Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 26

The hallway was empty. Cynthia breathed a sigh of relief, and the pulsing beneath her skin receded with her heart rate. She climbed out of the chute into the hall. Scarlet and Iko followed close behind, their weapons at ready. Cynthia thought of the small handgun tucked neatly away at her hip. She was so inexperienced next to these two war heroes, so she just left it there. 
Scarlet took the lead then down the hallway, and Iko watched their back, able to walk in reverse with ease. Cynthia shuffled between them in the middle, trying to keep her bioelectric sense thrumming, just in case they met Nyx a little early.
Finally they reached their destination, not yet having met any opposition. It was a small back door into the throne room Cynthia's father had remembered from his time there, one that was as inconspicuous as possible. Iko pressed her ear against the door and they waited for the signal.
Cynthia was beginning to get restless after just a few minutes. They were standing in an hallway of Artemisia palace. Surely there were cameras or something that would spot them and guards that would come running at any moment. Cynthia stayed on her toes.
Then, footsteps. Cynthia heard them echoing down the corridor and her heart leapt into her throat. They were going to be caught. Someone was going to plant an altered Garan device in her neck and she would be subjected to Lunar control. She would fail her family and her people.
"C'mon Kai!" Scarlet murmured. Cynthia just kept clenching and releasing her fingers.
Then a large explosion sounded from the other end of the hall, and she heard an indecipherable yell from inside the door.
"That's the signal!" Said Iko, jumping up.
"Are you sure?" Scarlet whispered skeptically.
"Yeah, I heard it clear as day: Captain is king."
Scarlet only rolled her eyes.
The footsteps were almost on top of them, but Iko pushed open the door to the throne room and Scarlet and Cynthia pushed through behind her.
They caught the backs of a couple guards leaving the room at the other side, but all Cynthia could do was gape.
She knew this room, and she had seen it hundreds of times. It was impossible to live as a child to the Lunar war heroes and not know this room. Despite their parents trying to hide the more brutal details from them, Cynthia, Leo, Solstice, and Leo had all researched the war. They wanted every detail, but this room had held the most gruesome of all.
This throne room had been where Levanna had finally been defeated, but not without almost costing some of their parents their lives. Captain Thorne had stabbed Leo's mother, and her mother had almost died at the hand of the weakened Lunar queen. An account she had read that Thorne had given days afterward  recalled the screams of her father when he almost lost her mother. They seemed to echo off the now pristine walls in Cynthia's head.
Despite Luna having been a republic for several years now, the throne room had remained in what was now less a palace and more of a government building. People voted on ruling the moon every day now, and justice was carried out in courts with panels of judges instead of by the tyrant queen in this room. Still, the polished walls and severe throne were haunting to the princess even though she had never set foot in the room herself. 
The worst part of it all: it was empty.
The suspension tank that had been holding Leo just hours before, though it had felt like a lifetime, was gone. There was also no cyborg queen sitting on the jagged throne before them.
"Where are they?" Growled Scarlet behind her, and Cynthia whipped around to see Iko and Scarlet with their guns aimed at a leftover pair of guards that had followed them into the throne room.
The guards didn't respond, at least not with words. The wolf soldiers bared their teeth at the three of them, prowling closer and displaying their pointed claws. This was not good.
Cynthia looked down, once again clenching and unclenching her hands. She scanned the room quickly making sure none of their Lunar friends were in the room before she let go.
"Close your eyes," she warned her partners before she dropped the curtain in her chest and let the light out.
Bolts of pure, physical bioelectricity shot through the room. They reflected off the gleaming tiles of the throne room amplifying the power even more. The guards collapsed to the floor without even making a sound. That blast had been much more powerful than the rest. The princess only hoped they were only knocked out.
"You can open your eyes again," she whispered, her voice trembling, suddenly weak. The blast had taken a lot out of her.
Scarlet turned around to face Cynthia. At first her face was relieved, hopeful, amazed. Iko's was an enthusiastic mirror. Until the other door creaked open and a slow clapping followed.
Thaumaturge Nyx had entered the room, now dressed in a flowing eggplant gown as murky as her soul, the princess was sure. Seeing her again sent a wave of bioelectricty through her, but she stopped it before it could pour out of her.
"It's nice to see you again Princess Cynthia Peony, but I must admit I was expecting a bit more time to prepare for your arrival." Hissed the serpent of a woman.
Biting back another wave Cynthia seethed through her clenched teeth, "I'm always trying to defy expectations. There's a few of those, being the daughter of two Lunar War heroes you know."
"I can only imagine princess. Unfortunately, because you decided to be so unpredictable I will just have to do this the easy way... easy for me of course." She waved her hand and instantly six wolf soldiers marched in through each of the twelve doors to the large throne room. Several even came in from the huge glass balcony on Cynthia's right. They were surrounded.
"Let me go you barbaric puppy," came a voice from the midst of the fur, and to her horror more soldiers emerged with each of her family and friends. They were caught so soon after everything they'd done to get here. Cynthia desperately wished she had blasted the thaumaturge when she had first arrived. Now she risked letting too much loose and killing Winter and Kinney and all their Lunar friends
Nyx cleared her throat, drawing the princess's attention back to herself. Cynthia looked and saw her pull a vial out of her sleeve, slowly and maniacally.
"Do you know what this is princess?" Asked Nyx as she continued to pull out a needle from her cloak pocket.
Cynthia shook her head, not even able to speak.
The thaumaturge raised her eyebrows in fake surprise. She smiled wide, her sharp incisors showing. "Pity, I would have thought you would recognize the very poison that killed your namesake."
"Letumosis," the princess breathed, the word sending a shiver down her spine.
"Indeed," Nyx said with a vicious smile. "I found this lovely thing hidden away in the Luna research vaults. Did you know that Levanna was developing a virus that effected Lunars, shells, and earthens? Remarkable really, our queen. I only needed to have the doctors investigate a little further, and I hold here in my hands an incurable version of the very virus that killed your aunt and your grandparents, I believe."
"NO," cried the emperor as he struggled in the arms of his captor. Nyx waved her hand and the wolf holding his grabbed his throat and shoved him against the wall.
"If you want to live your majesty I suggest remaining silent for now." She turned back to Cynthia. "Now, princess, I'm going to offer you a deal. Your harnessing of physical bioelectricty has been rather troubling to me. It seems I cannot capture you against your will because of it. However, I think I know how to make you come willingly."
She took a few steps toward the rampion crew and their children. "If you agree to stay here with me as my captive and refrain from using your gift, I won't infect everyone you love with  this deadly disease, and they will all go free. Can't have the rest of the world thinking anything abnormal is going on. I'm sure you can figure out what would happen if you did not agree, and, of course, if you would use your ability while you were here or one of your friends let the situation here on Luna slip I would personally deliver the virus to each and every one of them and bring them here to let you watch their marked bodies become cold, dead corpses."
Cynthia paled.
"But really princess, it's your choice."