pixal

Something did not feel right.

Her hands were bound to the table with iron cuffs and Pixal did not know how to feel about that. She tried reorganised jumbled thoughts and shards of memories from approximately...fifteen hours ago, it seemed. Harumi. Darkness. The ball. Margaritas. Very fancy horderves. Fighting. The servant's passage. Jay. Rema. Reginald. Nya. Zane. Zane.

Pixal's scanners were awry, her systems were barely functional, but her mind was still clear. Taking in calming breaths, she managed to twist her neck and look around the room. SHe recognised it with a sigh of relief. Pixal was definitely inside the SOG underground base, but that still didn't explain why she was cuffed to a metal table.

Putting two and two together (the tools on the table nearby, and the fact that her right ankle flap was open), Pixal was fairly confident in guessing that something had happened to her during the Ball. Something drastic enough that she would have to undergo repairs. What exactly remained to be another question, but in the meantime getting out was more important.

"Pixal, thank the Gods you're awake!" her systems recognised the anxious but cheery voice a few seconds delayed. Valley, wearing her usual relaxed jewellery and sweater combination, started to unlock Pixal's restraints.

"I really didn't want to have to use these, Pixal, but boy are you strong, you nearly knocked Arsyn out. Not that I'm complaining, they're a bit unbearable sometimes, but I'm just glad that you're okay. How are you feeling?"

Pixal stretched her wrists and legs, allowing them to hang off the table in what appeared to be grey track pants. Her upper half was in a thin yellow sweater, and her hair was done in a high ponytail like Skylor's. How was she feeling? Disoriented, for one. Worried about Zane and the rest of the squad. Rema's current condition. Missing her father dearly.

There had been some ridiculous tiny hope in her heart - her core - that her father would be at the ball. He hadn't been there, so it didn't matter if she could check if he truly was on Wu's side. She rarely caught the snippets of his ads on TVs, or the times he appeared by Wu 's side. Even though Pixal had her friends, she missed her father with all of her core. He was her creator after all.

She still couldn't quite believe he was with Wu.

Maybe that was why she hesitated everytime his voice or his face came up in simulations. Skylor did the same thing for her own father, a mutual understanding the two girls had.

"I feel...somewhat okay," Pixal answered, feeling that it was an appropriate answer. She did not want to load her friend with an unnecessary amount of personal conflict. Maya was messing with a giant screen monitor and Pixal checked her mobility systems, and suddenly felt like a jolt of electricity had been shot into her body.

"All your systems and functions are back online, Pix," Maya smiled warmly, handing Pixal a box of waffles, she detected, from the cafeteria. "You missed dessert o'clock, sadly. It's six thirty-eight right now, I believe, so you still might be able to eat these before your meeting.."

Pixal double checked that herself, nodded, and took the waffles. She wasn't feeling very hungry, just wanted to check up on her friends. "Thank you for helping me. What was the cause of my predicament?"

"Oh. Something happened to you — a temporary signal was sent out by Wu trying to get you and Zane, I think. He was just out of range, but it sort of flash-froze your systems and was designed to keep you immobilised until they could find you. The coding is incredibly complex, something I think Cyrus—I mean, a highly advanced inverter or coder could do. Luckily, Jay managed to short circuit you and break the signal long enough to get you back here."

"I must thank him, then," Pixal ignored Maya's slip up with a small smile of gratitude. It sounded as if it was quite serious, so she was grateful that such a skilled technician like Maya was at HQ. She'd worked with Valley before on multiple occasions for her AI upgrades, knowing her as a bubbly but intelligent person. "And you, as well, Valley."

"It's nothing," Maya insisted, then pointing at the door. "Now go, I think someone out there wants to see you."

Pixal had a pretty good idea of who it was but still pretended surprise when Zane was on the other side of the door holding freshly baked blueberry muffins. Smiling at his perplexed and worried expression, Pixal accepted a muffin and walked with her boyfriend back to the dorms.

"Did we get the map?" Pixal's memories were the last part of her database still clearing up, and although she strained to try and remember the event, most of the ball was in bits and pieces.

"The Lord has it in his possession now, and Oni Squad has procured the Shurkiens," Zane looked excited at that, his blue eyes sparkling with interest. Not only would the Shurikens grant him further access to his powers (different to simple weapon channeling, Misako's Weapons brief said the Weapons heightened the Core's elements), but Zane and Pixal were intrigued to find out how exactly the weapon functioned.

"That's wonderful. How are you feeling?"

"No, how are you feeling, Pixal? I was not affected by Wu's signal, but I was afraid for a while that you might not wake up."

"Not bad," Pixal started, taking a bite of the warm muffin to appease her grumbling stomach. "My systems are nearly done recalibrating, and I'm happy that we managed to achieve our goal."

Zane stopped walking abruptly and encased Pixal in a tight hug. Her breath caught and the muffin fell to the floor with a sad splat before she hugged him back. Pixal was fairly tall, but Zane was tall enough to rest his chin on the top of her blonde hair and sigh.

"I'm sorry, I've just felt so alone lately, and with you incapacitated, I am struggling with how to control my emotions."

"They do not need to be controlled all the time, Zane," Pixal took his hands with a warm smile, trying to calm the worry in his eyes. "It is perfectly human to be afraid."

Perfectly human.

His words tumbled out faster than he seemed to register. "I am afraid for my loved ones. If I cannot protect them, then who will? We live in a world that has danger around every corner and not everyone is built or equipped to sustain such danger. My father once told me that my purpose is to protect. And if there is no one to protect, or if I am not there to protect them, I have failed my purpose in life."

He said I was a loved one. Zane...loves me? Pixal frowned into Zane's chest, then pushed the frown away. Whether or not she was ready to say the same didn't matter, she had to be there for him. While she couldn't understand his purpose, since her creation had simply been a technological feat on behalf of her father, she could understand the fear.

Zeroes and ones aside, Pixal had experienced terror.

Her pale hand reached up to her exposed neck where Harumi's blade had once rested, still, unmoving, a promise of death. A blade that could cut through skin, bone, and metal. If not only fear, Pixal had learnt the feeling of vulnerability. She had no elemental powers to protect herself, only her brain, her swords, and a deep hate for Emperor Wu.

"Protection is complicated, Zane. However, I think that when it comes to matters of the core, the only one who can decide what to do is you. Love is a beautiful thing, Zane, but it can come with a horrible price."

o o o

Pixal wanted to kill the man on the TV.

His beard no longer covered his face, and she half-believed that was what might have prevented her from seeing his true nature. The full smile that was now exposed was not what she would call pretty or comforting. Zane had a smile she liked, so did her father, so did her friends, but Wu's seemed so forced, and his eyebrows always seemed furried, like he was plotting something.

Others had the same look, but there was something about theirs that made it different to Wu - less horrible, more beautiful. Pixal touched her own lips self-consciously, then returned to staring at the crown being lowered upon Wu's head. Morro stood beside him, his gaunt face sunken with tiredness but thin-lipped determination. A small boy stood next to him in a matching black suit with Morro. Pixal's scanners picked up a small, nearly faded scar on his neck that matched the strokes of the nodachi on Morro's waist.

"Do you, Wu Garmadon, son to the First Spinjitzu Master, rightful ruler to our realm, swear to protect and serve our land?"

Pixal didn't know the man that was announcing this, but he had a wicked smile and a strange mustache - he was more likely in Wu's hand than the original monarchy.

"I, Wu Garmadon, son to the First Spinjitzu Master, rightful ruler to my realm, swear to protect and serve my land."

The crown touched his head.

And something in Pixal died inside.

Not her core, or her main systems, but that tiny sliver of hope that this wasn't official, however, that crown and that statement had sealed Ninjago's future.

They truly had a new ruler. A tyrannical one that had somehow blackmailed her father or threatened him into joining his side, because Pixal, with all her might, could not believe that the man in the wheelchair, who had a smile she did not like now, was truly on Wu's side.

That was the hope she was riding on.

That was the only reason she was here.

To get her father, and to stop Wu.

Zane switched off the TV, sensing everyone's obvious discomfort and fuming hate towards the white-bearded man. Pixal pulled the cuffs of her top down and watched everyone else in the room try to distract themselves from Wu's chilling promise. Rema wasn't there - Pixal had learnt she was still in surgery and getting a prosthetic arm.

Jay and Nya were talking quietly in one corner, Jay leaning against Nya's side as she talked animatedly about Wu. Her hands were miming what appeared to be a strangulation. Zane had produced a tray of muffins and was giving them out to Cassandra and Maya, the former of whom's face was now free of bandages. Pixal accepted one but did not eat it, staring at the cooked blueberries bleeding through the rest of the muffin.

"So, it's real, then?" Jay finally said. "Like it's official, official?"

"He's Emperor now," Nya replied slowly. "It sounds so weird. Principal Wu. Emperor Wu."

"We should not dwell on this. Beforehand, he has always been addressed as Emperor Wu. Nothing has changed but the view of the public; the crowning ceremony is widely respected and treasured as a monumental occasion. Wu may have tainted that, but we cannot focus on that. There is too much at stake. Oni Squad should be on their way to retrieve the Sword of Fire as we speak, so we should be focusing on finding the rest of the Fangblades." Zane threw a holoprojector down onto the coffee table, wringing his pale hands together.

A blue-tinted version of the map appeared in the air and began circulating. Cassie sat up straighter and threaded her fingers as if she were a headmaster of a school and not a widely-feared assassin.

"Our current problem is that the map is labelled and accurate to a Ninjago of several thousand years ago, which means that nothing it shows here," Cassie pointed to a random forest that Pixal was sure was a shopping complex now, "Is actually accurate."

"Which makes it all the more harder to find the true locations. The Serpentine have managed to find one of the Fangblades, so they have a one to nought advantage. However, all we have to do is get one. One is enough to stop them. All four would be great, but one is all we need to prevent the Great Devourer from rising." continued the assassin, and Pixxal nodded along with her. Logically, it made sense. One to prevent the reunification, four to control it.

"What are the three old locations?" Jay cocked his head, staring at the floating 3D image that had been created using the map.

"Well the second Fangblade, you see this stretch of backshore up here? It used to be kept in the top of the lighthouse where the owner kept a lot of fancy rubbish, but it was raided a long time ago and now we haven't seen it since."

"So we can probably assume that that one's lost to us. The others?" Nya began to walk around the map where a shimmering form of a lighthouse kept flickering in and out as a reminder of the lost treasure.

"The third is locked up in an old pyramid teeming with traps that I don't think has magically moved — should be easy enough for you lot if you've listened to my training. The last one...I'm not sure. It's to do with fire, for sure." Cassie harrumphed loudly in obvious irritation. Pixal assessed her slightly mussed hair and the way she kept scanning all of the kids in the room like she wasn't only two or three years older with the air of a harried mother.

Worried for them, then.

"Tomorrow, Oni should have the Sword of Fire and should have returned with all four Golden Weapons. The Serpentine have backed off them for now, and are stumped with the same problem as we are concerning the Fangblades. Although we may have a slight advantage — Wu's distaste for technology doesn't allow them to account for years of erosion and geodesy and what not. They have one blade and knowledge of Ninjago before us at least."

"There's one guy I know who was old enough and who was there around the Serpentine chamber-locking ordeal." Valley added, albeit reluctantly when she stood and looked to Cassie. "We need to talk to the Lord."

o o o

The biggest problem at the moment, Pixal analysed, was that the Lord did not want to talk to them.

"Go away," he said gruffly. The door was firmly locked and she was quite sure she did not want to break into the lodgings of the man that was currently keeping them all safe. However you defined safe at the moment.

"Sir, we need to talk to you about the Fangblade situation."

"Go away," he repeated, his words slurring slightly. Pixal pushed her ear to the door and determined he was not drunk. She could not smell the sickening sweet tell of wine or beer. He hadn't been sleeping, and the fact was confirmed when he wrenched open the door and told them, all to their faces, "Go the hell away."

Pixal determined then that most of the Garmadons were, in fact, raging insomniacs or had a stubborn nature that prevented them from doing anything but their end goal at the sacrifice of eating, sleeping, or drinking.

"I'm working." he said, as way of explanation. He was leaning heavily against the doorframe as Pixal realised she had not heard hide or hair of him for a very, very long time. Maya and Cassie had been given them orders, so she had assumed nothing was wrong, when there clearly was. The senior agents exchanged anxious looks and pursed lips.

His eyes began to droop. "I'm finding a way to destroy the Fangblades. Saki...Misako left me her research notes from before she left her stint at Ninjago Museum doing research on the Great Devourer for the Serpentine Exhibit and there is a way, I'm trying to find it, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying."

There was a way to destroy the Fangblades and he hadn't told them yet.

There was a way to stop the destruction of her home - of her room all the way up in Borg Tower where she used to groan over homework and drink hot chocolate.

There was a way, and he hadn't told them.

"Sir, you need to sleep—"

"Can't you see I'm trying to save us all? I'm trying to save Saki, I'm trying to save Lloyd, I'm even trying to save my stupid daughter who wants nothing to do with me!"

"Mr Garmadon, with all due respect sir, I think you should start trying to take care of yourself. Becoming a workaholic and achieving nothing will not aid our cause." Pixal laid a gentle hand on the taller man's shaking shoulders.

"I have made progress. I have achieved stuff, like I said, I've been trying. Trying so hard." he whispered weakly.

The Lord slumped against the door frame as he collapsed to the ground with a final I'm trying on lips.

"Slow pulse," Zane discerned, "He has not slept for forty six hours."

"Forty six and a half," Pixal added, continuing to search through her medical scanners for helpful information. "Dehydrated, has not eaten in half that time, surviving on coffee, and needs a good long nap and food, in essence."

Zane gave her a sharp nod, and together they lifted Garmadon and began marching towards the medwing. Pixal tried to ignore everyone still staring gobsmacked at their quick deductions which should not have been surprising given their nature. Perhaps that was the difference between them, human and not. Reactions were different. To human nature it was delayed, but to them it was not, filed away for later, programming reacting to the situation, not the emotion, now.

Perhaps that was what confused her about Garmadons.

Pixal had only seen it in very few people before - effortless blocking of emotions. Garmadon did it well, refusing to let his tone waver from a sombre tiber, Misako rarely showed any joy apart from when she talked about history, but that was to be expected. Then the children. Lloyd showed everything but what he was feeling, amplified those outward emotions and pretended badly that he was okay.

It was only bad to Pixal when she knew of, not understood his situation. His relationship with Harumi and whatever burning embers he was still trying to fan into flames or stomp on were still there. Astra was possibly the worst out of them all, tied with her father's constant forgetting that he had a body that needed to be taken care of. The simplest way to put it would be that she did not show anything but physical pain from training, and that was always covered in sarcastic remarks and swears.

"There's a way to destroy them?" Annabella Han and Zander Loughty had been brought in for more brains on the operation, temporarily joining the Dragons for backup. The former now voiced this question skeptically. "We didn't think about destroying them."

"Only getting them. We're not that far in the future, Ciaga." Cassie was irritated once again, but not with them. The situation at hand, her boss passing out and not telling them about yet another option. Secrets. More secrets. "While that's useful, we still need to check how far along the Serpentine to the pyramid. That's where I assume they're going next, anyways."

How much more is the Lord keeping from us?

—

A/N: IM BACKKK YEAH (the rest of rtw is now officialy plotted out, holy shizzer i never knew i could do that) the thoughts were kinda just floating about but i finally gottem together, anyways, we're looking at about 30-40 chapters, which puts my predicted word count at over 120k. yep.

This chapter's song is 'prom night' by riovaz

This chapter's Q is: would you rather be a nindroid or human?

My A: uhhh wel humans are more 'breakable'i suppose, but really most things are breakable. Nindroids have an intellectual advantage so i really have no idea. Pros and cons list appearance?

-dommie out