Hello y'all! This is your wonderful author, who is here to thank you for your incredible support. Honestly, we're at 1.9k ALREADY??? I love you guys!

*reaches through the screen to give you a hug*

~A. Brooks

July 21st, Alternate Universe, Midnight

Sophie:

Wandering through cold Havenfield pastures at night was, not surprisingly, cold. Honestly, shivering was pointless by now. I couldn't move my arms.

Keefe wrapped his arm around my shoulders, offering minimal warmth. I leaned into his arm, so cold that I didn't care. Why were July temperatures this cold?

(It's almost like the author wanted Sophie and Keefe to have a romantic moment!)

"Fitz?" I called, my breath creating a cloud that swirled through the crisp air. "Are you h-here?" I snapped my fingers, remembering what Keefe had taught me: Friction creates warmth. I sighed in relief as a wave of warmth crept up my arm, but didn't stop Keefe from rubbing my shoulders for some reason.

A figure stepped out of the shadows. "Hey, Sophie," said a familiar voice. "I'm glad you came." Fitz walked over, half-smiling. "I wasn't entirely convinced you would."

I blushed, blaming my red cheeks on the biting wind, then remembered that I was regulating my body temperature. "Why would you think that?" I asked, gently unwinding myself from Keefe's embrace. I nearly ran over to Fitz, entangling him in a hug. "I missed you," I whispered in his ear.

"You have no idea," he whispered back, wrapping his arms around me and lifting me up. "It's been weeks since we last saw each other."

"Hate to break up this Fitzphie reunion, but if you guys could hurry this up and actually get to the important stuff, that'd be great," said Keefe, interrupting our moment and causing me to step away from Fitz quickly.

Fitz glared at Keefe over my shoulder. "You're interrupting our touching and meaningful reunion. We haven't seen each other in weeks!"

"Yeah, we get it, Captain Cognate," said Keefe sarcastically. "But honestly-"

"What did you just call me?" asked Fitz, looking very confused. "Captain Cognate? Sophie and I aren't Cognates. You haven't called me that in... 28 years or so."

"We're not Cognates?" I asked at the same time that Keefe inquired, "You guys aren't the unbreakable Fitzphie duo?"

"Keefe!" I told him, exasperated. "We're not the 'unbreakable Fitzphie duo' or 'Cognate power' or 'the Wonder twins' or whatever! We're just Sophie and Fitz!"

Keefe coughed out the words, "Sure didn't look like that while you were 'just hugging,'" then feigned an innocent look. (He was really bad at it, but I'm almost positive that was what he was going for.)

"KEEFE!" I screamed, tackling him down on the frozen ground. That boy got to me so much that it was infuriating. "Stop it!" I squealed as he lifted me up. I half-heatedly punched him in the chest. "Put me down! Keefe Sencen!"

"Sophie Foster!" Keefe mimicked, then gently set my feet down on the solid ground. "Well, Fitzy, what'd you want to talk about?" he asked, reminding me that Fitz was actually standing there. Strange. Normally I would've been totally focused on him, but now I hadn't even realized he was watching us awkwardly.

Fitz cleared his throat, still looking a bit put-off at our blatant ignorance of him. "Well, as you may know, Stina and I are married, right? Well..." He trailed off, obviously lost in thought. "To put it bluntly, I'm cheating on her."

"What?" I asked, appalled, despite the fact that I didn't particularly like Stina at the same time that Keefe exclaimed, "Who is it?" I whipped my head around and glared at him. "That's all you can say?"

"Linh," answered Fitz dreamily, his teal eyes suddenly shining. "I'm sorry for being unfaithful, Sophie, but it's so... hard. You do know the story, right?" I shook my head, confused. "Well," he explained, "right around the time you rejected me-"

Keefe coughed. "You did what now, Foster?" I blushed, forgetting my body-regulating for a second and shivering as cold overtook me. Keefe made a move to warm me up, but I stepped away from him, still a bit angry at his comment.

"As I was saying, right around the time Sophie rejected me, I got my match list. Now, I wasn't very excited, seeing as how Sophie didn't get hers. I fell into a bit of a depressed state, so I just picked the first choice on my list and went along with it. I thought... I thought that it would be easier. Bit of a shame, seeing as how it was Stina.

"And so, we married, never had any children. Then Linh walks back into my life, and she's like the first light I've seen in years. She's an angel, I swear, and we go to dinner together that night. She knows that I'm married, so when I kiss her for the first time, she's surprised. But we both love each other, and that's all that matters. I can't get a divorce, that will ruin the Vacker legacy. So I'm stuck in a circle of never-ending regrets, you see," Fitz lamented.

"Oh," I gasped, staring at him as if I was finally seeing him for the first time. "Fitz. You shouldn't do that, really. If you love Linh, tell Stina. She doesn't deserve this."

Keefe snorted. "Or does she?" he asked, and I got the feeling that he was being honest. 

I shook my head at him. "No one deserves this. Not even Ruy, or Alvar, or Fintan. No one."

(A bit overkill, but just you wait! There's a plot twist that you guys should be *excited* for!)

"Alvar?" asked Fitz, looking confused. "Why would he be part of the 'not even?' Or Fintan? He's a Councillor, Sophie. And Ruy... who is he?"

"What?" Keefe and I asked at the same time, sharing a look that could only mean trouble. He didn't know who Ruy was? Fintan was still a Councillor? Alvar was good? 

"Fitz, do you know what the Neverseen are?" asked Keefe slowly, watching Fitz's face for any sign of recognition. 

"The Neverseen?" asked Fitz, rubbing his temples. "Never heard of it. Are you sure you're not going crazy?"

My mind was spinning in a million different directions, and I could think of one reason why it was all going wrong. "Fitz... what do you think about pyrokinetics?" I asked carefully.

"Pyrokinetics? I mean, there's nothing wrong with them. For a while they were unstable, but the Councillors thought that it would be a better idea to let them train and control their powers rather than condemn and banish them for something they couldn't control," Fitz answered, giving us a wary look. "But you already know that. Right?"

"Yeah," Keefe and I agreed, nodding our heads. This was so weird. This... universe was totally backwards! But I couldn't help but think that maybe this world was better than ours, that this alternate reality was better than facing the true present.

No. I can't think that way. I have to get back. Have to. "Well, Fitz, it was nice seeing you!" I said, my words rushing through my mouth and blending together in a string of incoherent nonsense. "Seeyousoon!" I yelled, levitating me and Keefe and jumping downwards to Teleport. The familiar crack of thunder and the pull of the void was soothing to me.

Then we tumbled out towards home, and the weight of everything came crashing down upon our shoulders.

How were we going to get back?

Hey! Please don't hate me after that chapter. Stuff is really messed up in Sophie's head, will she pull through it?

If it's any condolence, I actually seriously considered making the Black Swan not exist and having Sophie only be a Telepath. But being the Moonlark is such a big part of her character that we cannot ignore.

After Flashback, I'm still holding on to Sokeefe, but it was hard. Very hard. Just for further notice, this was intended to be written after Nighfall and before Flashback. Thank you!

~A. Brooks

WORD COUNT: 1390