UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 21

"Sophie?" A voice said through the darkness.  Something was shaking her awake, but Sophie didn't want to follow them.  She just wanted to slink farther and farther into the darkness, surrounded by shadows, and-

"Keefe, I think you overdid it," the voice said, concern laced through every syllable.  At the sound of Keefe's name, her eyes snapped open and the world came into focus, blurry blobs hovering over her.  She shook the nausea from her senses, and sat up, feeling like something was trampling her brain.

"Oh, good," the voice said, sounding relieved.  "You're awake."

Biana.  That's who had been calling her.  She offered her friend a weak smile as she scanned her surroundings.

They were still in Atlantis, Team Valiant hovering over her like she was some sort of unique specimen.  The figure who caught her eye was...

"Keefe," she said.

"Yup! That's me.  Care to tell your fellow admirers what happened?"

Suddenly a flood of realizations avalanched into her head again, and she gripped the cement trying to keep her bearings.

"It's a trap," she managed, the world still spinning.  "That thing on the tracker, it's stellarlune.  The thing that I used to wake you up, Keefe.  The goal was never to track me- although that was definitely part of it.  They knew we would find out about the trackers, scan it for evidence, and find the stellarlune.  They want us to know that they have access to the stellarlune.  And if I had to guess.... the only way to find Grady, Edaline, and Maruca is to somehow take the stellarlune from them."

"So they're luring us here," Wylie deadpanned.

"Yes."

"And it's a trap?" Keefe added.

"Yes."

"And we're just going to go in and-"

"Yes!" Sophie snapped, and instantly felt guilty.  "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell.  It's just-"

"Yeah, we're going," Wylie said, backing her up.  

"So.... it's a mission where we know they'll be waiting for us, but we have to take the stellarlune from them somehow?  What do they get out of that?  Are they going to try to take something from us... or maybe take one of us?"  Keefe looked about as worried as Sophie felt.

"We have to risk it.  And we also have to get Tam, Linh, and probably Fitz too. We're going to need all the help we can get."

Keefe looked at her like she was some kind of mutant, which granted, she technically was.

"So we're breaking into the Neverseen's abandoned base with nothing but a group of teenagers agains some of the oldest, most experienced and powerfully evil beings in the universe, with no idea what we're doing and what we're looking for?"

"Story of my life." Sophie said.

_________

Sophie stared at the fountain in the center of Atlantis.

Would she be willing to risk everything- every loss and choice and hard decision she'd ever faced to set things right?

Did she have to courage to face them?

Would she do it?

For Grady.

And Edaline.

And Maruca.

And everyone else who needed them too?

She gave on last glance at Keefe, before Linh raised her arms and the fountain exploded.