Okay, last chapter for this segment. Apologies for the delay, but between work, university, and my newest multichapter fanfic "What If", this kind of took a back seat. This is still where I will post the occasional one/two-shot, as and when they happen, but please understand that my new big project is taking precedent.
Even so, enjoy the last chapter of The Subroutine!
"Come on Zane," Lloyd pleaded. "you don't have to do this."
"Any attempts to deactivate or interfere with the subroutine will be construed as sabotage and punished severely." Zane grimaced. He dragged his ice blades along the ground as he and Kai circled each other like predators.
"All I did was ask a few questions, but if Zane wants to play it this way, I won't argue…" Kai grinned confidently, taking up his swords.
"Unauthorised persons may not access subroutine information," Zane warned, pointing one of his frozen katanas at Kai. "confirm your identity."
"Bring it, Snowball!" Kai taunted.
Zane smirked at him, and the two of them lunged forward. Lloyd watched them wildly attacking each other, blades clashing, and wondered what the hell was going on. The second they came to this island something didn't feel right; they'd been told that a team of priests had been over every inch of the island, cleansing it of evil and placing protection spells, but it still felt cursed. Zane and Pixal hadn't been themselves either; and between seeing her explode and now him acting completely irrational, it was just such a weird day.
"How are your blades still in one piece?" Kai demanded, still swiping at Zane with full force. "My katana are solid steel!"
"Unauthorised persons may not access subroutine information," Zane repeated as he ducked and spun low to the ground, before he blindsided Kai with an uppercut, lightly slashing his face. "however, weaponry information is freely available, and at -70 degrees, the strength of these defensive measures ranks higher than steel on the Mohs scale."
"Ice can't stand up to fire!" Kai insisted as blood trickled down his cheek. "Mohs scale or not!"
The two exchanged a few more blows, their sharp weapons connecting in a simultaneous defensive and offensive motion. Kai seemed a little too happy, when he noticed the small cracks in Zane's ice swords; happiness which soon subsided as the pressure of their locked combat appeared to be fixing the damage.
"Wha-?"
"For a ninja, you are quite uneducated in elemental powers beyond your own," Zane beamed, reflecting Kai's own previous joy. "under pressure or friction-generated heat, ice is self-repairing; it can fuse back together."
As Kai paused to contemplate this newly acquired knowledge, Zane took the opportunity to control the situation, forcefully shoving Kai backwards with a hefty swipe of his weapons. Kai was so incensed at his teammate's sudden and out-of-character arrogance, that he leapt up and sliced at him as though he were an enemy. Kai had never seen Zane this way before – so full of himself and superior in his abilities – it was more than he could take, and he decided that the ice ninja needed cutting down a peg or two. Zane expertly swept Kai's leg, knocking him down and sitting on him before he had a chance to get up. He thrust his frozen katana into the ground around Kai's neck and broke them off from his hands. Thick clusters of ice swallowed Kai's wrists and hands as Zane straddled him confidently. He leaned down and whispered into the fire ninja's ear.
"You cannot stop me…" Zane murmured.
He lingered by Kai's face a little longer. An unsettling chuckle echoed out from his throat, and a sinister grin crept onto his lips as he licked the blood that had trailed down Kai's neck from the cut on his cheek. Zane then leapt to his feet and shot off into the brush, leaving Kai and Lloyd utterly stunned.
"What the hell was that about?" Kai asked, his face red with awkwardness as he deftly melted the frosty restraints.
"This is more like it!" Tony chuckled, watching the live drone footage playing on his tablet. "Those two are like a man-made tornado!"
He excitedly watched the two droids like a kid watching his favourite movies, secretly wishing he'd brought some snacks for this amazing show. The scenes of annihilation were delicious, though he did feel bad that such a beautiful forest was being decapitated for the sake of his experiment. However, he soon noticed something unusual; although Zane and Pixal had split up at one point, they were on course to regroup eventually. Curious, Tony decided to plot the course they were on, and quickly came to an unfortunate conclusion.
But he wasn't quick enough.
Zane appeared to his left, Pixal appeared to his right, and both looked enraged. Before he even had a chance to run for it, Tony found himself being tackled by both droids, as they slammed into him with such ferocity that he fell to the floor, dazed and confused. Zane grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him up onto his feet, while Pixal thrust her plasma cannon against his chest. Tony spluttered at the pressure of the cold metal on his person.
"You, purveyor of the false signal; how dare you take advantage of a program designed for altruistic purposes?" Pixal growled viciously.
"We should show mercy," Zane coldly insisted, roughly grabbing Tony's arm and twisting it slightly. "after all, he is but a mere human."
"He exploited our inherent desire to protect each other," Pixal argued, pushing her blade up to Tony's throat. "such a violation is worthy of punishment…"
"I meant nothing by it, I swear!" Tony pleaded. "I just wanted to see what you were capable of!"
"You could have asked; instead, you abused a vital defensive function that exists between two connected parties," Pixal furiously shoved her cannon up to Tony's cheek. "now you must suffer the consequences…"
"We could put him out of his misery, and please only ourselves, or we could just provide a little misery…" Zane continued to push for the humane route, but furiously dug his hand into Tony's neck. "…and let karma do the rest."
Pixal kept her weaponry pressed against the person who violated their personal algorithm, growling and snarling, until her husband's stern and stoic expression convinced her to concede. Zane's logic was flawless, and she acquiesced to it willingly. Regardless, she heaved a long sigh and stepped back; her weapons now draped at her side. Zane yanked on Tony's other arm and froze the rogue's hands together to restrain him.
"You are right," She agreed. "we will report him to my father and honour his judgement."
They soon became aware of the sound of footsteps and wheels tearing through the sand, getting closer and closer. Soon, Mr Borg, Shiro and Sensei Wu appeared to their right, followed swiftly by the ninja, and the nearby deckhand, who all came worryingly close to colliding into one another.
"Blackguard! Betrayer! Viper in my bosom!" Mr Borg gasped, as he saw who had been captured.
"Sir, I swear this isn't what you think!" Tony begged.
"Woah, woah," Lloyd held up his hands. "what's going on here?"
"I'm truly sorry, I'm afraid I have deceived you all," Mr Borg confessed. "this entire training exercise was a trap designed to weed out a traitor."
"But, wait, I thought we only came to this island because the virtual reality simulator had broken?" Kai wondered, confused.
"It was also dangerously incompatible with Zane's software." Jay added.
"Again, I must confess; the simulator was designed to fail, in fact, it was designed to activate the Angel subroutine," Mr Borg sighed, turning to Jay with an apologetic smile. "I am sorry for any guilt we may have caused, but it was not you that blew up the machine."
"I appreciate the sentiment," Jay nodded forgivingly. "thanks."
"I knew there was a mole hidden among my loyal staff," Mr Borg stated. "I have been accumulating circumstantial evidence for some time; all I needed was concrete proof that Tony was accessing things beyond his authorisation level and deliberately causing trouble."
"I told you he couldn't be trusted," said Shiro, who hovered nearby. "that's why I've been recording any activity on that tablet of his and backing it up on two separate cloud storage systems."
"That's a violation of my privacy!" Tony barked at Shiro.
"And hacking into Zane and Pixal isn't a violation of their privacy?" She snapped back.
"How did you know that he would take the bait?" Cole asked.
"Because he's two-faced and a braggart, and I knew he could not resist tampering with things he very clearly should not." Shiro stared Tony down, glaring darkly at him.
"You dare to insult me, when you left us to do all the hard work?" Tony shouted. "You and that… harlot… you don't deserve this job!"
"Enough!" Pixal shrieked.
Infuriated, she raised her cannon and nonchalantly aimed it at Tony's head, to the horror of all present.
"Pixal, don't!" Nya yelled.
Pixal refused to stand for it any longer; this person had manipulated Zane and herself, misused a vital protection system, and now he was speaking ill of someone she held dear. Zane was all too aware of the anger she felt. He had encountered this fury mere moments ago, and – despite his own rage and disgust at the actions of this individual – was prepared to negate Pixal's homicidal instincts as he had before.
"Insolent cur! I should sever your head clean from your shoulders!" Pixal seethed at Tony, her wide malicious grin seeping with righteous anger. "Give me one good reason not to!"
"Pixal, we discussed this," Zane intervened, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. "please, calm yourself."
"No, Zane!" She slapped his hand away. "How can you tell me to be calm, after what this foul creature did to us? You show far too little concern for how we were both dishonoured!"
"Believe me, after such a disturbing level of disregard for our safety and bodily autonomy, I would love nothing more than to see his head roll…" Zane seemingly agreed, unsheathing one of his blades and pressing it to Tony's neck. "But somehow, I think whatever punishment he gets will not be enough to satisfy either of us; a moment of pain, and he no longer lives to manipulate another person? A longer period of suffering, where he must face the consequences of this violation of trust, day after day? Be honest, Pixal, it will never be enough, so why taint ourselves in the process?"
Zane placed his free hand on her cheek and tilted his head ever so slightly, his fierce red eyes betrayed by the softness of the empathetic look he gave her. Pixal lingered for a moment, before she ultimately relented, removing her fully charged plasma cannon from Tony's vulnerable face. With a dissatisfied sigh, she instead blew up the tablet which was emitting the false signal. With the source of the signal destroyed, Pixal and Zane were immediately released from the Angel subroutine. Their eyes returned to their original colours, all weapons and armour retracted as quickly as they had appeared, and their once serious, aggressive expressions melted into warm smiles; as if the Angel subroutine had never activated at all. As the young man's arms were defrosted by Kai and proper restraints were placed on him, Jay heaved a huge sigh of relief.
"I thought for sure we were gonna witness a massacre just now!" He declared.
"Pixal, are you okay?" Nya asked, cautiously reaching out to touch her.
"I'm fine, thank you." Pixal beamed sweetly and tilted her head. "Why do you ask?"
"Seriously?" Nya's shoulders dropped as a confused look took over her face. "Don't you remember any of what just happened?"
"Of course," Pixal replied. "and despite the unexpected complications, I am glad we were able to assist in my father's investigations."
"My apologies again for not being upfront with you all about this," Mr Borg expressed his regret once more. "there was no easy way to tell you without risking it reaching his ears also."
"It's okay, we understand why you did it." Lloyd nodded.
"Why am I punished for my secrecy, while he gets forgiveness?" Tony argued.
Without a word, Zane put his hand over Tony's mouth and created a layer of ice to prevent him from speaking.
"Do not tempt me into doing something I will regret," He warned. "Mr Borg was trying to protect his company and his team; while you merely wanted something fun to watch because you were bored."
Zane gestured to the camera-wielding drones that were still hovering nearby. Tony lowered his head in shame, unable to attempt some feeble excuse for his actions due to the ice mask forcibly placed on him.
"Consider yourself lucky that the Angel subroutine did not strip me of my compassion, even for parasites like you." Zane frowned at him.
"Woah, harsh." Cole winced, having never heard Zane use that sort of wording before.
"Come on, fancy boy." The greying deckhand growled as he hauled the young man away.
"What's gonna happen to him?" Kai wondered, turning to Mr Borg with curiosity on his face.
"I'm no legal expert, but let's see…" Shiro butted in. "he's looking at 6 weeks in prison for confidential information breach, at least 12 months for two counts of invasion of privacy, and we know he's gonna get fired, for sure."
"So… I guess this means the exercise is over?" Cole mentioned somewhat hopefully.
"The traitor is now exposed," Mr Borg sighed with relief. "I can breathe easy, and so can all of you."
"You seem really happy that this is finished," Jay said to Cole with a smirk. "I take it you made plans with a certain someone…"
"Mind your own business." Cole laughed, prodding Jay in his ticklish side.