When the Clock Stops Ticking

"Guys, Pythor's been spotted! He's got Fangpyre with him. They're at the Walker's junkyard." Nya announced over the intercom of the rebuilt Bounty.

"Again? What's with those snakes and junkyards?" Jay questioned before spinning into his black and blue suit.

"They wanted to go out with the trash?" Zane asked shrugging before spinning into his black and white suit.

"Whatever the reason is, it can't be good." Kai responded already in his red and black suit.

The Ninja after meeting up with Cole and Lloyd on the deck explained to them the situation. The New Bounty's rockets set them off towards Ed and Edna's Scrap and Junk. When they arrived they found an army of vengeful snakes and evil refrigerators, sporks , couches, etc. ready to fight them.

"Hello Ninja, miss me?" Pythor's charming voice asked from the top of the bucket of bolts he was perched upon.

"How'd you survive?" Kai called up before unsheathing his red, orange, and yellow blended sword.

"Like this." And the purple snake became the scenery.

"As memory serves you can become invisible. We must have forgotten about that." Zane stated with his sword already prepared to strike his foes.

"When the Devourer exploded I was cast further than your precious Sensei Wu. I became invisible and fled the area."

"Scaredy…..snake?" Jay taunted.

"Minions, proceed." Pythor ordered, pointing his staff forward.

The battle began. Snakes, snakemetal, and Ninja were engaged in combat. Though the Ninja were outnumbered they fought strong. Swords clashed with junk and Fangpyre missed their targets. The red reptiles were no match.

"Pythor, get a little rusty while you were away? We knew you to be a much better adversary before." Kai taunted.

"I didn't think you could know such big words." Pythor spat back.

"Let us bag them and tag them, so to speak." Zane announced before splitting from the others to fight his own group.

"Jaaaaaaayyyy!" Edna's voice rang out.

"Is that you son?" Ed's voice came as well. They opened the door to their trailer and their eyes bugged when they saw the snakes.

"How'd you miss them?" Jay asked before knocking two snakes to the ground.

"Uh, I don't know son." Ed replied before they went back inside. Jay shook his head in disbelief.

"I require assistance!" Zane called out after a few minutes.

He was pinned by snakes and snakemetal. He'd already tried setting a trip wire Light Matter trap but it didn't have enough power. Now Zane was trapped between enemies and a conveyer belt. He leaped on top of that and fought the ones that chased him down. Then one Fangpyre started to bite the contraption.

"I'm coming Zane!" Kai shouted before racing past the group he'd downed and fought through the back.

"I believe the saying is I bit off more than I could chew." Zane commented before the conveyer belt started to fight him. His feet were locked down with the belts that sprang to life.

He turned his head to observe an exit strategy. All he saw was the machine that took trash and scrap and crushed them into cubes. He wasn't scared of anything since it wasn't in his programming but death, he was scared of. How could you run out of memory or your systems shut down forever? Would his program turn rogue or would he be faulty and short out or be doomed to glitching? He never thought about his demise since it seemed illogical. But when you're faced with it in the moment, your fear is inevitable.

"I'm sorry my friends. I have failed you." Zane whispered before planting his sword in the belt. He was pulled closer towards the end.

"Zane! I'm almost there!" Kai cried out. He too saw what was coming. He worked to defeat the mob faster but he was pinned back and forced to watch.

"Falcon, fly free. Sensei, you must teach without me. Father, you created the perfect machine, I love you but, you must continue to remember me. Brothers, it was an honor to fight beside you but my time has come. I must say goodbye to this world." He whispered before closing his eyes and sealing his fate.

"And it was my night to cook dinner."

"ZANE!" Kai screamed before Zane went down and a series of smashing noises filled his ears.

The Ninja of Fire went out of control. He took down whoever stood in his way. Finally when they were all down he went to go save his brothers, kick Pythor's tail, and then mourn for the lost nindroid. *Kai still felt a wave of anger surge through him as well as disbelief. He ran over to where Zane should be at and began digging through the scraps.

"This isn't funny Zane! It's not time for jokes! Come on, you can't be gone! You can't!" Kai shouted before he lost track of what he was doing. His emotions trampled him and he screamed, "You can't leave your brothers behind! What kind of person does that? You're better than this! Now quit playing around! Come on Zane! Zane! ZANE!"

He finally found the white robot cube. Zane was dumped off all by himself. Kai fell to his knees beside him and found tears streaming down his face. A series of sparks went off and wires twitched. Kai barely heard a series of words.

"Forgive...me...brother."

There was static after that.

"I forgive you." He whispered back but knew the brother he had was no more. He got up and picked the white cube up and continued to his brothers.*

"Kai, where's Zane? And what's that?" Lloyd asked after trapping Pythor in a fridge. Kai lowered his head.

"He can't be with us. Our special brother has moved on. This is all that is left." He said sadly, defeated, and at loss.

Author's Note: I almost cried for this one. My sister's favorite ninja is Zane, and he's one of my #1's. I have nothing against him. Oh and dedicated to darkflameslayer and ZaneWalker.

*Note: I edited this right before it went off to print. I hope it's better now. The edited in part is between the ** if you wanna know.