Our Planet has Crashed [COMPLETE]

seventy six - KOTLC

Fitz POV:

"We need to find another way into that hideout," announced Mr. Forkle. 

"What happened to the comb?" Linh asked.

"It doesn't work anymore," sighed Dex. "There is absolutely nothing techy about it, either. It's just a comb."

"You mentioned a vanity?" Blur asked a bit suspiciously.

"It kind of broke when it landed through the trapdoor with us," Dex explained. "Oh, and also it was too heavy to lug around, not to mention conspicuous,"

"Then we have no hope," sighed Fitz exasperatedly. "I told you!" 

"No," Mr. Forkle said firmly. "We cannot just leave the prodigies in the Neverseen's clutches, and we don't even know where all those other elves the Neverseen 'recruited,' let alone how many of them there are. We don't even know how big a rescue party to send!"

"I'll bet the entrance is in San Diego, again," Linh said. "Putting it somewhere elvin makes it too easy to find, and if there is an alternate entrance . . . wouldn't putting it in a close place make it more accessible? You could probably use the same leaping crystal . . . . Why don't we ask Vespera?" 

"Vespera?" Dex asked, fiddling with the circlet. "Oh! Yes, maybe we could do that. But we'd have to get back to the dragon planet—"

Fitz? 

"Huh?" Fitz said aloud. 

Hello? Fitz? It's Sophie.

Mr. Forkle met his eyes. 

Hi, Sophie. How are you? Have you recovered your memories yet?

Sophie's thoughts seemed bitter. I had other things to worry about. But no matter. I was in the dragon planet—

How convenient, Mr. Forkle butted in. 

Sophie seemed lost. What?

Hello, Miss Foster. We were just talking about the dragon planet—

—and Vespera? Sophie finished. I just saw her . . .

You did? What did she say? asked FItz. 

"What's happening?" Linh asked.

Dex grumbled, "Telepaths," and went back to tinkering with the circlet. 

I don't have any direct questions to ask her yet, but do you? I know you're trying to get back into the Neverseen hideout despite how dangerous it is—

—as if turning yourself in to the Neverseen for a bargain they would never acknowledge was a better idea, Fitz retorted.

Now, now, Mr. Forkle began.

Okay, I'm sorry! But now I have memories I can try to recover, and isn't that better? Sophie almost yelled. 

Sophie seems off today, Mr. Forkle transmitted to Fitz. He nodded back. What was the thing Sophie had been doing in the dragon planet? It must have been important to have convinced her parents and Sandor and her other bodyguards.

Okay, okay. said Mr. Forkle. Look, Sophie. You're in the right place now, you can ask Vespera what she knows about an alternate entrance into the Neverseen hideout—

She snorted. Wow, you're still trying to figure out a way in. It's been, what? Four days? In that time I managed to help stop the Invinci— She paused. Never mind, she sighed.