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Iko's POV:

Acting

You know what the biggest crime is on Luna (well, besides the cruelty, the poverty, and the corruption of course)? The complete lack of movies! They don't even have plays here! Talk about a waste of talent for an actress such as myself. Thank goodness Old Dmitri brought me to Earth as a playmate for Cinder, otherwise I might have been condemned to a life as a simple maid, and neither of the dimensions would ever have discovered my innate talent! And that would have been the biggest crime of all. I mean, take my maid impression for example: I've been wandering around the palace for ten whole minutes and nobody suspects a thing. That's quality acting right there!

A guard knocks into my shoulder (on purpose too, the jerk). "Watch where you're going, Fairy!" He snaps.

I bob a curtsey and stare at him with wide eyes. "Yes Sir, sorry Sir, beg your pardon Sir, please forgive me Sir!"

The guard scoffs and rolls his eyes, but turns his back and walks away without another word. And good thing too. If he'd turned around to talk again, he would've noticed me sticking my tongue out, and that would've landed me into some real trouble. What? Just because I'm an excellent actress doesn't mean I enjoy bowing down for other people, even if it is just pretend. It's humiliating!

Unfortunately, my superb acting isn't going to be much help in actually finding Cress, Thorne and Dmitri. For that, I'm going to need to use logic. Bleh, boring, but necessary. Like school.

"Okay," I mutter to myself, "if I were looking for a prisoner, where would I look first…" I snap my fingers, "the dungeons!"

"What are you doing out here?"

I cringe and turn, trying to look as meek as possible for the scowling guard standing in the doorway.

"Servants like you shouldn't be sitting around idly when there's work to be done! Do you know the punishment for slackers here?" he continues.

I force myself to shiver in fear. "N-no Sir, I-I was just going to get cleaning supplies Sir, for the dungeons, Sir."

The guard raises an eyebrow. "You're going to clean the dungeons?"

Crap, they do clean the dungeons, right?" "Um, yes Sir, I was ordered to go down there and give the cells a quick clean."

"The Queen gave you this task?" He asks sceptically.

Okay, calm down Iko, you just need to do some improvisation. "Um, no Sir. It-it was… one of the nobility Sir! They were complaining about the smell and sent me down there to, um, "make it only a punishment for the disgusting criminals". Sir." I add. Hey, a little extra submissiveness can't hurt.

The guard frowns, still suspicious, but nods. "Fine. But if I hear any other complaints from the nobles about the dungeons, it will be you who suffers, Fairy."

I nod frantically. "Yes Sir, I understand Sir, thank you Sir."

Ugh, okay, it's official: "Sir" is now my least favourite word.

It doesn't take long for me to find the one problem in my plan: I have no idea where the dungeons are. I figured you just had to go downstairs a lot, but apparently you have to go down the right stairs, in the right order, otherwise you'll end up in the training barracks (now that was a situation that put my acting skills to the test). And I can't exactly ask for directions now, can I? I'm supposed to belong here, and people who belong here know their way around. At least, I assume they do. This place is so stupidly big, I wouldn't be surprised if they kept little pocket maps. Heaven knows I could use a pocket-

"Iko?"

I freeze in my tracks and turn around to stare at a familiar petite girl with incredibly long blonde hair.

A relieved grin spreads across my face. "Cress! Finally, I found one of you! I've been looking all over this stupid castle."

"It's nice to see you too, but what are you doing here?" she asks, "I thought you were out recruiting with Cinder and Scarlet."

"I was, but something came up, and your group's role has changed slightly." I explain, "Turns out, someone had been brought back with Kai, and they managed to escape. He's with Cinder and Scarlet right now."

Cress grins. "That's great! But what are we doing now, since Kai's not here?"

"Well, the someone who helped Kai escape got himself caught again, and now we kinda need to get him back." I tell her.

"Okay, should be simple enough. What does he look like?"

"It's Wolf."

Cress stares at me. "Wolf? Quiet, acts like he doesn't exist, tattoo and covered in scars Wolf?"
"The very same. Turns out, he's also a Lunar, and knows his way around the place a fair bit better than we do from what I can gather, and since he and Kai are sort-of friends now, we're bringing him into the plan." I smile conspiratorially, "Plus, I think there's something going on between him and Scarlet and I want some more info on that."

"Wolf and Scarlet?" Cress repeats sceptically, "Are you sure? It doesn't really seem like a match to me."

"Trust me, I know how to spot a couple, whether existing or in the making." I insist, "Like Cinder and Kai, for instance."

"Cinder and-?" Cress shakes her head, "Well, you keep up with this stuff more than I do, so I guess I'll just take your word for it."

I nod. "Good idea. Now, I don't suppose you know where Thorne and your dad are?"

Cress gestures to the floor. "Thorne went to check out the dungeons, and my dad's in the labs trying to figure out how much progress they've made with bioelectric protection."

I stare at her.

"The machines that let us stay in a different dimension without experiencing excruciating pain."

"Oh, right. All these sciency words just slip out of my brain." I say, "Now, do you have any idea where the dungeons are? I've tried going downstairs, but I couldn't find them."

Cress nods. "Yeah, they're just down the hall. You can tell it's the dungeons because it's the only staircase that isn't pristine and shiny."

"Perfect." I gesture down the hallway in a grand, sweeping motion. "Lead the way, Miss Moon."

I've discovered yet another inexcusable crime in Luna: the dungeons are disgraceful. And I don't mean, "a little bit more grimy than other places" disgraceful, I mean "has never even heard of proper living conditions" disgraceful. No wonder that guard was suspicious of my cover story. It's obvious that this place has never had any cleaners in it before. Rats run across the cobblestone floor, slipping in puddles of God knows what. The bars are rusty, and the only thing inside the cells are prisoners. Not even a bed. The only light comes from flickering electric overhead lights, the only sounds are the moans and groans of prisoners, or the militant footsteps of guards.

I hold my nose and look around. "It stinks in here! Do you think Thorne's gone in too deep?"
"Unfortunately yes." says a voice from right next to me, "And let me tell you, it doesn't get any prettier."

Cress leans around me and beams. "Thorne!"

He winks. "Hey Cress, Iko. What are you doing here?"

I quickly fill him in, keeping an eye on the other guards. It doesn't look like they'll be noticing anything out of the ordinary anytime soon though. They all look like they're on the verge of throwing up.

Thorne shrugs. "Well granted, I wasn't looking for him, but I didn't see Wolf in any of these cells when I was searching. But I did hear some gossip from the other guards."

"Ooh, I love gossip!" I squeal and clasp my hands.

"This isn't quite the same as high school gossip, you know that right?" Thorne asks.

"Yes, yes I know but I still want to hear it."

Thorne chuckles. "Some things never change, I guess, even when you're in another world. Well, from what I can gather the Queen's got herself a new prisoner and the guards aren't too happy with her verdict on him. Not like they'd say that to her face though, not unless they have some bizarre urge to stop breathing."
"That's got to be Wolf." Cress says.

"Right, only problem is, it sounds like the Queen ordered him to be taken to the dungeons." Thorne says.

"How is that a problem?" I ask, "Now we know where he is."

"It's a problem because, now I have to walk through this whole place again." Thorne grumbles.

"Iko and I can come with you if you want." Cress chirps.

I frantically try to signal to her to abort, but Thorne sighs in relief. "Great, if more than one of us suffer it might be so bad."

Mental note: give Cress a lesson on when and when not to offer help.

A/N: And here we have Iko, because she is a queen.

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