Sophie
"NO!"
Sophie stared at the person who had mentored her for a decade, the person who had known her the best. His skin was pale, and the wrinkles that had settled on his forehead a couple years ago and never left suddenly disappeared. A trail of blood trickled from his mouth as he looked at Sophie and gave her a small nod.
She ran over to him, not caring that Gisela was there, not caring that there was no use. She collapsed to her knees, barely aware of the droplets of salty tears rolling down her face. Agent Forkle, the wisest person she had ever met, had just breathed his last breath.
His eyes glazed over, and there was something so empty about them. There was no knowing glint in them, no affectionate gleam that usually sparkled. There was nothing. Only an opaque blue staring at a far point in the distance.
Time didn't stop for Agent Forkle. Rain didn't fall for Agent Forkle. Silence didn't reign for Agent Forkle.
The world made no sign of mourning for its beloved Forkle.
She stared at the body on the ground, in shock and grief. And she couldn't imagine what life could be like without him.
She felt so lost now that there was no more Agent Forkle to guide her through life. Agent Gisela had no cruelly ripped the life from him when he had no doubt been ready to show her mercy.
The pool of blood now forming reached the tip of Sophie's fingers, and then her hands were bloody.
Blood on her hands.
Her breathing turned uneven, and the air seemed to choke her. Her vision darkened, and all she wanted was to wake up from this horrible nightmare.
The sound of metal against metal broke her out of her stupor. The shink reverberated around her mind, and she was on her feet in a second. Her crazed eyes scanned her surroundings, but she couldn't see anything. There was only Forkle's dead body at her feet and darkness around her.
A strangled "Sophie!" came from far away, and her clouded eyes searched rapidly for the source of it.
Then her eyes cleared, and she could see two swords pressed against each other in front of her. She saw Keefe and Agent Forkle's murderer up against each other.
"You killed him," was all she could manage to get out. Her throat clogged up, and it was so hard to keep down the noise that would undoubtedly come out her mouth if she opened it.
There was an apology in Keefe's eyes, like it was his fault all this had happened. And some dark part of Sophie cried out that it was his fault. He had planned this all along.
But she gulped down the screams threatening to break free, and gently wrenched the sword from the corpse's hand. Shakily, she pointed it at Agent Gisela.
Agent Gisela chuckled. "It's amusing how your organization crumbles after one death." With a flick of her wrist, her sword pushed Keefe's away. Those cold blue eyes that had not once shown regret fixed onto Sophie's. She was unaffected. She was reveling in her victory and satisfaction. She was the face of evil, and Sophie hated her more than she had ever hated something before.
Keefe popped up next to her, wielding his weapon in one hand. "I'm sorry." There was a crinkle in his brow. Sophie had never seen him this serious before.
Agent Gisela observed her elongated nails, and it occurred to Sophie that she had no idea where the leader of the Neverseen had even gotten that sword. She shook those thoughts of her head.
"Well," Keefe's mother sighed dramatically, "I broke a nail. Wonderful." Her emotionless face was tilted down. She was a chilling kind of beautiful, with her high cheekbones, frosty hair, and her eyes carved out of ice. She was like Snow White; skin white as snow, lips red as blood.
"Glad to know that's your top priority," Keefe muttered. His hands curled into fists, nails digging into his palms.
The air stilled. Then a ray of something light hit Agent Gisela in the eye, and she stumbled back, gasping in pain. She bumped into one of her followers, who in turn fell on his butt. Screeching faintly, she tumbled against a wall.
Everyone looked at where the ray had come from: Linh Song, holding her trusty water gun.
Sophie's jaw dropped. "You defeated her with water?" Maybe there was a chance, after all, that this wasn't real. Maybe this was a dark nightmare her consciousness had produced to ensure she would be prepared for this outcome.
Linh shook her head. "No. I filled this with hand sanitizer and pepper spray." She shrugged. "It worked pretty well on Fintan." She pointed to the writhing figure on the ground next to her.
"How do you have those on hand?" Fitz spluttered.
"Tam tells me I can't leave the house if I don't have pepper spray. And this is lavender hand sanitizer." She smiled passively. "It smells good."
"FONCE!" Granite shouted, a cue every Black Swan member knew very well, and then everyone from the Black Swan tackled someone from the Neverseen, a strategy they had all learned in their training. The second part of that strategy, of course, involved pinning their assailant to the ground.
Sophie and Keefe took on Agent Gisela. Keefe held her down and turned her over. She kicked at him, a calculated kick resulting in his jaw making an ominous crack. A hand covered her eyes, a hand which Sophie realized belonged to Marella.
Sophie clamped the handcuffs she kept in her boot down onto Agent Gisela's wrist. They were the type that only tightened as one moved. The victim of those handcuffs gritted her teeth. She wriggled her hands, and her sharp nails sliced across Sophie's skin painfully.
Sophie let out a cry of pain. Deciding she had had enough of Agent Gisela, she took off her boot and slammed it against the psycho's head. The now unconscious woman went limp, but not before she dragged her fingernails across Sophie's face.
And then Sophie fainted.