The static sounded like a buzzing of a thousand bees as P.I.X.A.L. pulled Zane from the memory and the Ice Emperor’s throne room disappeared. Zane’s body lurched as he found himself back at the bottom of the Frozen Lake. He quickly swam up and broke through the ice. Then he hurried to the ninja cave.
“Welcome back, Zane,” P.I.X.A.L. said. “I am quite surprised that the memory program launched remotely. The activation module’s sensory circuit has showed no errors. I will have to double-check the sub-beta algorithms again. I am glad, however, that we were still able to communicate. Tell me, what happened in that last memory that made you want to leave?”
“I must confess something,” Zane began. “I am reluctant to face myself as the Ice Emperor.”
“The Ice Emperor can’t hurt you inside a memory,” she reminded him.
“No, that is not it,” he said. “I am not worried that the Ice Emperor will hurt me. It’s difficult to describe, but I think it has something to do with the terrible things I did when I was the Ice Emperor. That is not something I allow myself to think about often.”
P.I.X.A.L.’s eyes flashed with sympathy. “Oh, Zane.”
“The Ice Emperor was cruel and merciless,” Zane said. “I would never do any of the things he did. How could the Ice Emperor be so unlike me? I should have been able to stop myself. How can I ever forgive myself?”
“I know that what happened to you in the Never-Realm was not your fault,” P.I.X.A.L. told him. “But I also know that you must figure this out on your own.”
Zane gazed over at the computer screen. “I…I cannot. I am too afraid.”
“You have faced your fears before, Zane,” P.I.X.A.L. reminded him. “And I believe that is what you must do now.”
Zane nodded and slowly sat back in the chair. P.I.X.A.L. returned to the computer.
“I should be able to send you directly to a memory in the Never-Realm,” she said. “Are you ready? Initiating memory exploration in three…two…one…”
Zane felt himself falling again. Suddenly, he was back in the throne room of the Ice Emperor. A menacing figure entered the room next to him. Cold eyes glared beneath his gray, armored helmet. Blue ice crystals clung to his long mustache, and an armored vest clanked as he moved. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
General Vex! Zane remembered
“My Emperor,” General Vex said.
“How dare you disturb my thoughts,” the Ice Emperor growled.
“I bring a warning, my Emperor,” Vex said. “Strangers from a distant realm come to challenge you. They may be here for the prisoner—and to defy your rule.”
Zane heard the crackling of ice as the Ice Emperor rose from his throne.
“They must be punished,” the Ice Emperor ordered.
General Vex leaned in. “They must be destroyed. Show them your might. Show them what happens to those who defy the Emperor.”
“Send my Blizzard Samurai,” the Ice Emperor said. “Command them to destroy the strangers.”
“And all who aid them,” Vex added.
“And all who aid them,” the Ice Emperor repeated.
Vex chuckled and left the throne room. The Ice Emperor sat back down.
Rage filled Zane. He marched up the stairs to the throne.
“Why do you listen to him!” Zane yelled. “These are lives you are destroying! Innocent lives! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS?”
The Ice Emperor’s eyes flashed. “Who dares to disturb my thoughts now?”
“It’s me, Z— Wait, you can hear me?” Zane asked.
“Intruder!” the Ice Emperor yelled, and he stood up once more. He pointed his staff right at Zane.
He can see and hear me! Zane thought. How is this even possible?
The Ice Emperor shot a powerful beam of white light at Zane. Zane jumped off the staircase and the beam left a string of sharp ice chards where he had just been standing.
Zane heard P.I.X.A.L.’s voice in his head.
“Zane, there is some kind of glitch happening,” she said, and her voice sounded worried. “You have left your memory banks and it appears that you have entered your subconscious circuits. Because these are your thoughts, you can interact with them. Do you want me to try to extract you?”
“No, P.I.X.A.L.!” Zane replied. “I must see this through.”
“You cannot escape me!” the Ice Emperor growled, and he shot another powerful blast from his staff. Zane rolled out of the way.
I must get the staff away from him, Zane thought. Then maybe I can talk to him. I can figure out how he is able to do such terrible things.
“Ninjaaaaa-go!” Zane whirled toward the Ice Emperor, dodging another icy blast from the staff. But before he could make contact with the Ice Emperor, he waved the staff in a circle around him and put up an icy wall of defense.
“Are you afraid of me, then?” Zane asked.
“I fear nothing!” the Ice Emperor growled, and the ice wall around him shattered. He pointed the staff at Zane, who tried to jump out of the way. But the ice from the blast surrounded his legs, pinning him to the ground.
The Ice Emperor stomped toward him. “I will finish you now.”
“Why?” Zane asked. “Why are you so cruel? How could you let this happen to you? Why weren’t you strong enough to resist?”
The Ice Emperor paused, and his cold eyes flashed. “I was reprogrammed,” he answered.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Static crackled, the memory blurred, and Zane felt himself falling. He saw his younger self next to his crashed mech.
P.I.X.A.L.’s voice crackled in his head. “Zane, you have returned to your memory circuits. But the glitch could return at any time.”
Zane watched as Vex tiptoed up behind Memory Zane, who was plugged into his mech’s system, trying to fix it. Suddenly, Memory Zane’s eyes went blank as Vex sneakily pulled out the plug.
“Rebooting,” the computer voice intoned. “All systems online. Memory cache empty.”
Vex gave an evil chuckle as the lights came back on in the Nindroid’s eyes.
“Who are you?” Memory Zane asked.
“I am Vex, your…loyal advisor.”
“And who am I?” the Nindroid asked.
Zane watched and listened to the memory. Vex told Memory Zane lie after lie. He convinced Memory Zane that he was the Ice Emperor whose throne had been stolen from him. Then he handed the Nindroid the staff powered by the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu, and the staff’s evil energy coursed through Memory Zane’s body.
“Nooooooo!” Zane cried out.
Bzzzzzzzzzzt! The memory disappeared, and Zane fell into a new one.
The scene disappeared, and Zane entered a new memory. The Ice Emperor sat on his throne, but he was not yet old and covered in stone armor. His body coursed with the blue energy of the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu.
General Vex approached the throne. “My Emperor, there is a village in your kingdom that refuses to honor you with an offering of fish. We must teach them a lesson and destroy their village.”
The Ice Emperor’s eyes flickered. “Destroy a village? Over fish?”
He’s trying to resist! Zane thought, as he watched the memory unfold.
“They defy you, my lord,” Vex said. “It will begin with fish, and end with your doom! Do you want that?”
The power of Forbidden Spinjitzu flared from the top of the Emperor’s head, responding to Vex’s words.
“Destroy the village, then,” the Ice Emperor said calmly.
“No!” Zane yelled, but the Ice Emperor could not hear him. “This is not you! You protect others! You do not harm them!”
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Static erased the scene, and Zane lurched into a new memory, one familiar to him. The Ice Emperor was about to finish off Lloyd at Vex’s urging. But seeing Lloyd, hearing his true name—Zane—and listening to Vex use the word “protect” triggered something deep inside him.
“Protect those…who cannot protect themselves,” the Ice Emperor said. Those words restored all the memories that had been erased, and at the same time the spell was broken. The Ice Emperor transformed back into Zane and cast off the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu.
Zane watched the memory unfold before him, amazed.
I was fighting Vex the whole time, Zane thought. Even with my memory wiped! But the power of the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu was just too strong. Evil was imposed on me. Even when I was not Zane, I was still Zane. It was not my fault.
P.I.X.A.L.’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Zane, the program is glitching again. Be careful!”
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Zane fell back into the throne room, back to his first meeting with the Ice Emperor. Zane was once again pinned to the floor by ice, and the Ice Emperor stood over him, ready to finish him off.
“Zane, you have returned to your subconscious,” P.I.X.A.L. told him. “Remember, this is not a memory. This is you, fighting yourself.”
A feeling of calmness flowed through Zane. He knew what he was supposed to do.
Zane stared into the Ice Emperor’s cruel eyes. “I forgive you,” Zane said.
At the words, icy blue light swept through Zane’s body. He felt the Elemental Power of Ice surge through his being. The ice shards pinning him to the floor shattered as he jumped to his feet.
“You cannot hurt me anymore. Me or anyone else!” Zane cried.
Thrusting his arms forward, he hurled a blast of ice at the Ice Emperor’s right arm. The blast knocked the Staff of Forbidden Spinjitzu from his hand. It clattered to the floor.
The Ice Emperor growled—and then stopped. He took off his helmet. His cold, hard face transformed back into the face of the Titanium Ninja. Finally, he was his old himself again.
“I think we are done here,” he told Zane.
“I think so, too,” Zane said. “P.I.X.A.L., I am ready to return!”
A blinding white light filled the throne room, and in the next instant, Zane’s eyes fluttered open in the Samurai-X cave.
“Zane!” P.I.X.A.L. cried. She hurried to him and began to detach the sensors.“That glitch was very helpful,” Zane said. “I found the answer I was looking for in my subconscious, when I was forced to battle myself. Look!”
He held out his hands, and in seconds, an ice sculpture of P.I.X.A.L. appeared on the floor in front of her.
She smiled. “I take it the experiment was a success, then.”
“It was,” Zane replied. “My Elemental Power of Ice has returned. I discovered that I needed to forgive myself. I could not move forward without accepting my past.”
“I am glad it worked,” P.I.X.A.L. said. “But I am afraid that it will be too dangerous to share this program with the others.”
“I am sure that Cole, Jay, and Kai will find their own ways to regain their powers,” Zane replied. “We may all have different lessons to learn. But one thing that we all know is that a ninja never quits!”