"He's dead," Sky hollowly repeats, seeming to not be able to comprehend it. "But . . . he can't . . ."

Mason shakes his head, "Melissa, it's--"

"Shut up! He's too strong to die like this. Come on. You can do this," Melissa says hysterically. "You're an Alpha. You're an Alpha. Come on, Scott. Roar. Come on! Come on, Scott!" she lifts her clasped hands to thump him on the chest as hard as she can. "Roar!"

And despite all odds, Scott's eyes snap open, blaring red, and he roars. The sound echoes loudly through the library, and no doubt the school as Scott finally breathes again, his head rising from the ground from the force.

Scott wasn't dead. 

He was alive.

Snapping into action, Sky jumps, scrambling up and forward until she drops next to Scott so harshly it probably bruised her knees, but she didn't care. Gone were any thoughts of anger or animosity towards him. It didn't matter, none of it did. He was her brother, her twin. 

She drops to the floor by his head, pulling him on her lap when he sags back, breathing heavily. Around him, almost everyone cries in relief.

Squeezing his hand tightly, Ariel sniffles, laughing when he squeezes back, "Scott, never die again."

"I'll try," Scott whispers, blinking dazedly. He smiles slightly when he feels Sky squeezing him tightly and looks up, seeing her gazing down at him with tearful eyes, along with a kind of pain on her features he'd never seen before and never wanted to see again. Carefully, she leans down, tapping their foreheads together gently. 

"I'm sorry, Sky," Scott whispers, a little brokenly.

"Theo lied," Ariel explains to her quietly after a moment when she sees Sky shaking her head in confusion. "Probably about everything. So he could kill Scott."

Sky stills then, and Ariel can almost see the fury rising in her posture before the girl manages to snuff it out for a second, looking down at her brother, "Don't worry about it, okay? Forget everything. It's not important," she murmurs. She quickly kisses his head, and then passes him over to their Mom to help him up as she stands. 

The fury returns, Sky's hands visibly trembling before they clench tightly into white-knuckled fists, her gaze dark with a hue of blue edging through despite the restraint. 

"I'm gonna find him, and I'm gonna --."

"Wait," Ariel stands up with her, holding a hand out quickly before she goes raging after Theo. "Don't go rushing in, okay? Theo's been lying to us this whole time to pull us apart. We need to stick together."

Sky hesitates, glancing between them all, making them almost expect her to just run off in a fit of anger. But to their surprise, she rolls her shoulders, takes a breath, then relents, nodding.

"Okay."