Revamped!

[I'm back (for now-ish)!

I know it took a while but aside from university, this season was hard to plan because a lot happens. I'm almost done planning it (on the second-last arc now, as we speak). This season will be exciting for so many reasons to come. As for now, go take a glimpse of the last chapter just to get a refresher of the dreaded cliffhanger I left you all with.

Enjoy!]

[2020: Wow. I didn't make much progress planning since I'm only two chapters in the final arc.]

A Study in Scarlet: Part One

Ten years ago, a little French redhead left the country for the first time. She was all by herself with nobody knowing that she left and was arriving. She was a seven-year-old girl who barely knew English and was now standing in the English-dominant state of Commonwealth in The Earthen Union.

It was raining when she left France so she was wearing her bright yellow raincoat and matching rainboots. The hood has been on her head the whole time, even on the plane. She didn't want people to look at her and ask questions. All those people got to see if they tried to peep under the hood was her immense mess of red curls that were bigger than her head.

She stood in Commonwealth's airport with her backpack on her back. Anything she could fit in that backpack was all she brought. Everything else was useless. People would think that by the amount she packed, she was going back to Paris the same day but no, she was never going back.

At least, that's what she told herself.

She wasn't sure what would happen next.

Standing in the middle of Commonwealth's airport with no idea of what to do next made her think about jumping back on the plane, but she remembered the reason why she ran away and considered herself to be safer in the unknown than at home with her father. Did he even notice that she was gone or was he still unconscious from all the drinking? He was a few bottles in when she left so maybe he still is. Or maybe his drinking caused him to hallucinate and he was busy arguing with a vision of her absent mother.

She starts walking across the airport, unsure of where to go. She could barely understand the airport's signs. Her rubber boots squeak against the tiled floor so she slows her paces. She doesn't want to be caught by the scary looking men in official airport uniforms. If they see and question her, she could get sent back to where she came from which she doesn't want.

But she's smart about her moves. That was how she got away with leaving Paris at the start.

Other people who would pass her were always in a rush so she could hide behind their bigger bodies and suitcases. She would head the same direction to blend in with the crowd. When the flight attendant on the plane asked where she was going, she said she was heading to Commonwealth to visit her Grandmère and babbled about tomatoes until the flight attendant went to help another passenger. It wasn't a lie, per se, but she was grateful they didn't do a background check for that story and called her Grandmère to see if she was expecting her granddaughter. Maybe it was the freckles that got her off the hook for cuteness points. Why would a little child lie, they probably thought.

But in Commonwealth, she was on strange territory and didn't understand how the world worked here. Maybe lying children was the norm. Maybe freckles couldn't let her bypass anything.

Maybe she should've stayed in France…

She was disadvantaged due to language, but as her brown eyes looked around the airport, her eyes landed on a young couple walking to the other side of the airport. What stood out for her was that the young couple consisted of a brunette woman and a redheaded man. She made her way over to them, walking close enough that ongoing strangers would assume she was their daughter but far enough so if the couple were to turn around, they would think that she was heading the same way as them.

The moment she spotted the exit doors, she abandoned the couple and ran out. The automatic doors opened and she stepped outside, removing the hood of her raincoat and allowing her unruly curls to bounce out.

She got her first glimpse of Commonwealth and knew that she needed to work on her English.

-o-

Paris, France, The European Federation

In the French airport, Scarlet stands at the luggage carousel, standing impatiently as she waits for her suitcase to come around. The hood of her red sweatshirt covers the top of her head as sunglasses rest on the bridge of her nose, covering her eyes. Her combat boots tap restlessly from one to the other as she waits for her stupid suitcase to come around. She thinks that she should've brought a backpack. If it worked for her seven-year-old self a decade ago, it should work for her today.

Finally, her suitcase comes around and she grabs it instantly. Back in Commonwealth, she argued that it was small enough to be a carry-on but the airport didn't let it. Scarlet just let it be since she wasn't in the mood to complain over something as small as luggage size.

Scarlet turns on the heel of her combat boot and bolts straight for the exit. Her feet stomp against the shiny floor as she side-steps people in her way. She walks so fast that her suitcase dragging behind her looked like it was flying. She looks around at everyone to see if anyone was staring, but everyone around her was minding their business. No one spots her - not that she expected anyone to - but her skin crawls as she keeps her head down because she feels as if she's being watched. (Maybe that was why she was dressed as if she's hiding. She definitely looks like someone who's hiding things.)

Is she insane? Maybe, because she currently feels as if she has to hold whatever sanity she has left with both hands. But if asked, she would say she's angry at that stupid letter that came for her in the mail which resulted in her coming back to France. She hasn't been here since she left and wanted to keep it like that. Life's just testing whether she's weak or strong and now, Scarlet may look tough but she's terrified. It's better for her to see life as it is, not as she wishes for it to be. Things don't happen for a reason. They just happen and that was the worst thing she had to accept as a child: that nothing about her family was normal. She can't recall a time when she was a part of it and that nothing would ever change.

Scarlet walks through the opened automatic doors and looks forwards at Paris. For some reason, it looks the same and different at the same time. Instantly, she hears all the French and feels overwhelmed.

Sometimes, her conversations with her Grandmère had a few French statements, but there was a difference between that French and France French. The French with her Grandmère was diluted and this French was raw and organic. It was natural. As Scarlet started to speak more English in Commonwealth, she feared that she lost her accent. Her French in Commonwealth was French words with her Commonwealth accent if such an accent existed. It sounded as if French was her second language which she hated.

Then, there's the smell of nostalgia. It almost brought her back to when she ran away from France as a little girl. The cigarette smoke mixed with various colognes and exhaust fumes from cars was pleasant to her. If there was alcohol in the air as well, it would've reminded her of the home she ran from. Luckily, there was no drinking anywhere nearby except the airport bar which was too far for her senses to pick up.

She loves her country. She loves France. Being French was as much a part of her as breathing was. But now, under her current circumstances, it feels like a nightmare she can't wake up from since it was real. Her whole body screams from tiredness but she can't put herself to sleep - not now, at least.

"Oh, mes étoiles…" She mutters as she raises her hand in the air to call a cab.

Moments later, a cab pulls up and Scarlet gets in the backseat with her suitcase. The cab driver turns around to look at her.

"Où aller ?" He asks her.

Scarlet exhales. Unlike a decade ago, she has no idea where she's going.

-o-

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

Meanwhile, back in Commonwealth, municipal elections are back on. After the sudden loss of Mayor Rikan, there was a brief interim period where Torin was the acting leader with Levana by his side since they were both Rikan's top aides. Now, election season is officially back and Torin was on the ballot to finish what Mayor Rikan intended on doing for the city. Also, Kai wears sunglasses wherever he goes because there have been many instances where reporters would approach him and ask for his opinion on Torin's campaign and/or the opposition.

Kai walks into school with his shades on. He doesn't remove them although everyone knows it's him nor do they care about asking him any political questions. Sometimes, he forgets he's wearing them.

"You look stupid," Cinder says as she rips them off.

"I thought I looked like a badass," Kai says, raising his chest a little.

"You were wearing them to hide," Cinder says with a small cringe in her voice. "What's so badass about that? You looked more like a bad ass rather than a badass."

Kai glares at her. He walks into class instead of answering her question. Cinder laughs to herself as she makes it to her desk. She looks over at her friends and sees them all on their phones. She leaves them alone as she slides into her desk, throwing her backpack on the floor as their teacher approaches them.

"You students are close with Scarlet Benoit," she says as if it's a question she already knows the answer to. Cinder, Cress, Kai, Thorne, Wolf, and Winter all look up from their phones and nod at her. "Do you know where she is?"

Their reactions are a mix of shrugs and head shaking. They know that Scarlet went out-of-town to drop her Grandmère somewhere. That was two days ago. From that point on, Scarlet wasn't answering any of their calls or messages - in their group chat or private chats. Their only assumption is that there's no service wherever she went, but that was a stretch since even the messages sent over WiFi weren't being responded to.

The teacher nods. "Alright. I only asked because the office informed me that she hasn't been calling in her absences."

"You're supposed to do that?" Thorne asks.

The teacher can't tell if he's being sarcastic or serious because, with Thorne, it could be both and it probably was. Instead, she ignores his question and heads back to the front of the class to start. But before that, the group turns around to face each other.

"Where the stars is Scarlet?" Winter asks, primarily looking at Wolf for an answer.

"Don't look at me," Wolf says. "I know as much as you do."

"She isn't even answering you?" Cress asks.

Wolf shakes his head with a worried expression. They're scared for Scarlet. The last thing that happened to her was her pregnancy scare, the letter from her father, his arrest, and now she's gone. Those events were all too serious and too close to one another in terms of time to be another coincidence.

"Well, if she was just with her grandma, she would've told us if she was still there," Cinder says. "I say we visit her house."

"Or The Rampion," Kai says. "We should split up after school."

"Alright," Wolf states. "Let's pick drivers and cars, and we'll go."

[How was that for a first chapter back?]