At Last I See the Light (Lunar Chronicles Fanfic)

Chapter 19: Spirits

Quickly, Thorne stumbled to compose himself. It was bad enough feeling emotionally jumbled, but now he was quite literally shaken. The man whom he collided, however, seemed to be the image of peace and tranquility. Thorne rubbed his raw eyes and suddenly, the mirage he hadn't even know was there had disappeared. The man standing in front of him wasn't a stranger anymore - no. A wave of deja vu hit him, and it became quite clear. Standing before him was none other than Doctor Dmitri Erland. Doctor Erland who had helped him regain his eyesight. Doctor Erland who had secretly been Cress' father. Doctor Erland who was supposed to be dead.

"My apologies sir-" he murmured, calling up another very convincing glamour before meeting Thorne's line of view. "Carswell?" The doctor waited a couple seconds for a reply, but when none came, he continued, "Never in my life did I think I'd say these words, but thank the stars it's you."

Thorne rubbed his eyes again, making sure it wasn't a trick. "You're-" he stammered. "Get yourself together man," he murmured reflexively under his breath. "He's not really here... he's not really here..." Thorne repeated the line in attempts to reassure himself. Then, he turned back towards the door, massaging his temple. Aces, spades and stars, being serious and gloomy for so long must've finally gotten to his head.

"Everything okay?" Kai asked as soon as Thorne made it back into the lab.

"Yeah," Thorne sighed.

"You look like you've seen a ghost..."

"Might as well have."

"Want to talk about it?"

"It's not important." After all, he didn't even know what to make of the strange vision. Let alone take the time to explain it to Kai. "Have they figured anything out yet?"

"Not yet, sorry," Kai sighed.

"I can't wait here any longer guys... I feel like I'm going mentally insane," Scarlet complained, popping between the two of them.

"I could go for some food," Cinder chimed in. Thorne opened his mouth to protest, but was soon roped into going to a neighboring market of food stands in attempts to "take his mind of things." But an order of scallion pancakes and dumplings later, everyone's nerves were still on edge. They tried to stall going back for as long as possible, but eventually they wound up back in the research wing of the palace.

As soon as they entered, Thorne took two steps back outside. In the corner stood the same ghost he'd seen before, gazing back at him this time from farther away. He may not have looked like Erland, but he wore the same glamour as the man he ran into in the hall. Of course, nobody else knew this, nor could he prove it. Maybe he was just on edge, maybe it was all just in his head.

The man stood amongst the other doctors, checking on her vitals and looking through the medications that had yet to work. Cress seemed to be doing a little bit better, and for the first time that day she was conscious and appeared to have some energy. A talk with the doctors revealed that her fever had started to go down, and the rashes were still mostly gone. As if her miraculous break through wasn't strange enough, Cress appeared to be at the side of the glass nearest to the doctors, sobbing. A lingering smile touched her lips despite the tears, as she mouthed a single word.

She could see him. Though the stress may have aged him a bit, the blue eyes and glasses gave him away.

"Dad?" Cress managed to get out. The name sounded so foreign, yet it was the only one she could think of. "Dr. Erland?" She tried again, this time, more sure of herself. Slowly, his gaze met hers, the wrinkles around his eyes tensing as he concentrated on maintaining his glamour. She didn't have enough strength to contemplate whether or not he was who she thought, but it didn't matter. She knew that this was the same old man who had helped them through the revolution.

All at once, his focus pulled away from her and he subtly muted the audio coming from the quarantine. Cress, however, continued to mouth his name and pound weakly on the glass separating them.

* * *

"Hurry up," Kinney hissed as Iko sawed away the binds on his hands.

"Stars, I'm going as fast as I can," Iko muttered with a sharp piece of metal between her teeth, "I think you're forgetting who sacrificed their own limbs to make this plan happen," she snarled back, motioning at a hole in her synthetic foot.

"Well if a piece of my flesh was sharp enough to cut rope, I would've gladly offered."

Iko scowled back at him. This was going to cost her a fortune to repair. Finally, the rope snapped and Kinney untangled his hands. After cutting Iko free, he moved on to the rope bound around Rose's wrists. A glint of metal caught in the corner of Jacin's eye—an ID chip. Immediately, Rose took the piece of metal and began working on untying Jacin, who's eyes remained locked on her wrist. As soon as the ties had been weakened enough, he broke through them and lunged at her.

"You," he practically growled, "You did this."

"What?" Rose asked, clearly caught off guard. In one fluid motion, Jacin grabbed her arms and rolled up the sleeve of her thick jacket, revealing a tattoo: LSOP1103.

"Y...you don't get it," Rose cried as he swung at her, "they... they were going to kill me—"

"Where are they?" Jacin shouted, the anger boiling over in his features. "If they so much as lay a finger on her... I swear I'll—"

"I... I didn't have a choice. I'm s...sorry," Rose pleaded.

"Stop," Kinney started, removing Jacin's clenched hands from around Rose's throat, "she can't help us if she's dead."

"And who's to say she'll help us? She can't be trusted," Jacin began before Iko stopped him.

"Why are we here?"

Rose paused for a minute to think before responding, "They... the other operatives... said there was a man wh..who could fix them. Wh...who could make them human again."

"How?" Jacin demanded.

"What does that have to do with us?" Kinney interrogated, ignoring Jacin's question.

"I...I don't know...but whatever he does works...well mostly. The leader of our pack told Thaumaturge Tauren that... that you knew him," she muttered.

"That's not possible. There have been theories and experiments but none of it has ever worked," Kinney stated plainly. How stupid did she think they were?If there was a way to change all these innocent people back, they would've done it already.

"It... it is... it did work. I should know, I was the first successful trial."

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