Back to the Future

Chapter 24

Sophie tossed and turned in her bed. She was used to insomnia when she was younger, but it had gone away when she had moved in with Keefe. He always comforted her and was her rock against any nightmares she might have had. Over time the fear of the Neverseen went away, but her reliance on needing Keefe to go to sleep never did. She had never told Keefe or anyone, she didn't know why. Maybe it was because she was embarrassed of her reliance on someone. Or, maybe it was because she didn't think it mattered that much. Whatever the reason, she never told anyone and because of that, she almost forgot about it. Until now.

She turned onto her back, staring up at the ceiling even though she could barely make it out in the dark. She clapped her hands turning on the lights and sat up rubbing her eyes. She knew she wasn't at home, but still the view of her room at the Neverseen base was jarring.

A half hour later, Sophie was fully awake and working out. She threw a dagger while executing a couple kicks and punches. The exertion was helping her calm down, helping her restlessness go down. She moved to beating up a punching bag. Sweat beaded down her face, and she wiped it away, not looking away from her target. She tested out a spinning, jumping kick and failed. She hit the ground. Hard.

She let out a groan, and lay down on the mat. Her breaths were the only sound that could be heard in her room. It felt like the only noise in the world, she was the only one awake it seemed since it was so late at night.

She took that knowledge and it powered her up to continue her workout. It lasted another hour. She spent the rest of her night going to the forbidden cities buying technology and getting everything she had in the future. She hadn't been able to get that stuff in her weeks in the past because frankly she had been too busy. Now she had hours on her hands and she didn't know how busy she would be in the Neverseen. By the time she was back the sun was shining and the day was finally beginning.

Gethen knocked on her door and invited her to come to her first meeting. She put on one of her new cloaks and followed Gethen to a room, weirdly it was empty. Not like the crowded meetings of more people she could count at the Black Swan.

"Where is everyone?" She asked slowly.

"It's what I've been trying to tell you. We are the leaders, we make the decisions. There are no deliberations with 15 other people," Gethen explained, a smile forming on his face.

Sophie sat down on one of the couches and stared up at him, "Ah, so with that being said, what's our situation and what are we doing. Bring me up to date with everything I don't know."

They talked for a while about everything that had been going on and what they needed to do to bring about change. The first big thing was to reveal that Sophie had left the Black Swan, that she was with the Neverseen. Sophie was against it at first, she didn't want to be a figurehead again, but after convincing that it would be like Fintan announcing he was alive then setting things on fire.

Sophie walked out of the meeting with a grin on her face, she couldn't wait to make a difference. She went to the mess hall, because it was basically lunch time and people in cloaks turned to face her with various expressions on their faces, some in confusion, some in hatred. None were positive.

"Sophie!" A voice called from one of the tables. Sophie saw Glimmer waving to her, she almost ran to go sit next to her.

"Hey, I thought you left the Neverseen," she said as she settled next to her.

"We did, but seeing as you came up with this whole 'be evil' plan we might as well get front row seats to the disaster it brings," Ruy said, sneering at her from across the table.

"Ruy, be nice," Glimmer glared at him, before turning back to Sophie, "So, I know we haven't been the closest in the past, but seeing as you might need some friends we wanted to extend an invitation to be our friend."