Disclaimer: I do not own Howls Moving Castle or any of the characters I just own this fan fiction that you are reading right now.
The underlining is Howl talking to himself. The italics are his conscious sorry bout the confusion.
"I have something to protect now…it's you." Howl said to Sophie, flying out the door into the war ahead.
"HOWL!" Sophie yelled after him.
"Howl, you can't do this." She said, chasing him down or at least trying to she lost him after a while.
'I must find him! I can't stand this!' She thought.
"Finally, it's about time you came. Thank you, Sophie, for not making me wait any longer." A calm voice said to her right.
"Huh?" Sophie said, turning to her right and was shocked as to who it was.
"Madame Sullivan?!" She said.
"What do you want with Howl?" She said, narrowing her eyes at her.
"His life. It's that simple, you are the key to his demise and I will make sure it happens." She explained.
"Well, you can't do it! I would never let Howl die!"
"You don't have to. If Howl loses his powers he would be like the Witch of the Waste, powerless."
"How would that happen?"
"You're his weakness and he has to give them up willingly. You figure it out." She said coldly.
Sullivan raised her hand at Sophie. Instantly Sophie felt extreme pain and huge gashes on her body burst everywhere on her. She screamed from the pain and fell to the ground.
Trying to catch her breath but only huffing she looks up at Madame Sullivan.
Why are-you-doing-this?" She said, breathing between each word. Blood was already starting to pool around her she didn't have much time left.
"To rid Howl of his powers." She said simply, as though everyone should have known.
"That won't happen I won't let it!" Sophie cried.
"Sullivan sighed in disgust and waved her hand again. Sophie felt that same excruciating pain she had felt before. Now her wounds were much deeper.
'Howl, please help me' she thought
A couple miles away a war was getting underway. And Howl was smack-dab in the middle of it.
"Sophie." He said.
He took off towards where he knew she would be. Don't ask how but he just knew. He also knew she was in trouble, major trouble.
He was flying faster and faster trying to get to her quicker. As though, if he were a second to slow she would die. He was right, almost.
He finally reached where she was. He was surprised to see his old mentor there also. Then again he wasn't. He landed and reverted back to his human form.
"What are you doing to Sophie, Sullivan?" he asked calmly. He seemed calm but his insides were screaming at him for a lot of things. One, how could he have let this happen? Second, he should never have left her alone. Third was to get her to safety as fast as possible.
"I'm just showing you that loving someone is hopeless. You'll only get them hurt." She sneered at him, while Sophie screamed from pain.
"Sophie!" he cried as he tried to get to her, but Sullivan got in his way.
"Nuh-uh-uh." She said waving her finger at him.
"Let her go!" he said, he was beyond pissed off.
"I won't hurt her anymore if and only if you get rid of your powers willingly."
"You swear you won't hurt her?"
"I swear I won't hurt her anymore."
Howl stood there thinking about it. Meanwhile his conscious had something to say about that.
'Are you seriously thinking about this? It should be an easy decision! Give up the damn powers!'
'But if I don't have my powers we both don't know what will happen to me.'
'I, for one, don't give a damn about you or your powers. We just need to make sure Sophie is alright, you know the love of your life.'
'Alright, alright.'
"Fine." Howl said to Sullivan.
"Excellent!" She said, and was now muttering some weird unknown incantation, as Howl started to feel his powers slowly draining from him.
"Thank you, Howl. Thank you too, Sophie, you were the one to make this all possible. I'm sorry you had to die this way." She teased.
"You said you wouldn't harm her anymore!" He cried at her.
"Your right and I am not. The wounds are. She is bleeding to death if you don't believe me then see for yourself." She motioned to the ground.
Howl gasped. Why hadn't he seen it before? A huge puddle of blood was pooling around Sophie getting bigger every second.
"NOO!" Howl roared.
Madame Sullivan took this moment to transport herself back to the castle. Her king was waiting for her.
Howl felt weak in his knees. He looked down at Sophie who was slowly but surely dieing, right before his eyes. He collapsed beside her on his knees, trying to stay calm.
"Sophie….I'm so, so sorry I didn't come here sooner. I never should have left you." He told her.
"It's….alright," she said softly, "Howl there's….something I…need…to…to tell you." (And yes I meant to put two to's)
"No…I want to say something first," he said while taking a deep breath. "Sophie, you are the most beautiful, smart, courageous girl I've ever seen in my whole life. I can't see myself with anyone else. Sophie, I love you. I love you so much. I can't stand seeing you like this." He said, "Sophie you must pull through. If not for you then for me and for Markl. He needs you. He sees you as his mother. He needs you…I need you. More than anything." He could feel tears threatening to come, "So you need to live, Sophie. Please. Live." His voice was shaky and starting to break.
"Howl…I love you too." Sophie said taking a breath between words.
It was getting harder to breath let alone talk, but she had to get this out.
"But-I-don't-think-I-can-make-it." Her voice now wheezing.
"Please, Howl, you can find someone better then me, more pretty, more deserving of you. I know you can."
"No! Sophie, you are pretty your more than that your beautiful, and you do deserve me, no you deserve better then me, someone who could keep you out of harms way more than I can."
"Howl, I'm dieing. We both-know it." She said, taking more breaths.
"Remember that I will always love you, no matter what." She said, and after that she fell limp.
"Sophie? Sophie? Sophie?! SOPHIE!!!" He screamed loud it echoed around him.
"Sophieeeee." He sobbed, tears flowing freely as he picked her up clutched her now cold body to his chest.
"Sophie!!" he screamed at the sky. As though that would bring her back, but he knew nothing could bring Sophie back.
"Why? Why, Sophie? Why did you have to die? It could have been me, it should have been me."
He just sat there, holding Sophie tightly, her body cold and pale, while he cried his heart out. He didn't know how long he cried it could have been five minutes or five hours, he didn't know time seemed to stop when Sophie died.
It seemed like his life was over. He had no reason to life if Sophie didn't live.
"Howl?" he heard a small voice say.
"Sophie?" he said looking at her body, which was still unmoving. He heard footsteps behind him.
"No. It's me, Markl." The little boy said.
"Oh. Hi, Markl." He said before turning back to Sophie's body.
"Is Sophie hurt?" Markl asked.
"Sophie's dead." Howl said with no emotion in his voice. He could not feel he was numb.
The little boy gasped.
"W-W-What?" he stuttered.
"She's dead." Howl said.
"H-How?" he asked, tears coming to his eyes. Sophie had been like a mother to him.
"Sullivan. Sullivan gave her the wounds that killed her." He said.
"Why?!"
"To have me give up my powers."
"Did you?" he asked Howl.
"Yes."
"Why!"
"I thought it would save Sophie!"
"Oh. Howl?" Markl asked.
"Yes?"
"Who's going to take care of me?" he asked, he didn't want to sound like he didn't care about Sophie because he did but he was hoping Howl would take care of him after all he's just a kid.
"I will."
"You will?"
"Yes."
"Why?" He was curious as to why Howl would want to.
"Because it's what Sophie would have wanted me to." Howl said.
"So your gonna take care of me like Sophie did?" Markl asked.
"Yes." Howl said turning to him trying to smile.
"Yay!" Markl said
"But….what about Sophie's body?" He said turning around to her.
"We'll give her a proper burial."
"Okay." He said as they started to walk off together.
'Maybe I do have a reason for living. Maybe that reason is Markl' he thought as he turned to the boy after the burial was done they walk back to the castle.
'Can't be that bad taking care of him. If Sophie could do it so can I.'
'Sophie…..I'm going to take care of Markl just like you did. And when the time comes I'll come join you but until then I'll keep missing you and I will take care of Markl as best as I can.' He thought as they walk into the castle and a new life.
A/N: OMG Finally I finished it! Sorry it so long but hey six pages could not go into a chapter story so I made it a one-shot. I wrote Sophie so many times I could never ever ever spell it wrong again! Sorry bout the killing off Sophie part I love Sophie don't get me wrong but I was just in a killing off mood that day. Also sorry about the grammar mistakes I know I have them I just suck at grammar and spelling sorry about that. And I know my story sucks okay? So no flaming I can do that myself thanks. And to those who did like it review and those who don't still review so yeah EVERYONE REVIEW!!!!!