zane

Ice spread quickly across the room, trapping Reggie before he could teleport. Zane sighed a controlled breath of exasperation as Reggie teleported right out of the ice casing behind him. He parried his attack and then swept his foot in a backwards curve to shoot out a layer of ice over the floor. It would make Reggie's teleport landings a little slippery and delay him just enough for a proper attack.

Reggie immediately shied away from Zane and threw down a smoke wall to obscure Zane's vision. He simply switched to a thermal scanner and watched the Smoke Master move swiftly around him. When Reggie lunged out with his gauntlets, Zane dodged and laid down a jagged line of ice, trapping him in ice, on ice, by the Ice Master.

"That was very cool," Zane said proudly. He willed the ice to weaken its hold on Reggie, and it did, releasing a slightly soggy and grumpy Reginald.

"Did you just make an ice pun?"

"I did."

"Look, I have to deal with Jay's stupid lightning puns, Kai's beginning to do them too, and I can't handle you as well. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!" Reggie exclaimed loudly, storming out of the training hall.

"It was very ice beating you!" Zane called after him. A snake made of smoke wriggled his way and made an attempt to sink its fangs into his ankle. Laughing, Zane just trapped it in ice and began cleaning up the mess they'd made training. It had been a busy morning and a spar with Reggie helped relax the tension that seemed to follow him around everywhere.

Zane had even started having to look behind him in case a trail of icy footprints were left in his wake. One day, Astra had slipped on the ice as they were being briefed on yet another mission and she hadn't said a word as she glared at Zane and marched out of the assignment. Jay had said it looked like she'd peed her pants from behind. His lasagna that night was uncooked pasta sheets layered with burger meat.

"I just—I don't understand why," Jay's voice was trembling, "It was never this bad before, in school."

"I didn't even know you were like that before," Cole said.

"He wasn't like that. It's not a like that thing, Brookstone. Something happened, Walker is reacting to it. We all do it." Astra's sharp voice interrupted them. "Your friend is outside."

"I am here," Zane confirmed, allowing Astra to step outside with a short nod. "Is anything wrong, Jay?"

"I have panic attacks," Jay said carefully, watching everyone's reactions. Zane now realised that Kai was also in this room, picking at his nails. "Because of all of this war stuff."

"And?"

"You're not gonna bully me for it?" Jay looked a little surprised at Kai's response, folding his legs into a criss-cross position.

"Someone I knew used to get something similar when she was younger. Hard having your parents away from you a lot." was all Kai said. "I'm here for you, bro."

"So am I, dude," Cole chimed in. "Whatever you need from us."

"Yes, I am available for anything you need me for," Zane paused to rifle through his thesaurus of words for 'friend'. "My guy."

"Um, well, I did want to try starting a new hobby, maybe. I don't know if it will help, it might not at all, I just thought it'd be cool. And I don't want you guys to walk on eggshells all around me, because Astra is being nice already and that's enough to make me worry for ten hours."

"What's the hobby?"

Jay mumbled something softly, then took a deep breath and spoke louder.

"Knitting. I want to start a knitting club."

Zane glanced at Kai and Cole who both shrugged casually. "I don't see why not."

"You're sure, right?" Kai cleared his throat, "You want to knit."

"Yes. I want to knit."

So there they all sat, trying to figure out how to weave the wool and not stab each other with the needles. For his friends' sake, Zane pretended he was extremely inept at knitting. Kai had already managed to charr his own bundle of red wool, the remains of a half-burned scarf clinging to the metal sticks. Cole was muddling his way along, though with large fingers it made it hard to unpick and rethread every few steps.

Jay was quick and nearly as good as Zane (though he would not say it aloud. He still pretended to drop his needles every few minutes so Kai and Cole's egos wouldn't suffer too much."

"Ha! I did it!" Jay cheered, brandishing a pair of socks. "I have conquered the Labyrinthine before all of you foolish mortals."

Zane chose not to mention he had made a dozen pairs of Labyrinthine socks for his father before, smiling at Jay's happiness. Seeing his friend free from worry and happy at something that didn't involve winning fights made him happy too.

"That makes no sense," Kai grumbled, throwing his needles to the ground. "He's been knitting for like, three hours."

"Double knot stitch!" Cole yelled excitedly. He pushed the knitted piece into Kai's face and laughed. "Boom!"

Kai's hair lit on fire, so Cole quickly withdrew his 'masterpiece' and snickered at Kai's flaming expression.

"It's not fair. The wool burns every time I get mad. Knitting sucks. And only old grandmas do it. You guys are a bunch of grandmas."

"Uh, yeah, grandmas that can knit without setting our wool on fire." Jay sniggered and yelped when Kai sent a fireball his way.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" A blonde (dog ear-less) head poked in the room, followed by a pair of green eyes looking at the inquisitively.

"We're knitting," Kai spat.

"No, we're knitting, Kai's setting things on fire." Cole amended Kai's answers with a smirk.

"You didn't invite me?"

"I didn't think you wanted to join Grandmas & Co," Kai rolled his eyes. "Be my guest."

Lloyd ignored Kai's comment and found himself a pair of needles and some wool. Zane took a few minutes to teach the younger boy how to get started and avoid the tangles that came so easily to Kai and Cole. After a few minutes, Lloyd had gotten the hang of it and Kai was playing games on the TV. It was a comfortable sort of silence, only interrupted by the clack of needles, rustling to get more wool, and Kai's fake sound effects.

"Do you guys want to go on a walk?" Jay said all of a sudden, abandoning his knitting with zeal. "Outside."

"I don't believe we have the permission to do that," Zane frowned, although the idea of getting some natural sunlight sounded good to him.

"Who said we needed permission?" Kai grinned. "I know a way we can get FaceSims."

Five minutes later, they all sat crouched outside Valley's main office.

"This is stealing," Zane hissed at Kai.

"Obviously," Kai rolled his eyes like it was the most innocent thing in the world. "Zane, you can be the distraction. I'll go in and get the masks."

"How come you're making the plan?" Cole arched his brow. "That went so well last time."

"Well I didn't see you coming up with one."

"Also, isn't Zane sneakier than you Kai?" Jay decided to squeeze in his own two cents in an incredibly hushed conversation.

"Fine! Jeez, okay. Zane sneaks in, the rest of us will do the talking. Be quick." Kai harrumphed, then waved them all in. "Maya! My favourite, er, hacker?"

Zane shook his head, waiting until everyone had formed a line that blocked Maya's line of sight. He crouched a little and swiftly made his way behind everyone's legs, feeling too much like Ryu. The world was very big on his knees, but eventually he was at the cabinet that held all the FaceSims.

He quickly unlocked it by connecting his power source and overriding the electrical signal. There weren't that many portable sources which could hold that much power, so Maya's locks would withstand any other type of break-in.

The lock broke off with a soft hiss into Zane's awaiting palm, allowing him to slowly draw open the door of the cabinet to 'not steal' five FaceSims. When he slipped them into his sweater pocket, he punched Kai's foot discreetly and crawled back outside. The others finished up the distraction and tripped over each other getting out of the room.

"You got 'em?"

Zane nodded at Cole, subtly distributing the packets to all of his friends. "We should go before Maya realises."

Lloyd had already applied his FaceSim and now looked completely different. "I know an exit."

He led them all towards a back exit that was hidden behind stacks and stacks of barrels and crates. The door was seamlessly hidden within the metal wall to the naked eye. Of course, Zane had picked it up right away, noting the clever design it had been constructed with.

"My father showed me this," he said, embarrassed for some reason. "It comes up near a Master Chen's shop."

The passage was spacious and possibly designed for moving shipments like the crates covering its entrance, so wide that three of them could walk side by side. Zane glanced at his face in the reflecting metal walls, pleased to see his feature-altering skills had improved. His hair was red, freckles had joined a button-shaped nose on his face along with blue eyes.

Cole had programmed his FaceSim to look vaguely like Zane's - with their similar heights, they could be brothers. Kai's hair was now blonde, Jay's was more brown than auburn, and for some reason Lloyd's hair had blue tips at the end of brown strands. There were steps starting to creep up towards the end of the passageway, eventually leading to another sleek door that opened up into a brick alleyway.

The outwards face of the door had a brick pattern that even felt realistic and melted seamlessly back into the wall when it swung closed.

"Where should we go now?"

"Noodles sound good," Cole rubbed his hands together with a grin, "Haven't had Master Chen's in ages."

"Remember the stupid competition we lost?" Lloyd brought forth a sizable chunk of memories associated with eating cold noodles that made Zane and the rest laugh.

"I had to keep changing Chen's locations. They started getting suspicious after the first three hours — seriously, who eats noodles for that long and remains sane?" Jay complained loudly through a smile. "Good times though. I saw a bar fight."

"You didn't tell us that!" Kai exclaimed as they walked through the front door of Chen's. The jangly tune played over a speaker that kept cutting in and out. The location was fairly deserted, and Zane wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing. Less people meant less chance of somehow being recognised, but at the same time it also meant a severe lack of crowd-hiding as a strategy.

This far out in the city he didn't find it surprising that there were few customers in the booths and at the kaiten-noodle belt. Master Chen was firmly associated with Emperor Wu, and with people near the outskirts so averse to the new, old-age obsessed ruler, the less they contributed to Chen's hefty profit, the better. The people out here were intelligent, but there wasn't much they could do to fight against Wu.

Everyone trusted Cole to order plenty and to order well for all their tastes, so Zane and Lloyd found the biggest booth that sat six. Every single Master Chen's had the exact same decorations, from the gaudy red seats and the dark oak paneling, the overly large icon of a cartoon Chen and the glowing menu boards, the one thing you could find consistently anywhere was a Master Chen's.

"Okay, so," Cole announced, throwing his wallet onto the wooden table. "I figured everyone would pitch in 'cause I ordered one of everything on the menu."

"Dude, come on. I went and got slushies last night, I have like, nothing in my wallet." Kai groaned. "I'm just gonna pay for my stuff."

"Oh you're that guy now?" Lloyd raised his eyebrows. "Not our fault you spend money whenever you can."

Zane detected a slightly bitter tone hanging onto Lloyd's words, so he intervened quickly. It had been a while since it was the five of them hanging out casually. "I'll chip in, don't worry. Did you hear about that new robotic leg Jo and Ty are making?"

Jay was the most interested of the rest, nodding excitedly as he traced a leg on the table before them. "It's really cool. They're using, uh, Rem's arm as a prototype-base sorta thing. The neural drives are the most interesting—"

"We don't serve your kind here." a rudely raised voice interrupted their conversation. "Out, before I call the Legion."

Everyone else took the not-so subtle approach of craning their necks over like a gossiping tower of giraffes. Tower of giraffes: a group of giraffes can be referred to as a tower of giraffes. Zane, however, was considerably more elegant and simply turned on his scanners to zoom in on the conversation at the cashier. A gangly teenager in a Master Chen's cap leant over the register pointing to a hand-drawn sign.

"That's not true," insisted the girl. Zane caught onto her lisp quickly and switched his scanners from human-only to all. Serpentine. Although she had done a fairly good job at covering up her serpent features, the bump of her tail, the odd shape of her head, and her lisp gave her away. Any unassuming civilian wouldn't know better; would most likely be too busy to care. That was how it was nowadays.

"She's Serpentine," Zane whispered, snagging everyone's attention. Immediately, all hands went for non-existent weapons.

"Crap," Lloyd breathed, thinking exactly what they were all thinking. Zane didn't have a mind-reading function, but it was clear. They couldn't use their elemental powers, and a Serpentine, possibly a spy, was metres away from them.

"She looks young. About fourteen, close to fifteen. Venomari tribe, heavily disguised." Zane said, transferring the arguing to a recording file.

"Get out, snakeling. I told you, I'd call the Legion, and I'll do it right now."

"Do it then." the Serpentine lifted up her chin proudly and crossed her arms. "Call them to come help an ally."

The cashier blinked, stunned, for a few seconds and babbled something about Chen's policy.

"Let them come find me," she reiterated her point again, drumming her fingers on the counter, "I have what they need. To do with the Sons of Garmadon."

It was at that moment that Zane realised this Venomari youngling was smart above all things.

"No," he pulled down on Kai's arm and shot everyone a silencing glower. "She's sending us a message."

... / --- / --. .-.-.- / .... . .-.. .--.

Or, in other words, S O G H E L P. She knew. Zane wasn't sure how she knew, which didn't matter at the moment, but she knew and she needed their help.

"Ah yes, gallant times," Kai remarked as scornfully as he could, but he still rose from his seat in the booth and cracked his knuckles. "Blond Kai enters stage right."

"Never say that again," Cole muttered darkly after Kai's back. Zane shook his head at his friend's easy (and unnecessary) quips. The five of them walked over to the counter pretending to pick up the food, hands in pockets and the most innocent expressions on their faces as possible. For Zane, that meant top-notch acting, Kai had never been innocent in his entire life except maybe at birth, Jay looked to be in between nerves and calm, Cole looked like a cat had passed, and Lloyd was eating free candy.

"I'm dealing with someone—ugh, not even someone, a—a reptile. Do you know how disgusting that is?" the cashier shuddered openly and looked to them for support. "Right?"

"Wrong," Kai said with a smirk, and right hooked the cashier.

"Blegh," Lloyd pulled a face and stepped back with his hands full of candy. "You are so unnecessarily dramatic."

"It was a good line!" Kai said defensively.

Jay gave a light laugh. "No it wasn't. You always do the worst lines. Like when we're about to die. Or when we're in dangerous situations. Or the time when we were all poisoned. Or I was dying from smoke inhalation," His paler than normal face managed to pale even more at his own words. "Oh."

"Give him space." Cole ordered, even though the rest of the customers had exited the restaurant after Kai's dramatic lights-out.

"You need anything from us?" Kai seemed genuinely concerned, "I brought the knitting needles."

Everyone, even Jay who was struggling to retain even breaths, gave Kai a round of baffled expressions.

"What? I thought they would help."

"No, space. I need space. And," Jay mumbled something else Zane knew Kai would not want to hear, and no knitting needles could solve. So they all stayed by Jay, a few metres away, playing chess with melted gummies and candy. Zane was itching to help his friend; every reflex inside of him yearned to give him a hot drink or make cookies instead of feeling useless. "I just need everyone to give me space. The more you mother over me the harder it is."

"Do you have medicine?" Zane asked quietly, nodding when Jay shook his head. "Concentrate on your breathing. If you have a happy place, or a sound or a song that makes you happy, try to hum it. Or I could count down from a hundred with you. You could hold my hand, or I could find some noodles."

"Just, give me a second. It takes a while sometimes, I just need to breathe." Jay's ragged breathing began to slow into calmer breaths, allowing Zane to step away and guard his friend from afar. If Jay needed space, he would give him that.

The auburn-haired teenager clenched his fists and exhaled one long, last, time, and turned to face everyone with a serene expression. "Thank you. For respecting my privacy, I mean. My mother kind of smothers me and it just makes everything worse, I know she has good intentions, but it can get overwhelming."

Zane nodded, carefully storing this information away for future reference. "Are you ready?"

He tilted his head toward Kai and Lloyd, who were carrying out an impromptu investigation with Cole standing behind them threateningly. As far as Zane could analyse, it wasn't going well. Jay replied with a sharp, wordless nod, and marched over to pull Kai and Lloyd away from the Serpentine. They managed to sit her down in a more intimidating fashion, though judging by her unimpressed expression, that was useless.

"They're really bad at this," said the young Serpentine, gesturing to Kai and Lloyd. "I thought the Sons of Garmadon were supposed to be well trained."

"Now hang on," Cole interrupted Kai, who was about to open his mouth and shoot off whatever his triggered temper wished. "You can't come into our territory and start insulting us."

"Our?" If Seperentine could raise eyebrows, she most definitely would have. "It was only a guess. You're really from the Sons of Garmadon?"

Zane glanced to his friends. The FaceSims were still firmly attached to their faces, so this Serpentine wouldn't recognise them as the Hunted. "Yes. Is that of concern to you?"

"I need to talk to your leaders."

"Why would we let the enemy into our headquarters? We're in the middle of a war, remember?" Kai eyed her suspiciously. He was fixated on finding Harumi and making her pay for being a traitor; any other irregular behaviour tipped Kai off.

The Serpentine looked at Zane, the hazy yellow of her eyes boring into his brain."The information I have will end it."

o o o

The young Venomari kept touching the blindfold around her eyes, moving slowly with each wary step she took through the tunnel. Zane kept firm watch behind her, feeling the ice thrumming beneath his synthetic skin, ready to pounce if the tables turned. When they reached the stack of crates and boxes, Kai and Cole began moving them quickly as Jay and Lloyd summoned the Lord to the war room. Zane made sure the entrance was covered seamlessly and followed the solemn, silent march.

The Lord tore away the sunglasses from his eyes as he stalked into the room,"I hope you've disturbed me for good—"

"Surprise?" Jay offered with a nervous chuckle.

The Lord's eyes narrowed at the sight of the Venomari, sighing deeply. "Take off the blindfold."

Zane formed a dagger of ice and sliced through the black fabric with the edge. It fell to the ground, uncloaking the Venomari's poison yellow eyes. Her tongue flicked in and out as she took in the grim faces surrounding her.

"My name is Svanna," she started hesitantly, her earlier confidence erased. She was young, Zane could tell. Perhaps she was coming to terms with whatever tragedy she had run from. "My father is the leader of the Venomari tribe."

"Then why are you here?" Kai's hostility was very much clear in his tone, let alone his words.

Svanna hissed, "I told you, I can end the war. At least, I know what will happen."

"Stop bickering, children. Let the Venomari speak. Why have you crossed into our territory?" The Lord words encouraged the young Serpentine to push through her hesitant mumbling.

"I—You know what my people are planning to do. The Great Devourer is the only thing in their minds; they can only praise it and worship it. But I wondered otherwise. And I found proof that its name is more than true—it will devour everything. Everyone. The Serpentine will not stop it, even if I told them this. So I came to you."

"Why not the Emperor?" entered a new voice. Astra stood near the door, arms folded close to her chest. "The Serpentine are allied with him."

"He doesn't care." Svanna met Astra's eyes with emotion that couldn't be explained. "I have seen my brethren die in front of me. I can't take this anymore."

"We know the truth about the Great Devourer already," Lloyd interrupted, "We know about the Serpentine Civil War. As long as the map doesn't end up in the wrong hands, we should be fine."

Svanna shook her head. "And if it does? If the Great Devourer is raised, what will you do then, Green One?"

Lloyd paused. "What did you say?"

Svanna shut her mouth with a soft gasp, hands immediately going to her bag. Everyone in the room watched her every move, the way she swallowed, eyes flicking around the room, staring at her claws.

"I found a prophecy in the Library of Ouroboros. The Green One is our only chance at kil—killing the Devourer, and from what I've read, the powers, the descriptions, the only logical choice is you, Lloyd Garmadon."

"What are you saying?" Lloyd spluttered, stunned to silence.

"If you don't figure out this prophecy, billions will die at the hands of the Emperor and the Devourer. I'm saying the truth, Green One. You need to accept it to fight it."

o o o

More bodies had filled the streets.

Morro was forced to pick his legs up high, thread through the mix of the dead, the injured, and the alive. It was going to stink up his clothes. Another day on a mission out of the palace had initially seemed like a fantastic excuse to escape the confusion that wrestled his mind every time he stepped foot in that haunted place. Yet now, even Moro, someone so familiar with death, could not face the tragedy plaguing the streets.

This is not how I planned on things going, he grumbled to himself. Then again, it had been an eventful few days and weeks. The knowledge of his heritage hounded him day in day out, and his only distractions had been Wu's desperate attempts to find the Fangblades. The map had been recovered from the archives after the clerks were bellowed at accordingly.

Every day, Wu picked a random spot on the map and ordered his inner circle of elementals to take charge. As well as Harumi. Morro had stayed out of her way as discreetly as possible; whatever he knew was already dangerous in his hands. In hers? He'd be asking for death with a smile.

This area of the city had already been depleted of resources before Wu had come into power, the canals littered with trash the fishermen pushed aside. More than once, a dirt-stained child cried out to Morro for help.

But he kept walking.

He kept his head down.

That was, until he caught a flash of white hair.

His first thought was so exasperated he wanted to throw a most unprofessional tantrum in the middle of nowhere, but he couldn't let her out of his sight. Morro trailed her from metres away, making sure that Harumi didn't slip away. Tossed over her shoulder was a large sack bulging with some mysterious objects - perhaps a body? He wouldn't put it past her - yet when she paused, by a trio of children fighting over the scraps of takeaway, she pulled something from the bag, and it wasn't a hand.

It was an apple.

Not just any apple, but one grown in the palace orchards, the type that Wu ordered to be decorated with a single stroke of edible gold. And Harumi was giving it to a child. She unearthed handful after handful of food from the depths of the sack, distributing the stolen goods fairly as she made her way closer and closer to the palace. She glanced over her shoulder just once, and her eyes met Morro's. For a second, he wanted to yell at her. How was she under Neuro's control and sneaking around like this? Before he could act on that, she was climbing up a ladder and taking the rooftops.

There was no subtle way to approach the palace with the militia stationed outside, drilled to perfection and loyalty. Morro ignored the city skiline, kept his eyes trained on the gate. Harumi would find her way back. The captains at the west gate saluted Morro, polished boots snapping together as he marched through impatiently, eager to lock himself away in his room and pretend that it hadn't been another fruitless session of searching. How much longer could he rely on luck and time to keep the Emperor away from the Fangblades? Even worse, how much longer could he keep pretending the secrets he'd garnered weren't eating him alive?

a/n: so...i finished the chapter :)