Eden Reawakened - KOTLC an alternative end

Part one - Emomemory

Sophie woke up with cold sweat on her forehead. The bed beneath her felt stiff and the sheets scratchy and strange smelling. Blurry pictures of her friends withering away still lingered in her mind, making it hard for her to decide if they were memories, or mere nightmares, and Keefe, she could almost feel his dread and agony.

She opened her eyes slowly in a daze, afraid of what she might see when she does and finding it extremely hard to focus. She heard someone calling her name:

 “Sophie!” - Commanding her to wake up.

A pair of ice blue eyes were examining her intensely and she felt every tight muscle in her body slowly start to relax. She imagined a cool green breeze of hope promising everything was actually ok. 

But something seemed a bit off, something was missing in these eyes she knew so well.  What was it? She couldn't put a finger on it, her mind blank after the nightmares vanished. And then it dawned on her, even before her vision cleared enough, these were not Keefe’s. She was staring at Lady Gisela! 

Lady Gisela was Keefe's mom so it wasn't surprising that her eyes should look so similar to his but, Lady Gisela was a murder, a villain, a monster… 

Sophie took a deep breath at the realisation and her muscles immediately tightened back, her new gained fighting instincts kicking in. She quickly moved her hand into the satchel on her back, leaning forward to grab her dagger. But being only half awake and clumsy as ever, she miscalculated how closely Lady Gisela was sitting and bumped her head right into Lady Gisela's head.  The Black Swan really should have given her some anti-clumsy genes!

“ENOUGH!”, “ENOUGH SOPHIE” - Lady Gisela said in a hushed voice. 

Enough... enough… - The word echoed inside Sophie's head which felt unusually empty. Where did everything go? Her head never felt that way… But then the word, “enough”, bounced from the back of her head and she slowly started to remember:

Lady Gisela yelling ENOUGH, Sophie attacking, Elysian appearing, and Keefe's pale and horrified face as he realised he can’t feel anything. The memories of the day before came flushing into her mind like a waterfall, the last thing she remembered was her sealing the deal she hoped could save Keefe. Save all of them, and at that she became wide awake.

“Keefe?” she asked, not managing anymore than that. 

“He's downstairs, no reason to worry. He's getting acquainted with the new surroundings, though I doubt it's a good use of his time, given we will not be staying here long.”, said Lady Gisela.

“Is he okay?” - Sophie insisted.

“Didn't I just tell you there's nothing to worry about? I suggest you get up. Let's not waste any more time. Now that we're working together I expect you to keep to a schedule.” 

Sophie was still coming to terms with this new reality of working with Lady Giselle, especially on something so huge, but she was determined. Despite all the bad choices she had made over the last few years, she had no doubt in her mind she made the right one this time, and for once, her heart agreed. Now it was time to get up and do what she was always meant to!

Sophie tried to sit up and managed to bang her head again, this time against the bunk bed right above her. Keefe's bed. Flutters filled her stomach at the thought, causing her thoughts to drift for a moment. She spent the night in the same room as Keefe. This wasn’t the first time they spent a night together. But somehow it felt different from their previous “sleep overs”, which were mostly when one of them was waiting for the other to wake up from some close encounter with death, and of course there was the window slumber party at Alluveterre. A knot of shame formed in her throat as she remembered the drawing in Keefe’s green book, of her and Fitz doing cognate training there. On top of all he was going through he had to deal with that. With her not seeing him, not the way he wanted, with her obliviousness, as Ro loved to call it, to her own feelings. She couldn’t help wondering, did he know? Of course he knew! Yet still he never said anything… or maybe he has, and she failed to hear?