Hi! Thank you whoever you are for reading my story! You've probably just made my day!

Ok, this has been a long time coming: a Zane fic. I was experimenting with some ideas when Misue (thank you so much) suggested doing one where Zane wasn't treated the same after his true potential. So here you go. It may not be any good, but I'm gonna take much more care on this than my other story (which I don't like so I'm taking a break from it, most likely discontinuing though). Thank you so much to everyone who supported me on that one by the way!

This starts in the middle of the episode 'Tick Tock', but in a different reality where his... predicament didn't get the same reactions from his so called 'brothers'.

I hope you enjoy!

P.s. This is in Zane's POV by the way.

Chapter 1: The start

It is their expressions that hurt the most.

I can't feel anything else.

Not the cold.

Not exhaustion.

Just... pain. Not physically. But one that strikes my heart like a shard of my own ice and twists itself into my soul.

Disgust.

They're disgusted by me.

"So... that must be why you're always acting so weird, right? Heh heh..." Jay trails off with a nervous laugh. He cannot even look straight at me, instead gazing at my falcon like it's about to swoop down from its perch on the ceiling and gouge his eyes out. The rest just stare at my open chest. Cole's mouth forming a small o and Kai's into a frown.

"The reason why I never had a sense of humour was because my 'funny switch' wasn't on." I try and answer Jay's comment, but the words feel heavy. I wish they were untrue.

"What happens if it is?" I shrug in response.

I flick the switch.

Suddenly a wave of nausea hits me. The room seems to slide around me like water. I look down and my legs are moving on their own... dancing on their own. I'm dancing? I am not sure how a routine can be humorous... but I do not trust my judgement any longer. All these years and I thought-

I'm going to be sick.

Then, it stops. The world suddenly grinds to a halt like someone had pulled on the brakes. I sigh in relief. I didn't enjoy that at all. My stomach finally settles a little.

"Uh, this doesn't change anything, right? You're still the same Zane, just..." Kai's last sentence sounded more of a question than a reassuring statement. He just started back where we left off. Not asking if I was ok or concerned In the slightest.

They're...

Disgusted.

They don't care any more.

"More gears." Cole finished for him. There's a tone in his voice I have never heard him use before. It sounds hollow, yet full of something I do not recognise.

Disbelief?

Or hatred?

"Yeah... more gears." Kai's hesitant to reply. I suspect he wanted to suggest something else, but he thought better of it.

I notice ever since I flipped the switch Jay's been looking at me like a child spying through a sweet shop window. It's disturbing. I think I preferred it when he ignored me.

There's an awkward silence. The falcon flaps a bit in the corner and starts pruning his feathers as if nothing's happened. Of course, he knew about me before I did. He was the one who brought me here in the first place.

"We should probably get going." Kai is the first to speak. "The fangblade won't be waiting up for us."

It's like I'm not here. The fangblade is the least of my problems, and shouldn't be the one pressing on my brothers' minds. My life is a lie. Shouldn't that mean anything to them?

"Neither will Pythor." Cole says. Turns out no one thinks it should.

Jay doesn't contribute. Just stands there. His head slightly cocked, a small, creepy smile on his face. He's unusually quiet. I don't like it. No one's ever looked at me that way. Like he's contemplating which part of me he's going to dismantle first.

"You coming, Jay?" I look up and see my other brothers are already half way up the stairs, leaving me and Jay alone at the bottom. Right now I don't believe that is a good idea. His weird body language is giving me chills, and for some reason my mind keeps going back to the images of all the failed inventions that lay on his bedroom floor. I am sure I am just being silly. He would never... "Think Zane might want some space. I know I would if I found out I was a-"

"Coming!" Jay pushes past me roughly, ruffling my hair playfully as he comes by, but it turns into more of a tug as his hand gets caught on a knot. I'm not entirely sure It was an accident. "Don't worry Zane, this just makes you cooler! Now I can honestly say 'my brother is a nindroid'!" He laughs before joining Kai and Cole at the door, but it wasn't his usual one. It sounded more impish, less childish. It made my blood run cold. I felt like I was missing something. Something held between my brothers and not shared between us. Had I done something wrong?

"We'll be outside when you're ready." They all walked through the door and left me on my own, Cole flashed me a nervous look before he closed it behind him. I'm not sure why though. Maybe something has happened to the bounty, just like the monastery the second time I followed my falcon? Or maybe he's worried for my well-being? Or maybe I'm just misinterpreting their faces, and all I have assumed is just paranoia? But the scary thing is that I don't know.

I don't know.

I always know. I always have a feeling or a premonition of what's yet to come. And yet, today has left me stumbling to collect the pieces.

If only I had not followed the falcon and just carried on with the posters, I could have been rid of this.

I walk over to the desk and pick up my blueprints. Maybe I can learn more about myself. Maybe that will help me make sense of things. Or at least take my mind off the others. They are acting stranger than usual. Especially Jay. When I get back to the Bounty, I am going to try and avoid him. And everyone else for that matter. I wish they would just act normal. It's still the same me...

I give a sigh. Never mind that.

I turn back to the paper and examine the sprawly handwriting across the surface. Despite the untidyness, it is all there in perfect detail. From my height and weight, my hair, my prosthetic blood type, to each individual switch and dial. It makes me smile how much care my creator must have put into me; it seems like the kind of blueprints Jay would-

I cringe as my mind wanders to his room again. I need to stop thinking of them. I have a task to do. All it is doing is distracting me and freaking me out even though it's irrational.

Just irrational.

Nothing to be worried about.

Irrational.

I try and distract myself again with the blueprints.

I furrow my brow in frustration.

There's a corner where the ink's been smudged and I can't make out most of the markings. I can only see the words 'protect' and the end of one, ''ve". The rest of the sentence, or sentences, are nothing more than blotches.

It's irritating.

You would have thought someone smart enough to build artificial life would have thought of using a plastic cover for their work. Instead it's gone. It's like even this paper wants to keep secrets from me.

I'm tired of secrets. I want to know. I need to know.

Maybe there's something in me that could help me with that... I look down again and examine the list of features running down the right hand side.

It says I have a... a memory switch?

I look into my chest and find it, but the light is red. It's off?

Maybe if I...

"Treehorns!"

"Ninja g- Ow!"

There's a large clang as something is thrown against the outside of the tree house.

"There's just too many of them!"

They sound like they need help.

I stuff the paper into my pocket and run up the stairs as fast as I can, but the door's blocked with something and won't open fully. I slam my body against the metal and it budges slightly, giving a crack as I push a dent into the blockage. So I try again. This time it creates a hole big enough to shimmy through.

Now I see what we're up against.

At least 8 tall creatures surround my brothers. They balance on four slender, spider like legs that bend at two elbows into a z shape, white like the freshly fallen snow with the black markings of a birch tree. Perfect camouflage for this habitat. They have long horse shaped faces, a pair of dark red insect eyes on either side and tube nostrils like those of a fish. If you asked me, I would say they were actually quite majesti-

What am I doing? This isn't the time for a nature documentary!

I squeeze through the gap.

It was a thick branch that had blocked me off, a very heavy one at that. These 'Treehorns' are strong. I have got to take care. My friends are getting kicked around like they're nothing. They can't land a single hit to these things. I have to help them! Even if they are being perculiar, they're still family!

"Stay away from my brothers!" I scream at the top of my lungs. I don't care if they understand me or not.

I give a cry and lunge forward with my weapons at the ready, and suddenly, as if I have activated another switch, I am no longer in control of my actions. I start running around the clearing madly, hitting them with my shurikens as much as I can. In the legs. In the head. Anywhere I can throw my weapons at, I do. It's like a fire has been lit inside of me. I can feel it all across my body. Fuelling me. Controlling me. Now I know what it must be like to be Kai. Letting anger built up inside flow out like a river.

"What's gotten into Zane?" I hear Cole's voice say.

"I don't know," Kai is with him, "but let's use it!"

Then I see them both pick themselves up and join the fight. A sense of relief rushes over me. Maybe they are not as revolted as I had previously thought. Maybe they do still care. In any event, it makes the fire burn brighter. I have to prove myself to them. But even with our combined forces, we can't make much but scratches against their hides.

However, one starts backing off. The others slowly follow. They know we are danger. Even if we aren't doing much, we are still hurting them.

"Are they regrouping?" I hear Jay's voice over the clang of metal against hard flesh. I nod swiftly but I do not stop attacking. I personally don't want to look at him. In case he looks back. "Er.. guys?" I stop for a second. But only to catch my breath. "GUYS!" I reluctantly look back. He's standing stock still, facing towards the woods. "It's probably nothing, but I was just wondering..." He points shakily at a large tree, "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!"

There's a massive groan and it lifts from the ground and thunders back down. The ground shakes. Then 3 more trees move. It is another Treehorn. But bigger. Much bigger, with 9 eyes and fangs the size of lamp posts dripping with hot saliva that steams in the cold. It has to be-

"The queen." I say out loud. She gives a deafening roar and rears her head, ordering all the smaller Treehorns to retreat back into the forest. It wanted this to be a one on one.

I do too.

I don't know why. I just feel like I need to take her down. I need to protect my brothers. I need to prove I'm still the same Zane.

The fire lights up inside again. I feel the rush of invisibility come back. But this time it's different. I don't feel angry. I feel at peace with myself. It feels right. Not like Kai. Like me.

"You will not hurt my friends!" A bright cyan light fills my vision and I feel myself being pushed upwards by an unseen force.

"What's happening to him? Was he programmed to do that?!"

"I've never seen a robot do that!"

"Zane's unlocked his true potential!"

Everyone sounds so distant. This is my own little tunnel of light. My little bubble. It's just me and the queen. No one else. Just me and her.

"There is nothing that will hold me back! I KNOW WHO I AM!" The light becomes blinding and I feel a surge of energy run through my body. A jet of ice bursts from my shurikens towards her, more powerful than I could ever have imagined I could create. It hits her squarely in the chest and starts growing and a spreading across her body.

With one final howl, it fully encases her in ice.

Everything else freezes with her. Time just stops for a few seconds. I feel the energy being sapped from my body. I feel weak. Empty.

And then I drop.

It all goes black.

hope you like it so far! If you do, please let me know. And I may warn you that later there could possibly be a bit of a spoiler for season 8, but if you haven't watched it yet you don't need to worry because you probably wont realise it. Just a little bit of a heads up.