Dedicated to kiap kiap, Bookkeeper2004, nindroidzane, and (guests) Isabella Camovic and JBomb217 for reviewing the first chapter. Thank you SO much! I'm honestly flattered by your kindness! Isabella, you requests are being incorporated into this chapter and future chapters. Thank you! And JBomb217: Thank you SO much for your kind review! I will definitely continue writing this!
Also dedicated to Little Canadian for helping brainstorm.
Second chapter: Echo goes to the Monastery, is fascinated by modern day appliances, bonds with Zane, and meets new people - one of them nobody expected to see. (Possible spoilers for season 10.)
There was light.
It came instantaneously and flooded his vision - a blank, white, fuzzy slate in front of him. He blinked, a flash of black, then the fuzziness diminished somewhat. He blinked again, and this time everything cleared. A broad ceiling light hung over him. He became aware of the soft hissing from his pipework, a sound he had often listened for with anxiety and now heard with relief.
He was breathing again. Oh! He was breathing again!
Zane relaxed, head tilting to one side. Blobs of colour interrupted brown and grey. He turned for a better look.
Standing in front of him were six brightly dressed humans. Blue, grey, white, green, red, and black, all gazing at him with wide eyes. Zane adjusted his arms - he had arms again! - and pushed himself into a sitting position, legs stretching out on the smooth table. Excitement shimmered in the humans' eyes. He sensed their friendliness, which put him at ease. The freckled boy in blue seemed especially thrilled. Wait... that boy, and the girl in grey and blue next to him... had he met them before? Surely not. They were not in his memory base. Still, he felt as if he knew them.
"You two look familiar. Have we met?" He asked.
The boy cheered and pulled the girl in for a hug. "He's awake! He's talking!" The others in the room celebrated, too, patting backs and wearing wide smiles.
Their laughter sent a buzz through Echo's circuits. What a pleasant sound! As familiar yet unfamiliar as the boy and girl in front of him. He tipped his head to process it, and happened to glance at the white clad human beside the couple. Their eyes met, sending another jolt through Echo's system.
Metal! This human was metal - an android! Zane looked down at himself, scanning the new, silver joints in his knees, hips and arms. A patchwork of rust and shine. He looked back up at the other android, hit with recognition. He had seen his own blueprints many times. This android was nearly an exact replica.
He was made by my father! "Hello!" Zane smiled.
The other Zane beamed at him. "Hello!"
"You know my father?"
The other Zane nodded, smile mellowing. "Yes. He was my father, too."
"Where is he?"
Everyone went silent. Regret transformed his double's features. The others looked ill to varying degrees. Zane looked from face to face but no one could maintain eye contact. There was a tense silence.
"Did he leave you?"
His double finally dared to meet his gaze. "He... could not live forever."
It was Zane's turn to look away. "Oh." He felt a light inside him burn out. "I understand. He is inoperative."
His duplicate placed a hand on his shoulder. "I am sorry."
Zane nodded. Then, to give himself something to do, he scanned his surroundings. He sat on a work table on one side of a well lit room. Shelves of tools lined the walls, and electronics he could not make sense of sat on the floor or on shelving. The floor and walls were built of wood planks. There was no stone or stacks of crates.
"Where am I? We have left the lighthouse."
"You are on the Destiny's Bounty," his replica explained. "Our flying ship."
Zane's gaze shot up. Flying ship?
"We're Ninja," the one wearing green told him, raising a hand in greeting, "and this is our headquarters."
Ninja. They had repaired him. He was free from the lighthouse. He was not trapped anymore.
He scanned the floor. "Where is Gizmo?"
"Don't worry," soothed the girl. "He's safe. We brought him back, too."
After a pause, the other Zane said, "This all must seem rather strange to you."
"Why don't we get Echo settled somewhere, Zane." The green ninja said, approaching the silver android's shoulder. "Show him around, let him get his bearings."
"Who is Echo?" Zane asked him.
"You're Echo!" The blue ninja said. He had a loud, high-pitched voice. "You're Echo Zane."
"I am Zane," Zane frowned, confused, "built to protect those who cannot protect themselves."
"That is..." His double didn't finish.
"This is Zane," the blue ninja gestured to his copy.
"Jay..." the black ninja warned softly.
"You're Echo Zane."
"Jay." the girl stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. She turned to Zane. Why were they calling him Echo Zane? Why were there two Zanes? "Echo... Dr. Julien did name you Zane, but before he built you, he built him." She turned to his double. "To make things easier we've been calling you Echo, to avoid confusion."
A glaze came over Zane's - Echo's - eyes. So the other Zane wasn't the 'other Zane' at all. He was the original Zane. That made Echo the copy.
Something in his pipes popped. He told himself to calm down. This didn't change anything.
Except for the fact that Zane - the real Zane - was clearly the more advanced of the two. Had their father loved him more? Is that why he had left him behind?
The girl left Jay's side to place a hand on Echo's unoccupied shoulder, so she was on one side and the real Zane on the other. "I know this is a lot to take in." She murmured.
Zane squeezed Echo's shoulder but stopped when he realized it didn't have the same effect on metal as it did on skin. Their eyes met, and earnestness shone in Zane's gaze.
"When Jay and Nya told me I had a brother, I could not wait to bring him home." Suddenly, Echo was held captive by those blue eyes. An emotion shimmered in them that he could not name, luring him in. "I wanted to get to the lighthouse as fast as I could. I could not imagine you being alone for so long.
"But when we got there, you were gone." Another emotion flashed in his eyes. "Or we thought you were gone. We found you dismantled and inoperative. I had not even met you yet, and already I felt I must not lose you. I could not bear it. "
Was Echo's clock ticking faster? He couldn't tell.
Zane seemed to decide what he would say next, and continued. "There are so many questions that will forever remain unanswered. But I know this: I am overjoyed to have you with us. We are brothers. We have a kinship that cannot break, even if everything else around us does. I will do anything it takes to help you see that, Echo. I hope you can feel safe and loved here."
Safe. Loved. That sounded amazing.
Echo must have looked enthralled. Zane smiled. "Love is very special, and very strong. It comes naturally to family. I'm sure you'll soon recognize this."
Echo looked at each of the ninja, who all wore soft smiles, and who all stood close to each other constantly.
"I think I understand," he murmured.
A tender look graced Zane's features, and Echo felt he might have understood even more.
He did feel loved, even if he still had to learn what love was exactly. And he definitely felt safe, which he guessed was part of love. He felt 'not alone'.
"You are Zane, and I am Echo..."
"And we are both built to protect those who cannot protect themselves."
Echo smiled, and swung his legs over the table's edge before looking at the other. "Do they protect others, too?"
Everyone smiled at that, and Nya took the initiative to introduce them all. "I'm Nya, and that's Jay," Nya pointed, "that's my brother Kai, and that's Cole and Lloyd."
"You still need to meet Sensei Wu and my mom." Lloyd smiled.
"And PIXAL," added Zane.
"There's a lot of people to meet eventually," said Nya. "And a lot of places to see. But for now we'll take it slow. I want to check you over and make more repairs first."
Echo had rarely stepped outside the lighthouse before. There was little to step out onto, and the salt water ate away at his metal body as fast as an urchin munches kelp.
The first thing he noticed when he walked onto the deck of the Destiny's Bounty was the sunlight, blindingly bright and pure. His eyes adjusted to the brilliance, and he saw the sun directly overhead. They were so close to it! No wonder it was so bright.
The ship's deck, domed by sky, was the single largest space Echo had ever stood on. In the middle and near the front towered two massive masts. Wind billowed underneath the white sails, a red dragon crawling over the rippling surface.
Echo gazed up at the sails in awe, slowly roaming the deck. He stopped at the railing on the starboard side and looked down at the faded, grey stone and timber lighthouse that had been his home for so long. It seemed small all of a sudden, compared to the gigantic ship so high up.
Zane - it felt so strange to call someone else what had been his name for so long - joined him at the rail. An excited beeping noise sounded at their feet.
"Gizmo!" Echo beamed.
Beebeebeep! Gizmo knocked on Echo's leg.
Echo lifted his leg, bending the knee, testing the joints, reveling in the fluid movement.
A roar shook the planks underneath him and Echo jumped, gripping the side of the ship for support. He whirled around to see Nya standing at a wheel on a raised, covered platform. She adjusted some levers, which presumably were the cause of the rumble, and the other ninja bustled around the platform pressing buttons, checking computer screens, or just following Nya's orders.
"Next stop, the Monastery! Kai, weigh the anchor. Jay, would you check the engine pressure? Somebody get Lloyd out of here!"
"I can press a few buttons, you know!" Lloyd complained. "I'm not helpless."
"Oh just be quiet and check on the robots like a proper host!" Nya teased.
Lloyd sighed, rolling his eyes, and walked down the stairs to the main deck, Jay trotting behind soon after him, and joined the two nindroids by the railing.
Zane looked him up and down. "Your ribs are almost healed," he told him.
"Stop x-raying me without permission!"
Jay laughed.
Trembling, the ship rose higher in the air, leaving the lighthouse far behind. Echo and the three ninja watched it shrink beneath them, until the most prominent thing was sky. The Destiny's Bounty spun round and took off over the sea. Wind buffeted their faces, and rushed past their ears. Leaning over the rail, Echo could feel the empty drop on the other side, and the sensation sent a thrill through his system as gusts of wind whistled against his metal casing. He met Zane's gaze and beamed. His brother beamed back.
They picked up speed, and the ship stabled. Instead of water, the Destiny's Bounty sailed on a sea of wispy clouds, and blue sky lay ahead as far as the eye could see.
"There's the Monastery!"
Echo looked down to where Zane was pointing. The Monastery seemed as at one with the sky as the Destiny's Bounty did. It perched atop a lofty crag, above a floor of clouds. The main building, built into the back walls, practically tipped off the edge. An attached, walled in courtyard gave it a sense of security. Walls and housing both had a black tiled roof and accents of gold and red. A winding staircase zig-zagged down the cliff. Sparse blossom trees clung to the stone.
It was the most beautiful place Echo had ever seen.
The engines thrummed as they shifted to bring the ship down to a lower altitude. The Destiny's Bounty swept past the mountain, gliding below the clouds, and navigated to the nearest body of water to land.
A long (long!) stair climb later, Echo and the Ninja stood before the massive wooden gates, framed with black posts and decorated with gold. Cole pushed the heavy doors open, and everyone walked inside.
Echo shrank beside Zane. The shadow of the Monastery loomed over him, and the sun glinted off the top of the pagoda that was the main part of the building. The courtyard tiles shone like gold, trying to match the pure gold dragon statue at its center. Grandeur surrounded Echo when he was only used to dust and grey stone.
"Sensei!" Zane waved.
An old man with a long white beard and wearing a rice field hat entered the courtyard. He smiled at them as he approached.
"Hello, Ninja. Hello Master Lloyd."
Lloyd and the Sensei Wu bowed to each other, and Echo was only further awed by their reverence.
"We brought a friend," Lloyd smiled, gesturing to their guest.
Zane stepped aside so reveal Echo Zane fully. Echo lifted his hand and gave a little wave.
"Well, hello," Sensei greeted, eyes darting between the two nindroids. "And who might you be?"
"Echo?" Echo looked at Zane for reassurance. His older brother nodded, giving him a warm smile.
"He helped us fight Nadakhan!" Jay explained.
Sensei hummed, gaze wandering to a mural on one of the courtyard walls. "So a new part of the story emerges."
"Who is Nadakhan?" Echo queried.
"A Djinn you helped us fight in another timeline." Nya motioned toward the mural. They all walked over to it, and Nya brought their attention to one of the eleven separate paintings. "It's a long story, and we forgot some details, but this is when we found you."
Dominating the picture was man with four arms, orange skin, and a tail of smoke instead of legs. He held a sword and a gem. Jay and Nya were painted beside him, and there were floating islands and a flying ship in the background.
He had helped fight this monster?
Echo scanned the rest of the mural. It told an action packed story of a long struggle between good and evil. He noticed that out of all the villains in the paintings, only one with black skin showed up multiple times.
"He has four arms, too. Who is he?"
Lloyd's gaze scraped the ground. "My father, Lord Garmadon."
His father! Echo turned to Lloyd in shock
"Forgive my manners, Echo." Wu said, turning to face him. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"It is a pleasure to meet you." Echo made an attempt at a bow, like he'd seen Lloyd do, and Wu smirked.
"I'm glad to see that my students remembered such a courteous ally. It took them long enough." He smacked Jay and Nya's shoulders with his bamboo staff. "Feel free to make yourself at home. I'm sure Zane is eager show you around."
Zane nodded, eyes shining with delight. "Yes, Sensei."
"Thank you." Echo added.
"You have no need to thank me," Sensei Wu's smile crinkled the corners of his hooded eyes. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?"
"What is that?" Echo stared at the metal box.
"It's an oven," Zane explained, opening and closing the door.
"What does it do?"
"You cook with it."
"It heats up the food you put inside," said Jay.
"Just, please, don't try to use it until you learn how," Nya added from where she leaned against the counter.
They were in a room that Zane called "the kitchen." Echo looked around at all the hanging doors that held cans and boxes behind them, at the digital clocks that looked nothing like his clock, and at all the strange, square electronics like the one called "the fridge." Was the entire room really dedicated to food? The gulls at the lighthouse would love this place!
They'd already toured the living room and kitchen, explained where Wu's quarters were, and shown him the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom. "Though, I guess you won't need to go in there," Jay had said.
"Are there any more of these great inventions?" Echo asked, clacking together the two spoons he was holding.
Nya chuckled. "I've haven't heard a stove called a great invention before, but it must have been at some point." She smiled. "As for inventions, Jay and I invent things for missions all the time."
"Like the stove?"
"Like weapons and mechs."
"There was nothing like this at the lighthouse." Echo breathed.
"It'll take a little while, but you'll get used to it."
"Maybe you'll even come on missions with us!" Jay spotted a box of cereal someone had left on the window sill for some reason, and grabbed it for a quick snack.
"Wellll..." Zane looked unsure.
"What is that?!" Echo gasped, his spoons clattering to the floor.
Jay, still chewing a mouthful of Ninja-Os, glanced at the box in his hand. "Cereal?"
"No, not that. That!"
All three looked to see what he was so fixated on. On the sill, where the cereal box had hidden it, was one of those plastic flowers that bobs up and down when the sun shines on it. It was currently bobbing happily away, and Echo looked starstruck.
"That? That's just a little solar powered toy one of us bought on a whim." Nya watched the plastic plant dance in its pot.
Echo walked over, practically in a daze as he ignored Jay right next to him, and, treating it like one treats an ancient artifact, he picked the flower toy off the sill in both hands and held it up in front of his eyes. For a full minute he just stared at it, enthralled.
"You can keep it if you want." Nya told him.
"Thank you." He practically whispered.
Lloyd walked into the kitchen, and the attention was finally drawn away from the dancing plant, though Echo held it close. "My mom's coming. She's almost at the top of the stairs."
"Great!" Zane said. He turned to Echo. "Let us go meet her!"
Echo followed Zane and the others out of the kitchen and into the foyer, tucking his flower inside his open chest compartment (very carefully). Just as they were heading out the open screen door, Echo paused when he heard Cole and Wu chattering in the doorway to the next room.
"I'm tall enough, I could just snatch it right off your head!" Cole was saying with a huge grin on his face.
"But you wouldn't because I'm your Sensei." Wu's back was mostly turned to Echo, but he could hear the smile in his voice.
"Have you ever let anyone touch it?" With a laugh, Cole made a grab for the rice hat on Wu's head. Wu blocked his wrist with his staff. "Aw c'mon! I did your hair in the First Realm!"
"We're leaving the past in the past!" Both of them laughed.
Echo smiled. Having wandered quite close while he was listening, he looked at the rice hat, and without really thinking, grabbed it, and put it on his own head.
Sensei whirled around to face the thief only to find a startled nindroid wearing his favourite clothing article. Echo froze on the spot.
"Why do you wear a black cap under your hat, Sensei?" Cole asked.
"Maybe if you were as quiet as Echo, I'd tell you!" Echo worried that he'd made the Master cross, but then Wu chuckled. "It seems we have another ninja in training. I do believe neither of us heard you coming, Echo."
Echo smiled, relieved.
"Hello, Echo!"
Echo leaped at the strange woman's voice, and dashed up the wall, onto the ceiling. The rice hat fluttered to the floor.
Zane laughed, startled by Echo's reaction. Jay and Nya were equally delighted, remembering how he'd shown them his housefly abilities in the lighthouse.
"Wouldya look at that!" Cole grinned.
"I can't think of a more useful trick for a ninja to have," Lloyd smiled.
Echo's head hung just a few inches above everyone else's. He looked down and noticed the grey haired woman standing with them. It looked like she'd gotten a good chuckle from the nindroid's antics. Her hands were still up around her face, and her eyes twinkled behind her glasses.
"I'm sorry for startling you!" She apologized. "Are you alright?"
"Yes. And I apologize as well." Echo said. "To you, and to Sensei." He turned to Wu. "I should not have taken your hat."
"Thank you, Echo. It's really alright." Wu smiled.
"Let me introduce myself properly," the woman held out her hand. "I'm Misako. I'm Lloyd's mom."
"Hello, Lloyd's mom!" Echo held out his hand, and promptly crashed to the floor.
"Are you alright?" Zane helped his brother to his feet.
"Yes." Echo checked to make sure his dancing plant had survived.
"Let's talk in the kitchen," Wu suggested. He placed his rice hat back on Echo's head, which made the droid practically light up like a bulb. "Misako, would you like some tea?"
The stars were so close on the mountain peak! At the lighthouse, Echo had compared them to pin pricks, or a beach of twinkling sand in the sky, but here at the Monastery, they shone like millions of blossom petals gleaming in another realm, pink and purple galaxies painting the night's canvas. Each blue star blazed as if alive. He felt as if they might be watching him.
A powerful quiet lay like mist over the Monastery. Instead of the constant crash of waves, there was only the gentle whisper of wind caressing the tile roof and hushing in the waving blossom trees outside the wall. All eight of the other residents were silently asleep in their rooms.
At first Echo had bunked in Zane's room, but unable to sleep - unlike the original prototype, he wasn't programmed for artificial sleep - Echo snuck out to sit on the front steps by the gate. As he sat, he kicked his feet for the fun of it, solely because he could. He could move with more freedom than he'd had in months, and that thought alone made the stars seem even brighter. The path down the mountain was lit by starlight.
The clouds below the mountain top curled over the staircase like soft blue smoke, dappling the stone with shadows. One of the shadows moved, and Echo focused on it, checking to see if it was clouds shifting. The shadow grew larger as it came closer, causing the nindroid to stiffen. Out of the fog stepped a tall, dark figure. Echo leaped to his feet.
The man - if he could be called a man - was of towering height, and had black, coarse skin, four arms and red eyes. When he spotted Echo he stopped, and his piercing, crimson gaze caused Echo to rust up all over again. He froze in that glare, barely noticing the devil's fangs or the hole ripped in his chest that revealed ribs and dried, purple blood.
He looked different, fiercer, more terrible, but Echo recognized him almost immediately. The man from the mural. Lloyd's father.
"You are Lord Garmadon!" Echo whispered, his voice sounding too loud in the clear mountain air.
"It seems you already know my name." Garmadon's voice, not guttural in the least, came out as a smooth rasp, like a cat's tongue over naked skin. "Though I can't say I know yours, unless the white ninja completely let himself go. Which trash heap did they haul you out of?"
"I am Echo Zane, built to protect - " Echo threw up his fists in a fighting stance as Lord Garmadon took a step forward.
"Who's going to protect you?" Garmadon asked as he stalked closer.
"I cannot let you inside!" Echo kept up his stance, unable to fathom how he could possibly fight such a powerful enemy.
"Is that so?" Garmadon stopped. Up close, with his horn-like samurai helmet and the star-glow highlighting his muscle, he looked even more formidable. But his halt gave Echo pause. Was he not going to attack?
"Why are you here?"
"I merely wanted to see if anyone was home."
Echo squinted, scanning Garmadon's face for any change in expression.
"I do not think I can trust you."
"You can't." Garmadon kept the same dead-pan frown.
Echo was intrigued, though he didn't drop his fists.
"Are you here to see Lloyd?"
Garmadon scoffed. "Why would I climb all this way to see one miserable weakling?!" he snapped.
Echo did not reply.
When he did not receive a response, Garmadon grunted in the back of his throat. "I hear the Green Ninja is still licking his wounds. Pathetic."
"I do not think Lloyd is pathetic."
"Don't you." His voice dripped with boredom.
"No. I think he is very strong."
"Oh yes, he's very strong with those broken ribs of his. You should have seen how strong he looked splatted out on the pavement!" This time, Garmadon averted his gaze, glaring at the cliff.
"I think he is strong precisely for overcoming those hardships." He wasn't sure which event Lord Garmadon was referring to, but he remembered the mural. "How hard must it be to keep moving when every step hurts? To keep leading with a smile, as he has done, despite all the terrible things that have happened? He makes it look so easy." It was Echo's turn to look away, but he quickly continued. "No, he is definitely strong, for sure. And brave, and many other good things. All the Ninja are."
"Hmm. How inspiring." Tone still dry, Garmadon allowed his eyes to meet Echo's again. "I'm leaving now. Seeing as the Green Ninja is so strong and brave, I don't want to stick around where he can find me." He turned to walk back down the mountain.
Echo watched him go, realizing that at some point he had abandoned his fighting stance and his hands hung at his side.
"Wait... why did you come up here again?"
Garmadon whirled around, a clawed hand pointing at Echo like a weapon. "I forbid you from telling anyone I was here! Delete it from your memory, or whatever it is you do. Nobody must know but us."
That left Echo feeling uncertain as to what he should do, but after one last powerful stare, Garmadon turned around again and disappeared under the cloud cover, melding into the shadows.
For a long time, Echo watched the spot where the man had vanished. His encounter with him hadn't been anything like he might have expected it to be. The Garmadon in his mind would have screamed, laughed maniacally, and attacked on the spot, but the real Garmadon did none of those things. The Garmadon he'd just met had been intimidating, sure, but just as surprised to see Echo as Echo was to see him. Mostly the real Garmadon seemed empty, almost devoid of emotion. Sad.
After awhile, the greys and blues on the mountain side were tinged with pink and pale gold. Somewhere underneath the sea of clouds the sun was rising. Echo sat down to watch the most amazing sunrise he'd ever witnessed. It sparkled on the petals of the blossom tree and spilled through the glass-like morning air. A bird trilled out a good morning song so different from the cries of the gulls he'd heard every day of his life.
"Echo!"
Echo twisted to look over his shoulder at the voice calling him from inside the Monastery. The sunrise warmed the outer wall with a golden glow, beginning to pour over into the courtyard through the open gate. The voice called again from inside: "Echo!"
Echo smiled and pushed himself to his feet, jogging back inside the Monastery. The sun glinted off his metal body, and a family waited for him inside his new home.
I think I like this chapter better than the other one. I was only two sentences in and I could tell it would be better. XD It's also twice as long. And... ok!... OMG! I LOVED writing the scene where Echo meets Garmadon SO much! I think I may have introduced it premature in the story, but I really wanna know what you guys thought of it! Little Canadian gave me the idea and I just had to do it.
If anyone has suggestions to improve my Echo stories, PLEASE let me know. I want to be worthy of your attention!
Thanks to all who took time out of their day to read this. Have a fantastic week! Stay inspired!