Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Cinder

Cinder lay completely still on the bed. Or was it a table? She couldn't tell. Every muscle in her body ached. Her eyelids seemed to weigh a ton.

A soft moan escaped her lips as she slowly forced them open, ignoring the pain in her eyes as the light of the room stung them. With another quiet groan, she sat up, gripping the edges of whatever she was lying on to keep her balance.

Cinder glanced around the room, taking in the white walls and the various medical machinery scattered around the room. Slowly, her groggy thoughts managed to work out that she was in one of the science labs. But when did she get here? She remembered getting into the elevator and feeling annoyed at having another appointment to attend, and she remember teasing Kai about him staring into space. Then… right, there was that other prodigy, the one with the extra head and arms who was too wrapped up in arguing with himself to notice the other two people in the elevator. Okay, then what happened? Oh right. Getting trapped in the corner with Kai. A situation which got more awkward by the minute since, for some reason Cinder couldn't understand, he kept shuffling around so that he was facing her. So many warnings about sudden rises in body-heat and increases in heart rate. She scowled, trying to recall what else happened in the elevator, but all that came to mind was searing pain and then… darkness. Maybe her systems overheated?

A sudden sigh of exasperation snapped her attention to the far end of the room. Two people were standing there, having a particularly furious whispered argument. Kai and Dr Erland.

Curious, Cinder turned up her audio interface to listen in.

"-anything you can do?" Kai was saying.

"I already told you, I'll give her cybernetics a look over to see if anything is overheating." Dr Erland replied irately.

"Anything more immediate?"

Dr Erland shook his head. "Personally, I think the fact that she fainted is far less worrying than the circumstances in which she fainted."

Wait, did Kai tell him about the fact they were crushed into one corner? Great powers, he'd better not have!

"This… "vision" as you call it seems entirely out of place in an elevator where the only prodigy present who has any power relating to the mind isn't able to manipulate the mind or senses in any way." Dr Erland muttered.

Wait, Kai had a vision?

He sighed. "Look, I've been stretched a bit think lately, I'm sure my brain just decided to have a bit of fun."

"If that were the case, I doubt you'd be talking to me as sensibly as you are." Dr Erland grumbled. "In any case, I'd better see how my patient is doing."

Hurriedly, Cinder snapped her eyes shut and pretended to sleep. Somehow, she doubted Dr Erland and Kai would appreciate her eavesdropping on them.

A finger prodded her sharply in the cheek. "Come on, get up." Came Dr Erland's irritable voice. It sounded as if he was shouting into her ears.

Wincing at the extreme volume, she quickly turned down her audio interface to a more reasonable level and opened her eyes for the second time.

Dr Erland, seeing that she was awake, nodded with satisfaction and turned smartly away from her bed, heading for his desk.

Grunting with the effort, Cinder pushed herself up into a sitting position.

"How do you feel?" Kai asked, walking over to her side.

She rolled out the kinks in her shoulders. "A bit achy, but otherwise fully operational."

He grinned. "That sounds promising."
"You call your limbs feeling like they're made of stone promising?"
"Well, they may not be made of stone, but they are made of titanium."
Cinder rolled her eyes. "Titanium's light, genius."

"Hey, we can't all be mechanics!"

She chuckled and stretched her arms above her head, revelling in her reach. "How long was I out?"

"Not too long, about half an hour."
"Now that is promising. Hopefully this will be the last time I faint. I'm really getting sick of waking up in the science labs."

"I don't blame you. Dr Erland is hardly the best company."

"I heard that!" Dr Erland barked from his post near his desk. He seemed to be making a note of something. "Honestly Diplomat, don't you have a team meeting to organise? The Mechanic's fine, you can go!"

Kai rolled his copper brown eyes and threw a quick wink at Cinder before leaving the room. She stared after him. What was that about?

Dr Erland strode over to her bed, a notepad and pen in his hands. "Right. Now, tell me what happened."

Cinder shifted uncomfortably, trying to figure out what to say. And how much she could get away with leaving out. "I guess I just got really stressed. I was receiving a lot of warnings about body temperature and heart rate at the time."

"That's all that happened?" Dr Erland asked.

Cinder nodded. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.

Dr Erland glanced at his notepad. "You didn't experience any tingling in your skin? Or a sudden surge of power?"

She frowned. "No, but what does any of that have to do with my fainting?"

The doctor bit his lip. For the first time since Cinder had met him, he seemed uncomfortable. "When you collapsed, The Diplomat experience a sudden… shifting of perception."

Cinder tilted her head and blinked in what she hoped was an innocent manner. He's talking about Kai's vision.

"The way he described it, your appearance underwent a drastic change."

"What kind of change?" she asked.

Dr Erland adjusted his glasses. "In simple terms, you looked a lot more beautiful and all traces of your prosthesis were removed."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. Kai's vision was starting to sound more like wishful thinking. "Okay, but what does that have to do with my fainting?"

"It has everything to do with your fainting." Dr Erland replied. "Remember that device that I theorised suppressed your natural prodigy power?"

"Kind of hard to forget something like that."
"Yes, well, I believe that this "vision" of Kai's was actually your powers making themselves known, and the cause of the fainting was the device malfunctioning."

Dr Erland said all this like he was telling Cinder that they were celebrating her birthday early. Cinder, for her part, was slightly underwhelmed. "So my superpower is the ability to make myself look pretty? Wow, that will totally make a difference to the world."

Dr Erland rolled his eyes. "It's not the ability to make yourself look pretty."
"Oh, can I make other people look pretty too?"

He sighed in frustration. "Mechanic, the fact that you can make yourself look pretty is just one thing your powers can do."
"Feel free to enlighten me." Cinder grumbled.

"As well as becoming more beautiful, Kai also mentioned that you suddenly became terrifying. His words not mine."
"Why did you bother with that last part?"
"I don't want to end up on the wrong end of the metal fist. Anyway, this effect is typical of the uncontrolled use of a certain type of mind control."

"Wait, wait, wait." Cinder interrupted. "You're saying my power is mind control?"

"A certain kind of mind control." Dr Erland corrected.

"What difference does that make? And do you have any idea how the Council will react when they find out I can control minds? That's their greatest enemy's power! What if they think I'm connected with her somehow?"

"Oh you are definitely connected with her." Dr Erland said. "Your brand of mind control is exactly the same as hers."

Cinder couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had the same power as the leader of the Lunars? "Wha-how can you possibly know that?"

"During the Blood Moon Time, the Lunars were led by Channary Blackburn, also known as Star Striker. She also had mind control powers. We know that Levana was her sister, so it can't be a coincidence that she has the same powers as Channary, it must be hereditary." Dr Erland explained.

"What's that got to do with my powers?"
"A little patience please? Ugh, teenagers. Anyway, Channary Blackburn was rather… promiscuous. We know she had at least one child, and we know it was a daughter, since the Lunars were very loud about it. When you accidentally used your powers, Kai said your eyes were slanted, like you were smiling, even though you weren't. This particular feature was something of Channary's trademark and, well." He tilted his head to one side, studying her face. "You do look a bit like her."

Cinder's jaw dropped. Her thoughts ground to a sudden halt at what Dr Erland was implying. No, no she can't be related to Starstriker, to Levana! She was just Cinder, she was the Mechanic, a cyborg who liked to wear t-shirts and baggy pants and always had grease on her clothes. And she wasn't Startsriker's daughter. She just wasn't! She couldn't be…

A/N: There it is, the moment where Cinder finally finds out who she is. And is in serious denial over it.

Finally Cinder's true backstory is revealed. But will she learn to accept it? Will she ever learn to control her new powers? And what will Kai think of her if he finds out?

Please review!