Dismantled
Sensei Wu was back from the Underworld. Jay was explaining everything that had gone on since he had left. "So, Zane's a Nindroid. He can be pretty cool now that he knows! And guess what?! He reached his Full Potential!" Jay exclaimed breathlessly. "What?!" Sensei Wu screamed. "I said…" Jay began, shocked by his master's reaction. "No. I heard you. Go check on the boy, shall you?" Wu commanded, shaking his head. Jay stood up and left the room, a concerned look on his face. He went looking for Zane, in hopes of talking to him. He walked into the ninja's room, seeing Zane lying on the bed. "Hey, Zane. Are you awake?" Jay asked as he sat at the end of the bed. "Yes, I have been for some time. Do you need to speak to me?" Zane asked as he sat up. Jay quickly closed the door, coming back to the bed. "Yeah. When I told Sensei that you were a Nindroid, he screamed "What?!" at me like it was a bad thing. I'm just kind of scared for you." Jay said, Zane looking down. "You're scared for Zane? Why? Sensei won't hurt him." Cole and Kai said as they entered the room. "I am not afraid of what Sensei Wu will do. I am a robot and he needed to know." Zane said, standing up at the sound of a gong in the courtyard of the Bounty. "Come on out! I have an announcement to make!" their Sensei yelled. The five rushed out onto the deck, standing at attention. "We are going to set a course." Sensei said, turning towards Nya to whisper something into her ear. She nodded, turning to walk up into the Control Room. "Why?" Kai asked. "To where?" Cole asked behind him. "You will find out when we get there." Sensei Wu said, turning to dismiss the four remaining ninja. The ninja waited impatiently in their room, pondering what to do when they got there. It took about an hour to reach their destination, which was the Island Forest. Sensei Wu told Zane to get off the ship and change clothes. "I want my ninja suit back." Wu said angrily. "Yes, sensei." Zane said slowly, taking the white pants and sweatshirt from Wu's hands. He changed behind a rock, slowly coming out and handing the clothes to Wu. "It will be your own problem to find a place to be." Wu said, telling Nya to take off the Bounty. Zane stood on the ground, shaking as tears came pouring down his face. "You won't forget me! I won't leave until you come back!" he shouted as the ship as it blasted into the sky. After another week, Sensei Wu had already gotten another white ninja. Alex, the jerk. "Ninjago!" Jay shouted, spinning into his tornado. "Ninjago!" Alex said, doing the same. Alex spun right into Jay, knocking him overboard. Alex didn't even lift a finger to save Jay. When Cole and Kai managed to pull Jay back onto the ship, Alex was talking to Sensei Wu. "He pushed me!" Jay shouted. "No, I didn't." Alex hissed back. "Training for the day is over. Go to your rooms and rest." Wu said with a grin. When the ninja got back to their room, Alex was in the kitchen getting something to eat. "I miss Zane. He was always so polite and loving and calm." Cole said as he sat down on his bed. "How about we go get him back?" Jay said with a smile. "How? We don't know where he is." Kai asked. "Remember when I built those trackers? Zane's is still operational. We can find him if he is still breathing." Jay said, holding up a device. "Let's go when Alex is asleep." Cole said, nodding to Kai and Jay. That night, when the ninja were sure that Alex was sound asleep, they snuck out onto the main deck and skipped across the water all the way to the mainland. They raced into the woods, watching the device as it began to blink a red light. "He's close! Keep looking!" Jay whispered. The faster the light blinked, the closer they were to Zane's body. As long as he kept breathing, they were able to track him. Suddenly, a loud gasp was heard and the light stopped blinking. Cole whipped around and spotted Alex, on top of Zane. "That's it, you miserable piece of junk! Die!" Alex hissed as Zane wiggled under his weight. "Please….stop….can't breathe." Zane gasped as his eyes turned red and then black. "Alex!" Jay shouted, kicking him off. He and Kai pinned Alex down as Cole picked Zane's upper half up and placed it on his thigh. "Alex! What have you done?!" Cole screamed. "Cole! Hit him with your scythe!" Jay shouted back. "What?!" Kai yelled at Jay. "Look at his eyes! Lord Garmadon is possessing him! This isn't the real Alex!" Jay hissed as Cole took out his scythe and whacked Alex on the noggin. Alex's eyes slid closed and opened to reveal a new color. "What? Who are you?" Alex asked innocently. "We're the ninja. You almost killed our friend while you were under the control of Lord Garmadon." Kai said, letting Alex up. "Lord Garmadon is in control of Sensei Wu, too! If you take Zane back to the Bounty, Sensei will kill him!" Alex whined. "Not if he's already dead." Cole hissed. He ran his hand over Zane's bluish skinned face, his mind in a panic-mode. "We need to take him back to the Bounty to try to revive him. I won't let Sensei kill him either. Kai will look out for Sensei Wu while the rest of us work to fix him the best we can. Let's go." Cole said, gently picking Zane up and getting into his speed-roller. The five hurried back to the Bounty, heading for the storage to hide. "Is he….dead?" Jay squeaked silently. "I can't tell, yet." Cole said, slipping into the storage and lying Zane down on an old table. "Go get Nya, Kai. We need her down here." Cole said, watching in horror as Sensei Wu opened the storage room door. "Alex? What in the name of Ninjago is going on?" Sensei asked as the ninja dove for a hiding place. Only Alex stood, alone with Zane's body on the table. Sensei Wu paused, grabbed Zane, dove out of the room and flew off on the Ultra-Dragon in the blink of an eye. Cole came yelling out the door, racing after the old man once they reached land. "Sensei Wu! Please don't do this! I need him, we need him!" Cole shouted as Sensei Wu disappeared into the forest. Cole spun in circles, looking for a sign of where Sensei Wu went. He heard a loud cry, ran in that direction and stopped to listen. He watched as the others came running towards him, stopped and paused to do the same. Cole tilted his head to the right, then the left and heard the noise of a bush rustling. Sensei Wu came around the corner, an ashamed look on his face. "Sensei! Where's Zane?" Cole asked, stepping forward. Sensei Wu put a backpack on the ground, dumping it out to reveal a bunch of Robot parts. "I am so ashamed. I did not know what would happen the longer I fought my mind for control. It was too late by the time I beat him out of my mind." Sensei Wu said, looking down and away. "We-We could find Dr. Julian! Zane's creator!" Jay exclaimed, racing off into the water. By the time the ground caught up to him, he was standing in front of a large tree with an odd symbol imprinted on it. Jay flipped open the door and jumped down the stairs, right into a man. "Hello. Are you Dr. Julian?" Jay asked as the man turned around. "Yes! Where is my Zane?! I want him back! I did what you said!" the man yelled, grabbing a blowtorch and hitting Jay with it. "Hey! We can take you to Zane, as long as you help us fix him." Cole said, blocking the blow and flipping the eighty-year-old man over his shoulder. "Yes! I want him back! Take me to him!" the man whimpered. They went back to the Bounty, heading for the dinner table to start up a conversation. "He's been dismantled, accidentally. He is a good friend of ours and we'd like it if you'd fix him." Cole said as Nya rolled in a table full of parts. "Where is he?" Dr. Julian asked, confused. Nya pointed to three main piles on the table. "He's there and there and over here." Nya said slowly with a frown. "I will get to work as soon as I possibly can." Dr. Julian said as Nya turned towards Jay. "And if you need any help, Jay and I are on the job!" she exclaimed, grabbing Jay's hand. Cole showed Dr. Julian to his lab, helping go back and forth from his home and the Bounty in order to get his tools and machinery set up. "Thank you so much, Cole." Dr. Julian said with a hug around Cole's shoulders. After a few weeks of long hard work, Dr. Julian finally came out of the lab. He was such a mess that he looked like a monster. Jay came walking around the corner and yelped, hiding behind Kai, who hit him on the noggin. "You look horrible, Dr. Julian. Please, do you want something to eat for pete's sake?" Kai asked. "Oh? I do! Maybe a piece of cheese would do to fill my old stomach up!" Dr. Julian said. "How is his repair going?" Cole asked as he sat next to the old man. "I just have to do a few more things and he'll be ready!" Dr. Julian exclaimed brightly. "Really?" Jay asked. "I am just as done at my project as a man with a wrench learns how to use it!" Dr. Julian said. He walked into his lab and came out a few minutes later with a frown on his face. "What's wrong?" Nya asked. "He ran off. We need to go get him if I'll be able to get his memory input back in that head of his!" Dr. Julian said as a white blur came racing around the corner and out the door. "I think I'll go find him, okay guys?" Cole asked into the crowd. "No, we're coming with you. What if he tries to hurt you?" Kai asked reasonably. Together, the four partners raced off into the forest to find their lost comrade. "I say we split up. We have a better chance of finding him if we're separated." Kai said. "Yeah." Cole agreed, earning nods from the others. "Nya, take the south, Kai, the east, Jay, the west. As for me, I'll go north. Meet back here with him in tow if possible without hurting him. Remember, he has no memory of us, so try to trigger one." Cole said, turning towards the northern part of the forest as the others did the same. "Go!" Cole shouted, racing through the bushes as fast as he could. He looked left and right, up and down, for three hours, and still not a sign of his lost brother. Suddenly, a voice cut through his right ear. "So, you really don't have a memory, do you, little ninja?" Samerkai's voice said sharply. Cole peeked around a patch of tall bamboo poles in order to see what was going on. The voices were coming from a cave on the edge of a hill. Screams of pain came shrieking into Cole's ears as Samerkai continued to taunt Zane. Cole snuck into the cave, turned a corner and spotted Zane and his situation. Samerkai and a few other skeletons were beating Zane up. They were kicking him, throwing him into things, and pulling on his arms and legs. "Agh!" Zane screamed in pain, making Samerkai laugh loudly. "You were so strong, little Zane. Now, you're nothing but a pile of parts." Samerkai said, wrapping his hands around Zane's throat and arms. Zane gasped, jerking for a breath of air to fill his lungs. Cole watched with growing disgust as Samerkai dropped him, grabbed his chin and pointed his face to look into his glowing red eyes. "You will not fight me. You will obey me and me only. Understand?" Samerkai growled, Zane whimpering slightly and assuming a kneeling position on the floor. Samerkai grabbed the back of his neck and threw him into a sack, tying it shut with a thick rope. "Here, we're leaving now." Samerkai said, throwing the still sack to Krucha and Nuckal. "Where are we going?" Nuckal asked idiotically as Krucha smacked him upside the head. "Ow!" Nuckal cried, throwing the sack at Krucha. "Not now, boys. Get the bikes. We're going home." Samerkai said as he pulled the sack from Krucha's hands and held it at his side. 'When Zane curls up, he can be smaller than a Cheez-It box. Oh, no. Here they come.' Cole thought as he slipped around the cave and hid from the unsuspecting skeletons as they exited the cave. Samerkai came out of the cave a few minutes later, jumped on a bike and sped off with Zane hanging on the back. Cole turned to his watch and pressed the speaker. "Guys, Samerkai has Zane. They're going to the underworld." he said into the microphone as he raced after the bikes and grabbed hold of the back of Nuckal's. After a few seconds, the bikes were speeding through the underworld. Cole jumped off and hid behind some rocks as the bikes stopped and the skeletons started for the prison. They chucked the bag into a cell, Samerkai grabbing a shovel. "Here, put him out of his misery." he growled, throwing it at Krucha. Krucha walked into the cell, raised the shovel over his head and swung downward. A sickening crunch of metal on metal shot through the underworld. Krucha dumped Zane out onto the floor, giving him a poke on the shoulder. "I think he's dead, master Samerkai!" he shouted to his general. "Good. Bring him with us." Samerkai commanded, heading towards the throne room of the underworld palace. Cole crept forward steadily, following with total precaution. As soon as the trio got to the throne room, Samerkai bowed with respect. "Master, we have the boy." he growled. "Good. Let's see how hard it is to force him out of his own body for a while." Shadow Garmadon said, his red eyes glowing with pride. Samerkai placed Zane's head on his thigh, holding it up in the air for his master to consume. Shadow Garmadon extended a hand, wrapping it around Zane's head and engulfing his mind as he did so. Suddenly, Kai, Jay, Nya, Lloyd and Sensei Wu came swooping in on the Ultra Dragon, knocking over several skeletons in the process. "Let him go, Garmadon!" Kai shouted as he jumped off the dragon's back, landing hard on a skeleton. "Why do you care? He is only a machine. He is surely not worth the trouble, time and energy to protect, is he?" Garmadon sneered, pulling Zane from Samerkai's grasp. "Kill them, general. And give me their bleeding bodies." Garmadon hissed, retreating into his palace walls. "Brother! He is homeless! You do not need to do this!" Wu shouted, stopping Garmadon in his tracks. "His mind is already gone. You'll need a better programmer to replace him. How about a girl? Maybe Shadow, for a name? Ha Ha Ha!" the shadow king laughed, holding Zane over the spiked fence. "No! Don't hurt him! I'll do anything!" Cole screamed, sliding in next to his Sensei. "Anything, huh? Would you kill yourself for this piece of junk? Would you die for him?" Garmadon smiled, holding Zane slightly looser. "Yes! I would do anything for him! Anything! Death or torture! Anything!" Cole screamed again. "How about this: I give him back to you, and you use your throwing knife you have in your robe's pocket to the left and stab yourself in the heart. Hm? How about it?" Garmadon sneered as Samerkai shifted up to join him. Cole slowly slipped his knife from his pocket, holding it above his heart to prove his seriousness. "Give him back and I'll do it." Cole said, pressing the point deeper into his skin. "No!" Nya shouted. "Don't do it! You know better than that!" Jay shouted, destroying the skeleton in front of him with a hard swing of his nunchucks. "Cole! Don't do it!" Lloyd screamed, throwing his sword into a skeleton's eye socket. Garmadon tossed Zane to Samerkai, pointing towards Sensei Wu with a bony finger. "Do it." Garmadon smiled, watching as Cole sighed deeply and plunged the blade deep into his chest. "No!" the other four students screamed, rushing to catch him before he hit the ground, blood gushing from his wound. Suddenly, the air around them sparkled with a new life, a small body appearing next to Cole in a shimmering form. The figure lifted its head to reveal Zane's face, sparkling with water particles as they shifted through his face and his hands. Cole lie on the floor, blood pooling around him in larger and larger puddles. Zane looked over to stare at Cole's body, tears forming on his cheeks. He shook his head roughly, growling that sounded like whistling at first, and dove his hand right into Cole's chest. He used his power to heal the wounds in him, squeezing Cole's heart to get the blood pumping again. Cole slowly opened his eyes, smiling. "Do-do we have him? Is he alright? Is he awake? I saw him in a dream." Cole repeated, sitting up. Samerkai threw Zane's lifeless body to the ground, kicking it sharply in the ribcage for a little effect. The Ultra Dragon flew down and Shard's head gently nudged Zane's body as it lay on the floor, attracting Cole's attention. "Zane?" Cole asked as he stood up and walked over to the body. At about ten feet from the body, Zane lifted his head from the ground and smiled. "Cole." Zane said, slowly standing up and limping over to where Cole and the team stood. Zane and Cole wrapped each other in their arms, tears streaming down their cheeks. "You died in front of me! I saved you! I-I died!" Zane cried, sinking to his knees as the group helped move them onto the back of the Ultra Dragon to go home. "It's okay. You're okay, now. Everything is alright." Cole said, trying to comfort the crying robot on his lap.
The End