time is relative
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he wakes up
He's not sure how he got here
He's not sure he wants to know
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he finds a village
An old man lives there
He stays for a while
Zane looks sixteen-ish when a sensei tells him who he is
He's the Ninja of Ice
He can't remember anything else
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets his first friend
Jay Walker, the boy says
He likes him
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets another friend
Cole is smart and kind
He's a good friend
Zane looks sixteen-ish when the quartet finally complete
Kai wants his family back
He doesn't have any
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets his friend's sister
Nya knows where she's going in life
He respects her for that
Zane looks sixteen-ish when the Serpentine are unleashed
They save the day
It doesn't last very long
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he sees a falcon
Something resonates inside him
He follows it to the horizon
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he finds a treehouse in the woods
He learns something disturbing
He's sixty-ish when he walks out
Zane looks sixteen-ish when another ninja joins the team
Lloyd shouldn't have to see his father die
He would know
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he finds his father
He doesn't know how to react
It wasn't just a bad dream
Zane looks sixteen-ish when they win
It's bittersweet
Nothing will ever be the same again
Zane looks sixteen-ish when his father dies
He watches carefully
The nightmare is just beginning
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets another android
Pixal doesn't know what it's like to see someone die
He hopes she never learns
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Pixal dies
She gets to experience it first-hand
He's jealous
Zane looks sixteen-ish when chaos erupts
Jay has a fake eye now
He doesn't know what to say
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he dies
The last thing he sees is a memory
A yellow butterfly
Zane's picture looks sixteen-ish at the funeral
A yellow butterfly comes for the flowers
It listens to the gentle lies
Zane looks different when he comes back
But everything's gone before too long
He's spirited away to the other side of the world
Zane looks different when he wakes up from a bad dream
Someone's there
He can't remember her name
Zane looks different when he finds Pixal's remains
He takes her with him
They're alone in this together
Zane looks different when sees his friends again
He doesn't know what they'll think
They say he still looks sixteen-ish
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he tames his dragon
It can't hurt him now
(He's still only sixteen-ish)
Zane looks sixteen-ish when they save the world again
It feels strange to be around for the celebration
It's been a while
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Lloyd is taken away
They have to get him back
(He can't lose them yet)
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he stares into the reflections
He wonders what his future self is doing
He wonders where he'll end up after that
Zane looks sixteen-ish when a new villain rises
They have the power to change anything
He's so tempted to ask for a wish
Zane looks sixteen-ish when the reflections come true
He goes back to the cave
He sees himself alone
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Jay dies in an accident
You're in this for the long haul, the note says, so here's a piece of me to keep
Attached is the fake eye
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Cyrus sends a space station into orbit
It's named after Jay
He doesn't attend the launch
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Nya begins an expedition
I'm going to explore the stars, she says
He almost wants to go with her for a different reason
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Cole dies
It was cancer
He feels betrayed
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he reads the newspaper
On the front page: Nya found a far-away Earth-like planet
In the obituaries: Kai died of old age
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Pixal wants a new body
Cyrus has been dead for fifty years
He builds it himself
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Lloyd finally gives out
He was almost a hundred and fifty years old
Misako was mortal
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he and Pixal go to find Nya
She's off exploring other systems
She's almost the same age as the last time they saw her
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Nya asks how the others are
They're already dead, he says
Relativity's a bitch, she says
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he and Pixal officially join Nya's expedition
He hopes it'll help him feel better
But relativity doesn't work when you're traveling at the same speed
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Nya decides to go back home
Nya is a legend
He is a footnote
Zane looks sixteen-ish when his last friend dies
Wu contacts him from a distant planet
Wu knows how he feels
Zane looks sixteen-ish when they meet again in the flesh
In the flesh and metal
He's never felt more different
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he asks Wu why he's still alive
Wu says nothing for a while
Because someone needs to remember, Wu finally answers
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Wu's immortality finally runs out
Wu was thirty thousand years old
He's a respectable fraction of that age
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he and Pixal decide to head back home
Relativity's a bitch
Their first and last home is gone
Zane looks sixteen-ish when they settle upon an uninhabited icy world
It's beautiful
It's also dead
Zane looks sixteen-ish when Pixal falls
She's speared through her torso on a spike of ice
Black fluid runs down it and slowly freezes
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he leaves the planet
There's nothing left for him there
Pixal is dead
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he attempts to call his dragon
It doesn't work
He never tries again
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he thinks of the last thing he has
He pulls the fragile false eye out of his pocket
It's almost time
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he stares out into the cosmos
It's the moment he's been waiting for
The heat death of the universe
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he feels a hand on his shoulder
And another
And another
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he turns around
There are a hundred thousand ghosts of a hundred thousand people
Are you ready, they ask
Zane looks sixteen-ish when he says yes
Zane's body looks sixteen-ish when it suddenly shorts out
It floats among the stars in the last hours of reality
He died smiling
(A/N): *reads a fic about a character becoming immortal and dealing with the consequences*
*thinks about zane*
*writes this*
i honestly have no excuse at this point guys soRRY ABOUT THIS
In other news, I think this is going to be the last fic that I post on FFN. I'm going to be migrating most of my fics over to my ao3 account (archiveofourown dot org slash users slash Woodswolf) over the next few days - this one is already cross-posted.
I'm doing this because I really like both the reading format and the writing format on ao3 better overall - it's cleaner, you can add separate author's notes, etc. It's just much cleaner overall, and frankly, 2012 was a dark time and I'd like to distance myself from it as much as possible. :)
So... yeah. If you still want to read my fics, go follow me over there! Bye all!