Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The vial in Dr Erland’s fist glinted up at her. It was barely the size of the pinkie finger on her cyborg hand, but all her hopes were pressed into it. So much hope in such a tiny glass tube. The antidote to letumosis, or so Queen Levana had claimed. A cure to the blue fever. A cure for Peony, her sister. Cinder’s thoughts were racing as the door to the office clicked shut behind Kai and she was only vaguely aware that the doctor was talking to her. She looked up at him and saw that his mouth was moving, and his eyebrows were furrowed in a baleful glare. She thought that he might be chastising her for coming to the palace and putting herself in danger from the queen.

She didn’t care.

The doctor still seemed to be talking, but Cinder was finding it impossible to register his words above the frantic skittering of her pulse whose speed (as her retina display unnecessarily informed her) had suddenly spiked. Her thoughts were directed in one direction only. Get to the New Beijing plague quarantine. Give the antidote to Peony before it is too late. Get to the quarantine. Now.

“I’m sorry,” she gabbled, interrupting the doctor mid-flow. It was quicker not to argue. “I won’t come to the palace again while the queen is here, but I had to take the prince’s android back to him. I know, I know,” she said as Dr Erland’s mouth thinned disapprovingly, “but Kai – err, His-Majesty-the-Emperor-to-be, told me it was a matter of national security.”

“You have to go. Now.” Dr Erland snapped. “What if she decided to come see the lab facilities? What if she saw you?”

Cinder sucked in a quick breath, deciding not to mention that the queen had in fact seen her when she was calming the protestors demonstrating against her outside the palace, given that Cinder had been the only one who Levana’s bioelectrical manipulation had not managed to dupe into mindless adoration. That could lead to long and messy explanations that she had no time for. Peony’s life was on the line. She had entered the third stage of the blue fever yesterday morning. Her time was running out, and fast. “Queen Levana didn’t see me,” she lied, “and she won’t. I promise to stay away from here until she’s returned to Luna.”

“Very well,” the doctor said, although he still looked far from happy. He gestured at the door. “Now run. Get out of here as quickly as you can, Ms Linh and do not come back until the Queen and her minions have departed.”

Cinder stayed rooted to the spot. Her gaze flicked back to the vial. “The antidote-” her voice caught, suddenly weighed down with guilt for what she was about to ask, despite her desperation to save her sister. “I know it’s the only sample but – do you – do you need all of it? It was enough for an adult male – allegedly. Could you – Doctor Erland, could you duplicate it with a slightly smaller volume?”

The doctor looked confused for a moment, before his brow cleared. “Ah yes. Your sister.” He hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “A promise is a promise. I meant what I said when I told you that she would be the first in line after Emperor Rikan – may his spirit rest in peace – to receive a chance at a cure.” He reached for a beaker on his desk. “How old is she?”

“Fourteen.”

He poured a quarter of the vial into the beaker before corking it and handing it back to her. “The answer, Ms Linh, is yes. I can certainly try to duplicate it with a smaller volume. I believe this should be sufficient to enable both of us to achieve our ends.”

Cinder curled her hand around the supposed antidote, cradling it as though it were made of the most precious crystal. She couldn’t quite believe this was happening. “Do not return to the palace until the queen has left,” the doctor repeated, and Cinder nodded feverishly, barely comprehending his words. “Thank you,” she breathed.

She was already pulling up a comm on her retina display to summon a hover as she pivoted and ran out of the med-clinic. Her feet flew beneath her on the richly decorated carpets and each breath was burning in her chest, with fear and panic, as much as from the physical exertion. Each thump of her footsteps through the maze of corridors became a prayer. Let her not be too late. Let Peony still be alive. And please, by all the stars above, let the antidote not be a cruel trick of Levana.

The area outside the palace was filled with the hubbub of angry voices and protestors once again brandishing their anti-Lunar and anti-Levana signs, but Cinder barely noticed as she hurtled into the waiting hover, the vial still clutched in her right palm. The hover ride to the New Beijing quarantine crawled by as Cinder stared at the city unrolling in front of her, silently willing the hover to go faster. As a metallic voice informed her that she would reach her destination in five minutes, green text spooled across her vision.

Comm received from New Beijing District 29, Letumosis Quarantine. Linh Peony entered fourth stage of letumosis at 17:24 on 18 Aug 126 T.E.

Cinder’s heart squeezed. The fourth and final stage of the disease could pass in a matter of minutes. Peony’s life was slipping away with each second of this hover journey. She balled her left hand into a fist to stop it trembling, not daring to make any movement which might disturb the antidote in her right and gnawed on her lower lip. By the time the hover pulled up outside the quarantine, she could taste blood.

Cinder took a moment to scan the warehouse area for med-droids which might attempt to stop her entering the quarantine, slipping along the shadows until she was metres away from the doors. Then, she took a deep breath and dashed inside, fear and adrenalin making her stomach roil and bile rise into her mouth. The smell of decay clogged in her throat and the whimpers and rattling breaths of the dying swept through her ears in a confused, miserable rush.

Peony was lying in the same bed, the sheets soaked with sweat. Her skin was covered in blue, red and purple blotchy bruises, the raised flesh giving off a putrid stench. Her fingers, Cinder noted with a sickening clench of her stomach, were tinted blue at the tips. The final symptom of the blue fever before death. Peony was still alive – but barely. Her eyelids flickered open as Cinder approached but she made no other movement to show that she had acknowledged or even recognised her stepsister.

‘Peony,’ Cinder pleaded, kneeling down next to the bed. ‘Peony, it’s me. Can you hear me?’

Peony’s eyes were glassy and uncomprehending. Cinder snapped her fingers in front of them, in sheer desperation. ‘Peony!’ she hissed, panic removing any sympathetic encouragement from her tone. ‘Peony, concentrate! It’s Cinder!’ No response. Cinder cursed and, knowing this was probably a terrible idea, gave Peony’s shoulders a slight shake. Peony’s chestnut hair flopped lifelessly to one side.

‘Go…way,’ Peony slurred and the words, despite their content sent hope racing through Cinder. She could still talk, if barely. She was not past the point of understanding.

‘It’s Cinder!’ she hissed again. ‘I’ve come to help you.’

This time, her words seemed to have some effect. ‘Cin-der?’ Peony rasped, her eyes un-focussing, and then re-focussing.

‘Peony, you need to drink this.’ Cinder shoved the vial under Peony’s nose. ‘Can you swallow?’

Peony took a rattling breath, but her head bobbed up and down ever so slightly. Cinder coaxed her head off the pillows and carefully parted her lips. Her hands were slick with sweat, and it took her several goes to unscrew the vial, but she finally managed it. She didn’t even know if this would work, but she had to try, and Peony was clearly almost too weak to take it on her own.

‘You have to drink this, Peony,’ she whispered. ‘Ok? It’s an antidote. A cure. But you have to work with me. You have to swallow it.’

Peony’s eyes unfocussed again and Cinder cursed. Every second lost was a moment of wasted comprehension. Every second elapsing made her sister’s co-operation less likely. Cinder froze for a moment, torn by the indecision of what to do. Then she took a bracing breath and tilted Peony’s head gently towards her. She carefully tipped the clear liquid through Peony’s parted lips, before pressing her nostrils closed and clamping a hand over her mouth, desperately hoping that her little sister was not about to suffocate or spit out the precious antidote. Peony grimaced and shuddered, her skin clammy under Cinder’s hand, but finally she swallowed once, convulsively. Cinder released her hold on Peony’s nose instantly and worried at her lips until she could once more taste the iron tang of blood. Now what?

Peony whimpered, mumbling a confused babble, from which only the word ‘sleep’ could be distinguished. Cinder squeezed Peony’s hand, stilling her own trembling fingers. ‘You’ll be ok, Peony,’ she promised, even though she knew it might well be a lie. ‘You’re going to live.’

Peony’s lips twitched weakly and she closed her eyes, her grip on Cinder’s hands weakening and her pulse barely a flutter. Cinder felt a stab of anguish. She had never felt pain quite like this before – a physical, wrenching grief that threatened to break open her chest and split her heart in two, leaving nothing but a withered organ, still sparking with cybernetics. It wasn’t enough. She hadn’t been enough. She had failed. She hadn’t got to the quarantine fast enough. Peony was still dying. The pain of the tears she could never shed throbbed through her temples in a splitting headache, but Peony’s eyelashes were still fluttering, however dimly. She couldn’t leave her. She wouldn’t leave her. Not until the very end.

A minute passed. Then another, and Peony’s heartbeat, although painfully slow did not recede any further. Cinder squeezed her eyes shut. Please, please, all of you stupid stars above, let her live. Let Peony live.

She stayed, squeezing Peony’s hand, listening to her shallow breathing, and the groans of the dying surrounding them. It felt like hours passed, but her interior clock helpfully informed her that only ten minutes had elapsed. Eleven minutes. Twelve. Twelve minutes, thirty seconds. Thirty-one. Thirty-two.

Cinder realised that she was muttering aloud. Peony’s fingers twitched in her palm, slick with sweat. Another comm pinged across her vision and Cinder flinched. This one was from Adri. Mouth dry, she opened it, and the knots in her stomach squeezed themselves even tighter. The hover payment of ten univs had not gone unnoticed by her guardian. The first question of the terse message asked why she considered herself entitled to waste the household income to go gallivanting around the city. The second demanded to know why she had been to New Beijing palace. The prickling feeling crept down Cinder’s spine a couple of seconds before her brain realised what the questions must mean. She took a steadying breath, allowing the knowledge to sink in. Adri was tracking her ID.

She had barely managed to squash down the writhing feeling in her stomach when a second comm opened underneath the first. This one had left passive aggressive far behind it.

Comm received from Cinder’s No.1 Not a Fan: Cinder you have SIXTY SECONDS TO INFORM ME WHY YOU ARE IN THE CITY OUTSKIRTS BEFORE I REPORT YOU AS A RUNAWAY CYBORG IN VIOLATION OF THE CYBORG PROTECTION ACT.

Cinder flinched and sent back the first excuse she could think of. There’s an old parts store. Needed some pre-used machinery.

Is that so? Adri’s comm snapped back. Name the store.

Cinder hesitated a second too long in searching up the name of a nearby stall. More green text flashed across her eyes. Don’t strain yourself, trying to find a plausible lie. Return home immediately.

Don’t you think that I might be in the middle of something? Cinder retorted.

Return home before I am forced to report you, was Adri’s only response.

Cinder cursed quietly. She squeezed Peony’s fingers a final time and stepped back from the bed. She knew that being caught in the plague quarantines was not an option. “I’ll be back,” she whispered to her sister, although she didn’t know if she would be able to keep her promise. Peony let out a low murmur as she turned on her heel and headed towards the doors at the other end of the clinic.

With yet another twist to her stomach, she recognised the baker’s little boy, Chang Sunto, lying in a nearby bed as she was once again forced to stop by a med-droid. His pillow was dark with sweat and his hair was matted to one side. Unable to look away from the child, Cinder presented her elbow for the blood sample proving her clear of letumosis pathogens. “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” The nursery rhyme from the marketplace slipped out of his chapped lips as his eyes stared at her without recognition. Cinder allowed herself one crushing moment of pity and sadness for him before she ran. She made it approximately eight blocks before magnets hummed above her head. There was a hover waiting for her. A law-enforcement hover.

“Greetings, Linh Cinder,” a white android said, wheeling out of the hover and brandishing a taser at her. “Your guardian commands that you return with us.”

“What? But – I was already returning!”

“If you come peacefully into custody, this infraction will not be uploaded onto your permanent record,” the android continued, unphased.

“I was already coming peacefully!” Cinder snapped.

“– our orders are to apprehend you, by force if necessary, as a citizen in violation of the Cyborg Protection Act,” the android finished. It wiggled its taser in a threatening manner. “Do you consent to be accompanied back to the Phoenix Tower apartments, New Beijing, Linh-mei?”

Cinder sneered. There was nothing else for it. “I consent.”

The hover was more efficient than the public ones provided for civilians but the fifteen minutes it took to transport her back into the city centre crawled by as Cinder’s internal ranting reached fever pitch. She was seething as the android dropped her off in front of the apartment door.

“How dare you send for me like some common criminal?” Cinder yelled, slamming the door behind her.

“Like some common cyborg, you mean?” Adri replied coolly. She was sitting in an armchair and her lack of visible anger inflamed Cinder’s still further. “Unfortunately, that is all you are, as you well know. I was perfectly within my rights to act as I did. Indeed, many would argue that I was performing my duty to society. A runaway cyborg must be prevented at all costs. All that data in your head must give you ample reason as to why – what happens when they can’t be tracked. Robbery. Murder. Rioting. Destruction.”

“I was returning home, as you told me to!” Cinder shouted. “Just as you told me to, despite the fact that I had to leave off what I was doing simply because it was convenient to a whim of yours! Why did you decide that it was so necessary to have me taken into custody when I was already doing exactly what you asked?”

Adri shrugged, standing up and beginning to pace around the room. “You were returning home? Perhaps you were. Perhaps not. It does not signify much. You need to learn, Cinder. Your kind is dangerous to normal people. Just because you do not like it that I can summon you back to where you are supposed to be does not mean that you have the right to gallivant around the city at your whim and all the while my daughter is dying!” Her eyes were bright with tears and her voice quavered on the words. “It could have been you! It should have been you!”

Cinder’s heart squeezed. Not with sadness – she had already known how Adri felt. After all, she had been the one to ‘volunteer’ Cinder to become a guinea pig for the New Beijing scientists trying to find a cure to the blue fever. She still had no idea whether the antidote had worked, even partially. It was possible that Adri was right – that her sister was still dying. The only straw she could clutch at was that she had received no comm of Peony’s death. Not yet.

Adri squeezed her eyes shut, shuddering with a mixture of grief and anger. When she opened them again, she made a dismissive gesture with her hand, trying to return her voice to its normal cadence. “Oh, and remind me – where did you get the money for the hover, Cinder?”

Cinder hesitated. “I-” was all she managed before the air rushed out of her. She gasped as she felt herself forcibly shoved backwards onto the chair her stepmother had just vacated.

“Spare me your lies,” Adri snapped. Her gaze flicked down to Cinder’s boots, lingering on the left one, as if she could see right inside it, through the leathen and vernis to the second-hand cyborg foot which Cinder had bought only days ago. “And take off your shoes.”

Sitting on her bed, Cinder inspected her ankle cavity. Her fingers were trembling. In an impressive show of strength, Adri herself had wrenched off Cinder’s left foot with nothing more sophisticated than pliers, “as she was perfectly entitled to do in her capacity as guardian,” she had reminded Cinder. Her stomach churned as she remembered the feel of Adri’s hands yanking on the last remaining connector fibres until the foot finally snapped off. Now there was nothing but a handful of frayed wires at the end of her metal leg. Cinder squeezed her eyes shut until she could see stars, trying to tamp down the anger still boiling inside her. If she screamed and raged and vented her fury on the apartment as she longed to, Adri would be well within her rights to call another police hover and this time, she was fairly sure that such an infraction would be recorded on her permanent record.

“I’m sorry, Cinder.” Cinder looked up as Iko wheeled into the room, her blue sensor glowing dimmer than usual. “Adri tapped into my memory banks. I couldn’t stop her finding out about the foot. She threatened to disable me.” The sensor flickered in what might have been a shudder. “I thought she would.”

“What about the car?” Cinder asked sharply. “Our escape plan?”

Iko shook her head. “Only because she didn’t think to look. If she’d wanted to, she could have found it.” Her metallic voice took on a whine, a clear tell that she was upset. “I feel so useless, Cinder!”

Cinder had opened her mouth to comfort her when a blood-curdling scream sounded from the bathroom. Cinder grimaced, dialling down her exterior volume control until the world was blissfully muted. Her guardian could sort out any spiders herself. She turned her attention back to Iko, but Iko’s lights were flashing in alarm. “What?” Cinder asked, turning the sound up notch by tentative notch. Her stomach clenched. Adri was still screaming. Only now, the screams were changing, becoming deeper and they suddenly sounded horribly like sobbing.

Cinder limped across the apartment, using the walls to support herself. When she reached the bathroom, Adri’s distress became immediately clear. Her guardian was practically holding herself up by the sink, wracked with sobs and scrubbing at the bruised rash beginning to creep across her right hand. The hand that had removed Cinder’s foot ten minutes ago. Letumosis. It had to be. Somehow, Cinder had carried it back from the plague quarantines with her. Bile rose in her mouth. She hated Adri, but she had never, never wanted this.

Adri didn’t even glance at her as Cinder collapsed onto the ground. She had given up washing her hands and was staring at her own reflection, her eyes wild, her breaths coming so fast Cinder doubted she would be able to call for help even if she wanted to. She was shaking as she called up a comm to summon the plague droids; her second one that week.

She was still shaking as the droids left, carrying Adri between them. She didn’t know how long Adri had been screaming that this was Cinder’s fault, that everything was Cinder’s fault. She did know that the screams were burned into her internal hard drive.

She was still shaking when a comm flashed across her vision. Cinder flinched so hard she whacked her head against the wall. She opened it, feeling her heartrate double with a sudden, additional spike of adrenalin. Comm received from New Beijing District 29, Letumosis Quarantine: Linh Peony displaying signs of recovery from letumosis a week after entry to quarantine. Discharge in near future hopeful.

The cocktail of emotions which had been swirling inside Cinder for the last hour spiked. She barely made it to the toilet bowl in time. Black dots were dancing before her vision and she thought dimly that she might be hyperventilating. Peony was alive. She and Pearl were about to be parentless. Peony was recovering from the disease. Cinder had transmitted it to her mother too. Peony would be safe. Peony would be destroyed.

WARNING. WARNING. HEART RATE INCREASING. BLOOD PRESSURE INCREASING. HORMONE LEVELS UNSTABLE. Her sister was going to live. Her stepmother was going to die.

“Cinder?” Iko was repeating her name. “Cinder?” She wondered when Iko had begun speaking. “Cinder, can you hear me? Cinder!”

WARNING. WARNING. RECOMMEND A TEMPORARY SHUTDOWN. REBOOTING IN 3-2-

Terror and relief and guilt and shame and fear and guilt and happiness and guilt and –

Fire exploded down her spine, racing along her nerves and wires, slithering down the metal braces in her limbs. Cinder gasped and the room came into sharp, dizzying focus. Her cyborg parts were scorching hot. Her blood felt like it was singing in her veins. Her left hand seemed to be glowing. Electricity was dancing in her veins. She should be dying. She felt like she was dying. She felt like she was flying, up into a sky where the possibilities were endless – where anything she imagined could happen. She felt like a queen. No, Cinder realized, shaking her head, feeling it clear. She felt – Lunar.

Chapter Text

Linh Pearl’s hands were trembling as she applied a golden varnish to her fingernails. She looked down at the blotchy star pattern vaguely dribbled across her left-hand nails and felt her stomach clench. Peony would have teased her mercilessly about the mess she had made of the design. Would have. As she noticed her mental use of the past tense, Pearl felt her eyes starting to water and swallowed hard. She guessed she could add attempts at complicated nail art to the long list of mindless things which had failed to distract her from her little sister’s sickness over the last three days.

She gave a resolute sniff and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She was not going to cry again. When she opened her eyes again, Mei-Xing had turned her attention from the Prince Kai fanvid compilation playing on the netscreen and was giving her a sympathetic look. Sympathetic, but Pearl thought she could detect some impatience underneath. This was something she was starting to realise. Other people’s grief was wearing and although her friends had all expressed their condolences and made sure that she wasn’t physically alone, she could tell they were starting to wish she didn’t break down every couple of hours. Or maybe that was just her sleep-deprived paranoia talking. Nightmares about Peony alone in the quarantines had plagued her recent dreams.

“So,” Mei-Xing started, seemingly more to break the silence than anything else, “do you think you’ll try again to persuade Adri?”

Pearl sighed. “No. I don’t know what else I can do. She’s convinced that I’m bound to walk out of the ball with brilliant prospects for a rich husband. She told me I was being selfish and wasting all the money it took to make my dress, and when I pointed out that we would both feel horrible going without Peony she started crying.” She sighed again, starting to sponge off the golden polish. She hadn’t had the guts to tell her mom that the last thing she wanted was a rich husband. Well. She wouldn’t deny that the “rich” element of Adri’s ideal suitor for her could prove to be extremely useful. But the thought of spending the night of what would have been Peony’s first Peace Ball without her little sister, suffocated in her jaw-droppingly beautiful but far too tight ballgown with a smile plastered on, trying to attract a prospective husband made her stomach curdle.

She was only seventeen and – whatever she might have snapped at the seamstress working on her dress – she was too young for all this. She didn’t want to have to sparkle and laugh while her sister lay dying or – her heart squeezed painfully – already dead. She definitely didn’t want to find herself married to a random guy she had met a handful of times before she had even started her final year studying at Blossom Montessori.

“Yeah, I understand how you feel.” Mei-Xing shrugged, giving Pearl another sympathetic glance. “But aren’t you interested in seeing Queen Levana? I mean, I know she’s meant to be crazy evil and could use her Lunar gift to make you do anything, but what’s the worst she could do in a packed ballroom in front of most of the city?”

Pearl snorted. “Crazy evil and could make you do anything? Sounds like you’ve just made my argument for me. And there aren’t going to be any cameras at the Ball, remember? Didn’t she ask them to be turned off? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to try to do something crazy evil.”

“Maybe.” Mei-Xing looked unconcerned. “I think it’s just because she’s worried that she’ll be exposed if she gets caught on camera. I mean, everyone knows that such unnatural beauty can only be the work of a glamour and I heard Lunar glamour doesn’t translate through technology. Anyway, like I said, most of the city will be there. I don’t think even someone as powerful as she’s meant to be can control that many people.”

Pearl opened her mouth to disagree when her portscreen chimed softly, releasing a tendril of dread with it. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself. It was probably another well-meaning sympathy message from another friend who clearly didn’t have a clue what they ought to say. She exhaled and tapped the screen, giving her newest comm a subtle glance while Mei-Xing continued musing about the extent of Queen Levana’s glamour.

She almost fell out of the chair bubble. It was from the Quarantine. Peony was recovering? Heart hammering in her ears, Pearl’s eyes flicked over the words again and again. If this was someone’s idea of a cruel prank, she was going to murder them. “Hey, are you ok?” Mei-Xing asked, breaking off her string of ideas as to what the Lunar Queen actually looked like.

“Yes. Fine.” Pearl squashed the hope down, flicking off a comm to her mom to ask if she had received the same message. It was a bureaucratic error. It had to be an error. She didn’t dare to hope. No one survived the blue fever. All the same –

She extricated herself from the blanket wrapped around her and swung her legs to the floor. The bubble wobbled in the air for a moment, before coming back to a rest position. “I have to go,” she said. Whatever that comm might mean, she needed to get back home and discuss it with her mom.

“You sure?”

Pearl nodded briskly. “I’m sure.” She hesitated for a moment but pulled on her jacket and didn’t say anything more. There was no sense in talking to her friend about the probably-a-scam/heartless-prank comm. It would only get her hopes up that the message would turn out to be true.

Mei-Xing nodded. “Talk to you later.”

Pearl attempted a smile.

The walk from the Chalkydri Tower apartments to the Phoenix Tower ones was not a long one and in less than ten minutes Pearl had stepped out of the elevator and was unlocking the front door to the apartment. Her portscreen chimed again and Pearl jumped. She slammed the door shut and scrabbled in her pockets for the port. Her heart gave a painful lurch. It was from the Quarantine. Of course it was. It would express its regrets about an administrative mistake and confirm that Peony was still dying. Pearl blinked back the sudden sting of tears and tapped it open.

The comm wasn’t about Peony. Instead, it was a brisk message stating that her mother had also been diagnosed with the blue fever and taken away by med-droids barely fifteen minutes ago.  The port clattered to the ground and Pearl felt her knees give way underneath her. Her mom was sick too. Her mom was sick and – just like last time – she hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.

Pearl shuddered and stuffed her head between her knees, feeling faintness creep over her. Maybe she would wake up and this would all have been a horrible nightmare. Maybe if she wished hard enough she would find herself a week back when none of this had happened. Maybe –

“Pearl?” Pearl’s head snapped up and she saw Iko wheeling towards her, its blue sensor flashing dimly.

“What?” Pearl snarled, swiping away tears.

Iko’s fan whirred for several seconds, as if it were having difficulty computing an appropriate response. When it finally spoke, its voice was even more screechy than usual. “I’m sorry about Adri, Pearl.”

“You’re a household robot. Your personality chip must be glitching even worse than usual if you’ve deluded yourself into thinking you can understand the concept of sorry,” Pearl snapped, and she stormed past Iko and out of the hallway. Her anger felt good. Sharp and sparking, it was compressing her tears down and her rage at the stupid household android, who thought it could come even close to comprehending what she was going through, was thundering so loudly in her head that it was difficult to concentrate on anything else. Her lips twisted furiously as she caught sight of her stepsister sitting on the washroom floor, her head leaned against the wall. “Gotten the comm?” she spat.

Cinder’s eyes were closed, and her breathing was deep and strained. “Stay back,” she warned, her voice perfectly composed. “Don’t come too close.”

“I said – gotten the comm?” Pearl snarled. Her eyes raked over the wires trailing out of Cinder’s pant leg. “And did you lose your foot or something?” Her stepsister’s features twitched slightly – the only indication that she might have heard her. “My mom and sister are dying!” Pearl spat. “Look at me!”

Cinder’s eyes fluttered open but the expression in them told Pearl that her mind was clearly elsewhere. “No,” she said.

“What do you mean no?”

Cinder frowned slightly. “Peony’s recovering. You must have received that comm, just like I did.”

“No one recovers from letumosis!” Pearl registered that she had started yelling but she didn’t care.

“Peony will.”

“How? How can you possibly know that? You can’t just tell me that my sister is going to be the one survivor of this disease and not give any explanation of how you’re so sure of it! Tell me what you know that you’re hiding!”

“Pearl, I promise. I don’t know how to explain, but Peony will recover. The comm wasn’t a mistake. I – neither one was.” Cinder’s voice was still infuriatingly calm, although her expression was becoming steadily more strained. Pearl glowered at her, analysing her features for any clue about the background to the two comms she had just received. Her gaze snagged on a green light flashing in the pupil of Cinder’s left eye.

“WILL YOU GET YOUR MIND OUT OF CYBERSPACE AND LISTEN TO ME?” she yelled, and this time her stepsister jumped, her eyes finally focussing on Pearl’s face. “MY FAMILY IS DYING! CONCENTRATE, CINDER! DYING! D-Y-I-N-G.” Cinder flinched as though she had been slapped and Pearl continued. “DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU OR DO HEARTS MADE OF SILICON FILTER OUT ANY EMOTION THAT MIGHT POSSIBLY MAKE THEM FEEL-”

“Stop – please just stop!” Cinder’s eyes were wild now and she looked agonised.

Pearl stopped. No; she froze.

Chapter Text

Pearl’s lips were parted, her tongue curled halfway into forming her next word, but it was as if her mouth had suddenly turned to iron. Her hand flew up to her face, tugging at her lips, prying open her mouth with her fingers. Everything felt normal. But when she tried once again to speak, the iron sensation returned. She stared wildly at Cinder, but as panic started to clutch at her, it was as though a heat haze rippled across the room and her vision shifted.

Pearl’s breath hitched. The girl sitting opposite her looked like her stepsister, kind of, but she had two feet – two human feet and where Cinder had a metal hand, this girl’s hand was undoubtedly human too. Her long-lashed brown eyes sparkled with mischievousness, but as Pearl gazed breathlessly at Not-Cinder, the kindness and empathy radiating from them was palpable. Pearl felt her cheeks reddening as she stared at high cheekbones, flawless skin, the strand of glossy brown hair falling out of Not-Cinder’s ponytail. Her cargo pants and tank top were smeared with oil and grease, but Pearl suspected Not-Cinder could be dressed in a moldering garbage bag and she would still be the most beautiful thing Pearl had ever seen.

It suddenly didn’t seem to matter that she had lost the power of speech. What did she need it if she could sit here, looking at this girl? She was stunningly beautiful – so beautiful that it was almost painful to look at her, but Pearl couldn’t look away. A sort of happy confusion had seemed to settle over her thoughts. She didn’t know how long she sat there, gazing dumbstruck at Not-Cinder but she suddenly realized that the girl was addressing her. “Pearl? Pearl!”

Even her voice was beautiful, Pearl mused. She opened her mouth again, but her words were still frozen. She gave Not-Cinder an apologetic smile and tapped her mouth. Horror flashed across Not-Cinder’s face. “No! I’m sorry, Pearl! I – I didn’t mean that! You can talk – if you want to.”

Sensation flooded back into Pearl’s lips and the blissful confusion started to recede. Fear crept in to take its place. Slowly at first, then faster. “What did you just do to me?” she asked, backing away from the girl. She was still unable to wrench her eyes away from Not-Cinder’s face “What’s happening? What have you done with my stepsister?”

“I – what? Pearl, it’s me! Cinder!”

“But – but you have two feet. Two hands – human hands. You’re-” Pearl swallowed, “-you’re beautiful.”

The blood drained out of Not-Cinder’s face. “Oh stars,” she muttered. Then, Pearl’s vision rippled again and the familiar features of her stepsister reformed before her eyes. Pearl blinked several times. “What the –”

“I’m sorry!” Cinder’s voice was agonized. “All I did was wish that, just for once, when you looked at me, your first thought wasn’t cyborg.”

Pearl’s mouth was hanging open. Well, Cinder had certainly gotten her wish. Although she wasn’t at all sure that her stepsister would think Pearl mistaking her for a stranger and practically composing a corny romance novel in her honor was a vast improvement. She grimaced. Her brain still felt foggy with confusion. There was something very worrying going on, but, at least right now, her need for answers was overpowering her urge to flee.

“Cinder. Tell me what’s going on.” She hesitated for a moment, then bit out a begrudging “please.”

Cinder was silent for a long moment. Pearl’s thoughts were swirling, trying desperately to make sense of the last few minutes. Stay back. Don’t come too close. Pearl, I promise. Stop!

Iron numbing her mouth. Not-Cinder shimmering into view, so beautiful it was painful to look at her. Unnaturally beautiful.

Everyone knows that such unnatural beauty can only be the work of a glamour. Mei-Xing’s voice echoed through her head. She’s meant to be crazy evil and could use her Lunar gift to make you do anything.

Cinder opened her mouth with an expression of what Pearl could only describe as dread. “I-”

It hit her. Pearl's mouth went dry. LUNAR. Cinder...was LUNAR. Thoughts racing, she stared at her stepsister, the Lunar cyborg. The Lunar cyborg who Pearl had sneered at for the last four years, as if she was little better than dirt. The Lunar cyborg who could now, apparently, manipulate Pearl into seeing anything, DOING anything with a single wish.

Fear flooded through her, swallowing up every other emotion, leaving her need for answers trailing in the dust. Every nerve screamed at her to run but as she tensed, readying to bolt towards the apartment door, out into the safety of the city, a thought held her back. Just now, the Lunar had stopped her voice with a single word. If Pearl tried to flee, she was sure that her stepsister would be able to hold her back just as easily and just as quickly as she had taken control of her voice.

Her legs feeling suddenly wobbly, Pearl realized that she wouldn't be fast enough. No action of hers could ever be able to match the speed of Cinder's thoughts.

If only she hadn't dropped her portscreen back in the hall! But most likely that wouldn't have worked either. Probably Cinder could stop her sending a comm just as easily.

Cinder was grimacing and she still seemed to be teetering on the edge of speech as Pearl swallowed hard. Running was out, then. Fighting was out for the same reason. Trying to persuade her sister nicely to let her go? Laughable. All the times Pearl had jeered at the Lunar's monstrous metal parts, refused to lift a finger to help her with her endless chores, insulted and belittled her for her unnaturalness, flashed before her eyes. Sure, Adri's treatment of her stepsister had been a lot worse than her own, but Pearl knew that she had hardly made the cyborg's life in their apartment a bundle of roses either.

She could make her words sweet as syrup, gush out promises that she had no intention of keeping, swear undying loyalty to her stepsister if only – please by all the stars - she didn't hurt her with her Lunar gift. But given the last four years, if Cinder stopped to consider her words even for a moment, Pearl would have to have a serious re-evaluation of her adoptive sister's intelligence.

Pleading would be useless. Which meant that the Lunar held all the cards - or almost all of them. The only option open to her seemed to be...waiting. Pearl took a breath, praying to all the stars above that she was not making a hideous miscalculation. Right now, Cinder was far too much on edge for Pearl to make any sort of escape attempt. She would pick up on it at once, and Pearl had no doubts that she would use all force necessary to prevent her leaving the apartment. It would be sheer stupidity to allow Pearl out into the city with the horrifying knowledge she now had about her stepsister's true nature.

Her only hope - and it was a very slim hope - of getting out of the situation was to wait patiently for a moment where her stepsister was distracted (or incapacitated) enough to offer her a concrete chance of escape.

Slowly, very slowly, Pearl sank down, until she was sitting on the apartment floor. There. Look at that. She wasn't intending on freaking out and running. There was no need for the Lunar to take control of her body again. Her chin tucked on top of her knees to stop it trembling, she gave her adoptive sister what she hoped was a confused look. Act dumb. Be non-threatening.

"Listen, Pearl," her stepsister began, stretching out her hands placatingly. Apparently, she had decided that Pearl was not about to run. Not yet, anyway. "You - you, err, probably have a lot of questions."

Pearl gave a jerky nod. That was certainly one way of putting it. "You - yes, you could say that." Her voice was wavery and pitched an octave higher than usual, but at least she was still able to string coherent words together.

"The only problem is-" Cinder clawed a hand through her hair, making her ponytail even messier than usual- "I - I really, really don't know where to begin."

"Anywhere is fine," Pearl faltered.

Her stepsister sighed. "Yeah. Ok...maybe if you tell me what you know so far - and then maybe I can pick up from there?"

"Cinder, I have absolutely no idea what's going on," Pearl squeaked. "Anywhere is fine!"

There was a pause and Cinder gave her a long look. Then, she took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, as though she had a headache. Pearl saw the sudden resolve flash in her eyes.

"I'm Lunar."

"I’m sorry?"

Whatever Pearl had been expecting, it had certainly not been that.

"I'm Lunar," Cinder repeated, looking suddenly unsure. "But you knew that already, didn't you?"

"How...?" Pearl's jaw was hanging open.

"You told me that you had absolutely no idea what was going on." Cinder raised an eyebrow. "Four years living in the same apartment but you clearly never worked out that I have a lie detector in my brain."

Pearl felt the blood drain out of her face. A lie detector. Cyborg abilities as well as Lunar ones? So much for acting dumb. Her deception had never stood a chance.

"Also," her stepsister hesitated, "I felt your fear just now. It was overwhelming." She grimaced again. "I assumed that only you working out at least a part of what was going on would have made you so terrified."

"Please don't hurt me." Pearl cringed backwards, curling her arms still tighter around her legs, as though the action could somehow protect her from the Lunar sitting mere feet away from her. "What do you want?"

Cinder scowled. "Hard as it might be for you to fathom, given the fact that I fit into the two categories of people you despise and fear the most, I am not going to hurt you."

Pearl didn't know what a safe answer to that was, so she stayed silent, her wary gaze locked on the Lunar.

"And, for what it's worth, I honestly didn't mean to manipulate you just now. I'm sorry," Cinder continued. She looked pained. "Look, I don't really understand what's going on either."

"Mom and Peony?" Pearl whispered.

"That I can explain."

"Oh, marvelous, please do!" Pearl gave a violent start as Iko wheeled into view. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Iko, seemingly oblivious to her shock, continued. "Because I am so confused right now, Cinder. And I don't think it's that my processor needs rewiring. You're Lunar? Since when now?"

A wan smile flickered across Cinder's face. "It surprised me too, Iko."

Impatience sparked in Pearl. She was desperate to get the conversation back on track. But she was too nervous to give even a prompting cough. Cinder seemed to catch her thoughts, however.

"This all started when Adri volunteered me as a guinea pig for the antidote testing," she began, massaging her temples. "It's – it’s complicated. This might take a while."

"I'm listening!" Iko chirped.

Pearl gave a shaky exhale. The android's presence was surprisingly comforting. Not that she thought Iko would be much use in any sort of struggle and the probability that it had sent a comm to the New Beijing Law Enforcement Department reporting Cinder as a renegade Lunar was nil. Serv2.0s' programming definitely did not extend to the finer points of Lunar-Earthen legislation and anyway Iko was insanely devoted to her stepsister. Maybe it was some kind of freaky bond between entities which depended on machinery and wiring to function. Pearl repressed a shudder at the thought. Nevertheless, the simple knowledge that something else was beside her made her feel a little less afraid.

She nodded jerkily, her wary gaze fixed on her stepsister. "I'm listening too."

Chapter Text

Bright. Light. Very light. Very bright light. Cool fabric. Steady humming. A sharp smell that made her nose scrunch. Toilet cleaner? Peony blinked rapidly and her vision came into focus. She was lying down. There was an old man standing over her. Bright blue eyes fixed intently on her. Peony let out a squeak and flinched backwards, into an odd, half-sitting position.

Ow. Painful tugging in her forearm. She’d yanked something out. Peony reached out a hand and caught one end of the something. It seemed to be a flex-tube. Huh. She’d only ever seen those on med-dramas.

The humming was gone now. It had been replaced with irate beeps. Too-loud beeps. She grimaced. Her head hurt. Her mind felt – well, the only word she could think of was fuzzy.

“What are you doing?” she asked, as the man tutted, snatched the tube out of her hand and started fussing over her non-painful arm. Her voice was thin and scratchy. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d used it.

“Currently, Ms Linh,” the man replied dryly, “I am connecting your nutrient supply back into the vein of your left arm, since you have managed to pull it out your right one. I trust there is no objection?”

“My what now?” Peony’s thoughts were sluggish. Very sluggish. Slug-like. Although, come to think of it, she hadn’t seen a slug in years. Not that she considered that a major loss. She had never liked slugs. Too much slime. Too much squishiness. Way too many teeth. Did slugs have teeth? Focus, Peony.

“-eccting your nutrient supply,” the man repeated, slowly enunciating each syllable as he finished inserting the flex-tube into her left arm. The beeping stopped and Peony gave a sigh of relief. Beautiful silence, until –

“– Now, I am just going to use a little gauze on your right arm, lest you get blood all over this nice clean med-trolley. Is that all right?” Peony made the mistake of glancing at the arm in question. She barely had time to glimpse a growing pool of red, before she whipped her head away, feeling squicked out. Opening her eyelids the tiniest of cracks, she ventured another millisecond-long glance. More red. Clearly, the blood was still rapidly welling up. Euch. Her own, but still… Gross. Peony looked pointedly at anywhere but the offending limb.

The man seemed to catch her train of thought as he began firmly compressing the wound with gauze, effectively staunching the bleeding. “Not to worry, Ms Linh. Although – had I not been here – your aversion to flex-tubes could have had much more serious consequences, contrary to what you may have seen on the med-dramas, I would rank your current chances of infection or of bleeding to unconsciousness as slim to non-existent. Nevertheless, I would not advise your attempting to disconnect yourself again, even with a medical professional in the room.” He smiled. Peony did not. There was a pause she thought might have been awkward, if only her mind would just feel a little more present and a little less fuzzy.

The man coughed and continued talking. “I fear this experience has not been kind to your body. However, the Vitamin D deficiency we are rectifying as we speak with this drip, and any potential muscle wastage will be easily set to rights – although you may feel wobbly for a day or two. You have had a very lucky escape, Ms Linh.”

“I – I’m sorry?” Peony still felt very muddled. She glanced around again at the sterile surroundings, the gleaming surfaces. Everything was very white. “What’s happened? Who are you?”

“Ah, forgive me. Where are my manners?” The man nodded. “I am Dr Dmitri Erland. Head of the New Beijing letumosis research team.” He held out a hand to her and Peony gasped.

Letumosis. The word rang in her ears as she shrivelled away instinctively. She had letumosis. Memories were returning to her in dizzying flashes. She was sick. She was dying! Cinder. The junkyard. “Don’t come near me! You’ll get it. You’ll all get it.” She blinked away the recollection, trying to focus on what was happening here, now, tubed up to a nutrient supply in this too-bright room, where she was still feebly trying to sit up on a med-trolley.

Any air or physical contact shared between the sick and non-infected had the potential to be deadly. Yet – this man was the doctor in charge of researching the blue fever. He would know better than anyone all the ways of catching the disease. So why –?

Cautiously, almost dreading what she might see, she slowly turned her eyes back to her arms, this time allowing her gaze to rest on them for more than a millisecond at a time. She gasped. The bruises tracking across her skin, which should have been dark blue, had faded to a pale violet color. Her fingertips were non-shrivelled and healthy. And, despite the still-present sensation that her brain was filled with cotton wool, her thoughts too were clearer than they had been in days. “Am I sick?” she asked.

The doctor’s eyes crinkled into a smile. “Ms Linh, I am pleased to inform you that all of the letumosis pathogens in you have been neutralised. You are not sick. Indeed, I am reasonably confident that within two or three days we will be able to call you healthy.”

“Healthy,” Peony repeated, feeling dazed. She sank back down into the pillows of the white gurney. “I really don’t have letumosis anymore?”

“Indeed, no,” Dr Erland assured her. “Lovely feeling, isn’t it?”

“But – hang on.” Peony frowned, shaking her head slightly. “How? No one survives the plague.”

“Miraculous, isn’t it?” the doctor mused. “Quite remarkable.” Peony’s head was spinning, filled with confusion and relief in equal parts. And yet – she squinted at him, suspicion creeping in.

“Can I see some ID?” she asked.

The doctor’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Certainly, Ms Linh, if you wish.” He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a shiny plantstic card, embossed with the palace insignia. He handed it to her, and Peony considered the small image of the old man. His ID looked genuine enough, not that she really had a clue what she was looking for. The royal insignia was perfect in every tiny, painstaking detail though – and she ought to know from the number of times she had studied it while scrolling through the palace newsfeed. So, she guessed he probably was who he claimed to be. And yet –

She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something distinctly off about how the doctor was behaving. He wasn’t telling her something. Something important.

“Where are Cinder, Pearl and my mom?” she asked, her voice higher with worry. “Why aren’t they here? They’re all ok, right? Do they know yet?”

“Ah, yes.” The elderly man’s expression became still more shifty. “Not to worry, Ms Linh. Your family is fully aware of your recovery. We merely decided that it was better at this present moment to minimise your contact to others. You have been under a lot of stress and undue excitement could…could slow down your healing process. Yes.” He nodded decisively. “We don’t want to do that, do we Ms Linh?”

“Just for a couple of minutes?” Peony pleaded. “They know I’ve got better, right? They’ll want to see me – and I, I really want to see them. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to mom and Pearl when I was – well, when I was taken by the med-droids.” She detected a wobble in her voice and gritted her teeth, resolving not to cry. “Please. You said the pathogens had been neutralised, didn’t you? How could seeing them slow down my healing process when the disease has already gone?”

Dr Erland sighed, and she could see him considering his response carefully. “As a medical professional, I think you should take it one step at a time,” he said firmly. “I appreciate that you must be desperate to see your family, but we need to be very careful. Letumosis is a nasty creature. Although your recovery should be almost complete, there is the very real danger that you could be liable, perhaps, to a re-infection from seeing one of your family members who had themselves caught the plague, unbeknownst of it.” He frowned. “For that reason, I have also sent away all the journalists wanting to interview you, at least for now.”

“The journalists?” Peony’s eyes widened. “Wanting to interview me?”

“Yes.” The doctor’s lips thinned. “Very irresponsible, if you ask me. I mean, it’s not as if you can remember why you recovered from the disease.” He gave a wry chuckle. Once again, Peony did not.

“No,” she murmured. “I suppose not.” Her memories of her time in the quarantine were a foggy blur of the smell of decay, the cries of the dying, the constant shivers and the feeling that she would never be warm again, despite the soft green baby blanket tucked under her chin. The green baby blanket...

“Cinder!” she exclaimed, sitting bolt upright.

Dr Erland jumped as if she had shot him, alarm flaring in his eyes. “Dear stars above!” he stammered, pressing a hand to his heart dramatically. “I – I am an old man, Ms Linh, an old man, don’t you know! I – yes.” He grimaced. “Please warn me if you are seized by another desire to yell in such a fashion.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Peony replied. He did look quite shaken. She hadn’t realised the impact that her sudden exclamation would have. He clearly wasn’t used to loud shouting as part of his day job. “But I just thought of something!” she continued, lowering her voice. “My sister, Cinder – you know her, right? Well, she visited me in the quarantines. She told me she was immune – that she was working with you and your research team on a cure.” She gave him a hopeful smile. “She could come visit me, couldn’t she? She definitely wouldn’t be infected with the plague.”

“Cinder?” The doctor gaped at her for what felt like a very long time before he replied.

“Ms Linh, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about,” he said finally. He took off his glasses and polished them, frowning.

Peony shrivelled with disappointment, but also with some annoyance. She knew what she had seen, and she had seen Cinder, whatever this man said. “What? But I-”

“Your sister most definitely did not visit you in the quarantine,” Dr Erland corrected her. “No one is immune to the plague – except perhaps you, it would seem.” He shook his head with a kindly smile. “Your subconsciousness, perhaps? The mind is a powerful tool in times of stress. It showed you who you wanted to see, possibly enabling you to find the strength for the Herculean effort needed from your immune system to fight off this virus.” He sighed. “A fever dream, I am afraid, Ms Linh. Nothing more.”

Peony shook her head firmly and was opening her mouth to contradict him when a peculiar feeling stole over her. Her mind felt as though it were suddenly clearing, everything coming into rational, perfect focus. Of course, it must have been a hallucination. Of course, Cinder couldn’t really have visited her in the quarantines. The certainty filled her, slowly at first and then faster. There could be no other explanation. A hallucination brought on by the disease. Yes. She smiled. “I’m sorry, doctor. My brain has been a little fuzzy. It must have been my imagination when the fever was at its height. Cinder couldn’t really have visited me. Obviously, she couldn’t have.”

The doctor smiled back at her, radiating kindness and understanding. Looking at the openness of his face, Peony had no idea why she had ever suspected him of keeping something secret about her recovery. This man was the head of the New Beijing virus research team. He knew exactly what he was doing. “Quite right, Ms Linh,” he agreed, nodding serenely. “There would have been no way your sister could have visited you. But it was a lovely dream, I’m sure.”

Peony nodded too. A wave of crushing tiredness stole over her and she sank back down into the sheets on the med-trolley. “I’m…ugh, stars, I’m sorry,” she said, a massive yawn overtaking her words. “This talk of dreams, I expect.”

“Don’t worry yourself, Ms Linh,” the doctor reassured her. “There is plenty of time for you to recover. Sleep now. It will do you good.”

Recover, yes. Peony sank back down into the hospital bed. There was plenty of time. She felt her eyelids gently drooping closed. Her last thought before sleep engulfed her was the question of what her sisters were doing…

Sage Darnel stepped backwards to brace himself against the nearest possible lab table. His legs felt very unsteady beneath him. While he was relieved that he had still been able to pull off such an advanced manipulation, it had thoroughly drained him. Add that to the fact that he hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, and the thought of curling up on said table and going to sleep was a very attractive one.

A ping echoed through the room, and Sage flinched. Not only was he exhausted, but he was also feeling unpleasantly jumpy. He put it down to the stress of the last twelve hours. Ever since that med-droid in the New Beijing plague quarantine had recorded Linh Peony’s ‘miraculous recovery’ from letumosis, he had scarcely stopped for breath. Seeing to it that Ms Linh was removed from the plague quarantine and placed under his immediate care and observation, having an emergency meeting with his team to discuss what on earth this new development could mean – when all the while he knew exactly what it meant – that Selene had managed to give her sister the antidote in time – not that there was any way he could tell them that, trying – in vain – to cover up the footage of Selene’s mad dash to the plague quarantines before it leaked and people started asking questions.

And then, in the last couple of hours, he had been at his wits’ end fending off the countless demands from reporters clamoring to interview this ‘miracle survivor’. But, most worryingly of all, was this discovery that Linh Peony remembered things that could not at any cost come out in any interview. Of course, her claims about her sister’s visit to her and her immunity would be dismissed as the fever dreams of a very sick teenager, desperate to see her beloved sister. That was not what worried him. What did worry him, was the idea that the journalists might find the bond between the two sisters so charming that they would think to track down ‘Linh Cinder’ and uncover her perspective on her stepsister’s diagnosis and subsequent recovery. Then things would really start getting interesting.

In fact, short of Selene actually returning to the palace and running into Levana herself or her revolting head thaumaturge Sybil Mira, he could scarcely think of anything more likely to blow her cover. A media storm would be nothing short of a disaster.

Grimacing, he pulled out his portscreen, ready to type out another testy response to yet another reporter. Not that it would stop them trying, but it might buy him some time. If he could just stave off the crest of the first wave of interest, the battle would become a lot easier. Memories were short, and even a story as significant as this one would receive a little less attention if the first reports on it dated from a couple of days after the event in question. Any diminution of interest in Linh Peony – and her adoptive sister – was better than nothing.

He tapped the screen and his grimace increased. This was bad. This was very bad. The comm was not from a reporter. It was from Selene.

Comm received from Linh Cinder: My stepsister and I agree that the explanation you gave earlier this week no longer makes sense. We need to talk.

She knew. She knew she wasn’t a shell. And – which was even worse – so did her stepsister, by the sound of it.

As discussed, VERY inadvisable to return to palace right now, he typed, knowing his attempt to fob her off would most likely be completely useless. Will be happy to meet up later in the week. Perhaps after the Peace Ball celebrations are over?

Selene’s reply was terse. Marketplace. TODAY. You know where to find me. Hope you’re not too busy. Don’t worry if booth inconvenient place for discussion. Should I visit the palace to arrange better time?

Sage inhaled sharply. She would do it, he knew. She would be more than capable of marching into his office, trying to attack him with another spanner, and demanding answers to the things he had misled her about. He sighed. Headstrong, stubborn Selene. He hesitated for a moment, but what choice did he have?

Booth fine, he typed. Will drop by when on lunch break. Although given the excitement caused by recent events, he would be lucky if he found the time to even have a lunch break, let alone meet somebody during it. Not that Selene needed to know that.

The icon flashing on his port showed that Selene was typing a reply for a very long time, but when her answer finally popped up, it was only one word. Good.

Sage put down his portscreen, pulled off his glasses and started massaging his tired eyelids. It wasn’t that he regretted giving the antidote to Selene – actually, he felt proud of the fact that he had helped her to save her loved one, as he himself had failed to do sixteen years ago. All the same, he was starting to second-guess himself. Would the long-term consequences of his action lead to Selene’s existence being disastrously exposed to the world – and Levana – far too early, before she was in any way prepared to challenge her aunt and take back her throne? Had he just taken the first step towards snuffing out the last hope of a better ruler for the people of Luna? Had he made a terrible mistake?

“Dear stars above,” he muttered into his hands. “What a mess.”

Chapter Text

"I'm WHAT?"

"Would you please keep your voice down!" Dr Erland sounded agonized as he glanced feverishly around the marketplace. He seemed to be expecting that a Lunar Detection Squad would materialize out of thin air at any moment, and pounce on the four of them. Not that anyone was paying any attention to the motley group crammed into Cinder's booth. Privately, Iko felt that his constant paranoid twitching would be the thing most likely to draw unwanted attention to him and Cinder, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

Leaning forward, the doctor gave another nervous glance in the direction of what only days ago had been the thriving bakery stall owned by Chang Sacha, before she had been carted away to the quarantine with letumosis. Janitor-droids had finished the process of clearing away the charred remnants of the booth. Now, all that remained to signify its former existence were the haunted glances the occasional passer-by gave to the scorch marks on the cobbles. Iko tore her gaze away as the doctor gave yet another significant throat clear. "I said-"

"He said, my dear Ms Linh, you are Princess Selene." Iko played back the words as quietly as her speech volume control would allow. She was finding it difficult to decide whether Pearl or Cinder's jaw was hanging wider open. She gave their faces a quick scan to check. Pearl's. But it was a close call.

The doctor gave her an odd look. “You don’t seem surprised, err-”

“Iko,” Iko completed helpfully. “Oh, I would be very surprised if Cinder genuinely turned out to be some long-dead princess of a big lump of rock in the sky, but I’m not, because there’s obviously been some mistake here and I’m waiting for you all to figure it out.”

Dr Erland took off his glasses and polished them. “I can assure you, Iko, there is no mistake.”

“But the dates don’t add up.”

“The…the dates?”

Iko sighed. “Cinder's birthday is November 29th. And it says very clearly in my data banks that Princess Selene was born in December. The winter solstice, actually – December 21st. I always thought that was pretty neat. But that means that, Lunar or otherwise, Cinder is three weeks older than Princess Selene is supposed to be. They can’t be the same person.”

Everyone looked at her. Iko felt her fan starting to whirr in embarrassment. “Oh.” She looked at her mechanically minded friend. “Or...maybe it was another part of hiding you?"

Pearl gave her a scornful look, the kind that was usually followed by dark mutterings about android logic, but happily, she still seemed too dazed to say anything. Or maybe it was the presence of two Lunars so close to her. While Pearl seemed to have grudgingly accepted that Cinder meant her no harm, given the whole ‘giving her baby sister the antidote to a deadly plague thing’, she was still eyeing the doctor as though he were a feral animal which could attack at any moment.

Iko glared back at Pearl for a moment, but then something else occurred to her and she let out a squeak. "But Kai! Does he know?"

Cinder raised an eyebrow. "Take a wild guess."

Iko huffed again. "I guess not, then? But - but just think! You - oh, you're sure to get to dance together at the ball now! It would be a diplomatic - a diplomatic - thing. Lunar-Earthen relations and all that! Prince Kaito and Princess Selene." She sighed dreamily. "Or...you would if you didn't have to keep a low profile to hide from your murderous aunt. I guess going to the ball really is out now. Ugh. What an evening-ruiner."

She shot a glance at Pearl and was pleased to note that, just like when Cinder told the whole story about discovering her Lunar-ness and mentioned the Prince for the first time, Pearl was once again making the sort of expression that suggested she was regretting several of her life decisions. Probably decisions like never even trying to help out at Cinder’s booth in the market, and in doing so missing out on the probably once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet her favorite celebrity. Iko wasn’t surprised. Unchanging blue sensor instead of proper facial features or not, stars knew she would have been feeling that expression if that had happened to her.

"I - I can't be Princess Selene!" Cinder hissed back. "I'm - I'm a mechanic."

"Is that your comeback to everything?" Pearl, very unfortunately in Iko's opinion, seemed to have recovered the power of speech. Already. Well, it had been nice while it lasted.

"I can't ever give my hair a bit of a variety - I'm a mechanic. I can't keep clean for more than half an hour - I'm a mechanic. And now, apparently, I can't be the princess of a bunch of Lunars - I'm a mechanic." She wobbled her fingers in the air, her voice pitching higher and even more frantic. "You know, when Peony and I were little, and we would play pretend that we were secretly related to royalty...this isn't quite how I imagined it."

Cinder swallowed. "No. No, I would guess not."

A wild laugh spilled out of Pearl. She quickly clapped a hand over her mouth to smother the sound, but she was still shaking.

Doctor Erland actually started wringing his hands. “Please could you try and stop, Ms Linh!” he hissed. “People will notice!”

“What…do you want me to do?” Pearl wheezed, through a gust of laughter. She squeezed her eyes shut and supported herself against the booth table, still shaking. Finally, she hiccoughed but her words were still strained. “My stepsister…is the cyborg princess…of the moon? How…exactly…were you expecting…me to react? It’s…this or the freaking…attack of screaming!”

“I hope you appreciate how serious this is, Ms Linh,” the doctor snapped. “Are you aware just how many lives could depend on your sister?”

“Adoptive sister,” Pearl and Cinder corrected simultaneously, with equally wrinkled noses. Iko watched as their expressions changed once again into mirrors, but this time of surprise. Pearl’s lips twitched violently, but after a moment she seemed to have managed to successfully restrain another fit of laughter.

The elderly man waved a hand dismissively. “And, of course, at some point, Selene, you know what you will have to do?”

“Run away from the murderous aunt I even didn’t know I had until about ten minutes ago, who apparently tried to kill me as a baby?”

“Reclaim your throne.”

The silence condensed in the booth, until Cinder said, “…run that past me again?”

The doctor huffed. “Selene, you are the rightful Queen of Luna. Your people need you.”

“What the – I’m sixteen, in case you hadn’t noticed! Running a repair business is one thing – running a country? There are so, so many flaws in this not-even-slightly-a-plan, I don’t even know where to begin!” Cinder broke off into spluttering and slumped further back into her chair, until it looked dangerously close to toppling over. Iko winced. She wished she knew what Adri had done to Cinder’s new foot, which none of them – not even Pearl – had been able to find. Although Iko had unearthed Cinder’s previous limb from where she had hidden it in the steel shelving storage of the apartment, the foot, made for an eleven-year-old was far too small. She was in a constant agony that the moment Cinder put her whole weight on both feet instead of the makeshift crutches, it would snap clean off.

“– I suggest that we wait at least until Queen Levana leaves New Beijing before starting to form a plan of action,” The doctor continued serenely. “Until you are sufficiently trained in using your Lunar gift, drawing attention to yourself is…rather a bad idea.”

“You don’t say.” Cinder’s tone dripped with sarcasm and Dr Erland had opened his mouth, frowning, when there was a loud beeping noise from a portscreen. He jumped, his expression of worry increasing, if that was even possible. “Curses. I’m needed back in the research labs.” With that, he started to hurry away from the booth. “I’ll be in touch!” he called over his shoulder.

“Oh my stars,” Cinder grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What the-”

“Cinder, I’m sorry, but I need Iko’s help,” Pearl interrupted. “It’s urgent.” She gave Iko a pleading look, her eyes wide with fear, and her voice was still unnaturally high-pitched. There was a distinct note of desperation in it Iko had rarely heard. “Please.”

"You're finally admitting that I'm useful for something? Wonders will never cease," Iko grumbled. But she trundled quickly after Pearl until the two of them caught up with the doctor, still hurrying through the marketplace.

"I don't know what kind of politics game you're playing with my stepsister," Pearl snapped, striding alongside him, but a metre or so away, out of arms’ reach. Her cheeks were flushed as she continued speaking quickly. "I don't know, and I don't really care. I want out of this – this dodgy Lunar plotting.”

"Yet you followed me," Dr Erland replied, puffing a little as he strode quicker through the rows of booths. "And you are clearly convinced that I am, as you so charmingly put it, a dodgy Lunar. Why?"

"The antidote."

The doctor looked wary. "I can appreciate your worry, but the antidote is genuine, I am certain, Ms Linh. Your sister is well on her way to making a full recovery. She is doing very well, indeed, I assure-"

"I wasn't talking about Peony!"

The doctor's face took on a pinched look. "Ah. I see. I am very sorry."

"My mother has had letumosis for-" Pearl checked her port for the time "-fourteen hours. She needs an antidote." Her voice was brittle. It worried Iko as she wheeled along beside the two.

The doctor’s expression softened. “Ms Linh, I am truly sorry but-”

“Don’t. Don’t give me any of that,” Pearl snapped. They had reached the edge of the marketplace. “Don’t you dare. Cinder said that she only took part of Queen Levana’s vial to Peony. You’re making an antidote with the rest. You’ll be able to cure her. You have to.”

“Ms Linh-”

“You will find an antidote to give to my mother within the next three days,” Pearl hissed. “Or I will blow your cover story sky-high.” Iko squeaked with alarm. That was something which did not sound good for Cinder’s cover either.

The doctor skidded to a halt. His lips pursed. “Ms Linh, I do not want to have to threaten you, but-”

“You can’t.” Pearl’s lips were set too, but her voice was unsteady, and she looked utterly terrified at the thought of being manipulated with the Lunar gift. Her fingernails were digging into her palms as she swallowed painfully and forced herself to continue, cringing away slightly from the man. “You really can’t,” she repeated, as though the repetition would make it true. “Iko is here for a reason. You can’t manipulate an android. The Lunar gift doesn’t work like that. Only humans. Cinder told me.”

“I could make you forget, and then disable Iko here.”

“How dare-” Iko gave an indignant screech and wheeled herself behind Pearl. “Are you threatening me?” She turned to Pearl, still quivering with indignation. “And excuse me, but just because I don’t have any bioelectricity, does not mean you can use me as a pawn in whatever bargain you’re trying to make!”

Pearl snorted, completely ignoring her. “I don’t know whether you’re telling the truth or not to Cinder. You’ve already lied to her enough. But I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“What are you saying? Clearly it matters if Cinder is a princess or not!” Iko hissed.

“There’s hardly any time – will you just let me finish!” Pearl hissed back. “Please,” she added grudgingly, before continuing, her words streaming out in a torrent. “Whatever you’re trying to manipulate my stepsister into doing, you clearly need her to trust you and believe you. And whatever Cinder might be, she is not an idiot. She would know something was wrong if both Iko and myself returned with no memories of the last few minutes. And although wiping both our memories might only take a few minutes, it would take rather longer to engineer a situation that might convince Cinder you had nothing to do with it. And aren’t you needed back at the palace in, oh, a couple of minutes’ time?”

The doctor’s mouth opened and shut. “Ms Linh, you have no idea-”

“My mom is dying.” Pearl’s voice was shaking and her fists were still clenched. “You are the only one who might be able to save her. How am I supposed to tell Peony that she’s lost her mom as well as her dad to the blue fever?” Iko shuddered. Pearl, although she might dislike admitting it, was right. Much as Peony seemed to make a hobby of complaining at length about Adri’s general unreasonableness – and fixation on getting Pearl a husband (even though Peony didn’t feel like a husband was something her sister would ever particularly want) Iko knew that if Adri were to die, devastated wouldn’t even come close to describing what her dear friend’s grief would be.

Iko wheeled back and forth, her thoughts conflicting. She had never liked Adri. She was greedy, bigoted, needlessly cruel, always searching to blame someone other than herself for the reason she felt dissatisfied with her life. The list went on. And on. But Peony –

“How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror if, knowing there’s a way mom could survive –” Pearl’s voice cracked but she continued resolutely, “– if I didn’t do absolutely everything I could to make it happen? I think you are the one who has no idea – of what I am prepared to do to save my family.”

“You’re bluffing.” The doctor’s tone was even, but he looked less sure than his words. “Even if you wanted to - there’s no way you could, Ms Linh.”

Pearl’s eyes narrowed. “Look me in the face, Doctor Erland, and ask yourself whether you are prepared to take that risk.”

There was an uncomfortable silence, broken by doctor’s portscreen which had started beeping again, this time more frantically. “Ms Linh, I really have to go,” he started. “Perhaps we can continue discussing this another-”

“You have three days,” Pearl interrupted, her eyes flashing dangerously. “Three days to give me a way save my mom. Or else.” She turned on her heel. Iko trundled along by her side, swiveling her head 180 degrees to watch the doctor as he walked out of sight. He looked very worried.

“Well,” said Iko. “That was interesting.”

Pearl sank to the ground, trembling. “I just threatened a Lunar,” she squeaked. “What am I thinking?”

Iko hummed thoughtfully. “Can you really expose his identity as a Lunar?”

Pearl hesitated for a moment. Scanning her face, Iko noticed that her pupils were hopelessly dilated, and she was shaking like a leaf. “I don’t know,” she admitted, sinking her head onto her knees and taking several deep breaths. “But I have to try.” Her voice had a strangely defiant note, almost as if she were daring Iko to argue with her, to explain why her plan was too dangerous – that it could horribly jeopardize Cinder’s safety.

There was a pause, while Iko tried to figure out what to do. At last, she sighed. “I can’t believe that I’m about to say this – but I agree.”

Pearl blinked, her head snapping up. “What?” She looked suspicious. “You are aware that this has the potential to endanger Cinder, aren’t you? And isn’t it against every android’s code to approve of actions that are legally dubious? Don’t you think blackmail probably fits under legally dubious?”

Iko rolled back and forth, uneasily. “I know and I do…but I still agree.”

“Why? It’s not as if you like mom or me. You don’t have any reason to agree with my actions. Maybe your programming is on the fritz. If I were you, I know I’d –”

“Not everything is about you, Pearl,” Iko retorted, bristling. “In fact, it’s got nothing to do with either of you. You and Adri have never liked me, and the feeling is mutual. The two of you are insanely close-minded about what makes a person that you don’t even stop to consider the fact that wiring and programming and empathy and kindness are not mutually exclusive! You barely even see Cinder as human!” Her voice trailed off.

“The reason why I agree with you is Peony,” she said, more quietly. Kind, warm-hearted, sparkling Peony. Her friend who had always poured out her heart to her and listened with rapt attention to all of Iko’s own dreams. Peony, who had never looked at her and seen, like Pearl and Adri did, a beat-up, unreliable Serv-droid, but as a person, just like her. Peony, who was always constantly giving and sympathetic and hopelessly melodramatic and whose smile and laughter could brighten the most dismal day. Peony, who would be destroyed if her mother died. She sighed and her prongs touched her wrist joint, where days ago Peony had tied a silver velvet ribbon.

She looked up, realizing that there was a long silence stretching out between the two of them. Pearl was scrutinizing her. She looked at her for a long moment, but for once Iko did not see even a trace of hostility in her gaze. Rather, she looked surprised and – was Iko imagining or was there a trace of guilt on her features? The slightly ashamed expression vanished with Pearl’s next blink and she took a deep breath, rising unsteadily back to standing.

“Thank you Iko,” Pearl said, her voice surprisingly gentle. “Thank you.”

Chapter Text

Looking back, Cinder really wasn't sure how she had managed to get through the insanity that had been the last few days. She had not seen Dr Erland in person since his visit to her booth. Cinder suspected he had wanted to start training her in her use of the Lunar Gift but there was no way they could meet in person other than by her sneaking into the palace on the off chance he could manage to snatch a ten minute break from the deluge of work piling up on him. So it seemed he had decided to wait until Levana had left for Luna. She had received a comm from him with the veiled instructions not to worry about anything discussed in their 'meeting' until after the Peace Ball. Cinder wasn't complaining. Peony and Adri and Lunars and Kai and Erland's murdered shell daughter and being a star-forsaken princess. She needed some time to process everything that had happened in the last week.

Not that Cinder was honestly doing much processing. In fact, she was desperately trying not to think about the whole thing.

Fortunately, the demand for repairs in the run up to the ball was even bigger than usual and she had deliberately taken on a bigger number of orders than she could reasonably expect to handle, in the hope that being so busy would help her get rid of some of the frenetic energy constantly thrumming through her. It was only partially working but she had rarely been so productive, even if a green inventory of parts and schematics had started to spool across her vision each time she closed her eyes. Not that she had been doing much of that lately either.

Most of the previous couple of nights had been spent in the New Beijing junkyard in another attempt to distract her thoughts, fixing the rusted car, until her eyes ached with the burning orange color of its paint. The body of the old machine had been cajoled, shoved and patched into a single piece, rather than its previous vague resemblance to an impressive framework of cobwebs and Cinder was now confident that it would drive some distance without breaking down. She'd even bought a tank of non-viscous veg gas with half of the money Dr Erland kept wiring her, which should be enough to allow the vehicle to run to the next province at least.

Cinder swallowed and resolutely squashed down thoughts of just why she might need to run to the next province. It was the third day since she, Pearl and Iko had met Dr Erland at her booth and since then, she had been so frantically busy that she was – mostly – distracted from thinking about the bombshell of a revelation he had dropped. Distracted from letting her thoughts move in the direction of anything relating to Luna. Or royalty. Or a murderous aunt who would happily execute her. Or –

Cinder took a deep breath, feeling a too-familiar panic roil inside her, and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to let the text filling up her vision distract her. Since her accidental manipulation of her stepsister back in the apartment a few days ago, she had not tried to use her Lunar gift again. Well. Not on another person. And yet – she wanted too.

She really wanted to.

Cinder's fingertips twitched under the heavy fabric of her glove, longing to pull it off and just – glamour up a hand. Something that looked like flesh and bone rather than rusted metal. She would never have to wear the heavy gloves again - never again face the sneering expressions of others like Adri, like Pearl who saw her not as a person, but as something less. Something unnatural. Something disgusting. But now, if Cinder wanted, with a mere twitch of her thoughts people would look at her and – and they would love her.

Cinder flinched and balled her hands into fists, remembering the look of mute adoration of Pearl's face. Remembering the way the protesting crowd had stared at Queen Levana, angry screams fading to docile worship – the way she herself had felt a surge of love for the queen wash over her, before the orange lie detector flickered in her vision. Using her gift for the first time, however unconsciously, had made her blood sing and a giddy feeling of power ripple through her. She couldn't remember another time when something had felt so right. But it wasn't.

It was lies. All of it. Whatever she was, she would not become like the Lunar queen. Although, technically, if the doctor could even be trusted, she legally was the Lunar queen. Had been since her thirteenth birthday. Thirteen. What kind of age was that to rule? Trying to start up a repair business in her free time had been hard enough. Ruling an entire county of Lunars?

She took a deep breath and expelled it shakily. She really needed a repair job. Unfortunately, now was not one of those busy moments she had tried so desperately to maintain. She was still waiting on Pearl and Iko to come back with android central processing units, and a shipment of new protectors for all the people who had managed to chip their portscreen's protective filament in the stress of preparing for the Ball. Until they arrived back, there was little to do other than watch the other traders in the marketplace, mindlessly sort the equipment on her table and direct twitchy glances at the huge netscreen at the end of the marketplace. The story of the unnamed teenage girl from New Beijing and her miraculous recovery from letumosis was constantly popping up. No journalist had yet managed to interview her sister, but from Dr Erland's steadily more harried comms, she suspected it was only a matter of time.

The footage of her dashing out of the quarantines, however, had been noticed and seemed to have been scheduled to play whenever the journalists felt like a respite from broadcasting live, pre-coronation footage of the vibrant festivities in the streets near the marketplace, or speculating about a possible letumosis mutation that might enable recovery. Thankfully, the clip was horrifically grainy and Iko had told her any facial recognition software would find it difficult to recognize her given that all that the camera had managed to capture was her back.

When Pearl had seen the footage, she had merely sniffed scornfully. "The only way anyone would been able to recognize you from that would have been if you had any fashion sense," she remarked. "Is it even possible for you to wear something any more generic?" Despite the sneer that had accompanied the words, they had somehow made the knot of dread in Cinder's chest lighten slightly. Just a little.

But Pearl and Iko was another thing to worry about. Cinder wasn't sure if they were avoiding her, but they seemed to be spending most of their time huddled over Pearl's portscreen. Pearl had been getting steadily more antsy by the day. Her normally immaculate fingernails were bitten down to the quick and she had shadows under her eyes almost as bad as Cinder's. When Cinder had glanced over at what they were doing, Pearl had slammed a hand over the screen and glared at her until she was forced to back away.

When Cinder had tried asking Iko later, she could practically taste the caginess in her voice as Iko wheeled back and forth uneasily. "Just…just helping Pearl create some content for her socials and helping her decide where posting them would have the maximum effect," she squeaked. "You know – the odd video, blog, a couple of text posts, a quick clip, an emoji-bite. She's-" Iko's fan kicked in nervously, "she's trying to expand her following."

Cinder gave her a skeptical glance but didn't challenge her. So, Iko and Pearl, who could barely stand being in each other's presence a single week ago, were now working together and trying to hide something from her. A little voice at the back of her head told her they were probably discussing her. Maybe now that they knew she was Lunar, even Iko didn't want her as a friend any longer. Cinder felt an actual physical pain in her chest at the thought.

She started as a little girl came up to the booth, holding out a portscreen with a plaintive expression. Cinder sighed, took the port and whacked the corner of the device on the booth table. Twice. The screen sputtered back to life and the girl left beaming, her pigtails swinging happily behind her.

"Have you considered accepting payment for any of the repairs you do?" Cinder's head whipped around so fast she cricked her neck as she felt her heart skyrocket to a frankly alarming rate. Only this time she doubted the adrenaline rush was one caused by fear. She briefly considered wobbling to a standing position and leaning all her weight on her non-cyborg foot, but her crutches were out of reach and she really didn't want to end up falling at his feet.

"Kai!"

"Not that I would ever dream of telling the most successful mechanic in New Beijing how to run a business," Kai finished, grinning at her.

Despite herself, Cinder felt the corner of her mouth lift and some of the tension melt away from her shoulders as she looked at Kai. Once again, he was swelteringly overdressed in that gray hooded sweatshirt, but he looked composed as ever despite the crushing humidity. She could just make out his hair, tousled in thick, glossy waves underneath the hood and his copper-brown eyes were sparkling. At her. Looking at him, Cinder realized she felt distinctly light-headed. And while she would love to blame it on the sleep deprivation…she was pretty sure her lie detector would go off on herself if she tried to pin the feeling on anything other than the way he was looking at her.

"Not that I would ever dream of telling you how to be royalty-" Well that hit impressively near the knuckle – "but have you considered hiring bodyguards?"

"Why would I need bodyguards?" Kai gave her what he clearly considered a winning smile. Cinder's stomach gave an uncomfortable swoop as she realized it was genuinely quite effective. She was very, very glad that she couldn't blush. Kai held her gaze for a beat before the smile turned wry and he tapped his wrist where his ID chip must be. "Believe me, they know where I am. So, it would be perfectly safe for me to go grab some cellophane noodles and soup. Would you do me the honor of allowing me to buy you some too? And maybe you'd like to eat them with me?"

Silence hung in the air between them for a long moment, before Cinder blinked at him. "Did you…just ask me on a date?"

"Interested?" Kai's tone was casual, but his expression was incredibly nervous. Cinder's heart squeezed.

"Kai."

Kai's face fell. "Oh no, you're giving me that look."

"What look?"

"The 'it's not you, it's me' look."

"I'm not giving you any sort of look!" Cinder protested. "Well. Not deliberately anyway." She grimaced. "But I'm sorry Kai, I'm going to have to decline. I'm – I'm really busy."

Kai gave her a sardonic look. "Yes, you look completely overwhelmed," he deadpanned.

"I genuinely am!" Cinder massaged her temples and closed her eyes for a moment in what was most definitely a horrible breach of royal etiquette. "I've been rushed off my feet all day. It just happens that I'm waiting on a bunch of parts to arrive at the moment." She waved a hand absently. "I can bring up an invoice if you really want to see it."

"You do look tired," Kai conceded, scrutinizing her with an expression of concern that made her heart jump in her chest. "Very tired, actually. How long have you been here?"

Cinder smothered a yawn. "Since dawn."

"Since dawn!" Kai's expression of concern deepened. "Look, I really must insist that you eat something."

"Thanks, but I have nutrition bars. I'll be fine," Cinder said.

When Kai still looked dubious, she huffed and pulled one out from her cargo pants, waving it at him unenthusiastically. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Please don't worry. Besides, I'm watching this booth. I can't just drop everything. Even for a da – even for the prince," she corrected herself, hoping Kai hadn't noticed the slip.

The distinct twinkling expression in his eyes told her he had, but rather than tease her about it, his expression slipped into something much more wistful. "Yeah, that makes sense," he said, hesitating for a moment. "I guess I just hoped –" he broke off. "Will you be able to come to the ball at least?" he asked, his voice softer. "I – just thought it might be nice to spend the evening with someone other than Levana. Someone I, you know, actually have feelings for." His voice trailed off and Cinder felt a pang.

"She still wants the marriage alliance?"

Kai looked wretched. "She still wants the marriage alliance," he repeated dully.

"What about Nainsi?" The words were out before Cinder had fully registered them. What about Selene?

"And what she was investigating?" Kai asked. He gave a miserable shrug. "Even if I could find…her it could take weeks. Months even. My people are dying. I can't just sit and wait when Levana has a viable antidote. None of our doctors are able to make one, it seems – not for a year. What sort of leader would I be if I don't do everything – everything I can to stop more citizens dying? If I had an opportunity to stop or at least slow down the spread of this disease and I didn't take it?"

Cinder chewed her lip. "And you definitely can't replicate it?"

Kai gave a huff of frustration. "According to the research team, one of the ingredients is only available on the moon. Which just figures. So, yes. The marriage alliance is quite definite, it seems. I'm," he swallowed, "going to announce it at the ball, in fact."

"You can't!" Panic flooded Cinder.

"Believe me, I'm not looking forward to it either." Kai said. "But I don't see many other options on the table." He made a wry face. "Still, I've actually heard she was quite the romantic growing up. Maybe – maybe I could just tell her I have feelings for someone else and she'd decide to call it off."

His expression was trusting and open and just the tiniest bit of genuine hope glimmered in his eyes. Cinder swallowed, hard, guilt roiling in the pit of her stomach. So many lies. This wasn't fair on him. She had to tell him. Everything. Cyborg. Lunar. Selene. Everything.

Pull off the gloves and show him.

"Listen, Kai, there's – there's something I need to tell you."

"Yes?"

Cinder's hands trembled for a moment. Her retina scanner was informing her of the adrenaline spike she was experiencing. Her increased heartbeat. Her excessive pupil dilation. So many ways to tell her what she already knew. She was afraid.

Cinder shivered. And then she yanked the glove off her left hand.

Kai blinked down at the metal plating glinting up at both of them. "Oh," he said. "You're cyborg?"

Cinder nodded. Waiting for the disgust.

"Oh," Kai said again. His face was frozen in an expression of surprise, but it was quickly starting to fade, replaced by a sequence of emotions too quick for her to follow. He blinked again and then – he was still smiling at her. "Err, thank you," he said. "Thank you for feeling comfortable enough to share that with me."

Cinder scrutinized him. Waiting for the disgust. There wasn't any she could detect – but she could tell from his expression that he was starting to speculate. How much of her was flesh and how much metal and wiring. Cinder squashed down the sudden wish to snap at him to mind his own business. She supposed it was natural that he was curious. But it made her want to curl up into a ball and hide.

"Left foot and leg too," she muttered, pulling the glove back on. "I can tell you're wondering." She didn't have the energy to go into the details about her cybernetics and eyes. The 38.26 percent of her made of artificial materials, rather than flesh and bone.

Kai looked guilt stricken. "I'm sorry. That was disrespectful of me. I'm sorry if I've made you feel uncomfortable. Please forgive me." He fidgeted slightly. An uncomfortable silence filled the booth. It was clear he wasn't quite sure what to say next. Until –

"Oh, that reminds me!" Kai said. He reached into the front pocket of his sweater, pulling out a long thin box, clumsily wrapped in crinkled white paper and tied with a silken gold ribbon. He handed it to her. "This is for you."

"What for?"

"Token of appreciation for your work on my android?"

Cinder gaped at him. "What is it?"

Kai's lips quirked slightly. "Gloves."

A startled laugh burst out of Cinder. She cracked the lid open with her ungloved, grease-free right hand and the laughter caught in her throat. Silver-white silk, the color of moonlight shimmered up at her. Exquisite seed pearls traced a line across the fabric. They were fit for royalty.

"Kai, what were you thinking?" Cinder gasped, shutting the lid before grease magically jumped down from her forehead onto the pristine fabric, or something. "I can't accept these!"

"Well, I was thinking you might like to wear them to the ball." He looked at her. Right at her. "Will you?"

Cinder blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"You, err, didn't get around to telling me," Kai replied. "About whether or not you were coming. Or if you might consider dancing with me there. But – I thought if you did decide to go, you...might like to wear them."

Cinder briefly wondered if something in her brain had short circuited. "Dance. With you." She glanced down at her half-gloved hands, wondering for a moment if she had imagined the last few minutes. "Kai, did I mention-"

"That you're cyborg?" Kai finished. "Yes, you did. Would you like to save me a dance this evening?"

"You - still want to dance with me?" Cinder asked.

Kai looked as though she'd slapped him. "What sort of bigot do you think I am? Did you think I was suddenly going to have a hissy fit and stalk off because you've trusted me enough to tell me you're cyborg – something that was clearly really difficult for you to do? And," his cheeks flushed slightly, "I'm getting the impression that you thought you being cyborg might affect my feelings for you?" Cinder hesitated, then nodded.

"It hasn't. And it never will."

There was another long, very intense silence.

"Look, there's something else I need to tell you," Cinder gabbled, before she lost her nerve and did something rash like lean across the table and try to kiss him. "Something important." Oh and by the way, Kai, did I mention I'm the lost Lunar Princess? She had the sudden urge to laugh.

Kai nodded. "I'm listening."

"Cinder!"

Cinder and Kai both jumped at the sound of Pearl's voice and Cinder bit back a groan at the timing. This was not a conversation she wanted to have in front of her stepsister.

Chapter Text

The way Pearl's arms were trembling under the totally unreasonable weight of the crates of fibreglass portscreen protectors was making her seriously re-evaluate her exercise routine.

"Cinder!" she called again, hoping that this time her adoptive sister would actually help her, given that it was her wretched order of parts in the first place, but she was apparently dealing with a customer. Or…maybe socializing would be a better word. Which was pretty darned impressive, given that Pearl had been under the impression that her stepsister had all the social skills of a used tea-pod.

She walked the final few feet with a sigh of relief, before giving the messy tabletop a once-over and wondering if she had celebrated too soon. "Iko's coming in five with the processing units," she puffed. "But is there anywhere I can put these before she arrives?" Her nose crinkled slightly as she gave the table in front of Cinder another dubious glance. "Somewhere clean, if such a place exists?"

"I'm-"

"A mechanic. Yeah, got it." Pearl rolled her eyes. "Even the faintest chance of a new catchphrase any time soo-"

There was the sound of a sharp ding from the direction of the gray-sweatered customer standing in front of Cinder. Pearl's gaze fell on them, and to her utter mortification the rest of her sentence was promptly swallowed up by a strangled squeaking noise.

The Prince was standing in Cinder's booth. The capital P prince. The soon-to-be emperor, and theoretically most powerful person of the Eastern Commonwealth, was standing in the New Beijing market, apparently mid-way through a pleasant chat with her cyborg adoptive sister. Pearl cringed as what felt like every Prince Kai fan-edit she had made over the years started replaying through her mind. There was a vague clattering sound ringing in her ears.

"Err, yes," Cinder said. "Right. Err, Prince – err Kai, this is my stepsister Linh Pearl. Pearl, allow me to introduce-"

"Please don't!" Prince Kai hissed, looking alarmed. Pearl froze, halfway through her confused curtsey.

"Ye – yes, your Majesty," she squeaked, snatching up a crate which she seemed to be on the ground for some reason. "My apologies." She hoped her cheeks didn't look as warm as they felt. She suspected they did.

"That's alright," the prince said, looking equally uncomfortable. He inclined his head towards her. "Do you work here?"

"Do I work here?" Pearl realized her mouth was hanging open again, but at least this time it was at the prince's words, rather than his actual presence. "N- no, your Majesty, I'm just helping Cinder for a couple of days."

"Of course." Prince Kai nodded, giving her a polite smile. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Err, likewise, your Majesty," Pearl muttered.

There was another piercing ding from the pocket of the prince's hoodie but he ignored it. Instead, his gaze flicked back to Cinder. "You said…you had something important to say?"

Cold fear engulfed Pearl. "Something important to say?" she repeated, turning toward Cinder, her voice pitched unnaturally high. Her idiotic stepsister had told him she was Princess Selene. "Cinder – what have you told Kai?"

"Nothing!" Cinder's hands flew up defensively and Pearl's gaze snagged on the single glove. She cringed backwards.

"Sweet stars. You've told him everything?"

"No! Pearl, just please stop talking! Let me explain!"

Pearl flitted an agonized glance at the prince, who appeared unconvincingly fascinated by the cobble stones as what was presumably his portscreen let off another couple of dings in quick succession.

Cinder sucked in a quick breath. "Yes, I told him that I'm cyborg," she muttered.

"And?"

"And nothing!"

Pearl relaxed. Just a fraction. Nothing about being Lunar then. Yet.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding. The prince pulled out his port and grimaced at the sight of his notifications. "I'm sorry," he said, sounding as if he genuinely meant it. "I was meant to go prepare for the coronation fifteen minutes ago and my team is completely freaking out." He looked at Cinder and Pearl's mouth fell open at the expression he was giving her, even as the dings became still more frantic. "I have to go. I'm really sorry. Can you comm me?" He gave her a sideways smile. "Or maybe you'd like to tell me at the Ball this evening?"

"Kai-"

"Yes, yes, please free feel to leave if you need to go, your Highness," Pearl gabbled.

Prince Kai nodded to Cinder and to her. "Thank you for your understanding Linh-mei. It was lovely to meet you albeit briefly."

"Err," – Pearl searched desperately for another word that wasn't likewise – "yes. The, err, same to you, your Majesty." She was convinced she was still blushing with surprise and mortification as the prince jogged away. She allowed herself a moment before turning on Cinder.

"What in the name of all the galaxies were you thinking?" she hissed. "You're aware he would have to turn you over to the Lunar queen for deportation if you told him, yes?"

Cinder sucked in her cheeks wryly. "Well, technically, you know Pearl, I am actually the Lunar queen," she muttered.

"Cinder! For stars' sake! You have no way of proving that yet! Do you think Levana is really going to be chill about helping you prove your genetic identity? Honestly, it's like you want to be carted off to a Lunar prison!"

"I needed to tell him!" Cinder snapped. "You know they say he's going to announce his and Levana's engagement at the ball?"

"Well can't you comm him like he suggested?"

Cinder gave her the kind of look typically reserved for exceptionally poor DIY repairs. "It's not really the sort of thing you can say over a comm," she said, through gritted teeth.

Pearl glared back. "Well, speaking of comms, have you heard from Dr Erland yet? About the antidote?"

"When I know, I'll tell you," Cinder snapped.

"Can you get him to hurry up? It's almost been three days, Cinder! Mom is dying. Or is that a concept too difficult for your processing unit to compute?"

"Adri's been nothing but vile to me ever since I arrived," Cinder sneered. "You know it as much as I do! I'm sorry your mom's sick, I really am, but can you please stop acting like I'm a heartless monster because I'm not constantly crying over her!"

"That doesn't change the fact that it's your fault she's sick!" Pearl hissed. Cinder looked as though she had slapped her, but Pearl didn't feel even slightly bad. "You must have brought it home with you that day," she continued. "You know where you went. You must have carried it back on your clothes – from there. And maybe you couldn't catch it but-" a sob caught in her chest, "mom could."

"So, I shouldn't have saved Peony? Is that what you're saying? That I should have just left her in the quarantines?"

"You could have isolated!" Pearl spat. "You should have hired a decontamination capsule and not taken the plague straight home to us!"

"Your mom was about to report me for being a runaway cyborg! She tried to get me arrested! There was no time to do any of that!" Cinder huffed. "I had to stop Peony dying. And Dr Erland will fix this, Pearl. He – he can modify the antidote. I'm sure he can. He knows what he has to do."

Pearls lips curled. "Oh, he knows what he has to do alright." She had told Erland he had until midnight this evening to give Adri a cure. Or she would tell the whole city and, indirectly, Levana, he was Lunar.

She would try, anyway. She still wasn't sure how effective it would be. She and Iko had created a series of posts which she could distribute across all the main media platforms, through as many accounts as possible, tagging the palace medical team each time. Just rumors. But she knew the power of whispers. It might be enough. She just hoped her threat was enough not to have to follow through with it. Doctor Erland couldn't cure her mom from a Lunar jail cell.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by the sight of Iko wheeling up to the booth, directing a port-droid as it trundled behind her, a stack of android processing units secured between its twin grippers.

"Wow," Iko said. "Real great atmosphere here. Remind me who died?"

It felt like a slap across the face. "Mom will, if Dr Erland doesn't get a move on." Pearl snapped, feeling the now-familiar heat prickle behind her eyes. She clenched her fists, turning away. "Whatever. I'm going back to the apartment."

Neither Cinder or Iko tried to stop her as she stalked away from the booth and out of the marketplace, trying to suppress the quivering in her shoulders. Somehow, that made her feel even worse.

It was barely half past nine, but all the media releases were set up, ready to go whenever Pearl decided to send them out. There were still hours to go.

In the main room of the apartment, the netscreen was playing footage of the coronation and pre-ball festivities. Pearl had switched it on in an attempt to distract herself. Instead, she was pacing the room, her golden tulle skirts swishing every time she turned. The skirts of the ballgown she had put on in an attempt to calm down and switch her thoughts to concentrate on something else. It wasn't working. Her mouth was still dry. Her thoughts were still agonized.

The fact that she could hear Cinder in her own room, also pacing, was not helping matters any. She hadn't spoken to her stepsister since the marketplace. Part of her wanted to bombard Cinder with questions about exactly why she and the prince had been looking at each other with that suspiciously gooey expression and how, for that matter, they had even met. Another part of her felt asking would open up a whole can of worms she just wasn't ready to deal with. She didn't think she could stomach hearing about the bumbling, sickeningly sweet interactions between Prince Kai and Princess Selene, while her real sister was still shut up in a med clinic by a Lunar doctor and her mom was dying of the plague.

Her adoptive sister – her cyborg, Lunar adoptive sister – was getting everything Pearl had ever been told to aspire towards, while her own life was slowly turning into a trash-fire. She kicked a chair angrily. It didn't relieve her feelings any, but a throbbing pain shot through her toes, unprotected by the golden sandals. She let out a hiss at the unexpected sting. A trickle of blood was welling up at the base of her left big toe where she had scraped the skin off.

Pearl cursed fluently and gathered up her skirts, starting to limp towards the washroom. There would be band-aids there. She hoped.

"Oh…Bad time?"

Pearl glared at her. "Given that I'm currently trying not to smear blood on the flooring, I would say yes."

Cinder gave her foot an unimpressed glance. "It's a little scratch, not a missing toe. Anyway, you'll want to see this."

Pearl glared again but reluctantly followed Cinder into her room. Whatever she had been expecting it certainly wasn't Iko cooing reassurances at a girl who looked around her age and who seemed to be having some sort of mental breakdown on the other end of the netscreen.

Honestly, that didn't surprise Pearl. The thought of being constantly swamped in that volume of – hair? was enough to send prickles of horror skittering down her spine.

The girl broke off crying into her hair cocoon and stared at her, her startlingly blue eyes huge with surprise. "An Earthen?"

Pearl bristled. "A Lunar?"

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" The girl looked mortified. "It's just that I've never met an actual Earthen before. I-"

"We haven't got time for this," Cinder grumbled. She twirled a screwdriver anxiously through the air, gesturing at the girl. "Tell her what you told me."

The girl's face crumpled. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I-"

"Cut it out," Pearl snapped. "Did you bring me in here for an actual reason Cinder, or just to watch some randomer apologize and be all weepy?"

"Basically, Prince Kai is in horrible danger!" the girl squeaked. "Levana has found out he was trying to track down Selene – and – and now, she's going to kill him after their marriage and use the Eastern Commonwealth army to attack the rest of Earth – and it's all my fault!" She sniffled. Pearl decided to ignore what seemed to be numerous leaps of logic to focus on the main point.

"Queen Levana is going to kill Prince Kai?"

The girl sniffled and nodded. Pearl felt a headache forming at her temples. "Cinder, why exactly did you bring me in here? How in all the stars am I meant to prevent an assassination attempt?"

"Stars above! You understand what this means right?" Cinder waved the screwdriver dangerously close to Pearl's eye. She jerked back, irritably. "Levana is going to declare war on the whole planet! Kai has to be told! He's about to announce their engagement this evening!"

"So send him a comm?" Iko suggested. "Problem solved. In, like, thirty seconds. Right?"

Pearl huffed. "Unfortunately not. It's been running across all news feeds that the queen has requested all use of any devices with a cam-function be prohibited within the ballroom. On pain of – well. Some nasty Lunar-Earthen diplomatic crisis probably."

There was a determined expression stealing over Cinder's expression. She nodded. "I'll go," she said. "I'll find him and I'll tell him. He has to know."

"Take the chip," said the Lunar girl. "In case we need to contact each other. And please, don't tell them about me. If my mistress ever found out-"

Pearl frowned. "Mistress? What the-"

Cinder disconnected the screen before either Pearl or the Lunar could finish their sentences. She was already limping to the corner of the room and pulling out a mass of shimmering lilac fabric. Pearl frowned for a moment, unsure what was happening. Then –

"Can I borrow your boots?" Cinder asked. "We're roughly the same shoe size, right?"

"Oh, you cannot be serious," Pearl breathed, as Cinder started grabbed a rag and started wiping the worst of the grease off her face and hands.

"Boots?" Cinder repeated, shrugging off her jacket.

"You are aware of the sheer level of stupid your idea is?" Pearl asked, her tone acidic.

Cinder glared back at her. "Kai is going to die if I don't warn him."

"You are likely going to die, if you do warn him." Pearl snorted. "Or do you imagine Levana's suddenly going to decide to be a chill aunt when she realizes she failed to murder you however many years ago? Deportation, remember? Imprisonment? Probable messy execution? Levana still very much able to threaten Earth and you very much removed from the picture?"

"Look, she doesn't know I'm Selene," Cinder replied, unlacing her combat boots. "At the very most, she thinks I'm a shell. Anyway, she's not going to see me. I'll just slip in, find Kai and leave. She doesn't have to see me."

Pearl shook her head in disbelief. "Iko, back me up here."

Iko rolled back and forwards, her sensor flashing nervously. "If Kai really is in danger, and this looks like the only way he might be saved, which, let's face it, it does-"

"Cinder, you're being a moron!"

"There's no time!" Cinder's expression was anguished as she scrabbled for a white box which Pearl's hadn't noticed. "If you're not going to help, I'll get them myself."

"Stars ab- are those pearls?" Pearl's jaw dropped at the sight of the silken gloves Cinder was holding. "Did you steal? –" Another realization crashed into her. "Oh, stars. He gave them to you, didn't he?"

Cinder's expression was the closest to vulnerable Pearl had ever seen it as she reverently slipped the gloves onto her hands. "He did," she muttered. "He knew I was cyborg, and he gave them to me anyway."

The wistful expression on Cinder's face sent a pang of envy through Pearl. She realized she was jealous of her adoptive sister, who had somehow managed develop feeling for someone who, if events in the marketplace were anything to go by, actually shared them. One thing was clear. She could reason with her stepsister until she ran out of breath, but nothing she was going say would convince Cinder not to go through with her insane idea.

She threw up her hands. "Fine, I'll get the boots! Stars!" Her mind was whirring furiously as she walked towards her bedroom, relieved to see her toe had stopped bleeding, at least. Cinder was going to the palace. She was going to crash the ball in Peony's crumpled, filthy ballgown, in Pearl's shoes, and risk her life to save the prince. And it was almonst guaranteed that she would be seen and captured by Levana in the process. At the back of Pearl's mind, there was a nagging, infuriating suspicion that if this were happening on a net drama she would be cheering the couple on, and swooning over the girl's desperate attempt to save the one she loved by being a melodramatic idiot. She scowled, snatching up her white boots.

By the time she returned, Cinder was wearing the shimmering dress. Peony's dress. Pearl shoved the boots at her and checked her port again. Still nothing from Dr Erland. There were just under two hours to go. He wasn't going to make it. He wouldn't find a cure for her mom. Not in time. She had to find another way.

Pearl's spine straightened. She clenched her fists in her tulle skirts. "Iko, you know what we were going to do at midnight, right?"

"Yes, of course!"

"And you can do it alone, right?"

"That's correct." Iko's blue light flickered, as though confused.

Pearl nodded and turned to Cinder, tucking her portscreen into her bodice. "You're really going through with this not-really-a-plan?" Cinder nodded, wobbling to a standing position.

"I have to – I can use the car I've been building and -"

"Stars, no, we are not getting into that rust bucket no matter how much veg gasoline is in the tank!" Pearl shook her head for even more emphasis. "We're going to take a hover, like normal people who don't want to die and who, in the unlikely event of survival, also don't want to face a hefty pollution fine."

"We-"

"I'm coming with you," Pearl told her stepsister. "Someone needs to make sure this plan doesn't completely fall apart."

"You're helping me?" Cinder looked suspicious.

Pearl snorted. "I'm helping the prince." She searched desperately for the right words, aware that each phrase was a potential minefield. "Look, Cinder, it's not going to help him any if you get caught on the steps on the way into the palace." She fluffed her golden skirts again and huffed. "Besides, I'm already dressed for it."

Cinder's expression softened slightly. "Oh. Right. Kai. Yes – I forgot that you, err-" she trailed off, looking awkward, and Pearl suspected that her stepsister was misreading the situation. As much fun as it was making vid-compilations of Prince Kai being a sassy legend for ten minutes straight, Pearl was not, in fact, in any way romantically inclined towards him, or towards male-presenting figures in general, but apparently Cinder had never picked up on this. Although, if she were being fair, Pearl honestly couldn't remember a single conversation longer than two sentences which they had exchanged prior to Peony's sickness.

She shrugged. "Discussing this right now isn't a good use of time," she said. "Let's just go. Try to stop this evening turning into a total disaster for all of us before it's too late."

Cinder hesitated for a long moment in which Pearl determinedly didn't fidget, trying hard not to look as anxious as she felt. Finally, her stepsister nodded. "Alright. Let's do this. Together."

"Together," Pearl agreed, trying to ignore the dust bunnies and grime clinging to Peony's dress. Her head was light with nerves as they walked out of the flat but, for the first time that evening, she felt like she was actively doing something. It was insane. It was horribly dangerous. But it was the only choice she had left.

Chapter Text

She was alive. She was safe. She was thanking all her lucky stars, one by one. She had, somehow, survived the plague which had killed everyone else in its path. She should barely be able to turn her thoughts towards anything other than just how grateful she was to have caught letumosis and lived to tell the tale. And Peony was incredibly grateful – of course she was! But…if she were honest with herself, she was also incredibly bored.

She hugged the pillow to her chest, feeling the now-familiar sensation of guilt claw inside her. People were dying and she had the gall not just to be recovering from letumosis, but to be bored about it? But she didn’t even know how many days she had been trapped in this room, with only a netscreen for company. On the one hand, it was nice catching up on the net-dramas she had been missing, and she had watched more documentaries on deep space exploration than she had been aware existed. On the other hand, for some reason the netscreen also refused, point-blank, to pick up any news channels. Not a single one. It was unsettling and there was no way this was happening by chance. Peony was starting to feel freaked out by just how cut-off she was.

Her visitors had consisted of silent med-droids, who noted her vital signs and brought her meals, and occasionally Doctor Erland, who looked steadily more harried each time he came to check up on her and take blood samples. Each time, Peony had pleaded with him about getting in contact with her mom, Cinder and Pearl, since she no longer had her portscreen, but each time the doctor just sighed sympathetically and rattled off a long and very complicated speech about data protection laws. Each time, Peony would nod understandingly, feeling utterly convinced by his words. It was only when he left that she would suddenly realize that she still didn’t understand his argument at all. And that she still had no idea of what was going on in the outside world. There weren’t even any windows to the room for star’s sake.

Peony shivered. There was something very weird going on. But the doors wouldn’t open without an identity card and there was no feasible way she would be able to break them down so, for the time being, it seems she was stuck in here.

She grimaced and swiped her fingers through the air, flicking the netscreen on yet again. She let out a startled gasp. Finally! It still wasn’t news exactly, but the channel had started broadcasting what appeared to be actual live footage of…Peace Ball festivities? It was the night of the Ball already? Peony listened to the reporters’ commentary, feeling steadily more confused. There had clearly been a lot going on in the past week or so.

The images were rotating between shots of celebrations throughout capital cities in the Eastern Commonwealth and the pouring rain lashing on the palace gardens of New Beijing. This latter, less than thrilling footage was apparently due to the fact that Lunar queen had insisted on a ban of recording within the ballroom itself. Still, at least there was audio of events within the ball, informing her that Prince Kai and Queen Levana were currently dancing. Peony sighed and settled back, readying herself to listen to a night of music and laughter through a screen. At least with luck she would pick up some more news from the commentary.

As if in answer to her hopes, there was a sudden fanfare of trumpets. The reporters stopped talking, surprised, as a new voice boomed through the speakers.

Please welcome to the 126^th Annual Ball of the Eastern Commonwealth, a personal guest of His Imperial Majesty: Linh Cinder of New Beijing.”

Peony shrieked and flailed her hands wildly through the air, seriously wondering if it was possible to spontaneously combust from fangirling. Her sister? And Prince Kai? Together? She desperately tried to calm her heartrate which had suddenly rocketed, and her thoughts, which seemed to have been reduced to a string of frenzied, nonsensical letters.

There was complete silence in the ballroom. Everyone, from the reporters, to the guests, to the queen herself seemed to be needing a moment to take in the announcement.

Then, a soft censor bleep broke through the silent airwaves, followed immediately by a sharp, incredibly familiar voice. Just a few words, but the frustration was palpable in every syllable. “ – sake, Cinder.”

Peony’s eyes widened, if possible, even further. Pearl.

Fuck’s sake, Cinder. In the perfect silence, the words echoed around the ballroom, doing nothing to dissipate any of the tension building in the room.

Hundreds of faces were staring at her, amid a sea of vibrant colors. Cinder lost count of the styles of formal wear and fabrics from throughout the Commonwealth suddenly scrolling in green text across her retina. She swallowed, aware of every smear of grease on the silver dress, the brown patches at the hem where she had stepped out of the hover with her stepsister – and straight into a puddle. Unlike Pearl, Cinder’s hair was still drenched, and her gown was still sodden from venturing outside the cover of the Phoenix Tower Apartments to flag down a hover. In the deafening silence, her audio interface registered the distinct sound of water dripping off her and onto the pristine ballroom floor. She didn’t need to look down to know that Pearl’s milk-white boots were now a muddy grey. Only the silk gloves were still, somehow, presentable, although there was a tiny rent in the left one, where she had managed to snag the material on a screw from repeatedly removing them to preserve the sumptuous fabric from the weather.

She dared a glance at Pearl, whose expression had turned stony. Cinder could tell her stepsister was preparing a silent mental tirade against her but beyond her single expletive it seemed she had decided not to make a scene. Instead, her gaze was scanning the ballroom and Cinder saw her spine suddenly straighten. She nodded and began to trip lightly down the ballroom stairs.

Cinder squared her shoulders and looked at Kai, whose mouth was hanging open. She dialed down the voices of the whispering guests with her audio interface and began to follow Pearl, walking towards him, one careful step after another, trying not to notice the squishing sensation the boots made each time she lowered a foot to the ground.

Heel-toe. Heel-toe. She glanced up again and saw that although Kai still looked stunned, his lips were twitching and he looked dangerously close to laughter. Pearl had disappeared into the crowd.

After what seemed an eternity, Cinder reached the bottom of the marble stairs. He was waiting for her. Kai held out a hand to her and bowed. “Linh-mei,” he greeted her, his warm brown eyes dancing, “what a pleasure you could join us tonight.”

Cinder coughed nervously. “The pleasure is mine your, uh, Imperial Majesty.”

Kai’s eyes crinkled with amusement as he gestured at the band, raising his voice into the silence. “This is a night of celebration and merriment,” he said. “Please, let the dancing resume.”

Then he placed his other hand on her waist and before Cinder fully realized what was happening, they were swaying on the ballroom floor. They were dancing. The other guests were still gawping at them. “Please, you are my guests. Enjoy the music,” Kai continued, his tone light but firm and the floor obligingly filled up with dancers.

Guiding them out of the center of the floor, Kai grinned at her. “You have no idea to dance, do you?”

“I’m-”

“A mechanic?” Kai raised his eyebrows. “I noticed.” His gaze fell on their intertwined hands. “Though I’ve also noticed you didn’t get any grease on the gloves I gave you. I’m honored.” He gave her a teasing smile. “But mostly I’m honored that you decided to come after all.” He spun her gently and Cinder suppressed a startled yelp as she wobbled on her too-small cyborg foot, before collapsing back into his arms. Which felt a lot more romantic than it probably looked. She stared up at him for a moment, feeling a strange giddiness rush over her. Probably just a sign of low blood sugar. The smell of spices wafted towards her and Cinder’s stomach made a plaintive gurgling noise, as if to confirm her theory.

Kai laughed, the bright sound increasing Cinder’s giddy sensation, and gently coaxed her back onto her feet. They carried on swaying across the ballroom floor, inching closer to each other and Cinder realized that her left hand had come to rest gently between his shoulder blades as her feet gradually settled into something vaguely resembling the correct steps.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. “Listen, Kai, I came here for a reason.”

Kai gave her a wry smile. “And from your expression, I’m guessing the reason wasn’t just to be my dance partner?”

Cinder returned it. “You’re guessing right. Listen, it’s about Levana.”

Kai looked strained. “What about her?”

“You can’t marry her.”

“Why?” Kai made an innocent expression. “Did you have another candidate in mind?”

Cinder made an undignified spluttering noise and almost overbalanced again. “Kai! This is serious! She doesn’t just want to marry you for the Commonwealth.” She leaned closer to him so that no one else could hear them over the music. “She intends to start a war with Earth whatever you do,” she hissed. “Marrying you will just make it even easier for her.” She hesitated. “And she knows about Nainsi too. She knows who your android was looking for and she’s using the same information to try to find her! You know she won’t take it lightly that you’ve been trying to find the princess. She’s going to marry you – and then she’s going to kill you.”

Kai’s eyes widened with fear, although his expression remained composed. “How do you know all this?”

“Remember the D-COMM chip I found in Nainsi?” Kai nodded. “There was this girl – one of the queen’s hackers I think – who programmed it and she just commed me, telling me all this.” She glanced around. “I have the chip with me but – but it’s in the calf compartment of my left leg.” Kai looked fleetingly surprised, before he nodded, as if he had always known about Cinder’s calf compartment. “And – I have to tell you something else as well,” she continued. Her gaze fell on the open doors leading to the palace gardens. They had danced all the way along the ballroom. “Can we get away from everyone for a moment? It’s another thing about the princess-”

A dainty cough cut through her words like a knife and Cinder’s blood iced over. Queen Levana was leaning against a nearby column, a goblet of wine clasped in her elegant hands. Next to her stood a woman with raven-black hair, sculpted cheekbones, her hands tucked into the white, bell-shaped sleeves of the Lunar head thaumaturge’s outfit. Sybil Mira. And next to her – Cinder’s breath hitched painfully – a flash of golden tulle skirts and sandals. It was Pearl.

“There has been enough music for one night.” Levana’s voice rang across the ballroom, sweet and clear as she glided towards Cinder. She waved a hand and the band ground to a halt. Cinder wasn’t sure if the musicians had an incredible ability to read a room, or whether there was a little more Lunar manipulation involved in the sudden silence.

The queen continued speaking, each word perfectly articulated as it danced off her tongue. “It is time instead for my betrothed to answer a few questions about his ‘personal guest’.” Her gaze swept over Cinder, and the hatred burning in her eyes told Cinder she knew. She knew everything.

Cinder’s eyes locked onto Pearl as her adoptive sister took a series of faltering steps towards her. There was an expression of panic on Pearl’s face that she recognized. The terror of not being in control of your own limbs. “What have you done?” she hissed.

Pearl ground to a halt a few feet away from Cinder and Kai but her face was resolutely turned away from her stepsister’s. Her jaw twitched and she was shaking like a leaf as she addressed the air above Cinder’s left shoulder. “I’m saving mom. The only way I have left.”

Chapter Text

"Well, isn't this touching?" The Lunar queen's voice was light and poised, and every syllable lilting out of her mouth sent chills down Pearl's spine. She couldn't look at her stepsister.

"I demand to know the meaning of this," the Pr- no, Emperor Kai snapped.

Queen Levana tittered, the sound as clear and bright as windchimes, and gooseflesh erupted across Pearl's arms.

"The meaning of this," Levana repeated mockingly, "is that this poor, sweet Earthen child is the only person left in her family not to have been infected by what I believe you Earthens refer to as the blue fever." She clucked her tongue. "Such a pity."

"Full of confidence in my scientists' abilities, she sought counsel from my head thaumaturge, Sybil, begging for an antidote that might save her mother's life." Pearl couldn't hold back her shiver as she remembered kneeling in front of that white coat, convinced that at any second the thaumaturge would manipulate her into smashing her own face against the ballroom floor for the audacity of even considering an attempt at bargaining with the Lunar court. She was starting to wonder if that would have been a better fate. Her feet felt glued to the floor, and she couldn't work out if it was from fear or the continued manipulation of one of the Lunars nearby.

Levana's blood-red lips curved into a perfect smile, but her eyes were cold as flint. "How could I fail to be moved by such a display of family devotion? I promised the dear child that I would do everything in my power to ensure her mother received one of the very first antidotes I intend on sending to Earth." She turned away from the emperor, her gaze locking onto Cinder and Pearl shuddered again, even though she wasn't its target. Yet.

"The girl was so grateful that she gave me some very interesting information. About a certain Linh Cinder?" Queen Levana's eyes narrowed. "Would it interest you, your Majesty, to know that you have been consorting with a…common shell? A traitor to the Lunar throne?"

The betrayal in the expression of the 'traitor' in question told Pearl that, despite Levana's lie, she knew exactly how much Pearl had told the queen. Her stomach was a mess of guilt. A stupid, unreasonable mess of guilt. Her adoptive sister had already given herself away, anyhow. Before Pearl had even had a chance to say anything, the Lunar queen had already seen her stepsister for the second time. Before Pearl had even considered betray– she squeezed her hands resolutely into fists – uncovering her stepsister's identity, the cyborg had been the one who had wrecked her own chances of slipping unnoticed into the ball.

Pearl didn't think there was any universe in which Queen Levana would have allowed a runaway Lunar to evade her clutches a second time. At some point during the Peace ball, she would have arranged for the cyborg's swift and efficient capture – and a single DNA sample on her arrest would have blown the mechanic's cover wide open. At the very most, Pearl knew she had traded a couple of hours of her stepsister's life to ensure that her real sister still had a mom by the time she left the med-clinic. Provided Levana actually followed through on her promise.

But her mouth was still sour, and the thought of vomiting was becoming an increasingly more appealing option. Emperor Kai took an uncertain step back from her stepsister, an expression of hurt flashing across his face. "Cinder? Is this true?"

"I'm not a shell." Cinder's voice cut through the deadly silence of the ballroom, getting louder with each word as she returned Levana's murderous gaze without flinching. Her spine straightened, resolve in every line of her features. "And for the record, you are the traitor to the Lunar throne." She spun to face the rest of the Earthen guests. "This woman is a liar and a fraud! I –"

An unearthly screech ripped its way out of Pearl's throat and her body dove the last few feet towards her stepsister, knocking the insolent fugitive to her rightful place on the ground. The defector's arrogant words vanished in a yell and then Pearl was punching and scratching every inch of the shell that she could reach. Pearl's lips were curled in a vicious snarl, but her eyes were wide with fear and shock. The cyborg's eyes widened too – this time in understanding – but all the same she delivered a right hook that sent Pearl's head spinning. Pearl let out a howl of anger and she wasn't sure who was the source of it, herself or the Lunar who was controlling her body.

Her hand snapped upwards with a sudden, painful wrench from the muscle connecting her left arm to her torso and Pearl let out a scream of terror as she felt her palm close around the cold handle of something which had just hurtled into it. A glance upwards showed her a blond-haired Lunar guard, his left hand still outstretched in a throwing motion.

"Enough!" Kai bellowed, as Linh Cinder yelped too and punched Pearl's hand with her cyborg fist. Pearl cursed and dropped the knife with a clatter. Both of them dove for it, the blade gleaming up at them amid the silver-lilac fabric of both their skirts. Cinder's gloved hand reached the dagger first but before the cyborg could send it spinning out of the fight, Pearl felt her body pivot ninety degrees. A blur of white and silver – and then what looked like an ankle boot smacked the weapon out of the shell's grasp. For a fraction of a second, the tiny part of Pearl's brain which wasn't either silently screeching in terror or flooded with the thoughts of a thaumaturge wondered how she had somehow changed out of the golden sandals she had been wearing at the start of the night. And how the blade had sliced down her heel without leaving a single mark on the white fabric. Then, the moment was gone, and Pearl's hand lashed out again, ready to catch another weapon to use against the cyborg, and another cool object smacked into her palm.

"I said enough!"

Pearl's body froze, her hand clutched around what appeared to be a Lunar guard's handgun, as the emperor's voice echoed through the ballroom. Cinder struggled a moment longer, before shoving Pearl off her and staggering to her feet. Her expression was wild and panicked as she scanned the ballroom. But her lips were clenched tightly shut and her face was rigid. Too rigid. Pearl's stomach clenched as she realized that she knew the expression of panic on Cinder's face. It was a very specific sort of panic. The sort she had felt herself wearing far too often over the last few days. That expression told Pearl exactly what was happening. A thaumaturge, or perhaps even the queen herself, was controlling Cinder's voice, at the very least. They would not allow Selene even the smallest chance of announcing her identity.

"There will be no more manipulation of my guests, regardless of their alleged birthplace," Kai said, his voice calm and firm. "You may consider the possibility of a marriage alliance void if you or any of your courtiers unlawfully tamper with the bioelectricity of so much as one more of my citizens."

The gun clattered to the ground and Pearl gasped, curling into a ball on the floor. But – she wanted to scream – the action was still a manipulation! She tried to speak. She willed herself to just speak already. But her tongue lay like lead within her mouth. She couldn't even open her lips. Pearl whimpered, as her silk-gloved hands lifted themselves to rest securely under her chin, watching the seed pearls with bleary eyes.

"This shell you persist in calling Linh Cinder is my citizen," Levana's voice spat, and the musical note had completely vanished from her voice. Instead, her words were nothing but a poisonous hiss, her glare switching from the emperor, to Cinder, to…Pearl? "She should have been executed years ago."

"But not tonight." From the flatness of his voice, Pearl could tell that Emperor Kai's face was set in stone. She looked up. It was. Levana's jaw twitched for an instant. Pearl suspected she was calculating. Selene or Kaito. Luna or Earth. The queen nodded at the white-coated thaumaturge. Luna.

The taller Lunar guard with flame-red hair withdrew a gun from his belt. He cleared his throat, seemingly unsure. "My queen?" he asked, bowing and sweeping his hand out, first towards Pearl, then back to Cinder.

Levana tsked. "Good point." The blond-haired guard snapped to attention, his gaze landing on the gun still held limply in Pearl's hand. There was a second - one agonizing instant – where Pearl saw the next few moments play out in front of her eyes as if in a film. The Lunar guard grabbing the gun from her hand. The sound of a shot ringing through the dumbstruck ballroom. Cinder's body slumping to the floor, blood seeping from a wound.

No. This was wrong. This was horrifying. Bile rose in Pearl's throat, her body telling her the simple truth which her mind had been far too busy overthinking and calculating to recognize. In the end, it didn't matter whether Levana honored her word or not and saved her mother's life. Pearl had betrayed her sister to the queen. She had made the wrong choice. But she was frozen in horror and confusion and regret and fear and – and she couldn't pull her gaze away from the silvery-lavender fabric of Peony's ballgown. The ballgown that she was wearing.

The full truth of the situation hit her with the force of a maglev train and Pearl would have screamed if her mouth-turned-traitor weren't still under the full control of a Lunar. The realizations spun through her brain, dizzying and stomach-churning. Cinder had glamoured her, had glamoured her during their confused struggle on the ballroom floor. Cinder, even under the bioelectrical manipulation of other Lunars had kept the illusion going. It was still firmly in place.

Both of them looked like Selene. Levana was going to kill both of them. And – if Levana was preparing two guards to kill them both and manipulating their voices into silence, that meant, despite the manipulation of Cinder, even she wasn't entirely sure which of them was actually her niece.

Or – maybe the queen did know. But Pearl had told her thaumaturge that Cinder was claiming to be the lost princess of Luna. And that Pearl knew Cinder was claiming this. But no-one else. Pearl's saliva was sticky paste. Oh, of course. She was a witness to Cinder's claims. It was only fitting…that they eliminate her too.

Pearl felt a single tear slip down her face. I'm sorry Peony. She had failed. Miserably failed. And now her sister would have no one. There would be no one left.

She felt the guard's fingers brush against hers as he lifted the gun out of her palm. She couldn't look at him. Everything around her was muted.

No, what...? She thought maybe the emperor was talking. He might have been angry. It was hard enough to make out the words filtering through her daze, never mind the emotions behind them. Stop. She vaguely wondered if she was going into shock.

Pearl turned her head so she locked eyes with her sister. I'm sorry, she thought, desperately wishing the words could get through. I'm so sorry.

No…command you…stop…marriage alliance…over…harm either of these citizens or manipulate…security team.

Pity. This was Levana, Pearl guessed. Still. Suppose…easier.

And there was a gun being pushed back into her gloved hand. Back into Cinder's. Two girls, hair dripping, silken ballgowns crumpled, treacherous arms slowly – agonizingly slowly – raising guns up towards their heads. They were stepping closer to each other, now maybe only a foot apart. She couldn't take her eyes off Cinder. They were mirror images of each other.

Mirror images – apart from a spark of green growing in Cinder's pupil. As Pearl watched dimly, the green started to scroll across her sister's eye. Faster and faster.

And Cinder screamed.

Everything happened very quickly after that.

Chapter Text

Please note trigger warnings.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Book Five:

Blood on the ground, blood in the shoe. This treacherous girl is lying to you.

              Bioelectrical manipulation detected. Rebooting in three. Two. One –

              Cinder screeched at the top of her lungs as she felt power flood back into her limbs. With a dizzying surge of relief, she wrenched the gun out of its trajectory towards her head and span around. She fired into the cluster of Lunars once, twice – and registered a dark red splatter. Shouts. Some fearful, some angry. The Lunar guard with blazing red hair slumping forward, clutching his shoulder, his face slack with manipulation. The gun clicked. Empty.

Another scream, this time loud enough that Cinder cursed, dialling down her volume controls. A blinding wave of fear crashed across her consciousness, so intense she wanted nothing more than to vanish under a blanket fort until the winter solstice at least. Cinder’s gaze flicked to the side, one glance confirming what the emotions swirling around her had already revealed. In her panic, her glamour on Pearl had slipped. Her stepsister’s ballgown had returned to gold; Cinder’s projection of her own features had vanished. But the Lunars had clearly also lost control of Pearl’s bioelectricity – and her stepsister was once again in full possession of her emotions and limbs. “Run!” Cinder snapped. “What are you doing?”

Pearl’s eyes were impossibly wide, and she kept taking gigantic shaking breaths. She was staring blankly ahead and this time it was not the will of a thaumaturge which was keeping her feet rooted to the ground. It was Pearl’s own mind. Her stepsister wouldn’t run, Cinder realised. She couldn’t run.

In the end, Cinder didn’t really think about it. She had to get out. She needed to run. Two moving targets gave her better odds than one moving target. Pearl had just tried to kill her after all, albeit indirectly. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Pearl.”

The manipulation streamed out of her as if it were the most natural thing possible. Two girls with tattered lilac ballgowns, with grease-stained silken gloves and once-white boots pelted towards the doors leading into the palace gardens.

__________________________________________________________________________________

There was the sound of a gunshot. Two gunshots. A red-haired guard jumping in front of the queen. Screams. The feeling of a suddenly too-empty palm. Blood spraying across the marble column.

Pearl froze. There was a sourness on her tongue, and it felt like she was about to choke on all the saliva pooling uncontrollably in her mouth. There were black dots dancing in front of her eyes, and she wondered dimly if she had started swaying on the spot. Her heart felt as though it had started compressing in on itself inside her chest. It felt like there was an iron fist clamped around it, an iron fist that had clawed its fingers around her heart and had started squeezing. She tried sucking in a deeper breath, filling her lungs as much as the slightly-too-tight ballgown would allow. All that happened was an additional sensation of a needle driving into her chest. She gasped in another breath, and it hitched inside her chest. There wasn’t enough air.

Cinder was turning to her, was yelling something. Pearl didn’t know what. She was probably about to faint. At this point that might be the best alternative. Maybe death when you were passed out hurt less. A girl could dream.

But suddenly Pearl’s feet were flying beneath her, screaming out in protest and pain. Sweet fucking stars above but her left foot was in agony, even with the adrenalin thrumming through her. Had that knife sliced her heel clean off when she had kicked it out of Cinder’s hand during their thaumaturge-controlled fight? If the pain lancing up her leg was anything to go by it might well have done. Even so, her limbs felt suddenly lighter, alleviated from the iron control of the queen’s head thaumaturge. And yet…although there were still dark spots dancing around her vision, they were now primarily the result of overexertion, not her own panic. The confused impressions flying around her head were being replaced with thoughts. Stressed thoughts. But coherent ones.

How had the evening gone so horribly wrong? If only that star-foresaken usher hadn’t announced her name to the entire ballroom. If only Adri hadn’t caught the plague from her. If only Pearl hadn’t been so willing to betray her without a second’s thought. If only –

Pearl felt her skin crawl with revulsion. “Stop!” she shrieked, in between ragged gasps to the ballgown-clad figure running beside her. “Stop! Controlling! Me!”

“You’ll die if I don’t!” Cinder yelled back.

The worst thing was, Pearl honestly didn’t know if her stepsister might be right.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pearl was shrieking at her to stop manipulating her emotions, but they were out of the doors. Cinder spluttered, swiping water out of her eyes. Although pleasantly warm, the pelting rain from their arrival at ball was still in full force, soaking her tulle skirts and turning every pace into a squish. They were half-stumbling, half-splashing down the stone steps. Beautiful shrubs to the left. What was probably elegant topiary to the right. Some sort of gigantic tree with countless branches sweeping down to the ground at the base of the stairs. Cinder’s left foot felt like lead beneath her and every time her heel came down, her ankle groaned in protest, but every step brought her and Pearl closer to freedom.

If they could just reach the end of the garden and the relative sanctuary of the city. If they could just find a place where they could hide! They could get a hover back to the Phoenix Tower Apartments. They could get the orange car and run. They could get out of New Beijing. They could somehow rescue Peony. They –

She felt the snapping sensation before she heard it. There was a split second where her balance knew what had happened before her mind caught on. Cinder pitched forwards on the slick steps, grunting painfully. She barely managed to catch herself, hand bracing in front of her. She suspected the impact would hurt a lot more than it already did once the adrenalin wore off. And it already hurt a ton.

Two steps lower, at the base of the stairs, Pearl froze at the sight of the foot which had rolled to a stop next to her. “Cinder?”

“Run,” Cinder hissed at her. “What are you waiting for? Get to Peony and Dr Erland!” There were noises coming from the palace. People were following already. The seconds gained by the shock they had created were already lost. Kai was yelling angrily. Trying to buy them time? She didn’t know.

Rainwater was running down Pearl’s face. Her cheeks were unnaturally pale. She had one hand braced against the balustrade as she raised the other to swipe away some of the water. All her weight seemed to be balanced towards one foot. “I can’t,” she groaned, swaying dangerously. “I think ‘m going to faint. M’ left foot feels. Black dots…I…”

“Wait – can’t you hold on?” Cinder asked. “You can’t! Not now!”

“You – hide,” Pearl slurred. “I can’t…blood” And then she gently crumbled onto the stairs, still a perfect illusion of Cinder.

Cinder cursed and dragged herself down the final two steps, crawling into the tree, hiding as best she could within its dense foliage. People were already running down the stairs after her. After them.

“It’s her!” someone shouted. Cinder jolted. One of the thaumaturges, in a red coat this time. “We have the shell!”

Behind the covering of leaves, Cinder curled into a ball, one hand in front of her mouth to mask her breathing. I am invisible. You do not see me. You cannot see me. Would they detect her bioelectricity like in the ballroom, or would they be unable to sense and control her, like the very first time Levana had seen her in the crowd of protestors outside the palace?

The thaumaturge gestured at Pearl’s body, her mouth curled in disgust. “It’s her. Her bioelectricity is non-existent. But as for the other…the Earthen, she must have run a good deal further. I suppose she was not impeded by any similar…extremities.” Her gaze flickered to Cinder’s metal foot and the rain hitting it with sharp plinks.

The Lunar guards had now also made it to the bottom of the stairs and were flanking Pearl’s unconscious body. Levana and the other two thaumaturges remained at the top of the stairs, perhaps unwilling to venture further out into the rain. Cinder blinked and Kai also skidded to a stop at the bottom of the steps, rain rapidly drenching his formal attire as he bent over Pearl’s body, a stricken glance at Cinder’s detached foot. Another blink and Konn Torin was beside him, glancing at Pearl with an expression of horrified resignation. Cinder suspected he was desperately trying to brainstorm a way of solving the diplomatic crisis she and Pearl had just kicked off.

“Where are the other robot recording-device journalist things?” the thaumaturge snapped at the advisor. “I thought there would be more of them! Locating the Earthen is of the utmost priority!” She gestured at the single droid whose blue sensor appeared to be active and the others which appeared to have been powered down.

Konn Torin pursed his lips as Kai began waving his hands at the android, muttering at it. “As we can see, the weather is somewhat inclement. As such, there are no guests in the gardens to be recorded. For this reason, it seems that the other android journalists have reverted naturally to standby mode to reduce unnecessary power consumption, with just one android remaining alert to fulfil the task of recording events.”

“Well, then order the others to reboot and find the other wretched girl!”

The advisor pursed his lips. “As you wish. Nevertheless, she is an Earthen citizen and must be treated as such.” He turned on his heel and began to recite the reboot instructions for the other droids. “I will instruct them to locate the other girl as quickly as possible. Remind me of her name?”

“I-” for the first time, the thaumaturge seemed unsure. “I must confirm with Her Majesty.” As though to cover up the moment, she clicked her fingers and the blond-haired guard hoisted Pearl’s body onto his shoulders as though she weighed little more than a rag doll.

“No.” Kai’s voice was strained. “She needs medical attention. Criminal or not, she has just lost a foot. A med-hover is on the point of arriving. You may board too if you wish, and it will take her straight to New Beijing prison. But, for the time being at least, she is a prisoner of Earth, and she shall be given the necessary medical care.”

The thaumaturge glared but did not argue. Cinder swallowed and pulled up her comm feed. Comm to Dr Dmitri Erland: Palace gardens. Help.

Chapter Text

Despite the branches sheltering her from the worst of the rain, water was still streaming down Cinder’s face. She blinked repeatedly, trying to stop the worst of it from getting into her systems. She didn’t dare do any more in case she ended up rustling the leaves. From her hiding place under the tree, she squinted at Konn Torin, who was putting a hand on Kai’s shoulder, doubtless trying to encourage him back into the palace. Kai shook his head, also swiping the rain out of his eyes. He took a couple of halting steps forward and bent down, picking up Cinder’s battered metal foot, balancing it on his fingertips.

A comm floated across her vision. Why palace? What is happening? – Dr Erland. Swiftly followed by another: Linh Peony is awake. She remembers too much.

Cinder swallowed, jotting off the message as quickly as she could. Pearl snitched. Queen found me. They think she’s me. Pearl unconscious. Am in tree. SOS help.

The message immediately displayed that it had been read. Cinder’s screen display informed her that Dr Erland was typing. And stopping. And typing again. And stopping again. And typing. Cinder winced. For a man who usually replied so quickly and concisely, this was not a good sign.

He was still typing.

A muffled chime forced its way through the sound of the rain. The med-hover had arrived. The thaumaturge, guard and Pearl all boarded as Kai tapped something into the keypad, pausing a for a brief exchange with his advisor. Pearl’s head was still lolling forlornly to one side. The doors clicked closed. Cinder took a shaking breath.

The response finally flashed across her vision. RUN.

And Kai’s head snapped up. “Wait!”

For the last couple of days, Kai had felt as though he had been living in some sort of fever-dream. His father dying. Revelations about Linh Cinder. His coronation. Linh Cinder. More revelations. All leading to this moment where he was hunched over in the middle of the worst rainstorm he could remember, picking up the metal foot of the girl who had been making his heart lurch since she had entered the ballroom. The girl who was now bundled, unconscious, in the arms of a Lunar guard. Even unconscious, he couldn’t bear to look at her face. Had it all been an illusion? A Lunar trick? Was this the other thing she had tried to tell him at the market that day? Oh, by the way I just so happen to control people for fun…hope that’s ok with you?

Kai grimaced and swiped more rain out of his eyes with his free hand. He had thought she was being so honest. So open with him. The face she had made when she believed he was going to reject her flashed before his eyes again. Was that all fake?

Kai huffed out a shaky breath, trying to dispel the image but Cinder’s face was still swimming before his eyes, the wariness in her face. Had it really all been an illusion? I can tell you’re wondering, she had said, and Kai had flushed. He had been wondering. Left foot and leg too.

The med-hover arrived and the doors swooshed open. Kai, mechanically, began entering details into it and pressed finish. He dimly noticed that Torin was standing next to him. “You may want to add some details about that foot injury,” his advisor suggested.

Kai shook his head. “Her whole leg is cyborg. There’s nothing a med-droid could do.”

Torin arched a polite brow. “Nevertheless, it appears to be bleeding quite profusely. Look at her skirts.”

Kai snorted. “I hardly think a cyborg leg is going to be bleeding-” his voice trailed off. Torin was right. Even through the rain he could see the start of a growing dark red patch on the left side of the ballgown, doubtless from where her foot had snapped off – or something like that, anyway. From where her metal foot had snapped off…from her metal leg…her metal leg…which was bleeding? And if her foot had snapped off, well where was the foot?

Something was wrong. The doors snapped shut and Kai’s head jerked up. “Wait!”

Torin pursed his lips. “Your Majesty, I-”

“Her cyborg leg is bleeding!” Kai persisted. “Don’t you see? Why would her cyborg leg be bleeding?”

Torin looked confused. “Well, it wouldn’t be, because-”

“Exactly.” Kai cursed. “That’s not Linh Cinder. Stop the hover!”

Torin was wearing an expression Kai was becoming increasingly familiar with. It was the face he made when he was suffering from a rapidly-developing headache.

“Your Majesty, might I suggest we search the grounds?”

Everything was dark. Dark and warm. How had she ended up back in bed? She wasn’t sure. Her limbs felt – too much. Felt like she was floating. Floating in a kind of jostly way. Back and forth and back and forth and –

No. That wasn’t right. Someone was shaking her.

Pearl cracked an eye open. “What’s going-”

There was a woman in her face instantly, red fabric swishing around her. “Where is Linh Cinder?” she snapped. “Where is the traitor?”

Pearl felt impossibly groggy. Was this a dream? Was this real? She wanted to sleep. Her foot hurt. The woman looked vaguely familiar. There were hands on her shoulders holding her in a sitting position. Not the woman’s apparently. Pearl tried to twist round. It didn’t work.

“I don’t-” Pearl slurred. The words felt sticky in her mouth. “Steps? Weren’t we both?”

There was a sharp, high-pitched crack and everything came into focus as Pearl felt her head jerk backwards with the impact. “Fucking stars,” she hissed.

“I really – must – protest,” came a mild, inhumanly stilted, voice. “This is a – space – of healing. Non-violent – action – is mandatory – on all med-hovers.”

The woman’s hand was raised again, threateningly. “I will ask you to refresh your memory, Earthen. Tell the truth.”

Oh right. The ball.

“I said, I don’t know, I don’t know!” Pearl repeated more distinctly this time, shrinking back from the thaumaturge. As far as she could, with hands still restraining her shoulders. “I remember being on the steps with Cinder, and now I’m here. That’s all, I swear! Please don’t hurt me!”

The woman scoffed. “Oh, she’s useless. Trust an Earthen to give no useful intel whatsoever. Jax, leave her.”

The hands left her shoulders instantly and Pearl stayed in a sitting position only with difficulty. She watched as the thaumaturge and a brown-haired(? It was difficult to tell – all three of them were soaked) guard left what she could now see was a med-hover. The doors clicked shut behind them and there was a whirring noise as the hover soared into the air, leaving the palace behind.

The grogginess was fading, but so was the adrenaline spike. And there was a horrible dull pain at the base of Pearl’s left foot. She peeled aside the sodden layers of ballgown and dark stains (her dress was absolutely ruined. Not even a rental would want it now), ignoring the jerkily polite protests from the hover’s med-droid. Like it had been of any use so far.

Pearl hauled up the final layer of tulle. She gagged immediately, her body registering what had happened before her mind started to catch up. Her golden sandal could now more accurately be described as ‘gold with dark red blotches.’

There was…blood in her shoe. No, scratch that. That implied there was blood only in her shoe. Far from it. There was blood in her shoe and blood on her shoe. Blood around her shoe. Blood on her dress.

There were maybe a couple of centimetres of skin still attaching her heel to the rest of her foot. But most of it had simply been sliced off in one clean stroke. Sliced away by the Lunar guard’s knife.

It was too late, Cinder realised with dull horror. The rain was stopping. There were guards filing out into the palace grounds. She wanted to run. She couldn’t run. It was too late. Even now, the guards were rebooting the security droids.

Cinder shuffled further back towards the other side of the willow tree. Maybe if she crept along, sheltered by the foliage. Maybe if she just hid long enough, then she could make a run for it, and then she could –

“Commander, that tree is moving!”

There was a crackling noise and a whoosh and Cinder’s heart slowed. Darkness was eating around the corners her eyes. Peony had forced her to watch enough trashy netdramas that she was very familiar with what a stungun sounded like. She had just never expected one to be aimed at her.