The Fire Didn't Stop Her

The Trouble of the World

Thorne had never really been one to trust anyone, or anything. Sure, he'd been the kind of guy who hopped around from date to date and was very unreliable towards the woman he dated.

Still, the last one turned out to be a bounty hunter who turned him for a cash reward.

It wasn't like he'd trusted people before that. Woman were notorious for doing anything to get what they wanted. At first, he'd thought Cinder ... or Selene, whatever, was only using him to "save the world", or whatever. Iko seemed like she only wanted to help Selene/Cinder. And all of the other woman he'd ever met always had some sort of angle.

But there was one girl he knew, who he didn't know what her angle was. Crescent. Out of the few times he'd spoken to her, he couldn't find out what she wanted. Though it was probably to get off the satellite she was imprisoned on. Still, there was always more to it with woman. There was always some big, end game plan that they had for the long run. But with Crescent, Thorne just couldn't figure what that end plan was.

Even though Thorne knew Cinder was Iko were just using him to get what they wanted, what they wanted was pretty admirable. They wanted to save Earth from Levana and to end her tyranny on Luna. Thorne also kind of liked the way the operated, almost like a tag team. One was ready to jump into the fight to save the other at any moment. Also, that neither of them swooned over him like most woman did, which was new to him.

Just when Thorne seemed to be making progress with those two, another girl and a freaky, Lunar soldier had been taken onto his ship. His ship.

The entire time Cinder and Iko had dragged that beast onto his ship, he'd pointed his gun straight at its head. Thorne didn't care if he was unconscious, or if he was friendly and had saved that girl, Scarlet's, life. That guy was strong enough to snap him in half like a toothpick. And if there was anything that Thorne hated more than being used or being told that he wasn't good enough, it was knowing there was something stronger than him.

"Thorne?" Cinder stood in his doorway, with dust and grime all over her clothes. He was sitting on his bed, and was half way to telling her to no track the crud on her into his room.

"Good day, Your Majesty," he said in a mocking tone. "What can I have the pleasure of doing for you today?"

Cinder smiled, a rare occurrence while being on his ship. "Actually, it's what I did for you. You know that rattling sound that's been coming from the engine room?"

"Yeah. It's almost as irritating as not being in command of my own ship," he grinned, but with none of the usual joking tone he carried in his voice.

She rolled her eyes, violently. "Well, I got rid of it." Thorne turned to her, alarmed. "I mean I fixed it. There was an overload of dust in the filter and some of the pipe links were loose. So .. I fixed them."

For a few minutes, he just stared at her, expression glowing with confusion. A princess who knew how to fix up a ship. Was there anything he hadn't seen yet?

"Huh," he smirked. Leaping off his bed, he swerved passed her to and went down the hall, close to the engine room. He'd grown so accustomed to the sound, that without it, part of the ship sounded empty.

But it wasn't terrible to have a little more quiet on his ship. "Hey, Cinder!" he shouted. She came jogging down the hall toward him. "If the whole Princess thing doesn't work out, you might have a real career in mechanics and repairs."

She gave him a lop-sided grin, one he almost thought she learned from him. "Maybe. It would be more fun than ruling over a planet," she muttered.