Somehow, Cress found herself sitting at the small table in the galley, staring across at Thorne and his new girlfriend, Mia Martinez. Apparently they'd been together for almost a week now, and they were both head over heels in love with each other.

Why would Thorne just drop Cress and run straight into the arms of that other woman? All the times he's told Cress he loved her, he would never leave her, that they would be together forever… did all those words mean nothing now? Had he been faking the whole thing?

Stop it, Cress chided herself. Don't think that way. It won't make you feel any better.

"So, Crescent," Mia Martinez said, smiling prettily at Cress. "What brings you to the Rampion?"

She wasn't sure how to answer that question. Should she lie, saying she stumbled upon the ship by mistake and thought it was hers? But Mia had already seen her embracing Thorne, and seemed to know exactly who Cress was and why she was there. Cress realized with a jolt that she had never told Mia Martinez her name, yet the woman somehow knew what it was.

"I- um. I was looking for Captain Thorne. He's um, he's a friend of mine." Cress hung her head, feeling so incredibly hopeless. My friend? Only that?

Mia cocked her head to the side. "I wasn't aware that Carswell was friends with you." She looked at Thorne and frowned, her concern as artificial as Iko's synthetic skin. "Did you know that you were friends with Crescent, darling?"

Thorne didn't take his lovesick eyes off his new "Girlfriend". "No. I've never met her. Who is she again?"

Cress could feel the tears coming again. Ten minutes ago, Thorne had come back from getting lunch and he remembered her. He knew who she was, he kissed her, spoke to her the way the old Thorne did, not the way this new one did, like she was some silly girl who didn't know what she was doing. Which she didn't.

The new Thorne had barely even looked at her the whole time they'd been sitting at the table. He'd either been staring at Mia like a eighth grade girl obsessing over a drama star, or kissing her hands, arms, and even strands of her hair. It was sickening to watch. Cress didn't know why Thorne was acting like that, and what Mia's presence had to do with it. She didn't particularly feel like finding out.

Cress leaned over the table, resting her head on her hands. She cried, hiding her face from Thorne and Mia, letting the tears drip onto the cold metal table. She was exhausted, depressed, and weary, and it was barely past noon. She didn't know what to do. She could go back to the palace, talk to Iko maybe, try and figure this thing out. But Cress couldn't make herself get up, or even lift her head off the table. She has in the galley and cried silent tears, listening and hating everything as Thorne continued to kiss Mia all over her body.

Eventually, Cress found the strength to get up. Her eyes felt scratchy and dry despite all the crying, and they were rimmed with red. Her chest hurt from catching sobs that tried to escape and forcing them back down. Every few breaths, her breathing hiccupped. She tried not to look at Thorne and Mia, though she could feel Mia's eyes on her as she made her way to the door.

Where should she go? Cress didn't want to go back to the palace and face Iko and Kai and Cinder, but she also knew she couldn't stay in the Rampion. As much as she would have liked to settle down in the captain's quarters with Thorne and sleep, she knew that wasn't an option.

By the time she made it to the ramp that led off the ship, Cress knew where she was going to go.

She walked out of the warehouse and past Phil in a daze, squinting when the bright sunlight assaulted her eyes. Cress could feel a headache coming on, a sort of dull ache behind her eyes that pulsed with pain at every step. She called a hover, which took her on a long but thankfully quiet ride. Cress had read about how in the second era, hovers had had wheels and were operated by people, not androids. If you wanted to be driven somewhere, chances were you'd have to deal with a chatty driver who asked too many questions and never shut up. Cress was glad that she wasn't in that situation, she didn't know how she would have reacted if a stranger had started to ask her about her day. Probably just break down and start crying again, she thought dejectedly.

.oOOo.

When Cress' hover arrived at her apartment, she swiped her wrist and clambered out. Her legs felt like overcooked spaghetti, but she managed to walk into the building and ascend the stairs.

The apartment that she had spent a week painting, cleaning, decorating, and shopping for was located on the second floor of the Spruce Grove Apartment Complex. It had a wonderful view of a courtyard full of spruce trees, and a small balcony facing east, so Cress and Thorne could watch the sunrise if they wanted to. Cress had painted the walls all different shades of blue and mint green, so every room felt like a different place in the world: the ocean, the sky, mountains and forests and prairies. On the ceiling of their bedroom, she had painted the stars as seen from New Beijing, delicate lines tracing constellations between them. The kitchen was spacious and old fashioned, but neither Cress nor Thorne had cared about the age of the appliances; it was a big step up from the galley on the Rampion. They had still payed a tribute to the ship though. Their apartment was number 214.

Cress pushed her key into the keyhole and opened the door, trembling when she saw that nothing had changed. The last time she had been here was almost two days ago, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since then.

She closed the door and collapsed on the couch, pulling the quilt that had been draped over the back across her body. She fumbled for the cushion that had somehow fallen on the floor and placed it beneath her head. Cress thought briefly about sleeping in the bed, but the thought of crawling under the sheets and drifting off to sleep while Thorne's arms were around someone else, not her, made her start crying again.

Finally letting herself cry properly, Cress pulled the quilt tight around her shoulders and cried herself to sleep.

When Cress awoke, it was dark outside. She sat up, glad that her headache had receded. Cress grabbed her portscreen from the floor where she had dropped it earlier that day, and checked the time. 6:52 PM. Below the time display was a row upon row of comms.

COMM RECEIVED FROM IKO AT 2:14 PM. DID YOU FIND THORNE?

COMM REVIEVED FROM IKO AT 2:36 PM. HOW'S IT GOING AT THE RAMPION?

COMM RECEIVED FROM IKO AT 2:41 PM. CRESS ARE YOU ALRIGHT?

COMM RECEIVED FROM IKO AT 3:03 PM. WHERE'S THORNE?

COMM RECEIVED FROM IKO AT 3:09 PM. CRESS WHERE ARE YOU.

Cress' port only showed her the first few messages, but it notified her that in addition to the ones she could see, she had received 21 more comms, most of them from Iko but a couple from Kai and Cinder as well.

Cress sighed. She should have let her friends know that she was heading home, and that she had found Thorne.

Thorne… She didn't want to think about him.

She read the rest of the comms, each one more distressed and anxious than the last. She responded to Iko's comms, letting her know that she had found Thorne, that he was alright, but her port had lost battery before she'd been able to get a hold of them, and that she'd decided not to overstay her welcome at the palace, so she'd gone to her apartment. She didn't tell Iko about Mia Martinez.

A few moments later, her port dinged with Iko's reply.

COMM RECEIVED FROM IKO AT 6:59 PM. GLAD YOU'RE OK! WANT ME TO COME BY YOUR PLACE TOMORROW MORNING?

Cress typed back: SURE. 10:00?

When her port dinged with Iko's enthusiastic reply, Cress didn't bother to look. She wandered over to the kitchen, wondering if there was anything left in the fridge. She pulled it open, but found only two bottles of water and an apple she'd forgotten to eat when she left last. Cress grabbed the apple and a bottle of water, suddenly realising how thirsty she was. She went back to the couch and sat down, wondering what to do.

She felt like she was in the most impossible situation, even worse than being trapped in the desert, or stuck on luna, or kidnapped. All of those times, she'd been able to do something, even if all it was walking aimlessly through the sand for days or hiding in a closet. Now, she wasn't faced with the immediate threat of death, just an unsolvable problem. All she could do was sit and think, and it didn't feel like enough.

How could this have happened?

The realization hit Cress so suddenly, it felt like a slap in the face. Of course, she was so obvious, with the new legalization of travel and immigration between Earth and Luna. The way Thorne had forgotten her as soon as he'd been near Mia. Why only Iko remembered her. The way Cinder seemed so shaken when that maid had come in wearing the glamour… How had she not thought of it before?

Cress leaped off the couch, running to the window of her apartment only to stare out at the street below.

So… Now what? She thought. It was getting late. She doubted Cinder and Kai would appreciate her showing up at the palace unannounced, babbling about lunars and brainwashing. They hadn't even known that one of their maids was lunar.

Cress slumped against the window sill, feeling defeated. It would have to wait until morning, when Iko came. She watched the hovers move by on the street below the apartment, the setting sun sending flashes of light glancing off their windshields and making the ordinary traffic look magical.

She sat at the window for several more minutes, gazing down at the traffic below and puzzling over her problem. Now that she knew the reason for her friend's forgetfulness, a million other questions popped into her head. Who was it? Why were they doing it? The more she thought, the less sense the situation made.

Cress sighed and pulled away from the window. She decided to do some research, maybe hack into the database that held the list of immigrated lunars or travellers.

Her rumbling stomach stopped her. Fine, she thought. No use hacking on an empty stomach.

.oOOo.

By the time Cress' food arrived, she had already plunked herself down in front of the netscreen and was beginning to access the Lunar and Earthen Immigration Organization's files. It wasn't hard.

Munching on sushi, her favourite comfort food, Cress scrolled through the list of names before her.

"Screen, search for surname Martinez."

7 RESULTS

Cress scanned through the list of Martinez immigrants. "Summer Martinez, Jackson Martinez, Angelica Martinez…" She muttered. "No Mia."

She asked the screen to search for Mias this time, and it came up with 19 results.

"Mia Morton… No Martinez." Cress grumbled in frustration. She leaned back, and began the search the hard way: looking for photos of the immigrants. Cress thought momentarily about programming some facial recognition software, but she remembered that she didn't even have a picture of Mia's face in the first place.

She began bracing herself for the tedious task ahead. For what felt like the millionth time since the satellite crashed, Cress wished she still had Little Cress. She could have gotten this job done in mere minutes.

Cress searched for photographic identification of all the immigrants, coming up with thousands of pictures. She narrowed it down to females under the age of forty and over the age of fifteen. After a while of looking through pictures of labour hardened faces and tired eyes, Cress added another command: aristocrat.

Mia Martinez was beautiful, and Cress knew that she was actually beautiful. Being a shell, glamours couldn't trick her. Cress didn't think someone with Mia's looks could have been a labourer in the outer sectors. Even if she was, most of the poorer lunar immigrants remained poor once they landed on Earth, making it difficult to obtain new clothes and fancy jewelry, along with makeup and hair products. Cress had seen some of the lunar aristocrats, and she knew with certainty that Mia was one of them. Her mannerisms and looks gave it away.

Cress looked through file after file of identification pictures, glancing at the ID numbers and status of each one. Most of the aristocrats had moved to earth because they didn't like the changes Cinder had made, such as ending the slave labour that had allowed the aristocrats to hold their lavish parties and live in their luxurious homes. Cress' nose wrinkled with distaste the more she looked at the list of immigrants, but none of them looked like Mia, or the even the maid she had seen at the palace.

Cress wondered if Mia Martinez had already been on earth when the immigration laws were changed, but she doubted that. Not many lunar aristocrats would have been anxious to leave their fancy lives in exchange for an illegal voyage to a judgemental and racist planet.

What, then? Mia had probably changed her name, or was using a fake one, but none of the pictures showed anyone resembling Thorne's new girlfriend. Cress supposed that Mia could have recently come to earth illegally, but what would be the point? Travel and immigration being legal, she didn't see any reason to come to earth undetected.

Unless…Oh. Cress thought. Quickly, she pulled up a document with the regulations for immigration and travel. She skimmed over the fine print until she found what she was looking for.

In order to travel or move permanently from Luna to Earth, the following requirements must be met:

Must be at least 17 years of age or accompanied by an adult.

Must be immune to or cured of letumosis and all other transmittable diseases.

Must have a clean criminal record.

Must have filled out forms 1a through 1d of the Lunar-Earthen travel agreement.

Must state motivation and purpose of travel.

Cress stopped reading. One bullet point stuck out at her as if it had been highlighted by glow-in-the-dark ink. Must have a clean criminal record.

Could Mia be a criminal? What about the maid at the palace? Cress' mind spun, trying to make sense of the information, to no avail.

She glanced at the time. It was nearly nine o'clock, but Cress didn't feel the least bit tired after her nap earlier. She continued to search through all the immigrant profiles, widening her search to allow lower class lunars and older women. She didn't think Mia Martinez was over forty, but plastic surgery was more available on luna than earth. For a wealthy lunar, it wouldn't be difficult to get surgery done to make one's face look ten years younger.

Cress thought about sending a comm to Iko, letting her know about her discoveries, but she decided to wait until morning. She was going to need a face-to-face conversation to explain everything that had happened.

.oOOo.

When Iko arrived the next morning, she found Cress slumped over the desk with an empty sushi tray in front of her. Iko poked her.

"Mmm… What?" Cress mumbled. "Whozzere?"

Iko laughed. "It's me, silly. I came over so we could talk?"

Cress sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and looking at Iko groggily. "Right," She said, yawning. "Sorry, I must have slept in-" She startled, the events of yesterday and the night before returning to her all at once. She had stayed up until four in the morning, hacking into different databases and files to find anything, anything, on Mia Martinez. She had found nothing. The woman didn't exist. Just like me, Cress thought.

Iko must have caught something in her expression, because she laid a hand on Cress' shoulder. "Cress… What happened at the Rampion?"

Cress sighed. She didn't want to explain the whole thing, but some small voice in her head whispered an old saying she'd read somewhere. A problem shared is a problem halved.

She started at the beginning: when she arrived at the Rampion. She told Iko everything about Thorne's memory returning briefly, Mia Martinez, and her search for how the woman got to earth.

Iko was still for a moment, letting the new information sink in. "So." She said, her eyes hardening with resolve. "We know that Thorne is being controlled by some creepy lunar lady, and we can't find a single trace of her on the net. What about that maid in the palace? Do you think the two are connected?"

"I'm not sure," Cress said. "I think so. It makes sense that they would be if Cinder and Kai had no idea she was there." She took a deep breath, knowing that saying it out loud would confront the problem, force her to face it. She could just pretend her name was Amelia Davis for the rest of her life, try to win Thorne's heart again, become friends with Cinder and Kai for the second time. Maybe they would all dismiss it as some strange shared dream when she'd spewed facts about their personal lives. But no. Cress knew she had to face it. She couldn't live with herself if she threw away her life because of some stupid lunars.

"Actually, Iko, they're definitely connected. There's at least two lunars, Mia Martinez and that maid. And they're brainwashing everyone I know to forget me."