Hey, guys! I know I took forever to update, but I hold a loyalty to my stories, and this one especially stuck out to me when I started. I'll be doing a lot more writing on my phone now, because I have no access to a computer except for during study hall at school, which means the chapters might come out sounding kinda different, bit I'mma give it a shot anyway. After forever, here I am! Back again, and I hope you like this update.
-LizzyLucky
Hours passed. No one returned. Zane did anything and everything to keep busy, but suddenly felt too bashful to leave the bounty.
He tidied the kitchen, scrubbed the dining room, shoveled the deck, and cleaned the rest of the Bounty three times over again.
When he ran out of things to clean, he read a book, checked his systems to be sure his scanner was working perfectly, which he used to search for his falcon profusely, and tried using his powers to make stuff out of the snow and ice, just on the ground outside the Bounty. It wasn't very successful, but he did manage to make a snowman, a snow castle, and a snow statue of his falcon.
He couldn't seem to stop thinking about his dream from that morning, and when he could, he thought about his falcon instead.
As it began to get later in the evening, and still no one returned, he finally decided to study his dream. He laid it all out on a large piece of paper. He had a picture of himself on the deck, the words "gray" and "clatter" written beside it. Another picture following an arrow off of that one was of him floating in the big empty world he was in. Next to it were the words "black" and "whispers." The next picture had several sketches of the scenes he saw, to the best of his memory. The remainder of the page held what he could remember of the whispers. "You can't help me." "Don't leave me." And last, "I don't want to die." He circled the quotes and used an arrow to point from the word "whispers" to what he just circled. Separately, he wrote the words "light flashes, like lightning, one white, multiple red."
"There was… the Bounty… And everything turned gray. The smell of the ocean was weaker…" He listed to himself. He wasn't sure every detail would really play a part, but what else could he do? And really, who's to say that they don't?
"There was a clatter and… Then there was… Nothing?" He sighed, seemingly having trouble remembering the dream.
"After the clatter was… what? What was after the clatter?" He mumbled to himself. Why couldn't he remember? It was right in front of him! Just a few minutes ago, every detail of the dream was crystal clear. Suddenly he couldn't focus, but he didn't want to forget the dream! So he focused on the one thought.
"The clatter… it was almost a metallic sound. Maybe glass? No… It seems so familiar..."
He pondered aloud.
"Hey, Jay what do you- Oh. Right."
He sat there for a minute in silence, suddenly not sure what he was thinking about.
The clock on the wall ticked, slowly.
Nearly silent car horns went off in the distance.
The snow fell in it's own noise, more lulling than anything.
There was no Jay to ramble on about his latest invention. No Nya to work on system repairs. No Kai and Cole yelling at each other about who was cheating and who wasn't in their latest video game. No Lloyd flipping through comic book pages and yelling at the fictional characters. There wasn't even the subtle *sluuurp* of Sensei's tea cup.
It led him to realize that he didn't even know what he did do when they were around. He was just kind of… there.
Sometimes he would help Jay by handing him tools he needed. Or he'd silently cheer Kai on during one of his gaming sessions. Occasionally, he'd even read comic books with Lloyd.
What did he do during his free time? Cook? What good was that? Was it even considered a hobby?
Suddenly, he just felt numb. He really was just a robot. He didn't have hobbies, and at the moment, he felt no emotion. Except, at the realization of this, sadness.
He wasn't even sure anymore if the dream was indeed a dream, or if it was really in his right to be looking for his falcon for company.
Before another depressing thought could make itself known, the door burst open to reveal Jay and Cole laughing themselves silly and holding onto each other, almost like drunks. (Lucky for you guys, I hate alcohol, so forget that idea for a story right now!)
"I can't believe you guys actually won!" Jay exclaimed, patting Cole on the back, who had a large trophy grasped in his other arm.
"Ha! I'm more surprised Dad let me keep the trophy! He musta' run out of space on his own trophy shelf!"
"No kidding! 'You can keep the trophy for now, but only because I have no time to run back to the house first!'" Jay mimicked Mr. Bucket and the two roared with laughter.
"He wouldn't have needed to take me back too! I bet he's just too embarrassed to admit he's actually proud of me!" Cole said between gasps of laughter.
"Ha! You're lucky! I wish my parents were like that! All they do is smother me with attention!" Jay said, sounding more sarcastic.
"That's how it works, Jay. The successful kids get no attention, and the unsuccessful ones get all the attention." Cole stated matter-of-factly, also being more sarcastic.
"Hey! I am too successful!" Jay showed faux offense.
"I never said you weren't!" Cole said.
"Hey, guys. How'd it go?" Zane asked moving from his spot to break up what would probably turn into an argument.
"Great!" They said in unison.
"Cole won the dancing competition!" Jay once again exclaimed.
"With my whole family and everything! But don't forget about your Christmas machine!"
"Oh, yeah! My machine!" Jay pulled his bag in and pulled out the trinket he'd been working on before he left.
"It makes hot cocoa and cookies at the same time!" Cole said, waiting excitedly as Jay flipped a switch on his invention.
"Not only that, but it can play Christmas music!" Jay added, cranking a small handle.
The three stared at the machine as it whirred to life, then made a few popping noises, and shut back off with a 'ding!'
"Out pops a cookie!" Cole said, Jay pulling open a tiny compartment which now held a warm chocolate chip cookie. He picked up the treat and handed it to Cole, who eagerly took a bite out of it.
"Drelescius!" He said through a mouth full of cookie.
Zane chuckled distractedly. He still couldn't quite seem to focus, but he had to admit, this was amusing, to see Jay and Cole acting like best buds. Deep down, that's probably all they ever were.
Just as Cole stuffed the last bite of his cookie into his mouth and Jay put his Christmas device on the table, the door opened once more, this time revealing the entire rest of the crew.
Kai carried Nya in, wiggling his fingers at her sides as he did so, and Nya giggling in turn.
"Kai, put me down!" She demanded through fits of laughter.
Kai grinned and set her down, dropping his ice skates by the door as he did so, Nya doing the same. They walked in to make room for the rest of the group.
Sensei Wu, Garmadon, Lloyd, and Misako all walked in, chattering contentedly about the nice restaurant they'd been in.
Unsure of what else to do, Zane asked, "Have you all eaten?" There really wasn't much else he could do, so he figured if no one had eaten yet, he could always make dinner.
To his dismay, the room filled with every form of 'yup' you could think of.
"Yeah, already done!"
"Mmhm, it was delicious!"
"Nothing like Mom's cooking!"
"Yup!"
"We're good."
Zane put on a small smile. "Alright. I made some pie if anyone would like some. It's in the kitchen." He turned around and walked out with a disheartened frown before anyone could respond. It didn't matter too much, everyone else had just gone back to chattering.
Zane walked down the hall and to their shared bedroom, plopping down onto his bed. He leaned back onto his pillow and stared at the bottom of the bed above him. It had been a long day. It was actually kind of depressing.
He thought back to his dream again, trying to figure out if it meant anything. It was just so strange, and completely out of the blue. Even as the whispers became louder, he couldn't tell if they were a man's or a woman's. He couldn't hardly remember anyway. The voice had said his name once, didn't it? Even if it didn't it did seem to be somehow referring to him. Was it someone he knew in his past? He really hadn't met very many people. It was pretty much limited to the people on the Bounty, their enemies, and their allies.
So what was so unnerving about the dream? True, it was a little spooky, but none of what he'd witnessed had anything to really do with him or any of the others. And yet it still woke him with a start.
Subconsciously, he reached a hand to his head where he'd hit it that morning after the dream woke him up.
"Ouch!" He took his hand off and sat quickly back up, hitting his head again, in the same spot.
"OUCH!" He groaned.
Standing up, he walked over to the bathroom to look in the mirror.
Strange, he thought. He parted his hair and there was a bruise on the soar spot. "I thought I couldn't get bruises."
"You wouldn't have said that a couple of months ago." Another voice said.
Zane jumped slightly and walked out to see Kai standing by the doorway.
"I didn't know I was a robot a couple of months ago." He said simply.
"So? That doesn't change anything."
"What do you mean?" Zane asked, somewhat confused.
"You could bruise then, so you can bruise now."
"But I'm just a robot. Robots shouldn't be able to be injured, or feel pain."
"Nindroid, Zane. You are not a robot. In fact, you're probably more human than most of us are."
Zane looked at him confused.
Kai sighed, then smiled at him sympathetically.
"You seem to have forgotten that you weren't just built to be a machine. You were built to protect others and be a companion. You were made to be just as human as is possible. You were made to be able to feel pain, to be injured, to feel sad or upset. It's what made you say 'ouch' when you touched your head, and what made you react so quickly when you registered the pain. You are not just a robot." Kai explained.
Zane's expression changed from confused to something else entirely. Some form of recognition and what almost looked like shame. Hurt, in some way.
Kai, not knowing what else to do, turned to leave.
"The pie was really good, by the way."
And, at that, left Zane to his thoughts.
So? What do you think? Good? Bad? Amazing? Terrible? I have quite honestly been waiting a very long time to find a way to use the idea that Zane is not just a robot. That he was built to be as human as he could be, which is why he can feel pain and emotion. He's quite honestly my favorite character, which, naturally means that he's going to be the center of all my cruel ideas. Twisted, isn't it? Just how it works, I mean. All us writers do that.
-LizzyLucky