Someone wasn't happy.
He sat in his chair in the dimly lit room, watching old events unfold. That was nearly five years ago. The old empress met her demise at the hands of a new robot, whose eyes shone red with his determination. The young girl was taken, but that wasn't his true concern.
The little robot, the orange one.
Her frame had the slightest of bulges, but why? There was no particular reason for her frame to curve out like that, if anything, it only got in the way.
"Commander?" He said.
"Yes, Sir?"
The emperor frowned as he gestured to the security camera footage, "Why is this smaller robot's frame convex? Doesn't that bother it?"
The commander gulped, knowing he wouldn't like the answer, "W-well...Sir..."
The silence hung around them as the emperor zoomed in on the little robot, Willow.
"She is...with child."
"With child!?" The emperor exclaimed in shock, "B-but she's a robot!"
"Y-yes...well..." The commander spoke carefully, not wanting to anger him even more, "It's an artificial reproduction software, capable of creating an entirely new robot from the data of two other robots."
"Well then?" The emperor urged, "Who is the father?"
"Oh Sir, you will not like the answer to that..."
"Just tell me!"
The commander was quiet, "Who else?" he let the picture zoom out again, "It's none other than V-Gr of Danglstan."
"WHAT!?" the emperor was enraged, "A member of my court!? With an Earthen!? This is an outrage!"
The commander was quick to leave, but the emperor was still seething. There was a mutant child on the loose that was half earthen half his own court, and it was sick and twisted.
It was an abomination.
"That child..." The emperor muttered, "...is a demon child..."
"I want them dead."
Cobalt's eyes drifted back and forth as Willow and V-GR practiced playing basketball. He was in no mood to play with them, and besides, he wasn't good at it anyway. He had no motivation to play the sport either. He was simply content in watching. His arms were crossed as he watched his parents, always impressed that his mom could do so well despite how short she was. Whatever she lacked in advantage, she made up for in sheer willpower.
"Hi, Cobalt."
He turned to smile at the approacher; Cassandra. She was 10 years old by now, and her black pants were accented by her bright and colorful shirt, which flared around her like a dress. She sat down next to him on the bench, swinging her legs cheerfully.
Cobalt used one hand to playfully ruffle her hair, "What's up little pale-moon?"
"Haha! Oh, you know. Just trying to forget about school." She replied, "What're you up to?"
"Hm..." he brought a hand to his chin, "That's a good question. I kinda thought about doing something cool with my mom and dad, but then I remembered this." He lifted a pencil and a large sketchpad he had beside him, "I did a bit of sketching instead."
"Oo! May I?"
He let her hold the big pad of paper in her little hands as she turned back each page. Cobalt was no professional, but he did draw often, and so the thick paper book was filled with sketches and doodles.
"Lovely as ever, I see." Cassandra handed the sketchpad back to its owner, "Are you ever going to turn those into paintings?"
He shrugged, "Who knows?"
Cobalt liked being with his family, who always liked to be active. He liked it too, but for some reason, he preferred to slow down and relax instead. All the crazy daredevil stunts Willow and V-GR liked to pull just didn't interest him. He'd much rather paint.
"Sometimes I think about finishing a piece with only pencil." Cobalt continued, "Maybe with soft charcoal. Do you think that would look nice?"
"I'm sure it would." She replied, "You could do it with me, I don't have much color on me anyway."
"What?" He replied, "Yes you do!"
Cassandra blinked, "Huh?"
"Cassy..." Cobalt put one hand on her cheek, "Your skin isn't just white, it's pale and it's contoured with soft pink." He flared his fingers outward so he could run them through her hair, "Your hair isn't just black, it has small bits of blue and gold. It has shine in it." He retracted his hand as he kept his little smile, "No. Plain charcoal isn't good enough for you. I'd need a full set of paints for that."
Cassandra was quiet.
"I was thinking maybe..." he trailed off as he thought.
"Hey, guys!" EVE had shown up, hand-in-hand with WALL-E, "What's up?"
"The sky." Cobalt replied, "Hi, Gramma."
EVE sat next to Cobalt on the bench, WALL-E resting on her other side, "I always loved being called mom...but being called grandma is even better!"
"Mom!" Willow called, "Stop saying corny stuff like that!"
"Sorry...I can't help myself..." EVE rubbed her eyes.
"I feel the same way, Eve..." WALL-E sniffed as he squeezed his wife's hand, "I feel the same..."
"Daaaaaaaaaad!" Willow groaned, "You guys are so embarrassing!"
"Willow, calm down." V-GR held the basketball under his arm, the other hand on his hip.
"YOUR MOM DOESN'T DO THIS!"
"Well, no..." he giggled, "But I wish she did!"
Willow dramatically sighed, but there was a big smile on her face. V-GR dropped the ball so he could pick her up and pretend to comfort her, "There there...we're pretty embarrassing too, remember?"
"Dad!" Cobalt retorted.
"Oh yeah." Willow's fake crying turned into giggling as she burrowed her face in V-GR's chest, "We are, huh?"
"You guys!" Cobalt rushed to them so he could shove his father.
"Whoa!" V-GR laughed, playfully shoving him back, "Don't you dare back sass me, young man!"
They kept up this mock argument until EVE pointed out how late it was getting. They all decided to call it a day and head home.