trans_9 | [What once was lost] [Bendytimed to just before the powers get turned back on] [Open]

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[What once was lost] [Bendytimed to just before the powers get turned back on] [Open]

The term ironic didn't even begin to describe the situation Azula found herself in.

She stood gazing out over the city from one of the higher balconies of the Southern Air Temple with a blade in each hand watching the mechanical minions of that insipid voice crawling through the city destroying anything worth their attention.

Any time now they would turn their attention to one of the last bits of airbender culture, and she was loath to admit she would have to defend it.

Any other day she'd have let it burn, possibly even set fire to it herself, but now the stakes were higher and the situation had adjusted.

For one, she was living there. What few items she owned were stored in a small safe room deep within the temple. A room that she had felt safe in. Her time spent sharing a body with Nima had taught her one invaluable fact. As much as she looked down on her, Nima was trustworthy.

And so to protect the one place on the ship where she felt slightly less like she was going to be murdered in her sleep she had abandoned Kaya and Zouichi in Hydroponics and had escaped to make her stand here.

A snort and low whine reminded her she was not alone.

She sighed and turned to face one of Nima's Glow Sloths. It had been separated from the pack and Azula had found it in Hydroponics. Against her better judgement she brought it with her. If nothing else she could always eat it she supposed.

At least that was how she justified it to herself. She certainly didn't care about it. Either way she shooed it back into the temple where it was less exposed and turned her eyes back to the city.

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Atom pulled a hairpin turn in midair as he eluded one of the Droidekas that was giving him chase, flying right between the oncoming robot's legs, and knocking its spindly supports right out from under it. Once it hit the ground, he smashed each of its weapon-bearing limbs in quick succession, leaving it functioning, but crippled, unable to pose a serious threat to anyone. He did this all easily, despite the dampening field -- so either he'd been even more powerful before SHODAN's attack, or he wasn't what he seemed.

Now he looked for a place to put the robot's body, and as he glanced around his surroundings, his eyes fell on the Air Temple.

And Azula's eyes fell on him.

Yet another child who was more then a first glance would reveal. So many children on the ship had powers far beyond what someone with a child's capacity for responsibility should rightfully have.

She stood her ground for now watching him work, waiting to see what he would do next. There were plenty of robots after all.

Hmm... maybe he could move the robot somewhere else... somewhere further away from places like the Vatican, where people might be hiding. That way, it couldn't scare them, and maybe it could be reprogrammed later. To help people, instead of hurt them. After a moment, he stashed the robot away in a nearby alley, lifting it bodily to do so. Then he flew back to the Temple, looking around as if to see if anyone was inside.

"Is anyone here? The rest of the robots just went by, it's okay!"

"Just me for now." Azula responded eying him with suspicion. "'m sure the robots will be back. This place is of great significance to many people still in the pods."

The Sloth made a grunting noise and tried to take a bite out of Azula's sleeve earning him a swat on the nose.

"How do you still fly when our powers have been taken?"

"Whoa! Oh, uh, sorry -- I didn't know." Atom's systems identified Azula as human with no trouble, but he had no idea what that animal with her was.

"Well, you know. I'm a robot. Uh, a good robot, though!" He held up his hands as if to show her that he had no weapons. Though of course for him, his hands were his weapons.

Her narrow stare was suspicious and she remained on the defensive, "And what's to stop that manic woman from making you a not so good robot?" After all he may look cute but one should never trust someone based entirely on being cute.

Atom frowned a little. "You mean SHODAN? My AI isn't that easy to reprogram, you know. Only... well, I guess only one person could do it where I came from. And he was pretty much the best roboticist there was."

"You'll pardon me if I don't immediately trust you on that." Azula sneered having no respect, but also no fear of the flying boy.

Atom shook his head. "Nah, that's okay. I understand." Even on his world, plenty of people didn't trust robots. Humans distrusted their increased strength, their heightened calculation speed... even their work ethic. After all, robots didn't call in sick when they weren't, and they didn't get tired. Plenty of workers suspected that robots would take over their jobs or somehow weaken humanity by making things too easy.

He had just had to get used to that. Besides, even among the people who hated robots the most, opinion seemed to be changing. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

She sniffed disdainfully of his understanding personality and moved along. "This is my home for the time being on this godforsaken ship. I will not let it be destroyed no matter how much the thought of it fills me with pleasure." Because Nima and Aangs tears are the BEST! Second only to Zuko's.

He gave her a weird look. "So... you want it to be destroyed, but you don't? How come you're guarding it alone?"

Well, with the sloth, but he wasn't sure how good it would be in a fight.

She sighed as if the boy was being foolish with stupid questions despite it being perfectly reasonable and responded, "I despise everything this temple stands for, but I also live here so I won't see it destroyed unless it's by my own hand."

The Sloth in question made a noise and sat unceremoniously on the ground with a thud.

"I don't know where the temples real caretaker is. I'm sure she'd be here if she could."

Atom frowned slightly. "Oh. Well, I hope your friend's okay. There are an awful lot of robots around." He wouldn't blame whoever it was if they'd run and hid to get away from all the fighting.

He held his hand out to the Sloth... did it like being petted?

"I'm Atom. What's your name?"

The Sloth sniffed his hand and gave it a nudge. It was a friendly enough creature.

Azula however was not. She answered automatically "Princess Azula." However the words felt dry and bitter in her mouth. She hadn't been "Princess Azula" in a long time. Simply Azula...crazy Azula. Dangerous broken Azula. Pathetic weak Azula. A shadow of Princess Azula.

He grinned and petted the Sloth gently. Hey, it was pretty cute!

"You're a princess?" For some reason, this seemed to give Atom brief pause. "Um. Sorry about your kingdom and all." Being here meant her kingdom had been destroyed about the Ohm, right? She must be upset about that. "Should I call you Princess Azula, then? Or just Princess? Do you have any family on the ship?"

Azula rolled her eyes "They got what was coming to them. Don't waste pity on them."

Such a Kind caring princess.

"Yes, I have a brother as foolish and pigheaded as they come. Cruel and uncaring he did everything in his power to have me locked away so he could remain in power."

His face fell a little. "Oh. So you were deposed..." Azula's was an odd opinion to have about one's subjects, but Atom was kind of beginning to suspect Azula wasn't one of those fairytale princesses, anyway. She sounded more like she'd been part of the kind of royal family that Darius XIV had been a part of. Except that perhaps instead of another country, it was power struggles from within that she'd had to worry about.

"But you're free now, so does that mean he failed?"

"Only time will tell." She muttered darkly casting another glance out over the city.

She had thought about it time and time again. What would she do if she was ever forced back into that cell. Could she endure? Would she end it and take their satisfaction away from them?

Only time would tell.

Atom gave the Sloth a final pat before he turned back to the sounds of fighting. "Yeah... I guess it's that way about most things. I'm going to go back outside and see if anyone's hurt. It was nice meeting you, Princess Azula."

He gave her a little wave, then flew up and out past the balcony, determined to track down the signs of struggle.

Zuko's ancestors - and Zuko himself - had done enough damage to Air Nomad culture that it seemed a poetic sort of justice for him to defend some of it now.

When he arrived at Aang's home temple and found it already guarded by his sister, it seemed for a moment like he'd stumbled into a bizarre parallel universe.

"What are you doing here?"

It took her just a moment to verify that she was in fact hearing the real Zuko as opposed to another hallucination.

"I live here now." She stated plainly enough as if everyone knew and Zuko was the last one to find out. "What's your excuse?"

"Very funny. What are you really doing here?"

Using the distraction to destroy yet another piece of Air Nomad culture, no doubt. Although that animal, and why it's still alive, is another curiosity.

"What is that?"

Azula had to look away from Zuko to swat at the creature ushering him back into the temple. "This, dear brother, is a Glowsloth. The produce milk and eggs and are some of the stupidist creatures I've ever known."

The Glowsloth in question made a whining noise and she ignored it.

"He was separated from his pack." She added once it was out of sight and returned to her post on the balcony.

"You expect me to believe you're living in an air temple and taking care of animals now?"

Her? Azula? Who pulled the wings off dragon flies and threw rocks at the turtleducks?

"What game are you playing, Azula?"

They'd have scant time to finish this conversation before the robots converged, but Zuko's mind was boggled.

Her lips curled into a cruel smile and she set her eyes on Zuko's in that way that looked like she was peering into his very soul.

"What's the matter Zuzu? Don't trust me? I'm hurt." Her voice was positively dripping with sarcasm. Even she couldn't play off the reality about that.

"Speak to the monk if she's still alive. She and I have been spending a sickening amount of time together lately."

"The monk?" She? "Not Aang -"

He vaguely recalled seeing the female airbender he'd never spoken to mentioning animals of some kind over the comms. "You've been spending time with an airbender, and she's not dead yet?"

That he didn't trust her was implicit. His discomfort under her piercing stare was only amplified by the strange conditions of her presence at the air temple.

"Why?"

"Oh please Zuzu, use that tiny pointed and disfigured head of yours." Azula sighed dismissively. "Is there REALLY any answer I could give you that you'd believe other then "She is of some use to me?"

Which wasn't necessarily untrue. "It was also her idea. She seems to believe she can "help" me. Isn't that charming?" She chuckled in what started a normal way but wobbled off in the end to something unstable and unsettling.

"Adorable."

The woman was an idiot. Clearly more of an idiot than Aang, who at least had the experience to know that Azula was beyond reason.

"What are you going to do to her when she's not useful anymore?"

Maybe she'd be sportsmanlike enough to give him a heads-up, so he could at least try to help the poor nun.

"Oh you know me Zuzu. I'm very creative." She decided to leave it at that, let him suffer under the burden of his own imagination at what horrible cruel things Azula knew she was capable of.

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[What once was lost] [Bendytimed to just before the powers get turned back on] [Open]

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^_^ Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu~ zuko makes my day.

Thank YOU! Azula makes mine!

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