MISSION MOONLARK, kotlc

40

"Huh? Who's Jolie? And does anyone want to tell me why Foster here looks like she's about to hurl all over my feet?"

Sophie felt her knees get weak, and Keefe slipped an arm around her waist, supporting some of her weight.

"Ruewen..." Sophie breathed. "Your parents. Grady and Edaline."

When Agent Leto had first recruited her for the Black Swan when she was only twelve years old, Grady and Edaline Ruewen served as her loving adoptive parents for about a year, until Sophie was officially sworn in to the agency and moved into her dorm with Biana. But Jolie...

"You're supposed to be dead," Sophie gasped. "They think you're dead!"

Jolie laughed. "Of course they do. If they thought I was still alive, things would have gone terribly wrong. No, I'm afraid my true parents can't know of my current existence."

"Y-you died in a fire!" The memories came rushing back all at once... Edaline crying in the dark of Jolie's old bedroom... Grady looking wistfully through his late daughter's Foxfire papers... the two of them mourning on what they thought would've been Jolie's birthday... "They cried for you, and all along, you were never really dead?"

"It was necessary," Jolie said stiffly, but she looked as if Sophie's words had struck a nerve. "I hated the Black Swan. I knew my parents were involved, of course- but I hated what the Black Swan did to my father. How many times they asked him to put his life at risk... they didn't care that he had a family, a wife, a daughter that he needed to get home to... And of course, my parents always insisted I was much too young to know about the agency, much less join it..."

Sophie shook her head in disgust. "So you faked your death. You had your family cry and mourn the loss of their own daughter just so you could join some freak spy agency."

"But the funny thing is, SF," Jolie said softly, "Isn't that what you did, too?"

Sophie sucked in a breath. It was true- she had begged, begged for the Black Swan to erase her family's memories of her instead of faking her own death. She knew what it would cost them. But it wasn't just her family that would remember her: what about her teachers, the few friends she'd made? The lie would be too complicated, the conspiracy too twisted. And the Black Swan couldn't afford to erase the memories of every single person Sophie had ever interacted with. So her death was faked instead. A freak car accident. The body was never found.

"I am nothing like you," Sophie spat, her teeth clenched so hard that her jaw hurt. "I didn't want to hurt my family. I didn't choose to leave them."

"So you agree that the Black Swan is evil?" Jolie raised an eyebrow. "They took you from your family. They left you no choice."

"That's not true," Sophie argued, but Jolie had a point.

Jolie rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm twenty five now. I haven't seen my parents for years, and I intend to keep it that way. And personally, SF, I would recommend you-"

Clunk!

"Sorry," Chloe said sheepishly, holding up the chemistry textbook that she'd just knocked Jolie unconscious with. "She was getting annoying."

Everyone gaped at her.

"Y-y-you just knocked out a Neverseen member. With a textbook. In broad daylight." Fitz stared at her.

Chloe shrugged. "Chem was getting boring. And I figured maybe I'd help you all out. Good thing she didn't see me coming up from behind her." Chloe scanned the textbook appreciatively. "I'm glad these things have like three million pages, for once."

Dex cracked a smile. "I like her. Can she help out?"

Biana scowled. "She's not even a spy. We'll get in trouble for letting our secret slip out. Agent Leto will never trust us again. And you don't like her that much... right?"

"Leto didn't trust us in the first place," Fitz pointed out, ignoring the last part of Biana's statement. "And besides, she's shown some aptitude already. Eavesdropping on us. Knocking her out." He lightly kicked Jolie's limp arm, testing her consciousness.

"I mean, it's kind of too late now," Sophie admitted. "She already knows everything. And besides, if Jolie's been posing as a teacher for longer than we've been here-"

"-she has," Chloe put in helpfully. "She joined at the start of the school year."

"-then maybe Chloe can give us some more information about her," Sophie finished. Chloe flashed her a grateful smile.

"It's settled then," Keefe decided. "Here- Fitz, help me pick Jolie up. We can interrogate her once she wakes up. And Chloe- it's still school hours. I've had plenty of practice, but you're going to need to help me out with these goody-two shoes."

He pointed to the others. Chloe beamed, obviously happy with all the attention.

Sophie felt a sharp flare of jealousy as Keefe flashed Chloe a hopeful smile. "Do you happen to have any experience with ditching class?"

a/n: guys if keefe sencen smiled at me i would actually pass out <3

tysm for reading!! It would mean a lot if you could vote, comment, follow, share, etc. but no pressure <3 heres your daily reminder that you are beautiful and you matter <3 love you all! xoxo, squishy <33