Remember when I said this was a one shot? I lied. Whoops. This is the alternate ending, where the ninja don't break the law, and Zane has to go through the process of becoming safety-verified. Big thanks to StoriesAreMagic for inspiring this alternate ending and the whole story in general, and enjoy the more angsty ending to Just An AI!

Zane rubbed the back of his friend's neck affectionately, and worked up the courage to enter the door.

Once he did, he was enveloped in a massive bear hug by the entire crew, and he sighed in relief. At least they weren't angry at him.

"You can't just say stuff like that and leave, Zane!" Cole exclaimed once the hug broke.

"No kidding, you scared us all half to death!" Jay added, scolding him. Alright, maybe they were a little angry.

Before Zane could really formulate an appropriate response, he noticed Sensei and Dr. Julien hanging out in the back of the room. Sensei spoke up, and asked for a minute alone with the Ice Ninja, and everyone, even his father, reluctantly cleared out.

Zane had lost count how many times his nerves had stuck over the past few days, but this definitely added to the list.

"Zane, before you apologize for running out like I know you will, I am sorry as well."

"Why are you apologizing? You have done nothing wrong," Zane frowned, but Sensei shook his head.

"We have all neglected your feelings about the press. We knew they were saying horrible things about you, but allowed it to fester until you started to believe what they were saying yourself. Your father has told me about what you said last night to him, about you referring to yourself as just a robot," Sensei spread his left hand flat across Zane's chest, touching some of the seams of the panel. "You are far more than a sum of your parts, my student."

"I may know that, but they don't," He said sadly, and his teacher sighed.

"Unfortunately so."

Both teacher and student stood in silence, Zane fiddling with the hoodie strings of his accidently stolen sweatshirt.

"Do you want to wait a few days, Zane? We have a small amount of time to spare before the forms are due," Sensei rested a hand on his shoulder, and was unsurprised when Zane shook his head.

"I want to get this over with," The Ice Ninja decided, heading towards the door where his father had exited.

They found Julien holding a small stack of papers in Zane's room, the Falcon swooping from his Nindroid perch to his nest, which wasn't much more than a pile of scrap fabric and stray leaves.

Zane settled wordlessly on his bed, shoulder to shoulder with his father, who wrapped an arm around his son's side, his other hand holding papers.

"Ready, son?" He asked, and Zane gave a small nod, taking a small stack of papers from his father and glancing over the prompts.

"We might be here a while," Zane smiled dryly, and Sensei and Julien each pulled up a chair on either side of Zane's desk chair, the Ice Ninja's blueprints spread out over the top of the table.

An hour later, now making it early afternoon, Jay had made an appearance, and was sitting with Zane on his bed, working with him on some of the documents. The Lightning Ninja had learned to check over anything Zane filled out, since he had a habit of leaving spaces blank in a futile attempt to convince himself that certain categories didn't exist.

Julien was, with a long extension cord travelling from Zane's wrist to Jay's laptop, uploading the outlines of Zane's software to a document, which the Ice Ninja had refused to look at so far. Sensei had left to make everyone some tea to calm their nerves, so the three worked in relative silence until Zane broke the still air.

"I... I just remembered the information I learned after the fact from Jay's text. I have to-" Zane paused as he pulled up the message on his phone. "Be inspected by a certified..."

He trailed off, shutting his phone off and shoving it back into his pocket.

"Zane, we can't worry about that right now. You're already too worked up," Jay rested a hand on the Ice Ninja's forearm, and Zane nodded, swallowing hard.

"If you insist."

A few hours later, Zane had fallen asleep, his head resting in the Lightning Ninja's lap. Jay was softly petting his head absentmindedly as he, Sensei, and the doctor discussed issues in hushed tones, as not to wake him.

"He left all of the ownership spaces blank! Shouldn't that tell you something?" Jay hissed, and the doctor sighed.

"I know, but he deserves to be here for this."

"His mental health comes before anything else," Sensei declared, wearily eyeing the cable sticking out of Zane's wrist. "I say that we let him sleep, and move to Jay's room to continue filling out the paperwork."

"I just don't want him left in the dark like this. If he wants to know, he can and he deserves to," Julien attempted, but the other two shook their heads.

"It's not worth it. It's bad enough knowing some random person gets to pick him apart without all of the added stress of paperwork. This is all so stupid," Jay ran a hand down his face, rubbing his eyes. "If he can't even bring himself to write down both of your names under previous and present owners, I think we need to let him be. His software's almost done downloading, right?"

Julien checked the screen, and nodded.

"Then we will leave him here to rest," Sensei confirmed, and Julien sighed in defeat.

"Very well. I hope he feels better tomorrow."

Zane awoke at three in the morning to a quiet house. The papers and computer, along with the people working on them, were gone. He heard a fluttering, and the Falcon swooped down from his nest to rest on his shoulder.

They left after you fell asleep. Jay and Wu thought you didn't have to be there for the nitty-gritty stuff, but your dad argued against them. He lost. The Falcon nuzzled Zane's cheek affectionately, and Zane scratched his head in return.

"Should we enjoy a few hours of peace outside?"

Sounds great.

The two sat just outside the academy, Zane holding a warm cup of tea, and the Falcon resting on his head, nestled in his hair. The darkness allowed Zane to admire the stars, which he did gladly. He drew the constellations in his head, distracted from the world, even if only for an hour or two. The sun began to rise after a while, painting the sky with hues of pink and gold. Zane made no move to stand up, only huddling in his sweatshirt more, the wind chilling his fingers. He rested his head against a tree, and relaxed, the Falcon fluttering down to his shoulder.

Zane's clock told him it was now five thirty, so he reluctantly stood to make the crew some breakfast. He had finished whisking the batter for a rather large batch of pancakes and was starting to cook the second round when the first resident arrived.

To Zane's surprise, it was Cole, who walked up to stand on Zane's left.

"Morning, Zane. Enjoying some peace and quiet?" The Earth Ninja asked, and Zane nodded, the Falcon fluttering down to the windowsill, which had a few fake plants on it, since nobody could keep a real one alive for the life of them. "Whatcha making?"

"Pancakes with raspberry syrup."

Both of them knew they were dodging the issue at hand, and Zane could see that Cole desperately wanted to ask about it, but didn't say anything just in case it would get Zane worked up again. Zane didn't say anything because it was the last thing he wanted to think about. The Falcon darted out the window at this moment, distracted by something outside. Cole acted like it hadn't startled him.

"Nice, nice. Want any help?"

"If you wish, you could prepare a fruit salad. I believe we have an abundance of berries," Zane tilted his head towards the fridge, and the Earth Ninja happily started to slice strawberries in a comfortable silence. That is, until Kai walked in a few minutes later.

"Hey guys, what's cooking?" He leaned on the counter, peering across Zane to the burner.

"Pancakes."

"Sweet," The Fire Ninja whistled on his way to the table, where he set out some cups for the residents, and then went to fill a pitcher of ice water.

"So," He said absentmindedly while he was waiting. "How'd last night go?"

Cole cringed, and looked over at Zane, who hesitated.

"It was... interesting," He said, although he was clearly holding back some choice words.

"Really? That's a relief. I was expecting something worse," Kai shrugged, setting the full pitcher down on the table. Zane didn't respond, instead staring intently at his pancakes on the stove.

"Zane? If you have a minute," A new voice called from the doorway. Jay stood awkwardly, tired and sick of paperwork. Zane left the pancakes in Kai's hands (hopefully he wouldn't add any Sriracha), and followed Jay down the hallway. He stepped in the Lightning Ninja's room, where there were papers stacked neatly on his desk.

"It's just me. Sensei and your dad are outside," Jay scratched the back of his neck and sat down on the foot of the bed. "You wanna sit?"

Zane nodded and sat next to him, and Jay sighed.

"I heard Kai on my way down. I guess he hasn't quite gotten the memo," The Lightning Ninja chuckled, but Zane didn't even crack a smile. "Ah, anyway, we wanted to confirm some stuff with you, but we didn't want to wake you up last night."

"May I see the material in question?"

"Um, it's not a form. At least, not yet. We were wondering which date would you prefer for..." Jay trailed off, hoping Zane would get the hint and he wouldn't have to say it, but Zane just stared expectantly. Jay cleared his throat. "The... inspection date?"

Zane was taken aback for a second, but recovered his composure quickly. "What are my options?"

"It looks like the best days are tomorrow, or a week from today," The Lightning Ninja explained, and Zane thought for a moment.

"Tomorrow, please."

"Can do. I'll go tell the Doc and Sensei," Jay excused himself quickly, obviously searching for an escape from the awkward situation. He found the two standing outside the school with the Falcon perched on the doctor's shoulder, the bird clutching a shiny coin in his beak.

"Good morning, Jay," Julien greeted, and he gave a short wave.

"Hey, I just talked to Frosty. He said tomorrow. The thing is, I don't know how we're going to do this. We have to power him down, right?"

"Yes, I would definitely assume so," Julien nodded, and Sensei agreed with a nod of his own.

"Right. So we're asking Zane to give a stranger complete access to his body? That's so messed up," The Lightning Ninja felt faint electricity at his fingertips, and Sensei sighed.

"We are not asking him to. They are," He looked towards the rest of the world, and Jay gulped.

"Still, it's wrong."

"Agreed, it is wrong. But we have to stay positive. For Zane's sake," Julien glanced back towards the school. "After all he said earlier, I would hate for this to be the straw that broke the camel's back."

"More like a cinder block," Jay mumbled, and Sensei shook his head.

"Positivity, my student."

"Alright, alright. I'm headed back inside. Pancake breakfast, as I've heard," Jay smiled, and walked back through the door, greeted by the warm smell of raspberries from the kitchen. When he got there, Zane hadn't yet reappeared in the kitchen, so Kai was still on pancake duty. He had made a large amount all piled up on a plate, and all three Garmadons as well as Nya had come to join the party.

"Breakfast is served," Kai proclaimed, laying down a platter stacked high with pancakes, as well as a few bottles of flavored syrup. "Eat up, there's a lot to go around."

The crew ate in anything but silence, laughter and jokes being thrown around as the gang demolished the plate of pancakes and the fruit salad along with it. Sensei and Julien joined shortly after, worried by Zane's absence, but they ate anyway, hoping it was nothing major. Cole stuffed the last one in his mouth with a happy sigh.

"Man, these were good," Lloyd smiled, taking a drink from his glass of orange juice.

"No kidding," Nya leaned back in her seat, satisfied. "Nice job, Kai."

"I didn't make the batter. I just cooked them," The Fire Ninja shrugged. "Zane made the... where is Zane anyway?"

The crew fell silent.

"I'll go check on him," Julien volunteered to ease the table's nerves, and stood, going to check Zane's room first. And that's where he found the Nindroid, curled up in his bed, but not asleep.

"Zane," Julien said calmly, closing the door. "Are you alright?"

Zane looked up at him, blue eyes glassy. "I don't know. Physically, yes. But mentally, I am not sure."

His father sat down next to him, resting a hand on Zane's shoulder through the blankets. "You are upset. Whether you want to admit it or not, you are not alright."

The Ice Ninja didn't respond, pressing himself further into his bed, the warm pocket he had created providing comfort to some degree.

"Zane, it's perfectly fine to not be fine," Julien reassured. "You are allowed to hurt. As your father-"

"But you are not my father, are you?," His voice cracked with emotion. "Machines cannot have parents. Only creators. Owners-" Zane cut himself off with a sob he didn't know he had been holding in, wiping his eyes.

"Oh Zane," Julien crawled under the covers with him, and hugged him close as he cried, burying his face into his father's chest.

Right before they were set to go in for the inspection, Zane sat curled up with his arms hugged around the lower portion of his chest panel, where the switch to shut him down was. The mere thought of someone digging around in his insides made him nauseous, so he tried not to think about it as Julien talked with the man at the desk about their appointment. A part of him was glad that he would be powered off, because he wouldn't remember anything. He would wake back up in his father's arms and everything would be ok again.

Another part of him knew that was a lie. He would feel where the unfamiliar fingers had been, where wires had been shifted to make a path for cameras and lights, where buttons had been pressed, where his skin had been stretched.

The sickness came back and he pressed his hands to his neck, cooling his fingers to act as an ice pack. What if they deemed him unsafe? Would he ever wake up again, or would he be through a trash compactor before he even gained consciousness again? What if he was stripped of his memories and forced to work as a slave for the higher ups who had dreamed up this whole inspection routine? What if-

"Alright Zane, are you ready?" His father stood over the chair where he was seated, his mouth pressed into an unreadable thin line.

"I am ready," Zane said shakily, swallowing hard. Dr. Julien eased open his chest panel, fingers hovering over the switch. He hesitated. "Father?"

"Yes, Zane?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, son."

A soft kiss was planted on Zane's forehead before the world went black.

Zane woke up at the academy, tucked into his bed with no one else with him. As soon as he was awake enough to think properly, he could tell that everything was just off. He shifted uncomfortably in his bed, sitting up. He glanced at his clock, and found it was around four in the afternoon. That took longer than he thought, unless he slept for the majority of the day. That would make it ten hours since his inspection.

Zane got out of bed, the Falcon waking up and perching on his shoulder, before heading to the kitchen to make himself a snack. He walked in, not bothering to look around before grabbing a handful of dried fruit and a granola bar.

"Zane, you doing ok?" A voice sounded from behind him. Nya.

"I could be worse," Zane took a bite of his granola bar, turning to face her.

"Yeah, you don't look too good," She commented rather bluntly, and Zane nodded.

"Stress does wonders for your appearance."

"Was that sarcasm I heard?" Nya teased, and Zane shrugged.

"Perhaps," He swallowed. "I suppose the worst is over now, however. The paperwork is filled out, and this whole horrific process is over with. It was just a lot to take in."

"I hear ya," She smiled sympathetically. "People suck sometimes."

Zane nodded grimly.

"Like you said, the worst is over. So, come relax with us. I'm sure everyone would be thrilled to see you," She offered, and Zane smiled.

"How can I say no to that?"

Zane later found himself in the middle of a ninja pile, arms and legs all entangled as the crew watched their favorite shows, popcorn in their hands, and Zane wouldn't have it any other way.