Iko was still acting like a child about the state she found Cinder in. "You were in the arms of the prince! Girls would have killed to be you right then!"

"Stop! Just stop!" Iko was only making the situation worse. Cinder hadn't really planned for this, at all. She thought her flaws were too disgusting for anyone to love her. And she certainly hadn't anticipated falling for the prince either. But both of those unlikely events just became highly likely. No, they just became the present. This was actually taking place. And under any other circumstances, she would be ecstatic about a man she cared for having similar emotions. But if Levana discovered this, she would be forced to marry Kai. Causing the Commonwealth to suffer her aunt's wrath.

"What happened to the plan?! What happened to saving two planets?!" Iko was sporting a surprised and elated expression.

"Things got .... complicated."

"I'll say. You slept with the prince!"

"Don't say it like that. It makes it sound so dirty." (said Shawn Spencer)

"Well, what am I supposed to think? That you two just sat their?"

"Yes. Because that's all that happened."

"Sure ..."

"Ugh. You're impossible!"

"Can't help it. It's in my programming," she shrugged. "Oh. And you said we could work on that chip you found in the prince's android."

Thankful that Iko had changed the subject, she opened her calf compartment and used steady fingers to fish out the chip. Cinder jumped off her bed in the direction of Iko's old body. She pried the chest plate off to get to the inner circuitry. "What are you doing?" Iko sounded half confused, and half frightened.

"I'm rewiring this body into a device that will allow us to view the information on this chip."

"Is that even possible?"

"Yes. If you know what you're doing."

No more than a few minutes passed before Cinder successfully used the parts of the lifeless shell to create a chip reader. The head would act as the monitor, and the body as the connection to the source of the signal. The final touch was connecting the chip to the machine in the correct place. Selene fiddled with a two of the remaining wires that dangled from the inside. One of which was red. The red one is always the bad one, so I guess green. Sure enough, green was the right choice. The screen displayed a jumble of colors until Cinder smacked in with the back of her metal hand.

The colors morphed and cleared as the formed a desk, a room, and a mattress on the floor. "What is that?" Iko sounded.

"The source of the chips programming," what is this place? "It looks like a ... bedroom?"

Out of the corner of the room, a small girl spun into view. She seemed to be dancing or in a routine of sorts. "Hello?" Iko broke the girl out of her dream. She turned to the screen and shrieked. She hid under the table her netscreen must be on.

"Iko!" Cinder scolded. "Hey, it's okay. We just want to talk to you."

"Who are you?" the small girl squeaked. "What do you want? And how did you set up this link?"

"I can answer parts of that with one statement," Cinder responded, slipping into her diplomatic tone. "I found a chip, in the android of the Prince of the Eastern Commonwealth, that was causing it to malfunction. I used an old robot body to make a tracer and way of communication. That is how I made this link."

"That's interesting," the girl came out of hiding. Cinder took note of the hair that trailed behind her as she walked. "I made that chip to act as a bug. Not disable machinery."

"First off, why did you make the chip. Second, where are you and how did you get it in the android?"

"My ... Mistress, Mistress Sybil, told me to make that chip. She went to the palace in the E.C. a few days ago. She must have put it in there."

"Sybil?" Cinder didn't think she was hearing this right. "The lunar queen's most trusted goon?"

"I think so. She comes to visit me every few days."

"And where are you exactly?"

"About two miles out of Earth's atmosphere."

"Wait! Are you saying you're in space?!" Iko barked.

"I'm in a satellite. I've been here for years."

"That is pure cruelty!" Cinder howled. This brought Levana to a new low. This girl looked no older than Selene. Probably even younger due to her size. If she's been there for years, than she's been there since she was a child. "What made them do this to you?"

"I'm a shell." She turned down to the floor. "While I was in the lava tubes, they noticed I was good with technology. They put me up here to do what they want."

"I never liked the fact that shells are treated differently than other lunars," Cinder muttered.

"My name is Cress. Short for Cresent. What's yours?"

"Oh, she's-" Iko began.

"I'm Cinder," she interrupted. "Linh Cinder." Not wanting this girl to know her real name. Selene combined the last name of the family she met in the market place with her nickname. "I'm-" She strained to come up with a fake occupation. "-a mechanic. The prince ... came to my booth at the marketplace and ... asked me to fix his android." Her orange light was blinking crazily. Her lies were based on truths. But they were lies none the less. "This is Iko."

"Hi! Also, why is your hair so long?"

"I've never cut it. I sort of can't."

After that, the three entered a conversation of how the prince needed to be saved from Levana. Cinder was relieved to find out that Cress thought of the princess as a pawn of the queen, and not a monster like her. "Selene is going to be forced to marry the prince. That will give the queen access to everything that has to do with the E.C."

"That would be the end the E.C. and all of Earth," Cress said grimly.

"I know. That's why we have to stop the wedding from ever happening," Cinder replied.

"Is the princess or the queen brainwashing him?"

"No," her voice cracked. "But the prince has ... developed emotions for the princess anyway. Likewise with the princess. If the queen found out about this ..."

"She would only have another reason to have the wedding," Cress finished. "The only way to stop it would be to get rid of one of them. Or somehow hide one of them until after the prince is crowned emperor."

"That's it!" Iko yelled. "We can 'kidnap' the princess until after the coronation. Once he's crowned, we bring her back so she can have her happy ending with the prince." The entire time she was speaking, Iko store at Cinder with a sneaky grin.

"Would the princess be alright with that?" Cress appeared confused.

"I have a feeling that she would be delighted at the idea," Cinder responded. "I'll handle the princess. Can you find someone, preferably someone who has nothing to lose, who owns a spaceship."

"Sure." Cress spun to another screen on her desk. "But why does it have to be a spaceship?"

"One, so once we have the princess, we aren't restricted to under Earth's atmosphere. Second, so we can come and rescue you from that satellite," Cinder clarified. Cress's mouth dropped to the floor. She launched from her chair and ran around the small room screaming. When she returned to her chair, she faced Cinder once more.

"Thank you so much! I won't let you down, Cinder!"

"Okay. Thanks for your help! Bye!" Cinder cut the line and sprang up with joy. "Yes! Now, we have a plan to save Earth and Luna again! All I have to do, is get 'kidnapped'!"

"But what effect will that have on Kai? Won't he be wrecked thinking you're in danger?"

Sudden images flooded into Selene's head. Kai, shattered and defeated, sitting in the gardens waiting for her to join him. Seeing his face made her want to ball her eyes out. "Like you said. If this plan works, the princess and the prince can be together without Levana getting a place on Earth."

"But what if he doesn't forgive you for leaving him?"

The idea was a possibility. And if he did resent her after the fact, her heart would break in two. "A small price to pay to save him from Levana."

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

Kai sat at the dining table. Levana silently ate her food and looked like she too, was waiting for the princess to arrive. The air was cleared when the queen spoke up. "I am terribly sorry for my niece's tardiness. I will arrange for her to meet and apologize to you later."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. But there is no need." Kai stood up from his seat. "I'll be in the Med Center if you need me." He bowed to the queen and exited to where he said he was going. He wanted to talk to Dr. Erland. to check in about the Letimosis victims. Since his father contracted the disease, he's wanted to know as much about it as he could.

After running into several servants and civilians that felt they had to bow and greet him, he reach the office of Dr. Erland. "Good morning, Prince Kaito," Finally someone who doesn't have the impulse to always lower themselves in front of him. "May I ask why you're here?"

"I've come to check in on the status of the Letimosis victims. How many have come here in the last week?"

"Yesterday there was an outbreak in a market place in the afternoon. I believe it was the same one you and the princess went to." Kai's face went colorless. "There is no need to worry, Your Majesty. We scanned you after we learned of the outbreak. You have no traces of the disease inside of you. Though a teenage girl contracted it. The poor girl is only fifteen." The doctor glazed down at the floor. "I can only imagine how her mother and sister are fairing."

"Thank you for the up date, Doctor." The depressing news made Kai feel sick. He was grateful that he had not contracted the sickness named after death. But he felt sorrowful for the girl who had.