UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 51

Sophie stumbled into Atlantis, shaking the thickness from her voice- and her head- as her eyes adjusted to the dim streetlights and the familiar fountain of Nightfall fizzled into view.  Her eyes shot past it, towards the fountain directly across from it.

And it was honestly kind of sad that she wasn't surprised or startled at all when Adela and Lady Gisela greeted her at the fountain, glaring down at her as Adela pinned an unconcious-looking Keefe back by his shirt.

Sophie didn't think she could get any more relieved as she focused in on Keefe's breathing and noticed how steady it was.

"Let him go," Sophie said darkly.

"No, I don't think I will," Lady Gisela said sweetly, her face sour despite her cheery attitude.  "Sophie, you don't know how much I have been waiting, longing for this moment... Keefe's legacy... it's all part of a bigger whole."

"Stop talking about him like that!" Sophie said angrily, glancing at Adela who was just watching her fellow Neverseen member with amusement.

"Like what?" Lady Gisela asked, trying for innocence but sounding more absentminded than Sophie guessed she was trying.

"Like you're using him.  He's a real person, you know that," Sophie snarled at her.  

She doubted she could take both of them out- last time, in the cave, had been lucky, and she'd been exhausted even after that.  Right now, it was all about stalling- and waiting, trying to prod out the information about Keefe's legacy.

"I'm well aware," Lady Gisela scoffed, staring at her son as if she'd just decided to realize he was actually a living, breathing person.  "Real people, with real feeling, real thoughts, real emotions... they just make them easier to deceive."

"That's not true!" Sophie told her coldly.

Lady Gisela raised an eyebrow.  "What if I said, that if you didn't come with me, hands up, follow me to the Neverseen's base, and do our work without telling anyone, or else my son..."  She shrugged, but that was enough for Sophie to lunge forward and scream, her voice raw, "Don't!"

Lady Gisela just laughed.  "See? You care. It's your biggest flaw." She stared at Sophie, narrowing her eyes.  "I've told you before.  If it was just you- just the Moonlark, in all you're beautiful shining glory- we'd be hopelessly outmatched.  But you have friends- and maybe even people that are more than friends. It gives us more wiggle room, more pieces to play with."

Sophie felt her blood run cold as she whispered shakily, "It's all part of a bigger whole."

Lady Gisela smiled with the same false cheeriness as she had greeting her.  "Exactly. Now you understand, don't you?  You know the stakes? You know what's going to happen? Deep down you know what you have to do. You've guessed it from the beginning. He-"

"Don't!" Sophie yelled at her, her vision blurred. "Don't finish that sentence!"

Lady Gisela laughed again, her voice aggravatingly calm.  "Sophie. Listen to me."

"Never," Sophie snarled, even though her brain was yelling at her to retreat, retreat, retreat and her heart was longing, longing to do anything for that beautiful blonde boy in Adela's arms...

"It's over, Sophie," Lady Gisela said, her voice restraining to a graceful whisper.  She stepped forward, and Sophie stiffened like plywood.  She curled her fingertips underneath Sophie's chin.

"It's not over until I say it is," Sophie said, feeling like she was in some dramatic human movie.  "And stop touching me."

Lady Gisela obediently recoiled.  "Last chance," she warned her.  "I promise you, if surrender doesn't come easily to you, I promise I can leave something with a lasting impression."

"Don't!" Sophie repeated.  Why was she even waiting?

"Project Moonlark was a bust. You are being used just as much as he is, you realize this?  Look, look at Adela.  For once, do you see yourself in her?  I know it might be hard, seeing how different your views remain, but...." Lady Gisela dropped her voice even lower.  "I've always believed in Project Moonlark, did you know that? But when Adela's dear brothers failed... well....?" 

She smiled coyly. Sophie wanted to tear that smile of her face.

"I took it on myself to make sure all that waste didn't go to.. well waste."

And Sophie realized that Dex had been right.

All those years.

All that planning. Scheming. Deciding.

Drama and battles and deaths and losses and....

Project Moonlark didn't matter if it was a bust or not. Because all this time, the Neverseen had been creating their own version of Project Moonlark. Made to defy. To destroy.  

To tear down everything the Council had ever worked for.

Sophie was made to protect- but she was born to oppose.

And the fear nestled deep inside her as she admitted to herself who that person was.

She looked Lady Gisela straight into her malicious ice blue eyes as she whispered quietly....

"Keefe."