I promised to make this chapter more fluffy to make up for the PTSD spin I made last time, but now we're having an existential crisis ramble :)
Ed was the first to find him, y'know.
He remembers it like it was yesterday, the monster sandstorm slamming against their little trailer in the dead of the dry season. Water piled the corner of their den, windows boarded with older wood from the yard. (Edna complained it would make their home stink, but it was stinky windows or glass in their carpet.) Ed ventured out to double-triple check that everything was pinned down and locked away as to not make an un-cleanable mess. The older man went into the garage, pulling in missed loose scrap.
That's when it happened, he remembers it as clear as the morning itself. The screeching of tires cutting through the equally loud winds surrounding all ears. Ed felt awful for whatever poor sap pulled into their junk-filled sanctuary. "We're closed!" his yells were immediately swallowed as his lungs met harsh sand. His heart stopped at what else filled his ears. Pitiful cries, screams, of a small body swallowed and breaking through in a fruitless battle with the natural loud. By the door, at his feet, a baby- a baby. It coughed and sobbed as sand pooled into it's little lungs. A baby.
"Ed! Oh my stars!" Edna rushed down the steps as her husband ran up cradling the shrieking thing, doing his best to shield the tiny body.
"I- I just found him, Edna! Someone left him!"
Edna's face fell in shock, forcing into the huddle to let her eyes feast upon the sight. Sure enough.
People forever regard the next part as fiction. A description of a feeling they felt to make people awe at it. But it wasn't a detail to spice things up- it was real.
When Jay opened his eyes and quieted his wails, and the minute those shocking blues met theirs the storm stopped. For just a second the world around them froze. The winds halted and the sand stopped it's violent dance. Then BOOM, lightning crashed in the distance and everything picked up where it left off.
"Ed! Get inside, get inside!" Edna screamed over the wind, and over the continuously crying baby. Ed stated out over the storm, left wondering where in the world lightning was able to slice through the sand. As he forced their door shut- he swears he saw a figure in the distance.
"And the next morning, while I was pickin' up after the wind storm, I found glass," Ed's eyes went wide, "That just'a proves what I saw.. 'Cause it was so hot on the sand where the lightning struck. Edna just tells me it came from the junk- but I disagree!"
"That is very fascinating, Mr. Walker," Zane mused. He held onto his leg, now only attached to his remaining body by a bunch of wires. The robotic man had sustained damage beyond anything he himself could maintenance, so the older gentleman offered some assistance. It seemed things were beyond what both of them thought.
Zane clearly itched to be back to his friends, so Ed offered to fill the silence with stories. "Yup, I knew from the moment I saw him he was a special boy," he said fondly, screwing in a few loose bolts on the knee joints. Ed frowned, thinking of his son in that bed with blood pooling from his ears, "A special, special boy.."
Ed swallowed, pulling his lips to smile as he shifted through the tool box. "You're all special! Part'a me's a little jealous I didn't get any powers either, woulda made life easier if I could just pow," he wiggled his fingers as if he were controlling lightning.. in a very cartoonish way.
He laughed again, "Here I am calling them powers, like your'a bunch a super-heroes! Like those caped crusaders from the little comics Jay read all the time-" Ed's eyes crinkled as his smile became genuine, completely unaware of the dropping of his patient. "That reminds me of a cute story, it's about a funny little thing Jay used to do as a kiddo-"
"Mr. Walker I am sorry!"
The broken voice of Zane cut him off, jumping him out of his voiced thoughts to see the master of ice shaking in his seat. His leg was no longer in his hand, he had dropped it. How Ed missed the clank was beyond him.
"It's my fault- it's all my fault!"
"What's..?"
"I should have noticed the signs of his injuries, the head trauma was right there. But I let my own problems come before his!" Zane threw his hands in the air. What a monster he was. The guilt was bubbling for a while, eating him alive.
Jay's.. fragile mental state in the first realm was on everyone's nerves, but especially Zane's. The master of lightning came to him a few times, making him feel his curls for a bump. He just kept complaining and complaining about a ringing in his ears, and a throbbing in his head.
Zane shamefully yelled at him a few times. A mental breakdown, nothing more, stop wasting time. What a monster.
"Zane.." Ed frowned, dropping his tool and coiling his arm around the metal man, "It- It was a tough time on all of ya. You can't blame yourself. It was just human error."
He winced at his own phrasing, especially with the look he received. "You forget I am not human. I should make no error."
"I was created to not make mistakes and to protect those that cannot protect themselves."
Zane grimaced at the tile floor. "A machine meant to be devoid of humanity, including error."
"Now that is just baloney!" Ed crossed his arms, before throwing them in the air. He was unsure of what to do with them currently.
"Zane, you are more human than most. If it weren't for the metal an' coding, I would've thought of you as- as flesh an' bone as I am!" The old man sighed at the look in his eyes. He picked up the discarded, and still detached, leg and gestured for Zane to take it. He screwed another bolt in place.
"Yer father was a brilliant man, on the outside you look like another young man." Ed commented. Before the secret of him being machine was ever released, he passed perfectly. How perfect and asymmetrical his physical features were.. a little unnerving looking back. Everything about him was perfectly mirrored, left to right. Zane huffed. "Yes. Father modeled me after several human beings in his life, personal and those that held his interest."
The master of ice fumbled with the small compartment in his chest cavity. The stuffed drawer spewed several photographs. "His favorite model was himself," Zane turned an aged black and white to face Ed. "He confessed before he.. died, that subconsciously he was creating a son."
Young, young Dr. Julien stood beside a science fair board, flattop hair in a boogie, smothered in gel. Aged poindexter clothing, and glasses held together by tape. Jeez how old is this picture.. How old was this man?
Zane smiled and refolded the little photo, stuffing everything back in the compartment by his central power source. He liked to keep important things close to his heart.
"Well that just brings me to my next point."
Ed pulled Zane out of his thoughts as he shoved the leg back into the thigh, stretching the entire appendage in and out to check the joint.
"Mr. Dr. Julien may have been building someone to protect those that cannot protect themselves," he quoted, "Mechanically perfect.. But he was also building a son, as close to human as human gets."
The two sat in silence, Ed Walker packed his tool box. Zane Julien only sat numbly as the elder's words resonated in his mainframe.
"You do not blame me for what has happened to Jay?"
Ed paused. "Of course not, Zane. I'd never blame any of ya," he sorted the nuts and bolts. A few bolts where nuts should be.
Zane's eyes casted down. "Even if he were to die because of my error? Mistakes can be dangerous things," he mumbled.
"Humans can be dangerous, because of mistakes and errors like the one you made. But the feelings you're feeling postpartum makes us docile." The nindroid glanced up, and the old man laughed. "Jus' cause I'm not some famous genius doesn't mean I'm not smart."
The next groundbreaking conversation began in the ol' jalopy.
The suspicious sounding shake and rumble of the car as it rolled down the street, oldie but goldie music on the radio interrupted by the hosts delving into recent events. Ed moved to turn the channel as one made an off handed comment about the possible death of a savior, but the shake of Zane's head stopped him. The voices faded with the outro, replaced by some old jazz song Ed couldn't be bothered to remember the name or artist of. But he knew him and Edna used to really swing to this in the clubs.
"Mr. Walker?.. Ed?"
"What do you think happens when we die?"
Words caught in his throat. He slammed on his break to catch the red light, jostling them both forwards. His tool box did somersaults in the backseat. "I- I am sorry, I didn't mean-!" Zane fumbled.
"No, no, it's okay son," Ed was quick to assure him otherwise, "Ya jus' caught me off guard is all. Some heavy topics today, eh?"
The master of ice laughed, genuinely, at his remark. "I cannot help myself, I suppose. The city is quiet, and my mind tends to wonder."
The old man wrung his hands on the steering wheel. He felt like a father again, to a young Jay who liked to ask questions he seemed to know his father couldn't easily answer. Why is bigotry a thing? Where do babies come from? Explain morality to me. What does mom mean he can't have a pony as his Bar Mitzvah present?
"Well, I guess it's different for each person.. Depending on, religious stand points and all sortsa things.."
"I for one believe in a World to Come, a life after this. Others believe they will be welcomed by the gods in the heavens, maybe even the FSM will be in that welcoming party," Ed chuckled dryly, "Or maybe they'll skip it all together and be reborn."
"It's jus' a depends thing.."
"... Do you think I will die?"
Ed regarded the man with sad eyes. "I.. I don't know the answer to that one, Zane.."
"I know that my friends will pass far before I will ever get my answer," the master of ice leaned back in his chair, staring straight into the skies. "I will miss them."
Imagined stills of his friends, old and grey as he remained forever in the picture of a twenty year old man. Zane squeezed his eyes shut.
"At least you'll have Pixal by your side, right? And the generations that come after?" Ed tried. He smiled at his attempt.
"I suppose, Ed, I do suppose."
Ed Walker dropped Zane off at Borg Industries, he was meeting Pixal there to begin discussions on clean up in the city. As the most healthy members of the team currently they thought it important to make public appearance in restoring Ninjago City. Up moral and so on.
From there it was straight to the hospital. The city was quiet and his mind wandered. He was not a young man, and the weight of death forever loomed. The thought of the life after this terrified him. The added thought of Jay getting there before him heightened the fear.
Though the memory feels like it was yesterday, it was coming on decades that Ed found his son, special boy, in the sand. He was not a young man. If he were being completely honest, details began to blur for him. He found himself beckoning for Edna to help his failing memory more and more, having her scribble down thoughts whenever they passed. Sometimes he'd forget as he said them, which was equal parts frustrating and frightening.
Curves etched themselves into his skin. Each line a year to his life, a story to tell and forget. Ed stared at his aging hands with sadder eyes than what he started with this morning. He felt like a shriveled ghost as he worked his way into and through the organized chaos of the hospital, auto-piloting his way to Jay. His hello to fellow parents and pitiful Ninja was hollow. Age hung on him.
Ed breathed in the elevator. And what of Zane's own weight to death? How close was it? How far? His life span was a mystery in itself, as it was created through the use of technology instead of a more conventional conception. Who was to say..
"Pa! You're back, how was Zane?" Jay Walker perked up. The light in his eyes were slowly setting back ablaze, though the white gauze still mummified his pale face. Those round cheeks were slowly filling back up to a pinch-able level, fortunate for his mother.
"Pa?"
Ed draped his arms over the boy, alive. A kiss was smushed to his cheek and he groaned loudly. Nya giggled.
"Zane's.. doin' as alright as anybody else, son. Tell me all about you first, though."
Jay's voice filled the room, and suddenly the weight began to lift.
He still didn't have an answer, however.
