Mental Cages: A KoTLC Story

Part 1

Hey everyone! to my loyal fans, I have returned. Mwah mwah. This is a new fix-it-fic occurring after Unlocked, sooooo spoilers? I'm really excited about this one. I think I'll probably post smaller chapters so it's less overwhelming for me to sit down and write. Love you!

Sophie raced up the stairs of her home, ignoring Sandor's squeaky protests. She burst into her room, and stopped short at the door to look for any disturbances. It was barely touched; the flowers in her carpet were crushed in a trail, and Iggy was a new color, but that was it. No intruders, no smell of ash, and no Keefe. 

Dex had hailed her after she talked with Mr. Forkle about the warehouse. He was more worried than she had seen him in a long time, only shaking his head when she asked about their progress. 

"Has Keefe talked to you? Did he come see you?" Dex had asked. 

Sophie answered in the negative. 

"I'm worried about him. He's not answering his imparter, and Elwin found Ro frozen on the floor of his room."

Sophie had panicked, hanging up on Dex and leaping home amid curious glances from the rest of the Black Swan. There was little chance Keefe could make it past Grady, so she was hopeful she would find him in her room, waiting to talk to her with his tell-tale smirk. But the room was empty. 

A corner of white stuck out from beneath Iggy's cage. Sophie rushed over to it, yanking it out from under the newly striped imp. She unfolded a note with Keefe's familiar scrawl. 

She prayed Dex was wrong, that his warning that Keefe might run off the way he did years ago was just a worry. She prayed the note would say that he was ready to see her, or even talk to her outside of his head. She prayed it would say they had fixed the problem, that he was okay, that he could work his powers and would do anything to keep away from the Neverseen. 

Some part of Sophie selfishly hoped it would be something else, something she couldn't quite put to words. 

Reading the note, though, her hopes quickly fell, and her eyes immediately welled with angry tears. How could he leave? How could he think this was the right thing to do?

He was gone. He had left her and their friends alone in this war, where they could protect him. He left me, Sophie thought, fists closing around the flimsy piece of paper. He had left her to fend for herself, the only anomaly, the only one as confused and lost as she was. He was the only one she could turn to for personal issues, ones that even Fitz thought she was a freak for. Keefe understood her in ways no one else did, not even people who had been in her head.  

Love, Keefe. The words glared up at her, full of meaning she didn't quite understand. 

She tossed the crumpled note to the floor, stalking back down the stairs. 

"Grady!" Sophie yelled. She threw open the door to the yards, startling the dinosaurs grazing nearby. "Grady, where are you?"

The familiar blond head poked out of a pile of Verdi fluff. "One second!"

"No 'one second.'" She smacked her palm against the fence of Verdi's enclosure. "How could you let him leave?"

Grady slowed, pulling out of his task of grooming the sleeping T-rex. He turned to look at her, his eyes full of regret. "Do you think I could have stopped Keefe? The master of tricks?"

"You could have tried!"

Her dad shook his head, exiting the enclosure. He brushed some of the neon feathers off his tunic, refusing to look her in the eyes. "No. I couldn't."

"Why?" She screamed at him, tears flowing openly down her cheeks. "Why couldn't you?" She slammed her palm into the fence again, ignoring the sharp stab of pain. The fence didn't even budge, the product of excellent gnome workmanship, but her hand was scraped open and bleeding. Sophie ignored it; she wanted the pain, the sharp feeling that kept her out of hazy thoughts. A release from the anger clouding her mind. 

"Sophie, come here please," Grady pleaded, opening his arms for a hug.

"No!" Spinning around, she started toward the cliffs, but she froze after only a few steps. The last time she went to the cliffs angry, she was kidnapped. She couldn't quite bring herself to go back there, even with her army of bodyguards and newfound powers. 

She had grown up from the scared girl in her blue uniform, who was thrown into a world she didn't understand and taken from it just a few months later. She was stronger now, wiser, and more willing to do what it takes to do the right thing. Even when no one agreed with her about what was the right thing to do. 

"Sophie," Edaline's soft voice came from behind her, with Grady. "It's not Grady's fault."

Sophie wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing her chest. Of course it wasn't Grady's fault. It was Keefe's for leaving, and hers for running him off, and the Black Swan's and the Neverseen's for involving a bunch of kids in their sick, twisted war. 

Though she didn't help when she set their warehouse on fire. The war that she was born and tweaked and made for would most likely be blamed on her because of it. She still didn't regret it. She was just brave enough to do the dirty work no one wanted to do, for fear of the Neverseen retaliating. 

Sobs wracked her body, and she sank to her knees, the adrenaline of the day leaving her body. Sophie covered her mouth, curling in on herself in the middle of the yard. A gentle weight rested on her shoulders as her parents wrapped their arms around her, kneeling in the muddy grass of the yard. 

He left because of her, for her. She was the reason he could die out there alone. He could be hurt or captured or worse by either of the stupid rebel groups. He might never come back.

She was going to get him back. She was going to bring him home, she vowed. After Calla, Mr. Forkle, Kenric, all those losses, she wouldn't lose him too.