Acxa's mother never smiled. It was her fault.

Mother, are you pleased with me?

Yes, Acxa.

But Acxa had never seen her smile, no matter what she did.

That was one thing she knew about people. That they smiled when they were happy.

And that they could lie to her, too.

She didn't read people very well. It was safer to assume most of the things they told her were lies. And that was the first lie of all, Yes I am pleased with you, from someone who didn't smile or laugh with her or enjoy ANYTHING she wanted to do.

She tried. She tried so hard.

She wasn't enough.

Her mother kept a picture with her. A man and a child, with strange-colored skin. And her. She'd never seen her mother look like that in real life.

They were the reason her mother never smiled. That man, and that child they were holding.

She hated them.

The people who had had the chance to be loved by her.

They'd taken it away from her.

And her mother never smiled because she wasn't THEM.

It didn't make her sad to leave. Her mother had never really wanted her, if she did she would have at least ACTED like she liked her. She didn't need her mother to love her. She had gone this far without it and now she was going to something better, no, she wasn't sad at all…

She remembered the first time Prince Lotor had praised her. "Good work, Acxa," he'd said.

And he smiled.

It thrilled her so much it almost scared her. For the first time in her life, she had made somebody happy.

She would do it again. She needed it.

Prince Lotor was something else.

He smiled like her mother had in that picture.

He trusted her, and he was willing to give her something.

It was hard to do anything with no chance of reward. She was so much happier with Prince Lotor than with her mother.

It made her feel sick inside, waiting for his approval, waiting to know if she had finally done well.

And when she had, everything was different. These weren't just orders. These were orders with something to be gained.

She seized with energy when he praised her, his smile said to her, I see you, Acxa, I see you working hard because you care about me, what you do you do well, and the things you do are important to me.

She was important to him.

He was the first person ever to think of her like that.

She would never let him down.