Fanning the Flames of Rebellion [A Lunar Chronicles Fanfic]

Chapter 51

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Thorne untied the bandanna from his head. "Cress?" He called from the kitchen.

"Yes?" He jumped at the small voice from behind him.

"Aces, Cress! You scared me."

"What is it, Captain?"

Thorne looked down at her blurry, pale face and planted a hand on her shoulder. "It's time." He said dramatically.

Cress laughed and dropped her gaze to her feet. "The drops?" Thorne nodded, grinning.

The eye drops that the so-called Logan Tanner gave him were actually working, which confused him. If he was planning on turning them in to Levana the whole time, why would he help them? Healing and basically repairing Cinder, giving Thorne new eye drops to help with his... Blind-ness. It made no sense. But Thorne didn't say a word. The drops were working, that's all that mattered. He knew that Cinder would be the one to tell him that his eyes were probably going to rot out of his skull. That he'd get his sight back and then they'd just fall out. She'd find a way to rain on his sunshine. Just thinking of Cinder made his heart ache.

Thorne hoped she was okay. Without Cinder, nobody knew what to do. She was their leader. Not to mention his partner in crime--literally. The stars only knew why she had left or where she had gone. He just hoped she was okay.

Thorne felt small fingers on his arm. "I have the drops, Captain." Cress said, "Come."

She latched her hand in his and began walking. "We're going to the bathroom, okay?" Thorne nodded. Cress' hand was small and warm and soft, so fragile he was almost afraid of crushing it.

She let go of his hand all to quickly for Thorne's liking and knocked twice on the wooden door. They waited for a sound. There was no answer. Cress turned the door knob and grabbed hold of Thorne's hand once again, sending warmth through his entire body. He thought he'd at least gotten used to that feeling by then, but it never got old. The same feeling that drove Thorne crazy.

"Here," Cress guided him to the toilet seat. "Sit." He did. She proceeded to unscrew the cap to the eye drops.

"Cress?" Thorne asked.

"Hmm?"

He sighed. "When this is all over, what're you going to do?"

Cress stopped and looked into Thorne's waiting eyes. She blinked and quickly dropped her eyes to the bottle in her hands. Thorne noticed a small blush creep into her cheeks. "I-I don't know, Captain. I don't really have anywhere to go." She paused. "I'm definitely not living on Luna, that's for sure." She laughed. "I don't know. Maybe I'll go back down to Earth. I really liked it there. Well, except for the whole--" she made a circling motion with her hands, "you know."

Thorne laughed, tilting his head back as Cress gestured for him to do. One drop, two drops fell into his left eye. He felt a slight burning sensation.

"Is everything okay?" Cress asked.

Thorne tried blinking a couple times, but the pain still lingered. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Alright." Cress looked skeptical. Thorne tilted his head back again. "So, what are you going to do?"

Thorne smiled despite the burning feeling now in both his eyes. "Oh Cress, you know I'm going wherever you're going." He caught her smile widely at the ground. Thorne took hold of her hand and kissed her knuckles. "Can't get rid of me that easily." The blush on Cress' cheeks burned brighter.

Fierce knocks at the door snapped both of them into focus. "We need to talk." Al called.

Thorne could strangle the man for pulling them out of one of their moments, but he knew that "we need to talk" was code for: get-your-blind-ass-out-of-the-bathroom-so-we-can-discuss-the-lost-lunar-princess-who-is-once-again,-lost.

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming." Thorne replied, annoyed. He held onto Cress' hand as she led them out the bathroom.

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Cress led the Captain into the living room where Wolf, Kai, Winter, Iko, and Al stood talking in hushed voices. They were all still in shock of Cinder's sudden disappearance. Nobody had any explanation for why she would have left. She seemed perfectly normal in Cress' eyes the night she vanished. It was all so odd. No one knew what to make of it.

"Alright," Al began. Cress didn't say it, but she was glad to see people shorter than her. It made her feel good that she was considered tall to someone. "Does anyone have any idea, I mean any idea as to why the girl would have left on such short notice."

"The girl's name is Cinder." Kai stated, sending an aggravated look in Al's direction.

"Cinder wasn't acting out of the ordinary at all before she disappeared." Cress said. "Maybe she didn't leave on her own will." When she noticed everyone was looking at her, she dropped her gaze to her feet. "What if she was just going outside to clear her head? I mean, if a strange person were to approach me in the night with the agenda that Cinder had, I'd probably defend myself too. We don't know what that woman was doing, or was going to do to her. I don't think it's a matter of her wanting to leave, but not wanting people to see her. There was blood outside on the rock that definitely wasn't there before. That would lead me to believe that it was her's." Kai nodded. "She was probably on her way back from the forest when someone came up and... Well... 'took' her." Cress looked up at the shocked faces around her. She dropped her gaze again and shrugged. "But I don't know."

Captain let out a surprised laugh. "I didn't know you had it in you, I'll tell you that." Winter's smile grew until the corners of her mouth reached both ends of her face.

"That..." Wolf began, shaking his head. "That actually makes sense. I mean--"

"Guys!" Iko shrieked. "Quick!" She ran over to the blank vid screen across the living room and switched it on. A woman appeared on the screen with short, tight blonde curls and pale skin.

"And now, we switch you over to live feed from the Lunar palace in Artemisia." She said. Quickly, the screen changed to a breathtaking, ballroom like courtroom. There was a faint sound from outside the camera.

"Turn it up." Al said.

Just as Iko was about to increase the volume of the vid, a girl stepped in the center of the room. She had bright red curls that bounced as she walked. Everyone around Cress gasped except her, Al, and Captain.

"What? What is it?" Captain asked. "I can't see. Have you all forgotten?"

Cress spoke up, "There's a girl. Umm... She has curly red hair--"

"Scarlet?" He gasped.

Wolf inched towards the screen. Everyone watched him except Captain, he was still blind. Cress was unsure of what he would do. He was always unpredictable. Out of impulse, she reached beside her and grabbed the Captain's hand. Not because Wolf, but farther, beyond Scarlet, sat the Queen.

"Shall we begin?" Levana asked. Around her, members of the court nodded, a few mumbled "Yes, your Majesty." The Queen smiled.

"S-Scarlet?" Wolf's eyes were full of emotion. Relief? Frustration? Grief?Sadness?

"Scarlet Benoit, do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you under pains and penalties of perjury?" Levana asked.

A deafening silence filled the courtroom as they waited for Scarlet to answer.

"Y-yes." Scarlet replied, defeated.