Zane was hidden behind the sheet covering the Roto Jet, so he couldn't see, but he could hear what was going on. There was a series of loud thumps, then the voice of one of the guards ordered, "Work!"
The door creaked and slammed shut, and multiple voices muttered to themselves negatively. Above the muttering, one voice said clearly, "No, no. It's not working if you love what you do. The power of positive thinking."
"Psst. Hey. Jay," Cole hissed, peering out from his hiding spot next to Zane.
"Cole?" The clear voice asked. "Oh, hey! Great to see you! Did you find Zane?"
"Not so loud. They think we've escaped and don't know we're here," Cole instructed.
"'We?' So you did find Zane! Where is he?" The voice asked excitedly but quietly.
Zane shuffled around Cole and peered out from his own hiding spot to see someone he hadn't seen yet.
The guy looked at Zane, and his jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. "Whoa. Zane? You're little!"
"Yes, and I do not like it," Zane stated with a pout.
"So Cole broke you out? Why would you stay?" The guy wondered in a whisper.
"Because, Jay, we're breaking everyone out," Cole said, emphasizing the "everyone."
"Correction," Zane piped up. "We're building everyone out."
The guy, Jay, looked confused.
Zane understood how he felt. Zane pointed at the thing under the sheet. "They think we are fixing a noodle machine, but we are making a Roto Jet."
"A Roto Jet? But aren't we underground?" Jay asked.
Cole nodded. "That's what I've been saying!"
"What happened to positive thinking?" Karlof wondered.
A nearby guard spoke up then, making Cole and Zane duck back into their hiding spots. "No talking! And hurry up with that noodle machine."
"Okay, okay. It will be ready soon," Karlof promised. Zane could hear the grin in his voice. "When ready, noodle will fly out of here."
Cole waited a moment, then peeked out again. "Hey, do you know where Kai is?"
There was someone named "Kai" too? Cole sure knew a lot of people, Zane figured.
"Last I heard, he's getting the 'special' treatment," Jay sighed.
Zane didn't know what that meant, but it didn't sound good. He hoped this Kai person was okay.
"Cover it!" Karlof hissed, and the other people he was working with threw the sheet back over the Roto Jet, Cole, and Zane.
Zane shrunk back against the Roto Jet as the sound of footsteps approached. They were so close to being done, but now the guards must be back to wonder when the "noodle machine" would be done.
Karlof began speaking. "Uh, please, almost done. Soon, noodle machine will be firing on all cylinders."
"No, it needs to be firing on all cylinders now. Master Chen wants noodles for the big ceremony," the voice of a guard ordered.
"What ceremony?" One of the other people, Zane thought it was someone he had been introduced to as Griffin, wondered.
The guard spoke again, a cruel chuckle in his voice. "Chen defeated the Green Ninja. Now no one in Ninjago can stop us. Look at the bright side. At least all your jobs just became permanent."
"Uh, there's a few minor kinks," Karlof began.
The guard laughed. "Give me that sheet."
Suddenly, the sheet fell away, and Zane could see the whole room without problem. Unfortunately, the whole room included several guards, including one standing right in front of the Roto Jet. The guard gasped, "Huh? That's not a noodle machine!"
"Uh, that's the kink," Karlof replied. He turned quickly, looking at Cole. "Now!"
Cole leapt into the air, jumping along the side of the Roto Jet and into the driver's seat.
Zane scurried to the side, pressing himself along one of the many machines that lined the room. He knew what was coming next, and he really did not want to be in the way.
"Cole? He's here!" The guard gasped.
"I would highly recommend moving out of the way," Zane advised the guard.
The guard looked at him and seemed about to say something.
That's when Cole started firing. He shot bolts at guard after guard, making them leap out of the way, but he also shot a little too close to Jay, who leapt out of the way as well.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy, tiger!" Jay yelped, cowering against the wall.
Cole stopped firing for a moment and chuckled. "Whoa! Heh heh. It's got more power than I anticipated."
"Over there!" The man who was called Griffin shouted, drawing Zane's attention. Griffin was gesturing at a group of guards who were regrouping and looked almost ready to charge.
"When will it fly?" Cole yelled, firing at the group of guards.
Karlof scoffed and climbed up onto the Roto Jet's wing, going back to work on it. "It fly when it fly. No sooner."
"On the other side," Jay called.
Zane looked and saw another group of guards getting together. Looking back at the Roto Jet, he saw the people who had been helping him and Cole pushing at the Roto Jet, turning it so it could fire at the new group of guards. Zane did not know if he could push the Roto Jet at all, but it would not hurt to try. He ran over and started pushing.
Soon, the Roto Jet was facing the new group of guards.
Cole fired off a set of bolts at them, then called down, "We'll run outta bolts trying to fend 'em off. Make her fly, Karlof, or get us out of here."
"No problem," Karlof grunted, fiddling with some wiring. "There! Push red button."
Zane craned his neck, trying to see if Cole had pushed the red button yet, but as it turned out, he didn't need to see. It became obvious a moment later when a series of missiles shot out of the Roto Jet and across the room, breaking down a huge door.
The prisoners cheered as one, including Zane. Together, they all started pushing the Roto Jet toward the brand-new hole.
"This is why you don't make jets underground, Karlof!" Cole shouted down from the driver's seat.
"The power of positive thinking," Jay reminded.
"Behind you!" Karlof yelped.
Another group of guards had gathered, so the prisoners began the task of turning the Roto Jet to shoot at them once more.
The guards fended off for the moment, the Roto Jet barrelled through the tunnels, crashing through walls as it made its way forward, propelled by the former prisoners.
"The other prisoners should be right up ahead," Zane repeated what Pixal had told him from her analysis. Now, if only someone would tell him who these other prisoners were who needed to be rescued as well…
"On it!" Cole shouted back to him.
A moment later, the Roto Jet spewed another series of missiles, and they crashed on through the final wall.
"Whoo-hoo! We did it!" Cole shouted, hopping out of the Roto Jet.
The prisoners began flooding around the Roto Jet into a large room. Zane ran around the Roto Jet to see a massive snake, probably the same one that he and Cole had run from, crushed under the stones the Roto Jet had crashed down. Across the room, two people stood up from a pile of chains.
"Well hello, Master of Earth," one of them, a man in a gray outfit with equally gray hair, said happily.
The other one, a woman dressed in red and green with black hair, said nothing. She simply began running toward them. Was she angry? Zane hoped not.
"Uh-uh. Don't forget Master of Lightning," Jay bragged, his face turned toward the woman running toward them. "Hey!"
The woman ran right past him, right past Cole, right past all the other former prisoners, and flung her arms around Zane.
Zane was extremely confused. Did he know her? Did she know him?
"Zane, you're back!" The woman said happily.
Ah, so she did know him. But what did she mean?
Zane asked as much, turning his head around completely to look down at his back. "What? What is on my back?"
The woman laughed and released him from the hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you. Even if you don't look exactly like you used to. Just wanted a change, or what?"
"Not exactly," Zane admitted, turning his head back to the front. Behind him, he heard Cole's voice.
"Karlof, why isn't this thing off the ground yet?" Cole asked.
"Two hands can only work so fast," Karlof explained.
Cole laughed. "Well, you're gonna fix it, Karlof, because you know why?"
"Sure," Karlof agreed.
"Positive thinking!" Jay and most of the other former prisoners yelled.
The Roto Jet burst through the wall and flew into the air, Cole calling triumphantly as it did so, "Did anyone order some kung pao?"
The former prisoners followed, jumping down from the huge hole the Roto Jet had made. Zane hung back, staring down as the former prisoners began fighting all the guards. He was not a fighter, far from it, in fact, and so Cole had told him to stay safe while the rest of them fought off the guards and captured Chen.
Zane watched the battle, calling down now and then, trying to be helpful.
"Guards to your right, Mister Griffin!"
"Watch out behind you, Mister Karlof!"
"Mister Cole, down there!"
A person in a green uniform raced up to the bottom of the wall and stared up at Zane.
Zane stared down at the person in the green uniform, a little confused why someone would take a break from the battle to come stare at Zane.
"Is that you, Zane?" The person called up.
Oh! Another friend! Zane smiled and waved, calling down, "It is me!"
The person whooped in joy and turned, tackling the nearest guard.
Zane turned back to the battle and gasped. A person in a red uniform had just grabbed a huge staff from a man with a funny snake headdress. The staff looked important, but the person in the red uniform smashed it on the ground, shattering it into pieces. Zane hoped it wasn't something Cole and the others needed.
"No!" The man in the snake headdress screamed as variously colored sparks of light shot into the air from the broken staff. The sparks whizzed around the room, each going to a certain person and enveloping them, then disappearing and leaving that person looking more confident.
One of the sparks came right toward Zane.
Before Zane could do more than take a single scared step back, however, it was already around him. It disappeared quickly, leaving Zane with a strange feeling in his stomach. It was cold, but not uncomfortably so. It was actually a pretty nice cold, like when Zane would lay his head down on his pillow at night and the pillowcase would be cool.
Something fizzed in his hands. Zane looked at his hands, and his eyes grew wide. Little icicles were growing from his hands. Zane held up his hands, looking at the tiny bits of ice in fascination. He'd never seen anything like this, but instead of being confused, like he had been so often recently, he was intrigued.
"Your powers," Pixal breathed in his head. "They've been returned to you!"
"Now bad guys in big trouble!" Karlof yelled from the battlefield. He slammed his fists together and grew in size, turning a silvery-gray color.
All over the battlefield, similar things were happening. Griffin was zooming around so fast all Zane could see was a streak of light. A woman called Tox was shooting clouds of something green from her hands that made the guards fall over when they touched it. A man called Bolobo was surrounded by vines that swayed dangerously, grabbing at guards and tossing them to the sides.
Maybe Zane could do something like that.
Zane carefully began hopping down from the hole in the wall, clinging to the cracks in the wall to climb down. Soon he was on the ground.
Right in front of him was Cole, and Zane opened his mouth to ask him what was going on. But then, a moment later, Cole was gone. In his place was a person-sized tornado the color of dirt. Before Zane could say anything in his shock, the tornado was gone and Cole was back. But now he was dressed in a black uniform, like the one the person who had called up to Zane had worn, like the one the person who had smashed the staff had worn.
Zane stared in fascination as three people in similar uniforms ran over and joined Cole. One was the green one who had called up to Zane, one was the red one who had smashed the staff, and one was blue and-
Wait. That was Jay. Jay had a uniform too? Huh. Interesting.
Together, Cole, Jay, the red person, and the green person took fighting stances. Almost as one, they called out, "Ninja, go!"
Then they spun into tornados and began whirling across the battlefield, taking out guard after guard after guard.
Zane looked down at his hands in consideration. They were still coated in little icicles. He held them out in the direction of a guard who was running toward him and concentrated.
Without warning, a blaze of something bright white shot from his hands and covered the guard. Zane squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then slowly peeked.
The guard was coated in a thick layer of ice from the neck down.
Zane gaped at the guard. He had done that? He had done that! Zane grinned and held his hands out in the direction of the next guard.
Now that all of the prisoners had weird powers, the battle was over very quickly. All the guards were trapped or unconscious, and the former prisoners looked around themselves with clear satisfaction.
Zane spotted Cole. He was standing with the other three people with the colorful uniforms, as well as the gray-haired man and the black-haired woman who they had rescued. He could hear them talking about that guy Pixal had talked about, Chen, and two other people he'd never heard of, Clouse and Skylor. Zane didn't really care, to be honest. He was too excited about what he'd just done.
Zane ran over to Cole, tugging on Cole's shirt sleeve to get him to look down. "Did you see that? Did you see what I did?"
"Zane?" The person in the red uniform said, sounding shocked. "Is that you?"
Zane paused in tugging on Cole's sleeve and glanced at the person in the red uniform briefly. "Uh-huh. But did you see what I did?"
Cole frowned. "Uh. No. Afraid not, bud. I was busy fighting, and you were up in the hole the whole time."
Zane grinned and shook his head. "Nope. I got down from the hole because my hands started making ice. And look! I froze that guy! And that guy, and that guy, and that guy too!"
Instead of being impressed, Cole's frown just deepened. "Zane, that was dangerous. I said you could stay up in the tunnel, and I meant you should stay up in the tunnel. You don't know how to fight. You could've gotten really hurt."
"What are you talking about, Cole?" The person in the green uniform objected. "Of course Zane knows how to fight. He's a ninja!"
Cole sighed. "Well, yeah. But also no."
"No?" Jay asked. "What do you mean, no?"
"Of course he's a ninja, there's no 'no' about it," the person in the red uniform protested.
Cole looked at Zane. "Here. I'll show you. Zane? Who are these people?"
Zane hesitated. "Uhhhh. That one's, that one's Jay? Yes?"
"Yes. But who are the rest of them? Who's that?" Cole asked, pointing at the person in the green uniform.
Zane bit his lower lip. "Um. He's my friend. I think. He knows my name, at least."
"Who's that?" Cole asked, pointing at the person in the red uniform.
"Uh. I don't know," Zane admitted.
"Who's that?" Cole was now pointing at the black-haired girl.
"I don't know," Zane repeated.
"Who's that?" Cole was pointing at the gray-haired man.
Zane felt tears pressing at his eyes. He swallowed hard, trying to force the tears back. "Uh. I don't know. I don't know any of them. I don't even really know you, Mister Cole."
The five people next to Cole just stood there for a moment, staring at Zane.
More than a little uncomfortable, Zane shrunk back against Cole, and then slightly behind Cole. He wasn't hiding, just… Okay, yes, he was hiding. Just a little.
"...Cole, what's going on?" The woman with the black hair asked.
Cole sighed. "Somehow, Zane rebuilt himself, but not all the way. Something went wrong, and he doesn't have all his memories. He's basically a kid."
"I am not a kid," Zane objected. "I am an android!"
"No, Zane, you're a nindroid," Jay said slowly.
Zane wrinkled his nose, confused for what felt like the millionth time. "A what?"
"A nindroid? A ninja android?" Jay tried.
"Um, no," Zane stated plainly. "Because I am not a ninja."
Jay stared at him. So did all the others except Cole.
"Told you," Cole said, sounding strangely tired. "He doesn't remember."
Zane paused. He shrugged. "I guess I don't remember, because you all seem to know me but I do not know you. Mister Cole? Could you tell me who they are?"
"Sure, kiddo," Cole responded, managing a smile. "Well, you know Jay by name, but that's Kai, that's Lloyd, that's Nya, and that's Sensei Garmadon."
"Greetings!" Zane chirped, stepping tentatively out from behind Cole a bit. "I am Zane. Oh. But you know that already, right? Miss Pixal said I had friends, and you must be them."
"Pixal? She's here?" The woman Cole had introduced as Nya asked.
Zane bobbed his head, stepping out a little further, then all the way. "Uh-huh. She was in parts in the cell next to mine, and now she's in my head."
"She's what," the guy Cole had called "Kai" said flatly.
"She's in my head," Zane repeated. "I put her neural drive in my processor."
Jay raised his eyebrows. "Wow. I didn't know you could do that."
"I did not know either, until I tried," Zane replied. He bounced on his toes a little. "So, um. Are we done here? Can we go? I want to go home and see Father. Can we do that, please?"
"You want to-" the guy Cole had named as "Lloyd" began, his voice coming out half-strangled.
"Not yet, bud," Cole said quickly, speaking right over Lloyd. "We have to find Chen and Clouse, and hopefully Skylor too."
Zane pouted. Well, he'd waited this long to go back to Father, and he'd even had an adventure while he waited. He could wait a little longer. "Okay."