Chapter 13

"Zane's here? And Garmadon?" Nya bit her lip as her brother shared what he'd learned. "I wonder if Jay's alright. They didn't say anything about him?"

"Nothing on him or Lloyd." Kai shook his head. "But Nya, the kid was right!"

"About what?"

"It wasn't Garmadon who set off the virus. Before Wu realized I was there, I heard him talking to Borg. Apparently, the same thing that happened before is happening now. But it all started before we got Garmadon out of jail."

"Then who do you think it is?" Nya made a mental list of all the customers they'd had on their not-so-legal side business. None of them seemed like proper candidates. They had been only thieves and low lives.

"I don't-"

Kai's statement was interrupted as the door open sheepishly, as if whoever was on the other side of it didn't quite know if this was the right place to be. Kai and Nya straightened, their suspicions and theories quickly silenced.

As the door revealed Zane, they both visibly relaxed. Nya gave him a wave. "Hey, Zane. Long time no see."

"Hello," Zane said. "Kai you are here too."

"Yup." Kai nodded quickly, eager to avoid talking about how bad his plan to rescue Nya had gone. "So what happened?"

"There was a man. I believe his name was Ronin. He captured both myself and Garmadon."

"That's! Yeah!" Kai turned to his sister, pointing at Zane with a persistent motion. "That's the guy that got me caught in the first place. See? He's good. He's got to be really good if he managed to bring in Garmadon and Zane. I could have probably gotten you out if it hadn't had been for him."

"I do not believe that would be the case. ECHO is highly guarded. Even with your abilities, there was a very low chance of you succeeding."

Kai pouted, and Nya chuckled. Her laugh then halted abruptly, a thought flashing in her mind. She beamed up at Zane, gaping momentarily as she struggled to speak.

"Zane, Zane!" Nya stood, and Zane took a step back in confusion. "You don't have a bracelet!"

"I do not." Zane agreed, not quite understanding why this was a fact to scream about. "I have never had one."

"No, no." Kai shook his head, jumping in with his sister. He held up his wrist. "You don't have one of these. These prevent us from using our powers. But you don't have one! They must not have known you had powers too. Come to think of. . . Wu never. . . mentioned you. At all."

"And." Nya frowned along with her brother. "Pixal. She had no idea you existed."

"Then how. . ." Both siblings turned to each other, exchanging looks of distrust before firing them back toward Zane.

"ECHO was the one that gave us our powers. But Wu never mentioned you at all." Kai said, accusingly. Unconsciously, he stepped in front of his sister. "How come you have abilities, same as us? Who are you, exactly?"

"Oh!" Zane's eyes sparked with understanding. "I am an android. I was built independently, by a man named Julien. Ronin somehow blocked my systems, so that I may not use ice."

Zane explained this nonchalantly, although he was still personally at odds with the reality of it. Nya and Kai blinked in unison, mouths agape with surprise. Anyone other than Zane would have found the image amusing. As it was, Zane only waited for the surprise to fade.

Once it did, Kai rubbed his forehead, while Nya let out a slow breath. It was she who spoke first, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why didn't you tell us before? I. . . Wow."

"I was not aware of the fact," Zane said. "I was quite as disturbed as you two."

"How did you find out?" Kai asked, but before Zane had time to answer, he continued. "What happened after I left?"

"We headed to Birchwood forest, as we said we would. There, we found a lab. It belonged to Dr. Julien. That is where I found the blueprints of my design." Zane frowned at the memory, but willed himself to keep talking, determined to bring the siblings up to date. "After that, Garmadon explained to us what had truly happened to ECHO. He mentioned there was something. . . wrong within ECHO's systems, which was why he was forced to detonate the building."

"So it really wasn't him that created the weird virus," Kai said. "The what exactly, are we fighting against?"

The elevator doors slid shut. Pixal then requested the lift to take her to the top of ECHO.

Borg had insisted she meet him there, once she was done with Wu's request. Pixal did not think much of this. She was accustomed to bouncing back and forth between them both, the list of things she had to do never actually reaching an end.

Which was just as well. She did not know what she would do, had she no orders to follow.

The elevator stopped. A bizarrely involuntary shiver traveled through her wires as she stepped into the hall. Pixal frowned at the sensation, eyes studying the world before her. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

But things felt out of the ordinary. Had, in fact, felt this way for quite a while.

Pixal had worked to ignore it, assuring herself that if anything truly was wrong Borg would act on it. The weird, pulsing presence she felt growing within the building had to be nothing but a malfunction on her part.

She arrived at Borg's lab. Half of the lights had been left off, leaving the room in an eerie half-glow. Pixal wondered about this for a second, before pushing the thought away. It was absolutely none of her business to question Borg.

Pixal could see him working intently on something. As she approached, she recognized the thing in his hands was a sort of helmet, dangerous looking wires twisted around it every which way. The object made her feeling of foreboding increase, but she kept it hidden.

"How may I help you, Sir?"

Borg turned to her, with his kind eyes and soft smile. Pixal could feel her concerns fading. "Ah! Pixal. How did everything go with Wu?"

"He asked Ronin to return to the search as fast as possible. He then left to speak with his brother. I was tasked with escorting . . . Zane to the others. That is the name of the android I mentioned in my previous message."

"I'll have to get a good look at him, he sounds fascinating." Borg stared off into nothing for a couple of minutes. "Yes, yes. Julien's work was always most impressive.

"Let's get down to business though, shall we? Help me with this."

Borg nodded toward a different object. "Julien must have left this design behind before. . . the whole bomb in ECHO thing. It should work better than my wheelchair does. I agree, it looks a little. . . bizarre but, I'll be able to control its movements with the helmet. Using my mind instead of my hands!"

Pixal helped him move what resembled the lower half of a metal spider onto the floor, where it would be easier to work with. Borg continued. "Yes, not my design of choice, but oh! It'll be ever so helpful."

For lack of words, Pixal stayed silent, only helping Borg as needed. But something nagged in the back of her mind. Borg believed Dr. Julien had created the blueprints and left them behind. Except. . . That couldn't really have been possible.

Garmadon's bomb had wiped everything in ECHO's database. Pixal knew this.

Wherever the blueprints had come from, they were not from Dr. Julien.

Jay's mind faded in and out, as they flew over the desert.

His mind felt strangely numb. Overall, this was soothing, compared to the usual disarray of electric feelings. It left him with absolutely no desire to do anything, other than keep his eyes shut.

His memories had also become strangely vivid. He could remember Cole's words and expressions with painful clarity. They replayed behind his eyelids, over, and over.

Another jolt. Jay opened his eyesThey

They were flying over the city now. ECHO was a large smudge in the distance, growing closer with each second, as the sun rose behind it.

"Awake for good now?" The man driving asked, giving Jay a smirk. Jay stretched in response. "Good. We're almost there. Then I can go back and find the kid. I'm sure he was somewhere with you. Maybe inside that junkyard?"

"Why are you bringing us to ECHO?" Jay asked instead, not wanting to risk giving anything away.

"Eh. That's what Wu asked for. Don't know much more beyond that. Don't really care to ask."

"Hmm."

The last moments of the ride were spent in silence. The man lowered the vehicle gently onto the roof, where a familiar face awaited them. Jay had seen Wu many times on TV. He frowned, surprised at having remembered.

"You need handcuffs? Or are you going to listen?" The man twirled a pair of cuffs on one of his fingers.

Jay shrugged. "I'll listen. What else am I going to do, jump off the roof?"

He chuckled at the words to ease their severity, but his throat felt tight and clogged, causing a more whimper-like sound instead. The man frowned.

"Listen, kid, I don't know what made you go crazy in the desert, but whatever it was, I'm sure it'll turn out fine."

"Right. Sure. Yeah." Jay hopped out of the vehicle, eager to move away from the stranger's kindness. He walked up to Wu slowly, quite unsure of what would happen next. Usually, this would trigger sharp sparks , but with the bracelet dampening his lightning, Jay felt only a subtle mix of nerves and anticipation.

"Hello, Jay." Wu held out his hand. The smile he wore was warm and friendly, which melted some of Jay's doubts, but he reminded himself that Wu was the one who had fueled him with lighting in the first place.

Regardless, Jay wasn't much for acting stand-offish, so he took the man's hand and shook. "Hey."

"Didn't expect you back this soon, Ronin." Wu looked back at the man that had brought him in. "I'm impressed."

"Be ready to be impressed again then. I'll be back with the kid in a couple of hours."

"Actually, when you find him, just give me a call. Don't bring him to ECHO."

Ronin shrugged at the new orders, moving back to his vehicle after giving Jay a final smile.

Wu turned back to Jay. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Your friends will be more than willing to help you answer them. Follow me"

Jay did. The thought of seeing Nya and Kai pushed back the ache of having lost Cole, at least momentarily. They took an elevator, but once they'd reached what Jay assumed was the right floor, Wu made no attempt to follow him out into the hall.

"It's breakfast time, so try the third door on your right. Hopefully, they'll have left enough for you to eat. Please, ask them all you need to know." Jay nodded slowly, stepping out of the elevator and into the polished floor. "Oh, and Jay?"

"Uh-huh?"

"I do look forward to working with you."

Before Jay could question this statement, the doors slid shut, leaving him alone in the empty hall.

He shook his head, trying to keep his mind from focusing on how truly alone he was. Again. Cole's absence felt like a hole in his chest, one he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to fill with anything other than forced distractions.

Third door on the right. Jay repeated these words to himself as he moved, in order to keep other, less savory thoughts from his head. He twisted the handle and opened the door, stepping into one of the nicest rooms he'd ever seen.

He was suddenly tackled by a brute force, which made him stumble back out into the hall. Black hair clouded his vision, and he recognized it instantly. Jay returned Nya's tight hug. He felt infinitely glad for the bracelet, otherwise, he would have shocked his friend clear across the room.

"You're alright!" She said, stepping back.

"You're alright." He countered. "You got shot!"

"No biggie." Nya shrugged. "Gunshot wound? Please. Takes a lot more to take me down."

"No kidding."

They stepped back into the room, where Kai gave him a friendly wave and Zane responded with a courteous nod. They were both sitting at a table that was unnecessarily large, overfilled with delicious smelling food.

"So what's. . . going on?" Jay sat. Nya offered him some of the food, but he turned it down with a shake of his head. "The . . . Wu said you guys would explain?"

"Well, turns out ECHO is responsible for our powers." Nya's eyes shone as she explained. "And now, well, now Wu wants to train us to be like, super soldiers. To guard Ninjago! He even wants us to help him with-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Jay shook his head. "And you're okay with helping him? I mean, yeah, he seems like a nice guy and all, but with the way he handle the whole, giving powers to people thing. . . I didn't think you'd trust him."

Zane nodded in agreement. Kai sat up straighter, eyes narrowing.

"You mean, you knew?" Nya asked.

"Garmadon informed us." Zane explained. "He told us about ECHO conducting human experiments, and how you three and Cole were taken in as a last resort."

"Last resort?" Nya and Kai asked at the same time.

"Yeah. Because, you know, who'd want some crazy scientists messing around with their kids? Your parents needed the money ECHO was providing. Same with Cole's dad. And I. . ." Jay shook his head, unable to speak the words. "What did Wu tell you?"

"What did Garmadon tell you?" Nya mirrored Jay's words.

"No one wanted to be part of ECHO's program." Jay answered first.

"Everyone wanted to be part of ECHO's program."

"Think about it." Jay pressed on. "The whole idea of it is risky. Why would people agree to it so willingly?"

"And why would Garmadon be telling the truth about anything?"

Jay and Nya huffed, both unable to answer the other's questions.

"Maybe they're both lying." Kai shrugged. "I vote we don't trust either of them."

"Until the true fact are discovered, I agree with Kai." Zane nodded.

"Fine." Both Nya and Jay shrugged. Then Jay continued. "It doesn't matter either way. What matters is that we get out of here."

"Or we could help Wu out. He needs us to get the people that escaped Kryptarium. It's our fault. Even if the man is lying about some things, we should still help him."

"I don't know, I'm not too keen on helping people who send one-eyed bounty hunters after me." Jay squinted his eyes, refusing to agree with Nya.

"Good point." Kai nodded.

"Oh, okay, well go on and break out of here. Have fun being on the run for the rest of your life." Nya hissed, surprised at how passionate she felt about defending Wu.

"Also a good point." Kai said.

"For the time being, maybe we could all simply, agree to disagree?" Zane suggested. "Regardless of what we settle for, it seems to me that we should all stick together."

Reluctantly, Jay and Nya agreed.