So there are quite a bit of StarWars, frozen, and other references in this and I'll admit I had a plan but it went off the rails, and now if anyone has any idea of how I can continue this please let me know.
A cold wind blew over the walls of the monastery as Zane watched his friends leave for Shintaro, the invitation clearly stating he was not invited. Pixal had gone with them because the princess was eager to meet SamuraiX the android built to serve but learned to fight, the girlfriend of the green ninja. Pixal had broken up with Zane after the fiasco the SOG had caused, she claimed that she had found a connection to Lloyd that rivaled anything she felt with Zane. Zane had replied with a smile, saying he understood and was happy for her but, inside he felt betrayed and broken and now abandoned once again as his brothers went off on yet another adventure without him. The monastery was empty and silent, except for the soft clucking of the chicken. Zane had completed all the chores so the place would be spotless when the other ninja returned. He sat on the roof as the cold wind blew, the weather was changing, fall was almost over, after so long in the endless winter of the Never Realm he forgot that the seasons could change. A snowflake fell in front of his face, causing him to sigh, his stress always made winter come early, it was barely fall and now he once again messed with the weather of a realm, this time his own. He lay on the rooftop and stared into the inky indigo sky, flecked with white snow.
"What happened to a ninja never leaves another ninja behind?" whispered Zane into the snow filled void
"Zane," came a breathy whisper
"Come," came another, even softer whisper
"Zane," a third whisper
"Zane," a fourth
"Who are you?" asked Zane
"Come," the second voice
"Follow," a fifth
"Where and what?" asked Zane
"Our voices"
"The past,"
"Temple,"
"Worthy,"
"Ok," sighed Zane getting up
"Call your dragon,"
"I can't, I haven't been able to in a long time," said Zane
"You can, and you will," said the first voice, more commanding than before. Zane sighed and tried to summon his power dragon.
"Not that Dragon," said the second voice
"What?" asked Zane
"Remember your dragon," said the fifth voice
"No, I can't, he was evil," gasped Zane, realizing who they meant
"You can, and you will,"
"Constructs form with your intent,"
"They are extensions of yourself,"
"Your heart will give them their personality,"
"Prove you are worthy of ice,"
"To us,"
"To yourself,"
"CALL BOREAL!" came all the voices at once
Zane sighed, obeying and using every once of power he could to call his faithful dragon into existence once more.
"Ride him," came the first voice.
Zane shakily climbed onto the back of the waiting beast.
"Fly north,"
"Where the ice meets the sea,"
"Where mountains rise from the depths,"
"The past lives in ice,"
"All there is,"
"All there was,"
"All that must be,"
"Who are you?" asked Zane as he flew
"Memories from within our element,"
"Our voices live in the crystals,
"Past Masters,"
"The Departed,"
Zane continued to fly north, the voices growing stronger and more present the closer he got to the northern sea. Then he saw it, a great temple carved from an iceberg.
"Welcome to the temple of memory," said the first voice, the ice master before him.
He dismounted Boreal who flew to the top of the temple, it looked like a castle made of ice. His footsteps echoed in the silent halls, the sculptures of masters before him seemed to whisper to each other, silent moments of the past played on the walls.
"All masters of ice feel alone and lost at one point in their lives, that is when they are called by the past to see what their powers are truly capable of," echoed the voices of all the masters of Ice before him, coming from the statues and reverberating around the icy room.
"Water holds the memories of all ninjago, ice can show those memories and call the departed into statues of their former bodies so that a master of ice may speak with them, masters of ice are rarely understood, wiser than the other elements, and never as alone as they think they are, within you is the power of us all, the power to call armies of the past to do as you command, to call forth the memory of any creature who has touched water of the 16 realms, Ice unites them all, step forward young master and let us give you our blessing as the final bearer of ice," said the statues in unison.
Zane took a shaky step forward and the five statues each placed a hand on him.
"THROUGH ICE YOU WILL SEE ALL, AND THROUGH ALL YOU WILL BRING BALANCE TO CREATION," came the booming voices from the statues. Runes appeared in white on the far wall, and Zane could read their instructions. The runes read of a power only achieved when surrounded by your element, a burst containing all the power of the tornado of creation, achievable by a single master.
"Call upon us at any time and we will impart our wisdom upon you, our eyes see from the departed realm," said the second voice, it was female, the master before the one before Zane. It was soft, motherly, and kind. The wall of memory showed a platinum blonde woman in a white dress.
"Can I have your names? So I know who to call on?" asked Zane. The statues lined up in order.
"I am Nicholas, the master before you,"
"I am Elsa, the master before Nicholas,"
"I am Jack, the master before Elsa,"
"I am Yule, the master before Jack,"
"And I am Aster, the first of all ice masters,"
Each master was powerful looking yet humble and kind, just like their element.
"Where there is water there is the potential for ice and so you can see what is happening everywhere and aid others, even from afar, not even vengestone can block the powers of a fully realised ice master," said Jack
"But we are always here if you need us, even just to talk to, and the other departed souls can speak with you too if they wish to come when you call, even the First Spinjitzu Master can be called if you truly need him," said Elsa, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"So I can call my father?" asked Zane
"Yes but keeping a soul bound to a memory construct is very draining if it not one of us, you can also show memories to others, no matter how far away," said Jack
"This was a stipulation of nature to keep us from becoming gods and having rule over life and death, with great power comes great responsibility and nature does not like being tampered with," said Yule
"Go home now, aid your friends from afar and show them the error of their ways when they left you behind," said Jack.
Zane nodded and turned to leave the temple.
"Zane wait, before you go we have a gift for you," said Elsa
Zane turned to face her and the five masters waved their hands. An instant change swept over him, his clothes turned snow white, almost exactly like Elsa's outfit, his skin became real human skin though very very pale, all robotic features vanished, his eyes were bright blue, his hair was platinum blonde and he grew several inches in height to be 6' 5''.
"There, now there is no excuse for you not to be equal to them, you are as human as they are and socially confident, there should be no conceivable way for anyone to look down on you for any reason unless they are idiots, and now your powers are not dependent on the condition of the green ninja, they are yours and yours alone. Ice and water are one in the same except for their states of being, Nya might be able to tell water where to move but she has no power if it not within close proximity to her, you can also do this but you can create water from nothing unlike her, " said Yule
"Thank you," said Zane, staring at his hands, they were real, everything he felt was real and not just code informing him of texture and chemical composition.
"Be warned, there is a darker ability that comes with being able to manipulate water, yes you can move plants and take water out of them at will, even move mud or any other water based substance but it also means you can control the blood within living things, it is a power I have only used once and I vowed to never use it again, I had no choice. It is a very dark and exceedingly cruel thing that we can do and I hope you never have to do it," said Aster gravely.
Zane gave a somber nod.
"Go home now, show the world what our element can do," said Elsa with a smile
"I fought two wars for ninjago, it was only towards the end of my life that I discovered what my powers could truly do, how quickly I could have won both wars if I had only known sooner. I gave you our element because I knew that you would be able to achieve far more with it than I was. I know I made the right choice," said Nicholas
"Don't forget to have a little fun with your powers, I swear Elsa is the only other master of Ice I've said this too and a listened, everyone else has been so cold, pun intended," winked Jack
"Boreal is not the only construct you can call upon, the scroll may have corrupted you power but it could not give you new powers, everything you did in the Never Realm, you can do again for good and we won't let the darkness take hold of you ever again," said Yule
"My daughter is correct, once a master of ice, always a master of ice, we will take care of you," Aster said
"I never got the chance to be a mother, I had to pass my power to Nicholas like he did for you, I would like that chance if you will let me, all you have to do is make a body out of ice and I will come," said Elsa gently. Zane just nodded then finished walking out of the temple. He mounted Boreal and flew back to the monastery. He coated his room in ice and gave himself a four poster bed and a chandelier. He also put an ice mirror on his bureau that functioned the exact same way as the ice shard he had once given Vex. He gritted his teeth at the thought of that conniving snake. He walked to the mirror
"Show me the Ninja," he told it, the image swirled and he saw them fighting some black skeletons with Vengestone spears. They seemed to be doing okay, no need to send an army. He walked away from the mirror and lay on his bed. He realised how tired he was after the day's adventure, he was also human now and knew that he needed sleep. He rolled over and sighed, warm blankets and a literally freezing room were perfect. When his friends returned he would show them, he was not beneath them anymore! He figured he should just forget about that blood control ability, the very thought of it made him sick. He suddenly sat up in bed, Garmadon was still at large, Zane had the ability to defeat him from here using a construct army. He ran to the mirror.
"Show me Lord Garmadon," he commanded. The picture showed a pacing lord of darkness on one of the mountains of the wailing alps, no army, no weapons, just a muttering, plotting, BBEG.
Zane touched the icy floor and saw the entirety of all 14 realms (Authors note, since this is after season 6 the cursed realm and Djinjago are no longer part of the count so 16 is now 14), he was connected to all of them through water. He sent a blast of icy through the core of the world and into the mountains. Garmadon was suddenly surrounded by an army of ice warriors with swords and crossbows. They had no souls, they were connected through Zane's commands. Garmadon was taken entirely by surprise as arrows pierced his skin, causing his purple blood to stain the snow.
"Who are you?" asked Garmadon. Zane created an ice replica of himself and spoke through it.
"I am Zane, the master of ice, you are not meant to be here, you are a shadow of a good man's dark power, you will be sent back to the realm from whence you came," his voice echoed through the mountains, even from this distance he could feel his element all around him, his powers had never felt stronger, even with the scroll his powers hadn't felt like this. He felt his elemental energy swirl within him and through his constructs, they were extensions of himself, his energy was in all of them. The power swirled faster and faster and each construct had white vortex around it, hundreds of white cyclones appeared on the mountain.
"The spinjitzu burst," said Garmadon fearfully. All the cyclones converged into a mile wide column of ice and elemental energy. From within the monastery Zane was glowing white and floating several feet off the ground as he spun, his hands still glowing as he used his powers to control every construct. Garmadon was blasted into the departed realm by the sheer force of the pure elemental energy. The energy blast reverberated through all 14 realms and through every elemental master. All the ninja felt it, a sharp surge in their powers for an instant, even Wu felt it, power beyond anything his father had ever shown him, power that shouldn't be possible.
"What was that?" asked Cole
"I don't know, it felt like the power spike I got when I reached my true potential, but..bigger," said Kai
"Yeah, though now my body feels like a soda can that's been shaken, like my element is fizzing and if I let it out something is getting blown up," said Jay
"I felt it too," said Nya
"I don't feel like soda, I feel like a guitar that someone just played all the cords at once at max amps," said Lloyd, his head in his hands.
"It certainly was strange, even I felt a bit of it," said Pixal
"I wonder what is was," said Cole
"We can worry about that later, right now we need to get out of this cage," said Lloyd
…
Zane dispelled the constructs and sat on his bed, thoroughly drained from the amount of power he had just used. Misako came barging into the monastery, she knew he was there.
"Zane! Did you feel that energy blast?" she asked "Wait, you look different, are you wearing that hologram again?"
"Yes, and No, I actually caused that blast and I found something that turned me human," said Zane casually.
"You did?" she asked
"Yes," said Zane shortly, he didn't want to talk to her, not after she had taken Lloyd's side when Pixal cheated on Zane with Lloyd.
"What was that surge," asked Misako
"I defeated Garmadon," said Zane shortly
"What? How? That blast was minutes ago and no one knows where he is," asked Miskao
"Was," corrected Zane. Goodness, his personality was cold, that had to be Nicholas's influence in the transformation. "And I'm not discussing it with a cheating bitch who half raised a bastard that knowingly and willingly steals his brother's girlfriend,"
"Excuse me?!" she exclaimed indignantly
"You heard me," said Zane cooly, laying back on his bed. Misako scoffed and left to go consult the scrolls.
"That was priceless!" came the distinct voice of Jack from one of the walls, it was now showing his grinning face.
"I've wanted to tell her off for years but my programming wouldn't allow me, now I'm hashtag no filter on life itself," grinned Zane
"You need a bigger social media presence, the other ninja are dealing with a necromancer but you have time off, like I said, have some fun," said Jack
"You know what, you're right, wait till Kai sees my chirp following pass his," laughed Zane. He went around the city, grabbing slushies, taking selfies, chirping pictures of his favorite order at the noodle house, going to the beach, blue swim trunks and sunglasses posing next to Boreal who had dragon sized sunglasses. Each one with a witty ice themed hashtag and puns. As expected, his following sky rocketed. He took a selfie in front of the police department with several officers, tagging the PD and officers in his chirp with the caption "Chillin with heroes in blue that don't shoot lightning," #Frostywiththefuzz.
He even posed with a bunch of fangirls with #heykaiyourfansareminenow.
He went home laughing, days like this weren't something he would likely do again but messing with Kai's ego was always going to make him smile. He ordered pizza and tried to beat Cole's Lava Zombie score again. Oh it would make Jay and Cole so mad when he beat every single one of their high scores on all the video games they owned. He got to eat HIS favorite pizza and drink all of HIS favorite soda without interruption or arguments, screw going to Shintaro, he was having fun being alone and having more abilities. He got his anchovies and onions as well as his raspberry cola. He threw aside the controller after beating all Kai's fist to face high scores by ridiculous margins and decided to do something productive. He got all the chores done, installed a mailbox at the bottom of the hill so the mail man wouldn't have to climb up all those stairs and would send an ice construct to retrieve the mail. He sorted through the various bills and letters, fan mail for each ninja, family letters, and packages, placing each small pile on the bed of the respective ninja before going to his own room to figure out the bills, he still had his intellect thankfully and the mayor had realized that the ninja can't save the world without having grocery money and fuel for the bounty so they were now on a government salary. He knew how to balance the books and pay the taxes so he normally handled the finances anyway, he was still the smart one after all. After dealing with the bills he went into the kitchen to make a grocery list. He counted the eggs, took note of the flour level, checked each ninja's personal snack stash, including his own, sensei's tea stashes and other things that they had to buy on a regular basis. He made a list of what he had to buy for the monastery then went to the bounty checklist to check the emergency kits, fire extinguishers, water and non perishable food stock, he had stocked it before the guys left for Shintaro but had to check what he was low on in the reserve stock. He made a list of what he needed to order online and then went to Jay's computer since he couldn't access the internet in his head anymore. He knew Jay's password since he had hacked this thing years ago and still had a discrete login set up that Jay didn't know about. He went onto Ninjazon and compared prices for the stuff he needed, found discounts and ordered what he needed before he grabbed his wallet and went back into town to pick up the groceries for the monastery. He pushed his cart through the store, putting things in his cart and realising how peaceful it was shopping alone instead of having Jay begging for a ridiculous amount of sugary foods. He got home, unpacked everything, checked the status of his brothers via the mirror and then made a small dinner for himself. He sat in front of the tv to watch a documentary about the formation of glaciers and icebergs. He was bored again after a few hours and went to check the mirror again. He saw Kai and Pixal facing off against a rhino-like creature, Nya fighting in an arena with what looked like a female ogre, and Cole was trapped in a spider web while a girl with gold hair and her dragon fought the giant spider, and Wu walking around a garden. He thought about it and decided that Cole needed his help right now.
…
A white dragon materialized in the cave, Cole knew this dragon and felt a shiver of fear run through him, or maybe it was the sudden temperature drop. Boreal reared on his hind legs and flared his wings, dwarfing the somehow full grown chompy by a large margin. After the spider was frozen, Boreal turned to Cole and used one of his claws to tear the webs apart, he licked Cole's face leaving the earth master shocked.
"Is he yours?" asked Vania
"No, he definitely is not mine," said Cole
"Huh, do you know who's he is? I've never seen this breed before," she said
"Yeah but last time I saw this guy we were fighting him, I'm pretty sure his name is Boreal, but he belongs to my friend," said Cole, petting the snout of the now docile ice dragon
"What kind of dragon is he?" asked Vania
"Ice, he is a living creation of ice, that's how he came out of nowhere, but Zane is back home, he can't have made Boreal here," said Cole
"Well chompy seems to like him," said Vania as her baby dragon sat on Boreal's head. Cole rested his hand on the snout of the dragon.
"I don't know how he did it but I'm glad Zane sent you," said Cole
"Wait, Zane is the titanium Ninja right? Why didn't he come?" asked a confused Vania
"The invitation said he wasn't invited," said Cole
"That can't be right, I told father to invite all of you," said Vania
"Ok, well that's one more thing to tell your father," sighed Cole
"Do you think the Dragon will follow you?"asked Vania
"I don't know, Zane's pets usually only listen to him," said Cole. As if to answer their question, Boreal suddenly dispersed into snow flurries.
"Well, that answers that," said Cole
…
Zane had a homemade donut in his mouth as he focused on the video game he was playing, he may not have been able to go into prime empire but he could beat everyone's high scores. He set down the controller and looked around for something else to do.
"I'm bored," he sighed. He flipped through channels on the TV and settled on watching Hades Galley (Hell's Kitchen)
"IT'S FUCKING RAW! HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO COOK FUCKING SCALLOPS?" screamed chef Roden Gramsay at the pink team
Zane shook his head, scallops were one of the easiest things to cook in his opinion. He looked at the TV guide, they were doing an all week marathon of the show, all seasons back to back. Well, it was better than doing nothing and it would give him new recipe ideas. He fell asleep on the couch, popcorn on the floor, TV still on the food channel. The next morning he checked the mirror again and saw Cole walking with Sensei, the princess, and a few other people, as well as a spider. Cole was using his powers to trace a tunnel to the exit. Zane watched as they fought a lava monster and the guy in the wizard hat used some spell to fling ice at the creature. Zane decided to help a little and made the ice turn into samurai warriors, all fighting the creature.
"Um, Fungus? Are you doing this?" asked Cole
"Alas master Cole, my magic is not powerful enough to make constructs of inanimate material," said Fungus. Suddenly one of the ice warriors turned to Wu and said with Zane's voice.
"Don't even think about dawdling getting back here, I'm bored and there's only so many times I can be entertained beating Jay's high scored, also I have a few things to tell everyone,"
Then the ice made a bridge for them to walk safely across the lava.
"Sensei, how is Zane able to do that? Vania and I were saved by his ice dragon construct and it disappeared soon after saving us, how is Zane able to control and create ice constructs at all let alone so far away from us and his element? He's at home isn't he?" asked Cole
"OH! I think I know this one! I read about the connections of ice masters to the realms and how that connection is achieved. It was all in a book in the very back of the library I think it was called The Secrets of the Temple of Memory. There wasn't much in the book, just a warning about how an ice master sees all and is never to be angered," said Vania
"The temple of memory? But I thought that was only a legend the second master of ice made up, an old wives tale told to children," said Wu
"The book mentioned something about previous masters of ice guiding the current master to the temple when that master is at their lowest point and bestowing unimaginable gifts and knowledge to the current bearer," said Vania
"Sensei, could Zane have found this temple?" asked Cole
"I do not know, but this revelation has increased the urgency of us getting out of here," said Wu. Suddenly another ice sculpture manifested and started talking.
"Oh so it's a big deal when I get a one up on the rest of you but if I'm in trouble or not invited somewhere it's not a big deal, FUCK OFF I'M DONE HELPING I QUIT!" yelled Zane's voice through the construct before it melted. Zane ran to his room, packed up everything he owned, all the stuff from the kitchen that was his and dismantled everything he had set up for the convenience of the ninja.
He left the monastery and made and exact ice replica of the bounty, it used cryokinesis to fly. It actually wasn't hard considering how much water the bounty could get on it. He would show all of ninjago the might of ice and would follow the well trodden legacy of an ice master going solo.