"I am nothing but a walking piece of rusted metal…am I not?" The rusted boy looked out over the side of the Destiny's Bounty with a heavy sigh. He had spoken impulsively, not truly meaning what he had said; after a while of thinking on the subject, though, he'd begun to believe it.

He wasn't sure why, but there was a twisted feeling inside of his chest. It didn't hurt, but it was unbelievably uncomfortable and…almost saddening.

"Brother, there you are!" Zane hurried over, casually tossing an arm over his brothers' shoulders. This caused the latter to flinch away slightly, as he wasn't used to physical contact.

"…Are you alright? You seem troubled—was this the result of Jay's big mouth? Did his choice of words offend you?" The nindroid began firing off questions, much to the dismay of his brother.

"I am alright, do not worry about me. I was merely trying to stop the fight before it got out of hand." A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"That's a relief to hear. After all, you are my Echo. I would not wish any pain or hurt on you, nor would I wish the same on my other brothers," Zane glanced off to the side, quickly muttering to himself, "Unless Jay decides to say something else about you. Then my promise is off."

"Zane, please…go back to our brothers. They must be worried about you…and I would like some time to think on my own, if that's alright," Echo slowly nudged Zane away from himself, "And do not cause any trouble. Understood?"

Taken aback by the request-turned-order, Zane hung his head and retreated back to the boys' room. Upon his return, the other ninja fell silent for a moment while turning to the nindroid.

"Where's Echo Zane?" Lloyd tilted his head curiously.

"He wanted to be alone for awhile. I fear what happened has caused him to think negatively of himself." Zane shot a harsh glare at Jay. The blue-clad ninja yelped and ducked behind Cole and Kai.

"Didn't you try and talk to him? I don't mean to sound rude or anything…but that might've worked…" Lloyd mumbled almost to himself.

"Yes. He didn't want to talk and pushed me away before I could object…—" Zane turned his head ever so slightly and spoke again, his voice raised some, "Lloyd."

Lloyd froze in place, hunching over slightly at Zane's raised voice voice, "Yeah? Wh-What'cha need?"

"Go speak to Echo."

"Wha—?! Me?! But I—"

Zane took Lloyd's wrist and led him into the hallway, "Lloyd, please…you're the only person I can trust with this task."

The two locked eyes for a brief moment. Lloyd could see the distress and sadness in Zane's eyes, so he gave in, "Alright, alright. No need to bring out the puppy dog eyes. I'll go talk to him and see if I can get him to cough it up."

The nindroid's expression snapped from gloomy to overly excited in a matter of seconds as he thanked his green-clad brother multiple times, before hurrying into their bedroom.

Lloyd, now alone in the hall, gave a sigh and slowly took off to find where Echo Zane had gone. He shuffled out onto the deck and called out, "Echo Zane! Hey, Echo Zane, it's me Lloyd!"

He was greeted with silence, and an empty deck.


((Oh mah globz, it's finally here! (Sorry for the several reuploads, FanFiction is not happy with me -.-) Thank you guys for being patient with me and I hope you enjoyed Chapter 3~

If you have any constructive criticism, please leave a comment and let me know what I can improve on!

See ya next Chapter~!

~ACM))