"Ok Sophie. Ready?" Mr. Forkle's voice said through a microscopic earpiece. It was inspired by the old spy movies that Sophie had shown Dex. He had immediately found it fascinating that someone could place a piece of technology—Although he had first said 'an electro-acoustic transducer for converting electric signals into sounds into your ears— and then restated in a simplified form once he saw his friends confused and be able to converse with someone a distance away. He easily had made his own version which was virtually invisible to the naked eye. In this case Sophie, Linh, Tam, Keefe, Fitz, Dex and Biana, who were wearing Neverseen cloaks.

Dex was taking care of disabling all the technology that made sure only secure Neverseen members could enter the facility but he couldn't crack the one lock that opened to only Lady Gisela's voice. Hence Keefe being a part of the mission if Sophie had her way he would be with The Council, The Collective, and the parents. They were all over at Havenfield keeping track of them through the trackers in the kids clothes—which the kids had no idea about.

"Yes. Operation secure the caches is a go," Sophie whispered grimly once the others nodded in confirmation. All 7 of them were extremely nervous but were prepared for the worst.

The group of kids slowly advanced towards the base which was seemingly a bare cave. They never would have known about where they kept the caches if not for Glimmer. The elf had seemingly realized she wouldn't gain anything from staying in the Neverseen so she had come to the Black Swan to join and gain refuge. To say the least Biana wasn't pleased when she heard Glimmer was staying. One of the main reasons was the fact Glimmer and Tam were rarely seen apart from one another which practically turned Biana green with jealousy.

Another was that Glimmer had claimed the Neverseen had no idea she had deviated even though they were there when she was released by Tam. Once Biana heard this she wanted to test her loyalty to the Neverseen so she suggested something to The Collective. Having no other way into the Neverseen, the Black Swan decided she could prove her loyalty by being a spy.

Weeks after she had joined the Black Swan and had gone undercover to the Neverseen, she finally gave some vital information. Instead of the usual "We only trained today" or "They had a meeting today but I wasn't invited". She has said "There was a meeting on where they are going to hide the caches because you had already saved Kenric's. At the end they decided to hide it near a beach in The Forbidden Cities" She had given them the date that were gonna move the cache and some longitude and latitude coordinates to give them a location.

Immediately there was a lot of haggling of who was gonna go even before they had made a plan. Miraculously the adults let the kids go without much fussing. They then came up with a plan but nevertheless the bodyguards insisted they would enter first. It had been a few minutes since the bodyguards had entered so Sophie decided it was safe to enter. They all walked towards the mouth of the cave in a triangle trying to make Keefe stay in the back. In the front was Sophie, Fitz, and Biana. Right behind them was Tam, Linh, and Dex with Keefe in the very back.

The cave would've been pitch black if not for their balefire pendants. They walked at a relatively brisk pace waiting for the dark halfway-esque cave to open up into an ante-chamber. After a few minutes of walking they found it. They had expected to meet their bodyguards there but it seemed they had walked past the chamber and into the next section of the hallway.

Keefe looked around and saw a glimpse of a melder. Pointed at Sophie.

"Sophie! Move!" Keefe yelled moving in front of Sophie shielding her with his body. His yell caused FItz to grab Sophie and duck to the ground. Biana and Dex both ran to the other side of the chamber while Linh and Tam had hit the deck. He braced himself for pain but what he was prepared for was nothing compared to what he's feeling now. His insides feel like they were liquefying and he felt something warm drip on to his hand. He groans and falls to the ground.

Dex runs up to Keefe and takes inventory of his wounds. "Sophie! Over here," Dex called out. Sophie turns towards his voice. "He's hit. The bullet entered just above his hip and lodged in his right arm." Dex reports and then gestures toward the elf in the corner of the chamber hiding the melder in the folds of his cloak. Sophie's vision turns red with anger. The whole point of the mission was to keep Keefe safe!—Well besides the caches.

Sophie's vision turns red. All she can feel is hatred for the Neverseen. Having the nerve to take away another person someone loves. Hatred for Keefe for taking the bullet. Hatred for the world being unfair. She lets out a guttural scream and a red laser emerges from her forehead. The Neverseen member barely even screams before he falls unconscious and he collapses. Sophie calms down and she feels at peace. But that peacefulness ends as quickly as it started when she sees Keefe.

"Keefe come on get up." Sophie encourages.

Keefe cracks a smile and responds, "I'm working on that. Give me a minute Lovely Lady F."

Sophie cracks a smile at the nickname but it quickly fades when she realizes he can't get up. She sits down and reaches toward his wound. She hesitates and her hand hovers above the blood stained area.

"Dex, can you go find the bodyguards? We need to get to Elwin. Fast." Sophie says.

"Wait Dex. In case once you come back and I never get a chance to tell you—"

"Which won't happen" Sophie interrupts Keefe.

Keefe smiles sadly at her and looks back at Dex, " Be sure to tell the triplets they can have my crown as 'The Greatest Prankster'.

Dex cracks a smile, "Will do. Anything for me or only them?" He teases.

Keefe smiles at his teasing, "Oh ya. I hope you find someone you like. And let's hope it's not Stina."

Dex laughed and said "That would suck wouldn't it." And runs off to find the bodyguards.

"Linh can you please put some water on his wound?" Sophie says desperately as she realizes how bad the wound really is. Linh obliges and makes the water vapor into a ball. She gently places it on his hip where the wound is.

Keefe hisses in pain. "Linh stop. It's ok, " Keefe gets out through gritted teeth. Linh takes it off and asks if he needs anything else. Keefe shakes his head.

Then he says, "Actually I don't need anything but Bangs Boy needs you to take care of him so ask him." Linh giggles and looks at her twin. Tam on the other hand rolls his eyes to see the tears threatening to enter his eyes and shakes his bangs out of his eyes.

"I wonder if he would appreciate it much," Linh's usually bright happy eyes were glistening with unshed tears. "I think he appreciates that as much as your arguments."

Keefe smirked, "So a lot?"

"Quite the opposite," Tam interrupted, his eyes losing a battle against the flow of tears.

This catches Keefe's eye and he says, "But remember Tammy Boy. Just because I'm gone does not mean your hair is better than mine," Even though Tam rolls his eyes again, his silvery blue eyes still have tears in them. He grabs Linh's hand and gently pulls her away from Keefe.

Keefe turned to Biana who was now sitting next to Sophie. "And I'm sorry you never got a piece of Lord Hunkyhair."

Biana shakes her head, "You're one of the few people who makes jokes in even bad situations." She was smiling nevertheless. She swiped her hand against her cheeks quickly showing she was crying but couldn't show it.

At this point Sophie was holding Keefe's free arm like her life depended on it but she refused to cry. He could not—no had— to not die. She was hugging Fitz who was trying to calm her down.

Keefe looked at Fitz and smiled wistfully, "Try to find a new best friend that's at least half as awesome as me," He winked, making Fitz smile wistfully back at him. At this moment all the bodyguards burst in making chaos as everyone tried to explain what had happened. In the chaos Keefe pulled Fitz down.

"And take care of Sophie." FItz nodded solemnly and got up trying to explain the situation to the bodyguards calmly.

"Sophie. Sophie," Keefe wheezed to Sophie as he could tell his life was coming to an end. She looked down at Keefe.

"Sophie. This is important, The Ballad of Bo and Ro is under my bed in a blue file, make sure once you tell Ro I said goodbye and annoy her to the maximum with the book. You owe me." Keefe smirks.

Sophie hits him lightly on his shoulder. "That's what is important?!" She reprimands.

"Well there's more." Keefe's smirk growed wider, making Sophie nervous of what he would say next. " I know I may not have teal eyes but can you at least say I'm cute once, please"

At this Sophie choked back a sob but still managed to blush so hard her resemblance to a tomato was frightening. Keefe smiled this time and winked at Sophie, "See I told you I would always win the game of Who can Make Foster Blush."

Keefe looks at the chaos in the room and sees them deciding how to help him while they wait for Elwin to show up. He thinks what else he could tell Sophie. He thought about telling her about his biggest secret. The fact he liked Sophie. No he loved her. But he realizes if he told her and died, Sophie and he wouldn't gain anything. In fact he could become a problem in Sophie and Fitz's possible future relationship after he dies. That was the last thing he wanted to do.

He thinks about how he had planned on giving Sophie a bracelet once they recovered the caches. He had planned to tell her. He remembered how he had sat on his bed painstakingly painting each bead. He had dealt with Ro's teasing to tell her. And now he would never get a chance. It was painfully similar to what had happened when he had made his mother a necklace but she never wore it. Keefe was close to tears but remembered he had to stay strong.

He made a split second decision and took something out of his pocket. Or tried too. Sophie intercepted his hand because of how loudly he was groaning from the blackening pain and reached into his pocket for him. In her hand is a beautiful bracelet. Each bead has a different design. One had a moonlark. One had Sophie and Silveny. Another had Wynn and Luna playing with their parents. But all of them either showed stuff Sophie either loved or were some of her adventures.

Sophie looks at it with confusion. "Who is this for?"

"I made this for you a while back but I never had the guts to—" Keefe's breath shudders causing Sophie to call out to everyone for help. Yelling at them to forget their plan and just bring him to Elwin.

"Sophie," Keefe whispers, unable to speak any louder. He pulls on her hand, which is still holding his, to get her attention. She looks at him with tears in her eyes, refusing to believe the inevitable.

"Sophie, listen to me, promise me you'll wear it."

"What?" Sophie said, confused about what he's getting at.

"You'll wear it—The bracelet— when I'm gone right?" His eyes are drooping like he's tired after a long day.

"No, no you won't be gone I—." Sophie stubbornly says tears now freely flowing down her face. She felt like her heart was slowly breaking. This was Keefe he was as steady as a rock in the ocean during a storm. Something she could hold onto no matter what. He can't just leave her.

"Sophie, promise me that you'll wear the bracelet. Just promise me. Promise it if I'm worth it." Sophie nods and Keefe also had tears streaming down his face.

Keefe wasn't crying because he was in pain. He wasn't crying because time was passing too fast to tell her everything but also too slow to get out of this life where no one loved or cared for him. No, he wasn't crying because his parents never loved him. He wasn't crying because the Neverseen wasn't defeated. And for once he wasn't crying because he wasn't worth it. He was crying for what he had lost. In the past, in the present and especially his future. He was crying because he couldn't tell her three simple words. He was crying because of how his life was full of regret and nothing else.

He focused on Sophie getting up because Elwin had finally arrived. He noticed how her beautiful blonde hair flew around her face as she spoke animatedly about what happened. She had a steely look of determination in her alluring brown eyes even though they were bloodshot from crying. The last thing Keefe thought as he closed his eyes for the last time while smiling was simply I have always loved you, Sophie, and always will.

Elwin sat down next to Keefe having quite a few balms and elixirs spread out on the floor. He checks Keefe breaching patterns but finds nothing. He hurriedly checks his pulse and finds nothing there either. Sophie is carefully watching the process and sees Elwin's sad expression. She turns to Keefe, refusing he had stopped breathing when he was talking literally seconds before.

When she doesn't feel his pulse, Sophie's breaths come faster. Her insides feel like they are being squished. Where her heart was, all she felt is this aching like someone had cut off her oxygen supply and something necessary to live was missing. She wasn't aware of anything but the fact Keefe was gone. The Great Prankster, Lord Hunkyhair, The Great Keefe Sencen was gone.

There were a million things left unsaid. A million little things they were yet to learn about each other. And yet here he was on the sandy floor not ever going to be able to tell her about The Great Gulon Incident. He was never gonna smirk and call her Foster again. Never was she gonna be able to finally get it into his thick skull that he was worth it. She was sobbing so hard she couldn't see a thing. She felt someone pick her up bridal style. She looked up and saw Fitz carrying her.

Usually, her heart would be thundering in her ears but her heart felt numb. Instead of being self-conscious that Fitz was carrying her, all she could think was I wish it was Keefe instead.

Word count: 2486