Green. That was what he was wearing, the colour of life, which wasn't right because none of them were ever coming back. All he could see was grey, the world was grey, he almost couldn't see the colours that were in front of him. He couldn't think of anything but everything that had happened.
Sophie had faded, enough that they couldn't recognize her. Even her eyes which were usually deep brown had looked grey, like a faded blue. The fade fuel, the allergic reaction, she was already so close to gone from the fading, there was no getting her back, he got there with just enough time to say what he needed to. Of course the reason she wasn't concentrating was almost as bad.
It had been rather run of the mill. Go capture a few neverseen agents, leave . That simple, but it wasn't. They had succeeded the entire base either captured or dead, or so they thought. Sophie was about to leap home when suddenly, one of them seemingly came back from the dead. They started trying to hit us with medlers and other weapons Biana was hit in the arm but she kept going trying to get to Dex so they could light leap to somewhere safe (Dex hand left his pathfinder and had no other way to get out). Sophie raised her light leaping crystal and started to leap when it all happened. Biana was hit square in the chest causing her to fly backwards. She fell from a height just high enough to break her neck, cutting off her air and killing her. Well Dex was distracted another Neverseen agent came and smashed him up against a wall, he stabbed him in the neck, both of their airstreams cut off they left the world together, he was sure they would have wanted it like that, not dying was still more preferable. Yet it still got worse.
Keefe had killed himself. It had been unexpected and terrible. He had seemed happy, like he was getting better; it seemed like he was recovering. Tam found him first, Keefe had hung himself ; the rope still around his neck. Fitz hadn't really known how to feel about it. Keefe was of course his best friends, he couldn't help but feel slightly responsible. He wondered if there was any thing he missed. Thinking about it he was always wearing long sleeves. Keefe's death was terrible, but he wasn't the first to die.
Seventy eight hours. That's how long they'd been looking for Linh; how long she'd been missing. Finally they had a lead they knew where she was. They had stormed the base, people dropping to the ground as they threatened to hit them with a variety of weapons. Then out of nowhere, a single scream. Linh. They ran in the direction of her scream. When they got there it was too late. Linh's lifeless body already sprawled on the ground. They had carried her body back to the black swan hide out. Her cause of death was ruled dead by water electrocution torture. They all broke down.
It was only two weeks ago but he felt so much less innocent than he had then.
As bad as all of his other friends dying had been the death of Sophie Foster had been the worst. He had been sitting there waiting for his parents to tell them about what happened to Biana. His parents had run into the room.
"Fitz someone has faded we're meeting Sophie there." Alden had yelled taking out his Pathfinder.
"Dad wait there's something you should know, it's about Biana" Fitz stopped them.
"She's with Dex's isn't she?" Asked Della.
Fitz considered telling them now but it wouldn't be a lie to say she was with Dex. He liked to believe that she was.
They light leaped there. Sophie wasn't there yet (at least that's what they thought.). Then they used the fade fuel on the patient. It worked, at first. Sophie opened her eyes, still very faded but with a small amount of colour then her true identity was obvious. There was panic. They tried to do something, an elixir anything really. She stopped them.
"There's nothing left to do." She whispered calmly.
Fitz kneeled next to her; grabbing her hand. Then he did something rash. He pulled out the ring he'd been saving for a few months now. He pulled one of his legs out from underneath himself leaving him on only one knee.
"Sophie Foster," he started a few tears forming in his eyes, shaking he continued,"will you marry me?" He asked entirely sobbing.
"Yes." Sophie sobbed back grabbing onto him. Fitz pulled her into his arms as she put her head down in his chest.
He was able to feel her heart as the beat of it slowly stopped. He could feel it as her chest slowly stopped moving, and he could feel it as her breathe slowly stopped brushing the skin on his arm.
She closed her eyes right before her breathe entirely stopped.
No. No , no , no. They couldn't All be gone. Not Sophie, not Biana or Dex, Not Keefe, and even Linh's death still hadn't sunk in. How had he let this happen, this was all on him.
Juline and Kesler came rushing into the room. Grady and Edaline came rushing past them seeing Sophie's Body caused Grady to drop to the ground. Edaline ran forwards; attempting to wake Sophie up, but her heart had already stopped. His own Weeping intensified as he tried to sob out the words that he knew he had to say.
"Biana and Dex they…." He couldn't get the words out but managed to barely finish his sentence, "They were killed, it was what distracted Sophie." He managed to slow his sobbing into silent tears. He assumed there was other people crying but in the moment he didn't care, everything was gone. There wasn't anything left to hold on to. He felt himself slowly start to slip away.
Fitz sat on the bottom step of Everglen. He wondered who would be there. Probably everyone. His biggest question was if Alvar would be there. He had to guess the answer was no. Closing his eyes made everything come back to him, so he was trying not to even blink. It just gave him flashbacks and hallucinations, Sophie standing there nearly transparent was the most common thing. Then he would move towards her, and wake up jolting forwards. His parents had already left ; leaving him alone with his thoughts. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about his thoughts. All he really knew about them was that it was just things he could have done to stop all of this. There was so many. If They had gotten to Linh faster. Payed closer attention to Keefe. Just checking one more time that all of the never seen agents were dead would have saved Dex, Biana, and Sophie. Why hadn't he tried harder. Why hadn't he kept them safe. He was the oldest, it was his job to protect everyone, and he had failed. Now the Neverseen was winning, and they only had one weapon left; project Flareadon; all that was left of Sophie.
Tiergan had pulled them aside informed them that after Linh's death they found it important to get DNA from all future members of collective and their partners (most of them had ended up with each other). Sophie and Fitz were the last to get their DNA taken. They were however informed that their DNA was the most important as it would be used to create project Flareadon in the event that something were to happen to The moonlark. They had decided on the name after they had chosen the abilities that would be required for project flareadon to receive. Telepathy, Inflicting, Phaser, and pyrokinesis. She would of course also have the ability to heal minds.
He felt his tears start again as he light leaped to the wanderling woods. The ceremony was terrible and tragic. He talked about Biana, and Sophie, his fondest memories with both of them; he had wanted to talk about Dex but had thought that that spot would be better filled by one of his siblings. He stood back well the wanderling's were planted. He watched as everyone slowly left. He listened as they apologized for his mistake. He cried as they told him there was nothing he could have done; he cried because he knew there was so many things he could have done. He watched as Alvar came up to their parents and begged for their forgiveness. Which he received even if Fitz would never forgive him for the things he said and did. He watched as the The flowers blossomed on all of the tree's. He watched the last people left tears in their eyes. He watched the sun slowly descend leaving the forest in darkness. Reached out running his hands over the brown gold leaves that belonged to Sophie's tree. He could almost hear her voice. Fitz removed his cognate rings and slipped them on the same branch that Sophie's were on. They snapped together as he sat at the bottom of the tree. He knew his mind was breaking but there was one last thing he had to do. One last person he had to transmit to. He didn't know exactly where she was but he was quite sure he could reach out to this person. He was almost certain he could find the mind of his daughter. As he reached out with one final message the world went black . His mind was broken.