Prompt: love confession
Takes place shorty after season 11 ~
"This is the last recording of Zane. Master of Ice, son of Dr. Julien, student of Master Wu. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves. I have tried to fulfill this purpose. I have no regrets. I have the best friends anyone could ask for. Pixal - I love you. Farewell."
Zane woke up with a start, gasping for air as if it could help him process the tangled memories in his mind. The message played in his mind again. After that, he'd plugged himself up to the mech, and then.. flashes of ice, something was frozen.. he wasn't sure. The next thing he knew, Lloyd was there and he was holding the Staff of Forbidden Spinjitzu. The running theory Jay and Nya had come up with after taking a look at his systems was that returning his memories was like restoring a backup of the system, and it erased the current one in the process. Zane knew he had done something terrible, a number of horrific things, in fact, but... he was afraid to ask. Based of the fragments floating around in his mind, Zane wasn't sure he wanted to remember.
"I have no regrets."
Not so anymore. He regretted everything he'd done as the Ice Emperor, for one thing, even if he didn't recall the majority of it. Upon being told Zane was a good person turned evil by the power of an ancient artifact, the people of the Never-Realm were kind and forgiving, but Zane could still detect the pain within them, pain caused by him. There was another regret too, Zane realized. A part of his message that should have been delivered in person long before their most recent adventure...
~
"I don't mean burn out the mech. I mean burn out you! Your robotic body is plugged into the mech's systems! P.I.X.A.L., it's too dangerous!"
"If this doesn't work, please tell Zane... I love him!"
Pixal set the manual she was reading in her lap. She pondered the words the had said to Wu before charging up her Kaiju Mech. It was true, she loved Zane... so why hadn't she told him yet? The thought of doing so gave her a strange feeling she was unable to identify. She stood to go talk to him right then. It was illogical for her to fear telling Zane the truth, she would simply force herself to say it. She opened her door to find Zane standing in front of her, his hand raised to tap on her door.
"Good. I need to talk to you."
"I.. need to see you as well" Zane responded, a hint of nervousness in his voice. "What did you need to find me for?"
"I.." Pixal's confidence disappeared on her, the unidentified feeling coming back to haunt her. "You may go first."
"It's about the Never-Realm... when I was there, I left a message in case I didn't come back. I have been thinking, and there is a part of the message I believe I should have told you a long time ago." Pixal shifted her weight from foot to foot apprehensively. Was this going where she thought it was? The statistical odds of them going to say the same thing to each other at the same time were extremely low.
"I love you."
Zane stared at Pixal's face anxiously. She barely reacted for a moment as the gears in her head turned and struggled to process. He loved her too, that made what she had to say much easier. Should she have gone first? What if it seemed less sincere, like she was just responding and hadn't felt the same way already? A warm, bubbly feeling arose within her and overrode her analytical thoughts. Zane loved her. Her face split into a wide smile and her eyes sparkled as she gave her response.
"I love you too."
~ So, this is my take on why nobody talks about the Ice Emperor stuff in season 12 onward, why Zane isn't utterly crushed with guilt. As much as I would've loved to see one of the heroes grapple with the intense guilt of having done so much wrong and committing literal genocide, I guess it was too dark for the show? After all, most of the cultures were frozen and came back, but at the very least the yetis (like Krag) were actually killed and not frozen. He wiped out an entire species, and the next season... detective time! I loved the detective episode but it didn't add up if we assume he remembers all he did. It works perfectly though if we assume those memories were lost and the other ninja all agreed not to bring it up again. Nothing more can be done, why destroy their brother by telling him all the details of what he did?
I haven't seen many people mention it to my great surprise, is anyone else still freaking out that Zane and Pixal said they love each other? But not TO each other, to other people! Aaagh come on writers, this needs to be addressed! They both feel that way, how long until we find out if they told each other, or what the state of their relationship is after 11?!
Hope I did alright, never done a love confession before!
