One more chapter after this one! And after that I'm going to do a miniseries about the Sundara Seven team, but that'll probably be on my tumblr. ShinyShiny9, thank you so much! :D
ABCSonicKirbyWarriors, that's the point~ :P
Also, bonus points to those who spot the Bionicle reference
He called himself Omelas now, because the name "Pan" was a name that people knew too well, and for once in his life he wanted to help out quietly, without people recognizing him. Most of the time, he didn't give a name, unless somebody really demanded to know.
Omelas hopped from world to world, playing the game that kept him alive. He wasn't really sure why he was so intent on staying alive, not anymore. The Overlord was two thousand years gone, and the Winter Court hadn't posed a threat in decades. On a hundred different worlds, Omelas saw rocks that sang, and rivers of fire and light, and planets where the leaves on the trees glowed and lit the cities as bright as day, and planets where it rained diamonds, and planets with freshwater oceans filled with fish with skin like glass. And wonder at the beauty of creation drove away the darkness, a little.
One day, the old CyBorg phone that he kept in his bag started to ring. Omelas paused and looked down at the number, even though he didn't really need to. And finally, after centuries of ignoring it, he picked up the phone.
Lloyd? It's PIXAL's voice, not Zane's. That's interesting.
Nah, not really. Call me Omelas.
Omelas. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, by Ursula K. LeGuin. A short philosophical work of fiction,
I know, PIXAL. Omelas cuts her off before she gives him the whole synopsis. Why call now?
Zane needs you, PIXAL says. Her voice is worried, and Omelas freezes.
What's wrong?
He's becoming a little unstable. The years are taking a toll on him, Ll- Omelas. I thought if you could come home, it would help.
You're still on Ninjago? Isn't the planet- dead? For some reason, Omelas feels guilty. He'd never considered that Zane might be waiting, alone, throughout all the long years.
Yes. You should still be able to survive on the surface for short periods of time- but we are no longer on the surface.
Omelas paused, staring out the window at the moon-lit icefields outside. The sun wouldn't rise for another thirty Ninjago Standard years, and he had wanted to hang around and watch the dawn.
Please, PIXAL said quietly.
I'll come as soon as I can charter a ship, replied Omelas finally. He ended the call and shoved the CyBorg phone into his bag.
The next day, he shelled out a ridiculous amount of money for a pilot to take a distortion ship back to Ninjago. A few people would probably wonder what had happened to him, but he didn't have any real friends, he hadn't since Sundara Seven.
"I'll wait here," the pilot said. "Radio me if you find whatever it is you're looking for and you need a few more days to do your archaeology stuff… or whatever. I can wait for up to three days, and then you'll have to go back and charter someone else."
"Thanks," Omelas said as he walked away. He checked the CyBorg for PIXAL's coordinates, and as the ship took off behind him he began to run.
There was one tree left, towering over the northern wastes. There wasn't any snow, and there hadn't been for centuries, probably, but the air was noticeably colder. Omelas walked up to the tree and rapped on the side, and with no surprise he discovered that it was made of metal.
Circling around the "tree", Omelas saw that there was some kind of tarnished wreck of metal and glass laying a few yards away. He wondered if it had anything to do with Zane, and what it was. As he considered whether or not to investigate more closely, his hand brushed against a switch hidden in the pale metal trunk and a doorway opened up.
"Wow," Omelas whispered to himself as he started to climb down the winding staircase.
"Is- is- is that y-ou?" called a faint voice from somewhere in the darkness. Concentrating, Omelas summoned a wavering orb of light around his fist and raised it into the air, illuminating walls hung with dusty, old-fashioned contraptions and broken windchimes. Lowering his fist, Omelas saw that Zane was standing in the center of the floor, looking upwards at him with luminous blue eyes. It looked to Omelas like his friend was standing at the bottom of a very deep well.
"Yeah, more or less," Omelas answered as he began to run down the stairs. It took far too long for him to reach the bottom, but once his feet hit the floor he paused awkwardly.
"Uh- Zane?"
"P- P-IXAL said you go-go-go by Omelas now?"
"I've been calling myself that for eight hundred or so years, yeah." Omelas paused and looked at the glowing, pulsating orb of energy gathered around his hands. "How are you doing?" He didn't really want to ask about the staticy quality that Zane's voice had gathered.
"F-fine," Zane replied.
"You know," Omelas said as he looked around the workshop- at least, he thought it was a workshop-, "You two should really get offworld. They're estimating Ninjago's only got a few hundred years before sun death."
There was a long silence, and Omelas stood up and began to walk around. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and the only furniture he could see was a (very dusty) cot, and a desk covered in faded papers.
"Have you moved anything in here at all?" Omelas asked.
"Not for the past few years," PIXAL answered. She must have switched with Zane while Omelas wasn't looking, because now the silver figure's eyes were glowing green instead of blue.
"We've been in here for a long time."
"Oh," Omelas mumbled. "So, what do you think? About going offworld? I'd say we should head to Sundara Seven, but they've finished colonising it, it's all city now. There were these aliens, they gave me a lot of trouble. Called the Winter Court. I guess all of them are dead now. Maybe we can go to Bota Magna, it's a jungle moon. I haven't been there yet, but I hear it's nice." He was talking faster and faster, trying to fill up the silence between the three of them.
"I've seen amazing things, Zane, PIXAL. People made of light, and worlds made of fire. And planets where the cities float above the clouds, and you can swim in the air because the atmosphere's so thick. Come on, Zane, my ship'll be back here in a day or two, we can go anywhere."
"I don't know," Zane said, his voice so soft that Omelas could barely hear it. "Couldn't we just- stay here?"
"No!" snapped Omelas. He felt bad as soon as he said it, and immediately rushed to cover up the anger.
"Zane, I'm- I'm sorry, it's just that it's not like you, to be down here in the dust and the dark, you need to come up into the light, it's really worth it, I promise,"
And slowly, Zane's eyes brighten, and Omelas grabs his hand and leads him up into the daylight. For the first time in a while, Lloyd feels like he's doing something to really help, like he's always been supposed to.