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TWENTY;

ART OF WAR

"What the hell are you doing to my loft?"

Sage Connelly had walked through the doors only to step into a small puddle of water. At first, she had an expectation that there was a random water hazard and Derek was now having a heart attack trying to fix it, but then she rounded around the corner to see that Boyd was carrying a hose and literally flooding her home.

All three idiots turned around to face her, wearing replicated masks of shock. Clearly, they hadn't expected for her to react the way she was, although she wasn't necessarily sure how a normal person would act coming to the place they slept only to see it was being dosed in water.

Isaac huffed out, shaking his head. "Oh, great."

"We're going to flood the place and electrocute them," Boyd explained, turning to the blonde with an accomplished look on his face. He wasn't as scared of the tiny thing as the other two wolves were.

Sage's eyes narrowed at the older teenager and she met eyes with them, her boots squeaking on the wet floor. As soon as she was face-to-face with Boyd, her finger fell on his chest and she was glaring.

"You're cleaning this up. Got it, bud?" Then, she turned to the other two boys standing behind Boyd. "And you two are going to help him. There is no way in hell I'm mopping up this place."

Derek rolled his eyes. "It's their idea."

"You're their alpha," Sage reiterated, crossing her arms over her chest as she stepped away from Boyd. "So, how exactly do you plan to do this to them? I'm pretty sure they're smart enough to know what water and electricity do."

"In a pool of electrified water, it would take up to fifty milliamps to kill a normal human. That's less than the power it takes to turn on a light bulb," Boyd began to explain, moving back towards the hose so that the water was now coming out at a faster pace.

Sage hummed, not exactly pleased with those statistics considering she was, for all intensive purposes, human. "Comforting."

"If we disable the circuit interrupter in the building's electrical room, the current will keep coming and anyone who steps foot in here...." Boyd began smirking. "Well, they'll get a pretty shocking surprise."

"Especially someone who is barefoot," Isaac commented, moving from his place on one of the supporting beams.

Sage turned to look over at Isaac with raised brows. "And you didn't warn me about this before I stepped into the loft? How do you know I would get here before you turned on the current?"

"I assumed," Isaac meekly replied, shrugging once.

Sage rolled her eyes at him and shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, stepping on the other side of the hose so that she could call Scott in privacy, or at least what privacy she could get while in a room full of advanced hearing werewolves.

She hadn't had a chance to ask what was wrong with Deaton earlier in first period, both boys rushing out of their seats before she could even open her mouth. Today was just another moment where she was being split up from the two, unlike her usual routine where she was near them 24/7.

She knew that Derek needed her help, though, and no matter who might step into the building, she was going to give him that. There was a quenching feeling in her stomach at the idea of either twin getting electrified, but she had to swallow it down. She couldn't start caring about them after everything they've done.

Getting her phone out, Sage called Scott.

There was a few moments of dial tones, and Sage grew more impatient as the boy denied the call. She had somehow been expecting it. If something was actually wrong with Deaton, or if her assumptions about him being the third sacrifice were correct, then the last thing Scott was going to be doing is answering her call.

Sage's shoulder tensed when someone put their hand on it, and she pulled her phone from her ear to look back. Derek stood there, an unreadable expression on his face as he stared down at her. "You good?"

The blonde nodded once. "I'm fine. Scott's just not picking up his phone."

"Oh," Derek muttered. "I thought you were calling someone else at first."

"I wouldn't do that," Sage denied, already plenty aware of the conclusion his mind had jumped to. "He might not hurt me but that doesn't justify what he's done in the past two years."

Derek frowned. "Do they know about him yet?"

"No," Sage dismissed, completely against the very idea of telling her friends about how former relationship with Aiden. Admitting it to Cora had been hard enough on its own.

"You need to tell them before they find out on their own."

Sage whipped her head around to look at him. "And how well do you think they'll take that information? They're going to hate me, Derek."

She would be lying if she said she didn't constantly think about telling her friends about Aiden. Sage knew that eventually the truth was going to slip out somehow and they are never going to be able to trust her again for keeping such a huge secret. She just figured holding it off as long as possible was the only thing she could do right now.

Had her affair been with anyone apart from an alpha in a pack of alphas, the toxic relationship would be completely irrelevant.

"You were fifteen," Derek said, shaking his head a few times at the remembrance. "You can't take away what you've done. I just suggest you tell them before he does something stupid and reveals it himself."

Sage nodded, her hands tightening around herself as a way of shielding the thoughts. She was worried about the outcome of this war. She didn't know how many people are going to be lost in the fight, or how many people are going to leave different than the way they came in. She didn't know who she was going to be at the end of all of this.

That was probably what terrified her the most: oblivion.

"I know."

Derek's hand tightened on her shoulder before releasing it, moving back to his betas. Sage didn't know how long she was going to be in this loft, and she definitely didn't know how long she was going to be in this loft with three werewolves.

Taking a deep breath, Sage tucked a few stray pieces of her hair back into her bun and walked back over to the others. She took note of the fact that, already, the loft was beginning to look like a petty kiddy pool. If she truly had any humor left in her body and wasn't going out of her mind, she would have found one of her old bathing suits to joke on Boyd.

But laughing seemed like a chore at this point.

The second she rounded the corner, she was bombarded with a remark that had her contemplating the extremity of the situation.

Boyd turned took at her with his sharp frown. "I want you to be aware that once this water fills the place, we can't move. We'll be stuck here until the alphas come to the loft."

Sage pursed her lips and saw the looks Isaac and Derek gave each other. The two didn't actually think she would stay in the loft with them for a couple of hours. What they hadn't realized, though, is that she wasn't feeling up for another run-in with Stiles. She would rather stay locked up in the loft for two days than see the boy again today.

"Well," Sage began, pulling off her leather jacket. "Anybody up for some Yahtzee?"

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"Question."

Three heads turned to look at the blonde, who was anxiously gripping tightly onto Isaac's arm in fear that she would randomly trip and go barreling into the water. The electrified wires had yet to be put in, but that didn't stop Sage from taking certain precautions. With her luck, she would be the first down.

"What?" Boyd asked, his arm extended as he waited to throw the wires in.

"What happens when one of us needs to pee?" Sage wondered, biting down on her bottom lip.

Isaac groaned from beside her and rolled his eyes. "Hold it."

"Such a gentleman," Sage muttered, snorting slightly.

Boyd gave them all weary looks before slinging the wire into the water. The four watched as the whole floor immediately went up in currents of electricity, the luminescence of the loft both beautiful and horrific shocks.

Sage's hand tightened slightly on Isaac and he stepped back, all of them suddenly very aware they had just enclosed themselves like humans in a shark tank. Derek was on the opposite leveled ground from herself and Isaac, standing off near the side with Boyd. She couldn't help but wish she were closer to him right now.

Isaac swallowed before speaking. "Is this going to kill them?"

"I hope so," Boyd admitted, crouching down to make sure that his plan was working.

Sage hoped not.

The blonde slowly started to make her journey down to the floor, jerking Isaac's lanky body with her. She hoped he realized there was no way she would be letting go of him for the next few hours. The very idea of being electrocuted to death was enough for her to shift a bit closer to the beta as if he could actually give her some comfort.

Which, by the way, he didn't. Isaac Lahey was an even bigger pessimist than her.

"Do you know what's going on with Scott yet?" Derek asked, trying to take everyone's attention away from what was surrounding them and on to a different subject.

The question had originally been directed at Sage, who shot her head up with raised brows. "Huh? Oh. No, he hasn't answered his phone yet. They should be out of school by now, though, if Sheriff made them go back. He left this morning when he got a call from Deaton."

Boyd fell into the conversation after that. "Do they think he has to do with those people dying?"

"The sacrifices?" Sage asked, to which Boyd nodded. "Yeah. Each of the sacrifices has been three deaths, all categorized. There were virgins, warriors, and now we think that they've moved on to healers. Two bodies are already dead, which means there is only one more."

"And they think it's Deaton?" Isaac questioned from beside her, his hands clasping over each other as they rested on his knees.

Sage shrugged, biting down on her lip. "I don't know. Hold on, let me try Scott again."

The blonde pulled out her phone, having made sure it was completely charged before all of the circuits were cut and thrown into the water. She wasn't sure she would survive without her phone, it being the only thing that connected her to the outside world and what was going on around them.

Sage pulled up Scott's contact, pressed call, and waited.

"Hello?"

Sage perked up, sitting up a bit straighter. "Scott?"

"Hey, sorry I haven't been answering. I got caught up at the clinic and I just now left Allison's—" Scott's voice broke through the phone, and Sage figured that it was easier just putting the conversation on speaker to make it easier on the werewolves' trained ears.

"Allison? What were you doing there?" Sage asked, leaning into the phone. "And what's going on with Deaton? Was he taken as the third sacrifice?"

Scott sighed on the other end, trying to process all of her questions. "We're pretty sure he's the third sacrifice. He wasn't at the clinic whenever I showed up. The police put an APB out on him, but Miss Morrell came to tell us that we needed Lydia's help if we were going to find out where he is."

"How does Morrell know anything about that?"

"Apparently, she's Deaton's sister."

Sage's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, wow. I didn't expect that."

"Yeah. So, Stiles is at the hospital right now trying to find out why Danny was targetted by the Darach if he wasn't a sacrifice. He and Cora struck out with Lydia," Scott explained, and she heard the ding of an elevator. He had to be leaving Allison's complex.

"Alright," Sage said, nodding despite his inability to see her. "Well, I'm a little tied up right now but I'll let you know what happens if the alp—"

Derek was quick the intrude. "When, Sage. Not if."

"—when the alphas get here."

Scott sighed. "Be careful, alright?"

Sage frowned, feeling that guilt creep up into her stomach. This was one of those few moments where she felt like utter shit for not telling her friends the truth about Aiden. Scott was one of her closest friends and to know that she couldn't even tell him without the fear of him exploding sucked.

It sucked extremely bad.

"Wait, Sage," Scott abruptly interrupted. "Stiles is trying to talk to me. Let me put him into the call."

Sage's face fell blank and she shifted uncomfortably, trying not to meet Derek's eyes. The man was already aware of the issues she was having with her boyfriend, being the one person she confided in that didn't have boobs and wasn't named Lydia or Allison. However, her two friends' parts weren't exactly optional considering they had witnessed the entire dispute.

She still didn't know if she could forgive him.

"Hey, Scott—" Stiles' voice rang through the phone clear as ever, and Derek's eyes darkened slightly.

Sage pursed her lips while Scott answered Stiles. "Stiles, Sage is on the phone. I was just telling her about how I went to Allison's. Apparently, Argent has a map with all of the points where the sacrifices happened. There are some points that are on there that haven't happened yet."

"Does that mean Deaton might be at one of them?" Sage asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she sat her phone on her lap.

"He's got to be," Scott chimed, trying to remain optimistic. "But they're spread all over town. I don't know how we can get to all of them fast enough."

Sage couldn't help but feel useless just sitting there, knowing that her friends were struggling and she couldn't do anything to help them. All she could do was wait for an alpha to walk through the door and pray to god that it doesn't turn out to be Aiden or Ethan.

"We might not have to," Stiles began. "Danny was working on a project on something for Harris' physics class and I think it actually means something."

Sage's eyebrows rose, remembering back to whenever she had detention the same day that Danny handed the assignment in after school. She heard the whole issue, saw how Harris reacted when he read the excessive work Danny did on the project.

"I remember that," Sage admitted to the two boys. "Harris turned into a total asshole after he finished it. He actually sent me home early, he was so aggravated by it for some reason. I didn't know why. I thought Danny did a good job. He was devastated."

Scott's voice came from the other end. "What project?"

"Something on telluric currents."

Sage's eyes naturally drifted to her right to glance at the electrified water, and couldn't help but relate it back to the currents that could possibly kill them if one of the four happened to slip or trip.

Scott paused for a few seconds. "Did you say currents?"

"Yeah."

Sage chewed on her lip, wondering where Scott's head was at.

"Alright," Scott began. "I'll call you guys back in a few minutes."

She hadn't even had a chance to ask what was wrong before the line went dead, and silence engulfed the room once again. She wasn't too sure what to think, more terrified about the possibility that they might not find Deaton in time more than anything. The man had been the one that revealed everything to her.

He was one of the only people on Earth that could tell her about her parents.

Sage cleared her throat, and ran her hands through her hair. She had taken the bun out a while ago, the tightness on her head giving her a headache that she couldn't handle. She would rather have it down than anything else anyways.

Isaac's body went tense beside her and he slowly moved to get the others' attention, his finger finding its way in the direction of their own personal alarm system. "Isn't the light on that supposed to be on?"

Heads turned to see what he was talking about, and everyone immediately realized that Isaac was right. The large, red button that normally glowed was completely dull as it practically mocked them for their complete idiocy.

"Yeah," Derek said, his jaw clenching from his position standing up.

"What does it mean if it's not?"

Sage slowly came to the realization on her own. "Someone cut the auxiliary power."

"What about the main—"

Boyd's words had been cut short when the lights that flickered above them cut off, and they were encased in darkness. Sage, along with Isaac and Boyd, all quickly raised from their seated position on the ground. The beta to her right had moved in front of her, his towering figure acting as a shield for whatever waited behind the loft door, while Derek took a few steps forward beside Boyd.

When Sage understood what he was about to do, her eyes fell wide and she reached a hand out to grab him without a second thought. To her dismay, her own attempt to keep Derek out of the water had only made her go crashing in, and she was sitting in the water only moments later.

Thankfully, she wasn't dead either.

"Oh, hell," Sage muttered, raising her head to look at the three boys.

She should be more pleased to not have died, but right now, the fact that the water was no longer a harm to any of them just meant that the Alphas were here and knew about the plan. She didn't see how, especially since she didn't even tip Aiden or Ethan off about the idea. It also meant that their original concept to electrocute them was out the window unless they found someone to turn the power back on.

Sage shared a look with Derek, who had made his own move out of the water to help up the blonde as well as move further into the loft. She wasn't too sure how great she felt following him, dripping wet and trying to allow her mind to work faster than the Alphas'.

"Derek?" Isaac called out, hesitant as he watched the two. "Sage? What do we do now?"

Sage turned to look at the alpha, swallowing hard when she noticed his eyes glowing their dark, crimson red. "We fight."

Isaac and Boyd had gotten the message and stepped into the water as well, their boots colliding with the water and creating a splash. Sage glanced over at Derek, trying to ignore the fact that she was scared out of her mind. She didn't like the idea of how similar this whole thing felt. She had been in a situation like this before, and the ending was never happy.

She didn't like this.

"What do you want me to do?" Sage muttered to Derek, keeping her eyes training on the door.

Derek turned to her, his eyes still shining. "Go. The second the fight starts, things are going to get ugly and I refuse to have you here when that happens."

"I'm not going to leave you three here to die—"

Derek grabbed a hold of her arm, his grip tight with warning. "Sage. I'm not going to lose you."

The blonde stared at her best friend, remembering back to the promise she made him yesterday. She swore that the next time something like this came up, she wasn't going to leave him, and it seemed as though the lies she was created just seemed to pile up, so why not add a few more?

"Okay," Sage answered, nodding despite her whole body screaming in protest.

She moved away from the werewolves, squeezing Boyd and Isaac's arms as she made her way over to the door. She didn't know where he expected her to go, didn't know why he even believed in the slightest that she was actually going to leave them behind.

Just as she pulled the door back, she glanced over her shoulder at the three, sending them all a small yet unbelievably weak smile. "Don't get yourselves killed, yeah? You still have to clean up this mess."

She pulled the door shut after that, her hand tightening on the handle before letting go. She moved to turn away, going down the hallway while sticking her hand in her pocket to call Scott and Stiles so she could tell them what was happening. She wished she didn't have to, wished she didn't have to make her friends split up, but she knew that this was a necessary situation.

Just as she turned around the corner leading out of the floor, someone had grabbed a hold of her waist, their other hand quickly wrapping around her mouth to silence her screams before they could even flee her mouth.

"Why didn't you listen to me, Sage?"

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Derek Hale stood in the center of his loft, Isaac and Boyd on his sides as all three prepared themselves for a fight. He was ready; he had been waiting for this moment ever since he found out what the alphas had done to Sage two years ago. He had been waiting for this moment ever since she came home covered in blood and broken beyond fixation.

Derek Hale was prepared to fight.

His shoulder tensed when the door came sliding to the side, Kali stepping into the room with a smirk that could kill even the sickest soul on her face. Her claws were outstretched, a sign that she, too, was prepared for a fight.

The brunette stepped into the loft, her canines showing. "I'm going to be honest, Derek. When Ennis died, I thought to myself, 'I'd just go for it. Find you and kill you where ever you stood'. Then, I remembered how you surround yourself with these teenagers, hiding behind them, and I thought, what's a girl gotta do to get you alone?"

Derek's eyes had narrowed when he heard the sound of more footsteps and glanced behind Kali to see that the twins were arriving, carrying a victim in their arms. The blonde hair had been covering her face as she hung her head low, and only when Aiden's hand moved to tug up her jaw did she finally meet Derek's eyes.

Sage Connelly had been captured in enemy territory, and now Kali had everything in the palm of her hand to completely destroy Derek's life with just the slash of Sage's throat.

"You and me, Derek, or they tear her apart."

Sage couldn't help but let a throaty laugh fall from her mouth. "Don't give her what she wants, Derek."

Aiden's grip on her wrist tightened, and she met his eyes to see that he was silently scolding her in the only way he could without speaking. She glared at him, struggling against his and his brother's grip only to be held tighter by the twins. She should have expected it; she should have been prepared for this to happen.

She had been so naive to believe the twins were actually capable of being good.

"What do you say?" Kali hissed, turning her attention away from Sage and back over to Derek. "You think you can beat me one-on-one?"

Sage was forced to watch as Derek ordered Isaac and Boyd away, the two going willingly as they, too, stared at her. She hated how much power Kali had now, how much control of the situation she was given just by Sage's stupidity. Had she not gotten caught, none of the wolves would have even flinched.

Derek's pent up rage had been shown in just a single sentence. "I'm going to rip your throat out with my teeth."

And then, the battle had begun.

Sage was forced to endure it, watching as Kali and Derek fought for their lives. She was forced to watch as her best friend got thrown around by the alpha, and was forced to watch until tears were building up in her eyes. Derek wasn't strong enough to beat her, everyone knew that, and yet the man was continuing to sacrifice his life for her.

Derek wasn't fighting for his own life, he was fighting for her's.

Derek was fighting for the fact that Sage was never going to be left alone by the Alpha pack. He was fighting for the fact that his best friend was standing across the room in captivity of two boys that had once loved the girl. He was fighting for the fact that the only person there for him since the beginning was now in trouble.

He was just keeping his promise to protect the seventeen-year-old from everyone and everything, and if that meant dying, then he would gladly die knowing Sage Connelly was safe.

Sage, however, refused to let that happen. She continued to struggle against the twins, pleads coming from her mouth as she begged the two to let her go. She couldn't watch it, she couldn't just watch as he lost.

The second that Kali had gotten the upper hand, making a large gash on Derek's side, Sage let out a strangled sob and shouted out Derek's name, allowing all of her weight get the best of her. She would have collapsed to the ground had Aiden's grip on her waist not been tight enough to hold her up.

"Stop struggling," Aiden hissed in her ear.

Sage shook her head, turning it to look over at him with tears dripping down her face. All of the anger she felt, all of the rage that was building up inside of her could only be sent towards one person and that had been him. She understood now why he told her to stay away. She understood now that he didn't want her to see that he was still a monster.

"You were wrong. I stopped a long time ago."

When Sage whipped her head back around, Derek was on the ground and Kali had the final move. Only a few more kicks and a few more jabs, she couldn't even watch anymore as she squeezed her eyes shut. Nothing could drown out the sounds out, nothing could take away the pain when she heard the grunts of Derek as he slowly felt his will slip from within him.

Her eyes snapped open when Derek had shouted out, "No!" to which she realized it had been directed at Isaac. The beta had went to make a move towards Sage only for the alpha to refuse. Sage knew why. She didn't hold it against the twins not to kill her anymore, anything being a possibility at this point.

"Wait!" Isaac shouted back at Boyd, who had been just as willing to make an advance for Sage.

Derek had gotten all of the distraction he needed from the interruption by Isaac, making that his chance to push Kali back a few times all while shoving her further. He had been ready to claw at her side when she avoided it, making her own move only for Derek to grab her arms. From there, both alphas were caught struggling to see who could hold out longer.

Kali had, once again, found herself a willing competitor when she knocked Derek down for the second time.

Sage noticed from the corner of her eye that Isaac had pulled his phone out, eyes widening for a single second before he was advancing forward towards her, Boyd following closely behind. She hadn't even had a chance to scream before she heard the sharps of electrical currents flooding throughout the room.

Derek, Kali, and Boyd had all been in the crossfire of electrocution while Isaac had made his attempt to grab Sage. Aiden and Ethan quickly dodged the attack, both wolves careful not to step into the water or accidentally get the blonde too close as well for fear of what it could do to someone not like them.

Isaac had managed to grip Sage's waist tightly, pulling her away from the twins until the two teenagers were crumbled on the ground, Sage protectively between Isaac's legs as his arms wrapped around the entirety of her body. She cried out, watching as all of the wolves stumbled to their knees but realized she could do nothing about it.

Kali had gotten up before Derek and Boyd, struggling but making it nonetheless. The second that she turned around, Sage realized that the woman's intentions were not a wrath to be reckoned with and went to get out of Isaac's grip only for the wolf to tighten is grip, making it completely impossible for her to get away.

"Take him!" Kali snapped, ordering the twins to grab a hold of Derek.

Aiden and Ethan did as told, quickly rushing through the water to grab a hold of the alpha. Sage's couldn't even tell if her eyes were stained with the water on the ground or with tears anymore, trapped and useless. She couldn't help her best friend even if she wanted to, couldn't have made the situation any better.

Yet, she still had her words.

"No!" Sage cried, her nails digging into Isaac's wrists as he tried to get her to stay still. "Kali, no! Stop! Kill me, please! Don't hurt him!"

The woman turned to look at the blonde, malice in her eyes as she grinned with her canines. However, her grip on Boyd did not loosen in the slightest despite Sage's attempt to change the cards. Kali wasn't interested in Sage's offer, knowing that before the end of all this, the girl was going to be dead either way, whether it be by the hands of Derek or by the hands of Aiden.

Kali intended for Sage's death to be slow, and she intended for it to be just before the young girl thought she had won the war. She wanted to strip the girl of her life because the only thing that could give Derek as much pain as she felt when Ennis died would be to kill the one person the alpha couldn't live without.

Kali did not want Sage's blood on her hands yet.

"Sage, don't look," Isaac snapped, turning his own head away from the scene.

She couldn't look away though. How could she look away when someone was about to die? How could she look away when Kali let Boyd fall on Derek's hands? How could she look away when she watched her best friend unintentionally take a life of one of his pack members?

How could she look away without losing everything that made her human?

Sage let out a cry, but it did not amount to the one that fell from Boyd's lips. It did not amount to the pain Sage felt in her body when she literally felt every piercing piece of Boyd's body flood through her like a tsunami. It did not amount to the utter defeat when she watched Boyd fall to his knees in front of Derek, knowing that he wasn't going to survive.

Kali had moved away from the situation, the twins following shortly after. "I'm giving you until the next full moon, Derek. Make the smart choice. Join the pack, or next time I'm killing all of you and leaving your little blonde for last."

Sage felt Isaac's grip slowly loosen on her the second Kali was gone, and the blonde slowly found her feet. She carefully took a step by step, her eyes on Derek and Derek alone without even taking a glance at Aiden or Ethan. They had walked past her, both of them with looks of uneasiness on their faces.

Aiden had reached for her arm. "Sage, I'm sorry."

She turned to look at him, her jaw clenched tightly as the tears flooded down her face. She looked at him and she saw nothing more than the same person she saw two years ago. She saw the same face of the same boy that murdered his whole pack right in front of her. She saw the boy that had no mercy and showed to compassion towards anything in the world. She saw the boy that was nothing to her, nothing at all.

And she kept walking.

"No, no, no," Derek cried out, his hands holding up Boyd as if the support would somehow make the situation better, when it reality nothing could. Nothing could make any of this okay.

Sage made it to Derek and Boyd, falling carelessly in the water as she felt herself wash away. Her hands had scrambled to help her best friend, trying to cover Boyd's wounds herself despite the blood that was now coating her fingers. She couldn't just do nothing, she couldn't be helpless. She couldn't let him die without trying to save him.

Boyd noticed the two attempting to save his life, and shook his head weakly. "It's okay."

"No," Derek croaked out. "It's not okay. It's not... it's not."

Sage ground her teeth together, putting more pressure on the wound. "Stay with us, Boyd. Do you hear me? Keep your eyes open and don't you dare leave. You can't leave."

"It's okay," Boyd repeated, his voice cracking just as much as the other two.

Sage's whole body fell slack when she heard Derek's next words, and she knew that there was nothing they could do. She knew that what just happened is not something he will ever in his life forget, and she knew that because of the blue eyes that shined beneath his crimson ones. Whatever part of her that wanted to save Boyd had not been for herself, it had been for Derek.

She couldn't let him go through that pain again.

"I'm sorry," Derek whispered, his eyes brimming with tears as he struggled to keep Boyd's body up.

Boyd swallowed the blood before speaking, "The full moon... that feeling? It was worth it. Did you know it was a lunar eclipse? I always wondered what that would feel like for one of us, for a werewolf."

And he was gone just like that.

Sage watched as the boy fell to the ground. She watched as a teenage boy had his life taken away from him against his will just as quickly as one had been given to him; and she remembered. She remembered back last year when she and Scott had tried to explain to Boyd that being a werewolf would change everything for him, that he didn't want to become like Derek.

Sage never got the chance to tell Boyd that the werewolf he became was everything he should have been. He became more than Scott and Derek both, he became a hero in a situation that could not have been, in any way, changed. He was the one that sacrificed his life to save his alpha's.

Her body fell slack, the tears just stains on her face now as they mixed in with her sweat. Her wet hair fell in her face, hiding the traces of pain that contorted on her face. Sage turned to look at Derek and she saw that, even though she was in pain, Derek was suffering in complete and total agony.

Her hands laced in his, able to control the shaking just in time for him to look up at her. She stared back. She just stared, and that was all that needed to be exchanged between the two. Because despite the fact that Stiles and Cora came flooding through the door, nothing could change what happened in this room.

Nothing could change the fact that they lost one of their own tonight.

And, more importantly, nothing could change the fact that despite everything, Sage has and always will be the one there for Derek Hale, even when there is blood of a fallen soldier on his hands.

You don't leave family.

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rest in peace, boyd.

im not too sure what i can say about this. this is one of the most emotional scenes ive written in a long time, and i had a harder time writing this than i did writing the motel california scene. i think it's the fact that, despite everything and all of sage's attempts to help, there was nothing she could have done to change the outcome of the night.

this is actually one of the longest chapters ive written in a while, and i hope that you guys at least felt something when reading it. i also don't know what im going to do about the next episode since it's visionary and it goes into the past of derek. i cant necessarily write it considering sage was like seven.

so, i might be writing saiden's past instead of paige and derek if you guys finally want to read about what happened between them. let me know what you think i should do;; write saiden's past or just skip the paige//derek altogether since it wouldn't make sense to write it.