Chapter 7: Not What it Seems

It has been years since XJ6, aka Jessica Wakeman, has stepped foot into the outside world. The day she was shut down and replaced by XJ7 still rang painfully clear in her mind; she didn't think she'd see the world ever again. Yet here she was as her legs crawled through the snow. XJ6 heard a crunching sound as her feet made contact. She softly giggled at the sight, she had never felt so free!

Well…almost, in the corner of her optic, she noted Jenny begrudgingly trudged by her side with her arms folded as her head hung down towards the ground. It took almost a half hour to get her out of bed and XJ6 had to force her out of the door to go to school. XJ6 observed her sister blankly staring towards the ground and resisted the urge to roll her optics in annoyance. Jenny was quiet all morning and kept staring off into space, she didn't drink any oil this

morning, and her optics stayed half shut due to insufficient sleep. It was apparent Jenny wasn't her usual self. What is her problem? Does she know how good and easy she has it? I was the one stuck in the basement while she got to have a life! XJ6 glared slightly at her and wished Jenny would stop moping already.

XJ6 cleared her throat, as she reluctantly pushed aside her feelings. She knew their mother wanted her to talk to Jenny and attempted to start a conversation. "Soo…the weathers nice, don't you think? My system says it's 30 degrees outside." Without looking up, Jenny shrugged silently. XJ6 figured she should ask something that's not just a yes or no question to get a verbal response, "I'm excited to go to high school for the first time; what's it like?" She forced a smile, hoping to get some answer out of Jenny.

"Fine." Jenny responded monotonously.

XJ6 sighed and rolled her optics. Close enough. Again, it was silent as they marched through the snow and approached the double doors. She noted a swarm of students pooling into the doors. Many paid no mind to her and Jenny, while some whispered amongst themselves and gestured to her in curiosity. So many humans! She could barely contain herself with excitement. Returning to Jenny, she realized something different, "Hey Jen, where are your friends? I haven't seen them yet today."

Jenny tensed, her hands clutched onto the straps of her bag. "Well, Tuck took the bus this morning and Brad is with Sheldon at…uhh…" She gulped, and her face had an unreadable expression. Hastily Jenny turned with a forced smile and grabbed XJ6's hand, "You know XJ6, we need to hurry or we'll be late, the bell's about to ring!" XJ6 raised an optic as Jenny pushed the glass doors that led them to the hallway.

The hall was swamped with teenagers wearing oversized puffy coats and scarves, while others-mostly guys- wore just baggy t-shirts and shorts. XJ6 noticed some of them looking at her and couldn't help but blush since she thought it was out of admiration. Throughout the hall she saw a faint smell that was likely either old gym socks or a long-forgotten sandwich shoved in someone's locker. XJ6 didn't mind the overwhelming stench and noise as she stood in awe at what laid before her. This was probably the best day of her life!

Jenny led her through the packed crowd to the steel blue lockers; she pointed a thumb gesturing to one, "This is your locker, you can put your stuff inside it if you want to." She waved her hand, gesturing in another direction, "Cafeteria and some of your classes are probably that way. Oh and that's Vice Principal Razinski." She pointed to a short older man walking through the halls ushering students to class and making his way towards the sisters.

Razinski approached them, showing that he didn't want to be here like the others. "Good morning, XJ9; I see you up and early for once this semester." Jenny shrugged and simply groaned. "Ah, I see we have a new freshman joining us." He nodded at XJ6.

"Yes! It's so nice to meet you. I'm Jess…"

"This is my little sister, XJ6," Jenny responded instead monotonously, unaware of her sister scowling at her in response.

"XJ9's little sister huh? I can see the resemblance. Well, hopefully, you don't burn down the building as XJ9 did on her first day." Razinski remarked as Jenny furrowed her optics, giving an unamused glare and XJ6 stifled a laugh imagining what that must have been like. "So, XJ9 I'm assuming you'll show her around?" Jenny silently nodded in response. "Good, pleasure to meet you, XJ6. Now if you two will excuse me, I'm late for my fifth cup of coffee." He grumbled as he strolled off, leaving the two Wakeman sisters to themselves.

Jenny shrugged and turned back to her locker as XJ6 softly smiled and waved him off. XJ6 sighed as she watched Jenny pull out some of her textbooks with the same emotionless expression. XJ9's little sister. Hmph, so much for having my own identity. She thought, recalling Razinski's words with frustration.

"Do you know where your homeroom is?" Asked Jenny as she turned around with her books resting in her arms, her face again remained in the same lifeless state.

XJ6 shrugged, as she didn't have her schedule at hand, having to pull it from memory, "I think it was , chemistry class, I think."

"That will be down the hall and to the left, a few doors down. Mine is the other way, literature with Smellhaus." She rolled her optics and groaned as she tilted her head back in frustration, "Still can't believe I have to retake everything from last year. Ridiculous."

The two notice Tiff walking by and remarked with a smirk as she passed by with her group of friends, "It's ridiculous you even bothered to come back at all freak- ha!"

Jenny glared at her as the group laughed at them. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh and slammed her locker. "Very funny, Tiff." She growled under her artificial breath. XJ6 raised an optic for an explanation. "That was one of the Krust Cousins; they're popular…and I'm not. They're just big jerks, stay away from them, and you'll be fine. See you in a bit, alright?" Before XJ6 could say anything, Jenny hastily stomped through the corridor and out of sight.

XJ6 blinked in thought. Popular, huh? She brightened as an idea came to her.

—-

Being anywhere, except class, is a hay day for a teenager. Not being in class would usually make Brad the happiest guy in the world! Except right now if he could choose, he would much rather be in class instead of sitting next to his bedridden, disfigured friend who had been operated on hours before.

The surgery lasted for a couple of hours as they readjusted Sheldon's nose and placed small metal plates in his jaw to replace some damaged bones and put in fake teeth. After the operation, he remained unconscious for a while, his face was swollen like a balloon, his nose was covered by a brace and bandaging around his jaw and cotton balls resting on his gums to absorb the bleeding. He looked unrecognizable, and seeing him in such a state was grueling.

His eyes strained to focus on his homework he brought to the hospital. Advanced calculus was never his subject, he had worked on it for hours yet no progress had been made as he stared blankly at the foreboding paper in front of him. Spending the rest of my life as a cashier or a waiter sounds pretty good right now. He amusingly thought to himself tapping his pencil against the paper.

Brad jerked his head up when he noticed the sound of moving sheets and the bed springs groaning as Sheldon shifted around in the bed. He glanced over and could barely see his friend's swollen eyes heavily opening and looking back at him. Brad smirked as he leaned forward, "Good morning sleeping beauty."

Sheldon raised an eyebrow, clearly not amused with the joke. Brad softly chuckled, "Sorry, couldn't resist. How do you feel?"

Sheldon let out a weak groan, he blinked a couple times. He wanted to speak but couldn't due to the procedure. The anesthetic was primarily out of his system, yet he felt queasy and dizzy. Luckily the high quality pain medications numbed most of the pain surging throughout his body, though it still hurt to breathe.

"The surgery went well. While you were in surgery, I just worked on calculus." He waved the paper in front of his swollen eyes. "If you'd like you can help me." He weakly smiled as Sheldon rolled his eyes in response. "No? Dang, I thought calculus would cheer you up. Okay, maybe later." Brad shrugged, he folded the paper and shoved it back into his backpack.

The boys were silent for a minute, and occasionally footsteps would echo through the hall outside, the beeping of the heart monitor and the soft noise from the oxygen machine filled the room as well as the quiet drip of fluid in the IV bag. Outside the window, the icicles melted into the crystal snow; it was pretty peaceful. Brad finally broke the silence, "Oh, also I finally got a hold of your mom, she will be here later. I will admit she seems like an interesting woman, especially when I brought up- "

A soft wet snore interrupted him. Sheldon had fallen back asleep. Brad shook his head at his disfigured friend, he had it rough the past few days. Well, they all did, but physically hardest for Sheldon. His hair dropped across his face as he slept, his chest unevenly raised up and down, and his weak frame draped in the hospital bed. Despite the damage he still managed to look peaceful as he slept. He hoped Sheldon's mom being around would cheer him up. Brad knew she wasn't around much due to work. He was telling the truth when he found her weird on the phone. Brad was curious why she suddenly became interested when Brad mentioned Jenny's name. He shrugged it off, finding the woman just odd.

Brad leaned back against his chair, let out a huff of air, and closed his eyes, deciding not to worry about it.

—-

Jenny twirled a pencil in her hand, the sound of Mr. Smellhause's voice buzzed in her brain but she didn't bother to make sense of it. Her face was blank, her optics empty and heavy, yet her thoughts of the recent events screamed in her mind and muted out reality.

The past restless nights have caught up to her. She wanted to sleep but no matter how hard she tried to force herself to enter sleep mode- the memory of Sheldon's blood-curdling scream would echo throughout her mind. Even worse, it's as if he was actually screaming and crying into her audio receptors. Yet every time she snapped her optics open, she was alone in her room once more.

Her hands were no longer doused in blood, back to their original snow-white color. Yet as she stared at them Jenny still managed to see the glaring red tint from her friend on her hands. His blood forever stained her mind.

The last she saw Sheldon was when they dropped him off at the hospital. Jenny knew about the operation, he had it a few hours ago and awaited Brad to send her an update with how it went. So far she heard nothing.

The circular clock ticked away on the wall as Jenny tapped the pencil against her desk nervously wondering why she hadn't heard from him yet. The bell was going to ring in a few minutes, but the anticipation was eating her alive. A part of her considered bolting out the door right then.

It was a conflicting feeling, yes Jenny was still angry with him yet felt guilt that she put Sheldon in the hospital. But, on the other hand, she didn't know if either one should apologize or deserve to be forgiven. She just needed to talk to him, that was all.

She glanced back at the clock, somehow only two minutes had passed since she last checked. Jenny groaned quietly, the class was forever!

Mr. Smellhause's back was turned as he wrote on the board with his blue marker. Jenny hesitated, but judging how far in the back and in the corner of the room she was, she could probably get away with it. Jenny quietly turned sideways and hunched into her desk as one of her pigtails retracted and morphed into a small cell phone that rested into her palm. She recalled that Brad currently didn't have a phone, so she hoped Sheldon's phone would work.

Jenny flipped the cover off her phone, the screen's light illuminated on her face as she pressed the buttons to open her messaging app and text him. She grew frustrated as her phone took forever to load, and it was an old model that her mother had installed into her. Jenny had asked for a new one for over a year, and her mom still didn't budge. Her mother based its design on the old flip phones from the early 2000s so much that it didn't even have a touch screen.

Jenny groaned and lightly smacked the side of her phone hoping to get it to work. "Come on, you stupid piece of junk!" She softly mumbled to herself. She sighed, quickly glancing to the front making sure Smellhaus wasn't looking and leaned towards the phone and whispered. "Text Sheldon…Hey Sheldon, I hope you're ok and your operation went well…I wanted to talk about the other day. You really did hurt me, but I shouldn't have done what I did…call me back when you can."

"Are we boring you, Miss Wakeman?" Jenny jumped and turned to see standing in front of her desk with hands on his hips, unimpressed as the others in the room giggled at the situation.

Jenny gulped as she quickly retracted her phone back into herself and morphed it back into her pigtail. "Uh, no not at all! I was listening, I was just…taking notes?" She sheepishly smiled.

"Really…then what did I just say?" Mr. Smellhaus asked in a stern tone. Jenny stared at him and stammered, helplessly thinking of an excuse but remained at loss for words. Finally, the teacher narrowed his eyes, "Keep this up and you'll be held back again! See me after class."

The classroom was filled with a collection of 'ooohs' and laughter as Jenny rested her head on her desk in frustration. "Alright class, that's enough…" Mr. Smellhaus instructed calming the students down and continued on with his lecture.

Jenny slumped into her seat as her head burrowed into her arms. The message was sent, waiting to be read on Sheldon's phone and the clock continued to tick away slowly. She tried to close her optics, maybe a small nap would help. Unfortunately, as soon as she did, he was screaming again. Jenny jolted back up in her seat with optics wide open creating a screeching noise on the wooden floor. She noted a couple of odd stares she got and shrugged it off and weakly smiled "Heh, just allergies."

As soon as the bell rang to mark the end of the school day, XJ6 rushed out of her classroom and towards the Krust Cousins' lockers. All day she would ask her classmates where the cousins' lockers were and she finally found out in the last class period of the day. There wasn't a moment to lose.

XJ6 sprinted until she saw two teenage girls surrounded by a group of people, she recognized Tiff from earlier with Jenny. She could barely contain her excitement, this was her chance to be popular and possibly even better than Jenny! XJ6 waved her hand as she ran towards them, "Hey girls!" The group turned around as XJ6 came by their side with a wide grin on her face. "I'm new here, and it's so nice to meet you! My name is Jessica! I just want to say it would be totally fab if we can hang out sometimes." She smiled innocently as she leaned against one of the lockers and the group just silently stared at her.

Tiff leaned over to Brit and whispered, "This was the new robot girl that I was telling you about."

Brit scrunched her face in disgust, "So there's really two of them now?" Tiff solemnly nodded in response much to Brit's dismay.

XJ6 noticed Brit's discomfort and weakly chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head, "Uh yea, Heh, Jenny is my older sister…" She waved defensively and abruptly explained. "But we're nothing alike, believe me! I am way cooler than she is! I'm actually even a better model than she is and I'm like you, I don't even like her!" She felt a little guilty saying the last part, but still took it in stride.

The group gave her weird looks, Tiff folded her arms, "I see…and that means you should hang out with us?"

XJ6 blushed a little and gulped, "Uh…yes?" She smiled sheepishly.

Some of the kids in the group stifled some giggles at such a request. Brit glared incredulously at the new robot cyclops with a TV set for a head. This girl is as ridiculous and geeky as her freak of a sister! Brit was ready to rip into XJ6 with insults until Tiff stopped her as she whispered something into her ear. A sly grin grew on Brit's face, and to XJ6's confusion her demeanor suddenly changed. Brit rested her hand on XJ6's shoulder, "Oh, we would love for you to hang with us, Jessica. Would you like to go with us to Mezmers or the mall?"

XJ6 beamed at her new friends, she could barely contain herself as she squealed, "Oh yes I would love too! When are we…" She was interrupted as Jenny bolted right past the group, knocked some people over in the hallway and out the door. XJ6 groaned in frustration. She knew their mom would want her to follow Jenny, if she didn't XJ6 would likely get locked back in the basement. "Girls, I'm so sorry, I need to go…take care of something." She shared a sympathetic frown.

Tiff shrugged, "No biggie, girlfriend. We will see you later."

XJ6 weakly smiled and nodded before running after Jenny. She was unaware of the Krust cousins and the group snickering and cackling as she left and making fun of her.

XJ6 bolted out of the doors. She scanned the front yard for any sign of Jenny but only saw plain grass and some parked cars. XJ6 sighed, she assumed Jenny must have flown off. She activated her jets and followed suit. XJ6 glanced above Tremerton over the series of buildings feeling agitated. She just had to run off, didn't she? When I find her, oh ho! I'm gonna let her have it! Her optics scanned the horizon and stopped at a building labeled hospital, Jenny appeared to be talking to one of her friends.

She landed right behind them, Brad appeared to be exiting the hospital and Jenny was clinging onto his shoulders in tears. Brad patted her back and consoled her. "Sheldon's gonna be ok, sure he looks a little…bad right now, but everything will be fine Jen."

"I sent him a text!" Jenny sputtered as her hands tightened around his arms, causing him to wince a bit.

"Ow! Yes, and he will see it! He's just gonna nap for a bit, that's all." He smiled tiredly, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. "And I called his mom so she's with him right now."

Jenny's optics widened in horror as her pigtails drooped, she leaned towards him as she yelled, "You called his mom?! Wha-What did you tell her?! Did you mention I did this?!"

Brad shook his head as he shrunk back a bit, "No, of course not! I just said he's been involved in an accident, that's all! I promise!" Jenny gazed at him silently for a moment, her robotic mind trying to process everything. Brad's eyes wandered for a bit and stopped when he noticed XJ6 standing behind them. He raised an eyebrow questioningly "Oh hey, XJ6 what are you doing here?"

Jenny turned and blinked tears out of her optics, as she quickly rubbed them. She cleared any static in her artificial voice and replied "Oh, mom reactivated her. She's going to Tremerton High now, actually."

Brad blinked in surprise, "Wow, really? How did you convince your mom to do that?"

Before Jenny could respond, XJ6 rolled her one optic and marched closer as she scoffed, "No, our mom actually did. She wants me to keep an eye on her." Jenny narrowed her optics as XJ6 reached for Jenny's arm, "Now let's go home. So you can go back and sit in your room or whatever." She said with irritation in her voice.

Jenny folded her arms and backed away from XJ6, she glanced back at Brad who nonchalantly shrugged with his usual confident smile, "It'll be fine, Jen! What's the worst possible thing that can happen?"

Jenny felt unsure, her optics bounced back and forth between Brad's confident smile and XJ6's seemingly annoyed glare. Neither Brad nor XJ6 knew of the recent nightmares she has been having, no one does-not even her own mother. Why should they? They wouldn't understand. Instead, she remained silent and believed that seeing Sheldon would somehow resolve that, one look at him and the horrifying nightmares of his screeching would stop. Right? Her hands twitched by her side as she felt like her body became ten times heavier. For a moment she felt like she was back in her room, optics closed as he did an inhumane scream for what seemed to be forever.

"You alright, Jen?" Asked Brad now concerned, seeing his best friend stare into space and notice the slight twitching of her hands.

In front of the hospital, Jenny blinked back into reality with her concerned friend and irritated sister. She quickly facaded a small smile. "Yes, I'm fine…just tired is all."

XJ6 groaned, she just wanted to go home already and was impatient with her sister's weird behavior, "Jenny, he's fine, now let's go already! Geeze!" With silent encouragement from Brad, Jenny reluctantly followed XJ6, activating their jets and taking off into the sky as Brad shuffled into his car.

The whole way home was silent, Jenny's optics stayed focused on the city view in front of them. Her face held a vacant expression. The odd behavior was very noticeable to XJ6, which upset her even more. Jenny had no reason to complain, it's not like she suffered years in the basement abandoned and forgotten like XJ6 did. Jenny had family and friends that cared about her, XJ6 didn't. People call Jenny her chosen name…no one calls her Jessica.

XJ6 continued to observe her downtrodden sister and noticed a possible tear streaming from Jenny's optics. Oh, come on! Such a spoiled drama queen! XJ6 scoffed in disbelief, a part of her wanted to scream and smack some sense into her.

Instead, she spoke up, trying again to hold a conversation, "I…I made some new friends today." She continued with resentment in her voice, "I would have stayed and chatted with them longer, except a certain someone decided to be a spoiled jerk and I had to leave." She glared at Jenny who continued to look ahead silently.

They reached Jenny's bedroom window; Jenny continued to crawl in silently. "They know my name…my actual name! Something you never even bothered to learn…" XJ6 stopped, a pair of headphones formed out of Jenny's head as she collapsed on the bed. She was no longer listening, probably. XJ6 huffed as she watched her sister lay on the bed, blankly gazing at the ceiling. XJ6 marched towards the bedroom door and grumbled with her optic narrowed, "I hate you." She shook her head as she walked out, "You could disappear again and I wouldn't care." She slammed the door, a sting of guilt panged her chest. Has she gone too far? XJ6 backed away from the closed door. She observed the oil stained carpet and quickly swallowed the guilt. No, it had to be said. She reassured herself. She slowly strolled to the stairs, ignoring what could be sobbing.

She glanced out the grand window and saw the robot citizens happily going on with their lives. It was in the afternoon, so many children and teenagers were done with the school day. Some maybe off to the mall or to go see a movie. Others were likely going to their friend's house and the children mostly stayed outside and just played until sundown.

Unlike everyone else, the princess sat in her mother's palace, bored out of her mind. Her mother had called her early from school to meet up with her, having to cancel on her friends again. She slumped into her chair, her arms laid lazily onto the armrests. They're probably at the mall, right now. She sadly thought to herself.

"This was your plan? Your daughter?" Asked Smytus with skepticism in his voice as he stood by the Queen who sat on her throne. He gestured to Vega, exasperated, "She's a child!" Which earned a glare from the princess.

Vexus frowned, waving dismissively, "Yes, Smytus, don't question me! Do you know why I called you here today, Vega?" Vega blinked as she looked at Vexus with no interest and shrugged not having a clue. Vexus leaned back in her chair and nodded. "Vega, do you understand your duty as a princess of the cluster?"

Vega glanced around the room in thought, noting the guards standing watch at the other side of the room and back at her mother in her throne with Krakus and Smytus standing on opposite sides of her. Vexus's mural looked down on them behind the throne giving her an oddly uneasy feeling. Was she in trouble for some reason? "Uh…To live like a normal teenage robot and help keep peace in the Cluster?" She shrugged with a nervous chuckle, not knowing the answer. Vexus was unamused, her deadpanned face cut Vega's laugh short as she shrunk into her seat.

Vexus sighed and glanced behind Vega, "Remember, how you found me the other day?" Vega nodded, confused at her mother's questions, "Stunned unconscious…thanks to the pitiful XJ9 and her little flesh wearers." She slammed her fist on the wide desk, the thud echoed in the room with a snarl, "And then they escaped…we almost had her!"

Vega sat up straight, becoming interested. "XJ9? You mean the one who destroyed our chips and stole our powers? She was here?" She heard the name XJ9 many times from her mother and of her mother's encounter with the infamous robot throughout the galaxy or on XJ9's home planet. She always felt somewhat guilty whenever she heard of Vexus's failed attempts of capturing a human or defeating the horrendous robot. At the same time, she gets exhausted hearing her mother obsess over some robot that she only has seen in the media and never in person. Vega had begun to wonder if XJ9 was real, but hearing that she was here and stunned her mother got her peak interest.

"Yes, the vile flesh protector-XJ9 was here…" she darkly grinned and chuckled, recalling Jenny's attack on her friend. "However she's definitely been slipping lately…something in her is changing."

Vega raised an optic confused, "What do you mean, changing?"

Vexus clasped her hands together on the desk and rested her chin on them, "I mean, she's getting closer to joining the Cluster!"

Vega blinked and tilted her head, still puzzled, "Ok…so, when she's on our side. What will happen exactly? I'm guessing she will have to face a heavy penalty for destroying the chips and for all of her crimes. Right?" Vega narrowed her optics and folded her arms, "I would like to teach her a thing or two about messing with our people."

Vexus and Smytus glanced at each other for a second, slightly nervous knowing the truth of the chips, while Krakus continued to stare blankly at the wall behind Vega. Vexus cleared her throat and nodded, "Uh, yes, sweetie she will face a penalty. All she needs…is one final push over the edge."

"And how are you going to do that?"

Vexus smirked and reached over, lightly stroking a hand over Vega's left cheek. "Simple… You're going to do it my dear daughter."

Vega's optics shot wide open as she backed away from her mother's hand in shock. "Me?!"

Vexus nodded, "Yes! Tomorrow, you will start attending her high school on the puny planet. And your mission is to simply befriend XJ9 and…help her become like us, if you will."

Vega shrunk in her seat again, the room felt like it was spinning and she was shrinking. Her cooling system kicked up in the sense of panic, "You're sending me to another plant filled with weird creatures and where the deranged robot is?! Are you crazy?!" She shrieked in horror.

Vexus shrugged nonchalantly, "Yes, the human planet can be quite disgusting and pathetic, but you will be fine. Especially with XJ9 right now, judging her status."

Vega shook her head and stammered as she panicked, "But-but what about my friends? I'm supposed to leave them? Mom, this isn't fair!" She waved her hands exasperated and glared at Smytus and Krakus "Can't you two say something?!"

Smytus widened his optics uncomfortably and glanced at Vexus who snarled at him. "Uh…I am going to side with the majesty, princess."

Vega looked at Krakus with desperation, hoping the old rusty bucket of bolts could come to her aid. But, instead, he smiled warmly as he continually stared into space, "I'm Krakus!" Vega slumped helplessly as she frowned, disappointed.

Vexus stared at him with a deadpan face, "You forgot to plug yourself in again, didn't you?"

Krakus blinked, his optics void of thoughts as he slowly rotated his head towards Vexus, "I'm Krak-"

Vexus interrupted, glaring at the old robot "Shut up, no one cares." Then, she returned her attention to her daughter, "The decision is final, Vega."

The princess protested as her artificial heart sank, "But mom-"

Vexus raised a hand, not wanting to hear more. "Vega, remember your duties as a princess?" She stood tall and towered menacingly over her daughter in the chair. "One of them is obeying me as your mother and queen! Understand?! This is for the cluster's own good! Now, say goodbye to your friends, subjects, or whatever you call them! You'll be on earth first thing in the morning!"

Vega gasped, staring into her mother's hardened optics and threatening stance. Reality began to sit in, there was no way she could win this. Vega tried to find an excuse, but there wasn't one. Vega gulped, she wished she could turn invisible. Her artificial breath grew loud, echoing in the unnerving silence as she silently trembled in fear of her mother.

"Understand?" Vexus demanded again, getting closer to her daughter.

Vega softly nodded as she lowered her eyes to the ground in defeat, "Y-yes, mother."

Vexus placed her hands on her hips and smiled, "That's a good girl, now run along, darling."

Vega silently got up from her seat, reluctantly marching out of the room past the guards, filled with anger and fear.

—-

Author's Note: Sorry for the slow update, lol. I had so much stuff due this week, it was insane. I swear, life is just trying to kill me at this point. But it's here now :) Please let me know what you all think! I hope you enjoy it! The eighth chapter will be up soon!