Project Shooting Star

Sophie

This one is Sophie, because, why not?

The panic had amounted to its highest possible point as Sophie arrived at the Atlantis fountain. It throbbed behind her eyes dully, threatening a headache. 

They've got Amy, She couldn't stop thinking. Amy, they've got Amy. 

The rest of the group arrived. Some with wide eyes, panic evident in every feature, others clearly just having woke up, and some others looking confused. Eliza, terrifyingly, looked mildly excited. 

Tam and Linh, with Kendra in tow, jogged into view last, all of them looking like they rolled right out of bed. 

"Sorry, my sister overslept," Tam apologizes breathlessly

Sophie felt a pang of guilt at the mention of a sister. Where was my sister? Probably tied up somewhere in a Neverseen hideout. She might even be tortured. 

She felt close to crying. 

Linh pushed the water aside, muttering faint instructions to Kendra all the while, presumably teaching her how to use her ability. But Sophie couldn't even find space in her heart to be fond of this sisterly moment. It reminded her too much of Amy. If I'd just checked on my sister... maybe her sister would be standing here with her,  admiring the buildings, or eating sweets. 

Sophie felt as if her soul had floated out of her body to hover above the rest. She watched, detachedly, as Keefe gently led her down the stairs, the rest of their team trooping behind. Sophie wanted to feel strong, wanted to feel like a leader, but panic clotted her throat, and for once, she couldn't blame herself for her weakness. 

After winding through flights and flights of staircases, they walked into a large, metal chamber, where several hooded and cloaked figures stood. The Neverseen. 

Fintan stood in the center of the black masses, grinning arrogantly, hood flipped back. 

Sophie heard a sharp inhale behind her as the Vacker triplets, as if on cue, all furrowed their brows, trying to control their flow of flashbacks. Eliza seemed unaffected, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head at Fintan. 

Fintan smirked even wider after seeing her, tilting his chin up almost condescendingly. 

In almost a fraction of a second, Elizabeth bowled into Fintan in a ball of darkness, knocking him over. Now an inky-black wolf stood on his chest, snarling and spitting at his face. 

For a moment, everyone stood stunned in silence. Then Fintan started laughing, wild and maniacal, and Sophie saw the wolf, who she presumed to be Eliza, widen her eyes a little in confusion.

"Ah-ah," Fintan stroked her fur despite her furious growls, "I raised you well I see-"

Several things happened at once. The wolf lunged at his throat. Keefe sprinted forward. Sophie heard herself scream. Electricity crackled in the air. 

Chaos broke out. 

Keefe managed to yank Elizabeth back, who had turned back into an elf, looking disgruntled that she didn't rip Fintan's throat out, but quickly recovered after managing to mesmerize a cloaked elf to stab themselves. Eliza laughed, and suddenly, Sophie could see the resemblance between Fintan and her as her ice-blue eyes sparkled with something akin to madness. She felt sick. 

But she steeled her nerves and reeled herself back into her body and into the heat of the battle. It was all the muscle memory of Sandor's grueling training. She barely thought of or felt anything as she knocked and fought her way through the crowds. We're outnumbered, she felt in a panic and looked around for Maybelle, Kendra, Fia, anyone. 

I shouldn't have brought them here, Sophie thought, even more panicked, they can barely use their own abilities, how did I expect them to fight-

But then she caught sight of Hope, the youngest of the triplets, charging up her hands and casting bolts of lightning at the Neverseen, shocking most of them into paralysis. 

Oh, Sophie thought dumbly, of course, they're trained. It must be muscle memory for them too. 

Sophie could see flickers of Charity, who was holding Faith's hand as they slunk through the crowds, invisible. As their invisible figures carved their path through the crowds, Sophie could see many cloaked figures look confused, peering all around. Some of them looked deeply troubled. Sophie remembered something about Charity being a beguiler. 

At this point, she had to stop her observations for a while and knock down a Neverseen member who was getting a little bit too close to Keefe, who was too engrossed in hand-to-hand with another member to notice. 

"That was mine," Eliza slid by, pouting childishly, "it's okay though, I think there's more!" A bright smile spread across her face as if she was talking about sweets and not incapacitating someone. 

At a safer distance from the battle, Sophie spotted Kendra. Kendra was by no means slim like Faith or Maybelle, and she was in no way tall like Fia and Hope. She was rather short, built like a swimmer with wide shoulders and strongly muscled arms. Sophie briefly wondered why she was built so un-elflike, but it was quickly dispelled as Kendra, covered by shadows, snuck behind a Neverseen member and elbowed them in the head. 

Damnit, Sohpie cursed, I don't care why she's like this she can fight, and that's enough. 

One of the hydrokinetics had covered Fintan's hands in larger water balls, which he couldn't dispel, no matter what he tried. 

Maybelle was darting around the battlefield, forming glowing forcefields and trapping Neverseen members in them, constantly apologizing as she was doing so. Dex seemed to be laughing at her cordiality as she ducked her head down sheepishly to a newly trapped member's muffled protests. 

All around her, people who Sophie had previously thought were vulnerable, were fighting, wonderfully well and unforgivingly cruel, reminding her at every turn of who created and trained them. It didn't matter of course, but with the way Kendra ruthlessly swept her leg beneath figures, Eliza who looked as if she was breaking multiple council-imposed ability restrictions at once, and Fia who burnt an indiscriminate path through the crowds, Sophie couldn't help but remember that they were trained to bring the Elvin and human world down to their knees. 

She suppressed a shudder. 

At this point, most of the Neverseen members were firmly out of commission. Some more experienced fighters, like Lady Gisela and Ruy, were still fighting, although they all looked exhausted. 

Just as she was about to fight her way over to the center of the battle and capture some more members, one of the figures whirled around and shot a melder straight at her chest. 

Pain erupted from where it hit her, and Sophie felt her legs growing weak and folding beneath her. 

Dimly, Sophie could hear Fintan yelling orders for retreat, Keefe's shout of alarm, and an argument erupting near her, but darkness was eating at the corners of her vision, and she succumbed to it. 

Desperately, Sophie reached out to Fitz telepathically. 

Amy, find Amy. She managed to transmit before she faded into darkness. 

A/N: Guess what, after 3 years my ability to write fight scenes has yet to improve. I blame this one me, I have too many characters and I can't focus on one. Also, fight scenes and violent scenes in general just isn't my forte.