The rolling farmlands of Rieux, France always brought a sort of calm to Scarlet's heart. She'd spent most of her life there; it was the only real home she ever knew. The endless sky, blue with wispy clouds this morning, and the serene emptiness of the rural land had always struck her as something better than anything she could've dreamt of.
It took a lot of adjusting to go from living in the city and being spoiled to waking up at 6 AM every day, even when it was still completely dark out, but she'd learned to love it. Getting along with her grand-mère had been difficult at first – Scarlet was sure she wasn't cut out to work her entire life away like her grandmother, but she came to love that, too.
She threw down the brakes of the ship as her grandmother's farmhouse came into view, the smile on her face growing ever-bigger, stretching almost ear to ear. She hadn't seen the farm in over a month and she missed it more than anything. She could almost smell the fresh air just beyond the windshield as she pulled into the open hangar, her grand-mère standing off to the side and waving as she entered.
The hangar still had the familiar scent of grease mixed with manure, and it wasn't necessarily pleasant, but Scarlet was finally home.
Too bad she would be leaving again tomorrow.
"Scarlet, ma chérie! Did you have a safe trip?" her grandmother asked, embracing her.
"Bien sûr, grand-mère. It was a little crowded up in space, but it was the quickest way to get here."
Michelle Benoit took a step away from her granddaughter and studied her. "Would you like to go to the Tavern with me? I'm making a delivery to them today."
The redhead beamed. "Yeah! How's Gilles?"
"Stubborn as always." Michelle smiled. "But he will be happy to see you, I'm sure."
"Is that man ever happy, honestly?"
"No, I believe not. Come, I'm sure he'll threaten to dock us for being late. I'll drive – you must be exhausted."
She half-dragged herself to her grandmother's delivery ship, her legs still begging to stretch more before she sat again, but they would have to wait.
Scarlet hated the way it felt like she'd completely forgotten the colors of Rieux, the green of the fields and the red brick houses set against endless horizon. Cows grazing in the fields and horses galloping along fences.
Once the plans had been fulfilled and everything was over, she and Ze'ev would be moving back for good. The Commonwealth was beautiful, but frankly a little too humid and a bit too crowded. She missed the comfort of a small town – not so unpredictable, at the very least. Quiet and beautiful and comfortable. It always felt like home, even to Ze'ev, who was raised on a completely different planet. Well, satellite.
The familiar garbage stink of the alley was almost welcoming. She peeled herself out of the passenger seat, her legs rejoicing that they were once again free, and popped open the hatch, reaching for a crate of tomatoes and one of onions as her grandmother opened the door to the tavern.
The noise of the kitchen, mixed with the rowdy patrons – even so early in the day – brought another smile to her face. The muscles in her face would definitely be sore for the rest of the day.
She pushed in through the noise of the tavern and none of the cooks or servers paid them any attention as they waded through the crowd, nearing the walk-in fridge where they always dropped their shipments off.
Gilles found them before they could set the crates down. "Michelle! I was afraid you'd forgotten about me." His eyes skidded over the old woman and landed on Scarlet. "Scar? Is that you?"
She beamed. "Who else?"
"I haven't seen you in a while! How are you?"
"I'm great! Just came to see grand-mère. She said you were coming here so I tagged along."
"And how is your delightful streetfighter boyfriend?" Gilles asked, taking the tomato crate from her hands and setting it in its marked place.
Scarlet shoved the onions onto a shelf and wiped her hands on her pants. "He's wonderful. Still in the Commonwealth, but I'll be heading back there tomorrow."
"Not staying? Why not?"
Scarlet shrugged as she grabbed a crate from her grandmother. "I came because I left something important here. We're vacationing in China with our friends from LA – you know about Cress and Thorne, right?"
Gilles rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately, yes. I remember how that boy tried to steal one of my waitress's tips."
"Émilie forgave him," said Scarlet. "He's really not such a bad guy. Questionable morals, sure, that's a given. He's almost charming, when he isn't being mind-numbingly annoying."
"Is that not all the time?" The old woman asked, handing over a crate of lettuce heads. "Honestly, that boy has no sense of manners."
Scarlet pulled up the zipper on her hoodie to her diaphragm. "Thorne is an acquired taste."
"And to think that little Crescent is interested in him," said Michelle as they followed Gilles back in through the kitchen.
Scarlet chuckled. "Those two are such a mess, honestly."
The tavern's owner pushed a plate towards Scarlet. "Here, take this to booth 6."
The redhead narrowed her eyes at him, grabbing the plate and exiting into the tavern. It was Sunday morning, but it was still as raucous as always. She spotted a lone woman at booth six and walked over. "Eggs Benedict with bacon and toast on the side?"
As the woman nodded, there was an uproar of laughter from the bar. "I believe it," someone guffawed.
Sighing, Scarlet set the plate in front of the woman and gave her a fleeting smile, and then marched over and leaned over the bar, looking down it.
"I don't. The prince and a wedding planner? A commoner? He wouldn't stoop so low!" Another round of laughter.
"No, no. Prince Hikaru wouldn't, but Prince Kai's always had it out for the precious lower classes," said another voice.
She quirked an eyebrow. "What's up, guys?"
"Scarlet!" Someone shouted. "Haven't seen you here in a while! You're in the Commonwealth, right?" She located the voice a few stools down. A regular. "You hear about Prince Kai supposedly dating the woman who's planning the royal wedding?"
Scarlet blinked. "Linh Cinder?"
"Yeah!"
"Those are just rumors," she shouted back.
"A pretty popular one, I'll say!" Another stranger laughed.
She cursed under her breath and excused herself, wondering if the rest of the team had found that out yet. It was only a rumor at that point, based on speculation from people who'd seen them together at appointments and the knowledge that she'd gone to the palace last night. Apparently it was for business, but someone had leaked that she was there for dinner. Point of it was, even rumors would ruin their plans.
She pushed through the small crowd and into the kitchens, where her grand-mère and Gilles were having an animated conversation. She grabbed the fabric of Michelle's sleeve.
"Hey, uh, grand-mère, I'm really tired. Can we go home? I'll stop by in the morning to say goodbye to everyone."
Michelle gave her a suspicious look before softening and smiling. "Of course, Scar. You must be starved! Come, I'll make some crepes with fresh berries and we'll have one of our old-fashioned Benoit debates. How's that sound?"
"Lovely, grand-mère," said Scarlet with a more-than-theatrical yawn. "I'll stop by in the morning, Gilles. Goodbye!"
After they got outside, Michelle furrowed her brow. "What's wrong, Scarlet?"
"I need to contact the squad. Immediately. I just heard there's a rumor flying around that the prince is dating the wedding planner."
Michelle's eyebrows shot up. "Prince Hikaru?"
"No, Prince Kai." Michelle's expression contorted into one of understanding. "If we succeed in our plans, we could put that girl in serious danger. Stars only know what Levana would do to her."
"They're only rumors, Scar."
"We can't afford the risk."
She pulled the port out of the pocket of her hoodie and vid-commed Ze'ev. The globe in the corner of the screen turned only once.
"Scarlet? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Ze'ev! I was just at the Tavern with my grand-mère. I heard about Prince Kai and Linh Cinder-"
His emerald eyes darkened. "Cress just told us."
"So, it's true?"
He nodded. "She went over the audio we've collected from Cinder's office. We're still moving forth with the plans, if you agree to it."
Scarlet exhaled a sigh, her mind swimming with all of the images of what could happen. "We've no other choice, do we?"
Ze'ev grimaced. "I know. There's a lot that could go wrong if we succeed, but it'll be far worse than we don't." Scarlet dropped her eyes as he continued. "It'll all be over soon."
He never wanted this.
He never wanted any of this.
Emperor Rikan was not supposed to die so soon. His father was not supposed to be gone already.
It was not supposed to be his job yet to lead the country. He should have had more time. He deserved more time.
But his father died and he screwed up everything his first week in office. They hadn't even had time to plan the coronation before Levana swooped in and ruined everything. The only way out of her wrath was a marriage alliance.
Of course, he was stupid enough to believe that, though the stupidity hadn't lasted long.
It wasn't even a day after announcing the alliance when he was in his office late – he was always there late now. He never got to sleep anymore and he was just so tired. And he wasn't doing anything important – mostly staring at the wall and wondering how he had been so unlucky. How all of this misfortune just had to fall on him. But the netscreen on his desk pushed itself out of the desktop, turned on by itself, connected to a comm by itself.
That probably should've scared Hikaru more than it had. He mostly watched it happen with cool indifference and the smallest dash of curiosity.
"Y-r H-ness? –our –ess? Your Hi-ss? Your Highness?" Once the connection was fully formed, there was a man behind the screen with wild emerald eyes and hair that stuck up in every direction.
"What the hell?"
"Prince Hikaru! Don't disconnect. This is urgent. " The man was flanked by four others, all of whom he dwarfed easily–a curvy young woman with red hair that curled in perfect ringlets to her waist, a petite girl with short-cropped blonde hair, and next to her, a man at least an entire foot taller than the former, with brown hair and a look that said he would've preferred to be elsewhere.
His curiosity outweighing his suspicions, Hikaru cleared his throat. "Who are you?"
The brunette man from behind him spoke first. "ALAS! Anti-Lunar Attack Squad."
"Shut up, Thorne," the redhead growled. He imagined her name was something obvious like Red.
"Came up with it myself," he grumbled. The blonde-haired girl smiled at him, her eyes lit with longing–Hikaru recognized the look from some of the girls he'd dated in the past.
Emerald Eyes shook his head. "We've come to you with urgent information regarding Queen Levana and her plans should the alliance go through."
Confusion filled Hikaru. He raked a hand through his hair. "What do you mean 'should it go through'? It's already going through."
"But it can't," the blonde girl squeaked.
"Levana's planning to kill you," Emerald Eyes said plainly.
Hikaru laughed, though it felt more like someone stabbed him in the chest. "Of course she is."
"That's not all. She also plans to use the Eastern Commonwealth's army, as well as the army of Luna, to take over the rest of Earth."
"And I'm supposed to believe this because…?"
Red straightened her shoulders. "Because you have no other choice, Your Highness. This is life or death."
He shook his head, trying to clear it. This was absolutely absurd. "And how exactly do you plan on stopping her?"
"Well, first," said the Thorne guy, "we're going to kidnap you. With your knowledge, of course. We're only telling you because it'll make it easier for us if you're willing to help."
"What about my brother?"
Red shrugged. "Don't worry about him."
"Oh no. I'm not agreeing to this and leaving Kai behind."
Emerald Eyes sighed. "That would complicate things."
"Aren't things already a bit complicated? What would be the point in only kidnapping one of us?"
"It'll push the wedding back at least a day," said Thorne. "And that's all the extra time we need."
He gaped at them. "Extra time? For what?!"
"To overthrow Queen Levana, Your Highness."
