MISSION MOONLARK, kotlc

17

"Please pick up," Sophie whispered, her palms sweating anxiously. "Just this once-"

"Sophie!" Biana's face lit up the Imparter screen- and for a second Sophie was too relieved to do anything but breathe an enormous sigh of relief and stare.

"Oh God- it's really you!" Biana screamed after another moment of shocked silence. She jerked her head out of the frame and yelled, "FITZ!"

"What?"

The sound of things clattering to the floor and footsteps hurrying over made Sophie even more nervous. After a few endless seconds, Fitz appeared on the screen, sorting absentmindedly through a few pictures. When he looked up...

"Sophie?" The glass shattered on cue.

"Hi...?"

More silence. Sophie braced herself, unsure what she was bracing herself for.

"Hi?!" Fitz practically shouted, shoving a disgruntled Biana off the screen. "We're here searching for, what, days... facing all these messy interrogations, searching the planet for you, and then you show up some Tuesday afternoon at a Starbucks and say hi?!"

Biana pouted at him, scooting into the screen. "Hey, what do you have against frappuccinos?"

"I... I... " Fitz spluttered, looking at a loss for words in his fury. He cast Biana a stony glare before settling in the chair beside her.

"What my dear brother meant to say," Biana corrected, giving a pointed glare in his direction, "Is that we- and everyone else -have a ton of questions for you, but we're so relieved you're alive."

She raised her eyebrows at Fitz like she was expecting him to take notes.

"Er... okay..." Sophie mumbled, feeling flustered. "Listen, I don't exactly.. Erm, I don't really know how to get back..."

The devious glare in Biana's eye implied that she'd rather enjoyed their previous car theft. Fitz must've noticed the same thing; he scowled at his sister and cut in, "I can ask Leto so we're not in any more trouble."

"Trouble?" Was it just her eyes burning from the smoke, or did Fitz and Biana start blinking at triple their normal rate?"

"Just... stay there," Biana interrupted. "Don't go anywhere. Be there in a sec."

"Okay," Sophie agreed. The screen went blank and she went back to flipping through magazines.

"Frapp for Sophie?" the barista asked, holding up a cup. She hastily restowed her Imparter, slid off her chair, and hurried to the counter.

And she was just about to thank the person and take the cup- when her mind caught up to her eyes and she noticed something wrong...

The way the person moved wasn't... normal. They constantly made an effort to keep their face shadowed by their hat and the stiff movement was almost too obvious... Sophie pretended to fiddle with the bottom of her cup, sneaking a glance at the person's face, and was greeted by the downright malicious smile of an all too familiar Neverseen member...

At this point, Sophie wondered why she even bothered to be surprised.

"You ordered a vanilla bean frappuccino," Alvar sneered, flinging off his hat. "Along with a premium Neverseen-style kidnapping!" a/n: im so sorry that mightve been the cringiest line ive ever typed-

Sophie screamed, dropping her frappuccino and spilling it all over the floor- (Biana would've been traumatized) -and practically flew out the door. Alvar clambered on top of the counter, jumped off, and sprinted after her.

She wished she had the endurance to outrun Alvar, but he was gaining rapidly and barely looking winded. Meanwhile, Sophie's lungs were screaming for air and between all the dramatic, movie-like chase scenes, she'd probably burned every single calorie she'd eaten for years.

"Sophie! SOPHIE!"

She risked a glance to find a Black Swan car approaching, with a familiar teal-eyed, chocolate-brown haired girl waving wildly from the backseat.

Sophie barely had enough air to sigh in relief; she tugged open the door, flailed inside, and slammed it shut.

The car accelerated on the spot and shot down the icy road. It took ten minutes of silence and gulping down beraths to get her hands to stop shaking, but it was clear her rapid heartbeat wasn't going away anytime soon.

"You okay?" BIana was the first to ask, slicing through the silence.

Sophie nodded numbly, her mind replaying the moment the match had exploded.

"Biana? Who else... in the fire....?"

More choked silence. Agent Leto hadn't said a word.

"They're not... look we don't know... they just..."

"Who?" Sophie pressed, even though her mind was screaming Don't tell me!

Biana opened her mouth to speak, then shook her head instead. "I-I-I can't-"

"If I may," Leto interrupted, his voice thick. "Both Fintan Pyran and Kenric never made it out of the room."