Chapter Text
Zane shouldered his way through a loud crowd of people, into a warmly lit lively bar. Reaching the counter he leaned against it, attempting to act natural as he looked up to see two unfamiliar figures standing on a balcony.
He glanced at the woman first, she was dressed in black and purple, with dramatic makeup and very sharp-looking clawed brass knuckes cluched in her hands. She was grining mischievously and speaking to the figure standing next to her, though Zane wasn't able to make out what she was saying.
The nindroid followed the womans gaze, landing on the person beside her. But before he had the chance to scan them like he had their companion his vision gliched. Static covered the room as various warnings popped up in his field of sight, blocking his view of the womans companion.
He started panicking internally, but knew this was a bad place to show that panic, even if he wasn't quite sure where he was. The ice elemental attempted refreshing his system and clearing various warnings and pop-ups. But they continued flooding into his vision the longer he was in the same room as the stranger.
Panic continued to rise in him as he felt a sharp stinging pain deep in his mind. He felt himself collapse to the floor, limbs lashing out from the immense pain that slowly started spreading around his mechanical body. His ears were filled with the sound of his internal fans fighting to keep his system cool. And his eyes were rendered useless by the continuous flashing warnings.
The feeling of hands on both his shoulders caused Zane to snap out of the panic. And Zane opened his eyes again. Just in time to see a train rushing twords him. He gasped and staggered backwards bumping into someone behind him. He turned to his right and saw the woman from earlier, she was chuckling slightly, her hand gripping painfully hard into Zane. The elementals attention was moved to the hand grasping his left shoulder, but when he turned to look at who it belonged to the warnings and flashing returned to his vision, causing him to collapse once again.
This time it was the sound of engines and cheering that brought him back. Before he could adjust his eyes he felt a hand grasping tightly onto the back of his. Pulling him sharply and causing a screech of tires.
"You're The Quiet One aren't you!?" He heard his own paniced voice call out.
Before the droid could speak again he felt himself hit the ground, hard.
He shook his head, slowly getting back to his feet and straining his eyes to see through the dust and smoke the crash had kicked up.
Something rolled in front of him and he reached down to pick it up. It was sleek black helmet, with a bright red visor that gleamed in the desert light. Two thin red horns poked up from the top of it, the tip of one having been broken in the crash.
Snapping back to his senses Zane quickly looked up from the helmet, twords its owner. Through the lingering dust he saw the figure kneeled on the ground, fiddling with their arm, which seemed to have been detached in the crash. As Zane cautiously stepped twords them the figures head darted up. And when their eyes met Zanes vision flashed to white, and he felt himself falling.
"T-ti-b nee-eb sah es-ssuom eh-t-t-t."
Zane couldn't feel his body as he heard a soft glichy voice speak from somewhere in the whiteout. His systems were screaming at him as he closed his eyes, waiting for what would snap him out of this next. And he didn't have to wait long.
Wind rushed past his ears, he opened his eyes to find himself aiming an arrow at the back of a white-haired figure in front of him. Wind whipped around her, pushing him backwards and making it hard to steady his bow. When he finally shot the arrow the now familiar figure jumped in the way, knocking the arrow from its target. Zane had just enough time to note that the helmet still had a chipped horn before he was thrown into another scene.
He was driving the Bounty. Going far faster than he concidered safe and dodging around buildings in the heart of New Ninjago City. He could hear his teammates yelling but wasn't able to make out their words. They were drowned out by a familiar laugh that grew steadily louder in his ears.
Garmadon.
Before he could analyze the situation he felt the Bounty get roughly halted, causing him to stumble as his vision flashed. This time switching to a bright red. Blinding white eyes flashed open in front of him before his vision went black again.
The elemental was breathing heavily in an attempt to calm himself, he felt warm sand on his back and a cool breeze blowing over him. He could hear the sound of birds from above and smelled salty sea air as he opened his eyes, squinting in the bright sun.
He heard voices from somewhere in the distance and sat up to see three figures walking down a dock twords a small but clearly expensive boat.
The calm scene was a welcome change, but before he could analyze where he was or who was with him he felt the same sharp pain in his mind and screamed out.
○
"Frosty? Frosty! Zane wake up!"
Zane started awake as he felt paniced hands roughly shaking his shoulders. He struggled to hear over his fans as he blinked his eyes back into focus. Glancing around his dark room in an attempt to analyze where he was.
"Woah, easy Snow, are you alright?"
Zane's eyes landed on the figure sitting next to him in the bed. Cole, his boyfriend, who was slightly leaned over the droid, one of his hands still placed on the ice elementals shoulder.
Zane's breathing began to slow as he calmed down, gently placing his hand on top of Cole's.
"O-oh yes, I'm alright." The droid offered a slight smile with the words, but Cole didn't seem convinced.
"Are you sure? You just woke me up with screaming in the middle of the night!" Cole's expression was hard for the droid to see in the dark, but his tone clearly showed how worried he was.
Zane hesitated.
"I just... had a bad dream. It's nothing to worry about, really."
"What was it about?" Cole didn't sound any less concerned.
As Zane's eyes adjusted to the darkness he started to make out Coles face. His eyes looked tired, he hadn't had to sleep the past couple months being a ghost and all, so Zane felt guilty for waking him up so late.
"Oh, it was nothing important. Just some nightmare." The droid stated quickly, gently pushing away from Cole.
Zane stretched his arms, standing up from his bed.
"I'm going to go get some water, I'll be right back."
The ice elemental briskly left the room before Cole could protest, hoping to give his partner some more sleep. He knew that he wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon.
Something bad was going to happen, and he had to figure out how to prevent it.