Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 22

Solstice didn't wake up until morning, at least Cynthia thought it must be morning, and Professor Dianem assured her it was. They had worked through the entire night, and all the time she had been awake were coming back to her. She had read so many dusty books she felt like her lungs were covered in a layer of it. It only made her feel more tired.
Fitz, Cynthia, and the professor were seated around the table near the elevator deep in their books when Cynthia heard a breathy yawn and knew it must be her friend. She kept up from her seat, but Fitz beat her to Solstice's bedside.
"How are you feeling?" He asked her, his eyes a mix of worry and determination.
"Great actually," she responded, only a little sleepy. "Although I won't be feeling so good if you do that again Thia," she said with a glance up at the princess.
Cynthia filled Solstice in on what they had learned while she was asleep. She didn't look surprised at the mention of Cynthia's newfound ability, but she was devastated to learn they had come so close to saving the empress and had instead lost both her and Leo.
"It's just not adding up," she said when Cynthia finished. "Sure, I can see Nyx needing your mom as leverage or authority to put her plan into motion, but why take Leo? He's not worth anything to the Lunars."
Cynthia had to agree, but bringing up her mom made her think of something else.
"My mom has always been able to resist Lunar glamor and manipulation. How did the thaumaturge control her?"
Fitz spoke up, "What if that's the new Linh device your father said the thaumaturges inserted into her when she was captured."
The professor nodded. "It's very possible that the rogue Lunar's have modified the design of it. Touch a couple different nerves, make it send a couple different signals, and instead of resisting Lunar manipulation, it could make it even easier to twist."
A ring echoed through the room. They all looked at Solstice who blushed.
"That's my port." She explained, embarrassed. "I may have thought we would be home by now. It's probably just an agent offering a shoot," she said as she pulled it out of her pocket. Her eyes grew wide when she read it.
"Thia, you should take a look at this," she said offering it to the princess.
On the top a huge bold headline scrolled across the screen: LIVE- EMPRESS SELENE EMERGES ON LUNA- NOW DEMANDING BACK THE LUNAR MONARCHY FROM ARTEMISIA
"No," she whispered as she switched on the port's speakers so the room could hear the speech. Her mother was seated on the throne Cynthia had only seen photos of her mother sitting in. She looked wrong in every way. For one, she was smiling a sickly sweet grin that to anyone else may have looked warm and genuine, but devastated Cynthia. For another, she was dressed in a dazzling gown covered in jewels. She looked every part the Lunar Queen, but no part her mother.
"My people," she was saying, or proclaiming rather. "I made a mistake in giving up my throne all those years ago. It has become clear to me that Luna cannot be ruled by anyone but a Blackburn. No one else can feel the true power of bioelectricity that runs through the veins of this great moon but me. So I ask you as I did all those years ago when I overthrew my aunt. Stand with me and reclaim this country. We will no longer bend to the conditions of the Earthen Union. I will return Luna to the military glory my aunt created, but retain the social glory we achieved under my reign. We will be what we were always destined to be, the most powerful nation in the galaxy!"
Then Cinder doubled over in wrenching coughs. The camera quickly swiveled away and went to black, but not before Cynthia caught two things.
A suspension tank holding a very familiar looking pilot, and the screams of an empress trying to regain her own will.

-----
"We have to go up there now!" Cynthia demanded, now pacing the bedroom made of bookshelves. If it were up to her she would already have left by now, but she couldn't pilot a ship.
"And what are you going to do when you get there?" Fitz retorted. "We're untrained, unprepared, outnumbered, and we have no plan. We can't just storm in and demand the return of your mom. You forget all the wolf soldiers and thaumaturges in our way."
"We can't just sit here in a dusty basement while my mom dies a little inside every time she has to bend to the will of those power hungry nut cases Fitz." Fitz was right, they had no plan or preparation, but they had each other and determination. Surely that was at least a place to start.
"And what about your dad?" She added. "Don't you want to find him? Who knows how many things those shadows have made your father do."
That struck a nerve, she saw it written on his face, but it was Solstice that finally convinced him.
"Fitz, we have to go. We can't hide when we could have done something. Think of your mother. What would she do right now?"
Fitz sighed, his dad's quiet nature peeking through. "Alright, let's go."
-----
Somehow they made it back to the Spindle outside the city without any problems. As soon as Fitz got them outside the atmosphere Cynthia passed out on one of the bunks in the back. She slept dreamlessly and deeply until she was shaken asleep by the ship itself.
Wobbly from sleep and the ship, the princess made her way out into the hallway and toward the cockpit.
"What's going on?" She asked as the ship continued to shake. She couldn't imagine how upset Leo would be if anything happened to his ship.
Fitz rose out of the pilot's seat where he had been flipping switches and pulling levers. "There's a ship docking onto us." He said, back to his old soft spoken self.
Cynthia's throat dropped into her stomach. "Friend or foe?" She squeaked out as she followed Fitz to the docking bay.
"Friend" he responded plainly as he flipped a few more switches at the door. "I had to call in some back up."
The doors of the hatch slip open and a curly red head emerged from behind it. It grabbed Fitz in a bone crushing hug and then turned to Cynthia.
"You didn't think we'd miss taking down some thaumaturges again did you Thia?" Said a grinning Scarlet Benoit Kesley.
Behind her emerged other figures. Captain Thorne and Cress. Winter. Kinney and a badly damaged but smiling Iko. Even Maha and Luc.
Her brother tried to squeeze through the now crowded docking bay grinning. And then Cynthia was running into the arms of a messy dark haired man.
"Daddy," she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. It had seemed like an eternity since she had left him sleeping in his office.
"Thia I was so worried about you." He said, hugging her close. "We are going to get her back, I promise, and we're going to do it together."