Alright! Chapter 3! I am pretty excited for this chapter. I'm not the best at writing Zane, but I think this is pretty good, all things considered, so I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago

Zane knew that humans deal with grief in many different ways. Some get angry while others completely shut down. Some try to keep their mind off of what has happened while others can't help but talk about it. It only took Zane three days to figure out what each of his friends did. Kai was in denial, but as soon as he was forced to face reality during the memorial, he fell into a horrible state of depression. Now, he was distracting himself with everything he could think of so he wouldn't have to continue facing reality. Jay was mostly shut down and after returning from his parent's house the day before, he refused to leave his room. Lloyd was much more emotional than usual, so he mostly avoided everyone, and Cole was the exact opposite in that he was hiding everything he was feeling. Zane knew exactly how he could help the others, but Cole? He needed to get his brother to open up a little more.

"Good morning, Cole," Zane said as he entered the kitchen early one day. It was not like him to be up before Zane had begun making breakfast. "Would you like me to make the usual?"

"Of course," Cole replied with a smile, but it was nowhere near as bright as it used to be.

Zane smiled back before he turned to the cabinets to get the ingredients to begin making his brother's meal. Extra thick pancakes with scrambled eggs.

After a long moment of silence had passed, Zane asked, "How are you doing today, Cole?"

"Okay, I guess," Cole replied.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Zane asked.

Cole shrugged. "I mean, I just woke up."

"Oh," Zane said. "Of course."

"What about you?"

Zane's breath immediately quickened. He was supposed to be helping Cole. Not Cole helping him. He didn't need help. He could manage on his own.

"I-I don't know," Zane replied.

Cole frowned when he heard this. "You don't know?" he asked. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"N-no," Zane replied. "I do not."

Cole seemed disappointed and pretty worried as he looked down, but he didn't say anything else.

In that moment, Zane realized that if he wanted to help Cole while simultaneously keeping him from worrying about him, he had to hide his own emotions, which was much harder than it looked.

Over the next week, Zane realized how mentally tiring it was to hide all the time. Every time he was alone, every time it was dark, every time he got even one moment to think to himself, his mind went to very dark places. Usually, he would've been able to talk to Pixal, Master Wu, Nya, or Lloyd about any of these thoughts, but the more these thoughts built up, the more embarrassed he got.

It wasn't longer than a day before Cole realized what was going on and immediately went to Pixal. She didn't think too much of it as she believed it to be a simple way of coping with loss, but after a few days, she realized just how bad he was doing.

One night, Pixal went over to Zane's room to see how he was doing.

"Zane?" Pixal asked as she knocked on his door. "May I come in?"

"Of course," Zane replied from inside.

Pixal smiled as she entered the room, but her smile disappeared immediately when she saw Zane working tirelessly over some blueprints in front of him.

"Zane? What are you doing?" Pixal asked as she walked closer to her boyfriend.

"I've been doing some thinking, and I believe I have come to a conclusion on how to help everyone's emotional state," Zane replied.

"Oh?"

"I have come up with a plan to restore the Hydro Bounty so we can find Nya."

"Do you-do you think that's a possibility?" Pixal asked.

"I'm about 5.4% certain we can find her."

"But would she want to come back? It was her choice to leave."

Zane sighed when he heard this. He pushed the blueprints away from him and said, "You are right. I must keep thinking to find another way to complete my objective."

"'Objective'? What objective?"

"As nindroids, we have objectives. Mine is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Your's is to serve Cyrus Borg. I will not be able to rest until my objective is complete."

It took everything Pixal had in her not to lose it on Zane right then and there. He was in the grieving process. He couldn't have truly meant it. She still couldn't help but be offended by this, though.

"We are much more than our objectives, Zane," Pixal told him calmly.

"How can you be sure?" Zane asked.

Pixal knew she shouldn't have, but she was beginning to get angry and knew that she had to leave.

"I do not know, Zane," Pixal told him. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Zane replied.

On her way to her own room, though, she ran into Master Wu.

"Pixal?" Master Wu asked. "Is something troubling you?"

"Yes," Pixal sighed. "I am angry at Zane. He claims to think that we are nothing more than the objectives we were given upon creation."

Master Wu sighed as he began stroking his beard. "In many cases, grief causes your deepest thoughts, insecurities, and fears to become more prevalent in your mind. I believe that all Zane needs is to be shown that these fears are not true."

Pixal thought about these words all throughout the next day and the day after that. She watched as Zane didn't smile as much when they talked, she watched his robotic movements as he played Prime Empire with Kai, she noticed how often he would just stare off into space, lost in thought, and sometimes, he nearly begins to cry as he does so. It broke Pixal's heart to see.

One day, as she was coming back upstairs from her garage, she heard a strange sound coming from the Destiny's Bounty. Automatically assuming the worst, she took out her sword and began making her way into the Bounty. She quietly moved through the hallways but stopped when she heard another sound coming from the bedroom. It sounded like Zane.

She peaked out from behind the door to see that Zane was currently leaning over some broken glass.

"No, no, no, no," Zane started panicking as he picked up piece after piece, trying to figure out what to do with them.

Zane gasped suddenly when he heard a creak in the floorboards near the door. He looked up in horror to see Pixal.

"Sorry," Pixal said as she put her sword back. She began to walk over to her boyfriend, but he did not seem as welcoming as he once was. Instead, he just sat where he was, motionless. She leaned next to him and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?" she asked him.

Zane didn't respond in words nor in body language. Instead, he just showed her the broken glass on the floor, and more specifically, what was broken. It was the picture of Jay and Nya together right after they returned from the First Realm.

"I didn't mean to," Zane breathed shakily. "Jay will not be happy about this."

Pixal bent down next to Zane and said, "It is alright. I'm sure Jay will understand. Is the picture damaged at all?"

"I-I don't know," Zane said, immediately attempting to compose himself and failing to do so.

"Here," Pixal said as she held out her hand. Zane handed her the broken frame so she could look at it more closely.

The glass was completely shattered, the frame was just about broken in half, and the picture was bent as well. Pixal hid her concern as she broke the frame further so she could get the picture out. Luckily, it was okay.

"There is no need to worry," Pixal smiled. "We need a new frame, but the picture is perfectly fine."

"Good," Zane smiled back, but it didn't reach his eyes, causing Pixal to become even more concerned.

Nevertheless, she took the picture and set it carefully on a shelf near the door. She then turned back to Zane, but he was now hugging himself.

"Zane?" Pixal asked as she sat down next to him. "If I may ask, why did you come in here?"

"I thought it would be best if I was alone," Zane replied simply. "I guess I was wrong."

"But it is alright-"

"Nothing is alright!" Zane suddenly yelled. He then sighed as he looked down and said, "This is only the beginning, isn't it?"

"The beginning?" Pixal asked.

"We are nindroids. We do not age."

"That is correct."

"That means we will be here forever."

"Yes?" Pixal asked, not following where Zane was going with this.

Zane sighed. "That means-that means we will still be here when the others are gone."

Pixal's eyes widened in realization. It wasn't something she choose to think about often, so she stored that information in the backs of her memory, but it was true. As a nindroid, both she and Zane would be forced to endure a great deal of pain. The loss of Zane's father, Nya, and eventually, her father, the other ninja and any generations to come.

"That means this feeling will never go away," Zane told her. "It will only get worse."

"No," Pixal told him.

Zane looked at Pixal, confused by this. How could she say "No"?

"Over time, it has been proven that people begin to feel better. It takes a long time, but it does start to feel better," Pixal explained.

"But then it'll come back."

"That is true. But if you worry about what will happen when that feeling comes back too much, then it will never go away. All it becomes is anxiety, and you end up missing out on the happy times."

Zane seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. Pixal waited patiently for his next response when all of the sudden, he began crying.

"I can't stop. All I can think about is what will eventually happen or tell myself things that I know are not true."

Pixal didn't hesitate before she wrapped her boyfriend in a hug saying, "What is your worst fear. One that you know isn't true."

Zane sighed. His face became red in embarrassment before he said, "We are nothing more than our objectives."

"My objective was to serve my father, but I chose to be with you instead. We are far more than our objectives, Zane," Pixal replied as she held his hand in her own.

"What if you are wrong?"

"Then we should be thankful. Because those objectives made us who we are."

The two embraced, and all seemed right, but Zane suddenly had another thought.

"My objective will never end, will it?" Zane asked as he pulled away.

"What do you mean?"

"I cannot rest until my objective is finished," he repeated.

Pixal's eyes widened a second time as she began to realize what he really meant that night. He didn't mean sleep, he meant eternal rest.

"Zane, listen to me," Pixal said as she took Zane's hands in her own and forced him to look at her. "You cannot give in to such ideas. We will go through a lot of pain, but through that pain, we will grow stronger. Not only as people but we will grow stronger together. It will be difficult, but I promise to help you. Always."

Zane looked at Pixal the entire time she spoke and for the first time, he saw something in her eyes. It was the same pain that he was feeling right now. the same fears and dread, the same anxious thought that it wouldn't end, but there was something in there that he lacked. Determination. Determination that they would make it through everything life had to throw at them and even thrive, but she wouldn't be able to do it alone. So even if Zane thought it was pointless or dreadful, he would never give up. If only for Pixal.

"And I'll help you," Zane told her.

Pixal gave him a small smile before a quick peck.

"Thank you, Pixal," he said.

"Of course, Zane. I love you."

"I love you too."

Zane doesn't deserve this pain :(

Anyway, I hope all liked that. Leave a review if you'd like, and as always, have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead