Ok so I first want to start off by saying that I have just recently reread Cinder, of the Lunar Chronicles. And I have also read another story called Mirror, Mirror. It's not finished by the way so don't get angry at me for mentioning it. So I wondered if this was in the Winx world. If you have read the Lunar Chronicles than you might like this story or not, and if you haven't I am sorry for future spoilers, because there will be some. Enjoy this chapter, and I really hope you like it. I also apologize for not posting anything in a while, including the story With or Without you. Incredibly sorry. Alright, so on with the story.
I don't own Winx Club or some of the lines I used from the Lunar Chronicles.
While her sisters were given beautiful dresses and fine shoes, Cinderella was only given a smock and wooden shoes.
The screw in her ankle had rusted, the engraved marks worn to a mangled circle. The rest of the screws were on the table, some rolled around after being placed on the table and others had already rolled underneath the desk. Bloom gritted her teeth as she forced the screwdriver to twist so that she could release this screw or get it out to the point where it wasn't an annoyance or that much of a problem. After a few more twists the screw was out, at least as far as she was willing to push it.
She tossed the screwdriver onto the table, the screwdriver kicking around some more screws and rolling to a stand-still a few moments later. Bloom used her prosthetic hand to grip her heel and yanked the foot off, causing it to spark ever so slightly in her fingers before it too was placed on the desk, with a little more care. Wires dangled from the end of the foot, some of the wires slightly singed from the abrupt pulling.
Bloom leaned back into her chair with a relieved sigh, the sense of freedom that came from the release of that four-year-old foot was something that surely felt amazing. A couple of warning texts appeared in her vision but she dismissed them, instead choosing to observe the people passing by her stall. Some gave her curious looks and others pulled their children away from her like she could infect them.
She was the only full-service mechanic in Eracklyon's market place. Despite there being no sign of what her trade was, the items inside of her booth hinted at it. Shelves of stock android parts lined a wall to the left of the entrance. Add to that the smell of grease and metal that some people picked up from her booth even though across from her was a bakery that always had some sweet aroma. People only complained because of what she was and they didn't like the idea of being near her.
Bloom drummed her finger idly on the stained tablecloth that separated her from browsers as they walked past. The market place was filled with a multitude of noises. The sound of children's laughter nearby, perhaps next to the water fountain in the center. Men as they bargained with androids to no avail to lower their prices. The hum of androids as they linked ID's to bank accounts and applied a charge when someone bought something.
Her audio interface dulled the noise to a general hum aside from the laughter of the children as they ran around, splashing at each other with water from the fountain. Their squeals could be heard all over the market place as other shopper stepped over them, some with annoyance in their eyes while some laughed at the childish wonder each child had. Bloom couldn't help her gaze from searching them out, their joy and excitement as they chased each other around in some sort of game.
"Jake!"
Bloom's amusement waned as she watched a woman push her way through the crowd of shoppers, a flour-coated apron wrapped around her waist. Martha Baker's eyes darted around in a desperate search for her son as said boy glanced up at her. He was soaked with water and had his hands in the water ready to splash some other participant of the game.
"Jake, get over here! I told you to not play so close to-" Martha met her gaze, knotted her lips together before grabbing her son's arm and dragging him through the crowd. The young boy whined but didn't try to run from his mother, glancing over to his friends who gave him pitying looks before they disappeared into the crowd, cheerful laughter following them as they went.
Bloom rolled her eyes, "I didn't know wires were contagious." She muttered sarcastically to her empty stall. She stretched slightly, trying to relax her muscles, before combing her hands through her hair and twisting it into a messy bun with a rubber band. She grabbed her stained gloves and slid them over her hands to hide her steel left hand before doing the same to her right hand. Even though her right hand began to sweat in the heat of the day it was better than having one more thing for people to stare at when they walked past. Bloom eyed the people who past, there were many androids but none of them Tecna.
She sighed, spotting the many screws that littered the floor, she cursed to herself before crouching down in what she knew was an odd position to pick up the screws. She placed them back into her toolbox, trying to keep it organized for the next occurrence. Bloom wiped a few of the tools off with a dirtied rag before snapping the thing shut.
THUD.
Bloom jerked her head, banging her head on the underside of the table and lifting herself out from underneath of the desk. She first glared at the lifeless android that sat on her desk and then the man behind it. She was met with startled sky-blue eyes and corn blonde hair that hung past his ears and covered a little bit of one eye and lips every girl in Eracklyon had dreamed about over a thousand times.
Her glare promptly vanished.
He first stared at her in short-lived surprise before he smiled apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sorry." He said, peeking past her to see if anyone else would jump out at him and glare at him. "I didn't realize anyone was back there, much less underneath the desk." Bloom nodded her head blankly, even though she had barely heard him.
Her heartbeat had picked up in speed, and her retina display showcasing the thousands of times she had seen him before on the netscreens. He was taller than he appeared on those screens though, and was wearing a dark blue, almost black colored sweatshirt in place of his usual royal clothes. Another second and the display informed her of what she already knew, details scribbled across the bottom of her vision in a stream of green text.
PRINCE SKY, CROWN PRINCE OF ERACKLYON.
ID #0000059471093
BORN 20 MAR 108 T.E.
FF 92,359 MEDIA HITS, REVERSE CHRON
POSTED 14 AUG 126 T.E.: A PRESS CONFERENCE TO BE HELD 15 AUG 126 T.E. AT NOON TIME ERACKLYON TO DISCUSS THE PATH TO FINDING AN ANTIDOTE TO THE TEN-YEAR-OLD PLAGUE THAT MURDERS HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS.
Bloom blinked the information away, lurching awkwardly up from her chair, momentarily forgetting about her missing limb. Steadying herself by placing her hands on the table she managed something that resembled a bow. "You're highness." She stammered, lowering her head in respect, glad he couldn't see the fact that she was missing a limb with the long dark apron she had wrapped around herself to not dirty her clothes any further than they had already been dirtied.
The Prince flinched, casting a glance over his shoulder so that no one else had caught wind of their conversation. He leaned forward, "Maybe, um…" He held a finger to his lips, "On the highness stuff." He looked so desperate to hide his identity of being the prince that she forced her head to shakily nod. He smiled at her, revealing slight dimples, leaning back, "I'm looking for someone named Bloom."
Bloom raised a hand, "That would be me, what do you need?" She asked, averting her gaze from the prince and to the lifeless android that was currently being held up on her desk by being leaned against the cash register. The prince looked appalled, opening his mouth to say something but deciding to close it moments after, at a loss for words. It wasn't the first time someone had been shocked at her field of work, especially at such a youthful age.
"You're Bloom? The mechanic?"
Bloom nodded, "What do you need your highne-" She bit down on her lower lip to prevent the rest of the word from spilling out, remembering what he had asked for when they had gotten over the initial shock of seeing each other.
The prince bent down, forcing her gaze to meet his and flashed her a smile that made her heart squeeze, she forced herself to calm down, grateful that she couldn't blush because she knew if she could, she would be bright red. "You're not what I expected." He said, straightening up, forcing her eyes to follow him. He held her gaze, unlike many other people who would look away in disgust.
She bit her lip, trying not to stutter in response before regaining her composure, unable to hold his gaze. Bloom gently tugged the android to her side of the table and observed it slightly before glancing back up slightly, but she still didn't meet the prince's gaze. "What's wrong with the android, your highness." She couldn't resist adding the last part, it had slipped from her tongue since she had grown up in Eracklyon.
The android looked brand-new but from the mock-feminine shape she could tell it was an outdated model. The design was sleek, though, with a spherical head atop a pear-shaped body and a pristine white finish. The prince rubbed the back of his neck, tugging slightly on the sweater due to the immense and almost unbearable heat. "I can't get her to turn on." He said, watching as she observed the robot. "She was working fine one day, and then the next, nothing."
Bloom turned the android around so its sensor light faced the prince. She was glad to have some sort of task to do with her hands, because otherwise she knew she would become as flustered as anyone else would be with royalty watching them. She observed the robot, trying to find some sort of flaw with the android, she furrowed her eyebrows. "Have you ever had any problems with her?" She inquired.
The prince shook his head, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "No. She gets routinely check-ups every other week, this is the first problem I have ever seen her really have."
Prince Sky leaned forward, picking up the discarded foot and observed the dangling wires, curiously turning it over in his palms. Bloom couldn't help but tense watching him look at something she had just disconnected from herself, could he feel how warm the limb was? She bit her lip watching as he fiddled with the toe joints of the leg. He used his right sleeve to polish a smudge that had been on the leg.
"Aren't you hot?" Bloom asked, instantly regretting asking the question as the prince returned his attention back to her. She couldn't help but to think of the numerous times she had almost blushed bright pink in the matter of five minutes and twenty-eight seconds. It was also due to the fact of how that question had sounded, hot being a term many girls had used to describe physical appearance.
The prince looked embarrassed as he tugged on his sweater, "Dying." He admitted, "But I'm trying to be inconspicuous." Bloom wanted to point out that the use of the sweater was drawing attention to himself, but by the lack of screaming girls crowding around her booth and trying to get to the prince suggested otherwise. He didn't look like a prince, had she not seen his face than she wouldn't recognize him. He kind of looked ridiculous, rather than looking like a royal heartthrob.
Bloom cleared her throat, redirecting her gaze to the android. She scanned the android, a blueprint appearing in the corner of her vision, directing her to the nearly invisible that hid the back panel. She popped the back-panel open and grabbed a small flashlight to seem less like a cyborg to the prince. "Why aren't the royal mechanics working on her?" She asked, not glancing up from her scan.
"They tried." He set the foot down gently, she barely heard it over all of the other noise but her audio interface didn't allow her not to. "But they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Someone suggested that I bring her to you." He continued to say, his footsteps indicating that he was observing the rest of the booth. The prince scanned the shelves stocked with android parts, netscreens, and cyborg parts. "They say you're the best mechanic in Eracklyon. I was expecting an old man." He laughed awkwardly.
"Do they." Bloom muttered under her breath, unamused with the statement. Bloom would never broadcast what made her so good at her field though. The less people who looked at her like a cyborg the better, it would be a million times worse if they all looked at her in disgust. She shrugged her shoulders, nudging a few wires aside with her pinkie, "Some old models tend to get worn out, have you considering upgrading to a new model?"
"I can't do that, she contains some top-secret information that I must retrieve before anyone else does." He said as Bloom glanced up at him, her fingers stalling in their search of the android. His lips lifted a bit, "Not really." He backtracked, "I just have a lot of sentimental value for her, that's all." An orange light appeared in the top corner of her vision, her optobionics had picked up on something. She wasn't sure what though, a too quick swallow, an extra blink, or even a twitch of the prince's jaw.
But what she did know was that the orange light was there for a reason. She was used to it, it came up all of the time. It meant someone was lying. "National Security." She said airily, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. The prince had to have a reason for lying, she reasoned with herself and she was just the mechanic. "Funny." Bloom deadpanned.
The prince listed his head, as if he was daring her to contradict him, he was a prince after all and his word against her own was nothing, especially considering her circumstance. Bloom held his gaze but averted her own when a golden-colored hair fell in front of his face. Instead she focused on the android, turning it over slightly to see if she could find the model, the blueprints become slightly more prominent as she went back to using them.
"Tutor 9.3 model." She said reading the engraved marks on the back of the supposed 'head' of the android. The android was twenty-three years old to date along with a few extra months, her mind informed her. "She looks to be in pristine condition." Bloom said, before she lifted a fist and banged the android hard on the side of its head. Barely catching it before it toppled over the side of the table. "You'd be surprised by how often that works." She promised, watching as the prince jumped in response.
The prince chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Are you sure you're Bloom? The mechanic?" Bloom bit her tongue, trying not to be sarcastic in response, he meant no offense. She reminded herself, and even if he did, it shouldn't matter, right? Dragon, what was wrong with her? She resisted the urge to sigh, she didn't like this feeling.
"Bloom! I've got it!" Tecna wheeled her way through the crowd, purple sensor flashing eagerly as she rolled around other people and androids alike. She placed another, longer foot onto the table excitedly, in the shadow of the prince's android. "It's a humongous improvement over the old one, only rarely used, and the wiring looks compatible as is. Plus, I was able to get the dealer down to 580 gems."
A moment of panic jolted Bloom as she picked up the leg and dropped it behind the desk. "Excellent job Tecna. Mathew will be pleased to have a replacement foot for his escort droid." She praised, lying through her teeth in the second sentence. She just didn't want the prince to look at her in disgust as everyone else did, but a dim voice in the back of her mind told her something else.
"Mathew? I don't understand." Tecna tilted her head to the side, her sensor dimming.
Bloom continued to smile through gritted together teeth, gesturing to the prince. "Tecna, please pay your respects to our costumer." She lowered her voice, giving Tecna a somewhat pointed look, "His imperial highness."
Tecna craned her neck, aiming the round, purple sensor at the prince, who towered over her by three feet and four inches. The sensor brightened slightly causing the prince to wince at the sudden brightness in his vision. "Prince Sky!" She exclaimed aghast at seeing the prince in their booth, Bloom knew that her mind was going a mile a minute trying to decipher why royalty was in their booth. "You are even more handsome in person." She stated factually.
Bloom felt her stomach twist in embarrassment despite the fact that the prince had laughed at the comment. Bloom rolled her eyes, gesturing to the area behind the desk, "Tecna, get behind the desk." Tecna huffed in an android way before rolling her way underneath the table and rolling a little further.
Prince Sky leaned against the desk, "You don't see a personality like that every day." He said, a nonchalance and calmness in his voice as if this was normal, as if this was a daily basis. "Did you program her yourself?" He asked as Bloom shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Believe it or not, she came that way. I suspect that she has a programming error which is why my stepmother got her so cheap."
"I do not have a programming error!" Tecna exclaimed from the back of the booth. Prince Sky laughed and Bloom met his gaze, accidently, feeling something strange rising inside of her at the sight of him laughing. She chastised herself, she needed to stop going down this path. The prince leaned back, still holding her gaze as he had done before.
"So, when can I come pick her up?" He asked as Bloom refocused on the task at hand, breaking the stare-down, and instead focusing on the inside of the back-panel, trying to poke her way through the jumble of wires to find something that could be cause of the android not waking up.
"Well, I'll have to run some diagnostics but it might take a couple of days or so, maybe a week." She bit her lip sitting down, grateful to give her human leg a moment of rest after standing awkwardly on it. Bloom knew she must be breaking some form of etiquette when in the presence of royalty but the prince didn't seem to be deterred by her sitting down.
"How much will it be to fix her?" The prince asked, taking his hands out of his pockets and instead resting them on the table, as he observed the gaze momentarily before returning his gaze back to her.
Bloom waved her gloved hand dismissingly, "Don't worry about it. It'll be my honor." Bloom said as the prince opened his mouth in protest, rolling up his sleeve slightly to reveal his arm holding his ID. Bloom leveled him with a look. "I mean it, don't worry about it." She repeated herself as he sighed and nodded.
"I suppose there is no changing your mind." He remarked as Bloom felt her body start to heat up but calmed herself down, she would rather not shut down right in front of the prince. "Is there any hope she'll be ready by the thousandths anniversary ball?" Prince Sky asked as she closed the back-panel of the robot, deciding to open it later when she was in a more secluded area.
"Well I'll have to run a few diagnostics which might take a day or so and then fix the actual problem which can range from a day to a week." Bloom thought aloud watching as the prince's expression sank into a less hopeful smile. "If there isn't that big of a problem than I think she'll be ready by then." She quickly said, the thousandths anniversary ball was next Saturday, so she had a total of nine days to fix the android. "How will I contact you when she's ready?"
"Just send a message to the palace. Or will you be here next week? I could stop by then." The prince informed her. Bloom tapped her chin thoughtfully, well, this was no place for a prince to be and what if he had too much to do and got in trouble for doing as he did. On the other hand, the palace was too vast and incredibly large, how would she even get into the palace and she wouldn't feel comfortable in a place that was disgusted by cyborgs as much as the rest of the world.
Tecna's sensor brightened behind her, where she had been idly eavesdropping in on the conversation, "Of course. We're here every market day, it would be lovely if you could stop by again." Tecna's voice said, in the second-to-highest voice she could manage according to her programming.
Bloom almost glared at her, "Oh, no. You don't have to-" She said waving her hands in a no manner. The prince smiled in response, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"I'm offended that you don't want to see me again." He winked, "It'll be my pleasure." The prince said standing up, pulling the hood even further over his face. Bloom returned the nod, knowing she should bow but she didn't want to risk standing up again. She waited until he disappeared from sight before scanning the crowd to see if his presence had been noticeable before relaxing in her seat, allowing her body to slouch over.
Tecna wheeled forward, "I can't believe the prince was here." She said, also scanning the crowd. "That's not something you see every day. Check my wires, I think I'm severely confused for the first time in a while." Tecna said after a moment of silence as Bloom nodded her head, almost wishing her wires were wrong to, Tecna turned to her sensor flashing over her. "Bloom, you have a grease smudge on your forehead."
"What?" Bloom exclaimed, reaching a glove hand up to touch her forehead as Tecna lifted up a piece of glass with one of her prongs and handed it to Bloom. Bloom gratefully accepted the glass as she observed the smudge. She groaned, facepalming. "Well that was just awful." She said before picking up her foot. "Now come on, help me get this on before anyone else important stops by." She said.
Tecna nodded her head, pulling her chair further away from the desk so that she could connect her new foot to the joints of her knee with the discarded screwdriver from earlier. For a moment, she wondered if the prince had been fooled by her, hoping he didn't notice the fact that she was missing a foot. "Fits like a glove, doesn't it?" Tecna stated.
"Yes." Bloom nodded her head, "I just hope that Vanessa doesn't notice that we bought it for 580 gems." She sighed at the thought of her stepmother, tightening the last screw before Tecna grabbed the screwdriver and left-over screws and placed them in her toolbox. Bloom took a moment to stretch her foot and wiggle her toes. It would take a few days before her nerve sensors harmonized with the updated wiring in the foot. "It's perfect." She said looking up, spotting Tecna holding her old foot with her prongs. "You can throw that old piece of junk awa-"
A blood-curling scream entered her ears before she even had a chance to adjust her audio interface and Bloom winced, covering her ears as she stood up. She walked around the table and to the front of the booth, finding that a crowd had formed around the front of the bakery. Bloom stood on tip-toes, spotting Martha Baker looking down at her own gloved hands in horror. A black and purple spot was just above the line of her glove and the tears that leaked out of her eyes showed that it wasn't just a bruise.
"The plague." A woman screamed, clutching her children and backing away from the scene. After that a mass of chaos occurred, woman's screams blended in with the thundering of footsteps of the people fleeing the area. Children were ripped from their games and dragged as far away as feet could take them. Bloom turned around as the prongs of Tecna clasped around her arm, covering her nose and retreating further into her booth.
Shopkeepers slammed shut their rolling doors adding onto the noise of utter panic. Jake screamed as he ran towards his mother but she only held her arms in front of her, telling him to stop. He stopped amidst the chaos, still staring at his mom as his mom's expression crumbled and more tears fell from her eyes. A nearby shopkeeper grabbed ahold of the boy and pulled him away from the scene as his mom yelled something after him but the words were loss in the uproar of the crowd.
Bloom bit her lip, she couldn't take Tecna or the prince's android out there, she would find out the name later, or they would both get trampled by the people out there. She held her breath and yanked her own steel rolling door down its rail. Darkness cloaked them except for a single light churning along the bottom of the steel door. Heat rose from the floor, stifling them in the uncomfortable warmth.
"Bloom?" Tecna said, worry in her robotic voice. Her sensor brightened, washing them both in the haze of the purple-colored light.
"It's ok Tecna, don't worry." Bloom said grabbing a grease-dirtied rag from the table, she slipped past her desk as Tecna followed her movements, joining her in the back. "She's all the way across the square. We're safe here." She said even though she continued walking towards the back and crouched against the back wall, in between shelves and covered her nose and mouth with the cleanest part of the rag.
Tecna stood in front of her, becoming a makeshift shield in case the plague had already spread to them. They stayed like that and waited until the rumbling and sirens of the emergency pod caused the ground to shake as it landed, coming to take Martha away.
