Chapter One

The giant throne room fashioned a white glow, the red blood scrubbed cleanly from the floor and walls, the bodies carried away. Their bodies carried away. Thorne. Cress. Scarlet. Wolf. Iko's destroyed personality chip. All of them. Gone. White and red flashed in Cinder's eyes as she walked, looking at different parts of the room, different murder locations. She heard their screams, each one of theirs. A cry. She remembered staring into their eyes as each had their last breath. More red. More Cries. More blood.

Cinder closed her eyes. Trying to get the images out if her head. The screams out of her head. But the images only came more clear. The cries more defined. She begged her mind to stop, stop, stop. But the part came. When the first death actually came, as before she was showing just cuts small wounds to herself. It was already too much blood.

Levana stood on the left side of her throne, highly concentrated. Everyone was in the room, Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne, Cress, even Iko. With Scarlet and Wolf just walking in, Levana immediately took them, along with Thorne, whom she already had. Everyone who could be controlled was of Levana's side. Cinder was doomed. Thorne had just picked up a knife and Scarlet was now being forced to grab her gun from her pocket. 1 gun. 1 knife. Both in enemy hands. Cinder who was on the other side of the room from the door went to where Cress and Iko took cover. She had to protect them. Cinde rput them behind her arms which hid them from the guns and knives. The three forced enemies made their way in terror as Levana made their feet move forward, to them. Wolf came towards Cinder, grabbing her up in his arms, carrying her with brutal force.

Levana's strong malicious voice surged through the room, "I'm going to have you suffer before you die. Or should I say have them suffer"

Wolf held her tight and made her watch Iko and Cress, with Scarlet and Thorne advancing in on them. Thorne easily grabbed the small Cress and pinned her to the wall. Scarlet grabbed Iko and pinned her too.

"Let's play, shall we"

Thorne took his knife and put it to Cress's neck.

"Please don't," Cinder whispered

Thorne moved the knife downward, to Cress's wrists. And cut. Her vision speckled white and red. She couldn't see but her screams were enough to know exactly what happened. A thump on a body on the ground was also evidence. Cress is dead. Her vision cleared and she saw a blood covered form. Cress. Then Thorne traded the knife for the gun with Scarlet. Scarlet tore and ripped Iko apart. Iko screamed, but she soon shut down and Scarlet tore at wires. They were dead, And Cinder couldn't see. Half because she was closing her eyes and because her vision was all white. Then she heard a gunshot and a deep cry. Thorne. Then A slice. A scream. Scarlet.

Cinder remembered it clear as day. She knew she was knocked unconscious. And when she woke. She was in a hospital bed.

3… 2… 1…

Cinder's eyes bolted open. She launched herself up. Causing someone beside her to jump. Kai.

"Where are they"

His expression saddened. "We found you unconscious in the throne room. There was blood everywhere. But no bodies"

That was all Cinder needed to hear. They were gone.

She put her head on the pillow behind her. She felt her head throbbing. She couldn't cry. She was just a broken girl who couldn't cry.

"Wanna hear the good news."

Silence

"You're the queen"

Silence. But that when she realized. The throbbing was everywhere. She didn't notice until now.

Levana cut deep, I mean deep, torture like scars, up and down her arms, legs and her chest. Scars that would never truly go away.

Cinder gave up any awareness and just stared at the ceiling. She saw her retina screen was now up and running and decided to open the news feeds. She was everywhere. But then she saw it. She finally focused on what the top feed said. "Selene takes the throne, but at a price." She selected it and saw a video. The security camera. The news had the footage on what happened. Cinder could tell by the thumbnail. She turned on the vid. It ended when Levana was done cutting Cinder up via Wolf. She shot the camera with the gun.

She couldn't bear what was happening. She was queen.

And that's what led her to this moment. Walking through the now clean throne room. It had been 2 weeks and she'd recovered just fine. She hadn't spoken in those 2 weeks. They were all gone. Cinder walked out of the room, making her way through the beautiful halls, but they didn't seem beautiful. She got to her huge quarters. Today was the day she was going to finally have a conference and walk the streets of all the countries and speak to the press. She was going back with Kai to New Beijing. Then she'd go to Paris and other places around Earth. But she'd have a mask on. She'd wear a stupid dress and walk, answering stupid questions. She examined Levana's old closet. It was huge and full on large dresses. She picked a friendly black silk, which fell elegantly. A red silk scarf sized band wrapped around her, in the center of her chest.

There was a knock at the door. Then it opened presenting Winter, Jacin, and Kai. She took a quick glance but got back to her dress, even though she didn't really care about it.

"Cinder, you should start packing. Winter's already done so she'll help" Kai said, voice full of sympathy.

Cinder waved her hand, ushering Winter to come help. Kai and Jacin then left closing the door behind them.

"Cinder, I'm sad about Scarlet-friend too, along with everyone else, but they'd want you to rule strong and happy"

Silence.

Winter grabbed Cinder's face, forcing her to look at Winter.

"You have to be strong Cinder, you still have me, and Kai, and Jacin, and we love you, and we'll support you, but you have to be strong and rule Luna with the passion Levana never possessed."

Cinder looked at Winter in awe, because she was right. She had to be strong. Cinder pulled Winter into an embrace, and even though Winter was surprised at first, she eased in, holding Cinder close.

"It's all my fault," Cinder said into her shoulder.

"No, no it's not,"

Winter held Cinder's shoulders, pulling her away, "Ready to be queen"

Cinder nodded and they went back to packing gowns, and Cinder had a nice conversation, laughing with Winter as they made jokes and acted silly.

Once they finished packing Cinder's bags, they had the guards take her bags to the ship. They were leaving in a few hours.

Cinder walked the halls of the palace. The walls were white and gray, split apart from each other by black trim. There were pillars everywhere, with flower vases or other trinkets. There were also paintings all over the walls. The doors were white, with runes and designs all over them, and they also had small metal strips engraved with words, telling what the room was for. There was also the occasional window, showing the beautiful views of Artsemia, or showing the empty crater-filled wasteland, a place where she'd soon build.

As Cinder walked she thought of what she was going to do as queen.

1. Mass produce Letumosis antidote

2. Sign a peace treaty

3. Clean up Luna

4. Produce more food so people had more

5. Expand luna's colonies

6. Make mining Safer

That was the list she had. 6 things to start.

A guard approached Cinder, "Your Majesty, The ship is ready,"

"Alright"

"Would you like an escort?"

"Thank you"

The guard led Cinder through a series of halls and she was greeted by big Black doors, with guards standing on each side. They moved to open the door.

When the doors opened, Kai, Jacin, and Winter were boarding a large ship. The room was full of them, and Cinder could see each Union leader boarding their own ship.

She walked towards the ship and came to the ramp. She stepped up onto it and walked up, meeting Kai at the top.

"You ready to go back home."

"More ready than before, that's for sure"

"She speaks!" Kai and Cinder turned their heads, to see Jacin and Winter chuckling, Cinder and Kai sent glares

Cinder moved towards the window and found they started moving, out of the docks, out into space.

Stars glittered the sky, and they kept moving, away from what is now Cinder's kingdom, to her old home.

I'm the queen. I'm royalty, so I have to be strong. To show them they have a bad-ass queen here to save them.