Evenings in the Linh household were nowhere close to a pleasant affair nowadays. With the absence of Peony's usual ever-present stories and gossip and giggling, a hollow silence filled the apartment, broken by none of them. Pearl and Adri had taken to pointedly looking away every time they got close to Cinder, and though she was used to behavior like this from them, it stung worse than ever. The guilt over Peony's illness was a burden on her day and night.

The play rehearsal had been the worst, with Pearl crying in the corner every time she looked at her, and the director loudly calling Peony's name several times before Cinder managed to suck it up and tell her what had happened. Cinder knew that they blamed her. And they were right in doing so, but still, the grief and guilt and anxiety sometimes made it feels like she was suffocating. Lost, in an ocean of people who didn't understand what she was feeling. For a brief while, Commonwealth had started to feel like her home, but now she was an outsider again.

But Cinder's personal troubles were nothing compared to the crisis their city was now facing. Following Peony, several more people had been infected with the new strain of chickenpox. Within days, a full-on quarantine zone had been set up in the city hospital. The new disease spread like wildfire all over the country. Citizens were advised to stay home as much as possible and avoid direct contact with other people. However, that was nearly impossible in a big city like theirs where you could hardly walk down the sidewalk without bumping into other people. Churches, marketplaces, and the jumble of popular shops downtown stayed open to the usual crowds of people, despite the government's advice.

The days seemed to slip by, each pulling Cinder down further into her black hole. Adri and Pearl were still in shock from the suddenness of Peony's illness, preventing them from thinking too much about Cinder, but she expected an explosion directed at her any day now. Play practice stayed as dull and pointless as the first one, and Levana made sure Kai never left her sight. Worst of all, it felt like her friends were withdrawing - not that Cinder was making much of an effort to talk to them either. Each girl was facing her own separate problems, yet none of them confided in each other.

Cinder didn't care too much about anything at the moment. A teacher approached her during morning break to inform her of her slipping grades, her spiel falling on deaf ears. Only one thing occupied the forefront of her brain: Peony. Thoughts of her fragile little sister in all alone in a massive quarantine zone where there weren't enough resources to go around, dying among hundreds of other patients, made her shudder.

Everything seemed to swim around her, harsh overhead fluorescents blaring in her eyes, the laughter and chatter of other students suddenly pitching and magnifying in her ears, the teacher standing before her blurring into a smudge that was bending over her, trying to see if she was all right.

Of course I'm not all right! Cinder wanted to scream, but she couldn't find her voice. Do I look like I'm all right? She pushed herself up off the ground and stumbled blindly away from the teacher, knowing that she was causing a scene, but she just needed to get out of there. In the back of her mind, some small part of her mused about this feeling of being suffocated by everything going on. Is this what Winter feels like all the time?

"Cinder!" several voices called after her, shrill among the din. "Come back!" "Where are you going?" "Are you all right?" There it was again, that stupid question. Cinder raced through the hallways, everything still blurry and confused, her chest heaving as she finally slowed to a frantic walk. It was too much, all of it.

She became dimly aware of footsteps pounding after her and started to stumble onward, not wanting to face her confused friends. But the footfalls persisted, quickly outpacing her. A hand closed around her wrist. Her metal wrist. Cinder gasped and spun around so suddenly that Kai nearly crashed into her as the hem of her glove snuck up and his warm fingers brushed, for a fraction of a second, the cold, hard metal joining her prosthetic to her human arm...

Yanking her arm away, Cinder turned her back on him, still shaking and sweating. At least she wasn't crying. She hadn't cried since she was little, but emotional times like this when she let her walls crumble were sure to break her someday. Slowly, she inched up the hem of her glove.

"Cinder." His voice was warm, soft, earnest. Not like the condescending teachers who thought all she needed was a pat on the back to comfort her. Almost against her will, she turned around, holding eye contact across the several feet between them. For a moment, she was sure his eyes flicked down the place on her arm he had grabbed. She internally tensed, but he seemed to disregard it at the moment. "What do you need?"

The question was so unexpected that she started. Cinder realized she had no idea what she needed, or where she was going. She started to shake her head, but then the answer came to her. It was so simple. The images she had been thinking about earlier flashed back into her brain, but she pushed them away. "I need to see my sister."

Kai nodded. He seemed almost satisfied as if he had guessed correctly that that was the case. "So go see her." Breaking eye contact, he took a shifting step backward, then another. "I'll tell everyone you felt sick and had to go home."

Cinder stared at him. Sometimes he seemed as indifferent to her as any other popular kid, and sometimes he was like this. Compassionate. Helpful. Guiding. Like any good friend.

Kai gestured his hands in an awkward sweeping motion like he was shooing her away. "Come on, just go. I promise I'll cover for you. Lev - my friends skip all the time. It's no big deal."

Nodding mutely, slowly moving backward, Cinder held his gaze for one last moment. Then she turned and ran away down the hall.

If there was one thing Cinder had learned about dealing with people from her years of running a business, it was that all you need is a little luck and a whole lot of confidence. Being the only child running a booth in the marketplace, people had often tried to swindle her into getting things for cheap. But Cinder never let them do that. Her brain and eyes were sharper than most, and she calmly stood up for herself every time this happened until she gained a reputation as someone who wouldn't be messed with.

Getting herself a seat on the shuttle ride was nothing compared to bargaining with those tricksters. "How old are you?" the driver had asked suspiciously, peering her up and down. "We don't let unaccompanied minors ride the shuttle."

She rolled her eyes as if the question bored her. "Eighteen," Cinder told him flatly, keeping her face as still as possible and her hands unmoving. She had spent the whole walk from the school to the shuttle station berating herself for her breakdown. She wasn't the type of person who usually let her emotions get the better of her. She needed to get a better handle on this whole situation.

Now, her mindset had completely changed, pinpointing a singular focus: getting to Peony. This was the best version of Cinder, where she was so determined to get what she wanted that she was ready to use every ounce of cunning she possessed. You didn't need to use force when you had brains.

Cinder got off the shuttle a block away from the Commonwealth City Hospital, wringing her hands in anticipation for what she would see inside the massive, modern-looking building. Steeling herself, she walked unhesitantly through the automatic doors.

When Cinder, Adri, and Pearl had been to the hospital the day they discovered Peony was sick, the front lobby had been a hall of serene quiet and calmness. There had been almost no one in sight except for the lady at the front desk. Now it was practically the opposite. Everywhere Cinder looked, people were bustling past, doctors in white lab coats talking urgently to nurses, lab assistants pushing large carts of medical supplies, harassed-looking authorities scanning clipboards. During ordinary times, this might have just looked like an extremely busy day. But Cinder knew it was because of the disease.

Cinder didn't see any point in going to the front desk, especially since she wouldn't be able to push a path through the crowds. Instead, she slipped into the waves of people, blending in easily. She quietly followed a group of doctors seeming to be in an intense conversation, hoping that they were heading toward the quarantine zone. That was where Peony was.

She knew it was unlikely that she would be able to see her sister up close, but just to make sure she was okay in there would be enough. Cinder hadn't been following the news and had no idea if visitors were allowed, but it wasn't like her to stay within boundaries. She would see her sister, whatever it took.

They walked through several sterile white hallways, the walls on her left and right smooth and unbroken except for an occasional door. It didn't look like they were near the patient rooms, the doors looked like they led to offices. Cinder had a smug fantasy for a moment, imagining her returning home to tell Adri and Pearl where she had been, school attendance records hopefully unscathed assuming Kai had managed to excuse her.

The group of doctors departed from the rest of the crowds and turned down a separate hallway. Cinder's fantasies evaporated as panic started to churn inside her stomach. She would have to wait to keep going, it would be too obvious that she was following them if they were the only ones in the hall. But what if they took another turn that she didn't know about? She melted out of the crowd, sinking against the nearest wall as she thought out all of her options.

"Cinder!"

Her head snapped up immediately. No one who knew her should be here. Her mind darted through worst-case scenarios, from Kai deciding to follow her to the principal coming to track her down. She debated making a break for it but decided that she had come this far and couldn't risk quitting.

"Don't worry," said an old man with bright blue eyes and a rumpled woolly hat, hurrying over to her on his short legs. Professor Darnel! She hadn't been able to see him over the crowd; he was so short. "You're not in trouble or anything. I just wanted to help you since you looked lost."

She stared at him uncomprehendingly. Why was he here, if not to come to find her? "Shouldn't you be teaching?" she asked in confusion.

He smiled at her. He had the exact same quirky, thin-lipped grin as Cress. "I don't spend all my time teaching, my dear girl. The hospital needed my help with some experimental research regarding the disease. Senora Santiago, the Spanish teacher, is substituting for me today."

"Oh," Cinder said, not really paying attention to what he was saying. "Are you mad at me for not being at school?"

His expression softened. "Of course not. I understand better than anyone the pain of an absent family member." Cinder racked her brains for any time Cress had mentioned someone dead or gone in her family, but she couldn't think of anything. She silently filed the information away for later.

"Well...er, thank you," she told him, trying to smile.

Professor Darnel gave her the look teachers always give when they know exactly what you are up to. "We may skip the pleasantries. Off to the quarantines!" He darted back into the crowd with the agility of a man much younger. Smiling for real this time, Cinder followed.

They ended up in a viewing area set high above the room below, separated from the quarantine zone by a wall of thick glass. As she had imagined, the quarantine wasn't a pleasant place. Every inch of the room was filled with beds upon which victims of the disease lay, covered in spots, moaning and crying out in pain. The clusters of patient beds were separated only by narrow aisles through which heavily protected medical workers hurried, giving water here and there, checking temperatures, and - Cinder felt an involuntary shiver along her whole body when she saw this - once in a while, picking up dead bodies that were to be disposed of.

"Terrible, terrible," murmured Professor Darnel, looking at her in concern. "I never would've expected the disease to hit us this hard - the poorer rural towns, yes, but here, in a big, well-financed city...You're lucky you get to come here. This area is mostly for doctors and researchers. Most families of the sick don't get to see them at all."

Cinder did not want to be told she was lucky. She didn't feel lucky at all, having just caught sight of Peony in one of the beds along the walls almost right below them, her beautiful face barely recognizable under the sheen of sweat and the ugly rash of blisters.

"There she is," her teacher said, seeing where she was looking. "Of course, I didn't teach her, but she seemed like a lovely young girl...always laughing, and had a very kind heart, helped me pick up a bunch of papers I dropped in the hall one day - "

"Stop talking about her in the past tense," Cinder snapped. She was still staring insistently down at Peony as if her sister would be able to feel Cinder's brainwaves and look up at her.

Professor Darnel fell silent at once. After staring at her for a while, he chanced to speak again. "But Cinder...you mustn't get your hopes up too much. Peony might be young and healthy, but the disease especially affects children...and she's been here for, what, three weeks? She'll have to be in at least the third stage by now."

"What does that mean?" asked Cinder, glaring at the man who would dare to suggest that. That was impossible, wasn't it, when Peony was so young. The universe couldn't possibly be that cruel.

Then again, Cinder never would've believed the universe would kill a girl's parents, cause her to replace her limbs with prosthetics, and go live with a cruel family if it hadn't happened in her own life.

"There are four stages of the disease," Professor Darnel explained. "Your sister would have entered the first a few weeks ago, when her immune system would try to fight it off - but fail. The second stage was probably sometime the next day when the spots and other telltale symptoms began to show up." Cinder remembered how Peony hadn't shown signs of the disease until the day after their little adventure. "In the next stage, the disease gets stronger, taking over her body even more. And now - in the final stage, I presume - Peony could be in her last days."

Silence followed that dramatic proclamation. "She is not going to die!" Cinder's voice came out more wobbly and loud than usual.

Professor Darnel, brow creasing with sympathy, opened his mouth to say something, but his phone vibrated in his pocket before he could replay. He scanned it quickly, eyes widening. "I'm so sorry, Cinder, but I have to go." He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his graying hair in agitation. "You can have a few more minutes with your sister, but then out. And - " he paused, looking slightly sheepish, "Please don't mention this to anyone. I'm not really supposed to take anyone up here."

"Oh - okay, professor." She hesitated as he turned to go, before bursting out, "Thank you. For everything."

He gave her a sad smile, probably still thinking of Peony. "No problem at all, no problem." The heavy door clanged shut behind him.

The second he was gone, Cinder directed her attention back toward Peony. Her sister, who had previously been curled up asleep, was now awake, although barely. She could see her shivering and sweating in the huge room, covered in blankets, knees tucked in tight to her chest as she rocked back and forth. She needs me, Cinder thought desperately.

Cautiously, Cinder leaned forward and rapped on the window. It was a massive stroke of luck that Peony's bed was almost right under the viewing window. Her sister might - just might - be able to hear her. Hoping beyond hope that the window wasn't soundproof, Cinder pounded on it again, this time calling, "Peony!"

Her sister didn't react.

Deflating for a second, Cinder pulled back to think. There was probably lots of noise within that room, what with all the people bustling around and the patients coughing and groaning. Peony might be able to hear Cinder's fists hitting the glass, but it would take something more for her to realize it was her older sister.

Taking in a breath of hope, she rapped again on the window, but this time, not just frantic pounding. The tune of the theme song of Peony's favorite television show sounded, however tunelessly, through the visiting room, hopefully penetrating the window too. It had worked; Cinder saw Peony stir and look around, confused. Cinder pounded out a few more beats, calling, "Peony!" once again. She checked her watch, she had promised Professor Darnel to leave soon, but she just needed a few minutes here. Enough for Peony to realize she was there.

The sight of Peony's shocked but happy face staring at Cinder lessened so much of the weight on her shoulders. All her other troubles seemed trivial when compared with the fact that she could be there for her sister - maybe not up close, but this was enough. Peony, even though she was clearly fatigued, still managed to beam at Cinder, though it had none of her usual childish joy. Cinder was so overcome with emotion she could barely stand, and sank down to the floor, palm pressed against the glass. She tried to communicate without words how much she loved her and had missed her.

Peony managed to raise her head off the pillow. Her eyes were brimming with tears, although Cinder's stayed stubbornly dry. Mom and Pearl? her sister mouthed. Cinder's heart suddenly hardened. Adri and Pearl didn't deserve any of the love Peony gave them. If they had wanted to be here with Peony, they would be here. And yet Cinder was the only one who had come.

She simply shook her head at Peony, who looked crestfallen. Cinder racked her brains desperately for something else to say, to distract her. She mimed swiping her fingers across a phone, mouthing, Fixing it.

But Peony seemed done with the conversation. She had slumped back onto the messy mound of blankets and pillows on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Cinder shivered at the sight of her pale, almost bloodless fingers hanging limply over the side of the bed. This paper doll of a girl was so different from her usually full-of-life sister. She rapped one more time on the glass, hoping that Peony would look up one more time. Just to say good-bye.

Peony didn't move.

Cinder instincts knew that something was wrong. She thumped her fists more desperately on the glass, attracting the attention of some of the masked workers in the quarantine. When Peony still didn't look at her, Cinder barged across the viewing room, throwing the door open, and raced blindly down some flights of stairs. She pushed through the crowds of hospital workers in the halls, charging for the entrance to the quarantine without even thinking. Turning down the hallway she had seen the doctors going down earlier, she raced toward the heavily sealed door. Above it was a sign that read, HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS PATIENTS. DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT APPROVED PROTECTIVE GEAR.

Cinder shoved the door open with all her might.

The stench inside the quarantine hit her first. She gagged as she ran, choking in the thick scent of sweaty bodies and, unmistakably, death. Patients covered in blisters just like Peony looked up blearily as she ran by.

Reaching Peony's bedside, gasping for breath, Cinder flung herself down on the bed. Immediately reaching for her sister's limp, dangling white hand, she gingerly grasped her wrist, the papery skin marred with red spots.

Her cold, lifeless wrist.

She dropped it back onto the bed as if burned. Tentatively leaning forward, Cinder found herself staring directly into her sister's eyes. Wide-open eyes. Not even a single flutter of lashes.

"No - no," Cinder gasped, grabbing her sister more roughly and shaking her. This wasn't happening. Hadn't Peony just been smiling at her a few minutes before? Professor Darnel's voice echoed in her head. Peony could be in her last days.

"Come on, Peony, wake up!" her voice sounded shriller than usual. Standing up from the bed now, Cinder scooped up Peony's light body, almost screaming at her now. "Damnit...just wake up, Peony! Peony, please!" All her sister did was droop her head onto Cinder's shoulder. Cinder listened as hard as she could, but there was no sound from her lips. Not even a breath of air.

Cinder dropped her sister's body back onto the bed. No hope left in her mind now, she resorted to the only thing that could combat the grief: anger. "Peony!" she screamed, more of sorrow than of desperation this time. Fingers needing something to do, she pulled out a wrench and chucked it as hard as she could at the wall. Scooping it up from the floor, she reared back again to strike the metal as hard as she could. She just needed to do something right now. Anything at all.

Patients were starting to scream. Cinder supposed she looked quite deranged, but she didn't care. "Peony," she gasped one more time, before throwing herself at the wall and sliding down. The pain, the bruises forming on her skin were nothing compared to the numbing pain inside.

Suddenly, arms were around her, pulling her up with force. "Miss," said a voice in her ear, "I am going to have to ask you to vacate the premises before you injure someone or catch the disease." All the fight had drained out of her by now. Cinder stood up, back stooped, to hobble toward the door, but at the last second, she caught sight of something over the man's shoulder.

Peony's body. Being lifted onto a stretcher. To be taken away from her.

Cinder let out another howl and tore herself from the man's grip. All she knew was that she needed to get to Peony, to prevent the people from taking her. Peony belonged to her family, not to random strangers. But the stretcher was already fifty feet away from her, and the burning in her legs intensified as if trying to prevent her from reaching her sister. Someone was running after her. Cinder surged ahead, but the woman had already grabbed her around the waist and tackled her.

Cinder was propped up against the wall, dazed and shocked. Concerned faced flickered in and out of sight, advancing on her. She made one last desperate bid for freedom, wanting - needing to get to Peony. But then something sharp plunged into her arm and everything went black.

Struggling to stay awake, Cinder heard the voices of the workers as if from far away. "I was expecting that to happen eventually. I'm just praying she didn't catch it."

Then the other voice. "You really can't blame her. Grief is a funny thing. You can never predict how it's going to affect people."

A short chuckle. "Some of them just break down crying, but not this one. She's a fighter, she is. She can make it through this, I know she will."

And with that, Cinder gave into the blissful waves of numbness and let herself be pulled under.

I know I've been writing a lot of Kaider, but I promise there'll be lots of the other ships coming up!