Disclaimer: I do not own Sofia the First.

Chapter 9: Sofia's Choice

Sofia was back in the dungeon before Baileywick and Cedric knew it. She was only gone for a few minutes, so it's not like the two men had to wait a while for her to return. In fact, to them, it felt like only a minute. While she was gone, they stared at each other deep in thought about Sofia's kindness even in the darkest times of her life; they admired her for it.

She smiled at them, placing her wand under her shirtsleeve. Baileywick rested his hand on her shoulder and with a grin said, "You're a good kid, Sofia. Don't ever lose that kindness you have. It's what makes you special." Cedric nodded in agreement as he looked around the empty dungeon. He was proud to know that Sofia was the one who freed the men from their misery.

Sofia smiled wider and pulled them into an embrace. Even if her father didn't have a change of heart, she knew that Baileywick and Cedric were like her family and she could count on them to support her. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking in their warmth until she heard the banging of pots and pans from upstairs in the kitchen. She let go, peering up at the ceiling as if she could see right through it and find out what was happening.

"We should probably go..." Cedric said, motioning them to follow him. He glanced at Sofia who was full of fear; he could tell just by the way her hands were folded to herself. "And I will protect you, Sofia, as much as I can. I promise."

Sofia looked at him and he noticed that the fear in her eyes had disappeared sightly. She cleared her throat and spoke with a trembling voice, "You...you have your wand, right?" She assumed since it was Cedric and he always had his wand with him since he was a sorcerer. However, he shook his head which made her eyes fill back up with dismay.

"No, um..." Cedric began saying before he remembered that Baileywick, who was under a spell, broke it, "it broke...but still fear not, I am a pretty strong man," Baileywick chuckled when he said that. Cedric scowled and continued, "I can throw some punches if anyone tried to harm you."

"Wait, Mr. Cedric, if you didn't have your wand, how did you summon us to the dungeon?" Sofia asked, thinking that Cedric may be able to use magic without a wand.

Cedric frowned and said, "Hm, I didn't..." No one spoke for a minute. Baileywick and Sofia were looking at each other with questioning looks. Cedric broke the silence and muttered, "Um...well, we really must be going," he turned to Sofia, "don't you have to get something?"

"Oh yes," Sofia said, releasing herself from her thoughts, "I have to get an emerald. My mom told me to get it and give it to my father."

"Wait, what?" Cedric said with his eyebrow raised, "Your mother is dead, Sofia, are you feeling okay? Did you say the Transporto spell wrong?" He went off asking her a bunch of questions, but Sofia stopped him.

"Owlly's Mirror," was all she said and began to lead the way out of the dungeon, though she wasn't sure where she was going because she didn't have the rose petals to guide her. She was reflecting on the last thing Cedric said to her. Your mother is dead, Sofia... She wasn't sure why those words stung her so hard; her mother had been dead for two years now. Maybe seeing her in Owlly's Mirror made her miss her even more. She noticed that tears were streaming down her face and she quickly wiped them away before anyone could see them.

"Once we take a left, we should be out of the dungeon," Baileywick said, turning back every second to check if any strange creature was following them.

They took a left and heard shouting on the other side of the door. Cedric grabbed Sofia's arm and forced her behind him. He gripped the door handle and gently cracked the door open. He peeked his eye through the small crack and examined the room outside. Roland II was yelling at everyone to find Baileywick which made poor Baileywick gulp at the sound of his name.

Cedric whipped around to look at Baileywick and said, "You have to go out...we don't want him to get angry, do we?"

"But he'll get even angrier when he finally finds me. He'll start shouting 'Where have you been?' and I don't know what to tell him and how to stay calm about it. I'm usually a calm person but not when I'm being yelled at!" Baileywick exclaimed, beginning to panic. Sofia frowned at him sympathetically and rubbed his shoulder to sooth him.

"Just tell him you were checking up on me. You were under a spell when he threw me in the dungeon...just act like you're under a spell," Cedric responded.

"And how do I do that?" Baileywick inquired with a very confused expression.

"Just do whatever he wants you to do, even if you don't want to do it," Cedric said, "If Sofia and I go out, we will get in even more trouble than you. Please, do it for Sofia." Cedric didn't like to sound pressuring like this, but he needed Baileywick to go through with it. It was the only way Sofia wouldn't get caught by her father.

"Okay," Baileywick said and he turned the doorknob, leaving the two behind. He cleared his throat and walked over to Roland II, trying his very best to put on a brave face. Roland II turned around shocked to see Baileywick standing in front of the dungeon doors.

"And what exactly were you doing down there?" Roland II asked, tapping his foot on the ground, waiting for him to respond.

"I was checking on Cedric to see that he didn't try to escape. Ha, you know sorcerers, they'll try to find a way to escape..." Baileywick swallowed hard. Oh, he's not believing this...he thought. However, Roland II just shrugged.

"Well, okay...but I needed you. I need to discuss Cedric's execution. It's this evening." Roland II said, handing him a list of things he needed done before the execution.

"Uh, yes," Baileywick said with a squeaky voice, "Right, Cedric's execution. Let's go discuss it IN YOUR OFFICE." He made sure he said that part as loud as he could, so Sofia and Cedric knew that it was safe to leave.

Roland II just stared and said quietly to himself, "Hm...maybe he needs more potion," then he cleared his throat and spoke louder, "Um..let's stop at my room first." Then, they began walking.

Cedric listened closely to the sound of their footsteps as they got farther and farther away. He opened the door a little more and peeked his head through the door, then stepped out. He studied the room and went back to Sofia, who was still behind the door. "It's safe," he whispered, "now, where is the emerald?"

"In the jewel room," she stated, pointing to the right as she stepped into the room, "We have to take a right, another right, walk straight for a while and at the end of the hall, there it is. We have to hurry though; I don't want to get caught by my dad."

"Neither do I," Cedric retorted, "Now, come on."

Sofia and Cedric quickly began walking to the jewel room. Sofia would worry every time they took a step closer to the jewel room; she feared running into her dad. What made her anxiety even worse is when Cedric would accidentally run into the knight statues and the armor would echo through the castle. Sofia would end up running to the closest room and hide in there while Cedric got himself together. Then, he would ask Sofia to come back out and apologize a hundred times for frightening her. However, after a few minutes, he would run into a knight statue, starting the cycle all over again.

"We're almost to the jewel room," Sofia stated as she dashed down the hall to the jewel room. Cedric was right behind her, but he had a hard time keeping up.

Sofia opened the door to the jewel room and started her search for the emerald though it wasn't going to be difficult. She already knew where it was for she was the one to put it in there. She turned to see where Cedric was; she got so excited that she took off running to the jewel room. Cedric was staring at the ground with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

"Sof...Sofia...no more running, unless it's re...really necessary," Cedric puffed. He straightened up and glanced at the jewels around him. "So, an emerald? What kind of emerald?"

Sofia seemed confused and said, "Well, I'm not sure. It was very green and shiny the last time I saw it. That was two years ago though. It might not be the same. I know where I put it though, it's right..." she scanned the jewels in the cases until she found the shiny, green emerald, "here!" She opened the case with her wand and gazed at it with wondering eyes. The jewel was beautiful; it was even greener and shiner than it was two years ago.

"That is a beautiful emerald," Cedric said, stroking its smooth texture, "Ah, this is not just any emerald, it's a Memortime emerald." Sofia nodded her head as if she already knew, but Cedric still went on, "Do you know what the emerald does?"

Now this was new to Sofia; she didn't know this emerald possessed magical powers. She shook her head and said, "No."

"Well, a Memortime emerald has the power to show others memories. Like let's say, you wanted to show me the time you mastered turning a rock into a ruby, you would think about that memory and then blow on the emerald and the memory would show up on the emerald."

Sofia's face lit up and exclaimed, "That's so cool! Let me try!" She closed her eyes, recalling memories of the good times that she had with Cedric. She blew at the emerald and saw her memory escape from her lips onto the emerald. She gasped and looked up at Cedric who was smiling down at her.

"Oh, I see" Cedric said with his grin growing bigger, "The time you helped me get the family wand. That was a good day...I mean except for the part that my father kept belittling me."

"It was much easier back then..." Sofia said. Her expression changed completely and so did the tone in her voice. Sofia blew on the emerald again and saw her family including her mom all gathered around the table at dinner time. Her mom and dad were smiling and holding hands, James was being a goof ball, Amber was talking with Sofia about her tiaras, and even Baileywick was happy. She didn't even realize she was crying until she felt Cedric wipe away a tear on her face.

Sofia sniffed and said, "Sorry...um, what else does the emerald do?"

"Well, a Memortime emerald can let you travel back in time to that memory, but time can be rewritten because of people going back and I don't really recommend it," Cedric said with a tiny laugh, "My friends back in school had this emerald and they tried going back to a memory and well, I never saw them again."

Sofia stared at him for a while. Could she go back to when her mom died? No, she thought, he doesn't want me to...oh, but mom and dad...maybe if I just didn't get the emerald and come home with the medicine. Dad wouldn't get mad at me and mom would still be alive. "How would you even travel to the memory anyway?" Sofia asked, nonchalantly.

"You just blow an extra time. So, two times," Cedric told her. He knew Sofia was always interested in knowing more information, so he didn't think much of her question. That was until he saw the memory of her mother of her deathbed.

"No! Sofia!" he began shouting, but she pushed him away as tears began pouring down her cheeks.

"Mr. Cedric, I can't live with being afraid of my dad! I'm going back even it means you never see me again! Thanks for everything you have done for me. I love you." Sofia screamed, then blew on the emerald one more time.

"No!" Cedric exclaimed, lunging at Sofia and they both disappeared, leaving the jewel room completely empty and silent.


Note: Woo! Hey, I'm lazy! Okay part of it was laziness and the other part was I got a new computer and it didn't have Microsoft Word. I still don't have it so I downloaded OpenOffice. I miss writing and I'm really sorry. Anyway, this chapter was kinda hard to write. I would get writer's block like after every sentence. It sucked so much. I want to point out something. When Sofia says 'I love you', it is NOT romantically. I do not ship them that way. I ship them 100000% as friends and teacher/student. You would tell your friends you love them if you believed that you would never see them again. I mean, I know I would. Haha. Also, yayayay for Sofia being emotional! She cried like three times in this chapter. I hope people are okay with that?! Family issues are TOUGH.

Thanks for favoriting, following, and commenting on my stories! Special thanks to AquaTurquoise and CedricAmber cuz you guys are awesome and very supportive. Thank you.