Lunar Palace

Chapter 22: Wolf

shall I deem this the reunion chapter? you tell me.

+  +  +

Wolf gazed up at the form before him. Pale skin, dark hair, and brown eyes--but it couldn't be. The old Kai was not the sturdy man before him. The old Kai had not been this confident, self-absorbed alien pinning him down.

He hadn't recognized him before. His mission had been to inject one of the soldiers, and get out. Recent...discoveries had caused him to resort to that plan, but now... Now, things had changed.

"...Kai?"

That pale face frowned, and Wolf felt a tug on his right arm as Kai pulled him up, quite easily. No, this was not the same Kai.

"What happened to you?" Wolf murmured. "Why didn't you escape earlier, if they just let you waltz around the headquarters?" He didn't expect the snarl to form at the end of his sentence, but Kai flinched.

"I'm A-1 now," he replied, looking around the courtyard on alert. "I just need to know--what was I like? Before?" His eyes caught Wolf's, begging silently to answer his questions. "I just..."

"What do you mean, before?"

"You know what I mean. In the dreams. I need to know, Wolf, please. I don't know who I am anymore."

Wolf still did not know what Kai was rambling on about, but he nodded reluctantly. Explanations could come later. "Do you have somewhere private?"

Kai seemed apologetic as he shook his head. "The entire encampment is manned by security. Not even a broom closet is safe here." He looked down with regret.

Wolf frowned. This was not like the Kai that he knew. He seemed to float around everywhere, unsure at moments and self-confident at others. The old Kai had been alert, always the solid person that protected others in his own way of dancing with words.

"Can you stay here? I think--" Kai bit his lip, hopeful,"I think I could bend the security somewhat so they wouldn't discover you."

Almost immediately, Wolf shook his head. The other man drew back, stung, and he tried his best to explain. "It's just... I'm not meant to be here. Scarlet will get worried, and--"

Kai huffed, crossing his arms. His expression morphed into something Wolf was pained to see--something wounded, something that had suddenly lost hope.

It shook a strange guilt into Wolf. "Look, Kai--"

"It's okay. I've got it." The emperor had already turned away, his back to him, his palm raised to stop Wolf from continuing. "You go. It was selfish of me, anyway. Come back when you have reinforcements... that's smart."

Wolf bit back what he was going to say, that it would probably--definitely--be a while before they did come back. If they ever did.

He shook it away. They would. Cinder would guarantee it.

Kai looked back over his shoulder at him, regret etched in his face, and, letting out a small, choked breath, walked away. He walked until his small figure was just a spot beside the headquarters. A spot against stone. Something that could be crushed so easily, by something up ahead.

Wolf sincerely hoped Kai didn't have any enemies here.

He kicked at the bristled grass, pivoting back toward the gates. The woods, far behind the metal fencing, were his destination--hidden, secluded, perfect for a wolf. For Wolf. His footsteps crunched on the frozen ground, trampling the dirt, and he made his way back to the fence.

There were no guards there--despite the strong regime this league had against the Cinder and their crew, their headquarters were not as well guarded as Wolf had expected. At first, he had assumed it was a ploy to lure any trespassers to a false sense of security, but he'd been scaling this area for the entire day, and there were no snipers or hidden guards this far out. The video cameras next to the fence were too high for him to reach, but Wolf hadn't bothered checking them out anyway. He couldn't very well be identified through the blurry lens, and plus, it wasn't a phenomenon for someone to walk into headquarters anyway.
At the edge of the headquarters was the dark forest creeping in, the leaves little tendrils of smoke and ash.
It was the height of spring, and Wolf almost wanted to stop and sniff the flowers, before he consoled himself that this was all fake, all artificial. This pale blue sky, the birds.
It only made him miss Earth even more.
He stepped through the dark trees, melting into the shadows at the very edge near the fence, and felt the familiar chill of shade creep around his shoulders. It was an old friend. A hiding friend.
A kindred soul, maybe.
Once he had reached the fence, hidden under the first smattering of trees, Wolf swung one foot up the metal links, tugging the thick leather gloves in his pocket onto his hands. Then he clutched at the barbed wire, scrabbling blindly at any handholds. It wasn't a neat process, climbing a barbed wire fence. A prick from any of these links could draw blood, and apart from the pain, Wolf didn't want to know what would happen with his DNA as evidence here.
Carefully, he slung a leg over the side and looked down.
Through his thoughts, his haziness in meeting Kai and his haziness in leaving him, Wolf hadn't thought about the height at all. It was a wonder how a preoccupied mind could distract from such things.
But now. Now, when he looked down, Wolf felt a strange new fear. He'd never been afraid of heights before, had always been able to take a plunge and leap. But it was different now. Everything was different now; Wolf couldn't go inside the palace without remembering the horrible screech of Levana as she lept; couldn't look at Scarlet without remembering what could have happened to her.
Couldn't climb a fence without looking down and thinking how fragile he was, how simple falling would be.
Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, Wolf cleared the rest of the fence, the entire time cursing how breakable he was now.

+  +  +

He took a shortcut back to the shop, twisting his way through the back door and creeping upstairs. He didn't want anyone downstairs to notice him, especially if anyone was willing to engage in conversation.
His room upstairs was small, but substantial. His clothes hung in layers above the mirror, the reflective surface almost always covered up. That was fine with him. Wolf had no interest in looking at his reflection; each time he did he was again reminded of how much Levana had changed him and how easily his features could be bent.
The bed was shoved in one corner, edged with a windowed wall on one side and a hastily spread map on the other wall, speckled with thumbtacks. His closet was not the only empty place in the room, but it was still desolate. The only things Wolf kept in there were stray papers and clippings that were now useless.
Every time Wolf stepped into this room, he was reminded of how unnecessary this might all be. How, if he wanted, he could retreat into the palace with Scarlet and suites and a life of comfort. How no one had really needed him to do this, how his task wasn't really a task at all but a project his wandering mind had conjured him. How at any moment he could turn tail and leave, go to the palace, and no one here would care.
After all, who cared about Levana's history? Who wondered what the tyrannical ruler of Luna thought, or felt, in her early days and even her last? Who even thought about such things as empathy in Levana's mind?
He shoved the thoughts out of his mind. He had to stop thinking so wildly. Sooner or later he would be filled to the brim with doubt, and even he couldn't be able to breathe with all of it inside him.
He shrugged his coat off, hung his hat near the door, and tugged his boots off with his ankles. In no mood to keep thinking upon such matters, Wolf swept a few papers off the bed, dove into the covers, and fell into an immediate sleep.

+  +  +

First chapter in a while. I got to write Wolf, so I'm happy, but I'm not sure who to write next? They're all at about the same time now. Which character are you guys into hearing about next?