Chapter Text
A knock on the prison cell came, E instinctively turning his head to the sound, as 2 guards stood there looking at him with weariness and scepticism.
"Come, you've got a visitor." spoke the guard on the left, as the other signalled for the Cell door to open from the watchtower.
Hmmm a visitor? Certainly unexpected, why would anyone visit him? Especially after Garmadon's defeat, but hey, at least it was a nice change of pace, right?
He didn't respond, simply getting up from his bunk, he walked towards the 2 guards, standing between the both of them as they started walking towards the security check up, the cell door closing behind them.
He glanced around, taking in the confused faces of other SoG members, a bit of intrigue and anger written on their faces.
He couldn't blame them, really.
There was absolutely nothing better to do in Kryptarium, it was all just waiting, and waiting… And waiting…
As they descended a set of stairs, one of the guards singled to the watchtower for the gate to open, the same gate that locked the Green Ninja in here, forced with his father.
Heh… now that was a good day wasn't it?
The gate closing behind him, E and the guards finally arrived at the security check up area, just before the phone booths, and as he entered a brightly lit room, he was met with the prison warden already there waiting for him.
"Ah E, good to see you again." greeted the warden, E not reacting in the slightest. "I hope your time here hasn't been too tiring."
E just shrugged, again, he hated giving any sort of reaction but it was better just to get the warden to shut up and get to the point.
"You have a visitor today, as per their request they have asked to remain anonymous until you meet them in person, as such we need to do a security check up on you." said the warden, various metal detectors and security devices laid across the table behind him, the man inspecting each piece of equipment. "As you know, for standard security protocols, Arms out, legs in, and head straight."
E complied, stretching his arms out and buckling his legs, while he set his head straight, as the 2 guards began physically checking around his shoulder and waist for anything out of the ordinary.
The 2 guards pulled away, the warden handing them both metal detectors, both of them thoroughly searching for anything, the devices not producing a single sound.
This is going to take a while…
---
"Alright, final check, the Helmet." spoke the warden, looking at him with a small smile.
Somehow he was allowed to keep his biker helmet when he was imprisoned here, of course he didn't mind that, if anything it was a welcome surprise.
The helmet made him safe, it concealed his face from the world, without it he felt it exposed, and he momentarily flinched at the thought of his fellow gang members knowing what he looked like. .
Rather hesitantly, he took the helmet off, his gaze dropping down and the guards looking at him with… Confusion? Well whatever it is, he didn't like it.
The warden reached inside, holding a flashlight with his other free hand to get a good look inside. You never know what someone might hide inside a helmet.
"All Clean." spoke the warden, E was relieved when the man eventually pulled away, handing the helmet back to him as he hastily put it back on.
"Should be all, guards, take him to the phone booths please." the warden requested, the guards nodding at him as E began following them. "Hope it goes well!" shouted the warden from behind right as they left the room, E not paying him attention.
The guards led him into the booth area, several prisoners already there on the phone with family members or close friends, talking about day to day things, or jobs, or foods, or random things in life.
Life…
E's life certainly was anything but normal, it had its ups and downs, but he knew his life would never be the same if he signed up for the SoG.
And honestly? He doesn't regret it.
"Your assigned booth is number 7." stated one of the guards, pointing to the empty booth at the other end of the room, the number '7' written in fading white paint on the ground.
The 2 guards stayed backed near the entrance of the room, watching carefully as E walked towards the empty booth.
E approached the booth, he slowly started seeing the silhouette of the person on the other side of the soundproofed and bulletproofed window, wearing nothing but black-
…
Was… he looking at himself?
E stopped dead in his tracks, the nindroid on the other side of glass kept its eye glued to him, not doing anything.
Eventually after what felt like forever, the other nindroid signalled for him to take a seat as it grabbed a hold of the phone, pulling it up to the side of his head.
E hesitantly pulled the chair back, not taking his eyes off of the other nindroid.
And as he sat down, he reached out for the phone, placing his hand on it glancing back at the guards and room one last time, he pulled the phone and brought it up to the side of his head.
There were a few seconds of silent static until the other nindroid broke the silence with a sigh.
"...Hello E." spoke an all too familiar voice.
E froze, barely registering the voice before the other nindroid's image distorted, revealing the true nature of the other nindroid.
Zane, The Titanium Ninja, the reason he was here.
To this day, E does not know how he was bested by Zane following their return from the first realm.
"A bit unconventional of me, is it not?" he spoke in a sassy manner, hatred already building up in E.
"Being sassy won't do me any good, regardless, I am here for a reason."
E frowned at Zane with anger, but he was also a bit intrigued as to why he was here in the first place.
"To make an… Exhaustingly long story short, I know."
E just blinked at him.
"I know everything, Echo Zane."
Once again, Echo froze in place.
"...How-" he spoke for the first time in the entire day.
"Jay told us everything." spoke Zane, breaking his gaze with Echo and pausing. "I… did not have a particularly calm reaction to finding out that I had a brother, though I doubt you would care much for how I would react at this point."
Well, E thought he was right about that, he didn't care for how he would react to this supposed new revelation for Zane…
"...When we were fighting Nadakhan, Nya had died in Jay's arms, and Jay wished for things to go back to how they were before the teapot was found," Zane explained, looking down at his hand. "Unfortunately for you, that meant getting sent back to the lighthouse."
Echo could recall that moment oh too well, waking up randomly in the Lighthouse, with hazy memories of the event.
"...And you left me there." exclaimed Echo bitterly.
Zane's gaze finally met Echo. "I did," he admitted. "But not by choice."
Echo frowned at him with slight confusion.
"After Jay's wish, everyone's memories of Nadakhan were wiped out, excluding Jay's and Nya's." Zane stopped, looking down at his hand with what seemed like disappointment. "A-And yours…"
"And they didn't think to tell ANYONE about this?!" asked Echo in an angry voice.
"Not until now, and I am absolutely furious that they hid my brother from me for so long, the others are also upset with them but for different reasons."
Echo contemplated what the other nindroid had told him, for so long it had been because of Zane, for so long it was the fault of the older brother who forgot about his younger brother.
For so long his mind was plagued by too many questions.
Why did they leave him?
Did they not care?
Did they just view him just as a tool?
He answered the questions on his own, and assumed they knew about everything, deciding that revenge was the best course of action against the ninja.
But as it would turn out, his hatred led to his downfall, it clouded his judgement and never once did he consider the possibility that the ninja didn't know any better than him.
Or at least, most of them didn't…
Yet, all it took was a few minutes of talking with the person he hated the most in the world for almost all of those questions to be answered.
Heh, if he only knew it was that easy…
A guard tapped on Zane's shoulder, catching the attention of the two nindroids, Zane pulled the phone away to talk to the guard about something.
Zane turned around to look at Echo.
"...I understand if you still hate me, for that I do not blame you a single bit," Zane looked up at Echo, as their gazes locked. "It was never my intention to hurt you like this, and I am sorry it had to come down to this."
"Destiny's games are cruel, you out of all people should know."
"I'm aware…"
Silence fell once again, Zane's gaze breaking away from E to look down.
"I do not ask for your forgiveness, nor do I demand it, but at the very least I wanted you to know why I never bothered coming back…And to personally apologise to you."
It was now time for Echo's gaze to drop down, as he thought about… All of this.
"I just wish things could've turned out differently, and believe me when I say I would've loved you like a little brother had I simply just… remembered, I would have protected you with my life had it come down to that…"
And as much as he still hated Zane, Echo knew he was never one to lie about something like this.
" 'Protect Those who cannot protect themselves.' our father used to say, and… I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you out of all people…" Zane looked back up at Echo with sadness. "Goodbye, Echo."
Echo watched from the other side as Zane put the phone back in place, the other nindroid' s expression turning neutral almost instantly when facing the security guard, almost like he wanted to hide the clear sadness he felt at that moment.
And Echo… Echo felt lost.
For the first time in a long time, he didn't know how to feel.
Had all of his anger been directed at the wrong person all along?
He didn't want to know the answer to that, because even now as he still held some semblance of bitterness towards Zane, he also didn't have a valid reason for hating him anymore.
While in any other case he would have dismissed that logical part of himself, it was getting especially hard to ignore now.
"Visitor's gone, we're taking you back to your cell." a guard placed a hand on his shoulder, snapping Echo out of his line of thought.
Echo almost forgot he was still holding the phone to the side of his face, despite Zane already being gone now.
Slowly, Echo put the phone back in place on the wall, pushing the chair Backwards, feeling lost as he walked in between the same 2 guards that brought him here.
The walk back to his cell felt like it took only a few seconds with how lost he felt that at that moment, First Master's sake he'd never wanted to be left alone in his cell more then now.
Finally getting to the cell, the door slid open and in he walked, laying flat on his back on the bunk, listening to the cell's door sliding back into place.
And a new question came to his mind:
…Now what?