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SEVEN; 

LETHAL LADY

        "He's going to get himself killed."

        "You have so much faith in him, Sage." 

        Sage shoved her foot into the back of Isaac's seat. "Shut up, Lahey." 

        "Both of you shut up and stop acting like you're five," Derek snapped, looking between the two. Sage glared at Derek while Isaac only rolled his eyes, sinking further into the seat from the negative attention he just received. They got a call from Scott ten minutes ago saying that he was at the grocery store to confront Beacon Hills' favorite ex-werewolf hunter, and, now, they were lurking in the dark as they waited for Argent to pull the trigger on Scott. Literally, they were just anticipating and betting on when it was going to happen considering the fatal amount of times that the past has shown the same lethal end when a werewolf was engaging in a conversation with an Argent.

        The blonde was also annoyed because she had been calling and texting Stiles with no reply. She knew that it was fair, considering she practically avoided him as she went on her suicide mission to find Cora, but she was still concerned about the events with him and Lydia. That seemed like all they did, now— worry about each other until they get so fed up and fought. They still didn't fully trust each other, and, at this point, Sage knew that Stiles had every reason not to. Just like in the supply closet, her interaction with Aiden tonight will to stay between her and Aiden. Revealing that she had even been with him would only create a surrounding controversy of the question: why? Why had she been with him despite the fact that, the last time they saw one another, he became the monster he would always continue to be?

        "So, your, uh, sister," Isaac began, breaking the silence that filled the car. Derek glanced over, his eyebrows raised high while Sage scoffed from the back of the car, scrolling through her notifications as she continued to call Stiles. "Sorry. It's bad timing. I'm sorry. I'll ask later, it's fine." Derek looked at him again, ready to pull his tongue out so he would shut up. "Or, never. Yeah, yeah. I'm good with never." 

        "Hey, Isaac?" Sage called out from the back. "What happened to your undying love for me? I thought we were going to grow old together while I feed you mice on the full moons. I'm offended that you've moved on." 

        "Oh, you know I've always liked brunettes more than blondes," Isaac retorted, grinning as he stared ahead towards Scott and Allison's dad. Sage's mouth opened, stopping the call that she was making towards Stiles so that she could lean forward to slap the boy upside the head. 

        "You're such a dick!" 

        Isaac snorted, staring back at her. "You're the one with a boyfriend." 

        "A boyfriend that is not picking up his damn phone," Sage muttered, huffing as she fell back into her seat. When she looked up from her phone, she noticed that Argent had a gun pointed at Scott's head. "Oh, oh. That's a problem." 

        "He won't shoot him," Derek dismissed. 

        Sage narrowed her eyes at the Alpha. "Are you willing to take that chance? Because I'm not getting another bullet hole in my body by an Arg— oh. Never mind, then. Why is he getting in the car with him? He literally just pointed a gun at his face. Who gets in a car with a werewolf hunter that just pointed a gun in their werewolf face?" 

        "Sage," Derek began, his irritation for the blonde increasing. "Please shut up and go back to calling your boyfriend." 

        Sage gaped at the two, glancing in between them. "Seriously? Do I need you remind you that I allowed both of you dogs to live in my loft despite the fact that you both tried to kill me last year because you thought I was murdering people?" 

        "It's my complex," Derek threw back. 

        "It's my parent's money." 

        "I'm older." 

        Sage snorted. "I'm smarter." 

        "I'm taller." 

        Isaac rolled his eyes from the passenger seat. "Who's the five year old now?" 

        "Shut up, Isaac," Derek and Sage spat in unison. 

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        Sage sat in the back of the car, her legs thrown on the seats so that her back was up against the window and she could lay her head back. They had been driving for what felt like centuries, and she was growing tired. Stiles still hadn't answered her, neither had Lydia, who received just as many calls as her boyfriend. She was assuming the worst at this point, her mind playing tricks on her as she had too much time to think about things. She thought about Stiles realizing he wasn't over his feelings for Lydia and kissing her. She thought about Lydia seeing how Stiles had been there for her and wanting to kiss him. The thoughts invaded her peace to the point where she thought she was going to need Derek to stop so that she could throw up. 

        "They did this?" Isaac asked suddenly. Sage looked up to see that all around them were flashing lights, and sat up immediately to see that they were putting a body away. Parents were standing above their dead child, mother crying and father holding her as he tried to find out how to cope without his son. 

        Sage blinked a few times, trying to get the image of the boy's body out of her mind. "It never gets easier." 

        "It never will," Derek commented, his eyes shifting from the accident over to Argent's car in front of him. They were moving now, and he knew that the former hunter had just gotten all the evidence needed to return to his old ways. He glanced in the rear view mirror to see that Sage had gone back to her original position, lounging on the seats. He wouldn't be surprised if she fell asleep right now. 

        He knew, though, that she wouldn't sleep until her stupid boyfriend called her back. He was indifferent. It pained him to see her look this dependent upon one guy, obsessing over the idea of him returning a call. She swore to him before they came back that she wasn't going to involve herself anymore with the wrong guys. The way he saw it, every guy was bad. She was going to be hurt whether she ended up with Jackson Whittemore, Scott McCall, Isaac Lahey, or any other guy in this damn town. It would always come back and bite her in the ass because that's what love is. 

        The problem with Sage is that she becomes so emotionally invested in finding the best in people. She may not see it, but he did. He saw the part of the blonde that refused to show fear for love, and he saw the part that loved with her whole heart. He saw the parts of her that made her a bad person, but he also saw the good. And what he hates most about his best friend, his little sister, is her ability to see the good in the bad. Sage Connelly saw the good in Aiden when they first started dating two years ago. She saw the good in him when he went rogue after his family died. She saw the good in Isaac even after he attempted to murder her, and yet she refused to see any good in herself. Derek hated it, he hated how much she hated herself, and it seems like his whole life as been devoted to making sure nothing ever happened to her — because in the end, she will be her own destruction. 

        She just never noticed. "Stiles?" 

        Derek's jaw clenched, and he couldn't help but notice that Isaac, too, shifted uncomfortably when he heard the mention of Sage's boyfriend. It was ironic how the boy had changed his opinions, how he had changed everything, really. To this day, Derek will believe that it wasn't the bite that changed the teenage boy, it was finally being rid of the abuse. He changed his thoughts towards his pack members, towards Scott, towards Sage, towards the whole world. 

        "Hey, look, can you please just answer your phone or something? I'm worried about you, and I'm pretty sure that Scott and Derek are taking us out on a death mission to try and find Boyd and Cora. Just—" Sage paused, closing her eyes before taking a deep breath. "Just call me back. I love you. I'm sorry." 

        Derek waited until she ended the voicemail to speak. "How many is that?" 

        "That would be the thirty-first call in the past hour." 

        "He'll call," Derek comforted, trying his best to convince the girl to cheer up. He needed her head completely focused on finding Cora and Boyd, not on Stiles. "And right now, I don't need you to be a teenage girl. I need you to be a fighter." 

        They parked the car, getting out quickly. Sage grabbed her jacket from the back, tugging it on. Isaac gave her a small smile, wrapping an arm around her short frame as they walked towards Argent and Scott. Only he was able to pick up on her reply to Derek. "I haven't been a teenage girl in a long time, Derek." 

        As soon as Argent and Derek had awkward greetings, especially after last year when they practically devoted all of their time to killing each other, it was now onto Werewolf Boot Camp. Sage was actually entertained, as horrible as it sounded, she would rather know how to kick Derek and Isaac's ass if they ever got out of line and attempted to kill her on a full moon. She knew certain things, enough and only what Allison or Laura had taught her. 

        Other than that, she wasn't really all too great at knowing how to take down a werewolf. She could shoot a bow and arrow, she could punch a werewolf, but if she were ever in a situation like earlier that night were Cora was rabid, she would have died immediately. She liked to believe she was stronger than a human, but that's really all she was. Yeah, she might have the worst abilities in the world that practically caused her pain every second of her life, but she was still human. She was actually more human than human. 

        "Have you been tracking them by print?" Argent asked as he sat down his duffle bag full of weapons of mass destruction. He crouched, getting close so that he could see the shoe prints that were implanted deep into the mud. 

        Scott nodded. "Trying to." 

        "Then you're wasting your time," Argent chided. "There's only one creature that can visually track footprints, and that's man. If you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these—" 

        "Are Cora's?" Isaac asked as he leaned on a nearby tree. Sage leaned forward a bit, tilting her head to see what prints they were talking about. Clearly, she could tell that those definitely didn't belong to Cora. The prints were too big to belong to a tiny girl. 

        "You three are idiots," Sage said, crossing her arms over her chest. "They're your's." 

        Argent nodded, agreeing with Sage. "She's right. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here. That's how I know the three of you are focusing half of your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon. Now, that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor when you three are barely hitting the speed limit." 

        "So what do we do?" Derek asked, sighing as he gave into Argent's help. 

        "Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to one hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to trap them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two miles, which means we can draw them to us right into a trap," Argent explained. 

        "A trap?" Sage questioned, surprised when Argent flung a bundle of net her way.

        "It gives us one advantage. They'll have a high heat signature, which makes them easier to spy with infrared." Once again, Argent had thrown more stuff at them. This time, Sage got a pair of binoculars that didn't look comfortable in the slightest. 

        She held it away from her body. "Uh, no thanks. It doesn't really match my outfit." 

        "And I've got my own," Derek added, his eyes glowing a deep crimson red. 

        Sage snorted. "Show off." 

        "Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. They'll think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive." 

        Sage watched as Argent moved towards the outlook of the town, the same spot that Stiles took her one day whenever he first told her he loved her. She frowned, pushing her hands further into her pockets as she tried to ignore the 'teenage girl' that was consuming her mind. Derek was right, she needed to get her head in the game or else she was going to get herself or someone else seriously injured. The last thing she needed was another person's blood on her hands. 

        She stared at her town, at Beacon Hills, and couldn't help but think about every good and bad thing that has happened in this town. It has brought so much pain and so much grief, but it has also given her friendship and a love that has consumed every part of her. It's given her hope that maybe one day people will grow up and know about what she has tried to do for this town, how much she and her family have sacrificed. She just didn't want to die another name on a plaque, six feet under surrounded by Kate Argent and Matt Daehler. 

        She refused to die like that. 

        "When was the last time you saw your sister?" Argent asked. 

        Sage glanced over at Derek, and realized how long it had actually been since they've seen their families alive. Derek looked back at her too, and then answered Argent. "Nine years. I thought she died in the fire." 

        "Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" When Derek shook his head, Argent couldn't help but exhale in disappointment. He turned to Scott next. "Scott? How confident are you in your skills?"

        "Honestly?" Scott asked, slightly scoffing. "I'm trying to not to think about all of things I can smell." 

        "Alright. The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills." 

        Sage shifted uncomfortable next to Isaac, wondering what the hell what meant. The last thing they needed was Cora and Boyd going off and murdering half of the town. The population was already decreasing by the second, they didn't need to lose any more people. She found herself asking, "They're not going to kill everything they see, are they?" 

        "No," Argent denied. "But there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food, and at a certain point they get full. Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill. There is some primal apex predatorial satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. Who knows when that need gets satiated." 

        "Oh, okay," Sage muttered. "Really wishing I hadn't asked." 

        Scott picked up the conversation. "We can't kill them." 

        "What if we can't catch them?" Derek questioned, retaliating against Scott's words. 

        Sage felt a weight fall on her shoulders that the very thought of having to lose Cora again. She already had to go through the pain of losing Laura, and almost losing Derek about a thousand times. The idea of having to murder the younger girl for something she had no control over was not even a considerable suggestion in her book. "Why can't we just contain them somewhere?" 

        Argent turned around at her suggestion. He looked impressed, as if he weren't expecting for her to actually think of a good idea. He turned back around quickly to stare over the outskirts of Beacon Hills. "There's no one in the school, is there?" 

        "You want to trap them inside?" Derek asked, catching on to what Argent and Sage were thinking. 

        "Yeah, somewhere with a strong enough door. No windows or access to the outside." 

        Isaac's eyebrows furred. "What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door."

        "The boiler room will work," Sage immediately answered. When eyes glanced over at her, wondering how she could already confirm their plans, she frowned. "Last year I was stuck in that room after being chased by Peter. It may not contain an Alpha for very long, but it can definitely contain two betas."

        "And you're sure that the school is empty?" Argent confirmed, glancing over at Scott, Sage, and Isaac to make sure that he wasn't setting up death for anyone. The last thing they needed was for someone to be working or in the school when they got the two werewolves there. 

        "It has to be. There can't be anyone there this late, right?" Scott questioned his own answer as he looked down at Sage. She pursed her lips, and shook her head, sending the boy a small shrug. She had no idea, but it was the only thing they had at this point apart from just killing Boyd and Cora. Sage would rather take the chance of someone being there than just losing all hope and doing their last option on the list. 

        "I guess we're going to find out," she breathed, moving to follow after Argent who was heading towards his trunk. She stayed a bit behind, letting Scott and Derek take the lead considering they seemed more suitable for the task of playing leader. Herself and Isaac could just play the roles of the lost puppies. 

        "Do you trust him?" Isaac whispered, leaning in closer to her so that the man ahead wouldn't hear them. 

        Sage looked up at the boy like he was crazy. "Do you?" 

        "Fair enough." 

        By the time they caught up, Argent was sticking something that looked very similar to a stake in the ground. She opened her mouth but didn't say anything, mostly because she wasn't exactly sure what to say. Argent noticed all of their confused faces and told them what the pointy, dangerous object was. "These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run." 

        He pressed down on a button, and Sage was surprised to see that the three boys around her immediately started to clutch their heads in pain, all while Argent failed to notice. "It gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear." 

        "No kidding," Isaac spluttered out, hissing in pain. 

        Sage, on the other hand, was grinning from ear-to-ear. "Can you, like, give me some of those for Christmas so I can use them when these three piss me off?" 

        "I have something else for you actually," Argent announced. Sage's ears perked up and she stared at the man questionably, wondering what exactly he was planning on giving her. When he dug through his duffle bag, pulling out a gun in the process, her mouth opened in shock. "This is a gun with wolfsbane laced in the bullets. It's not harmful to them unless you hit them in the heart or head. I trust your aim is good enough to miss those two general points." 

        "You're giving me a gun," Sage deadpanned. 

        Argent nodded, holding the gun out for her. "I'm giving you a gun." 

        "Isn't there a law that says teenagers shouldn't be allowed to carry firearms until they're a lot older than I am?" Sage wondered, slowly taking the gun from the hunter. She noticed that all three werewolves took a step back from her, even Derek. Wimps. 

        "When was the last time anyone in this town followed the laws?" 

        Sage curled in lip in agreement. "True. So, how do I shoot it?" 

        "Oh, my god," Isaac moaned from behind her. "We're going to get shot in the face by a five-foot-three blonde." 

        "Shut up, Isaac, or this five-foot-three blonde is going to put a bullet in your foot."

        Isaac grinned sarcastically at her. "Such a lovely girl." 

        Argent interrupted their bickering and grabbed Sage's hands, which had the gun in them so that he could take off the safety. He trained the gun for her, straight towards a tree in the distance and slowly backed away. Sage's eyes widened, realizing that he let go. She had shot an arrow before, but a gun was different. A gun was much, much different. "So I just pull the trigger?" 

        "Just pull the trigger," Argent agreed, nodding his head as he watched her. 

        Sage took a deep breath, calming her nerves before she closed a single eye like she did when she used to shoot with the bow and arrow. Slowly, her hand found the trigger and she pulled. She was surprised at the backfire of the gun, it jerked her wrist back enough to make her mind hazy but she regained herself quick enough to put the safety back on and see the damage done. 

        She had shot the tree. Not perfectly, definitely not perfectly, but in this scenario that actually happened to be a good thing. Derek, Scott, and Isaac all cringed when they noticed, too. Isaac, who was on a role with his comments towards the girl, sighed. "Great. Now I'm living under the same roof as a girl who knows how to shoot a gun. This day just keeps getting better and better." 

        "I like the gun," Sage complimented, nodding towards Argent. She hadn't seen the look in his eyes when she shot the gun well, she failed to notice it because she was too busy congratulating herself. She went to hand it back to him when he shook his head, telling her to keep it. 

        Derek rolled his eyes, moving past the lethal blonde so that he could grab the first set of emitters. He didn't really want to stress on the idea of Sage learning how to work a gun. That thought alone would be enough to drive him to slow insanity. 

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        not edited. 

        so fucking done with these past two episodes. like, can cora and boyd please not try to murder everyone. thanks. so, just a warning, stiles isn't going to be present in this episode. like, i might do a scene at the end when i finish but for right now, he's with lydia and she's with the boys. i wanted to do this because it seems more appropriate for her to be with them instead of with lydia for the time being. 

        also, sage has a gun. 

        i wanted to say thank you guys for the encouraging comments on the last chapter. im glad that you guys liked it as much as i did. im so incredibly proud of sage and all that she has accomplished and she is my baby. i love doing scenes where i get to express more of who she is. this chapter still continues to do that, but through the eyes of derek. you get to see what he thinks of her on a daily basis and his thoughts about her issues with loving. 

        i love you guys. you deserved this chapter after my long ass break. i can't garuntee any more updates until this weekend though. big loves, always and forever, to the moon and back.