Legacy (Ninjago OC fic)

1. Burning

Frieza was, hands down, the weirdest person Raquel knew.

And she didn't mean that in a mean way; in fact, they'd been best friends for years, ever since Frieza became her home math tutor. It was just a simple fact - Frieza was different from others. She spoke like someone who'd memorized the dictionary, she walked precisely and decidedly, and she spent her free time studying old blueprints of an unknown origin. She was just... different.

Frieza seemed to know this, too: when strangers made comments to her about her behavior, Frieza would stare at them as if that were obvious and would usually ask something along the lines of what their point was. She made a rather odd appearance too, with her bright blonde locks of curled hair, slender build, and confident posture, yet obviously not associated with any cheerleaders or popular kids. No matter how long she spent in the sun, she was always incredibly pale, with little or no color to her cheeks, and an eagle-like gaze that felt like it was pinning you under glass for observation. Many people became uncomfortable just being near her.

Frieza also didn't have very many friends.

Raquel thought about this, as she sometimes did, when she went through her morning routine in preparation of school. Frieza didn't seem to have a morning routine...? She woke up at some point in her permanent guest room, tinkered around with her latest project, and then would be ready to go with Raquel perfectly on time. Sometimes she joined Raquel in breakfast, but usually she didn't. And that was just how it was. She didn't cause unnecessary trouble and she got good grades, so, despite her odd behavior, she was perfectly fine by the standards of the government. Nobody really cared.

"Raquel? Do you have your science project ready?" her mother called up the stairs to her room.

"Yeah, Mom," she shouted back, putting all the little baggies she would need into a larger plastic bag and shoving that into her backpack. Throwing her backpack over her shoulder, Raquel headed downstairs just as Frieza left her room next door (last night was one of those occasions when she chose to stay the night). "You ready for today's thing in chemistry?" Raquel asked.

Frieza's startling blue gaze seemed focused elsewhere, giving the normally composed girl a rather distracted look. "My demonstration is not until tomorrow, but yes..." she replied absentmindedly, fiddling with the perfect curls of her blonde hair. (Raquel had always been secretly jealous of Frieza's hair - she could barely get her own frizzy ginger hair pulled into a ponytail, let alone style it as well as Frieza.)

"You okay?" Raquel inquired, raising an eyebrow in concern. "You look... distracted."

Frieza frowned slightly as they reached the main floor of the house. "I have an extremely important test I am conducting tonight," she said. "I am double-checking everything mentally to ensure it goes as smoothly as possible."

"Oh," was all Raquel could manage. "Is it for school?"

"No, it is a personal experiment. However, if successful, it could have immense impact on my plans for the future."

"Hmm." But Frieza wasn't elaborating on what she testing, so she clearly wanted to keep it hidden, at least for now. She was secretive like that - she wouldn't tell anyone about what she was doing in detail unless she thought it wasn't very important. But now wasn't the time to worry about that - their school bus was about to arrive and today was NOT a day Raquel could miss.

"Ready for school, you two?" Raquel's mother greeted, smiling brightly at them as she cleaned up the remnants of breakfast from earlier.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Raquel joked. Frieza just nodded absently.

Raquel's mom smiled and turned back to her dishwashing. "Remember, Brooke doesn't have piano lessons after school today, so you and Azure will need to stop by her class and pick her up. Assuming she's well enough to go to school today," she said.