1
A common stereotype known to both Lunars and Earthens is that lunar women are dangerous. They are known to orchestrate the most ingenious ways for revenge. They are cunning, wicked and ruthless. They burn palaces, kill their own kin and annihilate a whole pack. The third, this woman smiled giddy with the prospect of fallen operatives.
Yet they keep a very convincing image of someone who is unassuming, docile —easily manipulated. But disguised underneath the veil of innocence and beauty is an ugly gaping scar. It would already be late to realize that you have freely walked yourself into her trap. Because before you have set your eyes on her she has already seen you coming.
Slowly, she is setting a meticulous trap. She will take her position in the middle as the very prey. Up until the last moment when you almost have your claws wrap around her neck, a fingerbreadth to choking the air out of her windpipe, will she show you the kind of hideous creature that she truly is.
x
Scar clicked her tongue, a wicked smile playing on the corner of her rosy lips. Blood, there would be blood. Tonight the moon would be bathed in that sticky, sickly warm red.
Scar bit her lips trying to contain her chagrinned smile, her canines leaving pits and indentations on that supple flesh.
"Woof!" She huffed a mock imitation of a dog-bark. It sounded almost saccharine and childish the way she said it. She felt like scoffing. But slowly with precise movements of her lips she breathed his alias. "What a dead giveaway."
She fixed her eyes beyond the bars of her cell. She remained immobile, sitting at the edge of the moth eaten mattress like a sphinx. Just outside her little window the moon shone, ever looming and silvery bright regardless of the craters that was smashed into its face. Its light casted jagged shadows of the metal bars, cutting across her face.
From being tucked in her arms, she raised her chin languidly to the moon. The silver light instantly glazed her eyes, it held her focus not the way glamour does but she was mesmerized by it, she always thought that there was something mysterious about the moon and that it always kept secrets.
A lock clang followed by the roiling of metal. She kept her neck bent away from the entrance of her cell, uncaring. She already knew that somebody was coming the moment he rounded the corner on the far hallway. Once last haughty glace on the moon, she squeezed her eyes shut. Back to work.
x
Scarlet scurried away from the coming guard. Feet scraping on the floor, her hands helplessly held in front of her. "Get away, don't come near me," she rasped.
The guard persisted grinding his teeth the moment his eyes landed on her. With two heavy strides he already crossed the room. Now he stand towering above Scarlet's quavering form. He grasped both of Scarlet's elbows. She yelped as the guard tugged her up like a rag doll.
With what little movement she can afford she clenched her hands and thumped weakly on the guard's chest. "Where's my grandmother?" She sobbed like a pathetic captive while the guard stood silent as a statue.
The guard shoved her toward the entrance, she tumbled on the hallway. As she was recovering, she felt a claw grip her elbow once more and pushed her into the direction where a stair was leading up.
She gulped and dragged her feet one after the other. The guard flanked her side as they make their way toward the stairs.
"Aren't you going to bother with a handcuff?"
His features flitted like she just told him a stupid joke. "I think I'm giving you Earthens more credit than you should have," he replied in a singsong voice that sounded like it wasn't his. "If you're not as stupid as I think, then you won't even try to escape." He cracked his fingers gnarled and thick due to the huge amounts of steroid that was once pumped in them.
He's right though. She shrunk herself on a smaller form, on her frail state like this he can snap her like a twig. She scrutinized his handsome features and the lean muscles on his arms pulled taut full of frenetic energy. The tattoo imprinted on his skin told her that he's an omega.
A scoff slipped on her lips. She couldn't help it. She deserved a prison gaoler higher on the ranks. Is she over compensating? She thought to herself. Acting too much on the part?
Yes. At this early in the plan she doesn't think so as well. But otherwise upon calling her stupid, her fingers are itching. He's just one inch away from a knife being planted on his brain.
x
They emerged from an archway into a hall lined with plush velvet carpet, so thick that it muffled the sound of their footsteps as she they passed a series of doors. She spotted a door that was slightly ajar and her heart rate quicken, anticipation climbing in her skin.
As they entered she immediately noticed a frail figure hunched in a cushioned chair. She nearly tripped from the rush of her feet and she immediately found herself kneeling in front of her, arms swathed in her grand-mere's lap.
Her grand-mere placed a papery hand to smooth her hair and told her to hush. "Calm now, Scarlet." A gentle finger lifted her chin. "You have to be brave."
She looked at her grand-mere's eyes and there was something that she found in there that broke her. Then she was suddenly being dragged to her feet. The guard, she remembered. He gestured her to a seat in front of her grandmother and then left.
Scarlet took in the view. They were at a veranda overlooking the stage of the opera house. In front of the stage, rows of seats that has never been occupied for a long time lay there with a layer of dust, some joints broken, some the cushions have been moth eaten or had been festered by rats. This place had been opulent once.
Her eyes found her grand-mere's like magnet. Her grand-mere smiled at her curtly but that didn't ease the pain and panic mixing in her stomach.
"Grand-mere, what do they want from us? Is it information that they want? I- I don't know anything."
A sob rattled Scarlet's body. Her grandmother stayed perch on her chair, she didn't make any move to ease her.
"You must be strong, Scarlet. Don't let them hurt you. Tell them what they need to know. Just try to remember everything, my love. If they asked you something that you don't know. Tell them the truth. To keep us both safe."
My love…She shook her head.
Scarlet stared at her grandmother hoping against all hope that she was wrong. Scarlet opened her mouth to speak, her voice began as tremulous but she stomped hard on that lump building in her throat.
"You know the thing that you told me when I had that operation when I was little? 'The things you see in the surface aren't always the truth.' I was over thinking, I know. You were always beside me and you kept telling me that so I could calm down."
Scar grazed the thin line on her nape.
Of course, her grandmother will nod because she thinks she's telling the truth. It's a private memory set for a grandmother-to-grandchild conversation. But if she truly is her grandmother, she would have known that there's no such thing. But there were some semblance of truth in what she said, she was told of those words but not by her grandmother, but by a faceless doctor on a training facility just after he pumped the anesthesia.
I can see through your lies. She moved her hand from the back of her neck and cupped her chin with it. She let her shoulders relaxed, shifted on her seat from that severe position and had her ankles crossed casually.
"Did you know that you talk when you're asleep?" She whispered drowsily even though it was the first time that she was directly talking to him.
Her grandmother's eyes lost their luster that vibrant sheen turning dry. They glowed dull green in the dark for a split second winking like a cat's eye in front of a speeding vehicle. That moment of panic. How she loved it.
Her grandmother cleared her throat. An amused expression that so unlike her played on her face. She smiled, a smile that also wasn't hers. A familiar, chagrined and bemused smile.
"Tell me, Scarlet. Truthfully then, how much do you know?" Her grandmother droned on in her ancient and raspy voice.
Scar stood up, she knelt beside this illusion that their trying to project as her grand-mere. The details were impeccable, the crow's feet on the edge of her grandmother's eyes, the laugh lines , high cheek bones, narrow nose and thin pale pink lips placed on her small face, her fair skin pocked with liver spots and fluid lines of wrinkles that run along her jaw…
An unbridled image that she will try to ingrain in her memory for the rest of her life.
She looked at the glamour again. She felt a hand crush and twist all her insides. Everything is so exact until the every tips of her grand-mere's silvery hair that only a highly trained lunar thaumaturge could glamour.
"Your voice was trembling," she began by whispering in his ear. "You were crumpled in a corner sleeping looking very scared. Something about a dream. And you said, 'Ren'. That's your brother's name right?"
If Ze'ev registered any shock, it came out blunted. He eyed her quizzically, "Are you really seeing me beneath this glamour?"
Scar let herself give out a happy yelp. "As bright as daylight."
Ze'ev gave a quick glance on the door wondering if the thaumaturge or that lowly omega has heard them.
Nobody entered the door.
"You do realize that your life is a good as the information you give. And if you don't have anything that would be of value to us then you're as good as dead?"
"Means and ends. Either way I still die. Judging from your killing streak I'm just a fly circling around your head and you haven't decided to squash me yet."
"How much do you know?" Ze'ev steeled himself on the arm rest of the chair anxious, all senses haywired.
"Lunar Service Operatives. Mutants," Scar raised a plucked eyebrow and tipped her head, "lab rats," she chuckled, "or should I say experimental dogs, feral, rabid. A bioengineering mishap on the lunar sciences who's allowed to flourish in an unclassified area in Luna under the service of your Queen."
Scar's face fell when she turned back her attention to Ze'ev's face.
"Who can very much snap your neck if we want to."
Scar can see the cords of muscle twitching on his arm, that perpetually slight twitch that was always there you just forget, bundled with frenetic energy.
"It seems that I have said too much," Scar bunched her lips impishly on one side.
"Information is still information," Ze'ev considered with a terse nod.
"Ahhh… of course," Scar hands flew up in the air in a grand gesture and she perched right back in her chair with a bounce. "Might be bought my life an extra day or two?"
Scar cackled rubbing her hands furiously up and down her face, mussing her hair in a tangle. While Ze'ev sat motionless across her still holding the exact replica of her grandmother.
There was an iridescent light the way she sees the glamour and the truth underneath it. Ze'ev like a lonesome ghost underneath the mask. Her grand-mere looked like a soul she will never get back, she will never save.
"But that won't bring back my grandmother to life. Doesn't it?" She spat.
For the first time, the Wolf she knew on the train looked at her, really looked at her in the eye. It took her aback it was not the look that enemies give. Was it regret, pity or remorse she saw in there? Scar was instantly furious. Was it weakness that he was seeing in her?
She made a brash move, knocking down her chair. She's going to kill him, throttle him until he choke to death on his own foaming saliva. Her features were scorned with revenge. She focused and tried to reach on his frenetic loose sparks. Ze'ev braced himself on the chair surprised but in the position to retaliate only if she attacked.
There's only one mission she intends to culminate. Kill the wolves. Kill the pack.
Suddenly, Ze'ev cut her a warning glance. She withdrew immediately, realization finally dawning on her.
They were motionless only their eyes talked. And she cursed him.
She had understood that he had sensed his fellow co-operatives approaching.
Why would he warn her?
She looked disappointed. Whether on the part that she could've killed him already or for him doing her a favor.
Ze'ev stood immaculately still projecting her grand-mere's glamour. Her gaoler stepped inside attentive in his job.
She let it drop but the contempt was still in there.
Her grandmother patted Scarlet's cheek and kissed her forehead. The pat disappeared but the kissed burned.
Her grand-mere's lips move, she watched her utter something like: Hang in there, Scarlet. But all she saw when she came back to her senses was Ze'ev saying: Be safe. And he hugged her. She felt his chest rumble, his mouth in her ear. "Remember, Scarlet. All we need is the necessary information."
In return, she hugged her grandmother. She held on the part of his arm where she'd shot him like a hawk and squeezed tight. "Hang in there grand-mere. We can escape. I'll find a way!" Scarlet said, the faux-dread back in her voice.
x
Footsteps again.
Scar lifted her body in one graceful motion. There she stood halfway to the cell grates bidding her time. It's too early for food. Judging from the slant of daylight outside the little window of her cell it was just early in the afternoon.
What could they want from her, now?
Then her posture began to slacken. She tapped her foot impatiently on the cracked floor.
"Eager to see me that much?" And with that the metal grates were pulled open.
"Maybe." A sly smirk spread across Scar's lips.
Ze'ev only stared at her across the cell's doorway, probably blocking her escape just in case. And seeing Wolf or Ze'ev this time without the cover of an alias or a glamour felt like one great mechanism clicking everything in itself on its proper place. This is real. The train and her encounter with her grandmother last night was just a trance-like state, something fleeting.
He's still the Wolf on the train. She scrutinized him inch by inch comparing the man that he met before to the man that is before her now. And–stars above. It's the same man. Just take off the alias, add another gun and holsters across both of his shoulder and the LSOP tattoo.
Ze'ev raised one eyebrow. Scarlet reddened into a self-deprecating blush. She couldn't feel indifferent about it. He looked hot!
Scarlet offered both of her wrists for handcuffs. Ze'ev stared at it like she had tentacles for a hand and sighed.
"I could kill you, you know?"
He seemed to consider this a moment. He handcuffed her wrists nice and snug.
"Captives don't warn their captors."
"Just like preys don't play with their food."
Ze'ev began to back out from the open cell but glanced her backwards. "I wonder which one of us is which?" He shrugged noncommittally and gestured her to follow him.
x
The hallway dead ended to an old fashion elevator made of an ornate gildings of the different phases of the moon, where the door still needs to be pulled manually to enter the lift and instead of buttons it has a lever on one side to operate it with as it goes up to another floor.
Ze'ev gave the half-moon brass handle a yank and the metal twinings folded in on itself screeching against the rust.
"Where are we going?" Scarlet asked cautious this time.
Ze'ev pointed his index finger up. "To the master," he said obediently like the dog that he was.
Scarlet stifled herself from taking a gulp of air. Either she couldn't contain her excitement or fear or both. She stayed rooted on the spot.
Ze'ev was already inside the lift with one of his arm outstretched leaning casually on one side of the door. Scarlet knows that gaze. The cool, calculated, zero to one hundred frenetic impulses in half a second.
He leaned toward her casting an ominous shadow. The hulking beast ready to grapple her anytime. Scarlet retracted in the most infinitesimal of a breadth. And of course it was as obvious on his highly wired senses.
His eyes pierced through her. That flickering shades of green was back and ever more brilliant.
A low mewl and half sob escaped from her.
This is what it must feel like… Being cornered by your killer.
His canine dug on the edge of his lower lip satisfied with her reaction.
He hooked his index finger in between her fetters and made a slight tug. He intentionally bopped his nose on the top of her head to discharge the tension. "Just messing with you."
Scarlet bristled. "Well it worked."
He grinned like a pup. If he could've grown a shaggy tail from behind then it would've been nice for the dramatic flair. But he's only half mutant.
"And I dislike being herded like a cattle."
He only smiled sheepishly as he pulled the door with a clang.
The mechanism of the elevator began to work. She heard the slow clanking of bolts and whirring of tight ropes one the sides as Ze'ev pulled down the lever. They began their rickety ascent.
Scarlet fidgeted on her shoes. As the elevator groaned slowly floor after floor.
"Thank you about last night." It seems only proper to say to settle unnecessary debt.
His back was facing him he glanced at her sideways but he only looked at her in his peripheral vision. "What do you mean?" He feigned his ignorance.
Right.
"How did you know it was a glamour?" He whispered slowly, more curious than cautious. "Your grandmother?"
In an instant her body was pulled tight as a rubber band. She had meant to let the question pass but she couldn't help but say, "I don't as well. And even if I knew I would not tell you."
Ze'ev gave a brisk nod staring ahead at the empty space before him.
Then he cleared his throat. "In Rieux, did you already know who I am?"
"You mean who or what you are?" The edge was back in her voice and she shook her head of a silly thought. "Not immediately."
The silence and their slow painstaking ascent droned on.
Scar continued.
"The moment it was clear that your organization had my grandmother. I knew that I wouldn't find her alive. I volunteered for this mission. Some revenge are better when put to use after all. But I needed someway to infiltrate your HQ. And lucky me, I didn't have to look for it since you were looking for me. Some things happened, we traveled, other things happened," she smiled seductively. "But you already knew that. And here we are. Tadaah!"
Ze'ev shoved both of his hands through his hair and gave a distraught tug. He dragged his hands on his face and finally he faced her.
"On the train‒," The look on his face, Scar couldn't put the guilt and desperation she found in there. "If only I knew what they would do to her. I could've get off sooner and rushed in here. I could've saved your grandmother."
Scar's face flared with disgust. Enough of the things that would've happen differently if only it can be helped. She clenched her fists stopping herself from clawing him. "Really? Really! And why would you do that? Tell me Wolf. Why?"
He looked ready to collapse in on himself. "I don't know. On the train it's different…" He grazed her cheek, surprised that she let it stay in there and then he let it dropped. "I'm a soldier, Scarlet. I only obey what I am told."