Review Replies:
TheAmberShadow: Haha, it's fine XXD Been a while since I udpated this anyway, so I'm not surprised you didn't notice. Yup! Echo does indeed have elemental powers, although he doesn't exactly have the best control over them. Wu and Misako will be talking about it in the next chapter. Yeah, Julian thought Echo was gone. And how do you tell your son that you built a replica of him in a desperate attempt to get him back? How do you tell your son that this replica was taken away? How do you tell your son that you tried to replace him? Julian has many secrets. Echo was only one of them.
EchoZane: Kaze actually appears next chapter! And he'll be coming back in Crooked Clockwork, the Empty Echoes sequel. Glad you enjoyed the chapter!
StoriesAreMagic: The snow is not from Zane ::)
CrazyRedmanelion: You're close! Echo can't control ice, but he does have an elemental power. A rather powerful one, actually.
Isabella camovic: Echo's not unlocking an ice power. He's actually been using his powers throughout the whole story- since the very first chapter. As for another tickle scene, I might consider one for the sequel, but not the epilogue. Basilisk isn't an 'evil cult' exactly, but... yeah. There'll be more on their history in the sequel. A puppy robot's a rather cute idea, but I don't want readers to think Echo's actually getting a puppy, let alone a robotic one. If anything, his 'animal companion' is Gizmo. I haven't got any other Echo-Zane stories planned besides the sequel, but I'm likely to make more! ::)
FanArt Samurai: *snort* Yeah, he... does some rather brutal things.
Guest124: There shall indeed be a sappy reunion.
AB: Yes, indeed, Echo is an Elemental Master. Yeah, Julian didn't intentionally abandon Echo- he thought he was dead, or gone for good, at the very least. Yeah, poor Serpentine ::( At least Skales Jr didn't join them.
Smile4the-World: Haha, thanks! None of those Serpentine were criminals- they were just normal Serpentine living peacefully beneath Ninjago City in Skales' clan, and were tortured into blind insanity by Basilisk. Zane didn't actually get himself free, he was freed- you'll find out how eventually. Glad you're enjoying the story!
Ebony umbreon: You're really close! Zane never broke himself free, but you'll find out how he got out of his chains eventually. Echo's not an ice weilder- Zane can create ice, but he can't actually make it snow like Echo has. In fact, Echo's been using his powers through the whole story. Even in the first chapter. He can create more than just snow.
Chapter Thirty-One:
Wishes
It all happened so quickly. So suddenly. Yet at the same time, it lasted forever.
Wind roared in his ears, so loud he could hardly hear the constant ticking of his own heart. He was surrounded by clouds of sand and dust, but none attacked his eyes or got in his mouth. He was weightless, airborne, a thousand feet tall, with venom rushing to his head and bubbling in his gut. At the centre of the storm.
Screams. A Black Rag flew across the arena. The body of a Hypnobrai was picked up, tossed about like a rag doll, and collided with a half-dead Venomari. An entire wall collapsed. The Basilisk attempted to burrow beneath the sand, but the storm caught it by the tail and snapped its neck against the side of its half-formed crevice.
He almost thought he'd heard his name, but when he looked there was nothing but sand and dust and flying bodies. Blazing fogged yellow caught sight of fiery red clothing, arms covering their head, and he lashed out, sending them smashing into the farthest wall. The balcony crumpled like a badly made sand castle, the walls of the arena caved in a crack of splitting rock and wood and metal, trapping bodies, casting sand into the sky.
Slowly, the venom faded. It wore through his wired veins, the bubbling in his stomach decreasing to a slight shimmer. Slowly, he descended from the sky, the tornado extinguishing with a few last fetal pushes at the sand. Metallic feet landed, and the storm was gone.
The sky was a tapestry of pinks and oranges. Ouroborus had been reduced to rubble, with only a single wall to the far right left standing, although it appeared that a breath upon its surface would send it toppling with the rest. A mask of green and silver lay half hidden in the sand.
Echo stumbled from the rubble on numb legs and weak knees. He walked far out into the desert, until the sun had vanished over the horizon and the sky was a sea of shadows, the stars he had missed for so long twinkling high above. He walked, despite the exhaustion tugging at his core, despite the heaviness of his limbs, until there was nothing but sand. Sand, in every direction, as far as his enhanced eyes could see.
A kick landed right in his face, smashing his eye. The pirates laughed, loud, everywhere, and one grabbed him by the hair and tugged him back when he attempted to crawl away, which was near impossible without his arms and only one leg.
A punch to the mouth. A kick to the stomach. Laughter, laughter, a sword pressed against his throat. They were gone.
They were gone.
The cold burned in his lungs, breaths coming out in white clouds. His broken limbs trembled, the pain a blazing agony, but he kept walking. He had to keep walking. Because he didn't know what else he could do.
"Leave him alone!" the girl, with black hair and angry eyes, wrists chained behind her back. The man who wasn't a man- for Zane (although they seemed to like to call him Echo instead) had never before seen a man with orange skin and four arms, floating in the air- was standing beside her. His face twisted in something like annoyance, as though he were upset that her attention was no longer on him.
"Aw, is the wittle girl afraid we're hurting her wittle friend?" one of the pirates mocked, baring rotten teeth in a menacing grin. The man who wasn't a man's head snapped around to glare at the pirate in something that was so much like a snarl that Echo-Zane flinched at the sight, for good reason, it seemed, as almost all the pirates shrunk away. The pirate that had mocked the girl looked as though he were about to faint.
"Do not insult my bride," the man that wasn't a man growled. Echo-Zane noticed the girl's face twisting into a scowl. Hastily, the pirate nodded.
"Yes- Yes, sir."
A clump of sand slid beneath his foot, and he fell to one knee. Panting, panting, the cold burning his lungs. He forced his feet back under him, forced himself to stand, to stumble forward, to keep walking.
Keep walking.
"Take her to the ship."
"Wait!" Echo-Zane gasped, trying to pull himself up, but it was impossible, and he doubted he would have been able to manage even if a foot hadn't landed on his back, forcing him to the floorboards as the pirate stepped on him, chortling as they made their way to the exit.
"Echo!" the girl called, but she was blocked from his view by pirates, swarmed, heading for the doors. Echo-Zane called after her, but she was gone.
Silence reigned in the lighthouse, the faint cheers and laughter of the pirates able to be heard from outside. It took him a moment to realise the man that wasn't a man was still there.
His wrist was on fire. He kept trying to use a hand that wasn't there to help scramble up dunes, to catch himself when he stumbled and fell, but all he achieved was fire licking and blazing up his whole arm, snapped wires sparking, sand getting inside. Only the stars heard his breathless screams.
"You're the most pathetic thing I've ever seen."
Echo-Zane didn't answer, too busy shivering, too busy trying to think properly. The man that wasn't a man loomed over him, wisps of orange in place of legs curling in the corner of the droid's eyes. He tilted his head to look up, up at the towering man that wasn't a man.
Ticking.
A single cactus. He stumbled to a stop in front of it, eyes roaming over spikes. Hunger clawed at his stomach.
With his single hand, he reached out and tore through the green skin with broken nails, ignoring the spikes that dug deep into his metal. Juice trickled down his arm.
The man that wasn't a man stared at him for a long moment, dark eyes roaming over his broken body. Cocked his head when they rested on his ticking heart. A finger twitched.
"Are you afraid of death, robot?"
Echo-Zane stared. His answer was a whisper. "No."
"Would you like me to kill you?"
Fogged eyes trailed down to his ticking heart. Then up to the man that wasn't a man's muscled, inhuman arms. The twitching finger. As though he wanted to tear it out.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Her."
He blinked, then laughed, "You've only just met her. She's my love. I won't be hurting her, droid, if that's what you're thinking."
"Maybe you won't hurt her," said Echo-Zane, "But you'll hurt everyone else."
The man that wasn't a man leant closer, until their faces were only inches apart, his breath hot on Echo's cheek, "I'll only hurt those that deserve to be hurt."
"No one deserves to be hurt."
A smile, "Even a killer?"
Teeth dug into spikes and cactus flesh, juice trailing down his chin, spikes stabbing at his face. Like how the Serpentine had dug into its kins throat, like how the Basilisk had torn apart the insane snakes, like how the man with the mutilated hands had thrust a knife into Kapow's neck in a burst of bubbling crimson.
Broken nails clawed and tore at the cactus, ignoring the spikes, the needles, the pain that stabbed at his skin like a million little knives. There were needles in his mouth and cheeks. But he didn't care.
He ate like the monster ate the snakes.
Echo-Zane didn't answer. The man that wasn't a man straightened, floating towards the door after his pirates, leaving him lying there, broken, alone. Forgotten.
A sob caught in the droid's throat. He breathed deeply, swallowing thickly. Forgotten. Forgotten. Forgotten. Rain splattered against the windows.
He'd thought he'd finally been remembered.
He dropped the carcass, stumbling onwards like a zombie that had just feasted its fill, leaving the cactus as mutilated as the Serpentine, as mutilated as the man's mangled hands. He wiped juice from his mouth, wincing when he dug needles deeper into his skin, but he didn't attempt to pull them out.
Just keep walking.
"So… a Djinn?"
Clouse nodded, ghostly fingers brushing against his goatee. Carrot raised an eyebrow, turning to look at Jerhys, but the man's attention was focused solely on the ghost. He gestured with a scarred hand for him to continue.
"I'm uncertain what happened exactly," the ghost admitted, "I thought it was a dream, at first, if I'm being truthful. But then that little robot showed up in the papers."
"The little robot?" Carrot cut in, "You mean the Titanium Ninja's younger brother?"
"Precisely," Clouse smirked, "He was there also. Had I never released the Djinn, he would have never have been discovered in the first place."
"I see," muttered Soren, "So how come only you and- since they went back to get him- the Ninja remember this?"
"I've developed a theory," explained Clouse, clasping his hands together on the table. Carrot leant forwards a little.
"Go on."
Walking. Stumbling. Limping. The pain had been reduced to a numb throb at the back of his mind. He limbs weighed a thousand tons.
Keep walking.
"My theory," said Clouse, "Is that only those that made a wish remember what happened. Even one wish is enough. I used all three of my wishes, Sensei Wu, Misako and most of the Ninja made wishes as well- they were trapped alongside me, so they must have."
"And even if they don't remember what happened," Jerhys concluded, cocking his head a little, "The others are likely to have told them."
Clouse grinned, "Exactly."
He fell to his knees, sparking wrist held protectively to his chest, crushed ankle spiking. Tears rolled down torn cheeks, breaths coming out in puffs of white. Fingers riddled with cuts and gashes and needles curled into the sand.
He took a deep breath, grit his teeth. Forced himself to his feet.
Kept walking.
"I wish people would stop forgetting me," Echo-Zane whispered past the lump in his throat. Out the corner of his eye, he saw the man that wasn't a man freeze inches from the door. Above him, at the top of the stairs, Gizmo stared down at him.
The man that wasn't a man didn't turn around to face him properly, but he turned his head, watching out of the corner of his narrowed eyes. His answer confused Echo-Zane, startled him a bit, for he had long since realised that wishes didn't come true.
"Your wish...:"
Echo was abruptly blinded by a bright light. He hadn't the energy to muster a proper gasp, and it came out more like a breathless wheeze. He raised his good arm to shield his eyes.
The light shifted out of his face. A flying ship.
The stern in the shape of a dragons head.
"...Is yours to keep."
A figure leapt from the side before it had even landed, electric blue eyes glow brightly in the darkness as though they were twin beacons. Echo's legs gave out beneath him, collapsing in the sand, tears trickling down his cheeks as his older brother ran towards him, kicking up clouds of sand.
Then Zane was there, kneeling in the sand in front of him, hands holding his cheeks, wiping at his tears, speaking so fast that Echo hadn't a clue as to what he was saying. But he didn't care, it didn't matter, because Zane was here and he was clinging to the front of his gi with his one hand.
His brother pulled him into a suffocating hug, one hand tangled in the back of his hair, and Echo clung to him just as tightly even with only one hand, sobbing into his shoulder, not letting go, never wanting to let go, because for the first time since the picnic he felt safe and happy and unafraid.
He felt at home.
"I love you," Zane whispered, voice thick with his own tears, but that couldn't be true, because Zane never cried, Zane was always strong, was never scared. He pressed titanium lips to the side of Echo's battered head. "I love you so, so much."
Echo sniffed, burying his face deeper into the crook of his big brother's neck. He wasn't sure how long they sat like that, but eventually, he was being shifted, and he whined in protest, tightening his hold on the back of his brother's gi. Zane shushed him gently, and his body left the ground.
Soft whispers, familiar voices muddled together. Zane whispered something back, and a part of Echo wanted to know what they were talking about, but a larger part just wanted to lie there in his brother's arms.
He was safe.
He was with Zane.
He was home.
Echo fell asleep.
Ugh, so short. So very, very short. Bleh.
Well, this is it, guys. The next chapter's the last chapter. After twenty-eight chapters of being missing, of almost drowning, being torn apart, put back together, wandering aimlessly through a maze with a mysterious stranger, being tossed from place to place, of flashbacks and terrors, Echo's finally home. I've got tears in my eyes, guys.
And that, my friends, is how Echo remembers the Ninja and how Carrot knew he'd helped defeat a Djinn (he said this while talking to Violet on the phone a few chapters back, if you remember- you may also remember that he has had Nadakhan's teapot this whole time). Safe to say that Clouse's theory was correct.
And Echo. Oh, yikes, poor Echo. I wonder if they would have remembered him if he hadn't made that wish. If Jay would have thought to return to the lighthouse to get his help, even.
But best not dwell on that, am I right?
So. Has anyone noticed that Echo's been using his powers throughout the entire story? He does it in the first chapter, actually.
Next chapter's going to be a load of fluff. And Gizmo. Man, it's been a while since Gizmo's been in, hasn't it? Little guy's gonna be thrilled to have his play mate back. I don't know when exactly the sequel to Empty Echoes will be out- it's gonna be called Crooked Clockwork, by the way. It might not be out until the Christmas holidays, or even after Christmas, because of all my exams coming up.
Well, I hope you enjoyed! I'll see you in the final chapter ::D
Final chapter: Zane doesn't leave his brothers side. Wu and Misako have a conversation. Kaze gets a flashback.