Switched Perspectives: A Kotlc Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Training (2 years later)

"Duck, slash, roll to the right," Lady Gisela's commanding voice called from the other side of the training room.

Sophie huffed from her spot on the dirt floor, and dodged the attacks the simulation dummy threw at her. Sweat ran down her forehead and her muscles burned, but this didn't make her stop. In fact, it made her want to keep going. The pain was just another reminder of her friend's betrayal. It was just another reminder of how badly she wanted revenge. So badly, she could almost taste it. But the key word in there is almost.

She only needed a mission that could allow her to get her revenge. She barely did anything at all, and the most she would do in a day would be to pick up something that Ruy or Gethen wanted in the Forbidden Cities. In other words, she ran errands. The rest of the day was training and pretending to plan but actually doing nothing.

Focusing back on the dummy, Sophie narrowed her eyes and gripped the short daggers she held; one in each hand. She pinpointed the place and position of the dummy, and ran towards it before she went back to defense. Slamming into the dummy from the side, Sophie kicked its feet from underneath it, making it fall to the ground. Raising her arms and flipping her knives so that their pointed ends faced the fallen dummy, she sliced downwards, ending the simulation and leaving torn up fabric and stray pieces of stuffing everywhere. Satisfied, Sophie picked up her knives and turned around to face a scowling Lady Gisela.

"What was that?" Lady Gisela shouted, not even acknowledging the defeated dummy at Sophie's feet. "That was the worst defense and form I have ever seen! You were clumsy, you barely dodged the attacks, and your enemy was given an opening when you ran forward!" The older woman ranted on about how Sophie's faults. Sophie just rolled her eyes. She had dealt with this every day, and she was used to Lady Gisela's harsh criticism. She sharpened her nail against the knife, waiting impatiently until she got dismissed.

Finally, Lady Gisela finished her speech. But before Sophie could get out, Lady Gisela stopped her. "I have news for you," She reluctantly said after a moment. "You have been assigned a mission at Atlantis a week from now." Sophie's heart stopped.

"What?" she asked in disbelief.

"You heard me," Lady Gisela said irritably. "I said you have been assigned a mission." Sophie continued to stare.

"Really?" she finally managed to ask.

"Yes! Now do I have to repeat myself a third time? Be gone now! Your training is done for today! But don't forget to-" Sophie jumped up and ran out of the door before Lady Gisela could finish her sentence. Sprinting down the halls, Sophie ignored the way her legs burned and her muscles ached. One sentence ran through her head, and it was all that mattered at that moment.

She had a mission.

She didn't have to be useless anymore, she didn't have to sit around being bored. She finally had something to do; something important to do. Sophie ran down the hall and turned a corner leading to the dorms. All the turns and hallways in the Neverseen's hideout could get someone easily lost, but her photographic memory guided her. Finally, she neared the sleeping quarters. There were 4 dorm rooms in the sleeping quarters; the girl's room, the boy's room, Fintan's room, and Lady Gisela's room.

Bursting into the girl's door at full speed, she slammed open the door, making a giant commotion in the process.

"Guys, guess what?" she panted.

"Someone's excited to see us," Vespera noted without looking up. She and Umber were laying on Sophie's bed, looking at an human magazine. Gethen probably picked it up for them when he went out on his morning check-in's on the Forbidden Cities. Sophie leaned on her knees, bent over, until she finally caught her breath.

"Guys, guess what?" she repeated for a second time. Finally, Umber and Vespera looked up.

"Based on how you look, either a gulon attacked, or Gethen accidentally electrocuted you with a force field," Umber joked. Vespera laughed while Sophie glared at them and made her way over to the mirror on the wall.

She did look like she had been electrocuted. Her hair was sticking up everywhere, and her face was flushed and wet with sweat. She swiped her forehead with her sleeve before turning back to the two girls, who were still on her bed. They had turned back to the magazine, which Sophie could now see was a fashion magazine. Though the models didn't look half as good as Sophie had thought when she lived in the Forbidden Cities. Now that she had met elves, her perspective had changed. A lot.

"Fitz and Keefe are ten times more handsome then those scrawny boys on the cover," she noted to herself, than gave her a mental slap. "Why am I thinking about them?" she screamed in her head. "They betrayed me! They don't deserve to be in my thoughts!" Shaking her head, she shoved her thoughts about her ex-friends away and turned back to the present.

"We got assigned a mission in Atlantis in a week," she blurted out. Vespera, who had previously been staring at one of the dog food ads, froze. Umber just laughed and looked at Sophie.

"Wait, your serious?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, I'm just kidding," Sophie sarcastically said. Umber stayed staring at Sophie a second longer before she started screaming.

"WE FINALLY GOT A MISSION!" she yelled. Umber leaped up and started dancing around the room in a funky, weird dance. "WE FINALLY GOT A MISSION!" she continued to scream the same thing over and dance. Vespera finally unfroze from her spot on the bed and jumped up to join Umber. Sophie eventually joined in, and soon the girls were a crazy, screaming, dancing frenzy.

"What's going on?" Ruy ran into the still open door to the girl's room. His hands were open, ready to make a force field. The three girls stopped moving to stare at him. He stared in confusion back. "Why were you screaming?" He finally asked.

"We got a mission!" Umber exclaimed. Ruy's jaw dropped.

"That's what you were screaming about?" He looked like he was about to bang his head against a wall. "I thought we were under attack by the Black Swan!"

"Like that would happen," everyone turned to look at her, and she realized that she was the one who spoke. She shrugged and said, "What? The Black Swan is stupid. They can't even get back one of their own members," bitterness leaked into her voice, and Umber scooted over to pull her into a one-sided hug.

"Hey, it's okay," she said softly. "And anyways, we have a mission for real this time!" Sophie could hear her grinning, and she couldn't help but smile too. "We can go kick the Swan's butts so hard, they'll be begging for mercy," Sophie had to laugh at that.

"You mean we'll kick their butts so hard, they'll be begging to die instead," she said, and Vespera shouted, "Atta girl!" Ruy had to crack a smile at that.

The rest of the day was excited talk about the mission and running down the halls screaming and laughing. Sophie smiled, wishing this day would never end.

As they were running down a particularly long hallway, Sophie heard a grunt and clash of swords. Slowing, she turned and saw a door that she had never noticed before. It was a big wooden door with metal hinges and a sign that said, off limits Sophie felt herself slowly walking towards it, her curiosity taking the better of her.

"What's in there?" She wondered. Sophie slowly pushed it open, making sure not to make any noise. Her heart stopped. There were two people sparring with swords, the metal gleaming in the light. Her heart dropped.

"Soph, are you coming?" Sophie jumped, and quickly shoved the door shut when she heard Vespera call her name.

"Yep!" she forced her voice to sound cheerful. "Coming!" Sophie ran slowly to the two other girls, her mind reeling. 

Even though she had only peeked for a second, she had gotten a good glimpse of one of the fighters: dark, black bangs dipped in silver, pale eyes, a scowl she could never forget. She had seen Tam.

If you're confused, this is when Sophie thinks that the Neverseen is good and that the Black Swan is bad. She thinks that her friends betrayed her and didn't come for her when the Neverseen 'took' her.