Talentless // Fitz Vacker

// nine //

"Who's this Quinlin guy?" Sophie asked. 

Alden smiled. "The best probe. If anyone can slip into your brain, it's him."

"Why does he work down here?" Sophie questioned. Adora almost wanted to say who wouldn't but she could see how the transport could be a little inconvenient. Especially if you have to buy the whirlpool bottles. 

"Atlantis is our most secure city. Anyone and thing that needs protection is here. Including your file." 

"I have a file?" 

"A highly classified one." 

"What's in it?" 

"You'll see soon enough." 

Adora was too busy looking around and marvelling to focus on the conversation. Everything was so cool. 

There were cool letters on the walls but it felt like a weird puzzle. Some words she knew immediatly and others she had to look at for a bit longer to decipher. 

"What's with the random strings of letters?" Sophie asked.

"The runes?" Alden questioned. 

"Is that was those are?" Sophie ran her fingers over the letters. 

Alden nodded. "That's our ancient alphabet." 

"You can't read it?" 

"But you can tell their letters?" 

Alden turned to Adora. "Can you read them?" 

"Takes a minute but yeah?" 

Sophie nodded. "Is that going to be a problem for school?" 

"Nah." Fitz said. "We only really use it to be fancy.' 

Adora wondered if there were any libraries nearby. 

They had gotten off the giant scorpion ride and entered entered what seemed to be the fanciest embassy-like building ever. 

There was a tall, dark skinned Eli's with chin length black hair. He gave an elegant bow to the group. 

"Please no need for ceremony my friend." Alden brushed off with a wink. 

"Of course." Quinlin's gaze went to Sophie. "Brown eyes?" 

"Definitely unique." Alden agreed. 

"That's an understatement." He stared at Sophie.

"You really found her, after all these years?"

"That and an extra one." Alden pointed to Adora. 

"Another one?" Quinlin looked at Adora.

"Hello." She waved. 

Sophie licked her file and appeared a giant green strand of DNA appeared. A match. 

Quinlin offered Adora a blank file. When she licked it, no DNA strand showed up. 

"Huh..." Quinlin said. He offered her a different panel. 

She hesitantly licked it again. HUMAN

Everyone shared a look before Fitz grabbed her hand and she felt like feathers once more. 

Adora muttered profanities before opening her eyes. She was back— a block away from Sophie house— in San Diego. 

Fitz was panicking and muttering. 

"Hello? Why are we back here? Where's Sophie?" 

Fitz looked at here. "How do you know the enlightened language? How are you human?" 

Adora put her hands in the air. "I thought we had agreed I was a human a while ago." 

"How do you know our language?" Fitz asked again. 

"Look, I only know English and French. I know damn well that we didn't speak French." 

'What is French?!"

"What is Englightened?!" 

Fitz grumbled. "Look, you need to stay in your house until we get everything sorted." 

"Like hell I am. Are you trying  to build tolerance to my taser? Bring me back to Sophie!" 

"No! You aren't supposed to be in the lost cities!" 

"Why did you bring me there genius? Where's Sophie!" 

After more bickering and a few minutes time, Adora was in her bedroom and tied to a chair. 

"Excuse me? What is this supposed to be doing?" Adora demanded. 

"Well we need to keep you here until we get Sophie figured out!" He mumbled another bit that could've very well have been 'And to get the washers here.' Or 'And to let the launchers here." Either way she was not amused. 

"You can't leave, I doubt you'd be able to get out of that so just don't yell, don't scream!" Fitz demanded. And with that he was gone. 

Adora waited a few minutes before leaning the chair forwards and extending her feet. She was now standing up with a chair attached. She jumped backwards, the chair shattered. "Ouch." She grunted. She stood up, took off the fancy dress and grabbed her shoes from her backpack. She put on more normal clothes, put her shoes on and grabbed her favorite book. 

Adora realised she had no way to get back to wherever Sophie was. So instead her grabbed her favorite book, 100 Classical Stories. A book full of fairytales. She flipped to the page where Atlantis was mentioned and copied down every detail she heard from this evening. Then she got up and went to her local library. 

Adora volunteered at the library whever she could. She read fairytales to kids and the parents tipped her well. 

While Sophie panicked about where Adora was, why people were concerned about the fires happening in San Diego, meeting Fitz's sister and mother, and having a long and very sad talk about how she was supposed to abandon her life in San Diego... Adora was reading fairytale, after fairytale, after fairytale to small children. 

"The little match girl hadn't sold a single box of matches all day and she was too frightened to go home, for her father would be extremely angry." Adora read aloud. 

"What am I supposed to tell my family? They aren't going to let me disappear everyday with no explanation!" 

"Then! Baba Yaga the boney-legged screamed with fury!" 

"Sophie, this is my wife Della."

"Who's that! Trit-trotting across my bridge?! He roared. Billy Goat Gruff wasn't ready to be eaten up!"

"What's a dollar?"

"Today I brew! Today I bake! Tomorrow the baby I will take! The queen will loose the game, for Rumpelstiltskin is my name!" 

"I'm so sorry Sophie." 

"Once upon a time..." 

"Will I get to visit my family? What about Adora?" 

"And they lived happily ever after..." 

"Will I get to say goodbye?"