A/N: I JUST FINISHED GONE ROGUE TODAY AND WOW IT WAS REALLY GOOD. Also, I know I left a few plot holes. They are going to be filled in soon!

I do not own the Lunar Chronicles.

Cinder, now sixteen, had a pretty good idea of who she was. She was a princess, a damn good mechanic, and a friend to her people, no matter their race or status. Unfortunately, knowing who you are doesn't change who people think you are.

People meaning Princess Levana.

Cinder wasn't an idiot, she knew her mother was a terrible ruler and that Levana wanted the throne for herself. She also knew Levana would be just as bad in her own, sadistic way. That was why, no matter what, she could not steal a spaceship and go on an Earthen trip with her friends.

"Oh come on!" Iko whined. "It'll be fun, and we won't be gone for long! We can kidnap Kai, too!"

Cinder rubbed her temples and sighed. "Iko, we are not kidnapping the prince. Jacin, tell her we're not kidnapping the prince."

Jacin shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Cress, who had refused to let anyone cut her hair even after all this time, giggled. "It would be nice to go to Earth again. We haven't been in, what, two years now?"

"The walls are bleeding," Winter said. "I'd like to leave."

Cinder and the others exchanged pitying looks. Winter hadn't used her gift since she was twelve, and was suffering from Lunar sickness. Cinder had tried to get the doctors to help her, but they merely said there was nothing they could do if she refused to manipulate bioelectricity. Only Jacin knew what happened - she refused to open up about it.

Wolf was quiet, before saying, "Why are the walls always bleeding?"

She blinked and looked up at him with wide doe eyes. "I don't know. They just are."

Jacin coughed. "Well, Cinder, you don't have to come. The four of us, and probably Kai when we kidnap him, will just be in a ton of trouble and it will be all your fault because you won't be there to say it was all your idea."

Cinder groaned and threw the glass she'd been holding across the room, where it shattered against the stone wall. "Fine! Let's go to Earth and kidnap the prince, but I get to choose where we're going."

Cress jumped, still startled even after years of Cinder throwing things at random. "Choose away!"

"France."

"Oh, good choice!" Iko said. "I've always admired the French language. Very romantic."

Wolf, who was obviously trying to hold back laughter, said, "Hon hon hon, oui oui, baguette."

The escort-droid glared. "Watch yourself, Kesley, I'll make you into a hon hon hon, oui oui, baguette."

Cinder smiled at her friends who she'd come to care for after several years of knowing them. Jacin, who had a dry sense of humor and next to no emotions; Winter, who was a little crazy but was kind and beautiful; Cress, who had for no real reason ridiculously good hacking skills and outrageously long hair that touched the floor; Iko, who was... well, she was Iko, and Cinder's best friend; and Wolf, who she considered to be a sweet guy under all that muscle, albeit always having a little spark of sadness in his eyes.

And then there was Kai, who she hadn't seen, much less talked to, in two years. Rumor had it Emperor Rikan was gravely ill, and Kai was preparing to rule the Eastern Commonwealth. She couldn't help but feel awful. She didn't know what she'd do without her mother.

"So?" Cress said. "What's the plan? We sneak out in the dead of night, and steal - ooh - we steal Levana's personal ship!"

Cinder pretended to ponder this. "You may be onto something here."

Wolf chuckled. "Jacin and I are going to have to be tied up if Queen Channary is going to believe that you forced us to come along."

Winter smiled. "We could say Cinder manipulated you two."

"She'd never buy that," Cinder countered. "...But yeah, that might actually have to do."

Cress nodded. "Am I disabling the security cameras?" she asked, popping a grape into her mouth.

"You'd probably have to," Wolf said. "Man, I never thought we'd run away from Luna. It's pretty great here."

"Is not!" Cress and Winter shouted simultaneously.

Wolf blinked. "Right, my bad."

The plan was: Wolf and Jacin, who were high up in their ranking as royal guards, would tell the two stationed at the docks that they had orders from the queen to take their place. If questioned why, it was confidential. ("Haha, yeah, confidential," Iko snickered.)

One of the guards was easy enough to convince, as he was loyal to his queen and his queen alone, but the other guard, Liam Kinney, seemed suspicious.

"You're Princess Selene's personal guard, aren't you?" he asked Wolf, his eyes narrowed. "Shouldn't you be with her?"

Wolf scratched the back of his head. "Uh... no? No."

"And why not?"

"That's confidential," he said, a little more confident now. "Official royal guard business."

Kinney frowned. "Alright," he relented. "But no funny shenanigans, you got it? I'm not about to risk losing my job." And with that, he backed off.

Wolf and Jacin flashed a grin at each other. Phase one was complete.

Meanwhile, Winter screamed.

It wasn't hard for her to pretend like she was hallucinating a monster. It was easy to believe that it was real, that it was going to kill her and the people she loved. The hallucinations came often enough - by now, every guard in the palace was used to the crazy step-daughter of the princess, including the guard stationed outside her door.

He ran in, gun drawn and eyes searching the room. "Lady Winter!" he said. "Is everything alright?"

"T-the mon-ster!" she sobbed, clutching her head in her hands.

Cinder burst in the room, stumbling into the guard. "Get out of the way!" she growled.

Winter had to keep herself from smiling. Cinder was a good actress, she admitted. She could give Queen Channary a run for her money.

The guard frowned. "Princess Selene, it is not safe for you when there is a monster in the premises."

"No!" Winter howled. "It got away! But it'll come back! It'll come back and kill us!"

"Lady Winter, I can assure you," the guard said, "I would have seen if a monster went waltzing by."

Cinder pushed him out the door, notably not using her gift. "If my cousin says there is a monster, maybe you should go after it." She glared for emphasis.

It seemed to have worked. The guard gulped and set off down the hall, notifying the others that there was a monster on the loose who needed to be apprehended. They sighed and trudged along after him. Winter wondered why they didn't seem more excited. She was giving them something to do, at least.

Cinder grinned at her. "Ready to roll?"

She nodded and they bolted out of the room in excitement. Phase two was complete.

"They'll know," Cress whispered in a shaky voice. "Iko, they'll know I'm a shell. I could die."

Iko gave her a confident smile. "Not on my watch. Besides, shells aren't even supposed to be alive, remember? And it's not like we're even going to see anyone important."

Cress looked down at her trembling hands. "What are we doing again?" she asked.

"Playing it cool."

They walked briskly and with a purpose, as escort-droids apparently did. Iko explained to her that she had very strict rules to follow. She was never to look directly at anyone unless ordered to do so, especially not Princess Levana, and she was supposed to be perfectly obedient and pretend that she was programmed correctly.

Of course, to Cress's knowledge, no one but Dream Team Selene knew that Iko had a faulty personality chip ("It is not faulty to have thoughts and feelings!").

If Cinder and the others had done their jobs correctly then that meant the only guards stopping them from going to the docks would be the four stationed near the entrance of the palace.

"Halt!" one of them said. "State your name and business."

Iko and Cress quickly adverted their eyes.

"Iko and... Mackenzie," Iko said, hesitating slightly.

Cress had to stop herself from looking confused. Why Mackenzie?

"We are escort-droids of Princess Selene's," she continued.

The guard that had spoken slowly brought a hand to the gun on his hip. "We were only aware of there being one escort-droid belonging to Her Highness."

"Queen Channary forgot to mention it."

The guards looked among each other. It wasn't that hard to believe.

"And your business?" he said.

"There's been a fire down the hall."

Without a word, the guards immediately bolted, leaving their positions. Cress only moved when she couldn't hear their pounding footsteps on the cold marble floor.

When she looked up, Iko gave her a squeeze.

"We did it, Cress!" she said.

Phase three was complete.

They met up at the docks, all dressed in plain clothes save for Jacin and Wolf, who wore the traditional royal guard uniform. Upon seeing each other, the six of them all laughed and hugged each other.

"This is... exhilarating," Cinder breathed. "I feel like I'm escaping prison."

Iko scrunched up her face. "Let's hope you never have to. Is phase four ready?"

"Well, considering that we are literally in phase four: ditch this place..." Cress said.

"Hey! What are you guys doing?" yelled a voice that belonged to...

"It's Kinney, run!" Iko exclaimed.

They all climbed into the first ship they saw, Cress quickly getting to work on removing all tracking devices and Jacin setting it into gear (he insisted that just because he'd never flown a ship before, didn't mean he didn't know how to).

Cinder glanced out the window to see Kinney looking up at them, bewildered. She gave him a small wave and a smile.

She was finally free.

"What do you mean they left!?" Channary screamed, throwing her wine glass across the room.

Kinney gulped. "The moment they saw me, they climbed into one of our ships and fled."

Levana, next to Channary, let out a sigh.

"What now?" Channary seethed.

"Oh, nothing," Levana replied. "Just... this wouldn't have happened if you had gotten rid of that android when you could and instilled some discipline in your daughter's pretty little head."

Kinney looked between the two. There was definitely something more going on than petty sister rivalry.

Channary stood up, the skirts of her dress swishing around her ankles. "I've had enough of you, baby sister. For years you've wanted my crown. I've seen the way you look at Selene. You want her head on a silver platter, don't you?"

Kinney noted the anger in her eyes, although her tone was unusually calm for a queen accusing her sister of wanting to murder the princess. As the years went on, Channary was not the calm and collected twenty-year-old she once was. She was much more like her mother before her, who let anger and bitterness get the best of her. Truly, she was terrifying.

Levana said nothing and instead stared her down coolly. "I would make a better queen than the two of you combined."

Channary scoffed. "Please. Winter would be queen before you."

Kinney inwardly groaned. They'd evidently forgotten he was there, and he was not about to ask to be dismissed. This was not going to be a good night.

A/N: It took so long to write this chapter and the ending still sucked. Love y'all though, thanks for the support! Cresswell next chapter :)

Kisses,

Cherry