Rosetta

30

Carlos watched her. He always did. He couldn't stare at anything else.

Rosetta was lying in a suspension animation tank, which was supposed to be healing the area where she had been stabbed. The doctors had been waiting until the bleeding had become stable, when the muscle around her heart had become strong enough, and until they were prepared to remove the spindle.

Today was that day.

But the surgery had passed, Carlos watching of course, and she had been placed back into the tank to speed up the healing.

Sir Clay- no, Jacin had come to visit him for a brief moment, to tell him that Miss Darnel- Cress had had a severe injury in her eye, which had ended up being removed.

He had also said that Esmerelda's body had been burned.

Good.

Carlos was glad that he had been the one to take the tyrant's life. It was his right, anyway.

Because he could never forget that as he was taking Rosetta to the clinic, she whispered something in her frail voice.
I swore I'd get revenge. But now, you'll have to get it for me.

The thought of the witch made a fire start in his chest. He wanted her dead more than anything, and now she was. He allowed himself a small smile.

Small only. Because he was the reason Rosetta could still die.

He had let down his guard when she had kissed him, allowing her to run away.

He had done all he could to protect her because he loved her, and when she showed that she might have loved him back, he just let her run to her death.

Rosetta was very wrong.

If anyone deserved to die, it was him.

And then there was the other thing, a small boyish hope. After all these years, did Rosetta really love him back?

He hadn't really tried to hide it. He had always given her tokens of affection, thinking that it would be a small crush that would vanish the next day. But it wasn't.

And after the mutants had attacked years ago, after watching  17 year old Rosetta 'Gun girl' Luciana protect her town, his feeling for her had taken a huge leap.

So he had decided with his strange and indecisive heart, he did love Rosetta. He loved her a lot.

And then it came again, the flicker of boyish hope, that yes, in fact, she loved him back.

The door crept open quietly and a 2 people came in.

The first one was a doctor, one Carlos had seen before. He was Dr. Keys, a man in his mid forties, although he looked much older. He had brown hair that was turning grey, and cracked glasses that were hanging from a strap on his neck.

The second one, a woman, was new. She had red hair that was drawn into a high ponytail and a serious expression. She couldn't have been older than early twenties, but she looked experienced.

"Oh, good afternoon, Mr Alvaro," Dr. Keys said. He didn't look surprised to see him.

He grunted back in response.

"Now, I don't mean to alarm you, but we have noticed something about Rosetta," he said calmly.

Carlos's eyes widened and he shot up in his seat. "Is she okay? What's wrong?"

"Her health is fine, Mr Alvaro. It's just, well, we scanned her ID chip and, oh, my colleague can probably explain better."

"That I can," she cut it. She had a stark British accent. "My name is Charlotte Crane, and I'm an IT advisor here on Luna. Dr. Keys alerted me from my usual home in Artemisia due to a glitch in Ms Luciana's ID chip."

"What's wrong with it?" Carlos snapped. He really needed some more sleep.

"You see, I've looked into what we have learned about Ms Luciana's past, and we learned that she was born in Russia, correct?"

He again grunted in response.

Miss Crane bobbed her head. "However, when I look at her information on her chip, it says she's born in Spain. I can also see that this chip is the version from her year of birth, so she hasn't been given a new one."

"What's your point?" He asked, whilst Dr. Keys went over to Rosetta to measure her health.

"I'm getting to that," she snapped. "After hours of work, I realised that there was a masking of sorts over her ID chip. When I removed it, I found quite alarming news.

"We have learned that she was born in Russia, taken to Luna for a short time, and then raised properly in Spain, yes? So whilst she was in Spain, her guardian needed a way to hide her true nationality. She gave her a new name and country of birth.

"You see Mr Alvaro, Rosetta, she isn't Rosetta at all."

Silence filled the room. For something that could fill spaces so quickly, silence was usually something that kept rooms stuffy and awkward.

Then Carlos remembered to breathe.

And how to curse.

Which he did now.

He also didn't notice Dr. Keys leave.

So he cursed again.

"Mr Alvaro, would you like me to continue?" Miss Crane asked innocently, as if she hadn't just brought his life to pieces. "If you need time to process the new information, I could come back again tomorrow-"

"No!" He shouted. "Just tell me now."
He built up a mental wall for himself, to protect him from crumpling to the floor or dissolving to ash or simply vanishing.

Miss Crane straightened herself. "Right. The ID chip states that she is born in Russia, and her birthday is correct. However, her birth mother is Mélina Petrov, currently living, Viktor Petrov, deceased of 10 years, and her real name."

She gulped. "Her real name is Tatiana Petrov."

Carlos found his wall doing the trick, blocking out most of the bullets trying to bury in his brain, screaming you didn't even know her!

Then something clicked. "Melina Petrov? The scientist that discovered the future changing thing in Lunars?"

She nodded.

"Comm her," he whispered.

Then he found his voice and shouted, "Comm her!"