Part three! Here's where we take the turn off the deep end. But Before you do, enjoy yourself a little Pixane!
Happy reading!
8-10: Heather - Protection
Reflexes. Basic ones.
No need to go overboard, but being able to protect others and yourself is necessary in the world we live in today. Protection for those you love is important, and I guess you could say I'm in love with these machines.
Heather 1. Heather 2. Heather 3.
It had been a day. A day, that was all. Life was crazy and miserable, and everything and everyone was in danger but… nothing seemed wrong. Not to me. It didn't make sense. But, being able to talk with the team, for them to know I was alive, it was amazing.
"It was a reflective period. Sometimes it's nice to separate yourself and evaluate where you're at. Connect with the people you protect."
"I get it," Cole agreed. "Understand. Get back to the roots of why we're doing what we're doing, and what being a hero really means."
"And sometimes it's not the big things either." I held out my palm, a slightly faded purple star still stuck to my skin. "I keep this here to remind me of that."
"I bet there's an interesting story there."
I chuckled, remembering where I was, and who had given it to me. "Actually, it involves you."
"Really?"
"Yes. I was-"
I felt hands wrap around my waist as my body was lifted up into the air and spun around. When I landed, Zane's face was inches from mine.
"Zane!"
"Good morning."
We both laughed for a moment, our faces growing closer.
"I have something a want to show you." He broke his contact with me and instead started pulling me by the hand below deck.
I turned around as he tugged me away to see a giddily smiling Cole. "I'll tell you later! I have something I need to do to you!" I called out to him.
"Do to me?"
"You'll see!"
"Have fun!" he called back.
I rolled my eyes and turned back around, giving all my attention to Zane. My lovely, beautiful Zane, that I could touch and feel and hug and… well, kiss I suppose would be the next logical word, but we hadn't exactly gotten that far yet.
He guided me into a room I recognized quite fully as sensei's small tea garden, a beautiful location below deck with windows surrounding the room like a greenhouse, and various plants lining the walls and the ceiling and the floor.
"You kept it up while he's been gone," I smiled looking at the beautiful condition of everything in the room.
"We all helped out. Kai probably spent the most time here. He's not the best gardener, but he put all he had into it."
We spent a lot of time in here when I was a part of his systems. It was a quiet place where we could speak alone without bothering or confusing anyone.
"Cole kept watch on the soil, Nya kept up watering, Lloyd added lots of flowering plants. Jay added some small cactus plants so he wouldn't have to keep up too much maintenance. And I… decided to add-"
"Zane!" my eyes landed on the beautiful purple bunches of petals lining a hidden corner of the room he was guiding me towards. I raced toward them and cradled one of the cascading bunches in my fingers. "They're so beautiful."
"I felt kind of guilty. Everyone else wanted to honor sensei but… I think I took your loss a bit harder. I think sensei would have wanted me to use the garden for what I needed though. And at that point… I just needed a reminder of… you."
Wisteria is classified as a woody climbing vine. Perfect for decorating the untouched corner walls of an already overcrowded garden. "How did you know?"
"Your neural drive was a part of my processor for nearly-"
"Right!" I laughed. "There's no way you could have interfaced with me without seeing-"
"Wisteria. Every morning."
"You never even asked me about it."
"It made sense. It's not especially hard to think of you as a flower." He too touched the small petals that hung in front of him.
"Why?"
He paused for a moment. "You're… soothing, empowering, invigorating… beautiful." His eyes turned from the flowers to me. "And… delicate." he took my hands as a chill went up my spine.
I took one of his hands and held it between both of mine. "Your hands are freezing."
"Are they? I'm sorry, I don't mean to-!"
"I don't mind," I smiled up at him. "As long as you're okay."
I'm sure if his skin had been human, he would have been blushing. "My powers tend to act up when my emotions… intensify."
Zane was built to protect. He knew that. Everyone did, so it only made sense that his emotions were strongest when he felt protective. Sympathy. Some people would just call it love.
"Pixal… I enjoy you, very much. I enjoy having you back, and I enjoy your body, and touching it, and seeing it," he lifted his hand to cup my cheek as I leaned into it, embarrassing the chill. "but… it scares me."
"Why would it scare you?" I laughed.
"When I am a ninja, I have my brothers and Nya, and my falcon all looking out for me. When you go out… you don't have anyone else."
I gripped his hand resting on my cheek. "I can look out for myself. Samurai X is support for the ninja. Always has been. Not the other way around."
He pulled me forward and embarrassed me, holding me tightly to his chest. "I want to protect you," he whispered in my ear.
"You've protected me for years now. Now it's my turn."
He squeezed me just a bit tighter before releasing me and taking my hands again. "I'm glad you're back. I just…" he brushed a stray hair from out of my eyes before his hand found a place to rest behind my ear. "...don't want to lose you again."
I gripped his arms. "Don't worry. I won't let anything separate us again. I promise."
Never.
Someone who lies
Someone who kills
Someone who breaks a promise
Could never forgive themselves for it.
And I didn't.
I couldn't.
I had promised, it was my fault. My fault he was gone. My fault he was dead. My own stupid fault I was suffering through this… Again.
It stings worse the second time. Because it already happened once. It could never happen again. Not Again. Right? So you find yourself a distraction. But the only distraction from his death was the death that surrounded me. I thought I could use my teammates as a distraction, but no… I was theirs. The robot could bring us comfort, right? She would be strong. She would get through it. If no one else, surely she could. But I'm not that kind of robot. I can't just turn off my emotions. Not anymore. Not after Zane touched me with his heart, gave it to me, changed me, made me almost human. He did so much for me. I felt like I owed him everything. My life.
But I couldn't even give that for him.
I had failed. If I couldn't protect the one person in this world who loved me, who could I protect? Was this who I was? Was this my purpose? To destroy lives, to let people down? I knew what it wasn't. I was never built to protect anything. Ever. No. Not protect, assist. To put a smile on my face and help with mundane tasks and provide the illusion of easing the pain of others. To be the distraction. I wasn't a person, I was a tool for someone else to use and pretend to feel better. I was an assistant. That was it. Nothing more.
The team stuck together, but Ninjago was scattered. We received a call from my father. I couldn't bring myself to talk to him. He didn't even know I was physical again. He had no idea who I was anymore. And if he didn't know me, how could anyone? How could I?
He always believed in second chances. Maybe his faith was misplaced in the building location. Maybe not. It may have brought back the Overlord, but it was also the only major building in the city that still had power. After having defeated the Overlord twice, maybe it has a seal of protection over it. Maybe his second chances only worked the second time around.
It's home to me. Even when being attacked and invaded, it always felt safe. Maybe that makes me overly attached, maybe that makes me comfortable with evil. Either way, it doesn't make sense.
What he told us was that the building had lost power, suddenly, unexpectedly. It was purposely cut off. He didn't have any proof, but he felt certain the tower had been invaded. I suppose it might be hard to tell if the tower had been broken into when there are 100 floors and no alarms functioning. He felt unsafe. It made sense. He didn't know what to do, so he called us. But that's not what interested me. What interested me was the thing he hadn't thought to tell us when it happened.
A security droid had gone missing a few months ago; one that knew the ins and outs of Borg tower, one that would know how to cut the power if he needed to. The one based off of the blueprints of Cyptor.
...my father always did believe in second chances.
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Thanks again so much for reading!
