Always With You- SOKEEFE(unlocked)

Chapter Twenty-two

<MATURE KISSING MARKED BY THE DOTS!> (its srsly only kissing no dirty smut action alr)

It was a rather quiet dinner that night at the Ruewen household. Sophie, Edaline, Keefe, and Grady sat at the long table slurping on their pumpkin stew. It had been a few days since their fight against the Neverseen— though it was more Sophie's fight against Jolie— and things were moving slowly. Every day felt like a repetition of the last, and every hour was just another one wasted. They couldn't do anything. They couldn't fight. They couldn't even check in on Jolie, who was now being held in a bunker controlled by the Black Swan. Sophie had no clue what the Collective was doing with her or why they were keeping her in restraint when they were also using Dex's ability restricting cuffs on her. All she knew was that she was in trouble, not because of the Black Swan but because of herself, and Sophie wanted to help bring her back to her parents more than anything.

For now, all Sophie could worry about was the tribunal awaiting her. The Council had yet to send out 'invitations' to said event, but Oralie had been checking up on her and giving updates on the Council's rulings and opinions, which gave Sophie a little bit of hope. Most of the Council was on her side, but there were still the few that gave in to the tradition of separated worlds, human and elven. What worried her the most were the people. Every elf that believed all humans were bad, every elf that was taught to fear them, they were all oblivious to the truth that the Council's been hiding from them, and because of that, Sophie predicted they wouldn't be on her side for this.

"Soph?" Keefe asked her, holding up a spoonful of orange sauce to his mouth.

"Huh?" she responded, coming out of her daze.

Edaline looked at her daughter, "We were just talking about how it'd be a good idea to regroup with everyone, separate of the Black Swan of course, and come up with our own game plan. Maybe we can even gather a group of loyal supporters to help."

"Like a 'Dumbledore's Army' sort of..." Sophie stopped mid sentence, noticing everyone's confused faces, "Sorry, human reference."

"Well, what do you think?" she asked her.

"I'm not really sure if right now is a good time to be vigilantes, especially with the Council on my back."

"The Council isn't taking you away from us, alright? They'll probably just give you a minor suspension, or- or maybe sanctuary duty."

"Eda's right." Grady said, "You are a regent after all. Plus, the Council already knows how valuable you are to defeating the Neverseen, taking you away from that mission would only harm themselves."

"When the Black Swan... made me, it wasn't to defeat the Neverseen, but doing so just came along with bearing my name. I'm basically a walking target to myself and those around me. And the thing is, I know how to fight, we know how to fight, but whoever wants to join this crusade won't."

"So..." Keefe leaned closer, laying his elbows on the table, "Why don't you teach them?"

Sophie looked down, stirring her stew and mumbled to herself, "Great. So now I'm Harry Potter."

Keefe shook his head slightly, still confused at Sophie's reference, "The point is, you know how to fight better than anyone else here. Not because of your training, but because you have more to fight for than you know, because more than anything, you want all of this to be over. But that can't happen if it's just you fighting out there, especially when it's you against the army the Neverseen has compiled. We need to fight an army with an army if we want to win this thing."

"Well, if we are going to do this, I can't do it alone." Sophie looked at Keefe with raised eyebrows.

"Me?"Keefe asked pointing to himself.