Chapter Text
Scars
Over The
Heart
The young ninja sat in the common room in a tense silence. The older ninja, their mentors, had vanished hours ago after attacking the Crossroads.
They had just thrown out several ideas. How this happened. Where they were. What had caused them to morph from good to evil. Mr. Frohicky entered the room with a tray of teas. He carried one to each ninja. Sora follows him as he moved around the room. To her surprise, after Wyldfyre, he knelt in a corner of the room. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw Pixal sitting in that corner. Pixal accepted a cup of tea from Frohicky, but Sora could not see her face. Her hair was covering it, laying down in limp strips. Sora had never seen it down before. Pix usually pulled it up in a neat bun or ponytail. Then again, she had been acting strange after Cryptor attacked her. No one could blame her for that.
At Sora’s look, the others found their eyes moved to Pixal. They had all not realized the nindroid was in the room with them.
“What do you think, Pix?” Euphrasia was the one who had enough courage to ask. The samurai turned her head ever so slightly. The new ninja caught a glint of glowing emerald—the corner of her eye.
“Why are you asking me?” Pixal’s voice was tinged with a weariness they had never heard from the droid before.
“Well,” Frak began. “You are the only ‘classic’ ninja here…wouldn’t you know best?” Pixal blinked, her eyes dull, her face expressionless.
“I…I do not know.”
“But you have to know!” Wyldfyre exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. “You know everything!”
Arin, who sat next to Wyldfyre, put his finger to his lips to silence her. Out of all the ninja, Wyldfyre was the least gentle with Pixal since her incident. But, that was to be expected. She was akin to a younger Kai in many ways. Abrasive, rough, prone to beating her feelings instead of examining them. She thought Pixal’s problem was solved when she defeated Cryptor in his dragon form.
“Wyldfyre…” Arin’s tone was tinted with warning.
“No, it is alright.” Pixal shifted in her seat, her gaze trailing towards the ceiling. “I have not been myself lately.”
“And that is okay…” Sora stammered over her words, trying to make them gentle. “We know you have been through…a lot.” She could not imagine what it had been like. Riyu had brought the female nindroid to her, broken and half-dead. Sora was frightened to repair her but she had no choice. Pix would probably die without her help. Thankfully, she managed to ease her major injuries and repair her connections to her power source, but she could not repair that which was beneath the medal, the hardware. Some wounds, as Sora was well aware of, could not be seen, much less repaired.
Pixal closed her eyes with a sigh. It was a couple of heartbeats before she spoke again.
“I had never felt so…helpless. When Cryptor attacked me.” The words are unsteady on her tongue, but they come out anyway with a smoothness that only Pixal could manage. Her gaze traveled to the young ninja. “I hunted Cryptor alone because I did not want you to deal with him. He is ruthless and…cruel.” She shut her eyes. “Never would I have imagined what happened and if you didn’t find me…” She inhaled. “You saved me. You saved my life. I never thought you incapable but I had not imagined how skilled you had grown in the short years I had been gone. You truly are the ninja’s true successors. And…you have succeeded me.” Her eyes met Sora’s when she said this. Sora felt her throat tighten. While they had rarely spoken to each other, Sora had an admiration for Pixal. She was the ninja’s first builder (no offense to Nya or Jay, but Sora was a lot more impressed with Pixal’s engineering abilities). She had designed many, quite ingenious, vehicles for them over the years. She had felt quite awkward when they had met as she had replaced her in her absence.
“The team does not need me anymore,” the nindroid continued. “You don’t need me.”
“That’s not true!” Frak stiffened in his seat. The other’s gazes shot to him. “You are the best hope we have at saving the ninja, especially Zane.” Everyone froze. Even Pixal. Frak continued. “You know him the best. He trusts you, listens to you…he opens up to you in a way he does not to anyone else.” He looked to his feet, shuffling them against the ground. “If anyone can make him snap out of his evil emperor trance, it is you.”
The young ninja sat in silence, holding their breaths. Pixal gazed at the ceiling, her fingers tapping against her forearm. After a few moments, she lets out a small sigh.
“I can try.”
***
Due to their intel, the Ice Emperor had claimed a building in Ninjago City. Froze it solid and built himself a throne. The ninja decided to remain in a nearby building to monitor the situation while Pixal approached him. They would watch Pix's video feed. If she was in trouble, they would come. They would come and get her out.
***
He wanted to cackle when he saw the girl approach. However, his mirth was dampened by an alien twinge of thought. A ghost of a feeling. He knew her, yes. His other self fawned over her. Bringing her presents and gifts, pressing light kisses to her cheeks. He was in love. Yes. That state that only fools experience. The ice emperor could never imagine such an emotion entering him. Yes, the girl had a certain beauty to her. Her eyes were a color rare to the Never Realm as he knew it: a deep, vibrant green. Her hair flowed softly down her scalp and hung in clumps around her face. Her purple markings framed her face nicely. And the way she carried herself…no, that had changed. She was less sure of herself now. Her steps hesitant. But, no matter. Sure, he could imagine himself keeping the girl as a war prize, a piece of art to be placed in his throne room. Or, perhaps a servant to fulfill his other desires. But, never could he imagine worshipping her as Zane had. No. Emperors do not worship. Their followers did the worshipping.
The ice emperor finds a smile creeping along his lips. The girl was alone. Though she bore swords, she did not unsheath them from her back.
“P.I.X.A.L.” The name was unfamiliar to him, but it rolled off his tongue like spiced honey.
Pixal stopped. Her facemask retracted and folded behind her, revealing her lips. The ice emperor felt his eyes slipping towards them. The female nindroid had decided to color them a light violet after the Merge. They were soft. Zane often dreamed of kissing them in his sleep before waking half-embarrassed and half at peace.
“You…remember me?” Hope dripped from her voice. The ice emperor barked out a laugh, sharp and cold. Pixal flinched. The movement was small, but with the ice emperor’s advanced vision, and Zane’s intimate knowledge of her, he caught it. His smile widened.
“Oh, yes I do.” He strode forward, his boots crunching against the snow. Pixal remained in place, her eyes never leaving him. She was skilled at hiding her emotions from her face, however, they cannot mislead the ice emperor’s scanner. Her pulse was elevated. Her anxiety spiking. “Zane’s little pet. The ninja’s servant. And yet, I heard that you might be demoted soon.” He paused before her. He lifted a hand to brush the bottom of her chin. “I heard you lost a fight with Cryptor.” His heart jolted in excitement when the name deepened the hollow look in her eyes. “How the mighty samurai has fallen.” He leaned close to her, letting his cool breath run over her face. Ice crystals formed at the tips of her hair but she did not move, did not flinch. Her eyes never moved from his. “I heard he played with you before he disabled you. Is that true?” He whispered. Her breath caught just the slightest amount and he laughed. At this, she jumps back, her hands instantly moving to the handles of her katanas. The ice emperor grinned at the movement, then strode towards her, relishing every step.
“I am here to stop you.” Her words fell from her mouth like marbles, cold and hard.
“Oh, little one. How valiant are you? I’d say you should run along home. I do not believe you have the stomach to kill your dear old Zane.” He gestured to his face which is Zane’s face. He had not had time to rebuild his armor. That will come, in time. Then he can finally return to his conquest, arriving at the Never Realm in his old skin ready to conquer his old kingdom. But now was not the time for that. It was time to snuff out his old flame.
***
“I know Zane is inside you,” Pixal glared at the brutish emperor leering before her. “And I am going to drag him out.”
The ice emperor laughed at her, contorting Zane’s face into an alien look of glee tinged with anger.
“Your hope is foolish. I am far more powerful than Zane, and with the green ninja gone, I have been finally set free.” He leaned forward. “I have ruled the Never Realm for decades. Zane has been my prisoner for more than half of his lifespan. It took Lloyd to break him free. And now Lloyd is gone. Dead. Never to return.” He took another step. “You should bow to your new ruler and beg that I may spare you from a like-fate to the one Cryptor intended for you.”
Pixal raises her chin.
“I’ll never bow to you.”
“Very well,” the ice emperor twirled his throwing stars in his hands. He lunged for her. She dodged. He kept swiping for her, trying to plunge his weapons within her metal flesh. Pixal evaded every time, enacting Garmadon’s silent fist teachings to the letter.
Pixal dared not land a hit on him. He was still Zane, despite his bitter possession. She could not bring herself to hurt him. Not now, not ever.
Finally, she had her opening. While his back was turned after another rush-attack, she stole his throwing stars from him, throwing them off the building’s edge. They clattered on the way down, but Pixal could not hear their final thud against the concrete street below. She lunged towards him, swords extended. She caught a flicker of fear in the emperor’s eyes. There was no time to waste.
Once she reached him, she wrapped her arms around him, trapping his arms against her sides. Her breath pours hot and fast from her mouth. Zane’s body, in contrast, is still. Ice cold.
Her katanas clattered to the ground as she loosened her grip. Her hands slid up his back until they rubbed his shoulders. There, she rubbed her thumbs in a circular motion, something that Zane did often when he held her hand, only, running his thumb in a circle along her knuckles, squeezing it gently. Pixal prayed that this would soothe the raging beast within, enough to let her dear Zane out.
“Zane.” She felt his chest against hers. His power source hums from within. Still there, still beating. Hers gently slowed to match his pace. They shared a heart. It was all too easy for them to fall into sync.
“Zane, I love you.” Her cheek was pressed against his. His scent filled her nostrils, a subtle scent of fresh pine and cedarwood. “I love you so much. Please come back.” She murmured against his neck where her face was tilted. Zane’s body remains eerily still. Pixal kept blinking, hallucinating her old Zane’s arms wrap around her to pull her closer to him, his chin brushing against her hair to give her a kiss.
She felt a flicker of hope when Zane’s body inhaled. His artificial lungs moved beneath his chest, pushing it outwards. Then, it fell with his exhale, moving Pixal closer to him.
“You are my dearest friend, and my life-partner,” Pixal continued, that hope creeping up her throat. “You taught me how to feel…to love. You are the kindest person I have ever met. So thoughtful, always protecting others. My dear Zane. You are loved. You are wanted.” She squeezed his shoulderblades with her hands. The last two sentences she spoke were ones he often whispered to her, whenever he suspected her worrying about her worth, her value. She deeply hoped that those words, in addition to the classic “protect” would trigger him to surface.
Pixal felt Zane’s hands at her shoulders. Gently, he pushed them back so he could see her face. He smiled and Pixal’s heart jumped in raw, brilliant hope.
“I understand.”
For a few heartbeats, they smiled at one another. Pixal’s sensors beeped in alarm as Zane’s arm compartment opened and a small saw slid out. She could not make herself move before he slammed into her, driving her to the ground, and driving his saw into her armor.
***
Euphrasia let out a shrill scream as Zane lunged towards Pixal and drove his saw into her chest. She clamped her hands over her mouth, shuddering as
“We have to get her out, now!” Sora yelled, but no one seemed to hear her. Wyldfyre and Arin stand slack-jawed, their eyes glued to the screen as Frak let out a low whimper, his arms wrapped against himself as he rocks himself back and forth on his heels.
Riyu was the only one who moved. He let out a low yip and surges to his talons, leaping out of the window to barrel towards Pixal. The other ninja were stunned into action, following him out, using the fire escape to climb to the top of the building.
Once they reached the top, they could see the other building. The one that held the ice emperor’s throne on its summit.
“PIXAL!” Sora yelled. “RIYU!” Her voice was caught by the wind and blown. The young ninja gasp in horror as they reach the top and the scene before them meets their eyes.
Riyu was frozen mid-leap to the other tower, his wings extended and his jaws open in a silent bellow. Wyldfyre gasped and immediately ran to him to unfreeze him, the rest of the team ran behind her.
The radio crackled in Sora’s hands, carrying the audio to them. All at once, their gazes pivoted to the nearby building.
Zane gripped Pixal by her neck, lifting her off the ground while his saw burrows into her. Suddenly, it retracted into his arm. He reached his hand into the hollow the saw made, digging into her. Bright flashes of electricity emit from Pixal’s inner workings as her innards are searched. She foamed at the mouth, her eyes flickering from dark to light green.
Finally, Zane’s hand stopped. A sickening crunch sounded as he withdrew an object from her chest—a semicircle of pulsing blue metal. The wires extending from it snapped one by one as he plucked it from her chest. The ice emperor licked his lips as the final wire broke with a snap. Pixal’s eyes went dark and her body fell limp to the ground. The man who used to be Zane reached for his own chest to open its compartment. He inserted the metal alongside another, a near identical semicircle pulsing within his own chest. It clicked into place, forming a complete circle.
Meanwhile, Pixal slumped to the ground, her eyes dimming as electricity shot out of her chest in feeble sparks. Needles of corrupted ice fragments sprouted from her chest and crept outwards, covering the twisted and crackling wire and metal beneath with a layer of jagged armor.
The young ninja could only stare at Pix’s visual feed in horror as a sickening thought enters Euphrasia’s mind and roots itself in place.
We failed her again.
***
Zane's eyes open. A film coats them, sharp and cold. He swipes at his eyes, trying to clear them.
Where am I? What has happened?
He sways on his feet, rubbing his head, shocked to find a crown of icicles sticking to his metallic hair. He plucks them out, then flinches as he looks at his hands.
His hands are smeared with oil. Warm oil. Oil that just came from something running...an active machine. Slick gathers in Zane's mouth. Bits of wire and the colored plastic that shields wires are flaked onto his hands, protruding from the oil. A sickening sensation runs through him.
All of a sudden, a dragon lands, pushing him to the ground with a paw. Riyu bellows in his face, his eyes mad, rolling.
"Pixal!" He hears Arin yell. "Zane!"
"I am here," Zane wheezes, blinking in confusion at the snarling dragon above him. "What...?"
The young ninja reach them, crowding around Zane.
"Zane...you're back!" Arin exclaims. "That's...great." Zane blinks at him, trying to connect the emotions on his face to his words.
"Hold up!" Wyldfyre yells. She points a fist at him, glowing with licking flames. "Who are you?"
"Zane..." Zane stammers.
"Prove it!"
"My name is Zane Julien. My father is Dr. Julien. My best friend is a falcon. I am engaged to P.I.X.A.L. Borg. I am the titanium ninja." He blinks as the young ninjas' faces stiffen above him, specifically at mention of Pixal. "Are you alright? What has happened."
"You don't know?" Wyldfyre asks. Riyu steps off him, letting him stand. Zane stumbles to his feet, his processsor spinning in his skull. He brings his hand to his face rubbing it. The sharp, sickly sweet scent of oil fills his nostrils and he bends over, choking. All of a sudden, his chest siezes with a tight fear.
The oil. The wires. The icicles.
His power source pounds in his chest. His power surges to his fingertips. He is shocked to see how quickly and strongly it surges. It is if his power has been upgraded recently...increased in power. He has not felt that way since...
His stomach compartment shudders in his chest. He feels his hands clench over Pixal's delicate throat as he lifts her over his head. He rips into her chest searching, searching, a grin on his lips. He hears a scream, loud and long and metallic. He feels arms grab him, shaking him. When he comes to, he realizes that he was the one screaming. He was the one being shaked. That he was not strangling Pixal. That he was not digging for her heart.
But his panic does not leave him.
"Pixal," he chokes. "Where is Pixal?!" The plea drips from his voice as he scans each of the young ninja's faces, hoping, praying to see Pixal's face among them.
She is missing and so is Sora. And his gaze follows the turn of Riyu's head.
Sora crouches beside a still form, frozen in fear and hesitation. The body beside her is limp, dead looking with limbs splayed out. Its chest is open. Wires burst out like entrails. Her eyes are blank and lifeless.
Tears fill Zane's eyes, blocking his vision as he falls to his knees. He lets out a low sob that claws up from his chest and fills his throat. He howls like a wolf that lost its pack, that murdered its mate thinking it was a foe...
Pixal was dead and it was all his fault.