Team Foster-Keefe one shots!

#50: I Can't Let You Go

A/N: wow guys my fiftieth chapter woo! ngl, this one is a bit sad (more than a bit) so imma just let you read it and decide if you still like me by the end of this journey. okay bye pls don't hate me

Air.

The only thing Sophie needs right now is air.

The walls seem to be closing in, there's still dust falling from what used to be a ceiling, and Sophie is pretty sure she's covered in blood, sand, and dirt. She needs air, she needs to clear her lungs of the dirtiness of the oxygen around her, clear her head from the horrible thoughts flying around, and yet all she sees is the darkness in front of her.

She's completely alone, completely cut off from the outside where Edaline is, and she doesn't remember hearing from Keefe after she had frantically transmitted to him when she figured out what was going on.

Lumenaria is completely in ruins.

She only feels the faintest sense of deja vu, but she can't stop running in order to figure out why. Maybe she's running in circles, the entire building was designed to confuse people. She doesn't even care, because she knows that there are still people in there. She hadn't seen Mr. Forkle or Oralie with the refugees. And who knows where Keefe could be. She can't think of any sort of reason why Keefe wouldn't have left the cave he was hiding in if he knew that people were in danger. She wants to think that he would at least have come looking for her with the refugees...

Right now, she can't think about who could and couldn't be in this building. She just needs to find someone at all. Needs to know that whoever is stuck in here will get out. Needs to know that everything is okay.

And then suddenly it clicks. She's a genetically enhanced telepath who can track thoughts to their exact locations. So, she crouches down and places two fingers on her right temple, face contorting in concentration as she reaches her mind out like a blanket, trying to feel for something. Anything.

She's just about to give out to the strain when she feels the slightest flicker of a frantic thought, just a trickle of warmth as her heart beat speeds up, and suddenly she's not in charge of her limbs anymore. She's running, running, running at full speed, dodging fallen support beams and shattered marble and crystal and glass, going so fast she must be levitating now. She's moving things along the way with her telekinesis, instinctively knowing exactly what do, as if she'd done it before already. She just needs to find this person.

She reaches her consciousness out again, feeling more than one flicker of life this time, and it's getting closer, just above her. She can feel the cold chill of fear settle into her bones, the blood drain from her face as she's about to levitate onto the floor above, so she calls out random names of people she knew were at the summit.

"Hello?" she hears a frail voice call out, and suddenly her breathing is erratic, her chest heaving with the relief of finding them, and the fear of what she could see. But she has never been prepared to see what is in front of her right now.

"No." That's all that comes out of Sophie's mouth before she's running, falling on her knees, and already feeling her entire body heave from the force of her sobs this time.

"You really shouldn't have come looking for us," the familiar voice says, though gruff and clearly full of pain and strain, and she finally looks down into his face, not totally ready to accept the fact that who she saw was really him. But looking into those eyes, she can't deny it for much longer.

"Keefe...," she cries out, reaching for his hand and holding on so tight she can't even feel her own hand anymore. She looks up to the frail voice from before, Oralie, who's hand is pressing on Keefe's torso, shiny and red, and Sophie is suddenly overcome with the pungent and choking smell of iron. She doesn't know if she's still sobbing, or if she's gagging.