Hello! It's me again! :D
Omg you guys are going to haaaaaaaaaaaaate me after this chapter. Like, seriously. I doubt even my Shady Black Belt Protection Squad ™ can help me. I'm dead.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I need to start writing my will.
"Sorry, Mrs. Math Teacher, I could do my homework this week. I was attacked by a mob of angry fans."
This chapter is actually also really long... even without the lengthy(ish) A/N.
ArrowOfTheMoonlark: Oh! Um, thank you! If you mean the crowd, then, I'm glad you take such pleasure in my suffering XD. Good. My foodfriend and I will adopt, of course! Adios!
Mallowmelt: Thank you! Would you mind telling me where I can find said book nine fanfic?
Eva L: Yes! Hmm. The idea struck me at about 2 AM. Actually, I think yes, they are dead, but yes, they are also plot relevant. Could change though! Thank you!
IStillHopeForSophex: Thank you! I'm glad your idea isn't the same, or else either a) One of us is plagiarising, or b) I would be really creeped out. Never heard of Epic Zero, but... thanks again!
Thesirensong: Thank youuuuuuuuuuu! He is! Eek indeed!
Enjoy!
The light forming the scene on Dex's wall faded to nothing within a few seconds. Sophie and Dex immediately turned to each other, ready to discuss at great length what they had just witnessed, but Oralie's eyes stayed fixed (why did I type Fitz?) on the spot where Kenric's projection had been long after it vanished. Sophie felt a twinge of pity for her- after all, if it had been Keefe's face projected onto the wall, Sophie could imagine the emotional roller coaster she would go through. Not that it was the same situation or anything- while Kenric and Oralie were star-crossed lovers, she and Keefe were just good friends. That didn't mean losing him (sort of) hurt any less, but-
She was getting off track.
Eventually, Oralie tore her eyes away from the "Bex, Lex, and Rex rule" graffiti and turned to Sophie and Dex. Silence continued for a few seconds, until Dex was the first to break it.
"So..."
Sophie thought that pretty much summed it up.
"It was the right decision to keep it in the caches," Oralie mumbled, more to herself than to Sophie and Dex. "Especially since he was killed a few years ago... essentially turning someone into a human, how awful. I can't believe the Council would make that decision."
"Actually..." Sophie and Dex said together. Even without using her telepathy, Sophie could tell that they were both thinking of the time Dex had made an ability-restricting circlet, without knowing that Sophie would be forced to wear it. Both knew that there wasn't much of a limit to awful things the Council could do. They were, of course, shocked, but it was more in the "huh, never would have seen that coming" sense rather than "WHAAAT!? I can't believe it! My world has been flipped upside-down by this knowledge!"
"Anyway," Oralie said in a louder voice, evidently not really wanting to get into all the terrible things the Council had done. "I guess we know what stellarlune does."
"Oh mallowmelt... Keefe with the ability to steal abilities..." Dex groaned. He didn't need to elaborate further. Sophie's vivid imagination gave her an image of Keefe taking Fitz's telepathy and imitating his voice, going Now I can be your cognate, Foster! Shall we go stare into each other's eyes? Start dating, perhaps? Insert wink. Then when Sophie turned bright red, he would laugh and say I'm just kidding about that last part, Foster. With a devious look in his eye, he would add Or am I? She would roll her eyes and demand that he would return Fitz's telepathy. Sigh... Anything for you, Miss Foster. Then he would go on to take Tam's Shade powers and do terrible imitations of Bangs Boy. Or Sir Salty Shadows, or whatever they were calling him now.
A throat clear from Dex interrupted Sophie's semi-wistful vision of Keefe, so vivid it was almost like he was standing there... "Did you hear my question, Sophie?"
Bright pink, Sophie hesitated. "Um..."
"Did you catch anything that could help him wake up?" Dex repeated, with an astonishing amount of patience... and, Sophie realized, a teasing smirk on his face. Okay, his patience wasn't so astonishing anymore. But it wasn't like- never mind.
Sophie's spirits fell like Glitter Butt threw her into a pile of sparkling feces. "No," she admitted, looking down at her feet. With no great revelation resulting from the stellarlune, they were no better off than they were before- except now, the one hope she had been holding onto was brutally crushed. Eyelash destruction, commence.
"Hey." Dex nudged her with his shoulder. "We'll find a way to wake him up. I promise. Maybe Elwin and Livvy will force feed him the right medicine, maybe Ro's death threats will end up working, maybe we need to bring gulons into the Healing Center, maybe I'll make something foul-smelling enough that it'll wake him up, maybe he'll just wake up on his own. Yeah, we're no better off than we were before I opened the cache- but we're no worse off, either. So don't go turn into a zombie, okay?"
Sophie gave him a shrug and a halfhearted "okay," but the pep talk did help a little. And even though Dex wasn't an empath or a telepath, he was her best friend, and evidently that was enough for him to be able to tell she was feeling a bit better.
Dropping the topic, Sophie turned to Oralie and said "Are we going to tell the rest of the Council?"
Oralie thought it over. "I think... we'd better not. Guilt is less of a risk for me because I voted no and can't be held responsible for what happened to Laron-slash-Ethan, but for the others, especially Emery, guilt might be more of a risk."
Sophie shrugged. "Okay. I don't really care either way, so... okay. Is that all?"
Oralie and Dex both nodded. Oralie's Empathy (or maybe common sense) seemed to get the message and left. Almost immediately after the door closed behind her, Dex asked hesitantly "Is she your mom?"
"No." Sophie answered. "She's a DNA donor. Edaline is my mom, and so is my human mother, but having Oralie's DNA in my body does not make her my mom. Also, you can't tell anyone."
"Wasn't planning to."
Sophie smiled. No "Yay! Now you can sign up for the match! Wait, what do you mean, you're not going to ruin Oralie's life so you can support a messed-up system just to be with me, which shouldn't even be a requirement for our relationship? I'M DUMPING YOU!"
(Hmm. If she did still like Fitz, though she still wasn't entirely convinced, they were going to have to work out some issues/lingering resentment. But maybe she should figure out whether or not she still liked him first. Also, off topic.)
Sophie grinned. "Great. Now I'd better get home... I kinda just ran before Sandor could come with me. So, I'll be grounded for the next 02934832948329 years. See ya!"
Dex waved as Sophie leapt away.
Miraculously, Sophie got off with nothing more than a three-hour lecture (okay, so, maybe not a miracle, but... at least she wasn't grounded). Sandor and Grady told her that the only reason they were being lenient was because they knew she was at Dex's house and Lovise was there. Next time, they told her, she'd be grounded for thousands of years no matter what. Edaline just offered a smile and a "Glad you're okay. Please don't do that again."
The next day, Sophie went to visit Keefe at the Healing Center, yet again. It was different (and even more depressing) now that her hopes metaphorically stored in Oralie's cache were gone. When she arrived at the door, Sophie encountered a Linh Song standing guard.
"Tam's reading, like, a ten page apology speech to Keefe." Linh informed her. "Don't tell him I told you. You can wait with me until he's done, it shouldn't be long."
The two girls talked for a little bit while they waited. Linh told Sophie that she and Marella had recently come out to Marella's parents, who took it well, and did not tell Linh's parents, who most definitely would not take it well. She added that Tam thought they should tell Quan and Mai Song just to annoy the heck out of them. Sophie noted that Tam's advice sounded a lot like something Keefe would say, and Linh agreed that the two boys were way more similar than they thought. With a glance at the door, Linh wondered if Tam and Keefe would be closer when Keefe woke up. Sophie corrected the "when" to "if." Offering no response, Linh simply squeezed Sophie's hand comfortingly.
A few seconds later, Tam came out the door. He said "Hi" to Sophie, and she greeted him back. With nothing else really to say, Tam left with Linh and Sophie went in the visit Keefe.
With a sigh, Sophie sat down and stared at Keefe's unconscious form. Weeks and weeks have passed, and still... nothing. Even the stellarlune lead turned out to be nothing. He's still asleep, Sophie thought with a sigh. And despite Dex's instructions, Sophie could feel herself slowly turning back into a zombie. What's worse was, the only person who could get her out of zombie mode last time was the one in a coma. So it seemed like the only way she would ever feel better was if Keefe woke up.
But that was becoming increasingly less likely.
To give herself something to do other than reflect on her miserable life, Sophie stretched her mind out to Keefe so she could check on his dreams. He was dreaming of gold-flecked brown eyes Sophie recognized as her own. But why would Keefe be dreaming about my eyes? Sophie wondered. She shook that thought away.
Keefe? She transmitted. Can you hear me?
Go away... I'm trying to sleep. Keefe's mind mumbled.
Sophie sat up in shock, feeling more alive than she had in weeks. Keefe?
I'm tired... Keefe thought.
I know you are, Sophie responded. But can you please try to wake up? You need to wake up.
Mmm... five more minutes? Keefe begged. Sophie wondered if this was normally the first thing he said when he woke up. Knowing Keefe, it was entirely possible. He really did not seem like a morning person.
No. Wake up now.
With a melodramatic groan, Keefe's eyes started to open at a painfully slow pace. As Sophie's eyes fell upon that beautiful shade of ice blue she thought she'd never see again, her heart fluttered.
"Keefe!" Nearly knocking him over, Sophie flung her arms around him and strangle hugged. "Thank goodness you're okay! Oh my mallowmelt I was so worried! It's been weeks- I though you might not wake up! These past few weeks I've practically become a zombie! Anyway, we have so much to catch you up on and- oh my mallowmelt, Keefe, you're okay!" Sophie's cheeks starting warming when she realized she was idiotically rambling, but even that wasn't enough to lower her soaring spirits.
Awkwardly, Keefe patted her back and gently pulled out of the hug. Sophie bit her lip- she wanted to hold on to him forever. Maybe he was in pain? Maybe he wanted to breathe? Maybe he just didn't want to hug her...? Without her even being aware, her hand flew to her eyelashes and pulled.
Keefe cleared his throat. "Um... well, thank you for your concern... I'm glad I mean so much to you." He gave her a half smile, and Sophie braced herself for what would come next. "But, um, the thing is... ugh, I don't know how to say this..." But nothing would have prepared Sophie for the words that came out of Keefe's mouth. "I just can't seem to remember who you are."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- *Hysterical laughter turns to sobs* I'm sorrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... you probably hate me and you have every right to... HOW COULD I DO THAT TO KEEEEEEFE! (Why do I do this to myself? Oh, I know. It's because I'm an evil author MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA- *Laughter becomes sobs again*
Please review!