ninjago imagines

seeing the stars again | echo j.

TW: Experimentation, death.

Echo's experience on becoming Mr.E. It's not a fun one.

• • •

Echo doesn't do a lot of things around the lighthouse. There's not much around, anyway. Fixing parts of himself say after day, cleaning up the thick dust that seems to gather around the house faster than he can wipe them away. 

There's no adventure, no difference in his schedule week after week. His creator has disappeared, and he no longer has anyone to talk to. But Echo's glad for the normalcy. 

He finds other ways to entertain  himself. Drawing's takes up one, doodling faint sketches in the back of faded blueprints. He finds pieces of chalk and charcoal scattered all over the place, and saves them in a box for later. Never hurts to plan for the future, right?

Although he doesn't really like to think what the future holds. No one seems to be coming for him, and he doesn't remember anyone besides Dr. Julien. Might he spends the rest of his days drawing and cleaning, stuck in the lighthouse and it's dark corners? 

Echo considers this, and doesn't really like the thought. Maybe if he waits long enough, a rescuer will appear. 

One day, he's wiping the windows down, entertaining himself with the squeaks the rug makes when he swipes it across the glass. He stops to stare out the window, and the sparkling stars catch his eye.

They glow and glimmer across the dark navy of the sky, and he traces out a constellation pattern from them, one after another.

That night, he carries Tai-D up the stairs, bumping carefully up the rickety steps. He balances the robot the table next to their highest window carefully, and pulls up a chair for himself. 

Tai-D hums a note of question, and he decides to explain their activity that night to the small machine. " We're watching the stars." He says, and the robots eyes light up in a emotion he can't tell out. 

Tai-d might like it too , Echo thinks, and pushes him closer to the window. The robot's engine lets out a low purr, and rolls itself along the edge, picking up a loose bolt along the way and storing it away neatly like it always does.

They study the glittering stars that night, and Echo wonders how he's missed out on the beautiful sight for so long. One could hardly tell they were burning balls of fire by the sight, he thinks. They look more like polished diamonds someone has poured across the soft sky, arranging them in unique patterns one by one. 

Echo wipes at the crusty, tawny colored rust that never seems to come off his design, and looks over at the small beeping machine next to him. 

"Do you like them... friend?" He asks Tai-D, adding in the last word after a moment's pause, and robot turns towards him, chirping in excitement. Echo decides he probably does like them, and he's glad he's finally got a friend.

From the on, the small machine rolls after him everywhere, chattering loudly in a language he doesn't understand. Echo doesn't mind, though. He likes the company, and he now has someone to spend the days with.

• • • 

One day, there's a loud slam on the door underneath, and Echo jumps in fright. He hasn't heard sound from another life before, and he's under the trapdoor and hidden in the shadows in a blink of an eye. Tai-D isn't there, he realizes suddenly, and is torn for a second between going back out to investigate and rescue his friend, or stay in the safe burrow.