Reversed

x. ten

Sophie could see Lady Gisela trying to find a way to play the situation to their advantage.

"Smart move, trapping yourselves in here with us," she said, trying to decipher their motives. 

"Well, that also means you can't escape," Dex pointed out. "Plus, I'm the only one who knows how to take it down."

"See, that's where you're wrong," Ruy said. "Thanks, by the way. You just provided a Psionipath with a giant force field." He glanced at Gisela, Asher, and Alvar near the covered door. He raised his arms, obviously planning to open up the force field enough for them to get out.

"We planned for that," Fitz said. he still had Sophie's arms pinned. "It's a not the kind of force field you can control. 

"But a force field nonetheless." Ruy's face was still obscured by his hood, but his voice sounded tense.

She could tell that it was hard for him to get a grip on the force field. But the Black Swan had severely underestimated his abilities.

This was the elf who had broken Atlantis's force fields—the strongest and longest-standing force fields in the Lost Cities—single-handedly. 

He pushed out his arms one more time, and he grunted as a hole slowly ripped itself into the section over the door. "Go!" he gasped at the Neverseen members that had just gone through. "You too, Oman."

Sophie's old friends tried to stop them, but Asher summoned a fireball to his hands and warded them off when they stepped too close. Marella tried to reach him, but Asher had more training, and Trix was helping to push her back with gusts of wind.

In the confusion, Sophie telepathically screamed in Fitz's brain. It was a dirty trick that Gethen had taught her, but it worked anyway. Fitz dropped her arms and gripped his head in pain. "Ah!" Sophie channeled energy into her now-free upper body muscles, her veins popping out as she ripped the metal spikes pinning her legs to the ground. Fitz made to grab her again, but his headache blurred his vision and Sophie rolled out of reach.

As Asher dashed through the hole, following the other members, Ruy let go of the force field and sank to his knees, panting.

Dex looked over at Mr Forkle. He had been tapping furiously at the wall, trying to reinforce the shield. "That shouldn't have been possible."

"And yet... it was," Ruy panted, shakily rising to his feet. "As is... this." He raised his face to the spot where the force field covered up the opening they had come through. And... he opened it.

Trix knew what to do without being told and immediately leapt into the air, levitating out of the hole. Sophie followed, but she didn't go all the way through. She stuck her arm through the tear and kept it there.

"Now, Ruy!" She yelled.

"Dex, close the force field!" Biana screamed.

"I can't," Dex said. He shook his head in frustration. "Not unless you me to cut off Sophie's arm."

Sophie smirked. "Catch you later." She pushed herself through the hole after Ruy.

"Wait!" Fitz shouted, but she was already gone.

As she levitated up, Sophie could hear shouts of "Dex!" and Dex sarcastically saying, "Great, now you need my help?" before Trix summoned a wind to hasten their ascent. The breeze pushed them up and the trio shot to the surface and crash landed, scrambling to keep running.

They sprinted as fast as their legs would carry them, the ground beginning to blur. Ruy fumbled through his pockets for a pathfinder. He pulled it out, and everyone screeched to a halt. He held it up, but the light wouldn't hit it. Moonlight was already insufficient for leaping, but to make matters worse...

"There are clouds over the moon," Ruy murmured.

"It doesn't matter," Sophie said. "I can just teleport us." She grabbed Ruy and Trix's hands, half dragging them as they rose into the air.

Sophie glanced down as they rose and saw the Black Swan rushing out of the hole. "Faster," she hissed at herself through gritted teeth. Higher... higher... higher...

"Okay—now!"

"I hate this part," Ruy muttered under his breath, nearly squeezing her hand to death. He, Sophie, and Trix stopped levitating and let free-fall overtake them.

Sophie closed her eyes, focusing on the energy pulsing in her mind. She was so close...

Somebody grabbed her from behind and she was ripped away from Trix and Ruy. She tried to reach for a weapon, thrashing wildly, but the attacker wouldn't let go.

"Sophie!" Trix and Ruy were still plummeting. Trix was trying to use the wind to break their fall, but it was doing little to nothing. Neither of them could concentrate enough to levitate. Her heart dropped.

Sophie and the elf who'd grabbed her hit the ground. She wrestled free and shot back up, but the person grabbed her leg and pulled her back down. "Stop!" Fitz said.

Sophie shouted, pummeling his grip on her, but she knew she couldn't get out. Her own fall had happened in seconds, and only a few were left before Ruy and Trix hit the ground with nothing to break their impact. Ruy was trying to conjure force fields around them, but he was still too weak from opening Dex's.

"The moon," Sophie gasped, still struggling in Fitz's arms. The clouds had moved away. Leap! I can handle myself. I'll escape whatever they have planned for me. 

Ruy met her eyes one last time before shimmering away. A split second before him and Trix would've splattered on the ground.

His expression had been hard, like leaving without her was the last thing he wanted to do—or maybe that he was going to kill her once he saw her again.

Sophie gave one last half-hearted kick at Fitz, but he just tightened his grip. His mouth was a thin line. "Not this time." Blood soaked through his sleeve from where she had caught him with a dagger.

Sophie's head spun. She felt so tired all of the sudden, like she'd just ran two marathons without stopping. She had exhausted her body, and with no motivation left, she succumbed to the darkness.