Review Replies:

Anonymous7: Heh, yeah, it's really getting kinda dark, now that I think about it. It's going to get a little darker before it gets brighter, I'll tell ya that. Don't worry, none them are dead. And yes, Carrot's a butt. Whether or not Soren's worse than him... I'm not too sure either. I think I'm leaning towards Carrot on that scale.

Isabella camovic:

TheAmberShadow: Huh, really? That's cool, I didn't know that. And no, they were all attached to a separate pillar, besides Lloyd, who was on the floor. But I suppose it doesn't really matter. And yup! Zane to the rescue! Eventually! Not in this chapter! But eventually! Carrot has most certainly crossed the line. He's pissed off about everyone in this story, and will only be pissing off more people as it goes on. This guy is either really determined, stupid or just doesn't give a frick.

Dixie Gal1861: Yeah... this story is getting a little dark. It's going to get a little brighter, then a whole lot darker again. But don't worry, there should be a happy ending. Should. Most probably. Hopefully... no, there will be. I think. I'm not very good at reassuring you, am I?

Ebony umbreon: Oh my god! Hahahaha! I can't believe you actually thought that! I burst out laughing in my dead silent living room when I read that, haha. Oh wow. That is so gross. Haha... well, anyway, I've got no idea where the Chen thing came from. He's not in this. At all. Did you think he was Soren? I think Amber thought he was Soren. He isn't. As for the ice cream scoop, he just made sure to bring it with him, he's been planning this, y'know. Also, unsettling, having an uneasy fear of getting your eye stabbed out with a fork... when my older brother and sister were little, my sister was annoying my brother during dinner, so he grabbed his fork and stabbed her in the eye. The only reason she didn't lose said eye was because she blinked at the exact right moment. So... yeah... I probably shouldn't have told you that... I'm so sorry.

Chapter Twenty-Six:

Tears

When they were dragged into the hall of cells, the prisoners raised their heads only because of the sounds of a struggle. Gasps and exclamations almost immediately lit the hall with noise, and the word Ninja was thrown to and fro between the cells.

Lloyd watched as Zane, Nya and Jay were thrown into one cell, while Cole, Kai and himself were thrown into the one beside them. His skin caught and tore on the rough stone of the floor, a pained hiss leaving his lips as the cell door was slammed shut behind them.

He raised his head, hands bound in vengestone chains, glaring the best he could at the silent guards through the haze of his concussion. They turned and left without a word, and there was the distant slam of the door closing.

"Lloyd!"

He was almost certain his heart had stopped. Lloyd's head snapped towards the sound of the voice, just in time for Nelson to ram into him in a bruise forming hug.

"You've come to rescue us!" his voice was loud in his ear, and Lloyd winced as it caused his head to spike, but that didn't stop him from returning the hug. Albeit not as forcefully.

There was a gasp, quickly followed by a scream. Startled, Lloyd jumped, Nelson still in his arms, and twisted around to see Nya pulling Jay's bloody head into her lap on the other side of the bars. She was whispering things he couldn't catch, carefully cleaning the blood from his face with a ripped cloth that appeared to have come from her own shirt, a ball of water in her palm. It was slightly awkward with her wrists chained together, but she was managing.

Nelson gasped, and Lloyd was quick to block his view.

Zane hovered over their injured brother, his eyes flashing as he scanned him. Jay groaned, but didn't wake up, his face grimacing in pain even in sleep. The kidnapped civilians began to whisper and mutter to each other, the eyes of children hastily being covered.

A hand curled around Lloyd's arm, and his eyes met with Cole's. He gently pushed Nelson back, before throwing Lloyd's arms around his shoulder and helping him stand, quite an awkward task if he said so himself. Almost immediately, Lloyd's legs began to shake and his vision flashed white. Grunting, he fell, but Cole was able to catch him before he hit the floor, and would have winced had he been human and felt the chains cutting into his neck.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Cole decided to screw it and scooped Lloyd up, one arm sliding under his knee and his other around his back, his own deepstone chain tightening painfully and holding firm. On any other occasion, Lloyd would have been enraged, or at the very least embarrassed. But as of that moment, he was too tired to care.

Cole sat him down against the bars linking theirs and the others cells, a cold drop of water slipping down his collar and sliding down his spine like a chilling finger. The bars were terribly uncomfortable, but Lloyd doubted the rough walls would be any better.

He watched with a muddled brain as Cole dragged an unconscious Kai to sit next to him, checking his pulse and letting out a relieved breath when he was able to find it. Cole rearranged their red brother's limbs so he was more comfortable (as comfortable as you could get in their current position, anyway), before sitting back on his haunches and, after a moment of wondering what he should do now, sighed and sat down on Lloyd's other side.

"Are... Are you okay?"

Lloyd cracked open an eye, wondering, at the back of his mind, when he'd closed them. A woman, fairly pretty, had spoken, casting a concerned gaze over the three injured ninja.

"We'll be fine," Lloyd croaked, almost automatically. Beside him, Cole shifted, but didn't disagree.

His eyes found Nelson, who was watching them with wide eyes, his face stark white. A young Serpentine- a Hypnobrai, he remembered- was whispering to him, but Nelson didn't seem to be listening. The Hypnobrai was strangely familiar, but Lloyd couldn't put his finger on why.

"Let me see him," at the new voice, Lloyd struggled to turn around, shifting so he could peek through the bars behind him. A man in the others cell had approached Jay, Zane and Nya, who were shooting him weary looks. He sent them a small smile.

"It's alright, I'm a doctor."

After sharing a look with each other, then with Cole, Nya and Zane reluctantly allowed the doctor to come closer. He knelt beside Jay, placing a hand on his forehead. Lloyd watched as he readjusted limbs, peered into the hole where his eye had once been. At one point, he took the rag from Nya and whipped away some of the dry blood.

The doctor spoke as he worked, telling them what he was doing, but there were too many confusing words and technical terms that Lloyd's concussed brain couldn't keep up. He instead took to watching, even if he couldn't properly understand what was going on. He'd just have to trust the others to make sure the doctor didn't do more harm than good.

Eventually, he heard Kai groan beside him, and turned to face him just as he blearily opened his eyes. Sitting up stiffly, Kai rubbed at what was probably a very sore neck, looking around in a confused haze that Lloyd was almost certain he himself had been wearing for most of the night.

"Wha... What's happened?" Kai asked, tongue thick in his mouth.

"You got knocked upside the head," said Cole, not unkindly, "Be careful. We're not sure how bad the damage is."

With another groan, Kai laid his head back against the bars, closing his eyes. Lloyd glanced at Cole, before returning his attention to the doctor, just in time to see him pulling away from Jay, who was sporting a makeshift bandage-cloth over his bloody socket.

"I'm afraid that's the best I can do," the doctor sighed, "It should stop it getting infected, at the very least," he glanced at Lloyd, then Kai, "I can take a look at you two, if you want."

"I'm fine," said Lloyd, weakly gesturing to Kai, "Check him."

Zane, Nya and Cole sent him looks that he wasn't bothered to decipher. The doctor seemed unconvinced, but said nothing. He arranged Jay into a straight out position the best he could with such an uneven and uncomfortable floor (which, Lloyd registered at the back of his mind, was digging into his bum and thighs), his head levitated on Nya's lap, before standing up and making his way over to the bars.

"Could you lay him out for me?" he asked, "So I can see him better."

Cole stood, making his way over to Kai, and knelt next to him. Gently taking him by the shoulders, and muttering that it was only him when he stiffened, Cole laid Kai against his chest, so that he faced sideways to the bars. The doctor peered through, his face pressed against the cold metal, and frowned.

"Those burns need ointment," he said, "And from that bruise, he could have a concussion."

"He was taking painkillers," Zane supplied, "I believe we were told to apply an ointment to his burns twice a day."

"Does he have it with him?" the doctor asked, "They could get infected if we don't put ointment on them. Especially since we don't know how long we'll be here."

Lloyd shared a worrisome look with Cole. When Kai made no move to answer, his even breathing signalling he'd fallen asleep again, Cole began to dig his hands into his pockets. He came up with a lighter (as far as Lloyd knew, Kai didn't smoke (Wu and Misako would kill him even if he did), but he'd told him that it was always handy to have a lighter on you; Lloyd suspected he just thought it was cool), a ripped piece of paper and a candy wrapper. But no ointment.

"Great," sighed Nya, "Just great."

"But it's okay, right?" piped up Nelson, "You came to get us out of here, didn't you? This is all a part of your master plan?"

Lloyd shared a look with Cole, not sure what to say. He twisted a little to look at Zane and Nya, the nindroid giving him a sad frown and Nya simply shaking her head. He glanced at the Jay, who's breathing was off and ragged, then to Kai, who was in even worse condition, his face a grimace of pain.

Reluctantly, he turned back to Nelson, who looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. Lloyd's head spiked.

"We, uh..." he grimaced, rubbing at his temples, "We're working on it."

Nelson's face fell, and he stepped closer to the Hypnobrai- who, Lloyd abruptly realised, was none other than Skales Jr. Taken aback, he dropped his hand back to his side.

"Skales Jr?" he said, the Serpentines head snapping towards him, "Skales's kid?"

Jr scowled at him, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Lloyd ignored the comment, twisting around and peering through the bars of the cells. People were crowded around them, trying to get a look at the Ninja, their eyes just as wide and hopeful as Nelson's had been. Lloyd swallowed thickly. There were no Serpentine.

"Lloyd?" Cole said, directing the green ninja's attention to him, "What is it?"

He didn't answer, sitting there for a long moment, his throbbing brain taking a moment to process his own thoughts. Again, he rubbed at his temples, but it did very little to help. He'd been doing that a lot, lately.

"There's no Serpentine here," he said, finally, turning his gaze to Skales Jr. Cole shared a confused look with Zane and Nya. "How did you get in here, Skales?"

Skales Jr blinked at him, his eyes briefly connecting with Nelson's, before they both, in near perfect unison, turned back to face Lloyd.

"He, uh," he poked Nelson in the shoulder, "He snuck me in."

"He snuck you in?" said Cole; then, to Nelson, "You snuck him in?"

Sucking on his bottom lip, Nelson nodded. Bile rose to the back of Lloyd's throat.

"How?" he croaked.

The two kids looked at each other again, seemingly unsure how to answer. Behind him, the doctor spoke him, startling him.

"When we were brought in," the doctor said, "We were all put into this large room, the Serpentine and us. Then more of these Basilisk's came in and took the Serpentine away... as though they were animals."

"They had tranquillizer guns," a teenager spoke up, who Lloyd quickly realised was the one that had been in the back of the van with Nelson. What was his name again? Henry? "They shot anyone that struggled or tries to stop them."

"Anyone that got in their way," said a woman quietly. She was hugging two children, a boy and a girl, one on either side. Twins. Lloyd blinked at them dully, recognising them at the back of his mind, but not fully registering it.

"They had these stick things with shiny hoops at the end," explained Nelson, trying- and failing- to draw a picture of them with his finger in thin air, "And they'd wrap the hooks around the Serpentine's necks and drag them away."

Skales Jr scuffed the uneven floor with a foot, crossing his arms, "Nelson gave me his ninja suit to hide my face."

"It's called a gi," Nelson corrected.

Cole raised an eyebrow, "How long have you two known each other?"

"We were left in that room for hours," said the mother, "We had even begun tossing about escape plans. We didn't really get anywhere, though."

"What did you see?" asked Zane.

"Not a lot," said a man Lloyd didn't know, "The room was big, but bare. The door was made of iron and we couldn't hear anything on the other side," he shook his head, "They took us in groups. First the Serpentine, then us."

"What do you mean by groups?" Cole questioned, as the doctor began to feel Kai's forehead, chest and back for a temperature.

A woman answered this time, a baby cradled in her arms, "They'd come in, usually in twos or threes, and take eight of us. I don't know what they did with the Serpentine, but we were brought here."

"A guard came by a few hours ago," piped the teenager, a tad nervously, "He threw bread into our cells and then left."

"That's it?" asked Nya, "Just a bit of bread for you's to share?"

The mother gave her a smile that didn't reach her eyes, hugging her twins closer, "We split it between the kids."

Nya returned the small smile, then lowered her head, beginning to pick the dried blood out of Jay's hair, the smile immediately falling. Cole frowned at her, then turned back to Kai, shifting him into a more comfortable position against his chest.

"Can you do anything for him?" he asked the doctor.

The doctor sighed, adjusting his glasses, "If we must, we can redo his bandages with a clean cloth, but other than that, I'm afraid all I can really do is try to make him comfortable to the best of my ability in these circumstances."

Lloyd sighed, pressing his forehead to the cool bars. It felt nice against his pounding temple and reduced his headache, if only slightly. He spotted Cole and the doctor exchanging looks, but opted to ignore it and close his eyes.

He must have been half asleep when he felt someone tapping him on the shoulder, forcing him back to awareness far sooner than he would have liked. Lloyd cracked open his eyes, scowling, and was met with the almost stern face of the doctor.

"Let me check you." Even with the drill whirring away at the inside of his skull, Lloyd was well aware that this was not a request.

He didn't protest when the doctor pulled a key chain out of his pants pocket, the metal clang loud even over the quiet murmur of the other prisoners. He selected something red and oval shaped, holding it in his hand and leaving everything else on the key chain to dangle.

"I'm going to shine this in your eye," he said, holding up the oval thing, "Don't close them, okay?"

He didn't wait for an answer, and Lloyd wondered if he'd even expected him to give one. The doctor pressed the button with his thumb, and a bright, white light blinded his vision. Lloyd grunted, automatically clenching his eyes shut and leaning away from the light, the pain in his forehead pounding anew against his brain with even more force than before.

A metallic hand gripped his chin, forcing him to turn his head.

"You have to keep your eyes open, Lloyd."

He gritted his teeth, pressing his forehead against the cool bars. After a moment, he braced himself and forced his eyes open. The doctor had ceased the light, but seeing this he leant forwards, reaching a hand through the bars to keep one of his eyelids open.

The light was shone in his eyes again, and the one Lloyd was able to close did so almost immediately. He tried to lean away again, but Zane's hand kept his head in place. It felt like an eternity before the doctor pulled the light away and tucked his key chain back in his pocket, but in reality, it couldn't have been more than a minute.

"Concussion," the doctor confirmed, "A bruise on the brain, either on the forehead or somewhere at the back. It's hard to tell without the right equipment."

He glanced from Zane to Cole, since they were the only two that were uninjured. Nya was listening, but she said nothing, something that would have worried Lloyd had he been in the right state of mind to properly acknowledge it.

"There's nothing I can do for him either," the doctor sighed, giving them a regretful look, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," said Cole, "It's..." he seemed to try and think of something else to say, but he came up with nothing. He simply shook his head. "It's alright."

"No," the doctor sighed again, sitting back and regarding the Ninja with a mournful gaze. He turned his eyes to the uneven floor, staring at a small dark puddle in a groove without seeing it.

"I don't think it is."

Echo trembled, huddled into a tight ball. His dulled eyes watched the man with something akin to terror, heart giving off broken, uneven little ticks. The man didn't seem to notice, or maybe he just didn't care.

"You know," Echo jumped at the sudden speaking, heart ticking louder. If the man noticed, he ignored it, "You look nothing like Zane."

He didn't answer, tongue stuck in his throat. The man continued without fuss.

"It makes me wonder how those idiots actually mistook you for him," said the man. Besides his voice, the helli-ship was surprisingly quiet, with nothing but the hum of the jets. "You're not even made of titanium. Hell," he laughed, "You're hardly more than an old fashioned clock."

Again, Echo gave no answer, huddling deeper into his ball. The net that had dragged him onto the ship was still wrapped around him, and he wasn't sure whether or not he was grateful for this. It made him feel safe, if only slightly, as though it were a forcefield protecting him from the man and wherever he was being taken. A shudder ran up his spine and, had he been able to, he would have been crying.

He didn't want to go back to the labyrinth. To make matters worse, he wouldn't even have Kaze.

That terrified him even more than the man did.

For a moment, there was nothing but the faint hum of the jets. The man snorted.

"You probably don't even know what I'm saying," he looked up at the little mirror above the console, watching him in the reflection, "You're nothing more than a dumb machine. Why the hell were they so desperate to get you back?"

Once more, Echo gave no answer. None even came to mind. The man didn't seem to be expecting one, though, for he shook his head slowly. He turned a little in his seat, looking over his shoulder at him. Echo's heart ticked ever faster, turning into a rock and tangling his circuits. He leant further against the wall, as though that would shield him from the man's gaze.

To his surprise, however, the man wasn't sneering or jeering or being all that nasty. If anything, he looked curious, maybe even a bit sympathetic. His hair was streaked green.

He wanted Kaze.

"But maybe you weren't always like this," the man muttered, more to himself than Echo, "Maybe he just... broke you."

They stared at each other. Then, as though snapping himself from his own thoughts, the man returned to the console.

He didn't speak again.

Echo buried his head in his knees. When he spoke, his voice was a whisper, hardly audible even to his own ears. The man didn't even turn.

"Hello, ma baby... hello, ma honey. Hello, ma ragtime gal. Send me a kiss by wire... honey, my heart's on fire..." something shifted behind his eyes, like a ball that had been trying to squeeze itself through a cube-shaped hole all its life finally finding the right slot.

"If you refuse me, honey you'll lose me, then you'll be left alone... oh baby, telephone..." he clenched his eyes shut, raising a fist to his eyelid, singing past the lump in his throat "And tell me I's your own."

He cried.

Yes, Echo is properly crying, real tears and all. No, he could not do this before because, for the past few years, he has been severely broken because of the skeleton shooting him. It is only now, after being rearranged not once but twice (once by Soren in form of torture and twice because of Kaze trying to fix him), and after being hit on the head a few times, that it has 'fallen back into place,' you could say. It'll be explained properly later.

Anyway, I forgot to say this in the last Movie Mode chapter, but I'll be going on a cruise next week, and so won't be updating. I don't know if I'll be able to update this or Movie Mode before I have to leave, but hopefully, I will, we'll just have to wait and see.

Also, Echo was singing Zane's song, if you hadn't realised. I googled the lyrics and it turns out it was made in 1899 and originally sung by Arthur Collins. I don't see why Echo shouldn't know the song as well, especially since I headcannon that it had been their 'mothers' (or second father, you never know) favourite song. In other words, Julian had loved someone who loved that song, but they died and so he shared it with his sons in her/his/their/whatever's memory.

So... yeah...

Next time on Empty Echoes: Echo finally sees some friendly faces, the White Rags make a return, and the Ninja are taken somewhere new. Stay tuned!