Thanks for all the reviews! And to whoever mentioned coronavirus, yes, that is where I got some inspiration for the previous chapter. Isn't it a funny coincidence that Marissa Meyer wrote about a highly contagious disease just years before this? And Cinder is set in China, where coronavirus originated. I just hope it wasn't created by a secret colony on the moon :)

Cinder knew even before she began to drift back into consciousness that something was wrong. In the realm where she floated somewhere between waking and sleeping, she felt a burning emptiness in her heart, the wound fresh and raw. A Peony-shaped space. The thought was enough to bring a surge of energy back into her body, and she started awake.

She looked around, frowning. The last thing she remembered was being in the quarantine, chasing after Peony. But now she lay in a small room, as sterile and simple as the rest of the hospital. How on earth had she gotten here? Cinder knew she had been asleep, but she found it highly unlikely that she had laid down for a nap in the quarantine zone.

And then the pieces clicked together in her head. They drugged me! she thought in outrage. Cinder leaped to her feet off of the table where she had been lying. How much time had passed? Cinder summoned up all her anger at the hospital people for leaving her here, unconscious, because any emotion was better than the painful grief of losing Peony. "Let me out," she scowled up at the ceiling, not really believing anyone was listening to her. So she was surprised when a voice responded through hidden speakers.

"Ah, Miss Linh. Sleeping Beauty awakes." That voice was familiar, although distorted through the crackly speakers.

"Professor Darnel," she grumbled. "You do realize I have things to do and places to be. I don't have time to take a nap."

"Oh, please don't be angry at me. I couldn't do anything to help you. However, the workers told me you were getting quite violent in the quarantine. Didn't I explicitly tell you not to draw attention to yourself?" Though his tone was light, she felt guilty. He had told her that.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Everything is getting sorted out. In fact, I should be the one who's sorry." With a pang, Cinder thought of Peony. She gritted her teeth, forcing the thought out of her mind. She couldn't afford to let the grief overwhelm her.

"I need to get home. My stepmother is probably waiting for me." She grimaced at the thought of what Adri might do to her if she got home late. "What time is it?"

She sensed hesitation in Professor Darnel's voice. "On that note, Miss Linh..." Unease prickled down Cinder's skin. She heard him sigh, and the next words were muffled, as though he was covering the mouthpiece of the speaker. "Bring them in."

Two disheveled figures entered the room, eyes puffy and red, hair tangled and matted. Cinder stared at them for a moment before realizing they were Pearl and Adri. Her fussy, vain, adoptive family, now looking like this? What could've happened?

Oh. Comprehension dawned. Peony. She didn't want to face them but forced herself to. Cinder hadn't been expecting them to hug her or anything, but she would have expected something to change. They were now united by grief, bound by sorrow. That's why it was a shock when the first words out of Adri's mouth were, "How could you, Cinder?"

She started. "How could I - what?" How could Adri, hours after finding out about her daughter's death, decide to pick a fight with one of Peony's best friends? Because she's like me. Cinder swallowed. Anger was easier to bear than grief. Numbness more than pain. Bitterness more than sorrow.

Adri's lips were thin and white. Tear tracks mixed with makeup ran down her face. "How could you make a mockery of our family?"

"I didn't - "

"Don't you dare lie to me!" Cinder was still bewildered. "I know you've been bandying around, cutting class and breaking into hospitals. Once the news gets out, we will be the laughingstock of the city! Your acts are akin to those of common criminals and hooligans!" Cinder opened her mouth to retort, but Adri cut across her. "I assume you don't even know about the news that has been delivered t - to Pearl and me. We now have a funeral to plan for." Her voice shook with emotion.

"You've been tracking my phone."

"I became aware that I needed to, Cinder, after Pearl called me from school to inform me that you were missing. We knew perfectly well that you were not sick." Adri drew herself up, attempting to wipe the mess from her face and still leaking eyes. Pearl sat on the table Cinder had been lying on, face buried in her hands. "It has come to my attention that you have been abusing the privileges of freedom I give you -"

"Privileges? What privileges?" Cinder cried indignantly. "Privileges like doing all the chores and sleeping on a bare mattress?" She heard a tiny snort come from the overhead speakers, which was hastily turned into a cough.

Adri ignored her, speaking even louder. "I thought you could be responsible, but now I know you cannot. I let your last escapade slip by on the sole fact that you did it for Peony. But now -" She shrugged. "No Peony, no excuses."

Cinder was shocked that Adri would throw her daughter's name around like that. "How dare you!" she cried. "Peony was never an excuse! She was my friend - no more than that, she was my sister! I never would've used her like that. And besides, I had a perfectly good reason for leaving school and coming to the hospital."

Now it was Adri's turn to be confused. Pearl looked up, face stained with snot and tears.

Cinder started to laugh. "Are you actually as stupid as you look?" she asked incredulously. "You thought that I would just randomly skip school and come break into a hospital? Now I see why you think I'm a criminal."

"Oh yes, I'm sure you had a legitimate reason for randomly coming to a hospital in the middle of the day," snapped Adri, regaining her composure. "Please, enlighten us."

"FOR YOUR DAUGHTER!" Cinder bellowed, feeling a surge hatred for Adri like she had never felt before. Did no one understand her actions? "YOUR OWN DAUGHTER WAS DYING IN THE HOSPITAL ALONE AND I NEEDED TO SEE HER! But," she panted, glaring at the mute Adri and Pearl, "I suppose you don't care, you think I'm trying to use Peony as an excuse again."

"Why do you care so much about her?" The croaky voice from behind was a surprise. Cinder whirled around to see Pearl, looking defiant through her tears. "She wasn't your sister."

"Exactly, Pearl!" Adri agreed, turning on Cinder once more. "You never really cared for her. She was never your friend." Adri's eyes gleamed malevolently. "She spent time with you because she felt pity for you, you worthless orphan! She spent time with you because she had a heart. And you used her." In a deranged way, Adri started tearing at her hair and pacing around the room. "It's your fault she's sick! And you don't even feel remorse, do you! SHE'S DEAD AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!

As if Adri had physically struck her, Cinder staggered and sank onto the other end of the table. The world had gone fuzzy before her eyes. "No," she breathed, eyes unfocused and the words so quiet she could barely hear them. The rage had disappeared, replaced by an icy-cold hatred. "You're wrong. I loved her. I really did."

Adri's voice had lowered to, now silky smooth and sneering. "If you loved her so much, then go on. Shed a tear for her." Adri gestured at herself and her daughter. "We've done enough crying. It's time for you to share the burden."

No tears leaked from Cinder's eyes. They hadn't, after all, in years, and now was not the time to start. Cinder straightened back up. "I'm not going to cry."

"Well, that proves my point!" Adri's voice was hysterical again. "You don't care! You never have and you never will! You don't deserve to call her your sister!" Gasping for breath, she collapsed next to Pearl and put an arm around her shaking daughter. "You are a disgrace to us, Cinder. You have no heart; you can't feel anything for your 'sister.' You are not human."

"I am human." Cinder tried to appear unfazed. But the words cut. She remembered all the little kids torturing her back in elementary school, jeering about the cyborg, the robot girl, the freak. "And I'm tired of being labeled because of my appearance. You know perfectly well that the doctors didn't do anything to my brain."

"I believe she does have a heart, Ms. Adri Linh, or she would be dead," came the light, joking voice again from the speakers. Cinder glared up at her teacher. She could handle this on her own.

"But still," whispered Adri, words punctuating the quiet like bullets. "You don't feel anything for her. You don't cry. You should be dead, not her."

"Not crying isn't a sign of indifference, Adri. It's a sign of strength."

"And you pride yourself on your 'strength,' don't you?" Adri was rekindling her hatred. "You think you're so strong to have survived the car accident, and the surgeries, and everything that has happened to you in my household?" Cinder started at the mention of her former life. Adri avoided speaking about it if she could. "Well, Cinder, I hope you know that in my eyes, you are the very embodiment of weakness. You are nothing. You should've died years ago. YOU SHOULD'VE DIED BEFORE YOU COULD COME HERE AND RUIN MY FAMILY!"

"I didn't ruin your family," spat Cinder. "You ruined it yourself. You chose not to be kind to me." Sweeping toward the door, she turned to say one last thing. "If anything, you're the one who's not human. I could've had you arrested for child abuse, you know. But I chose not to. Because I knew you were in grief for your husband. Because I had a heart." And with that, she left her stepfamily sitting their dumbfounded, vowing to never speak to them again.

Fuming, Cinder stormed down the busy street outside the hospital without thinking of where she was going or how she would get back to the apartment. She had to get back there somehow, to pack up her clothes and tools. But then she was leaving and never going back. The whole world felt different, somehow. The cruel words from Adri were nothing new, Cinder had been through years of that. But this was the first time she had fought back. I am strong. I am a survivor.

She would be able to figure out what to do. She had a job, after all, which was more than what Adri had. She would have to survive by herself. Cinder didn't care if Adri had legal rights over her. She would refuse to go back. Heck, she would file a lawsuit if it came to that. Professor Darnel could be a witness.

All she had to do was find a place to live for the next six months of school. And then Cinder would be off to college, even though she was only sixteen, and she could leave this city behind forever. Now that Peony was gone, there was nothing to keep her tethered to her adoptive family.

"You sure are strong, Miss Linh," came the same chuckling voice that had echoed through the speakers only minutes before. Cinder didn't even look at her teacher as he fell in step beside her. "Your stepmother got what she deserved."

She just shrugged, not wanting to talk about it. She was even slightly embarrassed that someone had had to see their dysfunctional family antics. "I'm fine, you know," she said. "I was just going to go home."

"I'll save you the trouble of walking," Professor Darnel smiled. "Why don't you accompany me in my car? I can drop you off." Cinder could see no good argument to get herself out of the situation. Reluctantly, she followed him into a parking garage, bracing herself for the questions she knew were coming.

"So, what are you planning on doing?" The question was phrased in a light way as if he was just making polite conversation, but Cinder knew he was worried about her. And she didn't like it. She didn't need anyone in her life to be worried about her. She was so used to taking care of herself in Adri's household, it was weird that now someone was finally concerned about her.

"I have a job," she told him flatly. "I can rent a little place. I'll be fine." She could hear the rude finality in her tone and reminded herself that she was talking to a teacher. "Not that you're doing anything wrong. I just - " She grasped for the right words.

"You need to figure things out by yourself," he supplied gently. Those twinkling blue eyes were gentle and paternal, the way he always looked at Cress. The way she had never been looked at. Cinder nodded.

They were silent for the rest of the ride. Apparently, Cinder had been unconscious for a few hours because the sun was setting against the backdrop of mountains in the distance, casting fiery streaks across the sky. They crested a hill, and Cinder could see the crowded neighborhoods of Commonwealth City sprawling out beneath them. They had left the city and were retreating to the poorer areas.

She departed her teacher's car a few minutes later, thanking him one more time. Even though she didn't want to fully confide in him, he had undoubtedly gotten her out of several tight scrapes that day. As she turned to walk away, he gently grabbed her wrist and handed Cinder her backpack, which she had left in the hospital. She could definitely see where Cress got her compassion from.

Once she was back inside the apartment, alone, Cinder let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. This is the end of an era, she thought solemnly. It felt like eons ago that they had moved here, and Cinder's biggest worries had been leaving Iko and starting at a new school. She realized that she had changed a lot since then. It was like Peony's death had been a wake-up call to the real world. Everything can change in an instant.

She knew that the grief would come, later. The immeasurable pain of losing someone you loved was impossible to prevent. But not yet. She could hold it off for now. Trooping upstairs, Cinder slowly gathered up her meager belongings in her backpack. She dumped out everything unnecessary: textbooks, novels, and other supplies. School was no longer the most important thing in her life right now. She had already applied for college, these last few months didn't matter as much.

Now, she turned her mind to more pressing problems. Cinder was planning to rent a small apartment, far away from the Phoenix Towers, but she couldn't do that right now. She felt she had already accepted too many favors from Professor Darnel. That wasn't an option. Kai was the next thought to spring to her mind, but she pushed it down. She tried to imagine a scene where she showed up on the front porch of his mansion and told him she was running away from home. Talk about awkward.

Winter wasn't an option, she lived with Levana. Scarlet, she decided. She had never been there, but she had the address to the farm. Taking one last look around the apartment, wishing there had been more time to live happily here with her sister and her new friends. Making sure she had all of her mechanic tools, she opened the door and left, her ever-present smell of grease and metal clinging in the air a reminder to Adri and Pearl of the girl who had lived there. The girl who had fought back.

Cinder could see why Scarlet loved the farm. She stepped out of her taxi, taking the whole scene in. In the darkness that was closing in, her senses seemed heightened and she could feel the gentle brush of the wind, smell the earthiness of the ground where she could just make out rows of growing vegetables. After the stifling tightness of the city, the contaminated air, this place felt wonderful and wide-open. It felt like life.

Taking a breath, Cinder stepped up to the door of the little house down the lane and knocked on the white-painted door. This felt like the first step of a long, long journey, a journey away from the cruelty of Adri's household. She heard footsteps on the other side of the door. She opened her mouth to say hi to Scarlet when the door opened, but instead of facing a friendly welcome, the end of a small shotgun nearly poked her in the face. "State your name and business!" barked a voice she recognized as Scarlet's.

"Um...Cinder, your friend," she said slightly nervously. "I'll explain later, but I need a place to stay tonight."

The shotgun dropped to Scarlet's side. "Nice to see you," said her friend. "Sorry about that, but my Grand-mere says that you can never be too careful, and you know, when it's night - "

"I get it," Cinder told her. "Anyway...I'm kind of running away from home, so I was hoping - "

"Whoa, slow down," Scarlet cried. "You're running away? Why? How?"

A million thoughts seemed to freeze in Cinder's head as she contemplated that question. Why was she doing this? Peony. But of course, Scarlet didn't know about that. She opened her mouth, trying to think of a way to dodge the question, when there were more footsteps down the hall.

"Who is it, Scar?" asked a sharp voice. Cinder glanced at the newcomer. Scarlet often talked about her grandmother, so Cinder had gotten a sense of what she might be like. She understood Scarlet's description immediately upon seeing the woman's small body and clear brown eyes that fixated on Cinder: this was a woman who was kind and sweet yet fierce and independent. She wasn't the typical grandmother stereotype. She wasn't a woman to be messed with.

"Grand-mere, this is - " But Scarlet's words were cut off by a gasp from her grandmother.

Cinder flinched as the woman stared directly into her eyes. "It's you," she whispered, clutching her chest with a shocked look in her eyes. She stepped closer as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "I don't believe it. It's you."