The idea of not going wasn't really an option but each person wasn't sure what awaited them at the end of their leap. Before that could happen though they had to figure out who's hand to hold.

It wasn't a verbal decision, more of an awkward memory of crushes from the past and the silence of time that had passed between them. Wylie took the crystal and Linh’s hand who instinctively grabbed Tam standing next to her. Tam wanted to hold Biana's hand but was standing next to Keefe who could tell Tam was not ready for hand holding even for a leap. Sophie and Fitz were already holding hands, but Dex was next to Sophie and then came Biana.

“Hey Dex, I know we shared a lufterator the first time around but will you settle for hand holding this time,” Keefe joked as he made his way over to the other side of Dex and motioning for Biana to switch him spots. “Plus it's probably better if the technopath holds hand with the enhancer, and not the vanisher or empath, hate to lose someone or know exactly how you all feel about this.”

After the switch it went Wylie, Linh, Tam, Biana, Fitz, Sophie, Dex and Keefe. And with that they decided it was time and lept away.

As they twinkled during the leap each had their own memories come rushing back.

Dex thought back to the hope he felt there, here he would finally have the chance to be a part of the group, yes he still didn't like the Vackers but he hoped that he would dazzle Sophie with his technopath skills, I mean what good was a vanishers or a telepath when you were living in an underground cave and needed to access information in the outside world. The time spent there was mixed with highs and lows but seeing everyone again he felt that hope again that they could be a friend group again.

Biana remembered her own curiosity. She wanted to learn more about vanishing and had her mom one of the most talented vanishers right there with her, focused on teaching her and then Wraith with his half vanish and Calla teaching her about how to manipulate the dust and pollen. The curiosity extended to figuring out how she felt about the world she had grown up in and never questioned, even the Blackswan sensed her curiosity when they gave her the pendant after swearing fealty. She had felt that curiosity come back recently and she gave Tam's hand a quick squeeze.

For Tam it meant belonging again. He had a place in the world the Blackswan had given him a family, a real family and for a lonely kid trying to make it on his own while protecting Linh the strength of not having to go it alone was empowering.

For Fitz Alluveterre was a place to heal, he had his first near death experience and while unpleasant it gave him time to get lost in his own thoughts. He had thought of how helpless he had felt when Sophie had been kidnapped, how angry he had been when his dad's mind had broken, how vulnerable after the everblaze and Mt. Everest attack. While he was in Alluveterre he had healed the parts of him that had been weakened giving him a new confidence and he knew that was when he finally let himself be the kind of person he wanted to be, not who he felt he had to be. He wanted to be Sophie's cognate more than anything, he wanted to make a difference in the world, he wanted to live up to his own expectations. He felt pride in who he was and how he wasn't the broken boy he had once been.

For Sophie the memories of Alluveterre were all about fear. She was constantly in fear that it was all her fault, she was the reason her friends were there, she was the reason the gnomes were dying, she was even afraid to tell Fitz has she felt. It had taken years to erase that fear. The fear is what kept her going, always pushing to do more and be more. Now she wasn't afraid, she had spent time with the most powerful people in all the species but that didn't matter she wasn't afraid of who she was either.

Linh and Wylie had spent much of their brief time at Alluveterre trying to bring peace to the horrible kidnapping ordeal. It was this time spent together that had bonded them. Who knew water and light would spark the connection that they both needed in their lives.

And for Keefe his time there had been filled with pain. The washed memories returning, the pain of a bad childhood, the pain from watching the perfect family right there all the time, the pain of knowing Sophie liked Fitz and even teasing her about it but not being able to tell her how he felt and the pain from not knowing who he was anymore. The pain had made him do a lot of stupid things but nothing could make up for the pain he had caused his friends. He had spent the past 100 years trying to ignore their pain but an empath with a photographic memory was in trouble and without any jokes to cover it up he would often lose it, he wanted to believe that they could forgive him but first he would have to forgive himself.