"I'm sorry."
"Sometimes sorry doesn't cut it."
"I know."
"So why did you do it?"
"You would have been even more endangered if I hadn't."
"What?"
"Can't you see, Sophie? I didn't do it to betray you, I did it to help you."
"How is making me have a mental breakdown supposed to help me, exactly?"
"I did it to become a double agent, goddammit! Everything I did was for you."
"Why didn't you tell anyone then? Don't you dare think that this truth is going to make me any less mad at you, Sencen."
"Oh, going to surnames are we now? Fine then Foster, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for wanting you all to be safe!"
"We could have gone with you! We could have all given in to them and falsely lead them into a trap."
"Don't you think I've thought of that? That would have made it too suspicious. I was the perfect one for the job, my mother was in the Neverseen and I was insecure!"
"So why did you go? Why leave us broken?"
"Because, I knew how it felt to be worse than that, and I didn't want you to go from broken to shattered. I'm sorry."
---------------------------
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I couldn't save you."
"So what? We're here now."
"Bah, hell would have been more interesting."
"Keefe..."
"Foster..."
"Oh come on, we can look after our friends from up here."
"But then we have to see them grieving over us."
"Oh please, they got over it."
"Sophie, Biana and Dex literally cry over albums of the photos you took with them on your tablet thingy. And Fitz stares at the Albertosaurus or whatever every once in a while, and you can clearly see, mhmphnm,"
"Hush."
"Kissing me to shut me up isn't fair, Foster."
"Since when did you care about what's fair?"
"Since I - "
"Wait, Keefe, shush."
"You didn't kiss me this time."
"I know, wait, listen. Biana's whispering to Dex about something, and they look really pained."
"Oh no, they're talking about us."
"How do you know that?"
"Foster, listen."
"I can hear her now, wait, she's saying that she's sorry over and over again."
"Aw, look at the intimate moment between the lovebir-"
"Keefe, listen. Closely."
He did. He listened as Dex held his shaking girlfriend in his arms, telling her that they were in a better place.
"I'm sorry, Sophie. I'm sorry Keefe. I'm so, so sorry."
Dex sighed and pulled Biana even closer, if that was possible.
"I'm sorry too."
Fitz came in at that moment, also with puffy eyes and with Tam and Linh.
They two twins sat down beside Biana, and soothingly rubbed her back as Fitz sighed and plopped down on Dex's bed.
"Their deathday anniversary never gets easier, does it? And its only been three years..."
Dex sighed again and shook his head, stroking Biana's hair.
Tam suddenly stood, his eyes wide.
"I feel something, like a presence. It's familiar, but it's definitely not a corporeal creature..."
He pressed his fingers to his temples and gasped, his eyes watering.
"It's Sophie and Keefe," he whispered as tears started to stream down his face.
"They're watching over us, guys. They know we miss them. And they're looking after us. I can feel them."
Biana cried harder.
"Keefe, you're crying."
"So are you. A lot. And by that I mean your tears are creating an ocean."
"Oh, shut it."
"And there goes that moment."
"Keefe, but look. It's been three years. And yet..."
"Foster, they just miss me and my amazing looks too much."
"You sure?"
"Yup. I'm going to go back inside. The wishing pond has been squeezed of its powers far too long."
"It never runs out, Keefe."
"So much for a moment."
"Go inside."
"Okay, Lady."
Sophie looked back at the clear image of her friends in the dazzling water.
"I'm sorry."
