I legitimately hate this episode. I'm sorry for the incredibly late update, but this chapter has been killing me for the past two months. I've continued to rewrite it over and over again, and even now I'm not one hundred percent pleased with it. However, this was the best that I could do with how much dialogue and detail has to be put into making sure that every single reaction and action Sage does matches with how I see it in my head. Definitely not the most exciting in my eyes, but the next few chapters will make up for that. Hopefully they will be updated better and faster than this one. Much love, and hope you guys are doing well. This is dedicated to Meg, for being consistent in my life as a fan and a friend ever since I met her a few weeks ago. Thank her for the motivation to write this chapter, and give her all your love for being the biggest lover of Halsey that she spent ten hours on a painting of her lyrics.

SONG OF THE CHAPTER: Big Girls Cry by Sia

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SIXTY;

ALL PAPER DOLLS

"Would she have done it?"

The question unconsciously fell from Kira's mouth as she was walking through the doors to Scott's house, having been battling with whether or not to ask the boy ever since they left the loft. Immediately, she regretted saying anything when she noticed how Scott's back tightened in response to the question, his shoulders rising closer to his ears. Of course he wouldn't want to answer it, not when it was asking him something that involved two of the people he cared about most. When the two of them had heard the news of what happened with the Nogitsune when they were on their way there, they were shocked. Shocked might not have even been the word for it; possibly incapable of processing the truth, letting their hearts drop a bit lower when Allison muttered the words to the couple. A look was shared between Scott and Allison in that moment, one that they had clearly seen enough to know something, leaving Kira oblivious. Maybe it was because she was still figuring out who Sage Connelly was; maybe it was because she knew that whatever she had with Scott could not proceed any further if she didn't make an effort to understand his friends — even if Sage was the hardest one of all. "I'm sorry. You don't have to—"

"No, it's fine." Scott had stopped his walking all together the moment that they closed the door, shoving his hands deep into his pockets as he stared at a picture hanging on the wall of himself during his fifth grade graduation. Then, the boy turned to look over at Kira with a weak smile pulling on his lips, a way to comfort himself more than anything. "She's been through a lot these past few years. I know that you might not know who she is completely, and you might not understand why she does some of the stuff that she does, but she means no harm."

"You don't need to defend her, Scott," Kira's voice was small when she said so, only raising above a whisper as she gave the teenage boy a halfhearted smile back to the one he gave. She was well aware of the quick reflex that she had triggered inside of his brain, an instinctual reaction set up in his mind that told him to defend a girl he considered his sister from everyone, even if what's said isn't negative. "I know she's a good person. I just... I guess I feel like everyone else in town, wondering what happened. Any time her and Stiles are brought up, all of you shut down. You, Lydia, Allison. Them. Was it really that bad? I mean, has she really changed that much?"

Scott knew that he shouldn't be the one answering the question in the placement of either one of his friends. Their relationship was just that — their relationship. Even if he had the opportunity to step inside of their minds, he wasn't sure he would gain the proper answer for Kira. Stiles and Sage were two entirely incompatible teenagers placed in an insane situation that pushed them in the direction of each other, and whether or not how they ended was bad could only be diagnosed by the two that actually experienced the break up. Speaking about their relationship had become negative in every scenario, especially since the only ones that seemed to be doing it recently was everyone but Stiles and Sage. In fact, there wasn't even any room left to question how the former couple felt about each other. He knew that there was a part inside of both of them that still craved the relationship that they had been in for so many months; there was a piece missing, in that small cavity between their spine and their lungs, but that piece had been shadowed by the amount of anguish that they both had faced in the last few weeks.

He supposed there was the possibility of them becoming close again if they figured everything out after they defeated the Nogitsune. Scott had gone through the assumption that he would fix things with Allison, and while it wasn't in the way he necessarily wanted at the time, he gained a friend from his first love. While there would always be a part of him that loved every part of the teenage girl unconditionally, he wasn't going to pretend that there was a possibility of them being anything other than just friends. Sage and Stiles being a repeat of that depended completely on how much they were willing to fight for each other, and if they truly had enough energy left to care about someone that they have spent longer falling apart over than being together with. Still, Scott knew that the two of them getting over each other would be like pulling two magnets super-glued together away. No matter how many things they put each other through, they came back. He would be lying if he said he hoped Sage took the same route as Allison and fled the country the moment all of this was over.

Then again, Scott knew that the Sage who entered the borders of Beacon Hills a year ago would have fled. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the blonde, volatile in so many ways from her past to her present, would have caught the first ticket out of a town that was showing her how to love someone other than Derek Hale. Now, Scott knew that he didn't know what she would do. He knew that there was no way to parallel the person that she was before to the person she is now, just solely by how much she had been forced to grow. They had all been forced to change, to adapt to their surroundings and give into their fears of love. In a way, it was still up for debate on whether or not that change was for the better. Whatever sense of responsibility they each gained from the introduction of the supernatural and love... well, it was greatly diluted by the irrational amount of terror that they felt every time they woke up in the morning. Asking if Sage changed, when the reality that each of them had, was like picking all of her flaws out of the batch his pack created. Impossible.

The teen wolf pursed his lips, letting his eyebrows furrow as he tried to concoct an explanation. "I think the worst part was the fact that neither one of them could let it become bad. There was never enough time, and they didn't have enough energy to really understand that they wouldn't be together anymore. I mean, Stiles was chasing after Lydia for so long, and then Sage comes in and changes all of that just because of how much they fought in the beginning. She crept up on him, and once they lost that person to fight with, they started fighting with themselves... and, I think that after she watched the Nogitsune literally suck the life out of her with Stiles' hands, she lost that fight with herself, too. So, no — I don't think the break-up was bad, and she wouldn't have done it. Not Stiles. Someone else, maybe. Not Stiles."

"Why would she do that, though?" Kira asked, her lips pulling down to a frown as she let Scott's last sentence fully digest in her brain. She had seen the blonde in action enough to know that she wasn't to be messed with, having been on the opposing end of Sage at one point, but that didn't change the fact that she still wondered why the girl would actually pull a gun on a boy that she so obviously was still in love with. Kira, to put it simply, didn't understand how she could. She didn't know how Sage had enough strength to stand there in such a compromising position and react as though Stiles never had her heart.

Scott clenched his jaw, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. "Stiles was reassurance that she hadn't lost herself along the way, I guess. In between the hallucinations and the Nogitsune, she's changed a lot. You might not see it, but we do. All of us are different, but she got the bad end of it. Losing people continuously took a toll on how she reacts to other people. Knowing that she didn't have the capability of pulling the trigger on him meant that there was still the same girl that asked him out all those months ago inside of her. She's had the idea since the moment she found out she was an altor that it was her job to protect us. We might not always understand how her mind works, but we do always know that it's because she has a brick wall set up between selfishness and selflessness. You'll eventually realize how many times people try to get her to break that wall."

There was a part of him that felt he was speaking out of place when he talked about the struggles Sage had been facing recently, but looking back on all of the times where he could literally feel growing anger radiate off of the body of the blonde, he couldn't help but feel like she was hitting that borderline between the two too often nowadays. The Nogitsune, for whatever short period of time it inhabited her being, had flipped something inside of her brain. Her chemo-signals were nearing toxic any time he was around her, and he knew that he wasn't the only one who noticed. Hell, just by the looks that Derek gave him the second that they had calmed from the fiasco of the Oni, he knew that there was something greater going on with Sage. The way she oppressed everything that's happened, from her break up with Stiles to the night in the clinic that she pretended didn't even exist, wasn't healthy. The worst part was that none of them had any idea what they could say to help. Their love for her clouded their judgement, and they needed someone who didn't let themselves get caught up in that.

"I know you don't know her well, but just remember one thing about Sage: she's loyal. She's one of the most loyal people that I've ever met. You just have to give her a chance. Once you have a place in her heart, she won't leave you. That's why she's always hurt. She doesn't walk away because she wants to stop hurting. She walks away because she thinks that's the only way the pain will stop for everyone else."

Scott had made it clear that he was done speaking about Sage when he sent her another small smile to Kira, hoping that she understood how he was uncomfortable talking about his best friend. It wasn't that the subject of her unsettled him, more so the fact that the subject of her was so tense right now that all he wanted to do was push back the part of him that kept tracing back to Allison's words of what happened. It was unsettling because Scott could feel something inside of him pulling back at his statements, questioning a little bit more every single day how much longer Sage would last before she completely broke all together.

He could tell that she wearing thin, the silhouette of a confident person slowly disintegrating the longer people pushed at the walls; it bore the thought inside of Scott's mind, where the boy who found himself searching for any sign of hope in even the most villainous of creatures, didn't know what would happen if that wall were to break; he didn't know if her selflessness would be twisted into a selfishness that they could not bring her back from. Scott wondered what would happen when the day came that the most loyal person of them all found herself disloyal to her own morals — her own heart. He wondered what would happen, then, if the person they all held tightly onto was the one not caring if they sank.

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For the first time in the longest of times, it was uncomfortable between Lydia and Sage. The air was thick, and it provided a blanket of tension in the moving car, so much so that they had to open the windows to refrain from smothering to death. The last time that the two of them had ever felt so discomforted by the other's presence was a year ago when their biggest issue was the fact that Lydia Martin was an insufferable facade and Sage Connelly was exceptional at kissing boys that had a thing for the strawberry blonde. Now, the best friends were facing a world of problems that neither wanted to admit were true. Lydia had seen the look on the blonde's face the moment that she walked down the stairs that morning. After months and months on end watching Sage develop and fall apart on a constant repeat, Lydia knew the look. Almost everyone did at this point; the look of complete defeat, where the mental health of their best friend becomes more concerning for the few days that the expressions last. Lydia knew, without even speaking to Sage, that her attempt to get Aiden to help had only drilled the teenage girl deeper into a hole.

Forty-three hours. Forty-three hours was the amount of time that Sage had been without sleep. It was obvious in her posture, and she could barely keep her shoulders straight from the weight she was trying to hold up with her body. It was even more evident in her eyes. The trademark, green irises were worn from refusing tears of frustration and exhaustion. For what seemed like years, she sat in her shower and thought about the conversation that she had with Aiden. Whatever the teenage boy had been intending to do worked because his words pressed against her skull like a burden, creating a migraine that was borderline toxic when combined with her sleep-deprivation. Yet, she had grown used to the throbbing that seemed to pulsate from her temple all the way down to the back of her neck. It was a way to stop her from thinking, a way to shut out the idea of Aiden's admission holding any truth.

It was hard not to think about things, though, especially with how quiet Lydia's car had been from the moment they got inside of it. They were back to square one, looking for Stiles with no resources to fall back on. Blindly naive is what they were being, and Sage couldn't help but bite down on her lip to create some type of pressure to keep her from interrupting the record silence. It didn't last long. Not with the growing anxiety that was beginning to formulate inside of the teenage girl's chest. "Why would you call him?"

Lydia's hands visibly tightened on the wheel at the question, but she didn't dare turn her head. The truth was that the teenage girl knew exactly why she called Aiden, just like how she knew that the way he looked at Sage was different from the way she looked back at him. It led her to question things, concerning herself over the fear that everyone in Sage Connelly's life loved her too much to tell her that something was wrong; that led to the one person she knew that would risk everything, knowing that he had nothing left to lose if his words ended up creating scars over fresh wounds. "He loves you enough to hurt you."

The startling accuracy in Lydia's words left Sage without a voice to speak for the first three minutes. It left Sage with another hole, gaping and ever-growing, because she knew the answer to her own question before it even escaped her lips. Guilt. It was guilt. The conscience that had been washed away twice, shattered beyond belief, and compartmentalized in such a way that it could never be repaired, felt guilt — and, in that guilt, she felt anger. Rage, in both the fact that she had something to feel guilty for and that she had even taken it upon herself to care about a person that hardly understood compassion. Even if she could find it in herself to let go that he left her that day with such a traumatizing image plastered on her eyelids, she couldn't forget everything that he had done from that day on. There was no way she would be able to forgive him for the part he played in Boyd and Erica's death, even more the countless other people that had tried their fate with the alpha pack and fell victim to their crimson eyes. She felt guilt because she knew that, even though he was trying every day to be a better person, those actions he chose to make would follow him forever. His own tattoo, never moving and never being erased.

Aiden, the teenage boy that had more flaws than he had perfections, had revealed more than enough times that he had undisclosed feelings towards his ex-girlfriend. It was hinted in the way his eyes inspected her body, doing an once-over to assure himself that she was okay more than to let any sexual desires show; it was hinted in the way his brother grasped his arm a little tighter than usual when Sage ran into another wall of emotional despair, necessary to keep Aiden from doing something stupid around her; it was hinted in his ability to see that his first love was not in love with him like he was in love with her, and that even if it were to be the most cliche of stories, he would never find himself in a love triangle with Sage and Stiles. He knew simply because she moved on, leaving him to fight off the feelings he thought he swallowed and press hard on all of the hurt that they were constantly trying to equal out.

"That wasn't your decision," Sage replied, her voice low and hoarse to keep herself from getting angry. She was avoiding the inevitability of a fight with the strawberry blonde, something that was seemed like such a violation to their friendship that she was doing everything to stop it.

Lydia didn't want to fight any more than Sage did, which was exactly why she didn't reply to the girl next to her, just controlled her frustration by tightening her hands on the wheel. She was plenty positive that she had crossed certain lines when it came to calling Aiden, but the amount of options that she had on how to help her friend was lessening the longer that they dismissed it. Stiles had always been their number one priority, but that didn't change the fact that Sage was still important to them. The only problem was that none of them, not even Allison's attempt, had the ability to strike her where it hurt. Putting her through more pain, even if it was for her own good, was not a trait that any of them could put up with. All they did was watch her, but Lydia and Allison had both grown tired of watching. It was restless to just sit there as someone they loved slowly washed away, pale in comparison to the vibrancy she used to show without even meaning to. It was even more exhausting to be unaware of how to stop it, realizing that everything else in Sage's life had begun to fall apart after she disappeared somewhere deep within a dark mind.

It was quiet for another few moments, the radio humming them back into the tense atmosphere that only became more unbearable. Sage had gone back to twisting the rings on her hands, the only comfort she had at the moment, while leaning her head on the arm that she set on the frame of the car. Sleep was what she needed, and she knew it was the last thing that she was going to get. Instead, she focused on the jewelry that had, by now, turned into an attachment of her being. The one that Laura had gotten her on her fourteenth birthday was the largest, a thick silver band on her middle finger with a large, blue stone embedded into the center of it. The blue was the same color as a werewolf's eyes, something that Laura knew meant a lot to Derek and Sage both after what happened with Paige. The other two on her left hand were from Lydia, who had gotten together with Allison to get something silver that would go with the ring Laura gave her. Nonetheless, every piece on her finger held importance, whether it was from the person itself or the meaning behind it.

She realized that she didn't look at her right hand often anymore, and for very good reason. It had been where the ring Stiles gave her resided, a tan line still marked on her skin from where it used to be. It was shadowed by another ring that she had found in a box of things that she thought she lost in the move, given to her by Luke when she was only nine. He had the exact same one, a replica that actually fit on his finger. Up until she was fourteen, it had been around her neck with a chain, but she had finally grown into it after eight years. Around the age of eleven, she had taken it off. It was at that same time that she had wanted to get rid of the leather jacket, too, but by the time she was thirteen, the clothing had become her security blanket. The ring, now, was the substitute for the loss of her brother's jacket. Sage couldn't help but feel her heart break a bit more when she looked at the jewelry, knowing that the loss of one person in her life was only replaced by another person she loved and lost, as well. Her right hand was practically bare when someone compared it to her left, only one simple, dark ring occupying the space.

In the midst of her heavy inspection of her hands, she had realized that they were taking another right, having been holding onto the side of the car for support every time Lydia jerked the wheel too fast. Lifting her head off of her arm, she turned to look at the strawberry blonde next to her to see that she was focused on the street ahead of her, eyes glazed over as though she was in a trance. That was the first sign that something more was going on that didn't stem from the conversation the two of them had earlier. Sage sat up straighter immediately in concern, her shoulders pulling back despite how much they were wanting to just detach from her body. "Where exactly are we going?"

Lydia, whom had been very clear on just shoving the blonde into the car with no explanation, never once looked away from the road. "I need to check something."

"Check what?" Sage asked, her eyes going to the road to see that Lydia had just turned on Harmon Street. Hell, she didn't even know where in the hell they were. All she knew was that the last right turn was the fourth one, and that set up a pretty clear idea that the strawberry blonde next to her had absolutely no idea where they were going. "Lydia, where are we going? Are we lost? If you're just trying to keep me in the car by going in a circle—"

"I'm not going in a circle," Lydia denied, turning to look over at Sage with a frown. Her lips had tugged so far down that the blonde next to her immediately felt disheartened, honesty in her eyes despite them still being fused with frustration from earlier. "It's a brand-new car. I just got the GPS. We're fine."

Sage glanced down, noticing how another song was coming up on the radio as opposed to the directions that the strawberry blonde was hearing inside of her head. "Lydia, the GPS isn't even on."

"What?" Quickly diverting her eyes from her friend's face to the radio, Lydia's face dropped in realization when she realized that Sage was right. The only thing that was playing in the car was music, no trace of the GPS ever being on. That was when she began to feel the panic set in her chest, a familiar pressure so agonizing as it pushed on her lungs that all her mind was set on was a way to stop the car. Directions meant a body, and the teenage girl did not possess a strong enough heart at the moment to find someone murdered in the mass of all the chaos. With her hands tightening on the wheel and throat starting to close up, Lydia started choking out words to the girl next to her. "I need to stop. I need to pull over."

"Stop the car," Sage ordered the split second she saw the way that Lydia was reacting, leaning forward to grab the dashboard as she turned in her seat towards Lydia, her other hand outstretched if it became necessary for her to grab the wheel. She had never been in the car with the banshee when her abilities kicked in, and while she knew that they were strong enough to do things as instantaneous as then, that didn't mean that she was prepared in the slightest for how to break Lydia from the trance before they got into an accident. When Lydia picked up speed, a flash of panic spread through Sage herself as she realized she didn't know what to say. "Lydia. You need to stop the car. Listen to my voice. Not the GPS Lydia, stop the car!"

Before Sage could do anything more to break her friend of the hypnotic place she had entered, Lydia's hands were turning the car in the direction of a parking lot, efficiently spinning the car in a near U-turn as she accelerated too quickly for either one of them to handle. Sage's grip tightened on the dashboard just in time for her to stop her own body from lunging into her restricted seat belt, the two of them inching forward when Lydia had slammed hard on the breaks. Instead of glancing over at the reckless strawberry blonde to her left, all that Sage could focus on was the empty lot ahead of her, her eyes beginning to grow in size. The same feeling that Lydia had experienced just moments before was beginning to hit her now, strong enough that she was convinced someone was shoving their hand down her throat. Seeing the same body that she had previously pointed a gun at on the ground, lifeless in every way, shape, and form, left a strained emotion flooding through her. Another emotion that she was becoming too friendly with; another emotion that happened to bury her deeper. Fear.

Without even thinking about the possibility of the Nogitsune being the one holding the mask behind Stiles Stilinski's eyes, the blonde was flinging open the door to Lydia's car and stumbling out onto the pavement. She could tell even from a few feet away that something was wrong, his complexion too pale for it to be natural. However, before she could get any closer to doing something to help the boy, a pair of hands were grabbing a hold of her arms, restraining her from going any further. The instinct to get to Stiles had prevented her from realizing the seriousness of the situation, only wanting to make sure that he still had a pulse. Had it been any other day, the idea of Lydia being able to hold back a teenage girl that had since grown a few inches taller than her, as well as in muscle, would have been impossible. Now, it was easy. Too easy. Sage was exhausted, both mentally and physically, that she didn't even bother protesting Lydia's grip. Instead, she allowed the girl access to her tense frame, her arms flexing as she felt a similar nausea from earlier building up in her stomach.

"Call Scott."

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"The couch. Put him on the couch."

The waver in Scott's voice was enough for everyone to know how serious the situation just got as he pulled half of Stiles' unconscious body weight on his right shoulder, Aiden managing to carry the rest on his left. As soon as the words escaped Sage's mouth to call Scott earlier, Lydia was moving with one hand to grab her phone while the other stayed securely on the arm of the blonde next to her. She knew, without a doubt, that if she let go, the girl wouldn't waste a split second before running over to Stiles. What neither anticipated was Aiden accompanying Scott when they arrived at the parking lot five minutes later, Lydia noticing how Sage immediately recoiled at the sight of the teenage boy when he showed up. It only made more questions surface in the strawberry blonde's head, wondering what the hell the werewolf said that made her react in such a way. What made it even worse was that, instead of the intended reaction that she was hoping to receive by calling Aiden, all she got was another person useless in the case of helping Sage.

Even with the clear lack of conversation that would be happening between Sage and Aiden for a while, he was the only person that Scott was able to reach. No one else was answering their phones on such short notice, leaving him with the last resort of calling someone he wasn't entirely sure he completely trusted when the Nogitsune was around. Aiden already had enough of a reason to dislike Stiles, and now that he would have nothing to apologize for if he killed the Nogitsune — who just so happened to reside inside the body of the same person he disliked — Scott was taking a higher risk by letting the two be in the same room as one another. He just had to have enough hope to believe that Aiden was going to hold true to the statement of being a better person, even after losing the person who made him want to be one.

"Guys, this is crazy," Melissa, who had thought she was going to have a heart attack the moment her son burst through the doors, spluttered out as she watched Aiden and Scott set down Stiles on their couch. The natural instinct to follow after them made the living room seem even smaller with so many people inside of it, Sage and Lydia staying back as Melissa looked over the boy that she considered a son. Deaton stood in between Aiden and Scott, having been called by Sage while they were on their way back to Scott's house. From what she's heard, the only way that they can press the Nogitsune back into the small corner of Stiles' mind was through poisoning him, and if they couldn't poison him, the least that they could do was subdue him with something that they did have handy. "He needs to be in the hospital."

Sage nearly flinched at the mention of the hospital, plenty certain that the last place he needed to be was at a hospital with people he was capable of hurting. With the Nogitsune at Scott's, they had a better chance of restraining him of something did happen. Following the same train of thought as his friend, Scott was immediately shutting down his mother's concerned words. "Mom, remember what happened last time he went to the hospital?"

That quickly made Melissa fall back a few steps, her brow creasing in concern as she refrained from talking anymore about the hospital. Only a few feet away from her place against the wall, Sage's green eyes met with Aiden's brown ones, watching as his eyes flickered to her cheek before they returned to their original position. She didn't shy away, never once giving him the time to see that she was even in the slightest floored by the question he put inside of her head last night. He didn't need her compliance to know that, though. He could tell just by the dark circles under her eyes that she wasn't doing good; he could tell by the fact that she hadn't bothered to cover up her injuries like usual, just letting every wound she had sustained in the past few days expose themselves to everyone; he could tell, even more, by the fact that she was staying away from Stiles by keeping herself in the back of the room. If she hadn't of been so disarranged inside from his words, she would be standing next to Scott. Now, the idea of being so close to someone that could literally smell how she felt... it didn't necessarily leave her jumping for joy.

"It doesn't look like he's bleeding," Deaton muttered to Scott, who had focused in on the slit in Stiles' shirt, worry clouding his every judgement. It was a large enough incision that Stiles could have bled out, something that no one wanted to even begin to think about, but he didn't — that was the problem. It wasn't the fact that he didn't die; it was the fact that he should have. "I think he might even be healing."

Aiden raised his eyebrows, turning his attention back in their direction. "You mean healing like we heal?"

"That's good, right?" Scott interjected, glancing over at Deaton to confirm his assumption. By the solemn look that washed over the veterinarian's face at his words, it was clear that wasn't the case in the slightest. If anything, good was the last word that they wanted to be using for the predicament they had just landed themselves in.

"For him, yes," Deaton confirmed, just before he turned to look up at Scott. "Us? I'm not so sure."

The nauseous feeling returned back to Sage, dread filling her up the very brim as she stared at Stiles' figure, broken and tattered just as much as everyone else in the room. It was the first time since Eichen House that she had truly seen him in a form that she was familiar with, not the Nogitsune's ploy to become the perfect facade in a cruel game of cynicism. It was when she began to feel her actions from last night catch up to her, the resistance she had build around herself to pretend like she hadn't actually put her ex-boyfriend at gun-point slowly being picked apart brick by brick. In that structure, she was met with the question of wonder what would actually happen now that they had found Stiles. In the end, they had no idea what they were dealing with. There was only a slim chance of them saving him, and if the time came where they were forced to take precautionary actions, who would actually have enough courage to pull the trigger?

"Well, if we're not going to kill him, why aren't we at least tying him down with really big chains?" Aiden asked, his words pulling Sage back from her concentration on Stiles. Without even looking in search of an answer to her question, the werewolf in front of her had answered it. If the time truly did come where Stiles could not be saved and the Nogitsune was an even bigger threat than where he stood now, Aiden would be the one that pulled the trigger. The upsetting part of it all, the most cruel part, per say, was that no one knew if the teenage boy would feel any remorse for it, or if he would just act as though Stiles' life was just as unimportant as he convinced himself Boyd and Erica's were.

"I might have something more effective," Deaton explained, unzipping his bag so that he could pull a vial and a syringe out of it. No one needed to ask what the substance inside of it was; those that knew, like Sage, Lydia, and Scott, were already aware of what the effects would be on Stiles. Those that didn't trusted Deaton enough to give him complete control over the situation, especially since his years of experience trained him much better than they would ever even begin to process, both emotionally and professionally.

Aiden and Scott moved forward, grabbing a hold of either side of Stiles' face to help while Deaton put the substance into his mouth. Only three seconds after Deaton had squeezed the contents in the vial onto Stiles' tongue, the golden eyes that had once been home were searching for the culprit of their confinement, facing Aiden before he ever once took a glance over at Scott. Before any of them had the opportunity to restrain the Nogitsune from reaching forward, the creature had wrapped Stiles' hand around Aiden's neck. An alarm went off inside of everyone's head in that very moment as the Nogitsune began to squeeze even tighter, the werewolf's strength pushing against his wrist nothing in comparison to the strength that it had. If anyone needed any confirmation on who was winning the internal battle inside of the body in front of them, their answer was clear right then when they noticed the pure excitement that flashed in the eyes of the boy. Scott reached forward after he processed what was happening, grabbing Stiles' upper arm to put pressure on the muscles that were grasping Aiden's trachea.

"Get him off me!" Aiden hissed out through strained gasps, looking at Scott with panic setting in his eyes. Scott nodded, getting ready to transition so that he could push more strength onto the Nogitsune, but was stopped when another pair of hands grabbed a hold of Stiles' wrist, pulling hard enough that, with the help of Scott and the Kanima venom, the grip that Aiden was struggling to breathe with let loose. The second that he was out of the Nogitsune's grasp, Aiden stumbled back, nearly taking whoever had helped with him.

When he caught sight of the black nail polish on the fingers of the person that grabbed his arm to stable him, he almost wanted to sigh at the irony of the person he was expecting least to help him having done so. Glancing over, he caught Sage's gaze just like earlier, except that this time, the shade of green in her eyes was much darker, sparked with an amount of worry that she would refuse to admit ever having if anyone asked. Only looking down at his throat to make sure that there wasn't too much damage, the blonde turned her attention back around to the Nogitsune, completely dismissing that she just saved Aiden from a world of damage to his throat. He kept his eyes on his arm, watching with a bitter contortion on his face as he began to lose all of his accessibility to his nerves, until his ability to move ceased all together.

"Kanima venom. Nice touch," the Nogitsune sourly complimented in Deaton's direction, his lips tilting slightly in humor as he seemed impressed by the different tricks the veterinarian had up his sleeve. His comment, however, did nothing to amuse Aiden, who had stepped forward with his canines bared in the direction of the Nogitsune. Before he could even manage to take a slash at the boy in front of him, Scott was sending him a look that no one else would have been able to replicate. "You know how they say that twins get a feeling when the other one's in pain? A bit like the little altor over there. You didn't lose that like her talent, too, did you? Oh, I hope not. You're going to need it."

If the Nogitsune hadn't of threatened Ethan, Sage would have payed more attention to the intentional dig that he sent in her direction. She knew why he did it, too. Bringing up the day that she lost her abilities only brought back the reminder that, only moments after, he had killed her. Regardless of whether it was two minutes or two hours, she had been successful in pretending that it never happened up until now. The same game was being played as it always seemed to be, and this time the spotlight was on Aiden and Ethan. Turning to look in between Scott and Sage, Aiden noticed the mutual concern that they both had for his twin brother, and felt a rising panic build up in his chest. The boy could live his whole life in solitude, and he could accept the fact that he was not a good person quicker than anyone else, but the one thing he could not do was live without his brother — the attachment to his character, a reflection of a better him in so many ways that losing him brought such emotional turmoil that he was frozen in place for a second, going over every syllable in the Nogitsune's threat to question the truth behind it.

Knowing that he needed one final push, a worn grin spread across Stiles' face. "Okay, I'll give a little hint. Ethan's at the school."

That was all that Aiden needed to hear before he was looking at Scott to confirm whether or not he could handle the situation there, his heart beating a mile a minute when the alpha only agreed with a hast "Go," his way. The teenage boy gave a final glance to Sage, noticing how she was already looking in his direction with her eyes back to their constant state of being guarded. The tension between them had been disregarded given the extremity of the situation, the blonde sending him a nod that he reciprocated before he was off, leaving Sage and everyone else behind with the hope that he would get there in time to help his brother. What he also left behind was the Nogitsune, enthralled in how easily he was able to manipulate people even while in such a predicament.

"Oh, I hope he gets there in time. I like the twins. Short tempers. Homicidal compulsions. They're a lot more fun than you bakemono trying to save the world every day," the Nogitsune paused for a second, his eyes wild in a way that seemed more terrifying than anything that would ever fall from his mouth. The untamed and taunting golden irises got caught in the midst of their sweep, landing on the person directly across from his line of sight — and a smile of absolute insanity broke out onto the expression of a stranger. "... well, some of you."

The statement went unnoticed by no one, and even more so, the direction in which the statement was given. The Nogitsune's eyes filled with excitement as he watched Sage tense as he uttered the last of the words, his purpose to seep deep into her skin working the longer that he was in the same room as her. A thrill had been made out of seeing the girl suffer, possibly because every time her body tensed as the detection of her pain — the knowledge that Stiles had given him access to learning — he felt a small vibration go up his spine and into the depths of his skull, beginning to enjoy the way that his host made foolish attempts at breaking the cage the Nogitsune captured him in. The only way he could solicit such a reaction is by hurting the people Stiles loved most, and the Nogitsune had yet to meet anyone that was so easy to pick apart as Sage Connelly; he had yet to meet anyone so important, as well. Possibly because, from his time inhabiting her mind, he had been able to find every crevice and cavity that she withheld from the world, every fear and fallacious thought that had ever controlled her at one point being exposed to him. The Nogitsune knew her better than she knew herself, and what he knew best was that her biggest fear had always been herself. What she would become. Who she would hurt in the process.

Melissa, noticing the look that the Nogitsune was giving the blonde next to her, took a step in front of Sage to shield her from his view. "Doc, you brought something to paralyze his body. You got anything for his mouth?"

"Yes, I do," Deaton said, wasting no time pulling the duct tape from his bag, ripping off a piece so that he could press it against Stiles' mouth. Almost immediately after it made contact with his lips, the Nogitsune began to scream in protest, one agonizingly loud shout muffled through the texture of the tape as he kept his hollowed eyes on the people in the room. It was as though he wanted them to feel the anger that he was radiating out of every pore, wanted them to see how much turmoil and torture he still had the jurisdiction to inflict on them. They made a point to turn their heads away when they noticed that he was trying to make contact with them in the only way he could now, leaving him with five expressionless people that all turned away from him.

Only when they had taken enough steps away for the words to go undetected to the cause did Sage felt the words tumble from her lips for those around her to hear. "I think I'm going to be sick."

She wasn't exaggerating that time, either. Not but fifteen seconds after she acknowledged how much her stomach was churning did she get the after of it, rushing into the bathroom and retching up all of the nothing that she had in her stomach. From just a hallway over, she could practically hear the Nogitsune's thrilling laughter in amusement, her attempt to get away from him before he realized how she was truly feeling proving to be unsuccessful. While in the bathroom, a pair of hands had helped her, one going on her forehead while the other held back her hair for as long as needed, knowing the second that she felt the coolness of their skin that it was Melissa. Thankfully, the woman had shut the door so that the sounds from outside of the room were muted to a near emptiness. Once she was certain that Sage was shielded from one of the very causes of her nausea, Melissa turned around to kneel in front of the pale blonde, pushing back pieces of hair. The look on her face said enough.

"When was the last time you slept?" Melissa asked lowly, not even bothering to hide the concern that she felt for the blonde next to her. Even without her status as a nurse, she could tell that Sage was not in healthy shape whatsoever. She could tell as a mom more than anything, though, that the teenager was literally allowing the world to tear her apart from the inside out. The sleep deprivation was only the first reason on a long list of why her body finally started to react negativity.

Sage leaned her head on the wall, comforted by the cold as she let out a winded laugh. "Honestly? I have no idea. Two days, I think."

"Sage, your body is shutting down." Just by the look in the blonde's eyes when the mother said that, it was clear that this was not the first time she had been told so. It was almost a joke at this point to look at the teenage girl, whether it was in regards to the bruise that she still had on her face or the newly-received bandage on her arm from last night, or even just the dark shading under her eyes from the complete exhaustion she felt. She looked nothing like the person she was a few months ago, almost like the Nogitsune had just as much control over her health now as he did before. "You need sleep."

"I'll sleep when I know he's safe."

Sage compromised with the weary woman, lifting her head up from the wall as she did so. Melissa saw how her face had hardened when she spoke, a facade painted over the girl that had been vulnerable only a few seconds ago. For whatever reason, she felt her heart break a bit more as she watched it happen. It was not just because she had noticed the same thing happen to Scott before, but because the exact same maternal instinct washed over her in that second where she wanted to grab the blonde and never let go. All she wanted to do was protect Sage, protect Scott, protect Stiles, protect them all from the distinct need to grow into people capable of hiding how they felt behind a mask of voidance. All she wanted was for Sage to not have to hide away her emotions so easily; she wanted for the girl she considered to be her daughter to not be on her bathroom floor, throwing up nothing because she simply didn't have enough time in the mess of her life to sleep or even eat. She just wished that she could carry their wounds for them and heal their scars just as quickly, and because she knew she couldn't, she felt her heart break a bit more than before.

Melissa shook her head in mild disbelief at the blonde in front of her, feeling her eyes begin to water as she reached to grab a hold of Sage's hand. "You deserved so much more than this. All of you did."

"Paper dolls," Sage whispered, the two words barely caught as her green irises moved to the fabric of her jeans, picking at it without flaw. The blonde shrugged a bit as she began to speak again in explanation, talking a bit louder as though she was in a trance from a memory of something in her past. "In third grade, we had a substitute teacher who could make them. Everyone in the class got one with the same hair color, eye color, clothes... and she told us at the end of the class to crumple it up. None of us wanted to because we thought they were pretty, but she had us do it anyway. Then, she has us smooth it out so we could see the creases and tears we made. She said the paper dolls represent our lives. Even if we don't want to have them, in the end, we all have creased and tears. All a bit broken. There's no choice."

The teenage girl looked at Melissa, her green eyes stained with the excess tears that had escaped from when she was convulsing. Even with the second of weakness that the blonde had, it was incredible to see just how quickly she had built up her walls again. Her capability to pretend as though nothing affected her was both impressive and terrifying, leaving Melissa without words as she let Sage's memory completely digest. It was odd to see a seventeen-year-old with as much hidden wisdom as Sage possessed, left for only a small amount of people that dared to have a genuine conversation with her. It was something about her that was so quiet, nearly nonexistent to her personality, that when she fell deep into stories like just then, Melissa couldn't help but take every single word to heart. What made it hurt, though, more than anything else, was Melissa's understanding that Sage's wisdom came from a place of agonizing pain, where all of her words made a person feel heavier in the end from the truth they contained — and that was why her next words made Melissa feel like someone had just laid a boulder on her shoulders.

"I think that if we did have a choice, we would all still be pretty, paper dolls."

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HELLO ALL. I am not dead. Suprisingly enough, I am actually still a functioning human. I could easily lie and say that I broke my fingers, finding myself unable to type for the last two months, but that would not make me a truther. If I'm being honest, I got into this ugly writer's block where I didn't know what I wanted to do with any of my stories, so I just didn't writer. This chapter had three beginnings, and I ended up using none of them. At one point, there was a conversation with Jackson (will be on list, trust me), and then Sage was going to go visit the children that Boyd almost ate (go sport!), and then the scene with Lydia was the beginning, and it was just bad all around. Thankfully, I came across some sort of thing between Scott and Kira. That scene is actually one of my favorites of the chapter, especially when Scott is talking about Sage's loyalty and how she doesn't walk away from people for her own needs, but because she thinks it will benefit them to not have her in their life.

The two month break wasn't anticipated, so I do want to give you guys an extreme apology. In the middle of it all, you guys got this story to 900K! I'm blown away every single day by the positive response on this story, and even more by how many of you have messaged me to tell me how this story has influenced you personally. I never expected for Sage to be a voice to anyone but myself, and I know I say this in almost every author's note, but it's so true. Knowing that she is a character of awareness towards things like depression, and knowing that she does have moments of weakness even though she is a strong personality so often is just pushing me towards showing people that a person doesn't have to be immediately categorized as 'weak' or 'generic' or even just attention seeking based on their struggles. Granted, I know in a lot of fanfics you see these types of traits develop in characters and so often it's exaggerated or not appropriate displayed in a way that seems realistic, so I just hope that the mental and emotional problems that she is facing right now feel genuine because they are, without a doubt, coming from a place of truth. Just another endless thank you for loving this character throughout everything, and for growing up with the little moments where she can be annoying to you. Much love, endlessly.

Little update: season five of Teen Wolf is killing me. I have so many things that I want to be writing, and I know very well that it will be forever until I get to them. Due to this struggle, what scenes or people are you most excited to see Sage interact with in the future? I'm so ready for her to meet Theo. Will she hate him like Stiles? Will she fall for his trap like everyone else? What about Sage with the Dread Doctors? How do you think she'll react to Stiles' little mishap? Hayden? Liam? Etc, etc. Let me know!