A/N: I went to the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) for my end of school holiday and I'm currently obsessing over The Lunar Chronicles and I was so inspired on my trip to Warner Bros. Movie World which is a theme park that I loved so much that I went there twice in that week before I went home to Melbourne. The theme park in this story is based off WB movie world, but I took a few liberties and removed the Warner Bros. Lisencing and now its just anything I feel suits the story, for this chapter though, there are no references to anything other than the Lunar Chronicles.

Also, constructive criticism welcome, if you are so inclined!

Summary:

Cinder, disabled and self-conscious, works two jobs as a vehicle mechanic and a theme park inspector. She is hired by Rikan Dehuai to inspect the rides at his world-class theme park, and there she meets his handsome son, Kai Dehuai, who she forms an immediate attraction to.

Scarlet Benoit, dreams of making it as a professional chef, but first has to look after her drunkard father and her headstrong grandmother. She forms a bond with Ze'ev Kesley, but is she still hung up on her failed romance with Winter Blackburn to notice the way Ze'ev looks at her sometimes?

Cress Darnel has to choose between her beloved job as face character and her bachelor of Computer Science. Her infamous father, Doctor Erland places unachievable expectations upon her, which leads her to breaking point due to stress. And that's not even to mention her crush on Carswell Thorne who doesn't even seem to notice her.

Winter Blackburn is still recovering from a mysterious traumatic experience that left her with three scars down the side of her face She meets Jacin Clay at therapy, and they can't stop the emotions they feel for each other, no matter how much her step-mother tries to ruin and destroy her life

But there is something more sinister going on than the personal lives of the girls, something that threatens to tear down the park, and destroy the lives of those who run it. Unlikely forces bring the girls together. Can they put a stop to the powerful entity threating to ruin lives?

Disclaimer: The Lunar Chronicles belongs to Marissa Meyer and I do not own any of the characters etc.

Chapter 1.

Cinder parked her car in the staff parking lot. She was only meant to be at the theme park for at least six hours. Most of her maintenance and inspections took about an hour, depending on how many rides she had to inspect. She averaged around three rides inspections, but today it was only one that she was scheduled in for. She expected this to be a quick job, and she had called in for her other job as a vehicle mechanic to expect her at three o'clock in the sweltering afternoon.

She unbuckled her seat belt and shut the door of her bright orange Toyota. It was an old, ugly second-hand thing, but it got the job done. She got the car up and running easily, even if it did cough and splutter occasionally.

The hot, humid air enveloped Cinder immediately. It was a hot summer's day, the sun shone in her eyes. Cinder paused for a moment before she opened the car door again and reached in the back seat for the shiny reflector. She unraveled it and suctioned it to the windscreen. She climbed out of the car, the door against her hip as she pressed down on the lock knob and shut the door behind her. The car was too old for an automated locking system. It didn't have electronic windows. Though, Cinder did upgrade it a little bit by installing a CD player where the tape player used to be.

She went around to the boot and unlocked it after rummaging through her utility belt for her keys. She grabbed her toolbox and put it on top of the car and a blue lanyard which she pulled on her neck, stating that she was maintenance and slammed down the door.

She locked the boot with her keys, and put it back in her utility belt, and grabbed her pair of black work gloves out of her pocket, sliding them over her right flesh and bone hand, and her left prosthetic hand. She spread her hands out in front of her to make sure they were covered properly.

She checked her left leg to make sure her cargo pants hadn't got caught in the joints of her prosthetic leg. Confirming that she was in fact, fine, she grabbed her toolbox off the car and made her way to the entrance. She was glad that it was a weekday and not one of the theme parks usual packed days. However, it was still busy, filled with tourists who must have been on holidays in their native countries, and students who had finished school as well as small children on excursions or with their parents.

Cinder pushed her way past the consumers and made her way through to the disabled access where she showed the security and ticket manager her maintenance card, who showed her through without a fee. People were standing before the arch of the entrance, getting their friends to take photos of them beneath the sign stating the title of the theme park. Cinder pushed her way through, careful not to get in the photos, passing by the kiosks selling balloons for 10 dollars, and t-shirts for twenty-five dollars.

Inside the park was an onslaught of colour and buildings. The pavement led around a huge water fountain with water spurting out of a marble dolphin in the centerpiece. She walked past the fountain, heading straight forward. Surrounding her were two, three story buildings, shops, bakeries, cafe's and restaurants all different sizes and colours, all themed from different movies and comic books and TV shows and the like.

Every time she went to this theme park, she had the inexplicable feeling that she was in an animation. It was surreal.

Pop music, film scores and the occasional iconic movie quote blared out of the speakers, drowning out the screams of people who defied death on roller coasters.

Cinder marched her way forward, then as she reached the T-Section which led to different attractions, she turned right, heading towards the kids-area with miniature versions of the scarier adult attractions. She didn't go there though. She turned into a small alley, unnoticeable to the consumers, but the place were staff members went to take their break..

Cinder walked towards the purple door and punched in the code that would unlock it. The door unlocked silently and Cinder turned the handle down and entered the staff room.

She was greeted with the smell of stale sweat and cheap aerosol body spray which barely disguised the smell.

People looked up when Cinder entered, she showed her tag. They looked away, glad that they didn't have to shoo away a child who had stumbled inside the staff room trying to catch a glimpse of a super hero or a princess.

If a child did find their way in here though, they would probably be traumatized for life. Disembodied costume heads were placed on shelves, with the costumes on clothes hangers hanging from chains that reached to the ceiling. Wigs were placed on foam heads on shelves, and performers sat in front of large vanities applying very expensive looking make up. Nothing like the fantasy portrayed in the parades or at the character meet and greets.

"Has anyone seen Rikan Dehuai?" Cinder asked no one in particular.

At the mention of the creator of the amusement park, a few heads went up, but it was a young guy with messy black hair and black eyes who answered back.

He stood up from the blue semi-circular couch he was sitting on and made his way over to Cinder.

"You're the mechanic right?" He asked with a friendly smile. Cinder nodded. "I'm Kai."

He paused, holding out his right hand. Cinder looked down at his hand, and cautiously moved her left hand to his, hoping he wouldn't feel the hardness of her hand through the leather gloves. He didn't say anything as they shook hands.

"Cinder." She introduced herself. She let her left hand fall limply by her side.

"Mr. Dehuai isn't here today, but I'm supposed to help you around."

Cinder was about to question why Rikan had hired her when he wasn't even going to be here, when she looked closer at the man who had greeted her. He looked to be a few years older than Cinder, maybe 23 or 24. He had tan skin, somewhat angular features which were softened by the boyish grin he was wearing on his face. He was slim, wearing the yellow and blue polo shirt and blue shorts that were the uniform. He had a name tag on the right breast pocket.

Kai... Dehuai.

This was Rikan Dehuai's ridiculously attractive son.

"Oh, of course." Cinder said. "Right. Show me around then." She moved out of the way for Kai to guide her and they walked out of the staffroom together.

Cinder was glad for the fresh air when she came out of the stuffy room. She looked at Kai, who was studying her.

"You know, you're not the kind of mechanic I was expecting." He said.

Cinder crossed her arms. "What kind of mechanic were you expecting? A middle-aged man with his crack showing out of his pants?" Her voice took on an annoyed tone. This wasn't the first time someone had not expected a 19 year old girl to be a mechanic.

Kai's smile faltered. "Uh, well yes." He paused for a moment, glancing at her. "Did I offend you?"

Cinder frowned, but it wasn't from anger. She hadn't met a person who took into consideration her feelings when a person made stupid assumptions about her choice for work. "Um... No, no it's fine." She said.

She could tell that Kai wasn't convinced. "Well, if I did, I'm very sorry."

She uncrossed her arms, letting them dangle by her side as they walked. She tried to give him a friendly smile, and she saw his features soften when she did. "It's fine. Um, so what was it that you needed maintenance on?"

"Just the SpookyCoaster today. But the Emperor's revenge and the Giant Drop are scheduled in for maintenance next Wednesday and Thursday though.."

"Oh okay, I'll see if I can get time off work by then."

"Is this your second job?" Kai asked.

"Kind of. I work as a rides engineer-slash-mechanic and a normal vehicle mechanic. It all just branches out from engineering."

"That's really impressive." Kai said. "You must be really good at maths then. I'm terrible at maths."

"It's required for my line of work. Every wrong maths equation is a faulty product, as my professors say."

Kai nodded. "That's a lot of pressure."

Cinder smiled. "Only if you're bad at maths."

Kai smiled back at her, and they kept on walking. She noticed his high cheekbones and the regal way he carried himself. She felt like a slob walking next to him with her slight limp and bad posture. He was practically royalty, and probably rich enough to be one, and she was just a mechanic and she definitely looked like one with the grease stains on her shirt.

She adjusted her tool bag in her hand. She glanced in a window she walked by to make sure her prosthetic eye hadn't swiveled around randomly, but it was a self-conscious habit she hadn't been able to break herself out of. The loss of her right eye, left hand and leg had been the result of a freak accident involving a house fire when she was a baby.

She couldn't remember any of it, only that it had claimed the life of her family and left her abandoned and orphaned. It was only when she turned seven that she had a family that had adopted her, but after the death of her adoptive father, her mother had started to treat her worse than the care-takers of the orphanage did.

She shook herself to get rid of the thoughts. She could see the SpookyCoaster ahead. It was completely empty, but she saw a few kids trying to line up to get in, who were shooed away by the worker there.

As Kai and Cinder got there, the curvy red-head whose name tag identified her as Scarlet greeted them.

"Here for maintenance?" She asked.

Cinder nodded. Scarlet unclasped the rope that blocked the people's entrance, and Cinder and Kai stepped in as Scarlet propped up a sign saying that the ride would be open in 100 minutes.

"Let's look at the control panels, first of all." Cinder said.

Unexpectedly, Kai clapped a hand on the wall behind Cinder, effectively pressing her up against the wall. Cinder's eyes widened, before she realised that was where the light switch was. Bright lights overshadowed the dim red ones used to enhance the creepiness of the ride.

Kai lowered his arm, then his eyes widened as he noticed the position he had put himself and Cinder into. He stepped back awkwardly, his face flushing red. Cinder was sure that her face was overheating as well.

"Uh... light switch." He mumbled.

Cinder exhaled. "Um. Right." She gathered herself. "Control panel?"

"Right. Its through that door." He pointed to a bright red door that had a black sign on it stating 'Staff Members ONLY'. Cinder opened the door to reveal a humongous staircase. Her worst enemy.

She felt all the wind rush out of her. If she climbed the stairs with Kai watching her, he would know that Cinder wasn't whole, as her step-mother Adri used to tell her. He would think she was disgusting, a freak. Not human.

"Okay. It'll be pretty boring up there, so you can like, go back to the staffroom or something...?" She said it like a question.

"What? No, I wanna see what you do." He said this with a slight smile.

Cinder pressed on. "No really, It'll be really hot up there. Not to mention boring."

"You already said it was boring. And anyway, I have to, it's part of the safety protocol. Make sure you don't sabotage the ride or something."

Cinder recalled Kai's father always climbing up with her, but she never felt the need to hide her disabilities in front of the kind old man. She wondered if Rikan had told his son about her prosthetics. She hoped he hadn't. For some reason, with Kai, it was different.

But she knew that Kai's stance on the matter wouldn't- no, couldn't- change. He would have to come up with her if she liked it or not. She would just have to grin and bear it.

She did, however, motion for Kai to go first, so he wouldn't have to look at her left leg as it moved awkwardly up the stairs.

He sat down on one of the wheelie chairs at the control panel, and watched Cinder as she went up. She blushed self-consciously, but if Kai noticed anything about her gait, he didn't say anything.

She sat down on the second wheelie chair, hoping that Kai wouldn't notice the blush that tinged her cheeks. She cleared her throat, and analysed the buttons and levers in front of her. At a glance, they all seemed to be in perfect working conditions. She pulled down the lever that shut down the entire ride and she began pressing the buttons at random. None of the keys were sticky from over-use. She turned on the ride again, trying to ignore the presence of Kai next to her, watching as her fingers darted across the buttons.

She looked at the small set of computers showing camera footage of the inside of the ride. She pressed a button that would start the ride and followed the cameras as the carriage made its way through.

She frowned, struggling to see any problem areas.

"I'll need to inspect the roller coaster personally to make sure that it's safe. I'll need to experience it myself so I can feel for any weaknesses in the rails or things like that. Since it's inside, and the cameras are in black and white, it's harder to see it clearly for myself."

"That's fine." Kai said. "I'll need to accompany you on it, though."

"Sure." She said. "Can that Scarlet girl control the ride from up there?"

He turned around to look at the girl standing by the gates. "She should... I'll ask her."

As Kai walked down the stairs towards Scarlet, Cinder gripped the railings of the staircase and slid herself down it. Easy.

Kai came back with Scarlet in tow. "Someone will need to cover for me while I work it, Kai?"

Kai, who was looking at Cinder, snapped towards Scarlet. "Hm?"

"Can you man the gates for me?"

"Oh, I'm supposed to be going on the ride with Cinder." Kai said. Scarlet raised her eyebrows. "To make sure she doesn't sabotage anything." He clarified.

"Right. Hang on, I'll text someone to get here, you just get in the ride."

Cinder looked towards Scarlet. "This is a purely mechanical ride right? It doesn't really on physics and gravity and whatnot to get by?" Scarlet nodded and Kai shrugged. "Make sure it goes slowly, I'm only here to inspect it, not to enjoy it."

Scarlet hesitated. "Are you sure? It has a wicked loop halfway through."

Cinder's face blanched. Then she noticed Scarlet's expression.

"Only kidding." She laughed. Cinder rolled her eyes and mumbled something unintelligible under her breath.

Scarlet handed her a walkie-talkie that she had on her belt loops. She had another one on the right hand side of her jeans.

"If you need me to stop the roller coaster, just use this." Scarlet said.

"Thanks." Cinder grabbed the walkie-talkie and hooked it on her cargo pants.

Cinder marched towards the carriage, and climbed in awkwardly, placing the toolbox in the space beneath her feet. Kai sat in the seat next to her, graceful as ever.

Cinder and Kai pulled the harness over their legs, and Scarlet started the ride. The doors opened in front of them, and usually the ride-goers would be enveloped in darkness by this point, but because Kai had turned on the lights, the spookiness of the roller coaster had been eliminated. Cinder could see every rail and track and lever. Every piece of engineering and mechanics that made the ride go forward.

And forward they went. There was a cool breeze blowing through Cinder's hair, making her ponytail even messier, it felt nice though.

Cinder could feel the rails vibrating beneath her as it supported her through the ride. It was a calm sort of vibration though, nothing out of the ordinary for a roller coaster.

Creepy dolls turned their heads towards Cinder and Kai as the carriage made its way over the lever which controlled the mannequins, ghouls and dolls. It was comical, how un-scary everything was with the lights on.

They turned around a bend and another one. They paused when an elevator climbed down, and the carriage made its way onto that. The ride paused as elevator lifted the both of them higher and higher. It came to a stop.

Then the carriage plummeted down the tracks backwards.

Cinder and Kai let out a yelp. Scarlet's voice came over the speakers of the walkie-talkie.

"Sorry," She said, her voice coming out crackled and static. "I forgot it did that!"

Trying to calm her breathing, Cinder looked at Kai, who looked just as shocked as she did.

Then they both burst into laughter.

She unhooked the walkie-talkie with her right hand and held it up to her mouth, pressing the button. "It's fine." She said through a giggle.

The ride continued going forward, Cinder scanning everywhere she could see. Her mouth was turned upward in a smile.

Soon enough, the ride came to a stop. Cinder and Kai scrambled out of the ride. Kai got out first, and helped Cinder up., grabbing her right arm and pulling her up. Her right leg was still a bit shaky from the unexpected drop.

She balanced on her prosthetic leg, her right leg reaching the platform. She hauled herself up with Kai's help and steadied herself on solid ground.

Scarlet came down the stairs towards them. "No problems?" She asked.

Cinder shook her head. "None at all."

Scarlet clasped her hands together. "Great! That was quicker than expected.:

Cinder smiled at Scarlet. Then she turned to Kai. "Well, let me know if there's a malfunction with the rides or anything. Your father knows my number, so you know where to find me."

With that, she walked out of the SpookyCoaster.

Kai looked at Cinder as she made her way out. When she was out of his line of sight, he turned towards Scarlet, who was smirking at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." She said. Then she smiled "She was cute, wasn't she?"

"She sure was." He said without thinking. Then he did a double-take. "Wait, what?"

Scarlet laughed, then biting down her growing smile, she walked away from Kai to relieve the huge, bulking man that Kai vaguely remembered his name as something Kesley. to replace her while she controlled the ride. Kai scanned his surroundings.

It was then that he noticed that Cinder at left her toolbox in the carriage.

He walked over and bent down to pick it up.

He looked at it. In black sharpie was her name and company, written on the side.

Cinder Linh, New Beijing Mechanics.

He raced out, trying to find her in the thick crowd, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He would just have to find her another day.