A Touch of the Master's Hand

Team Thunderstorm

Zane felt terrible.

Well, to be more specific, he felt physically fine. Perhaps, still a little shaken from the time spent dealing with such violent interference to his systems, but he felt deep emotions that made him forget any physical discomfort. Regret, anxiousness, fear, sorrow, frustration.

At one time, Zane would have accepted them as any normal human had to, because he at one time believed himself to be human. Since he had learned that he was not, he had more than once enjoyed the luxury of turning off certain emotions, though even this came with a slight price of what he considered a sort of numbness or a type of mental void, especially when the emotions accompanied something serious.

He had to resist the urge to turn them off this time. It was better than a mental void, but aside from his sober appearance, he tried to keep it mostly to himself for now. After all, there was no certainty that there was anything permanently wrong with Jay yet. He was asleep, yes, but Lloyd had been nearly as lifeless before he woke and they had wondered if it was too late for the cure-all to work properly and that his mind may never be the same. However, Jay's condition was not caused by poison, and the cure-all could do nothing for him. There were only some anti-inflammatory medicinal teas for his insides and some herbs to put on the burns on his hands.

He just had to be patient, and keep the logical side of him in the forefront as well as he could. The unknown was an abyss too large, black, and vacant for even an android to stare into in this case. Jay's vitals seemed to be working well enough. Zane had been able to sense that, but his mind was too complicated of a thing to register for sure. It seemed to be working alright in theory, but would it be alright when he woke up? Had the dragon's lightning scrambled them for good?

Zane shook his head.

The feeling of regret was the hardest thing to shake.

They had all been pretty silly since Master Wu had taken his vacation. Zane had deleted his high school files since his graduation, but there had been a lingering frivolity over himself, he knew, that had not served him well during this last escapade of theirs. He should have been more careful. He should have suggested bringing Lloyd home in the first place at least before the rest of them went trouncing off after Kinkomi in a way that was not becoming of the true ninja masters that Master Wu was trying to get them all to be.

In the past, Zane had been able to rescue his friends many times. They were all his brothers and sister. He loved them. In the past, he might have been able to save Jay from getting blasted by the dragon by getting all three of them away quickly. He might have even been able to have stopped Nya from falling into the cave when they first separated from the others so that she would not have broken her ankle if the disturbance of the cave had not shaken him just as he was about to perform this very action. His logic knew that it was useless to think back on things that could no longer be changed, but he could not help it.

He probably needed rest himself to face a new and hopeful sunny day tomorrow.

He sighed.

With a cup of tea in his hands, he came to the dormitory door and was about to open it. He could hear muffled voices, though, and he stopped. He did not want to interrupt. It was Lloyd and Nya.

"Just don't take full responsibility on yourself," he heard Lloyd say. "Even if..." (His voice became soft) "the worst does happen."

Zane nodded.

He knew Nya was blaming herself more than anyone else was; though he knew why. Everyone did. She loved Jay. Always had. Even though, she had not been showing it much lately.

His heart went out to her. He had already told her to rest more than once and that standing around worrying about Jay would do nothing to help him, but it had done no good. Hopefully, their leader could get through to her.