"Are you sure that this plan will work?" Wolf asked Cress, who was typing at lightning speed on a computer they'd found in one of the lab areas. "I know he's dumb. But is he that dumb?"

Cress smiled to herself. "He's not necessarily dumb. He's just a love-struck fool. And with how much he loves me, he'd do anything to ensure my safety. You don't have to worry. He'll come looking for me. We won't have to go find him."

Wolf wasn't quite convinced. "What about your sister? Won't she try to stop him from looking for you. At the very least, she'd make sure he wasn't alone."

The idea only made Cress's smile grow. "She loves me, too. She'd got with him, but when she sees us transforming Carswell, she won't stop us. She wouldn't risk hurting me. Not when she just got me back into her life." She turned from her screen. "If it was Scarlet changing people, would you have the heart to stop her?"

Seeing her point, Wolf agreed to the plan. "I guess you're right. Then again, it's hard for you to not be," he admitted, realizing she was made for smarts and speed, not strength.

"Exactly," Cress agreed. She went back to hacking the palace's security. Wolf had an idea of what she was trying to do. It had something to do with the new security cameras Cinder had installed a few weeks before.

Surely enough, Wolf's hunch was correct, and several feeds from the cameras popped up on Cress's screen. One of the feeds was from the Great Hall, where Cinder and Iko were looking at portscreens and talking to groups of guards. Another feed was of the dock, where all of the ships and doors had been closed off.

Cress's favorite seemed to be of the hallway that was only a few corridors away from the labs. It had a wonderful view of Carswell and Goldinia getting closer, searching the rooms as they went along. What do you know? Cress was right all along.

"They have no idea what they're walking into," Wolf said. Knowing that both Carswell and Goldinia would be defenseless when they saw Cress, not knowing she was one of them. One of Scarlet and Wolf's pack.

And that whether they liked it or not, they would be too.

Wolf still hadn't figured out how Goldinia hadn't turned yet. Surely, the contact of Cadmar's teeth with Goldinia's bloodstream was enough to change her. If gave Wolf a horrible suspicion that Goldinia could somehow be immune to their cure.

That idea bred dozens more. Leaving Wolf to think that the bite Cadmar gave Goldinia to deliver her could have actually doomed Cadmar, and converted him back into the human he was before the contagion gave him bliss.

What had become of him? Wolf was left to wonder. If he'd been taken by Cinder and her guards, he could have easily fought his way out. But he hadn't. He was still gone, and made no attempt to contact the pack since his disappearance.

"Whatever is making my sister immune to our cure probably reversed it's affects when Cadmar bit her," Cress explained, knowing he was dwelling on it. "Which is why we need my sister. To find out why she is immune, and strip that from her. So she can be one of us."

Wolf nodded, and watched as Cress's loved ones drew closer. "Are you going to greet them?"

"That would be the practical approach," she said. "They don't know I'm of the pack, yet. We could use that to our advantage." The way Cress said it, it made their situation sound more like a game to her than a recruitment mission.

They needed Thorne to get to Cinder. He was their best chance at getting to the Lunar Queen, then the entire population of Luna. And after that, all of Earth as well.

Still, Cress was acting like this was a game. As if she was playing Chess with the Queen of Luna, acquiring her pieces and adding overpowering her. She would keep taking Cinder's pieces until she had none left, and took Cinder herself.

Leaving only the king, or in this case – the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth, standing in Cress's way to victory.

Though Cress was extremely intelligent, Wolf wondered if she was overestimating her powers. Or was she really that smart, and could calculate Carswell and Goldinia's moves so well before they even thought to make them?

While Wolf wasn't too sure about Cress's techniques, she was right about her sister and boyfriend. Both of them were searching for her, ushering themselves closer and closer into danger. Whether they had any clue what they were getting themselves into or not, Wolf had no idea.

But both of them were in for a surprise when they got there.

Cress stood up from her chair. "I'll go out to greet them. You and Scarlet should be close by, in case my sister suspects something is wrong."

Wolf nodded, and went to find Scarlet. She'd left a few minutes ago to secure the lab area and keep any stray guards from discovering them. And by keep them away, Wolf meant normal humans. If Scarlet saw any, they were fair game.

And stars have mercy on them if she found any.

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

Goldi wasn't sure what to think. The further they went, the more uneasy and tense the air around them became.

Then again, that could be because Carswell was her current travel partner. So far, Goldi hadn't been getting along too well with her sister's boyfriend. Though, she couldn't tell if it was her fault or not. No offense to her sister's choice in companion, but her boy friend was a dunce.

So far, he'd walked into a wall, started arguments with two doors that wouldn't open for him, and thought a thousand different items they'd encountered were clues. Clues that pointed to the location of Wolf and Scarlet.

Goldi was thinking more realistically. Which is what Carswell called "being a pessimist". She was only trying to think logically, and it usually had not-so-happy endings. Endings that Carswell didn't like much, as all of them involved them finding Crescent infected and trying to kill them.

Still, no one had seen her for an hour. Goldi and Scarlet had been alone for half that time, and they were attacked by both Wolf and Cadmar. To Goldi's dismay, she didn't think her little sister had much of a chance at evading Scarlet and Wolf for all the time she'd been missing.

All Goldi could hope for was Cinder finding the formula for Death's Rival and give it to anyone who's been infected.

"Do you have any idea where Crescent might be?" Goldi questioned, annoyed with Carswell's vagueness.

He rolled his eyes. "She has to be around her somewhere. This is the way you went right?"

Aghast, Goldi snarled, "You're basing your search on the way I went?"

"Well, yes," he said, not exactly regretting his stupid decision. "Isn't this the way you went?"

"No!" Goldi argued. "Scarlet and I went a completely different way to the labs. And why would she go there to look for me?! She had no idea I was even going there!"

"Oh, don't start yelling at me," he barked. "If it weren't for you, Cress would still by in the Great Hall and I wouldn't have to be down here with-" He cut himself off, but Goldi got the message. The word "you" was what he neglected to add. He didn't like her, and Goldi could say the same for her feelings about him.

"If you'd kept a better eye on her and made sure she didn't come looking for me, she'd still be in the Great Hall," she retorted.

This poked at his rage, turning his usual carefree and ignorant personality into a scowl and bent anger. At least this told Goldi that he was protective of Crescent, and cared deeply for her.

Yet, Goldi had done the math with her retinal scanner's calculator, and looked up Carswell's background. He was twenty-years-old.

Crescent was sixteen.

Sure, things had changed since the second era, and with the experiences they were going through, it was expected to get close to those you work with. After all, they managed a revolution. Still, Carswell was an adult, and Crescent was still technically a kid. A young adult if you will. They'd been through an entire revolution together, and Goldi knew both of them nearly died in their heroics.

What Goldi didn't know was if Carswell was truly a good person at heart. She tried to focus and find more background on him. What she got was his age, his involvement in the Lunar Revolution,

and his criminal record.

Goldi couldn't get the charges that had been put against him. After that, nothing came to her. She couldn't find the exact charges, or know if he was put in jail for violence or just being too stupid for how own good. This made Goldi less concerned about Crescent and Carswell's age difference and more worried about his criminal past.

Instead of dance around her fears, Goldi was outright with them. "What were you arrested for?"

He froze, a little confused at her question. Most likely because he didn't know how Goldi could have found out he had a criminal record. He recovered from this bewilderment soon after. "Your retinal scanner's working then, huh."

"I'd like an answer, Carswell," she replied.

He sighed, and got less peeved as he answered, "I stole a ship from the American Republic's Military. I was one of their cadets, but I deserted two years after joining."

Okay, Goldi thought. He wasn't arrested for violence or murder. That's good. "Why did you leave?"

"I never wanted to join in the first place," he admitted. "My parents ... they were very controlling. They forced me into things I hated because they knew best. My father made me join the military. So when I saw a ship that wasn't being guarded, I cut out my ID chip and ran."

At hearing controlling parents, Goldi instantly understood. You did what they told you ... at least, while they were looking. When their backs were turned, and they could do nothing to stop you, you took that chance. You ran like a bat out of Hell and didn't look back.

That's what Goldi discovered she was looking at right now. A man who was trying desperately to make his own path. To leave his old life behind. And Crescent must have been helping him to do that. Carswell wasn't on good terms with his family, and until today, Crescent didn't have family. They found comfort in each other.

Like Goldi found in Cad.

Suddenly, Goldi felt a bit warmer towards Carswell. That is, until her retinal scanner told her Thorne had been thrown into solitary confinement, enabling him to cross paths with Cinder. "Um." She gave him a quizzical look. "You were thrown in solitary?"

"For starting a rebellion in prison," Thorne told her. "To get the wardens to get us better soap."

This left Goldi more confused than she'd been before asking. "You started a rebellion in prison .. for soap?" She felt something rising up her throat. Her mind went to the conclusion she was going to throw up again. But when the object surfaced, it came out as a laugh. The first called upon several more, making her double over in abdominal pain.

Stars, this was the first time Goldi had laughed since .... since Cadmar left. Fourteen years ago.