It was the smell that caught her attention before she heard the knock on her door.
"Room service." Zane declared from the other side of the door, trying to be funny. Minerva heard herself unintentionally groan at him. His funny switch had been turned on; great, just great. Despite herself (and probably coaxed by the sweet smell of a well made breakfast), the young teen got herself up and went to open the door. The glare she gave Zane was less than impressed and even a bit annoyed. Even with Zane's helpful smile, Minerva continued to glare as she looked from him, the food, and back up at him again.
"You forgot the bacon." she bluntly informed him.
"I had a feeling that you were not fond of bacon." he then quipped back. "Too much grease."
Minerva raised an interested eyebrow as she weighed her options. "You know, this a trick that Jay would pull to get winning lottery tickets." she then decided to inform him. Zane could only offer a kind smile.
"Then I suppose you could say that I've learned a lot from my brothers."
Forgetting herself for a moment, Mina gave a small, stifled laugh before shaking it off. Very quickly she returned to the matter at hand.
"What do you want?"
"Just to talk." the Nindroid insisted. "Lottery numbers are of no use to me."
Mina gave Zane another suspicious raise of her eyebrow before taking the plate of now cooled pancakes from him. She even bothered to tell him, "Shut the door on your way in," before she herself returned to her previous sitting place. Zane gave another content smile before doing as he was told- from there, he took a moment to appreciate the room.
The room boasted a mostly modern atmosphere with white floors and walls- with the windows reaching from the ceiling to the floor. In the middle was a rather large conversation pit, decorated with a mixture of red cushions and small green pillows. To the right wall was a spiral staircase that led up to a generously sided loft, which in itself held enough space for a queen sized bed at one end and a writing desk at the other. On the left wall was nothing but bookcases filled to the brim with priceless collections of various contemporary writers. It was a beautifully designed room, but something about it didn't indicate to Zane that it had been intended as a bedroom. A study, perhaps, but certainly not a bedroom.
Zane returned his attention to Minerva, just now realizing that she had made her way up to the loft and was hungrily feasting on her meal. This gave him plenty of time to investigate the rest of the area a bit closer- he started with the conversation pit. The cushions were far more plush than what he had anticipated, his whole lower torso sunk into them like quicksand. As he started to fear that he may never be rescued from the memory foam, Zane happened to notice a small black book not far from him. After a bit of effort he was able to get a hold on the book and started to look it over.
The book's glossy black cover lacked any title or author, which seemed odd. It wasn't until he started to leaf through the book's contents that Zane realized that it was someone's personal journal.
"Hey!" Minerva suddenly shouted, apparently finished with her meal, "Don't touch that!" And in a speed so fast, Zane was sure she had slid down the staircase's railing, Minerva rushed to him just to snatch the book from him- she then protectively sat down on the cushions and glared at the white ninja with prejudice.
"I'm sorry if I was skimming through your personal journal..." Zane started to apologize, sitting by her with enough room to offer respect.
Minerva refused to look at him before admitting, "It's not mine. I was told that it was my grandfather's."
"Oh." Zane nodded. There was a small silence that made its way between the two of them. It took awhile, but Zane then curiously asked, "Are you the current operator of the Falcon?"
"The… falcon?" Minerva repeated in confusion, but then it hit her. From her bathrobe (as she had yet to actually get changed), she pulled out a small silver metallic cube. "I call him Crow." she told him, tossing the small cube into the air. At the apex of the toss, the falcon seemed to burst from the cube and gently glided back down to Mina's outstretched hand. The two shared an affectionate forehead press before Mina went on to say, "He was my first friend."
Zane offered a small smile in understanding. He then offered his hand out for the falcon as he tried to sympathize, "He is one of my oldest friends as well." Taking it as its cue, the falcon moved from Minerva's hand to Zane's. The two also shared a moment of comradery before a thought came to Zane.
"Why call him Crow?"
To this, Mina seemed to shift a bit as she debated on telling him the whole story or not. "When I was about 7," she started, "Jay insisted that I learn to play some kind of video game. I wasn't really interested in games- I wanted to learn how to fight."
"And I assume you found a way to spite him?" Zane curiously inquired. Minerva gave a small laugh.
"I picked up point and click adventure games." she admitted. "The kind that were so old that they didn't have guides and the call centers were all down. But there was one game I really clung to; it was about this girl, named after a spring month, who traveled to these dual worlds- one of technology and one of magic. It reminded me of the Sixteen Realms."
Mina gave a small smile at remembering the event, how mad Jay had got and how he couldn't figure out the games when she could. But then she shook her head. "I shouldn't be telling you this." she mumbled to Zane. "Any of it."
"If it is any consideration," Zane informed her, "The path to the future is rarely a straight line. In fact, the future that we see now can possibly be changed when we return to our present; it will not be the future that my brother and I will be able to experience." The Nindroid paused for a moment before going on, "However, I sense a great distress within you; it is as if you carry the weight of the world despite being so young. If it will make you feel better, I will lend an listening ear and – perhaps – make sure we can come back to this conclusion, or create new ones. It is up to you Minerva."
"You're willing to screw up the time stream just so I can be happy?"
"Well, I wouldn't have said it like that- but no, that is not what I intend on doing."
"So you are after winning lottery numbers?"
To this, Zane could not hold back a light chuckle.
"Not today." he playfully mused. "No, if anything, I wish to know more about you, Minerva, if that is alright. Along with a sense of responsibility, there is an even greater energy buried deep in your heart, and I am curious as to its origins."
Minerva thought about this for a moment before looking back at Zane with an utterly confused expression. "You want to run psychology experiments on me?"
"No." Zane once more denied, this time with another laugh. "But just talking about your troubles to another is a good way to figure out the steps to overcome them. If you'll allow me, I can pinpoint those troubles and potentially change them. Minerva, I am only requesting to listen if you wish to talk."
The teen gave the Nindroid a different, more skeptic look now. She had no idea what he was even remotely saying or trying to get at, but he sounded so much like the Zane she knew. He just wanted to help. Right? Was that what he was trying to say?
After several minutes of silent debating, Minerva then decided to humor him with, "Fine."
Glad that she was willing to talk, Zane sat a bit taller in full attention. Minerva noticed this and decided to ignore it for a moment as she then wondered what she was going to say first.
"When I was three, I think I used to be able to summon dragons."
"Dragons?" Zane repeated- his surprise had been genuine. Of all things to start a verbal biography with…
Minerva gave a firm nod. "I don't know if it actually happened, or if it was just a dream, but it always seemed so vivid..."
. . .
Several hours passed as Minerva then went on to give her life story to the attentive Nindroid. Zane came to learn that Minerva was orphaned just months after her birth. As she grew, she was cared for by his future self, Cole, Jay, and Kai- with her actual legal guardian being the latter. Despite learning of their careers as ninja, it had been insisted that she never learn how to fight; a detail that brought a lot of tension between her and Kai. He had also found (and wondered if Mina was aware of it) that the falcon had been rebuilt to keep eye on her when the ninja were not around. Her only other connection to the outside world was Nya's son, Montgomery- occasionally nicknamed Monty.
All in all, it was safe to assume that Minerva was a very lonely child.
"Will you really do it?" she asked once most of what she had to say was said. "Would you really change the future just because I said so? So I'm not… not alone? What if some time related thing happens so you don't remember being in the future- how will you know that there's something to change?"
For a moment, Zane was so surprised by the idea of not remembering their adventures here, that he couldn't find an answer.
"Perhaps," he offered, "I will know when the times comes?"
Mina looked at him like a lost child before reaching down to take his hand. Unsure of what she was doing, Zane allowed her to raise his hand up a bit higher and place it against her cheek.
"You're always so warm..." she mumbled, her voice trembling a little. "I miss you guys so much… I just want you to come home."
Offering a small, warm smile, Zane moved his hand to gently run through her hair. It was here that he made a small realization.
"Your hair really is this curly."
Minerva almost laughed so hard that she nearly cried.
"Jay never believes it." she agreed. "Kai used to brush it out for me and then liked to threaten to straighten it all one day. Nya insisted on keeping it curly- gave me personality, or something."
"It does." Zane agreed. "Never change it."
Finally giving a smile of her own, Mina pulled Zane into a tight, well needed, and touch starved hug.
A/N: I almost didn't think I would make it to 1.5k words on this one, but I wanted to get their conversation out of the way and I'm SO happy on how it turned out! The next chapter will focus on Jay, and later chapters will focus on Kai and Cole separately.
I'd like to think that Zane is the dad you pour your heart out too, Cole is the dad that does something about it, Kai is the dad that won't let anything bad happen to you, and Jay is the dad that should probably still be the kid. xD It's just a thought, anyway.
All the good things being said, I'm sorry to say that this story will go into hiatus. I haven't written anything in two weeks because I've been bouncing back and forth between the fandoms I lurk. So please, during this time, leave some feedback! This fandom is still the most active of all the others I participate in, so please lend me some of your wisdom!
Thank you for reading!