Hey guys! You happy that last chapter wasn't a cliffhanger? Well too bad! This one is! Muahaha!
No idea when this happened, but we somehow hit 4K views? Thank you all!
Alright, enjoy!
Walking back into the Paragon and floating back to Earth was all a blur for Sophie. She felt like she was sleepwalking the entire time, but if she was in a dream, it wasn't one she wanted to wake up from.
Around her, people laughed and cheered and hugged, but Sophie was oblivious to it all- as per usual- as she dazedly thought We won. We won. We won. We won! The world turned upside down.
Sophie stumbled out of the Paragon onto the ground, tripping, as always. Keefe caught her. "Glad to see that some things never change, Foster," he teased.
"Oh, shut up," Sophie mumbled, leaning into him. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and her face grew to the temperature of Everblaze.
The thought of Everblaze made her think of Fintan, and her mood was dampened as she remembered what he had done to Linh. Marella, judging by her tear streaked face and frantic searching for a leaping crystal, hadn't been able to forget, and neither had Tam. Sophie hoped she was okay... and reminded herself over and over that Elwin was a genius.
As Marella and Tam leapt away, Sophie looked around at all of her friends. Biana and Fitz were locked in a discussion about who it was that Alvar was in love with ("Come on, Fitzypoo, it was obviously Ruy-") and only stopped bickering when Della ordered Biana to go to Elwin. Sophie privately agreed- the bruise on Biana's forehead didn't look great.
Dex was greeted with confetti from the triplets, who were berating him for "beating the bad guys without us!" Dex rolled his eyes, but Sophie saw his dimples making an appearance.
Miracle of miracles, Jensi and Stina were acting civil to one another, judging by the lack of explosives. Maruca had always been friends with Stina, but she was acting polite towards Jensi as well.
"Foster?" Keefe said, reminding Sophie that she was a physical being in his arms, rather than an intangible observer of her friends.
"Mmm?"
"I think this is the first time in a while that the emotions I'm getting from you have been genuinely good. And not, like, insane with anxiety or heartbroken or wanting to murder someone," Keefe noted.
Sophie trusted the Empath. "It feels like it."
He adjusted his grip on her slightly, and Sophie remembered that one of his arms was probably broken, definitely injured. "You should probably get Elwin to look at that."
"Eh," Keefe shrugged.
"Keefe."
"Foster."
"Go get a physician to look at your clearly damaged arm," she ordered.
Keefe sighed. "Fine. I can't disobey the Mysterious Miss F."
Feeling bold, she gave him a quick kiss before he glittered away. Kissing her boyfriend(!) was becoming almost a regular enough occurrence that she didn't feel the need to squeal for five hours afterwards... only two or three hours.
Grady and Edaline came over- Grady very clearly trying hard not to comment on Sophie's affectionate behavior towards That Boy- and hugged her. She collapsed into them, giving her parents even more of her weight than she had given to Keefe.
"We're so proud of you," Edaline whispered. Even if Sophie knew what to say in response, she was suddenly too choked up. Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, she squeezed tighter.
"You ready to go home, kiddo?" Grady asked.
Sophie didn't even need to think about the question before "yes" slipped out of her lips.
SOPHIE! SOPHIE! SOPHIE! Silveny greeted her as she leapt to Havenfield.
Hey, Glitter Butt, Sophie transmitted, laughing.
SOPHIE BEAT BAD GUYS!?
Yeah, Glitter Butt. Sophie beat the bad guys. With help from her friends, of course.
KEEFE! FITZ! BIANA! DEX!
Yeah. Those friends.
FRIENDS! FRIENDS! FRIENDS!
Sophie loved Glitter Butt, but the exuberant alicorn was starting to give her a headache. Waving goodbye to Silveny, she walked into her house and stumbled up to her room.
Instead of greeting her with MILLION DECIBEL TRANSMISSIONS like Silveny, Iggy greeted her with a burp. With a shock, Sophie noticed that he was gold, though she had no idea when Dex would have dyed the imp. No matter what Dex's mysteriously magical ways were, gold was the right color to choose, for sure. The color of victory.
Sophie collapsed on her bed and fell asleep almost instantly. She was out cold for thirteen hours straight.
When she woke up, for a second, she forgot everything that had happened at the Point of Purity. A wide smile rose to her face when she remembered. Iggy burped again. Sophie laughed and headed downstairs, the smell of mallowmelt inviting her.
"You slept for a while," Edaline noted, giving her a plate. Sophie took a huge bite.
"I was tired," she said through a mouthful.
"You needed the rest."
Sophie's mallowmelt was gone almost immediately, as were her seconds, and her thirds. At some point during her third helping, Grady came in and ruffled Sophie's hair, declaring "She lives!"
"Yep," Sophie agreed.
Grady laughed and reached a bit of her mallowmelt. Gasping, Sophie swatted his hand away. "Mine! All mine!"
"Okay, okay," Grady sighed. "So, Mr. Forkle hailed, and- only if you feel up to it- he asked to talk to you once you were awake."
Sophie thought about it. "Okay. More mallowmelt first?"
Edaline sighed. "Normally, I wouldn't let you eat this much- but fine. It's a special occasion."
"Thanks, Mom! You're the best!"
Two servings of mallowmelt and one attempted Vertina tutorial later, Sophie was blatantly refusing to climb all of those stairs, insisting that she'd "suffered enough" during the battle. Mr. Forkle, not without many "you kids"s, finally conceded that they could simply meet in his office. Sophie gave up wondering why they couldn't just agree to meet there in the first place.
"I must congratulate you, Sophie," Mr. Forkle said, in Magnate Leto form.
Not for my stair climbing capabilities, Sophie thought. "Thank you."
"You kids did an amazing job defeating the Neverseen. Any members still living that you managed to knock unconscious or take captive will stand trial tomorrow. We think we've gotten all of their members, but if not, we think they'll have a difficult time causing any real damage without their leaders."
Sophie nodded, suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that we did it, we really won, it's really over.
"Miss Foster..." Mr. Forkle said, suddenly looking much more professional. "The collective and I talked, and we decided that, with the amazing job you did, you deserve to know the secrets we've been keeping from you."
Sophie pulled on an eyelash. "Does that mean... you're going to tell me who my biological father is?"
"Only if you'd like," Mr. Forkle said. "I will assure you, however, that you've never met them, only know of them, so you won't feel betrayed like you did with Councillor Oralie." Strangely, Sophie didn't want to strangle someone upon hearing the name. "And of course, I'm sure matchmaking won't be an issue now that you're with a different- ah- you know what, that's irrelevant. Hopefully matchmaking will not be a problem in your current relationship, and hopefully part of your job as the moonlark will be to convince the council against the system."
Sophie tugged at another eyelash. She'd been so focused on fighting the Neverseen that she hadn't thought as much about the social action aspect of her moonlarky job. But of course, that was a different problem than the one she was facing now- should she ask the identity of her biological father?
It was nowhere near as big a deal as it was a few months ago, when she was concerned about being a bad match. Nor was she as strongly against it as when she first learned of her biological mother's identity- and Forkle had confirmed that she wouldn't feel that betrayal again.
Sophie never had to meet him. There was no obligation to. If she had never met him before, she could go about her day with this information and not be affected at all. And, let's be honest, she would always be a bit curious.
"Okay."
*Hides behind Shady Black Belt Protection Squad ™.*
PLEASE DON'T KILL ME-
Though honestly, I'd love to hear your guesses, so guess in the comments! ---> If anyone gets it right I'll give them a pRiZe! What is that prize?
Eh. Doesn't matter, because none of you are going to guess it.
MUAHAHAHA!
Please comment! --->