The Commonwealth Ball - The Lunar Chronicles (Fanfic)

Chapter 6

"Come on tell me where we're going" begged CInder.

Yesterday after the disastrous press conference Kai had told Cinder that he wanted to show her something and then he would treat her for lunch. Before boarding on the hover Kai stopped by Cinder's room and gave her a gray sweatshirt to wear similar to his own for a disguise. Cinder had offered to use her glamour but Kai told her that many people have the bioelectricity device installed on them so they will be able to see past glamours. When Cinder asked Kai if she should wear gloves to cover her hand, he told her that it wouldn't be necessary.

"For the hundredth time Cinder I told you its a surprise," replied Kai.

Cinder just moaned and felt Kai scoot towards her and wrap his arm around her waist.

Under the full-sleeved hoodie and a pair of silk gloves to cover her metal hand Cinder felt messages of OVER BODY HEAT flooding into her mind in the blinding sun.

The hoverboard landed in the market square. Kai pulled over the hood of his sweatshirt and Cinder copied him and they climbed out of the hover.

"So this is your surprise?" asked Cinder. "Bringing me to the place, I never wanted to see again?"

"Of course not, though I didn't know you despised this place so much."

"I don't hate it I just didn't want to see this place. What happened to my old booth anyway."

"Come, I'll show you." Kai dragged her.

They walked around the square until the arrived at Cinder's old booth.

Cinder was fascinated looking at what stood in front fo her. At the exact same position of her booth, there was a human-sized statue of Cinder with her flashing smile, messy hair, and her arms crossed showing her cyborg hand. The statue looked like it was made to replica an image of Cinder's video she made in the Rampion during the revolution. The statue was surrounded by people. Some of them were small children who were taking pictures with the statue and some were tourists who were admiring the piece of stone. Cinder noticed the arms of a small girl, who had a real tattoo—wires and robotic joints overtaking the skin of her left foot. It was a strange sort of honor. Since Cinder had arrived to the market, she'd been seeing mimicry more and more. The backs of T-shirts illustrated with bionic spines. Shoes decorated with bits of assorted metal. Necklaces hung with washers and vintage lug nuts. She finally understood why Kai had told her wearing gloves wasn't necessary because her metal hand looked similar to those of so many people who now wore prosthetic hands or arms.

All around the market she could hear murmurs of the crowd talking about the queen. "Did you know queen Selene has come to Luna," "Yeah, I heard she's staying in the palace," "She's going to be staying for the ball," "Do you think she'll come to the market?" "I really want to meet her, maybe I'll get to see her at the ball." Cinder heard all types of things about her.

"Do you still not believe that you aren't appreciated on Earth?" nudged Kai.

"No," she replied awkwardly.

The young girl Cinder saw earlier near the statue walked up to Cinder. "Wow, nice hand," she said glaring towards Cinder's cyborg hand. "It looks exactly the same as the one of Queen Selene."

Cinder froze hearing those words and glanced at Kai, who shared the same expression. Surely the little girl didn't recognize the Queen. Just in case Cinder pulled up her glamour and made herself and Kai look like average citizens of Luna.

"Yeah" Cinder replied sheepishly. "It's made to replicate the cyborg queens hand."

"Aces, that is so cool," she replied and turned around to talk to someone.

"Phew, that was close." Cinder said dropping her glamour.

"Yeah, so do you like the surprise so far?" Kai asked.

"Yes, but what's with all the prosthetic limbs."

"Many people got injured in Levana's attacks, so they chose to replace many limbs with prosthetic limbs. Also ever since the cyborg queen has inherited the throne, the demand for prosthesis has increased rapidly."

"Wow, I never thought anyone would choose to be a cyborg."

"Now, come on I want to show you something else," Kai said dragging her to another booth.

The booth was full of small toy figures shaped of the Lunar queen. They had made a mini version of Cinder as a toy figure. The surprising part is that many small children were standing in a line waiting to buy the figure of Cinder.

Cinder just laughed awkwardly. "Just yesterday I thought everyone hates me and this is like the Selene fan club." she murmured.

They walked towards the statue and saw the girl with the tattoo again she came up to Cinder and said, "Can I please have your autograph, your majesty?"

Cinder just stared shocked and glanced at Kai, looking at the girl who could see past her glamour. "Sure, " Cinder replied as her hand shakingly moved across the paper. "How can you see me?" Cinder asked.

"I'm a Lunar shell, your majesty, I can see past glamours."

"Oh," said CInder. She looked around to see if anyone else noticed her, but everyone was to busy buzzing about the gossip. But Cinder spotted one pair of eyes looking towards her, and clearly she recognized Cinder because this girl was her step-sister, Pearl.

Hopefully, you understood the twist which was the statue and toys. BTW this was mentioned in the last chapter of Winter, so I decided to incorporate it into the story.

~book_x_nerd