stiles. The pair immediately displeased with the idea happened to be Sage and Chris, the two most hardheaded of humans making sure that they pressed their lips tightly together to keep themselves from protesting the plan. Sage didn't want to send the sheriff into a situation she didn't believe he could handle with how haphazard his emotions were, and Chris didn't trust the actions of the Nogitsune enough to leave him unarmed in front of someone less than his son.

        Thirty seconds after the sheriff walked through the doors to the loft, Sage was taking a step forward to go inside as well. Her mind had been racing with possibilities of what the Nogitsune could do the man and knew very well that she wouldn't forgive herself if she let anything happen to him. That didn't even begin to touch the amount of guilt that Stiles would face if, when, they saved him. She could see it in his eyes at Eichen House, and she could see it in the way his jaw clenched any time they made contact with each other. There was a part of Stiles, a minuscule part of the teenage boy, that was overwhelmed in the fear of hurting someone he loved again. Not because of the pain it caused him to be the one doing it, but because of the pleasure he felt as he gripped the heartbeat away from the people that mattered most.

        Before she could even manage turning around the corner, a hand had firmly grabbed her upper arm, keeping her in place as her boots skidded on the cement floor. Immediately, the blonde shot her head back to narrow her eyes on whoever decided to stop her and found that her glare was being directed towards Derek. The man's jaw was set firmly, his grip tightening to let her know that he wasn't playing around when it came to her entering. There was an exchange between the two of them that hadn't gone unnoticed by Chris or Allison, the Argents' brows furrowing slightly at the silent conversation that the two seemed to be having; it was almost as though Sage and Derek had developed their own language in the tranquility of being still. To be that close to someone, and to know their actions before they even stepped up to do them, had Chris Argent questioning just how much Derek had looked away from in the past year involving the girl he considered a sister.

        Everyone knew just how little conversation there had been between Derek and Sage. They could place the blame on a multitude of things, from broken trust all the way to the manipulation of false emotions, but it was clear that the two former best friends knew where they stood in terms of their connection. Something had been shattered a year ago between them, and the friendship that they had when they drove through the borders of Beacon Hills was rippled to a bitter extent. It could have been because Derek had become so blindsided by creating his own pack that he forgot he had his truest beta at his side ever since he was eight. It could have been because Sage grew up, and every protective instinct that the man had inside of him that screamed to protect her lessened the older she became. Maybe it was because Stiles had filled the hole that Derek had spent years trying to patch up. Maybe it was just that Beacon Hills always managed to burn the Hale and the Connelly into the fragmentation of black ash.

        Sage broke the intense glare that she had been bruising Derek's green eyes with, her teeth pressing against each other for a second before she was reluctantly nodding. The werewolf carefully released the hold that he had on her arm, shifting away to give her the slightest of space. It provided the Argents with the perfect representative picture of the relationship between the two. Despite the loss of connection and the gaining interest in lying, they were still family. They looked after one another just as Chris and Allison did to each other, and they still had every intention to be the worst critic and the biggest supporter. Right now, Derek was the only person left in this world that had even the slightest possibility of stopping Sage from doing something damaging now that Stiles could not.

        When they had focused themselves back on the obstructed conversation happening between Stiles and Sheriff Stilinski, all four of them had arched their backs when they picked up on the very last sentence that the man had spoken. "You're not my son."

         Just like that, all hell had broken loose when four figures stepped around the corner and entered the loft. Allison and Chris had gone in first, the two Argent's barely sparing a glance towards the criminal at charge as they moved themselves beside Sheriff Stilinski. However, the hunters weren't the interesting sight that the Nogitsune's shadowed eyes trained on. More so, the attention fell on the teenage girl that had followed behind them alongside Derek Hale, her body stiffer than a board and her eyes colder than the sea. Instinctively, the Nogitsune felt his heart, Stiles' heart, lurch a bit at the sight of Sage; because, despite everything that had happened and despite the fact that she was the entire reason Stiles had been so susceptible to the Nogitsune, the idea of her walking into a room with a murderer left enough panic in her ex-boyfriend's mind for the Nogitsune to feel a pulse in his chest.

         It was gone moments later and replaced with a familiar void. Sage wished she had been that lucky. She wished that someone would have given her a manual on how to prepare to see the one person that had lived through hell and back with her, or that she would have been given even the slightest amount of time to realize that this would be the second time she has truly ever seen the Nogitsune inside of the boy she loved. She wished that she had the option of being numb like Stiles, and she had the opportunity to let all of the tension building up between the two of them drift away until it was nothing but a one-sided fight that she was facing on her own. She wished that she was someone who could just stand in front of the enemy and not care about the color of the eyes that were staring back at her - but she did, and realized that if wishes truly existed, Stiles wouldn't be the enemy.

         Before anyone had even a moment to react to the suffocating air that surrounded them, Allison had directed the stun-gun at the Nogitsune and pressed the trigger. The jolts of electricity crackled throughout the loft, the familiar sense of the sting enough for Sage to swallow thickly and follow the cords with her green eyes. She would have liked to say that she was surprised when the Nogitsune easily grabbed a hold of the cords in his hands, his face setting into a slow, disappointed sneer before he was snatching the cords back and slinging the entire gun across the room, but she wasn't. They were playing a wicked game with someone who had already won, and their odds were not evening out.

        The hostile response had quickly set everyone in motion, Sage's eyes darting over to Argent to see that his right hand was nearing towards his jeans in preparation. Before she could even open her mouth, a body pushed between her and the older hunter, a low growl emitting from the hollow room. Derek had rushed towards the Nogitsune, canines bared at Stiles' face without a second thought of how strong his opponent truly was. In a matter of five seconds, the Nogitsune had managed to grab a hold of the werewolf and slam him into the table they kept in the living room, the disadvantage that Derek had becoming enough motivation for the Nogitsune to take a secondary action. With this came the loud bang of a hard body hitting the foundation of the loft, Derek momentary down to find the air within the wind that had been knocked from his lungs.

        Then, the sound of a gun's safety clicking off ricocheted on every single wall that was in the place. A bitter taste found its way on the tongues of everyone in the room, each and every single one of them aware of the only thing that could make that sound. Slowly, and so cautiously, five heads turned left to see that Sage Connelly had a hold of the gun that Argent had attempted to hide from her. It was ironic, in some cruel form, that which the direction of the lethal weapon was pointed at the one person she would gladly take a bullet for. It was ironic that, in the mass of chaos, the one person they were expecting to defend the Nogitsune against harm initiated the first step of the demolition. A division had been set at that very moment, Sage never letting the fact that the barrel of the gun was on Stiles get to her numb hands. She did not tremble. She did not cry. She stared, and she did not look away.

        "Sage." The voice was distant in the back of her mind, but she knew even without turning her eyes away from the Nogitsune that it was Derek. It was the tone that he used when she did something that he didn't agree with, or when she made a mistake and she knew that he was expecting her to fix it. It was tense, hesitant in the way that Derek knew how she reacted to instruction. The part of Sage that had listened before shut down, and the only thing that mattered was the fact that she could not bring herself to turn her eyes away from the brown ones that belonged to Stiles Stilinski. "Sage, put the gun down."

        The teenage girl tightened her grip on the gun but didn't release. She knew why she was doing it, and she knew very well that holding the weapon herself insured that Argent could not. It gave her the ability to manipulate the situation, and to do exactly what she knew Stiles would do if the roles were reversed and she was the one being possessed by the Nogitsune. He would stall, and he would use everything in his power to ensure that the Nogitsune didn't leave until Scott arrived. Sage knew why she was holding the gun, but what she didn't know was why she felt so comfortable holding it. The last time she had even picked up a weapon was when they had fought with Jennifer, and that alone had been traumatizing enough to leave her on the opposing end of weaponry.

        She didn't know why she wasn't trembling at the expression that crossed over Stiles' face as his attention continued to flicker from the gun to her green eyes. It wasn't fear that he was pushing in her direction, but a look that had her stomach twisting in knots because he was impressed - because, from the moments that the Nogitsune had spent crawling and creeping into every crevice of her mind, he was finally beginning to see the darkness that consumed the darkest corners. The Nogitsune did not need to possess her to control the person she was trying to divide herself from becoming because, just by the host he was currently inhabiting, he already had enough resources to manipulate her more than he ever could before. It was working, too, and he could only restrict himself down to a curl of Stiles' lip as his eyes menacingly ruled over her body like it was a toy. Had there ever been any doubt about Stiles Stilinski being her weakness, there wasn't now.

        From the corner of her eye, she saw that Sheriff Stilinski had taken a cautious step forward when she adjusted her placement of the gun. All he could think about was the conversation that he had with her in the elevator, the slightest remembrance of the anger that flooded through her and caught him surprised. All he could think about was the fact that the teenage girl raised around werewolves and weaponry had a gun pointed at her heart, and not the one that resided in her chest. "Sage. You need to put the gun down."

        "You weren't there," Sage said as she shook her head, her voice strained as she pressed her tongue to the bottom of her teeth in desperation to get them to understand why she was holding the gun. She didn't once take her eyes away from Stiles, although she could tell that all eyes were trained on her and her alone without even needing to look away. "You didn't see the way Stiles acted in that place. You didn't see how terrified he was. You have no idea what it's like."

        There was the beginning of her trembling because she knew that she was speaking out of turn. She knew that there was some vicious part inside of her that felt so much rage, it surfacing through her words as she all but spit them from her burning lips. It was the anger that she had drowned out in solitude, allowing it to build up about everything that had happened since junior year started. She was so angry, at herself for being so completely idiotic to give the Nogitsune the free passage into Stiles; at the Nogitsune for having no sense of how much injustice and suffering he was bringing to the lives of people that had already been through so much; at Stiles for holding onto such a volatile belief that all of it was his fault; at Jennifer, for still having a hold upon her fears towards becoming someone that she never thought she would become. She was angry that no one understood how she had been feeling, and she was just so angry at the entire world that she didn't even know if her lungs were properly working anymore to give her oxygen. For the first time in the longest of times, Sage allowed herself to accept the fact that she wasn't okay - and she hadn't been for a while.

        "Sage." Once again, the blonde's name rang through the room with such a scalding deficiency. Sage hesitated again, something that she knew Argent had taught her never to do, before she was taking a small glance to her right to see that Sheriff Stilinski was on the other side of Chris. One hand was reaching towards the gun that he had in his holster, although both of them were well aware that the man would not be able to compel enough strength to pull the weapon on her. "Please. It's my son."

        Sage swallowed the thickness in her throat, blinking once at the sheriff before she was turning back to Stiles. The curl of his lips had lifted into a stricter smirk, his eyes flickering back and forth from his occupant's father to the girl he was in love with. It was all a show to him, a means of entertainment as he wondered whether or not Sheriff Stilinski actually had it in himself to raise his own gun in the direction of a girl that he had watched grow up alongside his son. What he wondered, even more, was whether or not the teenage boy trapped inside of his own mind cared enough to pull back and stop it. There was only a rare amount of times when Stiles had managed to break through the small barrier between captivity and control, and in all of those times, at one point or another, the intricately-crafted blonde standing in front of him had something to do with it. She always did, and all the Nogitsune could continue to think about was just how cruel a world it must be for the couple to risk everything for one another yet receive no comfort in the end.

        The Nogitsune's eyebrow only quirked, intrigued as he watched the blonde's eyes light with a fire that was becoming a burning frequency. "That thing is not Stiles."

        Just as the final few words had escaped from Sage, there was another swift movement that pressed deeply on the tension in the room. Chris had seen the way the teenage girl next to him started to lose the tight grip she had on the gun and filled in the spaces with the opportunity to reach over, effectively pushing her arms down and taking the weapon from her in a matter of five seconds. The Nogitsune's demeanor changed after that, the amusement reflecting on his face dropping quick when the danger reiterated itself from minuscule to major. There had never been any thought that Sage would actually pull the trigger, knowing that even through all of the darkness, she was still too bright to do it. Argent, on the other hand, had more than enough strength to compartmentalize his emotions in a way that put the Nogitsune in imminent danger.

        This time, Sheriff Stilinski didn't waste a moment to pull his gun. "Argent, put it down."

        It felt like Sage had been hit by a linebacker; her hands adjusted to the release of the gun as she took a step back on the heels of her boots to stare at Argent with wide eyes, not even realizing that she had inhaled loudly as she felt the atmosphere drastically change from challenge to competition. The sole purpose of her holding onto Argent's weapon was so that he didn't have the opportunity to seek a drastic solution. Even though the man had developed more compassion since he lost his wife, there was not enough inside of his cold heart to completely feel regret if he pulled the trigger on Stiles. While it scared the man himself to point the gun in the direction of Stiles, that amount of fear did not measure to the panic that Sage felt surface in her chest. It was the same panic that Stiles Stilinski had felt nearly two days ago when he saw the blonde strapped to an awaiting death.

        "Argent," Sage began, moving to raise one of her hands to try and see that he needed to put down the gun. The level head that she had before had just accelerated to a painstaking extent, and the teenage girl was facing the problem of wanting to grip her skull from the pressure and her heart from the sudden flash of pain. "Argent, you can't shoot him. Argent. Chris."

        The sound of his first name snapped the man out of his trance enough to let his eyes flicker to the blonde for a moment, never once turning his head. It was odd to hear her utter out his name, mainly because he had grown so used to his last name being the title of identity. Sage speaking it with such desperation reminded him of when Kate would say it when she needed help. From the memory of his sister to the resemblance of Sage, Chris Argent tightened his hand around the gun. "You were prepared to shoot him yourself."

        "No," Sage denied, shaking her head as she looked at him. Another step forward and all eyes on the two of them. The Nogitsune's watchful eyes could be felt burning holes into her skin, a questioning stare that had him wondering if she would be able to pull the former hunter out of his malicious mind. "I was prepared to point a gun at him to save him from you. Don't prove me right, Argent. Please, don't prove me right."

       "Dad," Stiles' voice interrupted the strenuous air. It was the first time that the Nogitsune had spoken since they walked through the doors, and it was the first time that the dark kitsune acknowledged them as Stiles instead of himself. Just from the cold undertone beneath the single word, Sage could tell that it was not her Stiles. It was not the boy that she had continued to fight for despite every intention she had of coming back protesting the idea. It was not the boy that had pulled her away from the inevitably scalding flames she was still suffocating in after seven years. It was not the boy that had become her home, and she knew because there was no warmth in her heart when he spoke. There was no love. There was only pain. "He's going to shoot me. He's going to kill me. Sage?"

        Argent shook his head, taking on the role that Sage could not. "Don't listen to him."

        "Put it down," Sheriff Stilinski said, his gun returning back to its original position from where it had lowered at the sound of his son's plea for help. The haphazard emotions that Sage had been so fearful the Nogitsune would set loose inside of the father were exposed, and much like her own, the dark creature had found a way to manipulate them unknowingly. "Now! Do it!"

       The Nogitsune was growing more riled up by the second, turning to Argent with a lifted smirk. It was just sadistic enough to break the barrier between guilt and necessity in the man's mind, and Chris had enough reason in that very moment to let go of the morals everyone was trying to hold him to keep. "Pull the trigger."

        "Listen to me, you put the gun down now! Put it down!" The words spilled from Sheriff Stilinski's mouth with such provocation that his face turned red, circulation cutting off in his palm from how tightly he was holding onto the gun. There was nothing that could even properly begin to explain how it felt to see his son in such a situation, even if it wasn't truly Stiles at the moment, he could not just see the body of his little boy hit the ground. That was not acceptable, and if it meant shooting another man in the process, he would not waste a moment of consideration.

         Allison, who had found herself stumbling over her silence, realized that her father was actually going to consider shooting Stiles. She had known Sage long enough to see that there was a shadow in her green eyes, one that reflected enough apprehension for the brunette not to step over the lines. If she was willing to carry the heavy weight of holding the end to her new beginning, then there had to be a logical reasoning  behind it. Her father, on the other hand, had seen enough atrocities to dissolve himself into a void state. It was broken, bitter even, and she knew very well that it could be just as sinister as what the Nogitsune threatened their sanity with. "Dad."

                Nothing. Allison's eyes quickly moved over to Sage to see that the blonde had moved three steps from where she was thirty seconds ago, continuing to grow closer and closer to the place where the gun was. The two girls met gazes for a split second, the expression that Sage had on her face unnerving enough for Allison to take her own step forward. It was almost as if they were playing a game of chess all on their own, everyone moving to a different space to try and win against the opposing team. The only thing they hadn't considered back at the Stilinski home was who exactly the opposing team was, and whether they were intended to play a fair game or not. No one had ever considered someone they loved checkmating them, and they found themselves questioning if Stiles was the only one that had the heart to do it.

        "Shoot me!" Stiles snarled, breaking the momentary silence that had broken between those in the room. A vein in the side of his neck stuck out, the blood flowing to his face as he glared ahead with a sudden rush of anger. Now, he was furious; was he truly not a worthy enough evil in Argent's eyes to be shot down immediately? "Shoot me!"

        Sheriff Stilinski could feel his heart plummet further into his stomach. "Argent, you put it down."

        "Strife." At that very moment, the sun that had been shining through the loft dimmed until the horizon looked to be minuscule sections of dust. From the screaming that had started to suffocate the entire room and echo off the vibrating walls, Allison's face slowly fell into a compromised recognition. The mantra that had repeated in the minds of her friends for two weeks had finally come into play, and to not have caught on to what the Nogitsune's motives were since the very beginning had her eyes widening and body turning to face the intolerable crowd. "Stop! Stop! This is exactly what he wants!"

        Stiles turned to look at Allison, his hands falling behind his back. It was in that moment that the shouting had ceased, Sheriff Stilinski's threats dying in his throat and Sage's pleads for Argent to look at what he was doing lost in the revelation. "Not exactly. I was kind of hoping Scott would be here, but I'm glad you all have your guns out because you're not here to kill me."

        "What are you talking about?" Sage had spoken involuntarily, letting the question slip through her lips without even knowing that she was wanting to ask. It did not come without an answer, though, and even though she might have been relieved that she had not had a direct conversation with Stiles, what she did receive was not much better.

         Materializing from the dark tone that the night provided, masked silhouettes began to show up one by one directly in front of them. Almost immediately, the six in the room took a step back, knowing very well the threat that the Oni posed to them. They were the enemy because they were protecting the one person that had the insurance policy of another's heart. "You're here to protect me."

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        The loft had never been quieter that night. Despite the fact that Peter had taken temporary residence in their guest bedroom, even he didn't have the time to commit to sneering, unwitty remarks at the teenagers' failure; that was that they did. They failed. The Oni might not have been able to get their hands on Stiles, but it didn't take away from the fact that the Nogitsune had still gotten away. They had him, and they were so close, only for them to lose everything that they had worked towards finding the entire day. They were defeated. They were torn into the smallest of parts because there was the desperation to help Stiles, the instinctive action that each of them responded to the moment that they heard something had happened to a boy they loved. There was the part of them that wanted to give up, too, and while that may have been the piece they refused to admit to anyone but their own consciousness, it was still there. It lurked around at the end of the day when they had to wipe off the blood and sleep with their shallow hearts.

        Sage and Derek had created distance from one another, something that they found themselves doing often over the course of the last few months. Both of them had been injured by the Oni. There was a split second in between the fight that Sage had looked behind her to see if Stiles was safe, and that had cost her a gash in her arm that would take a good amount of time to heal. Derek, much like her, had become distracted in the haze of the fight and the Oni's sword had given him a large laceration in his shoulder. While his was worse than the one Sage acquired, he had the ability to heal supernaturally fast. She, on the other hand, did not. It made looking at the bloody and bruised girl all the more harder, knowing that each injury she had was because of how she cared too much about the people she loved- a flaw that, in Morrell's words, would get her killed one day.

        The teenage girl hadn't had time to adjust to what happened only one hour prior. Maybe it was because it was in so much of a blur that the ten minutes she spent screaming and fighting felt like an eternity that continued to repeat with no release. Maybe it was because she turned to her impulses and realized how truly terrifying it was to finally grasp the knowledge that she had actually held a gun at Stiles. The moment had been fast, rapid and ever-changing in such a way that she just went with what she knew was her best option at the moment. Never once had she thought that the option would include putting Stiles at gun point. Never once had she thought that she would even be able to do it. Yet, somehow, she did; and, for some reason, that scared the absolute hell out of her.

        "You have a bit of blood on you."

         Sage heaved a sigh through her lips immediately after hearing the familiar voice, stopping in the direction that she had been going in to reach the bathroom. Peter was in front of her, finally bringing his personality back to his insufferable self long enough to annoy her. Although, at this point, him even breathing in the same building as her was enough of a reason to annoy her. To his surprise, the blonde a few inches shorter than him only moved to step past his halted figure. No comeback from her sharp tongue, no narrowed eyes that could scare even the most murderous of people. It was almost enough to concern Peter, knowing very well that the teenage girl had not been the same person recently. Even he noticed.

        When Peter held an arm out to stop her from going around him, Sage clenched her bruised jaw and looked up at the man. "Get out of my way, Peter."

        "You should probably get that looked at," Peter acknowledged, nodding down to her arm that had yet to be touched. The blood had dried enough for her to walk around without it getting over everything, but she knew that she needed to put gauze over it before it became infected or something got inside of the wound. However, that didn't mean she was going to give Peter the satisfaction of knowing his advice was right. Instead, she just blinked once at his words and moved to walk again. Before she could even make it five steps, he was opening his mouth again. "I forgot to ask, did you enjoy seeing your mother again?"

        That had stopped her dead in her place. Sage could feel the anger surface inside of her all over again, the same fury that she felt the day Peter confirmed her worst fear by admitting that her mother was still alive. To know that the man thought the situation to be a joke, even after all of this time, had her wanting to do nothing more than send him back to the grave he deserved to rot in a long time ago. He had no place to talk about her family, especially considering his life was the entire reason for her father's death. If Hal hadn't of been the person that he was, her dad would be alive and Peter would be in his rightful place. For the man to even step over a boundary as delicate as her mother once again only had her grinding her teeth together.

        Mallory was a sensitive topic, even after all of this time. Now, more than ever. Brunski's words in the hallway at Eichen House had not been lost in the catastrophe of the Nogitsune. Ever since she left the place, she had been trying to get in touch with Morrell. The woman seemed to have dropped off the face of the Earth, though, and that left Sage out of options. No one else knew about Mallory, and the last thing that she wanted to reveal in the sea of problems they were facing was that she hadn't been the only Connelly to evade that fire seven years ago. It left her with one decision, and it was one that happened to break her heart more than she thought it would have only a few months ago: she had to forget about her mother at the moment. Even though Sage understood why Mallory had been so quick to make all of the impulsive decisions, the woman would never matter to Sage as much as her friends did. Scott, Stiles, Allison, Lydia, Derek, Isaac... they mattered more, and they always would.

        That didn't mean Sage wasn't going to defend her mother. Just as she went to speak, her eyes burning with the vibrancy that Peter had lost sight of before, she noticed that the man's expression had molded from a taunting manor to mild amusement as he stared at something over her head. That had caught her attention, turning around quickly to make sure that Derek wasn't eavesdropping in on their conversation. While she was thankful that it wasn't Derek that stood behind the two of them, she did feel her stomach drop at the sight of the boy she had been unintentionally ignoring for the past week and a half. Hell, she was surprised that Derek even let him into the loft. She would have assumed that he would have gotten the message that Aiden was the last thing she had the patience to deal with after how much she had been going through lately.

         From behind her, Peter let out a small hum in humor. "Oh, what a bittersweet tragedy young love creates."

       There was a moment of silence that lapsed in the air when as the two of them took in Peter's sneering words, neither capable of replying because they both knew it would only add fuel to the flame. Aiden's hardened expression at Peter's words softened ever so slightly when his cold, distant eyes moved from the man to the blonde that had just turned around. It was almost amusing how quickly his face returned back to steel when he saw the damage done to Sage, the bruise that Malia left only three days ago still healing in different, distinctive hues. From her jaw, his eyes traveled down to her stained arm to see that there was yet another injury. Before he could even manage to open his mouth, Peter had allowed another audible sound of hilarity towards the situation to fall from the back of his throat before he was brushing past the two teenagers, no doubt moving on to rile up Derek now that he had been successful with Sage.

         Both had waited until Peter disappeared around the corner, his footsteps pattering down the stairs providing enough comfort for Sage to let her face fall and turn around again to make way to the bathroom. She had no energy to deal with Aiden tonight, not when she knew that everything to fall from his mouth would be disapproval or a scold in her direction. Nonetheless, she knew that it was an inevitable interaction that she was bound to have with the boy. He had never come to visit her in the hospital, but from her knowledge, he had been present in helping the others find Kitashi which meant that one of them had to have informed him and Ethan about her absence. She didn't see the point in his care, though, especially considering he had made his point very clear in the boiler room that the respect he had for her decisions fell in the box of problems they had yet to resolve. At this point, she highly doubted any of those problems would ever disappear.

         Instead of receiving the message loud and clear that his ex-girlfriend wanted no interaction with him at the moment, Aiden followed Sage through the upstairs hallway until she had turned into the bathroom that was on the left. He had originally thought that she was going to close the door in his face, but considering the two of them knew very well that their actions towards one another had long-since surpassed childish attempts, she kept it open. Aiden watched in silence as she bent down to collect an assortment of medical supplies from the cabinet under the sink, his eyes narrowing slightly when he realized that her hands were shaking in the slightest. It had to have been what Peter said just before he arrived, not catching a single word of the conversation but picking up on how much tension and rage was radiating off the walls. It was becoming a frequent emotion he noticed when he was around the teenage girl.

         Still, even as he watched her fumble to open a packet of gauze, his jaw clenched at the tearing sensation he felt in his chest. It was odd to see that the tables had turned for them. Aiden had been the one walking away from her effortlessly, but upon coming back, he finally realized that she had been the one leaving him. He knew that she was trying her hardest to ignore the fact that they hadn't left off on the best of terms, their relationship hitting roadblocks and rushing through stop signs too much in the time that he had come to Beacon Hills. He knew that the night they kissed was a mistake, and just as much as he knew his heart chiseled a bit at the idea of it, Aiden could understand that there was no time or place for him to try and get Sage Connelly whole-heartedly back into his life. The feelings that she might have for him existed in the past, a nostalgia that she was trying to hold onto because of how much simplicity there was in the early months of their relationship.

         No matter how much it might be denied, there was never a choice between him and Stiles. There was never a consistent battle that Aiden felt he was facing with the teenage boy because he knew. He could see it in the way she looked at him. There was something about Stiles and Sage, something so inconveniently supernatural, that carried in the way they felt towards one another. It wasn't just love, or a gravitational pull that happened to pull them together like magnets. It was like every event leading to the moment that they met had been developed, and it was like Aiden had been one of those moments in Sage's life that needed to happen to carve a future for her love with Stiles. He hadn't realized it until they were fighting in the boiler room when she had remained so adamant on helping Stiles despite everything she knew he had done. He knew that she never would have continued to fight for him if he was the one in that situation. Aiden had known for while that he was overstepping a boundary by flirting, by loving, a girl that was taken. She may have been single while they kissed, but her heart was taken.

       He knew well enough, too, that he was not going to cause more pain to Sage by trying to act on the way he felt towards her. He had been selfish enough times in his life, and for once, he understood that he couldn't allow himself to remain that way towards the one person in his life besides his brother he would die for. Ironic, considering Aiden had vowed from the moment he became an alpha that he would never let another person control his actions. Sage was an enigma to everyone on the outside of her walls, but it seemed that she became even more complex the moment she let them in. He hadn't been prepared for it when he came back. There was the naivety in his mind that he wouldn't fall victim to the compassion Sage pushed onto people, a need to be better just by seeing all that she had sacrificed for happiness; but he had, and the moments he spent around the teenage girl made him realize just how vulnerable she could make a person. She was the one that could make the darkest of humans guide themselves back to the light, and there was a protesting urge inside of Aiden that refused it. Being good only came with pain, and all of the moments he was with her made him realize that being human meant feeling everything, too. He had seen firsthand what that did to people and wanted no part in it.

         As he stared at the teenage girl in front of him, watching as she put her arm under the running water to get rid of the blood that was coating her skin, he noticed that her back was arched in preparation for him to begin speaking. That was how it was between them, wasn't it? They couldn't carry on a normal conversation. There wasn't, and there never had been, any belief that they could go back to being friends like so many former couples seemed to do. It wasn't the same hesitation that she had when she was around Stiles, that on an entirely different level of discomfort that not even Aiden could measure up to. He knew that he had been the first person to place mistrust and betrayal in her heart. He was the first person since her family's death that hurt her so deeply. While he may have been her first love, he was also her first heartbreak in more than one way. He was the one that had carved and twisted around her heart at such a young age, providing her with a secondary crack in her personality that she was still desperately trying to glue back together by the love she had for other people.

        "I think I prefer your arrogance more than your silence," Sage muttered, her lips set into a firm line after she broke the strained air around them. She could all but feel how intensely he was thinking, his eyebrow furrowed as he just stared at the blonde with a hazed expression. He could see her face from the reflection in the mirror above the sink, noticing how she was intently focused on her arm but her thoughts lingered on something more than just the injury. Just like him. When he hadn't replied to her, the blonde looked up and turned to see that he had a guarded frown on his own lips. "Why are you here, Aiden?"

         He inhaled deeply, crossing his arms over his chest as he met with her green eyes. "Lydia called me."

         "Why would Lydia call you?" Sage asked, the question more of a courtesy than interest as she moved to grab the alcohol that she had gotten out as well. She didn't want to think too hard on why Lydia would resort to calling Aiden, especially considering she knew that Lydia often found herself uncomfortable in the same room as Aiden after what they went through. It didn't fit for Lydia to call the teenage boy, and it especially didn't fit as an answer to the question she asked.

         Aiden crossed his arms over his chest, his guided irises staying on the blonde as she let out a deep inhale when she pressed the alcohol onto her wound. "She was worried about you."

        Sage went silent again, her lips pursing together tightly as she made sure that she didn't turn back around to look at Aiden. It seemed like all people did was worry about her - worry about whether or not she was okay, worry about whether or not she was going to throw herself in a dangerous situation, worry about whether or not she was actually going to fire the gun. She knew that it should comfort her to know that they were there for her, especially since she spent so long convinced that no one would ever be there when she needed them, but she was slowly beginning to realize that she had never truly shaken herself free of the desire for isolation. The two weeks that she spent in her room screaming at the nightmares flooding inside of her head were torture, yes, but they also gave her a chance to forget about every other problem that was happening in her life.

       "Everyone's walking on egg shells with you, you know?" Aiden began, catching on that there was no way she was going to see just how worried everyone was becoming. "They've all given you time, Sage, and the only change is that you're getting worse. Do you even realize what's going on with you?"

       There was the anger all over again; the rage had surfaced inside of her, a persistent need of denial because she was hanging between acceptance and escape. Wrapping the gauze tightly around her arm, barely even noticing the pain that shot up her arm, she turned around to look over at Aiden. "I'm not having this conversation with you."

       "Because you know I'm one of the few people in your life that doesn't care how much the truth hurts?" Aiden asked, watching as she tried to move past him. He grabbed the arm that wasn't covered in the gauze, stopping her in place so that they were caught in the door frame of the bathroom. "You haven't been sleeping. You're radiating anger like a heater. Lydia said that you weren't answering anyone's messages or calls. You look like you've lost ten pounds in the last week, and all I keep hearing from everyone is that you keep jumping like an idiot into dangerous situations. So, what the hell is it, Sage? Do you want to die? Do you seriously not care at all about yourself that you're willing to just give everything up? Is that it? Are you just done? Come on, Sage. The person that I met on the first day of school would not let something like depression kill her."

        Panic. She was panicking. Sage could feel her throat closing up, breathing in one deep inhale as she stumbled back a few steps away from Aiden. Depression. She supposed she had known for the longest time that she had it, just as she was sure everyone around her knew by the insistence to help her get through it, but she never thought that it would ever reach the hazardous extent where it had to actually be acknowledged. There was the smallest of hope that she could control the parasite inside of her mind, the darkness that seemed to control all of her thoughts like a black hole until she was left only as a victim of her own suffering. There was the smallest of hope that she could evade the conversation that she was waiting for someone to have with her, but she had never anticipated that it would come from Aiden - or, maybe she had. Maybe that was why she was so terrified to be in the same room as him.

       Aiden had only ever spoken brutal honesty to her, just like Isaac and Derek. He was always the person ready to shout at her, to snap and to snarl as much as possible as long as it ensured that she understood his side. It might not have always been right, but it was the honesty in his mind. For the past few weeks, all of her friends had been so blinded by the events happening with Stiles that she didn't need to worry about them acknowledging what was wrong with her. She could be pushed aside for a while, downgraded to the secondary problem because the Nogitsune was a greater demon than her depression; but, for someone that doesn't see Stiles' situation as problematic as the others, Aiden could speak the truth all he wanted. He didn't get distracted by the imminent threat on Stiles' life. He didn't need to hesitate with his words so that he didn't hurt her. He had already lost her as a girlfriend, as a friend, and as anything else that the others still held onto. Aiden had no attachments to anyone but his brother, and the risks he took by telling Sage what everyone else danced around would not be as catastrophic had it come from anyone else.

        She avoided him for a reason, but now she couldn't. The teenage girl was sure that her airways were closing off as she looked at him, still trying to break free of the denial she had that was literally shutting down her ability to think by the second. Shaking her head, she stood up straighter than her face gave her credit for. "I'm fine."

        "Bullshit," Aiden dismissed, crossing his arms over his chest. He had been in a fight with her the last time they spoke, and he had walked away before his case was made. The events that happened after that led to her being put in a hospital bed after dying from the hands of the person he knew was bound to break her. There's no way he's going to just give up on shoving into her thick skull that she couldn't just focus on other people's problems. "You don't want to talk to me about it, fine, but you need to stop denying help when people are trying to give it to you. You know something is wrong with you, but you keep pushing it away until you're the last concern on your own list. You can't help anyone else until you help yourself, and you can't keep trying to fill yourself with anger just to get by. It doesn't work. Trust me."

        Sage looked at him, disbelief crossing over her face for a moment as she looked at him. The truth didn't seem to bruise her as much as it ignited something inside of her, a need to defend herself against his easy advice. "Do you think I haven't been trying to help myself? Do you know how hard it is to just be happy? I can't just command myself to feel something that no one in this town has felt for months. For years. I can't just wake up one day and decide that I'm going to try and be happier, Aiden. It doesn't work that way, and I can guarantee that if it did, I wouldn't be the same person as I am today. I don't want to focus on myself. I don't want to feel this way. I want a distraction, but every time I get involved in anything, something happens to someone I love and I suffocate in the guilt of knowing that it's all my fault. Don't you dare pretend to understand that you know how I feel, because you don't know a goddamn thing about what goes on inside of my head."

        She pushed through Aiden this time, moving quickly to get to her room in a desire to just sleep. All she wanted to do was sleep and forget about about everything that happened. She wanted to forget about Eichen House; she wanted to forget about Stiles; she wanted to forget about herself; she wanted to forget about all of the problems she would wake up to. Before she could close her door in the face of the boy, he was entering her room and ignoring all of her obvious actions to avoid him. A scowl crossed over her face immediately, but Aiden barely noticed as he reacted with his own glare. "Stop walking away from your problems."

        "I'm not walking away from my problems. I'm walking away from you."

         Aiden felt the small snap inside of him, something that he was beginning to notice Sage could create very well in any circumstance, but he didn't let her see that all he wanted to do was turn around and leave after that. He wanted to give up on her and just give her what she wanted by not caring at all about the person she was turning into, but he didn't. What he did was muster up as much as restraint as he could and say his final words to her. "When all of this is over, whether you and your friends win or lose, make sure you look in a mirror and figure out if you like what you see... and, when you realize that you don't, promise me that you'll go see someone. Anyone. This world is killing you. They are killing you."

         There it was: the cruelty of love. The unbalanced, bitter emotion that always seemed to control everything that made or broke a person. Aiden had just revealed to Sage the one thing that had created her depression without even noticing just how much of an impact it had on the mentality of the girl he said it to. He released every withheld truth that she had known deep inside of her, but never acted upon speaking it out loud from the fear of just how much it would change. Every single day, she was surrounding herself with the same people that dug her a hole much deeper than she could crawl up from. Whatever escape she had the chance to make disappeared, and falling in love with people in this town that only carried death and disease on their shoulders proved to be the control of her diseased mind. Love created her, and love was slowly destroying her. It had always been that way from the moment she was born, all because it seemed like the Connelly family was cursed with the habit of saving other people before they could save their sanity.

         While Sage stood there, her mouth glued shut as she felt her knees weaken the longer she kept straight, she knew that her compassion wasn't her weakness. It wasn't that she would do anything for people, it's that she did. Never once had she failed to show up to help them. Never once had she said "no," when she thought that the situation was just too catastrophic for her mental health to manage. She was always there, helping the people that she had fallen madly in love with. It wasn't just Stiles anymore, it was her pack. She fell in love with each and every single friendship that she had created, and the cruelty that lied beneath that love had never been more evident than in that moment. She knew how it felt to be utterly and irrevocably in love with someone, but she never expected for it to be what destroyed her. Not when the love she had for her friends was all she had to keep hold of - and that left her with the single decision to make, one that Aiden had been trying to make her understand would come with a cost: she could not get better without love, but the only love she had in her life was dragging her further down to the darkness. She would either have to let go of her friends or fall victim to her own mind.

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SATAN STRIKES AGAIN. Hi, guys! I have returned. It has been a month filled with stress and procrastination. Basically, I knew exactly what was going to happen in this chapter and there was a part of me that was so adamant on believing that if I didn't write it, it wouldn't come true. Nonetheless, I was pretty pleased with the beginning and end of this chapter. Writing about Sage's depression does get repetitive at times, but the scene was necessary because it sets out the main question for the end of this book and the beginning of the sequel: will Sage sacrifice the relationship she has with her friends to free herself of her depression, or will she find a way to push through and get over the depression with the help of her friends?

Every event had led up to that question, so to finally be able to write it and publish it has lifted so much weight from my chest. Sage has always been this heavy protagonist in the story, and the main antagonist in her life has been that depression. To be able to tie those two together to finally make, not only her, but you all see just how deeply rooted her problems are is so rewarding to me as a writer. Her character development, all of the relationships she's created came into play towards her depression in this book. The chapters leading up to this point have all been foreshadowing to show just how much poison and power her friends are in her life at the very same time. They prevented her escape because she loved them too much, and the fact that she does love them so much is what is consistently getting her thrown in dangerous situations. She has no sense of self-awareness when her friends are in danger, and Sage's depression is undoubtedly something that anyone in her position would experience. I know that I've had to make a decision before between my happiness and someone I love.

UPDATE SCHEDULE: The next few weeks are going to be very hectic because midterms are coming up (YIKES!) but I have two breaks as well and I'm hoping to get a chapter or two done in the span of that time. Still should be done by the end of this year/beginning of January considering I have two and a half episodes left to write for our lovely heroine. Just know that because of how many things I have to tie up in this story and how many characters Sage will have to say goodbye to, chapters will be a lot less frequent. I want to write the deaths right, and I refuse to not put my all into something everyone is dreading to read. Thank you all for the love you've given me and Sage, and I send all of my love in return.

If you read this, let me know in the comments your answer to this: what do you think Sage will do? Do you think she'll give up the ties she has to her friends or do you think she'll find a way to break through the depression? Also, let me know if you liked the chapter! Were you expecting her to pull the gun on Stiles?