It was the day before New Year's Eve, and the ninja were just finishing another dance practice. Since Pixal and Nya had vacated the temple, they could practice anywhere they fancied, and had been moving from room to room just for the sake of it. In fact, to really shake things up, this time they had been practicing on the roof of the temple.
"That was a great idea." Lloyd remarked as they all came down.
"Nothing like being hundreds of feet in the air to increase concentration," Zane mentioned. "everyone has improved a great deal."
"Yeah, you've stopped looking at your feet and everything." Cole said to Jay.
"It's hard to look down when you know how high up you are." Jay nervously laughed.
"I believe that changing one's environment encourages higher memory retention," Zane stated. "if you can remember something at that altitude, you can remember it in a packed room where others will be observing."
"So, how you hangin' in there, bro?" Kai asked.
"Who, me?" Zane responded, pointing at himself.
Kai nodded at him. Suddenly they all stopped in the hallway and turned to look at Zane. He had only been apart from his fiancée for three days, so it seemed like a strange question to ask, but given his initial reaction of being possibly separated from Pixal long-term, perhaps it wasn't so strange after all.
"I am fine, thank you." Zane said as he carried on walking.
"He misses her." Kai declared to the others once he was sure Zane was sufficiently out of earshot.
"Of course he does, but you know Zane, he's so stoic," Lloyd agreed. "besides, they'll see each other tomorrow – presumably she'll be coming home after the gala with Nya."
"Speaking of which, has anyone heard from Nya?" Jay wondered.
"Yeah, it's all pretty standard stuff though, you know; 'I met the other dancers, they seem like fun', 'Pixal has her own room here and it's huge', 'the outfits are super cool, we took a selfie in them today', and let's not forget today's thrilling news – 'we're having a sleepover in Pixal's room later'." Kai elaborated.
"They sent you a selfie?!" Jay gasped. "They took a selfie, sent it to you and you didn't show us?"
"What's the big deal? It's just a selfie." Kai shrugged.
"Just a selfie? I don't think so…" Jay insisted. "if they're in their winter dance outfits, we need to see it; we're gonna be mixing with the upper echelon of society, we need to remain composed at all times."
"Basically, if Jay faints when he sees Nya's outfit, it won't reflect well on us." Cole surmised.
Kai raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Lloyd.
"It couldn't hurt to have an advantage," Lloyd shrugged. "no matter how small."
"Okay, I'll show you, we'll head to the comms room." Kai said
As Kai led the way, he shook his head. It was all utter nonsense; this was just another opportunity for Jay to fawn over Nya. No one ever asked him how he felt about one of his teammates being in love with his sister. But still, just having Jay hit on Nya was better than when Cole was doing it too; that was seriously annoying – it disrupted the team dynamics and made things super awkward for a while, even after Cole had given up the game.
They approached the computer and Kai typed on the keyboard, pulling up the messages he'd been receiving from his sister while she was at Borg Industries. He clicked on the attachment and the photo opened up – Pixal and Nya were posing with three other girls; all five of them were decked out in their dancing kimono.
"Hey, that one looks like Jasper." Cole grinned, pointing at the one with red hair.
"Nah, it can't be," Lloyd disagreed. "she looks a bit older."
"Maybe she has an older sister," Cole mused optimistically. "and if she has, that could mean Jasper will be at the gala!"
"Is it just me or does Pixal's kimono look a little… formal for a dancer?" Jay wondered. "And what's that in Nya's hand?"
The ninja looked closely at the picture, and that's when they saw it. Cole and Lloyd immediately gasped, while Jay had pretty much fainted. Kai wasn't sure what was going on; what did they see in the picture that he didn't?
"Cole, go keep a lookout for Zane, do NOT let him come in here!" Lloyd instructed as he knelt down and tried to wake Jay up; Cole nodded and bolted out the door. "She wouldn't… would she?"
"I don't get it, what's going on?" Kai looked confused.
"Kai, look at that picture, tell me what you see."
"I see my sister, wearing her ninja colours as a kimono and holding something small in her hand, there are three other girls in kimono – one of them is wearing my ninja colours – and Pixal's kimono…" Kai squinted, trying to see what was so shocking. "is not purple for once? I don't get it."
"It's not purple, so what colour is it?" Lloyd said as Jay started coming around.
"White, and red, with gold highlights…" Kai squinted some more and suddenly gasped as he finally figured it out.
He quickly closed the photo and clicked off of his emails.
"This was her plan all along, wasn't it?" Kai muttered.
"Could be…" Lloyd sighed.
"I hope she knows what she's doing…"
"I'm so excited about the gala tomorrow!" Rae squeaked.
"Me too, it's great to have the old gang back together." Rose agreed.
"Well, sort of," Ruby shook her head. "Marilyn and Shiro aren't here."
"Maybe not, but we have Pixal back, and Nya is dancing with us," Rae smiled, throwing a pillow at Ruby. "one of the elemental ninja – can you imagine? It's like a dream come true!"
"I'm happy to be here," Nya smiled back. "I just hope I'm up to your standards, I haven't been dancing long."
"You're amazing!" Ruby insisted, bouncing on the bed and hitting Rose with the pillow Rae threw at her. "We've never had anyone of your reputation dancing with us, right Pixal?"
"You have done extremely well, as is expected of one of Sensei Wu's students." Pixal nodded.
Following a most successful dress rehearsal, the five ladies had convened in Pixal's private bedroom for a slumber party. A group activity like this was good for teambuilding, even as Rose tackled Rae and hit her with a frilled cushion, a generous dose of team spirit hung in the air.
"I can't believe this room, it's just amazing," Nya said, glancing around at the lush environment. "and this is where you brought Zane, right?"
That remark immediately got Ruby's attention. She paused mid-throw and scuttled over to where Pixal and Nya were lounging on a pile of pillows. Using the cushion that she was going to hit Rae with to sit on, she looked up at them with stars in her eyes.
"You brought your fiancé here?!" She squeaked again, loud enough that the others heard and ran over eagerly, planting themselves next to Ruby and waiting to hear all about it.
"He was not even my boyfriend at the time," Pixal admitted. "in fact, I had just finished rebuilding him-"
"Aww!" The three chimed in unison before they began throwing questions at her.
"When did you find out he was still alive?"
"How did you rebuild him?"
"What did you do once he was here?"
"One at a time, girls," Nya chuckled, grinning at Pixal. "but yeah, I'd like to hear about that too."
"So, you don't know this story either?" Ruby wondered.
"Not all of it, I've only heard it from Zane's perspective," Nya replied. "I do know that the day I came to see how she was doing, she was actually in the middle of rebuilding his body."
"And you had no idea?" Rae giggled.
"Nope, not a clue," Nya shot a cheeky grin at the sheepish droid beside her. "evidently she's quite the actress."
"Okay, now we have to hear the story!" Rose exclaimed, bouncing in place.
"I first found out that Zane was alive the day of his memorial service," Pixal began. "Mr Borg had offered to give me the day off so I could go, and even arranged a ride for us both, but I just couldn't do it – losing Zane was hard enough, saying goodbye might well have sent me into system shutdown."
"Yeah, it was hard on all of us, and I knew that if we were struggling then Pixal would be too," Nya sighed as she turned to the girls. "I'd been coming here every day to see her, but it was only when I brought her one of Zane's spare uniforms that she seemed to improve."
"Even then, it was not much," Pixal confessed. "I had gone from constantly hiding in my room, to hiding in my room only at night, and hiding in the console room during the day."
"That makes sense; when my grandfather passed away, my mother had a teddy bear made from one of his shirts," Ruby mentioned. "it helped me a lot."
"I was in the console room when he first appeared to me, the screens flashed and buzzed and suddenly I heard his voice," Pixal said as she recalled that day. "at first, I thought I was malfunctioning, but when I ran to the nearest factory floor, and his voice called out to me… "are we compatible now?", I knew he was really there."
Pixal's eyes glazed over as she continued the story.
"He had transmitted his digital subconscious mere seconds before his physical body exploded in the battle, and had spent days trying to find his way into Mr Borg's systems… I was so happy to hear his voice," Pixal looked down at her hands as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. "when he transferred himself to a hard drive, I connected that hard drive to my internal systems, so I could see him again."
A wide, peaceful smile spread across her lips, and she looked up – eyes full of tears – to see her companions bearing an expression of giddy concern. Nya leaned over to grab a packet of tissues from the weekend bag and handed them to Pixal. She used one to dab the tears away and handed the rest of the tissues to Rae, who appeared to need them more than she did.
"It's just so beautiful!" Rae whimpered, accepting the tissues gratefully.
"What happened next?" Ruby sniffled.
"We went on a journey to Zane's father's home in Birchwood Forest, to find his blueprints, and we happened upon another power source while we were there," Pixal explained. "Mr Borg let us rebuild him here, but Zane did not want anyone else to know he was alive until his body was finished: something I strongly protested – he placed a lot of value in himself as a team member, but not as an individual, and while it worried me, I trusted his judgment and said no more about it."
"This part I knew about," Nya clarified for their enraptured audience. "Zane has since told me that he should've listened to Pixal and told us that he was alive sooner."
"When his body was finished, we decided to leave the following day, and Mr Hedges arranged our transport-"
"Do you mean tall Hedges from security?" Rae asked.
"Yes, that's him." Pixal answered.
"Ooh, he's so handsome!" Rae squealed. "I hope he's at the gala tomorrow."
"I wouldn't count on it, he's usually working." Rose intervened.
"Actually, he is going to the gala as a guest," Nya corrected. "he's currently single, so he's bringing a friend as his plus one."
"You don't need to tell me - it's my sister he's bringing," Ruby laughed. "anyway, enough of the brief interlude, what happened after that, Pixal?"
"Even though Zane was in disguise, the ferryman somehow found out who he was, and-"
"Wait, wait, you're missing out the best bit!" Rose interrupted.
"Yeah," Rae agreed. "what happened when you brought Zane up to your room?"
"Should I cover my ears or is this part PG?" Nya chuckled, causing Pixal's facial circuits to glow with embarrassment.
"Nothing inappropriate happened, he merely began teaching me to dance," She insisted as her expression turned soft and warm. "oh, it was good fun – he is so talented and such a patient teacher – I have never danced in the closed position before, so it was quite the learning experience."
"And then?" Rose asked expectantly.
"He was tired, so I sat at the head of the bed and let him use my lap as a pillow-"
All four girls immediately descended into fangirlish squealing, interrupting Pixal mid-sentence.
"You never told me that part before!" Nya beamed, with her eyes wide and her mouth dropped open in astonishment.
"Oh my goodness, how cute!" Ruby purred, grabbing Rae and hugging her tightly.
"Pass me the tissues, I'm gonna cry!" Rose waved her hand in front of her face, as the impending tears would likely make her mascara run.
"I was not aware that it was such a big deal." Pixal uttered.
"Are you kidding? It's a huge deal!" Nya grinned. "It's such an intimate thing to do, especially with someone you like; it's a sign of tremendous trust."
"Zane is most certainly worthy of my trust; he rebuilt me, he loves me, and I love him," Pixal proudly declared. "I would marry him tomorrow if I could."
Nya giggled as Pixal's determined, honest statement sent the other girls into another fit of fangirl screams and animated wiggling. It wasn't long before Rae pulled Nya and Pixal into a warm, enthusiastic hug; Ruby and Rose also entered the display of communal affection, which is where they all stayed for some time. The wholesome scene was only interrupted when Ruby took the cushion she was once sitting on and used it for its original intended purpose – hitting Rae and sparking yet another pillow fight.