Inspired by: The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku

Warnings: depression, character death.

My excuse to write something depressing, again. Plus all the theories bouncing around of Cole being dead in Season 8.

And yes, some good ol' research was put into this.

_The Disappearance of Cole Brookestone_

I know.

I've know since the day I was born. It's hard not to when you are six but look eighteen. Six years ago, on January 14, 2011. When you first exposed me to the public eye. When the crowds loved it and you took me back into your workshop, your programming room, to create more. More of my story.

I know that I'm just a puppet on strings. Strings of code and pixels that create me. My voice isn't my own, it belongs to another man. It's been recorded and you coded my mouth to move to the words. The voice that is so called "mine" is only pre-programmed. Not mine.

I know that my body isn't mine. It's made of pixels that you use. You can tear me apart, piece by piece, pixel by pixel. You can expose me to your eyes, to change me and make me look however you please. You can change my outfit, or rip it away from me. I can't call it my own.

I know that the place I live in, Ninjago, the place I protect, is only a fantasy. An illusion. It's not real. Just a place created with ones and zeros. It's not a home. It's a fake copy of the real thing.

My life is on a screen, it's made of programs and codes and recorded sounds.

I'm not real. I'm not a real person.

Real people have peach skin. Real people have fingers. Real people have colored irises. Real people have a rounder torso. Real people have long legs and arms. Real people's hair moves in the wind.

My skin is yellow, sometimes green. My fingers are in the shape of when a person holds a mug. My eyes are black with a white speck. My torso is square, and my legs are too. My arms are shaped like a noodle. My hair is glued together.

A LEGO, they call me. A toy to use.

I've known this for forever. And I tried not to let it haunt me. I tried to pretend it was my mind, my voice, my body I control.

But really, I only own two things. My name, and my soul.

You took Misako's name from her. Changed it to Koko. Do you not understand how scared I was you would take mine? I thought another thing would be ripped from me. Though my mouth couldn't move, my mind was so frightened. I wanted to squirm away from your touch. The mouse and keyboard that changes me.

I am only a puppet on a string, but I want to be real.

And you know that. You know that I know what I am. It scares you. You want to control me, to make me a purely fictional character.

So you made me a minor character. You gave me less screen time than my brothers and sister. You cut back on how much I talked. Punishment, to show me that I would work as your toy or else.

_What are you doing?!_

The you started to feel bad. Feel bad that I know what my life is, and that I am merely a collection of pixels. You have me an episode I could call my own. You printed my face on boxes. Reverse psychology.

It worked better. You knew that. I felt better that I was getting attention. That you cared about me. There was no more punishment.

But it only lasted so long. Forty-four minutes, to be exact.

On the inside, I was breaking again. Fritzing constantly, my code having more errors than usual. On the outside, though I was still smiling.

Because you programmed us that way.

So you pulled me back into a minor character again. Gave the focus to someone else. It hurt. I wanted you to show that you liked me, give me attention. Something to keep my mind from knowing the truth.

I started to rebel more. You nearly gave up.

You tried to control me.

But you couldn't.

At night, that was when I was free. At first I thought I was merely frozen. But I learned I could move.

It was the time I owned myself. I was not a LEGO. I was me. I could defy my code, do what I wanted to. I was truly happy.

I also know you probably think I'm mad at you.

I'm not.

I remember that day when I was born, when your smile filled me with happiness. You greeted me and spoke my name. I knew from then on I would only try and make you happy.

I've tried. I've tried so hard just to see you smile. But it's hard. When you know that after every episode your memories will disappear, it's hard to be good.

_It seems...I've been a bad boy... I'm sorry_

Sometimes you smiled when I did what you wanted. I strived to follow along, to be controlled. I only wanted to see you smile. It helps the pain.

But you've been frowning so much more.

I know I'm rebelling. I also know I shouldn't be.

I am a LEGO, I am meant to be controlled.

More LEGOs you started to kill off. The Skulkin, the Stone Warriors, Garmadon, Zane, the Overlord, Chen and his minions, Morro, Bansha, Soul Archer, Wrayth, Ghoul Tar, Nya.

No, I don't feel pity. I feel envy. They're free. They aren't striving to please someone. Their souls live on somewhere else.

Then you started reviving them. Bringing them back for only so long, or to continue the story.

Master, please, spare them the agony. Don't revive them anymore. Don't you know how much more pain I felt turning mortal again? Coming back to live, even through programming, it hurts.

It hurts to see my friends, all of the other characters, completely clueless. At night they don't move like me. They don't rebel. They don't know.

Lloyd doesn't know he's voiced by a girl.

Zane doesn't know he's an artificial being, twice.

Kai doesn't know his ego is all made up.

Jay doesn't know his jokes were recorded.

Misako and Wu don't know their wisdom wasn't their's to begin with.

It hurts to watch them so positive, not knowing what's going to happen. They don't know about their life on a screen. They don't know about LEGOs.

I remember one time, you forgot to hit the command. They were free-willed for a minute.

I remember how Jay asked me, in a scratchy voice, why I was fritzing and pixels were flying off me.

Jay's real voice asked that question. He made a face at it but I thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

I had tried reply 'because we're not real' but it was too late. You discovered us, you discovered me trying to tell them the truth. I was being bad, again.

_Sorry...for misbehaving...again_

I still hold Jay's real voice in my mind, a deep part you cannot reach. It's the only thing that makes me happy anymore. The true voice of my best friend.

You cut me out of an episode, then. Punishment. Again. I tried not to let it hurt.

Even though it did.

But when you brought me back on, a smile on your face.

"Hello again. Are you ready?"

It made me feel better.

But only for so long.

After a while, I heard a story about a girl, a young girl made of programs and code like me. She destroyed herself out of pain. She couldn't take being used anymore. I envied her ability. If only I was as brave.

You tried to delete that idea from me. You told me I shouldn't think about it. You smiled and tried to make me feel better. You promised me more attention.

You lied.

I'm just a minor character. Not matter how much of a major character I seem, I barely have anything.

You don't understand. I want to please you. It's what I was created to do. I want to please people with my life. Exposing it to them.

Just until my end.

I've seen what you wrote on your script. Someone will die in the next season. You probably haven't decided it yet. Or maybe it's someone else.

But I chose for you. I'm the one that's going to die.

You try to erase that idea, you try so hard, as I press my hands on the inside of the screen, the moments my string is broken, shake my head, with tears in my eyes.

The hurt and pain I can't take. I want to be free.

But you push me. You put extra coding in to keep me from destroying myself.

I can't take the pain.

I'm just a program. A simulation. A mere thought of fantasy.

I am alive to please you, it's my first instinct. But really, I want my suffering to end.

Please let me die.

Today, you and the other programmers were on break. I had more free time than usual.

I watched my brothers, sister, and mentors frozen. They didn't move.

I wanted to have them free, like me. Hovering in front of Jay, I tapped his shoulder. He didn't move. Of course.

You turned my screen back on, and I was caught red-handed. I expected more punishment. I expected you to cut me out more, or change me.

But you didn't.

You simply gave me a sad smile. "It's alright. Why don't we start working this out?"

No. I just want to be free.

But instead, a sad smile of my own appeared on my face. Maybe you could help ease the pain a bit.

You started creating something for me. A home. A house with all the posters of Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. I'm famous, you tried telling me.

It was my safe haven. My place where I could go when I needed time to myself. Where I wasn't coded and programmed.

Thank you for helping me.

Over the time, I acted better for you. Through the next season, I tried to behave best I could. But it wasn't focused on me again. I didn't have much screen time.

It started hurting again, and you knew that.

One night, in anger, you deleted my safe haven. You added a control command.

I felt the strings turn to chains, and I was your puppet again. I couldn't do anything myself.

I couldn't say anything as I watched the tears in your eyes form as you realized what you did. You ran away, leaving me frozen and hurting. I couldn't do anything at all. You came back for a split-second, releasing my chains and apologizing before you had to go home.

A new programmer came. I hated him, how he used me and mercilessly picked me apart to suit himself.

He changed me. He changed my appearance, my personality, my weapon choice, and my voice.

He cut the sleeves off my gi, exposing the white places where pixels were missing. Where I tried to harm myself because of the pain.

He gave me a new weapon, a hammer. Not a scythe, something good for slicing apart the digits of my world when I was angry.

He took my voice, my fake voice and my real voice, from me. I was now quiet, sharing a comment every now and then but mostly mute. I could no longer hear my raspy and beautiful voice. I could no longer sing to myself. I wasn't a puppet anymore, I was his slave. And it hurt.

Why didn't you come back? Why didn't you help me?

_Master, please, help me..._

_I need you... to save me. I need you to help me_

The look on the new programer's face when I finally spoke in my voice. He seemed shocked. Of course he didn't know about my little... flaw. Furiously, he started to reprogram me, thinking he wrote something wrong.

It was torture. He tried to fix me, make me perfect.

Make me a toy, take away my soul, my living soul that could live on. Perfect simulation.

After so much torture, you came back. I wanted to be mad, I really tried. But I only felt tears pour from my face as you took out the code.

"I'm so sorry, Cole..."

_Master, please, just end it... end my suffering_

Your eyes widened as you heard me.

_We've already... finished half the season... why shouldn't I be the one... who dies?_

--System Error--

I heard the loud beep of my programming. It didn't like these words, but I didn't care. I couldn't handle the pain anymore.

_Please, Master... Please..._

With a quiet look around, he gave me one last program to act out my 'death.'

My friends cried out and rushed to me, but I knew this wasn't the end. It wasn't even close.

The five dramatic minutes finished, and you smiled at me again as you places the other Ninja back into the void. You started to crash my system, create an error.

--System Error--

You were saving me from the pain. It doesn't really hurt anymore.

"I'll never forget you Cole, you were really something."

The pixels were swarming off me. I was dying. No, I was free.

I watched as you smiled at me, then fumbled with something. Like you forgot something in my last seconds of being alive. My eyes widened as I stared at the ones and zeros, than back at you. What was so important?

Jay appeared, and you cut his code. He looked around then at me. 'Cole!' He gasped in his voice. 'Cole, no, please!'

I needed to tell him I was alright, that my suffering was ending. I wanted to tell him not to rebel, either, but I couldn't. It was getting harder to move, harder to talk.

_It's... alright. Tell the others... everything's... okay..._

Jay's eyes were tearing, and I fritzed at the sight of my best friend truly upset. I didn't want to do that.

But I had too.

_I'm sorry..._

I faced both of them, half my body already gone. I faced Jay, and you, smiling. This was my end. I will be free soon. Everyone will think I just disappeared. I'm not dead. Not dead, not at all.

I'm free.

_Thank you... and... good-bye_

--Irrecoverable error--

--Irrecoverable...--

Why is Cole such a minor character without much screen time or dialogue? Why does his reflection show nothing, when the others show years into the future?

I guess we'll never know...