Everyone leaps to Havenfield, and discovers that Sophie wasn’t lying. Sophie looks about a second away from a panic attack, and the rest of us aren’t doing much better. How could they have gotten past all the security here? Ro is running around the pastures, taking out her frustrations. Apparently, she had blamed herself for not protecting Keefe from his Legacy in the first place, and now he was kidnapped from right under her nose. Everyone spends the rest of the day in somewhat confusion, going back and forth between notifying the right people, trying to help with investigations at Haven field, and going to their rooms to cry. Or maybe that was just me and Sophie. Sophie sleeps outside, and I stay in to give her some space. That’s when all the horrifying possibilities about what Gisela could be doing to Keefe. I have nightmares about her putting him through a thousand different procedures. None of them are good.
The next day, Sunday, Master Cadence comes with the Reveldust. No ogre enzymes showed up, so she went to see if there are ways any enzymes could be hidden from the reveldust.
“And don’t even think about skipping your next polyglot training lesson.” She warns me before she leaps away.
“Wait, did she just warn you about skipping school?” Sophie asks
“Yeah?” I reply, confused.
“We still have to go to school? With everything that’s happening?”
“You absolutely do.” Grady says. “How many times do we have to tell you that school is maybe even more important while the Neverseen are waiting to see how we react to their attacks?”
“But we could be using that time for something useful. Like tracking down known Neverseen hideouts to find Keefe.”
“Believe me, Sophie, we're doing everything we can to find him.”
“Well, his mom has him, and is doing who even knows what to him, and we know nothing, and you want me to go to school?”She looks about ready to cry.
“Sophie, I know this is difficult for you-”
“No, I can’t go to school while Gisela has Keefe.” She says Gisela’s name like it was pure venom in her mouth.
“Sophie…”
“I’m going to go find something useful to do.” She says, turning around and running towards the house. Me and Grady just stand there in silence for a moment, then he wraps an arm around my shoulders.
“I know this might not be the best time to mention it, but I don’t get a lot of alone time with you. What happened to your old universe’s version of me?”
“Well, after your sanity being a little… on edge when you lost Jolie, when I got kidnapped way back when I first came to the lost cities, I guess you blamed yourself again, and it just gave your sanity the little extra push it needed to go over the edge. And you were… too far gone by the time I figured out I could heal minds.”
“Huh. Well, I won’t let that happen to me.” We stand there for another second, then Edaline demands to know why Sophie was almost in tears. Even though he didn’t do anything wrong, I decided to let him deal with the wrath of an angry Edaline on his own, just in case dinosaur feces got involved. Honestly, most of the weekend blurs together. So before I know it, I wake up Monday morning, and am about to leap to Foxfire.
“Seriously, I could be doing a hundred other things that are more useful than school.” Sophie says. Honestly, I do see her point. But the routine it provides is calming. Normally. It probably will be once I actually get used to my new schedule here.
“Too bad. Just know that we’re doing everything we can to find Keefe.” Edaline tries.
“If we were actually doing everything you would realize that you ended my help.” We make the leap to Foxfire, and Sophie rushes to orientation while I stay behind to look for some of our friends. I see Fitz across the courtyard, and walk over to him. He notices me, and rushes over.
“Lori! How is the search for Keefe?” He asks.
“Frustratingly slow.” I reply as we start walking to orientation.
“How’s Sophie holding up?”
“She’s frustrated.”
“Hm. I wish we could actually help.”
“No wonder you and Sophie are cognates.”
“She said that?”
“Only a few dozen times.”
“Hm. Well, you guys will tell me if there’s any development? He is my best friend.”
“I know. As soon as anyone makes any progress, we’ll tell everyone. By the way, is it true that I missed you unrolling a giant banner that said ‘ALL HAIL LORD HUNKYHAIR’ in the middle of lunch by a day?”
“Yeah. I just hated that… nobody seemed to care that he wasn’t there. Like for all the kids who claimed he was their idol, they all forgot about him. And then somebody said that it had gotten really quiet around here for some reason. And he said it like he didn’t even realize that it was because Keefe was normally the only one with that kind of confidence. So I talked to Dex, and we landed on that as a sort of tribute to him.”
“Wow, that sounds great. I wish I had come just a day earlier.”
“Heh, yeah. I was just so mad… but of course now I’m in a bunch of trouble.”
“Hey, you gave him a worthy tribute if I’ve heard anything about it.”
“Yeah, people keep saying that.”
“Well, it’s true. So you’d better believe it.”
“Thanks.” We arrive at orientation, and find some seats. I don’t pay attention to most of it, but the last phrase catches my attention.
“And on a final note, midterms will begin next week. You may head to your first session.” Magnate Leto announces.
“Wait- MIDTERMS?!” I exclaim.
“Uhh, yeah. That’s what he said.” Fitz replies.
“I just got here, and it’s already one week until midterms?”
“Yeah. Maybe you could go to Magnate Leto and ask him if you could take them at a later time, or skip them all together since you haven’t had any time to study or learn all the material you’re required to know here?”
“Worth a shot. I’ll see if I can stop by his office during lunch.” I walk to my first class. The universe with Sir Jarvin.
“Ah, Ms. Ruewen. Welcome to The Universe.”
“What do I need to know to pass the midterm?” I ask, getting straight to the point. “This is my only session with you before it starts.”
“Well, how much do you know from your old classes? Like before you came to this universe? Like not this universe as in like this Universe class-”
“I did pretty well here. Having a photographic memory helps. I have all the star charts in my head. Will that be enough to get me through the test?”
“I think it should be.” He says, winking at me. We spend the rest of the session making sure all my star charts are correct. It appears that they are. Well, I don’t mention that I know the exact location of all the unmapped stars, since that information is technically illegal, and quite a few people don’t even know about them. After the chimes sound, I sprint to Magnate Leto’s office.
“Ah, Mrs. Ruewen. If you’re here for news about Mr. Senses, I’m afraid I won’t be of much service. Though I assumed Mrs. Foster would make it here first.” As if on cue, Sophie runs in the door. “And there she is. Well, I’m very sorry, but we don’t have any news about Keefe at the moment. You two should go to lunch.”
“If I was out helping, we would have found him by now.” Sophie says.
“Don’t overestimate your ability to find him.”
“I;m not. We should have found  him by now.”
“Well, the fact is that we haven’t, and until we get a new lead, we’re at a bit of a dead end. It would be well advised for you to focus on studying for your midterms, so you can help with the case during the break.” Sophie seems to shoot daggers at him through her eyes, then she turns around and storms out of the room. “That advice was meant for you too.”
“I, uh, didn’t come here to ask about Keefe. It is about medterms though.”
“What were you wondering?”
“Is there any way I could take it later? I only got here like a week ago, and if I take them next week, I would have only had one session with some of my mentors before the test. I’m not behind or anything, but I don’t know the curriculum as well as I would like to.”
“I do see your point, but I’m afraid that I can’t do that. Because of the celebrations and the break, letting you take them at another time would probably be more trouble than it’s worth. I can talk to your mentors and have them be more specific with you in particular about what to study to get a good grade, so long as you swear not to tell anyone else.”
“That’s probably a good idea.”
“Go to lunch now, and I’ll contact your teachers.”
“Wait, there’s one more thing I wanted to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Do I need to swear fealty again, or is this pendant enough proof that I’m loyal to the Black Swan?” I ask, pulling out my pendant.
“Ah. Are you sure you want to join again? This would be a great opportunity for you to be able to let go of some of the responsibilities of your old universe. Sophie has us covered” I think about what he said. I had always felt pressured to be a good little genetic experiment before. And now, all I have to do to get away from all of that is not join. Nobody expects me to.
“I want to join. I still have the skill to fight, so I wouldn’t be able to justify not helping out. Any place I go, if the Neverseen are there, I’ll help to put them in their place. And I won’t fail again.”
“Alright. I believe that your pendant will be enough, in addition to the traits you’ve already shown. But I’ll discuss it with the Collective, and let you know what they say.”
“Thank you.” Just as I walk out, a sickening thought crosses my mind. I had said I won’t fail again, and I won’t. But if the only difference between my old universe and this one is me, that makes it 100% my fault that I couldn’t save my universe. Sure, there’s also the seeker ability, but in the grand scheme of things, how much of a difference did that make? It actually gave me an advantage over them, and I still failed. My head starts spinning as I walk through the halls. I should sit down. There’s a bench that I sit on. I start crying while I think about how my old universe was so far beyond repair. My fault. My fault. My fault.
“Lori? What are you doing out here?” The words are distant, and I can’t tell who they’re coming from.
“My fault. My fault. My fault.” The words keep bouncing around in my brain.
“What does-”
“My fault. My fault. My fault.” I’m sobbing now and my head hurts like never before. I can’t hear whoever was with me, so I keep repeating the ugly truth. I’m trapped in my head, with terrible words. My fault. My fault. My fault. I find the little nook in my mind that’s normally safe from everything, but when I get there, I can still hear the words. My fault. My fault. My fault. The pain is intolerable, and the words are cold. I sit in my nook and watch all of them go by. Over and over and over again. It’s all my fault. What’s my fault? Everything. Who am I? The one to blame. My fault, My fault. My fault. MY FAULT. MY FAULT. MY FAULT. MY FAULT. MY FAULT. MY FAULT.
Lori Ruewen!
Is that who I am?
You are Lori Ruewen! A wave of something washes over me. Happiness. Love. Peace. Come back Lori. I don’t know what you think was your fault, but it wasn’t.
It was. My universe is burning because I wasn’t good enough to stop it.
No. That’s not true. Listen to me and believe me. It. Was. Not. Your. Fault! Please come back. I get a wave of images of me with my new friends in this universe. Biana. Fitz. Tam. Linh. Sophie. She’s probably the one transmitting to me right now. Then came the pictures of me and Dex. We all care about you so much. You came this far. You can’t leave us now.
I’m coming. I find a trail of warmth and follow it back to my full mind. I open my eyes and take in a huge gasp of air. It feels like I was dead and came back to life.
“LORI!” Sophie says, giving me a huge hug. I’m laying on the ground of the hallways at Foxfire, and there’s quite the crowd around me.
“Wh- what just happened?”
“Your mind broke.” Sophie says, pulling away. There are tears in her eyes. “I don’t know exactly what caused it, but if Dex hadn’t come and found me in the lunchroom…”
“Are you ok now?” Dex asks. He’s down on the floor with me and Sophie. I look around a little, and see the bench I was on. I shudder as I remember someone coming to ask what I was doing. I must have fallen off.
“I- I don’t know.”
“We should take you to the healing center.” Sophie says, standing up. I try to stand too, but my legs won’t support my weight. Dex catches me before I fall back down again, and at least two other people try to help me walk. After a few minutes, they seem to agree that it would be easier for someone to just carry me. It looks like they decided on Fitz, and I don’t even try to resist. My head is still throbbing, and I’m having trouble focusing on individual faces. After a minute we arrive at the healing center.
“What’s this-” Elwin starts to ask, then he sees Fitz carrying me. “Put her on a cot.” He says. Maybe it’s just my blurry vision, but he looks pale. Everyone does. “Everyone out except Sophie and Leto.”
“I should get to stay too.” Dex protests. “I was the one who found her.”
“Fine. Somebody hail Grady and Edaline. And Sophie, you should probably alert the council that this happened too. Actually, wait on the council. Tell Oralie when you get home or something.” He starts flashing balls of light around my head, which makes me dizzy again.
“Edaline’s on her way.” Sophie says.
“Grady will be here soon too. He has to find somebody to cover his assignment for a while.” Magnate Leto says.
“Hail Alden too.” Elwin says, flashing more light in my face. The headache gets worse, and I let out a little groan.
“He’ll be here in a few minutes.” Sophie says. Edaline comes rushing through the door, and wraps me in a tight hug.
“Are you ok? Do you need anything? What can I do?” Edaline asks.
“Kitty.” I say. She understands and conjures up my childhood toy. I take Kitty and hug her tight while Elwin flashes more light around me. A few minutes later Grady walks in.
“Hey kiddo.” He says.
“Dad…” The headache is really painful now, and I’m having trouble even making out distinct words. Alden comes in and says something along the lines of ‘she needs to rest.’
“Do you want a…” Elwin’s the one talking. I think.
“What?”
“A sedative.” Part of my brain that remembers when I was kidnapped wants to scream no, but the rest is tired and in pain.
“Yes.” He hands me a bottle of it, and I drink it. I sigh as I sink into the blissful blackness.

Muahahahahah
I am evil to my characters.
So sorry I had to put you all through that chapter. There was a LOT to take in. Put questions in the comments, or rants about how evil I am as an author. Also, I have two Dex POV chapters I can share, so I'll post one of them soon. Also, I think this is the worst that I've written. (That doesn't mean it's all sunshine and daisies tho)