Thorne and Patroclus rushed to Wolf after he fell unconscious. Wolf's eyes hadn't shut fully, yet the two knew he was out cold. The giant Lunar was unresponsive and motionless.

"In hindsight, we probably should have brought something to carry him back to the Great Hall in," Patroclus suggested.

Thorne couldn't help but agree. But in hindsight, Thorne thought Wolf would have possessed some energy after taking the injection. Cadmar had. Spades, Cadmar had enough energy to run from Wolf and Scarlet while carrying Goldi on his arm.

And Wolf just passed out? Thorne began to think Wolf wasn't as strong as he thought.

"Well," Thorne shrugged. "Grab a limb and start dragging."

"What about Ms Benoit?"

Fair point, Thorne thought. He poked his head around the nearest corner, and glanced down the surrounding hallways. No one was there, and the only movement in sight was caused by wind ... or broken air conditioners.

"I don't see her," Thorne told Patroclus. He turned back to him, and saw him being held by a bloody figure with a gun to his head. The maniac held a gloved hand over Patroclus's mouth, getting red liquid on him too.

Thorne held up his hands in surrender, which pleased the man drenched in red. His eyes were crazed with bloodlust, his smirk twisted and insane.

And with the lack of canine teeth, Thorne came to the conclusion that this man wasn't under the effects of the contagion. He was perfectly fine.

Well, in terms of being infected with Levana's manufactured disease.

"You didn't tell me you invited a friend," Thorne remarked.

"I'm no friend to the likes of you two," the mad man countered. "You're both degenerates."

"I don't think you're using that term correctly."

The gunman chuckled to himself. "You were on the right track, Carswell." He winced at the man calling him by his first name. "You helped to Kill Levana. You were so close to eradicating them all."

If Thorne hadn't been alarmed before, he sure was now. "What do you mean eradicate?! Eradicate who?!"

"The Lunars, of course," he answered. "The ... disgusting alien lowlifes that never should have been allowed to live. This one here," he noted as he pressed the pistol harder into Patroclus's head. "Is not as bad as the others. But him, not so much."

By "him", the maniac meant Wolf. The giant that was still unconscious on the floor. Now, Thorne was cursing himself for giving him the antidote so soon.

"Lunar are humans," Thorne argued. "Levana was one out of thousands of Lunars."

"Yes," he agreed, partially. "One out of thousands of terrible, inhumane Lunars! They think nothing of others! They only take and take until there is nothing left! Then, they move onto the next group they can exploit!"

His resolve began to crumble, and Thorne wondered if the gunman might begin to cry. "They took everything from me. My love, my children. They killed them all. Everyone I've ever loved. They took them from me."

Thorne could understand hating out of loss. Levana nearly made him kill Cress and Cinder before Cinder killed her. He hated Levana, and she was dead. She couldn't do a thing to harm anyone anymore.

But that wasn't true. Even from the grave, Levana was still hurting, still killing. The contagion release was proof of that. And just the same, if she ever came back from the dead, Thorne wouldn't hesitate to put two between her eyes and send her back to Hell.

If she was even nice enough to get in.

On top of that, meeting Aimery, Sybil, and even Jacin at first hadn't helped Thorne's opinion of Lunars. Encountering them gave him the impression that all Lunars could be like that. That the evil was in their blood.

Then, he remembered that despite those evil people, there were good Lunars. Like Cinder, Wolf, Scarlet, Winter, Cress ... and even Jacin - once you get passed his unpleasant outer layers. All twenty-nine of them.

Not every Lunar in the world was a bad person. They weren't all like Levana. One out of thousands can not be used to represent them all.

Like how Thorne was sometime clueless and idiotic and annoying, but that didn't mean everyone in America was too.

"I won't let another filthy Lunar off this planet," the maniac spat. "The plan we made is fool-"

BANG

Blood spattered on the wall to Thorne's right. The gunman crumbled and could no longer hold Patroclus hostage. The maniac was dead before he hit the ground.

Thorne eyed Patroclus, who was just as shocked as Thorne at this turn of events. The both of them looked to the only other human in sight.

On the ground, Wolf lay on his back with a pistol in his hands. The one Thorne dropped when Wolf fell unconscious. He was pressing his spare hand to his chest. Over his heart.

The weary man looked at Patroclus. "Sorry for being a jerk earlier. I wasn't really ... myself."

Patroclus wiped the blood from his mouth with his uniform sleeve. "Apology more than accepted," he smiled. He outstretched his hand to Wolf, who used it to help himself off the floor.

Together, they trudged and limped back to the Med Center. The world around them seemingly peaceful.

But there was one thing Thorne couldn't get out of his head. While that maniac was as riddled with grief as they come, he'd said a few things that caught Thorne's attention.

Mainly, the bit about him having a plan.

More specifically, the we that had a plan. What Thorne was interested in, and what he hoped was overstated by that man, was who was the "we" he spoke of, and what in the name of Spades was their plan?

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

Goldi sat in her bed as she waited to hear anything about Cress or Carswell. She knew the ex-Cadet left with one of the guards, since Selene was fuming.

In the time since he'd left, the doctors made her get cleaned up and change into all white hospital clothes. They'd bandaged her up and hooked her up to an IV. Because what she needed was to be attached to another needle pumping her full of liquid.

She'd heard nothing about Cress yet. Which made her more on edge than. After all, the last time she saw her, Carswell was holding her in his arms, blood on her face. He'd been smiling, so Goldi hoped that could mean she was alive at the very least.

Doctors entered and exited Goldi's room like clockwork. Some came with updates on her condition, others to alter the medications she was one. One came and brought her dinner.

The doctor simply plopped the food tray on her lap and said "eat up". It was a bowl of soup and a couple of bread rolls. All of which were hot and steaming. The smell of the rolls reminded her of the bakery her father once took her to. The soup was full of cut vegetables and bits of beef. Suddenly, Goldi's stomach groaned and growled with hunger.

"You got soup too, huh?" a voice mused.

Peering up from her food, Goldi noticed Cad smiling at her from the doorway. His hands were in the pockets of his new hospital clothes. Identical to hers, but much larger.

He was a tad pale, but GOldi knew she was worse. He too was accompanied by an IV bag on a stand with wheels. "May I come in?" he asked.

"Sure," Goldi smiled. He waltzed into the room, tugging his IV bag behind him. Her stomach clawed at her abdomen, ravenous and agitated.

Cad glanced at her soup. "I already ate mine," he said as he pulled one of the chairs away from the wall. He placed the chair a few inches from her bed. "It was okay. Better than the stuff I ate in LSOP, but there's a restaurant outside the palace that's better. I should show you some time."

Goldi returned to staring at her soup and rolls, unsure of what to do. Since her food arrived, her breathing had become more labored, more strained.

Cad saw caught this, and gently placed his hand over hers. "What's wrong?"

A sharp pain erupted from her stomach, and rose up her throat. "It's just ... I haven't had to eat since before Levana imprisoned me."

She didn't look to see Cad's reaction, but she could figure out what is was. After all, who says things like that.

But it was the truth. The Death's Rival serum kept her alive enough so that she wouldn't get too sick, bleed out without healing, or starve. No matter what. So, in light of that, Levana neglected to give her food.

Goldi couldn't remember her last meal. Stars, she couldn't remember the taste of anything, save blood and metal. It was like starting from scratch.

Cad picked the spoon up off her tray and dunked it in the soup. He held a hand under the spoon to keep from spilling any on her. "Eat it," he told her.

Goldi did her best to convey her thought of "what are you doing" with her face, but couldn't help but smile. "I'm not a baby. I don't need you to feed me like one."

"I'm not leaving until you eat the soup and rolls," Cad insisted.

"I never said I wouldn't eat them!"

Cad gave her wide eyes. "But you were thinking it. Now, eat the soup. You need food. Don't think I don't hear your stomach growling like a wild animal."

To satisfy her friend, she ate the soup from the spoon, and felt a slight burn when it touched her tongue. Nonetheless, she ate, and took the spoon from Cad. She finished the soup and ate one of the rolls. She took the other and offered it to Cad.

"Want it?" she offered, holding it out to him.

He shook his head. "You eat the food. You need it more."

"Says the guy who just had a heart attack."

"Coming from the girl suffering from massive internal bleeding and malnutrition, that's hilarious," Cad countered

Goldi hummed a laugh. It was good to see that years in LSOP hadn't destroyed his sense of humor. He was still the smiley, caring boy she knew when she was a "normal" little girl, and even after that. Despite years of being apart and unimaginable trauma, he was still her best friend.

"Do you think I can go out there, in the normal world."

Cad considered it for a moment, then said, "I don't see why not. You'll get better and be able to leave-"

She stopped him. "That's not what I mean. I mean, do you think people will accept me. Lunars and Cyborg criminals haven't exactly gotten along in the passed.

"Well, considering the Queen of Luna is just that, I sure hope they accept her and you."