~Three days later~
The darkness all around Pixie threatened to smother her as she gripped the bars of the cage she was in so hard that her knuckles were turning white. Her panic rising rapidly, she rattled the cage bars furiously. "Let me out!" she begged the one who had kidnapped her. "What do you want with me?!"
"Save your strength, Digilink." an oily voice snarled. "I cannot afford for your power to be compromised—not if my plan is to be complete."
"You won't get away with this!" she shouted, trying to sound confident even though her voice was shaking with fear. "Zane will come for me! And when he does, you'll be sorry!"
"You mean this Zane?" the voice said tauntingly. Suddenly, a wave of sheer cold rushed through her veins, and she raised her head to see a dark figure approaching her kidnapper. A sharp gasp of fear and disbelief escaped her as she suddenly realized who that figure was. "Zane?" she exclaimed in shock. But this was not the Zane she had come to know as her father. This Zane was different. His shiny silver-sheen skin and hair were now a hideous black. Scars of a sickly purple hue decorated his face plate, and his eyes were no longer a clear, pure, icy blue, but a dark, ominous red. And the twinkle in those sickly crimson eyes was no longer one of love, but of sheer, cruel hatred.
When he spoke, his voice grated on her ears, and his tone was laced with bitter rage. "You should never have rescued me, Digilink. If you had left me at the bottom of the canal, this never would have happened!"
Hot tears stung Pixie's eyes as she begged, "No, Zane! This isn't you! You've been corrupted somehow, but you've got to fight it! You've got to remember who you are!"
"Tell me, Digilink," Shadow-Zane replied, "Who am I?! Who am I to you?!"
The tears came more rapidly now, and Pixie's voice was choked up with sobs as she yelled, "You're a Ninja! You were built to protect those who cannot protect themselves! And I am your daughter! You said so yourself!"
A glimmer of recognition suddenly lit up in Zane's eyes, and for a moment, Pixie's heart gave a leap of joy. Maybe, just maybe, he did remember. But then the glimmer was quenched by a surge of darkness, and her spirits plunged as he said, "I have no daughter."
It was then that any resilience and hope she had left was completely, utterly shattered. Her body shook with heartbroken sobs as she shrieked, "No, no, please, please, no!" But it was too late. Her friend—her father—was gone. Her vision was blurred with tears as she buried her head in her hands and cried.
"Finish it." her kidnapper commanded. "She will not resist. Her broken spirit will easily bend to my control."
As Pixie slowly raised her head, her eyes welling with tears, her heart suddenly quailed as she heard the one she once knew as Zane answer, "As you wish, master."
He then raised his arms, and suddenly streaks of purplish-black lightning struck Pixie in the chest. She instantly crumpled to the floor of the cage, and a long, loud scream of excruciating pain tore from her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut, sure that this was the end.
But then something happened, and she suddenly gasped as her mind grasped the truth.
The lightning was not meant to kill.
It was meant to corrupt.
She tried to fight it. She struggled to resist the power's lure. But she couldn't hold out forever.
The darkness surged through her veins…her resolve gave way…darkness smothered her as she gave in to the corruption…
"NO!" Pixie screamed, as she bolted upwards in her bed, her body dripping with sweat, her breathing unusually shallow, her heart pounding with fright. Her blankets lay tangled around her feet, and her silver-white hair stuck to her forehead like glue. She heard Nya roll over in the bed just a few feet from her and mutter something about pickles in her sleep. Shaking with fear at the nightmare she'd experienced, she glanced over at the clock and groaned as she saw that it was only 1:15 in the morning. She flopped back onto her pillow and tried desperately to get back to sleep. But the purplish-black lightning filled her mental vision every time she closed her eyes. After several seconds, she groaned again and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Shakily, she got up and staggered to the doorway. Maybe a small snack would help clear her mind and calm her frazzled nerves.
She quietly creeped her way towards the boys' bedroom, trying desperately not to wake anyone. A sudden zapping noise startled her, and she peeked fearfully into the room, only to see that there was nothing but a small plume of smoke coming from the blue lump that was Jay. He must have shocked himself in his sleep again, she mused. She precariously tiptoed past the doorway and had soon made her way to the Bounty's deck. A soft breeze, light and warm, teased her silver-white braids soothingly, and as she gazed upward, her face lit up in wonder at the sight of the star-filled night sky. Her heart's pounding lessened, and her frantic breathing began to steady as a sense of calmness and tranquility washed over her like a wave of the sea. At least there were some things that a nightmare couldn't quench.
Then she started as she remembered why she was out here. Snack. Right. A few days ago, Zane had told her that anything in the fridge was up for dibs, so long as it was not labeled with a Ninja's name. If something was, she had to leave it alone. As if to confirm her reason for being out here—in the middle of the night, no less—her stomach let out a low yet quite audible growl.
She looked over her shoulder for a second before scurrying as quickly as she dared over to the kitchen/dining room up on the other side of the deck. When she quietly ducked into the room, though, she suddenly realized that it was a lot darker than she'd thought it would be. And she had no clue where to find a light switch. Oh, well, it looked like she would just have to chance grabbing a labeled snack by mistake.
She squinted her eyes for a few seconds as her vision slowly adjusted to the semidarkness. Smothering a noisy yawn and blinking her eyes uncontrollably—oh, boy, I'm more tired than I thought, she thought to herself—she found her way to the fridge, thankfully not bumping into anything along the way, and slowly pried open the fridge door.
And nearly leaped ten feet into the air when she realized that Zane was sitting in it.
"Pixie?" the Titanium Ninja asked with a puzzled look on his face. For a few seconds, Pixie just stood there, staring at Zane with her mouth wide open, her voice catching in her throat. Then she finally got her voice back—right before the two of them asked simultaneously, "What are you doing out here?" Both then let out a quiet giggle as they realized they'd asked at the exact same time. "Called it!" they added—once again, both at the exact same time. Pixie let go of the fridge door handle and doubled over with laughter, shoving her hands over her mouth in a desperate attempt to smother her giggles before she woke everyone on board. She could hear Zane struggling to keep his own laughter under control as well.
Once her giggles had finally subsided, she grasped the fridge door handle again and slowly opened the door to find that Zane was still sitting there, smiling from ear to ear. He grabbed the other side of the door and quietly pushed it open before crawling out of the fridge. "Believe it or not," he stated with a slight laugh, "this isn't the first time someone's found me in here. Only last time, it was Kai, and his reaction was completely different."
At the name Kai, Pixie flinched and pulled away from Zane, jerking her arms in protectively. Zane had to resist the urge to facepalm. He'd forgotten that she was still nervous about being around the Fire Ninja after that outburst of his just a few days ago.
"Oh, sorry, sorry." he whispered apologetically. "I forgot."
"What were you doing in there?" Pixie asked quietly, glancing up at Zane once her panic had faded away.
Zane's eyes blinked rapidly, and his hands shook convulsively as he struggled to formulate an answer. He'd never actually thought about why he was perfectly okay with sitting in the freezing cold fridge for hours on end before. "I…" he stammered, "I guess I just like being in there. I can take the cold, and it helps calm my nerves sometimes if I'm feeling overwhelmed by something or someone…" His voice trailed off, and Pixie slowly nodded in understanding. She knew the feeling well by now.
Then it was Zane's turn to ask a question. "What about you? What are you doing out here?"
"Couldn't sleep." she mumbled, shuddering uncontrollably.
"May I…" Zane stammered. "May I ask why?"
"N-Nightmares." Pixie haltingly replied. "Really, really scary nightmares."
Zane could feel his heart aching again. His heart always ached with sorrow whenever one of his friends was battling dark dreams. And considering the Ninja's line of work, nightmares were for sure unavoidably rampant amongst the team. But it seemed just so horrible that little Pixie had been trapped in one. She was just so precious—it didn't seem right that she should be plagued by frightening dreams such as these.
Tenderly, Zane pulled Pixie into his arms, and she gladly accepted his embrace. The feel of the fabric of Zane's gi against her cheek was strangely soothing. A little scratchy, for sure, but it was a good kind of scratchy. And the repetitive circular motion of Zane's hand rubbing her back was so relaxing she nearly fell asleep standing up. She was then startled by Zane's voice asking in a half-whisper, "Do you…want to talk about it?"
She was about to answer that no, she really didn't, when her stomach growled again—even louder this time. Zane immediately stopped rubbing Pixie's back and slowly pulled away. He looked down at her and asked, "Would you, perhaps, care for some hot cocoa?"
Pixie paused and considered that for a moment. She did really like hot cocoa. Especially Zane's hot cocoa. "With peppermint and extra marshmallows?" she asked hopefully.
"With peppermint and extra marshmallows." Zane affirmed, before locating the light switch and heading for a nearby pantry. He soon returned with the ingredients necessary for the requested cup of cocoa and immediately set to work making it. Pixie clambered onto a nearby stool to watch, swinging her legs eagerly as Zane expertly transformed simple dark chocolate, peppermint extract, snow-white sugar, creamy milk, and fluffy mini marshmallows into a wondrously delicious concoction that was absolutely the last word in hot chocolate—at least in Pixie's experience.
It wasn't long before Zane had made enough for two cups, one for him and another for Pixie. He quickly prepared two mugs of the sweet chocolaty beverage and, as sort of an afterthought, scooted back to the pantry, looking to see if (hopefully) Cole and Jay hadn't, in fact, scarfed down the entire batch of cookies he'd baked just the day before. (You just could never tell with those two.) To his delight, there were, in fact, still a few double-chocolate-chip cookies (Pixie's favorite) left. They were just a smidge stale, but it wasn't anything a nice hot cup of cocoa couldn't fix.
Pixie herself let out a delighted gasp as she saw Zane coming out with the few cookies that Cole and Jay had not scarfed down as soon as they saw them. As soon as Zane had set down the platter, she quickly snatched one and dipped it into her cocoa. The chewy-though-somewhat-stale double-chocolate-chip cookie paired perfectly with the creamy, minty hot cocoa (with a generous amount of extra marshmallows). Once the cookie was gone, she carefully sipped the cocoa so she wouldn't burn her tongue. As she set down the half-full mug a few minutes later and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, Zane asked once again, "Do you want to talk about your…" He hesitated for a moment. "Your nightmares?"
Tears immediately sprang to Pixie's eyes as she half-sobbed the words, "No…I mean, yes…I mean—ugh!" Burying her face in her hands, she finished with, "It's complicated!"
Zane said nothing for a few minutes. Then he quietly stated, "You know, in my experience, I have found that conversing with other people about your nightmares is rather beneficial in processing your fear of them." Any one of the other Ninja would have been confused by such a statement. But Pixie, weirdly, seemed to be the exception. She understood immediately what Zane meant—which was good, since any one of the others would probably have groaned, "Oh, brother, Zane, why don't you speak Ninjargon?!"
A/N: Ninjargon is the Ninja's equivalent of English.
Though her throat seemed to have a lump in it, Pixie managed to explain in a strangled voice, "I was…captured and…imprisoned in a cage. There was this…voice. It was my kidnapper, but I couldn't see who he was. It was…too dark. But he kept calling me 'Digilink' and told me…I must save my strength, because he needed it for his plan to work!" Her voice threatened to crack as she half-sobbed, half-stammered, "I thought you would rescue me. I believed you would come for me! But when you came, you…" With this, she looked directly at Zane, her vision blurred with tears. Then she breathily exclaimed, "You were corrupted."
Zane stumbled backwards abruptly, and his breathing suddenly grew incredibly shallow. His vision blurred in and out, and his hands were shaking violently as he struggled to process what he had just heard. Corrupted? He, in her dream, had been corrupted?! Get it together, Zane! he told himself. It's just a nightmare. IT'S JUST. A. NIGHTMARE! But what if it wasn't? What if it turned out to be—his head suddenly rolled back, and everything went dark as he literally hit the deck with a sickening thud—which was just splendid.
Forgetting that everyone else was sound asleep, Pixie let out a startled shriek of, "Zane!"—before running over to his side and shaking him violently. (Having never seen someone faint before, she had automatically assumed the worst.) "Wake up, Zane! Wake up!" she begged, her panic rising uncontrollably. Behind her, she could hear the rest of the team stampeding over to where she was. Her cry had woken everyone on the ship, and thinking that something had happened, they had wasted no time in making a beeline for where the shriek had come from. And when the Ninja skidded to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, they all started talking at the same time.
"What's going on?"
"What happened?"
"Is Zane okay?"
"What should we do?"
"Is there anything we can do to help him?"
"ENOUGH!" Master Wu barked. There was an awkward silence as he pushed his way through the concerned Ninja crowded in front of the stairs and made his way to the top of the landing. A few seconds later, Pixie heard the quiet pattering of Wu's feet and looked over her shoulder to see him standing there, taking in the sight of the unconscious Zane lying prostrate on the floor. Her mouth fell open in shock, and she let out a soft whimper. But Master Wu said nothing as he slowly walked over to where Zane lay unmoving. He then knelt down besides the unconscious Nindroid and felt for his heartbeat.
"It's all right, young one." he addressed Pixie. "He's simply fainted. He should regain consciousness soon."
"Oh, I thought—" Pixie stammered. "I didn't know—"
"It's all right." Master Wu repeated, laying a kind hand on Pixie's shoulder. "I wouldn't expect you to know." The two then heard a soft moan, and as the other Ninja silently came up the stairs, stopping just by the doorway, Zane opened his eyes.
"Master Wu? Pixie? What…" he stammered in confusion. "What happened? Why am I on the floor?"
"Are you okay?" Pixie half-whispered. "You took quite the fall."
"Fainting from shock—I should have known." Zane muttered, mostly to himself. He then let out a sudden yelp as a bolt of pain shot through his metal skull, and Pixie could see some blue sparks fizzling on the left side of his head. It seemed that there was a minor dent where the sparks were appearing. Yep, no doubt about it—he had hit his head pretty hard. For a few moments, there was an awkward silence as everyone there struggled to process what they were seeing.
The silence was suddenly broken when Jay suddenly shouted, "Okay, 'fess up! Would someone please tell me how, in all of Ninjago, cool, level-headed Zane was able to plunge himself into unconsciousness in the middle of the night?!"
Zane opened his mouth to protest at Jay's gross inaccuracy of estimating the true local time, but Master Wu held up a hand to say, "Don't talk. You need to rest."—before wrapping one arm underneath Zane's elbow to help him up. Pixie, in turn, grabbed Zane's other arm, and she and Wu both lifted the Titanium Ninja off the floor with a simultaneous grunt. Zane tried to mouth a "thank you," but Pixie gave him a look that made him think twice about it. "Save your strength." she whispered to him. His head slumped forward, and his legs felt like lead as the two carefully led him past the staring Ninja and back to the bedroom designated as belonging to the boys of the team. Pixie quietly let go of his arm before Master Wu helped him back to his bunk.
The moment Zane flopped onto his bed, he let out a sharp hiss of pain, and he put a hand to the side of his head as more blue sparks appeared. His vision began to blur again, and he blinked rapidly to try and ward off some of the disorientation from his fall. Even worse was the feeling of dread that seemed to form a lump in the pit of his stomach. He started hyperventilating again, and Master Wu laid a gentle yet firm hand on his shoulder in response.
"Calm down, Zane." Wu commanded. "You've been through much tonight. You need to rest and recover. A fall such as this is not something to be taken lightly."
The traumatized Nindroid shuddered as he struggled to get his heartrate back under control. He knew that putting too much stress on his power source could have disastrous consequences. And what had happened with the Golden Master was one path he never wanted to go down again. But the dread in his heart refused to leave him, and his throat seemed to tighten as he exclaimed in a strangled tone, "Master Wu, I'm scared. I'm scared that somehow, I might be…I might be…"
Wu quickly realized there was more going on with Zane than met the eye. The dilated pupils, convulsively twitching hands, and shallow breathing of his student clearly testified to that. But what was going on mentally and emotionally with him couldn't be assessed unless Zane confessed what was happening. "Be what, Zane?"
"Corrupted." he whispered hoarsely, squeezing his eyes shut with sheer fright. "I don't…I don't want…I don't want to be corrupted. Not now. Not ever."
Pixie's eyes filled with tears upon hearing Zane tell Master Wu of his overwhelming fear, and she was about to run over and give him a great big hug of comfort when she overheard a shouting match going on down the hall. She did not bother to consider that what was being hotly discussed might not be for her ears. But as she tiptoed down the hallway, coming to a stop on the other side of a closed door and putting her ear against it, she immediately regretted her decision to eavesdrop.
For it was then that she heard Lloyd yelling at the top of his lungs, "You take that back, Kai! Pixie is not a monster, and you know it!"
"I can't believe you can't see her for who she really is!" Kai retorted, "She may have pulled the wool over your eyes, but not mine. Just look what's happened so far! Ever since she got here, everything's gone wrong! She beat me at my own game five times…"
"That was a coincidence!" Cole argued. Kai just ignored him and went on with, "Ran into me and made me break several brand-new china plates,"
"Accidentally!" Jay interjected. Once again, Kai ignored the remark. "And now Zane's gone and 'suddenly' fainted from shock! For all we know, he could have gotten a concussion from that! Yeah, Pixie's track record is so wonderful right now!"
Pixie's lip quivered, and for the fourth time that week, she suddenly burst into heartbroken sobs—before whirling around and scurrying down the hallway, her face buried in her hands and her body trembling with sorrow. A weak cry of "Pixie?" emanated from the boys' bedroom as she flew past, not even bothering to peek in and see Zane staring at the doorway in utter confusion.
In the room at the end of the hall, Lloyd, upon hearing Pixie's heartbroken wail, glared at Kai. "Oh, terrific choice of words, Kai!" he snarked sarcastically. Big mistake. The very next moment, the Fire Ninja really flew off the handle.
"Says the one who was under Morro's freaky mind control for a month! Or have you completely forgotten about that, Green Ninja?!"
A dam of emotions suddenly exploded within Lloyd's heart, and he too burst into tears before bolting out of the room. At the sight of Lloyd running away, Kai's rage instantly vaporized, and he suddenly realized he had been so out of line. He gazed all around at the other Ninja, his face shrouded with guilt, his expression one of total humiliation and sorrow. But he got no consolation from the others, no exclamations of "it's all right—just forget about it." Cole's face looked even paler than normal—if you count having a sickly greenish aura normal. Jay was biting his nails nervously. Nya flushed crimson with embarrassment. "Guys, I…" Kai stammered, receiving no answer but silence. "Oh, man, have I blown it this time." he mumbled under his breath.