UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 36

"Keefe, stop!"  The words ripped out of her as she leaped over the broken door and tackled Keefe before he could do whatever he was going to do to Fitz. For a second their eyes met but something wasn't the same about him.  His usual ice blue eyes looked dulled and vacant.  

Reprogramming.  That must've been what Adela had been talking about.  Because attacking his best friend did not seem like a very Keefe thing to do.  And attacking her... now that was scary. But it also jolted Sophie back to the present.

They rolled over the wooden wreckage.  For a second his eyes danced with color and he stopped, his features contorting.  He was fighting it, whatever they were doing to make him attack Fitz, Sophie realized.

"Stop-  I can't-" Keefe was cut off as his face returned to it's glossy, glazed over expression.  He literally looked like he was fighting with himself.  "Do something," he panted.  "Can't stop-"

Sophie dodged a punch and rolled past him.  Keefe took a robotic step forward, but grabbed hold of a painting hanging on the wall, trying to restrain himself.  "Do it!" He yelled.

So Sophie did the only thing she could think of. She let her emotions boil up, bubbling until they spilled over and directed it all at Keefe.

His eyes opened wide with shock and realization, before he crumpled to the floor.

___________

Elwin looked so surprised when she showed up lugging Keefe and Fitz (both knocked out) with the help of Sandor, Sophie was afraid she might pass out like the rest of them.  Nevertheless, he helped them get into cots as Sophie rushed through her not-so-thorough explanation of what happened.

"The good news is that Fitz looks okay," Elwin said when she was finished.  "He has a nice, thick head.  I think he'll wake up in a minute or too and I'll send him back to Everglen with an explanation and a few mood stabilizers, seeing as you two probably didn't end on good terms."

"We didn't," Sophie agreed, holding her breath as she waited for Keefe's  news.

"We could wake Keefe up- but seeing as he has almost no control over what they're doing to him..."

"You just want to keep him like this?" Sophie gestured to him.

"I think it might be smartest," Elwin admitted, and Sandor added, "I agree."

"Well I don't." Sophie knew she was being stubborn but it wasn't Keefe's fault.  They didn't get to keep him knocked out like that just because the Neverseen were manipulating him.  They manipulated all of them. If they decided to go that route, they might as well keep the whole elvin world unconscious.

"Think about it, though," Elwin tried, but Sophie half-zoned her out.  "If he came to attack you- or Grady or Edaline-"

Sophie stopped listening. 

She thought that she'd fixed everything by feeding Keefe the stellarlune- he'd woken up with a brand new ability, just like he was supposed to.  But now that was just a liability.  If she could somehow negotiate with Adela....

"Yeah, okay," Sophie said absentmindedly.  "Let's go, Sandor."

She was dying to talk to Adela.

Unfortunately, Sandor saw the look in her eyes because he stopped her from exiting and asked suspiciously, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Home," Sophie said.  That was only half a lie.

______________

"Adela!" Sophie shouted into the darkness.  "Stop doing what you're doing to Keefe."

"Oh, so my little Moonlark has seen what we can do, then?" Adela cooed.

Sophie gritted her teeth with frustration.  Her calmness was taunting.  "What do you need me to do to find some way that he can't be controlled?"

Adela laughed.  "Gisela was right. You care about the boy more than anyone realizes."

"He has a name," Sophie growled.  "And again: Tell me what I need to do so that you guys will stop doing whatever you're doing to control him."

The fact that Adela didn't even hesitate to give her an answer scared Sophie the most.

"Meet tomorrow night at the cave where we took you," Adela ordered, but the one word she added after it made it so much worse.

"Alone."