After the event of "Winter", Cinder is queen, and is left to help pick up the piece of the war that ruined the entire palace. While she is cleaning up the carnage of the bloody battle, she uncovers many secrets that Levana kept from the rest of the world. Include one that the world had forgotten. One that would prove that Dr. Erland left more behind than just his work.

(Chapter 1)

"What exactly did you find?" Cinder asked the Thaumaturge. She was being walked down the halls of the prison she was once held in during the revolution. Now, she was having people do renovations so that it could be turned into a prison that could be sanitary and suitable for human, or any kind of life.

"It was a room, locked to anyone who wasn't part of a special group of scientists and a handful of people loyal to Levana. It's probably been there for as long as Levana was ruling. Maybe longer."

"Yes, I know this. But what was in the room?" Cinder insisted.

Thaumaturge Drake held his tongue, which meant whatever it was, wasn't pretty.

Cinder trudged on, in her regular cargo pants and tank top, which was against her adviser's wishes. Mainly Iko's. Still, there was no way she was going to be found in a poofy dress.

As she made her way to the door, more and more people clustered around in the halls. But no one was really moving any closer to the door. It was as if they were too frightened to get any closer. Not a moment after noticing this, a wave of nausea crashed over her. And from the look on the Thaumaturge's face, they too were having the same feeling.

"What is in that room?" Cinder demanded.

Leaning against the wall, the Thaumaturge replied, "We think that it's a lunar. But we have no idea who it could be. And if it is a lunar, their glamour is so strong that no one can open the door. The thing inside is forcing anyone out here to keep the door closed. We thought that because your glamour is so strong, that you'd be able to withstand it."

At first, she would have said it was a good idea. That was, until getting too close to the room caused her to feel sick to her stomach. Still, Cinder trudged on to the room where said person was being kept. If their glamour was this strong, it could be bad news for anyone who went near them.

The closer she got, the more intense the feeling became. The only thing driving her forward was the fact that whatever this was, it was dangerous, and could potentially hurt others. So whatever it was, she had to deal with it before it could become a potential disaster.

Only a few feet away from the door, and the feeling in her mind was almost unbearable. The chip in the back of her head was starting preventative measures, finally. In 3 .. 2 .. 1 ...

The sickening feeling lifted from her like a fog. All at once, the weight of an anvil was lifted off her head, she could breathe in fully, and her heart rate began to calm. All while the Thaumaturge that was behind her was on the verge of throwing up.

Cinder followed the trail of seemingly sick lunars down to the farthest room from the stairwell. The man closest to the door was holding his head in his hands and kneeling on the floor, muttering to himself.

Whatever was in that room was making people sick and giving them insanity. Or whoever. Cinder soon became glad that she could resist the power of glamours with her chip.

On the door, there was a sign next to the button that opened the door. It read,

Prisoner #1987:

Enter with extreme caution.

Okay, so the thing in there was a prisoner. Maybe whoever was in there was deterring people because they were scared. Or, a device in there was sending out a signal to trigger emotions and reflexes. Either way, it was putting people in pain, and had been for almost a week now. It needed to end now.

Cinder's hard metal fist pounded the button and the door slowly creaked open.

The room was so dark, more so than a night sky. The light from the hall did little to brighten the room. And the stench, it made Cinder's nose burn with disgust. There must have been a dead body in there somewhere, or something close. She reached around for a light switch, and found on. But there was a long gash that ran through the wall that split it in half.

And Cinder never even considered the possibility of the thing in here being armed.

A croaking voice strained, "Get out."

Again, Cinder had no idea where the voice came from, and didn't even know how bis the room was. Only that something was in here with her, most likely a glamour-using Lunar.

"Leave me alone," the voice added.

The flashlight in her finger activated, forming a circle of white on the floor. Scanning it around the room, Cinder found several things. The first being scratches in the wall, uneven and in groups.

The days they've been here, cinder though. But there were hundreds spanning across an entire part of a wall. Even so, Cinder got the feeling this person had been here even longer than that.

She also saw her own reflection in wall, then in the floor. This room was like a cage of metallic mirrors. Why a prison cell would be like that, Cinder had no idea. Levana had despised mirrors almost as much as her. So why would she have a prison cell in her palace made out of them?

"Leave," the voice demanded. It was louder, as Cinder was growing nearer to the opposite end of the room.

The second thing Cinder noticed was the lengthy tube attached to the far wall that ran against it. Some kind of liquid was inside, being fed through the tube. She allowed her finger/flashlight to trace it down the wall to see the other end.

That's brings her to the third thing she saw. A bag of that liquid on a long rod, like in a hospital, that was connected to and I-V.

And at the end of that was a figure on the floor. It was hard for Cinder to see exactly what the figure looked like because it's shape – well, part of it – kept flaring with static and shifting in and out of existence. Mainly the left arm, right leg, left side of the face, and the right side of her torso.

Yes, she could tell this person was a girl because the definite part of her face that Cinder could see was very feminine, she had a figure, and her long hair reached the floor.

Finally, the static cleared up and Cinder could vaguely make out what this person looked like. Long blond hair, pale skin, bruised body. It kind of reminded her of someone.

The woman held a hand in front of one eye, glaring at the floor. Parts of her body shivered with static in Cinder's vision. Then, the woman said something even more confusing than her wanting Cinder to leave.

"Kill me...." she whispered. All at once, the static cleared, and Cinder could see the woman clearly. The arm, the leg, and the part of her side she thought she saw – all of them were gone. The most frightening part was that her eye wasn't ... there.

It was just a hole in her head, an extra gap in her skull. Cinder couldn't see inside the hole, and she was very grateful for that. But, it was so disturbing, so ... inhumane, to leave someone like this.

Just something Levana would do.

"If you want to help me, just kill me," she repeated. The side of her torso that had been flickering wasn't there either. It was just more of a curve to her side with scars and stitches. But she wasn't skinny or frail like she should be. Her body was almost completely normal – minus the missing body parts. It was odd that she was in such good condition.

"What are you waiting for?" she nearly growled. She gave Cinder the stink eye. Literally, because she only had one eye. It was a beautiful blue, that didn't quite make up for the dark rims around it or how narrowly her eyelids closed over it. Cinder could have sworn she'd seen that same shade of blue before this. Where had she seen it?

Cinder stepped a bit closer to her, seeing how angry this woman was. She seemed older than she looked, just by the way she held herself together. Cinder guessed it was from the time she'd spent in this room. Which reminded her-

"How long have you been here?"

The woman growled back, "Does it matter?" She pushed herself closer against the corner of the room. "Just get it over with."

Another step from Cinder irritated the woman. "Another step and I'll drive you insane," she threatened.

For a moment, Cinder remembered the feeling she had when her hand and foot were gone while she was in prison after the Ball. It felt like a piece, or rather, several pieces of her were gone. Like a missing weight or a phantom pain. How long had this woman felt that, if she ever had?

"I'm not here to kill you," Cinder announced. "But are you the one making all of the people sick outside?"

The woman groaned, "Maybe."

"Why?"

The woman's head fell, letting her waist long hair fall to cover her face. She was wearing a sports bra type top and short shorts. Neither of which appeared clear or new.

"Levana just wants them to torture me," she sighed.

"She's dead," Cinder blurted. If the woman was surprised, she didn't show it. Her only response was-

"I don't care. Just let me die," she said hoarsely.

It was like watching a wounded pup begging to be put down. Painful and heart-wrenching to watch. There was no way Cinder was going to kill her. But she had to get this poor woman out of this room. And it didn't seem like she was going to come willingly, or could. Slowly, Cinder uncovered the dart in her finger and aimed it at her. For a second, the woman relaxed, probably thinking that she was about to die.

So Cinder shot her, and watched as she drifted into unconsciousness. The distant groaning Cinder had forgotten about in the hall went silent.

"I need some help in here," Cinder shouted out the hall. Three Thaumaturges rushed into the room to carry the woman out. One twisted the I-V out of her wrist. After, all three carried her out, turning their noses to avoid the smell.

Cinder couldn't help but feel sympathy for her. She knew what it was like to have missing limbs. But not what it felt like to live through the pain of after they were gone. Cinder couldn't even remember that time. This woman wasn't even in a stasis chamber. Her wounds weren't fully healed.

Maybe that's why she wanted to die. Because the pain was too much for her.

Or the memories that came with it were even worse.

................

Cinder watched from the other side of a glass wall as doctors surrounded the woman. It had been hours since she got those people to bring her here. Now, under Cinder's orders, she was being measured for cybernetic prosthetic.

She just hoped that she would be okay with the fact that she wasn't dead.

Iko had found out about the situation and commed the others. Since all of them were in different corners of the world, it would take them a while to get here.

And yes, Iko had asked them all to come, against Cinder's wished. They didn't need to be here. They didn't need to see this poor woman in pain.

"Queen Selene," a guard said. "The technicians have fixed the prison cell's light system. You can go back and see it now."

Without another word, she walked her way down the winding halls of the palace. Passing other guards and servants. She despised the fact that after everything, these people still wanted her to be their queen. But she couldn't argue that they didn't want change.

When Cinder got to the room, the entire place was lit up. There were even more scratches on the wall than those she saw when she first came into the room. Not to mention the odd, five-inch think border at at the top of the wall, against the ceiling. Almost like one massive speaker.

What Cinder couldn't figure out was how a woman with one arm, eye, and leg could carve so many scratches into a metal wall. And what had she used to do it? Or what did she use to slice the light switch in half? And if she had a weapon or blade that could do that, why didn't she use it on anyone or to get out?

Oh yeah, because she only has one leg.

Then her immensely powerful glamour came into play. She made everyone within a thirty-foot radius of the room either start going insane or to the point of hurling. If she could do that, why not try to manipulate someone into getting her out?

Stars, this whole things was giving Cinder a migraine the size of the E.C. So many questions left unanswered. And she'd have to wait until that woman woke up after her surgeries to ask for those answers.

(AN: Hi guys! I hope you liked this. I don't really know if I should continue this, so please tell me if I should or if you liked it. I also invite you to make any guesses you have about who the woman could be. But if you want me to continue posting this, please let me know. BYE!!!)