#destiny post

does he guilt himself?

Okay, so its a bit of a domino effect. But to explain that, we first have to explore the conditions by which Zane survives season 3 within the context of this AU.

For everyone who missed the initial post, the Original Blueprint AU (official title pending) is an AU in which Zane survives his battle with the Digital Overlord and continues through the series in his original body, which kicks off a butterfly effect that more or less ruins his life.

Realistically, there's no way Zane could have survived a fight against Evil Itself which happens to be armed with the full force of the Golden Weapons. The only way he could have defeated the Overlord was by wielding the Golden Armor, but Zane could never do so without also killing himself in the process - at least, not on his own.

See, Zane isnt capable of withstanding that much Golden Power, but yknow who is? Lloyd. So while Zane is doing his self-sacrifice routine, Lloyd gets the idea to find a way up there and help Zane by offsetting some of the power overload - after all, who better to pull him from the brink of critical mass than the master of energy? So Lloyd grabs hold of Zane and absorbs a lot of the excess energy thats causing him to overload, and together they defeat the Overlord.

But being the series punching bags that they are, neither of them come away from this unscatheed. Lloyd's arms are permanently injured, and Zane's mechanisms are severely damaged. But hey, at the least the Overlord is gone! (Shh dont look at Crystallized yet)

This of course kicks off a whole domino effect into motion that makes everyone's lives progressively worse with every change:

• During his recovery, Zane confesses that the reason he knew what to do/how to defeat the Overlord was because he saw it in a vision a while ago. Everyone is kinda mad at him because of this - not just because he foresaw such an important fight and never told them, but also because he knew about his own impending death and willingly subjected himself to it anyway. And in doing so, Lloyd became permanently injured in order to save Zane from his own choices.

• Lloyd doesnt blame him, of course. And technically, not even Kai blames him - but Kai does blame himself for not protecting two of his loved ones from serious harm. Of course, loveable dumbass that he is, Kai also lacks the emotional intelligence to process all that guilt in a healthy way. Unwilling to face his own feelings of inadequacy, he projects it at Zane - if Zane hadn't tried to get himself killed, Lloyd wouldnt have almost died trying to save him. Kai doesnt actually hate or blame Zane, or even really believes half the things he claims to feel about the situation, but he hates himself for letting Zane and Lloyd both get hurt and doesnt know how to process that. And anger is an easier emotion to deal with than grief, so he turns all those complicated feelings into anger and directs it at Zane. And so a rift is born in their relationship.

• The rift *does* get repaired, of course, but not before some nasty drama. Namely, Kai being corrupted by the Staff of Elements and cornering Zane, eyes red and vicious as he attempts to kill his best friend while shouting that he would have preferred Zane's death over what happened to Lloyd. Of course, Kai is absolutely mortified by this once he snaps back into his right mind. He is even more horrified to realize that Zane agrees fully with everything Kai said while corrupted. Things between them are....sensitive, for a while. They get better eventually, but that's not exactly a situation you can come back from in a single conversation. Their relationship does get better eventually, and even becomes stronger than before on account of all the work they did to heal their friendship - think Jay + Cole post-love triangle being closer than they were before - but its a long and awkward road ahead for both of them.

• Meanwhile, Wu has an epiphany. He spent centuries trying to find a way to prevent his brother's fate, only for that exact thing to happen anyway. He believes in destiny not because he supports it, but because he feels humanity is helpless to stop it from coming true. But if Zane foresaw his own future death and defied it, then perhaps not everything is as set in stone as he believed. So Wu gets the idea to try cultivating Zane's sixth sense so they can foresee and prevent any other future tragedies. Zane later discovers that forcing visions to come rather than letting them happen naturally has damaging consequences, but keeps this a secret like the aspiring martyr he is, and Wu doesnt realize hes been pushing Zane too far until its almost too late.

• As he trains to cultivate his visions, Zane kind of, uh...accidentally outs Nya's water element a bit earlier than in canon, meaning her journey towards accepting her power and reaching her True Potential is much different and also much messier. Assuming she wasn't invited to the Tournament in canon because her element wasn't active yet, that means in this AU she and Zane both become competitors. Putting Nya, a perfectionist with a severe Gifted Child Complex, into a competition where victory depends on her mastery of an ability she just discovered and lowkey kinda sucks at? Ohhh boy shes gonna have an absolutely awful time

• Also, Pixane is having issues. Pixal begins to worry that if she didnt have half his heart, Zane might have had more of a fighting chance against the Overlord, so she is quietly blaming herself for everything. She decides that to protect Zane, he needs his full heart back - but he would never accept it if he thought she was doing it for him. The only way he'd take it back is if he thought she didnt want it, so Pixal concludes she must convince him that shes not interested in their relationship anymore. Pixane breakup time 😭

• Pixane *does* get back together again, but its a much slower burn now that Zane thinks she doesnt like him and is doing his best to respect her boundaries. Pixal shows up a few times here and there as an occasional ally, yet doesnt properly join the team until s7 when her father goes missing and she agrees to work with the ninja to get him back. And then just kinda sticks around because shes grown to love these fruit-colored idiots (which means she and Zane finally Talk Things Out and end up falling in love all over again)

• Now that im typing it all out, this version of Pixane could actually result in some fascinating parallels to Skybound-era Jaya+Nadakhan. Don't worry about it :)

• Also, it's worth noting that Zane keeping his original body is enough of a change on its own. So many of Zane's plot contributions are contingent on the abilities and quirks of his titanium upgrade. Like, his body is made from outdated, poorly-understood, decades-old mechanisms. Even with the repairs he would have received after being patched up post-Overlord, his base foundations are super old just on their own. His joints lock up sometimes, his faceplate falls off at the slightest inconvenience, and who knows what else. Consider that alongside all the wear and tear he's sure to accrue throughout the series thereafter. Even the Mechanic could wipe the floor with him in that state (leading to a heavier reliance on his visions/sixth sense in order to feel useful). Oh sure, he'll get parts of himself rebuilt snd replaced, but that slowburn Ship of Theseus scenario is bound to fuck with his mental health. (Okay so maybe the situation around his body is a bit more complicated than that, but this is the basic gist of things)

• Not to mention that his OG body has a wholeass Memory Switch built into it. Do your best not to imagine a scenario in which Vex gets close to him, earns his trust, then violates him by prying his chest open and forcibly turning his memories off <3

Mergeswap AU. Ive kinda already talked about this, but its gone through a lot of changes lately. Basic premise is that all the ninja get shuffled around to different Merge scenarios - Zane is in the monastery, Kai is in the Administration, Nya is in the Land of Monsters, etc. Jay, Cole, and Lloyd have all changed their placements, though. Jay is found in the coma pod in the portal gate, Cole ends up stuck in the Realm of Lee alongside Arin's parents (not technically a mergeswap with anyond, per se, but it was too interesting of an idea to pass up), and and Lloyd + Pix are....a surprise secret thats for me to know and you to find out. But the main focus is on Zane, and how becoming a teacher/mentor/father figure to Arin + Sora would meaningfully affect everyone's character arcs.

Original Blueprint AU. Against all odds, Zane survives his fight with the Overlord, and his original body is repaired rather than him needing to be rebuilt into a titanium upgrade. This results in a series-wide chain of butterfly effects that ends up making everything much, much worse than canon, such that Zane begins to wish he really had died in that fight. One major focus is on how Zane being without his upgrade and continuing the series as an older, outdated model would affect his contributions to the plot. It also provides a much deeper exploration into Zane's sixth sense (predicated on the headcanon that the strength of his premonitions faded over time in canon as a consequence of dying/coming back to life - so if Zane doesn't die, then his sixth sense would be allowed to develop and strengthen instead).

Does Ras know about Kai being Nya and Lloyds brother when he recruits him

The answers probably yes I just think it's be funny if he was surprised about the connection when it's revealed during the nya and Lloyd fight

Also opportunity to have nya go by Smith from way back when when Kai and Nya were on their own and for the Administration to tell Kai his "real" last name when hiring him so the fight is Nya Smith vs Kai Jiang or the reverse, nya and Kai going back to their parents last name pre merge and the Kai's vague memories telling him his last name is Smith bc that's what he went by for a majority of his life

Ahsljdkdkdjd I mean yeah the obvious answer is that Ras knows about their connection and chose Kai in part for that reason, but you do raise a hilarious alternative.

And oughhhhh I have such a soft spot for the various headcanons out there about Kai and Nya's family name. Especially the hc fhat their last name is something like Jiang, hut since they were left behind at such a young age they just started calling themselves the Smiths and never learned the truth until s7 (though the idea of Wu hearing this, knowing their real last name, and saying absolutely nothing is weirdly hilarious to me). And there are so many different directions you could take that and all of them are interesting. Perhaps they both choose to go by Smith to honor their past even after finding their parents, or perhaps its a point of division -- Kai eagerly adopted his "true" last name upon finding his parents, whereas Nya continues to go by Smith anyways because she sees no point in recognizing a family she doesn't know and prefers the identity she and Kai chose for themselves. And then this division continuing post-Merge, with Nya still calling herself Smith while the Administration gives Kai his full legal name of Jiang.

Nya thinking she became a monster and failed her big brother. Zane possibly feeling like his sixth sense was once again either too late or too vague. Lloyd being crushed by the weight of it all - he'd blame himself for "just sleeping through it" and might have issues really sleeping.

And then... Bam. Agent Smith, Master of Fire, memoryless... Staring at the same people he would've once fought tooth and nail to get back to, and sees nothing but strangers. Probably more thrilled at the idea of a proper fight than anything else. After all, they're weirdly able to read each other's movements well... Maybe they fought before? Ah, maybe they were enemies before. That's gotta be it, right? After all, he can trust Ras, who saved him from a slow painful life. He can win.

Why does fighting for someone else feel more right than fighting for himself and his own sake?

Ohhh my god you literally read my mind. I was just thinking about this yesterday!

So, I had just decided to pair Wyldfyre and Nya together for the Dragon Core hunt in season 1b, and it took me all of five seconds to realize the implications of that. Its exactly how you described it: they don't realize Heat is different yet, and Kai is still missing, so logically they would assume Kai is either dead or indisposed in such a condition that his element passed on to someone else. If I proceed with my idea of Nya becoming Wyfy's new mentor (or possibly Jay, I'm still debating his role in the AU), then oh god she's gonna be in for a world of hurt. Like?? Assuming your brother is dead, and now you have to train the bratty kid who inherited his power? All while seeing just how similar she is to him and trying so, so hard not to just project your memory of him onto her, trying so hard to treat her like her own person rather than an echo of someone else yet invariably failing anyway because of how badly you miss him?????

(Can you tell Nya's storyline is one of my favorite parts of this AU)

And of course, the reactions of everyone else. I do think on Zane's end, the belief that Kai is dead would at least partially shake him out of his burgeoning agoraphobia. All these years he had almost religiously stayed behind in the monastery, waiting diligently for his friends to return, cultivating his visions to try and see them again...but while he was sitting on his ass, Kai was (allegedly) busy dying. His visions didn't warn him or help him, and now his friend is gone. I imagine he would at least temporarily disavow his visions entirely, writing them off as pointless if he cant even use them to save one person (of course, that's gonna get even more complicated in s2 because hes the new Conduit in this AU, which means he gets Conduit Visions now).

And God yeah, that would just exacerbate Lloyd's whole guilt over "sleeping through" the Merge in a coma pod. (Though I am considering changing Lloyd's role/placement in this AU, so his arc might change accordingly)

And man, what a mixed bag when they find "Agent Smith" in the tournament. Yay, Kai is alive after all! But oh god, at what cost.

Lloyd 🤝 Nya -- reuniting with a presumed-dead loved one who has since been magically corrupted and manipulated by an enemy, and then having to fight that loved one. Fun times!