"Pixal left you alone? You were here the whole time?" Cole asked quietly, careful not to trigger anything to make Zane angry. Zane quickly formed the Morning star out of ice and swung it at Cole, who moved out of the way before it hit him.
"No, duh! Rub it in, why don't ya!?" Zane shrieked with force every few words. He swung the Morning Star again, but he let it go mid-swing, and hurled it towards an overgrown tree, knocking it on its side. Zane sighed dramatically and fell to the floor as if he was falling unconscious.
"Did I do something wrong? What did I do to make her abandon me?" Zane whimpered as he stared at the starry sky. Cole's heart almost broke, seeing Zane cry so much. He didn't remember the last time Zane opened up like this.
"She left because of me, didn't she? She didn't want to be with someone who did terrible things, and she didn't want to deal with me. Am I correct?" Zane said, letting tears pour down one side of his face.
"Zane, I'm sure that's not true," Cole said, hoping to cheer up the upset Nindroid.
"You're just saying that," Zane argued, still staring at the sky with tears in his eyes.
"No, really. I'm sure we will figure this out, but to do that, we need to leave the greenhouse," Cole said, hoping to get Zane to get up. Zane hesitated but got up and looked at the earth ninja. Cole had never seen Zane in this state before. He had always been so well put together and calm, but now he was a mess, emotionally and mentally. Cole wiped the tears off of Zane's face.
"Don't worry. I promise I will never abandon you, Zane," Cole said, holding Zane's hand. Zane smiled a little and followed Cole out of the greenhouse.
Cole and Zane stood in front of Borg Industries, Zane trying to look at the very top of the incredibly tall building.
"It's taller then I remember," Zane said, almost falling over.
"Yeah, Borg decided to make the tower bigger a few years ago. Now it has one hundred and fifteen floors," Cole said, catching Zane before he fell and pulling him to the side of the entrance.
"Okay, I need you to listen. I'm not leaving you or abandoning you, but I have to ask Borg a few questions, and I don't want anyone seeing you like this. It is very possible they might panic after seeing what happened," Cole explained. Zane paused but nodded.
"Promise you will come back?" Zane asked, almost in a whimper.
"I promise," Cole said with no hesitation. Zane sat on the steps, and Cole ran inside, hoping to be back quickly.
After a long walk to the one-hundredth floor, Cole ran into Borg's office, almost out of breath.
"Cyrus Borg! Are you here?!" Cole shouted, hoping he was at the right place at the right time. Cyrus looked away from his giant computer and looked at Cole.
"Oh, Cole. It's nice to see you. The ninja was worried when you and Zane disappeared a while ago," The older man said, wheeling over to Cole in his wheelchair. Cole froze.
"Wait, how do you know? You weren't there," Cole said, clearly confused.
"Pixal came over and told me what happened. I'm so glad you found Zane. It's been so long."
"Ten years. I know. Speaking of, why hasn't anyone been in the greenhouse in ten years?" Cole asked.
"That's a strange question. Why do you ask?" Cyrus asked with a chuckle.
"Um, just curious," Cole responded. He didn't know if Cyrus Borg had anything to do with this, so just in case, he won't say anything about Zane yet.
"Well, the Borg Greenhouse is a greenhouse that can take care of the plants without human help. But ten years ago, we found out that someone hacked the Borg Greenhouse, forcing all the technology inside to stop working. We knew it had nothing to do on the inside, so we worked on the outside to try and fix the problem. Although it wasn't one of our major projects, so we set it aside as we worked on other inventions. And luckily, a few days ago, we finally got the Borg Greenhouse working again," Cyrus explained. Cole nodded to himself, showing he understood.
"Mr. Borg?" Cole and Cyrus turned to see Pixal standing at the elevator door. Cole's chest tightened with rage.
"I need to speak with Cole," Pixal said. "Privately." Cyrus Borg nodded and wheeled over to the elevator to go to a different floor. The moment the elevator door closed, Pixal spoke.
"I see you know about where Zane has been all this time," She said calmly.
"Do you have any idea how much you hurt him!? Zane's broken because of you!" Cole screamed, not caring if someone heard him.
"Zane has always been broken. I have created a complicated device to fix him. There is one thing that Zane might not like about it, but it is not too bad. I was worried if I showed it to him, it would scare him, so I tried to keep it hidden from him, but he was always clinging to me, so I couldn't," Pixal said.
"And what is the thing Zane might not like about it?" Cole asked. Pixal pulled out a small white chip and showed it to Cole.
"It would permanently erase his memory," Pixal said, with no hesitation. Cole's eyes widened.
"WHAT!?" He yelled.
"Yes, it is a small sacrifice, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make to fix him," Pixal said, passing the chip to Cole, who pushed it away.
"Zane's memories are one of the most important things to him! Why would you take that away!?" Cole screamed.
"He can make new memories," Pixal said as if it was an obvious answer.
"That's not how-.. He wouldn't-.." Cole fumbled with his words, not knowing what to say to this psychotic woman.
"I was hoping you would do it since you and Zane are getting closer," Pixal said, passing the chip to Cole again.
"I am NOT betraying Zane's trust like that! What do you think I would do?! Go up to him, and say 'Hey, Zane! I'm going to betray your trust as Pixal did and erase all of your memories for no flipping reason?!' " Cole yelled.
"C-Cole?" The earth ninja whirled around, hearing the tiny, cracking voice behind him, and his eyes widened, seeing Zane standing there with a look of disbelief in his teary eyes.
"Uh, Zane, listen. It's not what it looks like-"
"You were going to make me forget? You were going to leave me alone?" Zane said with a cracking voice.
"No, Zane. That's not what's going on, I promise!" Cole said. "Zane, listen to me. That's-"
"Fine." Cole was shocked to hear that small word come out of Zane's mouth.
"You want to break my heart again? Even after I RIPPED IT IN TWO FOR YOU!?" Zane yelled at Pixal, who stepped back a little. "Fine. Go ahead. Just know this: Before you break one half-" Zane glared at Pixal with a rage Cole had never seen on Zane's face before. It sent shivers down his spine as Zane's bright blue eyes turned into a deep red.
"I'm taking the other half with me."