zane
"So you've been lying to me my whole life?" he said flatly, ignoring his father's earlier words.
"My boy, it's not like that—"
"Don't you dare call me 'your boy'. I. Am. Not. Your. Boy." His hand found the knob of the door. "You lied to me. So you have no right to call me your boy when I am anything but that!"
"Zane!"
He slammed the door shut behind him with strength he didn't know he had.
Android.
I am Zane Julien.
I am Zane.
Zane.
Android.
He was running down the street when he noticed that each step left a thin layer of ice on the ground, in the shape of his shoe.
You're the next Elemental Master of Ice.
His heart, core, was beating wildly in his chest as he surpassed the greatest length he'd ever run. And he found it easy, pushing off from one foot to the next, keeping his breath steady, shooting off with rage fuelling him. Zane felt like he could run for miles, and he probably could. Because he was an android. A robot, scraps of metal and technology, he wasn't human. He was running with the wind like he was sliding on ice, and he knew that he'd never pushed himself this far before, and his capabilities of a robot meant he probably could run for miles on end.
The metal was still lodged in his leg, he noticed, after it whacked the leg of a park bench. He sat down and tentatively gripped one end of it. You are metal, he reminded himself sternly. It shouldn't hurt. No AI should feel pain, and you didn't feel pain when you fell on it. He pulled it out calmly, having reassured himself that he couldn't feel anything.
The metal pole left a jagged, gaping hole in what definitely wasn't flesh. He peered inside, spotting a maze of wires and boards and structures that built up his calf. His father wasn't lying. All hope died down of this being a gigantic, illogical prank. If Zane hated anything more than people lying to him and using his trust, it was a situation in which he couldn't make sense of anything.
This definitely was one of them.
First, he was an android, made out of metal.
Second, his father, and Evan, had been lying to him.
Third, he was something called an Elemental Master.
And fourth, he didn't know what to do.
He was helpless, and Zane did not like that. He definitely couldn't do anything about the first point, but the second and third... He could see Dr Julien's intentions, a lonely man with the prospect of his creations coming to life, it was a modern day Pinocchio, and Zane wasn't a wooden doll, but a boy of metal and wires. The more he thought about it, more pros and cons popped up to battle each other. He couldn't get hurt, or feel things, but did that mean his emotions were fake? He was physically fit beyond human capacity, but would that be his downfall? And now, even under his skin, he stuck out and was more than just the weird, studious boy at school.
He was a freak.
"Zane?"
He looked up to find Pixal standing in front of him, looking utterly heartbroken. Zane wanted to beat himself up. He'd forgotten that Pixal must be going through the same thing as he was.
"Pixal, I'm sorry—"
"You can't be sorry for what we are, Zane." Somehow, she already knew all his worries. She sat down next to him slowly, and her hand slipped into his. "We can't change any of this, what we are, or our past. We can only change our future."
"How are you so calm about this?" he said in a small, vulnerable voice he'd never heard before.
"I'm not," she laughed lightly, squeezing his hand. "But I'm willing to wait for a better explanation. I'm doing this for you, and for my...dad, and for Evan."
"For Evan?"
"He's a good kid," she smiled again, resting her head on his shoulder. "He's young, and I think he would have told you Zane. A secret that big, I'm surprised your father didn't let the cat out of the bag earlier. You have to realise how big this was for him to keep it from you. All he wanted to do was keep you safe."
"It is most likely the same for you and your father, Pixal. He is a very busy man, but I think he'd never recover if he lost you. I don't have the answers to everything, but I'm willing to take it step by step. I believe that's all we can handle at the moment."
"It is...hard to believe that what we are feeling is fake."
Zane turned to Pixal at her sorrowful statement. "I do not believe it is fake, Pixal. What we have, what we are is real."
She smiled in response, though she still seemed unsure of herself. "There is something else though," Pixal started hesitantly, "About you being an Elemental Master of Ice?"
"I've never heard of the term before, but from the tone my father used, I suppose it's one of great importance. Unfortunately, I believe he is truthful from his findings. Watch this." Zane stood up and walked over to a tree, unsure if he could even do it again. Channelling all of his disappointed and enraged emotions into one, he set off running around the park. The faint crinkle of cracking ice underfoot set a smile growing on his face as he lapped Pixal from where she sat, and halted easily. His 'injury' didn't hold him back, just like before.
"He was right." breathed Pixal, touching the tip of her index finger to the glassy reflection of the frozen water puddle.
Zane hung his head morosely when he sat down again. "It...just doesn't make sense. None of this does."
Pixal's next words, in his opinion, were rather wise, and he couldn't ask for a better girlfriend.
"Sometimes it doesn't make sense. We can't always fix it, so just go with the flow until you have the power to stop it yourself."
kai
He strolled into school with his bag slung over one shoulder and his hair gelled to perfection. Despite his outer flawlessness, he couldn't help but be worried. His parents were coming home tomorrow. Zane had somehow impaled himself on a metal pole. And he'd accidentally replied yes to going out on a second date with a girl he was planning sildling away from. Second dates were a rarity. He didn't want girls getting their hopes up.
He greeted Chad, Liam and Jake with a fist bump, winking jokingly to Harumi who rolled her eyes and stalked off with her cronies flapping behind her. Brittney, the girl he unintentionally led on for a second date, batted her eyelashes at him and he responded with a practiced smirk. Satisfied, she skipped off to regroup with Harumi.
"Easy one, eh?" smiled Jake, whistling after another girl who yelled an obscenity back. He ignored it.
Kai shrugged nonchalantly, sliding his hands into the pockets of his Dragons jacket.
Liam was grinning far more than his abnormal amount, and Kai was sure his face was hurting. "My date last night went well." he said cooly, his grin somehow spreading even wider.
Chad slammed his locker door shut. "Who?"
"Skylor Chen." Liam replied with a smirk.
Kai narrowly avoided choking on his energy drink and wiped away the dribble trailing down his chin. "Skylor Chen?"
"He said that already." grunted Jake.
Liam automatically looked to Chad for his opinion.
"Nice catch, Miller. Her dad's crazy rich, she's not bad on the eye...Harumi told me that she was sitting with us at lunch?"
Kai almost choked again and hacked out a raggedy breath.
"What's up with you, Smith?" Chad frowned, then dismissed his own question. "Just make sure she doesn't step out of line, Liam."
Miller nodded like an eager puppy, and Kai halted a second so Liam and Jake flanked Chad. He was too distracted to take on his role as the most popular boy in school right now. He didn't know that Liam had gone on a date with Skylor. Why didn't she tell him last night? He trusted Harumi's words as far as he could throw his sister. Not far, because she would probably land a solid punch to his nose before he could do anything, and he wasn't in a situation where he could set it crooked.
Harumi and Chad dated on and off, their flings were infamous, but everytime they got back together it was like the Avatar had appeared out of his ice ball again. Kai could sense his spot on the throne as the most popular slowly slipping from his grip as he became more and more distracted with everything else. He didn't mind. Maybe a year ago he would have. He was content to sit at number two and be the sidekick, because everyone liked the sidekick better. And Chad was a dick. Unfortunately, Kai had spent too long cementing himself in this group. The chance of him separating himself from them was like...he couldn't come up with a good simile right now. English wasn't his strong point.
"Yo, I gotta go." he clapped a hand on Chad's shoulder and then turned on his heel, hurriedly glugging down his can to keep his attention on something else.
Rounding the corner to the lockers, he found Nya and Cole talking quietly and he properly choked. He forgot they were actually dating. Zane getting stabbed was a mild distraction among other things. Cole took a hasty step back warily from Kai's sister. Good.
Nya turned around, and her face fell. Joy.
"Kai, it's not what it looks like—"
He sighed like an eighty year old man and slurped the dregs of his drink to give him an extra boost in energy for what was about to happen. He could handle another week of detention, and another fight wouldn't' amount to much on his school record.
"Cole and I were fake dating to keep those jerks you call friends off our backs. We 'broke it off' yesterday, so just shut up about us for a few weeks." Nya kept her tone strict and didn't allow Cole or Kai to jump in. She cut them both off by swiftly slicing her hand across her throat as she continued speaking. "Just to dumb it down a little for you, we were not dating. Fake. Dating. The plot of many highschool movies."
"I get it, okay!" he growled, and his annoyed mood grew. "Yadda yadda, sorry for punching you Cole."
"Apology accepted." Cole said forgivingly. "And your might as well have pelted me with raisins. Your punches are so light."
Exasperated and exhausted, he couldn't bother with coming up with a witty retort, and he resorted to waving the conversation to an end and stuffing his books into his locker to be fashionably late to homeroom. He just hoped Rema wouldn't use his seat for her bag, because apparently 'it wasn't as much of a waste of space.' Tossing the can into the bin outside the door, he slouched in and slid into his seat, which thankfully, was free.
"Our athletics carnival is only three weeks away! Sign ups will be done through Google forms via an email Mr Hollen will send you guys at the end of homeroom..." Kai tuned out easily and added his worries for the aths carnival to his list of problems.
The first period dragged by dreadfully, and then he had Science. He leaned across from his desk to ask if he could copy last night's homework.
"Hey, Zane—"
Zane wasn't there. He frowned, and then crumpled his worksheet into a ball and stuffed it into his bag. Guess his 'dog' ate his homework. As it was, Kai had arrived seconds before his teacher had, and now she was taking the role.
"Mira Jeursey?"
"Here!"
"Zane Julien?"
Silence.
Kai quickly took a look around, scanning the room. There was no sign of his friend, or Pixal. Was Pixal in his class? He banished the thought and tried his best to focus on balancing equations revision, but his brain was slipping in a dozy day dream. He was standing in his kitchen, holding a bitten sandwich, and the taste of lettuce lingered in his mouth. Why was he eating a lettuce sandwich? But the dream carried on and Kai's subconscious had to scurry to keep it. He wasn't in control of himself, but he could make little movements. The strange smell of smoke came from behind him, and he wrenched his dream body around to come face to face with a raging fire blanketing the kitchen.
It seemed to have spread through the house, and the distinct shriek of his sister from the laundry behind the kitchen launched him into action. He broke free of the hold the dream previously had on him and took control, leaping over the counter to grab a towel. He soaked it in water and was fumbling to tie it around his nose when he accidentally dropped it into the roaring flames. In a blink of an eye, it was charred to a crisp, and Kai gulped, and he hesitated in front of the flames. Then Nya screamed again in terrorising pain that might as well have hurt Kai too, and he was hurtling through the hungry flames, a voice in his head egging him on. It sounded like...Principal Wu?
His body reacted indifferently to what should have been searing burns, instead, they tickled him teasingly, snapping at his heels like yapping puppies with flaming breath. His sister's yelps of fear and pain were fading, and he skidded to a halt in laundry. It was empty, and suddenly she was yelling from upstairs. A mad dash through the flames left him rushing up the stairs, the fire trailing behind him. He flung open every door, every window, searching, searching desperately for his sister as her cries moved around the house.
It was only eventual that the smoke would lull him into sleep, and strangely, he felt safe in a dream-made cradle of living flames.
lloyd
Lloyd walked into lunch with a positive mindset. It disappeared quickly as he scrunched up his face in surprise. They were missing three members of their group at lunch. Pixal and Zane were missing, had been since Zane had legged it out of the door yesterday afternoon and left the rest of them in a daze. He'd been knocked aside like a fly, first by Zane, then barreled through by Pixal. Whatever Dr Julien had told Zane obviously had not gone down well. Evan emerged from the room with a grim expression, but Zane's younger brother always seemed to have one.
Dr Julien shakily instructed them home, telling them it was a Julien matter. Lloyd realised that he was late for dinner anyways, so it was a mad scramble back to the nearest bus stop. He entered the house silent, and took a shocked step back. The door leading to the tiny kitchen was shut, and two loud voices were competing with each other for volume.
"Explain to me, Monty, why would you leave when you have been shot?" demanded Misako. At the mention of his father's name, and Lloyd's middle name, Lloyd grimaced.
"I have responsibilities to attend to." replied his father, in his cool, deep voice. It would have silenced anyone else immediately, but Misako refused to balk.
"I don't care if you have responsibilities, I have enough on my hands with Lloyd, moving, work, and now I have to babysit you?"
"You don't have to take care of me!" snapped Garmadon, and Lloyd could almost see him advancing towards Misako through the kitchen door in his imagination.
"You're Lloyd's father. I have to care." Misako said quietly, and then her retreating footsteps had Lloyd running three paces to his bedroom.
He lay on his bed awkwardly when his door creaked open, and he attempted to sound tired.
"Mum?"
"Everything okay, Lloyd?"
He wanted to ask her the same thing, but he nodded and peeled off his shoes. "I ate dinner at the park. The chicken nuggets weren't that good."
She laughed, closing the door behind her so she could lean on it. "Lloyd, over the next week, we're going to have to start packing up our things — only our clothes, nothing like kitchen equipment. We're leaving all the furniture behind, and I've organised for someone to help us take everything over."
"Uh...what?"
"We may be moving house, Lloyd. I have everything organised, I just need you packed by Wednesday. If not, we just have to unpack."
"How—"
"No questions, Lloyd. I have everything under control. Just be ready to pack and to unpack."
"Right." he couldn't help if he sounded suspicious. His mum, all of a sudden, decided to pack everything up and leave when they were perfectly fine right where they were. Maybe it was because of his father. It sounded like he'd snuck out of the house while suffering from a gun wound.
Did Lloyd care?
That remained to be seen.
Yet now at lunch, he had more issues to attend to. He spotted Skylor looking very uncomfortable at the popular kid's table, but he shrugged it off and set down his tray of food with a despondent sigh which Jay returned.
"What's Skylor doing over there?" asked Jay, smushing the tip of his fry into his plate.
"I dunno." Lloyd replied, to only Jay and Nya. I am very uncomfortable with the energy we've created today.
Nya frowned as Liam slung his arm around their friend's shoulders, but her attention changed to the loud pinging from Jay's ancient mobile.
"Shut the muffin up!" cried Jay, who was on the verge of smashing his phone.
Nya winced. "How many likes..."
"A freaking million!" yelped Jay in panic, gritting his teeth in annoyance.
"What's...?" Lloyd trailed off. It probably had something to do with Jay's I'm-going-to-be-sued-help TikTok video.
"The video I was telling you about," Jay said, exhaling very slowly, "Now has a million likes. My phone is literally on fire. And TikTok refuses to let me take it down!"
"Damn." Lloyd whistled softly. "Make sure the fame doesn't get to your head."
"It's not!"
"Sure."
"It's not."
"I say leave it up," Lloyd crossed his arm, and leant against the pillar behind his back. Their table was wedged in a fiddly position. "You could like, make a ton of money from it. Maybe you'll even meet Fritz Donnegan."
Jay laughed sarcastically. "Please, in no way is Fritz Donnegan going to talk to me. Lloyd, the guy has no idea who I am. If I was his long lost son, that would be a different question altogether."
Lloyd lifted his shoulders again in partial defeat and focused on his limp burger, running through a list of things he had to do that day. Replant the stink bombs in Mrs Yallen's class, start packing, ask Zane for—
"Where's Zane?"
Nya and Jay looked at each other, shrugging in unison.
"Pixal isn't here either." Nya noted, flinging out her arms to emphasise the extra empty space.
There was another ping and the three of them instinctively looked at Jay's phone. He checked it and shook his head. Then Lloyd unlocked his, an unexpected feeling of dread clawing at his stomach. There was an unread message from Harumi. Crap.
"This week has been complete shit." groaned Jay as his phone trilled out again.
"Finally caught on, have you?"
A/N: oh yeah this is long. *laughs nervously* average of 2.5k to 3k anyone? Also, someone headcanon'ed that garmadon's first name was montgomery (lloyds middle name) and i was like: yeah! That makes sense. And now i can't freaking remember who said it, so if you did comment! (lmao if you are even reading this story) It makes sense, anyways, and it would be weird referring to him as 'garmadon' the entire time. How am i supposed to be sneakily foreshadowing? Anyways, zane and christopher's (dr julien) fight reminds me of 'meet me inside' from hamilton when hamilton and washington are fighting. Aka, the lyrics 'call me son one more time.'
You are all free to whack me with wu's staff because i myself have no idea why i cant speed the ficking plot up but it IS picking up pace and there will be something monumental? After this. I think. *laughs at indecisiveness*
ALSO bruh we are so close to 2k reads like dudes thank y o u. Never thought mos would get this far, or this chaotic, but here we are. Like. how. Anyways, thank you, uh, yeah?
-dommie out