guYS; THERE IS A SAGE PLAYLIST 2.0 TO LISTEN TO ON 8TRACKS FOR THIS. If you have an 8track account, my user is vividparacosm & it's labeled 'wasted love'. it was basically made for this chapter if im being honest.

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TWENTY SEVEN;

HABITS OF A HEART

Five people came crashing through the doors, leaving behind Scott and Peter to fend off the alpha twins. It hadn't necessarily been one of their brightest ideas, and now that Sage was thinking about it, she should have just done her best to distract the twins. Sure, she might have passed out halfway through the distraction but it was better than one of her closest friends risking his life just to save them.

The blonde let out a hiss when Stiles had attempted to help her get into the ambulance, although it only resulted in a pulsing headache to form as she wavered a bit before falling onto the bench near the stretcher that Derek was laying Cora on. Stiles got into the ambulance with her, carefully bracing the brunette's neck so that it didn't break or dis-conjoin from the rest of her body.

God knows, with their luck.

"Derek," Jennifer's voice called out from the exterior of the ambulance. "Over here."

Stiles and Sage shared a look, knowing that they couldn't go out there with Cora's condition and the blonde's herself. She could already tell that she was getting worse because Stiles' face was beginning to blur in and out every couple of seconds; the injuries that Scott was getting from the Alpha twins isn't helping either, feeling a new spot of pain every couple of seconds.

"Julia," a voice jeered from outside, one that Sage knew too well. "It is you."

Kali being in the same room as them meant they were screwed; had it been the twins, maybe the girl could have convinced them not to do it, maybe. But, because Kali was outside, there was no way that they could anything but fight. No one in this ambulance was capable of throwing themselves into battle with two alphas and a darach.

Sage blinked a few times hazily, nudging Stiles' arm before gesturing towards the doors of the ambulance. It wouldn't do much if Kali found out they were in there, or if she heard their heartbeats, but it would at least ensure some safety, if only a little.

Just barely, they were able to hear the rest of the short conversation, Jennifer being the one to discourage Derek. "You can't beat her."

"I know," Derek agreed, his eyes on the alpha across the room. "That's why we're going to run."

That was the ending of it, Sage watching with wide eyes as Derek and Jennifer passed through the windows of the ambulance. They were alone, which meant that Cora's life was now literally in the hands of two teenagers— one that could barely keep her eyes open to stay awake and another that had no idea what he was doing.

If a person were to look at it on the brighter side, it would be defined that they were now completely abandoned by Derek and Jennifer, which also meant that Kali had disappeared and there was no longer a potential threat of dying.

If you look at it on the shitty side, which was Sage's specialty, it would be defined that the blonde was dying, the boy next to her might be coming to the realization Aiden and Ethan aren't just old friends, and that those two boys very well could be searching for them right now to try and slaughter them. She also just couldn't exactly just come out saying, "Lol, I fucked Aiden," to Stiles after Jennifer practically threw the revelation in everyone's face earlier.

Choose your side.

It was a few moments before Stiles sat down next to the blonde, tilting his head to her. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy," Sage replied, her eyes dropping for a few seconds before they shot open again in fear that if she went to sleep she wouldn't wake up; that is what happened to Cora, and she isn't going to be surprised when she just randomly collapses to the ground and turns out just as bad as the brunette in front of her.

"What are we going to do?"

The blonde weakly rolled her head on the interior of the ambulance, giving Stiles' a quirked eyebrow. "Try to stay alive."

"Oh," Stiles muttered, although there wasn't much sarcasm dropping from his words, everything about tonight hitting him in places that haven't been shown in a very long time. "Great advice."

The boy, then, went back to checking the doors to make sure that they were tightly shut as though it would get his mind off the growing fact that there were way too many people outside of this ambulance that wanted them dead. Sage watched him and noticed how tense his shoulders were, feeling a frown pull down her lips when she saw that he was trying his best to keep from breaking down.

"Okay," the boy muttered, tugging once before finding his seat again. "Okay. Okay, we're okay. You're okay; you're both—" Stiles' voice cut off when he glanced down at Cora's body. "Why do you look like you're not breathing?"

Sage's lids pulled up after hearing Stiles' exclamatory comment, her hand finding the side of Cora's gurney so that she could pull herself next to the brunette's face, leaning down to see if she heard anything coming from her mouth or nose.

To her horror, though, there was nothing.

"Stiles, she's not breathing," Sage stumbled, just before there was another sharp sting in her side, no doubt another wound Scott had acquired from the twins. "I don't know what to do, Stiles. Stiles, what do we do? She's not breathing."

The teenager seemed to be freaking out just as much as Sage, his eyes widening as he moved next to the blonde to gape at Cora. "Oh, my god. Oh, my god. She's not— oh, god."

"Stiles!" Sage hissed, using the last bit left of her strength to snap at the boy.

"Okay, okay," Stiles repeated, rolling up his sleeves as he stared down at Cora. Sage didn't know how to do CPR, which she supposed is something she would have to learn if she made it out alive. "Okay, we can do this. Tilt the head, fingers on the chin, clear the throat. Great, nothing. I see nothing."

Sage was growing more anxious, her hand falling in Cora's. "Stiles, hurry."

"Alright," Stiles replied, just as nervous as she was. "Just pinch the nose... and blow."

Stiles' mouth fell on Cora's, puffing air into her lungs as to try and get her to breath again. Sage had put her hand up to the brunette's wrist, waiting to see if there would be a pulse as she tried ignore the gutwrenching feeling of seeing the boy practically kiss someone she thought of as a little sister, knowing that the youngest Hale was dying.

After Stiles had attempted it three times, the blonde found herself muttering Cora's name absentmindedly under her breath as to try and get the girl to wake up, pleading for the girl to wake up.

She couldn't lose Cora, not when she had just gotten her back.

The girl didn't deserve to die just because of her and Derek's actions, she didn't deserve to go through the pain of Boyd's death, or be locked up in that vault for three months just in her attempt to find out where Derek was. Cora had been lucky enough to survive the fire because of Luke saving her, and Sage wasn't going to just let his death be in vain.

Stiles blew another breath of air into her mouth, trying to get the youngest Hale to wake up. His head went to her chest, trying to see if he could hear her heartbeat, only to be shot down and forced to try again. His mouth moved from hers a couple of times, fingers still pinched on the girl's nose while he pulled back every so often to check whether or not she's breathing.

"Come on, Cora," he muttered, puffing another amount of air into the girl.

Sage blinked a few times, shaking her head to try and ease the sudden rush of nausea she had to go back to squeezing tightly onto the brunette's hand, praying that she would wake up. There's no way that she is going to be able to go through another death again, the last one had taken something away from her that she couldn't get back.

"Cora," Sage hissed, her fingernails practically digging into the young Hale's skin. "You don't get to leave me today."

When Stiles' lips fell on the girl's for one last time, to both of their relief, the girl began to cough, turning her head to the side as she inhale a deep amounts of air. Stiles fell sluggishly onto the seat next to Sage, who had let out a sigh before her head landed on the teenage boy's shoulder, not even capable of lifting any part of her body after so much exerted energy put into freaking out.

Stiles turned to glance down at the blonde, huffing out in exhaustion. "The next time I put my lips to your mouth, I better not be doing that."

Sage didn't say anything, not sure if it was because she just didn't know what to say back to it or the fact that all she was feeling was guilt towards not telling Stiles about who she used to be in those six years that she left Beacon Hills. He had a right to know, all of her friends did, but she just didn't want to tell them and all of them hate her for the rest of her life.

Which, at this point, wasn't going to be a very long and efficient one.

"Just hold on a little longer, okay?" Stiles muttered, moving the blonde hair that was sticking to her face with all of the sweat away, wishing that he could do something besides watch the girl he fell in love with a year ago get progressively worse.

Sage nodded, and although her eyes were dropping, she found herself asking, "Are you okay?" because after his little breakdown in front of herself and Derek, yelling at her, she wasn't too sure if his coping skills were working knowing Jennifer had his father.

"I don't know," Stiles admitted, frowning as he wrapped his arm around the blonde, pulling her into her chest. "I always used to be the one with the plan, or at least a plan B, now I'm just thinking, "What if Cora is right?" that maybe we are pretty much useless. Maybe all we really do is show up and find the bodies."

Sage frowned into his chest, trying to ignore the stab to her heart at the thought of Stilinski being gone. The man had become a surrogate father to her, just as Melissa had become a mother, and she was feeling the same pain as Stiles. The only difference is that it was his actual father, that Sheriff Stilinski was the last person Stiles had in his life, and losing that would just completely break the teenage boy.

She didn't like thinking about that, the idea that Stiles could end up an orphan just like her. The thought terrified her enough that she just moved closer to the boy, knowing that, despite the rough patch they are in, he has always been the one there for her when she needed to cry about her family.

She didn't know how they would be after all of this is over, but she did know that right now she just needed to be Stiles' best friend, not the person that used to grab him in the beginning of sophomore year and kiss him in empty classrooms; she needed to be the girl that raved over Stars Wars and Nirvana with him until three in the morning.

"I don't want to find my father's body, Sage," Stiles muttered, ending his revelation about how he truly felt, knowing that it wasn't any consolation to get it out but, at least, now the blonde knew what he was thinking.

Sage leaned up from his chest to give him a look. "We'll find him, Stiles."

"How do you know?"

Sage smiled lightly. "Because you taught me that heroes always win."

The blonde grabbed a hold of Stiles' hand, lacing it in with her own. She could feel him practically boring a hole into her head, no doubt having come to the realization that something was wrong because of the fact that her words hit too close to home; there was a villain outside chasing them right now, and Stiles had a feeling the hero comment had more relevance that just his father's capture.

It hadn't taken long for Stiles to put all of the pieces together after that. If he were being honest, everything connected together and formed a perfect picture for him. He just refused to see that picture until now, knowing that it was going to break apart the wall he had made when his girlfriend told him she was just friends with the two alphas; he convinced himself that nothing was going on, and ever since then, everything has been trying to take that away from him.

Stiles didn't squeeze Sage's hand back, although his chest did tighten and his arm fell slack around her. "Cora wasn't talking about Lydia, was she?"

Immediately, the blonde he had been holding fell still, giving him the answer he needed before anything ever came out of her mouth. He should have expected it, he did expect it, but that didn't change how he felt and the aching feeling in his heart.

He wondered if this is how she felt back at Glen Capri.

"No," Sage admitted, her voice quiet as she played with the ring he had given her for her seventeenth birthday; she promised him she would never take it off so long as she loved him.

Stiles nodded once, staring at Cora's carefully breathing body. "When did you first meet him?"

He wasn't going to yell at her. There was no time to yell at her; she lied to him, she said that there was nothing to worry about, but in reality, she had done just as much wrongdoing by not trusting him with something like that. He couldn't yell at her, though, not when he didn't know how long she had before someone was having to give her CPR to keep her alive.

There wasn't enough time in the world to be angry.

"I was fifteen," Sage muttered, still twisting her ring. "Derek, Laura, and I were just leaving Seattle and going to Phoenix because there was a kid that had been harassing me. Derek almost revealed the whole claws and fangs to them so we had to leave. On our way into this small town, I met him in a gas station."

"Did you know he was a werewolf?" Stiles asked, trying to refrain from the accelerated heart beat so that he could get all of the answers without flipping shit because, in all honesty, he always knew; he knew it and he just refused to believe it in hopes that the blonde would have told him.

Clearly, it was only when Aiden was trying to kill them that she complied.

Sage shook her head. "Not the first five minutes I talked to him. Derek ended up catching his scent and came into the place to make sure I was okay. He was just an omega then, barely accepted into his pack—"

"Ethan told us they were basically the bitches of the pack," Stiles said, referring back to the conversation he had with the twin in the hallway just before the three, Scott included, were scrambling to the locker room to see what was wrong with Aiden.

. "They were more than just the bitches. The only reason their alpha, Marcus, decided to give them a chance was because they were born, not bitten; everyone else in his pack had been bitten, which, I guess is what made them turn into monsters."

Stiles' lips tugged into a frown, realizing that the blonde knew a lot about the twins' pack. "Did you know them?"

"I met them once," Sage informed. "They called me a whore because they thought I was going after both Ethan and Aiden. None of them knew that Ethan was gay, mostly because he probably would have been killed with how horrible they were."

"What happened?"

Sage's body went rigid because, despite having finally confided in Derek, she wasn't sure that was a part of her past she wanted to be telling Stiles. She knew she had to, though, knew that he needed to know the whole story so that he would understand why she didn't tell him anything.

Maybe if he saw what she had been through, he would realize why she couldn't.

"We were celebrating my sixteenth birthday," Sage began, clearing her throat as she rubbed on her bruised wrists. "Deucalion had been after the twins for a while, stalking them or sending Kali and Ennis to do it. He wanted the twins to know that he could offer them vengeance and a new life. He got tired of waiting for their acceptance, though, and brought their pack to us."

"Us?" Stiles asked, sitting up a bit straighter. "You were there when they died?"

Sage nodded. "I watched everything. It was the first time I saw them join together, starting with the newest beta and going after the next. By the time they had completely tore apart the others, Marcus was begging for his life and I couldn't help him. Deucalion watched me as I watched them just claw and pull... they were bad people, but they didn't deserve to die that way."

Stiles was still angry, furious even, but he understood. He understood that loving someone isn't something that can be controlled, that was obvious enough when he had his crush on Lydia. He understood that you can't choose who you fall for and that she hadn't known the wolf would grow to become a murderer. She didn't know, just fifteen.

But, she also didn't tell him.

"You can hate me for not telling you," Sage started, moving out of his grasp and pulling her hand away. "But that was a part of me that I buried a long time ago, and she wasn't a person that I wanted to face again. That girl was weak, and she was ignorant. She didn't understand anything aside from the fact that she was an orphan and her boyfriend was a murderer. I refused to let you know anything about her."

Stiles didn't have a chance to answer, the two falling silent the second that they heard the loud banging of the door that led into the garage. Both teenagers held their breath, Stiles leaning forward a bit to see if it was anyone on their side, but had been sadly mistaken the second that the large figure of the twins' conjoined body appeared, a silhouette's shadow on the wall.

Quietly, Stiles moved back so that he was hidden behind the side of the ambulance, his hand moving over to Sage's mouth, who had been prepared to ask who it was. She stared at him with confused eyes, especially when he moved her closer so that she was hidden as well. Even though he knew there was a possibility of them not hurting her, there was also a possibility they shoved all their feelings aside.

When Stiles' hand moved from her mouth after they were in the clear, Sage turned to look at him with sad eyes. "I'm sorry."

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It was about two minutes in complete silence later that there was the sound of the door to the garage opening again. Sage, who had been curled up against the side of the ambulance trying desperately hard to stay awake thanks to Stiles' soft shoves every time she had her eyes closed too long, moved her head up to send a look at Stiles.

She didn't know how he felt about her revelation about Aiden; she didn't know if he felt anything about it. She was expecting for an explosion of profanities and shouts, but she supposed it wasn't necessarily a great situation to be doing that with all that was happening around them. Maybe it was better that they were forced to stay silent, maybe it gave her a chance to prepare herself for the snarling rebellion of her friends when the rest of them found out.

If she lived to see that day.

Sage had been closer to the doors, and she weakly moved so that she could see if it was another Alpha coming through the place to try and find Jennifer. She wouldn't be surprised; the ambulance, despite how quiet they were being, was a dead give-away for anyone that honestly had a brain.

The second that she leaned in, she was jumping back as a hand slammed hard on the window, Scott's face coming into view as he stared at the blonde with anxious and impatient eyes. Peter was hanging off his side, looking in worse condition that the omega. Sage knew only because she hadn't felt any more pain since the last one hit her in the ribs, Scott probably having been elbowed in the same area.

"Sage, open the doors," Scott rushed, pleading.

The blonde did as told, moving out of the way once she had done so in order for Stiles to help Scott get Peter into the ambulance. Now, they had three injured people in an ambulance that had a dead driver. The irony of the situation was growing more astounding by the second.

When the man was seated down next to Sage, nearly toppling over her body as she quickly adjusted him, Stiles turned to look back at Scott. "Where's Derek and Jennifer?"

"I have to go back for them," Scott explained, looking at his best friend. "And my mom."

Stiles frowned, glancing at Sage for a few seconds before moving back to Scott. "Okay, two problems. Kali's got the keys to this thing and we just saw the twins like thirty seconds ago."

"Stay here."

Scott acted as if they could actually go anywhere. One of them was unconscious, one of them was bleeding through various parts of his body and off his high of epinephrine, and the last one was going in and out of hazy visions and nausea. Not a single person out of that bunch had the capability to walk on their own, and Stiles was the literal babysitter to them all.

Sage huffed out, running her hands through her hair to put it up. She had already discarded her leather jacket a few minutes ago, now in her damp tank top and a simple pair of jeans. There was no doubt that she was running a fever, it being obvious enough by the sweat that she has had for the past thirty minutes.

"I can't keep my eyes open much longer," Sage admitted to anyone that was listening, not particularly sure if either man in the ambulance actually cared about whether or not she was dying because Peter was an asshole and there is an extreme possibility of Stiles hating her her for not telling him about her psychotic ex.

She had been surprised when the boy glanced over at her with a frown. "We'll be out of here soon, alright? Just stay awake for a few more minutes. We'll get the keys when Scott gets back and everything will be okay."

Sage swallowed hard, nodding once before letting her head fall down again.

She hoped so.

Peter groaned from beside Sage before sitting up to look at the two teenagers. "So, I'm assuming she finally told you? You have this look like someone just stole your puppy away from you."

Sage rolled her eyes, not even bothering to question how in the hell Peter knew anything about her past; she wasn't surprised though, the man knew everything even when he was locked away in a hospital with burns on his face. The last thing she needed was the man's snides, further destroying her relationship with Stiles.

"I would kill you if I wasn't dying right now," Sage hoarsely replied, shaking her head as she swallowed down her words; her headache was getting so bad that it physically and mentally hurt to think about anything apart from the pounding.

Peter snorted, rolling his shoulder to try and get feeling back into it. "You've been making those threats for a year now and I'll still standing, princess."

Sage didn't say anything bad, knowing that if she had a gun right now, the barrel would have already been positioned at the man's forehead. Instead, she just grabbed a hold of Cora's hand again, giving it a tight squeeze as she curled up, knees falling against her chest.

Just when she was about to close her eyes, something rang from her abandoned leather jacket, the annoying ringtone of Isaac Lahey sounding throughout the room. Peter was the one closest to her jacket, rather irritatingly throwing the leather over to her so that she could pull her phone from it, letting out a deep exhale before pressing answer.

"Hey," Sage muttered, not sure how to greet the boy.

There was a sound of a car starting from the other end. "Sage, we're in the hospital. Allison came up with a plan to distract the alphas so that we could get you and Cora to another hospital and Derek and Jennifer out of the elevator; I'm going to be there with Argent's car in about five minutes. Be ready."

Sage let out a relieved exhale. "Alright. Be careful."

"Not me you should be worrying about," Isaac answered just before he hung up, most likely to call Allison to solidify the plan so that nothing goes wrong.

Sage put her phone back into her jacket, struggling to place the clothing back over her body while the other two boys in the ambulance stared at her expectancy, Stiles more than Peter, who had been listening in on the conversation. Her eyes met with Stiles, sending him a weak smile before she turned back to Cora's unconscious body.

"Isaac said he's going to be here in five minutes to get Cora and take her to the hospital. Allison has a plan to distract the alphas so that he can get her transferred and Derek and Jennifer out of the elevator they probably got stuck in when the power cut out," Sage explained, taking a deep breath at the end when she realized it was getting to the point that talking was difficult.

Peter moved to stand up in the ambulance. "And you."

Sage glanced up, looking at him with a glower. "I'm not going to the hospital."

"Sage," Stiles said, staring at her with an uneasy expression.

"They're not going to help me," Sage muttered, going to get up as well, only to be shot down when her body disagreed and she was sent down to the bench again. "If they can't help Cora, they're not going to be able to do anything for me either. Jennifer is the only one."

Stiles watched her, noticing that she already looked and acted dead. She had given up on being healed, she believed that there was no way Jennifer would actually help her. Stiles could see that Sage thought she was going to die.

All three of them had turned their attention away from Sage's defeat and over to the rumbling of a car, seeing that it was Argent's rolling in to help them with Isaac behind the wheel. Peter swung open the ambulance door, getting out first to grab a hold of the front of Cora's body while Stiles took her legs.

"Come on, come on, come on," Isaac ushered, watching as Peter took Cora from Stiles and carried her quickly to the car.

Sage was in the ambulance still, although Isaac had come over a second later to help her get out along with Stiles, both boys having a tight grip on her waist as they eased her down the drop. She stumbled a bit, nearly crashing into Isaac before regaining control in her knees. She had been sitting for so long that she forgot how little control she had right now.

Peter had placed Cora in the backseat, Isaac moving to lead Sage into the back as well with his steps slightly bigger so that they could get their faster. The blonde's head fell a couple of times, but she didn't fail to notice when her eyes actually lifted that Stiles wasn't behind them, but still near the ambulance with the doors wide open.

Isaac, still stabling Sage, whipped his head around. "Stiles, lets go!"

Sage watched the teenage boy's face fall flat in realization, his hand moving from whatever he had been previously looking at and over to the door. Before anyone had a chance of stopping him, he was running out the door of the place faster than she had ever seen him run.

The blonde made an attempt to chase after him, knowing that she probably wouldn't even get two feet before collapsing, but something was wrong; Stiles had realized something and she didn't know what. Isaac had been quick to hold her back though, his hands digging into her hips as she watched where Stiles had disappeared from.

Something was wrong.

"Sage, we need to go," Isaac answered, trying to guide her into the backseat of the car.

The blonde didn't move eyes away from the door. "I can't leave them."

"Sage," Isaac snapped, more hostile in her ear this time. "You're dying. We need to go."

Involuntarily, the girl had been shoved into the backseat of the car next to Cora. Something was wrong, she kept repeating. Something was wrong and she wasn't able to help. Something was wrong and she didn't know what. Something was wrong, and of course, there was nothing that she could do to stop it.

Her eyelids just fell, blocking out Isaac and Peter's protests to keep them open.

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ne (still lowkey ship sisaac btw)

well. revelatioNS. there are now two more episodes left. someone come cry with me.

this is like completely irrelevant and off topic but i mean y not;; you guys have to check out the song ive literally been listening to aLL night. it's becoming one of my favorites, and if you listened to the playlist you probably heard it but it's called // i'll be good by jaymes young // and i love it.

COMMENT WHAT YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE LAST FEW EPISODES AS WE COUNT DOWN THE CHAPTERS UNTIL PART ONE OF STILL IS FINISHED. obvi she doesn't die because it's part one but still. (pun v v intended)