Four days later.
Cress walked back to her apartment after getting some food and supplies, hurrying to get inside before it started raining. The sky was a malevolent shade of dark gray, and the sidewalk was already peppered with the first drops of rain, indicating an oncoming storm.
She managed to get inside the building just as the storm started, big, heavy drops of water splashing on the ground outside the door. Cress stopped for a moment at the base of the stairs, watching the rain fall. It was strangely peaceful, even with the hovers whizzing by and the harried pedestrians rushing by with their arms over their heads.
She turned and walked up the stairs. She reached her apartment (she had stopped thinking of it as hers and Thorne's, simply hers.) and entered, placing her grocery bags on the kitchen table. Removing her light jacket, she turned and re-entered into what had been her world for the past four days. The living room was an absolute catastrophe. Cress had the two new netscreens on and displaying news, confidential files of immigrants, palace staff, and missing persons reports. Each screen was changing constantly; the new software Cress had programmed doing its job while she was out.
Cress stood for a moment, regarding each screen and the information it displayed. Since Kai had discovered that Yué Zéi was missing, Cress had learned about no other missing person reports, not even any alleged suicides or untimely deaths. If there were any more imposters in the palace, Cress couldn't find them. Yué Zéi was still reported missing, and when Cress had commed Kai, he'd told her that the maid hadn't shown up to work in three days. Her case was now active and on the news every day, the palace maid who went missing without a trace. The authorities had so far found no evidence of foul play, and neither the police nor any of the family members had received a ransom note. Yué Zéi's identity chip had been tracked and found in her locker at the palace. The press hadn't said it outright, but it was clear that most of the detectives and investigators had already ruled it as a suicide, or perhaps she simply wanted to start over with a new life.
Cress knew that was an absolute lie. Scarlet had told her that those words were exactly what the Toulouse police had told her about her grandmother's disappearance, which led to Cress investigating the Lunar wolf soldiers all over again, just to check. She knew that most of the packs had been apprehended by Earthen military and police forces, but at the end of the revolution there was still a few packs that had remained, the Earthen leaders believing that the packs were too diminished and scattered to be much of a threat. Still, Cress checked them out, and came to the same conclusion. Not including Wolf, there was estimated to be under 15 rogue Lunar Soldiers on Earth. Since the end of the revolution, nine of them had been taken into custody.
Cress sighed, the full force of her hopelessness hitting her once again. Four days of nonstop research and hacking, and she had turned up nothing helpful. Nothing. Only more questions.
She hadn't been back to the Rampion since she went the last time, and any comms she sent Thorne in a brief moment of hope were either ignored or responded to with a curt "Stop comming this ID number." or, "Who are you? Stop comming me."
Almost worst of all, Cinder was still sick. Kai had been forced to hold a press conference earlier that morning to let the world know that his fiancée, Lunar Ambassador Selene Blackburn, was ill with an unknown disease. One small glimmer of hope, Kai had said, was that she had tested negative for letumosis, and all other deadly diseases. "So she isn't sick with anything we know can kill her," Kai said, "But we don't know anything about what is making her sick, and whether it is fatal. Therefore, I regret to inform you all that the royal wedding will be postponed until Selene is well and healthy."
Cress was pretty sure at first that what was making Cinder sick was the Lunar maid in the palace, but now that maid had apparently left, and still Cinder stayed in bed all day and talked only to Kai. Now, Cress was starting to doubt her theory. She'd seen Cinder under mind control, and she knew that this wasn't the same. In the throne room with Levana, the most powerful Lunar, Cinder had been able to resist, even fight back. Her cyborg brain had saved her more than once, letting her record the footage of Levana and take control of her instincts. But whatever that Lunar maid had done to Cinder, if she even did anything, it was seriously messing with Cinder's mind and body. From the comms Iko and Kai sent, Cinder's condition worsened with every day, and Kai and Iko were going out of their minds with worry.
Cress had no idea how to help Cinder, no idea how to fix her friend's memory, no idea how to get Thorne back.
She was stuck. After only four days, her solo research-and-solve mission had ground to a halt.
She groaned and flopped down on the couch. What now? She had exhausted every option open to her. She couldn't return to the palace empty handed.
All of a sudden, Cress sat up. How could she have forgotten about her other friends, Winter, Jacin, Scarlet, and Wolf? She leapt off the couch, flying to the kitchen table where she had left her port.
Her heart in her throat, she sent a series of short comms, all light and breezy, hinting at nothing amiss. She could only hope… maybe they would remember her, or at least give her a clue as to what was going on.
Stars, she thought. I could really use a clue right now.
.oOOo.
Scarlet returned to the house after a long morning of making deliveries around town. Looking forward to a quiet lunch with Wolf before getting the afternoon chores done, she kicked off her muddy boots and started pulling out ingredients for bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.
Wolf came in from working in the fields and caught her with a hug from behind.
"Wolf!" she exclaimed, turning around to face him and laughing.
His green eyes looked back at her, shining with mirth and mischief. "What's for lunch?"
"Tomatoes," she replied simply, turning around once again to continue making the sandwiches. She laughed as his hands stayed looped around her waist and he leaned his head on her shoulder. She was about to ask Wolf to pass her a knife to cut the bread when her port dinged with a comm.
Extracting herself from Wolf's arms, she retrieved her port from her back pocket. Just as she was turning it on, Wolf's own port dinged with the same sound.
Simultaneously, they checked their portscreens. Both read the same message, from some unknown ID number.
COMM RECEIVED FROM UNKOWN ID #38529164: HEY! APARTMENT'S ALL FINISHED! CARE TO COME TO THE CITY IN 2 DAYS FOR A HOUSE WARMING PARTY?
Scarlet and Wolf looked at each other, confusion etched on their faces.
"Do you know who that is?" asked Scarlet.
Wolf just shook his head.
"Huh." Scarlet shrugged. "Weird," she said, slipping her port back in her pocket and reaching for the knife again. Something tickled the back of her mind, like someone had opened up her skull and was brushing her brain with a paintbrush. She knew someone who was moving into an apartment, didn't she? Someone who lived in a city, maybe the same city that Cinder and Kai lived in?
A knock startled her, and the paintbrush on her mind disappeared. Wolf went to answer the door. Scarlet went about cutting up the tomatoes.
"Hey, Scarlet! D'you mind if Pierre eats lunch with us?" Wolf yelled down the hallway.
She debated the ingredients before her, then decided she had enough for herself, Wolf, and their new farmhand Pierre. "Not at all!"
Pierre had been a blessing to the both of them. Scarlet had been reluctant to purchase any new android workers, as they were much more expensive and harder to maintain. Pierre had come along asking for a job, and she and Wolf had immediately taken to the man. He was a hard worker, great with animals, and he got along well with the townsfolk in Rieux.
Wolf came back into the kitchen and put a pot of coffee on. Pierre followed him in, smiling in greeting at Scarlet.
Pierre was a smaller man, probably around five-foot nine, but when Wolf was around he looked almost like a child. He had strong features, a sharp chin and jet black hair, which he always covered with a bandana tied like a headband around his forehead.
"Well, Pierre, how are the crops doing this fine morning? All is well I presume?" Scarlet set down three plates on the table, two of them occupied by only on sandwich. Wolf's plate had three.
"Oh yes. The haying will be done soon, and then we'll be getting ready to butcher!"
"Great." Since the revolution, Scarlet had gradually become less and less involved with the day to day workings of the farm. Though she still had her fair share of chores and duties, Wolf and Pierre were mainly in charge now. Scarlet ran deliveries and mostly handled the business side of things.
From her pocket, Scarlet's port dinged. Wolf's port echoed hers. She slid it out of her pocket, surprised when the same ID number popped up.
COMM RECEIVED FROM UNKOWN ID #38529164: THORNE AND I WELCOME YOU! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COME ANYTIME IN THE AFTERNOON. WE PROMISE FOOD AND DRINK!
Scarlet stared at her port, her half-eaten sandwich forgotten in one had. She did know someone in New Beijing who had recently moved into an apartment. With Thorne. Someone who knew Thorne well, someone she knew.
She looked up, and saw the same troubled expression on Wolf's face she was about to ask him a question when she noticed Pierre's face. For someone eating a sandwich, he seemed to be exerting an awful lot of energy. Enough to make his hands shake and his face turn red.
Scarlet looked back down at her port. The words she saw sparked no memory in her at all. She assumed it must have been a wrong number. There were plenty of Thornes in the world, she reasoned.
Wolf dropped his port on the table and went back to devouring his second sandwich.
.oOOo.
Jacin walked slightly behind Winter, much to her dismay. He was now the captain of the Ambassadorial Guard, and since Winter was a Lunar Ambassador, it made sense for him to be following the rules. But for the star's sakes, would it kill him to walk beside her for once?
"Jacin," Winter whined. "Please? No one will see."
He glanced knowingly at her; they'd had this conversation many times over. "It's not about who will see, Winter, it's about your safety."
Winter sighed. It was always about her safety. She was in far less danger now that she wasn't a princess anymore, but Jacin still insisted upon acting as her personal guard. Even though she didn't have personal guards anymore. Sometimes she wondered if he was simply doing it for old time's sake, or to play a prank on her. At least he called her Winter, not Princess or Ambassador or something equally annoying.
"Fine, then." she said, stopping abruptly. Jacin kept walking, noticing too late that she had stopped. She slipped her hand into his and picked up her pace again.
"Hey! That's not fair!" He laughed.
Winter smiled. So it was a joke then. For a few more minutes, they walked along together, fingers interlaced. The outer sectors weren't exactly pretty, but they had improved incredibly since Cinder had taken over, and they were now a rather pleasant place to be. When Cinder had been Queen, she'd bought nearly a thousand androids of different uses, all for the outer sectors. It gave the labourers a chance to rest and enjoy having shorter shifts. She increased the rations of food given to each family, and had started a work project to build new homes for those in need. The people in the outer sectors still looked tired, but less hopeless and sad. Travel to Artemisia had been opened and families vacationed there when they could, marvelling at the beauty of the white city. The streets of the outer sectors were now brighter, happier places, with children running and playing in the streets. Even if she was only there to oversee the monthly checkup, Winter always enjoyed her visits.
When she and Jacin were nearing the main warehouse in Sector TM4, Winter felt her port vibrate from where it was stowed in the hidden pocket in her dress. She pulled it out and saw that someone had sent her a comm. (Winter loved her port. Kai had given her and Jacin one each, and she found it much more useful than the silly holograph nodes on Luna.)
COMM RECEIVED FROM UNKOWN ID #38529164: HEY! HOW ARE YOU DOING?I HAVEN'T CHECKED IN IN A WHILE, JUST THOUGH I'D LET YOU KNOW THAT THE APARTMENT'S ALL DONE! WE MOVE IN TOMORROW!
Winter smiled. The ID number didn't say who it was for some reason, maybe it had malfunctioned, but she was sure the comm was from Cress.
"Look, Jacin! Cress and Thorne are moving into their apartment tomorrow! Isn't that wonderful?"
Jacin gave her a look Winter recognized as the same one he used when she was having an episode, or just being… crazy. But that was before she'd gotten the bioelectricity barrier. He hadn't given her a look like that in two years. "Who's Cress?" He asked.
Winter let out a laugh. "Come on Jacin, don't be that way."
Hs scowl deepened. "What way?"
"Pretending you don't know who our friends are – way."
"Look, sorry I didn't know that Thorne finally found a steady girlfriend. I don't tend to pay much attention to his love affairs."
Winter dropped Jacin's hand. "Um, what? Do you seriously not know who Cress is? That's a pretty mean joke, Jacin."
"What in the stars are you talking about, Winter? I've never heard of this "Cress" before today!" He made air quotes with his hands.
Winter stared him down. "You're telling me you don't remember the girl who was imprisoned in a satellite for years, who you flew Sybil Mira to go see countless times, who you hid in your room for weeks during the revolution? Thorne's girlfriend? My friend? Iko's friend?"
Jacin shook his head, looking mystified.
Winter tried a different tactic. "Okay, then. Short blonde hair, big blue eyes, freckles, and short." she said. "Really short," she added as an afterthought.
Jacin scowled. "No, Winter. I've never met her, or even heard of her before. How long have she and Thorne been together? Last I heard he was dating some Spanish girl name Mia… something?"
Winter huffed. "I don't believe for one minute that you don't know who Cress is. You and Thorne must have rigged up some cruel prank." She typed out a quick reply to Cress, congratulating her on the apartment. After a moment's hesitation, Winter decided to send Cress a comm later to ask if everything was alright. Maybe she and Thorne were having relationship problems and somehow Jacin knew about it?
"Come on. We have work to do." Grabbing Jacin's hand, she led her very baffled boyfriend into the warehouse.
.oOOo.
Cress stared at her port, not wanting to put it down for fear of missing a comm. She almost laughed at the how silly it felt. She was acting like a melodramatic teen in a second era drama like the ones she used to watch during her long hours imprisoned on the satellite.
She had commed Scarlet and Wolf first, so she wasn't expecting it when Winter's reply was the one she received.
COMM RECEIVED FROM WINTER AT 2:14 PM: THAT'S WONDERFUL! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU AND THORNE! JACIN AND I COULD PROBABLY GET AWAY SOON FOR A HOUSEWARMING PARTY...
Cress' heart leaped in her chest. Winter knew who she was! She remembered her! Cress had a few moments of relieved joy when she remembered… Winter knowing who she was gave her one more clue to think about. And the more she thought about it, Cress couldn't figure out how it fit.
Winter was on Luna, and she remembered. Scarlet and Wolf were in France, and it seemed like they didn't remember, or else they were ignoring her comms. Iko remembered her, she was in New Beijing. Kai and Cinder didn't, they were also in New Beijing. Thorne… well, suffice to say he didn't remember her either. He probably hated her by now, with all the annoying and unrelenting comms she'd been sending him.
Cress growled in frustration. She just kept going in circles. No matter what clue she thought she'd found, it always ended up making the situation worse, not better. The four days she had spent on her won, trying to fix her problem had been mostly a waste of time and energy on her part. She wasn't any closer to finding out what happened to her friend's memories, Cinder was still sick, and Thorne was still head over heels with hos mockingly beautiful new girlfriend.
Cress felt so hopeless, she had almost begun to start believing that they didn't know her. Despite the two people that claim they do, Cress still spent a significant amount of time wondering if she was the crazy one. Maybe she was still stuck on her satellite, and she had become so engrossed in watching and reading the news about the revolution that she thought she was a part of it. Maybe her whole relationship with Thorne had simply been another fantasy dreamed up on the long nights hiding from Luna under her desk. Or maybe she had been found and taken to a mental institution because she was so delusional over fantasies of a whirlwind adventure and romance that she wholly believed had happened to her. Maybe her real name actually was Amelia Davis.
A noise from her port startled her out of her depressing daydream. She sighed and picked it up, seeing that it was a request from Winter to voice comm. She pressed accept.
Winter's face pooped up on the screen. Instead of her usual playful smile and warm eyes, her features were distorted with worry.
"Cress! Are you alright? Is anything wrong?"
Cress' voice died in her throat. Absolutely everything was wrong. But how did Winter know?
"Uhm, Winter what do you mean?" Cress asked, her voice warbling.
"I can see very clearly that something is wrong. Did something happen with Thorne? Did he play a prank on you?"
"What? No… Winter what do you mean?" Cress was reluctant to spill the whole story to Winter right away, she wanted to make sure that Winter would believe her first.
"Jacin said something…" she paused, seemingly thinking about how to phrase her next words. "We were walking to the main warehouse of TM4 when I received your comm. It didn't show your name, just your ID number, so I think something went wrong with my port. But anyway, when I told Jacin about it, he pretended that he didn't know who you were. He said that Thorne was dating some girl named Mia, and that he'd never heard of you before. I thought it must be a prank, but then-"
Cress cut her off. "No, Winter, it's not a prank." She sighed, settling herself down on the couch. "I'll explain everything."
Over the next hour and a half, Cress explained her whole problem to Winter, who's face became more and more concerned with every sentence Cress spoke. When she finished, Winter looked at her strangely.
"Cress. I think you need to relax a little. It's making it harder for you to think. You missed something very important."
Cress felt her anger rising. Relax? How could she relax when this is happening to her? She was just about to get mad at Winter for suggesting that she needed to relax when Winter's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Cress," she said gently. "Stop for a moment and think about who remembers you. You're a shell. Iko's an android. I have the bioelectricity barrier. None of us can be controlled."
Cress felt like screaming in frustration. "I know that already! Iko and I were talking about it four days ago-"
Oh.
Winter smiled knowingly. "I think you've got a much bigger operation on your hands than you thought. It wouldn't make sense to have only one Lunar maid, she couldn't brainwash Cinder and Kai and the whole staff of the palace into thinking that they've never seen you before. There must be more. If Jacin doesn't remember you, then I'm betting there's some Lunars working against you that are up here too."
Cress remained silent. It made sense. She sat for a moment, thinking about the implications of everything Winter had just suggested.
"But," Winter said cheerfully. "Your apartment is done! I simply must come see it. I'll be there in two days. I'll have to make up some official reason for coming, but mark my words I will be there! Goodbye, Cress, see you soon!"
Winter disconnected the call, leaving Cress to stare at her blank portscreen, thinking.