Review Replies:
Ninalb: I actually just saw the movie this afternoon and I loved it! I have some online friends that like Ninjago too that are the same age and older than me (one's just turned seventeen). It's good to know that no matter what people say, there are others out there that like this show, and even if there weren't, there's nothing wrong with it ::D
TheAmberShadow: Pffff, yeah, must be XXD I am so sorry that I'm not sorry XXD Jerhys' reasons are far deeper than what you might originally think. Thank you so much! I'm gonna need it, that's for sure. And what happened to Jay, my friend, is what is called a panic attack.
EchoZane: Here is your next chapter! Super early ::D
StoriesAreMagic: *wraps you in blanket* I loved the 'holy moly' part.
Isabella camovic: Yes, I remember, don't worry. You shall see. Thank you! That seriously means a lot ::D My insides are warm. No, Jay isn't going insane or passing out. That was a panic attack. And yes, Echo is about to be sacrificed- once they 'convert their sins' into him. It's okay, I fogrive you for review Movie Mode, but please don't do it again.
CrazyRedmanelion: You shall have to wait and see ::) Jay hasn't gone nuts. That was a panic attack, with flashbacks. A rather brutal one.
FanArt Samurai: Oh, uh, well. The Basilisks are putting Echo against a load of monsters to transfer their sins into him by forcing him to kill and then feeding those sins to an even bigger monster that has thus far been undefeatable. Jay also had a panic attack, and the Basilisks don't like gays.
TheUnitedWritersVXN: Nope. Panic attack.
Ebony umbreon: No. No, it is not okay.
AB: Glad you like it! ::D
SUPER EARLY UPDATE! I JUST SAW THE NINJAGO MOVIE AND IT WAS FANTASTIC!
Chapter Thirty:
Rage
Echo trembled. His breathing came out in ragged gasps. The noise was loud and deafening, to the point that it shook his metallic skull and vibrated in his clockwork chest. It was almost as though he were at a concert of sorts, except the music was an ear-bleeding, uneven rhythm of banging pots, sticks and weapons.
He felt small. Tiny. More so than he'd ever felt in his entire life. Every pair of eyes was glued onto him, glinting with a bloodthirsty hungry, grinning with rotten teeth. Abruptly wishing to return to the room, Echo turned, just as the doors banged shut. The lock slid into place with a finalizing clang.
A small step backwards. Something crunched beneath his heel. A bone, concealed in the sand. Echo's heart ticked in his ears. He scrambled away from it, trembling, shaking, gasping. A mask of green and silver, staring down at him from above, tearing him apart piece by piece, gear by gear, with mangled, mutilated hands.
Tears slipped from his eyes and trickled down his newly repaired cheeks, fogged yellow desperately locking on his big brother, so close and yet so far. A whimper passed his lips. Some of the Black Rags had begun to laugh, jeering, pointing inky, mocking fingers at him.
The man with the face of a snake raised a scarred fist, and Echo flinched when he spoke, "Let us burrow our sins into this machine with the ticking heart! Let us give it our sins and cleanse ourselves! Let us feed the beast!"
Impossibly, the noise increased. They were chanting, a chant that made Echo's breath freeze in his throat.
"Feed the beast! Feed the beast! Feed the beast!"
He stepped back, ticking in his ears, ticking in his head, tears streaming rivers down his cheeks as the door on the opposite end of the arena began to crank open, the slow turn of giant gears, the metal bar holding it in place retracting. His back hit the cold metal of the closed door.
And for a moment, there was nothing. The noise stopped. No one breathed. For a moment, not even his heart ticked.
Then came an ungodly screech of pain and terror and mad rage. Then came another, and another, until it was a chorus of screams and screams and screams from throats that weren't human.
Something emerged from the shadows of the cage, covered in dried blood, with one wild yellow eye and a second neck that flopped about uselessly. Its claws were cracked and broken, its long fangs snapped and jagged, its red scales a mess of infected wounds leaking pus and half-healed scars.
Echo had read about the Serpentine, and at the back of his stunned brain of cogs and gears, he recognised it as a Fangpyre, despite the lack of a second head. Serpentine were humanoid, could speak, could communicate with humans, could build and create and live and laugh and love.
In the past few- how long has it been? Days? Weeks? Months?- Echo has been more terrified than he's ever been before. He's almost drowned- twice- and he's been torn apart and put back together, he's watched crimson liquid spill from throats, he's been grabbed and dragged and thrown from place to place again and again and again.
And all those times Echo had screamed. He'd scrambled away, tried to run, cried and curled into a ball. All those times, Echo's heart had ticked so fast it might as well have burst out of his chest in an explosion of cogs and gears and springs.
But this time, Echo didn't scream. He didn't even move. He just stood. Staring. Not even realising that his heart had stopped ticking.
Then, from the shadows of the cage, stumbled forth more Serpentine- a Venomari without arms, a Constrictai that's mouth had been chopped down to nothing but a gaping hole, a Hypnobrai without eyes. Covered in scars and wounds and pus and their own urine, stumbling out into the light like confused animals, screeching that awful screech.
"My Basilisks!" the man with the mutilated hands yelled over the terrible screeching, pointing his middle finger- for he had no index- down at the nindroid below, "Transfer your sins!"
The Black Rags burst into noise. Echo's eyes met the one-headed Fangpyre's.
The Serpentine gave a godawful screech- and ran right towards him.
Only then did Echo scream.
He leapt to the side at the last minute, sand spraying into his eyes. The Fangpyre ran right past him, skidding to a stop and sliding, digging a clawed hang into the sand, insane eyes locked on the nindroid. It screeched again, strings of blood and saliva connecting its jagged teeth, and charged.
Heart ticking so fast it was impossible to tell one tick from another, Echo rolled to the side, but the Fangpyre skidded again and scrambled towards him, screeching, gnashing fangs, on all fours. Echo gasped, scrambling away, hands sliding on loose sand.
He kicked the snake in the face, but then it latched its teeth onto his foot, denting metal, crushing the gears in his ankle, and Echo let loose a loud scream as agony shot through his leg. Raising his other leg, he gave the monster a hard kick in its deformed extra neck, right in a badly stitched wound that looked red and shiny and swollen, and with a tremendous screech of pain it released his ankle.
Echo rolled onto his stomach and scrambled to his feet, almost collapsing as pain flared through his crushed ankle, and stumbled away from the screaming Fangpyre as fast as he could. Another screech had his head snapping to the side, just in time to see the armless Venomari charging towards him.
Screaming, Echo tripped over his own feet, and the Venomari rammed right into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Desperate, he pushed at its bloody chest, fangs gnashing in his face, trying to keep it out of bite reach.
A Constrictai, this one with a badly broken arm and a slash going down its back, rammed into the armless Venomari, knocking it off Echo, and bit down on its neck. The Venomari gurgled, twitching and gasping, red liquid leaking from its mouth and throat, staining the sand and the Constrictai's muzzle. With a violent jerk of its head and a disgusting squelch, the Constrictai tore out the Venomari's throat in a spray of red.
Trembling, Echo struggled to his feet, and had he been human he was certain he would have vomited. The Constrictai licked its lips and latched onto the Venomari's neck, chewing and tearing and gulping scaled flesh in a crimson mess.
A Hypnobrai barged into him, blindly clawing at his face, screeching, screeching in his ears. Echo yelled, a claw catching on his eye and cracking it, and with tears blurring his vision and a sob caught in his throat, he shoved as hard as he could, sending the blind creature stumbling backwards, screeching in a confused haze.
Echo ran.
A Fangpyre, this one with its twin hearts exposed in its chest, twisting and thumping with every pump of blood, appeared in front of him in a spray of sand. Echo skidded to a stop, twisting around and running in a different direction, only to gasp as a Constrictai with its horns hacked off and scales peeled back slouched towards him, a rumbling growl in the back of its throat.
A wind picked up, blowing sand right into the insane snake's eyes, and with a bellowing screeched it clawed at its face, red streaking across its scales as it tore at its own flesh. Its left eyeball appeared on the end of its curved claw.
The Fangpyre with the exposed hearts leapt at him from behind with twin shrieks, and with a shriek of his own Echo lunged to the side, face planting the ground, sand in his mouth and eyes. The two-headed monster hit the Constrictai, and they both toppled into the sand.
A Hypnobrai, limbs so twisted they hardly function, stumbled towards him in an uncoordinated dash. Echo screamed and desperately scrambled through the sand, the monster looming over him with blood stained teeth, mouth open in a screech of anger. His hand curled around something thin and curved, and without thought Echo clenched his eyes shut and jabbed it at the incoming monster.
The Hypnobrai halted in its tracks, gurgling. Slowly, Echo opened his eyes, coming face to face with the twisted monster. A drop of blood dripped from its fang, landing on the tip of Echo's nose. It slumped sideways, and the jagged blade slid out of the snake's stomach.
The blade fell into the dust from still, red stained fingers. Blood stained the sand, pooling around the dying monster, and a single, raspy gasp marked its end. Its chest stilled. Yellow eyes, glazed, unseeing, stared up at the steadily darkening sky.
A snowflake landed atop the blood on Echo's nose.
He stared at his hands, streaked with red, startled more than anything else. Slowly, he raised his eyes to the immobile monster.
Biological beings cannot be repaired.
Cheering. Screaming. All around him. Fogged yellow looked up, up to the balcony, locking with the dark holes of the green and silver snake mask. He could almost sense the man's smile. Could see the Ninja, stilling their struggles. Staring at what he had done. What he's done before.
Echo stepped back, heart ticking, ticking, ticking as fast as a running hare. The Ninja did not kill. They fought, they injured, they've almost been killed, but never have they purposefully thrust a blade into a stomach, nor have they cracked the bones in a neck. Even if they got out of this, even if they escaped, they would send him away, back to the lighthouse, and even Gizmo will leave him-
Time was endless. Nothing. He simply floated, without a single conception of how long he'd been there, with no memory of how he got there or if there was even a way out, if he'd ever before done anything other than just float among the nothing.
He wasn't bored. He wasn't tired, sad, angry or happy. He wasn't content, but he wasn't upset either. He wasn't panicking and scrambling for a way out. Maybe, he wondered, he was just as much a nothing as everything around him.
-Claws clung to his side, fangs digging into his shoulder and tearing at metal, exposing wires and cogs and gears that had previously been hidden. Without even realising he'd started screaming, Echo tore himself away from the Serpentine and ran blindly in the opposite direction. Run, run, run, run away, even though there was nowhere to run to, even though he'd tire, even though they would catch him when he did-
To say the least, he was startled when he felt something, rummaging inside his chest. He couldn't see, hear, move nor smell, and up until now he hadn't been able to feel either. Then there was fire, fire everywhere, melting the metal from his exoskeleton, scorching his wires, disfiguring his gears. He screamed a silent scream, burning, burning, and though he were terrified his heart remained still.
-Echo reached the wall, and with a stumbling leap he stuck to its side and began to run up it, duly registering that the shouting had increased. Claws and fangs and shrieks nipped at his heels, hungry, hungry, the desire to tear him apart-
It could have taken hours, years, perhaps only seconds, but Echo regained awareness bit by bit. He registered the soft ticks and tocks of his clockwork heart, the wood beneath him, the whispers around him. Most of all, he registered the fire that exploded within his metallic skull, a gaping hole of wires and gears and sparks, a bullet lodged deep inside like a tumour.
-He reached the top, tipped with spikes, but in that moment the monsters trying to claw up the wall after him were a lot more terrifying. He grabbed the spikes, ignoring how they scraped and tore at his hands and fingers, moving to haul himself over, but then the Black Rags were pooling in front of him, shouting, whacking and poking with sticks and pans, and Echo lost his grip and fell, fell into the monsters-
"I can't believe we forgot about this thing."
"Oh, please, would you just look at it? It's a piece of useless junk. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been shot."
"But Lord Garmadon wants it repaired. An army of robot would be pretty cool, huh?"
A whack. The clang of metal. A yelp.
"We're Garmadon's army, you nitwit. You want replaced?"
"Okay, okay, jeez. So how are we gonna repair this thing?"
"Uh… maybe it has an instruction manual."
Claws tore at wires, fangs snapped at clockwork. A mouth latched around Echo's hand, and in a brutal spray of sparks and snapping wires and crunching metal, tore it off. Teeth bit into his arm, his legs, claws ripping at his face, his eyes, and Echo screamed and screamed and screamed as he was torn apart, again, again, again-
Hands, on his arms and legs. Grunting, huffs from the effort of carrying something heavy. A short wall, the back of his torn open head smacking against wood. The crash of waves. Air tinged with salt. It reminded him of someplace warm and friendly, a caring smile that never reached the eyes, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
Snow fell from the sky, wet and slushy. A Venomari screeched as some landed on top of its head, startled by the sudden cold, and scrambled away to run in a circle, screeching in outright confusion. A wind picked up, stronger, stronger, and the monsters stopped their hungry attack to scream, stumbling away, shrinking and curling in on themselves as though to protect their half destroyed bodies.
Echo lay, curled into a ball, trembling, crying and sobbing loudly and covered in flaming agony. Cold, slushy snow splattered across his broken body, and through the haze of confused voices and screeching, he saw the man in the green and silver mask had turned his back to the arena, was pointing a finger at his brother, who appeared just as startled as everyone else, who's eyes were locked on Echo-
The gentle rocking of a departing ship. The crash of waves, the screech of seagulls. It lulled him in and out of consciousness in something that he couldn't remember the name of. Forgotten thoughts and feelings and memories dashed in and out of his damaged brain, always just out of reach, dancing upon his fingertips.
"I'm not even sure he'll be able to fix it-"
"Of course he'll be able to fix it! He built it after all, didn't he?"
The man spun around to face the arena again, mangled hands clenched into enraged fists. In a single, fluid motion he raised one of his fists and banged it against the railing, rattling it, cracking it, causing one of the spikes to break off and fall, crushing a Fangpyre in a spray of guts and crimson blood. "Feed the beast! FEED THE BEAST! FEED THE BEAST!"
The crowd began to chant, drowning the confused murmuring, banging fists and pots and sticks and swords, hooting and whooping and pointing with almost demanding tones, "Feed the beast! Feed the beast! Feed the beast!"
"There's no one here!"
"What do you mean there's no one here?"
"He's gone! Just- gone! Where's that bloody monster?"
"It's gone too!"
"Oh, that's just great. Garmadon's gonna have our bones for dinner."
"Wouldn't that technically make him a cannibal? We are human skeletons."
"You think that guy's human? He's got four arms, red eyes and while I'm racist or anything, no one is supposed to be that black."
"Yeah, it looks like his skin's been charred or something."
"Like he's been struck by lightning?"
"Lightning doesn't do that to people, doofus."
"What should we do with the robot?"
"Just leave it here. The seagulls can have at it for all I care."
Choking on a sob, Echo pushed himself up onto his elbows, shrugging off a layer of slushy snow. His left arm sparked and trembled, wires poking out in place of his hand. He couldn't even see where it went.
Across the arena, through a small blizzard of falling snow, a third door began to creak open. Bolt after bolt after bolt retracted, the clank and clatter of releasing chains, the click of an opening lock. Then nothing.
Silence stretched, with nothing but the howling wind, the impossible fall of snow in the middle of the desert. Out the corner of his eye, Echo saw a Constrictai rip open the dead Hypnobrai's stomach, tossing out guts and bones and a long string of intestines, before crawling inside and burrowing within its belly for warmth.
Then the doors burst open so suddenly that even the crowd gasped and screamed, a giant snake with scales of green and silver, and intelligent eyes of bright orange, fangs longer than Echo's whole body and a head almost as big as the doors it had squeezed through. The basilisk raised its mighty head to squint at the falling snow, an angry hiss leaving its maw as it was assaulted by sudden blasts of cold wind. It opened its mouth with strings of saliva, and screeched so loud that Echo's head spun and his ears rang.
Cheers burst forth as the beast silenced. Orange eyes went from Serpentine to Serpentine, from Black Rag to Black Rag, and then finally to Echo. Its scaly lips twisted in a vicious snarl, an undying hunger entering its orange eyes-
Nothing. Nothing but the steady pound in his brain, the crash of waves, the song of seagulls. It was almost peaceful, almost familiar, and yet he couldn't remember why.
The quiet whir of spinning wheels zipping towards him. A questioning beep, a familiar boop. A clawed hand brushed against the hole in his forehead.
The basilisk shot forwards, quicker than lightning, louder than thunder. A Venomari screeched a fearful screech, right before it was torn apart by giant fangs and gulped down a long throat. A Hypnobrai, whimpering in the sand and snow- then a bloody mess that stained it red.
Echo leant against the wall, attempting to crawl up it, but he hardly got one step before he was falling back into the snow with a pained gasp. The giant snake cut a small crater in the mix of snow and sand as it moved, leaving behind a bloody trail as it launched and snapped at the mutilated Serpentine, their dying screeches ringing in the air, the cheer of the crowd and the screams of the Ninja.
His heart ticked, ticked, ticked in his ears. Half blind by the snow, fingers and toes numb from the cold, all he could do was lay there, tears streaming down torn cheeks, and watch as the basilisk slaughtered the broken Serpentine-
Zane woke on a stony beach. He blinked, slowly, with eyelids that struggled to move. A bleep off to the side, and he moved his too stiff neck to turn his head, flopping in the gravel. A little robot, about the size of a small cat, stared at him with two little eyes. Those little eyes lit up upon locking with his, and clawed hands were thrown into the air in celebration.
"He-He-oooo," he tried to speak, but his voice came off raspy and hard to understand. He tried again. "I-I aaaaa 'Aaaaaane."
The little robot bleeped, placing a clawed hand to his metallic, uncooperating lips. It cocked its head to the side, and had it had a mouth, Zane thought that perhaps it would have been smiling at him. It was only then that he realised the pounding in his brain was absent. Tools were scattered along the stony beach. How odd.
The Basilisk twisted, scaly lips stained crimson, orange eyes darting around for another meal. They landed on Echo. It bared its long fangs in a brutal grin, dripping with blood and saliva, an unidentifiable Serpentine's arm stuck between its bottom teeth.
Then it lunged. With a scream that tore at Echo's throat, the nindroid forced himself onto unstable feet and leapt out of the way, sand and snow getting in his mouth and eyes, and the basilisk smashed into the wall, cracking sandstone, dislodging spikes. It tore its teeth from the wall with an enraged shriek, just in time to spot a Black Rag losing their balance and falling after a spike- its jaws snapped shut around them before they could even muster a scream.
Panic, chaos erupting upon the balcony. Echo stumbled to his feet, gritting teeth, vision blurred with tears, and stuttered forwards only to collapse upon a mound of snow. He squinted through the snowflakes, peering towards the balcony, just in time to see Zane, unchained, sock the man in the snake mask right in the mouth.
Then the Coloured Rags were dashing forth, grabbing him, throwing him to the ground, and despite his efforts, Zane was done within moments, pounded into the floor. Echo's eyes widened and he screamed, louder than he's ever screamed before, and something snapped within his chest, something bubbled in his gut, spiking in his wired veins like venom, and the snow around him began to melt, the sun burst forth in a blazing heat, and Echo's eyes blazed with the emotion that he had felt so little, had hardly thought himself capable of, the wind whirling around him like a destructive shield.
Somewhere, the basilisk shrieked. But Echo didn't care. His clockwork heart was ticking faster than it had ever ticked before. Something rushed in his ears, blinded his vision, had his teeth gritting and his one hand curling into a fist so tight that his nails scraped his metallic surface. It bubbled in his gut, blazed in his veins, and melted the snow surrounding him.
Rage.
Come to the dark side.
Heh, I'm just joking. Echo's not gonna become evil or anything. He's just really mad that a bunch of people are beating up his brother.
So... have any of you figured out the snow?
I've also decided not to give this story a regular update schedual because it's only got about two or three chapters left. However, for it's sequal, there is likely to be a proper update schedual.
Until next time!
(NINJAG MOVIE WAS AMAZING AAAAAAAHHHHHH)