Enter The Ninjaverse

CHAPTER 6

"It's... really you," Zane whispered as he stood up from his chair, "Lloyd, it's... it's you."

As soon as Lloyd waved his hand, Zane wrapped Lloyd up in a tight hug, one that was equally bone crushing as it was comforting. Lloyd wrapped his arms around Zane in turn, smiling to him and nodding his head.

"Well, it's not exactly me, but I guess it's close enough," Lloyd pulled back to look Zane over, "It feels like forever since I've seen you."

"I was afraid that I would never see you again," Zane lowered his gaze, "Be it from my own body withstanding the march of time untouched by the ages, or my failure to uphold the promise that we would fight as a team until the end. I had resigned myself to the fact that the last image I have of you, would be when we heard your last words you ever spoke to us."

"Correction, this Lloyd is not from your timeline," Olive cut in, only to stop as Lulloyd gave her a sideways glare, "Apologies, I believe I have disrupted the emotional atmosphere."

"It's quite alright, Olive," Zane smiled to her, "Your mother is currently in her office, would you go get her for us?"

"Right away, father," Olive's eyes flashed as she sent a message to Pixal, at which point she bowed and quickly made her way out of the room.

Said 'room' happened to be towards the top of the tallest of the pillars that made up the Academy. According to Olive, Zane had constructed the Academy so that he could be as close to the students that he taught as he could, which included his housing. The room they were in was a massive living room, Zane having gotten up from a massive recliner. Several couches lined the walls, and above those couches were various pictures framed and organized in rows around the room. A coffee table was soon populated by Zane pouring them tea in a pink apron, one that drew a chuckle from Lloyd for a reason Lulloyd wasn't able to decipher. The recliner that Zane sat by was right next to a fireplace, ironic given that the floors and walls seemed to be made of ice.

When Lloyd had first seen Zane, he'd almost done a double take. Zane did not look a day older than he was before, yet looking at his skin was indeed different. Zane was not the Titanium Ninja; instead, his skin was the same as the day that Lloyd had first seen him. His blonde hair was still buzzed down against his head in the same pattern, his eyes were distinctly human, and there was none of the light blue coloration from the Titanium form. Instead of any ninja gi, he wore a set of light blue robes accented with white and frosted navy blue, with symbols running down in two rows in the front. The robes indeed conveyed the title of Sensei Zane to him.

"I can't believe you have a daughter now, Zane," Lloyd took a long sip of tea, thinking over everything he'd heard and seen up until now, "I didn't realize you wanted to be a parent."

"After we retrieved my prototype from my father's prison," Zane gestured to a picture of him, Pixal and Echo Zane with his rusted exterior standing in front of the lighthouse, "Pixal and I made it our mission to repair him. In doing so, we realized that we wanted to bring life to another being. We built Olive a few years after Harumi was born."

Lloyd felt his glass tremble at that little bit. Lulloyd stepped in, "So, if I can ask, what, uhm, is Olive? She looks human but her arms and her eyes... are kinda, robotic."

"Olive is a fully functioning android, Lulloyd," Zane responded, earning a small grumble from Lulloyd for having been introduced like that, "Olive was heavily injured as a young child during a traffic accident. In order to save her life, Pixal and I managed to transfer her memories and mind into a virtual existence. Her body was beyond saving, so we built her a body in the image of her old one. In order to ensure she developed properly, we were asked to watch over her. We found out she had snuck out from an orphanage shortly after. We officially adopted her one year after we managed to activate her. Since then, she has been our lovely daughter."