The Julien Family Dinner
Show Ninjago
When they rescued Dr. Julien and Echo from the tower, they quickly realized that having them live at Steep Wisdom with the rest of them wouldn't be a good idea. Echo was far too easily disassembled, and while none of the Ninja would harm him on purpose, there was just too much daily chaos at the combined tea shop and monastery to ensure his safety.
And while the hollow tree where Dr. Julien's former workshop once was still stood, it was decided they wouldn't move back there. For one thing, one poor encounter with a Treehorn could end badly for Echo or the doctor. And for another, it was deemed simply too far away for Zane to visit, as his duties as a ninja kept him living with the rest of his team at the monastery, and Dr. Julien wasn't about to make him choose between his family and his life's purpose.
And so, with the sale of a few of Dr. Julien's patents, he and Echo were able to move into a modest house to get a fresh start.
Needless to say, when the Julien Family's counterparts on the other Ninjago heard the news, they were both delighted to hear that Echo's counterpart existed and Zen Zane was no longer an orphan and insisted on having a housewarming party. Being very curious to meet the counterparts Zen had described, they agreed.
Zen Zane was busily cooking for them when he heard the doorbell ring.
Opening it, he was greeted by his counterpart grinning eagerly with his brother and father behind him.
"We are here," Pep Zane said cheerfully, living up to his nickname. "Sorry, but Mom could not come tonight, but she sends her regards."
Next to him, the small Echo looked equally as excited. "Where's the other me?" he asked, bouncing in place. "Is he here? Can I meet him? Can I? Can I? Can I?"
The little nindroid looked like he was ready to continue asking that question for eternity until Zen said yes. Fortunately, Zen chuckled in amusement and said, "Yes, he's here, although…" he trailed off and glanced back into the house. "My Echo is very shy. New people make him nervous, so he may be hiding right now."
The little Echo looked far from deterred. If anything, hearing that only made him more excited. "It's like a treasure hunt with a friend at the end!" he said eagerly, glowing like he often did when he was happy. With that, he darted in past Zen, determined to search the house.
"Don't overwhelm the poor boy when you find him, son!" the Dr. Julien standing behind Pep called after his son.
"I won't!" the little Echo called back, before skidding to a halt in front of a man who looked very much like an older version of his father.
The Dr. Julien of that world looked down at him in surprise, and let out a startled, "Oh my word?"
Echo looked back up at him with a beaming smile. "Hi!" he chirped in his automated voice. "I'm Echo. Lil'Loyd gave me the nickname Tiny Echo, so you can call me Tiny. I'm looking for the other me. Have you seen him? I really want to meet him."
The older Dr. Julien only stared at him in bewilderment.
Seeing this, Zen led his counterpart and his father's into the house and said, "Father, do you remember what I told you? About us having counterparts in a parallel world."
The older Dr. Julien frowned, then his confusion seemed to clear and he said, "Ah yes. They were coming to dinner. Or, I see they've already arrived."
Pep and his Dr. Julien exchanged glances. They'd been told about the other's memory problems, but seeing it in person was a different thing entirely.
"Yes, Father," said Zen patiently. "This is my counterpart, whom we call Pep Zane, as well as your own counterpart…" he paused, and then said, "Come to think of it, we haven't thought of a nickname for you yet," he said looking between the two Dr. Juliens.
Zen's Dr. Julien's face fell. "Oh dear," he said. "I'm afraid with my memory I won't remember any nickname you give me."
"Then you can keep your own name, and I'll just have the nickname," Pep's Dr. Julien offered kindly. He then thought a moment, before adding, "Let's see, I teach classes at Ninjago University while my sons are at school, so perhaps calling me Professor would not be remiss."
Pep nodded in agreement. "Yes, Morro has mentioned he enjoys your lessons. I believe it is why he does not antagonize me as much as the others," he said, making his father chuckle at that.
"Morro?" asked Zen curiously, having heard that name before mentioned by his Sensei Wu and Garmadon, but the pained expression Wu always had kept him from asking.
Pep opened his mouth to reply, but paused and instead asked, "Is something cooking?"
Zen jumped as he realized he'd left dinner cooking, and rushed away to save it before it burned.
Tiny, meanwhile, saw the discussion was over and wandered off to find his counterpart. His search led him to almost trip over a small toy-like robot that was tidying the house.
Seeing it, the little nindroid gave it a friendly grin and said, "Hi, I'm Tiny Echo. I'm looking for the other Echo. Do you know where he is? Can I meet him?"
The little robot studied him up and down, before turning around and wheeling away.
"Oh, you want me to follow you? Okay," said Tiny, and he scurried after the little bot.
The little robot led Tiny to a room that looked a lot like his father's workroom in his world, where he created all his gadgets and machines. The robot paused in front of a tarp covering something oddly shaped.
Something oddly shaped that was moving and trying to shoo the robot away with a whisper of, "No, Gizmo."
Found him!
Sitting down in front of the tarp, Tiny said, "Hi, I'm Echo, I'm here to protect those who can't protect themselves. Lil'Loyd likes to call me Tiny. You're Echo too, right? What's your nickname?"
There was silence for a long moment as Tiny sat patiently waiting for a response.
Finally, the tarp shifted so that one glass eye surrounded by a bronze-colored face peeked out. "... Rusty," the hidden nindroid replied. "He called me Rusty Echo."
Tiny lit up. "That's a great name!" he said.
The tarp shifted and a little more of Rusty peeked out. "Really?" he asked.
"Sure is!" said Tiny brightly. "It's really good. Do you like it? I like mine."
Rusty slowly lowered the tarp off his head, but he kept it wrapped around his shoulders. "I like it," he said softly. "I like yours too."
"Thanks," said Tiny. He then jumped to his feet and held out a hand to Rusty. "Want to be friends?"
Rusty slowly lowered the tarp fully off of him, and reached out to accept the hand. "Okay," he said with a shy smile.
Tiny tugged him to his feet, and then looked up at his counterpart in awe. "Wow, you're really tall!" he said.
Rusty Echo stared down at him in surprise. Then he couldn't help but laugh at the blunt statement.
It looked to be a good start to their friendship.
The dinner was going well until the subject of Zen Zane's memory switch was brought up.
If there was one thing Dr. Julien always seemed to remember despite his otherwise spotty memory, it was that Zen had allowed himself to be modified in his absence. Something he was not happy about.
"I just don't understand why you would want to change your design," said Dr. Julien, disappointment lacing his voice.
Zen let out a sigh that made it clear they had had this argument on several occasions, and he was embarrassed to have it with company over. "Father, I have told you many times. I had it removed because I do not want to lose my memory again. Forgetting my life and you once was terrible, forgetting everything and everyone now…" he shuddered. "I do not wish to even consider it."
Around them, the dimensional visitors listened awkwardly to the bickering two, and Rusty Echo picked at his food with a resigned expression.
"Zane, your design is perfect. There was no need to change it," argued Dr. Julien.
"I would have to disagree," Zen replied.
They looked like they would continue debating this for the rest of the dinner, but thankfully, Pep Zane cut in. "It sounds like normal teenage behavior to me."
All eyes turned to the blue-eyed nindroid.
"What do you mean by that, son?" asked Prof. Julien asked, hoping he had some insight to stop the argument.
Pep, who was looking exceedingly uncomfortable (too late Zen remembered he disliked discussing his own mechanical parts), said, "It is a normal teenage act of rebellion to modify one's body in some way. Especially in ways that their parents will not approve of. Usually through temporary acts like dying one's hair, or using more permanent methods such as getting a tattoo or piercing their skin in an eye-catching place. It is perfectly natural that Zen chose to make such a change."
Zen shot his counterpart a grateful look as Dr. Julien seemed to consider his words.
"I suppose from that perspective it does seem natural. I did build Zane to be as real as possible," said Dr. Julien, he then shot his oldest son a stern look. "However, I still do not like it, and I had better not hear of you making any further modifications without my consent, young man." He then sent a glance at Rusty, and added, "That goes for you too."
Rusty's joints squeaked as he gave a startled jump at the attention, but Zen was just glad his father was letting the matter go.
Pep, meanwhile, now had a contemplative expression on his face.
Seeing his son looking at his arms thoughtfully, Prof. Julien quickly said, "If you must do your own act of rebellion, I implore you not to get a tattoo, Zane," he said, sounding like he didn't know if he should be exasperated or amused.
"You can't tell me what to do, Dad," Pep replied, already looking ready to commit to his ideas of teenage rebellion.
"Your skin will have a bad reaction to the ink and you will likely break their needles," Prof. Julien replied without missing a beat, unoffended since he knew his son was just playing a role.
Pep paused at that information. "I will reconsider my options," he said.
"You should dye your hair!" said Tiny eagerly. "Dye it red, no green, no blue! Yeah, blue! It'll go with the ice!"
"But what shade of blue?" asked Pep, looking like he was actually considering it.
"I dunno, there are so many shades," said Tiny. "There's blue, periwinkle, forget-me-not, cyan, teal, aquamarine, indigo, royal blue, sea blue, sky blue, pale blue…"
Somehow the rest of dinner was spent discussing what color Pep should dye his hair as an act of teenage rebellion.
Privately, Zen wondered if it was really rebellion if Prof. Julien already knew and okayed it, but whatever made his counterpart happy.
"There's still one thing I'd like to ask if you don't mind," said Prof. Julien once the dinner had ended. The two of them had offered to wash the dishes while Pep and the Echos helped Zen put the final touches on dessert (they could both hear the sounds of the Echos awe at the cake, and Pep cheerfully asking for baking lessons in return for guitar lessons, to which Zen readily agreed).
"Feel free," said Dr. Julien amiably. "I'll do my best to answer, though I fear recent events may take me a moment to recall."
"No, no, it is something from your past you should remember. Merely something that I've wondered since Zen informed me of his early life," Prof. Julien said. He studied his counterpart curiously for a moment before voicing his question. "What could possibly have caused you to hide yourself away in isolation in the middle of a monster-filled forest for decades? What were you hiding from in that tree?"
Dr. Julien froze in mid-scrub and stared down at the plate he'd been washing.
"I mean no offense," Prof. Julien said quickly, putting down the drying towel and turning to face him. "I'm sure there must have been a reason for it, and you raised a wonderful son regardless, but I am puzzled as to what it could be. My Zane is a social butterfly. There is nothing he loves more than spending time with other people, especially his friends. I couldn't imagine keeping him from the world, even if the isolation was all he knew and wouldn't miss it. There must have been a reason. Was it the Skulkin who captured you? Or perhaps the Serpentine War I've heard mention of?"
With a sigh, Dr. Julien lowered the dish back into the soapy water and dried his hands with a towel.
"You must understand," he said slowly. "I am old. Very old. And have far more years on me than you." His expression turned sardonic. "Heh, I'm so old I shouldn't even be alive, and yet here I am."
Prof. Julien nodded. "It is the most notable difference between us."
Dr. Julien nodded solemnly. "And this difference likely had its consequences for us." His eyes took on a faraway expression. "When I was young, this world was very different. Technology as the world now knows it didn't exist, and science was rarely taught to the common man. I happened to be one of the lucky ones to be able to learn it and had the ambition to dream of creating more. All my machinery, everything I've ever built, I've had to construct by hand. I created wonders no one on Ninjago had ever seen before."
Dr. Julien's face turned bitter. "And as I'm sure you know when people see something entirely new, something they don't understand, they fear it."
Prof. Julien winced at those words. He'd had more than enough experience with that. Even in more modern times where the technology was common and the idea of robots was more than a fantasy, there were still those who feared them. One needed to look no further than the multitude of robot apocalypse movies to see why. It was part of the reason his son always went out of his way to hide his true nature and project the image of a normal human teenager, even if he didn't fully understand what that meant. And if things were rough for them in the present day, he couldn't imagine how it would have been decades before.
Dr. Julien looked like he had no need to imagine. He'd seen it for himself. "It was difficult," he said. "People looked at my inventions and declared them unnatural. If they gained the knowledge I wanted to create a person. To create a son..." He shuddered. "I had to leave. I couldn't raise Zane in such a place. They would have declared him a monster. So… I left. I hid. And I built and raised a son who I couldn't be more proud of. Both him and Echo have exceeded my expectations by miles."
Prof. Julien let out a chuckle at that. "It is easy to be proud of them. They're good kids and even better sons."
At that moment Tiny Echo darted in with Rusty Echo at his heels, both of them covered in smudges of frosting. "IT'S CAKE TIME!" shouted Tiny at top volume, before rushing back out.
Rusty hung back and said softly, "Please join us before Tiny eats it all. Pep has dared him to try, and Big Brother is trying to stop them." He then hurried after his counterpart.
Both doctors shared a laugh.
It was very easy to be proud.
IMPORTANT NOTE! I and some other authors have been having difficulty getting PMs through email as usual. I'm sure that feature will be fixed soon, but if you leave a comment on this fic and want to see my reply, check your PM folder on this site instead of email.
ALSO IMPORTANT! As mentioned last chapter, the next Greener Pasture's update will come alongside the first chapter of the sequel story, In Need of Polish. A major thanks to Kay Hau for helping beta read and provide ideas for the story. As promised, here's the summary for the sequel:
New hidden threats have arisen on both Ninjagos. Between ominous prophecies, missing snakes, killer robots, and an underground mafia, the Ninja of both worlds have their hands full, all while dusting off hidden secrets to allow their owners to shine. As it is, now is SO not the time for two Zanes and a Kai to fall in love!
A/N So now we get to see the collective Julien family meet. There were a lot of things touched on this chapter. It was sweet to have the two Echos met and became friends outside of their shared friendship with Lil'Loyd. Tiny is sweet to be so patient with Rusty. Kay Hau and I thought it'd be funny if Pep Zane likened Zen Zane removing his memory switch to getting a tattoo, and then considering getting one himself. And then we have my headcanon of why Show Dr. Julien hid himself and Zen in that tree for so long in a Treehorn-filled forest, and Prof. Julien listening and being a good confidant.
Show: Zen Zane, Rusty Echo, Dr. Julien
Movie: Pep Zane, Tiny Echo, Prof. Julien
Massive thanks to Kay Hau for beta reading and offering ideas to this chapter. We discussed this chapter a long time ago but I was only able to write it recently. Major thanks to her for all the help.
Next time: It's time for more Micro Meetings. We finally get to see Luh-Loyd's bomb-defusing/bluffing lessons, the Garmadon Family's next game night takes an interesting twist, and Zen Zane and Rusty Echo lose their friends in translation.