Chapter Four~ Old Blue

A/N: Alright you guys, this is it. The scene I've been dying to write is finally upon us. This was the original thought for the story. It's been killing me having to get here. It's not the end, by far, but is defiantly the turning point of the story. You'll know it when you see it ;)

After sleeping better than she had in so long, Lorra's eyes fought to stay closed as she attempted to pull herself from the weird dream she'd been having. Of course, as soon as her sleep-gunk-glued eyes managed to pry themselves open, the last memories of it faded into that place where you know it's there, but you can't remember anything concrete. Lorra lay in bed, one hand rubbing the gunk out of her eyes and trying as hard as she could to remember. The only thing that came up was blue. A lot of blue. It was bright and smoky, swirling all around her in her dream. Beyond that...nothing. Getting up, Lorra kicked her blanket off and swung her feet to the floor. Something about the blue smoke was eerie and disconcerting, like it was a warning of some sort. But, whatever it was, she couldn't remember. Shrugging off the disturbing thoughts, she managed to push herself off the bed. Her whole body protested. After being on the move all day, and then being forced to put up with heels for a good bit of the night, Lorra's body was not in the mood to cooperate with her. To be completely honest, her mind wasn't either. All she wanted to do was collapse back in bed and pull the covers up over her head. But, she couldn't do that. She had to take her grandmother to the airport today. Putting on her glasses and picking up her phone, Lorra checked the time. 8:50 A.M. Why the hell was she up this early? It had been after midnight by the time she had finally managed to shuck the torture contraption that Dimitri had made her. With a groan, she pushed herself up.

"Might as well," she mumbled to herself. Grandma would have to be at the airport by 11 o'clock. In the meantime, she needed food...and coffee. "Coffee, coffee, coffee." Lorra sang as she exited her room, combing her fingers through the rat's nest that she called hair. A particularly gnarly knot took up all but enough of her attention that it took not to trip on the stairs, so she didn't notice that it was extremely quiet in the manor for a few moments. When she did, she stopped halfway down the staircase. "Hello?" She called out. No one answered her.

To be fair, the Walter Worker girls would probably still be asleep. Dealing with blue matter was often very taxing, and therefore required for the girls to get more rest than average. It also bleached their skin and turned their hair blue, which was somewhat strange to most people. In fact, there had been many scientists outside of the Walter family that had attempted to sue Peter A. Walter VI for endangering his workers to radioactive material. Of course, it fell through when absolutely no radiation was found on the bots, or the Workers, and Chelsea and Camille told each and every one of them that they were very happy and in perfect health. With that, the Walter family won out several court cases against them and ended up just that much richer. There was no telling where that money went, though. Probably another harebrained contraption or add-on to the manor. Come to think of it, that was right before Lorra was hired, so it very well may have ended up being her salary.

Still, no one was to be seen. Not human, nor bot, nor the resident abomination. Lorra rubbed her tired eyes and rounded the corner to enter the kitchen.

"SURPRISE!" Mutiple bodies jumped out from various places in the kitchen.

Lorra screamed, tripped over the edge of the rug and fell to the floor with a rather loud thump. "What the hell?!" She yelled at the group of people huddled around her. "What is going on?!"

Spine moved to help her up. "Pete heard what a wonderful job you did last night and insisted we throw you a party."

Lorra gaped at them. "At 9 o'clock in the morning? When I'm not even fully awake yet?" She shook her head and rubbed her face, taking a moment to calm her racing heart.

"Th-th-that part was my id-de-de-dea." Rabbit raised her hand from the back of the crowd.

Annie stepped in to rescue the poor bot from the glare that was forming on Lorra's face. "On account of the fact that your grandmother will be leaving us this afternoon. We thought it would be nice for her to be present at this small celebration." She gestured behind her at the older redheaded woman standing dourly at the counter with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"And I said that it was just silly to do something like this. So you got onstage and sung a little diddy. Big whoop." Jenna shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee.

Hatchworth gasped with his hands over his mouth. "Grandma, that's not very nice."

Lorra took Spines proffered hand, using it to pull herself up. "No, it's ok, Hatchy. It is a little silly to go through all of this. I didn't do anything that a billion people haven't done before. It wasn't worth a party. Um..." Scooching around everyone, she grabbed her favorite mug and poured some coffee. Once it was doctored to her tastes, she turned back to everyone. "I think I'm just gonna take my coffee back to my room. I've got some stuff I've gotta tinker with before we leave this afternoon." Without another word, her head down, Lorra escaped the tense atmosphere of the room.

Once again, Spine turned to the older woman, wanting to give her a piece of his mind. But, no matter what he thought of saying, this old broad would have a witty retort to it. So, puffing out a thick cloud of steam in frustration, he simply turned and left the kitchen, not catching the smug grin that peaked over the edge of her cup.

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"Grandma, come on! We're gonna be late!" Lorra hollered up the stairs from next to the front door. Some of her grandmother's bags sat beside her, waiting for the driver to come around to the door and get them. The younger woman kept glancing at her watch, trying to calculate how long it would take to get there if they left right that moment. Behind her, she could hear tires crunching on the gravel driveway, then a door slamming as Maurice made his way up the steps toward her. He didn't say anything when he took the bags, but kind of shook his head when he heard her calling.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming. Christ, this place is still a flippin' maze, even after two weeks."

Lorra nodded. "Believe me, I know. Six months and I still have no idea where I'm going half the time. I'll have to mention to Mr. Walter that maybe some maps on the walls that say 'you are here' then different rooms on different floors and how to get to them would help. Anyway, come on. We got to go."

It was a thirty minute drive to the airport, then another hour as the plane ended up getting delayed. The took that time to talk about family away from the prying ears of the Walter Wi-Fi, the elder telling the younger to call more often. After being filled in on the details of whys and how's of the current issues within her family, Lorra agreed. By the time Jenna's flight was finally called and they started heading towards the gate, they were somewhat more amicable than before. There were many promises of texts and calls, and letting the other know when they made it home. A few hugs and kisses were exchanged, and then she was off. Lorra stayed there until her grandmother had gone through the gate and she could no longer see her. Once she was on her way back to the pickup/drop-off lane, she texted the bots and let them know that she would be out a little longer. It had been a long time since she'd gone to the zoo.

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When not in rehearsal, or being hounded by his siblings, Spine liked to wander the underbellies of Walter Manor. The deepest, darkest parts of the original labs, where Peter A. Walter the first worked on the first prototypes of automatons. As he meandered through the halls, he marveled at the ingenuity of the late nineteenth century, and of that of his creator, the man he often called father. A sigh escaped him, creating a larger puff of steam than usual in the cool dampness of the old areas. Something about being down here, he could almost imagine that he could feel the cold, almost feel the roughness of the walls under his fingertips. Everywhere else in the world seemed to be there simply to remind him just how unhuman he really was. From the fans that couldn't get enough of singing robots, to being completely in tune with the entire house via the Walter Wi-Fi. Down here, he was able to escape all of that. Qwerty couldn't penetrate down this far down through floors and floors of areas that hadn't been operational in many decades. No one ever came down here, so it was his little hiding place.

And at the moment, that hiding place was not what it seemed. Spine was pulled from his thoughts by a light up ahead of him. Whatever the source of the light was, he couldn't see. But, it was a bright, pulsing blue light. It was oh so familiar, as he had been seeing it from the day his photoreceptors first came online. It looked just like Blue Matter. Racing towards the light, Spine felt his artificial breath becoming quicker. Maybe it was another robot, long hidden away like Hatchworth had been. He slid to a stop outside the door to another tunnel, having to steady himself with one hand on the ground before following. It seemed to be moving away from him.

"Wait! Come back!" He yelled, using his voice amplifiers to make sure that the glowing being could hear him. The light seemed to halt for a moment, before disappearing completely. "No, come back. I'm not going to hurt you! My name is The Spine! I'm a friend." The silver bot turned a corner, only to see...nothing, no one.

"I don't quite think you're a friend, Mr. Spine."

Spine spun on his heel. The being before him was not what he had expected. It wasn't any sort of machination. Instead, it was a woman. A blue light seemed to emanate from her very skin. Long red locks flowed freely around her shoulders, moved as if by some unseen breeze. The woman before him was familiar. "Mrs. Marborne?" He asked, confused. She was slightly taller and thinner than the grandmotherly woman he had had the distinct pleasure of sharing space with for the past two weeks. Her normally crystalline blue eyes glowed, and her skin showed only minor age lines around her eyes. "What are you doing down here? I thought you had a flight to catch. Lorra said you were on the plane."

A fiendish smirk came across her face. Suddenly, Spine felt himself flying through the air, landing hard against a metal column. "It doesn't take much to fool my granddaughter. She's not as strong in the gift as my mother or I am. She is much more easily deceived than she believes she is. Not surprising, seeing as you crazy people were able to wrangle her into staying at this horrid place."

All at once, like a final cog slotting into place, Spine's mind began to crank as he attempted to stand. "You're the Blue Witch? The one that helped Pappy-"

"Of course, I'm not, you idiot." The woman spat. "Do you really think that I would have done any such thing as that?! No. My mother was foolish to help that maniac. My poor Lorra thinks you're all so wonderful. She doesn't see just how wrong she really is." With a snarl, she shook her head. Then, in the blink of a human eyes, she was right in front of him, nose to nose. "You know, she seems to think you crave humanity, Mr. Spine. Is that true?" Not knowing how to respond, he simply stood there glaring at her. "Ah, interesting. Well, in that case," one hand came up, blue energy swirling around her palm and between her fingers. "Let me give it to you!" In a flash, her hand was on his chest. A surge of pure energy jolted through him, forcing him against the pillar again. Now cackling, Jenna Marborne spat coldly at him. "This may sting a little. But, I'm sure you can take it, can't you, big boy. And the best part about all of this, you won't even remember a thing! Except maybe the pain." She laughed and laughed, so loud that it almost drowned out the rising screams that ripped from the automatons vocal cords.

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A/N: There it is yall, the newest chapter. I had to keep it short because I have to work tomorrow, but I will get part two up ASAP, probably tomorrow night since I've been on a roll. Anyway lovelies, enjoy, let me know what you think.

AcaciaDawn105