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TWENTY THREE;

CHECKMATE

Sage stood on the opposite side of the room from Aiden, refusing to be anywhere near the vile excuse of a teenage boy. He, on the other hand, was leaning up against Coach's desk with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. She didn't see how exactly she was going to keep him in this room long enough for Scott and Stiles to talk to Ethan, not without losing some part of her sanity.

"Are you going to glare at me all day or are you going to tell me why you dragged me in here?" Aiden broke, raising his eyebrows at the blonde. "Because, last I recall, this place is used for different purposes than just a little small talk, sweetheart."

Sage quirked an eyebrow at him. "Do I need to put a condom over your face, or are you going to stop acting like a dick?"

"I don't know," Aiden shrugged, grinning suggestively at her. "I don't usually go for condoms."

"Then you're a dick and an idiot," Sage snapped, wanting to get off the subject of something that was leaning too closely to their past for her comfort. "I need you to tell me why you did it."

Aiden's mouth parted as he frowned at her. "What exactly are we talking about here?"

"Why did you kill Boyd?" Sage questioned. "Why did you just stand there, doing nothing while an innocent teenager got his life ripped away from him? Why didn't you man up and actually care about something for once in your life, Aiden? If not for me, then for him."

Aiden's jaw tightened and his eyes moved away from her, focusing on a particular hole in the wall behind her. He thought that Sage wouldn't have noticed his hesitancy towards the entire subject, but she did notice and she did see something change when she mentioned Boyd's death.

"That was Kali," Aiden denied, finally meeting her eyes. "I didn't have a choice."

Sage scowled at him. "Since when did you take orders from another alpha, Aiden? I thought you stopped being the bitch of the pack a long time ago."

She wasn't going to hold back her rage, figuring that now was as good a time as any to further increase the overall fact that Aiden completely infuriated her to no end. Bringing up an essential part of what made the pair who they were today had strung a nerve for both of them, but neither showed it.

"It's not as democratic as it sounds, Sage," Aiden muttered. "And you're thinking I should be all filled with remorse but just try and remember your best friend killed Ennis."

"What? So it's Derek's turn to kill someone now?"

Aiden's eyes narrowed on the blonde. "Maybe. Maybe it's like the time he and Boyd tried to kill you."

Sage's body went rigid, nausea filling her body when she looked at him, suspiciously. She didn't see how he could possibly know anything about what happened to her last year, the fallout that happened between Derek and herself hadn't been so well known that everyone in town raved over it, and she definitely didn't know how in the hell he knew Derek and his pack tried to kill herself and Lydia.

She didn't see how he knew it.

"How did yo—"

Sage's question had been silenced at the ear piercing screech of something connecting with glass. The blonde stepped away from the wall, moving closer to the door to see what was going on while Aiden's whole figure tightened, already having seen what was carved into the window.

When Sage's eyes fell on the symbol, she glanced up at Aiden. "What the hell did you do?"

"Derek," Aiden snarled.

Sage recoiled back at her best friend's name, surprised that it came out of the boy's mouth. She hadn't really expected for that to be Aiden's first assumption, especially since Derek wouldn't be the one to get revenge. She knew only because she saw him when they had to come back to reality, saw that he wasn't all together. The last thing he'd be doing is getting revenge on Aiden, of all people.

"Aiden," Sage warned, noticing how his hands began to curl up at his sides. "Aiden, don't."

The werewolf only let out a low growl before storming out of Coach's office, Sage quickly rushing from behind him to try and get him to stop before he ended up doing something that he would regret, or something that could potentially cause another person bodily harm.

"Derek!" Aiden yelled, his eyes darting around the locker room to try and find the man. "I'm right here, Derek!"

Sage's eyes moved around the room as well, but only to find out who had made the symbol if it wasn't Derek. "Aiden, you need to stop. Calm down before you do something stupid!"

"You want to fight, Derek? Come and get me!"

It wasn't a second later that a figure came barreling into Aiden, taking Sage by surprise as she nearly tripped over her own feet. As soon as she saw brunette hair, she knew that it wasn't Derek out to get vengeance for Boyd's death, it was the only other person that felt so deeply for Boyd, having spent three months locked up in a vault with him.

Cora hadn't wasted another moment when she crashed into him, her claws already outstretched and ready for blood. Sage hadn't even had a moment to cry out in shock before Aiden's blood was being splattered across the locker room.

"Oh, my god, Cora!" Sage cried, her hands flying up to her mouth.

Aiden still had the upper hand, no matter the amount of indignation Cora felt about Boyd's death. Sage was forced to watch as the younger girl's beginning win had ceased to exist when the alpha's eyes began to glow, his own claws digging into Cora's wrist as he stopped her from making any more gashed his way.

Sage flinched, letting out another plead for Aiden to stop as his hand wrapped around Cora's throat, cutting off the air to the outside world. He was blind with rage, though, and he blocked out her cries as he threw Cora to the ground, the beta sliding until her head connected rather roughly with the tile walls.

The second that she saw what his next object of choice was though, her feet were moving faster than her ability to think as she quickly put herself in between Cora and Aiden, hands shoving hard against the alpha's chest to try and get him to stop.

"Aiden," Sage hissed, pushing even harder on his injured torso. "Aiden, put down the weight."

The boy didn't even acknowledge her, his eyes focused on Cora and Cora alone. Sage was just dead weight, something he could shove off to the side without even realizing he had done it. In just a single moment, Sage had been harshly pushed to the ground while she watched the youngest Hale get struck across the face with the weight she tried to stop.

"Cora!" Sage screeched, her voice echoing throughout the locker room this time as she crawled over to Cora, the brunette's head falling limp on her lap. She ignored the wave of nauseousness that hit her like a brick, trying to get the girl under her to wake up.

When she looked up, she noticed that Aiden was advancing towards them again, the weight lifted over his head as he prepared to give Cora one final blow. It was a short-lived fantasy though, and she was relieved to see that Scott and Ethan had showed up along with Stiles, all three teenage boys fighting against the alpha to rip away the weight.

"Hey!" Ethan snarled, grabbing a hold of his brother. "You can't do this!"

Aiden snarled again, his canines still bared at the girl on the ground. "She came at me!"

"It doesn't matter! Kali gave them until the next full moon," Ethan rushed, his grip tightening on Aiden. "You can't touch him or her."

Sage's focus moved from the twins over to Cora, who had been struggling to get up from the ground. Stiles had found his way to the ground, crouched down next to Sage as the two teenagers tried to help Cora as much as they possibly could, which wasn't saying much considering Sage's hands were covered in blood from both Aiden's chest and Cora's head.

When she felt eyes boring a hole into her skull, she glanced up to see that Aiden had his gazed directed solely on her, never once breaking eye contact. She didn't look away either. She wanted him to see the hurt, the fear, that was storming around in her green eyes.

She wanted him to know that he made the decision to go after someone she loved, that what she said back in Coach's office about caring was the most relevant thing in the world at the moment. She craved for him to know that she was never going to forgive him for what he had done, never.

And, he did.

Aiden broke eye contact with the blonde, nodding once towards his brother before allowing Ethan to shove him out of the locker room. Sage's attention immediately returned to Cora after that, pulling back her hair which she realized had been a mistake after feeling something cool glide across her cheek.

"Guys," Sage called out, her hands moving back to Cora's forehead. "She's hurt. Badly."

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Sage was silent as she struggled to scrub off the blood on her hands and face, more aggressive than she probably should have been given the fact that her skin was practically nothing at this point. She didn't know how to control her anger though, whether it be towards Cora for doing something so completely idiotic or towards Aiden for just being who he is.

The blonde's shaking hands had been grabbed, stopping her incessant clawing to get the blood off. Sage glanced over to see that Stiles was giving her a hesitant look before slowly pulling her hands out of the scorching water. She just stared at him, feeling a lump form in her throat as she tried to dismiss all of her feelings towards her boyfriend.

Quickly, she jerked her hands out of his and turned her attention on Cora, who was finally stable and capable of standing without Sage hovering over her in worry that the younger girl would die.

"Are you okay?" she asked, wiping her hands on her thighs to try and dry them faster, walking over to Cora so that she could inspect the Hale's wounds. "I mean, you're not about to randomly fall over and start seizing, are you?"

Cora jerked away from Sage's prying hands. "Stop treating me like a two-year-old."

"I'm going to treat you like a two-year-old because you're acting like one," Sage retorted, grabbing a hold of the paper towel so that she could help clean up more of the blood that was still on Cora's forehead.

"I'll heal," Cora dismissed, moving Sage's hands away from her face. As soon as the brunette tried to move from the sink, she began to lose her balance and fall backwards; this only resulted in everyone inching forward to catch her. "I said, I'm fine."

Sage frowned at the girl she considered a sister. "Do you realize how suicidally crazy that was? What were you thinking going after them, Cora?"

"I did it for Boyd," Cora snapped, turning around to face all of them, specifically Sage. "None of you were doing anything."

Scott spoke up from behind the two girls. "We're trying."

"And you're failing. You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers, running around think that you can stop people from getting killed, but all you do is show up late. All you really do is find the bodies and sleep with the ones that murdered them."

Cora left them there after that. She left Scott, Stiles, and Sage to contemplate the words that hit way too close to home for any of them to rub it off. The worst part isn't that they were true, it was that they weren't right; Sage had been there. Sage had always been there, and she had always been early.

She was always the one that was forced to watch as a life got taken, as a kid lost their ability to grow up and start a family. She lost the will to fight after continuously watching people lose their lives right before her eyes. But, Cora was right. She did sleep with the ones that murdered them.

She slept with the one that murdered all of them.

Stiles' eyebrows furred, his attention more focused on the Hale's last line rather than the rest of the explosive comment. He didn't see who would actually have the tolerance to sleep with any of the Alphas apart from Lydia. So, he just shoved the stab aside and convinced himself that Cora had been talking about their strawberry blonde friend and Aiden.

"Well," Stiles broke, a deep frown on his face. "She's definitely a Hale."

"I'll go make sure she gets home," Sage muttered, rubbing at her raw skin before turning to give her friends a small smile in goodbye.

Cora was still her responsibility. No matter how many harsh blows the teenage girl may thrown her way, she was still forced to deal with the Hale like an older sister would. Which, sadly for Sage, meant making sure that she didn't pass out whilst trying to get her point across that she was more than willing to fight whoever it takes to get revenge for Boyd.

Sage, however, was Stiles' responsibility, which meant that he was quick to move to the blonde's side and say, "I'll go with you."

The blonde turned to him, a weary look on her face as she considered actually saying no. She didn't want Stiles getting the impression that she actually forgave him for what he said. No, she was nowhere near forgiving him; but, she also didn't want to be alone with Cora in fear that they would get into a fight and Sage would end up doing something that only made the wolf's condition worse.

Which, at the rate her day was going, continued to prove a possibility.

"Alright," she agreed, nodding her head once.

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"Philosophers?"

Sage, Stiles, and Cora were all situated in the infamous jeep, owned by Stiles himself. It hadn't taken long for the silence between the three to disappear as soon as Sage's phone began to ring, getting a call from Allison, of whom hadn't spoken to her until then. The call itself wasn't the most troubling part, but what the hunter was explaining through the conversation of the call.

Allison had come up with the assumption that her father was somehow involved in the sacrifices. It only made sense considering his map of the telluric currents had been the original moving point that shifted everything into motion; Sage couldn't help but input her opinion, saying that it might have just been his hunting instincts that led him to the conclusion of where the sacrifices would happen.

She felt a need to protect Argent's reputation. Ever since they made amends the night Boyd and Cora went rogue, it seemed like things were going, somewhat, well. The man had been the only person on Earth since her family's death that actually related her back to her father, Hal, rather than her mother or brother.

She wasn't going to just abuse and throw away that relationship based on a possibility.

Now, though, Allison had begun explaining what she found in her father's study. Apparently, he had the fivefold knot celtic symbol along with words categorizing all of the previous sacrifices. The second that Allison started listing off virgins, warriors, and healers, they knew that either guardians or philosophers would be the next target.

The only bad thing is that knowing the Darach was following the fivefold knot meant that there would be five more deaths left to gravel through before all of this was finally over.

"And guardians. Which, after last night, could mean something like law enforcement, right?" Sage and Stiles shared a look, their minds quickly falling on the same person. "Stiles, you have to tell your dad— tell him whatever you need, but you have to get him to believe. Tell your dad. Warn him."

Stiles had enough of the pressure. "Okay, okay. I know."

He hung up the phone, Sage's lips pursing as she met eyes with Cora in the back seat for a second. Neither girl had any idea what the boy was planning, only that it obviously had something to do with the two of them considering the hesitancy he had whenever both of their eyes fell on his figure.

"What are you going to do?" Sage asked, braving up despite knowing she wouldn't like the answer.

"I'm going to tell him the truth," Stiles explained, just before he turned look back at Cora. "And I'm going to need your help."

"So, you're going to just flat out tell your dad that werewolves and evil druids are roaming around the town he is supposed to be protecting?" Sage reiterated, quirking an eyebrow. "Stiles, you need to think this through before you just throw all of this at him."

"I'm trying, Sage!" Stiles snapped, his hands tightening on the steering wheel as his jaw clenched. When he glanced over, he immediately let out a sigh when he saw hurt contort on her face. "I'm sorry. I just can't lose him."

Sage's eyes softened at his confession. "I know what it feels like to tell someone your secret."

"Not to interrupt your little love spat or anything," Cora interrupted, popping her head in between the two teenagers. "But how long is it going to be before we get to your house? If I'm in this jeep any longer I'm going to claw someone's eyes out."

"We're here," Stiles answered just as he pulled into his driveway.

Sage's stomach dropped at the site of the house, trying to get herself together so that she could willingly step into the place without a rush of emotions hitting her. It was sad to think about all the memories she's created just in the single home; whether it be back when she was a little girl and had play-dates with Stiles or when she came over to his house for the first time and watched movies.

The blonde got out of the jeep, having to help Cora as well to assure herself that she wasn't an irresponsible teenage-sitter. Stiles was off to the front door, unlocking it all while holding his phone up to his ear so that he could call his dad. Sage grabbed a hold of Cora's arm, slinging it over her shoulder to steady the brunette.

The younger girl winced. "I'm sorry, you know? It was low of me to bring him up."

"Just wish you would have killed him," Sage muttered, huffing once as she helped Cora up the driveway.

She knew she didn't mean her words, but her anger towards Aiden at the moment exceeded her former feelings towards him. The fact that he would go after Cora, knowing that the girl was one of the only people Sage had left to call family, just completely astounded her. She didn't see how he could have loved her at all when he's done everything in his power to prove his feelings wrong.

When she and Cora managed to stumble into the Stilinski home, Stiles was already off of the phone after sending his father a short-winded goodbye. His head hastily turned around and he stared at the two girls for a single second, a frown on his face when he noticed how Cora still looked pale.

"We can go to my room to wait for him," Stiles began, putting his phone back in his pocket. "It's the first door on the—"

Sage interrupted him. "I know where your room is, Stilinski."

Stiles' lips fell even farther and he nodded once, somewhat embarrassed that he had originally thought it was necessary to tell Sage where his room was. She had been to his house multiple times, even spent the night. He didn't know why he just randomly let it slip; it could be the lack of a blonde in his life, barely having seen the girl since Glen Capri.

Which, to this day, continued to eat away his ability to think straight.

He followed shortly after them, hoping his dad kept his promise about being there in five minutes. He still didn't know how in the hell he was supposed to explain to his father the biggest secret floating around Beacon Hills, much less actually get him to believe it was all real. With his luck, his dad would just call him crazy and lock him up in a mental institution.

At least Sage would be with him.

"Nice room," Cora commented, not exactly surprised at all of the posters and pictures captivating her attention the second she walked in. The wolf walked further into it, now off of Sage's shoulder as she began to explore. Coming upon something of interest, Cora's eyebrow quirked and she grabbed a hold of the picture, turning around to face the couple awkwardly standing next to each other. "When was this?"

Sage moved her eyes from Stiles' posters over to the girl, taking a few steps forward to see what she was holding. To her surprise, it had been an older picture taken of herself and Stiles. She knew when it had been captured only by what the two were wearing in the picture, her in a blood red dress and him in a tie.

"Winter formal last year," Sage commented, a small smile falling on her lips as she grabbed a hold of the picture. She glanced up at Cora and snorted slightly when she saw the girl's confused face. "It wasn't as fun as this picture made it out to be. Your uncle ended up ripping Lydia and I apart on the lacrosse field."

Cora hummed. "Sounds like something he would do."

"Yeah," Sage snorted, just before turning around to face Stiles with the picture held up. "I didn't know you had this."

Stiles, who had been surprisingly quiet the whole time, nodded once with his own little smile appearing on his face. "Lydia got it developed from my phone a while back. I haven't really had a chance to put it anywhere."

Before there were any more moments of nostalgia, Sheriff Stilinski came huffing through his son's bedroom door, uniform on his body informing the three that he was on duty. He got there a lot faster than Sage expected, but she assumed Stiles said it was an emergency of some sort to get him here.

"What's going on?" Sheriff asked, his eyebrows sky high as his eyes darted from Stiles to Sage, then over to Cora. "Stiles, you said it was an emergency."

Ding, ding, we have a winner for Sage.

Stiles opened his mouth but no words were coming out. The blonde standing near him happened to notice, taking matters into her own hands. "Sheriff, we have something we need to tell you."

"Oh, God," Sheriff said, appalled as he gaped at Sage. "You're not pregnant, are you?"

Stiles' eyes widened at the accusation. "What? No! She's not— look, can you just..."

Stiles' paused, his voice trailing off as he began gnawing at his nails, a bad habit that he had whenever he was nervous about something. Sage stepped off to the side when she noticed him begin to pace, another habit he had when he was nervous. It was plenty obvious that he was agitated about something.

Even Cora, who had no relation to the boy, rolled her eyes as she could smell the nerves literally oozing out of the teenage boy's body.

"Yes!" Stiles suddenly exclaimed, only to drop his head again. "No."

"Stiles," Sheriff hissed, growing annoyed at his hyperactive son.

The boy winced. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just... I'm trying to figure out how to start here."

"Hey, I don't have this kind of time."

Sage flinched, moving so that she was sitting down next to Cora. There was no way for her to help Stiles explain this, it was his father. Stiles was the only one capable of getting his dad to understand without the man running out of the room screaming to call the authorities for utter insanity.

"Okay," Stiles tried again, his breathing speeding up. "About a year ago, you had all of these cases that you couldn't figure out, right? I mean, all of the murders involving Kate Argent, Sage's family, Matt killing all of those people that drowned him, and... and all these murders right now. It's like you've been playing a losing game."

Bad start, Sage couldn't help but think.

Sheriff seemed to think so as well. "Stiles, the last thing I need right now is a job performance review from my own son."

Stiles immediately cringed, realizing that was exactly what he had done. Sage, on the other hand, began to inspect Stiles room to try and get her mind away from the conversation that was bound to crash and burn. The only thing that came out of it was the sight of something that might actually help the teenage boy explain everything, unlike his horrible ways of criticizing his dad.

Sage got up, interrupting Stiles' spluttering to walk in between him and his father. Her rude intrusion into their conversation had grabbed their attentions, and both glanced over to see what the blonde was so interested in that she was tempted to cross in front of them.

When she grabbed the object, turning around quickly, she held it up to her boyfriend. His mouth fell open in revelation, the sides of his lips pulling up into a grin. Sage turned to look at the sheriff, who was still confused about what his son was trying so desperately to infer, and stood next to Stiles with the chess board limply in her hands.

"The reason that you're losing the game is because you've never been able to see the whole board," Sage explained, just before putting down the chess board on Stiles' desk.

She knew there was a possibility of her sounding like a complete and total idiot, just speaking about a game that she barely knew anything about. However, due to the recent events in Blake's class early today, she had to at least try to get into Sheriff's head and think the way he would.

And, thankfully, Stiles had been right there to understand her, carefully gliding past Sage to pull open the chess board, revealing the pieces.

"We need to show you the whole board."

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ne

stage stAGE STAGE; saiden saiDEN SAIDEN. basically my whole life at this point; anyway, im writing this whilst listening to a playlist of all the songs that perfectly describe my characters, tara's characters, and amanda's characters— which is actually the shit if you were wondering.

if you want to check it out, my amazingly lovely friend kayla made it on her 8tracks. it's like two hours long but if you're a fan of our stories, you might as well (shamelessly promoting friends stories is what i do for a living); her account name is // justsimplykaylanicole // so do what you want with that. it's labeled songs for my baes pt.2 bc i mean baes.