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gwenbrightly · 4 years

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The Gingerbread Caper

Cross-posted from ffnet.

The quiet atmosphere of the monastery was broken by the sound of screaming originating from Kai’s bedroom, waking anyone who still happened to be asleep. Nya groaned in annoyance and covered her face with a pillow. Wu was letting them slack off from Sunrise Exercises and she really didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of that.

“GET IT OFF ME!!!” Her brother screamed again, forming coherent words this time. That was it. Obviously, the master of water wasn’t going to be sleeping in today. She threw her pillow aside and climbed out of bed, eyeing her clock resentfully. It was far too early for this. Not that 10 am was particularly early (but still!). She trudged from her room still wrapped in one of her blankets.

“What the heck, Kai?” Nya demanded when she reached Kai’s bedroom just down the hall. The master of fire sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He tossed something at her in disgust. She caught it with minimal effort. A gingerbread man. Or, at least, what was left of one. The poor cookie didn’t have any head.

“This better not have been you, sis.” he stated. Nya rolled her eyes, tempted to return to the comfort of her bed rather than deal with her over dramatic brother.

“Like I’d ever stoop so low. Seriously, you didn’t need to scream like that. It’s just a cookie.”

Kai gaped at her indignantly.

“Would you wanna wake up with some creepy soulless human wannabe in your bed?”

“Now there’s a quote I should send to your lovely girlfriend right away.” Nya laughed. He glared at her for a moment before suddenly shooting up from his bed.

“Skylor!”

“What?” she asked, confused, “I swear I wasn’t actually planning on sending this to her.”

“No, she’s supposed to be coming over today to decorate cookies with us!” he reminded her. Nya face-palmed.

“I can’t believe I forgot about that…”

“Actually, this is perfect. She’ll be totally unbiased about this whole gingerbread man fiasco.” Kai mused, already deep in thought. His sister frowned at him. It was obvious he had something up his sleeve.

“What are you planning?”

“Don’t look so worried, Nya. This is just like one of Ninja Noir’s mysteries! I just gotta follow the trail of evidence and eventually, I’ll be able to eliminate the impossible and find the truth!” Kai told her, quoting his favorite detective series.

“Kai, no.” she said, attempting to prevent the situation from getting totally out of hand. He ignored her, instead opting to head over to his closet to grab something. When he turned to face Nya again, he was wearing a fedora.

“Since when do you own a fedora?” the master of water questioned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.

“Shhhh,” he cut her off with a wave of his hand, “Just go with it.”

Nya sighed, but followed him to go wait for Skylor to appear.

_________________________________________________________________

“Do I even wanna know what I just walked into?” Skylor wondered when she caught site of the scene playing out in the living room. Her boyfriend stared suspiciously at Lloyd and Jay, who were playing what appeared to be a rather intense game of Fist to Face (Ninja Edition!). It took him a second to register her presence. Nya waved her over, smiling apologetically.

“Someone,” Kai began to explain, holding up the cookie, which he’d gotten back from his sister, “thought it would be funny to put this in my bed and I wanna know who.”

Skylor resigned herself to another of Kai’s chaotic schemes. She already knew he had a problem with gingerbread people (and Christmas elves, and those little expanding bath toys they sold at the dollar store for that matter), though he wouldn’t tell her what it was about the holiday treats that bothered him so much.

“Eh okay. How can I help?”

“Are you sure you wanna do that?” Nya asked at the same time as Kai said, “You can be, like, the insanely hot mystery woman who helps the dashing detective (me) solve the mystery.”

“Real smooth, dork. But sure, why not.” the redhead decided, punching the master of fire’s shoulder lightly to distract from how rosy her cheeks were all of a sudden. He grinned in delight.

“Cool! Oh, and I guess Nya can help too.” Kai added as an afterthought. Nya raised an eyebrow.

“Well, you’re obviously not a suspect, sis! The gingerbread man couldn’t have been in my bed long or it would have crumbled, and you value sleep way too much to have gotten up early enough to orchestrate this.” he stated confidently. She didn’t look like she was taking this as a compliment.

“So, detective Smith, where do we start our investigation?” Skylor prompted. She had no desire to see the siblings get into a debate over their sleeping habits.

“Oh. Uh… We have to interview our suspects!” announced Kai, dragging Skylor and Nya over to the two video game playing ninja.

“Oh, hey guys. You wanna join our next round?” Jay offered, not taking his eyes off of the screen. He rapidly pressed several buttons on his controller at once.

“Yeah, it’ll be way more fun with more players!” agreed Lloyd. He gave a smirk of triumph as his avatar landed a final hit on his opponent. The master of lightning groaned, disappointed.

“Actually, I think Kai had something he wanted to ask you.” Skylor informed them. Jay and Lloyd set aside their controllers, curious. The sight of Kai in a fedora was unexpected; Lloyd was usually the only one who found them fashionable enough to wear.

“Oh, okay. What’s up?” the green ninja asked, wondering what on earth could be so pressing that Kai had gotten Nya and Skylor involved.

“I was wondering if you knew anything about this?” answered Kai he shoved the cookie under his brother’s nose. Taking note of the gingerbread man, Jay demanded, “Hey – how’d you convince Zane to let you have one of his cookies?”

He’d tried to snag one earlier that morning, only to be thwarted by the master of ice, who insisted they must save the gingerbread cookies for Skylor’s arrival. This was rather unfortunate, as they smelled utterly delicious.

“No, I- you’re telling me that you, the two biggest pranksters around, have no idea how this got in my bed?” Kai stated, skeptical. The two ninja shook their heads. It appeared he was going to have to use a different interrogation method to get answers. He judged his sister. She glared at him. He nodded pointedly at Lloyd and Jay. Not wanting to give in so easily, Nya stared at Kai silently for several minutes before finally relenting.

“If that’s true, then you won’t mind telling us what you’ve been doing all morning.” she said in her best police officer voice (and secretly wishing she had a fake mustache on her).

“Oh, that’s easy. We’ve been having a Fist to Face (Ninja Edition!) tournament for the past couple of hours. Just look at the scoreboard,” Jay told them with a shrug, “I mean, it is kinda embarrassing to see how many times Lloyd’s hooped me already today, but if it gets you to stop looking at me like that…”

Lloyd nodded, the picture of innocence. They took a closer look at the screen. Sure enough, the scores for the past thirty or so rounds, along with the times they were completed scrolled across the pause screen.

“Huh. Well, I guess you’re off the hook. For now, at least.” Kai decided, wondering who he should use his detective skills on next if the most obvious suspects had been ruled out.

“Maybe Zane knows who it was. He’s been in the kitchen all morning.” suggested Lloyd as he set up another round of the video game. Skylor grabbed Kai’s elbow and drug him towards the door, saying, “Good idea. I need to give him the extra sprinkles I brought anyway.”

Nya mouthed I’ll be back later to her boyfriend before following them. Instead of heading directly to the kitchen, Kai insisted on examining every nook and cranny of the hallway. He held a magnifying glass he’d somehow ended up with, though no one could say for sure where it had come from, and was doing his best to mutter what he thought sounded like very professional and insightful comments.

“Ahah! A trail of crumbs. Collect that for evidence, Sky.”

The redhead pretended like she hadn’t heard him, sharing a grossed out look with Nya.

“Oh, hey! Weren’t you missing an earring, Nya?”

Kai held out something sparkly and blue.

“Uh…thanks.” Nya accepted it, a look of utter surprise on her face. She’d been searching for this earring for weeks. Could it be possible that Kai was actually… good at this detective stuff?

“The detective and his sidekicks arrived at the kitchen at approximately 11:05 am., wondering what clues they would uncover inside…” Kai loudly announced, interrupting Nya’s thoughts.

“Hello!” Zane greeted them. Bowls of frosting in an impressively wide range of colors lined the counters along with several different kinds of sprinkles. Pixal was currently adding a few drops of vibrant red food dye to one of the few bowls that remained uncolored.

“Yes, welcome! Did you bring the sprinkles?” she asked. Skylor pulled a jar from her purse.

“Yep, here you go.”

“Thank goodness,” exclaimed Zane, taking them from her, “Dyeing sugar crystals by hand just isn’t effective.”

“Tell me about it. We tried it at the restaurant one time when we were in a pinch and… it didn’t work well.” the redhead recalled. Having grown bored with the conversation the others were having about epic fails with sprinkles, Kai examined the trays of cookies stacked next to the oven. Just as he’d predicted, one row of cookies was missing a gingerbread man.

“Hey, Zane, Pixal? You guys have been in here all morning, right?” he asked, casually. The two nindroids glanced at each other. Zane was the first to reply.

“Well, I stepped out for a few moments to bring Master Wu some oolong tea – he claims to be feeling a bit under the weather today – but, other than that, yes. Why?”

“I’m trying to figure out where this cookie came from. You didn’t happen to, say, give one of these to someone, did you?” Kai showed them the gingerbread man, curious to see their reaction. He was a little disappointed when neither of them did anything incriminating.

“I suppose it’s possible that Cole took it when I wasn’t looking. He came in here while Zane was gone to grab some extra tape.” Pixal said thoughtfully. Ahah! Kai’s eyes lit up.

“So he’s wrapping presents, huh,” he mused, “I wonder if he’s gotten to mine yet…”

“Kai! I thought you were being a detective, not some nosy kid!” his sister hissed disapprovingly. He huffed indignantly.

“I’m just curious, Nya. And besides, all the best detectives can multi-task.” Kai defended.

“Suuure.”

“Anyway, thank you for the info. We may be back later.” the master of fire stated in a more professional tone, heading out into the hall once more. Zane and Pixal waved as the others left, not sure how else to respond.

En route to Cole’s bedroom, Kai immediately reverted back to carefully examining every small space, carpet snag, and leafy garland in sight. Nothing escaped the lens of his magnifying glass. Not even his sister’s tennis shoes, which kept blocking his view. If he could just find something, anything, that would prove once and for all who was guilty of this delectable crime… Wait. Kai caught a whiff of something cinnamony wafting off of a wreath hung across the hall from the master of earth’s door. He sniffed the gingerbread man. It was the same smell. Reaching into the wreath, he plucked something small and round from inside. Victory! Skylor stared at him in confusion for a few minutes before realizing what he was holding.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Kai held the two pieces of the gingerbread man together.

“Yep. Looks like we might just have an official suspect.”

“You’re so weird…” Nya muttered under her breath. She was pretty sure nothing would possess her to behave like this.

“Hey, it worked pretty well, didn’t it?” Kai pointed out, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She sidestepped quickly, shrugging it off as she went.

“Well…” she started reluctantly, “I guess we’d better get in there and get some answers.” She swung the door open. They could hear the pleasant tune of the Nutcracker soundtrack playing on Cole’s phone as they entered. The ninja in question sat at his desk, surrounded by wrapping paper. He turned around and blocked their view of whatever else was on the desk before quickly asking, “Do… you need something, or are you just here to enjoy the total masterpiece that is the Nutcracker?”

“Uh, yeah. Though, it is definitely a classic.” Nya told him appreciatively. They would have to pull out the recording of Cole’s 6th grade performance of the ballet that Lou had given them one day soon.

“Let’s cut to the chase. We know why you were really in the kitchen, Cole.” Kai cut in impatiently. Cole’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“Aw, man! You’re not gonna tell Zane, are you?” he stammered.

“…What?” the master of fire attempted to ask.

“This is a one-time thing, I swear! His frosting is just too delicious to resist.” Cole continued sheepishly, oblivious to Kai’s question. Kai, Skylor, and Nya froze. This wasn’t at all what they had been expecting him to say.

“Zane’s…. Frosting?” Skylor repeated, wanting to make sure they had heard him right.

“Well yeah. I’ve been snacking in it all morning,” the master of earth admitted, showing them a mostly empty bowl, “It’s so good! Wait - what did you think I was talking about?”

No one replied at first; they were still processing the unexpected turn of events.

“We… may have thought you put a headless gingerbread man in Kai’s bed to mess with him.” Nya ultimately explained. Cole couldn’t help himself. He burst into laughter at this admission.

“Wow, I guess that explains the looks on your faces right about now. But as totally brilliant of an idea as that prank is, I had nothing to do with it. Sorry.”

“Eh, it’s okay. We probably shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions when Pixal told us you’d been in the kitchen. Or when I found the gingerbread man’s head in that wreath. In hindsight it was a pretty weird hiding place.” Kai said apologetically.

“Yeah.” his sister agreed.

“Almost…. Like someone wanted us to find it…” he continued.

“You think whoever did this tried to frame Cole?” Skylor questioned, finishing his thought. It was all coming together now.

“I guess I do…. Oolong tea not licorice…. Hang on a sec, I think I solved this thing!”

Nya gave him a look, as if questioning his sanity. His ramblings made little sense to her.

“No offense, Kai, but you lost me at tea.” she told him with a frown.

“Me too, honestly.” Cole nodded, equally lost, especially since he had missed a majority of the investigative process. Kai rolled his eyes in exasperation and said, “Just make sure everyone meets me in the living room in five minutes, and I’ll explain then, okay?”

“Even Master Wu?” Cole clarified, not wanting to disturb the old man without a good reason.

“Especially Master Wu.” Kai confirmed before dashing out of the room and leaving everyone else to wonder whether or not the master of fire was going to crash and burn.

He paced back and forth across the living room, earning the occasional odd look from Lloyd and Jay, who had moved on to arguing over the existence of a plot hole in the latest Starfarers movie.

“I’m telling you, Jay. They left that part vague so that it can be expanded on in the sequel!” Lloyd insisted. Jay didn’t look like he agreed with this statement, still stuck on his accusations of lazy writing. He was rescued from having to formulate a convincing comeback by the arrival of the rest of the residents of the monastery. Nya and Skylor had returned to the kitchen for the pair of nindroids, leaving Cole to retrieve Master Wu. The room was suddenly filled with noisy conversations as everyone claimed a seat.

“Okay. Let’s get down to business.” Kai practically shouted over the din. One by one, the others stopped talking and looked at him.

“Alright, let’s get this hare-brained scheme of yours over with so we can have lunch, then.” Cole encouraged, speaking for everyone. While they were curious to see if Kai had actually figured out who had pranked him, they had also gotten more than a little tired of being on the receiving end of his investigative tactics.

“Right. As you all know, I woke up this morning to find a decapitated gingerbread man in my bed,” the master of fire began dramatically, making sure everyone could see the cookie, “at first, it seemed like our resident pranksters, Lloyd and Jay, were the obvious suspects. However, they both had a strong alibi… It couldn’t have been them – they were right here in this room playing video games when the crime was committed.” he crossed over to Zane and Pixal, “next, my lovely assistants and I headed to the source of the cookie – the kitchen, in the hopes that someone there would know what had happened. Our ever-watchful ice ninja hadn’t seen anything suspicious. He stepped out for what, 15 minutes tops?”

“That is correct,” Zane nodded.

“He was getting Master Wu some tea because he was sick,” Kai explained, “more on that later. Pixal told us that Cole had come looking for tape while Zane was gone. We figured maybe he could give us some answers, so we headed for his room, and you know what we found in the wreath across the hall from his door?”

“That’s right,” Nya jumped in, though she still wasn’t sure how relevant it was, “The missing head!”

“Exactly. So obviously that must mean that Cole’s the culprit, right?” Jay and Lloyd looked at each other. Were they supposed to agree?

“Wrong! If he’d taken the cookie, he would’ve eaten the head right away, not hidden it. The only thing Cole was guilty of was stealing a bowl of frosting for a mid-morning snack. And that’s when it hit me. What kind of tea does Master Wu always drink when he’s sick?”

“Licorice?” Lloyd offered. Kai smiled triumphantly.

“Bingo. But when he asked Zane to bring him some tea, he asked for Oolong tea, which he never drinks when he’s sick because it tastes nasty with honey in it. Master Wu, you’re not really sick, are you?”

The elderly spinjitzu master smiled weakly at him, but did not deny the accusation.

“Here’s what happened: Master Wu asked Zane to bring him some tea because he knew it would distract him long enough for the real gingerbread prankster to put their plan into action. Knowing she only had a short amount of time, Pixal grabbed a cookie and snuck into my bedroom to plant it on me. She also hid the gingerbread man’s head in that wreath in case someone came looking for it later. She only barely made it back to the kitchen before Cole arrived.”

Skylor snapped her fingers, excitedly jumping in.

“I get it! When we showed up in the kitchen to ask Zane about the cookies, she told us about Cole because she knew we’d find the head and think it was him.”

“Exactly! And it would’ve worked, too, if the tea hadn’t made me suspicious. The only thing I haven’t figured out is why….” Kai paused, staring at them, “Why did you do this, guys?”

Wu stood and walked over to him.

“To put it simply, we wanted to help you overcome your phobia of gingerbread people. It gets in the way of you spending time with your family and friends every year. I know it wasn’t a very kind thing to do, but I honestly felt it would be worth it in the end to see you enjoy the holidays a bit more.” he admitted, placing a hand on Kai’s shoulder.

“And I do believe it worked!” Pixal added, “although you were certainly annoyed, you didn’t seem frightened at any point this morning.”

Kai made a funny face as he thought about everything that had happened. However misguided Pixal and Wu’s plan had been… he didn’t feel the disgust and terror he was used to when he looked at the gingerbread man in his hand anymore.

“You know, I think you’re right… don’t get me wrong, I’m still kinda irritated that you thought this was a good idea. But… thanks.” he told them. Out of all the holiday adventures Kai had had, he was pretty sure this was the strangest. Later that day, after they had finally eaten lunch (much to Cole’s relief), he had to smile when Zane didn’t hesitate to hand him a gingerbread man to decorate. He set to work carefully frosting it so they it resembled a detective with a trench coat and fedora, proudly displaying it with the rest when he was finished. It was nice to see that gingerbread people weren’t so bad after all. Ninja Noir would be proud.

Hopefully this ridiculous story made someone smile today :) it was literally so fun to come up with hehe

#Ninjago #Ninjago fanfiction #my fics #ninjago Christmas #Kai loves detective novels #Who put a decapitated gingerbread man in his bed?#Yall are gonna have to read to find out #Pixal and wu just wanna help but are really bad at it #Cole eats frosting by the bowlful but can we blame him? No #You guys I am seriously so proud of this

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eyeofthewolfe · 7 years

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Evil Zane Chapter 8

As Zane prepares his new allies, the ninja discover pursue an unlikely friend who has the ability to cure Zane.

Prologue and Chapters 1-5: here

Chapter 6: here

Chapter 7: here

Chapter 8

Immediately after PIXAL delivered the horrible news, Jay instantly broke into a coughing fit, but he was shooting looks at Nya. The girl instantly caught on. “Oh no, I thought you were getting better!” Nya said quickly and then pulled Jay out of the room. The ninja all glanced at each other, but shrugged and ignored the sudden outburst.

As soon as Nya and Jay moved out of earshot Jay quit his coughing and grabbed Nya. “You don’t think…”

Nya stared back. “She said there was no one else in Ninjago like Zane…” she said. “But she doesn’t know about the other Zane.”

Jay’s mouth lifted into a small smile. “You don’t think that he has the part we need, do you?”

Nya looked back, but Jay could tell that she was thinking. “He did say that he was built to protect others who can’t protect themselves, right? That’s the motive that Zane has, well, had. So that means…”

Both Jay and Nya grinned. “Echo Zane can save Zane!” they said in unison.

Jay turned to go back to the bridge. “We need to go tell the others!” he said excitedly, but Nya grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Wait, Jay- how are we supposed to explain that we know about Echo Zane?”

Jay froze. He grabbed his forehead. “Aw man, that’s a doozie! We met him during the Skybound timeline!”

Jay and Nya had experienced an alternate timeline in which Ninjago was under attack by sky pirates led by an evil djinn captain named Nadakhan. Each of the ninja were captured in the magical djinn blade, all except Jay and Nya. But after the evil genie had ripped huge chunks out of Ninjago and married Nya to inherit infinite wishes, he was poisoned and weak enough for Jay to say a final wish that would mortalize Nadakhan and therefore destroy his power. But he wasn’t the only one who was poisoned, Nya was accidently effected as well, but fatally. She died in Jay’s arms. That was when Jay made his last and honest wish to go back and prevent all the events that transpired because of the release of Nadakhan. The defeated djinn reluctantly granted the wish and time was reset. Only Jay and Nya remembered the events from this miniature adventure, which they have nicknamed the “skybound timeline”.

But within the skybound storyline, Jay and Nya had fled to the lighthouse prison that Dr. Julien had formally been imprisoned in in order to escape Nadakhan. There, they were surprised to find out that they were not alone. It turned out that Dr. Julien had built a replacement Zane out of scraps to keep him company. He was covered in rust from age, but Nya and Jay had somewhat adopted him as a fellow ninja. He even assisted Jay when he led a party of replacement ninja to rescue Nya and the other ninjas. But when time was reset…Echo Zane was put back in the tower untouched and unknowing that he had ever had friends or been part of an epic battle for Ninjago.

Nya frowned. “How are we going to explain that we know about him without sharing skybound?”

Jay looked up the staircase where the rest of the team resided. They had kept this a secret for so long- none of the other ninja would have ever imagined they had faced a Djinn in their time. Or rewritten time.

Finally, Jay sighed and turned back to Nya. “I guess it’s time they learned the truth.”

Nya paused, then nodded as well. They both returned back to the bridge.

Cole was the first one to notice them walk in because his eyes were already focused on the doorway with a dead stare. He sat up with a confused look. Slowly the team recognized that Jay and Nya had something to say because they were standing in the front. “Yes, you two?” Sensei asked as the room fell quiet.

Nya and Jay exchanged a nervous look.

“You guys are scaring us. What’s wrong?” Kai spoke from his seat.

Nya cleared her throat. “Um, so we haven’t told you the full story of how Jay and I made up.”

“Okay,” Lloyd said, stepping in. “We really don’t have the time to listen-“

“Lloyd, zip it. This is important.” Jay snapped, a bit of electricity sparking from his right hand. Lloyd froze with his mouth open.

“Okay, listen up guys.” Jay started. “I need to tell you all something that you may not want to believe but need to trust.” Nya took his hand. He took a deep breath and said, “I’m going to tell you how Nya died.”

_____________________________________________________

Zane slammed his fists on the console sending sparks flying. “This is frustrating! The ninja continue to somehow overpower me! This must be what the other villains we have faced felt like after a defeat.”

The Mechanic nodded.

Zane turned to the cyborg with a scowl. “How is Phase 2?” He spat.

The Mechanic directed Zane to the factory line where the machines were busy with five different projects. “It’s moving along, sir. There were some complications with the designs-“

Zane grabbed the Mechanic’s throat and lifted him a few inches off of the ground. “What complications?” Zane growled through clenched teeth.

Spitting and gasping, he said, “They….weren’t…..weaponized….enough….”

Zane dropped the man. “They don’t need to be weaponized! They are fine as they are!”

The Mechanic regained his breath in long gasps. “Sir, all I did was add personalized weapons to fit each design personality to make them even more powerful!” He pushed his shaking body off the ground and hit a button on the unbroken computer console. Five blueprints appeared on the screen.

The Mechanic, still shaking, pointed at the designs. “Now, they are deadly both mentally and physically. I can reverse this if you want-“

Zane shot his hand up and the crook flinched in fear. Zane studied the designs before grinning. He turned to his ally. “Once again, you have exceeded my expectations. You’re excellent additions to my allies will carry through.”

“Thank you sir,” The Mechanic said in relief.

Zane turned to the factory where the machines were busy at work on the current project and the massive metal dragon rested beyond it. “This changes the ball game…” Zane spoke as he saw his new allies form before his eyes. “And it looks like I’ve got home field advantage.”

_______________________________________________________

They were almost to the lighthouse when Jay finished his story. He closed his mouth and was met with silence.

“So?” Jay said. “Do you believe me?”

Kai, who actually started silently crying when Jay got to the part about Nya’s death, was the first to speak. “You are expecting us to hear you say that you and Nya lived an alternate timeline with flying pirates and floating land masses and an evil djinn and follow it immediately with asking us if we believed it?!”

Jay nodded. “Yes.”

Kai snorted and was about to speak when someone said, “I believe you.”

The whole team turned to Cole. “You do?” Jay said softly.

Cole stood up from his seat in the corner. “Of all the people in this room, if there’s only one person who could outthink a genie solely based on his love for another, it’s Jay.” Cole started. Jay blinked in surprise. “I know this because when Nya fell for me you fought so hard to get her back. It was enough for me to realize how dedicated you were to loving her and how it was destroying our friendship. If some evil being, genie or not, was after Nya, the only person on this team who would be strong enough to rescue her is Jay. So do I think that timeline is true? It’s not unbelievable. It’s not impossible. But it is imaginable.”

Nya smiled at Cole. Jay looked like he was on the brim of tears. “Thanks, Cole.” He said. Cole nodded before sitting back down.

“So in your…story…” Lloyd began. “You mentioned the other Zane… Emo Zane?”

“Echo Zane.” Nya corrected followed by a giggle from Jay. “He is currently located within the lighthouse prison. We should arrive there momentarily.”

“And if he’s not there?” Misako asked.

Jay looked at her confidently. “He will be there.”

Kai raised his eyebrows. He leaned over to Lloyd. “He must have gained his confidence from that timeline.” he whispered to the green ninja. Lloyd cracked a smile, but his eyes were locked on his casts again. He was lost in his head as Jay continued to speak.

“So since he is built by Dr. Julien and has the same motive, he must have the piece we need to save Zane. So we go there and ask him for it.”

Cole looked up. “Without that piece of equipment, wouldn’t it just render Echo Zane purposeless?”

Nya frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Without a purpose it would just be a relic, right?” Cole said.

Jay shifted. “You have a point,” he said. “Removing that piece would…deactivate Echo Zane.”

Nya’s frown tightened. “I’m sure Echo Zane will understand. He’s built to protect others, so that means his brother to.”

“But would he die for his brother?” Kai said.

“I would.” Nya shot back. Kai opened his mouth, but closed it shortly afterwards.

The Bounty began to drop altitude slowly. Nya and Jay looked out the front window and smiled. “We are here!” Jay announced. The team turned and in the brilliance of the sun sat the tall lighthouse gleaming above the waves of the ocean. The Bounty landed on the small beach at the base of the staircase and caused seagulls to flutter to the roof. Leaving Misako to care for the ship, the team exited the Bounty and followed Jay and Nya as they walked up the staircase.

Filled with excitement, Jay bust through the door and yelled, “ZANE!”

Nothing moved. Jay frowned. “Hold on,” Jay said (mainly to himself) and walked towards the wall. Nya walked toward the staircase and looked up. Kai, Lloyd, and Cole walked into the main area followed by Wu, who was checking a golden pocket watch.

“Zane?” Nya called upstairs. She began to walk up the many flights of stairs. Kai followed her.

Jay, on the other hand, was staring at the wall.

Cole approached him. “What are you looking for?” he asked. Jay’s eyes were narrowed as he scanned the brick wall. “The right lever….” He murmured, before his eyes froze on a spot. “There!” he said, pointing at a camouflaged lever. Cole felt his jaw drop a little. Jay chuckled then pushed it down. The brick wall shifted and shape of a door slid to the side, revealing a path to a hidden bunker.

“Zane?” Jay called out as he made his way down the path, followed by Lloyd and Cole.

Sensei Wu looked up from his watch and saw two parties disappear in two different directions. He sighed, walked over to a stool, sat down, and waited.

_________________________________________________________

After a few flights of climbing, Nya and Kai made it to the top floor. “Zane…” Nya called out as she finished walking up the last few stairs. However, the floor was empty. With a frown, she turned to go back down, but Kai stopped her.

Nya was going to say something, but she saw a spark of fear in Kai’s eyes. “What is it?” She asked.

Kai looked into her eyes and said, “Did you really die?”

Nya felt like Zane had frozen her heart. In that moment, Kai didn’t look like the brother she knew. Instead of his cocky smirk, he wore a confused scowl. His eyes that were once filled with fire were now full of tears. He even looked more pale than usual. Nya sighed and sat down on the top staircase. Kai sat down next to her.

Nya paused. “Yes, I did die.”

Kai looked like he was shot in the gut. “There is an existing timeline where you are dead?” He cried. Nya watched the tears begin to stream down his face. “I don’t want to believe that, I can’t believe that-“

“You don’t have to. You didn’t live that, and you never will.” Nya reassured him.

He tried to wipe away his tears. “But you died. That happened. And a version of me had to live with having my entire family being gone...“

“Oh, Kai….” Now Nya began to form tears. “You know mom and dad are still with us in some way. Besides, we don’t even know they are really gone. They just vanished.”

“It’s not like they are going to come back,” Kai spat. Nya flinched, shocked. “I’m sorry…” he instantly said. “But they’ve been gone for 12 years. I’ve somewhat gotten over losing them…but loosing you…”

Nya wrapped her arms around her brother. “You won’t lose me. I’m right here. I’ll always be there for you.” Kai returned the hug, and the siblings were wrapped in a hug for a few hour-long seconds. Finally, Kai pulled away and attempted to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

Nya lifted her hand, and the water on Kai’s face lifted off of the skin and formed a miniature ball of water. With a flick of her hand, the ball of tears sailed out of the window. Kai watched it go before turning back to his sister. “I’ve seen you do a lot of cool things, but that has got to be my favorite.”

Nya laughed. “I’ve had practice.” She said with a wink. “C’mon, let’s go find Echo Zane.”

________________________________________________________

Jay finally made it to the base of the bunker. He paused and looked at his surroundings. “Wow,” he said to himself. “Such good non-existent memories.”

Cole and Lloyd flanked his side. “Whoa,” Lloyd said out loud.

The room was full of boxes with rusted metal packed into them. The ground was littered with orange crusted parts and random sheets of blueprints for skeleton vehicles. A circular window that was half underwater provided the needed light in the room.

“Hello?” Jay called out. “Zane?”

There was silence.

Cole sighed. “Look, Jay…maybe you were wrong about-“

“How do you know my name?”

The three ninja froze. Cole’s eyes widened. “Scratch that, you were right.” He whispered really fast.

Jay stepped farther into the room. “Zane..I know you are in here. This will sound weird, but I know you. My girlfriend and I met you in an alternate timeline, and you helped us. You were built to protect others?”

There was a pause, but then the sound of creaking and rusted metal squeaked in the shadowed corner.

Emerging into the light, Echo Zane said, “I was built to protect others who cannot protect themselves.”

Lloyd and Cole gasped while Jay grinned. “Echo Zane!” he cheered.

Echo Zane looked at his new visitors. “Wait…you three look familiar.”

Lloyd looked at Jay, who was the one now who looked confused. “Does he remember the timeline?”

“Father…” Echo Zane spoke suddenly. The ninja turned back to the robot. “Dr. Julien?” Cole guessed.

“Father.” The rusted replica repeated, this time with more certainty. “You took Father away.”

#PLOT TWIST #evil zane #lloyd #kai #nya #jay #sensei wu #pixal #misako #cole #ninjago fanfiction

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