As the sword made its arc towards her, she accepted her fate.
A part of her was tired of fighting. Of constantly being on edge and being uncertain of her reality. She knew this feeling was wrong because she wanted to live. She had so many reasons why she wanted to live.
But she was exhausted. Bone tired, can't take your shoes off before falling asleep, couldn't remember why she enjoyed being awake kind of exhausted.
While they had been fighting for hours and her feet were sore in her newly tailored shoes, she knew that exhaustion was from the years she had given to fighting for people she'd never seen who lived in cities she would never be really accepted in. She had been carrying the weight of the world and its future on her shoulders for five years now. There could never be a break, there was always someone who wanted to do it harm, and she seemed to be the only solution.
The sun reflected almost majestically off the blade.
It wasn't like she hadn't put up a fight.
Every possible power she had was being used to fight off the swarm that surrounded her. She stood her ground and accounted for every possibility. They had prepared her, trained her, and she had been in countless fights before. She'd seen everything. Except this.
The thought of a sword in this futuristic battle was almost comical. These superhuman elven creatures used every possible magical weapon against her just for her to be defeated with a medieval sword that they probably stole from a human.
The very thing the Neverseen sought to destroy had aided them in defeating its savior.
She hadn't seen it until it was too late.
Between forcefields, stun guns, fires, telekinesis, and many many more talents that the Neverseen had backing them she hadn't accounted for the silent mind.
They had to have been well trained on how to evade her powers. Maybe she was so over-exerted that she hadn't noticed. Or maybe she really wasn't as good as they thought she was. This had probably been their plan all along.
She had one main thought that ran through her mind as her death approached, a wish still unfinished.
As the arc closed, she inhaled. Closing her eyes, waiting for its fatal strike.
But it never came.
Eyes widening, she watched as Keefe fell.
Sorry, he mouthed before hitting the ground before her.
She slipped to her knees, numbness running through her body.
"No,"she whispered. "No, please! Not him, please not him!" Sophie begged as she hovered over his body.
There was too much blood, her hands were trying to cover the wound to apply pressure but it ran down her arms.
The world was spinning. She leaned over him trying to see where he was hurt and how she could help. He had to be okay, he wasn't allowed to leave her, not like this.
He wouldn't open his eyes.
The screams surrounding her rang through her ears and she was vaguely aware of their familiarity. It was like everything had gone still. Like the air had been sucked out from around them. The loss coursing through her body was to a degree she had never felt before. She hadn't felt so out of control in her entire life. Pain exploded behind her eyes as grief overtook her.
She crumpled into obscurity.
Voices pulled her from the darkness. They sounded rushed and distant.
She knew she needed to wake up, she needed to tell them something.
Keefe
She bolted up, her eyes scavenging for someone she could get to come help Keefe.
"Woah there," a familiar voice soothed.
Her eyes adjusted to the harsh light and she realized she was sitting.
In a hospital bed.
Dex sat in a chair that must have been from a set lined up against the wall of the room, but he had pulled it next to her bed. She stared at him a moment, taking in the cuts and scrapes that lined one side of his face, but as reality set in and she moved to stand.
"Keefe!" she almost screamed, but her voice was unusually raw. "We need to get him help, he's hurt. He stepped in front of the sword!"
Dex placed a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from standing. "We know Soph, Elwin's working on him right now."
"How bad is it?" Sophie asked, not knowing if she wanted the answer. She had seen the amount of blood the wound produced, he couldn't be doing well.
He hesitated.
The blood drained out of her face.
"Sophie... do you know what happened after Keefe got hit?" he asked her, eyes boring into hers.
"He fell and I-I- tried to save him. I tried to cover his wounds but there was so much blood Dex," she waved her hand to help the description when she noticed the blood staining her arms.
His blood.
She looked down and saw it splattered all over her clothes.
She was going to puke.
"Look at me Sophie," Dex insisted.
She didn't want to, she couldn't stop staring at her hands, but forced herself to listen to his request.
"After that, do you remember what happened after that?"
She shook her head, "I must have passed out."
He scoffed, "Not exactly."
Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.
"You really don't remember?" he needled, eyes suspicous.
"No! One minute I was trying to hold Keefe's body and the next I was here."
He sighed, "I shouldn't be the one having this conversation with you but everyone else is running around trying to help Elwin. Here's the thing Soph, you know how the battle started. One minute everything was going to plan and the next, you're running off to fight the Neverseen one vs, like a hundred. You held them off long enough for us to set up the trap but Keefe wasn't listening. He hadn't been helping at all, just staring at you. I should have held him back, we all knew you were fine out there on your own but I knew he was too fidgety, something had to be up. "
Her heart skipped a beat, predicting what came next.
Dex's stare broke from hers, "I think he saw the sword first but he didn't tell anyone, just took off towards you. Fitz started to go after him but Forkle held him back, he must have noticed it too. It was hard to see what happened after that, you were both so far away. I saw the man raise the sword and..." he glanced at her, "you... well, you were right where it was going to hit.
Keefe got there first and we saw him fall. Forkle was having a panic attack, trying to think of ways we could help get you out before the Neverseen overcame you, but then you leaned over him and you were screaming and all of a sudden light just exploded out of you. I've never seen anything like this before."
Her jaw hung open. Light? She'd produced light?
"When it finally retreated, all the Neverseen were gone. We have no idea what you did to them. We rushed over and found you unconscious along with Keefe. We brought you here so you could rest while Elwin tried to help Keefe. I don't know why he didn't disappear with the rest of them" Dex puzzled, finishing his story.
She looked at him, bewildered. If she hadn't been covered in Keefe's blood she almost wouldn't have believed it.
"Can I go see him?" she asked him quietly.
He gave her a worried look, "Sophie, you know he's in bad shape. You saw the cut. I was told to keep you away from him in case..."
She looked at him confused but then it clicked.
"In case I explode into light again?" she almost laughed.
He looked at her dead serious, "Yes."
She sobered.
"Dex, please," she begged. "I need to be there, I need to make sure he's okay. You don't understand."
His mouth was set in a firm line as he looked at her. If she hadn't felt so destroyed by today's events she probably would have been uncomfortable with his analysis.
"You love him don't you," he said, expression changing into something that reflected understanding.
Her heart almost stopped at the words. The very words she vowed she would never speak until Keefe heard them first.
"Look, I have no idea what happened out there. My talents aren't anything close to what you can do, but if I had to guess? I think that light came from your inflicting abilities. You've told me before that you know how to inflict your emotions onto others, but Sophie, if what you created was a result of your pain then," Dex shook his head in disbelief, "the grief you must have been producing was intense."
She shuddered and tried not to think about how Keefe looked as he started to die in front of her.
"I also know," Dex continued, "that you have felt grief before. Many times. That's what scares all of us about all this Soph. You're so strong and to watch you crumble like that. Hurt like that."
He took her hand and part of her wondered if it was to comfort him more than her.
"We just can't be sure what will happen if he doesn't make it through this."
She took in his words. They made sense, she had that familiar headache she tended to get after inflicting and her thoughts wandered back to the look he gave her before falling.
Sorry, he had mouthed to her. He had known that it was going to be bad, that she didn't want him to take the hit for her. She needed him to know how much she appreciated him, how much she... well.
Her jaw set, "Dex, I'm not sure how I created the whole light situation but if he dies and I'm not there it will only be worse. The pain of not being there, never getting to say goodbye, that would break me."
He stared at her a moment and then nodded.
Standing up, he helped her from her bed. They made their way down the hallway and stopped in front of a black door. She looked at Dex for reassurance and he gave her an encouraging smile.
She breathed out and opened the door.
It was dark, she was surprised how dark it was, curtains drawn all the way. The room was small, much like hers had been, made for patient rest. She took in the sleeping form in front of her. She rushed to the side of the bed and took comfort in the familiar rise and fall of his chest.
"Don't get your hopes up," Elwin said, startling her. He had been sitting in a chair on the other side of the room but she hadn't focused long enough to see past Keefe.
"What do you mean," she asked, voice strained. She wanted to touch him, to run her hands through his hair, but she was scared he was too fragile.
"I was able to patch him up pretty well, but his body has been through a lot Sophie. Sometimes things like this cause too much trauma to the body to recover from, even with our medicines. He might not wake up from this. When they brought him in here, I don't know how long he hadn't been breathing," his face was pained at the memory. "I was told to make sure you stay out of the room. It seems you did quite some damage when you thought he was dead." His eyebrows raised.
She blushed, "I'm not sure what I did. I don't remember." She looked up at Elwin, "Why aren't you kicking me out then?"
He frowned, "Sophie I've watched you grow up here. I've seen you go through so many of these changes with your powers and I've seen how you deal with your emotions. You are incredibly strong, my girl, but more importantly, you and I have something in common. We both understand loss."
Part of her wanted to disagree, her losses were so personal. It had always been with people that she relied on as a child, people she always thought she could never live without, but she heard out hid reasoning.
He stood, "As a doctor in a city of people that never die, I'm one of the few elves that know what it looks like to see someone die. It's not just about understanding mortality though, I have watched the families of elves who die. In my many years of practice, I could never keep someone away from an elf in their last moments. They deserve to be surrounded by love, and you Sophie Foster, will do just that. He's been here everytime you've been injured, he watched over you when you healed, and he cried at your funeral even though he hadn't known you even a year. You've never been able to see how he looks at you in those moments, but I have. You two need each other, especially in these moments."
She was stuck deciding if she should bother denying her feelings for Keefe when it must be obvious to everyone around her. As his words sunk in, she turned to ask if he thought Keefe wasn't going to make it through and that was why he told her that story, but he had left the room.
She looked at Keefe's face, peaceful in his slumber.
"Oh Keefe," she murmured.
She gingerly took his hand and wrapped it around her own.
"You have to wake up, please wake up. " she insisted. "We deserve a happy ending Keefe and you dying isn't a part of that plan!"
She closed her eyes, gripping his hand a little harder than she probably should. Part of her felt like this was the last time he was going to be able to touch her and she couldn't let go.
A tear streamed down her cheek.
"It was supposed to be me, not you. You weren't supposed to be there. You still had so many dreams left," her throat closing as the tears ran faster.
"None of them were worth it without you, Foster."
Her eyes wipped open as a hand reached out to wipe her tears.
"Keefe!" she gasped.
"How's it going brown eyes?" he tried to smirk but it didn't quite reach his eyes.
Her tears wouldn't stop, her lower lip wobbled as she gave his hand a soft kiss. "I thought... they said you might not wake up."
He grimanced. Almost as an after thought, he lifted his shirt up to look at the wound. It was all cleaned up, mostly a pink scar left. Elwin had really worked a miracle.
"How are you? How do you feel?" she wondered aloud.
He looked up, "It almost feels like a dream. I remember being cut, I remember the pain I felt, and I remember fighting this darkness but then suddenly there was a light and the pain was gone. Elwin did a great job, I feel fine really. Pretty tired, which I'm sure is because of the many medicines coursing through my body so maybe I'll feel it tomorrow but that's future Keefe's problem."
The side of her mouth lifted at his familiar joking tone, but her lip quickly returned to its wobble as she thought about how much pain he must of felt.
"Come here," he whispered as he scouted to the side and patted the area next to him.
"Are you sure?" She didn't want to hurt him, he seemed so fragile.
He gave her an almost desperate look, "I need to hold you, to know that your really here. That I'm really here."
She needed no more encouragement. Sliding in next to him, he wrapped his arms around her, holding Sophie to his chest. His chin rested on the top of her head.
That sat in silence for a moment, grounding each other and reminding themselves how lucky they were to be doing so. In the back of her mind she knew she should be going to get Keefe's dad to let him know that his son was alive and well, but she needed to be selfish for a moment.
"I thought I was never going to see you again," Keefe's voice rasped. She turned to face him, forehead touching his, and reached out to his cheek.
"Watching you fall Keefe, I have never been so scared in my life." Her hand ran down the side of his face and down over his chest. She felt his heartbeat beneath her fingers. "You stopped breathing Keefe."
"I know," he breathed.
"Why why did you go out there? They weren't after you. They weren't aiming for you." She pleaded like she could change the past.
"There wasn't any other option, I could see they were in your blind spot and my brain short circuted. Suddenly I was running and all I knew was that they were going to kill you and I knew I had no other choice." His tone was final, like he was speaking of facts and not choices.
"You could have stayed safe, maybe I would have seen him in time, maybe I could have fought him off," she insited.
He gave her a hard look, "That was never an option for me, Foster. Besides..." he looked at her hesitantly. "Even if I hadn't gone out there, you saw the sword coming for you and you didn't move."
She was shocked, had he really been close enough to see when she noticed the sword's deadly arc?
"Why didn't you move Foster," he insisted.
"I- I- thought I had no time. I was using every power I had against them and they were swarming me and I-," she stuttered.
She looked in his eyes and knew she needed to be honest.
"In that moment, I was too exhausted to fight them anymore."
He blanched, holding her closer. "You would have died."
"Maybe," she whispered, understanding the seriousness of their conversation, "but I didn't want to Keefe. The only thought on my mind when I saw the sun bounce off the blade was hope that I would get back to you to tell you that I love you."
His eyes looked relieved, though she didn't know about what part his relief stemmed from.
"I love you too Sophie," he murrmered, lips achily close to hers.
She closed the distance, kissing him softly, as he eagerly responded.
When she pulled away, she saw his boyish smile.
"You're too good for me Keefe, it's nice to know that you will protect me even when I intentionally keep you very far away from battles so this exact situation doesn't happen,"
His grin widened, "I've never been very good at following rules Foster."
She giggled, "No, I guess you haven't."
He ran his fingers through her hair and she suddenly noticed how tired she was. Though she hadn't been injured, she had used a lot of energy.
A yawn escaped.
"Go home and get some rest, I'll be okay," Keefe insisted.
"Not going to happen Sencen, Elwin told me about how you stayed by my side whenever I was in the hospital. I owe you." She rested her head on his shoulder.
"You were in the hospital a lot," he jested, "I guess you do owe me."
"If we weren't literally in a hospital Keefe, you wouldn't have gotten away with that," she threatened with a smile.
He pressed the button to lean the bed back, "Good to know for all future fights."
She turned so her back was to his chest, allowing him to wrap his arms around her, sliding a leg in between hers. His face resting in the nook of her neck.
"Rest Foster," he murmmered, sounding close to sleep himself.
She hummed a response, eyes closed.
Laying in comfortable silence, she realized she had never felt quite so safe as she had in this moment. Their fight with the Never seen wasn't over, not even close. She had no idea what this new power was. They had a lot of conversations waiting for them outside this room-
But right now? In this room, they had each other.
That was more than enough.
A/N: Suggested by user KeefesGirlfreind , and I thought you would all like to know that they specified that Keefe had to recover lol.