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Chapter Text

“To bring weapons into this world, you must also understand how they are held in the hand.”

Two swipes cut through the air, a sharp silver streak left in the afterimage. A leaf, knocked free from its home by the passing breeze, is chopped into four by the slashes. A smaller, more innocent Kai Smith sits and gasps at the spectacle.

“Not just to get a feel for how the weapon should be possessed in battle, but also to know the strength you place into another’s hands…”

Twin swords strike with the wind once more, twirling about in a synchronized dance. They are wielded by a man dressed in a red blacksmith’s robe, the simple look doing nothing to betray the might the man truly possesses.

“Am I gonna be able to do that one day?!” Kai asks, currant-colored eyes blown wide with wonder and hope. The man chuckles, putting the swords away in favor of patting Kai on the head. The gesture ruffles his otherwise spiky hair; Kai huffs and tries to put it back into place.

“With a little training, I have full faith that you will,” the man says, exciting his child all the more. “But what you should truly aim for…is to go beyond what I am capable of.”

He removes the twin katanas off his back, proudly displaying them to Kai. Kai inhales sharply, hands shooting out to grab for them. However, he grows hesitant, drawing his grasp back.

“Is it…really okay, Dad?”

“Of course.” Kai’s father beams down with a bright pride that could rival the sun itself. “I made these for you, after all.”

He tilts the swords in Kai's direction; Kai's name, engraved into the blades, glints in the sunlight. Kai gasps.

“They’re really mine…?!”

With all the permission he needs, Kai grabs the katanas. He slides their stealth onto his back, then draws them forward as his father did previously. His posture is wrong, they feel heavy in his stubby boyish hands, and swinging them will put him off-balance, but Kai’s never felt cooler in his short life.

Ray Smith’s smile can’t get any wider as he beholds his son, imagining the fine man Kai will someday grow up to be.

“Happy birthday, my son.”

Kai carefully sheathes the swords—although his arms are a tad too short to do it by himself—and he grins, full and bright like he never has before.

Ray opens his mouth to say more, but—

“Ray! Did you really give our seven-year-old son two blades of lethal destruction?!”

Maya arrives from the house, a little girl perched in her arms and a disapproving look on her face. Kai ‘eeps’ and tries to hide his swords behind his back—as if that will magically make them disappear—while Ray calmly holds up his hands.

“Hey, better that he gets some safety training directly, rather than deciding to swing around one of our weapons without our supervision.”

“Yeah, Mom! I’ll only use ‘em when Dad’s around!” Kai adds in encouragement. “Or, if we end up under attack, I can use ‘em to protect Nya! Like whoosh swoosh STAB!”

“…as much as I’d like the ‘whoosh swoosh stab’ kept to a minimum, I would rather you know how to wield them safely,” Maya sighs, shaking her head. “But two swords from the get-go…?”

Ray grins cheekily. “Learning how to use two at once will make using one all the easier!”

Maya purses her lips. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works, dear.”

“And moreover, Kai—“ Ray turns to face his son again. Kai perks up. “The art of swordsmanship is not with the aim to stab someone. What you’re trying to do is disarm and subdue your opponent. It is a silent, unspoken rule that you never take the easy way to defeat your adversary.”

Ray tilts his head, staring gravely in the distance.

“A dishonorable feat like that will guarantee you a trip to the Underworld if you’re not careful.”

“…oh,” says Kai, significantly less excited about stabbing some monster.

“Daddy!” screeches the girl in Maya’s arms, shaking and fighting for escape. Maya puts her down on the ground; Nya toddles over to the awaiting arms of her father.

“Daddy, I wan’ sword too!” Nya makes a grabby motion with her hands. “I wan' fight too!”

Ray laughs, nuzzling Nya affectionately. “That’s my girl! But, sweetheart, you’re a tad too young and small for any lessons yet. Any weapon I give you will be bigger than your body.”

“But Kai gets swords! And Kai’s short!”

“Hey!”

 Nya puffs out her cheeks, less than pleased.

“Wanna be like Kai! Wanna fight too!”

Her lip trembles now, and Ray’s fresh out of logical statements, so Maya steps over and takes Nya back into her embrace. Nya sniffles, burying her face in Maya’s shoulder. Maya soothingly rubs at her back.

“It’s not that we think you wouldn’t be an amazing fighter; you’ve just got a bit of growing to do first, like Kai did. And the day you are ready, we will all know.”

Kai, impatient and with a short attention span, begs Ray to teach him some of the basics already. Ray lets out a hearty laugh and agrees, the two of them taking off to the backyard.

Nya watches, grumpy as can be, until Maya turns her around to look her in the eye.

“Hey, chin up, kiddo. Your time will come, and when it does, your brother is going to support you. So, in the meantime, try to be supportive of him in turn. And who knows, you just might surprise him someday.”

The idea of that brings a smile back to Nya’s face.

“Besides, in my personal opinion…” Maya scoops up Nya closer, nuzzling their noses together until Nya squeals in delight. “…a spear is a much more versatile weapon anyway.”

Ten years later finds the grounds of the Monastery of Spinjitzu awake and alive with the whirling of training equipment, designed specifically for making protectors out of pedestrians. The foundation for forming a great ninja begins here, in a maze for testing discipline, conviction, and patience.

Nya Smith jumps back, wipes the sweat from her bangs, and jumps back in again.

The summer heat beats down but regardless she forges on, her movements fluid and careful at all the right times. No one's around to spot her unpolished form or awkward footing, but nonetheless she lands the moves and makes it out of the obstacle course unscathed. Sometimes, she wonders how Kai managed to struggle so much in those first few days.

She's watched the boys a thousands times in the course of their summer vacation, observing them from afar even as they thought she wasn't looking. It became something of a habit the more they'd turned down going out for a day in the city, or visiting the warehouse to work on a project, or…to do literally anything else. Sitting around and watching them go at it was the only way to even see them, on some days.

"Sorry Nya, training is going to be brutal today, no time to hang out. Gotta make sure the guys stay on task, you know? Talk to you later!"

Cole's training leans more towards power, always stepping into his strikes to achieve the greatest amount of impact. Every hit is heavy, every swing is forceful. While some of his movements are on the slower side, sometimes he misses on purpose to unsettle his opponent and demonstrate just who they're messing with. But also, when his strikes do connect, it's pretty much a guarantee his foe's down for the count. Nya's no twig, but still, she has to use a lot of speed to make up the difference in strength.

"My apologies Nya, after training it is my turn to prep for dinner, and then there are still many chores to complete."

Zane's style is reactionary, waiting for his opponents to fall into an unfavorable position before making his move. He lulls his opponent into a false sense of security before striking fiercely, blindsiding them. He makes it a point to study his foe in the few precious seconds he has, trying his best to match their style, all the while sticking to his own strengths. Nya finds it much easier to mimic others' ways of fighting, even if she still struggles to find something of her own.

"Next time for sure, Nya! But I've got a new move I really wanna practice and weapons to clean and a new poem to write that totally isn't about you or anything and also—"

Jay fights loosely, like he's not even fighting at all, but once he hones in on his opponent's weakness, he strikes with a dangerous amount of precision.  He's always on the move, knowing in his bones that a moving target is harder to hit, but already ready to fight back the moment the chance arrives. He is a fighter of opportunity—Nya adores watching him battle, as it’s always a surprise…but just the same, not having any kind of immediate strategy would drive her insane.

"Please, can't I at least go with you guys this time? I won't get in the way or anything, I just—"

"Sorry Sis, this may be just a scouting mission, but if we run into trouble, we can't watch out for you and the people and fight at the same time. You understand, right?"

Kai is…something else. He dishes out hits like Cole, but with Jay’s speed. He’s receptive in his defense like Zane, but steadfast in his movements like Cole. And he’s hard to hit like Jay, but sometimes lets himself be hit like Zane. And what he lacks in ninja experience he more than makes up for in his sword skills. Out of everyone, he is the last person Nya would pick to fight, in an insidious twist of irony…if only because he's got the greatest chance of besting her.

Cole's easily the strongest, Zane's the most calculating, and Jay's the most unpredictable, but Kai's the one you gotta watch out for.

She clutches the practice sword in her hand. It feels heavy and foreign in her grip, but she makes it work. She can’t strike with the serene grace that Kai can—not that she’ll ever admit it, or let him witness it—but as long as she can land the hits, it doesn’t matter.

She wishes she could be more like Lady Iron Dragon—regardless of how old the legends of her actually are, her feats were nonetheless true. Despite her smaller frame, the Iron Dragon could still fell armies with only her two hands. She could do Spinjitzu even without possessing an element. And even she could wield a sword with ease.

Either way, Nya is flexible enough to meld all her friends' strengths together as one. Steady as rock, unrelenting as ice, quick as lightning, and enduring as a flame…she can adapt as needed; she can change between them whenever she wants to. Her form is not one that goes stagnant easily.

After all, it's how she's always been her whole life. And being forced to sit, and wait, and watch will never bode well for those who try to make her.

"Ahh, boys, I was about to inform you of—"

The foreign voice throws Nya for a loop—she trips, practice sword spiraling through the air and clattering to the ground, all while Nya’s legs tangle with one another and sends her to the floor. She groans where she lies, Sensei Wu only looking on in surprise.

“Oh, Nya…are the ninja not out here? I could've sworn I heard them training—"

"Nope," Nya declares, popping the 'p' as she pulls her face off the pavement. "Just me."

“…I see. That is most discouraging.”

Nya does a double take, standing up again. “What, that the boys aren’t out here, or that you found me instead?”

Wu blinks, raising an eyebrow at the accusatory tone. “Why would you assume the latter?”

“…just checking all possibilities,” she grumbles, hiding her scowl when Wu decides to leave it at that.

“They should have been training all morning; we’ve got an important lesson in energy channeling this afternoon,” Wu explains, checking his lesson book.

“That’s what they told me too—imagine my surprise when they weren’t here.” Nya puts her hands in her hips. “So I figured I might as well keep the equipment warm for them.”

“Hmph. Slacking off again, then, I see…”

Wu snaps his booklet shut, whirling on his heel to make his way back inside. Nya hops off the equipment and shuts it all down before trailing after. So rarely does she get to experience the occasional and vindictive joy of a sibling being busted for petty troublemaking.

As they scour the halls for any sign of the boys, their hollers ring out and rattle the windows. Aggressive, wild, competitive…

"WACHAAAAA!"

"HYIYAAAAH!"

"FIRE STRIKE!…Ohhhhh my gosh, is that the GREATEST move you've ever seen?!"

"STOP trying to do it yourself—we need to attack as a TEAM!"

…and if Nya and Wu hadn't already checked the courtyard, they would have assumed the ninja were training like they were supposed to.

"Zaaaane why are you wasting your special attack on me? You have to save it—GAHNAAUGH fantastic, I'm outta LIVES!"

"But the lesson lives on! And I am getting the hang of it!"

Wu and Nya follow the sound straight to the common room. Wu pushes the door open with a little too much fanfare; it slams against the wall, and yet not even that can pull the ninja from their intense video game session.

…Which is pretty funny to Nya, since, well, they specifically said they had no time for her today…and yet they clearly have enough time for each other.

A half-eaten pizza sits abandoned behind them, with the Golden Weapons—which are ONLY the artifacts that formed the realm as they know it—strewn about the room as though they're nothing more than decoration. There's even a slice of pizza resting against the Sword of Fire, sizzling away.

"Okay guys!" Cole commands, ever the leader even in this scenario. "NOW!"

Jay leans forward in an attempt to focus; Zane and Kai follow his lead. They all rally a cry as their characters onscreen charge for the boss, combining their skills to land the ultimate blow—

Wu yanks the plug to the television.

The illusion instantly shatters. The high pride of a borderline victory dies and is replaced by a surge of rage from all involved.

"AWWWWWWWWW."

"What happened?!"

"It took us three hours to get there!"

"Why would you do that?! WHY?!"

Wu tosses the plug to the floor, glaring at all four boys at once. Nya hovers near the doorway and puts on her best look of disapproval.

"JUST because Lord Garmadon escaped through a vortex three months ago doesn't mean he won't return one day for the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu!" Wu scolds.

"But Sensei Wu, ever since he's been gone, not even the Shark Army has dared to try anything underhanded," Zane points out. "Ninjago has seen nothing but peace."

"Yeah, peace is boring," adds Jay with a shrug. "There's no one to save, there's nothing to DO—"

"We can train later," Kai says, leaning back with his arms folded under his head. "Besides, it's summer break—we're not supposed to be working that hard anyway."

"Summer break is one of the few chances you'll have to truly sharpen your ninja skills before school takes up your time again—and you've only got a week of it left," Wu grunts.

"And we still gotta go school shopping too!" adds Nya from the doorway. Kai sticks his tongue out at her; Nya sends the gesture right back.

"We were going to do that tomorrow!" Cole protests. "Zane made the lists, Jay found the stores, Kai made the budget, and I—"

"Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today!" Wu slams his staff against the floor, narrowing his eyes. "…for tomorrow is never a guarantee."

Zane and Jay shift uncomfortably, but Cole looks thoughtful instead. He snags a slice of pizza off the floor, eyeing it eagerly.

"…weeeeell, I WAS gonna eat this pizza tomorrow, so if that's the case…!" Before it reaches Cole's mouth, Wu kicks it out of his hand, letting the slice sail out into the hallway. "Um, OW?!"

"No pizza for you!"

Wu spins back towards the wall, slumping against it. He knows he's being a little too aggressive, but last summer hadn't been nearly as much of a pain to get the boys to work. Zane was content to meditate when he could, Cole did nothing but train anyway, and Jay followed suit to not get left behind. Plus, the threat had been much less immediate a year ago.

Now it was breathing down their necks, ready to strike at any day…and the ninja were here using the Golden Weapons as lounge seating and eating pizza off the floor.

Complacency kills, more often than not.

"…I think you all need to come with me."

The boys all groan but abandon their game, shuffling into the hall. Nya's prepared to let them go off without her once again, more than willing to get back to the training course with the intent to beat Kai's speed record, until Wu drifts to her side and places a hand upon her shoulder.

"You should come too, Nya."

Nya perks up, and tries to hide how eagerly she goes to catch up to Jay and Zane.

Wu shuffles his way to the front of the pack, winding his way towards the library that sits towards the back of the building. Books from since time began and scrolls from even before that line the walls…along with a cushy set of chairs and a table for long hours of studying. Nya is easily the most excited, already eyeing a few shelves she'll definitely be looking at later, while Zane tries to count how many tomes are on display. Jay's equally as impressed, while Cole and Kai…are not.

"Sooooo, what does a dusty old library have to do with us being 'too lazy'?" Kai asks. Cole nudges Kai for his lack of tact, but nonetheless scratches his own head.

"Yeah, not that having access to all this knowledge isn't cool, but if you wanted us to train more, shouldn't we have gone in the other direction…?"

"C’mon, Cole! Just think of all the ancient fighting secrets stored in here! Maybe this is the proper motivation we need!" Jay rips a random book off a shelf and opens it to the middle page. "See, we can do crazy moves like…'Recipe for Clam Cheddar Chowder'?!"

"Ooh! Allow me to see that!" Zane exclaims, barely waiting for permission before taking the cookbook himself. "I have been searching for a good chowder recipe for months…!"

"Err…okay, that was a dud but HOW ABOUT—" Jay tears an even bigger book off the shelf, and opens to the first page. "—'The History of Fashion Evolution in Shintaro'—OH COME ON!"

"Maybe you should try looking at the titles first, Sparkplug," scoffs Kai.

"Well, you can't say I judge a book by its cover!"

"As much as I appreciate your interest in reading, we're not here for this knowledge…what we seek is much more integral to your current endeavors."

When the five teens look at Wu in confusion, Wu proceeds to drift to the furthest point of the library, where a large window sits against the wall. Wu undoes the intricate lock keeping the window sealed…and reveals that it's actually the entrance to a hidden room. Jay squeals in delight and shakes Cole.

"In order to reach your full potential, you must train, but also, you must also understand why it's so important—"

"Uh, remember when we did a little thing called the Tornado of Creation and whipped up four awesome mechs that totally decimated the Shark Army? I thought that was preeeetty insane," Kai reminds him. Jay tilts his head.

"But I don't remember your mech doing much of anything—"

"Hey, I cornered General Olivia! No one else did that!"

"Yeah, and it only took you like four total tries to do so—"

The ninja continue to bicker amongst themselves. Nya rolls her eyes all while Wu sadly hangs his head.

"Oh, you four have only merely scratched the surface of your full potential. You haven't even tapped into your elemental powers yet, or the powers your Golden Weapons hold…"

"…he's got us there," says Cole. Jay groans.

The torches lining the walls guide them down to the catacombs of the monastery—ones they hadn't known existed. Zane's eyes seem to glow softly in the dark, Kai playfully runs his hands through the flames of the torches, and Cole swats the spiders that dangle too close to Jay's cowering face. Nya can only speculate how old this room is, or what it's hidden for…or what's hidden within.

When the stairs come to an end, Wu steps into an empty room. Jay's about to make a comment about 'how anticlimactic this is' until Wu claps his hands together.

Gold specks of creation burst forth and trace designs along the floor, circling and swirling until they reach the walls. One by one, each of the bricks making up the walls begin to rotate, revealing a variety of symbols, patterns, and colors on their opposite sides. The ninja and Nya shuffle around to get a better view for themselves, all while Wu takes a seat on the center of the floor.

At the farthest wall is what can only be described as a giant circle, consisting of an outer ring, an inner ring, and a smaller circle smack in the center. The outer ring consists of sixteen various insignias the teens can't identify, but the inner ring is something they recognize all too well: the symbols of a gorilla to the west, a wolf to the north, an octopus to the east, and a lion to the south…and in the center of those four is the emblem of a dragon emblazoned in green and gold.

"It's…the Guardians?" Kai asks, carefully pressing his hand against the image of Vulcanell. "Or…is this supposed to represent us?"

"This is waaaay more than just us," Cole declares, observing the elements that seem to surround his own.  He brushes against a bright lime-colored symbol, squinting at it suspiciously. "I feel like I've seen this one before…"

"Look! This one's pink!" Jay laughs, gesturing to a symbol next to Tawhiri. Nya studies it, eventually shaking her head.

"…I think that's more of a fuchsia, Jay—"

"What is all this, Sensei?" asks Zane. Wu remains on the floor, eyes closed in meditation.

"This…is what my father called the Elemental Compass, a representation of the building blocks to the realm of Ninjago. All twenty-one pieces exist in balance and harmony, and as you already know, you four represent the Four Core Elements, the bridge between the Derivative Elements…and the Green Element. Your respective elements can be broken down further into four derivatives each…and when united as one, you can achieve something equivalent to that which drives creation and destruction, the Green Element."

"So that's what you meant when we had to be careful about when and how we use the Tornado of Creation," Cole realizes. "If we aren't in harmony, we have the chance to break apart even further…"

"Or even if we were in harmony, we could unleash a Tornado of Destruction instead!" Jay exclaims with far too much glee.

"And, if I am reading this right, the sixteen Derivative Elements should, in theory…hold the same amount of power combined with each other that we four do together," Zane deduces. "And both of those scenarios are also equivalent to the Green Element all by itself."

Wu nods, impressed. "Very astute, all of you. And now you can see why I opted to take you four on as students, as opposed to searching the world for the descendants of the other sixteen…if there were even any left to be found."

Wu stares sadly at the wall, refusing to elaborate further on that. Nya watches Wu carefully before studying the compass herself. The central image of the dragon glares back at her, and she frowns.

"Well, under that same logic…there's gotta be someone that possesses the Green Element, right? Couldn't they, also in theory, handle things by themselves? After all, this whole design also implies that the Four Core Elements are the derivatives of the Green Element itself."

"What even is the Green Element anyway?" wonders Kai. Wu sighs, shaking his head. "What?! It…it can't just be green, right?!"

"As you can see by the compass, the Green Element encompasses a great many things, hence why it is the most powerful, most important, and most unstable element of all. It is everything, and it is nothing all at once. It requires the full support of the Core Elements to achieve its true potential, and to keep it in check. A practiced master could certainly wield the Green Element single-handedly…but none other than my father ever could. And that is why I'd only ever seek out that potential master if the worst case scenario ever came to pass."

Wu opens his eyes again—they're sad for a moment, but in the next, he's smiling at his four current students.

"But as I have you all, the worst case scenario can be avoided…" Wu's smile drops into a lukewarm frown. "…that is, if you manage to achieve your true potentials."

Kai, Jay, Zane, and Cole trade shamed looks with one another. After seeing the compass, and their apparent connection with Ninjago as a whole, it's hard not to feel a little bad about slacking off. Wu softens a little upon sensing their morale drop, as this whole lesson is not to discipline, but to encourage.

"There are still so many secrets you've yet to unlock about yourselves…You could one day have the power to win your battles without fighting. If you start using your minds, you won't need to rely on mechs and machines. I did not dub you 'Elemental Masters' as a fun nickname—the actual elements you were born with are part of your very essence…!"

Wu stands up, the ground shaking as he does. He stomps one foot into the ground, loosening a stone brick from the floor. He catches it, holding in Cole's direction.

"Cole, the Earth could be yours to command, with the right discipline and tenacity."

Cole beams, just as the stone transforms into a block of ice. Wu whirls around, gesturing it towards Zane.

"Zane, you could bend Ice to your will...!"

Zane's eyes widen in surprise. Wu crushes the block of ice between his palms, electricity shooting outwards afterward.

"Jay, you are like a battery, brimming with energy—should you unleash it, Lightning will be yours to control…"

"So ninja," Jay whispers with palpable excitement. Wu grins, then turns unto Kai. He twirls his hand only but once, conjuring a single flame within his palm.

"And Kai, you can make fire with nothing more than a snap of your fingers!"

Wu holds the fire out toward Kai. Emboldened, Kai attempts to take the flame from him. For the briefest of moment, the fire sits comfortably within Kai's hold, as if it was always meant to be there, but it goes out all too quickly. Kai finds himself wishing he could've made it last longer, and Wu recognizes the budding spark in his eyes. It's exactly the look he hoped to see.

"Unlocking your true potential is the highest honor you can receive as an Elemental Master…and as a ninja."

"So…if we work harder, we'll unlock our true potential, and we can finally be able to control our powers?" Kai asks, hopeful. Wu nods.

"While reaching your peak physical condition is one piece of the recipe, achieving your inner peace of mind is another. You'll have to come to terms with yourself from both outside and within to achieve that balance…and gain access to the potential you possess."

"Say no more, Sensei!" declares Jay, already striking a determined pose. "As I was the first to do Spinjitzu, surely I'll be the first to unlock my True Potential—!"

"Not even!" huffs Cole. "I've already tapped into some of my powers, so I'm way ahead of you! I bet I could fully unlock mine by the end of the week!"

"Well I've had my visions for years—if those are an extension of my latent ice abilities, then technically that means I have been on the verge of my full potential for far longer than you both!" exclaims Zane.

"Welp, while you guys argue over all that speculation, I'mma head back on up to the courtyard and get started on achieving my potential first, naturally—" Kai laughs, making his way out of the room ahead of the others.

"Oh no you don't—!"

Jay pulls out of his scrap with Cole and lunges for Kai, pushing them both into a wall of scrolls. A few get knocked loose in the process, but it goes unnoticed by Jay and Kai, the both of them too busy laughing as they scramble out of the library. Cole and Zane aren't too far behind them, and Nya can only groan and shake her head.

"Will they ever reach their full potential…?"

"In time, yes…maybe, a LONG time, but…in time. It will happen when they are ready, and not a moment sooner."

With that, Wu follows after his students, with the aim to reign them in from any further commotion. Nya sighs as she moves to join him…but the lure of a hidden library possibly older than time itself is too much to ignore. Not to mention there could be some info about The Great Time Discrepancy down here…!

The Elemental Compass looms over her as she zips from shelf to shelf grabbing the dustiest tomes she can find to pour through later. Most of these probably don't even contain vital information, but nonetheless, they're a dip into a forbidden history, and Nya's more than eager to take the plunge.

It's only when she's satisfied with the amassed pile does she take another look at the wall once more…and realizes there's an inscription beneath the compass that Wu appears to have ignored.

“Well, what do we have here…?”

Nya sets her stockpile of books down, inching over and crouching down to inspect the hidden words. Engraved directly into the brick with a faded silver coating, the words are written in old-style Ninjargon—and, in a dialect that hasn’t been properly used in centuries. That much, Nya is confident in.

It also makes her squeal in delight.

“Oooh, yes! I knew that Evolution of Language class wasn’t a waste of time! All right Nya, this is what you trained for…!”

She brushes her thumb along the engraving, getting a feel for letters that haven't seen the light of day in ages. It's not a hard phrase to decipher, as most of the words are repeated, but the actual statement stuns her nonetheless.

“To create is to destroy; to destroy is to create. To do both, is to be human.”

She lets the thought sink in before grabbing her abandoned books.

"Huh. Not quite the world-shattering secret I was hoping for, but interesting nonetheless. No wonder Wu didn't bother mentioning it."

She hefts the books higher into her grip, giving one last lingering glance to the compass. Nya smiles softly as she looks upon the symbols of her friends displayed proudly in the center, along with the intrigue of the dragon in green and gold, but she can't help but wonder about the other sixteen.

…especially the image of what appears to be a winged creature, encircled in gray and cyan. It's located at the top of the outer ring, above the Element of Ice—and it's not really that big of a deal, but…

…it's the same symbol Nya's been wearing all her life, courtesy of her mother.

By the time Nya makes her way out of the library and places the books on the desk in her room—only lingering a little too long looking into old atlases and almanacs—she finds the boys actually out in the courtyard where they're supposed to be, sparring with one another. Evidently the trip to the library did do some good in spurring on their motivation, as Cole and Zane supervise while Jay and Kai have a go at each other.

Nya can't resist a grin as she watches them spar; Kai's come a long way in his training, demonstrated by the quick way he adapts to Jay's rapid changes in movement, but Jay's also no slouch either. When his mind's set on it, he's a force to be reckoned with.

Jay smirks as he slides and steps away from Kai's flurry of sword slashes, his footwork immaculate as he dodges. Kai's a little sloppier but he has full control of his weapons, using them as an extension of himself even when Jay dances out of his grasp. He swipes one katana a little lower and manages to trip up Jay; Jay recovers with a flip and a handstand, then pushes into the air and shoots out his kusarigama.

The sickle whirls its way around the blade in Kai's left, the chain snagging and ripping the sword right out of Kai's grip. Jay pulls it away to disarm Kai, but that's the good thing about wielding two swords—you'll always have at least one.

And with only one, Kai lessens his focus on speed and shifts to power, rushing at Jay with a pointed strike. Jay whirls away with Spinjitzu, lightning sparking at his feet when he brakes. He lashes out the kusarigama again; Kai swerves to the right, plowing into Jay from the side and sending him rolling.

Jay groans as he bumps into one of statues in the courtyard; Cole yells some words of encouragement while Zane is no doubt listing things to improve for later. Jay frowns and tilts his head back further, landing Nya in his line of sight and revealing that Nya's watching too. She sees him looking and waves.

"Hey, Sis! Sticking around to watch me mop the floor with these guys?!"

…Jay can't lose like this, even if it is to her brother.

Kai, who has regained his second katana and is currently showboating, is now left off-guard to Jay's second wind. Which suits Jay just fine—he's always like having a little element of surprise in his attacks. When Kai makes the mistake of putting his back towards Jay, Jay throws his weapon once more, this time snagging onto Kai's ankle.

By the time Kai's realized he's in danger, Jay's already snapped him into the air. Cole and Zane wince as Kai wails on his way up. Jay retracts the chain and hooks it to one of the pillars instead, swinging his way into the air as well.

Kai sees Jay coming a mile away yet still barely manages to deflect his aerial assault, each swing of his katanas blocked by a bash from Jay's nunchucks. Jay fakes a swing to the right and whirls to the left instead, striking Kai dead on and sending him rocketing to the ground.

"Oh come ON!" is all that's heard before Kai makes an abrupt landing onto the training mat, groaning afterwards. Something long and thin is dislodged from his gi; it unravels as it rolls along the ground, revealing itself to be an ancient piece of paper.

Jay bounces into a landing before helping Kai back up, just as Cole, Zane, and Nya close in to observe the paper that fell from Kai. Kai stares at it in confusion, wondering where it even came from.

"…huh? I don’t remember grabbing that…"

"It looks like it's from the library. It must have accidentally fallen into your satchel when you and Jay bumped into the shelf," Zane deduces. Kai blinks, not thinking anything of this otherwise unassuming piece of paper, and proceeds to open it up properly.

"Well, what is it?" Jay asks eagerly. Kai gives him a dry look.

"It's a scroll, Windbag," Cole huffs, popping up to rest his head on Zane's shoulder. Jay grits his teeth.

"I know THAT, I meant what it says; it's written in chicken scratch…"

"Not chicken scratch; it's written in the old form of Ninjargon, the ancient language of our ancestors," Zane concludes as Nya lights up. "It's been centuries since this specific dialect was in common circulation."

"Oooh, I can try to decipher it!" Nya exclaims, already having translated something once today. Guess she's going two for two. "I may at least be able to make out a few of the phrases…"

"Well, go for it, then," says Kai, lowering the scroll for Nya to read better. Nya leans over it, studying the symbols closely.

"All right, let's see…this symbol here means 'prophecy'…and this one means 'destiny'."

"Not entirely assuring," huffs Cole. Nya grunts and tries to get more information, but there's a blue arm blocking her view of the whole page.

"Ooh, look, pictures! Wait, there's four ninja on here…is that us?!" Jay asks hopefully.

"It could be depicting past Elemental Masters as well, especially if this scroll was found in the same room as the Compass," Zane points out.

"Are you guys blind?!" exclaims Kai, his turn to smack the paper. "There's five ninja here, and one of them is clearly—!"

"A…Green Ninja," Nya finishes. "That phrase…appears multiple times within this parchment. One ninja will rise above the others, and become the Green Ninja. They are destined…to one day face the Dark Lord."

That sounds even less promising than anything that came before. Zane in particular looks deeply troubled about it.

"Dark Lord? Does that mean Lord Garmadon?"

"Could be? Maybe this is prophesizing the fact that he'll be back for the weapons sometime soon," Nya ponders, although something about it doesn't sit quite right with her.

"But besides that…could this be some kind of prophecy about one of us becoming the Green Ninja?! How awesome is that?!" screeches Jay.

"Is…anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?" asks Kai. Jay scoffs, striking a pose behind him.

"Like how good I'm gonna look in green?"

"Ha! Isn't it obvious that I'M gonna be the Green Ninja?!"

"The color obviously suits me!"

"Technically, I AM the best—" Zane interrupts. The three immediately break into less than substantial arguments in their favor, until Cole has to step in and physically pry them apart.

"Everyone, STOP! Remember why Sensei brought us together in the first place—we're a team, and not one of us is better or more important than the others. You all know that. We probably weren't meant to see this and for good reason."

Cole holds his hand out; Zane yoinks the scroll from Kai and drops it into Cole's awaiting grasp.

"Now come on—let's get back to work. We have more training to do."

"You weren't saying that earlier when you were stuffing your face with pizza from the floor," grumbles Kai. Cole shoots him a deadly look; Kai immediately clams up.

"…well I guess it's about time I added some finesse to my routine anyway," coughs Jay. "Beating Kai is a challenge and all, but I can always do better—"

"Yes, and I could use some exercise…" adds Zane. Cole rolls the scroll back up, staring at it for a moment before putting it away.

"And…yeah, I've gotta work on some new moves too."

Cole blows his bangs out of his face, satisfied for now. At least they're all eager to get back to training, for whatever reasons they may be.

He turns the training course back on, Jay and Zane already readying their weapons and trying to decide what techniques to work on next. Kai, meanwhile, stands off to the side, doing a bad job of pretending that the idea of being the Green Ninja doesn't sound extremely appealing to him.

Could that be what Sensei meant when he said he was special? Could that be what his full potential was meant to be?

Kai stares at his hand, clenching it into a determined fist before gazing up at the sky.

"…could I be the Green Ninja?"

And, unbeknownst to him, Nya wonders the same thing about herself.

Chapter Text

Shopping trips back in Ignacia were small (and rare) affairs. Every other Sunday, Nya and Kai would be treated to the Farmer’s Market, albeit a rather humble one, and would scrounge up whatever change they had. They would aim to get the most decent scraps of food they could, in the hopes of making it last another two weeks. Sometimes, the nice old lady at the end would send her home with a container of shortbread. Those were some of Nya's favorite days. 

Budgeting for anything that wasn’t edible, however, was nearly impossible. Hand-me-downs, donations, and bargain bins were how Nya flitted through life for everything else. She can’t complain either—that clearance leather jacket is still her favorite thing, four years later.

And thus, all the penny-pinching led Nya to never really having an appreciation for the fine art of shopping. She made do with what she had, and if anything new landed in her lap, it would be by the will of whoever was watching her from on high (which is a bit strange to think that it’s probably Master Wu’s dad, but whatever).

But as Jay drags her in and out of every store within the NGC Mall, and grabs school supplies without a care in the world, she comes to realize there may have been a simple life pleasure she’s been missing out on, and that’s to spend money without weeping over every lost cent.

“You know, when Cole said you had a store picked out, I didn’t think that meant the whole mall…” Nya remarks as they migrate from an office supply chain straight into a backpack boutique. Jay huffs as he scans their personalized lists again, squinting with disgust.

“Yeah, well, if your brother hadn’t tried to cover every single school supply sale in Ninjago, we wouldn’t have to run all over the place…I mean, a three buck budget for notebooks?! Sure, they’re only ten coins a piece at Book Barn, but they’re not the big ones with the good paper and personalized covers…!”

 Nya rolls her eyes, studying the price of a pack of pens. “Yeah, that sounds like Kai…but on the other hand, he hasn’t ever had this big of a budget to work with, either. Maybe he sees it as like, the ultimate challenge or something.”

“Maybe. My folks aren’t exactly rich either, so I can understand cutting corners…but jeez, one year they sent me to school with a handcrafted lunch box.”

“Aww, that sounds sweet.”

“Yeah, not when it’s made entirely of metal and comes with a working set of flashing neon lights. It’s a miracle that aliens weren’t summoned by the Morse code radiating from my lunch and abducted me.”

Nya chokes on laughter, nearly knocking the nearest display over as she does. Jay blushes but smiles too, always glad to get a laugh out of her. He too knows they haven’t had much time to hang out over the summer, as much as he reaaaaaally wanted to. But with school starting soon, maybe their luck would finally change. There was always Robotics Club, and they do have classes together this year, and maybe—

Nya intakes a sharp breath; Jay’s reflexes are on high alert, ready to take down the nearest threat. He’s about to ask what’s wrong when Nya sprints to one of the displays in the back. She makes a beeline for a primarily gray backpack with blue and red trimmings, speakers for music, several pockets with pockets IN the pockets, and two cup holders.

It is the coolest backpack Jay has ever seen, and Nya agrees.

“Jay, quick, what’s the backpack budget?!”

Jay lets out a squeak and scans the list. “Uh, hrmm…only ten per person it looks like.”

Nya looks utterly scandalized. “What?! Most of these are seventeen or more! Dang it, Kai—!”

Her whole body wilts as she eyes the backpack with sheer longing, slowly accepting that this will be another thing a lack of money has denied her. Oh well—her plain old one’s still holding up at least, even if it is going on year number six and she’s really ready for a new one.

Jay glances from the despairing Nya to the backpack and back again, then proceeds to punch numbers into his phone.

“Eh, get whichever one you want; I’ll cover the difference, no biggie.”

Nya blinks, astonished. “…r-really? Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Like I said, no biggie. If you can’t have a fancy notebook, then we gotta make up for it with a kickass backpack. It’s the natural order of things.”

Jay’s not paying enough attention to realize the full weight of his offer, but it still makes Nya feel all fuzzy inside anyway. Her grin is warm and gooey like a freshly baked cookie as she grabs the legendary backpack and hauls it to the cashier. It’s an awful feeling and she never wants it to go away.

She's practically floating as they drift from store to store, thinning out their shopping list and nabbing deals left and right. The duo chat more about future robotics club projects all the while; Jay explains some of the finer points of communications systems, launching into a story about a walkie talkie set he'd made out of soap boxes once.

This results in them finding their way to the Electronics, which Nya knows isn’t on the list, and yet Jay insists. She gives him a questioning look. He holds up his hands defensively.

"I just wanted to take a quick look around!" Jay declares as the blue glow of the tv screens shines on him. "We never did get around to rigging up a proper communication setup for ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with our phones, but they’re not covert enough and not always reliable.”

"Zane did mention that to me…" Nya folds her arms and taps her foot in thought. "I started up a couple of blueprints, but I'm not entirely familiar with what parts we would need, so they're a bit rough around the edges…"

Jay grins, tilting his head as he does.

"Well, good thing we're working together, then! With your ideas and my know-how, we'll have 'em up and running in no time! And, hopefully before Garmadon comes back, ehehe."

His optimism in the moment is refreshing. Nya almost makes a retort, but the wall of televisions behind Jay flash with the News Channel, making both of them jump. The theme of Ninjago City News at Noon plays throughout the whole store, drawing the attention of all the patrons. It's been like that all summer, with the theme of the news drawing in masses like moths to a flame. Sure, no big events have gone down…but regardless, people tune in just in case of the event of Garmadon's return.

There is peace in Ninjago, but also unrest.

Nya and Jay aren't immune from it either, quietly exchanging cautious looks as today's anchor checks their notes one more time.

"…reports are in saying that attendance at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys has reached an all-time high in the wake of Garmadon's invasion, with hopeful new prospects for the Shark Army registering over the course of the summer. This has caused a declining hit in other schools, including Ninjago City High, which will impact the upcoming freshman class for this school year…”

A quiet sigh of relief washes through the gathered crowd, with there being no mention of Garmadon’s return. Still, Nya doesn't like the sound of potential new sharks in the water. Especially ones that are supposedly children.

"Okay, that's…a little concerning. Or a lot concerning," says Jay, as if reading her mind. "But at least it's not another invasion."

"But that's a lot of impressionable kids being swayed by Shark Army propaganda," Nya adds with a frown. "It's possible they've been trying to do some recruiting and training in Garmadon's absence, which could be why we haven't seen much physical activity from them over the summer.”

Jay shakes his head. "Who would willingly want to go to a place that makes you evil, though? I hear the treatment over there is pretty terrible too."

"Kids will do a lot of crazy things for attention, but it rarely manages to go beyond anything more than that." Nya shrugs, grabbing Jay's wrist to tug him away from the crowd. Jay absolutely does not blush at the contact. "Sometimes, rebelling is the only way to get someone to notice you."

Her face sours, but she says nothing more as she pulls Jay all the way to the Food Court.

With their bulk of their shopping completed, they take a much deserved break to refuel. Cole and Zane made sure there’d be enough cash left for a late—and healthy—lunch, so naturally Jay and Nya both decide to hit up the Dairy Dragon for two double-scoop cones. They take their treats to the central fountain, sitting on the edge and finally resting down all their bags. Nya sighs the moment she's off her feet, reveling in the chocolate flavor.

It's simple, and mundane, and not terribly exciting, but for once Nya's glad for it. She glances at Jay ravenously wolfing down his ice cream, wondering about his thoughts on the Elemental Compass and the whole Green Ninja prophecy. But the last thing Nya is going to do is ruin this little non-ninja-destiny-moment just when she finally gets it.

Ignorance is bliss, as was once said by a man who ripped knowledge from the world to keep it safe.

“So hey, after this, do you mind if we check the hardware store super quick?” Jay asks out of the blue, a mischievous glint in his eye. “I hear they’ve got some pretty choice parts on sale, and they might come in handy when Robotics is back on. I wanna be a little more prepared this time around.”

“Oh, you’re doing Robotics this year?” Nya asks, genuinely surprised. Jay blinks, trying not to be offended.

“Uh, yeah? We only had it up for a week or so, on top of it being cancelled when you were kidnapped, so why wouldn’t we continue?”

Nya bites her cone with a pout. “Well obviously because we’re now using the warehouse as storage for the mechs…and unless your club is going to be restricted to just us, it’ll be a pretty dead giveaway that you’re the Ninja to any newcomers.”

“You…have a point.”

“I usually do.”

Nya smirks as Jay sticks out his tongue, tapping his finger against his lap.

“…well, shoot. Either we do keep the club to only us, or we have to find a new location to hold the club. Which…won’t be easy.”

“Could always move the mechs?”

“Yes, very true—I’ll make some room under my bed, stat. Kai can stash his in the closet, and I’m sure Cole can put his on a shelf—“

“Smartass,” Nya grunts, but it’s fond. Jay grins back, all teeth and sunshine. From there, they keep talking about all the things they dream of building. And in the moment, it's easy to pretend that nothing bad will ever happen again.

Back at the warehouse, Kai spins around in one of the spare office chairs, clicking his pen with great exasperation as Zane and Cole go back and forth about how to divide up the school supplies. Cole says everyone should be fine using what they themselves were in charge of buying, while Zane argues that they should sort every piece so someone doesn't end up with more that they may actually need, when it could be better used in another's hands.

Kai doesn't actually care either way, as long as they haven't gone over budget. 

He sighs, trying to drown out the bickering, and turns back to their receipts. Everything does look to be in order, but it still doesn't take the bad taste out of his mouth. Having to get the funds from Wu isn't sitting right with him, not when he feels like he hasn't earned it. Wu, Cole, and Zane all insisted that there was nothing owed, as it is money for things they do need for school. And Wu had no qualms about encouraging education…but Kai's only ever had to swallow his pride for one other person, not four. Let alone actually having to set aside some funds strictly for himself.

It's just going to take some getting used to, that's all. Kai will ensure that the money won't go to waste, either—he may not be as academically smart as Jay, or Zane, or even Nya, but he knows how to get a passing grade at the very least. And that's at least more than some people.

"—Cole, you do not require that many pencils; three of your classes are not writing based!"

"But I need them for when I doodle! Do you know how many I can go through in a week?!"

Zane throws up his hands in aggravation. Cole sneaks an extra pack of pencils back into his pile.

"…that is still too many pencils for a man who came down with Senioritis two years early," Kai calls from the table. Cole finally acknowledges his presence and sneers.

"I've seen what schools have to offer, and I've had enough. Can you blame me? My time and skills are better used elsewhere!"

He puts his hands on his hips, smiling proudly.

"And even with questionable grades and forty-five detentions, I still made it to Senior Year!"

Kai chokes on air. "Forty-five—?!"

"…Ehh, I mean, at least twenty of those were given by Zane anyway, so was I truly causing that much trouble?"

"Yes," Zane says pointedly, with Cole shooting him a look. "If only you put as much energy into your studies as you do leading a team of ninja."

"I don't need advanced social studies to help me come up with a strategy to not die," Cole protests.

This dissolves into a whole different argument, one that only two people who've gone to school together for years can have. Kai briefly and mentally compares them to an old married couple just as Nya and Jay stumble through the door as one, making eyes at each other while carrying in armfuls of techie junk.

Kai stares into the distance and realizes that this may be a very long school year, potential ninja destiny be damned.

"Receipts, please!" he immediately chirps, holding his hand out. Jay stares in exasperation while Nya, expecting this, dumps her half of the stash into Jay's grip as she fishes out their receipts. A few pieces of mail fall out of her bag as she does, with Cole drifting out of his argument with Zane to go pick them up.

"Oh hey, it's my August issue of Vinyl Monthly! Nice."

"Did you stop at the Monastery before arriving here?" Zane asks, but Jay shakes his head.

"No, we actually ran into the mailman on our way over from the mall. Figured we'd save him from a trip of impossible height for one day."

"And speaking of the mail," Nya begins, once she's pawned all the receipts off onto an eager Kai. She flashes out a periwinkle envelope, shaking it in Zane's direction with a raised eyebrow. "Just what in the world is this?!"

"It is for you," Zane states with all the obviousness in the world.

"I meant, why did you go through the trouble of sending it through postage?! It's not like we don't live together or anything—"

“I always send out recommendation letters via the mail. It is the proper way to express interest,” says Zane. Jay pops over Zane’s shoulder with a suspicious glare.

“And just what kind of interest?!”

“…well, um…” Zane actually finds himself at a loss for words, folding his arms defensively. That alone has everyone staring at him. “…the Vice President plans on resigning this year due to…many prior disagreements with myself. No one already on the council desires to take her position, and I did tell the school secretary I was scouting for new members…”

Nya blinks, then glances down at Zane’s carefully crafted letter. “And…you thought of me?”

Zane nods, smiling. “Of course. You are resourceful, brilliant, driven, dedicated, and determined—all the things I wish the council could be one day. And, with someone like you as Vice President, I might finally be able to push some of my own ideas through…”

Zane maintains his smile, although his eyes become downcast.

“You are…also a lot better at handling a crowd than I am, I must confess. And you have a natural charisma that I lack. There is a lot I could learn from you as well.”

Zane beams hopefully in her direction, eyes shining to the point of nearly glowing. Nya can’t help it—her face turns completely red. She fails to hide it behind the recommendation letter.

“J-Jeez, compliments much?”

“I only speak my honest thoughts,” Zane retorts with a shrug. “Will you at least consider the offer?”

“…I can do that,” Nya promises, wondering what joining the council would potentially do to her schedule. Not that she has ninja training on top of everything, like these guys, but still—

Well, if nothing else, it’s one more way to guarantee seeing Zane every day.

She likes hearing Zane’s profound thoughts on things and taste-testing his new recipes. She likes Cole showing her new music and giving her general advice. She really likes listening to Jay’s jokes and learning how to invent things from him…

Nya glances back at Kai, still shuffling through the receipts and punching numbers into his calculator. Ever since they moved into the monastery, she’s seen very little of him—less than anyone else, honestly. She knows he’s working hard to make up for the year or so he’s behind in training, but she can go days without seeing him beyond meals. It’s…a big change from how things were before.

And it’s hard to decide whether or not she likes that in particular.

There's six days left of summer—surely, there's enough time to do something before school drags them all down.

She doesn't know why her throat feels dry, or why it's suuddenly so hard to talk to the only person she's known for her whole life. But she swallows her fear down and takes the plunge—it's not like she's asking for money, trying to join a club, or going to expose a world-kept secret. She just…wants to talk to her brother.

“…um, Kai?”

“Yeah, Sis?” Kai doesn’t even look up from the papers. Nya sighs, turning her gaze to the wall.

"I wanted…well, it’s just that, we haven’t really done anything other than work over the summer, and now we actually have the opportunity to do so, so I was wondering if we could do something fun for a change…you know, before school starts, which is like, soon, so—“

“I’d love to, Nya,” Kai says immediately, and Nya is foolish enough to get her hopes up. “As long as there’s nothing big that comes up, I’m down for it.”

“Nothing's going to happen!” Nya scoffs, hands on her hips. “We’ve been at peace for months now—“

“That’s not what you said yesterday.” Kai’s head pops up as he points his pen at her. Of course he wouldn’t pass on a chance to tell her she’s wrong. “You were right with Wu saying we were slacking too much, on top of the fact you know very well that Garmadon could come back any day, and dropping our guard too much is dangerous.”

“Yeah…well…!”

She still does think that, and she knows if she were in Kai’s position she would be training with everything’s she’s got, lest she end up a hostage again.

But, on the other hand, they finally have the room to do something for themselves, and they…still can’t.

“…yeah, you’re right. It’s probably not a good idea. And with school starting, there’s even less time to prepare…”

“Ooh, what was that?” Kai leans in, cupping a hand behind his ear. “Did you just say I’m right?!”

“Yeah, right about me being right, obviously.”

“Hey, that’s not how that works—!”

He pokes Nya in the ribs, right where she’s ticklish, and she squeaks out in pearls of laughter. It's almost like they're back at the shop again, teasing each other despite another long day, but the illusion is broken when Jay turns on the tv behind them.

"…yeah, it was the craziest thing!" Nya barely catches the end of Jay's conversation to Cole and Zane. "They were saying that a ton of kids went to enroll at Darkley's after the Garmadon attack. Supposedly they're trying to find an easy in for joining the Shark Army."

"That news does not bode well," says Zane. Cole takes the remote from Jay and flicks through the channels.

"Here, let's see if they're saying anything else about it on another station—"

Cole rushes through the channels at a breakneck pace, only stopping when Zane calls out to him. He has to rewind back three channels, but eventually they're treated to a display of a village with screaming people. Gayle Gossip flies in close via helicopter, and at this point Kai and Nya have joined them in watching.

"This is Gayle Gossip coming at you live from Jamanakai Village, following recent reports of strange events occurring in this humble mountain town."

"Jamanakai Village? Isn't that out of our jurisdiction?" asks Jay, only to be elbowed by Kai.

"Locals have come forward about a string of thefts, witnesses claim to have seen suspicious activity going on in the shadows, and all of this seems to be connected to an individual claiming to be Lord Garmadon. Today's events are a far cry from the assault he launched on Ninjago City in May, and no one has actually witnessed the man in question, but villagers are being advised to stay inside until the Secret Ninja Force, the only ones capable of handling this threat—should this actually be a Class Garmadon threat—decide to step in."

Everyone present freezes for the briefest of moments…and then everyone loses their minds.

"Oh FSM, it's happening, it's happening! Everyone stay calm! STAY CALM—!" screams Jay while crashing into Kai. Zane tries to help Kai up but gets his foot tangled in a stray pile of wires, which results in Cole slamming into him and them all falling to the ground. Nya, still standing behind them, only shakes her head.

Cole, Zane, and Kai manage to detangle from each other, grab their weapons, and rush for their mechs, with Jay only straggling in search of his nunchucks that rolled under the table. Nya grabs them in an act of pity, gently holding them out towards Jay. He grins in that blinding way of his, rubbing his neck.

"Ah, th-thanks, um—"

Cute. But now's not the time.

"HURRY!" Nya wails, Jay scrambling off with an equally urgent "OKAY!"

He sprints away, with Nya hastily following after them.

The ninja rush towards what they’ve dubbed the "Mech Garage" for their mechs, serving as a second warehouse connected to the first. Kai throws open the door, yet not fast enough, as Zane manages to smack body-first into it. Cole springs towards the Quake Mech, tossing the Scythe towards it, but ends up missing the mark—the weapon clatters to the ground with a small quake.

Jay, meanwhile, tries to throw himself into his jet and completely overshoots the cockpit, throwing himself face-first to the ground.  Nya pretends she didn’t see it.

"Ummmmm…" Instead, Nya drifts towards the Fire Mech, where Kai currently struggles to get the Sword of Fire into its port. "Can I help?"

"Sorry Sis—where we go, danger abounds. This is a job for the ninja," Kai boasts, still swinging and missing with the sword. Nya rolls her eyes, grabs the sword, and slides it properly into place. The Fire Mech whirls to life; Kai grins sheepishly.  Nya looks less than amused.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Soooo ninja."

"Exactly!" Kai's ego melts, enough for him to soften up and put his hands on her shoulders. "…but listen, if this threat really is Garmadon, then we can't risk taking you in there. You've already been kidnapped by him once, and you don't have a mech or Spinjitzu to fall back on…and I can't both fight and look out for you efficiently. Not yet, at least."

"I've been trying to learn Spinjitzu though! I'm going to get it any day now!" Nya insists, clenching her fists. Kai frowns, shaking his head.

"Even so, Sensei says it's most effective when used by Elemental Masters, and an element is also something you lack."

"…Lady Iron Dragon mastered it without an element," Nya huffs under her breath, but lets the argument rest for now. Kai sighs before pulling himself into the cockpit.

It's not that he doesn't want Nya to help—she's much better as an asset than a liability—but after what happened last time…he can't risk losing her again. He can't do that again.

So for now, this is the way things have to be.

"All right boys, let's go take care of us some Garmadon!" Cole calls, revving his mech to life.

"...First one there is the Green Ninja!" whoops Kai.

"YEAAAAH!" wails Jay. Zane activates the switch for the roof, the ceiling opening up to allow for quick departure for the mechs. The Quake Mech pulls itself up and off into the streets. Zane follows suit in the Ice Tank, while Jay takes point in the Electric Jet. They whoop and holler on their way, which isn't the worst reaction to heading off to fight the Dark Lord, but it's still bizarre.

The abrupt quiet is suffocating.

Sneering, she glances back at the table where Kai had been working. Jay's assorted pile of things for the future communicators sits neatly in an organized box. The sneer vanishes from her face as she reaches in and picks up a handful of wires, studying them closely. They're not the ones she originally designed the plans around—they're better. Which also means some reworking is in order.

"…well then," she says, pulling out a fresh piece of blueprint paper as she takes over the spot Kai abandoned. "At least I've got something to do."

Regardless, once again, Nya finds herself left behind at the warehouse with only a pile of junk for company.

Chapter Text

Jamanakai Village is a small area nestled within the lower mountains of the Western Province, but not terribly far from Ninjago City itself. It would make for a good vantage point were Garmadon truly ready for his revenge, but still, despite the apparent carnage, there's not nearly the same level of fanfare as his first attack.

Kai feels like there should be a bigger deal made about all this—they all saw the way the city had been burned down to ashes, save for Ninjago Tower. And if any other area—especially a smaller one—was at risk, then more people should be cowering and begging for their lives. And that’s not even counting the Shark Army, which the news hasn’t mentioned beyond its recent influence on Darkley's.

…something’s really bizarre about all of this, Kai’s more vigilant instincts scream, but he ignores them for now because it just feels so good to be out on a real mission again.

Training’s been great (when he’s actually gotten around to it), and having friends to do things that aren’t work-related with has been a blessed change of pace. But nothing has made him feel more alive than when the wind’s in his hair and he’s heeding the call of adventure. Tearing across the plains and towards the mountains in a giant robot mech is a high he could chase for the rest of his life.

“Just like old times, eh boys?” Cole calls from the Quake Mech, almost as if reading Kai’s mind.

“What old times? We only did this like, once, and it wasn’t for very long,” Jay scoffs from overhead.

“For what little time it was, I found that it was invigorating,” Zane says. “To be piloting a vehicle designed specifically for ourselves and with our elements imbued into them…we could have never built such marvels on our own.”

Jay clicks his tongue. “We could have, if we had the time…or resources…or money…or some other elementally-charged artifacts of power.”

“…do you guys really believe what Sensei said about unlocking our true potential?” Kai interrupts. “That we can not only control our own element, but come together to make the Green Element?”

“All while being compromised of other elements ourselves?" Zane tilts his head, chin resting on his hand. "It is a lot to take in without further research, but given that there are those who came before us, there must be some kernel of truth to it."

Cole hits a bump in the road, grunting and readjusting before replying.

“Yeah, I mean, my mom was apparently an Elemental Master too, but…I don’t really remember her saying anything about her experience.” His eyes soften, staring straight down the road. “…I wish I could have known to ask her before it was too late. Maybe it would have helped unlock my own potential.”

“You’re telling me,” Kai mumbles under his breath. Zane gains a thoughtful look, drifting the Ice Tank a little closer to Cole.

“I too wish I could have spoken more about it with my grandfather, yet I have only met him once. And neither of my parents appeared to possess any elemental abilities either, save for my mother’s psychic prowess...”

“That sound like an ability to me,” snickers Jay from the cockpit. Zane frowns.

“Well, I do not know if that is specifically related to the Element of Ice. It could just be a fluke of nature that turned into a coincidence. Or, the Element of Ice got passed into a family of latent psychics, or—“

“Ooookay, enough speculation.” Jay cuts off the conversation there, and pointedly doesn’t bring up anything about his own family. He instead sets his sights back on Kai, lowering the Electric Jet to be just above the Fire Mech’s shoulder. “Why’d you wanna know anyway, Kai?”

Kai shrugs, gaze locked on the mountains that come more into view with every second.

“I dunno, I just thought it was neat that we’ve got the chance to become something even more than we thought we were. And with that Green Ninja prophecy…one of us might be really in for something amazing in the future.”

And it’s so hard for Kai not to be tempted by it all. This is the kind of thing he’s longed for, for years, and now the opportunity to be better and greater just falls right into his lap. After years of assuming he’d be stuck in the same dead end job, in one little corner of the world, to learning he could now be one of the most powerful people in Ninjago?

It’s a lot, and it gets excited fire burning in Kai’s veins.

“Well I for one am also looking forward to the future,” declares Zane. “If there is more for us to accomplish, then let it be!”

“You would say that, Mr. Psychic,” chuckles Jay.

“I don’t know about you guys, but is anyone else a little excited about battling Lord Garmadon?!” Cole exclaims. “I’ve been looking forward to trying out some new moves. Could be the perfect opportunity!”

Jay rolls his eyes. “More like the only opportunity—this is exactly what we’ve trained for!”

“…and moreover, out of the four of us, only Kai was ever in Lord Garmadon’s presence,” Zane reminds them. He glances up at Kai, curious. “What was it like, facing him down?”

What was it like? What was it like, watching a sinister shadow simper with scorn and delight as he teasingly dangled his little sister over a pool of magma? What was it like, having darkness itself practically strangle him while being used to taunt his Sensei? What was it like to lay eyes on a man dark as the night, with eyes red like blood, and a seething smile sharp enough to slice through steel?

What was it like, to see Garmadon admire the sunset on the edge of the biggest balcony in Ninjago and confess he only wanted to come home? What was it like, to know that Garmadon willingly gave back the Sword of Fire with a petulant look on his face? What was it like, to know that Garmadon had been looking for something more than he dared to mention?

Kai frowns, tightening his grip on the mech controls.

“He’s…definitely brimming with evil, no doubt about that. But…it felt like there was something left unsaid when I confronted him. Something…that made him seem like more than just an out of control warlord. It seemed…complicated.”

Kai shakes it off, determinedly clenching his fists instead. The Fire Mech veers dangerously to the left; Kai scrambles to correct his mistake.

“But, uh, he’s also really powerful, so we’ll need to be extra careful. Be on your guard, and don’t let him find any openings on you.”

The statement sobers the others for a moment, just as Jamanakai Village comes into view. The lanterns of the village shine brightly even in the light of day, the red and ivory making the city pop against the snowy mountain expanse. There’s no tell-tale signs of the disaster that plagued Ninjago City months ago, but the ninja remain on high alert, entering the village as stealthily as possible.

"Fret not, dear citizens!!"

…some more stealthily than others.

"We have come to cleanse your fair society from the clutches of evil!!" Jay declares, standing on the hood of his jet and posing like a comic book hero. Cole gapes up at him with disbelief.

"…what kind of entrance was THAT?! We're supposed to be stealthy here, not act like superheroes!"

"Oh, I'm sorry I lacked the subtlety needed to land a giant blue electrical jet in the middle of a tiny plaza! I'm sure if I had done that and then quietly slipped out of the cockpit instead, no one would bat an eye! Clearly my uplifting speech was the more alarming thing here!"

Cole makes a face just as a chorus of screams rise from the village further down the path. Any hints of annoyance vanish; Cole takes the lead and orders the others to grab their weapons from the mechs. Once done, they all file up behind him, sticking to alleyways and walls to make their way to the heart of the mayhem. As they get closer to the main square, a looming shadow suddenly silhouettes against the mountainside.

Kai gulps, immediately getting flashbacks to the time he'd nearly been trapped within a volcano.

"Mwahahaha….MWAHAHAHAHA!!"

The harrowing laughter that once haunted Kai's nightmares rings out in his head. He grimaces, taking on a more defensive stance.

"…stay sharp, fellas. No matter what happens, don't let your guard down."

The others nod in understanding, but the longer the laughter goes on, the less menacing it sounds. It boils down into nothing more than a child's giggling, and the once looming shadow itself now depicts the short stature of the one truly wielding it.

"Moowahahahah…! It is I, LLOYD GARMADON…!"

A boy in a black cape throws his head back and cackles, arms raised high over his head in a poor attempt to seem taller. His face pulls into a sneer, green eyes glaring at the villagers who haven't had the sense to run away.

"I demand ALL the candy in the village! OR ELSE! Don't make me summon my father to come here!"

He jumps onto the edge of the central fountain, grin twisting into something warped and forced as he laughs once again. The villagers (and the ninja) look on more in confused awe than any true sense of fear.

"This is…the Dark Lord that once kidnapped Nya? Commander of Chaos? Director of the Shark and Skulkin Armies?" Zane asks, utterly baffled. "How is this child supposed to be the older brother of Sensei Wu? It…does not compute—"

"Ugh, he said Lloyd Garmadon, not Lord Garmadon," huffs Jay. "It's not him! Although I do respect the pun."

"But it's…his son?" Cole says, although it's more of a question than anything.

"That can't be! Sensei never said anything about the King of Shadows having a spawn?!" wails Jay.

Kai doesn't say anything, too busy studying this bizarre child before them. He's torn between a sense of relief that it isn't really Garmadon, and a sense of horrifying curiosity about what this kid is even trying to accomplish.

A few of the scorned villagers decide to take matters into their own hands. They form an angry mob and approach the fountain, now that they see the deathly threat is actually a cosplaying child. Lloyd's previous bravado disappears somewhat, putting up his hands defensively.

"G-Give me all your candy, or else I'll…I'll…um, I'll release the Serpentine on you!"

"BOOOOOO!" "BOO LLOYD!" BOOOOOOO!"

"The Serpentine aren't real! That's just an old wives' tale!" "Good luck finding tombs that don't exist!"

Lloyd puts his hands on his hips with his head held high, determined to outlast their heckling—at least, until they start throwing tomatoes at him.

"AUGH?! Hey, HEY! No, wait! I asked for candy, not vegetables! I HATE vegetables!!!! WAAAAH!!!"

He starts throwing things back at the crowd, including opening a fake can of prank snakes, but this just escalates into the villagers throwing trash until Lloyd stumbles back into the fountain with a sweeping splash. The ninja watch with varying degrees of concern.

"…shouldn't we do something?" asks Zane, feeling kinda iffy about a whole village ganging up on a child, even if said child is being exceedingly obnoxious.

"I dunno, it seems like they've got it handled," remarks Cole while folding his arms behind his head.

"Maaaan, did we really drag our mechs all the way out here to temper some kid's temper tantrum?!" complains Jay.

"He's definitely going to have to do better than use an old bedtime story to scare people," says Kai. The other three throw him incredibly blank looks of disappointment. "…what? What?!"

"The Serpentine are real, Kai, and nothing to joke about," Zane declares. "They were sealed away four decades ago. There was a whole war with them and everything…"

"Not only that, but it was the Elemental Masters of the time that took care of it, including mine and Zane's grandfathers," adds Cole.

Jay nervously taps his foot. "Banished from another realm into ours due to misconduct, we attempted to establish peace with them, but things went wrong during a negotiation, and we were forced to seal them away in separate tombs, to keep the tribes from reuniting to exact their revenge!"

"…is this another thing Wu erased from history, or what? Because I'm clearly not the only one not in the know." Kai gestures at the still heckling crowd. Cole frowns and scratches his head.

"I mean, we did hear most of this from Wu himself, so that's our excuse…but then, it doesn't explain why Lloyd's so confident about them, unless he actually is Garmadon's son."

"But don't you think it's a liiiiittle suspicious that after all this time, no one's actually found one of their tombs?"

"Clutch Powers is said to have been on the verge of discovering an ancient Serpentine civilization in the Desert of Doom," Jay pipes up unhelpfully.

"But ultimately, you'd have to be a fool to even go looking for one!" Cole exclaims. "…and besides, Kai, didn't you say the same thing about the Golden Weapons to Nya? She said that you're like, really skeptical about nearly everything—"

"Well never mind the fact that even after Wu's big confession, there's still things about Ninjago that the public as a collective doesn't know! And I am part of that collective!"

"Um, either way…none of this Serpentine business particularly matters, does it? It is not as if Lloyd is actually going to open the tombs, especially if only those that put them there know where they are," says Zane.

They all glance back at the fountain, where a now soaking wet Lloyd sputters and struggles to get trash off his head. The ninja trade a silent look before walking up to the fountain themselves. Lloyd spits out some more water, only now realizing he has a direct audience. His eyes roll up to meet Kai's, and he scowls upon recognition.

"Oh great, it's the ninja. What do you losers want?"

"Not a fan, eh kid?" Jay asks, leaning casually on the wall of the fountain. Lloyd watches him like a cornered animal—terrified, but ready with a last-ditch desperate counterattack.

"Why would I be a fan of the people who chased my dad out of the city before I got a chance to even see him for the first time in my life?!"

Lloyd puffs out his cheeks and narrows his eyes; the ninja all wince a bit. Kai especially feels the sting of that one, but the others forge on.

"Did you…not notice that he was destroying the whole city at the time?" Cole asks incredulously.

"He was looking for me!" Lloyd insists, slapping his hands against the water. "He finally broke out of the Underworld and he was looking for me…and he would have destroyed the whole city to do so!"

"That is not how I remember it," Zane states, even when Kai tries to cue him to be quiet. "He did not mention you even once during his entire attack, and was definitely set on remaking Ninjago into his own image."

"Yeah, and if he really was looking for you, why wasn't that the first and only thing he did?" Jay adds with a head tilt. Lloyd freezes for a moment, something sad forming in his eyes, but it's gone as fast as it arrived, anger taking its place.

"W-Well, maybe that's because a pack of dumb ninja decided to get in his way! And then my stupid uncle was no help and my mom—"

His voice cracks, swallowing down whatever he was going to say next.

"…well, that day doesn't matter anymore. Dad said he'd be back, and by the time he returns, I'll have Ninjago primed and ready for his takeover! I'll be just as evil as him, and there's no way he'll miss me this time! He'll praise me for all my hard work, and my education at Darkley's Boarding School, and maybe he'll even give me a spot by his side when he rules over everything!"

Lloyd climbs back onto the wall of the fountain, shaking a fist to the sky.

"TRY AND IGNORE ME THIS TIME, DAD!"

"…oookay, I think someone needs a few minutes in time out," Kai says at last, grabbing Lloyd by the wrist. "C'mon, let's take you to your supposed uncle, I'm sure he'll have something to say about this—"

"No!" Lloyd hisses, tugging against Kai's grip. "And I'm thirteen, not two! Quit treating me like some baby!"

"Then maybe stop acting like one! Trying to ransack a village because you're mad about your dad? From where I'm standing, you're definitely still just a kid."

"You don't understand at all!" Lloyd bares his teeth, with actual fangs flashing. Kai almost releases him right then and there. "Now lemme go, or you're gonna regret it!"

"You're gonna regret it! Come ON—"

"Red, quit arguing with the kid! Just grab him and let's go!" Cole demands.

"No, there's a right way to do this, and it's—"

"I said, let…me…GO!!!"

Lloyd tugs hard enough to free his wrist right out of Kai's grip, but in turn slips right back into the fountain again. He slams into the statue in the center, knocking it from its perch and sending it crashing into the wall of fountain. The ninja immediately bound away as the stone crumbles into a pile of rubble all around Lloyd. Kai briefly fears that Lloyd may have gotten hurt…

But then the stones suddenly start reforming into twin cannons, Lloyd rising between them with his own stone-like blaster in his hands. His brow furrowed and frown prominent, he raises the weapon and takes aim at Kai, all former traces of anything other than fury gone from his expression.

"I told you," Lloyd says, finger on the trigger.

"HE'S GOT A GUN!" Jay screams, cowering behind Zane. Cole takes out the Scythe of Quakes and starts to build a protective wall, but Lloyd pulls the trigger…and several tons of water blast out from the cannons and his water gun.

The villagers, now with a legitimate reason to be afraid, start scrambling in all directions. Cole's earth wall bursts into pieces from the force and the ninja get washed away by the resulting tsunami.  Jay and Zane scream until they hit the wall of a building, Cole and Kai smashing into them. All four slide to the ground, landing in a rather unpleasant puddle. Lloyd rushes at them with the water gun, cuing the ninja to wail again and bound to the roofs where hopefully Lloyd won't reach them.

"What…the HECK was THAT?!" Kai yells, borderline hysteric.

Jay pulls at his hood. "He used destruction to create…in order to destroy and then create again?!"

"So, what, this kid is basically just a low key embodiment of the Tornado of Creation?!" Cole yelps.

"Or Destruction," Jay points out, just as Lloyd throws his whole body onto a wooden fruit cart. It splinters and breaks down almost immediately, Lloyd rising from the rubble undeterred. They watch as Lloyd moves at blistering speeds, building a frame of something out of the wood, placing one of the wheels in the center, threading it with rope, and loading it up with fruit—

Oh, wait, it's a catapult.

"RUN!" Cole calls, the four scrambling across the roof as it starts raining apples and bananas. Zane ducks under limes and lemons while a peach splatters against Jay, knocking him right off the roof and into a barrel of hay below.

"I've been hit! I'm down! I'm DOWN!"

Lloyd laughs as he fires more fruit, turning the catapult to follow the fleeing ninja. Eventually Kai has enough of the running—he pulls out the Sword of Fire and slices the fruit coming at him, the pieces raining down as a slightly crisp fruit salad. Lloyd blanches at the return fire, especially when Kai hits the ground and aims a stream of flames at the catapult. It burns away, rendered useless, and Lloyd runs off again.

"Oh no you don't! You're not getting away with this!"

"We'll see about that!" Lloyd taunts back, knocking over a bunch of barrels behind him to slow down Kai. Kai leaps over one like a track star, only to trip over the next one. Lloyd cackles again, vanishing down an alley. Kai springs back up like nothing happened with a snarl.

"You know, with those skills, Lloyd could be a master prankster," Jay says as Cole and Zane pull him out of the hay.

"Don't give him any ideas, Blue," Cole replies with an eye roll. "Now let's go help Red!"

"Right!"

The trio bounds back into action and take off after Kai.

Kai, meanwhile, easily catches up with Lloyd as the little gremlin tears between a series of houses. He weaves between scrambling villagers with little grace, dodging more market-goers as he does. For a kid with such short legs, Lloyd is stupidly speedy—

But, Jay is faster.

Lloyd manages to brake and redirect right before an awning crashes down in his path, courtesy of the Nunchucks of Lightning. Jay clicks his tongue as he misses, firing off another bolt towards a nearby tree. The shock causes the snow on it to go plummeting into Lloyd's path. Lloyd barrels straight into it, landing with a "POOMPH!"

"Ughhhhh, jeez," Lloyd complains, pulling himself out of the snow pile with fanfare. He's about to make another run for it, but Kai's coming in hot with the Sword of Fire—

It connects with Lloyd's dagger with a deafening clang.

"…what?" Kai asks, otherwise stunned speechless. The dagger isn't anything special—it's downright puny compared to the size and weight of the Sword of Fire, and yet it's still larger than anything a regular teenager should be carrying. Had he been hiding it under his cape or something?!

Lloyd frowns as he fights against Kai's superior strength, but still, he's fighting.

Kai narrows his eyes, suspicious. Lloyd uses his hesitance to throw snow up into his eyes.

"AIIIII, HEY—!"

The scraping of metal against metal rings into the air as Lloyd pulls away and takes off again, this time proudly brandishing his weapon as he bounds towards Zane. Zane aims one of the Shuriken of Ice forward to freeze the ground before Lloyd, then tosses the other to knock him over. Lloyd loses his footing, sending him sliding down the ice patch and right under Zane's second strike. This also succeeds in sending Lloyd crashing straight into Zane.

Zane practically rolls over Lloyd, and, somewhere in their brief entanglement, Lloyd gets ahold of Zane's bow.

"Excuse me," Zane huffs, holding up his hands as the Shuriken are summoned back to him. "I believe that doesn't belong to you."

"Oh really?" Lloyd casually slacks back, raising the bow and drawing an arrow. Zane's eyes widen, finding himself at the receiving end of his own weapon. "Well then, you can have it back!"

Lloyd fires off the arrow with a deadly amount of precision—and Zane can only wonder just where he gained such accuracy from. The arrow is poised to strike Zane in the shoulder, and Zane could move, but bewilderment and curiosity keep him rooted to the spot.

And then, between Zane and the arrow comes a giant outcropping of rock straight from the ground. The arrow embeds itself into the earth, with enough impact to crack it just slightly down the middle. Now it's Lloyd's turn to look on in confusion—Cole busts through the boulder as he throws himself at Lloyd.

Lloyd drops Zane's bow with a scream, lifting his dagger to deflect the Scythe of Quakes from coming down on him. If he struggled against Kai, he suffers against Cole, arms nearly giving out as he fends for himself. Cole pushes harder, stepping forward as he does. He gets close enough to put his foot on Zane's bow and kick it backwards—Zane scoops it up and nocks an arrow.

Lloyd tumbles to the left, throwing Cole off-balance all while dodging Zane's arrow. He starts running again, jumping over rocks rising from the ground and more ice firing his way. That's already hard enough, but now Jay's back on the rooftops, launching lightning from on high. Lloyd can't handle the triple threat—he dives down one of the alleyways, hoping to lose at least one of them so he can rethink his next counterattack.

He loses all three, but has to contend with Kai instead.

Kai jumps down from wherever he'd been hiding, as if he'd known Lloyd would come this way, and now Lloyd is sandwiched by a dead end and the local pyromaniac. Lloyd's expecting this guy to just set the whole alley on fire, but Kai draws two katanas instead—and he throws them at Lloyd.

In the span of a blink, Lloyd is standing one moment and pinned to the wall in the next. He struggles against the swords, but if he tugs too hard, his hoodie is going to rip—and he happens to really, really like this particular hoodie, so he keeps his movements to a minimum. It's not worth it.

It still doesn't stop him from giving Kai the deadliest look imaginable when the older teen smirks and says, "Gotcha".

Jay, Zane, and Cole appear out of thin air at this point, holding Lloyd down as Kai takes his swords back. Cole bares the brunt of the weight as the four suddenly heave up Lloyd's body, and now Lloyd's not even touching the ground.

“Hey, HEY! Unhand me! What is this?! I’m being abducted—HELP!”

"Don't worry, folks! We'll take care of this; nothing to see here!" Cole declares as he and the others carry Lloyd through the persistent crowd like a human sacrifice. Lloyd fights their grip, but four against one doesn't give him the best odds.

"Grrrr, one day, you will bow down to me, just like you will for my father when he gets back…! And until then, you WILL suffer my wrath—!"

"Dang, and I thought Jay was loud and annoying," huffs Cole. Jay slaps him in the back, and they all nearly drop Lloyd. 

"I'll give you until the count of three!" Lloyd continues, still squirming away. "ONE…TWO…TWO AND A HALF…"

"What are we supposed to do? Spank him?" Kai suggests.

"TWO AND THREE-QUARTERS!"

"I dunno, I was expecting a dark vs light showdown of world-ending proportions, not sending a twerp into time-out," says Jay.

"TWO POINT EIGHT!"

"I would suggest telling his father on him, but it seems he would want us to do that," Zane states.

"TWO POINT NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE NI—"

"Ugh, I can't take this, just toss him to me," Cole groans at last. The others waste no time in pawning Lloyd off on Cole. Cole then proceeds to grab Lloyd by the collar of his hood…and hang him like a decoration on a nearby shop sign. The scream Lloyd lets out in response is ear-bleeding, but the villagers throw a few more vegetables his way for good measure. And to really rub salt in the wound, Zane proceeds to buy candy for all of the ninja, and they eat right in front of him. Jay in particular inhales a cloud of cotton candy, while Zane treats himself to a lollipop.

These monsters.

"You just made me your nemesis, you know!" Lloyd screeches, eyes blazing and limbs flailing in a flurry of fury. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, MARK MY WORDS!"

"Next time, try just paying for your candy," Cole suggests while chomping on a peppermint. Lloyd practically spits at him.

"I'm thirteen, I'M BROKE!"

"Well crime doesn't pay, muchacho," adds Kai, high-fiving Jay afterwards. "Try taking that to the bank!"

The villagers burst into more laughter, with Lloyd going red in the face. He wails in unbridled anger for several minutes afterwards, even when the ninja return to their mechs and are long, long gone.

General #32 runs through the Secret Shark Base, dodging poor goons with papers and other generals all in the process. Private Puffer, innocently carrying a mug of coffee, becomes the next roadblock and winds up a victim mere seconds later.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" whines Puffer, his coffee now splattered on his head. "Where's the fire, #32? Other than all around us, in the lava, and spewing from the lounge's fountain—"

"We found him," #32 exclaims, gripping Puffer by the shoulders. Puffer's eyes go wide, and the both of them scramble back to their feet and make a beeline for Command Central. On their way there, other Generals try to stop and ask what's happening, cuing Puffer to yell like an alarm:

"WE FOUND HIM!"

And of course, that whisks the other members of the Shark Army into an uproar, all of them hurrying after #32 and Puffer. Four-Eyes and Angler Goon work their way up to the front, wanting to get in on this news delivery before too many others. The mob reaches Command Central in record time, Puffer throwing open the doors, and he and #32 slide on their knees along the floor. They bow before the back of the chair before them, gulping down any anxieties that threaten to bubble to the surface, even as the other members of the army try to flood the room after them.

"General Number One…we found him," says #32, breathless and excited. "We've got a lock on the green-eyed boy as Lord Garmadon requested…after months of searching…!"

"Tch…" General #1 kicks at the desk, twirling her chair around and letting her cape flutter from the force. She pouts, now leaning her head on her hand. "About damn time. And I thought I told you mooks not to call me that; General Olivia is just fine."

"Our apologizes, General Olivia."

"That's better." Olivia rises, the glint of her badges and sash hitting against the light. White gloves skim the top of the desk, while black boots clack against the linoleum. She blows her bangs out of her face and stares down at General #32. "So, what do we know, exactly…?"

"One of our scouts was stationed in Jamanakai Village," #32 begins. "She reported sightings of a green-eyed boy not only wrecking havoc, but opposing the ninja as well."

"Fascinating. Could prove to be a useful member of the army beyond whatever Lord Garmadon wants him for, if we're persuasive enough…" Olivia notes this down for later, clicking her pen against the clipboard. "And speaking of, how many ninja were spotted at Jamanakai Village?"

"All four, presumably the ones with the elemental mechs from the first invasion," Puffer reports with a squeak. "The buff earth one, the weird ice one, the loud electric one, and that really aggressive red one…!"

Olivia blinks, looking up from her notes. "…really? Only four?"

"Y-Yes…? Why, should there have been more, or less?"

"…hmm, not necessarily. Just surprised that they haven't garnered any extra reinforcements over the summer. You'd think they'd be smart enough to beef themselves up more, just as we are…" Olivia frowns, somewhat bothered. "…but I digress. What else about the kid?"

"Ah, erm, yes, about him…" General #32 continues. "…he's also reported to be a Master Builder, as well as having a rather suspiciously astute knowledge of weapon wielding—"

"Ooh, nice! An even more promising prospect for the army! Talk about hitting a jackpot!"

"C-Certainly, but there's one more morsel of information, Chief…" General #32 wrings their wrists. "Um…the reports say that, er…the kid's name is, um…Lloyd Garmadon…"

A record scratch goes off in Olivia's head. "…excuse me, what?!

General #32 winces. "The boy claims to be Lord Garmadon's son, which doesn't really make any sense, since Lord Garmadon's never mentioned anything of the sort and given the kid's age it's barely even possible for him to have—"

"Nothing's impossible," Olivia interrupts coldly, now furiously digging her pen into the clipboard.

"…but hey, at least that gives us a reason for why Garmadon's so interested in the half-pint," says Four-Eyes. Olivia shakes her head, tossing the clipboard back onto her desk.

"No, stupid, even if that kid is his son, the real issue is the eyes, isn't it? If there's even the slightest chance that boy is some kinda super-rare Elemental Master, descended from the First Spinjitzu Master no less, combined with the fact that he's a Master Builder, then it's imperative that we get to him before the ninja do…!"

At this, the gathered members of the army cheer. After all, it's been months since they've done something other than mindlessly search the world for one little boy. Angler Goon twirls her mace in her hand, frowning as she thinks.

"…so, what's our next move, General?"

"We do what any other shark would do when they smell blood in the water…" Olivia grins a little too widely and a little too wickedly. "…we hunt."

Puffer lets out a breath he'd been holding in. "…okay, but you know that most stereotypes about sharks are either false or overly dramatized for fear factor—"

"Shut up, Puffer, no one asked," grunts Four-Eyes.

"In any case, prepare to move out!" Olivia declares, casting her hand out and sending the troops towards their mechs. "Let's give Ninjago a little reminder of just who they should be bowing down to! We'll party like every week is Shark Week!"

The army lets out rallying cries, already filing for their mechs, submarines, and aircrafts. Olivia smiles as the soldiers rally under her command, although she still can't help but glance at the calendar behind her, grimacing at the inconvenient date.

Come tomorrow, there will only be five days of summer break left.

Chapter Text

Having already exhausted their day school shopping, supply sorting, traveling, and dealing with Lloyd Garmadon, the Ninja decide that they should probably spend the night in the village. Cole tries to pay for a room for four, but the innkeepers insists it’s on the house, as repayment for coming to their aid. And before Cole can politely decline out of principal, Zane’s already bought ingredients for a quick meal, Jay’s already claimed the softest bed, and Kai has already made himself a second home in the bathroom. They’re definitely staying now.

“…you guys really didn’t hesitate, huh?” Cole asks with a sigh, putting their room key in a safe place as the others scurry about. The room's nice enough, even if somewhat cramped with four beds stuffed into it. Jamanakai Inn is famous even all the way in Ninjago City, and a night's stay is promised to be equivalent to a week's worth of rest.

“What? Were you going to say no to staying in a room with a view?” Jay retorts as he makes some kind of nest of his pillow and blankets. “Besides, if we head back to the monastery now, we’ll be moving in the dark!”

"And besides, I'm exhausted," says Kai through a yawn, strolling out of the bathroom in a complimentary bathrobe and with a towel on his head. "That's the most action we've had in months. I feel like I aged five years just from chasing a kid around town!"

"…that just demonstrates that Sensei Wu may have had a point about our slacking lately." Zane speaks in nearly a whisper, far more focused on making sure his ramen is coming out to taste in the small kitchen nook. Jay and Kai frown at each other from across the room; Cole sighs and rubs his hands down his face.

"Well, we knew this ninja business wasn't going to be all fun and games, or even easy," he begins, face turning grave. "I'm in full agreement that we need time for rest and breaks, but I also think we may have gotten too carried away with it. If we can't even control one kid how are we supposed to subdue an ancient evil warlord?"

"That 'one kid' was insane!" Jay throws his hands up, accidentally thudding against the wall behind him. A distressed shout comes from the other room; he winces, but carries on. "Not only is he some kind of Master Builder, but he's got all that skill with weapons?! Something's up here, and I for one find it a little concerning that Wu's never even mentioned his existence. We've literally got a Garmadon Junior running around for the Master's sake!"

That thought hangs in the air as Kai finishes drying off his hair and Zane finishes their dinner. They gather at the sizable table in the far side of the room, with Jay and Cole immediately slurping up their noodles while Zane carefully takes them in one at a time. Kai, though starving, can't bring himself to eat.

There's too much he doesn't understand about Lloyd Garmadon, and yet, there's also a lot that he does.

…He just thinks that, with whatever's going on with Lloyd, it could've been handled a little better. He, out of all his brothers, knows how it is to deal with a child possessing a ridiculous amount of anger.

"…say," Kai begins slowly, glancing out the window and into the night. The others still feast ravenously on their noodles, but raise their gazes towards him. “Lloyd…isn’t still hanging from the top of a sign, is he?”

“No—eventually his tantrum was enough to knock him loose, and one of the shopkeepers caught him,” Zane says. “Although, I am…not sure as to his current whereabouts.”

“Well hopefully that amount of embarrassment will stop him from trying anything else,” Cole says through a mouth full of noodles. Jay frowns, poking at a piece of pork.

“Or it could just make him even more determined. He did say to mark his words…and that we made an enemy out of him.”

"Not to mention he did put us at a severe disadvantage, despite seemingly no formal training," adds Zane. Jay shudders just thinking about it. Cole throws up his hands, shaking his head.

“He’s just a kid! There's nothing he could possibly do that we can't handle. He wants to be like his dad so bad, but all he can manage are a few harmless pranks and a couple parlor tricks with some weapons. He is not a threat."

Zane and Jay frown in Cole's direction. They all want to believe in Cole's words, and to some extent they do, but just the same…they know something is horribly off about Garmadon's supposed child. Lloyd may not have been fighting that seriously, but it still had been enough to at least keep the four at bay, even with the might of the Golden Weapons…

“…it doesn’t matter how old you are—no one likes being underestimated.” Kai finally takes a bite of his food, tentative as it is. “And Lloyd’s not some average kid, either—possible son of the Dark Lord, budding Master Builder, versatile weapon specialist…”

“Potential nephew of Wu,” says Jay.

“…Grandson of the man who formed Ninjago…” adds Zane. That one makes everyone wilt a bit. Knowing how powerful Garmadon and Wu already were…what kind of skills lay dormant in that black-clad brat?

"Well, that…might explain the impromptu Master Building, at least," Cole remarks. He then glances back at Kai, who is pointedly being silent. Which is weird, considering he's the one that brought up Lloyd to begin with.

"Hey, Kai? When we were trying to get Lloyd out of the fountain, you said that there was a 'right way to do this'…what did that mean anyway?"

Kai's head perks up, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, what, that?”

Kai scratches his cheek, looking anywhere but at the guys.

“Well, it's just…his behavior kind of reminded me of how Nya used to be when she was a little younger. She used to get so intensely angry at things and had no good outlet for it all, and I would have to take her aside and talk her down. I can get pretty furious too, but I know how to manage it, for the most part…"

The others nod in understanding. Kai smiles lightly, even as his shoulders sag.

"I didn't mean to make it seem like I was treating him like a toddler; I just knew those kind of techniques worked on Nya way back when."

Kai grimaces, thinking of the few emotions that managed to peak through Lloyd's fury: hurt, confusion…and a whole lot of sadness and disappointment.

"But I think…there's something a little more complex going on though. Beyond just having your evil banished dad suddenly attack a city and then completely vanish without even mentioning your existence."

"But if that's true…" Jay trails off, biting his lip.

"Then we shouldn't have let him go," Zane finishes, looking grave. Cole groans, slamming his head against the table.

"Ughhhh...guess we handled that less like professional ninja and more like annoyed older brothers. It seemed like a good idea in the moment, but in hindsight…"

Zane closes his eyes, head tilted in thought. "We could have, at the very least, squeezed some information from him. Or…just talked to him."

"We gotta ask Sensei about this right away!" Jay exclaims, hands slamming against the table and rattling their ramen bowls. "It's not just weird that Garmadon didn't say anything, but Sensei too…? Maybe there's some big, mystic reason!"

"Or…neither of them wanted anyone to know Lloyd existed," suggests Cole, brows furrowed. Kai stands up and shakes away all the speculation, unable to take anymore.

"In any case! If we run into him causing havoc again, we now have a plan for a better approach. And if we never hear from him again, then we can assume he's probably learned his lesson. Either way, short of hunting him down ourselves, he's not our problem anymore. When we get back to the monastery, we can talk to Sensei about it, but we've gotta focus on honing ourselves to be ready for the real Lord Garmadon…andformetobecometheGreenNinja."

Kai strikes a pose after the last bit; the other three almost agree, until Cole catches on and throws Kai a dirty look.

"Oh, I know you are not still on about that Green Ninja business—!"

Cole's cut off by a pillow to the face. It flops to the floor afterwards, the small 'plop' it makes being the only sound in the room.

Cole, Jay, and Zane glances towards Kai; Kai grins, brandishing another pillow out from behind his back.

"…is this a declaration of war I'm hearing?" Cole asks, realizing what Kai's doing as he scoops up the fallen pillow. Kai shrugs, relaxed as ever.

"Well, if you think you're the Green Ninja, then you should be able to beat me, right?"

Kai's thrown off-balance by a stray pillow from the left. Jay stands in post-tossing position, smirking wickedly.

"Oh, I definitely know I can beat you—!"

Jay's whacked upside the head by Zane, who simply tilts his head with a small smile.

"I would love to see you all try."

"…it's on, then!" Cole exclaims, giving his pillow a hard swing and knocking Jay across the room. Jay bounces on one of the beds and springs back to his feet, using the momentum to throw himself back at Kai. Kai cackles as he blocks, but then both he and Jay are knocked over by Zane, and Cole's tossing pillows at them from afar—with a great amount force.

And no one's really trying to win, but ending the long day on a less bitter note is much preferable to the alternative.

Their rambunctious delight does little to disturb the patrons staying in the rooms next to them, but the merriment doesn't go unheard from Lloyd Garmadon, standing below the window outside and frowning at the light and laughter that comes from it. He grips his arms in an attempt to stop shivering—his hoodie isn't as thick as he thought—and starts to walk away into the night, not even knowing where he's going next.

"…stupid ninja…"

It’s not fair. He gets absolutely humiliated and not taken seriously while they’re praised and rewarded for, what, chasing a kid down the street? Not that he is a kid, but, well—

Anyway, the point being the ninja suck and it’s stupid that they’re partying it up all night while Lloyd’s gotta figure out how to not freeze to death, tonight, again, and this time without garbage being thrown at him—

…ugh.

He’s too young to be this bitter.

Lloyd walks for a while longer. Without his screaming and cackling echoing along the walls of the mountains, Jamanakai Village is a very silent place, especially in the dark. It's not the creepiest place in the world—nor the worst place Lloyd has ever been—but…it's not very welcoming either. He can't appreciate the light of the lanterns when they're casting such hideous-looking shadows.

He reaches the edge of the village, hesitant in his steps. There's little light out on the road back to Ninjago City, and he won't even make it to the city's borders on foot until late morning. Is he really going to risk walking alone in the d-dark…?

The leaves rustle not far behind him; a shiver runs up Lloyd's whole body, tiny legs gripped with terror. It's the wind, it has to be, it has to be…

Gulping, Lloyd dares to look over his shoulder—even in the dark, nothing jumps out at him. The red lanterns' soft glow sways with the gentle breeze, and…wait, why are there footprints in the snow, Lloyd's been on the concrete the whole time—

"I GOTCHA!!!"

Lloyd doesn't know how he manages to dodge the sudden ambush—he does, it's because he crashed to the ground in a fit of screams and flailing arms—but his mysterious assailant nonetheless sails right over his head and rolls straight into a tree. Lloyd scrambles to pick himself up, backing away as several members of the Shark Army emerge from the dark with weapons at the ready.

"…w-who are you guys?!" Lloyd demands, drawing his dagger when the fish-people give him less-than-friendly looks. He counts five of them—the angler girl with a mace, the guy with the octopus for the head, the little pufferfish one that had just jumped out at him, the man with crab claws, and the dude with an entire fishbowl on his head (Lloyd thinks its supposed to resemble a jellyfish though).

However, the five become six when the group parts to reveal the Narwhal-headed girl with twin swordfish at her sides. It's hard to see her face behind the headgear, but her eyes are intense.

"You, of all people, don't recognize the soon-to-be conquerors of Ninjago City…?" she asks, speaking in a cloying falsetto that drops when she tilts her head. Lloyd doesn't feel very safe.

"I-I know you're members of the Shark Army; I meant like, more specifically…"

"…fair enough. We six call ourselves the Shark Squad- we have General #4, Angler Goon; General #5, Four-Eyes; Private Puffer, Colonel Crusty, Admiral Jelly…and I am Brigadier Narwhal." She slides her swords against each other, making a sharp sound in the air. "…But you can call me General #32 if you so wish."

Lloyd blinks, confused. "…wait, how are you a low-ranking General and a Brigadier at the same time?"

"I'm actually the new General #2, which is the equivalent rank to Brigadier in our army," #32 explains, admiring her hand. "The '3' just stands for the fact that I was third in line for the position. And before you ask, the two ahead of me were…fired, before they had a chance to shine. Poor boys."

"…doesn't that get really confusing? Especially if there's an actual General #32 out there somewhere—"

#32 swings out one of her swords, frowning in Lloyd's direction.

"If you want to contest how our ranks work, you have to join them first. Which our generous General #1 has already arranged for. And, given what will happen if you don't…well, there's not really much of a choice."

Crusty snaps his claws together while Four-Eyes revs up his chainsaw. Angler Goon and Private Puffer look a little less eager to fight, but #32 smiles regardless.

It's funny, in hindsight, knowing how Lloyd's old classmates at Darkley's would have jumped at this chance. The only thing they've talked about for the past three months is about what they would do upon being recruited Garmadon's Shark Army. They made plans to climb the ranks, devised schemes to assist in broadening the army's scope, and all sorts of other sinister plots to cause mayhem and further Garmadon's prerogative.

And yeah, Lloyd is the last person that wants to get on his father's bad side by denying his own forces…but, if they're really working for his father, then they shouldn't be threatening him. They should be welcoming him warmly, or begging him to join, or…anything that doesn't make it seem like they're about to take him hostage regardless of his choice.

Something's wrong about this.

"…you're working for Lord Garmadon, right?" he asks, eyes narrowed. "Then…don't you know who I am?!"

"…of course we know who you are, Lloyd Garmadon." #32 tilts her chin upwards, looking down on him. "…you are the apparent son of the great Lord Garmadon, and we have been tasked by our leader to bring you to her. You are potentially in possession of something very important, and something very detrimental to our plans."

"I don’t have anything!" Lloyd insists, adjusting his grip on the dagger. His heart's threatening to pound right out of his chest. "And…don't you think it'd make my dad kinda angry if anything happened to me?"

At this, the group of Sharks all break down laughing, making Lloyd feel way smaller than he already is. #32 even has the audacity to wipe a tear from her eye, nearly dropping one of her swords in the process.

"Silly child, who do you think is the one who gave our leader this task? If Lord Garmadon believes you stand in his way of seizing Ninjago, and you choose to resist, he will not hesitate to dispose of you."

Lloyd freezes, every muscle in his body going rigid. No, that can't be, that's not possible, his dad would never—

"He always said he wanted to conquer the world…and I just thought it was a figure of speech."

…and now there's a small part of him that wonders that, even if Garmadon really had been looking for him that day, had it not been for familial reasons like he'd always hoped? Or were these Shark Goons just horribly misinformed of Garmadon's true intentions?

But, he can't do it. He can't believe his dad doesn't care about him. It's just not true…!

"Now, be subjugated or exterminated. Your choice."

…either way, he's not about to listen to these lowlifes. Not until he talks to his dad himself.

Lloyd breaks into a sprint not for the first time that day; his legs are still tired from outpacing the ninja, but if he can at least hold them off, surely he can outrun these losers.

The majority of the pack is caught off-guard by Lloyd's sudden escape. #32 barks out the order to go after him, and somehow everyone manages to get themselves enough together to give chase. #32, Angler Goon, Private Puffer, Crusty, and Four-Eyes mobilize on foot.

Lloyd thinks he might be in the clear for a split-second. Then, he hears the unmissable purr of one of Shark Mechs coming from above him. Daring to glance up, he finds the Flying Jelly Sub soaring over him like a UFO, with Admiral Jelly at the controls firing down crabs unto the village.

And to think, this day just started because Lloyd had been hungry for candy.

He wails as he hurries out of the village, lest he draw the attention of some patrons who are still ticked at him for earlier. The cliffs surrounding the mountain town help provide at least a bit of cover from the Flying Jelly Sub, but #32, Angler Goon, and Four-Eyes move quickly. #32 cuts down a nearby tree with several slashes, kicking the falling branches in Lloyd's direction to trip him up. Lloyd jumps over two of them and lands on the third, which takes his legs out from under him and results in slamming his face into the dirt. Oomph.

Dizzy, he's barely able to roll away from Angler Goon bringing her mace down on him, followed by scooting away from Four-Eyes' chainsaw. He manages to pull himself to one knee, only to be shoved back down by a kick from #32. He meets the dirt once again, this time with no way to get back up.

"We could have done this the easy way, you know," #32 scoffs, scooping him up by the hood. Lloyd hangs limply in her grip, too exhausted and in dire need of sleep (and food). He stares through bleary green eyes, unfocused and hazy, even as something in him screams to not give up here.

X-X

It's five am, the sun barely peeking over the horizon of Ninjago City. A golden haze threatens to burst over the horizon, while the early morning breeze wafts gently against a younger Lloyd's skin. He stands in his green pajamas, out on the balcony of their apartment, rubbing sleep out of his eye with one hand and wielding a giant knife in the other.

…okay, it's not really a knife, just an abnormally large and plain-colored dagger, but he feels more equipped for carving a ham than anything self-defense worthy. He's never even punched a pillow, let alone pulled a weapon on someone. He's much too soft, like a non-punched pillow.

"So why are we doing this again?" he asks, still staring skeptically at the stabbing instrument placed into his possession.

"Oh come on!" exclaims the other party, being a woman with auburn hair and a key lime hoodie. Her name tag reads 'Koko', and also serves as a reminder that she has an hour before having to drag herself into work. She swings two large swords with practiced ease, evading the potted plants scattered about the balcony with risky abandon. Lloyd is impressed, but far too tired to let it show on his face. "Most kids would think it's the coolest thing in the world that their mother knows how to engage in swordplay. Not to mention I'm pretty handy with a bow and arrow—but that'll be a lesson for next week, maybe."

Lloyd still doesn't trust the fact that his mom of all people just handed him a dagger with the intention to fight. He stares at it, like this is some kind of trap…or it might just explode the moment he tries to swing it.

"And you know all this…because of previous archeology expeditions?"

Something sad flickers in his mother's eyes, but she nods, still smiling.

"You wouldn't believe some of the dangerous places I've explored, uncovered, discovered, and charted in my hayday…there's all kinds of people seeking to hinder the progress of knowledge through any means possible, or there's even just the beasts that lurk in the untamed wilds to deal with…violence is never the immediate answer to anything, but sometimes it's the only option you've got."

"Sooooo how come you still don't adventure or explore or kick butt or do any of those things? How come you spend all day at a dusty old museum office or homeschooling me?"

Koko laughs, light but a bit broken, as she plants her hand on Lloyd's head and ruffles his bowl cut hair. Lloyd huffs, attempting to sort it back into place once she stops.

"Well, someone's gotta look out for you, kiddo. You have no idea how much of a handful you really are."

"Hey!"

She bends down and kisses his forehead, cuing him to make another face, but begrudgingly accepts the affection.

"…one that I wouldn't trade for the world."

Koko pulls back, studying Lloyd. He stares back, green eyes shimmering with curiosity, confusion, and still a bit of intrigue. Koko’s heart can't help but seize at the sight. Her child, still so young and innocent, yet ignorant of what fate's got planned for him. She wants to keep him safe from all that for as long as possible. 

"…but someday, Lloyd, there might be people who are after you for all kinds of reasons. Whether it be for money, to assert dominance, to use you, to stop you, or to try and take something from you…there may come a time when you're in trouble and help can't get to you in time. So, you've got to know how to fight with what you've got."

She demonstrates with another rapid twirling of her swords. Lloyd almost thinks he sees shreds of silver sparking around her as she does, but she ceases spinning before he can really tell.

"And, sometimes, the fastest way to victory is to let yourself lose first. For when you hit rock bottom, the only way left to go is up. And the only direction your adversaries can go is down."

Lloyd nods, not entirely understanding at the time, but his mother's never been wrong before either.

X-X

The Shark Squad is complacent as they make the trek back to Ninjago City, Four-Eyes and Crusty dragging Lloyd behind them like luggage. #32 heads the charge, speaking into her Realm Ripper to Olivia about how they managed to capture Lloyd. Angler Goon aimlessly twirls her weapon, Puffer wrings his wrists together, and Jelly continues to pilot the Flying Jelly Sub. Not one of them bothers to pay attention to Lloyd's second wind.

They took Lloyd's dagger and put it in the sub, which is unfortunate, but they also haven't properly restrained any of his limbs. Lloyd holds his breath as he carefully lifts both his legs, then slams them down, digging his heels into the dirt hard enough to yank Four-Eyes and Crusty backwards to the ground and into one another. Lloyd uses the reverse momentum to spring back up, kicking at the spinning Angler Goon and knocking her weapon out of her hand.

"Oh come on! I really need to get a strap for that thing or something—"

Lloyd snatches the mace out of the air as he lands, immediately spiraling around and swinging it into Puffer. Puffer goes flying into a nearby bush; #32 sneers at the newfound chaos and stabs at Lloyd with her swords. Lloyd defends with the mace, keeping his eye on the Jelly Sub above them. Admiral Jelly clearly hasn't noticed his escape yet, as the Sub hasn’t started firing, which means Lloyd has time.

"Get back here—!" #32 hisses, but Lloyd continues to dance just out of her reach. Four-Eyes and Crusty manage to peel themselves off the ground and charge forward. Lloyd ducks under Crusty's claws and swerves away from the chainsaw—but oh, he can use that.

When Crusty dives low for another swing, Lloyd bonks him on the head with the mace, allowing him to snatch up one of the crab claws. He slides it onto his free hand, just as Four-Eyes rushes in with the chainsaw once more. Lloyd lashes out with crab claw, trapping Four-Eyes' arm within it, eliciting a yelp from the older man. The chainsaw falls to the ground, its purr dying down; Lloyd kicks it towards himself.

Now, he can't throw the thing like he wants—he never had a dad to teach him how, and his mom must have forgotten in favor of a bow and arrow—but he has to get it up to the Jelly Sub somehow. He ditches the mace and the crab claw to pick up the chainsaw, only to have to swing it around in defense when Angler Goon and #32 run in for a combo attack.

The back of the chainsaw hits Angler Goon in the shoulder; she stumbles backwards in pain, gasping out afterwards. #32 ducks under the backswing and continues stabbing forward with her rapiers. Lloyd watches her swings with great care, all while stepping back and leading her directly under the Jelly Sub. Right when he's got her where he wants her, he turns on the chainsaw and jumps—

#32 yells as she thrusts both rapiers forward. Lloyd manages to land on top of them, the blades bending under his force, but also springing up with enough force to launch him upwards. Lloyd too screams as he shoves the chainsaw above him, just high enough to dig into the exterior of the Jelly Sub, setting it off course and crashing it straight into the side of one of the mountains. Admiral Jelly bursts out of the cockpit with extreme confusion, but instead of fleeing from the wreckage, Lloyd throws himself right into it.

There's all kinds of materials to work with here—wires, metal plating, steering gears, a bunch of buttons and levers…it's almost overwhelming.

"Okay," Lloyd breathes, trying to calm himself as he knows he's going to have to work as fast as he can. "I haven't worked with anything this big before, but..."

Lloyd lets his hands and mind go on auto-pilot, reshaping the entire mech into something entirely new. It's the first time he's working with something this mechanical, but previously being a mech, there's at least some framework to build off of. The rotors become wheels, the cockpit becomes a car seat, and the glass dome now serves as Lloyd's only protection form further physical pain.

By the time he gets his makeshift getaway vehicle running and he plops himself into the driver's seat, the only goons he hasn't somehow injured—Puffer, #32, and Jelly—are running back at him with blasters firing off fish, crabs, and other poor forms of sea life. Lloyd wails as he jerks the car backwards, facing the goons, and he hits what he hopes is the return fire button. He tends to lose himself when he Master Builds, and sometimes he forgets a thing or two—

The front of the 'car' opens up, firing off a blast that smashes into the side of the mountain. Huge chunks of rock come crumbling down, dividing Lloyd from the Shark Squad in the span of a heartbeat.

—and other times, he goes a little overboard.

Either way, with the Goons incapacitated and unable to follow for the moment, Lloyd yanks the car right back around and peels down the road, sweating and panting from the fall of adrenaline. The lights of Ninjago City shine in the distance, serving as his beacon. And all that this day has proven is one thing clearer than anything else:

If he wants people to take him seriously, then he's going to need an army of his own.

With a maddening cackle into the night air, Lloyd continues the trip to Ninjago City. #32 pulls herself out of the rubble to scowl into the distance, standing at the top of the rock pile to shake her first at the horizon.

"You can run as far as you'd like, Lloyd Garmadon, but you can't hide from your destiny forever! There's nowhere you can go that fate won't follow you!"

Lloyd can hear the goons hollering after him, even from the distance and through the glass, but he refuses to turn back.

He hasn't looked back even once since leaving home, after all.

Chapter Text

There's only five days of summer left, and Nya is probably going to spend them the same way she’s spent the majority of the rest of the summer: sweaty, angry, and alone.

Of course the boys would dash off on a mission without her. Of course it would be a false alarm. Of course they would decide to stay the night there. And of course, once again, they’re off having fun without her. Not that dealing with some bratty kid counts as fun, but it’s still a step up from being left behind. Again.

She growls, kicking the dummy she's fighting so hard it explodes. The sound it makes echoes in the otherwise empty courtyard.

Well, fine. Go run off and do whatever, then. The less time they train, the more time she has to catch up—no, surpass them. Then they’ll be begging to bring her along, or—

Nya’s whole body whirls into another training dummy. After unceremoniously smacking into it, bouncing off with little fanfare, she gains an idea. She leaps back to her feet, taking a pointed stance and remaining focused on the dummy.

Over the planks, dodge the swords…

She's watched the boys do the basic motions time and time again; it's just that, the more they do it, the faster they get, and the harder it is to follow along. Especially when they've got their elements blazing all around them.

But the training course is literally designed for learning Spinjitzu, and she's been using it for months. Surely if she just gives it a try, she'll be able to—

"Your stance is too stiff, you know. You can't use your momentum to your advantage like that."

Nya screams as she loses her balance mid-spin, entirely missing the dummy she'd been aiming for. She goes spinning on one foot straight into the nearest pillar, collapsing flat on her back as a result.

Nya blows her bangs out of her face. Wu leans over her with a raised eyebrow, partly amused and partly concerned. She glares back, stands up and dusts herself off like it's nothing, and throws herself back into the training course. Wu stays quiet, only watching from afar.

"…you're not going to stop me?" Nya asks while trying to beat her speed record on the carousel. Wu shakes his head, leaning on his staff.

"I'm not so sure I could if I tried. Nor do I know if I want to."

Nya frowns, pushing to go faster. "But you won't train me either?"

Wu doesn't respond; he takes a seat at the head of the stairs. He pulls out everything he needs to make tea, and let a pot steep as Nya continues to throw everything she's got at the course. It's only a mere fifteen minutes later when Nya finally comes to a stop. She turns towards Wu. Wu holds out a spare cup of tea on hand, a quiet invitation for her to join him. Sagging her shoulders, and with little else to do, Nya takes him up on the offer.

She brings the cup up, taking in the aroma. She already knows the flavor: sweet hibiscus, her favorite. Nya normally prefers it iced, especially during the summer. But confessing that to a tea-purist like Wu may not be the best move, and definitely not right now.

Still, it hits the spot, and she's not going to deny a perfectly good drink after a long morning of training.

She’s almost led to believe that this will be a calm, quiet moment between the two of them. But she has seriously underestimated his ability to transform any situation into an opportunity to impart wisdom.

“…you know, I am a younger sibling as well," Wu begins, his gaze aimed somewhere far over the monastery wall. "And for all my years of being alive, I do remember the feeling of wanting to join my brother in everything he did.”

Nya says nothing, choosing instead to take another sip. Wu continues undeterred.

"I was born seven years after him, so when I was seven and he was fourteen, he already had twice the life experience. He seemed to always know what to do in every situation, his fighting skills were sharp and poignant, and his wisdom rivaled my father's sometimes. He'd never admit that now, but it was true."

Nya swallows a snicker with another sip of tea—the day Kai spouted wisdom would be the same day Cole would choose a tv dinner over Zane's home cooking.

"Garmadon would look out for me when our parents couldn't. He was clever, and could find a solution to any problem. And above all else, he was kind, even to those that kindness would go wasted on. For most of my childhood, he had been my best friend. And for a very long time, I wanted to be just like him."

Wu's grip on his cup becomes shaky, the cup itself clacking slightly against the saucer.

"And I underestimated how much it would hurt when I had to be apart from him."

Nya's tea is gone by the this point, left with nothing to distract her from the rest of the one-sided discussion.

"…is that why you allow me to stay in the monastery?"

"It is one of the reasons. And I doubt Kai would have agreed to stay himself if you couldn't come with him as well."

"Well what else is there?" Nya complains, gesturing towards the training course. "You won't let me be a ninja, and I'm forced to watch my brother and my friends train together and fight together and drive off in mechs together while I…just stay behind anyway."

"…I've told Kai this once before, but being a ninja, and being an Elemental Master at that, is less of a gift and more of a burden. Once you agree to pick up that burden, you can never truly put it back down. Once you have the skills and the instinct of a ninja, you can never get rid of it, not completely."

"That just sounds like a plus to me!" Nya exclaims. Wu sighs, setting down his teacup by his side.

"…Nya, you've already got a lot going for you, especially for one so young. You're smart, resourceful, and you could live the life my father wanted people to live when he created this realm. To throw away all that potential to become a full-time ninja…I won't stop you should you one day commit to that choice, but I want you to understand the consequences before you do so."

"…well I'm not doing this to be like Kai, if that's what you're trying to say. That's the last thing I want to do!" She folds her arms and turns her back towards Wu. "He’s impulsive and reckless and stupid and doesn’t ever let me do anything! There’s always some kind of excuse: too young, too old, it’s not safe, it’s too dangerous, it’s better if I stay here, it’ll be too hard if I go too, I’m a girl—!”

“While these are all valid reasons to be upset, for what other reasons would you want to fight?”

“Uh, to protect the innocent, preserve justice, make good prevail, the usual stuff…?”

Wu shakes his head. “But that is not your personal reason, is it?”

Nya stills, looking over her shoulder. “What do you mean…?”

“Everyone always has the choice as to whether or not to do the right thing, or to provide help when needed. But everyone’s reasons for doing so are always different.” Wu holds up his hand, waving it around. “Zane’s personal reason is to understand people better. Jay’s reason is to be acknowledged by people. Cole’s reasons are to have people not feel as helpless as he once did. And as for my own…”

Wu's hand tightens into a fist, held against the light of the noon sun.

“…I wish not to let my father down, despite having done so many times already. And there is enough evil smeared in the world he made as it is. It is my duty to cleanse what I can of it.”

Wu stands once more, bracing himself on his staff. He continues to stare off into the sky, even as Nya refuses to take her eyes off of him.

“Either find your personal reasons for wanting to be a ninja, or accept the one you already have. Then, I will allow you to become one.”

Nya's eye twitches. “So, what, you won’t let me fight because my reasons are too hollow or something?!”

“No, Nya. What you want to do is noble indeed, and I respect that. But you are limited in something equally important—conviction. From what I understand of your character, you do things just to do them, to see if you are any good at it. When you’re not, you move onto the next thing. And even if you are good at it, something else will come along and pull your attention away to prove yourself once again.”

Nya winces. That's…not entirely untrue. “Okay, yeah, but with this—!”

“While becoming a ninja would by no means necessarily be a permanent fixture for you, is it not something I want you to take lightly, or to do just on a whim. It is a path that could have an abrupt destination if walked by one with an undedicated mindset."

“Okay but Kai—!”

“Kai is the exact opposite situation of you—at first, he didn’t want to be a ninja at all, but he had the conviction to do it anyway to save you. And from there, he found his personal reasons to stay: a genuine sense of purpose, and belonging.”

That simmers Nya down considerably. She falls quiet, sliding down against the stairs. Only then does Wu face her once again, sadness ruling his expression.

"Hrrghhh…when am I gonna at least get my own mech or something?!"

"Patience, Nya. Your time will come."

Nya blows her bangs out of her face again. It's not the first time she's been told that.

And probably not the last.

Wu abandons Nya when the conversation finally wanes, off to go do old sensei things surely, leaving Nya to do more training on the course. Her heart's not as into it as she was when the morning began, but what else can she do? The only way to stay sharp is to keep sharpening.

Nya's still kicking at dummies and jumping across planks when the boys finally decide to come home, well after lunchtime. She hears them coming up the back, cawing at each other over the sounds of shoving. Nya turns towards the doors just in time to witness them all try to pile in at once. Eventually Kai and Jay squeeze their way in first, crashing to the ground, with Zane and Cole tumbling in right after them. Kai springs back to his feet, throwing his arms into the air.

"HaHA! I was first, I win!"

"Uh, no?! No one was faster than me!" yells Jay, shoving him backwards.

"I'm pretty sure I had my foot on the floor first before you two fell in," insists Cole.

"You are all disillusioned; it was clearly me—!" Zane protests.

"Well, you boys are certainly chipper for facing down the Dark Lord," Nya huffs, jumping away from the course and shutting it down. She places her hands on her hips, head tilting curiously. "Was the final fight to end all fights that easy, despite the lazy summer?"

She means it in a joking way, as they've already told her about the false sighting. But still, they all proceed to frown and exchange concerned looks at one another. Zane twiddles his thumbs, Cole scratches his neck, Jay's shaking and defying the odds by keeping his mouth shut, and Kai's gaze locks to the ground. None of them say anything. Which also means, none of them are telling her anything either.

"…so what did happen, exactly?"

"We're…going to go talk to Wu about it soon," sighs Cole, which isn't really much of an answer either. "There's some…sensitive issues that need to be delicately addressed—"

"—BUT we've gotta do something far more important first! So, we're gonna need the space. Sorry, Sis!" declares Kai, flipping the switch on the dragon statue to hide away all the training equipment. He starts punching and kicking at the air with a variety of sound effects, much to Cole's dismay.

Nya puffs out her cheeks, turning to Jay and Zane instead.

"…last night we had a pillow fight over who was the Green Ninja," Jay blurts. "We kinda fell asleep before determining a winner though, sooooo—"

"We have instead opted to come to a more concrete solution via battle today," finishes Zane. Jay nods, sticking one finger into the air.

"We have all agreed that the prophecy states that one of us will become the Green Ninja, AND, the issue will not rest until it is decided."

"I did not agree to this," Cole huffs, proceeding to block the other three from entering the courtyard proper. "I told you, there are higher odds that it was talking about someone else, and moreover, even if it is one of us, that doesn't mean any of us is better than the others."

Kai, Jay, and Zane give him a blank look. Cole sighs, pinching his nose.

"…but if you're not going to let it go until we all beat the snot out of each other, then fine. You'll regret it when I bury you in the ground."

"Big words from someone who's not the Green Ninja," snickers Jay.

"May I suggest doing this tournament-style?" Zane intercedes. "Last ninja standing is the best?"

"And will be declared the Green Ninja! I love it!" cheers Kai.

"…this sounds sooooo stupid," Nya groans. She then punches a fist into her palm, grinning wickedly. "I want in too!"

Cole coughs loudly from the back, shoving Kai forward. Kai hisses as he turns around to glare, only to find Jay and Zane already cowering behind Cole.

"…well?!" Nya snaps. Kai glances at the outer wall, wondering how fast he can jump over it.

"Aaaah, hrrrm, well, it's just, if we do this tournament style, there'll be an uneven number if we include you at the start, soooo—"

"Fine then." Nya whips her ponytail over her shoulder and heads to sit on the stairs. "I'll take on whoever wins it all. That way, there's definitely no mistake that they're the Green Ninja. And, if I should win against them, that automatically means I'm already better than the rest of you…and also the Green Ninja."

Kai's jaw goes slack. "Wh-What?! No—!"

"I mean, that is a pretty fair argument," says Jay, rocking on his heels.

"I have no grounds to contest this," adds Zane. Kai throw his head back, making a displeased sound, but somewhere in that distressed moan is a note of agreement. Nya smiles, lifting her head victoriously.

Cole then proceeds to dig around in the storage closet, pulling out some protective kendo training gear. He tosses the helmets at the others, one of them bonking Jay in the back of the head.

"…the armor is for our own protection. We'll have two matches to start off," Cole explains as he straps on all the gear. "Then, the winners of each face off, and the winner of that battle will face Nya. That way, there'll be no question as to who the Green Ninja is…even if I still don't think it's any of us."

"Oh come off it, Cole! You want to be the Green Ninja just as much as anyone else," scoffs Jay. Cole shakes his head, taking a few experimental swings of his scythe.

"I happen to be perfectly fine with being the Earth Ninja, thanks. Besides, I'm mostly doing this just to prove you guys wrong."

Jay sticks out his tongue while Zane trots over to sit beside Nya.

"All right, first match: Kai vs Jay!" Cole declares, swinging one arm down to start the showdown. Jay and Kai shuffle into position, bowing before one another. They grab their weapons, taking their proper stances and waiting for the call to action.

"NINJAAAA-GOO—?!"

They both move at the same time.

Cole is knocked back onto the stairs as Kai and Jay clash, barely being caught by Zane and Nya. Red and blue zip along the courtyard, just as matched as they had been a few days prior.

"No way am I losing to you twice in one week!" Kai yells, swinging constantly at Jay with his katanas but only striking air.

"You'd better get used to it, cuz it's gonna happen all the time when I'm the Green Ninja!" Jay shoots back. He takes out the Nunchucks, twirling them over his head. But before he can bring them down, a stray shock runs down his arm and jolts him in place, halting the attack.

"Wh-What the—?"

Kai rams into Jay, using the confusion to his advantage. Jay skids backwards, tossing his kusarigama forward as he does. The sickle snags on Kai's gi, dragging him backwards as well. When Kai topples forward to the ground, Jay uses the reverse momentum to fling himself back at Kai, raising the Nunchucks once again to land a brutal strike. Kai rolls out of the way; Jay slams into the concrete, cracking the rock with shocks in the aftermath.

"…jeez," Kai huffs, already feeling the sweat building on his brow. He can't lose to Jay again—not with the title of Green Ninja at stake! And Kai knows he's at the greatest disadvantage with the least amount of training, but come on—he's gotta be able to do something!

There's not much time to think about it—Jay's already picked himself back off the ground, swinging the kusarigama around like a whip. Kai jumps, swerves, and ducks as best he can, and he realizes the problem: Jay's more of a ranged fighter, only drawing in close to deal the finishing blow. Kai's stuck to only close-quarters combat, especially given the way he juggles between one giant sword and two thinner ones. It's way too easy for Jay to get the jump on him from a distance.

Kai swaps back to the Sword of Fire, bringing it over his head. Jay crashes down from above again, their two Golden Weapons making a resounding clink that sends a gold shockwave flying outwards. Cole, Zane, and Nya all duck as it washes over them.

While Jay's still suspended in midair, Kai swings the sword to his right, flinging Jay over to the side somewhere. Jay rolls but fumbles the landing, wincing as the Sword nearly drops down on him. He pants, switching back to the kusarigama before bursting forward in Spinjitzu, swinging the weapon around at light speed.

Kai steps cautiously backwards, holding the Sword out in front of him as he watches Jay. Jay’s either going to get close in an attempt to whack Kai back with the spinning sickle and chain, or change it up and throw out the Nunchucks again. Or, he could just completely surprise him—Jay is scarily unpredictable like that. 

But Jay does none of that—he pulls out of the Spinjitzu tornado, using its momentum to fly forward again, Nunchucks raised definitively. Kai's body moves on autopilot at this point, tilting the Sword of Fire upwards.

"FIRE!" he yells on instinct alone. A small blast of first bursts from the tip, hitting Jay square in the chest. Jay tumbles out of the air, dazed and definitely not expecting to be blasted with fire. He falls to the ground and manages to take a knee, holding up an arm in surrender.

"…and Kai wins Round One!" Cole throws up both arms while Zane and Nya lightly applaud. Kai stumbles over to Jay, helping him to his feet.

"Did I hurt you?" Kai asks, concerned, but Jay shakes his head.

"N-No, the fire just caught me off guard, is all…you don't usually such pinpointed blasts; you usually just swing it and sometimes fire follows." Jay chuckles, shaking his head. "…it's not often that I'm the one surprised like that. Good job, I guess…"

Jay struggles to hide his disappointment, but it gets easier when he realizes he now gets to sit next to Nya. Kai rolls his eyes, instead turning his attention to Cole and Zane, currently limbering up for their own match. Kai hurries over, knowing he's the one to call it this time.

"Next up, Cole vs Zane!"

"Hell yeah!" sings Cole after they both bow, swinging the Scythe in one hand and his hammer in the other, like he can't decide which one to start with. "Are you ready for me, Frosty?"

Zane stands poised, the Shuriken of Ice perched in his grip. "I am ready whenever you are."

"NINJAAAAA-GO!"

Kai jumps back as Cole chooses the Scythe first, picking speed over power. He slices right through one of the training dummies on his way over to Zane. Zane blocks each swing with the Shuriken, Cole yelling with each strike. Zane ducks under a swing and punches forward, pushing Cole back just enough to get some distance between them.

"It's going to take more than brute force to subdue me, Cole."

Zane hurls the Shuriken forward, creating a floor of ice. Cole laughs, as that's one of Zane's go-to moves, and jumps up. He lands with one of the shuriken under his foot, smirking. Zane just lets the other Shuriken return to his hand, twirling it between his fingers, and—oh, there's something crawling up Cole's leg.

Ice entraps the entirety of Cole's leg, starting to creep up the rest of his body. Zane uses Cole's immobility as a chance to fire off some arrows, but Cole holds his Scythe outwards and flings them all away. With that taken care of, Cole switches to his hammer, bringing it down on the ice and completely shattering it. Zane actually looks a little surprised, only to gasp as Cole comes running at him again.

"What was that about not beating you with brute strength?!" Cole heckles, driving the Scythe into the ground and calling up a giant pillar of rock. He then swings the Scythe around in his left hand, cutting a hunk of the boulder right off, then uses the hammer in his right to sending the boulder piece flying towards Zane.

"Whoa," whispers Kai and Jay simultaneously, knowing they could never pull off anything that advanced yet. Both of them are now grateful they didn't go up against Cole first. Even Nya gulps at the display.

Zane grits his teeth, bringing the Shuriken down and freezing himself to the spot. At first, it looks detrimental, but Cole quickly realizes that Zane's grounding himself. Zane then holds both Shuriken out before him, their outstretched points making contact with the boulder. It splits right down the middle with a devastating crack, and yet when the two new halves crash to the ground, Cole is no longer on the other side.

Zane's eyes dart towards the audience; Kai's got his mouth covered, Jay looks terrified, and Nya's not-so subtly pointing downwards.

Zane's gaze follows; the ground opens up before him with Cole popping out in a flurry of Spinjitzu, using the Scythe to punt Zane into the air.

"How kind of you to put yourself right where I need you!" Cole teases, and Zane—really should have known better than to a) get cocky and b) underestimate Cole's tactical prowess.

He hastily pulls his bow out and fires off as many arrows as he has left; Cole uses Spinjitzu to evade them all, twirling around with his hammer and a smirk. The hammer goes high, then comes back down on Zane, somehow not enough to hurt, but with enough force to make him plummet.

Zane wails on his way down, landing on his back with a resounding thud. He blinks, staring into the sun until it's eclipsed by Cole's descending form. He's got the Scythe revved back for the final strike…

Cole lands. The ground quakes with the impact, but the final strike does not come.

Zane opens his eyes—when did he even close them?!—and finds that Cole's got the blade to the Scythe held against his neck. He goes to make a move; Cole leans in more, shaking his head and ensuring Zane stays pinned to the spot.

Zane groans—he knows when he's beaten—and lets his head thunk against the ground, vanquished.

"…and the winner of Round Two is Cole," Kai says after a rather long silence. Cole spins both weapons and straps them back on his back, grinning cheerily all the while. He then faces Zane again, who is stubbornly staying on the ground trying his best not to pout.

"Aw, come on, don't look like that!" Cole bends down and holds out a hand, waiting for Zane to take it. Zane presses his lips together before finally sighing and clasping his hand in Cole's. Cole tugs him back up with ease. "That was a great match! I got to practice some new moves and you got to use some neat defenses!"

"…you thought my defenses were good?" Zane asks. Cole nods.

"Of course! The way you spliced through that boulder, the well-timed return fire with the arrows…gives me a lot to think about when considering how an opponent might retaliate. You've always been good at giving me insight on that front."

Zane thinks it over for a second, then finally finds his smile again. "…very well. In that case, it is an honor to lose to you. Your strength and strategy never fail to impress."

Cole gapes for a second, only for his face to burst into red a moment later. He struggles to hide it behind his hands, mumbling out a muffled, "Yeah, thanks…" in return.

The moment his cheeks cool down a few degrees, Cole pulls his Scythe back out and points it towards Kai, beckoning him in a sign of a challenge. Kai's on his feet in a flash, fists raised and determined scowl on his face.

"Bring it on! I can totally take you!"

"Famous last words," Cole chuckles, and now it's Kai's turn to go red in the face, albeit for entirely different reasons. Zane lets out a cheer as he returns to his seat next to Nya.

"Awesome, it's almost my turn!" exclaims Nya, wringing her hands together. "I can't wait to face off against Cole—"

"Hey, you have that little of faith in me?!" Kai snaps, shaking a fist at his sister. Nya merely shrugs.

"Did you not just see that last match? I'd bet money on Cole any day if I had it."

"Grrrrrr, whatever! Let's just get this over with already!"

"Fine by me! Jay, will you do the honors?" Cole asks.

Jay blinks, less than enthused, but sighs and tosses a hand into the air.

"…for the title and prize of the best ninja, Cole vs Kai, bla bla ninja go."

Instantly the sound of gold on gold rings out, Kai and Cole thrusting the Golden Weapons at one another without remorse. They both battle aggressively, fighting to get the upper hand first, but neither being willing to give it up. Kai swings; Cole jumps. Cole swings; Kai ducks. Their defenses are air-tight and offense on point—neither side is about to give in.

Kai can't even find the time to switch to his katanas—he probably should have started off with them to give him the speed advantage, but then he probably would've already caved to Cole's strength. He's struggling now as is.

"C'mon, Kai! Where's all that bravado from before?!" Cole taunts, exchanging the Scythe for the hammer in a twirl. Kai doesn't see it coming—the face of the hammer smacks into his side, sending him toppling. Cole uses the Scythe to pop up a few small boulders, then batters them Kai's way with the hammer. Kai wilts—maybe he shouldn't have given Cole those pointers on dual-wielding, because this is just madness.

Kai cuts through one boulder and dodges the other two, attempting to make a brief retreat until he can come up with a plan. Cole's not having any of that though, a primal yell pulling out of his lungs as his eyes briefly turn bright marigold. His grip intensifies on the Scythe; he hurls it down over his head and into the ground. The whole Monastery seems to rumble under its might, and rumble it does, as the aftershock knocks Jay into Nya, Nya into Zane, Zane onto the floor, and Kai flying smack into a pillar.

The force of it knocks the air right out of his lungs.

Kai hits the ground with a gasp. Cole, no longer glowing, stands back up with an exhausted smirk of pride. Jay, Zane, and Nya all hoot and holler for him.

"YES!" "Ha! Way to go Cole!" "Yeah Cole! WOO-HOO!"

Kai's not sure what's surging through him now—fury, envy, disappointment, or whatever else—but it runs from the Sword, up his arm, into his head, and out his eyes, power pulsing through every vein in his body and feeding into his haywire emotions. Or, maybe his emotions are making the power go haywire in the first place. Could be both, honestly.

"I can't…I can't lose this…!"

Kai's vision becomes tinged in red, and hazy at the edges, rapidly losing focus. His thoughts get louder, and faster—

"It has to be me! It has to be me! I have to be special, for once!"

Snarls and screams rip out of Kai as he spirals across the courtyard in a funnel of fire, no longer focused on fighting Cole. Instead, it's like he's battling against something trying to fight out of him. And it burns, and it hurts, and he can't handle it—!

"This all has to mean something!"

"Whoa!" Cole yells, stepping back as a large wave of fire nearly washes over him. The flames scorch the edges of Cole's kendo gear, and Cole can still feel the aftermath of the heat. He glances back at Kai; the Sword of Fire trembles in his loose grip, Kai's stumbling all over the courtyard like his feet aren't his own, and Kai's eyes are a blazingly dangerous shade of infrared.

"I wanna be the Green Ninja...I have to be the Green Ninja!"

"Fire, FIRE!" yelps Jay.

"It's going to burn everything! Watch out!" Zane shouts, moving in front of Jay as Jay throws himself over a screaming Nya. Zane's eyes burst into pure white as he's barely able to make a protective casing of ice around them with the Shuriken, saving them all from being bathed in a stray ball of flame. He then tumbles back to the stairs, panting heavily, Jay calling out his name in concern.

"What's wrong with Kai?! What's happening with the weapons?!" Nya yells, clutching Jay's gi as she watches her brother tumble about in pain.

"It's…too…hot…!" Kai strangles out, struggling to maintain his hold on the Sword. The Sword keeps tugging him from one way to the next, as if it's trying to escape his hold.

"Just let it go, Kai! You're going to hurt yourself!" Cole demands, using dirt clouds in an attempt to limit the damage to the courtyard. Kai doesn't respond, only screams instead.

"RAAAAAAUGGGGH!"

Kai does not let go, instead trying to corral the power with Spinjitzu. Bursts of fire fly in every direction; Cole puts up an earth wall to protect Jay, Nya, and the now unresponsive Zane, then ducks under a stray stream of flame. Kai keeps screaming as he twirls about, finally releasing the Sword and sending it soaring across the courtyard.

It lands with a clatter, sliding along the ground and blazing a trail in its wake.

That is, a literally blazing trail that sets everything in its wake on fire.

Kai collapses with hot tears in his eyes, landing somewhere amidst a circle of flames. Cole smacks at the ground with his hammer in an attempt to put out the fire. Zane's still out of it, and Nya and Jay's combined screaming eventually alerts Sensei Wu.

The doors from inside are thrown open, Wu gasping upon entering the scene. Two children are nearly unconscious, the two youngest are wailing on the verge of tears, and one's struggling to protect all of them at once. Everything is on fire, and no one seems to know what to do.

With a determined grunt, Wu holds his hands out, summoning the Shuriken of Ice from where Zane's own grip has gone lax on them. He closes his eyes, focusing his energy, and sends the Shuriken all around the courtyard, letting a gentle snow wash down on the wildfire.

Kai is saved from the ring he's trapped in, Zane stirs from the brief contact with his element, Cole no longer has to smack at the flames, and Jay's gi, which had caught fire while protecting Nya, is put out as well.

With the chaos dying down, everyone goes silent, slowly turning to face Wu. Cole shuffles closer to Zane; Jay clutches Nya, and Nya lets him. Kai bites his lip, knowing he's going to get the brunt of this, as usual.

"Just WHAT were you THINKING?!"

"It was an accident, Sensei!" Cole immediately swoops in to try and resolve this quickly. "You said we didn't understand the power our weapons possessed, so we were trying to gain better control of them, and then we lost control—"

"Cole made the whole mountain shake, Zane imploded trying to protect us, and Kai went completely haywire!" exclaims Nya.

"I…feel as though I have overloaded, or something equivalent," says Zane, grabbing at his head. Wu's frown deepens, turning towards Kai with a gaze that could kill.

"And what did you do to make the fire nearly consume everything!?"

Kai puts a hand to his chest, scoffing with offense. "What?! Just because everything was on fire doesn't mean it's automatically my fault!"

Wu's stare intensifies.

"…although it is a very educated guess to make."

Kai scuffs his foot on the ground, unable to make eye contact.

"I…don't know what happened, Sensei. I just got, like, irrationally angry about something stupid and it was like the Sword fed off of it or something…and a Weapon of Creation quickly turned to one of Destruction."

Kai does look guilty about it, and Wu knows he obviously hadn't meant to cause a mess. The old man sighs, rubbing a hand down his face.

"…perhaps now you can see why these weapons were once cast away to be protected the Guardians, and why they can never be wielded by Garmadon's hands. In practiced hands, they can create miracles. In ambitious ones, disasters."

"…it was pretty scary," Nya says under her breath, an uncomfortable feeling washing over all of them. Wu sighs again, stroking his beard to ground himself.

"I can potentially understand trying to better handle your weapons, but you should have come to me before attempting anything big with them. Cole could have brought the whole mountain down, Zane could have froze us all over—"

"And I could have burned down the Monastery," Kai says, frozen with horrid realization. Wu grimaces at that, but cannot deny its truth.

"…which is why I don’t understand what made you go through with these shenanigans anyway despite the risks."

"W-We were just trying to figure out who the Green Ninja is—OW!" Jay sniffs, only to be whacked in the back by Zane. Jay chokes, immediately coughing and trying to backtrack. "…did I say Green Ninja? No, er, sorry, AHEM, what I said was LEAN ninja, so—"

"…the Green Ninja," Wu says, shaking his head. He sounds less angry, more resigned as the words fall from his mouth. As if he'd been expecting something like this. As if he's seen something like this before. As if he himself knew it would someday come.

Sensing Wu's anger coming down a bit, Cole guiltily digs in his bag and pulls out the prophecy scroll, handing it back to Wu.

"We're sorry, Sensei, it fell into Kai's satchel when we were in the library, so obviously we looked, and I tried to get the others to lay off but—"

"…you were never supposed to see this," Wu says, carefully removing the prophecy from Cole's hands. Cole bows his head in shame; the others crowd around him with wide-eyes.

"But Sensei, we wanna know! We have to know!" Kai exclaims, almost desperately. Wu stares him down, and too easily sees the same expression of an ambitious student long since lost from this world. He, too, craved the title of the Green Ninja, just as Kai does now, even without him saying it. Now Wu can see how the Sword of Fire went so crazy…

It was the thirst for power.

He can't do this again, can't give hope where it is hopeless. Especially not for something that they shouldn't be hoping for. Yet Kai looks so eager, Jay and Zane so encouraged, Cole less so but still intrigued…

Even Nya, standing off to the side, quiet in her curiosity, silently pleads that a destiny meant for someone else just might belong to her against the odds.

Btu the truth is something harsher, something Wu prayed he wouldn’t have to deal with in his long, long lifetime…

"Which one of us is the Chosen One, Sensei?"

"None of you!"

The answer echoes in the air; too sharp to be denied, too immediate to cleanly play off. Cole grunts, as if expecting as such. Jay and Zane hang their heads in disappointment, but understanding. Kai and Nya, however, look straight up miserable.

…he can't do this again; he can't take away someone's hope just when they found some.

Wu coughs, clearing his throat. "…that is, if you don't unlock your full potential."

"B-But my sword, it was so bright…a-and my eyes, they were glowing!" Kai exclaims. "Is that what you meant by unlocking our Golden Weapons?"

"That is what I meant about you unlocking your own latent powers," Wu scoffs, turning back towards the doors to the lounge. "Both you and the Golden Weapons are vessels for Elemental Power. When one surges strongly with the element, so too does the other. When you started getting hot under the collar, so did your weapon. When your weapon started to surge with fire, so did you. Attaining the balance between the weapon, the element, and your own inner peace is critical to unlocking the True Potential of the Four Core Elements."

"…and that's just the long version of what you said before," Zane realizes, with Wu nodding.

"You are only at the beginning, and the road is long and winding…but yes, this is what I meant. And for being so reckless in your attempts to improve despite my teachings about patience, you all are grounded until the end of summer."

"Whaaaaat?!" Nya's screech rises over the collective groaning of the boys. "But I didn't do anything! I don’t even have a weapon to screw around with—!"

"Yeah, but you were still going to try to fight me for the Green Ninja title once I beat Cole," says Kai. Nya whirls on him and probably would have gone for the throat if Jay and Zane hadn't snatched her out of the air. Cole, meanwhile, huffs with great offense.

"You weren't going to beat me; I had you until you started throwing a fit!"

"Oh, whatever Cole! Let's not forget that I was the one that ultimately caught that brat Lloyd yesterday—!"

"What did you just say?"

Wu pauses from where he'd been returning back inside, his hand going still on the door. Kai freezes, wincing, and almost entirely forgetting that they hadn't done the thing they should have done in the first place. More awkward shuffling occurs, until Cole finally just bites the bullet.

"…yesterday's false alarm, it turns out that it wasn't Lord Garmadon attacking the village…it was Lloyd Garmadon," Cole explains, biting his lip.

"Yeah, there was this weird obnoxious kid saying he was Garmadon's son and trying to stir up havoc to get his attention or something," adds Jay. "We think he was mad about his dad not coming for him during the invasion back in May…"

"But at the same time, he has been actively trying to be bad to appease his father." Zane folds his arms, annoyed. "He had apparently been attending Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys in an attempt to learn how to be evil better, or something along those lines…"

Wu shakes his head, a hand resting against his forehead. His whole body trembles in…fear?

"…no, that cannot be; that's not possible—!"

"You wanna hear something really impossible? The kid had green eyes, and he's a Master Builder!" Kai cries, waving his arms around. "And and and he was threatening to release the Serpentine, which totally isn't possible cuz they don't actually exist, right Sensei?"

Wu looks like he's on the verge of a heart attack. Cole and Zane leap over to help guide him back inside, leading him into a chair. Kai, Jay, and Nya trot in afterwards, looking on in worry. The Lloyd discussion screeches to a halt as they allow Wu to take it all in, even if they don't understand what about the news has him acting so extreme.

"Is he…really your nephew though, Sensei?" Nya finally asks, noticing the intensifying worry written all over Wu's face. Wu squeezes his eyes shut, exhaling with a deep sigh.

"…yes, he is, though I have not seen him since he was just a baby," Wu explains. He leads forward in his seat, head resting in folded hands.

"So Garmadon really is out here reproducing—that's horrifying," Jay says with a wince.

"Do you all know where Lloyd is now, at least?"

"…no, Sensei," Cole says, digging his fingers into his arms. "We, uh, kinda sorta chased him around town, hung him from a shop sign, and ate a bunch of candy in front of him before leaving him there. He was…long gone by the time we woke up this morning."

Wu's face morphs into something aghast as Nya hisses, "You did WHAT!?"

"If I hadn't grounded you already…" Wu remarks with a soul-weary sigh.

"Ah, we were…hoping the humiliation would be enough of a punishment," Zane confesses. "Further reflection on the incident has led us to believe otherwise, however."

"What if he's out there opening the Serpentine Tombs as we speak?!" Jay squeaks, but Wu shakes his head.

"On that front, Lloyd’s threat is most likely an empty one. Only those who sealed them away know where they are, and you'd be a fool to make any kind of map leading to them, let alone go looking for them."

"I wouldn't put it past him, though," Kai says quietly. Wu makes a displeased sound deep in his throat, glancing away afterwards.

"…did Lloyd happen to mention anything about his mother?"

"Only that she exists, basically. He had started to say something about her, but cut himself off. Why?"

"…nothing that currently concerns you," Wu waves off, massaging his head. "But essentially, what you're telling me is that my nephew is running around committing crimes and terrorizing people, we could possibly have a Serpentine infestation on our hands very soon, my brother will return from the Realm of Madness any day now with the intent to seize the Golden Weapons…and you thought your time would be better spent fooling around over a title that does not come with light responsibilities, all without talking to me first?"

"Hnnng…" "Well, when you put it like that—"

Cole nudges Kai and Jay, cuing them to bow. Zane follows afterward, and as one they say, "Sorry, Sensei…"

"…even lessons learned the hard way are lessons learned, I suppose." Wu finally finds the strength to stand again, hanging his head. "As we are now, Lloyd and the Serpentine are non-concrete variables. Worrisome, to be sure, but until they present themselves as a physical threat, we cannot waste our energy on them. Garmadon we know for sure is coming back, and that remains our most immediate and important objective. Should Lloyd or any snakes turn up, we can mobilize against them then."

He faces the ninja and Nya, frowning in their direction.

"But for the next five days, you will be entirely dedicated to your training, and will only be allowed out if an incident arises. No video games, no Mech joyrides, no Golden Weapons, and no hanging out at the warehouse.”

Kai falls to the ground as he whines about the injustice of it all, Zane goes blank-faced, and Nya’s expression indicates that she’s plotting a murder.

"Five days isn't so bad for a grounding," Cole muses in a poor attempt to lift up the mood. Jay swats him.

"Yeah, sure, especially when it's only the last five days of summer break! We're not going to get another break from school until the Day of the Departed…!"

"If this is what it must take to get you to focus on your training, and to do it properly, then so be it."

Wu heads off for real this time, to meditate and ruminate on all that he's learned today. The five teens sulk, resigned to their ruined vacation.

"…But none of you are near the level of what it takes to be the Green Ninja."

Chapter Text

Mystake leans outside the window of her tea shop and feels it in the air: the waning daylight of summer is coming to an end. Long days will bleed into long nights instead, the rising cold will usher people to stay indoors, and the sense of infinite possibility in finite days will be exchanged with routine and the guarantee of something to look forward to.

But, as endings are beginnings, this just paves the way for autumn to arrive and take its place.

And that means damper days, rainbow leaves…and far less children scuttling around the streets, what with summer break coming to an end. And it’s not as though she dislikes children specifically—she dislikes most people that don’t properly appreciate the world they live in—but it’s hard to deny that they’re loud and chaotic and terribly difficult to reign in when they’re set on something.

Thankfully, most of her customers are the more mature sort, buying basic teas in bulk and not asking too many questions. Sometimes, once in a grand blue moon, one of her sons will stumble in asking for the more unique flavors. But actual children rarely step foot into her teashop—

A boy in black stumbles in and slams the door behind him, breathing heavily like he'd just run halfway across the city.

—and yet, with just how long Mystake's been alive, she knows that there is always an exception, because fate loves to leave itself a loophole.

Now, normally, she'd shoo out the young rascal like a particularly annoying pest, especially for barging in so recklessly. No one marches into her tea shop like it’s a fight club, not even her own fool children. But the boy quickly presses his back against the door, turning to face her with wide, panicked, shining green eyes—

Green eyes that she very quickly realizes can only possibly belong to one individual.

"Please hide me, Ma'am," Lloyd begs, knees trembling against his will. "There's these thugs chasing me; they've been following me for days and I can’t lose them and I came down this alley cuz it's kinda busy but they can't find me I don't know what they want from me I'm not—"

"Get behind the counter," Mystake orders immediately. Lloyd perks up a bit upon not being chased out, and hurries to follow her instructions. He barely gets out of sight before the door flies open again and the bell rings out. Mystake continues doing what she'd been doing—dusting her shelves—even as a man with an octopus helmet and a girl with a mace make their way up to the counter.

Oh great—they're Shark Army goons.

The duo have the audacity to scan around like they're actually here for a good reason, and Mystake's having none of it.

"Can I help you people with something?" she asks, her voice cloyingly false-sweet. Four-Eyes sneers at the tone, slamming a fist against the counter.

"Yeah, you seen a kid with green eyes around these parts? He came running down this way and couldn't have gotten far with those stubby legs."

An indignant huff comes from under the counter; Mystake grunts to cover it up.

"Never heard of him," she says without missing a beat. "Surely you must've been deceived by a trick of the light. Green eyes are said to be impossible, after all."

“We know what we saw, and we know he must have at least passed by your window.” Angler Goon locks eyes with Mystake, slinging her mace over her shoulder.  "I'd recommend being a little more helpful, if I were you."

Mystake narrows her eyes, unrelenting even as her chair shakes with the tremors of the boy beneath it.

“…if you're going to be that persuasive about it, very well then. Shall we share some info over a spot of tea?”

The two goons lose some of their hostility at the suggestion of a drink on the house. She refuses to acknowledge the look of betrayal the boy beneath the counter gives her, instead reaching on the back shelf for a box of…special tea.

“You both must have come a long way to merely seek out a child,” Mystake says, buying a little time as she steeps the tea. Four-Eyes just shrugs, making himself comfortable in a chair by the counter.

“Well, it’s not really the kid we’re after, but our leader is pretty sure he’s—"

Angler Goon whacks him over the head with her mace, fuming afterwards.

“We’re the ones gathering information here, not the other way around!” She turns her mace towards Mystake, narrowing her eyes. “Start spilling tea or we start spilling tea, if you know what I mean.”

The tea comes to a finish; Mystake smiles gently, even while being threatened with a deadly weapon. She pours tea for two—a hand reaches out from under the counter, as if excepting some too. She nudges it back with her foot.

“Come now, there’s no need to be so hostile.” She slides both cups before Four-Eyes and Angler Goon. “You both have traveled far and look weary. Take a load off and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Angler Goon watches Mystake, less than impressed, but apparently Four-Eyes is thirsty and starts chugging the tea like it’s water. Angler Goon glares at him, but his eyes brighten and a smile spreads across his face.

“Dude, Angel, you gotta try this…!”

“What?! No, not until—!”

Four-Eyes doesn’t take no for an answer and practically shoves Angler Goon’s drink in her face. She grimaces, only agreeing to get her personal space back, and takes a gentle sip.

…which then grows into chugging the whole cup.

“Okay, wow, that was really good…!”

“Well thank you!” Mystake says cheerfully, leaning her arms against the counter. “Now…what was it that you lovely people wanted to know?”

“Well, we just—"

Both goons immediately freeze, unable to recall what had driven them into the tea shop to begin with. Mystake hides her smirk as the duo frantically try to piece together just what happened, but find that they cannot.

“Um…uh…well, right now I just really want to know what’s in this brew,” Angler Goon coughs, as if she’d intended the words the whole time. Mystake shakes her head, placing a finger to her lips with a wink.

“Ah, ah, it’s an ancient secret. But if you ever find yourselves wanting more, you know where to look.”

"I'll buy a box right now!" says Four-Eyes, slamming a pile of bills onto the counter. Mystake eyes the cash skeptically, then shrugs and pulls out a box of ginseng in exchange. Four-Eyes whoops in response, tumbling out the door, while Angler Goon leaves looking dazed, a hand to her head in confusion.

And just like that, the thugs are gone.

It’s not until the door clicks firmly shut does Lloyd poke his head out of hiding, wondering if it’s truly safe. Mystake gives him a confident nod, and he drags himself out from off the floor and throws his arms around her neck. Startled, she barely manages to catch him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the coolest old lady I've ever met!" Lloyd exclaims, eyes sparkling with adoration. Mystake, despite herself, finds herself smiling. "Not that I've met a lot of old ladies, but like, you're still top of the list. When I take over Ninjago with my dad, I'll be sure to spare you specifically!"

Mystake chuckles even when she really shouldn't, but eventually swallows down her delight. She holds him easily—this kid somehow weighs next to nothing?? And he's so small for a teenager—and studies him. He beams right back, blinking cluelessly in her direction with an air of naïveté she hasn't seen in years.

"You…don't know who I am, do you?"

"…besides a really cool old lady?" Lloyd asks, and Mystake sighs.

"You can call me Mystake, sweetheart."

“My…sta...ke,” Lloyd repeats, testing the word on his tongue. “…huh. I like your name. I'm Lloyd! Lloyd Garmadon. Son of Lord Garmadon, Future Dark Lord, Prince of Shadows, Cadet of Chaos…ugh, I can't even remember all of the titles, but yeah! That's me."

"That…seems like a mouthful, doesn't it?" Mystake asks, sitting him onto one of the barstools. Lloyd leans forward, plopping his head against the counter.

"I mean, I guess. But it's true!"

"I…wouldn't recommend broadcasting who you are like that, though. The wrong people might catch wind of it—"

"Like the Shark Army?" Lloyd scoffs with a scowl. Mystake casts her glance away. 

"…or even just people who aren't the biggest fans of your father."

Lloyd considers that, frowning as he does.

"Maybe I'll just have them drink some of that tea you gave the goons," Lloyd half-jokes, gesturing at the abandoned cups left behind. "…what was that tea, anyway?"

“Oh, that? Just gave them a bit of Obscuri-Tea. Makes the most prominent thing on their minds vanish from relevance, basically erasing the memory of them ever having found you, meaning you are for now out of their crosshairs. You’re welcome.”

Lloyd smiles warmly, then glances around the shop, taking in all the marvels it has to offer. She watches as he admires her long and wide shelves of various teas; some of the regular variety, some a little more potent with magic. She sees him eye the peppermint brew in particular, and she wordlessly begins steeping a pot of it.

“Now, one favor begets another—no good deed goes unpunished,” Mystake says as the scent of peppermint fills the air. Lloyd watches her carefully, fearing that she might spike him with some Obscuri-Tea too. But that peppermint smells amazing. “…tell me, why are you wandering the streets of Ninjago alone, Young Garmadon?”

Lloyd squirms, not really sure if he should say more. Mystake waits for the whistle of the kettle, then grabs the pot to pour Lloyd a cup. He practically vibrates in place with excitement; for good measure, Mystake also puts a plate of cookies in front of him. In a flash, two of them vanish into his maw.

When was the last time this child ate properly…?

"Opening up to another person is one of the hardest things we can do. But, some may find it easier to confess to a stranger than to those who are already close."

Lloyd loudly chews his cookies, thoughtful. Upon swallowing with crumbs decorating his cheeks, his shoulders sag and he keeps his gaze aimed downwards.

“Well, I mean, the truth is…I…kinda had a…disagreement with my mom?" He says it like a question; Mystake's eyes narrow. "And then I snuck out, joined Darkley’s, and…left there too. And now I am here.”

“…well that’s awfully vague.” No specific details, nor did he even give a timeframe.

"It's not wrong either." Lloyd stirs his tea with utmost concentration. “I...just really wanna see my dad. I have to ask him something very important."

Lloyd grinds his teeth on the word 'very', clutching his cup with an ironlike grip. Mystake sits back, taking a sip of her own peppermint tea. This child is a fascinating one—so much power and potential in a tiny body, so much resent and rage for one so friendly and trusting…and, sadly, plenty of skill in how cleverly he can lie. After all, she knows better than anyone that the best liars tell the truth.

"…why are you staring at me like that?" Lloyd asks, squinting suspiciously. "Is there something on my face?"

"Besides a few crumbs, nothing of the sort, dear." Mystake takes a bite out of her own cookie. Lloyd hastily wipes at his face with his sleeve. "You just remind me of my late husband, that's all…and a bit like one of my sons."

Lloyd accepts that, taking a brief swig of his tea. "Do you…have any grandchildren?"

Mystake smiles wistfully, tilting her head. "…just one, as far as I know. About your age as well."

"Neat! I think I'd like to meet them sometime."

Lloyd goes back to shoveling cookies into his face. He misses the way Mystake nods in agreement, also burying her lies beneath a thin veil of the truth.

"…so anyway, the way this works is that each of these communicators are sewn into your hoods, and all you have to do to talk into it is press the side of your head. I wanna eventually make specific buttons for each person, but for now they just connect with everyone at once. It's like a walkie talkie headband but without the band! They're pretty cheap to make with the parts we picked up at the mall, but they're also built to last, so once we get the test runs out of the way I can make a bunch of them for backup, new suits, replacements—you name it!"

Cole nods as enthusiastically as he can while the ninja in blue next to him rattles off more and more about their new communications system. He's glad that they've finally got a working and reliable way to transmit messages, but he doesn't need to know every detail.

Still, the last thing he's going to do is crush someone's enthusiasm, so he lets the tirade continue. He's gotten used to it anyway, after ages of living with Jay.

"…you know, you almost could pull off being Jay, actually. You've got the look and the motormouth down to a science—"

The blue ninja interrupts with a huff, flipping off her hood to reveal Nya pouting.

"Hey, it's not my fault his GX suit is the only one small enough to fit me!"

"I thought he was going to pass out when he saw you walk by, though. Whether because he thought there was two of him, ooooor he just thought you looked cute. Both are totally valid."

Nya tugs the hood back on, mainly just to hide her blush, and keeps on walking. She lifts her left wrist, now fitted with a gold bracelet. The red gem adorned in the center beeps and pulses with light, letting her know that they're still a ways away from their destination.

During the last several days of what the ninja have called "The Utterly Depressing Last-Minute Summer Lockdown", she and Jay managed to complete the prototypes for the communications system. It did require one night of sneaking out and taking to the warehouse to get the blueprints and parts, but what Wu and Kai don't know won't hurt them.

Besides, she's got permission this time, as the communicators could be invaluable should they become separated during a Garmadon attack, and it's better to work out the kinks before something big and bad actually happens. Wu managed to agree to that much, and Nya is happy that he trusted her with the test run.

…even if Cole is, technically, currently babysitting her.

"So where are we going, again?" Cole asks, scouring down the streets of the city. It's not as busy, being early evening, but there's still quite a bit of buzz from civilians going about their lives. Nothing around here seems to be in immediate need of ninja.

"We're going downtown, somewhere near Benny's Arcade Emporium." Nya lifts her wrist again, rotating the gem on her bracelet to zoom in on her map. "That's where I got a ping about some reported Shark Army activity. And if it's correct, then we'll know the alert system works properly."

Cole makes a noise of agreement, continuing to scour the streets. "Weird that they'd pop up now…wonder what they're after."

"I find it weirder that no one around here is kicking up a fuss. If there really was Shark Army activity, then why aren't more people panicking?" Nya frowns, lowering her bracelet. "The whole city has been on edge about Garmadon's return for months…and there was the freak out over the false alarm too."

"Guess we'll find out when we get there."

"Mm-hmm."

They fall into silence after that, Nya tinkering with the tech and Cole leading her down the most inconspicuous paths. It's a little depressing that this is technically her first "ninja" mission, even if it's only because she's disguised as one, and not actually doing any ninja business. But, it beats being stuck in the monastery on the last day of summer, so she'll take it.

"…I still don't get why you had to come. Not that I don't like your company, but—"

"You feel like I’m just your bodyguard or something," Cole finishes, shrugging. Nya shrugs back, sheepish. "Hey, I get it. But you know there's strength in numbers, and if this really is some Shark Army sting operation we're walking into, the last thing you need to do is face it alone."

"I'm not going to let myself get kidnapped again; not by them," Nya grits through her teeth. Cole holds up his hands defensively.

"Hey, I totally believe you! I know you've been training hard! But why do you think I'm here over anyone else?" Cole holds up one finger, rolling his eyes. "Zane’s not about to bend the rules of any kind, Jay probably would’ve gotten distracted by either the tech or by you—"

Nya sticks out her tongue.

"—and Kai—"

“—either wouldn’t have let me go at all, or would have taken advantage of the situation,” Nya finishes with a groan. Cole nods.

“But I, notorious rule breaker yet leader of a team who desperately needs an upgrade in their communications, knows better. And if that means taking the one non-ninja out on a recon mission, then okay!”

Nya finally laughs, Cole beaming. It doesn't last long, however, as Nya sighs once again.

“…you know, I feel like Kai doesn’t trust me lately,” Nya confesses, head drooping down. Cole tilts his head curiously. “He acts like I can’t do anything for myself! Sure, not being a ninja is one thing, but I can fend for myself and handle myself just fine! Especially now that we live at the monastery…”

She huffs, turning her head. Cole studies her quietly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“…well, I may not know exactly what’s going on in his head, but you’ve gotta remember, he had to see you get dragged through a portal into the Underworld, and spent a whole week absolutely obsessed with getting you back. He didn't even care about, you know, saving the world until you were out of the Underworld's clutches."

Nya whirls around, puffing out her cheeks. "So, what, I get kidnapped once, come out of it fine, but have to get treated like I'm made of porcelain for the rest of time?!"

“Most people don't get kidnapped at all, Nya, let alone come out of it in one piece," Cole remarks dryly. Nya snaps silent. "Not only are you his precious little sister, he also raised you. And it’s only been a few months since that responsibility has finally lessened—those protective instincts of his aren’t going to go away overnight…if ever.”

Nya pouts, hands trembling at her sides.

“But how am I supposed to prove myself if he keeps stopping me from doing so?!”

“What’s there to prove?” Cole asks. “There’s nothing you can do to make him stop loving you, and there’s nothing you have to do to prove you’re amazing—he just will, and you just are. And both those things don’t suddenly become false just because he kept you out of a potentially dangerous situation.”

Nya groans, swatting at the air. Cole raises an eyebrow in amusement.

“I knew talking to you about this wouldn’t work! You’re taking his side!”

“There are no sides! I more than believe you’d make a fantastic ninja, and I’d love to spar with you sometime—" Nya considers this, until her mind flashes back to his fight with Zane and shudders. Maybe not. “—but if I were him, I’d probably make the same choices.”

“Why?!”

Cole softens, something sad in his eyes.

“Because it would mean I could guarantee you’d stay safe. And that I would still have someone to come home to.”

Nya opens her mouth to protest, but the meaning eventually sinks in, sapping the bravado right out of her. She comes to a stop at the edge of the sidewalk, Cole halting a few paces behind her.

“…I’m not going to stay behind forever. If you guys get to constantly put yourselves at risk, then I want to be able to do my part too.”

“Ha! I know that much at least!” Cole draws his hammer, swinging it over his shoulder with a smirk. With his free hand, he pats Nya's head. Nya swats him away with a hiss. "But right now, you're already doing amazing things with your data collecting and gear making. And the day you're finally ready to join the fight, I'll be cheering you on." 

Nya makes a disgruntled sound, not entirely satisfied, but Cole has a way of making even the worst situations somehow more bearable.

Then, the sound of a shattering window rings out. Nya immediately checks her bracelet, finding it to be blinking non-stop now. The coded distress signal confirms the obvious.

"…oh, look, we're here."

"Hell yeah! Let's smash some Sharks!" Cole yells, running forward into what is hopefully a full-on fray.

"Hold on, we have to—HEY! Wait for me!"

Nya rounds the corner, following Cole, only to slam right into him. The Black Ninja stands stunned, arms stretched protectively behind him and around Nya. Before Nya can ask why, one of the goons goes skidding along the asphalt. Another crashes down into a dumpster from above, and a third tries to escape down an alley only to be hit with a smoke bomb.

Cole and Nya exchange a look before glancing upwards, finding a single individual standing on the rooftops, silhouetted against the night sky. They toss another smoke bomb, cutting off another group of fleeing army members. They then move for a proper strike, but—

"Hey, you!" Cole calls with an immense lack of tact, making Nya wince. The figure turns to face them, seeming confused, then jumps down into the light of the street lamps. The moment they hit the ground, Nya steps back, a hand flying to her mouth.

"…w-wait, is that…?"

"A pink ninja?!" Cole gasps, jaw dropped. The ninja in question stands to attention, hands on his hips.

"Hey, it's fuchsia, actually—"

A Shark Army member runs up behind the Fuchsia Ninja; Cole moves to warn him, but Fuchsia simply sticks his fist out, slamming it into the thug's face. The thug slumps to the ground; Nya whistles.

"I know you've probably got some questions, but we can save that for later!" Fuchsia exclaims, pulling a long baton out from behind him. "These Shark guys have been harassing people all up and down this street, asking about some green-eyed kid named Lloyd Garmadon."

More common thugs pour out from the alleyways. Fuchsia wastes no time in jabbing his baton into one of their stomachs, pushing them backwards into the rest. They fall like bowling pins, all while Cole and Nya shared horrified looks with one another.

"Wait a second," Cole says, hands shaking. "The Shark Army is looking for Lloyd?!"

"Yeah." Fuchsia spins and ducks under a mace, swinging his baton upwards and into the chin of a goon. "From what I've overheard, they tracked him into the city, he's Garmadon's actual son, and Garmadon wants him for whatever reason."

 Fuchsia's brow furrows, lips pursed.

"And knowing what everyone else does about Garmadon, it can't be for anything good."

Nya winces—she hasn't even met Lloyd, but just by him being Garmadon's son alone, on top of everything else the boys have said about him, it could have disastrous consequences should he join up with the Shark Army.  And if even the lowest ranked members of the army are scouring about for one little boy, and Garmadon's not even in the realm anymore, then that means…

"General Number One gave the order," Nya realizes, gritting the words through her teeth. They go unheard by anyone else, as Fuchsia's still busy fending off the slowly thinning horde of foes, and Cole's already jumped in looking for a piece of the action.

"Save some of 'em for us at least!" Cole calls, drawing his hammer. He works himself into a spiral, whacking it into any unfortunate fools that drift too close. Fuchsia actually laughs at that, catching two goons with his baton and pushing them in Cole's direction.

"By all means, go ahead! I wouldn't want to hog all the fun."

Cole grins, halting his spin to instead pull his hammer over his shoulders, holding it like a baseball bat. The two goons scream as they go tumbling into Cole's line of fire, howling as Cole knocks them clear across the street. They crash into a dumpster; Cole whoops while Fuchsia throws up his arms in celebration.

"Okay, wait, wait, wait!" Nya exclaims, frantically poking at her bracelet. How can they just fight without analyzing the situation?! “We got a ping about the Shark Activity earlier, and—"

"Oh! Yeah, that was, uh, me, actually," says Fuchsia, shrugging as he ducks under the swing of a chainsaw. "I was trying to wait around for help, but these guys were about to start attacking the arcade, so—yeah. I may have jumped the gun a bit.”

Fuchsia shrugs with a wide grin, yelping as he swerves away from a swinging morning star. He glances up—Private Puffer whines as he draws his weapon back, Jelly and Crusty running up to give him backup. They size up the weird trio of ninja and already can deduce that it's probably not going to end well for them.

"Ugh, I still can't believe Angler Goon and Four-Eyes lost the kid—now we're out here cleaning up their mess!" complains Crusty, snapping his claws into the air. Jelly shakes his head.

"Especially after that twerp ruined my mech! I spent months on that thing!"

"Well, we gotta find him…!" Puffer covers his head and ducks as one of their fellow crew is thrown over them and into a wall, courtesy of Cole. "If 32 doesn't kill us, Number One will…!"

"Or one of these ninja," adds Crusty, wincing when a fishbowl-headed goon sails straight into the sidewalk. A sharp 'SHING!' rings out, cuing the Shark Squad to whip their heads towards the sound. They find the supposed Lightning Ninja drawing not nunchucks, but two seemingly harmless sticks. Jelly can't help but snort at the sight; Nya just smirks beneath her mask.

"All right, I’ll ask questions later. This…is gonna be fun."

Crusty and Puffer both lunge forward with their weapons; Jelly pulls his blasters from his holsters and opens fire. Nya laughs, twirling around and opening her twin silver fans, deflecting the blasts easily enough. Cole and Fuchsia divert left and right, Cole taking on Crusty and Fuchsia tripping up Puffer.

"Look alive, everyone!" Cole calls, swinging his hammer and slamming down on one of Crusty's claws. Fuchsia nods as he backflips, twirling his baton and knocking back Puffer's morning star. Puffer whimpers and throws it out again; Fuchsia twists his baton, a loud click echoing out, and pulls it apart. Puffer only has time to gasp for a second before Fuchsia blocks the morning star head on this time, now armed with two tonfa.

"Yeah, nice!" Nya exclaims. She slides under more blasts from Jelly, switching to her spear and tossing it across the street. Jelly ducks, only for the spear to still hit his wrist, knocking the blaster out of his grip and onto the ground. Nya zips over, knocking it away with her foot, then turns and blocks a punch from her left. Jelly grunts, raising his hand still with a blaster. Nya huffs, spiraling around to flip the guy and wrenching the blaster right out of his grip.

It slides gracelessly down the road, and straight into a gutter drain. Jelly whips back towards Nya, face aghast.

"Oh, come on—!"

Nya jumps forward and plants a foot into his chest, knocking him backward just enough for her to retrieve her spear again. Smiling, she goes to see how the others are doing, only to find Cole somewhat struggling with Crusty.

"C—I mean, uh, Black, are you good?!"

"Y-Yeah," Cole insists, even as he strains against Crusty's claws. "I'm just slightly at a disadvantage without the Scythe…haven't had enough practice with my hammer solo."

"Guess you should've trained more instead of eating floor pizza, huh?"

"….you guys are never going to let that go, are you? ARGH!"

Crusty nearly pushes Cole to the ground, claws inches away from nicking Cole's face. Cole grunts, desperately trying to throw the guy off, but he's at too awkward of an angle. His face then bursts into surprise as a smoke bomb erupts above them, surrounding Crusty's head but leaving Cole unscathed.

Fuchsia darts by with a salute and a wink, then spins around a light pole to throw himself back at Puffer. Puffer screams and ducks, but Fuchsia snags Puffer's hat with the tip of a tonfa, dragging him along for the ride. Cole grins, using Crusty's confusion to pull away from him and roll towards the ground. Crusty falls forward, his arms hitting the pavement. Cole sweeps his legs around in a breakdancing move before bursting into Spinjitzu, spiraling into Crusty and sending him flying.

"Oh, cool," sighs Fuchsia. He yelps as he ducks under a kick from an enraged Jelly, along with sliding away from Nya chasing after Puffer with her spear. Fuchsia blinks, then sticks out his foot to trip Puffer. Puffer wails on his way down, stopped only by Nya grabbing the back of his jacket. He gulps.

"Toss him!" Cole calls, already readying his hammer for a home run. Puffer pleads within an inch of his life; Nya and Fuchsia both grab him by the jacket and haul him upwards. Cole rolls forward, using the momentum to put all the power into his swing…and thus knocks Puffer straight into Jelly.

"Admiral, look out!" squeaks Puffer to no avail, the both of them crashing into a pile, knocked out cold. Nya whoops while Fuchsia laughs, both of them sharing a high five. They stop when the ground shakes behind them, whirling around to find Crusty back at it again. He snaps his claws forward; Fuchsia jumps back but Nya misses the beat, Jay's gi caught in Crusty's clutches.

"Argh, no, let me GO!" Nya hisses, whacking at Crusty with her spear as best she can. Cole grimaces, really wishing he wasn't grounded from his Scythe, and makes a run for Nya. Fuchsia's faster, pulling cherry bombs out of his sleeves and tossing them towards Crusty's back. Crusty drops Nya, Nya rolls away, and Fuchsia puts his baton back together.

"All right, come on big guy, pick on someone a little closer to your own size!"

"That would be Black, though," Nya moans from the ground, Cole assisting her back up. Fuchsia rolls his eyes, but nonetheless pits himself against Crusty. He throws some more smoke bombs, but Crusty jumps through the cloud, landing in front of Fuchsia and snarling.

"I've had enough playing around with you!" Crusty yells, slamming a fist into the street and cracking concrete. Fuchsia gulps. "All we were doing was just asking around for that kid! We weren't even gonna hurt anybody…this time, anyway. Direct orders from Number One."

Nya raises an eyebrow at that, but Fuchsia stands his ground, baton at the ready.

"Maybe so, but if that kid really is who you think he is, then you're not going to do anything good with him!"

"He is a hindrance to the plans of Lord Garmadon , and a threat to the common people. Either he must be dealt with directly…or assimilated into the Shark Army. There is no other option."

Before Fuchsia can retort, Crusty charges forward, immediately grabbing him by the throat. Fuchsia can barely pry the pinchers away from anything important, but dangling up off the ground still isn't doing him any favors.

Nya throws her fans, clonking Crusty in the back of the head. She readies her spear, not entirely sure of what she's going to do with it, but stands her ground as Crusty turns unto her. Fuchsia still hangs loosely in Crusty's grip, feebly kicking at his chest. Crusty swings his free claw at Nya before she can counter, nearly driving her into the ground. She wilts—she can't hold off against him for long.

"Hey, Crab Cakes!" Cole heckles, rushing right for Crusty in a funnel of Spinjitzu. "Try this on for size!"

Cole stops spinning, launching his hammer straight at Crusty. Crusty moves away from Nya to duck,  allowing Nya to jab him with the sharp end of the spear.

"AUGH?! HEY—!"

From there, he clutches his now aching side and tosses Fuchsia into the air, allowing Cole an opening to pick his hammer back up and uppercut it right into Crusty's jaw. Crusty yelps as he goes flying, landing perfectly on top of the still unconscious Jelly and Puffer.

"WAAAAAAAAA!" wails Fuchsia on his way down, still screaming even when he lands in Cole's arms. When he finally catches the amused way Cole's staring at him, Fuchsia coughs and abruptly turns away.

"Ahahaha. Um, well…nice catch?"

"Thanks. You weren't so bad yourself out there," Cole says, smiling with his eyes. "You're okay, right?"

Fuchsia blinks, hoping his blush can't be seen behind his mask. "I, er, uh…yeah! Fine! Totally fine! Super fine. Fine as fine can be!"

Fuchsia hops and flips out of Cole's hold, smiling sheepishly.

"But yeah, thanks to both of you for coming out to help me. Good to know that the Secret Ninja Force hasn't gone totally underground since Garmadon left."

Nya walks up beside Cole, arms folded behind her head. "I dunno, you seemed pretty capable of handling yourself, even before we got here."

"Honestly?" Fuchsia rubs the back of his head. "I wasn't even fighting at my best, really—both because I'm kinda undertrained…and because I didn't use my powers."

Cole and Nya both gape in response, glancing at one another.

"Wait, wait, wait….are you saying you're an Elemental Master?!"

"Yup! Unlocked my true potential and everything!" Fuchsia beams proudly, although there's a hint of sadness too. "My powers are a bit…situational though, so I try to make up for it with weapons and physical skill. Still got a long way to go, though."

He looks at both of them, something questioning in his eye.

"You're both Elemental Masters too, right? So this shouldn't be that surprising…"

"I am," Cole says readily, pointing to the emblem on his gi. "I'm the Elemental Master of Earth."

"I…er…well…" Nya stammers while looking at the ground. Fuchsia raises an eyebrow.

"It's okay," he says quickly, Nya's head snapping up. "I know you're not the real Master of Lightning. But he must trust you very much to let you borrow his gi."

"Yeaaaaah," Nya says, totally not thinking about how she basically swiped it from the clean laundry.

"Enough about us though," Cole declares, stepping towards Fuchsia and nearly towering over him. Fuchsia gulps. "What about you? What's your element? Who trained you? How do you have so much knowledge?! And how did you unlock your true potential—I need the secret so I can beat out my brothers."

"Whoa whoa whoa, down boy," Fuchsia says, gently poking Cole back with one finger. He smirks at Cole's indignant expression. "Isn't one of the first rules of being a ninja to stay secret? If I tell you everything, you'll figure out who I am probably quicker than I'd like…"

Cole squints, tilting his head. "Are you saying that I know you…?"

Fuchsia clams up, immediately turning away. "…you've seen me before, at the very least."

As the gears churn in Cole's head, Fuchsia directs his attention back to Nya.

"Anyway, if you're really desperate to learn more, you should ask your Sensei. I'm actually a little surprised that he hasn't mentioned more about the Derivative Elements to you guys, or how to tell Elemental Masters apart from others…"

Fuchsia sighs, folding his arms behind his head.

“…especially since he’s the one that taught me all that!”

That just raises more questions than answers. Nya’s eyes sparkle at the very idea of more potential conspiracy theories, while Cole moves to shoot out another series of questions. This time, he's stopped by Fuchsia suddenly pulling a pink camellia out of his sleeve, finding it thrust into his face.

"Should we have the fortune to meet again, I'll be sure to answer more of your inquiries, promise. But I can't stay for too much longer—it is a school night, after all."

Cole, stunned silent, accepts the flower. Fuchsia beams in response, saluting before cartwheeling backward and propelling himself up onto the roof of the arcade. Nya steps next to Cole, giving him a smug look. Cole huffs and refuses to look her in the eye.

He instead glances back up at the fleeing Fuchsia Ninja, who calls down to them one more time.

"Oh, and just as a small word of recommendation before I go…" Fuchsia suddenly becomes much more serious, clenching his fists. "—if he really is someone that has the Shark Army so desperate…then you should stay far, far away from Lloyd Garmadon. I'd hate to see you guys get hurt."

The wall clock rings out nine times, and Lloyd's a little surprised that it's so late already. He's had way too much fun today. Eating cookies, drinking tea, talking an old lady's ear off, hearing some of her stories in turn, watching her snap at potential customers yet treating Lloyd like royalty…it's probably the most entertaining day Lloyd's had in months. And, ironically, one of the less stressful, despite it all beginning with being hunted by the Shark Army.

He doesn't really want to leave, and he's pretty confident this lady would lend him shelter for at least one night…but, he's gotta get a move on.

Especially when the root of all his plans sits right before him. It's gotta be fate finally patting him on the back.

To anyone else, it's just a drawing of Ninjago with various "artistic" splotches smeared all over it. It's also not the only one on the wall—there's a whole smattering of them, not one of them being more interesting than another.

It's just, that this one in particular, well…

It's got the symbol for 'Serpentine' on it, along with five subtly pinpointed locations.

Lloyd bites his lip—he could bother asking why Mystake's got something like this displayed like a movie poster, but he doesn't want to draw attention to the fact that he can read it. He could poke around for general information about the snakes (she's gotta be old enough to know something) and maybe it would come up in the conversation, but then she'd ask why he wanted to know. She's too smart to believe 'curiosity' is the reason alone. He could also just steal it and make a run for it in the ultimate bad boy move…but, she fed him and saved him and was nice to him. He…can't do that.

But, he needs that information. If he could just copy the symbols and the map, he can always decipher it later.

Mystake's currently restocking her shelves. The shop itself closed an hour ago, but she's made no move to sweep him out with her broom…yet. Still, she would definitely catch anything shifty he could attempt. He needs to get her out of the room…

Lloyd drums his fingers on the counter, the gears churning in his mind.

And then, in a split moment when Mystake's back is turned, Lloyd's hand twitches, knocking a single tea cup off the counter and straight to the floor.

"Aaaah!" he yells in perfect timing after the shatter rings out (totally planned, and not because the sound was louder than anticipated). Mystake immediately whips her head over her shoulder, rounding the corner to inspect the damage. Lloyd stares down at the glass, guilt seeping into his voice. It's easy to make it sound genuine, when it is.

"I-I'm sorry! I must've started to doze off and my arm…!"

"It's fine, dear, that tea cup is a dime a dozen. Easily replaced." Mystake carefully steps over and around the glass, gently taking Lloyd's arm for inspection. "You weren't hurt, were you?"

Something about the way she says that strikes a chord with Lloyd. He sniffs, burying down his bubbling feelings.

"No, I'm okay. Here, I can clean up the mess—"

"I don't think so—you stay right there, I don't want you stepping on the glass. Just let me put some proper shoes on and grab the dust pan…"

Lloyds nods compliantly, watching quietly as Mystake shuffles into the back of shop with a mission in mind. The moment she's out of eyeshot, Lloyd swipes up a flyer promoting the shop, flips it over, grabs the nearest pen, and scribbles down the contents of the poster like his life depends on it. He hopes he doesn't mess up any of the symbols—his penmanship is shaky enough—but it's hard to forget the way his mother pounded the forms of the ancient symbols into his head.

He'd always scoffed when she insisted how important learning ancient languages were, but now…

…well, she can have the win this time.

With the map as perfectly copied as it can be—thank you, forgery class at Darkley's—Lloyd checks the back again. He can heard Mystake humming, meaning she must be on her way back. He hops off his stool, balancing precariously when he just barely misses landing on a glass shard. He holds his breath and jumps as far as he can…which isn't very far, but it's close enough for him to reach the door safely.

He throws a hand out to grab the handle…but, guilt seizes him once again. Curse his weak heart.

By the time Mystake returns equipped to deal with the mess, she's only half surprised to find Lloyd gone. However, what is shocking is the fact the fallen teacup now sits pristinely back on the counter, as if it hadn’t ever broken in the first place. At this, Mystake smiles wryly, gingerly taking the cup into her hands.

"Just like his grandfather," she sighs fondly, briefly lost in memories of a time long since gone by. But as she reminisces, Mystake can't help but notice that her pen is now out of place…and that one of her flyers is missing. Strange, but not perplexing—maybe Lloyd just wanted to doodle while he waited.

But then, why the hasty departure?

…eyes narrowed, Mystake looks a little closer—traces of ink exist where they hadn't before, strewn hastily with the urgency of someone who knows they're doing something wrong.

And from there, she sees the Map of Dens she thought she so carefully hid in plain sight.

"…just like his parents, too, I see."

Mystake frowns, less angry and more worried about the turmoil that is sure to follow. She hurries to the door, hoping to catch Lloyd before he's too far gone…

But Lloyd Garmadon has vanished completely into the dark of the night.

Chapter Text

Monday morning comes in like Vulcanell—imposing, unnerving, with a roar, and hot. Ninjago has yet to shake off the throes of summer weather, but it doesn't stop the ninja from preparing for what is sure to be a taxing day. Between the early gong and the earlier howling—not crowing, howling—of the wild mountain chickens, everyone has had some semblance of a rude awakening.

…Except for Zane, who has been awake for two hours ahead of everyone else preparing the morning meal.

When Jay drags himself into the dining area, with the sleep barely rubbed out of his eyes, he finds a plate of a fully balanced breakfast thrust into his possession. It’s all accompanied by a very cheery 'Good Morning!'. He rolls his gaze up; Zane beams down at him, sporting a frilly pink apron.

Jay blinks. He's not awake enough to unpack this.

He slinks into his spot at the table, just as Nya and Cole appear looking twice as exhausted. Cole yawns loud and powerful, while Nya through bleary eyes pokes at the bracelet on her wrist. Zane greets them in a similar manner as Jay; Cole nods through yet another yawn, not even rejoicing over the glorious spread of food. Nya flops into her seat and bemoans being awake so early after such a late night.

"…I'm glad we were able to test the communication system last night, but I don't know if I can handle going back to school while knowing the army's after some punk kid…" Cole says through yet another yawn. Nya grunts in response, running a scan.

"There hasn't been any noticeable Shark Activity so far today, so maybe they'll at least take the day to lick their wounds and we can just focus on school…"

"And if not, maybe that Fuchsia Ninja will be on patrol again…" remarks Cole, mind fleetingly drifting back to the pink camellia. Jay just makes a face across the table, aggressively sticking a fork into his pancakes.

"I still think it's unfair that Sensei let you two go out and no one else! I mean, my clothes got to go out on a mission before me…!"

Nya snorts while Cole shakes his head, his mouth now full of waffle.

"It wasn't that big of a deal, just a few thugs even Nya could handle—"

"And what's THAT supposed to mean?!"

"—but I do have some more questions for Sensei. Has anyone seen him yet?"

Zane drifts by with a plate for himself, shaking his head. "He said he had somewhere urgent to visit this morning. And he said if we tried to skip school, he'd extend our grounding."

Zane's eyes suddenly become intense; Jay and Nya shudder.

"But of course, we would never dream of doing that, correct?"

Cole groans in protest, making Zane frown when Jay and Nya seem to sulk as well.

"I see we're all on the same page about today," Jay remarks, which Cole clarifies when he slides his headphones on and starts blaring Weekend Whip. Zane puts his hands on his hips.

"…come on everyone, today is not going to be that bad."

He slightly wishes to retract that statement when Nya gives him a very pointed look.

"…Nya, are you not excited to be joining the Student Council?"

"I was, until you told me I have to give a speech in front of the whole school!" Nya whines, grabbing at her head. "What if I mess up, what if say something wrong, what if I make a fool of myself…oh my goodness, I still remember my awful Student of the Month photo—"

Cole suddenly spits out his drink, whipping off his headphones. Jay leans to his right to avoid the splash zone.

"Hooooly cow, are you talking about the month of February last year?!" he nearly screams, with Nya sulkily nodding. "AHAHAHAHA, that WAS you, wasn't it?! You looked like you had swallowed a lemon while stubbing your toe or something—!"

Nya hisses and punches rapidly at Cole's arm, doing little damage, as Cole cackles away. Zane sighs, turning towards Jay instead.

"What about you, Jay? We are not grounded anymore, meaning we can go to the warehouse, where there will certainly be plenty of ways to build upon the Robotics Club,  and you have classes with Nya—"

"Okay, sure, but I'm still gonna get ostracized by everyone else for absolutely no reason!" Jay exclaims, throwing up his hands. "And we all get to deal with Chen for yet another year! And sit by the garbage for lunch! Hooray!"

Jay grumpily takes a bite into his food at last, brightening up when it's as delicious as expected, but continues to pout. Zane slumps, shoulders hanging low. He knows they all haven't had the finest of high school experiences, but this is going to be their first and last year all together. He'd at least like to think that maybe this time will be different…

"…so you are all telling me there is not a single one of us excited for school? Besides myself?"

Jay and Cole violently shake their heads; Nya unsurely waves her hand around.

And then, Kai kicks in the doors to the dining hall, dressed to the nines in his finest shade of red, sunglasses on his head, hitting a high note that only dolphins can hear. Jay nearly tumbles out of his chair, Cole gives him a ghastly look, and Nya looks as though she could pass out right then and there.

"Who's ready to DOMINATE TODAY?!" Kai blares, dancing his way to the end of table. "Ugh, I'm SO ready for this! Today is gonna be a great day, I feel it in my bones!"

Zane dares to look hopeful. "Yes, Kai, that's the spirit!"

"Yeah! I've been brushing up on what's hip this season, so that I can blend in seamlessly with the popular kids! I've got my smoldering stare all nice and practiced, a bit of hair gel to keep the locks looking luscious, and by the end of the semester I might even have a girlfriend!"

Kai drops the shades onto his eyes, leaning back in his chair with a smirk.

"Everyone is going to love me! New year, new Kai! This is my YEAR, baby! Everything’s gonna come up fiyaaaaaaaaah!!”

Zane…retracts his previous shreds of hope. Maybe Garmadon will do them all a favor and wipe out the school today. They're all doomed anyway.

Jay falls forward, forehead smacking into the table. Nya blinks, immediately turning to Cole.

"I need you to knock me into a coma for a straight week until he gets over this, please."

Cole sucks in his cheeks, shaking his head.

"Only if you do it for me first."

Gatherings in the auditorium—a school tradition that is either revered for its avoidance of actually being in class in turn for something different, or dreaded for how long the announcements take and how monotone the speakers are. Still, students are in a buzz as they greet old friends unseen since the beginning of summer, showing off new threads, swapping class schedules, or trash talking the poor hardworking teachers.

Jay sits towards the door, ready to make a quick escape as soon as possible. Cole sits towards the back, where he'll be least likely to get yelled at for having his headphones on. Zane sits in the front, knowing he'll have to get up and speak. Kai sits in the middle, surrounded by the most people. Nya sits by Kai, knowing she's going to have to reign him in.

"Good morning, students, and welcome to another fulfilling year at Ninjago City High!" greets the principal at the podium, Mr. Menloi. "We'll make today's proceedings rather short, as while normally I like to give the incoming freshmen a nice warm welcome…the truth is, we don't actually have a lot of them this year."

Murmurs immediately brush through the crowd; any freshman that are lurking among them glance around nervously, wondering what this means for them.

"As I'm sure all of you know, towards the end of last semester, we had to endure a city-wide attack by Lord Garmadon. The city was poorly underprepared for the attack, so we've made a few changes this year to ensure your utmost safety in the event of his return. We're working with the Ninjago City News Network's Garmadon 24/7 surveillance plan, and our school is rigged with alarms that will go off in the event of an attack. When this happens, you will all head to the designated safe rooms, until the all-clear is given by the Secret Ninja Force, who have dedicated themselves to handling Garmadon."

The students cheer in favor of the ninja; said ninja, however, look increasingly worried.

"In the event of a disaster that is not considered a Class Garmadon threat, but still higher than a code red, we will still head for the safe rooms, but this time we only need clearance from the NCPD to be released. We highly doubt something of the sort will occur, but given that we weren't prepared for Garmadon, we also want to make sure we're prepared for anything else. Instructions for more specific events will be supplied within your Student Handbooks on the following pages…"

Nya winces, nudging slightly at Kai. Kai turns from where he's giving finger guns at someone to give her a questioning look.

"Garmadon's attack really did a number on the city…I don't think I've ever seen them so thorough with safety plans before."

"Yeah, well, when your city gets utterly wrecked by an unprecedented ancient evil warlord, I'd be quick to cover my ass in the case of an incident too. Just imagine the amount of insurance people are throwing money into."

Nya makes a face; that is absolutely not what she meant.

"I know I managed to get basically all of the city to safely last time, but…" Nya pulls her feet onto the seat, hugging her knees to her chest. "What if next time, someone gets really hurt? What if…we can't save everyone?"

"We…can't save everyone," Kai says, suddenly looking grave. Nya's jaw drops, gaping at him. "The most we can ever do is what we can, and sometimes that means choosing the many over one. Sometimes that means choosing one over many. We're just, four, five, maybe six people…and even with ancient weapons and incredible mechs and elemental powers…we can't do more than one thing at a time."

Kai's eyes lower, frowning deeply.

"We honestly got really lucky last time. We can't take that for granted."

Nya takes a deep breath, centering herself. There's no use thinking about the what ifs until they happen, after all.

"…and also as a result of the attack, many of this year's would-be freshman have instead opted to go to Darkley's Boarding School, in the hopes of seeking a career with the Shark Army," Menloi continues, even over the vast booing of the crowd. "It is regrettable that we will miss out on welcoming such promising students into our little community, but at the very least we can celebrate those that are still here. And towards the top of that list is our very own Student Council President, who will be saying a few words before inducting the new Vice President of the Council."

Menloi gestures towards Zane, who rises and immediately starts making his way over. There's little applause besides modest clapping from Nya, Kai, and Jay, and loud whoops given by Cole. Zane reaches the podium, shuffling his papers, and addresses a student body that doesn't even like him.

"Greetings, newcomer freshman and fellow returning students. I am your Student Council President, Zane Julien. I, too, will be keeping my speech brief, as I'd hate to keep us any longer from getting a jump start on our classes today."

Jay groans off to the side. Murmurs of annoyance run through the crowd. Zane ignores it.

"As this is my senior year, I have big plans to do as much as I can within my power to make this school a better place. It's not a lot of time work with, but with my new team in the Student Council, I feel as though we can make a lot of things possible. Especially with the individual I've chosen to be our new Vice President. Presenting…Nya Smith!"

"YEAAAAAH!" Kai yells, embarrassingly loud as he slaps Nya on the back. She hides her face until she's several steps away from Kai, then shyly waves at anyone she happens by. The reception is several degrees warmer than what Zane's was. When she reaches the podium, she stares at the ocean of judgmental teenagers and gulps. She glances at Kai; he gives her a thumbs up. She glances at Cole, who's actually removed his headphones to listen in. She glances at Jay, who reminds her to smile.

She does, and it's easy when she anchors her attention on him and no one else.

“…hi guys!” Nya starts strongly, punctuated with a laugh and a wave. “I, uh, I’ve only known about my Vice Presidential status for about a week, but, regardless, I’m looking forward to this upcoming year!”

The statement is followed by uproarious cheers; Nya laughs nervously again, folding her hands in front of her to keep from fidgeting.

"As Zane said, there's a few big events in the works for this year, and we really hope to move forward with them. I know it's been hard pushing anything fun through, and after the Garmadon Attack we really need something good to look forward to. I vow to do everything in my power to make these ideas a reality!"

She pumps a fist into the air; a chorus of cheers rings out. She smiles a little wider, settling into her role a little easier.

"So let me end off by saying, welcome to another eventful year at Ninjago City High, and remember, STICK TOGETHER!"

Nya tugs her new backpack higher onto her shoulders as Zane leads her down the halls of Ninjago City High. It's a little hard not to get mixed up when there's so many scrambling freshman trying to figure out where everything is—was she like this last year?—but Zane's got his usual path memorized. He leads her to an oak door at the end of the hall, smiling as he gestures to the "Student Council Room" label.

"Wow…okay, so this is really happening, huh?" Nya looks away to hide the fact she's gulping. "I'm really gonna become the Vice President of the school, just like that? There's not like, some kind of vote or something…?"

Zane sighs, running his hand down his face. "…there's supposed to be. But there is so little attention paid to the council that the amount of votes we would receive are grossly disproportionate to the actual student body itself. It is part of the reason why I was able to secure the position of President, despite…a lack of public preference. It basically boils down to whomever happens to be interested."

"…aw, Zane—"

"But it does not matter now." Zane smiles again, eyes bright. "With this being my senior year, I want to make sure the school will be left in good hands when I graduate.  And I truly do believe in your potential, Nya.”

Nya softens, confidence raised a bit by Zane's speech. With the hopes that she'll be able to win over whoever awaits her within, Nya grabs the handle and pushes the door open.

She's greeted to just about the scene she expected: several students gathered around a long table in a wide room, some on their phones, some exchanging class schedules, some eating food, some getting last minute sleep. Only a few look primed and ready, but most curiously…there's no one seated at the head of the table where the leaders are supposed to be.

Sure, she and Zane haven't taken their seats yet, but they're still three people short…?

“…so, uh, Zane?"

"Yes?" Zane asks, tilting his head. Nya narrows her eyes and gestures at the suspiciously empty seats. 

"Why are none of the other main members here…?

Zane pointedly looks out the window. A lack of eye contact is never a good sign, especially from Zane. Nya frowns deeper.

“Did I…forget to mention that more than just the Vice President quit this year…?”

Nya’s jaw drops.

“Your whole cabinet abandoned you?!”

Zane bites his lip. “Well, when you phrase it as such…yes. But at least everyone else from last year is still here.”

The council members that have gathered wave at Nya. Nya smiles weakly, waving back.

“Ooookay, so we’re missing the secretary, the treasurer, and the scribe then, right—?”

“Nonsense! You’ve got your scribe right here!”

Zane and Nya trade a look as one girl stands from the gathered crowd, blowing red and black bangs out of her face. Her boots clunks against the floor as she hurries to greet them, eagerly shaking Nya’s hand.

“Name’s Antonia Sawyer! As a budding member of the school newspaper club, I figured landing the role of school scribe might flex out my writing skills a bit.” Antonia releases Nya’s hand and pulls a pencil from behind her ear, winking at Zane. “And with another potential Garmadon attack, and some wicked cool ninja surveying the city, this school year is going to be full of wild scoops!”

Zane and Nya nervously trade a look as Antonia leans closer.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any insider information, would you? I have been told I have a nose for this sort of stuff…”

“Nope, I am just a teenager,” Zane responds too quickly, with Nya sighing and shaking her head.

“Eugh, whatever…it’s nice to meet you, Antonia. I’m sure you’ll be a great addition to the council.”

Antonia beams, tilting her head. “Likewise!”

She then puts her hands on her hips, frowning.

“And I don’t know what you guys were talking about earlier, cuz I thought the new secretary was already here…he definitely arrived before I did.”

Zane and Nya look on in surprise—the other council members look back with equal confusion. It’s just when Nya opens her mouth to say something does she feel a sudden tap on her shoulder. She turns around, expecting Zane…but finds a burgundy-haired boy with pink eyes standing behind her.

She yells and nearly jumps out of her skin, stumbling into Zane. Excellent first impression, Miss Vice President.

“…I’m sorry, I have a tendency to creep up on people unexpectedly. I didn’t mean to scare you,” the boy laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. “My name’s Jesse Marvell, and I was looking to be the new secretary, if you'll have me.”

“You seem a bit…sneaky to be a secretary,” Zane says bluntly. Jesse sticks out his tongue.

“Aw come on, don’t be like that! I really can’t help it! But besides that, I am pretty good with people, and organizing things, and memorizing stuff, honest! And, you never know…”

Jesse spins around once, stopping only to strike a pose.

“…I just might surprise you!”

Zane and Nya trade a contemplative glance with one another before finally nodding.

“Well, we might as well give you a chance…you’ve certainly got the enthusiasm, at least,” says Nya, a little more fondly this time. Jesse grins back, excited.

“Thank you for giving me the chance, VP! I won’t let you down!”

But then, he gets a closer look at Nya, expression turning into one of quiet shock.

"Oh…your eyes…!"

Nya blinks, tilting her head. "My eyes? What about them?"

"Ah, um, n-nothing. Just thought they were pretty, I guess…" Jesse coughs, quickly looking away. "…not a lot of people have gray eyes that shade, you know."

"I suppose not," Nya says with a shrug. "Not very many people tend to notice, either."

"…I suppose not, indeed," Jesse murmurs to himself, just as Zane takes his seat at the head of the table to officially start the meeting.

He picks up the papers waiting for him, scanning them carefully. Everything seems to be in order, except for the absence of the last key position.

"I suppose that means our first order of business this year will be securing a treasurer—without someone managing our funds, we won't have the backing power to launch any of the events we plan. Anyone here interested?"

Ten blank stares respond with silence. Antonia and Jesse cough awkwardly.

"…that is about what I expected."

Nya sighs—she's certainly going to have her work cut out for her. She asks Zane for the papers so she can look too, but right when he hands them to her, there's a knock on the door. Curious, Nya steps over and opens the door again. There stands a short girl with white hair pulled into twin braids, wide eyes shimmering with hope.

"Well, hello," Nya greets. The girl 'eeps', looking about ready to run away at a moment's notice, but stays in place, despite the trembling of her lip.

"Th-this is…this is the, uh, student council room, r-right…?" the girl stammers, staring at her feet. "I-I was told it was at the end of the hall, s-so…"

Zane rises from his seat again, gesturing for the girl to enter.

"Yes, you are in the right place. I am Zane, the president. Were you looking to join?"

"Yes!" the girl exclaims before recoiling back again. "I, um, I don't expect to do anything in particular, b-but I was hoping there was at least one spot still open…"

"You wanna be our treasurer then?" asks Jesse, suddenly looming over the girl. The girl shrieks and cowers behind Antonia. Antonia glares at Jesse; Jesse grins and shrugs sheepishly. "I told you guys—!"

"In…any case," Antonia sighs, coaxing the girl back out into the light. "I don't think I've seen you around school before, kid."

The new girl shakes her head, recoiling into herself.

“N-No, I…this is my first day of high school; I’m a freshman, and I…I…oh…”

Nya laughs softly, leading the girl into a chair so it's easier to be eye to eye. Somehow, the girl appears even smaller now, but nonetheless, Nya can look her in the eye better.

"Listen, it's going to be okay! I know my first day of high school was pretty overwhelming too, but you're very brave for coming all this way, you know."

The girl perks up a bit, a little more comfortable.

"So, what's your name, kid?"

The girl beams, pointing eagerly at herself. "I'm Harumi Hutchins! And…I wouldn't mind being the treasurer. Are you sure I'll be the right person for the job? I mean, I do kind of help out with finances on my parent's farm, but…"

"Well, we won't know until we try, right?" Nya shrugs. "Either way, it'll be a good opportunity to gain some experience! Have a little more faith in yourself!"

Harumi sits up a little straighter, nodding eagerly. With the mood lifted now that a full council has been assembled, Jesse claps his hands together before fumbling about in his backpack.

"Well, with introductions out of the way, let's get right down to business, shall we? We've still got like, forty-five minutes to kill, anyway…"

Jesse whips out a fat stack of papers, spreading them out over the table. He gestures at the topmost two, with Zane, Nya, Antonia, Harumi, and the rest of the council gathering around to observe. He puts his hand on the one of the pages and frowns.

"I got these from the old secretary. They're ideas that were left over from last semester, being the planning stages for a few events that never got to see the light of day. As Nya mentioned earlier, this school is in serious need of a morale boost, and I think doing a couple of these might be just the ticket we need."

"We were actually hoping to do the field trip to Mega Monster Amusement Park and a talent show in October," says one of the council members towards the back. "Those were the two ideas we'd been pushing for the hardest, but—"

"We didn't, and still don't, have the budget for each of them, and even if we did have the money, there are far better uses for it," Zane finishes, already rubbing his temples. This is an age-old debate he is not up for having once again. The council murmurs in response, the one who spoke up suddenly shrinking back.

"…and yeah, that's kind why we backed off on trying…"

Nya put a hand to her chin, pondering carefully.

"…well, let's think a little outside the box here. Instead of trying to get money for things we need, what if we sold things we don't need for money?"

She turns to Zane, a single finger pointed in the air.

"Isn't there all kinds of junk going to waste in the old metal shop room? It'd just be a start, but selling that could be a way to get a good nest egg going. We could also go around to all the classrooms and see if there's anything they could donate."

"Ooh, yeah!" exclaims Harumi, eyes lighting up. "There's actually a junkyard in the Eastern Province that's always looking for scrap and junk! They've got a good relationship with the school already, and they pay really well too for good parts!"

"I wouldn't mind getting into contact with them," says Jesse, excited now. "And we could also talk to the theater kids and drama class about props and setup for the talent show that we could borrow. That way, we wouldn't have to shell out a lot of cash to get it set up, and it could also make for a good project for them too!"

Antonia sits at the table, scribbling everything down as fast as she can. Once she catches up, she quickly turns towards Nya, a wide grin on her face.

"I could put an article in the school paper to gauge interest for the talent show, too! If enough people are vocal about it, then that'll make it easier to convince the faculty to pitch in! We could even maybe find some kind of sponsor!”

"And for the field trip, we could do a class competition to raise the money! We did something like that at my old school," explains Harumi. "Um, it's like, every grade that hits their goal will get to go no matter what, but whoever hits it first gets, like, a bonus of some kind! And if we’re able, we could do smaller prizes for second and third place too!"

"Ohoho, I love that idea! Everyone wins, but there's still that little bit of motivation too!" Nya exclaims, clapping her hands together. "Okay, in that case, we're going to have to divide up the work a bit! I need one group dedicated to gathering donated junk from the classrooms, and make sure to ask Professor Karlof about the stuff in the old metal shop."

"On it!" shouts a chorus of students, already sorting out which classrooms to hit up first. Nya nods, then turns to the next section of students.

"All right, then if Jesse can get in contact with that scrapyard, I'll need Harumi to keep track of the inventory we'll be selling along with what our estimated profits should be. Knowing that ahead of time will give us some haggling power, and we're going to need it!"

"No problem!" sing Jesse and Harumi, sharing a high five afterwards.

"Then we'll need two more teams: one that'll talk to the theater people about borrowing some of their props for the talent show, and one to get the faculty on board for the Mega Monster Amusement Park field trip. Once we complete these tasks, we can go from there."

"Yes, VP!" everyone currently without a task chimes, wasting no time in getting straight to work. Antonia even steps in to guide the faculty-convincing group, already having a few ideas of how to go about it. Nya smiles as everyone throws themselves into their work, spinning towards Zane with bright eyes.

"Wow, this is already a lot of fun! If we can get a lot of this sorted out by the end of week, we could already get a move on with the next project!"

She beams, clenching her fists in front of her.

"Not bad for my first day, right?"

"…not bad at all," Zane says with a bright grin, eye twitching and barely registering that he snapped his pencil in half just by clenching his fist. Nya doesn't notice either, immediately turning back to the council and barking out her next orders. Everyone listens so readily, and for first time in all of Zane's four years does he bear witness to the council actually coming together to make their dreams a reality.

It's everything he's always wanted, and all he had to do was not say anything at all.

By the time lunch rolls around, Jay has shockingly not been dunked into a trash can, but he knows it's only going to be a matter of time.

…on the other hand, he wonders if it’s because he's been hanging close to Kai for most of the day.

He doesn't know what Kai managed to discover in those Teen Idol magazines he's been pouring through the last month, but whatever it was seems to be paying off. Guys line the halls just to tell him 'hey!', girls swoon whenever he gives them a grin, and not a single person has heckled either of them about…well, anything they might deem worthy of teasing. Jay knows he's got at least five things that could be targeted, but as long as Kai's acting as some kind of bullying repellent, he's not going to bring anything up.

“Well, so far so good, I guess,” says Jay, cautiously optimistic even as he still keeps an eye out for ravenous cheerleaders while waiting to enter the cafeteria. Kai stands beside him without a care in the world, more than eager to get a piece of Zane's packed lunch. “Haven’t seen the business end of a trash can yet, so, definitely better than usual!”

“Quit your worrying! No one's going to bother you as long as you’re with me!”

Kai lowers his shades, frowning disapprovingly.

“…even though I know you can more than handle yourself.”

“Don’t look at me like that! You know exactly why I can’t fight back! I’m not like Cole, I don’t already have a reputation for being scrappy!” Jay puffs out his cheeks, glancing away. "And, once he and Zane graduate…you and Nya will be all I have left.”

“Well, that’s still an entire nine months away, so don’t fret about it just yet. You’re giving me gray hairs on the first day…”

“Says the guy who’s wearing sunglasses in a dimly lit school.”

“And?! The ladies love it!” Kai proceeds to turn a smoldering grin unto a pack of freshman girls, punctuated with a wink. They immediately dissolve into shrieks and giggles. Jay, indignant, also winks and smirks; the girls cease giggling and end up stuck in a coughing fit.

“…everyone is a critic,” Jay sneers as Kai breaks down cackling. “Whatever, you can have your mindless pack of fan girls. Nya is the only one I need to impress!”

“Pretty bold statement to make in front of her brother, Walker,” Kai says with a note of warning. Jay laughs and takes a few steps back, lest he be crushed by Kai’s intimidating glare. Kai eases up with a gentle smirk; Jay huffs, refusing to smile back, and enters the cafeteria.

He instantly regrets this decision.

Maintaining his status as bad luck magnet, Jay slams face first into a wall of leather jacket, which turns arounds to reveal none other than Chad Chen, because, why wouldn't it be him?! Naturally Jay is greeted by that all-too familiar sneer of a man who thinks very little of him, but even worse is that Kai's protective senses are going off next to him. Great, this isn't going to be pretty.

Kai's already got one foot in front of Jay and squared-up shoulders when Chen fully turns around. Chen's entourage pops up from seemingly nowhere, and Jay's stomach has started churning.

"So this is how you wanna start off the year, huh Walker?" Chen asks, loudly cracking his knuckles. His buddies snicker behind him; Maggie giggles, and Meghan just raises an eyebrow.

"N-NO, we don't have to start anything, really, let's just get some food and—"

"How many times have I told you to lay off my pleather?! I'm gonna need a whole new jacket with all the nerd germs you get all over it."

"You know what, sure, and I'll even pay for it, anything to make this stop—"

Kai slaps Jay upside the head, then gently nudges him right out of the conversation. He goes eye to eye with Chen; Chen's cronies 'oooooh' behind him while the girls start whispering to themselves.

"I think your spare change might be better spent on a new personality than a ton of fancy school jackets. What, afraid you'll forget how to spell your name without it being stamped all your clothes?"

"Bruuuuuh," heckles one of the boys behind Chen, Meghan stifling a laugh while Maggie just rolls her eyes. Chen recoils, putting a finger on Kai's chest and snarling.

"I believe I was talking to Walker and not you, chump."

"What, am I not good enough to pick on? Or do you just target those who can’t fight back, like a coward?"

Jay winces, tugging on Kai's jacket. "Kai, don't do this—!"

Chen growls and grips Kai's collar in his fist, but upon Jay's words registering he stops. Kai just stares with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait, wait, pause, did you just say…Kai?" Chen asks, recoiling from Jay and turning to Kai. Jay and Kai trade a look before Kai warily nods. "Kai?! As in, Kai Smith?!"

"Uhhh…yeah?" All of Kai's annoyance suddenly fizzles into confusion. "Do I…know you…?"

At this, Chen suddenly brightens up, abandoning Jay in exchange for clapping Kai on the back.

"Dude, it's me, Chad! Chad Chen! Remember, freshman year?"

Now it's Kai's turn to drop his jaw in shock. "Wait wait wait…Chad?! That's you?!"

"In the flesh! Holy heck, I didn't even recognize ya! You got taller, huh? And that new hair style is…something else!"

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Kai relaxes, finding himself grinning. "You dyed your hair and you're going by Chen now…sorry I didn't realize it was you!"

"Same here! Wow, we've got a lot to catch up on, huh?"

"Yeah!"

They both laugh heartily, at least, until Jay pokes his head in between them.

"Okay, ah, ahem, hi, anyone wanna tell me what the HECK is going on here?!"

Jay gestures wildly with his arms; Chen plucks him up by the collar and drops him off to the side.

"Scram, Half-Pint. Me and my best friend are trying to catch up, here. Be lucky I've lost the will to punch your face in."

Jay inhales at the speed of light with a degree of betrayal unseen in a generation. He immediately sets his burning gaze unto Kai, who quickly drags Jay off to the side with a hasty apology to everyone else. By the time they're face to face and away from prying eyes, Jay looks like he's about to combust. Kai tentatively puts a finger to Jay's lips.

"Before you flip out on me, which you're going to do anyway, yes, Chen and I were friends back in freshman year before I dropped out. We were both on the track team at the time. I can't believe I didn't realize it was him before…"

Kai carefully removes his hand; Jay lets out a wailing scream, so Kai puts his hand back over Jay's mouth.

"Will you calm down?! This could actually work in our favor, you know."

Jay screams out a very muffled but still powerful "HOW?!"

"Becaaaaause, if Chen's still willing to be friends with me, I can figure out why he's got it out for you guys and maybe get him to lay off. Then you can quit walking around school like you're marked for death."

Kai again removes his hand from Jay. Jay doesn't yell his time, but still looks extremely displeased by this turn of events. In fact, he almost seems mad at Kai.

"…why are you staring at me? And why aren't you saying anything? That's weird for you, dude."

"…is it…really true that you were friends with Chen freshman year?" Jay asks quietly, refusing to meet Kai's gaze.

"I just said that, so yeah. Why?"

Jay puffs out his cheeks, burying half his face behind his scarf.

"…all I wanna know is, why'd you let him act so mean, back then? You really thought that was okay? Do you think how he acts now is okay?! And you still want to try and be friends with him?!"

"Of course not, but I—!"

"Hey, Kai! How long are you going to waste time on Walker?!" Chen suddenly calls, he and his buddies waving Kai over. "Come join us already! Chris bought us the good pizza for lunch!"

"Just a sec!" Kai calls back before giving a pleading look at Jay. "Remember, I'm doing this for you…!"

"Yeah, okay," Jay huffs, watching as Kai swan dives into the crowd with open arms.

“YOOOOO IT’S KAI!!” “EY SMITH MAN!” “WOOT WOOT!”

“Maaaan, what’s up, guys?! It’s been ages, right?!” Kai starts trading high fives and bizarre handshakes with the jocks, ending with a bro-hug with none other than Chad Chen himself.

“Hell yeah, good to see ya back!”

“Now it’s a party!”

“Dude, you heading to the arcade with us later? It’s half-off token day!”

“No, come with us to Ice Planet!”

“Ahahaha, one at a time, guys…” Kai holds up his hands and tries to calm the crowd. He spots Meghan whispering something into Maggie's ear, with Maggie immediately giggling. "Hey, what—?"

"My friend thinks you're suuuper cute," Maggie blurts out, with Meghan looking betrayed and embarrassed afterward. Kai stands stunned, momentarily caught off-guard and red down to his neck, but eventually finds his swagger again.

"Well then, tell this friend of yours that she has excellent taste, and is pretty cute herself~”

Kai winks; Maggie squeals as Meghan buries her face in her hands.

“…for the Master’s sake," Jay grunts, walking away now knowing that Kai is a lost cause. At least he'll always have Cole, Zane, and a lunch by the garbage.

…which just means that nothing’s really changed at all.

By some bizarre stroke of luck, all of the ninja (and Nya) have their last hour together, being Ms. Laudita's social studies class. Nya sits closest to the door, pretending that she isn't playing around on her phone. Jay sits beside her, pretending he's not stealing glances and doodling her name in his notebook. The seat to his left remains pointedly empty. Kai sits two seats behind Jay, next to Meghan and in front of Chen, where he and his people take up the back two rows. Zane sits one row behind the front, in position for optimal learning. Antonia sits to his left, while Jesse is behind her. Cole sits to Zane's right, being shameless about the way he's not paying attention with the way he brazenly wears his headphones and kicking his feet up. He, too, carelessly scribbles in his notebook.

It's a pretty average class. Ms. Laudita spends most of the time just going over what to expect, detailing the syllabus and guidelines for homework. Really, it's nothing none of them haven't heard before. Cole fondly rolls his eyes at the way Zane diligently takes notes regardless. Jay tries to focus, but it's really hard when he can hear Kai, Chen, and company whispering amongst themselves. He does his best to ignore them, only to find himself staring at Nya, who's currently looking worriedly at her phone.

He scribbles "What's wrong?" on a sticky note, then haphazardly flicks it onto Nya's desk when the teacher isn't looking. Nya blinks in surprise, quickly scanning the message. She shakes her head at Jay in a poor attempt not to get him to worry about it. As such, he worries about it.

When the bell finally frees them from the shackles of academia, Cole, Zane, and Jay huddle up with one another. Jay scouts out Kai, only to grimace when Kai opts to tag along with Chen for the afternoon. Jay moves to complain about Kai ditching them, but Cole’s already taken up the complaint spot.

"Hrrgh, what a day…and what was that fifth hour class, man?! Are we sure it wasn't a foreign language, because I couldn't understand a single thing—"

“Fifth hour, Application of Physics and Engineering, which you fell asleep three times in and also had your headphones out twice,” says Zane to his right, jotting down notes on his phone with one hand and placing another detention slip on Cole’s head. Cole hisses and swats the slips away.

“C'mon man, it’s the first day! I can’t help that I’m tired from being on Snake Watch, Shark Watch, and Small Garmadon Watch for the last week, along with testing the communicators, on top of making sure everyone else was prepped for school—“

“And yet, you neglected to prep yourself,” Zane counters. He gives Cole a sideways look that could either be condescending or disappointing. Maybe both. Cole groans and buries his face deeper into his nest of detention slips.

“…why am I in such an advanced class anyway?! Senior year was supposed to be my breeze year!”

“I recall you saying you wanted as many classes with me as possible.” Zane stops typing, glancing pointedly at Cole. “…even when I told you that my curriculum demanded more strenuous classes.”

Cole blushes, stubbornly looking away. It’s not his fault all of Zane’s “smart” classes kept him away from Cole last year. It’s not his fault Cole wanted to make sure they had some time together for their last year. And especially with Garmadon on the horizon, he just wanted to see his friend more often when things weren’t hostile.

“…is that so wrong?”

“On the contrary, I believe it is a good thing. With the fact you now own a Mech, this class may help hone your repair skills, should Jay and I or even Kai and Nya not be within reach. You may even be inspired to build a separate one of your own.”

“Ahaha, although right now, Kai’s definitely out of reach,” Jay interjects, cuing Zane and Cole to catch onto Kai’s retreating form in the distance.

"…I take that to mean Kai will not be joining us at the warehouse?" Zane asks as Jay scowls.

"Yeah, probably not. More important things to do, I guess.”

"What about you, Nya?" Cole then asks over his shoulder, and the other two swivel around to find Nya heading off in a third direction. She looks up from her phone again, eyes blown wide like a deer in headlights, and sheepishly waves them off.

"I'll be at the warehouse later, I swear! I just have to grab some things I didn't realize I needed at the store."

Cole and Zane buy the excuse, but given the way she'd been acting during class, Jay's worry shoots through the roof. He's afraid to ask though, knowing how defensive she can get, so he tries something else.

"Do you…want one of us to go with you?"

Nya smiles at him softly, and he wills with everything he's got to not melt into a pile of goo.

"It's okay. I really won't be gone long. And besides, we have the communicators now! If something goes wrong, which it won't, all I have to do is alert you guys."

Jay sighs, nodding in agreement. She won't budge, and all he can do is trust her.

"All right, but you'd better not take too long! We're almost done with the transporters, and it'd be a shame if you weren't the first one to use it…"

"I thought I was gonna go first?" Cole interrupts, earning him an elbow in the arm. Nya laughs, waving over her shoulder as she heads off.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world! I'll see you guys later!"

She runs backwards, waving until the others turn their back on her and head on their way. She feels a bit bad splitting from them so readily, but it's not forever. This is going to take three minutes, tops.

Once they're clear out of eyeshot, Nya takes a deep breath and rounds to the back of the school, aiming for the fountain in the courtyard. She's making a last minute split decision, one she may come to regret, but, well….haven't those idiots been doing the same thing for the last week? It's her turn to trust her instincts.

…hopefully.

She approaches the fountain, the very same one where she'd first exposed the map of the Golden Weapons to the Shark Army.

And its new leader sits atop the fountain's ledge, scrolling through her phone while biting her lip. She glances up, grin widening when Nya stops before her.

“Hey there, Wavemaker.”

Chapter Text

"...did you know I skipped the entire first day of school for this?" Olivia asks, pocketing her phone now that she no longer has to wait for a response to her text. Nya Smith stands before her, frown unwavering as she keeps a careful hand hovering over the weird bracelet on her wrist.

"It wouldn't be the first time you skipped out," Nya says, clipped.

"Yeah, well, I've got quite a few classes with your brother this year—" Olivia glances down at the schedule beside her, making a face. "—and I'd much rather deal with you first. Kai'd probably attack me on sight and cause a scene."

Nya sighs through her nose. That…does sound like Kai.

"Could you blame him, though? You nearly carved his eye out…amongst many, many other things."

Olivia laughs uncertainly, and quietly, before turning away. Her fingers drum along her lap, but other than that, there's no attempt to attack Nya. Nor does there seem to be an ulterior motive. And…Nya has no idea to break through the awkwardness.

It's almost a little funny, the fact that they haven't properly seen each other since the day Olivia was exposed for being a member of the Shark Army. And before that had been the day Nya foolishly confided to her about the map—but, maybe, you could also count the days in between. You know, the ones that Nya spent in captivity being hounded for answers by a General desperately clinging to her title.

Nya doesn't know what to feel—this is Lord Garmadon's right hand woman, this is the person who kidnapped her, this is—

"…I brought your favorite smoothie. You still like passionfruit, yeah?"

—her best friend.

Nya twitches as Olivia holds up a smoothie as a sign of coming in peace. She refuses to make a move towards the temptation.

"…How do I know that's not poisoned?"

Olivia grins, only faltering slightly. "If I really wanted you dead, you already would be. You know that."

Nya's frown deepens, but she accepts the smoothie. It's been three months since she's had this flavor in particular, and somehow it hits just the right spot. Nya smiles in spite of herself, but refuses to let her gaze drop from Olivia, lest she try something underhanded.

"So…why'd you text me, out of the blue, in the middle of class?" Nya huffs between sips, jumping straight to the point. "I can't believe you'd have the time to spare for me when surely you've got your hands full hunting down children."

"Hmph. For your information, you're only about half-right." Olivia stands now, balancing precariously on the fountain's ledge. "I don't have to do the hunting myself when I can just send others to do it for me. Comes with the perks of being promoted to General Number One, baby!"

Olivia strikes a pose, even flashing her General #1 badge from where it's pinned within her jacket.

"…of course, most of them are kinda stupid, so it's no wonder we haven't nabbed that brat yet. If I have to do it myself, someone's about to get seriously fired…"

Nya's eyes widen slightly before she puts a hand to her chin.

"Huh…I guess that explains the less violent management of the Shark Army. I thought it was weird when sightings were reported, yet very little confrontations."

Olivia folds her arms behind her head. "Yeeaaaah, in the before times, we probably would've kicked up more of a riot, but there's no need to be so hostile when we just need one measly person. I told the grunts to engage only if directly opposed. Less collateral, less attention, y'know?"

"But…if you're General Number One now, then…" Nya bites her lip, unable to meet Olivia's eyes. "…what happened to your father?"

At this, Olivia's eye twitches, but the smile stays on her face. "The same thing that happens to all Generals and Goons that fail to deliver—they get fired. My father did not meet Lord Garmadon's standards, and thus was…removed from his position."

She coughs, quick to change the subject.

"…anyway, while I'm at school, I leave General #32 in charge of mobilizing the forces in our search efforts. So school is basically like neutral turf for us! And, I was just thinking… that maybe we could pick up where we left off?"

Olivia actually looks hopeful, and—Nya can't fall for that. She's spent a whole year believing that this girl was just a smoothie fanatic, an occult enthusiast, a sharp-shooting aficionado…and not one of highest ranking Generals of the greatest threat to Ninjago.

…on the other hand, Olivia is correct. She could have disposed of Nya ages ago, and not only that, but she knows the identities of the Secret Ninja Force. She could've exposed them all too easily…

Warily, Nya raises an eyebrow.

"…how come you haven't exposed the boys as the ninja yet?"

"Because they are not currently my biggest threat." Olivia's gaze turns sharp. "So long as the ninja stay out of my way, I have no need to dispose of them. And moreover, they could just as easily expose me in turn, so…let's call it a leverage agreement. I'll tell your brother the exact same thing."

Olivia hops off the fountain, landing next to Nya.

"Until Lord Garmadon returns and tells me otherwise, my only 'evil' obligation is to detain Lloyd Garmadon. Beyond that, I have no incentive to cause havoc with the Shark Army." She slides up to Nya's left, taking a sip of her own smoothie. "For right now, I'm not working for the city's most despised individual, and you're not a ninja!"

“But I’m NOT a ninja…” Nya grits her teeth. “For whatever stupid reason.”

"Which is, like, super weird, by the way." Olivia sits back down on the fountain, crossing her legs. Nya silently takes the spot next to her. "I mean, I'd heard that you were out there with Earthquaker last night, and yet you had to borrow your boyfriend's gi? How embarrassing—"

"It wasn't like that! And he’s not my boyfriend!" Nya wails before covering her mouth. "But…how'd you know it was me?"

Olivia shrugs. "They just told me that it wasn't the real Master of Lightning due to the eye color, and the only one who could've impersonated Thundercracker like that was you. And lookie, I was right~"

Nya pouts, balling her fists in her lap.

"…So, I guess that brings me to the real reason I wanted to talk to you."

Olivia glances down at Nya, gesturing her smoothie in Nya's direction.

"…how in the world are you not a ninja yet, girl?! I thought for sure that would've been the first thing y'all would have done as soon as you got back from the Underworld…!"

Nya tries really hard not to scowl. It's not like that exact same thought hasn't been buzzing through her head for months. She can't come up with any conceivable reason as to why Wu won't train her. Sure, she can see why Kai's hesitant and overprotective, but everyone else too?

Friends shouldn't leave each other behind like this. Friends shouldn't treat another like an afterthought.

"…all summer, I've been training and studying as hard as I can," Nya confesses, her voice small and soft. "I still have a lot to learn, and I know my technique sucks, but…I have to keep up. I already feel like I'm losing my brother because of all this business; I don't want to lose all my friends too…!"

A lump forms in Nya's throat. She struggles to swallow it down, all while Olivia stares at the ground.

"Well, Wavemaker…you wouldn't lose me." Olivia tenses up, eyes falling closed. "That is, if you'd still be willing to have me."

Nya blinks, glancing at the other girl. "Olivia…?"

“…like I said, everything I’ve done was not to hurt you, just to further my own ideals. I could apologize forever for having to kidnap you, and I don't ever expect you to forgive me, but…I've never hated you. And if there's anyone in the world that knows how amazing you are, it's me.”

When Olivia doesn't get a response, she opens her eyes again—and finds Nya desperately trying to stop tears from falling. Olivia winces, holding up her hands defensively.

"Whoa, Nya, what—"

Nya throws her arms around Olivia, holding her tight. Olivia sits stunned, but still tentatively returns the hug. It feels nice, after months of being apart.

"Sorry that, this is sudden…" Nya stammers as she pulls away, struggling to dry her eyes. "…it's just nice to hear a little validation."

Olivia raises an eyebrow. “You literally have three big brothers and a Jay now, how haven’t you been getting validation?”

"Well I tried to talk to Kai but I keep getting shot down, Cole basically said the opposite of what I expected to hear, Zane…isn’t exactly my go-to person for this kind of stuff, and I don't wanna worry Jay with any of this…" Nya sighs, shoulders drooping. "And Sensei basically said I have to figure out what it is I want before he'd train me…but I wanna be a ninja! It can't be any clearer than that!"

Nya groans, although it's closer to a roar, just as she covers her face in frustration. The waters of the fountain suddenly become turbulent. Olivia frowns at her reflection before placing her hands on Nya's shoulders.

"Hey now, there's no reason to get too upset…So what if you’re not a ninja? That doesn’t mean you can’t be anything else,” Olivia points out. “And if you ask me, keeping secrets about the world's history, refusing to enlist help even when they have a perfectly good individual right in front of them…your little ninja squad is starting to sound more like the bad guys anyway.”

Nya frowns miserably. “…you can’t possibly convince me that Lord Garmadon is a good person in comparison.”

"Maybe not today, at least." Olivia says with a shrug. "But…Lord Garmadon has shown more interest in your promise and potential in one night than Wu ever has, hmm?"

As Nya lets that thought sink in, Olivia checks her Realm Ripper, clicking her tongue upon seeing an annoyed message appear on the screen.

"Ugh, I gotta head out—Bridget's getting antsy and wants to move the next battalion out on a search. Lloyd apparently headed out east according to scout intel."

"Uh, wait, Bridget…?"

"General #32," Olivia mutters, typing out a hasty reply before jumping back to her feet. "…listen, I'm glad we got to catch up a little. Thank you for at least hearing me out."

Nya smiles, shaking her head. "No, thank you for hearing me out. I've…been bottling that up for a while. It's nice to talk to someone that isn't…a ninja, I suppose."

"Well, I'm here for you anytime," Olivia says. However, her face becomes grave, and Nya feels the mood drop. "But I do need you to remember, there will come a day when Garmadon comes back, and we may find ourselves on opposite sides in battle. Unless, of course, you decide to lend your services to the army instead—"

"No," Nya says immediately. Olivia shrugs it off.

"Welp, then you'd better be prepared to face me down on the battlefield. Just like with your brother, I will not hold back when it comes to defending what I believe in. I will fight you without hesitation."

To further prove her point, Olivia reaches into her vest and draws one of her new blasters. She aims it past Nya's head, not that Nya can tell, but regardless Nya remains calm. She twirls and draws her fans, as if daring Olivia to shoot.

“…good. I wouldn’t want to face someone that wasn't giving it their all anyway.”

Olivia remains still, until the moment passes and she breaks into a grin.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Wavemaker." Olivia puts the gun away. Instead, she holds out her hand, a gentle way to offer a fragile, temporary peace.

“Soooo…Friends until then?”

And peace is something that has been in short supply for Nya lately.

“Friends until then.”

Nya grips Olivia’s hand, a small part of her not ever wanting to let go.

When Nya enters the warehouse with an unexpected pep in her step, she steps into the chaos of Zane checking and rechecking three clipboards, music blaring from Cole's phone, Cole scrambling around trying to follow orders, and a very manic Jay barking out those orders while rolling around in a chair. Poor Cole's being ran ragged.

Nya takes one look at Jay, notes that he's got his goggles on, and immediately turns to Zane.

"Why is he in a frenzy?"

"We're almost ready for the first test of the transport tubes," Zane replies as a way of explanation, just as Jay zooms behind him cackling with glee. "I'm finishing running through the fine tuning to make sure we haven't overlooked anything…because otherwise, today, I think we are finally done."

"Not a moment too late, too," Nya replies, knowing that with everything going on, this is really going to help them get to their mechs faster.

…of course, it's still a little sad that this started out as their maiden voyage Robotics project, but now it's warped into a tool to help the ninja. Which isn't bad, but, well…it feels a little less relevant to her in particular. Especially when she helped generate the main concept.

Before she can get too caught up in that thought, Nya finds herself swept off her feet and into Jay's chair. She's taken along for the ride as Jay laughs and drifts them over to the lockers. Nya, in fear of falling off, grips onto Jay for dear life and swallows down a scream.

"Nya! Nya! Check this out!" he exclaims, clapping his hands together once they've rolled to a stop. Nya raises an eyebrow, just as Jay opens one of the lockers and throws up his hands. Nya leans forward to take a look inside.

Gray and cyan lights line the walls, and Nya can see the intricate wiring system through the translucent casing. She reaches a hand into it, feeling the gentle pull of the suction ready to go full-throttle at the push of a button.

"This one's yours!" Jay says, leaning into her view. "And, as per your request, it is big enough to fit you and your motorcycle should you so choose to do so. Took a little extra elbow grease, but I do like a good challenge every now and then."

"…Wait, really?!" Nya had been mostly kidding about that, but— "That…that's amazing! How did you—? I can't believe…you're incredible, Jay!"

Jay grins, wide and proud, even as his cheeks turn red.

"Ahahaha, after months of careful calculation, cautiously selecting pitch perfect materials, and many long hours putting it all together…" He takes her hands in his, excitedly raising them into the air. "…we finally did it! I couldn't have done it without you!"

Nya beams back, equally enthusiastic, until Zane coughs somewhere behind them waving clipboard number four.

"Never mind the fact I've been running your statistics for you," he huffs, disgruntled. Cole also makes a comment about having done all the heavy lifting. Jay sighs, pinching his forehead.

"Yes, yes, we all had a part in this, as the Robotics Club," Jay rephrases. He spirals around in the chair, glowering at the window. "…except for Kai. TAKE THAT, KAI! Who's missing out now?!"

"Where…is he, anyway?" Nya asks, hopping off the chair to glance around. "I thought he would've been here by now."

Jay scoffs as he slides by Zane, plucking up clipboard number four and leafing through it himself.

"Who cares? Whatever it was, it was obviously more important than the unveiling of the biggest project I've ever done, and the only thing that'll keep us operable as ninja during the school year…!"

"I thought you said he was with Chen and his crew?" Cole asks, scrolling through his phone now that Jay has calmed down. Jay's scowl only deepens as Nya groans.

"Aw man, not Chen…! I had to spend days hearing Kai talk about that jerk a few years back…"

"Jerk is an understatement," grumbles Jay, hiding behind the clipboard.

"Regardless, we cannot dictate who he can and cannot hang out with," says Zane. "Should it come out that Chen is not good friend material, we have to trust that he can make the right judgement call."

Jay doesn't look convinced at all. Strangely, Nya seems nervous more than anything. Cole senses the rising tension and, with Kai absent, takes it upon himself to raise the morale.

"C'mon guys, we can't let Kai not being here stop us. We just accomplished something amazing!" He steps towards the lockers, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "Besides, we've got some test runs to do, huh?"

At that, Jay blares back to life, immediately making a path to the control panel.

“You're absolutely right!" He takes out the Nunchucks of Lightning and gives the panel a very gentle tap. The buttons and lights instantly go alight with a blue glow, signaling the machine has powered on.

"I know we proposed sending Nya in first, but it might be more practical application wise if we sent in Cole first," Zane suggests, doing a final run down of the data. "That way, we can adjust the weight variable downwards at an exponential rate for each individual tube rather than estimate upwards."

"I have no idea what you just said, but if it means I get to go first, I'm in!" Cole exclaims, already making tracks for the tubes. Nya sighs, wilting her way towards to control panel as well.

"…if it helps, would you like to push the button?" Jay offers. Nya perks up a bit.

"…I would like to push the button."

Jay grins, then turns back to Cole, who's already stepped into his equivalent locker to equip his GX Suit. He pull his hood over his head, giving a thumbs up after checking the communications. Zane inspects the interior a final time, then gives Jay the signal to go ahead.

"All right, Cole, you're currently situated in the sending canister—once Nya hits the command button, you're gonna get blasted in a tube halfway across town at three times the speed of a car," Jay explains, typing away to make sure the receiver at the school is online. "You're gonna be completely safe, but we are running the risk of potential air pressure leaks, which, should that occur…will result in you getting stuck somewhere between here and school."

"And underground! With the system entirely shot!" Zane adds unhelpfully, to which Jay winces.

"Yeaaah…I definitely did my best to avoid that scenario, both with materials and the construction, but out of all of us you'd probably have the easiest time getting back out, given, y'know, earth and stuff…"

"I got it," Cole huffs, already getting antsy. "I'm ready anytime! Send me flying, already!"

"Okay, last check…" Jay scrolls down the screen, smirking when he sees a green light. "Receiver is ready and standing by! Nya, would you care to do the honors of the maiden voyage…?"

Nya beams, hand hovering over the button.

"See ya on the other side, Cole!"

Cole salutes, and with a press of a button, he is gone. The silence that fills the room is shattering.

"…uh, guys, what if we just set Cole to his doom?"

Nya swats Jay, while Zane assesses the screen just to double check.

"Everything seems all right…the tube's on track, correct speed, no noticeable leakages…"

"And he should be arriving in less than three minutes," Jay says, jotting down notes. "I wonder if there's anyway we could increase the speed…"

"Let's…just wait until we know it works, okay?" Nya suggests, trying to shove down her worry.

The allotted three minutes pass, all three remaining teens keeping their eyes glued to the screen. The monitor indicates that Cole has reached his destination. Nya's quick to tap her bracelet, asking Cole if he's all right.

At first, there's silence, and the color drains from Jay's face.

"….yeah, guys, I made it!" Cole's voice crackles from the other end. Nya shrieks with relief while Jay and Zane trade a very complex high five. "I'm really at school right now…that's so trippy…"

"It worked! It worked?!" Jay exclaims, sounding a little more surprised than one would expect. "I…haven't had anything actually work since the hover board in the Floating Ruins…"

"Congratulations!" Zane cheers, tossing bits of shredded paper into the air in lieu of confetti. Jay huffs, brushing it all out of his hair.

"…anyway, Cole, the way to activate it at school is to firmly press both feet in the middle of the locker floor. That way, if we're in a hurry, we don't have to waste time pressing a button."

"With the exception of the event in which we need to recall the canisters," Nya points out. "Like, for example, we head to warehouse via transport tube, leave in the mechs, and then come to school the next day. The canisters would all still be at the warehouse."

"So all I gotta do is just step into thi-AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Cole's voice wails over the intercom, at least, until it turns into the whoops of one riding a ridiculous rollercoaster. He pops up moments later in the locker he'd entered from, throwing his hands up and spiraling around in celebration.

"You guys gotta try it…!" Cole cheers, already pushing Zane towards the lockers. "It's like being in zero gravity! But, like, not."

"I do not think that is quite the effect we have achieved, Cole—" Zane begins to correct, but he finds himself tumbling in his tube and Cole sending him on his way. Zane gives an uncharacteristic shout before he gets too far away, and approximately six minutes later he returns, looking bizarrely disheveled. Cole suppresses a smirk.

"Do not—" Zane begins, pressing a finger into Cole's chest. Cole's grin breaks free. "—do that ever again."

"Duly noted." Cole tilts his head, looking smug. "Buuuuuut, how was it?"

At this, Zane can't fight off his smile either. "It was…exhilarating. And I would very much like to do it again."

"No, it's our turn!" Jay sprints for his locker, motioning for Nya to follow him. "Besides, we gotta test the integrity of multiple people using it at once!"

Nya moves quickly, yet with some hesitance. It's nice to see that nothing bad had happened to Cole nor Zane, but the apprehension of doing something you never have before fills her.

"Don't worry!" Jay pulls on his gi and throws on his hood. Even then, Nya can still feel his beaming smile. "I'll be right there next to you! Well, you, me, and only three-inch thick PVC between us."

Nya laughs, her dread vanishing, and she steps into the locker. The last thing she sees before being plummeted into depths unknown is Cole waving and Zane pressing the button.

And then, it's dark. G-Force pushes against her from all directions. Her eyes fall closed, not sure what to do about the sudden overload of sensation. It's not overwhelming, but it's unfamiliar, and therefore not exactly comfortable.

Jay's laughter echoes from the tube beside her. At that, Nya dares to open her eyes, and now she sees the neon cyan lights of her tube, comparable to a plethora of shooting stars. A soft gasp escapes her, and she glances to her left—through the thick, translucent plastic she can just barely make out Jay's form, his hands in the air and cackling with delight. He's never looked more in his element.

Before she knows it, the tube grinds to a halt, swooshing open from the front. Nya steps forwards, exiting out of her locker, and pleased that there's no one else around.

Except for Jay, who springs out of his locker with stars in his eyes and bursting at the seams with excitement. Nya smiles fondly back, until Jay lands her in his line of sight.

"We actually did it…!" He catches himself, scratching the back of his neck. "Ah, sorry, I know I keep saying that…but I just…I'm just so proud of us! If we can manage this, just think of all the other things we could create!"

Possibilities dance in his head. It shows on his face, and Nya knows the look all too well. Mechanics and engineering and tinkering and all that good stuff…she'd only acquired her own skill at it from a desire to build a motorcycle. It's come in handy for making repairs to the things Kai couldn't fix, but she'd never really had that big of a dedicated interest in building new things…

But seeing the sheer ingenuity Jay has, and the spark to keep pushing forward with innovation…well, it's a little inspiring. It makes her want to be able to do more too. And she may never truly catch up to Jay's level, but with extra work and dedication, she can find a niche of her own.

And, if she can dedicate herself to engineering of all things, then surely she could dedicate herself fully to being a ninja…?

…but like Olivia said, maybe not being a ninja isn't necessarily stopping her from being anything else. Maybe…she could be something she hasn't even considered yet.

Kai feels like he stepped backwards in time—it's like it's freshman year all over again, with possibilities actually within his grasp, Chen by his side, and a group of boys (and two girls) running free and goofing off after school. Of course, Kai never really had a lot of free time after school that year, but he vividly remembers the few times that he had.

They find themselves at a park in uptown, Chen's pals having brought a ball to kick around. Chris, Ethan, Ben, and Jack, if Kai's recalling correctly. They play some sports game Kai hasn't touched in years but it all comes back to him like muscle memory. And maybe he gets a little too into the moves when he catches Meghan cheering for him particularly loud.

He feels like a kid again, ironic that he's nearly an official adult now. He slides around in the dirt and mud, grass stains coat his knees, and he earns a few scrapes and bruises as a result of a hard fought battle on the field. He doesn't know if anyone won, or if anyone was even keeping track. But he made five of the goals, so he counts that as victory.

He also counts it a victory that Meghan lends him her towel to clean up with.

They walk down the streets as the afternoon fades into the evening and the street lamps all come to life. They shove each other playfully, tell the worst jokes at one another, and dread the upcoming homework assignments the week surely has in store. Chen brings up an old story of a party they'd all gone to freshman year—and that is…one story Kai would rather forget. Still, Chen gives him a wink and nudge, as if to assure him that he's only kidding.

It's all so painfully normal that Kai can hardly believe this is the same guy that despises Zane, loathes Cole, and treats Jay like some kind of chew toy.

That is, if he hadn't already seen it for himself.

The thought sits like lead in his stomach even as they take to the curb to rest, ice cream freshly bought from Ice Planet sitting in all their hands. Kai had tried to pay for it—using the lunch money he'd put away for Thursday's pizza lunch—but Chen beat him to it, saying it was a way to celebrate Kai's return. The other cheer in agreement. Kai smiles behind his popsicle.

"It really is good to have you back, man," Chen says, slugging Kai in the shoulder in a way that reminds Kai of Cole. "Things have really changed since you've been gone."

"I can tell," Kai says with too exaggerated of a laugh, coughing it down afterwards. "I, er, well…for one, you're a cheerleader now, instead of a track star. What happened there?"

"You left, dude! Track was no fun without someone that could keep up with me!" Chen scoffs. Kai mentally rolls his eyes—yeah, he's pretty speedy, but Jay could outpace him any day. Besides, track was way too expensive given how little they actually did anything big.

…doesn't meant he doesn't miss it. If only a little.

"And after track started getting boring, I became a cheerleader instead," Chen continues, wrapping his arm around Maggie and pulling her close. "I wanted to still be close to the team, while also giving them pep without actually having to be on the field myself. And that's where I found my calling, and my beautiful girlfriend."

Maggie giggles, tossing her blonde hair out of her face.

"Now I get to go to every game for free, all year long! It's great! Maybe you could join cheer too!"

"If nothing else, you might be able to pull off the outfit," Ben snickers, nudging Chris and Ethan to get them to laugh too.

"I…don't know if I'm that great of a motivator," Kai says, scratching his cheek. The motion draws Meghan's eye to his scar, and she frowns. Her hand rises and brushes against it; Kai goes rigid, flinching away. Meghan blinks, pulling back like she'd been burned.

"Oh, shoot, I'm sorry…I didn't mean to invade your space, I just…"

"…you were just trying to imagine how it could've happened, huh?" Kai asks. Meghan glances away, guilty. Chen, too, raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, man, you definitely didn't have that before this year. What happened?"

"Got into a nasty scrap with some jerks?" asks Ben.

"Cut yourself doing a cool knife trick?" wonders Chris.

"Bad ex?" suggests Jack.

"Like, oh my gosh, you can't just ask someone how they got a scar!" Maggie exclaims, disgusted. "What if it's, like, a suuuuper gross story or something?! I mean, look at it—!"

"Maggie!" Meghan hisses, before turning back to a sulking Kai. "…you don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

"Thanks," Kai mumbles. Meghan leans in, smirking while speaking under her breath.

"But, if you ask me, I think it looks pretty badass."

Kai smirks right back, even as his face pinks up. "I thought the same thing, actually—"

"Oh my gosh," Meghan squeals, covering her mouth as she laughs.

The conversation goes on like that—Chen filling Kai in on some inside jokes, while the other boys ramble off about everything Kai's missed in the past two years. None of it particularly stands out for Kai—he's experienced more in a single week and a half than they have in that entire two years—but he listens intently anyway.

When he doesn't get the answers he seeks, he knows he's just going to have to bite the bullet.

"…so, speaking of things that have changed, I gotta ask…" Kai takes a deep breath, fisting his hands in his lap. "…what exactly happened between you and Zane, Cole, and Jay?"

Naturally, everyone goes quiet. Chen just stretches where he sits, cracking his neck.

"…ah, yeah, I guess you did miss that too," Chen says, losing some of his fervor from before. "But I suppose I might as well tell you. Okay, so, you know how Zane's the student council president, right…?"

And from there, the tale is spun: of how Zane supposedly "wormed" his way into his presidential position, and from there, started a personal attack on the cheer squad. Years have been spent in Zane's quest to get it admonished, with only Chen's family influence staving off the attempts to get it changed. Chen doesn't hate Zane so much as he is extremely annoyed by his attempts to rid the school of the one thing left that gives Chen some purpose. Kai…can kind of understand that.

Cole's story is something a little more bizarre; something Kai's only heard of via whispers in the hall and a few off-handed comments from Cole himself. Apparently, at some point in Chen's sophomore year and Cole's junior, they were both in the same gym class. Kai can attest to that much, at least, having been in that same class for about two weeks at the end of year.

"Okay, but, this one day, it was Dodgeball Day, and everyone loves dodgeball," Chris chimes in, exaggeratedly waving his hands. This is true; Kai also loves dodgeball. 

"Apparently none more than Cole," grumbles Ethan.

"We were all super-excited to play, as it had been FOREVER since we'd had a Dodgeball Day," adds Ben, shaking his head. "Chen here was captain of one team, and Jesse Marvell was the captain of the other. I remember because, Jesse's like crazy good at dodging, he could have a career in that shit—"

"Anyway," Maggie interrupts, looking at her nails. "My darling Chen's team was, like, losing or whatever, hard to believe, I know, so Chen started to step up his game. He was gunning for Jesse like a mad man, but Jesse wouldn't let up for nothing…!"

"And then the dumbass slipped, leaving him wide open for Chen!" exclaims Jack. "We had the game in the bag at that point!"

"But then, Cole caught the ball before it struck him," Chen finishes, everyone else snapping silent. Kai still doesn't think this is much of a tragic backstory, but Chen's apparently not finished. Chen scowls, brow furrowed. "It was bad enough that I was already out, but then Cole tried to throw it back at me anyway. I obviously dodged, but then—"

"The ball smashed straight through the gym wall! Crumbled it to nothing but bricks and dust!" Ben wails, waving his arms. "Like, what the hell?! Had that hit Chen, he'd probably be dead!"

Kai winces. Knowing Cole's strength firsthand, it's a pretty plausible assumption to make.

"And then, to ensure we had the funds to fix the wall, they cut support for both the dodgeball team and banned dodgeball from gym class until Cole graduates," Chen continues. "And let me tell you, everyone's still pissed at Cole for that, not just me."

"That…does suck," Kai agrees, biting his lip and wondering if there's now more than one reason Cole lets himself get thrown into detention so often. "So, then, um…what did Jay do?"

"Oh, Walker?" Chen asks, waving his hand dismissively. "He's just an easy target. Spineless little nerd…and for some reason it ticks Cole off, so I keep at it. It's not like anyone important cares, given how annoying he is. Before he started wearing that stupid scarf, he never shut up…!"

Kai's heart drops into his stomach. "…wait, what…?"

"Why do you look so surprised?" Chen asks, tilting his head. "I mean, you had your fair share of picking on him too. You didn't like him very much either. And I can't believe you'd even let yourself been seen with him!"

Kai's blood runs cold.

"You were right there with me, always saying how grating his voice was, how stupid his hair looked, how he'd babble on about things no one else could ever understand, how pathetically hard he tried to get people to like him…"

"You even said the day he gets a girlfriend is the day Serpentine would walk the world," cackles Jack. "Way too true, though! Like that would ever happen…!"

"And I get if your sister is friends with them out of pity or whatever, but that doesn't mean you have to be," Chen adds, waving the remains of his ice cream around. "They're not worth your time."

At that, Kai rises to his feet, his entire body shaking. He's really glad he doesn't have the Sword of Fire right now, because this entire parking lot would probably be nothing but ash at this point.

"Hey, are you okay…?" asks Meghan, standing to put a hand on his shoulder. Kai knows it's supposed to be steadying, but his hands are still wracked with tremors and he can't stop. The rage he feels is unparalleled—he's mad at Chen for his stupid reasons for everything, and mad at himself for—at some point in his short, young, stupid life—being an asshole. Maybe he still is.

It takes him back to the night Nya had been kidnapped—how he'd snapped at Zane only trying to help, how he and Cole nearly hashed it out in the middle of the street, and how he buried all his blame onto Jay and practically made him cry.

And to think, that may not have been the first time he'd hurt them.

"I…I have to go, I think the ice cream's messing with my stomach," Kai blurts out hastily. Which is at least partially true—feels like his stomach is doing Spinjitzu right now. Meghan nods in understanding, expressing her desire to do this again soon, while the other guys hope he gets better.

Chen only watches Kai quietly as he stumbles away, Maggie blowing and popping a bubble of gum next to his ear.

"He sure isn't the same guy from freshman year, that's for sure," she remarks, tossing a sideways glance Chen's way. "Are you sure bringing him back in is a good idea…?"

"Besides, going after Walker all the time is getting a bit stale, even if he does make it so easy," says Chris. He punches a fist into his palm. "Maybe we should scope out the freshman class! There's gotta be some good fresh meat we can pick on instead!"

"Like any of the current freshman are worth my time," Chen scoffs, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "But while it's been nice to hang out with Kai again…I don't think things are going to be like before. He's gone soft, I can tell."

"Is that a bad thing?" Meghan huffs under her breath. "…and you know, there was probably a nicer way to drop all that on him."

"It's not my fault if he doesn't remember. Maybe he just realized he's been spending way too much time with a bunch of losers…"

Chen starts walking down the sidewalk, his entourage trading skeptical looks with one another as they follow.

"But if this new Kai goes against the odds and sides with those dweebs, and still thinks he going to be able to turn the tables on me…he's just coming down with me."

Meghan scowls while even Maggie looks unsure of herself. The guys whisper amongst themselves, but all of them still loyally follow Chen down the street. Chen would rather not have to drag in any of his family's influence to potentially deal with a traitorous old friend, but…if it comes to that, he's not above it.

As far as Chen's concerned, Kai's just as bad as he is.

It's all just a matter of who'll throw the first punch.

Chapter Text

It's Tuesday morning, and Kai discovers that he's already horrendously exhausted despite it only being the start of the third period. Lunch has never seemed so far away despite it being less than an hour until.

Kai yawns, dragging his body down the hall. He might've spent the night out too late with Chen and company—obviously just for research purposes. The things Chen had said about his behavior freshman year were…concerning, to say the least. It's no surprise he doesn't really remember—a lot had been going on back then, and whatever drama was happening at school was the farthest thing from his mind. Getting whatever breadcrumbs he could manage could only help, right?

…but, on the other hand, so long as the conversation stayed away from Jay, Cole, or Zane, it was all too easy to fall into his old habits. Embracing the bad jokes, rough behaviors, and everything he used to do felt like…well, maybe not 'coming home', but…something close to it.

In any case, he's absolutely exhausted, physically and emotionally. The week's not even close to being over yet, and neither is today. For now, the goal's just to get through the day in one piece. He'll deal with the heavy stuff later.

He enters Accounting 2—the class he's actually good at, so he's planning to take a quick snooze to hopefully snap himself out of his daze. He casts his gaze across the class, where other students scramble to sort out their first day homework. He even spots Jesse in the corner writing something, and Kai briefly wonders if the guy really is as good at dodgeball as he's been told.

Kai's eyes then fall upon the one who has outright stolen his seat, and the color drains from his face.

She’s chewing gum, black boots resting on the table as she mindlessly scrolls through her phone. If Kai didn’t know better, he’d almost assume she was just any other student. But when she senses someone staring at her, she glances up, only to break into a slasher smile upon discovering that it's Kai. If looks could kill, hers would be a serial murderer.

"What's that look for, Firecracker? Sharks need an education too, you know."

"…so you are alive." The words drip from Kai's mouth, falling out against his will. Olivia turns back to her phone, frowning at whatever text she's received.

"Don't know why that's a shock for ya—you're the one that made sure of that."

Kai scowls, staring at his hands. He's still not really sure why he stopped her from plunging to her doom in the Underworld. Would have saved them all a lot of trouble in the long run.

"…you've got a lot of nerve, showing your face around here," he says at last, finding his bravado again. "Don't you have kids to be kidnapping? Seems to be a reoccurring theme for you."

"Oof, ouch. Weird though, how your sister said almost the same thing." Olivia waves her hand about absently. Kai's stare turns intense.

"You spoke to Nya?! And she let you?!"

"Oops! Oh, what, did she not tell you?" Olivia's head tilts, looking coy. "Well, guess she can't help it, what with all that free time she's got when you all keep leaving her behind. You know what they say about idle hands, or however it goes…"

Kai doesn't answer—he snarls, immediately throwing himself towards the table. Olivia lets her chair fall backwards, causing Kai to sail right over her and for her to backflip to her feet. She lifts an arm to block his punch, still grinning all the while.

"You stay away from Nya! Haven't you hurt her enough?!" he sneers, barely keeping the words under his breath. Very few students seem to care for their scuffle though.

"Yes, I have." Olivia tightens her grip, making Kai wince. "Haven't you?"

Kai pushes against her; she pushes back, forcing him against the table.

"You don't get to lecture Nya about the friends she chooses when you're out there paling around with Chad Chen." Olivia sticks her tongue out, disgusted. "I know I'm supposedly scum, but jeez dude."

"That's different!"

"Is it, though?"

"Yes," Kai snaps. "Chen may not be the most…morally upstanding, but he's never tried to destroy the city either."

Kai's foot slips slightly as Olivia gets the upper hand. The table strikes him at the wrong angle, making him grimace in agony.

"…and besides, all I gotta do is expose you for what you really are, and all your little plans fall apart. That's one downside to turning the whole city against you."

"Oh, but do you really wanna do that here, now?!" she asks, subtly gesturing to the now confused students scattered around them. Her voice drops lower, gaining a slightly threatening edge. "If you out me as a member of the Shark Army, I get to out you as a ninja. And wouldn't your friends just looooove you for that?"

Kai scowls, refusing to let up but also not making another move. Olivia simply stands there, fine with whichever choice Kai opts to make.

"How can you even stand there like you haven't done anything wrong…?!"

"Weird, could say the same thing about you…" Olivia tsks, tilting her head. "Remind me, who was the one that was there when Lord Garmadon ultimately made his escape? Who was the one that ultimately failed to stop him from getting away…? Ah, let me think...Oh, yes, right, that was you!"

Kai snarls again and makes a move to shove her—his shoulder is harshly grabbed from behind and he's yanked right out of Olivia's grip. Olivia moves to grab him again, but the table suddenly slides between them, barricading them from one another.

"…knock it off, both of you," says Jesse, slamming his hands on the table. Kai fleetingly wonders how he manage to intervene so quickly, and without either of them catching on. "You're drawing way too much attention to yourselves, which I think neither of you actually want."

“B-But, she…she…!” Kai stammers, losing his fervor after it all starts to sink in. Olivia raises an eyebrow, wondering where he’s going with this. “…she fought me in a parking lot!”

“He tried to push me in a volcano,” Olivia shoots back.

“She nearly drowned me!”

“He tackled me off a building!”

“She almost took out my eye!” Kai hisses, gesturing to his face. “And I have the oh so lovely scar that proves it!”

“And you tried to leave me for dead!” Olivia sneers, flashing a full row of very pointed teeth.

"No, I should have left you for dead!" Kai shoots back, raising his fists. Jesse just stands off to the side, sliding his hands into his pockets. He really doesn't want to get involved, but he's also not about to get in trouble while these two keep causing a scene.  

"…I don't know what any of this is about, but I said to stop, or else I'm getting the principal involved," Jesse insists, eyes narrowed. He looks pointedly at Kai. "Or worse, the Student Council President."

"…ugh, not the Icebreaker," Olivia murmurs, proceeding to lay off. However, she glances back at Jesse, and immediately her face sours. Jesse stares back, head tilting curiously.

"What?"

"…your eyes are pink," Olivia says simply. Jesse shrugs it off.

"And? So are Harumi’s. It's not the rarest color, you know."

"Oh, I know," Olivia grumbles, glancing back at Kai, then shaking her head. "…nevermind, then."

Jesse gives a firm nod, returning back to his seat. Kai reclaims his chair during the small altercation. Olivia indignantly takes the spot beside Kai, proceeding to stare holes into the back of his head instead. Once the teacher finally arrives and begins to get deep into the lesson, she jabs Kai with her pencil.

“If you would just hear me out for two seconds—“

“That’s too much of my time wasted.”

Olivia’s eye twitches.

“Look, dummy, I'll tell you exactly what I told Nya: the Shark Army only has one, single mission until Lord Garmadon returns, and wasting my time with you ninja is counterproductive. Right now, the Shark Army is merely out on a hunt, and by the sounds of it, we're out to…remove someone who threatens to give you some issues. If anything, it sounds like we're on the same side—"

"We are not on the same side!" Kai hisses through his teeth. "Whatever you want with Lloyd can't be for anything good—"

"Oh, so, you're saying we should just let him keep running around until he unleashes another one of Ninjago's most dominant threats that the public is blissfully unaware of?" Olivia counters, blinking innocently. Kai falters, shrinking in his seat.

"Well, obviously not, but—"

"All we wish to do is reunite father and son. Surely you wouldn't be opposed to that?"

Kai falls silent. Olivia smirks, point made, and takes out her notebook upon the teacher giving her a look. She starts jotting notes down, not looking up even once as she continues to address Kai.

“If you stand in our way, we will not hesitate to cut you down. That is a direct order and promise from I, General Number One.”

Kai’s eyes widen. Olivia keeps her gaze aimed forward.

“But it does not have to come to that, either. …and just as a warning to you, since I know you'll ignore me anyway…"

Her pupils turn to pinpricks, and Kai's never seen her look this grave.

"Stay away from Lloyd Garmadon, if you know what’s good for you. This is both a threat…and a warning."

"Stupid ninja…stupid village, stupid army, I'll show them who they're dealing with…"

Lloyd scowls as he follows his hastily made map out towards the Sea of Sand. He's never been to the Eastern Province before, or really outside of Ninjago City, but he does know that the lands beyond Central tend to be…hard to inhabit. It's no wonder why the Serpentine were stashed into such unforgiving environments—few would be tempted to even go out that far, let alone mess with the tombs.

His mother, however, had been a very adamant exception.

She never really told him the full story—only that seeking their locations had been one of the last things she'd done as an official archeologist. She'd even been in a race with other fellow explorers in an attempt to find them first. And she hadn't wanted to open the tombs by any means, but she believed knowing where they were would make it easier to stop unsuspecting individuals to accidentally happen upon then, unlikely as that would be.

And so here was Lloyd, almost accidentally happening upon them. He wonders what she'd think of him finding the tombs first, doing what she'd always dreamed of, all because she was stupidly persistent in teaching him a bunch of old useless languages and—

…would she be proud? Or disappointed? Either one makes him feel sick.

Lloyd shakes it off and tugs his hood lower over his head. The winds are harsh but the heat is harsher, and Lloyd doesn't know whether his hood is blessing or a curse. But since it keeps the sand out of his eyes, wear it he does. They say his dad lives in a volcano now—what kind of son would he be if he couldn't handle a little heat?

He travels a little farther, pulling his small body over a tall hill. And from there, a ways into the distance, he sees the landmark indicated by his map: a giant fang made of stone, standing prominently against the blue sky.

"Aw yes, I found it! Finally!" He cheers, throwing his arms in the air. A gust of wind then blows by, sending a handful of dirt into his face. Lloyd breaks down into a sputtering fit, dragging himself to the tomb all the while.

When he reaches the door, he places his hand against it. His thumb brushes away the decades of dirt and dust caked unto it, revealing an inscription beneath.

"The Tomb of the Anacondrai…the most feared and powerful Serpentine of them all…!"

He gasps in awe, taking it all in. The Anacondrai were the largest of the Serpentine Tribes, with superior camouflage capabilities and just an all-around overly threatening aura.

The perfect threat to sic on some unsuspecting ninja.

"If everyone's afraid of the Anacondrai, then the Anacondrai is what they're going to get…! Moowahahahahaha!!!"

His bravado leads him to grab for the lock on the door; and yet, something else in him makes him hesitate.

Lloyd violently shakes his head, willing the feeling to go far, far away. He then stares miserably at the entrance to the tomb, his hand barely an inch away from releasing the lock. His arm shakes; this…can’t be a good idea…

…but he’s not a good person, so does it matter? He’s come too far, abandoned too many things to stop here. He has to let people know just who they're dealing with.

There's no turn back from this point.

"…sorry, Mom. Again."

Lloyd takes a deep breath, and opens the first Tomb of the Serpentine, unaware of the gears of fate he’d just put into motion.

There's nothing but bones.

It's horrifying, really—technically there's thousands upon thousands of dead snake bodies scattered along the ground. The air is thick with the stench of not quite decay, but something equally unpleasant. And it's dark, which Lloyd hates, but this is exactly why he brought a flashlight.

That…currently has a faulty battery. Great.

Lloyd smacks at it, hoping to get some shred of light, and hoping to find something that makes this whole trip even a little bit worth it. If all the Anacondrai are…gone, then who’s to say the rest of the tribes still remain? Is there even a threat left to fear? 

The flashlight finally flickers on; fluorescent fangs and frightening fuchsia eyes glare back at him.

"AAAAAH?!"

Lloyd leaps away from the thing as fast as he can. He ends up slamming against a pillar of rock, dropping his flashlight. It keeps flickering with a persistent desire to live, but that only makes the approaching sinister form all the more terrifying to behold. The purple snake's head leans down with its way too long neck, hissing its tongue way too close to Lloyd's face. Lloyd scoots an inch away, for what little comfort it brings him.

"…oh, my sincerest apologies, young man." The snake picks up the abandoned flashlight, gives it a more definite whack, and hands it back to Lloyd once it stays lit. "Due to my unfortunate appearance I tend to have an unsettling effect on people. I believe you dropped this…?"

Stunned, Lloyd takes the flashlight back, too terrified to talk. What did he just do…?

"Uh, um, th-thank you…uh…" The flashlight illuminates the caves better now, casting more shadows on the wall from the hundreds of bone piles scattered along the ground. "What, um, what happened to the…others…?"

The snake displays little amusement, merely shrugging as he casts his gaze along the graveyard of his supposed brethren.

"Oh, those poor unfortunate souls…all those years, locked away with nothing to eat…they must have slowly starved away until they were just scales and bones…"

Lloyd notes that this snake, despite the claims, doesn't look as bone-thin as he otherwise should be. The snake catches Lloyd leering and proceeds to return the favor.

"And, who might you be, my little appetiz-uuuuh, I mean, friend…?"

Lloyd shuffles back to his feet, making an attempt to stand confidently.

"I'm Lloyd Garmadon, Son of Lord Garmadon!" Lloyd replies brightly, and naively. "And, future Dark Ruler!"

"Ohohoahahahaha, how deliciously evil! If I had feet, ooooh I'd be TREMBLING in my boots!"

Lloyd’s stare turns skeptical. "And, uh…who are you?"

"Humbly, I am Pythor P. Chumsworth…!" Pythor proceeds to take a bow—as well as a giant snake can, anyway. "And since you've freed me…I'm eternally in your service."

Lloyd perks up, eyes going wide. "Really?!...you're not gonna trick me?"

Pythor laughs, despite the nervous way he wrings his hands together.

"What? Why would I trick you…? Why, I hardly even have any friends as it is…"

Pythor gestures at the plethora of bones scattered about to illustrate his point. Lloyd, however, couldn't be more cheerful.

"Well, what a coincidence! I don't have any friends either!"

“You don’t say?” Pythor circles around Lloyd, folding his arms behind his back. His gaze never leaves the child. "…but, hmmm, why is it that you have no friends?"

Lloyd blinks, casting his gaze down at the floor. Friends…were never really something he thought about, or considered, let alone cared about.

"…well, I was actually homeschooled by my mom, and when she was at work I wasn't allowed to leave the apartment by myself, so I never really had a chance to go out and meet anyone. It never bothered me, and it doesn't now."

Lloyd narrows his gaze, chewing on his lip.

"And…I guess I could've had friends back at my boarding school for bad boys, but I decided to run away and never let them see me again! Moowahahahaha…!"

He throws his head back and laughs his best wicked laugh, wondering if Pythor's impressed. To his surprise, Pythor looks more curious than anything resembling admiration.

"Really? But…why would you run away from making friends? Everybody needs friends, even tyrants, and I personally would like to see some of my own snake friends again very soon…"

Pythor sinks into a thoughtful pose, just as Lloyd's face falls. He glances away, finding the cave wall far more interesting.

"Well, um…maybe I didn't run away. Not from Darkley's, at least." Lloyd tugs at his sleeves, shrinking into his hood. "...maybe, I, uh…I got kicked out."

"From the Boarding School for Bad Boys?!" Pythor exclaims with a gasp, making Lloyd jump. "I don't believe it! I hear they are THE breeding ground for the truly despicable!"

Pythor's gaze lowers, head swaying slightly as he smirks.

"…and if you ask me, hoo, you are a handful…and simply the absolute worst."

"Well, thank you Pythor." Lloyd tries to smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "But…they told me I wasn't…bad enough. They said I lacked the amoral ambition to be one of tomorrow's masterminds."

Lloyd sighs, throwing himself to the floor. Pythor leans over him.

"…and is that true?"

"…of course not," Lloyd says as his face scrunches up. With all the anger he's carrying within him, he could level all of Ninjago City if he wanted to. He is his father's son, after all—some of that capacity for destruction must exist inside him somewhere, even if it doesn't come from the venom of a snake. He can destroy just as well as he can recreate, after all.

…but, still, he can't help but think back to when Professor Noble pulled him aside late into the summer, explaining how he felt that the boarding school wasn't a good fit for Lloyd.

"You excel at your studies, certainly. You have the tenacity to keep pushing onward, you're always optimistic, and you tackle everything with a pure dedication I've never seen before…"

"And that's…good, right?"

"Yes, and…that's the problem. You're clever, crafty, and are dangerously adaptive…all perfect qualities to have in a future mastermind, but you never, ever do anything with the pure intent to do harm unto others. And that's…kind of the basis for being evil."

"But…wait, no, that's not—"

"And, to be honest…" Noble removed his glasses, staring at Lloyd with a look of pity that made his blood boil. "…you don't belong here, Lloyd Garmadon. And I mean that in the best way possible."

Yet Lloyd didn't understand! He can pick locks, pickpocket with the best of them, lie, cheat, steal…! He'd been trying his best in all his classes—it was hard to fail when all you had to do was the wrong thing—and yeah, sure, some of his classmates teased him for being too sensitive and soft…but crying a few times didn't mean he wasn't evil!

How can the son of the most evil man in the world not be a bad person? He terrorized innocents, unleashed snakes after being told not to, tormented the ninja, outsmarted his father's own army…he stole from people, and he did hurt others by extension, and he ran away from home—

Lloyd's eyes shimmer with unshed tears, but he can't cry in front of Pythor. Not when the snake believes he really is some kind of heinous criminal that regrets nothing bad he's done.

But the truth is he's just feeling a lot of things, and he wants the world to feel those things too. If hurting people is what it'll take to be evil, so be it. It's not fair anyway that he has to hurt this much, alone—

Even if most of it is probably his own fault.

"…well, you'll certainly show them, hmm?" Pythor pulls Lloyd out of his self-loathing, a devious glint in his eye. Lloyd, still lying on the ground, rolls his gaze up to meet Pythor's. "All those people who didn't believe in you, those who refused to obey you, those that wouldn't listen to you…"

"…yeah, I will show them!" Lloyd digs his fingers into the ground, pulling out dirt as he forces a sneer onto his face. It's like wearing a mask that doesn't quite fit but still manages to get the job done.

He stands back up, determination renewed.

"…so, how would you like to be my loyal henchman?" Lloyd asks, turning around and casting his hand out. Pythor looms over him once more, but this time Lloyd doesn't flinch. "I've been working on a little revenge for some ninja, and wreaking some havoc will be sure to get my dad's attention…"

Pythor stops listening at some point, all his snake senses honed in on the Map of Dens sticking out of Lloyd's pocket. Lloyd hesitantly lowers his hand; Pythor stands back up to attention, hands shaking before him in glee.

"I…LOVE REVENGE! We could get back at the school that rejected you, and the pesky ninja that dared to stand in your way…"

"Like a double revenge?!" Lloyd asks, voice full of hope. Something acidic drips into Pythor's tone.

"A double revenge. And, you know what, Floyd—?"

"It's Lloyd."

"Whatever. I have a feeling that this is the start to a beautiful…fiendship…"

He puts a hand on Lloyd’s shoulder, fangs protruding as he grins.

“And I have just the plan to get us both what we want.”

When Lloyd's newfound 'beautiful fiendship' takes them all the way out to the Glacier Barrens, he only slightly has second thoughts. Despite being cold-blooded, Pythor charges into the tundra without wincing once. Lloyd steels himself and tries to do the same. He sneezes.

"…so, uh, according to the map, the tomb all the way out here belongs to the Hypnobrai." The one tribe of snakes his mother had the least amount of research on—as their location was indeed rumored to be somewhere in the Northern Province, yet only death-craving individuals dared to go anywhere near the north. "What…are they like?"

"You certainly ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Pythor asks, coating the words with a laugh but definitely hiding a layer of annoyance. The kid just never shuts up—!

"I just like knowing what's going on at all times," Lloyd says defensively. "…and I rarely know what's ever going on."

"Couldn't even tell," Pythor grunts under his breath. He takes to eyeing the map that Lloyd holds like a lifeline, using it to push their way through the blizzard and into the upper part of the fjords. They're nowhere deep enough to reach the Frozen Wastelands, nor do they need to go that far, but it's still cold enough to chill them solid if they don’t keep moving.

"…in any case, dear boy, each of the other tribes of Serpentine have special abilities they can use to deal with their foes. And according to your little map, the first we'll encounter are the Hypnobrai, capable of pulling their victims under their total control. Very helpful when recruiting members for an army."

“So that’s why you wanted to find them first!” Lloyd exclaims. “Brilliant idea, Pythor!”

“Yes, yes, tell me something I don’t know…” Pythor rolls his eyes. “But if and when we come to find the tomb, allow me to do the talking. I know just what to say to…encourage them to assist us.”

Lloyd nods, too excited by the prospect of his own snake army to really give it much thought. It’s going to be so cool! The screams of terror that will fill the air upon the sight of him flanked by snakes, the hordes of candy he’ll be able to retrieve…and maybe finally show the ninja and the Shark Army just who they’re dealing with.

He blinks, finding frost forming on his eyelashes.

With a quick swipe of his arm, he wipes the frost away and continues squinting forward. If Lloyd could survive a desert, he can survive the unpitying frozen tundra of the Glacier Barrens.

…at least, that's what he tells himself as he grips his threadbare hoodie and prays his teeth don't snap with how hard they chatter against one another.

"S-Stupid Ninja…!" Lloyd hisses through blue lips, scowling at the path ahead. He just kicks a rock out in front of him.  "Doubting me…humiliating me…they'll pay for it all…!"

"And I'm sure they will," Pythor assures, keeping his eyes trained even in the blizzard.  “And, say, my boy, are we even getting close to the Hypnobrai Tomb? If I could just take a peek at that map for just a moment—"

"Eh." Lloyd unintentionally turns away from Pythor's attempt to snag the map for himself. "We should at least be in the area, but I can’t find the landmark…it looks like the head of a snake, but—"

Lloyd’s foot strikes something hard and metal protruding under the snow. He topples straight into a snow pile. While Lloyd pulls himself together, Pythor uses his tail to quickly cast the snow away, revealing the metallic head of the Hypnobrai buried beneath.

"UWAAAAAH!" Lloyd stumbles backwards, clutching Pythor for support. Pythor rolls his eyes and slithers closer to investigate the area. The only telltale sign of anything useful is a single lever resting at the bottom of the picture. Pythor grabs it with his tail and give it a hard yank, the ground beginning to open beneath them. The jaw of the snake slowly draws open, with an eerie green mist flowing out…and allowing them entrance into the tomb of the hypnotic snakes.

Lloyd suddenly doesn't feel like this is a good idea.

"Well come on, my boy! This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"Yeah! Yeah…"

This is what he wanted.

…isn't it?

Still, Lloyd’s legs refuse to work, even as he stands on the edge. A low hiss rumbles in Pythor’s throat before he lashes his tail out, striking Lloyd in the back and sending him plummeting into the icy abyss.

Once Lloyd stops sliding—and screaming—by thankfully hitting against a very hard rock, Pythor slides up next to him and props him upright once again.

They find themselves in yet another cavern, only this time every inch of the area is either covered in or made entirely out of sparkling ice. Lloyd struggles to keep his balance—his boots do little to stop him from sliding—while Pythor immediately slithers deeper into the pit.

"W-Wait, Pythor, don't—AUGH?!"

Lloyd slips on his heels and goes tumbling backward, barely catching himself on a nearby rock. He sighs in relief, doubly so when he hears slithering coming up from behind him. Believing it's Pythor, he goes to turn around…only to find himself staring deep into the hypnotic red eyes of a teal snake instead.

Fear doesn't immediately paralyze Lloyd like it had with his first confrontation with Pythor. Instead, dread floods him as he struggles to look anywhere but at those horrifying eyes.

"You are out of your mind…to venture so far away from home, little one."

Lloyd recoils as the snake moves closer, wielding a staff adorned with a blue jewel. It's not unlike the one Pythor carries, save for Pythor's contains a purple jewel.

However, the staff's not what Lloyd's worried about—it's more the fact that he's being stared into oblivion. The snake lurches forward, forcing its face into Lloyd's line of sight…and begins spinning its eyes. Absolutely creepy.

"Look into my eyes; give up your mind to me…!"

Lloyd flinches, clenching his eyes shut, but just the same he can't see where he's going and ends up slipping to the ground. His eyes unwillingly pop open during his stumble to catch himself; the snake descends upon him—

And Pythor pulls the other snake back.

"Ah…if you would kindly hold up a moment, my good man."

The blue snake breaks out of its trance; Lloyd cowers where he fell on the floor.

"An…Anacondrai General…?" the blue snake questions, pulling out of Pythor's grip to gawk at him. "After forty-some years…could it truly be posssssible…?

"One of the last to remain," Pythor sings, twirling his staff like one would fancy cane. "And perhaps would be the last to ever be, were it not for our short-statured sport over there…"

He gestures towards where Lloyd is curled up on the ground, trembling but still peeking through covered fingers. The blue snake stares with disapproval; Pythor chuckles and drags Lloyd back to his feet with his tail.

"This little chap happens to be knowledgeable of the locations of the other Serpentine Tombs, and wishes to set us all free as we so rightly deserve. Isn't that right, Roid?"

"Lloyd," Lloyd huffs, folding his arms. The blue snake still doesn't seem convinced, but nonetheless turns in Pythor's direction and takes a bow.

"…I am Skales; pleassssed to make your acquaintance. As I'm sure you know, it's been decades since we've had visitorssss of any kind…"

"Uh, 'we'?" Lloyd asks. Skales simpers, and from the ice cast in shadows emerge more snakes than Lloyd have ever seen in his life.

Unlike Skales and Pythor, they all have legs (super weird), but only some of them have snake heads. Some are more humanoid in shape, and Lloyd wonders if those ones are "persuaded victims" that Pythor mentioned earlier. And, does Lloyd have to worry about becoming one too…?

He shudders, shaking his head.

"So what'sssss the catch here?" Skales asks, tapping his staff against the ground. "The Serpentine way has never been to be in another's debt…and I imagine you seek something of ussss, otherwise you'd never be tempted to set us free to begin with."

Pythor opens his mouth to speak, but Lloyd jumps in.

"I'm recruiting an army of my own! I'm looking to get some revenge on a few people and I—"

Pythor's tail suddenly yanks Lloyd's cape upwards, cutting off whatever Lloyd was going to say next.

"I thought I told you to let me do the talking?" Pythor hisses through his fangs, although his eyes look ready to bite as well.

"…how juvenile," scoffs Skales, shooting a look at Pythor. "But I'm afraid we musssst decline. As you can see, we've managed to flourish despite the circumstances, and I'd rather not see another human again as long as I may live, let alone fight under their banner…"

He leans in towards Pythor, lowering his voice out of earshot of Lloyd.

"And you—how could you possssssibly hedge your bets on rebuilding our civilization on a child?! Let alone one with…with…those garrisssssh eyes!"

Lloyd blinks innocently, not entirely sure what's going on now. Pythor sneers, getting all up in Skales' face.

"Look, this boy is potentially one of the last in the world that knows the locations to all the tombs, and moreover is the only one we can manipulate long enough to get that information in one way or another. Once we have the means to unite the Serpentine as one again, we can dispose of him, but not a moment sooner."

Skales sneers; Pythor presses on.

"And moreover, what are you so concerned over his eyes for? At worst he's a powerless elemental. It's not like they're gold—"

"Do not speak like that!" Skales snaps, briefly terrified. "…even if the kid is ultimately harmless, I still refussse to let my people blindly follow his whims. The Hypnobrai happen to have self-resssspect…!"

The various Hypnobrai gathered around begin whispering among themselves. Lloyd feels extremely uncomfortable now, but Pythor remains resolute in his stance. Pythor leans back, thoughtful for a moment. And then, the teasing of a smirk pulls his face into a smile.

"Then how about this?" Pythor slides around Skales until he's leaning completely over his shoulder. "Let's wager our departure against your devotion to our cause, shall we? And surely we can come up with a way to reach this compromise…?"

There's a devious glint in Pythor's eye that Skales catches. Wondering where this is going, Skales slowly nods, stroking the snake equivalent of a chin.

"…Well, it IS true that we Serpentine do prefer to handle things diplomatically…"

"Yeah, with VIOLENCE!" shouts a snake from the back, cuing countless others to chime in with their agreement. Pythor grins broadly now, tossing Lloyd forward and into the limited light. Lloyd hits the ground with a light thud, groaning afterwards.

"Well then, how about we have the boy prove himself in the most honorable Serpentine tradition of all…via Slither Pit."

"…Slither Pit?" Lloyd asks, just as all the snakes around him start chanting the words like a hive mind. Scales frowns skeptically, but keeps his gaze locked with Pythor as Pythor simpers to himself.

"Slither Pit…Slither Pit…SLITHER PIT…!"

The crowd of snakes works itself into an uproar, jumping up and down in a bid for bloodsport. With the support of his people fully acknowledged, Skales hums to himself and turns his gaze unto Lloyd.

"It seemsssss you will have to fight for our allegiance, young Lloyd…" he declares, a nasty smirk growing upon his face. "In…A SLITHER PIT!!!"

"YEAAAAAAH!!!" "WOOOOHOOHOO!" "ALL RIIIIGHT!!!" "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

The louder the crowd grows, the smaller Lloyd feels. He turns to Pythor, hoping the terror isn't evident on his face.

"P-Pythor, wait a minute, I can't fight—!" he panics, grabbing at his chest. "I-I can't fight a snake! Can't you do it instead? You're super strong, right?!"

"Oh no no no, dear boy…" Pythor fails at suppressing a snicker, pulling Lloyd back to his feet once again. "I already have the Serpentine's respect—but you, a scrawny little outsider to them…? Well, you certainly don't mean much."

Lloyd wilts a bit, eyes downcast. Pythor claps him on the shoulder.

"Ah, but chin up, chap! Should you emerge victorious, you'll have the commitment of two full tribes of snakes! Granted, one of those tribes merely consists of one individual, but that's still two more tribes than you started the day out with, right?"

Lloyd starts trembling. Pythor's grip turns vice-like as a response.

"And besides, how else are you to become a proper tyrant if you don't know how to fight?"

"I-I know how to fight! …kinda…mostly…maybe," Lloyd insists. "I-I've just…never actually fought anyone. I was just running away from the ninja before, and trying to escape from the Shark Army…"

He wrings his wrists together, struggling to drown out the chants calling for his head.

"…what happens if I lose, though?"

"Well, in that very completely nigh impossible scenario…" Pythor scoops Lloyd in his arms, gazing into shimmering green eyes with little sympathy. "…I suppose your grave will be a fitting place to plant some daisies."

And then, Pythor tosses him forward, just as the ice of the floor cracks open to reveal a pit hidden beneath. The cheers of the snakes drown out Lloyd's own screams; he drags out his dagger and jams it into the wall, slowing his descent just enough to allow him to land on his feet. His chest heaves, gaping for air. He looks up; Pythor only waves back.

Skales takes his place at the edge of the Slither Pit, and Lloyd almost thinks he's going to have to fight him. He almost wishes he would have.

Instead, a far larger snake descends into the pit to join him, barring its fangs. Its eyes look crazed and ready to hypnotize, and Lloyd…doesn't know how to handle that.

"And so we have our contenders—the feeble human boy Lloyd…and our most cutthroat warrior, Slithraa, once the commander of our great Hypnobrai Army in times long since passed…!"

Another chorus of shouts rocks the caverns. Slithraa straightens to his highest height, letting out the equivalent of a snake roar. He sets his sights on the trembling Lloyd, clutching his dagger like his life depends on it (and it does).

"…it's been ages since I've had a proper tasssste of battle…" Slithraa taunts, tilting his head. "…been even longer since I've had a tasssste of human…"

"Hey now, you know the rules…" Skales continues, pacing along the edge of the pit. Lloyd releases his held breath—humans are off the menu, then? Well that's a relief—

"There are no rules!" chant the snakes. Lloyd blanches.

"All right, now…" Skales casts his scepter forward, voice reverberating throughout the cavern. "HAVE AT IT, THEN!"

The ice beneath Lloyd's feet shakes as Slithraa throws himself forward. His jaw snaps wide open; Lloyd screams and rolls to the right, brandishing his dagger and wondering how in the sixteen realms he's supposed to come out of this on top.

Slithraa rounds on Lloyd again, this time snagging Lloyd's arm and tossing him across the arena. Celebratory hollers fill the caverns, along with calls to tear Lloyd limb from limb. Lloyd rolls over himself several times, barely able to come to a stop before Slithraa grabs him again. There's a moment when he's weightless as he thrown about in the air—and then he meets face first with the ice again.

He's beaten in both size and strength. Slithraa has no formal strategy other than to maim, and yet there's nothing Lloyd can do to overcome that. He can't even get a proper angle with his dagger, given his opponent's stature and speed.

It's not fair.

Skales frowns as the Hypnobrai continue to rattle the walls with their wailing. The reigning general turns to Pythor, who maintains his smile even as his chosen champion proceeds to get beaten black and blue.

"…that is quite a lot of faith you must have had in the boy to subject him to thissssss…" Skales remarks, studying Pythor for a reaction.

"I have zero faith in him," Pythor remarks, making Skales reel back. "You see, when he loses, we can pluck the map he possesses right off his corpse and be on our way without the extra baggage…and if by some miracle he wins….well, he might make for some fine entertainment…or a nice appetizer."

"But if he does win, how long do you plan to go along with his whims?! They're nothing short of childish, and should you really wish to bring the Serpentine back to former glory, we cannot be adhering to the demandsssss of a human child…!"

"And should you wish to bring the Serpentine back to their former glory, then you will heed me instead," Pythor hisses. Skales looks indignant, but nonetheless turns his focus back on the fight. Lloyd's already looking worse for wear, with Slithraa basically just toying with him now. The Hypnobrai General huffs, then casts out his staff over the arena.

"Invoke Weapons!" demands Skales, cuing for his attendant Rattla to pull a switch. A small arsenal of ice-forged weapons descend from the ceiling, with Slithraa quick to grab a pickaxe. Lloyd struggles to reach high enough to take hold of anything, but manages to knock down a shield with his dagger just in time for him to defend with it.

"Block all you want," Slithraa taunts, forcing the brunt of the pickaxe against Lloyd's shield. The squealing of ice rings out as it threatens to break. "Give in now and I might let you live yet. Although, that wouldn't make for very good entertainment, would it?"

The crowd hollers in response; Lloyd collapses under the weight of the force and drags himself out of the way of being cleaved in two. Slithraa throws the axe at him; Lloyd swats it away with the shield, only to nearly lose an arm via an ice sword.

"I can do this all day," Slithraa heckles, knocking the rest of the weapons down from the ceiling. He picks up a hammer next—and Lloyd feels his heart jump into his throat.

"SIDEWINDER!" Skales declares. Another switch is thrown, and this time, Lloyd completely topples off his feet as the entire Slither Pit falls into a slant. He goes stumbling down towards the sinking edge of the pit. Slithraa uses that to his advantage, tossing the hammer towards Lloyd and denting the ice in the process. Lloyd evades a crushed hand, but also fails to catch the hammer as it plummets into the icy pool below.

Although it won't be too much longer before he falls too.

Again, he drives his dagger into the ice to give him a grip, but he still struggles to find solid footing. Slithraa's back at it again, now with two scimitars. Lloyd can do nothing but watch as he sinks lower and lower while Slithraa rises, moving with less force and more grace, that befitting of a snake. And…for whatever reason, Lloyd starts feeling woozy just looking at him.

"He's using Fang Qwan Do!" a random snake hisses loudly. Lloyd has no idea what that even means, but his head is spinning around like those idiot ninja now, and he can't focus on anything—

Slithraa strikes with the force of a falling stalactite. Lloyd holds up his shield just enough for it to absorb the blow, but it breaks from the impact. It's also enough for him to lose his grip on the dagger, and down he goes, towards both defeat and an ultimate end.

Pythor surges out of his seat with a whoop, all while Skales looks mildly uncomfortable. The snakes break out into a fresh set of cheers, and Slithraa throws his head back in triumph, just as the platform of the pit tilts the other way.

What remains of the shield slips out of Lloyd's hands, joining the rest of the pieces that rain on down around him.

…wait, pieces? Of…something that broke…?

Slithraa bellows with laughter, guttural and deep with his victory on the horizon. Skales, too, is about to call it…until he hears the strained grunts of a child struggling to make his way up the side of an ice wall.

Pythor's still cheering up a storm. Skales punches him in the arm, a sneer on his face.

"It'sssss not over yet, you fool! LOOK!"

"What?! What do you possibly—"

Just as Pythor looks over the edge once again, he's treated to the same sight as everyone else: crawling up the side of wall, using two icicles as picks…is Lloyd Garmadon.

"WHAT?!" Pythor grabs Skales and nearly throttles him. "How did he do that?!"

Slithraa, too, watches in unabashed confusion as Lloyd stops at the apex of the wall, panting heavily and hanging upside down. He leans his head back, glaring at Slithraa with an inverted gaze…then rips the icicles out of the wall, flips in the air, and smashes them against the platform.

And, in the next heartbeat, they've been reformed into icy fists around Lloyd's hands.

"…what is this child?!" Skales exclaims in horror. "He's…he can't possibly be the Master of Ice, s-so how did he…?"

"It looks like he Master Built those objects," remarks Rattla. Skales nearly swats him.

"That's still imposssssssible! You can't superbuild anything out of a pure element! That was only possible of the First Spinjitzu Master…!”

Pythor, meanwhile, feels his anger dissolve away, replaced by intrigue and fascination.

"Well now, that's terribly interesting…"

Hushed confusion washes over the crowd as Lloyd continues his approach. Slithraa seems to be the only one in the whole cavern that isn't impressed, tail swaying behind him ready to lash out.

"You can build whatever you like; you'll never be strong enough to take me down!"

Lloyd narrows his eyes, lowering his ice fists. He flashes his own set of fangs in Slithraa's direction, and only then does Slithraa feel the smallest bit of fear run through his cold-blooded veins.

"I don't have to be."

Slithraa snaps his tail out; Lloyd jumps up, front flips, and brings the fists down onto the tail. Slithraa howls in pain; Lloyd thrusts his fists into the platform, letting the resulting shards take to the air. He gathers them up, transforming them into a spear. Slithraa hurries over to a discarded ice sword. He holds it up in defense, but Lloyd's smaller stature allows him to slide right on by and stab at Slithraa from the side.

"No, NO!" Pythor howls, grabbing at his head. Skales frowns as the crowd is unsure of how to handle this turn of events, but violence is still violence, and so they holler for more. 

"You want more?!" Lloyd exclaims, losing himself in the moment. "Are you not entertained?!"

The crowd's chanting increases in volume just as Slithraa slithers up and whacks Lloyd across the arena with a powerful tail-swing. Lloyd doesn't scream this time, instead breaking his spear and warping it into an icy rope. He hurls it forward just before he topples over the edge once again, lassoing it around Slithraa's neck. The snake howls as the force yanks him to the ground. Lloyd pulls himself back up, running right at Slithraa and jumping on his head.

The arena shifts once more. The battlefield is now tilted in Lloyd's favor; physically and metaphorically.

"Enough playing around!" Slithraa howls, catching Lloyd out of the air and slamming him side first into the ice. Lloyd yelps upon impact, struggling to push Slithraa off of him. He notices Slithraa begin to shake his tail, and Lloyd's vision begins to go all woozy again—

Lloyd sinks his teeth into Slithraa's hand. Slithraa recoils in pain just long enough for Lloyd to get his hands on the ice rope. He yanks it off Slithraa, tearing it to pieces, then reforming the shards into a mace. Slithraa whirls back around for another attack, but Lloyd hits him in the face and takes off running for the abandoned pile of remaining ice weapons.

"Stop him already!" Pythor demands, shaking Skales by the shoulders as he screams. "What kind of a warrior are you?!"

Slithraa's resulting scream rattles the arena. He slithers forward at breakneck speed, this time with his eyes swirling red. It takes everything in Lloyd's body not to make eye contact with him, instead focusing on using the mace to break up as many pieces of ice as he can. He can feel Slithraa's approach, yet it's still too dangerous to turn around; he's playing a seriously lethal game of chicken right now—

Lloyd ducks, and Slithraa sails right over his head, just barely missing nicking the tips of his fangs.

Lloyd's heart pounds in his ears as he stands surrounded by shattered ice, watching as Slithraa hits the ground again with anger rolling off of him. Slithraa takes a moment to pull himself together, and Lloyd makes the mistake of locking eyes with him. He takes a single step backward—Slithraa charges at him once again, this time with the intent to hypnotize…and then do whatever else.

Lloyd yells as he hurriedly rearranges the ice pieces into a hammer, large enough that he struggles to pull it over his shoulder. Still, he manages to get a decent enough hold on it, despite the way his chest heaves with exhaustion. He keeps his gaze down even as Slithraa comes for him once more, but he's got to time this just right. He's already lost otherwise.

Slithraa gets close enough to lunge just as Lloyd brings the hammer down over his head. Time slows to a crawl as Lloyd brings his head up, sweat rolling down his forehead as Slithraa's enraged face gets closer and closer to him. He almost makes the mistake of looking straight into Slithraa's eyes….but the hammer finally makes its intended impact against the arena floor, sending huge flat shards of ice straight into the air.

They rise between Lloyd and his attacker, allowing the hypnotic gaze to bounce off the reflection…and straight back at Slithraa.

The hammer's thud finally reaches Lloyd's ears, and everything pulls back into focus. His arm lurch with the sudden drop of his weapon, and the ice shards clink as they return to the ground from whence they came. Slithraa, meanwhile, had gone completely limp. He drops all the weapons he has left with slack arms...and there he stays, defeated. 

Lloyd looks on, a bit startled and unnerved, but it breaks when the realization finally settles in. His shoulders start shaking and his cackle echoes throughout the cavern. Everyone else present goes silent. Even Pythor and Skales are at a loss for what to say.

"…listen up, Hypnobrai…you will be loyal to me now," Lloyd begins, releasing the hammer and standing back to his full height. His grin threatens to slide right off his face with how slanted it is, but nonetheless he laughs, grabbing at his head with a single hand. "…mwahahaha…no, I will control YOU from now on…!"

He keeps giggling to himself, now unsettling the once hyped crowd. Slithraa, now induced by hypnosis himself, slithers forward and bows before Lloyd Garmadon.

"What shall you have ussss do, Master?"

"We will eventually unleash all of the Serpentine, and use their combined might to call upon my dad's return from whatever realm he scurried off to…"

Lloyd's hand falls from his face, now clenching it in a fist before him.

"…but first, we've got a little ransacking to do. And maybe some revenge to get on a few ninja."

The promise of more violence stirs up the Hypnobrai crowd, some more than ready to take up arms for the sake of a puny cause. Anything's gotta be better than staying trapped in a tomb for another forty years anyway.

Skales finally rises from his perch, casting his staff high into the air. The area rises back into place, putting Lloyd and Slithraa back before Skales and Pythor. Skales marches up to Lloyd, gazing down warily at the child. But, he is a snake of his word, if nothing else.

"…we have our winner," Skales announces, taking Lloyd's wrist and holding it high. "The Hypnobrai Army…is yours for you to command."

Lloyd smiles with all his teeth, throwing both arms into the air. "My own army of snakes…Moowahahahaha!!"

He cheers and continues hyping up the rest of the Hypnobrai like he'd just won a popularity contest, while Skales slinks back with resigned concern.

"Are we really sure about this, General Pythor?"

"…oh, let the boy have his moment," Pythor advises, slinging an arm over Skales' shoulders. Skales frowns indignantly. "It's not like this is going to last forever….ahahaha…"

And for all their sakes, Skales hopes that Pythor is right.

Chapter Text

Wednesday morning fares no better than the days before—Zane spends another first period watching as Nya unintentionally steals the show, pushing her council agenda with the poise and grace he'd always known she had. However, it also reminds him of his own shortcomings, which makes him feel…something close to resentful, honestly.

But on top of that, she's also taken in very little of his own input. There'd been a reason why he hadn't funneled as much time or energy into the more fun projects, mainly because the school is lacking in so many other, more important areas. And he would have assumed she'd been intelligent enough to register that as well. But instead, she pushes that the students need some boost in morale, which in turn would allow them to be more proactive in school.

Which…isn't wrong, but, it's…not what they need right now.

Meanwhile, Cole can barely keep himself awake in his classes, always finding himself nodding off at the first sound of a teacher's voice. Zane's there to nudge him awake (and punish him into detention) but it does little to make the exhaustion go away. He's trying to pay attention, really, but the stress of Garmadon's return, Lloyd running around, and potential snakes being unleashed has him on edge. And if Zane thinks he's just being a little bit lazy, well, that's better than letting it get out that the whole situation has him completely rattled.

What kind of a leader would that make him?

And then, lunch turns out to be a rather…unspeakable affair. Sure, Zane treats everyone to his dishes by the trash cans as always, but his heart doesn't seem to be as into it like usual. The wear and tear of school clearly eats at Cole as Cole eats away, headphones firmly on his head, and…neither of the Smith Siblings are present to eat with them.

Jay doesn't know where Nya's always managed to spirit herself away to during the lunch hour, but she never joins them by the trash cans, nor does she manage to blend in at any of the other tables. He assumes she goes to the library, but really, she could be doing anything. He hasn’t forgotten the way she'd dipped right before heading to the warehouse.

As for Kai, he's blatantly laughing away at the popular table, sitting between Chen and Meghan. They're all indulging in some kind of fancy pasta or something, and while Zane could never make a bad meal in his life…Jay has to confess that it looks really good.

Every once in a while, he'll catch Kai sending a glance his way. Jay stubbornly ignores him, pretending it’s the stench of rotting old meatloaf from the garbage that makes his eyes water.

So yeah, lunch ends rather uneventfully, and Jay stealthily makes his way into chemistry. He tunes out the whispers and heckling as he takes his solo seat, not missing the way people near him flock away like startled birds. It's just the same as it's always been, really. Just another year without a science partner, he supposes. 

At least, until, Nya strolls up in a flurry and plops her bag next to him.

"Ugh, I was almost late…!" she exclaims, brushing her bangs out of her face. As she fumbles around in her backpack, Jay can't help but take her in. Goggles, gloves, and a pure white lab coat…just so happen to be a very good look on her. And he's enough of a sappy romantic to note how even the fluorescent lightning of the science room can make her look amazing.

He blushes up to his ears and quickly buries his face in his chemistry book.

"Uh, Jay…?" Nya taps him with the end of a test tube, eyebrow raised. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah." His voice cracks and he curses the universe itself. "Y-You just look, um…science-y."

"That is what I was going for," Nya shoots back with a smirk. "Although, considering you're wearing the same thing, you too look…science-y."

Plan B—maybe if he tries hard enough, he can knock himself out with this book and he'll wake up in next week instead.

It's then that Nya fully takes the seat besides Jay, starting to organize her stuff all out in front of her. Jay looks on with wide-eyes of disbelief. Nya tilts her head curiously.

"…what now?"

"Oh! I-I um…I'm not really used to people wanting to sit next to me." He shuffles in his seat, trying hard not to let his gaze stray to all the students with either their backs to him or whispering about him. Jay sags a bit, shoulders slumping. "…let alone someone as cool as you."

"Why wouldn't I?" Nya asks point blank, the murmurs around her going ignored. "It's just a seat, and besides, you're the smartest and funniest person in this room; out of everyone else in here, I'd pick you every time."

Jay didn't think he could turn any redder, but it's possible.

Nya smiles to herself at the reaction, then does her best to focus on the lesson. Chemistry's not one of her or Jay's strongest suits—it's more of Zane's thing—but she understands its importance anyway and tries to keep up. It's a lot of information to process, after all.

"…pssst, hey Nya?"

"…What, Jay?"

"I just realized…that we have chemistry together."

The joke sails over Nya's head initially, but with the hardly contained smug look Jay's sporting, it's her turn to flush red and has to lift up her book to hide her laughing fit from the rest of the class. Jay grins with accomplishment; Nya gently gives him a kick under the table and tries to pretend she's still focusing on the teacher.

And, Jay starts to feel a little better.

However, right before they're about to get to the actually fun parts of mixing things together and hoping they don’t explode, Nya's bracelet goes off. Nya slams her hand over it, preventing too many other prying eyes from catching sight of it, then takes a peek. She sucks in air through her teeth; Jay immediately starts to frown.

"…Lloyd's back at Jamanakai Village," she says, biting her lip. "And…the report says he's got an army of snakes with him."

"WHA—" Jay starts to yell, until Nya reflexively clamps a hand over his mouth. She uses her free hand to hastily send out a text to the others.

NyaNya97: GUYS we got bad news

Fi-ya13: I'll say, are you texting in class?! Nya we talked about this!

NyaNya97: Kai this is. NOT THE TIME

Super★RKNJ: LLOYD IS IN JAMANAKAI

ZaneJulien: Oh, that is bad.

Super★RKNJ: AND HE'S GOT SNAAAAAKES

ColeRocks521: THATS WORSE

FI-ya13: well what are we supposed to do? Just leave?

ColeRocks521: We have to do something! Its kinda our fault hes even still running around like this…

Super★RKNJ: The transporters are technically up and running now…all we gotta do is just go to our lockers

Fi-ya13: Wait, when did that happen?!

Super★RKNJ: Monday, actually

Super★RKNJ: Which, you would know, if you had actually been there

NyaNya97: And what? We're just supposed to all "go to the bathroom" at the same time? Don’t you think that'll come off as suspicious?

ColeRocks521: We don't have a choice!

ZaneJulien: But I do not have to use the facilities at this moment in time.

ColeRocks521: Just do whatever it takes to get yourselves out of class! The longer we take the more time Lloyd has to really hurt someone…

Upon receiving eventual agreement with the guys, Nya pockets her phone and gives a nod to Jay, signaling him to follow her lead. Jay looks on with bafflement as she suddenly lets out a distressed wail, grabbing at her leg.

"Oh no, ow, Teacher…!" she exclaims, throwing a hand into the air while wincing. "I think I may have pulled my ankle trying to push my chair out…I'm such a clutz, haha…I don't think I can walk on it…"

She then gives Jay a sharp look, whose eyes widen in realization.

"Uwaaahh! Um, yeah, yeah…! I saw the whole thing! Would it be all right if I walked her to the nurse? Just to be safe?

The teacher raises an eyebrow, but excuses them regardless. Nya makes a show of putting her arm over Jay's shoulders to support herself, and Jay just prays his red face doesn't give them away. He hurries probably a little faster than he should out the door. Once they're away from the window, Nya lets go and starts booking it for their lockers. Jay follows her lead.

Upon reaching their lockers, only Kai and Cole are present.

"…okay, where's Zane?!"

"I just walked right out of the room," Cole explains with a shrug. "But Zane asked for a bathroom pass…and then went to the bathroom. He didn't want to be a liar."

Nya groans while Jay shakes his head. Zane catches up with them rather quickly, but proceeds to pull out his detention slips.

"Don't think I did not see you all running in the halls—"

Kai swats the book out of Zane's hands. Zane gasps, scandalized.

"We don't have time for that! C'mon already!"

Jay, Nya, Cole, and for the most part Zane waste no time in hurrying towards the lockers, throwing their doors open and preparing to jump in. Kai halts in his tracks, however, paralyzed by uncertainty.

"O-Okay, wait, I haven't done this yet…does it hurt?"

"Think of it like going down a water slide," Jay says sharply, which only makes Kai's face turn blue.

"…okay, one, I've never been on a water slide. And two—I'M AFRAID OF WATER!"

Nya groans before shoving Kai into his locker, hearing him wail as the suction activates and pulls him down through the tube. Cole whoops and jumps into his, followed by Zane, Jay, and Nya herself.

Kai screams almost the whole way through, disoriented by the sudden loss of gravity and the red and orange lights dancing in his vision. When he's spat out the other end, he tumbles to the floor, all while the others are already strapping into their ninja gear. Kai sneers, pushing himself off the ground and dusting himself off.

"…okay, is anyone going to take a sec to catch me up on everything?!" Kai demands. Cole and Zane look up from where they're tying up their robes, but Jay beats them to the punch.

"Well, you wouldn't need to be caught up on anything if you'd been here like you promised!" Jay points at Kai accusingly. "You knew we were planning on finishing the setup, and you missed it!"

"I don't have to be here every second of the day, you know! But a text to keep me in the loop would've been nice too!"

"We could've told you over dinner, at the very least, but again, someone was too busy hanging out with people that hate us…!"

Jay lets the point stand, whirling on his heel to go grab the nunchucks. At first, Kai recoils with shock. But then he lurches in on himself, now snarling with his teeth.

"Oh, OH! You wanna talk about hanging out with people that hate us?!" Kai exclaims, setting his sights on Nya. "Then start talking to her about it!"

"What!" Nya screeches, hands fisted. Jay freezes, but doesn't turn back around. "Why are you dragging me into this?!"

"Because you've been talking to Olivia, of all people!" Kai hisses, making Zane gasp. "What, haven't given away enough of our secrets or something?! Or are you waiting for her to give you a scar to match mine?!"

Now Cole audibly sucks in air while Jay looks increasingly nervous. Nya puffs out her cheeks and marches up to Kai, making sure to get all up in his face.

"For your information, she just wanted to explain some things, and made a lot of good points about our situations. Whatever she told you is exactly what she told me,"  Nya spits back. "And she was actually willing to listen to me, something that I can't say for most of you lately!"

"Yeah, probably so she can just break your trust all over again." Kai folds his arms and shakes his head. "C'mon Nya, I thought you were smarter than that!"

"And moreover," Zane interrupts, staring hard at the ground. "You've got an entire student council hanging on your every command. How could you possibly say no one's listening to you?"

"…those people aren't supposed to be my family!" Nya whirls around hard enough that her ponytail smacks her in the face. "…why do you sound like you're mad that I'm actually doing the job that you wanted me to do?!"

"But you completely disregarded my own input in the process, therefore representing an example of you not listening to us," Zane forces back coldly. "…I am just saying, there may be some merit to some of Kai's expressed concerns—"

"Another classic case of Nya jumping into something without thinking of the consequences for other people," Kai scoffs. Nya nearly throws herself at him, only barely held back by Jay.

"And THAT'S a case of the pot calling the kettle black—!"

"Why are we even yelling at Nya, I thought this was about Kai?!" Jay wails, grabbing at his head.

"You wouldn't treat me like this if I was the Green Ninja—!"

The four of them eventually break down into a shouting match, not one able to be heard clearly over the others. Zane and Jay do their best to keep Kai and Nya from going at each other's throats, but also keep adding their own fuel to the fire. It's turning into a three ring circus, and they have to go right now—

The ground begins to shake hard enough to rattle the tables, lockers, and the windows. The four almost stumble over themselves, fighting the force just to be able to look over to where Cole's thrust the Scythe of Quakes into the ground. His arms tremble with his strength, and his eyes burn with marigold energy. It fades as fast as it appears, however, and Cole's quick to twirl the Scythe back behind him.

"How about we save the squabbles for later?" he suggests, his gaze not meeting anyone's. "There will be a time and place to resolve all of this, but it's sure as hell not now. Lloyd has apparently unleashed yet another threat the world isn't ready for, and you think taking out your aggressions on each other takes priority?"

"Jay started it," Kai grumbles under his breath, cuing Jay to kick him in the shin.

"And I'm finishing it—for now, forget about who's friends with who or the whole Green Ninja thing…" Cole's face falls, and somehow that gets everyone else to sober up a little. "…Let's make Sensei proud this time. The four of us…we're supposed to be a team…"

Zane grips his arm, cringing to himself. Jay slumps almost to the floor. Kai grits his teeth with a regretful expression. Nya just looks miserable, even when Jay scoots over to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, and Nya? You can be our honorary member!" says Jay. Nya rolls her eyes, even if she does appreciate the attempt to cheer her up.

"Gee, thaaaaaanks…"

"Whatever then," Kai huffs, twirling the Sword of Fire about. "So what's the plan? Just go to Jamanakai and start corralling the kid again? But this time, don't let him go…?"

"But if it's true that he has Serpentine with him, we may require the manpower of the mechs," Zane points out.

"The village is too small for you to just go on a rampage though," adds Nya, much to Zane’s discontent. "The Ice Mech alone would fill all of the plaza, leaving very little maneuverability for it or anyone else…”

“So we’ll do it the old fashioned way.” Cole tosses the Scythe into the Quake Mech, resting his hands on his hips. “Just use the Mechs for transport, and fend off these snakes on our own skill! And with the Golden Weapons powering the mechs, we won’t have to worry about them overloading or whatever.”

With that settled as a plan, Cole, Zane, and Kai make tracks for their mechs, climbing in as the roof opens up for exit. Jay bounds for the Electric Jet…only to find Nya already nestled in the co-pilot seat.

“…what are you doing?!” He hisses in a whisper, lest the others somehow accidentally hear. “You can’t come with us—you have no disguise and you’ll give away your connection to us! And you’re not borrowing my gi again…! …mainly because I kinda need it.”

“I don’t need it anyway! I have an alternative!”

Nya then proceeds to tie her hair into a bun instead of a ponytail, loses her signature leather jacket, then pulls a red bandana over her face. It’s…still so obviously her, but maybe no one else will notice…?

“I’m already here, and I’m not going back now!”

“Fine,” Jay groans, pulling himself into the cockpit. “But if Kai gets on my case for it, I am not taking the rap!”

“He’s already mad at both of us; what’s one more thing on the list?” Nya scoffs, prodding at her bracelet. “Now let’s go—the others are already a good ways ahead of you.”

Jay represses his conflicted urge to whine, but nevertheless lowers the hatch, ramps up the engines, and shoots them both into the sky.

A shop keeper in Jamanakai Village innocently goes about her day, tidying up her shop as she thinks nothing of the bizarre visit from the cloaked child a few days prior. Sure, it was rare for their quaint little village to see any action, especially compared to that of the city. But it's not like that kid was going to leave a lasting impact…

And of course, it's then that she sees her fellow villagers running away from something in a panic, scattered amongst the cobblestone streets in search of safety. With her being the curious sort, she carefully steps around her stall, peeking around the corner of the building…

Teal and gray-colored snakes flood the streets, all of them marching (or slithering) with swirling red eyes. For the poor villagers that happen to make eye contact with them, it means a swift invitation to be under their spell. And soon, patrons that she's known for years are suddenly turning against one another.

From the rear comes two snakes wielding long golden staffs—one blue, and one purple. Between them is a single wheelbarrow being pushed by the both of them simultaneously, containing the one claiming to be Lloyd Garmadon.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lloyd bellows, head thrown back in his best maniacal cackle yet. "People of Jamanakai, you have defied my demands one too many times! Surrender your candy, or forfeit your very minds to my army…!"

His cackling only grows more annoying as the snakes start to spread out, securing candy, destroying things, or adding the masses to their ranks. Enough candy is accumulated for Lloyd to make a throne of it, and he pops in a peppermint with little regret.

"Take that person's free will! Grab that bag of lollipops! Knock over that stuff!"

The snakes respond to the commands with varying degrees of dedication, all while Skales slightly falls back and leans over to Pythor.

"…why are we honessstly indulging in this waste of time?! We should be freeing the rest of the Serpentine, not swiping sssweets! It makes no sense!"

"Oh come now, dear Skales. Haven't you been dying to work out some of the aggression that's been plaguing you for the last four decades?" Pythor asks, licking a lollipop himself. "I think, at the very least, the young chap is on the right track about instilling the fear back into the people that have forgotten our existence…"

"But I feel it counterproductive to incur the humans' wrath so soon after our freedom…" Skales trails, shaking his head. "After all, as I recall, you were among those spearheading for peace with the humans, were you not?"

"That was before they decided to backstab us," Pythor replies bitterly.  "If they prefer using dirty, underhanded methods to get what they want…then so shall we."

"TAKE THE CANDY! TAKE IT AAAAAAALL!" Lloyd screams at the top of his lungs. Skales says nothing, only giving a pointed look at Pythor. Pythor sneers, turning his gaze away.

"…look, you and I both know there's something off about this brat, and I don't want to be near him any more than I have to," Pythor hisses under his breath. "But so long as he has the Map of Dens, and we can squeeze some use out of his abilities, we might as well keep our enemies close. His father supposedly is Lord Garmadon, after all, which just might also prove useful to us."

Skales still doesn't look fully convinced, but doesn't argue anymore either. They merely stand back and watch the pandemonium, and as Lloyd indulges in the candy.

Meanwhile, the Ninja tear back towards Jamanakai Village in their mechs. The Electric Jet sails around the skies over the village, while the other three climb the mountain side with varying amounts of success. In the end, however, they’re all treated to the insidious sight of snakes gathering upon the otherwise quiet village of Jamanakai.

"The Serpentine?! They're REAL?!" yells Kai in complete shock.

"T-Told you," Jay says, regretting being right.

Cole quakes in the cockpit of his Mech. "I-If there's one thing that freaks me out more than dragons, it's SNAKES!"

"…Dragons, heights, snakes…so much for there being nothing you’re afraid of,” scoffs Kai. “What’ll be next? Ghosts?”

“Oh shut up—!”

"Not the time, Red!” Zane interrupts, quickly trying to read the data flooding in on his tank's scanner. “Besides, it is not just them we have to worry about—the whole village has been hypnotized!"

Sure enough, the once hospitable people of the village have now become slaves to the Hypnobrai. Kai wilts at the sight; Cole slams a fist against the dashboard.

“Ugh, great, that’s just going to make it even harder to fight…does anyone have any eyes on Lloyd, or someone who could potentially be in charge?”

“Not yet; I’ll take a quick loop around to double check,” says Jay. The Electric Jet leaves an afterimage and an electric ring in the sky from where it jets off, also causing a rather thunderous boom to explode in the sky. Various villagers stop in their tracks at the sound.

'"…what the blazes was THAT?!" Pythor screeches, spooked. Lloyd looks to the sky and scowls.

"…the ninja."

Skales clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "What kind of ninja calls attention to itself in…in...ssssome kind of loud metallic contraption?!"

"The so-called Secret Ninja Force," Lloyd finishes, hopping off the wheelbarrow to go confront them. "Watch my candy for me! Guard it with your lives!"

"I will do no sssssuch thing," huffs Skales as Pythor helps himself to another lollipop.

The Electric Jet continues to swoop overhead, all while the Quake Mech and Fire Mech patrol the ground. Snakes and villagers alike go running in all directions, at least, until the Ice Tank starts firing ice in every direction. Kai and Cole are quick to leave their mechs while Zane provides the cover, with Kai crouching down and taking point.

"Stay close, and stay together," says Kai. Cole claps him on the back.

"Would we do it any other way? Now, do you see Lloyd anywhere?"

Kai shakes his head, just as Zane runs up to them, having left the Ice Tank creating a frosty mist for them to use as more cover. Of course, it makes it harder to see, but it's better than being constantly ambushed by snakes of any kind.

"Guys, he's by the fountain again!" Nya's voice cries over the intercom. "Make your way over there!"

"…how do you know that?" Kai asks suspiciously, although he supposes he gets his answer with Jay's nervous laughter ringing out in the background. He glances up—the Electric Jet's circling above the fountain, forced into autopilot as Jay and Nya descend down from it. Kai grimaces, but lets it go for now—like Cole said, there's bigger problems to deal with.

While the other three move to catch up, Nya clutches Jay for dear life as Jay shoots out the kusarigama, latching onto a phone pole. He lands on a roof with Nya still in his grip, runs along the top, then swings down towards the fountain. He lands gracefully; Nya hops out of his arms with a laugh.

The second the five reconvene at the fountain, Lloyd stands proudly before them. He slacks back, hands in his hoodie pocket, and grinning even as they all draw their weapons.

"Sorry to bust your buzz, little Garmadon," Cole declares, holding his hammer before him.

"But it's already past your naptime," Jay finishes.

"Please, the only naps around here will be dirt naps for all of you!" Lloyd screeches. His gaze falls on Nya, and he grins ever harder. "What, had so much trouble with me last time that you had to bring a girl as backup?!"

"She's not supposed to be here!" insists Kai, only to be shoved by Nya herself. Nya then turns her sights on Lloyd, tilting both fans in his direction.

"And what's that supposed to mean anyway?! You don't think a girl can put you in the timeout you deserve?!"

"…I stand corrected." Lloyd puts a hand to his chin, thinking it over, but shakes his head. "…Either way! You can bring as many friends as you want, but you'll be no match against the Serpentine!"

"I've surrounded the entire area in ice," Zane explains with a pleased smirk. "I've learned a thing or two from the last time we dealt with you, and one of those things is your terrible maneuverability on a slippery surface."

As he speaks, the mist from the Ice Tank drifts their way, even freezing the waters of the recently fixed fountain. Lloyd carefully sidesteps away from accidentally falling, then glances back at the ninja, taking note of Cole's hammer.

"…yeah, well, you're not the only ones who learned from last time!" Lloyd shoots his hand out at Cole, making a taunting gesture. "And I learned that if the black one's supposed to be the leader, he's sure doing a bad job of it…!"

Kai makes an affronted grunt; Zane and Nya’s eyes dart towards Cole, who somehow keeps his composure.

"Don’t listen to him, he’s just goading you—!" Jay whispers harshly, to which Cole nods in response.

“Am I, though?” Lloyd asks, tilting his head as he leans his chin upon one hand. “I mean, it wasn’t even him that caught me last time! What'd he do, throw a rock at me? Some tough guy!"

"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that, kid," Cole scoffs, twirling his hammer to the side as he paces around the fountain. Lloyd never takes his eyes off of him. "You're nothing compared to dealing with these idiots."

Kai and Jay makes affronted noises; Nya and Zane rolls their eyes. Lloyd considers it a challenge. Words aren't going to work, huh?

He draws his dagger, immediately moving towards Zane and Nya. Nya flinches defensively while Zane draws his bow, but neither move as fast as Cole, having already sent his hammer swinging downwards. Lloyd brakes on a dime, not only narrowly missing being slammed, but also evading several pieces of ice flying into his face.

Regardless, he grins, having gotten what he wanted.

Cole sneers, daring Lloyd to make another move against his friends, but Lloyd instead starts snatching the bits of ice from the air. In the confusion, Lloyd manages to accumulate enough ice to conjure up a baseball bat of all things. He swings it outwards, blocked at the last moment by quick-thinking from Cole.

"What the HECK?!" screeches Jay, just as Cole jumps back and moves to the right. He drags the hammer against the ground before curving it upwards; Lloyd jumps up, lands on its face, and comes back down with the bat again. Kai manages to push Cole out of the way, all while Nya takes two steps back in horror.

"…what in the world…?" Her head whips towards the others, panicked. "You didn't say he could superbuild with other elements!"

"We didn’t know he could!" exclaims Jay. He tosses out his weapon, hoping to pull back Lloyd. Instead, Lloyd hops over it and smashes his bat into the ground. He reforms it into an ice whip, lashing it out back towards Jay. Nya deflects it with one fan, then tosses the other straight ahead. That manages to hit the unsuspecting Lloyd, sending him and the weapon rolling along the ground. Angrily, Lloyd destroys the whip, reforming it into a shield that stops at an attack from Kai.

"Oh, come ON—!"

The shield breaks; Lloyd transforms it into a crossbow, taking aim at Zane with an icy arrow. Zane's ready for it this time, launching one of his own arrows to meet Lloyd's halfway. Lloyd's shatters in midair upon contact; Lloyd rolls out of the way of Jay and Nya, grabs the pieces, and conjures yet another shield to block Kai.

"C'mon, there's five of us this time! We can take on one kid!" Cole huffs, refusing to get frustrated. Still, he charges at Lloyd again with a reckless abandon rarely seen from him, smashing the hammer into the icy ground once again. Lloyd just laughs and throws himself into the carnage, gathering up more broken ice for him to use.

"…Wait; everyone, stop! We're just giving him ammo…!" cries Zane.

"Why stop now?" Lloyd chuckles, now hefting an impressively sized ice cannon over his shoulder. His side sinks with the weight of holding it, yet his stubby legs refuse to cave. "We're just starting to have fun!"

"SCATTER!" shrieks Jay, and the five go rolling off in different directions. Lloyd breaks into a cackle as he fires off the cannon. The icy projectile goes flying in Cole's direction. Cole whirls into Spinjitzu, emerging out of it with a cry and smacking the projectile right back towards Lloyd. Lloyd wails in fear, cowering and flinching. However, the strike never lands. Lloyd peaks out from behind his hands, finding Pythor having turned the projectile into nothing but snow with his scepter.

"So these are those pesky ninja you mentioned?" Pythor asks, slithering his tongue between his fangs. "You seemed to have things under control for the most part…"

"…They've only been active for a few months, but they still basically outclass me when it comes to fighting," Lloyd explains with a pout. "If I didn't have Master Building and a little bit of surprise, they would've totally wiped the floor with me…!"

"Can we leave yet?!" Skales whines from behind them, struggling to push the wheelbarrow with Lloyd's mountain of candy. "We've accumulated enough ssssssweets to kill a Tiger Widow!"

"No! It won't be enough until we have a lifetime supply!" Lloyd demands. "I'm NEVER coming down from this sugar high!"

Skales makes an unholy noise as Pythor lowers his head and grimaces; the ninja pop back up from wherever they'd darted off to, all with weapons at the ready. Lloyd's eye twitches before he casts his hands out, crying out:

"GET THEEEEEM!"

The ninja's movement grinds to a halt as a whole swarm of Hypnobrai come slithering out of every crevice in the town. Jay lurches and steps behind Kai, Cole readies his hammer despite his arms shaking, and Nya's ready to throw herself at the first one that dares to come close. The Hypnobrai all hiss and spit, some of them already making their eyes spin in the hopes of catching one of the ninja. Zane flinches away, refusing to make eye contact.

"What's the plan, guys?!" Jay asks, not sure where to strike first.

"Well, can't we just use the mechs to clear out the snakes?!" Kai asks. "I mean, what's the point of having them otherwise?!"

"We already went over this; we'd not only run the risk of harming the villagers, hypnotized or not, but we'd also blow the whole village off the side of the mountain!" Cole exclaims.

"Our Golden Weapons are also out, as they are still powering the mechs. And even so, we would run the risk of overloading them again…” adds Zane. Jay clicks his tongue, shaking his head.

"…all right, well, I guess that leaves us with RUUUUUUN!!!"

The ninja spin on their heels and take to the rooftops. Nya delays in her departure, keeping a sharp eye on Skales, Pythor, and Lloyd pushing along the wheelbarrow, all while Skales takes back his staff from Pythor. She takes note of the orb attached to it, but is force to flee when the Hypnobrai start closing in.

As she escapes, she witnesses some villagers running away as well. A group of Hypnobrai manage to corner them, rattling their tails to get the villagers' attention. And once they've locked eyes, Nya darts into the alley, not agile enough to reach the rooftops yet, but still manages to find the boys hiding behind a stack of hay.

Her sudden appearance makes the four of them snap their heads up; Jay in particular is filled with glee.

"Nya! You're okay!"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she huffs with a headshake. "While you were running away screaming, I managed to get some intel on the snakes."

"And what did you manage to find out in the span of five minutes?" Kai asks, folding his arms. Nya narrows her eyes.

"Well first of all, the snakes with the staffs are the Generals—the orb in the staffs hold the antivenom. If we can get the blue one and find a way to distribute it around, we can save the town!"

"I wonder why they carry around their own antidote?" Zane ponders. "It seems counterproductive."

"I don't know, but it must have some significance, given the fact they've made entire artifacts for them," Nya replies. "It…actually might be worth looking into—"

"Okay, guys, let's focus here!" Jay waves his arms about. "What are we supposed to do?! We can't use our Golden Weapons or the mechs, and now we gotta fight with our eyes closed?! HA, perfect."

"They don't actually have the ability to hypnotize you until after they rattle their tails," Nya recalls. "When you hear them rattle their tails, that's when you have to avoid looking them in the eye. Otherwise, they can't get you!"

"Guess we got ourselves a plan then," says Cole, standing back up and swinging his hammer over his head. "We're gonna need a way to round all the villagers in place, divert the snakes, and get the staff. Those should be the top three priorities."

"What about Lloyd?" asks Zane. Cole frowns.

"The safety of the people has to come first, but if someone manages to get their hands on him, then we'll take care of him properly, like we should have in the first place."

"That's a pretty big 'if'—did anyone else not see the way he was manhandling that ice?!" squawks Jay.

"As long as he has nothing to create with, he's harmless," says Kai. "Just don't break anything around him. I think he can only Master Build with things that are already in pieces, hence why he was destroying so much of his own stuff before."

"In that case, I'll take care of Lloyd," Zane offers. "Blue can distract and divert the snakes' attention, Red can round up the villagers to the fountain, Black can go after the staff, and Nya can distribute the venom."

"I like this plan," Nya says with a grin. Zane smiles the tiniest bit himself, until he's hit in the head by a stray hand from Jay.

"Why do I have to be the distraction?!" he whines.

"Maybe because you're the most distracting," snickers Cole, making Kai snort.

"I despise both of you," Jay grunts, tugging his hood back over his head and throwing himself back into the fray. Kai's not too far behind him, taking to the streets and drawing out his swords. Most of the hypnotized villagers are merely marching around aimlessly, but once Kai's bright red visage falls into their sights, they start following him like moths to a flame.

Jay then uses the resulting chaos to incite the wrath of the Hypnobrai, throwing down spark bombs to makes them flinch, and leading them from the opposite direction of the fountain. Some shake their tails and try to drag Jay under their spell. He slides on his goggles and does his best to avoid their gazes and their teeth in general—which actually comes very natural to him, and he can now see why Zane chose this task for him.

With the Serpentine divided from the villagers, Lloyd realizes that he no longer has an entourage of snakes flanking him. Even Pythor and Skales have left in an attempt to rectify the madness, leaving Lloyd wide open for an aerial attack from Zane. Zane comes up from behind and gives Lloyd a shove, tipping him and the wheelbarrow over.

"AUGH, MY CANDY!" Lloyd whines, struggling to free himself from the confines of the wheelbarrow. His candy, now spewed out all over the ground and soaked in dirt and snow, only serves to throw him deeper into rage. He senses Zane coming up from behind him, a rope held within his hands.

"Sensei was right," Zane realizes with a sigh. "We should have dealt with you properly the first time around. Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. "

"Ah, Uncle Wu…" Lloyd manages to somersault out of the wheelbarrow's hold, the item now standing between himself and Zane. "Whatever he's told you is more than he's told me…which is nothing at all!"

"He said he has not seen you since you were a baby," Zane remarks, and he swears Lloyd softens up the slightest bit. "He is very worried about you, concerned about the path you are currently walking, and he wondered about your mother but we—"

Lloyd suddenly screams, throwing himself back onto the wheelbarrow and shattering it. Zane blinks, taken aback, and is about to ask why in the world he did that until it clicks too late—

The wheelbarrow's been repurposed into twin cannons—which Lloyd seems to favor lately—and its ammo being the candy once sprawled out all over the ground. Lloyd wails again and fires off the cannons with no hesitation, and it takes get hit in the head with three pieces of peppermint to get Zane to back off. The last thing Zane wants is a lollipop stick to the eye.

"Consider this a warning, Ninja!" screeches Lloyd, continuing to fire away before throwing his head back. "RETREAT!"

Lloyd's loud, grating voice reaches the assumed ears of Pythor, currently observing as Skales, Slithraa, and Rattla try to hold off Cole. With three against one it's not so hard, but Cole's no amateur either—this teen has the training to back up the skills.

"RETREAT, THE BOY SAID!" Pythor echoes upon seeing the snakes lose the advantage, beginning to make a run for it himself. Rattla wastes no time in making an escape; Slithraa meanwhile refuses to go down, lurching forward and hissing every time Cole tries to take a swing at him.

"Keep him busy! We cannot let him get the staff!" Skales demands, hurrying to follow after Pythor. Cole snaps his gaze towards Skales, gritting his teeth.

"You're not getting away that easily!"

Cole elbows Slithraa out of the way with Spinjitzu, then punts himself into the air using the reverse momentum of a hammer swing. Skales wails as Cole crashes into him, feet first, and knocks the staff right out of his hands. Cole goes to grab for it, but Skales grabs him as soon as he does. He pulls Cole up by the collar; Cole just makes a face, locking eyes with the snake general.

"Go ahead, give me a reason!" Cole barks, moving the staff in position to be smashed. Skales narrows his gaze.

"You wouldn't dare—you need that to sssssave these pathetic villagers."

"All we need is the venom in the orb—but without the staff to wield it, it's basically useless to you," Cole shoots back. "And I can break this with one hand like a pencil!"

"And I could just have Lloyd fix it, or make a newer, better one," Skales returns. "Face it, you're in no posssssition to bargain with me!" 

Cole's face twists with disgust, but still refusing to remove his gaze from Skales. Skales, seizing his chance, gently rattles his tail…and takes Cole into his gaze while he's blinded by frustration.

"…look into my eyes, foolish human," Skales hums, letting his eyes swirl around and around until Cole's are bloodshot to match. "I control you now…!"

Cole's harsh stare goes slack, head lolling back as the world starts to spin.

"You…control—?"

"COLE!"

In a heartbeat, Cole blinks and his eyes flash back to normal. He turns towards the cry, finding Nya standing on the fountain surrounded by hypnotized villagers and a frantic Kai fending them off from her. He glances back at Skales, who's currently trying to grab the staff back, and throws his head forward. He hits the side of Skales's jaw, getting the general to stumble back.

"You have the anti-venom!" Nya cries again, waving her arms. "Throw it here!"

"R-Right," Cole stutters, trying to shake off the sudden headache he has. He then tosses the staff like a javelin; Nya jumps to catch it, resulting in her plunging into the waters of the fountain. It doesn't bother her, however, and she quickly gets back up, soaked clothes and all. She slams the staff into the top of the fountain.

"Is it working?!" Jay calls, running up to the others now that that snakes have retreated. Nya holds it a little more firmly in place.

"Give it a second…!"

Just after saying that, the blue orb of the staff glows gently, flowing its essence into the waters of the fountain and creating a vapor. It flows down the layers of the fountain and into the streams flowing throughout the village, allowing the healing vapor to reach all those who need it. Jay and Kai assist in wafting it towards others still just a bit out of the reach, while Zane trots up to Cole.

"I...failed at apprehending Lloyd," Zane confesses, eyes locked on the ground. "I have failed my part of the mission. I am sorry."

Cole turns away from the happily celebrating villagers to give Zane's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Hey, don't let it get you down, Snowflake. It…may partially be my fault for underestimating Lloyd."

"How so?" Zane asks innocently, which only make Cole frown.

"I keep saying 'he's just a kid' and that he's harmless, but he's managed to worm his way out of our grip twice now and unleash a bunch of Serpentine people didn't even believe were real…but I think that, if I just keep saying that, it makes it easier to believe we'll finally get him somehow."

Cole sighs, shaking his head.

"Either way, we knew what he was capable of this time, and still didn't plan accordingly. Kai was right, he may just be a kid, but he's, like, got the best parts of all of us. He's stupidly evasive like Jay, quick-thinking like Kai, extremely clever like you, and just a little too strategic for his own good…"

"As is just like yourself," Zane returns, smiling softly. "And because of that, I know you will think of a way to get him into Sensei's care safely. …and without hanging him from a sign."

"Hey now." Cole punches Zane's arm, grinning with his teeth. Zane only beams back.

"Do you like my attempt at humor? I have been practicing!"

"I do, Zane—just, preferably not at my expense. Now, if you'd like to go after Kai, for instance…"

"What about me?!" snaps Kai, walking up with Jay, Nya, and the scepter in tow. Cole puts his hands on his hips, sticking his tongue out.

"Just talking about how your hair could be used as a weapon in a pinch."

"HA!" squawks Jay, making Kai nudging him playfully. Nya witnesses the boys all back in good spirits again, despite having lost track of Lloyd once again. She gazes at the staff in her arms, frowning to herself.

"Well…what do we do now?"

"We should probably bring the staff to Sensei; he will know what to do to keep it safe," says Zane.

"And I'm sure we've still got a lot of unresolved issues we need to get out of the way, and we may have lost Lloyd…again…" Cole shakes off the worry in his tone, forcing his smile to shine through. "…but we did good work today. We came together when it counted. I'm proud of us, and Sensei would be too."

Everyone beams at the prospect, until Zane glances at Nya, Nya glances at Kai, Kai glances at Nya then at Jay, and Jay glances stubbornly at the ground. It's impossible not to notice the awkward atmosphere, but Cole insists on cutting through it.

"It's gonna be okay, guys. Maybe not today, but it will be."

Kai, Jay, Zane, and Nya all stand with an air of misery about them. Cole punches a fist into his palm, internally swearing to bring this mood up even if he has to drag it up himself. He'd like to think he's strong enough to do that much, at least. 

"I promise."

Chapter Text

The spirit smoke tells no lies: Lloyd Garmadon has unleashed the first of the Serpentine. And, it is the first glimpse of Lloyd he has had in nearly fourteen years.

Wu takes in the message, heaving a deep breath to calm his otherwise rattled nerves. He knows the ninja have ditched school in an attempt to neutralize Lloyd—cemented by the fact he’d received several phone calls concerning Cole specifically—but school can always be made up later, if necessary. Lives do not get a second chance.

The thought serves to disquiet him, pulling a grunt from his otherwise peaceful visage.

The ninja return at the crack of evening, with the sky painted a glowing red by the rays of the setting sun. Wu removes himself from his private quarters to greet them. Although they are not nearly as loud and rambunctious as usual, they still make quite a buzz amongst themselves as they return home. They all sound both triumphant…and forlorn.

He meets them in the courtyard, pushing the door open just as they seem to be debating something. Nya, of all people, is holding the Hypnobrai General’s staff of all things, and it sounds like they’re trying to figure out what to do with it.

“Welcome home, students,” Wu greets, breaking the atmosphere. Cole, Zane, and Jay immediately return the greeting and drop into bows. Kai’s slow to mimic them, and Nya struggles with the staff that’s almost as tall as she is.

“Sensei,” Cole begins, breathless on his way to report on the day. “We’re sorry we missed school, Lloyd unleashed the Serpentine and—“

“No need to stress yourself; I already know.” Wu glances back towards the way he came. “The spirit smoke does not lie.”

“So that’s how he does it,” Jay whispers to Zane. Wu ignores this and steps towards Nya, taking the staff off her hands for her. He peruses it carefully, trying not to fade into memories of a war long since passed.

"…I haven't seen one of these in over forty years," he remarks, shaking his head. "And honestly, I thought I never would again."

He remembers being in the throes of battle, watching as many innocent civilians had fallen victim to either the venom or the side effects of the Serpentine's abilities. Obtaining the staffs, and the antidotes, had been an uphill battle. Even then, they hadn't been able to save everybody. Nor had they been able to keep the staffs for very long.

And yet, these five teens managed to pry a staff from a General and come back in one piece.

“If you.would not mind, Sensei…could you tell us all you know of the Serpentine?” Zane asks, pulling Wu out of his stupor. “It may help us in the coming battles to better understand our opponent.”

"…I shall," Wu concedes, not missing the way Kai releases the tension his shoulders. "But let us head inside first, shall we? We'll speak over dinner. You all must be exhausted from the day."

He says nothing else about Lloyd, nothing about Nya being among them, and nothing about the Serpentine—at least, not until Jay and Nya have set up the table, Kai's prepared the drinks, and Zane whips up whatever leftovers he has to work with. It takes no more than thirty minutes, and Cole sits at the head of the table, eager for the story (and Zane's cooking).

And from there, Wu delves into the sordid history of the Serpentine.

At some point, through whatever means, the Serpentine had been banished from their home realm, and ended up in the still somewhat new Ninjago. The First Spinjitzu Master had allowed their presence, so long as they kept away from human kind, and human kind kept away from theirs. They lived in separate societies, bitter but complacent, so long as one did not disturb the other.

Wu chooses to keep that part of the story short.

Ages later, long after the FSM’s departure, the Serpentine divided into five tribes. They broke apart the relic keeping them united, and refashioned the pieces into five individual staffs. Useless on their own, but upon being reunited, could be used to call forth the wrath of the deity they worshipped. The people feared the Serpentine because of this power, leading to unrest and a desire to make peace with the newly formed tribes.

"To this day, I know not of what was the tipping point for either side. We were even on track to signing an official peace treaty with the Anacondrai Generals," Wu continues on, hanging his head over his still steaming cup of tea. "…but I do know that one of first attacks by the Serpentine was, ironically, at Jamanakai Village."

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it," Nya remarks dryly. Wu stares at her for a few seconds too long, turning away with a grimace.

"…in any case, from there, my brother and I had joined forces with the Elemental Masters of the time. It was a strange period, with members from both the fourth generation and the fifth, but they were the finest warriors I'd seen yet. The small skirmishes turned into full battles, and then into a war, one that ravaged across every province."

"…soooo how'd you stop them?" Kai asks. Wu strokes his beard, letting his eyes fall closed.

"…during his travels, my brother came to learn that a snake could be charmed by a certain sound frequency. He and the Master of Sound at the time worked together to compose a song that could be used to neutralize the snakes. And we were able to use the song they made to drive the snakes into the dens they currently inhabit."

"…or at least, inhabited before this week happened," says Jay.

"And not even you know where the other locations are? Otherwise we could go right to them and catch Lloyd whenever he'll attempt to strike again." wonders Cole. Wu shakes his head.

"I was pursing equally important matters at the time. No, only the Masters of Light, Water, Surprise, Shadow, Ice, and Fire of the time had knowledge of the locations. And considering your father, Kai and Nya, was the one to seal away the Anacondrai, it had been plaguing my mind of how Lloyd managed to figure out where they were, and first no less."

Kai goes dead silent, while Nya ponders it carefully. Zane raises a hand, eyes bright with curiosity.

"Surely some landmarks must have been left behind in the event of an emergency. How have they not been discovered in the past forty-one years?"

"Considering most archeologists today believe the Serpentine are nothing more than a myth—"

"Due to your meddling," Kai quips.

"—the few that do still believe don't have the resources or the background to properly search the more extreme climates of the main island, which is where I'm positive they're located." Wu finds himself staring out the window, a shadow of sadness cast over him. "…and far as I know, not even the best archeologist I know could locate the tombs, even if just for their own protection." 

Cole slams a fist against the table, almost without thinking. "And yet, we're supposed to believe Lloyd managed to just so happen to stumble upon them?!"

"If he knew where to go, he would not have struggled." Befuddlement coats each of Wu's words. "And I cannot fathom where he could have gotten such pinpointed info, lest he raised the dead."

Jay shudders. "…please tell me that's not a thing he can do too."

It's then that Nya pulls herself out of her deep thought, biting her lip as she glances around with trepidation.

"Is it not possible that at least one of those old masters may have somehow gotten the information from the others?"

"Not likely, considering I had placed strict orders on their utmost secrecy, on top of the fact that most of those Masters have either passed or are missing." Wu folds his hands before him and leans his chin upon them. "And even if that is what happened, the only one out of that group that is still around and could bypass my authority is—"

Wu cuts himself off, face turning grave.

"…I suddenly have a very sinking feeling, and I may need to make a visit soon."

Wu says no more on the subject, and given how agitated he suddenly looks, none of the ninja dare to press the issue further. It doesn't matter where Lloyd got his info, as long as they're able to stop him in the future. And if Lloyd could figure it out, why couldn’t they?

"But enough about the snakes…what of Lloyd? What has become of him?"

Zane winces with a gutted expression, Jay, Nya, and Kai look mildly terrified, and Cole fiddles with his gloves.

"He…managed to get away from us again. With the Serpentine as backing power—"

"And his crazy Master Building weirdness!" adds Jay.

"—he's become even harder to contain. And it was wrong to underestimate him."

It's the answer Wu expected, but still not one he desires to hear. He frowns to himself, wondering what would have driven Lloyd to go so far. Surely not even a desire to see his father, after all these years, would be enough to push him into the unthinkable…

"…we're sorry, Sensei. If we'd dealt with Lloyd before he became a problem, none of this would have been necessary," says Kai, interrupting Wu's thoughts with regret. Wu strokes his beard thoughtfully before placing a hand upon Kai's shoulder.

"Even lessons learned the hard way…are lessons learned. And I think you all finally understand that."

"And besides, it wasn't a total loss either!" Kai exclaims. "We kicked some snake butt, saved a village, and snagged a staff!"

"I made for a great distraction," boasts Jay.

"Okay, but didja see me grappling with the General and his right hand men?!" adds Cole with a grin. "Didn't even break a sweat!"

"I helped too!" Nya insists, even as Kai snickers despite himself.

"What? All you did was catch the staff."

"Hey! You guys wouldn't have even had a plan if it wasn't for me!" Nya hisses, dragging her fingers against the table. Jay yelps and moves to hunt an imaginary dropped fork. "I know I'm not a ninja like you guys, but at least give me credit where it's due! Not to mention we wouldn't have even known about the attack without the communicators!"

"We know, Nya! Easy, easy," Cole says soothingly, hands up both placatingly and defensively. "I'm sure Kai was just kidding—"

Three kicks from under the table later, and Kai winces while nodding.

"Y-Yeah, kidding, kidding!" He coughs, facing the wall now. "It was just really risky to put you out on the field like that though. I probably would've lost my mind had you been hypnotized—"

"But I'm fine," Nya grits through her teeth, yet leans backs, folds her arms, and says nothing else. Wu studies her with great concern, and is unable to keep the graveness out of his voice.

"A great evil has been released…I fear troubling times will come. And this…is only the beginning."

And not even all the spirit smoke in the world could show Wu just how right he was. 

The gong rings out early the next morning; Jay's jostled from slumber all too quickly. He rubs the sleep out of his eyes as the roosters crow outside the window, and stumbles his way out of the bed. Grabbing his phone on the side-table, he checks the time and date: yep, still another school day.

"Unnngh, Thursday, huh? Only one more day until the whip…" Jay says through a yawn, wondering if he'll be able to survive the day. Maybe Lloyd will strike again and he won't have to go to class, but then just thinking about all the makeup homework…bleh, maybe not. He'd at least like one weekend of peace.

Jay is barely showered and dressed when his room door slams open, with Kai whisking his way in and snapping it shut behind him. After jumping about ten feet out of his skin, Jay gives him an extremely questioning look, because what the heck man, but Kai just puffs out his cheeks and looks anywhere but at Jay.

“Can I help you?” Jay picks up his bag and slings it over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. He would like to get this day over with, please. Kai proceeds to lean against the door, gazed locked on the floor.

"We're…going to need to talk."

"Well, that's a foreboding way to start a morning—"

"Jay."

Jay sucks in his cheeks and plops himself back on his bed. If they're late, he's so not getting blamed for it…!

"All right, then. Whaddya gotta say?"

Kai stares hard at Jay, like he can't believe he even asked that. And Jay may know a lot of things, but he has no idea why Kai's cornered him like this. Especially not with the way Kai's whole body shakes; Jay can't tell whether Kai's angry at him or himself.

"You…you had to know," Kai stammers out. His voice quakes as hard as his body. "You knew, didn’t you?! You knew that whole time, you had to…!”

"I know a lot of things," Jay shoots back. "You're going to have to be more specific."

Kai trembles like he's about to explode, and Jay's really glad he doesn't have the Sword of Fire on him again. He waits patiently as Kai works himself down, taking careful breaths before finally spitting it all out.

"…you knew that I was friends with Chen freshman year! That's why you were acting all weird about it." Kai bites his lip and clenches his fists until his knuckles go white. "You knew I was awful to you, and you didn't say anything, as usual!"

“…that’s weird, I’ve been told I have a ‘mouth of Lightning’ you know.”

“Jay, you know what I mean! You snap your mouth shut about things that are actually important!” Kai blinks, shaking his head. “Wait, no, that’s not true either, but still—!”

“You mean that I never speak up when something is detrimental to me,” Jay summarizes for Kai, saving himself from another unintentionally backhanded statement. “…why are you so worked up about it?”

"How are you not?!" Kai wails like the world has completely fallen off its axis. "It's kinda hard to forget the guy that, for example, shoved you off the bleachers and laughed in your face about it!"

Jay winces, hard, and subconsciously goes to brush up against the missing notch in his eyebrow. It doesn't go unnoticed by Kai, who somehow becomes even more unhinged as he slaps both hands over his mouth in horror. Jay only shrugs, even if it is weird that he's not the most energetic one in the room at the moment.

"…well, not all of us get our cool scars from life or death battles, I guess." Jay rolls his gaze away, trying to hide his quivering lip. "Besides, why wouldn't you remember—?"

"A lot was going on that year, okay?!" Kai exclaims, suddenly fisting his hair and starting to pace. Jay recoils, biting his lip. "I was failing all my classes, my so-called friends kept pressuring me to do things I didn't want to do, or things I couldn't do because I was so stupidly broke, I had to keep making shitty pieces of metalwork to keep the shop open, and I had to somehow feed Nya and make sure she was clothed and had stuff she needed for school…but I was just one person. And we were only two months into the school year."

Somewhere in that long barrage of words is something left unsaid yet resonated louder than anything else: everything started to fall apart.

So, Jay can understand how bulling some insignificant little nerdy kid could have slipped Kai's mind.

"…but I do remember, that hanging out with Chen made me feel like my life had some semblance of normal. That I was just a struggling high school student who'd bounce back eventually or excel in some sport and get popular, and it'd all work out…but I had to drop out, and I lost that."

Jay squirms. Okay, so maybe there's a little bit of leeway for Kai wanting to reconnect with Chen so much, but still—!

"That still doesn't make the way I treated you okay!" Kai's voice cracks, and if he starts crying then Jay's gonna start crying, and they still have to go to school, augh. "And that's what I can't understand! Why'd you let me treat you like that? And how could you let me do those things, or say those things?! I know I tend to pick on you now, but nothing that I know you can’t give back…!”

Now Jay goes silent, grimacing at the posters on his back wall. Kai finally stops going back and forth, head hanging towards the floor.

“Why…did you still even bother with me, knowing who I was, and what I did to you?”

The words echo through the room. Jay steels himself, gripping his fingers into the freshly made blanket of the bed.

"…you want the truth? I honestly couldn't believe it! And I still don't!" Jay chokes out a cackle; Kai looks on with crazed eyes. "Your hair was a little different, but your eyes and your voice were the same. When I first properly met you, I didn't think anything of it, due to the scene you were causing with Nya at the time, but then…when you found me being bullied by Chen, everything slid back into place, and I genuinely believed you were about to wail on me too…!"

Jay laughs again, aggressively shaking his head.

"…but there was no way you could be the same person, not if you were willing to stand up against Chen for my sake. And then you looked so overwhelmed and lost on your first day that I…" Jay hunches his shoulders, burying his face into his scarf. "…I guess I just put it out of my mind. And I've done so ever since…until you ended up meeting up with Chen again and fell into the old routine."

Jay pulls his legs up on the bed, resting his chin on his knees. Kai cautiously takes a seat next to him.

"I guess the reason I freaked out so hard wasn't because of what I thought you'd do to me, but…what it would mean for yourself." Jay sticks his tongue out, disgusted by what he's about to say. "…ugh, you know, you're not the same guy that you used to be. I dunno if raising Nya's made you mature a bit, or if it's just you manifesting the better qualities of your element, but I like who you are now. And I don't wanna see you regress back into your worst self, okay?"

Jay completely hides his face now, dying from embarrassment, while Kai just sits there and takes it all in.

"…you dealt with, and still deal with, so much crap…and yet you're only concerned for me? After everything?!" Kai asks incredulously. Jay half-heartedly shrugs.

"I already forgave you for all that stuff back then, stupid," Jay grumbles, still mad about it even being brought up. "Leave it in the past where it belongs. Like I said, you're a different person now—"

Like back in the Floating Ruins, Jay finds himself enveloped in a surprise hug. Except this time, it's Kai initiating.

"Thank you," Kai says on the breath of a whisper, squeezing Jay a little tighter. "Have I told you that you're the absolute best?"

"…meh, you could stand to mention it more." Jay returns the embrace with a smirk. Kai snickers over his shoulder.

"Yeah well, we'll see about that. Maybe stop leaving your socks in my laundry basket and I'll think about it."

"I want to see if they'll make purple! For science! …plus, you've got that good detergent with the deep clean crystals and scent of a fresh breeze."

Kai laughs, which then makes Jay laugh, and the somber mood that once filled the room dissipates in a heartbeat. Still, there's one thing still unaddressed that Kai refuses to just let go.

"…I can't keep letting Chen treat you or the others like this. And if you won't go to the principal or handle it yourself, then I'm going to have to do something about it." Kai punches a fist into his palm, narrowing his eyes. "Just watch me."

"Kai," says Jay tiredly, shaking his head. "I'm telling you it's not worth the hassle. Once we graduate we'll probably never see him again anyway and—"

"You want to know something else that's different from before, Jay?" Kai interrupts. Jay raises an eyebrow. "You're my little brother now, and no one gets away with mistreating my family for no good reason. Regardless of whether they're my friend or not."

…all right, that makes Jay flood with several emotions, clutching at his scarf to ground himself. He can't argue with Kai's determination, and there's no way his persistence is going to let him quit either. It's easier just to accept it at this point.

"…okay," Jay concedes, deciding to trust in Kai. "And…I know I can't pick your friends for you, but if it has to be Chen, can you just please be careful? I'd hate to see you get hurt, especially if you reason it to be for my sake…"

"…I make no promises," Kai says, and for a moment, Jay thinks he sounds fleetingly like Sensei Wu. "But I will try. That, I can assure you."

Jay smiles, and very dearly hopes he won't come to regret this.

For the first time in the whole week, the school day proceeds with little incident. Student Council goes well enough, Kai and Olivia manage not to kill each other in Accounting or any other class, no one gets severely bullied, and so far everyone is on track to not have homework for the weekend. Jay's in a bit better spirits since talking to Kai, even if he still worries about Kai. Jay's dealt with Chen longer, and definitely knows Chen is no pushover when it comes down to it.

But on the other hand, it's hard to worry too much when Chen actually does look like a normal human being with the way he laughs along with Kai and the rest of the crew. And Kai's even getting close with the girl named Meghan, so, good for him!

…however, it also reminds Jay that he hasn't see Nya at all today.

She once again does not join them for lunch, nor responds to the text he'd sent her before school started. She left before the others this morning, so he hadn't seen her at breakfast either. But he'll see her in chemistry, so again, no need to freak out. It's going to be fine. Cole promised.

"…So what's up with you guys?" Jay asks, hoping to coax a distracting conversation out of Cole and Zane. He hasn't had a lot of time to just talk to his oldest friends lately, and he kind of misses it. But as he told Kai forever ago, he still can't help but feel like a third wheel sometimes.

"The same as always," Cole says with a half-smile, already halfway through a sandwich. "Hating school, dreading snakes. Such is life."

"And I know you haven't had time for music lately either," Jay adds. He too hasn't been able to invent or write poetry, unless he desires to forgo sleep.

"Yeah, but I have been drawing a lot more." Cole pokes his fingers together. "Nothing fancy, but it's been nice to get back into the habit. I'm a little rusty now, haha."

"My very limited spare time has been dedicated to council matters," Zane explains, balancing a piece of dumpling between chopsticks. "Nya's agenda is on a very tight time frame, as she and the others wish to roll out our planned events by October. This has left me in charge of coordinating everything with the faculty, now that our scribe has won over their favor."

"You're keeping busy, at least!" Jay exclaims. Zane nods, even though his shoulders slump.

"…we have been more productive in less than a week than we have in my whole council career, but it's for things that will not benefit the school in the long term. I cannot help but feel that our efforts are better spent in other areas."

"…try to look at it from the opposite perspective, Zane," Cole suggests, stealing a bun from Zane's box without him noticing. "These students have spent years without a reason besides sports to look forward to going to school. These events could change their perspective, leading them to be more receptive for more practical ideas in the future!"

"Yeah! And maybe if you get these ideas up off the ground and they're a success, people will have more faith in your other, less fun ideas!" adds Jay. Zane considers this, placing a hand to his chin.

"…I admittedly had not considered that avenue of thought. Thank you both for bringing it to my attention." Nevertheless, his eyebrows droop, and his eyes seem to dim. "…but I do still wish I was a little more involved in the projects. Nya has managed to take most of the control, and I feel…somewhat left out."

Jay wilts, knowing that's probably true.

"I don't think she's doing it on purpose." Cole folds his arms, drumming his fingers against his bicep. "You know how she is, once she gets her mind set on something, she's all in or nothing!"

"And it is great," Jay quips with a dreamy sigh. Cole flicks a few leftover crumbs into his face; Jay wads up a napkin and throws it back. While they bicker, Zane sits back and tries to think more on the situation, but he feels like someone's calling out to him. Curious, he stands up and scans the cafeteria. He eventually finds Harumi tugging Antonia along, calling out Zane's name, all while Jesse follows with his hands in his pockets.

Now that his tall form can be seen over the trash cans, Harumi catches sight of Zane immediately. She eagerly pulls Antonia's sleeve in his direction, Jesse still trotting behind them curiously.

"President Zane! We found you!" Harumi exclaims, eyes sparkling. However, upon seeing Jay and Cole as well, she clams up and immediately shuffles behind Antonia. "I-I, oh, sorry! Didn't realize you had…friends…"

"I also can't say that this is the first place I would've looked for him," Jesse remarks, glancing around the trash area. He briefly lets his gaze fall on Cole before snapping back to Zane. "Are you, uh, doing some kind of cleanliness inspection…?"

"Is THAT what this looks like?" Jay huffs, popping another bite into his mouth and chewing aggressively. Cole instead shuffles towards Zane, squinting with suspicion.

"How do these guys know you, Zane?"

Zane jolts, as if snapped out of a trance, and quickly shuffles around.

"My apologies, it appears introductions are in order. These are the other members of the student council cabinet alongside Nya and myself. Antonia, Jesse, and Harumi."

The trio waves, just as Zane turns to his fellow ninja.

"And cabinet, this is Cole and Jay. They are also friends with Nya as well."

"Wait, the dodgeball guy and the scarf kid?" Antonia asks, pulling out a notepad. "Ooh, that's a scoop and half right there!"

"…Scarf Kid?! THAT'S what my rep is down to?!" Jay whines, hanging his head. Cole doesn't appear bothered however, only giving the others a wave and resisting the urge to pull on his headphones. Jesse frowns.

"Do you guys always eat here?" he asks, cuing Cole to nod. "…well, geez, you could sit with us? We've always got room at our table!"

"And it's at least a better smelling place to talk about things than here." Antonia pulls her hoodie over her nose to start drowning out the stench. "…please."

"Yes please!" Jay throws himself at Harumi, hands clasped together. "It's been years since I've sat a real, genuine, table…!"

"It…would be appreciated," says Zane, and that settles it.

"I'll lead the way!" chirps Harumi, helping Jay off the floor and now tugging him along. Zane falls into step with Antonia, and Jesse bends down to hold out a hand to Cole.

"Need a lift?" he asks, smiling gently. Cole says nothing immediately, but doesn't seem upset—only mildly confused. Carefully taking Jesse's hand, Jesse tugs Cole up to his feet. They stay that way until Jesse coughs and snaps his hand back.

"Thanks," Cole finally says. "I, um, sorry about me, I'm—"

"Not used to other students treating you kindly?" Jesse asks, only to make Cole's eyes go wide. "Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean—it’s just, um, you looked ready to pounce when the others and I showed up. I can imagine why you'd be so protective of your friends though. It's okay."

"No, I shouldn't have been so needlessly cold. I just thought you would've hated me in particular since that dodgeball incident, and I was, well, bracing for it."

"Oh, that?" Jesse laughs, hiding his mouth behind a hand. "I totally don't hate you for that! And, actually, I—"

"HURRY UP ALREADY!" calls Antonia, with Jay and Harumi waving eagerly behind her. "Lunch is gonna end before you guys get over here!"

Jesse chuckles and shrugs, not looking to incur Antonia's wrath. Cole smiles back, following them to the table. Sure enough, they're the only ones occupying it, and with four members of the council there, no one dares to attempt to bother them.

Cole settles next to Zane, Jesse sits next to Cole, Antonia by him, and then Harumi and Jay.

"…this is so nice," Jay sighs, leaning his face on the table. "Ah, sweet simple oak…! And not a scent of moldy chicken to be whiffed!"

"In any case, back to business," says Zane, shifting into president mode. "What was it that you three wanted to talk about?"

"Oh!" Harumi lights up, clapping her hands once. "We actually wanted to run something by Nya, but we can't find her, and we figured you should be among the first to know as well! We've got a plan to start reforming the lunch menu!"

Antonia and Jesse nod eagerly. Zane narrows his eyes. “I have been trying to do that for months. What plan could you all possibly have?”

“Well, we thought that since Nya is from Ignacia, she would know of some of the local farmers there,” Antonia explains. “And if we managed to get a deal going with Harumi’s parents, and then pitch it to the school, we might be able to get some fresh, healthy, actually edible items on the menu!”

"Ooooh, that's good!" Jay exclaims. "Sounds like a lot of paper work, but that's definitely doable! More business for the farms, and it benefits the school in turn!"

"I'd be willing to do the bulk of the negotiations," Jesse offers. "But like we said, Nya's got a big role in even getting it off the ground."

"…I see." Zane sits still like a statue, betrayed only by a twitching eye. "That…is indeed…a good idea."

Harumi blinks, leaning over to Jay. "What's wrong with him? Did we break him?"

"Ah, um, I think he's just in delighted shock from having one of his long-term goals within reach! Ahahaha!"

Jesse and Antonia prattle on about the finer details of the plan, with Zane begrudgingly taking down notes. Cole and Jay watch them all work, polishing off their lunches. It's nice, spending lunch like any other student.

And then, Antonia's phone suddenly goes off. She interrupts herself, pulling it out of her pocket and taking a quick scroll through.

"…ohho MAN, that's gnarly!"

"What is?" Zane asks, tilting his head. Antonia lowers the phone to the center of the table for all to see.

"The Shark Army's been sighted downtown, near the border to the Western Province! The cops have 'em barricaded off, but if they get more reinforcements…man, I dunno."

"What are they doing out over there?" Cole asks, suddenly on the alert.

"Maybe they're looking for something in that area," Jesse suggests, side-eyeing Cole. "If the army manages to break through the barricade, they'll end up in Wildwood Forest, if that helps."

"Don't worry guys! I'm sure the Secret Ninja Force is already on their way to handle it!" Harumi exclaims, making all heads at the table snap towards her. "They're gonna stop 'em, like always!"

"Yeaaaaaah," Jay drawls, coughing afterward. "But, ah, uh, I take it you must be a fan then?"

"Am I?! I LOVE the ninja!!" Harumi slams her hands against the table, a bright grin plastered on her face. She pulls the small brown knapsack from off her shoulders and dumps the contents onto the table. "Look, my Papa made these for me! They're all the ninja! See?!"

A smattering of four wooden figures fall to the table, each of them colored and carved to represent the four members of the team. Harumi stands them to attention, dusting off the black and blue ones as she does. Cole and Jay trade a worried look.

"Wow! That's…ah, impressive?" Cole begins, only to be nudged by Jay.

"There's action figures of us! How cool is that!?" Jay screams in a whisper, now vibrating in his seat. Cole clamps a hand over his mouth before Jay can incriminate them, all while Zane picks up the white one and admires it carefully.

"These do look very lovingly handled," he remarks. Harumi nods, coddling the red one.

"Yeah! Too bad there's not a girl though, or a green one—green's my favorite color."

"Well there's apparently a pink one, according to Cole," Jay snickers, only for him to be swatted by Cole. Jesse sucks in a breath, Antonia pulls out her notepad, and Harumi suddenly looks very intrigued.

"Huh? Pink?"

"It was Fuchsia!" Cole exclaims. "…er, well, I mean, he isn't—wasn't—affiliated with the Secret Ninja Force, but he's out there, doing good and stuff. I just happened to see him in action one day. From very very far away. And...he was kind of impressive."

"You saw a ninja in person?!" Harumi's eyes suddenly fill with stars. "I’m soooooo jealous!"

"…ahem, uh, are we just going to ignore the fact that there's a Shark Army attack going on somewhere?" Jesse asks, more than eager to change the subject. Cole stands up, slapping his hands against the table.

"You're absolutely right! The, um, principal needs to know about this—c'mon, Zane, Jay, let's go make sure everyone stays safe!"

"R-Right," Jay scrambles out of his seat while Zane stands in one fluid motion, taking a bow to his cabinet afterward.

"Thank you for both the information and the idea. I will be sure to pass it all along to Nya, and we'll discuss it in more detail on Monday."

"You're welcome, and good luck!" Jesse calls back. Antonia and Harumi both sit astonished, but only say their goodbyes as well.

Cole, Jay, and Zane go booking it out of the cafeteria…only to awkwardly backtrack upon realizing they should probably grab Kai.

They look over at the popular table where Kai is undoubtably still charming up a storm to anyone within earshot. Jay sours, stepping back.

"I'm not going over there," he says defiantly. Cole folds his arms and stands his ground as well.

"…yeah, me neither."

"I will do it, then," Zane concedes with a sigh. He somehow breaches the group of popular kids, making his way to the heart of the teens. As usual, no one is terribly pleased to see him, least of all Kai, who apparently was in the middle of some made up dramatic story.

Kai looks annoyed upon being interrupted, but he also knows Zane wouldn't have bothered coming over here if it wasn't urgent.

"…we have to go see the principal," Zane says, hoping that Kai can get the message. The other kids immediately take this to mean someone's in trouble, cuing a round of 'ooooooooh!' to ring out.

"…what for?" Kai asks, tilting his head. Zane purses his lip into a flat line.

"…let's just say Olivia's gang needs to be dealt with."

The gears turn in Kai's mind. Zane gives it a few seconds before it finally clicks.

"….oh. Oh. OH! OH YEAH! YUP, THAT!" Kai claps his hands together, swaggering his way out and around the crowd. "Sorry guys, just gotta take care of a, er, a little loose end! If I don't see you later, I'll see you Monday—?"

Most of the crowd buys that, but Chen folds his arms and makes a face.

"Surely whatever the problem is, our fantastic Student Council President can handle it on his own? Why should he need your help, Kai?"

"Because it specifically involves him," Zane shoots back, eyes narrowed. "I thought that much was obvious."

Chris makes an 'oh snap' sound somewhere behind them; Chen tsks, waving them both off.

"…whatever. Text me later, Kai?"

"Will do," Kai promises, grabbing Zane and hurrying off. "…but Zane, why didn't you just text me?!"

"With the way you were talking, the Shark Army probably would have escaped before you'd even seen it," Zane huffs. Kai just rolls his eyes.

Regardless, they head off to the lockers, ready to kick some Shark butt.

“The Ninja have done it again! An impromptu Shark Army attack has been swiftly handed by the Secret Ninja Force in record time! What would we do without them?!”

“…dammit,” Olivia grumbles at the news video on the phone Nya holds out to her, while Nya lays sprawled and distressed on the edge of the school’s fountain. School ended an hour ago, but neither of them can bring themselves to move. “I told them not to attack until tomorrow, and this is what happens…! I’d almost say serves them right.”

In any case, Olivia isn’t too bothered by it. They still managed to get word of a lead that Lloyd headed towards Wildwood, and that’s all she needs to work with. Tomorrow, without school to bog her down, will be a much more productive day in figuring out what to do next.

Her current issue lies with Nya rolling and groaning about like she’s on her deathbed. Olivia is half-tempted to just poke her with a stick to double check.

"…they didn't even tell me this time," Nya mopes, putting her hand against the surface of the water. The gentle ripples she makes within seem to shudder violently. "And I didn't even hear about it until the news rolled out…sure, they've gone off on their own several times, but at least one of them tells me…!"

"Maybe it was just really urgent," suggests Olivia, which she knows is most likely a lie, given that not even #32 was spotted on the scene. It was probably just a bunch of lower level thugs desperate for some senseless action. It’s really not a shock they were taken care of so quickly.

Nya throws up her arms. "All the more reason to tell me!"

She sits up again, letting the news clip replay the footage from hours ago. She watches the Electric Jet patrol the sky, striking down on unsuspecting Sharks. She watches Cole take to the ground and make mountains from concrete, trapping any fleeing felons. She watches Zane strike from the shadows, taking out several goons with well-timed arrows. She watches Kai spring from the Fire Mech, grinning as wide as the sun before brandishing his sword unto easily-felled foes. And then, they all get praised for it.

"…I went with them last time to prove that I could help! And I did! Nevermind that I handled myself just fine testing the communicators!" she squeezes the phone. Were she Cole, it might've snapped in half. "But then I'm told I'm 'just an honorary member'! That I 'just caught the staff'! That it's 'just too risky for me'…!"

Nya closes her eyes, refusing to let her tears fall out. Even if it's just Olivia watching.

"Nothing I do is ever going to be enough."

Olivia glances away, drumming her fingers against her lap. "…why not just leave, then? You're obviously not happy, and everyone seems to be against your wishes. You don't have to take this, and besides, there's other ninja out there, apparently. You could go solo, or, like, join the Shark Army, but no pressure or anything."

Nya cracks a smile at that, but her shoulders still slump even as she pulls herself into a sitting position.

"Because outside of the ninja thing, they're still my family. They still mean the world to me. I couldn't do that to them. Not entirely, in any case."

Nya folds her hands in lap, calm for just a moment.

"And it's because…I can't help but think there may be a reason things played out like this," she begins. Olivia has no idea where this is going. "Sensei was very adamant that he wouldn't train me unless I accepted my personal conviction, but what if that just means I have a purpose I haven't discovered yet?"

Nya turns to Olivia, eyes bright with hope.

“Do you know the Legend of the Green Ninja?”

Olivia stills, eyes darting to the right. “…Lord Garmadon may have mentioned it once or twice, but not with much detail. Apparently his father only brought it up once, and then never again. Why?”

“Because if I’m destined to be the Green Ninja, then everything makes sense!” Nya bounces in place, getting more excited by the second. “Maybe Wu already knows it’s me, and is just waiting for the right moment to reveal it! Maybe I just gotta figure out whatever is I’m missing and some mystical powers will unlock or something! And then, the boys won’t be able to leave me behind anymore because—“

Nya’s tirade is interrupted by a sharp cut of laughter, erupting from Olivia like an unexpectedly active volcano. Olivia does her best to reign it in, but the damage is already done. And Nya is already ticked.

“And just what’s so funny about that?” Nya scoffs, which only sends Olivia into a second fit. She has to hold her hand on Nya's shoulder to steady herself; Nya swats it off like one would a bug.

"O-Oh, sweetie, it's just that, you can't be the Green Ninja…" Olivia wipes a tear from her eye, even as she grins with all her jagged teeth. The words nonetheless twist into Nya's heart like a knife. "You're already the Master of Water, and a derivative element has no chance of being the Chosen One…!"

And then, that proverbial knife stabs right through her.

Olivia's laughter fades into background noise as the world seems to shrink on itself.

She's what? Since when? How?

Sensei must have obviously known. Since when? How long? Why did he say nothing?

Why did he only want Kai, then? Is Kai actually the Green Ninja after all? Or why didn't Wu at least want more strength on his team if the opposition was going to be so bad? Why couldn't she have properly learned Spinjitzu?!

Why was she just an afterthought?!

WHY?!

Nya sits perfectly still, eyes wide with horror, as her soul slips into the most despairing void it can find. Seeing the utterly devastated look on Nya's face, Olivia suddenly stops laughing.

"….wait a minute, don't tell me you didn't know…?" Olivia knows the answer even before she finishes the question. Nya remains unmoving, the only change being the watering of her eyes. "W-What?! I thought it was obvious!"

Obvious? How obvious? Obvious as the symbol for the inheritor of water spattered on all her clothes handed down from her mother? Obvious as rightfully assuming she'd been at least descended from the element, yet not taking on the element itself?  Because if she actually had, Wu would've said something, yeah?

"H-How?" Nya finally speaks up, voice cracked and dry. "H-How could you know before me…?"

Olivia folds her arms, clicking her tongue. "Well, when I first described you to Lord Garmadon, he told me right then and there. He didn't need to see you to know…because the answer's in your eyes, bud."

"M-My eyes? What's so special about them?"

Olivia gives Nya the blankest look in the world. And yet, she also almost feels bad.

"…tch, if your Sensei didn't even tell you that much, then I'm definitely not going to. Just one more secret ol' Wu isn't telling you…of course, you could always come ask Lord Garmadon. He would never shy away from the truth like his spineless little brother does."

The shock of that jolts Nya out of the stupor. "W-Wait, you're not saying Garmadon's back in the realm, are you—?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that. He's still taking on the power that'll let him hold all four weapons. Called it the 'Realm of Madness' or something. But either way, I just happen to have communications with him via the Realm Rippers. The city's still in Wu's hands, for now, and despite that brat Lloyd scrambling around."

Olivia stands up, twirling on her heel while folding her arms behind her head.

"And In case you were wondering why Garmadon was so intrigued by you, it's because he kinda wants an Elemental Master on his side. Just to even the odds a bit. And the fact that Wu refuses to recruit you is, just a little bit hilarious, because he doesn't even realize what a disadvantage that puts him at…!"

Nya says nothing. Olivia continues to pace and twirl, without a care in the world.

"…of course, if we manage to get Lloyd first, well, we won't really need you either, unfortunately. If I were you, I'd take the offer while it's sweet."

Nya sinks where she sits, head hanging low. "…I'm not joining Lord Garmadon."

Olivia clicks her tongue, disappointed but not surprised. She sits back down again, staring off into the distance.

"…well, have it your way, then. Still can't believe you never figured it out. I mean, c'mon, why do you think I’ve always called you Wavemaker?”

Olivia spares a glance towards Nya—Nya still doesn't move, and it's starting to creep her out. She finally gives into her inner temptation, and cautiously pokes Nya in the shoulder.

…

. . . 

.  .  .

And then, Nya's head snaps back, releasing a bloodcurdling scream that makes the fountain's water rise to the height of buildings. Olivia flinches away with little grace, barely catching a glimpse of Nya's flickering cyan eyes before the water crashes back down in a harsh and violent rain…and Nya faints backwards into the pool, irises faded back to gray.

Olivia blinks, startled and soaked, and looks around desperately. That…did not go at all how she expected.

“…holy shit.”

Chapter Text

"Monkey Paaaaaw TO THE HEAD!!"

"Ninja Roll! Ninja Roll!"

"It's my turn…IT'S MY TURN!"

"TAKE THIS!"

"Oh yeah? How about a little of THIS?!"

"DRAGON PUUUUUNCH!"

Skales shakes his head, willing the sight out of his mind. When he'd hypnotized the Black Ninja, he figured he'd get some actually helpful information. Instead, he has front row insight on what giant nerds they all are, doing so many incredibly mindless and pointless things during their supposed day off…

…but, pinpointing their home base, and thus the location of his missing staff, is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Pythor snickers off to his right, shaking his head.

"I still can't believe you managed to hypnotize one of the ninja. And I can't believe I didn't think of that!"

Pythor looks absolutely delighted with himself, despite doing nothing. Skales sneers, turning his head away.

"…the boy's only half hypnotized, thankssss to the interference of that one girl, not to mention I haven't been able to glean anything particularly helpful on the informational front…"

The two currently stand on the balcony of a budding treehouse in the midst of Wildwood Forest, courtesy of Lloyd’s insistence of “needing a base to operate from”. It’s not the worst of ideas, what with a certain ring of logic to it. But a treehouse, and so far from the other tomb locations?! It’s still horrendously childish, and not to mention a waste of valuable time.

Skales has his reservations about Lloyd and his little schemes for revenge, especially after how Jamanakai went. They’ve obtained literally nothing, and lost his tribe’s precious staff in the process. Pythor, however, still sees merit in the boy beyond just getting their hands on the map. Somehow. Against the odds.

“…if we must be stuck with the boy, can we at least start making plans to get my staff back?!” Skales complains, almost to the point of a whine. Pythor tuts, dismissively waving his hand.

"You're the idiot that lost it. And if you hadn't, we probably wouldn't be holed up in a tree of all places! We could've just gone straight for the next tomb, but nooooo…!"

Skales hisses, tail rattling with rage. Pythor makes a point to avoid eye contact, instead carefully folding his arms behind his back.

"But please, it's been twenty-four hours already. Surely you must've picked up on something that could be to their detriment. Redeem yourself already!"

"…the only thing usssseful is that I have found the location of the Monastery of Spinjitzu. The same fabled place where the Elemental Alliance maintained their stronghold during the war…even if now, it just looks like some sort of ninja hotel!"

Pythor takes that into consideration, slithering out his tongue.

"…and, reverse that thought process, we can not only see them at the monastery…but when they leave, correct? Surely it can't be under surveillance at all times…?" Pythor asks. Skales nods, putting a hand to his chin.

"This is true, although from what I can tell, there is alwayssss at least one person left behind in the building, and it's usually Master Wu. Even our whole tribe against one Spinjitzu Master on their home turf would be asssssking for trouble, let alone if it was Master Wu himself…"

"Then perhaps we'll need a little something to…smoke them out…" Pythor plots. "…which I would love to do, if we weren't currently building a treehouse for a twerp…! Snakes…don’t belong in TREES!"

Pythor groans in exasperation just as Skales catches Lloyd overhead, currently being carried upon a cart by four poor Hypnobrai.

"C'mon, FASTER!" Lloyd calls, casting his hand out. "If we plan to rule Ninjago from here, all the elevators need to have trap doors! I WANT MORE BOOBY TRAAAAAPS! And if I see one girl in here, I'm gonna go ballistic!"

"…as you wish, Young Garmadon," the snakes chant in response, sounding miserable. Skales scowls, whirling back towards Pythor.

"I care not if he freed us, he is a child! And he is not one of us!" Skales exclaims. He reels back, clenching a fist. "…while you know I am willing to remain loyal to you for all our best interests, I really must question adhering to such a childish agenda—"

Pythor cuts him off with an outstretched arm, eyes narrowed as he continues to watch Lloyd work his fellow Serpentine to the bone. 

"That boy not only has a map to the rest of the Serpentine Tombs, but he's an Elemental Master, a stupidly clever Master Builder, and, if he is telling the truth about his parentage, his blood contains the essence of the Great Devourer. He could be a necessity to us in the future, should we be unable to get ahold of his father instead."

Skales shudders, vaguely remembering Lord Garmadon's role in the war. While the Master of Destruction hadn't been totally consumed by evil at the time, his power had still been something terrifying. It's no wonder his son is just as much of a pain in the neck, and twice as much of a horror.

"And moreover," Pythor continues, face pulled into a sneer. "That Shark Army is after him for an entirely different reason that not even I can fathom, so there's still, potentially, something about him that we could use to our advantage…"

"But he's so annoying! Can't we just kill him, then take the map and his blood?!"

"You think the thought didn't cross my mind? But, no, we need him alive…all we need is the map for now, and we can ditch him until we really need him. The poor boy isn't terribly hard to persuade—for someone so bitter and vengeful, he's certainly pathetically lonely."

Skales backs off for now, knowing he's not going to change Pythor's mind about Lloyd. Instead, he turns back to the very pressing issue about his missing staff. They obviously can't just barge into the Monastery and take it, but if there was some way to time everyone being out of the building…

"Excuse me, Droid?" Pythor calls as Lloyd passes by again. Lloyd tells his snake attendants to halt, folding his arms indignantly.

"It's Lloyd."

"Whatever. Pray tell, could you happen to regale us with the location of the nearest Serpentine Tomb? I'd just like to get a little head start on planning our excursion while we finish this…delightful treehouse."

At that, Lloyd lights up, pulling out the map and studying quietly.

"…well, about that, there was a mark that kinda looked like it'd been erased, but I wrote it down anyway…it looks like there's a tomb slightly northeast of us, in the Desert of Doom…? Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to belong to the main tribes."

"A desert? In the West Province? That can't be right," Skales muses. Lloyd shrugs, putting the map away.

"Yeah, I guess it was supposedly some kind of Serpentine Valley a few hundred years ago? Wasn't always a desert, but it is one of the last non-remote places that holds some kind of evidence of Serpentine existence."

"…and how do you know that?" Skales scoffs. Lloyd rolls his eyes.

"My mom talks about it every chance she gets! Apparently her archeologist rival found some kind of snake pyramid ten years ago, but he refused to thoroughly explore it, and seemingly retired ever since. She keeps wanting to one day have a look for herself."

Skales stands with his jaw dropped while Pythor ponders.

"Hmm, if that area used to be Serpentine Valley, then that must be the home of the Pyro Vipers. They mostly kept to themselves, relying more on literal fire power than on their own natural abilities. Hence why not very many of the other Serpentine know they existed, despite being an offshoot of the Hypnobrai. They barely even participated in the war, and were sealed mostly as a technicality."

"And also," Lloyd pipes up with a finger in the air, aimed at Skales. "The desert isn't entirely within the Eastern Province either. It cuts through the north part of Central and stretches just barely to the West, all connected by the Corridor of Elders. The east side is the Sea of Sand, as we all know, and the west parts are the Desert of Doom because they're, well, way more deadly."

"Oh look, the boy knows geography too," Skales quips sarcastically, even giving a small applause. "Any other fun factsss you want to let us in on?"

Lloyd stands proudly. "Nah, it was all just on a geography test that I aced with flying colors!"

"Ugh."

"…in any case," Pythor interrupts with a cough. "While I have no particular interest in releasing the Pyro Vipers, as they most likely wouldn't be inclined to join our cause even if they're still alive, we could use some of their fire power in our bid to unite the Serpentine…"

"But what about my staaaaaff?!" Skales insists again, making Pythor smack him.

"I'm GETTING to that…! If we get some of the Pyro Viper's fire technology, it will give us an edge when invading the Monastery of Spinjitzu."

Lloyd gasps, immediately scrambling over. "We're gonna go to my uncle's house?!"

Skales ignores Lloyd. "But even if we do all that, how do you propose we get the ninja and Master Wu to leave the place unguarded? They would never…!"

"We use the girl, obviously," Pythor chuckles, flicking Skales on the head. "You did mention she seemed particularly irritable this morning, and on top of that, she's an Elemental Master just like the rest of them, yet doesn't know Spinjitzu…"

Pythor continues snickering to himself, to the point that Lloyd and Skales trades bewildered looks with one another.

"I would just hate to see how badly that's going to backfire on them, ahahaha."

The first day of the whip is mostly spent decompressing from the utterly wild week. A breakfast made by Kai was enjoyed by all the ninja, training was a little lighter than usual, followed by some sparring and then several hours of gaming. By the time evening rolls around, Jay's lounging in his room reading comics and scribbling at his desk, Kai takes a nap, and Zane attempts to oversee Cole's attempt at making chowder.

"…you know, when we found that cookbook in the library, I assumed I'd be making the chowder…" Zane begins, armed with a pink apron and watching with a bit of bewildered horror as Cole continues to pull every possible chowder ingredient out of the cupboards and the fridge. There's so much lined up on the counters that there's little room for any actual prep work.

Which, by the way, should have only taken ten minutes, and they're already at thirty.

"It's my night to cook, and I wanna make something that'll actually wow you guys!" Cole exclaims, examining a jar of ginger spice before tossing carefully to the counter. Zane very discretely puts it back on the shelf. "I'm tired of everyone saying my cooking is bad. There was nothing wrong with that chili I made last month!"

Zane feels faint. "Cole, you used jelly beans in that dish, first of all—"

"Or the sweet and sour noodle dish! A classic!"

"It was more of a salty and sour sauce, and the noodles were like rubber—!"

"OR that triple decker chocolate cake with the cherry glaze!"

"THAT—" Zane freezes, thinking it over. "…was a dessert. You are strangely good at making those. But an actual meal seems to allude you due your more…creative techniques."

"I have no idea what you’re talking about," Cole declares as he peruses both a can of sprinkles and a jar of beets. Zane sucks in a breath.

"…regardless, might I suggest we try to stick as close as possible to the recipe? It is actually a rather simple one, besides the duck, which I've already prepared earlier—"

"Fine, fine," Cole concedes, scooping up an armful of stuff they don't actually need and putting it all back. Zane mourns the time lost from pulling it all out in the first place. Sighing, he turns his attention to the cookbook, proceeding to read off the page.

"Now, for starters, we'll need three cups of wild rice, followed by two tablespoons of butter."

"…how much is a tablespoon again?" Cole asks, currently holding an ice cream scooper. Zane gently directs him to the tablespoon he'd set out earlier (despite it getting buried under a bag of onions, an avocado, and a jug of orange juice). "Right, thanks."

"Next is the assortment of vegetables, and it recommends green onion, carrots, and celery to complement the gamey taste of the duck."

Cole does have the onions and celery, but he lacks a carrot, against the odds. While Zane's not looking, he drops in a handful of almonds instead. They're crunchy like carrots, right? And almonds go with everything! Plus, now there will be an extra nutty kick too.

"All right, so the recommended spices are thyme, rosemary—a personal favorite of mine, I might add—and then a light helping of salt and pepper. Too much salt will obviously be too salty, while too much pepper will overpower everything else. Be very careful when adding those, all right?"

"…understood," Cole agrees, not wanting to disappoint Zane. He sprinkles the spices in first, then adds just a few pinches of salt and pepper. Zane nods in approval; Cole's face lights up like a night sky.

"And now, the last ingredients to add to the broth are the duck itself, mushrooms for flavor, a half cup of flour for consistency, and then a cup's worth of milk. And after that, we let it cook with gentle stirring until just before it comes to a boil!"

Cole nods, as putting things into a pot is the easy part. However, there's not nearly enough milk or flour to make the broth as thick as he would like. He thinks about asking Zane for a proper substitute, but knowing Zane, he'd sooner sprint out the door for another full gallon of milk than make any changes to the recipe.

But, he does have heavy cream on hand. That should make up for the deficiencies, right?

Cole dumps half a cup of that into the broth, then gives the whole mixture a hearty stir. Zane has to remind him to not go all out on the stirring, lest the consistency will be wrong. When Cole still stirs a little too hard, Zane puts the cookbook down and walks over. He stands behind Cole, and goes so far as to put his hand over Cole's to show him properly.

"Your grip is too sturdy. You need to be looser to allow for better control. It's a stew, not a cake batter." Zane guides Cole's hand and the spoon around the bowl, all while Cole fails at not turning red. "See? Slow and steady, just like that. In about three more minutes it should be ready."

And then Zane steps away, the moment broken. Cole briefly wonders if he should mess up again just to have Zane close once more, but his stomach protests louder than his heart. He needs dinner to be ready, and soon.

After a few minutes pass, Zane does return, but only to taste the chowder. Cole takes the first bite, and claims it to be a success. The duck is enriching, the broth is thick and flavorful, and the almonds do indeed add a nutty zest for a finish. Zane is skeptical, but does at least have to taste it for himself.

Except, when he tries it, his face twists in a way he wasn't sure he was capable of.

"Well?!" Cole asks eagerly, eyes bright. "Did I do good!?"

Now, Zane is not one for lying, but he also is not one for breaking anyone's spirits. So, he gets as close to the truth as he possibly can while putting a positive spin on things.

"It…definitely…tastes better…than I thought." He struggles to speak around his one singular spoonful, not quite able to bring himself to swallow it. It's questionably thick, like too thick, almost chewy, and it's oddly crunchy as well, but also not in a bad way…it's just weird. And it makes Zane somewhat uncomfortable. But, thankfully, it does at least taste good.

Cole looks so proud of himself, however.

"Awesome! Thanks, Zane! I'll go tell the guys that dinner's ready!"

Zane gives his agreement as best as he can with a thumbs up. Cole beams, then vanishes out of the door.

And Zane, in a moment of weakness, spits the glob of chowder into his hand. It sits in his palm, nearly solid, like an uncooked dumpling or something similar. There is…no way one could call this chowder of any kind. And are those almonds—?!

A full shudder flushes through Zane's body. This…is barely edible. It may not offend the tastebuds, but the stomach may strongly disagree. And none of the other ninja have a stomach as strong as Cole's, Zane included.

He stares at the glob in his hand. He really should just throw it away. It's starting to become somewhat sticky.

…and then, strictly and entirely out of morbid curiosity, he rolls the lump of chowder into a ball and hurls it against the wall as hard as he can.

And worse, it sticks.

Cole has made the best tasting glue in Ninjago.

"…oh dear," Zane sighs, wondering if he could round up some items to make a sandwich instead. You know, just a backup. And he should probably clean up the mess on the wall.

…Which, he might need a chisel for.

Cole comes back not long after Zane wins his battle against the splattered chowder, eager to get dining. He starts cleaning up all his dishes with the intent to wash them later, but can't help but notice that there still is a teeny bit of flour left. And Zane currently looks very serious and perplexed.

Zane's in the middle of gathering up the remaining unused ingredients when a cloud of white is suddenly blown into his face.

He blinks. Turns to Cole. Cole grins back.

"It's classic kitchen tradition to get flour over one another whenever cooking, you know."

"I do not recall this tradition," Zane says between coughs, brushing the white cloud away from his face. "But it is the reason I wear an apron while cooking."

Cole sighs, a little disappointed that Zane didn’t join in. But his despair is clouded by the sudden surge of pain in the front of his skull. He staggers back, catching himself on the counter while bringing his free hand to his head.

"…ugh, not again…"

Upon sensing distress, the flour-caked Zane steps over to Cole, quick to press his own ice-cold hand against Cole’s forehead, all while giving him extra support.

"What is the matter?" Zane asks, on high alert and ready to take action. Cole melts into the contact, but waves a hand in an attempt to calm Zane down.

"It's nothing, I've just had this weird pounding headache since we got back from Jamanakai, that's all. It’s been coming and going…”

“Did you get hurt at some point?” Zane asks again, now checking over Cole’s face. Cole sputters over the lack of personal space. “And how come you didn’t say anything before?”

“No, I don’t think I did; maybe it’s just all the pressure I’ve been under lately.” Cole shrugs, and Zane’s hands move down to go on Cole’s shoulders. “And with how high tensions were, I…didn’t think bringing it up was a good idea. It'd just be one little problem on top of our other giant messes…”

“Cole.” Zane says his name with both concern and compassion. “You shouldn’t keep things like that to yourself!”

Cole shrugs, glancing away. “Everyone has more important things to deal with…”

“No.” Zane is stern, and his gaze turns frigid with focus. Cole freezes just at the sight of it. “You are just as important, if not more so, than anything else. Should something like this happen again, promise me you will at least talk to me first? I am more than willing to offer my assistance, whether it be for pain medication or an ear to listen.”

Cole sighs, not really thinking any of it is a big deal. But Zane is also extremely convincing. How's he supposed to say no to that face?

"…that's fine," Cole says instead. When he doesn't get a response, Cole finally looks back at Zane—only to get a fistful of flour straight to the face.

"Ach, pthooo, what the—?!"

Zane stands coyly, one hand behind his back and the other held out before him.

"I have been told that throwing flour around is a classic kitchen tradition, you know."

Cole's face finally blooms into an excited grin—he runs, grabbing the nearest bag of flour as ammo and hurling it in Zane's direction. The latest fistful strikes Zane in the shoulder, but that doesn't stop him from obtaining the bowl of sugar and tossing that around.

The kitchen explodes into a sweet white mess, Cole and Zane dancing around the counter and weaving through the clouds of flour. Zane's pink apron now matches the rest of his clothes, while Cole's hair has gone from black to ivory. Their ammunition runs out rather quickly; Cole attempts to go for the vegetables next, but he slips on a stray patch of sugar. The yell he makes rattles the walls; he hits not the ground, but Zane's awaiting arms.

They both gape at one another, stunned into silence. And then they break down into a fit of giggles.

Zane's face is practically glowing, having not felt this light in days. Cole's laughing so hard that tears form in his eyes, clutching Zane for support. And thanks to both those things, they nearly miss when Wu enters the room.

"The others have gathered in the dining hall, if you—"

Wu cuts himself off, cuing Zane to snap to attention and Cole to scramble out of his arms. The dust from the flour settles, revealing just how much of a disaster the dishes and the counter have become. Cole suddenly fears for his life. What was he thinking?!

"Am I interrupting something?" is all Wu asks, more amused than anything close to furious. Zane pulls away from Cole and finds himself at a loss for an explanation, while Cole's stuck figuring out whether his face is hot due to embarrassment or shame, maybe both.

"No, we're gonna clean it up right away, sorry," Cole mumbles, bowing before hastily grabbing everything into his arms. Wu observes Cole without a word, only stroking his beard.

"You two looked like you having fun. I haven't seen either of you smile like that in quite some time."

A few shades of guilt wash over Cole, but Zane remains resolute.

"It could just be the threat of Garmadon consistently putting a damper on everything." Zane brushes off his apron before folding his arms. "It is hard to be fully invested in anything carefree knowing it could all be gone in a moment."

"All the more reason to cherish the moments we have while we have them. Like melting ice, life's beauty is fleeting and fragile, and can break in an instant."

Wu imparts his pearl of wisdom, face softening afterwards.

"I know I've been pushing hard for your training lately, and now with school on top of everything, it's not going to get any easier…" Wu shakes his head, regretful. "You do know the reason I grounded you all was because I was afraid of you getting hurt, yes? Connecting with your weapons is one thing, but a reckless tournament like that…?"

"We understand, Sensei. The lesson has been learned," Zane assures. Wu turns back towards Cole, who is now neatly organizing the dishes by the sink to save them some time for later. He steps over towards Cole, placing a hand upon his shoulder. Cole stills.

"…and please, keep in mind, that a few lapses in judgement are no reason to punish yourself so deeply. A problem is not a problem if there is a solution at the ready. I am not mad at the mess, nor am I disappointed in your involvement with the fire incident. All has been forgiven, for all has been taken care of."

Cole struggles to swallow the lump in his throat, but nods anyway. He refuses to turn around, lest Zane see him on the verge of bursting apart. He does feel somewhat better, at least, even if he can't bring himself to say it out loud. Wu understands, stepping back after giving a parting pat to Cole's shoulder.

"Again, the others are eagerly awaiting your meal in the dining hall…although Nya wasn't present when I left."

"I have not seen her since breakfast," Zane states. "…how peculiar. Have Kai or Jay heard from her?"

Wu shakes his head. "No, which is why I am extra concerned about it. She always at least has contact with someone before going off on her own…"

"Oh, about that…" Cole pulls himself together and finally turns back around. "I saw her out in the courtyard this morning, but then after that I think she headed for the library. She looked…really focused about something."

"Would you like us to go locate her?" Zane asks, but Wu shakes his head.

“If she does not turn up before bedtime, I will see to it myself.”

Upon the completion of dinner, the boys head out to the courtyard for a few more hours of training before bed. Wu leaves them to it (after making sure the Golden Weapons are far from their reach in the meantime) and heads toward the library. The library itself is just as pristine as the last time they'd left (save for a few books Nya spirited away), but otherwise it looks as though no one's around.

Frowning, Wu opens up the secret entrance and descends into the catacombs.

Without the entourage of five rowdy teenagers, the descent is quiet, his footsteps echoing all throughout the chamber. He hasn't come down here much since…well, since the previous generation of the Alliance was around. He thinks of how Brice would spend hours pouring every tome of interest, not unlike Zane would. He thinks of how Ray and Lilly would discuss the new techniques they've learned, eager to try them out in battle. He knows Libber would struggle to get through even one book, but whatever she had managed to read would always come in handy at just the right time.

And, as he steps into the chamber, he sees Maya once again surrounded by a wall of books, illuminated only by the scant few torches scattered among the walls, and the soft golden glow emanating from the Elemental Compass.

Wu blinks, reminding himself that he needs to stop doing that. Those days are over, replaced by new ones with equal worth.

"So here you are," Wu remarks, pointedly taking a seat on the outskirts of Nya's fortress of books. Nya barely glances up from the passage she's been reading. The glance is all the acknowledgement Wu receives. "You missed dinner. Cole made a…very interesting duck chowder."

The smallest of smiles quirks on her lips, but it vanishes. "I'll grab something quick, later. Promise."

"That's good." Wu lets his head drop. "But I must confess, that is not the reason why I have sought you out. The boys made a passing mention about your presence on a previous mission and—"

Nya takes in a breath, harsh enough to cut Wu right off.

"You don't have to worry about me being a ninja anymore, if that's what this is about."

Wu reels back in astonishment; Nya merely flicks the next page.

"I've decided that maybe you were right. I've got other things I can apply my skills to. And besides…"

Nya snaps the book shut, her grin sitting crooked on her face.

"Who needs to go on an epic quest when my services are better needed elsewhere, anyway?"

The smiles slides off her face, replaced by a blank expression. She lets it linger on Wu before returning all her attention to her book, acting as though she hadn't even spoken at all.

"…I still insist that you're just not quite ready for the responsibility. To be physically capable is not the same as being mentally prepared. However, there’s more than just my own personal concerns about you at play here.” Wu folds his hands in his lap, hoping to maintain a peaceful façade lest his weakness spill out. "There's…something I haven't told you about your parents—"

Nya cuts Wu off with a grunt, tilting her back towards him.

"You can save it. Kai might still be stung about our parents, but I can't really say they've left much of a mark on me, curious as I am. I'm…tired of being dangled by that carrot. Last time I tried, it led to Garmadon getting unleashed unto Ninjago, and now Lloyd's unleashing snakes in his father's name, and we're waiting around for another attack from all directions, and it's all just a fine mess I've got us in and I can't even help fix it…!"

The book in her hands goes flying halfway across the room. Wu reaches up a hand to catch it, halting its flight.

"No one's blaming you for anything, Nya. Garmadon was going to make his return in one way or another, with or without your interference. And Lloyd…is another matter entirely."

"It hasn't stopped Kai for blaming me for things," Nya huffs, folding her arms. "…anyway, it's not like we don't already know our father used to be the Master of Fire. Not exactly mind-shattering."

She glances down at the insignia on her clothes, brushing her thumb against the design's majestic wings.

"…but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that we're also descended from a Master of Water, right? It's why you let me come down to this chamber the first time. You knew I'd figure it out eventually even if you hadn't told me."

He probably didn't anticipate her learning as much from the leader of the Shark Army, but he doesn't really need to know that. She can keep secrets too.

"…you are not just descended, Nya. You…are the current inheritor of the Element of Water, inherited from your mother." Wu says slowly, hanging his head. "As Kai took on the traits of your father to become the Master of Fire, you took on the traits of your mother to become the Master of Water."

Nya may have already known this truth, but hearing it from Wu, now, just feels much too little too late. And yet, at the same time, hearing it confirmed somehow makes everything click completely into place.

"Well, think about it. When Wu showed up on your doorstep, you certainly hadn't been the one he'd been scouting out." 

He's known this the whole time. He told everyone else about their elemental inheritance. He specifically left her out of everything.

"No—your brother's the one that inherited one of the Four Core Elements."

He came all the way out to Four Weapons, made a grand speech about looking for something special, and only ever wanted Kai.

"And this whole time, Wu's been more dedicated to cleaning up a mess he made than ensuring that you were safe, and dragging in others who weren't involved at all to help him do it. And moreover, he’d be willing to sacrifice your well-being just to keep his own brother trapped in hell."

And that hurts her worse than being denied becoming a ninja.

"Now, why would you want to side with someone who only considers you an afterthought, unlike myself, who can see you for your true potential?"

"…so that's what Garmadon meant," Nya says slowly, her fists clenching with realization. At the mention of Garmadon, Wu goes rigid.

"…What? What did he tell you…?"

Nya inhales, breath shaking. "He said…that water was meant to change, and adapt, and flow freely…so can it truly be called water if it only ever goes in one direction, or goes nowhere at all?"

Nya blinks, only now realizing there's tears there, and refuses to look at Wu.

"…you knew what I was this whole time, right? You knew I could've helped fight even before I was kidnapped! I could be something better than I am now, but you…keep holding me back for reasons I can't understand. You keep leaving me just to stagnate."

Wu reaches for Nya just as her head snaps up, her element trickling down her face in perfect lines, in perfect droplets. His hand freezes; his heart seizes in his chest.

"Am I really nothing more than an afterthought to you?"

"…Nya," Wu says her name on a whisper, and it's enough to make her finally break down. Wu's not sure if solace is what she seeks from him in the moment, but the way she folds into his embrace says otherwise. "Is that what Garmadon put into your head?"

Nya stifles a sniffle, but manages a nod. Wu holds her tighter.

"…dear, you are not a burden, nor an afterthought. You are, and always have been, a brilliant young individual with the potential to do anything, including being a ninja. I don't doubt that for a second…but as I said before, there's something else I haven't told you about your parents, besides that your mother was the previous Master of Water."

Nya sits up in his hold, doing a poor job of drying her eyes. "…okay, then, what?"

Wu swallows, a lump building in his throat like any other time he tries to talk about Ray, or any of the other members of the previous generation. It's probably something he'll never be able to get over, but for Nya's sake, he tries.

"…your parents always knew of the possibility of Kai being called to arms someday, due to inheriting one of the Four Core Elements of Creation. And I…had to make sure they understood that, especially when I entrusted the map to the Golden Weapons to Ray. I told them that there may come a day where I needed Kai, just as I had needed them…they accepted that. But they couldn't accept the same for you."

"…why?" Nya sniffs, shoulders slumped. "Because I was younger? A girl? Or was Kai just that great—"

"They wanted to guarantee that at least one of their children could have the chance to lead a normal life." The words fall from Wu's mouth like rain, just as hard-hitting as the day Ray had said the same. "It wasn't a guarantee for Kai, but it could be for you. They just wanted you to have the option to be the best you, outside of a grim battlefield, that's all. …hence why your father instructed me to keep you away from everything as much as possible. It's why I hadn't even wanted you to know about the Secret Ninja Force in the first place."

"...they don't get to make that choice for me," Nya sneers, hands balled into fists. "Not anymore, anyway."

"…I know, and should you find your personal conviction as I requested, I promise I will teach you, should you still wish for it," Wu concedes, ignoring the stab of pain in his stomach. "But I asked Ray for a great many things during our time together, and...there even came a point when I ended up asking too much of him.”

At this point, not even Nya can ignore the sheer look of pain that fills Wu's face, feeling her own heart lurch at the sight.

“But this was the one and only thing he ever asked of me, and…you can understand why I am hesitant to break such a promise."

Nya lets that sink in, now sitting mirrored to Wu. She plays with her fingers in her lap, trying to sort out how she feels about all of this. It's probably going to be a while before she has a full, concrete opinion about it, but she does know how it makes her feel in the moment.

"…so Dad would be disappointed with me if I became a ninja?"  Her voice is too small and she hates it.

"No, he'd be proud of you no matter what," Wu insists. "…it is me he would be disappointed with."

Nya breathes out, finally feeling some semblance of calm. It's the most relaxed she's felt in months, and the clearest her head has been in days. It only took a little emotional turmoil to get there.

"…all I want to know now is, why didn't you say any of this before?"

Wu wilts, giving Nya a tilted look. "Look me in the eye and tell me that you being the Master of Water wouldn't have made you even more encouraged to become a ninja."

Well, there's a lot of logic to that. And some truth, too, as now she has even more ambition to learn Spinjitzu. But so long as the ninja don't see her as an equal, or Wu's going to keep forcing her to "reevaluate" herself, or she's going to keep getting left behind…there's no point in pursing it. Not until someone changes their mind.

Not until she makes someone change their mind.

Maybe she never really wanted to be part of that "boys' club" anyway.

(…and maybe that'll be true, if she tells herself that from now on.)

Chapter Text

The front door of the apartment clicks shut as Koko steps into her home after another long day at work. The peace and quiet is a refreshing change of pace from dealing with throngs of tourists, demands from the higher ups, and hours upon hours of research done in-between. It may not be enough to allow for luxuries, but it's enough to pay the bills, and at least keeps Koko close to her passions. And now, she can relax for the rest of the night—

A sharp crash and a thump rings out from the next room; Koko barely has time to drop her bag before sprinting straight towards the kitchen. As soon as she skids into the doorway, her son immediately snaps to attention. He less-than-discreetly kicks something behind him.

"Heeeey, Mom, didn't realize you were coming home so early today—!"

"Lloyd." His name is said more as a warning than as a statement. His shoulders sag and suddenly the floor is the most interesting thing in the room. Koko surveys the damage—the candy jar from the top of fridge is suspiciously missing…and glass shards and candy bits litter the floor in its place. Lloyd keeps shifting around, like somehow he'll be able to hide it just by standing differently.

"…are you okay?" she finally asks, whisking herself over to appraise Lloyd for any scrapes, bruises, or other deadly wounds. Lloyd pouts, stepping away to start gathering the pieces of the broken candy jar.

"It's okay; look, I can fix it like this—"

Lloyd's tongue pokes out as he carefully rearranges the pieces of the jar at blinding speeds. It looks absolutely nothing like it did before, being a rather straight-forward container, but now it's a jar in the shape of a dragon, impractical as it is. Lloyd winces in disappointment.

"…uhm, wait a sec, lemme break it again—"

"No, Lloyd." Koko gently grabs his wrists before he causes another incident with shattered glass. Lloyd faces her with confusion, green eyes shimmering in that endearing way of his.

"I'm not worried about the jar; I'm worried about you, kiddo."

She puts her hands to his face and runs her thumbs down his cheeks. He pouts again, glancing away.

"I'm fine, Mom, you just scared me."

"I wouldn't have scared you if you weren't doing something you weren't supposed to!” She lets him go to put her hands on her hips, activating Maximum Scolding Mode. Lloyd braces himself. “How many times have I told you not to go poking around in things you shouldn't? Things are kept out of reach for a reason, you know. And what if you had fallen and hurt yourself? Or accidentally hit the stove and started a fire?"

Lloyd wilts. "I-I'm sorry, I just wanted a peppermint…! Or two. Or three."

Koko sneers, narrowing her gaze. Lloyd groans, throwing his head back.

“It won’t happen again, okay? If things were meant to be trifled with, they wouldn’t be locked up so tightly…or put out of my stupidly short reach. If I didn't have little baby doll arms I could’ve grabbed it—!”

Koko can’t stay mad—she breaks down into giggles, pulling Lloyd close and running her hand through his hair. Lloyd mumbles something indignant into her shirt, but hugs her back regardless.

“Just have some patience next time, kid—all you had to do was wait until after dinner.”

"Yeah, sorry, Mom…but do you really think I'd manage to start a fire? I'm not that bad!"

"…don't think I haven't forgotten the first time you tried to use the microwave, Lloyd."

"…yeah, that's fair."

X-X

At long last, the ninja have been permitted to train with the Golden Weapons once again—and, of course, all while under Sensei Wu's very astute watch. No fires are breaking out today under his watch.

Jay twirls the nunchucks around in cautious circles, trying to truly understand the push and pull of the electrical current that runs through them. Too little energy will render them useless, and too much…well, he can just about imagine how that would end. But he thinks he's got it down.

He maintains his rhythm as he fends off some automatic arrows, smiling to himself when he blocks them all. Emboldened, he whirls the Nunchucks around his body, one hand always ready to catch them, and generates enough electricity to cause the area to glow. Wu nods in approval, amazed at how quickly Jay can figure things out for himself, and turns over to where Cole works.

Cole focuses on maintaining a steady form, lest the power of the Scythe comes to overwhelm him. Out of all the ninja, he already has the most practiced control over his weapon, yet cannot seem to draw out its power to its greatest potential. Wu does note that he tends to swing it around only with the impact in mind. Wu takes a moment to step over, reminds Cole that earth is more than just the spot in front of him, and tells him to swing again.

Heaving out a breath, Cole readies his position again, this time trying not to just whack the Scythe around as hard as he can. He steps forward in careful movements, almost as if in a gentle dance, guiding the Scythe around him in intricate patterns that would leave him untouchable in the midst of a fight. Then he lashes forward once, swings back behind him, and spirals around in a sharp sweep before him. Wu nods again; Cole's eyes shine from the quiet praise.

Kai, meanwhile, is still trying to tune up his Spinjitzu. Wu can't blame him for picking that over working with the Sword of Fire. He is still somewhat behind the others with Spinjitzu, and after what happened last time with the sword, Wu can understand the hesitance. Still, one cannot get better if he does not try.

Wu picks up the sword from where Kai has discarded it off to the side, and steps in front of Kai just as he finishes another round of Spinjitzu drills. Kai brakes to a stop just before slamming into Wu. He wordlessly raises an eyebrow.

"Why do you hesitate with the weapon you've carried all your life? One would think you would take to the Sword like a fish to water," Wu remarks, making Kai wilt.

"…I've never had a sword that could shoot flames before, nor have I ever wielded one of the artifacts that formed Ninjago…there's a lot of power in that thing, and there's a lot of emotion in me, so maybe it's better if I just don't—"

"Power and emotion are one and the same within you, and that is one of your strengths," Wu reminds him. "The Element of Fire thrives on emotion. The more it has to feed off of, the stronger it can become. If you felt nothing at all, your inner fire would have nothing to burn to sustain itself. And yes, too much can be quite costly, but you'll never learn where your limit lies and when not to cross it if you do not try to seek it first."

Wu places the sword back into Kai's hands, smiling gently.

"I would not entrust you with one of my father's weapons if I did not believe you were worthy of carrying it. But like anything else, it requires patience and practice to master. And this time, I am here to guide you should you require it."

The words serve to comfort Kai. He nods, a small smile taking shape as he adjusts his grip on the Sword to a more proper one.

Then, he steps into a pose that Wu's seen Ray take on many times in the past, setting his sights on the dummies in front of him. Wu is aware that Kai knows how to handle a sword—it's obvious in the way he treats it like an extension of himself, direct and committed to every strike he makes. It's the handling of newfound power that he struggles with—and Wu knows that too from his own training from somewhere in the distant past.

He watches the beginning signs of flames lick the edge of the blade as Kai guides it around, refusing to let it get the best of him this time. Kai even works it in tandem with his Spinjitzu, jumping and spiraling around in a sharp tornado of flaming passion. Wu clenches his fist, praying that Kai can stick the landing.

And then, when Kai makes the finishing blow—driving the Sword into the ground—a ring of fire shoots out from the sword and surrounds him. Wu tenses, ready to take action should things go awry. But Kai keeps himself composed, and the ring of fire halts right where it is. Kai breathes in; the circle retreats. Kai breathes out; the circle expands. He yells out, and the flames rise.

But when Kai settles, so do the flames, flickering out into a harmless embers of nothing.

"…haha, I did it!" Kai exclaims, eyes bright as he spins to face Wu. "I did it, I did it…!"

The flames immediately roar back to life with his excitement. Kai yelps, closing his eyes and breathing in, making the flames dissipate again. He peeks one eye open at Wu, laughing nervously.

"…well, it's getting better, at least!"

Wu can't help but chuckle—Kai will most certainly get there, eventually.

…and while fire does indeed thrive with emotion, able to power itself eternally as long as there is passion to fuel it, the Element of Ice works in the opposite way. The weight of too many emotions will cause ice to sink or break…

And yet, expelling all emotion from one's mind will lead to a wall of ice yielding no cracks, becoming an impenetrable force that will never shatter, and never be tethered by forces unseen. Ice can become limitless when it is allowed to float, unweighted by what some might call 'emotional baggage'…

Whereas fire becomes stronger when there is everything to lose, ice becomes stronger when there is nothing left to take. Wu has witnessed its truth—Kai's father became stronger when he gained a wife and children to protect, while Zane's grandfather was able to keep fighting well past his prime when he severed himself from his family. It wasn't an easy choice to make, nor was it one Brice had wanted to do, but its outcome had, for the most part, been the right call to make at the time.

So yes, Wu feels that Ice is one of the harder elements to wield, most certainly.

But, sadly, Zane wields it well.

Whether it be because of his rather limited knowledge of people, or he's just that good at clearing his mind without knowing it, or another cause not even Wu has foreseen…Zane is very skilled at becoming detached while in the midst of battle. When fighting, there is only the adversary, and the only solution is defeat. Zane hones in on whoever's he's fighting, and doesn't budge until they're brought down…or he himself is exploited.

Even now, Zane darts and twirls all over the training course, paying little mind to the activity of his brothers. He tackles the course in the way only he knows how, with bitter focus and icy tenacity. His face remains blank and clear-cut, never taking his eyes off the next obstacle to overcome.

Zane jumps on an arrow about to be blocked by Jay, he yanks Cole's Scythe right out of his hands to fell a dummy, and a stream of ice he shoots out from the Shuriken ends up tripping Kai. Wu merely strokes his beard; he can see where Zane is weak, and that's considering others in the execution of his plans. He only works to achieve his own goals through whatever means he has on hand, which can sometimes unintentionally come at the expense of those around him…it's another reason why Wu believes Zane struggles with his position in the Student Council.

…but despite everything, Zane still maintains his compassion and kindness, and that is how Wu knows he has nothing to worry about this boy. Even a heart of cold ice can still beat with warmth, despite the odds.

His brothers, at the moment, feel otherwise.

"This roof isn't big enough for the four of us," Kai mumbles, still dusting specks of snow off his training gi.

"Correction: this roof isn't big enough for him," scoffs Jay.

"Guys, you know how Zane is; he just…gets a little lost in his element," Cole tries to defend, wincing when Zane starts bowing to one of the dummies. "Maybe a little too literally."

"It's like he's in his own world!" Jay looks over his shoulder and says a little louder, "I bet he can't even HEAR US!"

Sensing that this may take a turn for the worse, Wu approaches the group of three with a contemplative frown.

"Is something wrong?" Wu asks, arms folded behind his back. "You all have ceased your training just when it was going well."

"Sensei," Kai begins, shuffling nervously. "Zane is…weird."

"What is weird? Someone who is different, or someone who is different from you?"

"No, Sensei, it's just...he kind of has a tendency to act really bizarre."

"He did walk in on me while I was in the bathroom once. And didn’t immediately leave,” Cole huffs, turning away with mortification.

"He was laughing during the saddest part of Fitz Donnegan: The Break of the Heart!" exclaims Jay.

"He…was meditating in the fridge just this morning," Kai adds. "And apparently ate all the deli meat. And not the cheese."

Wu is not convinced, although the fridge thing is a little troubling. "And?"

"We like the guy, and he's really smart, but he can just…be really, really off."

Jay nods, and Cole can't help but lean around Wu to watch Zane throw himself at the course again. He seems to be less on autopilot, but he definitely still hasn't picked up on anything of their conversation. Wu scoffs, shaking his head.

"That sounds to me like you should be talking to him instead of myself. Zane is your brother, and brothers are often different from one another in ways one may not anticipate."

Wu then lets his gaze drop, voice following suit.

"And I should know."

That sobers the mood quite a bit. Kai and Jay trade a withering look while Cole wrings his wrists together.

"We're just a little worried that…well, one day this might lead to him getting hurt."

"True," Jay adds. "Being focused to the point of accomplishing anything is really cool, but it can also kinda leave you vulnerable to the unexpected…"

"And that is why we train—to extend our strengths and to know our weakness so we can better manage them," Wu explains. "And these lessons will apply to more than just fighting, I hope you come to learn."

The trio responds with a variety of mumbles. They start to trudge back to work, until the sound of a loud gong rings out throughout the monastery. It's loud enough to break even Zane from his focus, but everyone already knows what it means.

"MAIL!" cheer the boys, rushing for the door. The poor mailman on the other side hardly has the chance to set his bag down before the combined might of Jay, Kai, and Cole's excitement greets him at the door. The mailman stares back at the eager faces, only sighing before rummaging around in his bag.

"Let's see…a letter from Jay's parents…Kai has a letter from Meghan Marshall…and, oh, something from Cole's father?"

Cole yanks the letter and tosses it over his shoulder like a piece of trash. Zane barely manages to catch it, while Jay and Kai tear into their envelopes and bust out the contents.

"What, no package?!" exclaims Cole. "I'm expecting something from Vinyl Valor Monthly!"

"Mmm, no, nothing from…uh, oh, here it is! Vinyl Valor!"

"Ha HA! YES!"

Cole dances off with his package and fully abandons his letter, leaving Zane lingering. The mailman's still fumbling with this bag, and brightens up upon finding another box.

"Ah, Zane, this one is for you! I believe it's from your father—"

"Father?!" Zane elbows his way to the door, butting away Kai and Cole like bowling pins in his path. He eagerly swipes the box from the mailman, bowing in thanks, then sits down and starts ripping it open. Jay, Kai, and Cole step closer to him, observing over his shoulder.

"Wow, Zane! You never get anything from your parents!" Jay exclaims, only to be shoved by Cole. "I-I meant that it's just a nice surprise, jeez…!"

"My father is one of the world's leading experts on technological innovation," Zane explains, now carefully peeling the tape off the package. "He was a pioneer for many of the creations Borg Industries has begun to experiment with. It's one of the reasons why innovation is so strong, and relatively fast-paced, in Ninjago City. He tends to be rather busy, especially since I have become a ninja."

"But I thought your folks lived in Birchwood Forest, out in the Northern Province?" Kai asks. "Isn't that kinda remote for making world-leading discoveries, let alone ground-breaking changes in the capital?"

Zane neatly pulls out the packing tissue and folds it beside him. "They do, but the company that funds them is in Ninjago City, and that company has the connections with Borg Industries. My father generally develops the patents for inventions and plans, while Borg Industries refines their designs and mass-produces them, and each company gets an equal share of the profit. And then that money goes into inventing the next big thing."

"Well, that's kinda cool!" Cole says, kneeling down next to Zane. "How come you've never told us that before?"

"You did not ask," Zane says bluntly. He stops right before unveiling whatever is in the box, shoulders drooping sadly. "…Father was very adamant on me joining Sensei Wu in my training to become a ninja. And, in fact…this month will make it two years since I've seen either of my parents."

Cole winces, just as Kai glances away. Jay stares at the letter from his own parents, frowning.

"…jeez, that means it's been even longer since I've seen my dad," Cole mutters under his breath.

"I…should probably see my parents soon…" Jay trails, biting his thumb. "But…I, um—"

"Zane," Kai interrupts quietly, catching the attention of the others. "…what about your mom?"

At this, Zane goes quiet, face pulled into deep thought.

"It is…not like her to not say goodbye. And I refuse to believe she didn't. But…I do not think she was there when Father sent me off. He had been in a hurry, so perhaps there just wasn't time…but when I've asked Father about it since, or about her, he never answers directly. It…concerns me. And I dislike that I cannot clearly recall for myself."

"Is that why you've been wanting to visit home?" Jay asks, and Zane nods. "Well, I mean, one of these weekends we could always plan a trip or something—"

"No, it is okay. I want my focus to be on preparing for Garmadon, plus Lloyd and the Serpentine. I fear indulging beyond that and school will be…overly distracting."

Zane heaves a soul-weary sigh that wracks his whole body. Kai and Jay look on in pity. Cole takes a seat beside Zane, leaning against his side and trying to peer into his package.

"Well, anyway, what's in the box? It's gotta be something good, right?"

"Ah, yes…" Zane finishes pulling out the final bit of protective wrapping, revealing what looks to be a heavy black bird within. Jay flinches back, eyes blown wide.

"OH FSM, did your dad send you a dead bird—?!"

Zane gives Jay a less than amused look, lifting the bird out of the box.

"Of course not. This looks to be the finished model of the personal project Father had been working on before I left…see, it has his personal marking on the back of its neck."

Zane spins the bird around, revealing a very intricate marking just where he'd said it'd be. Jay 'ooohs' at the sight, contemplating adding an emblem to his inventions. Zane starts messing around with the bird, trying to figure out all its functions. Cole watches with rapt attention, but also notices Kai squirming awkwardly behind them all.

Cole leans back, raising an eyebrow in Kai's direction. Kai catches the look and shoots his own back.

"I know we've got training and stuff, but…maybe we really should go visit all of our homes," Kai says, scratching the back of his neck. "I know I don't have anyone to go back to, but if it's really been years, then…it might be good to catch up. While we can, you know."

Cole turns back away, hiding how pained that idea makes him. And he knows it must've taken a lot from Kai to even suggest it. Still, he rolls up his fists and digs them into the ground, shaking his head.

"Well, I don't really want to see my dad right now, Zane already made his piece clear, and Jay was the last to see his parents anyway. I think we're all okay." Cole releases a breath, trying to find his smile again. "…and besides, you at least still have your sister."

Kai's face sours.  "Yeah, well, I haven't seen her since Wednesday night. Probably still fraternizing with the enemy or something."

Cole sighs, sounding disappointed, just as Jay lets out an excited shriek from the other side of Zane. Both Cole and Kai lean in to see what has Jay this excited…only to find Zane's bird actually walking around and observing things.

"It's a surveillance drone!" Jay squeals, prodding eagerly at the bird. "Oooh, judging by these specs, it can go up to skyscraper heights, fly at the speed of a real falcon…excellent stabilization and fps for video, night vision capabilities…and such a sleek unique design! Oooh, what a masterpiece!"

"And you got all that just by looking at it?" Cole asks with a scoff. Jay sticks his tongue out at him.

"I know my tech, shut up! Don't ruin the moment!" Jay turns to Zane, shaking his arms in front of him. "Your dad is amazing! How long did it take him to whip this up?!"

Zane laughs quietly, fumbling with his fingers.

"…I remember when I was younger wanting very much to go out and explore the world. Mother agreed, but Father did not feel I was ready yet. So, as a substitute, he tried to design something that would allow me to see the world from the comfort of our home. It was technology ahead of its time at the time, and thus he could not develop it as quickly as he would have liked…and I ended up being whisked off to be a ninja before he could finish. So, I assume he must have been tinkering with it for at least four years."

Zane watches the bird toddle around, taking in the new environment almost like a real falcon. It notices Zane staring at it, and promptly hops over with a head tilt. Zane melts as he smiles, giving the bird a gentle and careful pat.

"…I think I shall name it Falcon."

"That's original," snickers Kai, only to be elbowed in the knee by Cole. "Ow! But whatever works for you, I guess…!"

Zane nods, holding the Falcon and trying to remember what he can of his childhood. He knows his father always made little trinkets and toys for him to mess around with, and he'd always had an affinity for ones that resembled animals. This time is no different…especially when he also suddenly recalls that his mother in particular had always enjoyed birdwatching.

He frowns, wondering why it's so hard for him to just recall these simple things without struggle.

He then realizes that Jay's in the middle of saying something, and it sounds important, so he hurriedly tunes back in.

"…find a way to hook it up to the servers Nya's got, maybe we can use the falcon to keep track of Lloyd! And we won't even need the locations of the Serpentine Tombs!"

"Please, you just wanna pull apart Zane's new toy," scoffs Cole, just as Zane hugs the Falcon closer to his chest.

"…while no pulling apart may be necessary, we could use the Falcon to survey around Lloyd's last sighting," Zane suggests. Kai lights up, snapping his fingers.

"Hey, yeah! The Shark Army was trying to cross the border into the Western Province the other day to follow Lloyd, weren't they? We could start there!"

"Oh, better than that," adds Cole. "Jesse said that immediately beyond the border route they were trying to take is Wildwood Forest, which we can get to faster from the Monastery. Remember, that's the forest that surrounds the mountain range's base."

"You're right! " cheers Jay. "And with the Falcon leading the way, we can totally hunt down wherever Lloyd's holed up before he even knows we're coming!"

"What say you, my avian friend?" Zane asks, sitting the Falcon in his lap. "Would you be willing us to assist us in the location of Lloyd?"

The Falcon starts hopping around, chirping in agreement. Cole chuckles at the sight, clapping Zane on the back.

"Looks like we've got a plan then, boys! Let's get moving!"

The others all cheer, exchanging a high five before scattering off to gather up their things.

Finally, things might come up in their favor at last.

While they can't find Nya to coordinate the Falcon's location with her communication servers, Jay instead makes a makeshift app of sorts to help them keep track of the Falcon and maintain recordings of the things it does see. Jay spreads it to everyone's phones, and a few hours later, they find themselves trekking through the groves of the Wildwood Forest.

Armed with the Golden Weapons, they make the journey on foot. As Cole said, the forest isn't far at all from the Monastery, and none of the mechs would be able to navigate well in the thicket. On top of keeping an eye on their phones lest they lose the Falcon, this is just the easiest way to do things.

Doesn't stop Kai from whining about having to use his legs.

"Hey, at least we're not pulling a cart carrying Sensei this time," mutters Cole. Kai shudders at the reminder, also serving to shut him up. "…anyway, has the Falcon even picked up on anything, or are we just searching aimlessly?"

"Give it time, Cole! It's not like a dog that can pick up a scent; it's gotta scout out its prey first!" Jay exclaims, prodding at his phone.

"It could also be that Lloyd's already left the vicinity of the forest," Zane points out. Jay clicks his tongue.

"Even if that's true, there's still gotta be some sign or a trace that he was even here. That kid knows no subtly, and the Shark Army wouldn't have so boldly tried to get here if he wasn't actually here."

"Either way, this walk is working up quite an appetite on me," says Kai, patting his stomach. "Hopefully we can make it back with Lloyd in tow before dinner!"

"Ooh, me too!" cheers Jay. "I love it when it's Zane's night to cook!"

"Hey, I didn't hear any complaints about my duck chowder last night," huffs Cole. Zane chokes on air.

"That's because it glued our mouths shut," snickers Kai. Cole looks scandalized. "You really thought Jay was speechless all throughout dinner?"

Jay folds his arms, pouting. "…yeah, please don’t make that again."

Cole makes an affronted noise and moves to defend his dish, but finds a hand clamped against his mouth.

"Guys, shush." Zane jumps behind a tree, keeping a careful eye on the Falcon without the lens of his phone. "I sense we are getting close."

Kai glances around curiously, eyes widening as he points forward. "Wait, yeah, look—!"

A thousand red lanterns, presumably stolen from Jamanakai, line the length of the thickest tree in the forest. It's also fitted with several stairs and makeshift elevators…and it's crawling to the brim with Hypnobrai. The ninja huddle into the bushes, hopefully out of sight.

"Holy cannoli, Frosty was right!" exclaims Cole.

"This has gotta be Lloyd's base of operations," Jay remarks.

"Yeah, but where's Lloyd? Or any of the generals at that?" asks Kai.

Zane rushes forward, running for the clearing as he advances on the fortress. "We are going to need a closer look."

"Zane!" Cole exclaims, grabbing him by the sleeve and pulling him back into the shade. "We can use the Falcon for that! If we do anything to alert them to our presence, we'll lose the element of surprise!"

"…oh, my apologies." Zane steps back behind the tree trunk while Jay taps into the app, sending a command to the Falcon to hover around the fortress. The Falcon lets out a call before soaring up and over the fortress' roof. The ninja get a front row seat to the group of snakes building in the trees, setting up trap doors and various other booby traps within the settlement. The more they see, the angrier they become. The Falcon, once finished with its search, return to percjupon Zane's arm. Zane smiles, stroking its wing in thanks.

"Thank you, my mysterious friend."

"…we can't let that brat and those snakes get a foothold in Ninjago," Kai declares. "We gotta destroy that thing before it become operational!"

"Hey, that was my line!" hisses Cole. "And besides, look how rickety that thing is! Maybe it'll break on its own and we won't have to do anything…"

"But look how cool it is!" says Jay, scrolling through some of the photos the Falcon took. "It's got a ropes course, ooh, a tree swing…! Can't we, like, take it over instead?"

Cole whacks his shoulder. "Uh, hey, remember whose team you're on! So, here's what we're gonna do—"

"It looks like the treehouse is being supported by those three trees," Kai interrupts, gesturing to three particular trees with ropes attached. "If those get severed, the whole thing is going to fall like a house of cards!"

"But why would one make a house out of cards?" Zane asks. "Such construction would be careless."

"…oh brother," sighs Kai.

"ANYWAY," Cole coughs, starting to head off. "Travel in shadows, boys! You guys take out the supports, and I'll be waiting to do the final blow. We'll definitely be done before dinner, no problem."

With a nod, everyone hurries off to execute their mission.

Kai weaves around from tree to tree, cutting loose a smaller rope and pulling himself up onto the treehouse itself. Cole sneaks in via the underside of an elevator. Jay and Zane jump up a tree and maneuver straight to the top. Upon reaching the roof, Kai, Jay, and Zane head for their respective destinations.

"Ninjaaaa—GO!" Jay calls, hacking his support rope with Spinjitzu. The treehouse immediately lurches to one side, sending several snakes plummeting to the ground below. Jay winces—welp, their cover is definitely blown now. Zane forges onward regardless, cutting his support rope next. The treehouse crunches even more, and snakes have started slithering for their lives.

"RETREEEEEEAT!" yells Slithraa, and no one needs to be told twice.

Some just jump off as they're going to fall anyway, some try scrambling down unfinished ladders…it's just general pandemonium for all of snake kind.

"Cole!" Kai calls over the chaos, just about to cut his rope. "Wait until we're off the treehouse to make your strike!"

Cole gives a nod from his position, then Kai draws the Sword of Fire to free the last of the treehouse. He jumps back to the roof, meeting up with Jay and Zane to make their escape.

"Ugh, we gotta hurry! This whole place is gonna come down with us!"

The groaning of creaking wood fills the air, serving as further proof of the treehouse's shoddy construction. Jay stumbles trying to keep his balance, only maintained by Zane keeping a hand on him. Kai scours the ground for Cole, wondering where he went.

"Okay, I can't see Cole, but we still need to get down!" Kai exclaims, holding out his hand. Jay takes it, all while still clinging to Zane with the other. "If we head to the lower side, we should be able to jump to a safe tree! Just hang onto each other and don't make any sudden movements!"

Jay and Zane nod, heeding Kai's instructions and inching their way off the roof.

"You will obey…my every command…!"

The trio doesn't get very far; a blur of black barrels right by them, the force of its speed blowing them backwards. Jay yelps while Kai and Zane death-grip the roof, eyes darting around to find the source of the disturbance.

"No one goes anywhere! Until you deal…with…ME…!"

Kai pulls his head up, groaning, and sees black boots walking up to them. He tilts his gaze a little higher, and feels his breath catch in his throat.

"W-Wait, Cole—?!"

Cole snarls, eyes bloodshot and spinning, as he heaves his scythe over his head and sets to bring it down on Jay. Jay screams, struggling to flinch back—

But at the last moment, Zane throws his body over Jay's and slams his eyes closed.

Meanwhile, back at the Monastery of Spinjitzu, Skales chuckles to himself as he turns the Ninja against one another, following closely behind a scheming Pythor. He cares not that the treehouse has been destroyed, and hopefully he'll get some satisfaction from seeing Lloyd cry about it later. But really, this is much more important anyway.

His hypnosis of the Black Ninja really was ingenious—how lucky for him to have nailed the leader of the ninja! Always patrolling around, always checking up on the others…it made for the perfect window for Skales to use to get a layout of the building to find the staff, along with a feel for how the other ninja were likely to operate. And, most importantly, allowed them to exploit an opportunity to get Wu out of the monastery.

"I must concede, you were right, Pythor!" Skales exclaims, plucking a vase off a table and letting it clatter to the ground. "Sending a small ssssquad to go attack the girl while she was alone was brilliant!"

"Ah, but I can't take all the credit—how could I have known of Master Wu's spirit smoke, and how we could use it to our advantage, without your hypnosis skills?" Pythor tsks, swinging his staff into one of Zane's potted plants. "Once the girl was in trouble, he immediately went booking it! Seems the man has gone soft after all these years…"

Skales and Pythor continue to cackle and pat themselves on the back for a job well done as they make their way down the halls, searching for the staff. Lloyd trails behind them, quietly trying to take everything in. This place…is where his grandparents built a family. This is where his uncle trained several generations of elemental warriors. This is where his father had his blood filled with evil. This is where his mother got married.

This is where the ninja currently live.

And this is the first time he's ever been here.

Lloyd's legs move on autopilot, his mind too busy taking in evidence of a history he'd had no part in. He runs through the courtyard, finding abandoned training equipment. He dashes through the dining room, finding remnants of a meal shared with others. He pokes his head into every bedroom, finding the blue one's video games and inventions, the black one's records and artwork, the white one's plants and books, the girl's blueprints and schematics…and there's very little in the red one's room, but there are twin katanas decorating the wall in front of the bed, both adorned with the name 'Kai' in newform Ninjargon.

There's laundry in every basket, lists of things to be done, a bunch of history to learn, secrets to discover…

And so many pictures on every table, every wall, every feasible surface.

Lloyd trembles as he finds one hall just absolutely packed with them, large painted portraits hanging on the walls, and smaller photographic ones on the small tables lined up and down the sides. The older ones, long pieces of time-tanned parchment scribbled on with nothing more than ink, depict an elderly couple that must be his grandparents. He can't see his grandfather's face, as it's been conveniently damaged by time, but he knows enough that the man resembles Wu nevertheless. His grandmother, with brown hair, pink eyes, a soft expression, yet a powerful posture…she has more traits of Garmadon.

There's not very many pictures of either of them, but there's tons of Wu and Garmadon. Lloyd continues down the line, almost tearing up upon seeing a younger version of his father, all bright and smiling. Lloyd never knew his eyes were once purple until now. But aside from the hair color, Garmadon looks a lot like Lloyd does now.

He moves on, finding a second child added to the pictures. It's obviously Wu, and obviously Garmadon loved his brother very much. There's so many of him holding Wu, playing with Wu, teaching Wu things, sleeping next to Wu…that it's hard to imagine that they would have ever fought.

And then, there's suddenly very little of Garmadon.

Pictures of Wu doing Spinjitzu, practicing fighting forms, meditating, drinking tea, writing on a scroll, just smiling as he lays in the grass… it's a grating contrast to the times that Garmadon does show up. He's either angry, upset, or despondent in every scene…and rarely, in the ones where he does find his smile again, his eyes are as red as the day he attacked Ninjago City.

Lloyd doesn't know how he feels about that, but Garmadon does eventually return more consistently to the photos, much older than previously.

And he and Wu are joined by several other people, most likely old members of the Elemental Alliance. His mother didn't mention much about them, only that they had existed along with the concept of the Elements. She herself hadn't met very many of them, only encountering Garmadon (and Wu) after they all went their separate ways. Lloyd frowns, still finding himself curious about all of them…

There's a black-haired older man and a young lady standing with Wu in front of a rock formation. Another depicts an elderly man and his white-haired daughter building a snowman with Garmadon. There's one of a blonde woman throwing her arms around both Garmadon and Wu with a thousand-watt smile, and one more with a rugged blacksmith and who must be his wife, both huddled around a beaming Wu. He's holding their baby boy, and…it makes Lloyd feel some type of way. Had he ever held Lloyd like that? The White Ninja had said he'd seen him as a baby, so maybe—

The next picture makes his heart stop. On instinct, Lloyd slams it so it's faced down, heart pounding in his ribcage. A small crack rings out, and yet it's not as loud as the ringing in Lloyd's ears. Still, regret floods through him, and he knows he has to lift the picture if he wants to fix it. He inhales and lifts the frame…

And an auburn-haired woman's face stares back at him. She's alight with joy, dressed in white, as she holds her bouquet on her wedding day.

"…Hi, Mom," he squeaks in a tiny voice, forcing himself to keep moving down the line.

There's more of her wedding day. There's a photo of her and Wu, with Wu holding her arm and looking at her like she's made of gold and diamonds. There's another of her and Garmadon, standing over their wedding cake trading a kiss. Lloyd makes a face, because yuck, but still…seeing his parents together is, well, something he's never seen.

It's almost nice.

The last photo in the set is one of Koko, Wu, and Garmadon in the middle. Koko's dressed in what must be archeologist gear, which Lloyd supposes she hadn't been making up after all. Wu and Garmadon look so much younger than they do now, Wu especially, but both of them also have never looked happier, despite the eerie crimson color that fills Garmadon's eyes. But given how old his mom looks, this photo can't be more than fifteen years old. She…might even be pregnant, actually, if he looks close enough.

But then, after that, there is nothing. No more Garmadon, no more Koko, no more anyone else. No more of Wu, either. The sudden blankness of the walls and tables is made all the more apparent by the richness that came before. It makes the startling lack of anything else more apparent too…

…because there's nothing of himself, even after nearly fourteen years, Lloyd realizes with a cold shudder.

His small twig of a branch on this wild family tree has just been snapped clean off. It's as if anything after his birth just…ceased to exist.

It's as if he ceased to exist.

…No wonder the ninja had been so surprised to hear who he was.

Lloyd's heart beats in his throat as he reaches the end of the hallway, where only one more thing resides. It's with the tiniest spark of hope does he crack open the photo album, because maybe this is where the proof of his connection resides…but the moment he does, only despair is there to greet him.

There's a picture of who must be the current Black Ninja, sitting on the front steps of the monastery with marigold eyes looking exhausted. And also shirtless. A note is scribbled beneath, "First Day of Gen 6" in old form Ninjargon. There's way too many shots of this one guy training, mediating, eating, drawing, and a few candids of him dancing…

Lloyd fleetingly wonders if Wu had been lonely in the time between the last photo.

He turns to the next section of the photo album, finding that the White Ninja has (literally) entered the picture. He's much more reserved than the Black Ninja, pictured staring out the window, sitting quietly, reading books, or just thinking to himself. But in ones with the Black Ninja, his smile shines like ice in the sun, and the Black Ninja wears one twice as bright.

Then the Blue one comes in, shy at first, but warming up eventually to the point that he looks wild, almost manic, in some of the photos. There's one where the boys have clearly just had a pillow fight and Blue stands on a bed drunk with victory. Another depicts them cheering on the Black Ninja during a dodgeball match and the Blue one's waving around a sign like crazy… Lloyd even finds himself laughing at one where Blue seems to have blown up an experiment, leaving Black and White covered in the remnants of the explosion.

Lloyd turns the page again, and the smile wipes completely off his face.

These ones are obviously recent, as they're timestamped in the days that followed Garmadon's attack. These ones were all taken over the summer. The Red Ninja and the girl have joined up by this point, and despite everything that's happened…they're all somehow still happy.

Lloyd finds himself gripping the pages to the point of crinkling their edges, bending the corner of one of the photos. It's of the Red Ninja being the center of attention of what is probably a birthday party. The girl has her hands on his shoulders, with Blue attempting to light the candles with a huge golden sword. White's trying to stop Blue, all while Black only has eyes for the very humble birthday cake. Red laughs through all the pandemonium, tears of joy pinpricking his eyes. And Wu stands behind them all, only stroking his beard as the merriment commences.

Lloyd's face twists into something sinister as he reads the date. It's marked the 26th of July, so not even all that long ago…

His uncle would throw a party for a kid who he'd only known for a few months than even come see his own nephew. In fact, Lloyd can't even recall having a birthday party that wasn't just him and his mom.

His uncle would rather dedicate his time to five random teens than even just come see Lloyd.

His chest heaves as he struggles not to cry but fails miserably, slamming the photo album shut and hurling it down the hall. Lloyd crumbles to the floor, desperately wiping his tears away with his sleeves. He's so busy trying to stop his sobbing that he fails to notice that the album has halted in midair…caught by an invisible Pythor who chooses then to make his presence known.

"…dear me, my boy, is it just that dusty in here, or are you actually crying…?" Pythor remarks, scooping Lloyd off the floor. Lloyd tugs his hoodie as far as he can over his face, sniffling softly. "And here I would have thought you'd be overjoyed to finally see your uncle's home…!"

"…I-I am," Lloyd lies, running his hands down his face. "It's just, um, tears of joy, because, I, um, finally did it…"

"I FOUND MY STAAAAAAFF!" Skales hollers from the other end of the hall, waving it around and dancing with it. Pythor rolls his eyes while Lloyd tries to recover from the mental whiplash. "So, anyway, we got what we came here for, let's leave before they all come back and kill ussssss—"

"Ohho, we're not finished here, are we?" Pythor puts Lloyd back on his feet before pulling out a golden stick, smirking to himself. "What would've been the point of borrowing the Pyro Viper's pyrotenics, then?"

"I don't know!" Skales throws up his arms. "If you're planning to set this place on fire, you could've just sssstruck a normal match or left an oven going! Why'd you have to specifically get Pyro Viper torches?!"

"For the flair, my good man. Anyone can start a measly wildfire, but a fire started by Serpentine flames? Now THAT'S a tasty revenge of the most ironic flavor!"

Skales blinks, zipping off with his staff. "…I think I hate you."

"In any case, I'm not going to do anything…"

Pythor coils around Lloyd, the boy still standing shellshocked at everything he's seen today. Pythor twists himself until his head is level with Lloyd's shoulder, allowing him to lean in close.

"…it is quite hard to believe, but word around the block has been that Master Wu expelled all knowledge of the Elements, the Elemental Masters, and your father from history, in an attempt to preserve the illusion of peace for Ninjago…"

Lloyd blinks, broken from his trance. His head sinks, eyes going dark. "…yeah, he said as much after my father ended his invasion."

"I see…and it's also very evident that he also hid as much evidence as he could of the wars that once plagued these lands, including the one waged against the Serpentine, to make it seem like they all happened long ago in an untouchable past…rather than the paltry forty years it's actually been…"

Pythor pulls Lloyd in front of the largest portrait on the wall, being a simple landscape of the monastery itself in all its splendor. Pythor makes sure to line himself and Lloyd right in the center of the picture's reflection. Lloyd looks into it, eyes shimmering.

"And yet, the worst thing that man might've done…is also hide the existence of his own nephew? And no one even knew! It's truly tragic, having no one know who you are, or the might you wield within…But, why? Why would he do that…?"

Lloyd can't answer around the lump that forms in his throat. Pythor tosses his head back, jetting out his tongue in the process.

"But, mmhmm, well, maybe that's better than the other possible alternative…"

Lloyd forces out his question, the words raw and ripped. "Wh-what alternative?"

Pythor uncoils from around Lloyd and slides before him, leaning over backwards and grinning devilishly.

"Why, just that he didn't want you in his life, of course. Why else would he let other twerps that aren't you into his house? Why else hasn't he spoken with your mother in years…?"

Pythor gestures at the wall, eyes turning deviant in the darkness.

"Why else isn't there a trace of you in this long, rich history of your family? Literally every other person your uncle has ever met has a place upon this wall, and yet, you're nowhere to be found…woof, talk about harsh, huh?"

His grin widens upon seeing the abject horror on Lloyd's face. Pythor knows not what has gone down with the Garmadon family during his stay underground, but whatever it was that led to this child being here, now, and falling apart just from glancing at a few photos…well, he's glad he wasn't here to witness it.

But boy it is ever laughably easy to take advantage of!

And Lloyd's just…very…tired…of being ignored, being written off, being lied to, being kept things from, being denied, dismissed, dissented…!

His dad didn't want him. His uncle wanted nothing to do with him. His mom…he can't go back to her. The ninja suck, the Shark Army sucks, even the snakes suck…! Darkley's kicked him out, and now that he's gone and done all this, no one's ever going to want him around. He has…no place left to go.

Maybe it was for the best no one knew he existed. At least then, everyone was happier.

Lloyd trembles where he stands, on the very edge of bursting. Pythor holds out the Pyro Viper torch, encouraging Lloyd to take it.

"Would you like to do the honors, old chap?"

Wordlessly, Lloyd accepts the torch, flinching when it ignites the moment it lands in his grasp. It's not much in the way of power, but it's still empowering, knowing that he could destroy this whole place with a single ember. He glances back at the wall of photos despite the way it makes him sick, forced to face the traces of the lives that once walked these walls and crossed with Wu. He looks at his mother at her happiest, and he can't recall a time in his presence when she'd ever been so carefree. He thinks of that stupid photo album now lying on the ground, depicting five teenagers whose lives were probably improved by coming to live with Wu. 

He releases the torch, tumbling towards the ground, and igniting the entire hall in a blaze in an instant.

Lloyd remains in a daze even as Pythor drags him onto his back and hauls him towards the exit. He feels nothing and everything all at once, and it evens out into perfect neutrality. He glances up just before they round a corner, finding the parchment of his grandparents wasting away into ashes and embers. For a second, there's a flicker of regret.

But his grandfather had left a whole world behind. His legacy will go on for as long as the realm does. A fading picture and a burning building will never ruin that. So, Lloyd will make his own proof that he exists, and he'll make sure the world knows it, come what may. Even now, with this fire, is proof that he was here. Wu won't be able to deny that…

And he'd like to see anyone try to ignore him ever again.

Chapter Text

Zane holds onto Jay, awaiting the strike from his oldest friend to come down on him instead. Whatever's going on with Cole, Zane knows that he'd never forgive himself if he harmed Zane, but it'd be even worse if Cole harmed his little brother. So Zane holds his breath, and awaits that agony that's sure to come.

Except, it doesn't, as Kai's barely managed to block with a very outstretched Sword of Fire.

With a scream, Kai pushes back against Cole's strength, putting himself between the crazed Master of Earth and the rest of the team. Kai shuffles into a defensive position; Cole pants where he stands, sweaty, confused, and still with a killer look in his eyes.

"What's gotten into him?!" yelps Kai, struggling against the weight of yet another Scythe swing. He's really regretting not grabbing his katanas, but also, this is not how he pictured today going.

"He's under their control!" Zane declares, with Jay's head poking out from between Zane's arms.

"But when did that happen?! We've avoided the snakes entirely up to this point!"

"Yeah well he'd better snap out of it quick; this whole place is about to go down!"

As if on cue, the crumbling treehouse lurches again. By now, it's been emptied of all snakes whether by flight or force, and only the ninja remain to become victims of the chaos they've caused. Zane helps Jay back to his feet as Kai continues to hold off Cole. He'd been hoping for a rematch ever since the failed Green Ninja Tournament, but not like this!

"C'mon now, friends don't hit friends—" Jay starts, only to get kicked in the face. "….awwwww ow, ow, okay, I'm gonna ignore that."

"Ugh, what are we supposed to do?" Kai huffs, arms already threatening to give out from blocking so hard. "If I use my sword, this place could go up in flames faster than a tinder box!"

"Isn't the anti-venom in the staff?" suggests Zane.

"Yeah, but we don't have the staff!"

Cole's not fighting like he normally does—there's way more aggression, way less grace…and way more intent to kill.

He charges at Kai hard enough to knock him back. Kai flies backwards, his heel dragging on the roof tiles. Knocked loose, the tiles tumble down towards the ground, and Kai knows he's headed there next when Cole plants his boot into his stomach.

“Augh—!”

Kai loses his balance, stopped from falling over the edge by Zane grabbing his sleeve. This also requires Zane to let go of Jay, who has taken it upon himself to go after Cole next.

"Jay, use your lightning!” Zane exclaims. “Try to shock him out of his trance!"

Jay nods, darting around Cole’s Scythe while spinning the Nunchucks and building up a charge.

"Hnnng, sorry Cole, this is gonna hurt you a lot more than it'll hurt me!"

He winces as he sends a bolt straight down unto Cole’s head, making Cole recoil. There’s a brief moment where they believe it worked…until Cole’s head snaps back up, eyes still swirling red, and he punches Jay right off the roof.

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

"JAY!" scream Zane and Kai, scrambling to the edge of the crumbling roof. Jay manages to snag the rope Kai prepared earlier, swinging back to relative safety. Kai and Zane heave with relief, only to snap back into terror when Cole now targets the treehouse itself.

It’s already on its last legs; there’s no way it’ll withstand the assault!

"No, Cole, don't—!"

"Cole, please—" Zane begs.

Cole howls one last time as he brings the Scythe down, but just before he can put the full amount of force behind it, a harmonious melody fills the air. The sound drags Cole to his knees, now grabbing at his head. The others look overhead to find the Electric Jet tearing through the air, sans electrical power, with Wu on the wing playing his staff like a flute. Nya brings the craft around the crumbling treehouse, allowing the music to fully sink into Cole’s head and expel every trace of hypnotism within.

Cole's eyes turn back to normal at long last. He blinks, gazing upon the concerned looks of Kai and Zane, just as Jay clambers back onto the roof.

"Wha…where am I?" Cole clutches his head, stumbling around groggily. "What are… we doing?"

"We're getting out here!" Nya's voice comes in over the communicators. "This whole place is coming down…!"

With the final blow completed and nothing keeping it supported, the treehouse officially makes its way to pieces, gravity dragging it down to the forest floor. The ninja wail as they run for the edge, Nya tilting the jet to allow them to jump aboard. Cole takes everyone’s hands and tosses them onto the wing before leaping on himself.

His mind finally catches up with the rest of him, and he frantically drags himself towards Zane.

"Did I hurt you?!" Cole yelps breathlessly, handling Zane like he's made of porcelain. Zane smiles gently, shaking his head.

"Only just a little bit in the face, thanks for asking," Jay huffs off to the side, now held up by Kai. "And nearly tossed me off the roof. And nearly tossed Kai off the roof—“

"How did you know where we were?" asks Kai, turning the attention back to Nya and Wu.

"The spirit smoke informed me that the Serpentine came after Nya in the city," Wu explains as Nya makes an indignant face. Kai's eyes immediately go wide. “And then Nya claimed to pick up a distress ping coming from Wildwood.”

“That was me,” Jay admits, poking his fingers together. “I panicked…”

"But that flute of yours, Sensei…" Zane trails, leaning in for a closer look. "It…cancels the Serpentine's abilities…?"

"It's not the flute—remember, it's the song that has those properties," Wu elaborates. "But we have to hurry, now—the monastery's unguarded! Quickly!"

Jay climbs down and around into the co-pilot seat, slamming the Nunchucks into their holsters. The external engines spark to life; Nya then hits the lever, the rockets roaring with the increased speed as they jet across the forest and back to the mountains…

They return to the Mountain of Impossible Height in record time, but even then, it's still not soon enough.

The clouds have become thick and dark with the offending smoke, rising off the wildfire that engulfs the entirety of the Monastery of Spinjitzu. Embers dance in the heated breeze, and breathable air becomes thinner by the second. Few sounds can replicate the wounded gasp of choked agony that pours from Wu's mouth, paralleled only by the panic of the ninja.

"Our…home…" Kai heaves out, otherwise paralyzed with shock.

They barely get within landing distance before Kai, Jay, and Cole are jumping out, with Zane following up with the Shuriken. He desperately tries to put out the flames with them, as Wu had done for the out of control Sword of Fire, but even with what little he does it's not enough to quell the entire fire.

"Ghhh…at least most of our more pertinent belongings were left at the warehouse, but…"

"Shit…all my vinyl discs! The sketchbooks!" Cole laments.

"My video games! My inventions!" screams Jay like a man who'd lost a limb. "A-And…Mr. Cuddlywomp! NOOOOOOO!"

As agonizing as possibly losing their material possessions are, neither of them are fool enough to risk their lives for them. They go to join Zane in attempting to put out the fire—only to spot Kai doing the exact opposite and barreling straight for the flaming front door.

"Kai, what are you doing?!" Nya screeches, barely out of the cockpit to go help. Kai whirls around, running backwards and looking frenzied. Even his eyes are shaking.

"My katanas are still in there!" he yells, on the verge of losing his mind. "I have to get them!"

"You can't, it's too dangerous!" Wu calls back, voice thick with terror. "The foundation's all but gone; one wrong step and you'll be trapped—"

"It's a fire," Kai insists like that answers anything, throwing himself towards the door. "If the Master of Fire can't do this, then what's he good for?!”

In the stunned few seconds Wu fails to find an answer, Kai rushes in and disappears among the embers.

If the monastery was a maze before, it’s a labyrinth now, forcing him to duck and weave under fallen banisters and crushed walls. He can barely recognize the halls he and Jay once raced through, the kitchen where Zane would be up early making food, nor the equipment he and Cole would use to train…

He no longer sees the rows of pictures from times gone by nor the random artifacts that surely had some kind of value. He weaves between what were once the walls of the meditation room and makes the trek towards the bedrooms.

He passes Jay’s first, wincing upon seeing the shelves of games and creativity reduced to cinders. He remembers how proud Jay had been of his eclectic collection, showing it off at every chance he could get—

And the he spies the miraculously spared stuffed creature on the flaming bed, one of its ears currently ebbing away in fire.

Kai only grabs it on instinct alone, doing his best to brush away the fire before it can cause more damage. He tucks the toy snug against his sash, then keeps searching for his room. Cole’s room is next, and while there is no saving any of the big, bulky possessions such as the records, Kai does see the plethora of sketchbooks piled under the bed. They’re not yet touched by the fire either, so Kai grabs as many as he can of those as well. They’re not heavy, thankfully, and he stuffs them into the pack on his back.

The building creaks as more of it gives out; Kai hastens his search.

There’s nothing personal to grab from Zane’s room, as it’s always been extremely clean and devoid of things. Nya’s room is nearly the same, given that she’s basically got everything she’d had at Four Weapons, which was already next to nothing.

And Kai himself had been same way as Nya, save for one thing and one thing only.

He coughs, struggling to expel the smoke that’s surely flooding his lungs. It’s kinda not fair—how come Cole can punch and lift like a boulder, Zane gets cool psychic visions, and Jay can make mechanical marvels from miracles, and yet Kai doesn’t have any skill even slightly related to his element? He’s part of the Core Four too, and yet being smack in the middle of his element is making him weak—

Unless, of course, he’s the Green Ninja, and Fire isn’t really his element…

But, FSM, you’d think he’d be better than this.

Kai inhales, suddenly and sharply, and intakes a whole cloud of smoke. For a split moment, he realizes how much of an idiot he was for even thinking he should run into a burning building...

But then he breathes out, smoke and fire emerging in equal parts and momentarily scalding his tongue like he’d burned it on fresh tea. And yet, he feels fine.

“…okay, cool, gonna explore that more later. But, gotta focus—“

He finally sees the entrance to his room, and of course it’s blocked by a fallen bookcase and the debris of who knows what else. He takes another deep breath of smoke and exhales, a sharp plume of fire melting down whatever’s in the way. It also makes the surrounding fire worse, but like, this is fine.

He jumps towards what remains of his bed, finding his twin katanas sitting pretty among the fire. Unlike everything else in the room, his swords seem to thrive in the element. Regardless, he grabs them and then barrels towards the wall, twirling the katanas around before spiraling into Spinjitzu.

“NINJA-GOOO!”

In an inferno of his own, Kai flies out of the Monastery and back out into the courtyard. Nya spots him at last, throwing her arms up to the sky.

“It’s clear!” she hollers into the communicator, and the Electric Jet immediately soars over the burning building. With Jay piloting as steady as he can, Wu stands atop its wings, wielding the Shuriken of Ice at his sides. He exhales, drawing one hand back and pushing the other forward, slowly calling forth a stream of ice to wash over all the fire. Unlike before, this stream is much, much bigger, and much more unruly to control, but he manages.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Cole takes care to smother the flames from below. He uses the Scythe to summon up several mounds of dirt, not having to worry about breaking the foundation anymore. With the earth under his control, Cole holds the Scythe high above his head, then swoops it forward, sending the pile into several different directions. Bit by bit, the flames are either frozen or smothered, until an orange blaze no longer fills the skies.

With the fires calmed at last, the damage is surveyed: only scarce bits of the building's framework are left behind, everything within either scorched beyond repair or burned out of existence. The lounge is gone, the meditation room, everyone's bedrooms, the dining hall, the kitchen, the courtyard, all the training equipment…and the entrance to the library's chamber.

Wu kneels down before it, brushing his hand against the caved in tunnel. He wonders if the knowledge locked away in there, including the Elemental Compass, will ever see the light of day again.

"H-How could they do this…?" Jay whimpers, his legs shaking from the cutthroat piloting he'd just had to do. Nya steps over to support him, putting an arm around him.

"They'll pay!" Cole declares, punching a fist into his palm. "I dunno when or how, but—"

Wu rests a hand on Cole's shoulder, shaking his head.

"Vengeance will not come in the form of doing to them what they have done to us. It will come in the form of them realizing their mistakes, and the guilt they'll carry for long afterwards. It is better that we do not instigate a cycle of suffering with an eye for an eye, for it will never see its end.”

The words sober Cole up, even if they're not exactly what he wants to hear. His fists are still full of fury, and Wu only looks on wearily as Cole yells and pounds his fists into the pavement. Wu comforts him as best he can, but it's not until Kai walks up does Cole stop wailing.

Kai kneels down, reaching behind him into his pack. He pulls out several tattered old books, some a little scorched by the fire, but still mainly intact. Cole sucks in a breath of relief; Kai quirks a smile.

"I, uh, I couldn't grab any of the vinyl. They were too bulky, and I wasn't sure which ones mattered the most to you so—"

"It's fine, this is way more than…" Cole begins, voice cracking around the lump in his throat. He hugs the sketchbooks to his chest, sniffling."…well, ahem, these can't be easily replaced, anyway. This means way more to me. Thank you."

Kai nods, then turns to a tear-streaked Jay. He simply holds out the raggedy stuffed blue toy he'd spotted on the bed. Jay's face lights up like a thousand-watt bulb, scrambling for the toy like a long lost old friend. He hugs it tightly, sobbing in relief. Kai doesn't need the thanks—that reaction's more than enough.

He hears a cough from behind him, and Kai sighs, already knowing what's coming. He whirls around to face Wu, drawing his twin katanas with quivering hands.

"I know I shouldn't have done that and you're disappointed," he begins quickly, words shaking harder than his hands. "I-I'm sorry, I can't…I couldn't…I can't lose these…"

Kai holds one of them out before him, reading his name etched lovingly into the metal with well-handled craftsmanship.

"…they're the only proof I have left that my parents cared about me."

At that, Wu stills, the worried anger he'd been building up vanishing in a heartbeat. However, rage bubbles over in Kai, and he whirls on his sister instead.

"…this is all Nya's fault!"

"Kai…" Wu starts, the name laced with warning. Nya's jaw just drops.

"What?! How is this possibly MY fault?!"

"Because you were obviously at the warehouse all day when you should've been here at the monastery! How else would you have gotten to Jay's jet so fast, or how you managed to quickly ping our location?!" Kai accuses, making Nya go rigid. He's not wrong. "You knew Lloyd was out and about, you knew we were looking for him, and you knew we could've been dispatched at any time to deal with the snakes!"

"Oh, what, so I'm supposed to just stay cooped up at home on the off-chance adventure calls and play house sitter every weekend?!" Nya snaps back. "It's not like Wu wasn't here anyway!"

"But you did leave without informing Sensei Wu of your whereabouts, and he ended up having to go look for you," adds Zane. "Had that not happened, the damage could have been limited."

"Stop blaming Nya! This could've happened because of anyone!" Jay steps in, even as he clutches Mr. Cuddlywomp like a lifeline. "Th-The snakes obviously knew to strike at the one and only time nobody was here…and we're pretty sure Cole wasn't hypnotized today…so that means he was hit way back on Wednesday."

Zane folds his arms. "And it is a possibility they've been using Cole to spy on us to find that moment to strike, or to create the opportunity for themselves by ‘attacking’ Nya when she was alone…not to mention discovering the location of the Monastery itself. We're not that easy to find if you don't know where to look."

"But yeah, keep blaming me, the one that saved you from getting beaten up by Cole or crushed under a treehouse or overtaken by Hypnobrai or left without any form of communications or WORSE!" Nya grunts, shoving Kai. "You're welcome…!"

"Yeah, if there's anyone to blame, it should be Lloyd and those snakes!" snaps Cole. "They've gone way too far this time…!"

"We…destroyed their base, just as they took ours," Zane says, picking up a small handful of ashes. "This…could be seen as a teaching moment, we must learn from this—"

"A teaching moment?! Are you kidding me?!" Kai exclaims, fists in his hair. "Everything is GONE!"

"ENOUGH!" Wu bellows; Cole shrinks a bit while Kai sinks to the ground, hands over his mouth. "We are all at fault. We continue to underestimate the ambitions of our adversaries, and we continue to overestimate ourselves…we should consider ourselves lucky we merely lost physical things, and not our lives instead."

Wu turns back towards Nya, who stands with fists balled at her sides and lip trembling.

"Nya is your sister, and she did not mean for this to happen no more than anyone else. Your emotions once again cloud the better judgment I know you possess. Apologize at once."

Kai lowers his hands, and he does look regretful of his words. "I'm…I'm sorry, Nya, I just—"

But Nya just stares blankly, quiet fury burning up into her eyes.

"…just save it, Kai. I can't properly process this right now."

Kai cuts himself off, and somehow slumps even lower than before. Cole and Zane start scouring the ashes for anything else they can potentially save, and Jay distracts himself by trying to come up with ways to rebuild everything he couldn't get back. Nya sits down, pulling her knees up to her chest, and rests her head against them.

Kai can't stop shaking. Wu steps next to him, a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to help steady the boy.

"…I learned I can breathe fire in there," Kai blurts out, half hysterical and half excited. Wu feels a migraine coming on. "Got any lessons about that?"

"…Not any more than I do lessons about psychic visions or charging machinery."

"Darn," Kai huffs, licking his lips. They're slightly burnt. And taste like charcoal. And Kai's still shaking.

He faces Wu, three degrees away from a proper breakdown.

"…did you lose anything important in there, Sensei?"

"…no," Wu says after a long, deep silence. He hasn't lost anything; not in the way Kai believes, anyhow. "All that I could have lost has either been long gone for years already…or is still standing here beside me. And for the latter, I couldn't be more grateful."

As usual, Kai doesn't fully understand, but he receives the sentiment. His eyes start glassing up against his will. He swipes at them with his sleeve; Wu, meanwhile, throws an arm over his shoulder and pulls him close. Kai takes that as his permission to fully start crying. Wu lets him.

Wu won't lie, the fact that Kai just jumped straight into the fire had scared him half to death, but he can't bring himself to be mad about it. Wu, too, can understand the unbearable pain of having to watch a father's creation go up in smoke…in more ways than one.

This day is a dark one for them all, and it won't be an easy one to get past. Everyone's tired, or hurt, or upset, or all of the above. And…knowing that Lloyd's had a hand in this doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

With the night approaching, Wu rounds everyone up, instructing them to gather whatever things they have left. It doesn't take long for everyone to do so, along with giving a few forlorn goodbyes. From there, Wu leads them down the mountain. They don't look back.

They touch nothing else either, leaving the remains as evidence that, at the very least, something grand had been here once. Even if no one ever steps foot here again.

"Soooo, what do we do now?" Cole asks late into Sunday morning, absently wondering how much a new set of headphones is going to cost him.

They've all corralled at the warehouse for last-minute shelter. Sleeping on absolutely unforgiving concrete wasn't anyone's idea of a restful night, and neither was the idea of having to buy more school supplies and even some more clothes—

But, they make do.

"Uh, what are we eating again…?" Kai asks, staring at the strange piece of meat stabbed upon his fork.

"Mud newt," Cole says before taking a giant bite. "It, uh…was on sale at the convenience store, so if we're going to be scrounging for cash, then we've gotta spend as light as possible…"

"What?! Oh come on! I've bought more and better things than this with two bucks!" Kai huffs. "Besides, I thought we decided I was the finance guy? Next time consult me before buying mud-flavored meat products!"

Cole holds up his hands; can't argue with that logic.

"Sheesh, sheesh, all right…!"

"And to think we could've been eating Zane's seafood paella right now…" sobs Jay, throwing a rock into a nearby can. It manages to land dead center. Jay jumps to his feet.

"All right, didja see that?! New high score!"

"Jay, we literally have two gaming systems in the warehouse; you could just use one of those," Nya points out from her beanbag chair. Jay winces at her, tearing up.

"B-But I can't replace the sentimental value…!"

Nya sighs, patting him on the back. Wu speaks up from where he's meditating on a rug.

"Remember, we must be thankful for what we still have. We could have lost greater things than what we did. It won't be easy to start from scratch, but we must have some gratitude for the fact that we are able to start again at all."

The wisdom seeps in, but it doesn't make things hurt any less.

"But our home is gone," sniffles Jay. "Not just the video games or the clothes or records or the food or the training course or the stuff…but that's where we all met each other as ninja, and trained together, and grew as friends…"

"It was a place that we had a relatively short time with, but it still managed to have a lasting impact on ourselves as individuals," adds Zane from where he's messing around on the network computer, his share of mud newt eaten long ago. Kai sighs, shaking his head.

"What gets me is that…after so long…I finally found a place I felt like I belonged." He kicks at the floor, refusing to look up and missing the way Nya stares at him sadly. "I only lived there for a few months, but now it's so hard to imagine being anywhere else…"

"Your place was never within a building; it is with those who care about you, regardless of where they are," Wu insists. "And, perhaps had I realized that sooner myself, I wouldn't have lost so many of those I cherished…"

Zane looks up from his work, frowning in Wu's direction. "It is understandable to feel so connected to one location, however. Especially when you have spent so much time there."

"…this is true." Wu leans forward, folding his hands in his lap. "However, it doesn't make finding a new place to live any easier."

"Definitely not in this economy," remarks Nya, leafing through a real estate magazine.

"We could always go to the Rockshot Club," Cole suggests. "It…might be a little hard to get out for ninja business, but it's still a place that wouldn't ask too many questions either. I could hit up Tox if you wanted."

"Yeah, the opposite logic rules out my parent's place for sure," groans Jay. "Besides, going anywhere beyond the city would make it too hard to get to the mechs and school, which also definitely rules out Ignacia and Birchwood and…well, anywhere beyond Central."

"Maybe we could cash in another favor and stay at Jamanakai Inn for a while," suggests Kai hopefully, but Cole shakes his head.

"No way, that room was cramped, and that's even farther from the warehouse—!"

A loud screech suddenly fills the room, everyone except Zane jumping. The Falcon then swoops in from the open window, eyes blazing blue with discovery. Zane beams, holding out his arm to encourage the Falcon to come down for a landing.

"It appears my friend has found something satisfactory," Zane proclaims, spinning in his chair to face Nya. "Would it be possible to connect the Falcon's intelligence network to your bracelet's mainframe? It would make uploading its data a lot easier. We tried to ask about it yesterday, but…you were not home."

"…oh, yeah, I can totally do that!" Nya immediately heads over to the computer. "It shouldn't take too long, as long as you're willing to help me navigate your father's tech."

"Of course."

"Well, hey! Don't just start doing techie stuff without explaining!" Cole says, hurrying over along with Kai and Jay. "Spill the beans! What are you guys working on?"

"Just from a quick scan of the data, it looks like the Falcon has found something out in the desert." Nya clicks a few more things, trying to compress the video without sacrificing quality. "Although I don't know how it's going to help us…"

"I…cannot explain it, but I feel a peculiar connection with the Falcon." Zane stares at the bird with a small smile. "I believe it merely wants to help show us the path we need to take."

Nya finishes uploading, decrypting, and enhancing the data. Zane smiles upon seeing the results.

"…and I think you will all be pleased."

Hitching another ride on the Electric Jet, the group follows the Falcon's ping all the way out to the far outskirts of the Sea of Sand. Jay pilots while Nya ensures the coordinates are correct, taking them way, way beyond any sign of civilization. Clouds of dust and the occasional outcropping of rock serve to greet them, and for a moment some of them believe that there's nothing to find out here—

And then, they see it.

Sitting half-submerged in sand and highlighted against the glow of the dusk desert sun…sits an almost entirely intact boat of all things. The sails have neither tears nor holes, the hull is fully in one piece with minimal paint chipping, and it's large enough to not only house them all, but to train on as well.

It's perfect, and that's precisely the reason the Falcon led them to it.

"…our new home, everyone," Zane states, just in time for everyone else to gasp.

"Whoa…!" "Oh, my!" "NO WAY!!!!" "It's so COOL!"

 Everyone jumps from the jet and makes a run for it, their cries filling the evening air.

"WOO HOO!" "YEAAAAH!"

Kai and Jay race to get there first, with Cole excited about seeing all the space and Nya already coming up with ways to make it better. Zane beams at his friends, just as Wu places a hand upon his shoulder.

"Your father may not yet know it, but his invention has done us a great service today," Wu says with a soft, sad…and almost guilty look in his eye. "…One day, I promise, we will visit your family."

Zane actually looks surprised at that, but his expression changes into something more somber.

"…I appreciate the thought, Sensei, but you do not have to worry. While I do greatly miss my parents, my current purpose—and my family—are all right here already, including you."

Zane hears his name on the wind, hollered out by Cole. Wu gives him a single nod, and Zane rushes off to join them. Kai's dancing on the deck, Jay and Nya are already making notes about potential upgrades and repairs, and by the time Zane reaches them as well, Cole's got his arms around him and spinning him in a hug. Laughter, delight, and renewed hope sail along the desert's light breeze…

…which only puts a scowl onto Lloyd Garmadon's face.

X-X

"Mom, how come we never visit Uncle Wu?"

It's a quiet affair as usual, dinners at the Garmadon apartment. Lloyd pointedly pushes all his vegetables to the corner of his plate as he waits for his mother to answer him. Koko stalls, as she usually does when Lloyd asks the tough questions. But she never loses her cheer nor her smile.

"He lives way, way up in the mountains, kiddo. It's literally a thousand steps just to reach the front door, and that's after actually reaching the mountain."

Lloyd wilts. That…doesn’t sound pleasant.

"Then…how come he doesn't visit us instead?"

At that, Koko makes the slightest of winces, so barely detectable that Lloyd's not even confident he'd seen it at all.

"Well, you remember how I told you that each Province is actually protected by a very special Guardian, right?"

Lloyd nods, leaning his head on his hand—here we go again…

"Yes, Mom, and I remember how the Central Province doesn't have one—"

"Wrong!" Koko declares, striking her hand into the air. "Central does have a Guardian, but it's been missing since…well, way longer than even your uncle's been alive. But because Central is without a Guardian, your uncle does his best to make up for its absence. It's a very busy job, and one that he can't exactly take a vacation from. By staying at the Monastery, he's got the best view of the whole Province, and can both spot and reach trouble quickly should it ever occur within Central."

She sighs, absently twirling her fork in her hand with practiced fingers.

“It would take a crisis to get him to come down, honestly. And to tell the truth…I wouldn’t mind seeing him again either.”

She sinks in her chair, eyes empty. It's an expression he's never seen from her before, and Lloyd's almost sorry he even brought it all up. She catches him staring at her with pity, and that's enough to force her to pull herself back together.

"But I know for an absolute fact that he loves you, just like I do."

Lloyd smiles weakly, quietly finishing what remains on his plate all while wanting to trust her words.

But, well, she'd said the same thing about his father too.

X-X

Lloyd sits on his rock, watching with glaring eyes as Wu beams as bright as the city's nighttime skyline, encouraging all of the ninja one by one. Wu laughs at something Blue says. He explains a few things in detail to Black, who nods seriously. He thanks White minutes later when he comes out with a hastily made dinner for kings. He shows the girl the bridge and offers a few suggestions for additions. And Lloyd watches his uncle's face bloom with sheer pride when that Red one takes up some training on the deck, bursting into Spinjitzu with his swords at the ready. It's only the span of a few minutes, but these ninja have gotten more attention from Wu than Lloyd has in his whole life.

The ninja, that hadn't even known he'd existed until he appeared right in front of him. And his uncle, who couldn't spare a moment to see his only nephew, yet could find the time to train, raise, and give all the attention in the world to five other kids.

He heaves a deep, shaky sigh, hoping it'll be enough to stave off the tears that threaten to come.

"Are you done wallowing in more of that disgusting self-pity yet?"

Pythor's voice breaks what little peace there is. Lloyd's quick to wipe away any stray tears before standing back up, his cape swishing as he turns.

"…I was just getting ready to leave. Have the Hypnobrai settled in the underground stronghold you set up?"

"Yes, although they're none too happy about going underground again, it's still the best move to make until we have more in our numbers." Pythor admires his hand before leering at Lloyd. "And speaking of that, would you let me see that map? I do wish to know where we should head next—"

"We're going to the Fangpyre Tomb," Lloyd replies without even glancing at the map, already making tracks in the sand. Pythor glowers. "It's in the old graveyard within the Forest of Tranquility. Their venom could be useful in getting us reinforcements, especially now that those stupid ninja ruined my treehouse…!"

Lloyd kicks at the ground, sending a cloud of dirt into the air. Pythor frowns, lowering his head.

"…I'm afraid I must confess, I don't understand you, Lloyd Garmadon. "

Lloyd sneers, only pulling his hood further over his head and trotting off. He leaves his footprints in his wake, the only sign he'd even been there until the winds blow them all away.

"Yeah, well, you and the rest of the world, I guess.”

Chapter Text

Wu wakes up, the morning sunlight golden and magical, like in the days of a youth long since passed. He's seven again, greeting the day with delight as he jumps out of bed, eager to see what new discoveries await him in the world his father created. He rushes past his teenaged brother's room, the door slightly ajar and revealing Garmadon still snoring away and missing out on a perfectly wonderful morning. Wu lets him rest, though—he's a nightmare to deal with when disturbed from slumber.

Wu continues down the halls, still in pajamas, laughing all the while. He runs straight into a skirt that smells of tea leaves and sage. He holds out his arms to catch himself, just as an older and more feminine hand lands on his shoulder. Wu glances up; the brown-haired woman he just slammed into smiles with all the warmth in her heart.

"Good morning, Mother!" Wu exclaims, going in for the kill with a full hug. The woman chuckles softly, ruffling her hand in his hair.

"Hello, my son. Is your brother awake yet?"

"No." Wu turns to stick his tongue out in the direction he came from. "He's going to miss breakfast at this rate! Are you gonna make me go get him?"

"No, no; I can handle that myself," she laughs, pink eyes sparkling with affection. "If you're looking for your father, however, I believe he's meditating out in the courtyard. We brewed some fresh tea; he might let you have a cup if you ask nicely."

Wu pumps a tiny fist into the air with a "YES!"

He hurries off with a quick 'thanks' over his shoulder to his mother, rushing to the courtyard.

The Monastery seems so big as he races through the halls, bypassing rooms that harbor the second generation of Elemental Masters in training, dedicated monks of Spinjitzu, or simple living spaces for his family. Despite the size, Wu feels like he knows every nook and cranny. This place…doubles as a sanctuary. But he’s always seen it as just home.

Wu bounds into the courtyard with gusto, and sure enough, there sits the man known as the First Spinjitzu Master, creator of the realm they all currently reside in. Wu knows the man has a thousand more titles, all of which couldn’t even begin to cover all the things he encompasses as an individual, but Wu has ever only been in need of one name for him.

“Father! Good morning!”

The man draped with black and white finishes his sip of tea, turning and smiling upon setting it down. Wu stumbles over, caught by the steadying hand of his father.

“Hello, Wu. I see you are in good spirits today.”

“Of course! It’s another beautiful day in your realm, after all!”

“Wu,” the FSM chuckles, shaking his head. “I have told you many times, this realm does not belong to me; it belongs to humanity. I merely paved the way for their opportunity to exist, and I, too, merely exist within it.”

Wu smiles, knowing his father is just being humble. Even at his young age, he knows too well the story of how his father fled his war-ravaged home to seek a new one…even if that meant building one straight out from the Endless Sea. And from there, he filled the land with those in his image: those with a capacity for both creation and destruction, but with a choice.

And he called them human beings.

Human beings, which he always struggled to protect from the unprecedented threats of this young world. And so came to be the Monastery of Spinjitzu, designed to teach those ways to protect others, and themselves.

Wu's father conjures up another teacup within his palms, proceeding to pour some of his brew into it for Wu. Wu takes it with gratitude, slurping it up with much less grace than his father, but no less enthusiastic.

"Where is your brother, Wu? Surely he heard the morning gong as well…?"

Wu pauses mid-sip to make a face, scowling off to the side. “He’s still sleeping like a lump. At this rate he’ll miss morning stretches!”

"Perhaps he finds himself thriving more in the night, like your mother."

"Yeah, but Mother is supposedly waking him up now instead. And now he's going to be all grumpy and pouty." Wu stares into his tea, frowning. "Why can't he be more like me and wake up early and greet the sun and not be so sour in the morning—"

Wu finds a hand suddenly placed upon his shoulder.

"…everything has a counterbalance, Son. For every action, there is an opposite yet equally important reaction. Everything must have something to keep itself in check—a lesson I learned the hard way, and one I could not teach to those where I hail from. Opposites must work in tandem, not against one another. And we must especially do so within ourselves."

Wu is then scooped up into his father's arms, who turns them both so they face the majority of the monastery. It stands magnificently in the sunlight of the morning, gold and marble gleaming with radiance. Wu will never get tired of its breathtaking stature.

"As fire will burn, ice will freeze. As the earth will quake, the skies will storm. All of those qualities persist within all of us—"

"—and only those that can find that great balance within themselves can perform Spinjitzu. We have to embrace what makes us strong just as much as we must address where we are lacking," Wu finishes, grinning up at his father. "Being around others different than us is what helps us realize that. And that's why we have the Monastery to train in, right?"

"…well now, you're certainly just as perceptive as I was when I was your age," the FSM hums, poking Wu on the nose and making him laugh. "Do you remember what else I said about understanding the balance within ourselves?"

Wu opens his mouth to answer, but finds that he cannot. He shamefully shakes his head, but his father only smiles, ruffling his hair.

“To create is to destroy; to destroy is to create. To do both, is to be human.”

Wu "ooooooh's" in recall, just as the green and gold eyes of First Spinjitzu Master shine down upon him.

"They're both sides to the single coin we call life."

X-X

Wu wakes up again, this time with a small heart attack, and also nearly one hundred and fifty years later.

It's also one of the very few times in nearly one hundred and fifty years that he awakes somewhere that isn't the warm comfort of his father's sacred home. 

The morning sunlight is still magical in its miracle of the sun coming up again, but that doesn't make the light any less harsh. Wu sits up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The events of the past weekend still haven't fully sunk in yet…but the pain clearly had.

Wu gets up, making his way down the halls of the Destiny’s Bounty. He seeks out the rooms where Nya sleeps alone and the boys sleep as one. All five of them had lamented things they'd lost (or nearly lost) in the fire—material things that could be replaced, but a part of their identities none the less…

And Wu thinks of how the Monastery itself had been part of his identity long before he could decide whether he wanted it to be.

Still, it's not the first nor the worst loss he's endured. And surely, there's still more to come. He's lived too long and seen too much to get misty eyed over losing a building. Not when he has pupils needing him to guide them onwards regardless. Not when he's too grateful that no lives had been lost instead.

He lets Nya sleep for a while longer; missing a day of school after your home burning down is probably something she won't complain about…too much. But she could definitely use the extra rest after having to also come to terms with being Master of Water. He only hopes she comes around soon.

The boys, shockingly enough, are already awake.

Jay's got a mouth full of sand for some reason, Kai sulks around in pajamas much too big for him, Cole lies in a bed much too small for him, and Zane…is halfway sunk into the floorboards.

...But, they're awake.

"Morning, Sensei," is what he thinks Jay tries to say, but it's a little hard to decipher through the dirt.

"Good morning," Wu returns, casting his gaze over the four. "…did you all even sleep?"

"Not on these mattresses," grumbles Cole.

"And not with Jay going on and on about how cool it is to have a new ninja headquarters," adds Kai. Jay spits out more sand and shrugs. Wu brushes a hand down his face.

"Well, despite our setbacks, we must continue training to help reach your true potentials. We must treat each day like a new opportunity!"

"So, what is our lesson for today, Sensei?" Zane asks, practicing his moves even while half his body remains submerged. "Mastering the strike of the scorpion? The sting of the bee? The swoop of the hawk?!"

"I think today's lesson will be…chores."

"CHORES?!"

Sheesh, you’d think he’d asked them to kill a man.

"In exchange for allowing you a day off of school, we are going to spend the day whipping our new living space into proper ninja headquarters shape…!"

"Ninja fight, Sensei; they don’t do not clean!" insists Cole.

"I suppose that philosophy explains why your room was always the messiest," Zane declares, making Kai and Jay snicker behind him. Cole fumes. "And moreover, now that we all have to share a single space, the division of responsibility is even more prevalent."

"You are absolutely correct, Zane," Wu continues. "In order to respect ourselves, we must respect our new home, and where we are from. And this place…is a long way away from becoming a ninja headquarters."

He turns, making his way out the door.

"I expect this place to be spotless when I return. And make sure you put your backs into it!"

With a wave, Wu waltzes off to do mysterious Sensei things. The boys groan, none of them exactly eager to clean of all things, after such a harrowing weekend.

"Ugghhhh, this place is going to take forever to clean and fix up!" Kai whines. Jay walks up next to him, smirking deviously.

"Unless, of course, we put more than our backs into it, hmm?" he suggests, giving Kai a wink. Kai immediately catches on, grinning back with delight.

Four spinning ninja, three huge renovations, two tons of garbage on display at a garage sale, and one montage later, the boys have collectively finished cleaning up and clearing out every room aboard the boat. Zane sorts through the trash in search of anything potentially useful, Cole hauls out the stuff they don't need, Kai gets to work reinforcing the worn-out foundation along with the sails, and Jay and the finally awake Nya begin plans for putting a…modern spin on everything.

"You guys did all this by yourselves?!" Nya asks, marveling at all they've accomplished so far.

"Well yeah!" Cole exclaims, poking his head into the bridge as he walks by with another haul. "Ninja don't just fight, Nya; we clean!"

Nya smiles and rolls her eyes, turning back towards where Jay is working. Jay had discovered a very old and very steampunk power grid. With a quick hit of his Nunchucks, he manages to bring it back to life, save for a few adjustments. They now have lights and some power, but given their plans for bigger upgrades, they're going to need an expansion on the power source.

"It's not much, giving the low amount of voltage capacity it has, but we can definitely build on it," Jay says while sorting through some of the wiring. "This could be an ideal spot for intel exchange…ooh, and a large screen, and a table, and a little coffee nook—!"

Nya laughs softly under her breath, seeming distracted as she sorts through a plethora of papers and schematics. Normally there's a lot more light to her laughter. Today it's lacking, and that…worries Jay.

"Um, are you all right, Nya? You've been…kinda distant lately," Jay begins, scratching the back of his neck. "N-Not that, that's, um, WEIRD behavior, given everything that's happened, but, um…I just thought I'd ask…"

Nya stills where she stands, gaze locked onto the notes in her hand. Jay ceases his operations, waiting for her answer. Eventually she sighs.

"…I'm okay. I was just…taking a bit of time for myself." She chuckles again, much more hallow than before. "Guess the timing could have been a little better, huh?"

"Is there ever a good time to be depressed?" Jay jokes half-heartedly, but then coughs and swallows it down. Now's not the time. "I, um, I just meant that, ah…it's good to see you around again."

At that, some semblance of Nya's usual glow seems to return.

"I missed you, too."

From there, the conversation turns to lighter topics. Jay fills Nya in on some of the council's plans, as Zane never had the chance to, while Nya asks several questions about mechanical engineering. That gets Jay rattling off about the topic nonstop. It doesn't bother Nya in the slightest, however—she's even taking notes.

"…and always carry a screwdriver on you! Like my dad always says, if you screw up, you should always have a way to screw out!" They both laugh, although Jay eases up a bit faster than usual. He twiddles his thumbs, struggling not to look upset. "Ah, yeah, speaking of…the day the monastery burned down, I…got a letter from my parents…"

"Oh?" Nya looks up from her notes. "Did they say anything interesting?"

"Nothing beyond the usual." Jay shrugs. "They miss me, they're proud of me, they're wondering when I'm going to visit…!"

"Well, are you?"

"Not…not right now." Jay gestures around the Bounty. "We still have no idea where Lloyd is, there's snakes everywhere, Garmadon's on the loose out somewhere in the sixteen realms, we've got so much school time to make up already and it's barely been the first week, and now we gotta get this place ideally operable…! How am I supposed to squeeze in a visit to my parents, especially when everyone else doesn't want to visit their own…or…have...well, none to visit."

He blushes, realizes how awful that must sound. Nya doesn't seem too bothered by it, only giving a shrug in response.

"Well, for everyone's sake's, I think it'd be better if we met up with all your folks before we find ourselves in a position where that becomes absolutely impossible." Nya taps her pencil against a blank page. "…would hate to wind up with any regrets."

"…yeah, Kai said something similar, surprisingly," Jay says, and that makes Nya's eyebrows shoot up. "It's not that I don't want to see my parents, I just, erm…it's really not a good time."

"…well, actually, speaking of your parents, I should probably mention something, ahaha…" Nya bites her lip before putting on a sheepish grin. "Earlier today, I got into contact with a scrap yard that Harumi told me about at school—I figured they might have some parts and pieces we could use for the ship's restoration, and for a cheap price…"

Horror washes over Jay's face. "Oh no…it wasn't…Scrap N' Junk, was it?"

Nya bites her lip harder, nodding. Jay looks like he'd been struck by three bolts of lightning.

"They said they would bring some stuff over later, and also that they would see to taking some of the junk off our hands in exchange…I didn't realize they were the Walkers until after I made the arrangement. I didn't think much of it though because I thought you would have wanted to see them…I'm sorry, Jay."

"Arrrrrrgh!" Jay wails, throwing his hands into the air. "This is the last thing I need right now…my parents still aren't all that familiar with this ninja stuff, and they don't know that we're using their warehouse as a storage unit for huge fighting mechs, or that we put a giant transport apparatus in it and…and…and…"

Jay sucks in a breath, clutching at his scarf.

"…I…don't even really know if they're actually my family."

He winces immediately after saying it, Nya rising out of her chair scandalized. She feels like she wants to yell, but the utter look of terror flushed across Jay's face stops her.

"…Jay, why would you say that?!"

Jay shuffles where he stands, struggling to maintain eye contact. 

"Well, everyone here didn't know about their Elemental Inheritance until Sensei told them…and for most of us, it's because our Elemental relatives…are no longer with us, in one way or another." Jay buries his face into his scarf, shaking his head. "B-But I've lived with my parents all my life, and neither of them have ever mentioned having been a Master of Lightning, or fighting alongside Sensei, or anything…!"

Well, Nya can understand that much. She, too, had to hear of her own inheritance from Wu. But surely just them not talking about it doesn't mean—

"Even Wu was vague when he first told me about my inheritance," Jay continues, shaking in place. "He's always been telling us stories of Cole and Zane's grandparents, and he's always going on and on about your dad, but he never talks about whoever I got my powers from. And if it is supposed to be inherited, then…did I really get it from my parents? Or…am I…"

"You…think you're adopted…?" Nya finishes, and somehow saying it aloud causes Jay pain.

"That, or my Element somehow skipped a generation," Jay sighs wearily. "But if it were the latter, you'd still think one of them would have known or expected something! Instead, they kept me from being a ninja for a long time…and if one of them had been a Master themselves, I don't think they would have done that. That's not who they are."

But even as Jay says that, doubt clouds his expression. Nya melts upon seeing it, carefully reaching out and taking hold of Jay's sleeve.

"Oh, Jay…is that why you've been avoiding talking to your parents?"

Jay nods, sullen. "…how am I supposed to ask them now? I don't…I don't resent them or anything, nor do I think they purposely hid anything, and I still love them, but—"

"There's a different between telling lies and not saying the truth," Nya finishes, a hard look on her face.

"…yeah. I dunno if there ever could be a good time to breach the subject…but, um, until then, could you maybe keep this between us?" Jay buries half his face beneath his scarf, looking anywhere but at Nya. "I know how the other guys feel about their parents…and I feel like I'd be insensitive if I mentioned that I'm wary of the parents I actually have the chance to see."

"I can understand that," Nya says softly, head tilting. "Unlike Kai, I don't remember much about my parents. So I've never been all too upset that they haven't been around…"

Her gaze lowers, sadness taking over.

"…but Kai's known them, so I can see why he's so mad that they're gone. It can't be easy to be left behind by people you cared deeply for."

"Y-Yeah, exactly, I just…if I actually am adopted…then what did I do to get left behind too?"

Jay squeaks when he suddenly finds Nya's arms around him, hugging him tight. Nya doesn't know what to say; doesn't have the wisdom to make things better…but she knows how to comfort him, at least. And Jay appreciates that.

"Thanks, Nya."

"I'm just sorry I ended up calling them over here…I didn't mean to make things difficult for you."

"Don't worry about it!" Jay says with a grin, all traces of doubt and despair seemingly washed away. He pulls back, hands resting on her shoulders. "It's…about time I talked to them, anyway. I'm sure they're super worried about me."

By the time Wu returns home that evening, he's greeted to the sight of everyone playing Fist-to-Face in the common room, and everything else entirely spotless. It doesn't even look like the same ship at this point. Wu stokes his beard, playing down just how impressed he is.

"What took you so long?" Kai asks as a way of greeting from the couch.

"Yeah, where did you even go?" adds Cole, cursing as Nya punches him off the screen.

"I got in touch with a few old contacts. They're more than willing to assist us in getting up on our feet again, with food, clothes, and all the supplies we lost in the fire. It might not be as extravagant as before, but it will be a start, and it will help."

"That's wonderful news!" Zane exclaims. He drops his controller, and a loud explosion erupts from the screen. "We will be sure to express our gratitude as soon as possible!"

Wu smiles warmly at that, but the moment is interrupted by loud honking coming from outside. Which is bizarre enough, given that they're entirely surrounded by sand. Nonetheless, a crazy-looking car pulls up from the distance. It drives at full-throttle, and at full volume.

"It looks like we're about to have some visitors. And…loud ones at that," Nya declares. Jay nearly throws his controller.

"Ohhhh, it's my parents," Jay groans, cuing Kai, Cole and Zane to pause the game. "Please, if they start yapping, just don't get 'em going, okay? They don't know when to quit! And if you start talking, then THEY'LL start talking, and suddenly half the day is gone before you know it—"

"WE GET IT!" yells Kai, throwing up his hands. "They talk a lot! Guess the cherry doesn't fall far from its blossom…"

Jay sticks his tongue out, just in time for more car honking to screech through the air. Cole jumps to his feet, already rubbing his hands together.

"Ohohoho, this should be good…can't wait to get all kinds of embarrassing stories about Jay at last!"

"Not that we don't already have a big enough stash of stories about him already," jeers Kai.

"I despise both of you," Jay hisses, hurrying his way to the head of the pack to reach his parents first.

When everyone gathers outside, they find Ed and Edna Walker sorting through the junk Cole and Zane hauled out earlier with extreme excitement. Upon spotting Jay, suddenly the boy in blue becomes the most amazing thing in the world.

"OOH, LOOK, IT'S MY BABY BOY…!" squeals Edna, unable to scurry towards Jay fast enough. She coddles him in a way only a mother can and plants a kiss to his forehead. "It's been so LONG since we've heard from yoooooou!"

"…Ma, I called you two days ago…!"

"We-e-ll, it's not soon enough, Son," chuckles Ed, following his wife. "When are ya comin' out to the junkyard?! You say yer comin', and th-then ya don't!"

"Dad," Jay grits through his teeth. "Do we have to talk about the junkyard in front of my friends…?!"

He can hear Cole and Kai tittering to themselves already, making Jay go red in the face. Edna just laughs, waving it off.

"Oh, he hates it when we tell people he was raised in a junkyard," she teases, only serving to turn Jay one shade darker. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Son; lots of people would love to grow up among trash!"

"No they don't!" screeches Jay, hopefully loud enough to cover up the way Cole breaks into hysterics behind him.

"That does explain the spare warehouse," muses Zane until Jay's hand finds its way over his mouth. This is turning into exactly the train wreck Jay had always feared, and the one and only thing that could make it worse is—

"Ooooh, and who is THIS?!"

Oh, FSM, Edna found Nya.

"Aww, you are so CUTE!" Edna squishes Nya's face, not knowing she's putting herself at risk of losing both hands. "You are JUST my son's type—"

"MOOOOOOM," Jay growls as Nya doesn't know whether to blush or pass out.

"It's, ah, a pleasure meeting you," Nya stammers out when she pulls herself together. Blushing it is; that's way easier to play off, at least. "I'm sure if you want, Jay could give you the tour? He worked very hard on a lot of the more intricate aspects."

Jay glares at Nya with the most wounded look of betrayal he can muster; Nya grins and shrugs, too flustered to really think of anything else.

"WE'D LOVE A TOUR!!!!"

"…ugggggh," Jay sighs with a hand on his forehead.

There's not much to tour through, even as Jay explains the future purposes of each room, and it eventually breaks down into the Walkers staying for dinner in the makeshift dining hall. They also start swapping stories of all their adventures, and from there it boils down into delightful tales of Jay's childhood.

Well, for anyone that isn't Jay.

"Oh, Jay used to have dreams of being a lil' rockstar when he was a boy…!" Edna goes on, gushing about how Jay learned to play guitar. And only his parents could somehow make THAT look uncool. "It took him quite a while to break that phrase, don'tcha know?"

"IT WASN'T A PHASE MOM!" Jay exclaims over the heckling beside him. "It's gonna happen! I swear it!"

"We still have his guitar in his old room," explains Ed. "Along with his dino bedsheets a-a-and his favorite nightlight."

Jay wonders if he could command some lightning to strike him down as Kai chokes on his drink and Cole does a poor job of trying to get him back into breathable form. They're okay with his stuffed animal, but suddenly dino bedsheets are the funniest thing ever?! Backstabbers!

Zane comes around with servings of a freshly baked pie, passing a plate with a slice to everyone present. Cole digs in with the hunger of a bear, despite already having two helpings of dinner, while everyone else takes careful bites.

"Oh, but enough about those precious memories," Edna continues, turning to Jay. "Fill us in on what you've been up to in the inventing department! Surely being a ninja hasn't hampered your hankering for handywork, right?"

"Jay has started a Robotics Club at our school, and is also the chief technician and engineer of our team," Zane explains with great exaggeration. Jay doesn't know whether he's doing it to impress his parents or because he thinks it's true. "He primarily maintains the upkeep on our mechs, and he has made many incredible things during our time together, like a series of hang gliders, a hoverboard, the schematics for our communications system, and let us not forget the trans—"

"—parent windows all over the Bounty!" Jay cuts Zane off sharply, lest he bring up anything about the warehouse.

"Aren't all windows transparent though?" Kai mutters through a bite of pie. Jay stomps on his foot. Jeez, he's going to need a third arm to keep everyone in line…!

"Jay's always been one to think outside the box!" Ed brags. "He gets that from me! Why, there was one time he attempted to build a toaster that would also butter the bread for ya! That way when it popped up, it'd be right and ready to eat!"

"Oooh, I loved that one!" gushed Edna. "…at least, um, until the butter melted within the toaster and fried all the circuits."

"I gosh darn nearly broke a tooth on the last slice I had!" Ed laughs. "Tasted less buttery smooth and more…smoky. But in a bad way."

"I believe the texture was closer to a piece of charcoal, dear."

"Oh gosh, you're right—!"

Jay groans and plants his forehead on the table. Cole elbows Jay from the right.

"Hey, why don't you tell them about the button?" Cole asks, raising an eyebrow. Jay laughs dryly before nudging him from under the table.

"Because it's not READY yet…!"

"Ooooh, what's the button?!" Edna exclaims with wide eyes.

"He's working on a special defense system," Zane helpfully supplies.

"Something every ninja headquarters needs!" adds Kai.

"Oh, really?" Ed starts to rise from the table. "What does it do? Can I help? I might be able to—"

"Noooope, it's okay!" Jay cuts him off quickly. "I don't need your help Dad; let's just leave it alone…it's going to take a few days to actually get it online anyway."

"Ah, of course…" Ed leans against the back of his chair, a little of his previous energy lost.

"And oh, would you look at the time?" Jay checks his nonexistent watch and chuckles. "Don't you two need to get back before it gets dark? I told you, there's dangerous Serpentine out there!"

Jay assists his mother to her feet before ushering both parents towards the exit.

"I…I suppose we could get back," Ed sighs, Edna too looking forlorn. Cole then strolls up to Jay and plants a hand on his shoulder.

"Ed, Edna, it was a pleasure hearing about Jay's first potty time," he says, wearing a shit-eating grin that no amount of Jay stomping Cole's foot can stop. Edna laughs, delighted.

"If you thought that was good, wait until you hear about the time I caught him kissing his pillow!"

"What?!" Nya's immediately a little too interested and suddenly that window looks very inviting to Jay. "Now this I've gotta hear!"

"Ah, well, y'see he had a crush on this one boy when he wa—"

"SNAKES, MA! SNAKES!" Jay wails, now practically shoving his parents out the door.

"O-kay, we're going! We're going…!"

The gang follows the Walkers out to where their car awaits, Ed and Edna seemingly dragging their feet but Jay not letting them. It's only when they're settled and strapped in their car does Jay proceed to back off.

"So do you promise to come to the junkyard and visit your mother and father?" Edna yells as the engine roars to life.

"Yesssss, I promise, but ONLY if you leave." Jay rejoins the others and stands as tall as he can. "I don't want you to get hurt. It's getting dark…and ah, your headlights are working, right—?"

All seventy of the headlights pop on cue, blinding everyone unfortunate enough to be in their line of sight.

"Like 'em?" laughs Ed. "I made sure to use a little extra juice!"

"And about a thousand extra bulbs…!" Cole wails.

"…I see we have nothing to worry about," remarks Zane.

"You can still see?!" Kai exclaims, feeling his way around and whacking Cole in the arm.

Jay just grins and waves, his parents pulling away into the sunset at long last. Ed guides the vehicle around a rock while Edna waves with both hands, the two of them calling out.

"Bye, Son! Couldn't be more proud!"

"And bring Nya with you when you visit, will ya? I can see why you like her~"

"Mooooom," Jay hisses, doing his best not to die of embarrassment. He keeps looking out over the horizon until they're long out of range and finally allows himself to sigh. Somehow, by the skin of his teeth, he's managed to survive the ordeal. Maybe not with much dignity leftover but, he didn't have very much to start with anyway.

"Now that they have left, perhaps Jay can teach us the art of…pfft, kissing pillows," snickers Wu, much to Cole and Kai's delighted laughter.

"Will that help us attain enlightenment?" Zane asks obliviously. Cole and Kai's fit intensifies. Jay grumbles and buries his face in his hands. He'll never hear the end of it now.

"I like your parents," Nya says, stepping next to Jay. She hooks one of her arms with his, smirking to herself. "And, I think you have inherited something from them after all."

Jay rolls his eyes. "Ooh, what's that? The ability to be eternally embarrassing?!"

“No, dummy.” Nya leans against his shoulder, smiling up at him. "You inherited their ingenuity and creativity, their ability to put humor into any situation, and their limitless kindness. I personally think you have nothing to be embarrassed about...and nothing to worry about, either."

Jay groans again, but this time can't fight off his smile. The words, and the girl saying them, make his heart feel much too warm to do otherwise. 

Deep in the woods of the Forest of Tranquility, the otherwise normally soothing woodland would bring peace to one's mind. But venture far enough to reach the grounds of a forgotten graveyard, and only dread would serve to plague your mind…

It certainly plagues Lloyd, teeth chattering and struggling to maintain a tight grip on his flashlight. Only Pythor and Skales flank him, less terrified and more impatient about finding the next tomb already.

"We could make fasssster headway if the child wasn't quaking with fear with every step…!" sneers Skales.

"I-It's not that scary," Lloyd insists even as he wades through the mists and under the jagged arches. An owl hoots somewhere in the distance where he can't see; he gulps. "Well…maybe just a little, but…I like scary! Yeah! That's it! I'm the son of the Dark Lord! I love the dark!"

"Then what's the flashlight for?" Skales huffs. He reaches for it; Lloyd pulls it closer.

"T-To see, obviously! Even those that love the dark still need to be able to see, right?!"

"Sure, whatever…" Skales rolls his eyes. "Now, which one of these graves leadssss to the entrance to the Fangpyre Tomb? I might not be as scared as you are, but I don't wish to linger here anymore than I musssst!"

"I'm not scared! I eat this stuff for breakfast—!"

Pythor lurches over Lloyd's shoulder, barring his fangs and yelling out "BOO!" at the top of his lungs. Lloyd nearly drops the map and actually does drop the flashlight, crying out with a bloodcurdling scream. The look on his face is almost enough for Pythor to not care about his missed chance. Even Skales snickers a bit.

Lloyd scowls, dusts himself off, and pushes onward. Nothing can be scarier than that, now.

"…well, a-anyway, there's the landmark," Lloyd huffs, trying to play it all off. Who cares that there's tears in his eyes, that's just from all the dirt and dust in the air. He instead gestures the flashlight up towards a mutated tree with what appears to be twin snakes heads. Beneath its branches rests a tombstone that looks like it can be moved.

"Soon the Serpentine will know who their master is, and it will be I, Lloyd Garmadon…!" A maddening cackle bursts out of him, only to dissolve into another shriek of terror when lightning strikes above him. Pythor and Skales watch with conflicting shades of bewilderment and horror.

Skales elbows Pythor. "Can we pleasssse get rid of him now?! He's creeping me out at thissss point…! I'm sure there's an open grave around here we can shove him into–"

"Just shut up and push, man! With this, we'll be over halfway done!"

Emboldened, Pythor and Skales head towards the dual-headed gravestone and drag it out of place, effectively revealing the entrance to the Fangpyre Tomb. The moment the seal is released, a loud hissing emerges from the dark…and several snakes pop out as a result.

Lloyd falls backwards and screams as blurs of red and white start to overtake him. He cowers as they all crawl out of their musty tomb, with a blood red, two-headed snake with a tail emerging from the back of the pack. Like Skales and Pythor, he too wields a staff, with his adorned with a red jewel full of anti-venom. Both heads lean forward, barring their fangs like a predator about to seize prey…

…only to throw their arms up in jubilee.

"….SKAAAAAAAALES!" the Fangpyre General wails, slithering up to the blue snake. Skales meets them halfway, prepared with a secret handshake. "My old chum…! I didn't think I'd be seeing yooooou!"

The second head chuckles madly, raising the staff. "Mmmmhmm, moved up in the world, have we? Ahahaha…!"

"Well, if it isn't Fangtom!" Skales smiles, and for the first time in the whole ordeal, it's actually genuine. "Of all the cold-blooded to creep up on us, I am glad that it is a friend."

"…wait, I thought you all were enemies, not friends!" Lloyd exclaims with great confusion. "I thought we were gonna, like, have a tussle for dominance again or something. Weren't all the tribes supposed to hate each other?"

"Well, seeing as Skaaales is now in command…" "…I do not see why we cannot be comrades."

"There were always threads of discord between the different breeds of Serpentine, dating even back before our banishment," Skales explains, folding his arms behind his back. "But just like with the humans, that was never true for all of them, let alone every individual."

"But had you released the Constrictai, the Venomari, or heaven forbid the rest of the Anacondrai, then you would have had your tussle," Pythor remarks with a headshake. "The Constrictai and the Venomari are absolute pains to deal with…and you should count yourself lucky you only had me to confront upon opening the Anacondrai Tomb."

Lloyd grumbles, not sure how he feels about the snakes being all buddy-buddy. Regardless, Fangtom slides over to him, assessing him from two different angles.

"And who…" "…may I say released usssss…" "….from our captivity?"

"Unngh…Luh-Loyd?" His voice cracks as he quivers, struggling to stand up straight. He can't even get out his full spiel! Especially not when the Fangpyre keep surrounding him with a hungry look in their eyes. "I…I released you to make my enemies pay for betraying me!"

"Well then, as thanks for freeing ussss…" …it'll be our pleasure."

That perks Lloyd up, finding his spine again. "Good! I'll lead the way, and along the way, there's some ninja I want dealt with."

Fangtom looks impressed, in just the way Lloyd had been hoping from Pythor and Skales.

"Sounds like…" "…you know…" "…what you want!"

Lloyd smiles, despite it not quite reaching his eyes. Skales interrupts as usual with some skepticism.

"Okay, before we go charging anywhere, we mussst remember that Hypnobrai are constructing a stronghold in the Sea of Sand, and that the Fangpyre are few in number. We would be outclassed easily if we don't take a more strategic approach to thisssss."

"It is true," Fangtom says, lowering both heads. "Out of my entire militia, I only have my second-in-command brother and one soldier left…the few beyond that who remain lack both strength and skill. We need reinforcements!"

"W-Well, can't you, just, um…make new members for your army?" Lloyd suggests, wincing. He can't believe he's even bringing it up. "You're not called the Fangpyre for nothing, right?"

At that, Fangtom and Skales break down laughing, holding each other for support. Lloyd blinks, turning to where Pythor's currently pinching his forehead with a headshake.

"All Serpentine can turn humans into one of their own with a single bite," Pythor elaborates. "I thought even you would have picked up on that already."

"…but only the Fangpyre…" "…can convert non-living things as well," Fangtom finishes with a chuckle. Lloyd's eyes light up at that, the gears churning in his mind. That's the best news he's heard in days.

"…oh, really? I can totally work with that!"

"And what do you have in mind?" Skales sneers. To his shock, and slight disturbance, Lloyd actually smirks, flashing a set of fangs on his own.

"Well duh, I'm a Master Builder! I can construct whatever we need; vehicles, flying machines, tanks, you name it! And with a little of the Fangpyre's venom, we can reenforce them with Serpentine strength! And no one's gonna destroy them this time…!"

"Oh, is that all?" Skales rolls his eyes. "And here I thought you were about to suggest the wise thing and go open the last two tombs…!"

"No, wait," Fangtom intervenes, pulling Skales back. "The boy is onto something…and it's been ages since we've been able to go all out on an infection spree! And just think of how technology has advanced in our absence!"

"…are you saying you just want a new car?!"

"We just merely…" "…want to see what's available!"

Skales groans and throws his head back. Pythor, meanwhile, contemplates quietly. He wouldn't be against more firepower, as much of a detour as it would be…

"…but where in the world are you going to go to get that much material to work with? Especially if it has to be broken before hand?"

Lloyd stands tall, putting his hands on his hips.

"Well, I happened to spot just the place on our way out of the Sea of Sand, actually…"

Skales groans once more, louder this time. "You mean we have to head all the way back out there AGAIN?!"

"We could…" …always drive there?" Fangtom suggests, to which Skales scowls.

"If you manage to find a car in this forsaken forest, then let me know!"

Chapter Text

Tuesday evening at Scrap N' Junk finds Ed Walker staring out over the horizon of the Sea of Sand, hopefully expecting a blue jet to tear out of the clouds and land at the entrance. He does it so constantly that it distracts him from the mechanical marvel he's trying to build. Edna catches him gazing out at nothing from the trailer window and joins him outside.

"…I-I don't think he's coming, dear," Ed remarks, the grip on his tools going slack. Edna sets down the plate of cookies she'd brought out with her, settling a hand on her husband's back.

"Oh, stop it, Ed! He's coming, he promised! And besides, it's barely been twenty-four hours!"

"But, well, I've just b-been thinking…he doesn't really need us anymore…hasn't needed us for a long time…"

Ed still remembers how bewildered he'd been the day Jay came home in a frenzy, wildly explaining his encounter with an old man on top of a skyscraper. Edna had scolded him something fierce for testing out such a dangerous invention with no supervision, but Jay didn't care about that. He only expressed his sudden desire to become a ninja of all things. Obviously they had turned him down right away—who would be crazy enough to send their only child out into unknown dangers with a perfect stranger?!

…But after seeing how unhappy it made him, they finally let him go a full year later…and Jay never looked back.

Ed sighs, running a hand down his face. "…and I just have to remember that. Write it down for me, would ya Sugar Plum?"

Edna shakes her head but nevertheless pulls out her notebook, only to realize that it's too dark outside for her to actually write. She frowns, tapping her eraser against the page.

"Oh, lights, dear…! It's getting dark…!"

"Ah, right, right. I've got 'em." Ed walks over to the control panel, hitting the switch for the lights. He smiles as the whole junkyard ignites in a rainbow of neon—a suggestion of Jay's, actually. Edna scribbles down her note, and Ed grabs his toolbox to officially get back to work now.

"Aaaand, back to the grind."

"Oh, sweetie, you've been working on that thing day and night!"

"Well…" Ed pulls out his blowtorch and straps a protective mask over his head. "…you never know when Jay might show up."

Edna nods in understanding, a watery smile on her face. "…that's true, you just never know."

With that, Edna disappears back into the trailer. Ed, renewed with determination, fully pulls the mask over his face and sets back to welding. He's been working on this project ever since Jay left. Part of him does it to present as a gift on the day Jay arrives for a visit. Part of him does it to pretend he's still in the days where he and Jay used to invent the most incredulous things they could imagine. And now, Jay’s off inventing and fixing things all by himself.

…He misses those old days.

As Ed works, he swears he hears something rustle amongst all the garbage piles. Usually it's just a raccoon or some other animal, so he ignores it. However, it happens again, along with Ed getting the sense that he's not alone. He pulls his mask off his face and looks over his shoulder.

"…Jay?" he asks into the night. He then scowls, scolding himself. It's obviously not Jay, and moreover, he probably would have heard Jay coming from ages away.

A shadow scurries through the dirt again, and yeah, that's definitely not jay.

"Edna?!" Ed calls, growing more worried by the second. "Was that you…?"

"WHAAAAT?!" Edna whips open the door to the trailer, hand cupped behind her ear. "Are you hearing things again?!"

"A-A-ah, you turned on the security alarm before we left, didn't ya hon?"

Edna freezes. She…knows she did, but seeing how unsettled Ed is puts her on edge. She hurries over to the control panel, where the switch is definitely on, but flicking it makes no difference.

"…mmm, must be broken."

The lights cut out, leaving the junkyard in total darkness.

Ed gulps.

"…w-whoever's there, my son knows Spinjitzu…!"

The threat falls on deaf ears, and now, only hissing and slithering comes from the dark. And Ed swears he sees it—the tail of something rattling amongst the shadows. Panicked, he hurries over to poor Edna, still blissfully confused about everything.

"Honey, why did the lights go out? Is there a loose fuse or—"

"Call Jay, hon!" Ed grips his wife’s shoulders with shaking hands. "Someone's broken in—"

"How about we wait until he calls you?!"

Ed and Edna both scream, grabbing each other for support as Lloyd appears atop their trailer. He holds his head with one hand as he titters to himself, cuing his amassing of snakes to descend unto the Walkers. The Fangpyre all flock into the junk piles; some of them bite right into the pieces, some of them gather bits by the armful for Lloyd to use later.

"Ed…?" Edna whimpers, cuing Ed to hold her protectively.

"Be strong, Edna. I-I won't let them hurt you!"

Despite that, the snakes barely seem interested in the Walkers. Fangtom hisses their tongues, observing all the junk at their disposal.

"If we want some leverage against these so-called ninja…" "…we'll need to grow…" "…our army!"

"Which we could have done if we'd just gone to the Constrictai or Venomari," sings Skales under his breath. Pythor swats him.

"Let's just say that we Fangpyre…" "…tend to bite off more than we can chew!"

Fangtom whirls around, casting their scepter high into the sky.

"Have at it, boyssss!"

From every nook and cranny of the junkyard comes the Fangpyre, all salivating at the idea of fresh material to sink their teeth into. Old cars turn into hot rods, broken down mechanics become new minions…and whatever the junkyard lacks, Lloyd readily creates with vigor.

"And oh, what do we have here…?" Lloyd hums, locating Ed's personal stash of inventions. Fangdam and Fang-Suei jump down from the highest piles of garbage, crashing down on everything Ed's brought to life. Lloyd hurriedly rearranges the pieces to fit his own desires, and both Fangdam and Fang-Suei go to town adding a little Fangpyre Flair to the machines.

If Ed wasn't busy clutching onto his wife, he'd have fallen to his knees instead.

"M-My creations…they're turning them into—"

"An army!" Fangtom sings, now standing over the Walkers with a double smirk. "And, well, if you're the ones in charge of all this stuff…well, you'd make a fine addition to the clan as well! AHAHAHAH!"

Ed and Edna cling to each other for dear life. The Fangpyre descend upon them, their laughter ringing into the night.

The next afternoon finds Jay working away after a long day at school, finishing up some tweaks on The Button. He's looked at the schematics from four different angles, redid the calculations, had Zane do the calculations, and even reinstalled every last piece of wire…and he still can't get it to work.

He doesn't understand, he can usually figure it out eventually, like he does anything else, so why is this so—?

"Wow, we've sure got a lot of JUNK piling up!" Kai calls, he and Zane walking by with armfuls of more trash. "If ONLY there was a place we could get rid of it…!"

Jay scowls and wipes an oil splatter from his cheek. "If you don't mind? I'm trying to focus! Just calibrating a defense system for our future endeavors over here!"

Kai and Zane snicker as they head for the trash can, only to be replaced by Cole on a fake phone call.

"Hi, Mom and Dad! Of course, I'd LOVE to come and visit! What kind of a son would I be if I didn't—?"

"Ahahaha…sounds like you're being a hypocrite, Cole," Jay snaps. Cole fake-hangs up the phone, hand on his hip and a clouded look on his face.

"Well, if I had parents that have been nothing but good to me, and are also alive, then of course I'd want to not leave them hanging."

Jay wilts—this is the exact kind of confrontation he'd been trying to avoid. It didn't help that they'd all been like this throughout school too, as if he didn't have enough on his mind. But sheesh, they literally just saw his parents! It's okay; they're okay…!

"…I know what you're all trying to do. Aaaa-and okay, I might've promised to visit my parents, but are we just going to pretend we all don't have a lot on our plates right now?!"

Cole, Zane, and Kai merely stand off to the side, unconvinced as Nya walks in with her arms full of homework that isn't hers. She drops the abandoned homework into Cole and Kai's possession, both of them making an affronted noise. She gives them a pointed look, then gains a smile as soon as she sees Jay.

"Oh, hey Jay! If you're all caught up with things, are you going to visit your parents today?"

"Ah-ah, psh, sure am! I was, um, just about to leave…!"

Kai immediately calls him out on his bluff. "In what vehicle? You left your jet at the warehouse this morning."

"A-And the Bounty's still marooned in the Sea of Sand; it's not that far of a walk to my parents' place," Jay scoffs. He slides over to Nya, playing up the dramatics. "…still, that's such a long walk to take by myself…sure would be nice if I had company…"

Nya gets his message and nods eagerly. The other ninja also get the message that totally wasn't for them.

"Of course we'll go, buddy!" Cole chirps, eagerly abandoning his homework once again.

"I could use a break!" declares Kai.

"All you had to do was ask!" adds Zane.

All three hit Jay with the most despicable grins he's ever seen. He moans and puts his head into his hands. It only gets worse when Wu pops his head in from the doorway, raising his staff.

"Oh, are we all going to junkyard? Count me in!"

"…we all don't need to go—!"

"Sure we do!" Cole cheers, an arm draped over Jay's shoulders. "How else are we going to learn more about the great legacy of Jay?! That 'oopsiee poopsie' story was an instant classic!"

"Urgh, COLE—!"

"I want to see some of Jay's earliest inventions!" exclaims Zane, which is innocent on its own, but knowing the absolute amount of nonsense he used to create still makes Jay wilt. "And those dino bedsheets!"

Dang it, Zane.

"And I need to hear the rest of the pillow story," adds Kai, and that nearly makes Jay choke on his own tongue. He shoots a coy grin at Jay that can't be tamed. "We at least gotta find out who would've made you try."

Jay turns a shade of red so dark it's almost purple, quickly scuttling out of the room.

"…no, no we do not."

The late afternoon sun beats down on the group as they make their way to the outskirts of the desert, with only a light breeze to keep them cool. Wu keeps the mood light by playing songs on his staff (which is also a flute), much to Zane's curiosity.

"I know you mentioned your brother having a hand in composing that song, but we've never heard it before until the other day."

Wu lowers the instrument, slightly hanging his head. "Long ago, we tried to teach as many people as we could the song the soothe the Serpentine. But once we drove them underground, we had no more need of it, and thus its notes have faded into history, amongst other things, as you're all well aware…"

"And now you're the only one left that can play it, huh?" Kai asks, arms folded behind his head.

"…that is not entirely true, but, I suppose you could say I am the only around that can."

"Could you teach us, then?" Nya asks from the back. Jay nods eagerly, waving his arms.

"Yeah! Although I can only play the guitar and triangle, I'm sure I could still knock some snake brains around with a few notes."

"…while I do not know how well the song will translate to the guitar or triangle, I would be more than happy to teach you all."

Wu plays the song one more time, the teens hanging on every note, Zane especially. Cole steps behind everyone else and starts dancing a little. Wu continues on, going into a second verse before lowering his flute and gazing at it with a heavy heart.

"...it is astonishing how quickly knowledge can be forgotten if it is not well-nourished and well-kept. I know that better than anyone else."

Kai and Nya go quiet, while Jay huffs and marches ahead of the pack. " Laying it on a little thick today, eh?"

Wu laughs, twirling his staff back into its normal position. "Perhaps you are only hearing what you need to hear."

Jay scoffs, lightening up a little upon spotting the junkyard in the distance. It's true he's always hated bringing up being raised here, with everything made from cobbled-together junk or being so far removed from the latest crazes…but for a long time, there was also a lot of stuff here that made him happy. For a long time it was just home.

And now, it's…

…it's…

It's quiet.

"It's something wrong, Jay?" Nya asks, noticing the way Jay's frozen in place. Jay frowns, worry knitting his eyebrows together.

"…it's too quiet. My family's never quiet."

He books it towards the entrance. Sensing his urgency, the others follow suit. As soon as they're on the property, Jay scours around—the door to the trailer is wide open, yet it doesn't seem like anyone's inside. The car's still there too, so they haven't gone far…

He hears muffled screaming. His heart drops into his stomach.

Jay follows the sound to a sealed up, beaten up old fridge. He fights with the chained-up handle until Cole makes his way over, gripping it with both hands and yanking it off in a fell swoop. Jay then throws the fridge door open…and finds his parents.

They too are also chained up, with duct tape pasted over their mouths. The sight's enough to make Jay burst into tears.

"Wh…What happened?! Who did this?!"

Jay rips the tape off his mother's mouth, and finds…fangs?!

"Oh, ssssssweetheart, you came…!"  Edna exclaims, more delighted at seeing her son than being freed from captivity.

"But you gotta get outta here!" Ed cries once he's able. "You shouldn't have come, it's the sssssssssssnakes!"

"No kidding," Jay says, awestruck. He puts his hand against his mother's cheek, noting the slightly greenish tinge they've both taken on. His father keeps warning him of the danger, but all Jay can see is his forked tongue…and the notion that it's all only going to get worse.

"It's the bite of the Fangpyre, the most potent of all the Serpentine," Wu remarks. "It's only a matter of time before the full transformation is complete!"

With Cole and Kai's combined might breaking the chains off the Walkers, they properly stand back up…and discover that they now sport the budding signs of tails.

"…Where are those snakes?!" Jay demands, already readying his sparking nunchucks. "We have to get the anti-venom NOW—"

A torrent of hissing fills the entire junkyard, and the ground starts to rumble as well. Leagues of Fangpyre emerge from behind the towers of junk and trash, followed by a wrecking ball machine turned Serpentine. The face on the wrecking ball blinks back at them before being swung in the group's direction. Everyone sans Jay's parents know well enough to jump out of the way, with Jay having to push them down while wailing "DUCK!"

The ball soars over all their heads, smashing straight into the fridge Ed and Edna had once been sealed in. Edna grabs at her heart while Ed hugs his son, too panicked to do much else.

"Thankssssss, Son."

"Of course, Dad," Jay says, hugging him back. "Of course."

Wu keeps an eye on Jay to make sure he's not hurt, then turns back to the wrecking ball. It's being piloted by a bunch of low-ranking snakes, but surely the General's slithering about somewhere around here…

And that's when he spots a face he hasn't seen in fourteen years.

"…Lloyd."

"Hello, Uncle," Lloyd spits, standing atop one of the trash piles with Fangtom flanking him. "Looks like we're not the only family reunion! Though I suppose that doesn't mean much, given that this is the first time we've met…!"

Wu grimaces, struggling to believe what he's seeing. Sure, he'd only been just a baby when Wu last laid eyes on him, but there hadn't been a trace of malice on Lloyd's face in the slightest, nor any sign that there ever would be.

But time, as always, is never kind. Those soft features are now marred by anger, twisted by desire, and mangled by sadness. Wu firmly believes that Lloyd hasn't gone completely evil…but everything he's feeling isn't a lie, either.

"I'm glad you brought the ninja," Lloyd continues, leering down at all of them like they're insignificant. "I could use some help taking out the trash, moowahahahah…!"

As Lloyd loses himself in another round of maniacal laughter, the wrecking ball comes back around for another attempt.

"Second dose; hit the dirt!" Cole commands, everyone throwing themselves to the ground. The ball comes dangerously close to hitting them, but everyone remains unhurt.

"If we want to turn Jay's parents back, we have to get that staff!" Nya exclaims, spitting out a rock.

"Easier said than done, Sis." Kai picks her back up to her feet, to her dismay. "We're just a bit outnumbered…"

This matters not to Jay, holding his nunchucks high like one would a sword, ready to throw himself right into the fray. "Nobody messes with my family! YAAAAAH!"

Jay flings himself forward towards the grouping of Fangpyre, flicking the Nunchucks in every direction with reckless abandon. Sparks fly throughout the air, sending a few of the Fangpyre running for cover. They don't make it far—Jay slams the nunchucks against the ground, creating an electric shock that stuns all those unfortunate enough to be within impact.

"NINJAAAAA-GO!"

Jay rips into Spinjitzu and spirals right into a huge pile of junk. Various bits and ends scatter around the area, striking the unsuspecting Fangpyre. Jay even tosses up a broken toaster and bats it away with the nunchucks, turning it into an electrically-charged projectile. It lands in the middle of some fleeing snakes, bursting like a bomb.

The wrecking ball then comes in for a third swing; Jay runs right at it, falling backward and sliding at the dirt at just the right moment to let it pass over him. He rolls back to his feet and throws out the kusarigama, catching three of the snakes operating the machine and yanking them out of the cockpit. None of them stood a chance.

Cole lowers his weapons, jabbing a thumb in Jay's direction.

"Wow, he's like, super fired up today! I've never seen him fight so head-on before."

"Maybe he's just got the right motivation," Kai remarks, knowing he'd be the same way about Nya. "So c'mon, let's go help him already!"

"Right!" Zane calls, right before all three of them whip into Spinjitzu themselves. Lloyd sneers as the ninja barrel through the rest of the Fangpyre, and the snakes all go flying like bowling pins. The ones that remain move to attack—they're stopped dead in their tracks by the most grating flute music Lloyd's ever heard, and of course it's coming from his fool of an uncle.

The Fangpyre all writhe in pain under the influence of the song, leaving Nya enough opening to start whacking them around with whatever garbage she's managed to pick up. Lloyd knows he has to do something.

"Skales! Pythor!" Lloyd hollers. The other two Generals, currently discussing things amongst themselves, barely give Lloyd the time of day. "See if you can find an old radio to throw at me!"

"Ooh, throw it at you?! Gladly!" Pythor immediately goes dumpster diving, while Skales half-heartedly pokes around the trash with his staff, instead commanding some of the stray Fangpyre to do it for him. Eventually half a stereo does get tossed in Lloyd's direction; Lloyd swerves out of the way, as he still doesn't know how to catch, and manages to stop it from tumbling with his foot. 

Working with whatever he's got, Lloyd refashions the stereo into a very makeshift jukebox that can only play the one rock song on the one broken CD he managed to find. He forces Fangtom to bite it, giving it the power to actually work. Lloyd puts his hands on his hips proudly as the obnoxious sound blares, drowning out Wu's little flute recital.

Wu lowers his staff, jabbing it in Lloyd's direction with a furrowed brow.

"Young nephew! Must I teach you whose side you should be on?!"

Lloyd wears a shit-eating grin as he hits the volume knob, cupping a hand behind his ear.

"Sorry, Uncle! CAN'T HEAR YOOOOOU~!"

Wu grimaces in return. He's too distracted to notice a Fangpyre creeping up on him, only for it to be knocked out by a nicely-timed frying pan whack from Edna. Wu blinks in surprise, turning to find the Walkers succumbing more to the venom by the minute, yet not losing their cheer ever once.

"…ugh, this isn't working! Even the civilians are taking us out! We need more fire power!" Lloyd complains. "Anyone see anything useful?!"

"I dunno, they've already outsmarted the wrecking ball," Skales remarks, gesturing towards where the ball is now stuck on a pipe. Lloyd wilts, just as Fangtom gives him an excited tap on the shoulder.

"Ooh, there's that…" "…giant statue over there!"

Lloyd follows Fangtom's gaze, locating the large tribute Ed had been working on the previous night. Lloyd's face splits with a grin, he and a pack of Fangpyre immediately rushing over to it.

"…break it for me."

Without even having to be told, the Fangpyre all throw themselves at the statue. They tear it to shreds, ripping off whole chunks with their teeth…leaving Lloyd with the piece to refashion it into whatever he like.

He cackles to himself as he gives the statue controls to operate and a weapon that will actually work. From there, the Fangpyre put the finishing bites on the creation, resulting in Lloyd having a new mech.

Gleefully, Lloyd whirls the machine in the direction of the ninja, reveling in the waves of fear that flood their faces.

"…guh, what IS that thing?!" Jay wails, taking two steps back immediately.

"I-It was supposed to be in your honor, Son," Ed explains from off to the side, poking his fingers together. "D-Do you like it…?"

"Thanks…but no thanks!"

The ninja all go running in the opposite direction, Lloyd absolutely having the time of his life chasing them. The mech's arm swings its nunchucks, sending pile after pile of junk to the ground. The ninja have enough trouble dodging the debris, let alone launching a counter attack. While Lloyd distracts them with mech, the remaining Fangpyre manage to break the wrecking ball free, cutting off the ninja from any sort of escape.

"Ugh, why'd you have to be raised in a junkyard?!" Cole complains. Jay rolls his eyes.

"I know! Tell me about it!"

Cole doesn't get the chance to—the wrecking ball has been freed and now comes at them dead on, with him, Kai, and Zane dashing out of the way. However, Jay isn't among them, immediately making Kai panic.

"…uhm, wasn't there four of us…?"

Zane taps his shoulder and points back towards the wrecking ball. Jay is somehow gripping it for dear life, even despite it soaring high into the air. Just watching it makes Cole wilt from how high it is, while Kai and Zane fret over Jay potentially getting hurt.

But this is the same teen that threw himself at a storm-raging octopus in midair with the risk of free-falling and survived, so really they have nothing to worry about.

Jay even shoots them a grin as he jumps off, pushing the wrecking ball away from everyone. He backflips in midair, perfectly comfortable not touching the ground, and lands on the roof of the cockpit. He swings onto it, knocking out the Serpentine piloting it, and seizes the steering for himself.

"Take THIS!" Lloyd screeches, throwing the mech's nunchucks down onto the other ninja. Zane and Kai flinch but Cole catches it by holding his scythe above his head. His arms barely strain under the weight, though Cole's sweaty face tells other tales.

"Heh, don’t worry…" Cole assures when he sees the others' concerns. "I've got it! I—"

Cole yells as the force of the giant metal starts to bury him into the dirt. Zane and Kai feebly try to help hold it up too, but to Cole it's not really making much of a difference. But if they go down, at least it'll be all together.

"Hey half-pint! Pick on someone your own size!" Jay calls. He then gets giddy in his seat. "…Ooh, I've always wanted to say that to someone but I've always been too short…!"

"What?!" Lloyd snaps.

He pulls the nunchucks away from the trio but faces Jay too late. Jay spins the wrecking ball to face Lloyd's mech, the expression on his face thunderous. Even Lloyd has to gulp at the sight of it.

Then, Jay thrusts the controls forward.

Lloyd screams as he evacuates the mech, hearing the swoosh of the wrecking ball and the crunch of the metal behind him.

"I told you I had it!" Cole huffs. Jay is half-tempted to headbutt him, but now's not the time—they still need the staff!

"RETREAT!" Lloyd yells, making tracks back to the Generals. Skales couldn't be less enthused.

"Wow, what another great wasssste of time! Your little toy gets smashed up and you just immediately give up?!"

Nonetheless, a repurposed helicopter swoops down to pick up Lloyd, Skales, Fangtom, and Pythor, all of them making a getaway before the ninja can take the Fangpyre Staff. Various vehicles flank the fiends on the way out, making it hard for the ninja to follow them, especially on foot.

"He's getting away with the staff!" exclaims Nya.

"Tell us something we don't know," grunts Kai.

"Right now would be a good time to have our mechs," Jay sighs.

"It'sssssss okay, Ssssson." Ed and Edna walk up to Jay, now even greener than before and starting to sprout scales. The snake accent also has become thicker. "You came back when we needed you most, and that'sssss what matterssss."

"What, no—you're still gonna become snakes!" Jay wails, holding his mom's arm. "I…couldn't save you…!"

"…there is a way, I believe," Wu remarks, stroking his beard. "You said you created your mechs with the Golden Weapons and the Tornado of Creation, correct?"

"Well, it was only three of the weapons, but yeah," Cole confirms. "Why?

"Part of reaching your own full potential is understanding your weapons' potential! Once it is intuned with a focused heart, its secrets and powers can be unlocked."

"Ooo-kay, this is NOT the time to be cryptic!" Jay hisses.

"Maybe our weapons can turn into vehicles?" Cole suggests. Kai stares down at his sword.

"Oh, don’t tell me I have to ride this like a broomstick!"

Zane raises his hand. "Um, I think he is trying to say that our weapons can summon our mechs themselves. As they were created by the weapons, and designed to work with them, they share a special connection."

"…welp, that's more believable than a sword becoming a bike," Cole remarks, waving said Scythe around like a flag. "So, how does this 'summoning' work?"

"Jay," Wu addresses, the Blue Ninja popping his head up. "Concentrate on unlocking your Golden Weapon. Make the thrum of the electrical circuit within match with your very own heartbeat! Let your heart guide you! Imagine you're taking flight!"

"…okay," Jay promises, tightening his grip on the Nunchucks. "But…why are you singling me out?"

"You were the first to perform Spinjitzu, and the first I sought out to join this team…you've always been able to understand things faster than the others. And if you can do it, so too can everyone else." Wu holds out a hand, bowing slightly. "So please…at least give it a try."

Jay blinks, turning to the other ninja. Zane nods, Cole gives him two thumbs up, and even Kai smiles in his direction.

"…well, here goes nothing."

Jay hops away from the others, holding the nunchucks out before him. He then twirls them over his head, balancing on one foot. They start to thrum with the beginning signs of static, so Jay hopes he's doing something right. But like Sensei said, the beat of the circuit thrums throughout the nunchucks—he can feel it, and if he can just match it up to his thoughts…!

Lightning strikes even in the otherwise clear desert sky, and Jay's heart starts racing faster, like he's hyped on adrenaline. He takes one more deep breath—an electrical surge pulses through him, and suddenly he's off the ground. He whirls around, an electrical field taking shape around him…and the next thing he knows, he's in the cockpit of the Electric Jet.

"Whoa whoa WHOA! Did I just do that?!" Jay exclaims, slotting the Nunchucks into their holster. "How come you didn't mention that sooner, Sensei?! We'll never have to walk to school again…!"

"You obviously weren't ready for the knowledge before," Wu scoffs. "But, I believe my lessons have finally started sinking in, and you're now capable of doing bigger and better things. Now, go after Lloyd!"

"Right!" Jay says no more and revs the engine of the jet. He sees his parents gawking at the giant jet he's now piloting, sending them a reassuring wink before shooting it into the air.

"WOOOOOO-HOO HOOOOO!"

"My turn!" Kai calls, holding his Sword parallel before him. He swings it to the right, then brushes his hand over the dull side, flames following in his hand's wake. Kai beams, hurling the sword upwards and raising his hands, summoning a plume of fire to surround him. The sword then lands tip-first before him, and from the impact rises the Fire Mech. Kai cackles from the cockpit, hitting the buttons and sending his flamethrowers into the air.

Invigored, Zane goes next, twirling the Shuriken of Ice in all directions. Bits of frost dance in the aftermath, eventually forming into an ice sculpture of a tank. Zane flips forward, giving the sculpture one last tap. All the ice breaks apart, and from within emerges the Ice Tank in pristine condition.

Cole whirls the Scythe around his back like a baton, tossing it into the air with a smirk. He holds out his arms, the thrum of the earth responding and rising in a mound of dirt.  Rocks fly around him from all direction, and out of the very ground itself comes the Quake Mech. Grinning, Cole spins his decks, counteracting the annoying sounds from Lloyd's boom box.

"Let's go, boys!" Cole yells, already tearing off. Kai and Zane don't need to be told twice, hurrying off after Jay. Nya frowns as they leave. She then glances at Wu, a half-coy look on her face.

"…can your staff summon anything to ride?"

Wu stares at it sadly. "…I wish."

Meanwhile, Lloyd and the Generals enjoy their leisurely tour through the skies, already planning the things they'll do with their new armada of vehicles. Lloyd is especially excited about building a new, better mech—

"WHAT THE HECK?!"

A jet zooms straight past them, creating a gust hard enough to nearly knock Lloyd right off the platform. Pythor manages to wrap Lloyd's arm in his tail and tug the boy back to his feet.

"What was…" "…that loud mechanical marvel?" asks Fangtom. Lloyd narrows his eyes.

"Looked like the Electric Jet…but how'd they get to it so fast?!"

"Eheheeh oops…" Jay chuckles in the cockpit, making a sharp u-turn back around. "Overshot that a little…!"

He hones in on the Rattlacopter, setting it in his sights. Once the target is dead center, Jay launches a beam from the blasters. It zings through the air and strikes the copter, setting it off balance once again. Pythor and Lloyd tumble backwards, while Skales smacks into Fangtom. Fangtom loses his grip on the staff, sending it tumbling to the desert below.

"NO, MY STAFF!"

"They'll pay for that!" Pythor hisses. He tells the pilot to turn around, hurrying after the Electric Jet. Pythor then picks up Lloyd, leaning down into his ear. "Get that conniving ninja out of the cockpit…!"

"Wait, what—AAAAAAAH!"

Lloyd goes soaring through the air after the heave Pythor gives him. Thankfully, the copter's above the jet at this point, as Jay had dive-bombed in order to get the staff. Lloyd smacks against the wing, his added weight tipping the wing downwards. Jay looks over his shoulder and cringes upon seeing Lloyd crawling along the wing, hanging on for dear life.

But Lloyd eventually stands back up, pulling his dagger out of his sleeve and sneering with disgust.

"This is for ruining my makeshift mech, Blue Ninja…!"

"No, wait, please—!"

Lloyd drives the dagger into the glass of the window, shattering it. Jay covers his face as the shards go flying towards him, only to scream when Lloyd swings the dagger at his chest.

It only cuts off the seat belt, however. Unprepared for it, Jay goes topping out the side of the jet.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Jay wails, stumbling into freefall. He glances up, seeing Lloyd fiddling around with the jet. His heart leaps into his throat. "No, don't do anything to my jet—!"

A giant rock goes flying into the air, slamming into the jet and knocking Lloyd off the other side. Cole whoops in triumph while Lloyd howls as he too finds himself in free fall. Zane drives the Ice Tank under the jet's line of trajectory. He shoots ice out of the cannons, creating a slide for the jet to use as a landing pad. The landing is rough, but at the very least the machine is in one piece, if in need of some repair.

Meanwhile, Nya, Wu, Ed, and Edna pull up in the Walker's car, Nya at the wheel. She floors the gas pedal as hard as she can, racing to catch Jay in time. The Walkers grip each other like the world is ending as Jay plummets to the ground…but Nya makes a sharp right at the last second, briefly stopping on a split-second dime to ensure that Jay lands safely.

Jay plops dramatically into the passengers seat, chest heaving. Through the adrenaline, he's only got enough energy left over to stare at Nya with bugged out eyes and a hard blush. Nya glances back at him, smiling softly. Jay gulps.

"Uh, hehehe…nice catch."

"Not so bad yourself," Nya shoots back, making Jay bury his face in his scarf. He goes in deeper when his mom shrieks from the backseat.

"Ooooooh, I knew I liked thissss girl!" squeals Edna.

"Ma, please!"

"Does anyone have eyes on where the staff went?!" Nya calls into the communicator.

"Or what about Lloyd?" Wu asks, frantically searching for the cause of all this. Jay grunts, folding his arms.

"What about Lloyd?! He nearly got my jet busted!"

Nya nudges Jay with her elbow and hisses under her breath. "That's still Sensei's nephew, you know!"

"I got the staff!" Cole's voice comes in. "But the Fangpyre are coming in hot for a second attack…!"

"And I've…kinda…got Lloyd," says Kai. The five in the car search the horizon for the Fire Mech, finding its large bulky arms holding a squirming Lloyd close.

"Oh gosh, oh golly oh gosh oh darn," whimpers Ed.

Jay gasps. "Language, Dad!"

"Everyone, head back to headquarters!"

The Walker Car, Ice Tank, Fire Mech, and the Quake Mech all immediately head back to the Destiny's Bounty, even as the armada of snake machines follow closely behind them. Lloyd stays quiet as he remains strapped to the Fire Mech's shoulder, letting Kai take him along for the ride. The group beats the snakes to the Bounty, everyone making a run for it.

"What about the mechs?" Zane asks as he ushers Ed and Edna into the bridge. Cole shakes his head.

"Just leave 'em! The jet's going to need to be fixed anyway, and we can always just summon them back to the warehouse."

Cole passes the staff off to Nya while Kai hands Lloyd over to Wu. Wu takes a firm but not tight grip on Lloyd's wrist, giving him a scolding stare.

"When this is over, young nephew, you and I have much to discuss."

Lloyd says nothing, only scowling as the ninja gather up Ed and Edna in the bridge and Nya pulls the orb out of the staff. She sets off to make a tea with the anti-venom, as setting off a vapor isn't going to be possible this time.

"Man the stations, everyone!" Jay calls in the meantime. Cole, Zane, and Kai scatter in all directions. Kai heads for the window, wincing upon seeing the snakes coming up over the horizon.

"Jay, we'd better hurry…!"

"Oooh, I've been waiting for this moment…!"

Jay leaps over and slams his fist on The Button.

…Nothing happens.

Jay blinks, glancing around and hitting it a few more times. Everyone stands at the ready, but still confused by the great amount of nothing that's occurring.

"Stop messing around, they're gaining on us…!" Kai hisses.

Nya ignores the chaos and panic, rushing back into the room with a very hastily made and probably bad tasting batch of tea. Two cups are prepared in a heartbeat, and she hands them over to Ed and Edna. Ed takes his cup with a somber look, turning to his wife.

"Welp, bottom's up!"

The Walkers chug the brew and instantly feel its effects. The green pallor of their skin disappears, the scales recede, the forked tongues vanish, and the fangs and tails go away without a trace. Back to normal, Ed and Edna trade a relieved look, only to find their son desperately kicking at his invention in a last ditch attempt to make it work.

"I don't understand…I don’t get what's wrong?! I spent forever on this; it's supposed to work—!"

"Son." Ed walks up from behind Jay, resting his hand on Jay's arm. "…maybe I can help?"

Jay snaps his head up, gasping upon seeing his father.

"Dad?! You're…you're okay!"

"Darn tootin'!" Ed laughs, bending down to have a look at the button's wiring. "Now, let's have a look…"

Jay bounces from foot to foot as Ed takes his time sorting things out. Kai's still freaking out at the window, and Lloyd's still as silent as mouse, but everyone else's attention is fully on Ed as he works.

"…and, that should do 'er!" Ed stands back up, dusting off his hands. "Now try it, Son!"

Jay nods before pressing his hand against the button again. This time, the dragon head at the front of the Bounty drops its jaw as the twin engines on the ship's sides roar to life. The sails spring open automatically, and the Destiny's Bounty propels itself right out of the sand and into the air.

"…it can fly?!" Lloyd grits through his teeth, going unheard over the uproarious sound of cheers from everyone else. "No, no, no, NO!"

He rips his wrist out from Wu's grip, immediately charging for Nya. He pushes her right over, forcing her to lose her grip on the Fangpyre's staff. He snags it for himself, whirling it around like a club when Zane rushes in to help. Zane's knocked back, which immediately catches Cole's attention. Lloyd jumps on the table and hits Cole in the back of the head, disorienting him. Jay hollers something as he struggles to steer the ship; Kai runs from the window with his swords drawn.

Lloyd spins the staff around, blocking each of Kai's swings. Kai scowls in anger; Lloyd takes his moment of weakness to thrust the head o the staff into his stomach and push him away. Lloyd rushes for the exit, only to be stopped by Wu. Wu holds up his own staff in challenge; Lloyd doesn't back down, raising the General's staff carefully.

The two staffs meet as one, bamboo striking metal a lot harder than one would expect. Wu narrows his eyes, but something sad rests behind them.

"…your mother taught you well."

Lloyd sneers, pulling away. "So did Darkley's."

He crouches on one foot and spins low, attempting to sweep Wu's legs out from under him. Wu jumps up easily, but as he does, he's unexpectedly battered by the flat end of the Serpentine staff. Wu catches the despair in Lloyd's eyes as he makes his strike, allowing his uncle to slam into the nearest wall. As Wu goes crashing to the ground and the non-occupied ninja scramble to help him, Lloyd heads for the door once again, throwing it open to the expanse of clouds below.

"Wait, Lloyd, please…!" Wu peels himself up off the floor, supported by Zane. Lloyd stills at the door, the rushing wind whipping his cape behind him. "You don't have to do this anymore…your family is worried about you. I'm worried about you…!"

Lloyd takes a deep breath, shoulders rising and falling as he does.

"Yeah, well…I'm not so sure I want to be part of this family anymore."

And then he jumps, Wu howling out his name afterwards.

Cole, Nya, and Kai rush out to survey the damage. Lloyd spreads his arms as he falls, flipping in midair to glare blankly at those who bothered to follow after him. With the Fangpyre's staff still tight in his grip, the Rattlacopter swoops down and catches Lloyd once again. It flies off into the distance, once more telling the Fangpyre to retreat for the day. Those left in the bridge peek out the windows, observing as the snake armada ceases chasing them and head off to regroup somewhere else.

"These ninja…" "…they must be stopped!" Fangtom exclaims, waving their reclaimed staff at the fading Bounty in the distance.

Lloyd, glum as can be, only hangs his head. "…Tell me about it."

With the evening sky painted in a blazing blend of pinks, oranges, and yellows, the Destiny's Bounty soars back towards Scarp N' Junk to properly drop the Walkers off once the coast is clear. Ed and Edna gaze over the edge and take in the view. The day has been a long once, certainly, but seeing Jay in action as a ninja…well, that might be something they'll never witness again. Ed quietly takes Edna's hand, giving it a squeeze.

"…you know, you could stay as long as you like."

They both turn, finding Jay standing shyly behind them.

"It's…actually kinda nice having you here. And…I'm sorry I've been a little distant lately. I've just…been a little distracted learning new things about myself that I probably couldn't in the junkyard."

He looks up, smiling wistfully.

"But I've also learned that, no matter what, I've always got a place to come back to. Not everyone does, and I shouldn't take that for granted. The absolute truth is, I love you guys…and no matter what I learn, and no matter how far I travel or who I become, nothing will ever change that. I'm always going to need you guys."

The Walkers trade a look with one another, smiling before walking over to their son. Jay holds out his arms, inviting them both into a hug.

"…awwww, take a note, Edna," Ed sighs, holding his son close. "Of all our inventions…THIS one is our greatest."

Ed winks at Jay, and Edna doesn't need to pull out the notepad for that one.

"Oh, I already know dear."

The three indulge in the moment, watched by a contemplating Wu from the window. He takes joy at seeing Jay get on so well with his parents, even if they are not the ones he inherited his element from. But as that thought crosses his mind, he turns towards his other three ninja, all pretending not to be watching, but still taking peeks out the window as well.

Zane's eyes hold a great sadness that he can't seem to will away. He watches less than the others, busying himself with tidying things up after the scuffle from earlier. Kai's gaze holds a great longing, but he too tries to distract himself with his still neglected homework.

Cole's the only one that blatantly won't take his eyes away, forehead pressed against the window with a blank expression. Yet not even he can hide the way his eyes shake in tandem with the ache in his heart.

…and Wu, too, feels a tug at his heartstrings, wondering if the uncomplicated love that a family can give is what Lloyd's truly after. And he wonders what must have happened to make Lloyd believe he never had that.

…or what happened to make Lloyd believe he'd lost it.

Chapter Text

"Wake up, Zane. I know…what you've forgotten."

Zane gasps, chest lurching as he rises from his slumber. His head thwacks against Cole's bunk hard enough to shake the whole bed, but no one else in the cabin stirs. The morning's rays are particularly intense today, coating everything in an ethereal golden glow.

Birds caw from outside the Bounty, and the world seems to tilt on its axis. Nonetheless, Zane still rubs at his head, pouting at the rude awakening. He glances around—no one is actually in the room. He is alone with only the company of himself.

But what…what had called out to him…?

What…did he forget?

Curiosity spurring him on as always, Zane heads to the bridge, rubbing his head. Only Wu is in the room, sitting at the table perusing a piece of paper.

"The hunt starts early today, huh?" Zane asks. Sensei Wu's head rises from the scripture he reads, a little more serious than usual.

"A watchful eye never sleeps," Wu responds cryptically. Zane can…somewhat decipher that wisdom. But if a watchful eye doesn't sleep, then wouldn't it be too tired to be watchful?

He doesn't get to ask; Nya's suddenly in the room, pacing frantically back and forth.

"As long as Lloyd and the Serpentine roam freely, no one in Ninjago is safe."

"…Where are the others?" Zane wonders, surprised no one else has arrived. This is especially true given that Nya is normally one of the later sleepers, on top of the fact she's been rather evasive of everyone lately.

"Training on the upper deck, I believe," says Wu, and that's all the answer Zane needs.

He ventures outside to the deck, where there is definitely no training going on. Everything is entirely too quiet. Yet the Bounty continues to sail above the clouds, making the sky its ocean.

The Falcon crows from atop the mast, flapping its wings for attention. But just as Zane goes to look at it, it caws again and flies away. Zane rushes to the front of the boat in an attempt to catch it, but it's gone just as fast as it arrived. Zane frowns as it fades into the horizon…just in time for him to pick up on the heavy, labored breathing over his shoulder.

Zane slowly turns to investigate behind him…and he blanches upon discovery.

"…Lord Garmadon?!"

Sure enough, the Master of Destruction stands before him, eyes a contradicting shade of crimson.

"I have finally returned for the Weapons of Spinjitzu…" Garmadon draws two swords, narrowing his gaze. "Soon I will have the power to recreate Ninjago in my own image!"

Garmadon rushes forward and swipes at Zane with his weapons; time falls into slow motion as Zane jumps over the strike, landing behind Garmadon. He readies his Shuriken; Garmadon only sneers, undeterred.

"Give me your Shuriken of Ice!"

"You'll have to take them from me! NINJAAAA—"

Garmadon grabs Zane by the collar, lifting him off the ground with a single hand. Zane hadn't even seen it coming, but he struggles only for a second—Garmadon tosses him straight into the abandoned training equipment. His vision goes blurry for a moment, but even then he can see the way Garmadon stands menacingly before him.

"So be it."

Garmadon slices at a rope, releasing one of the counterweights for the sail. Zane groans, pushing himself up off the ground, and stares up at the debris that's about to put an end to him.

…at least, until a ninja in green grabs the crate right out of the air, hefting it away without breaking a sweat. The crate crashes to the floor as the ninja alights before Zane, confident in both stance and posture. Zane inhales, taken in by sight.

"The…Green Ninja? Then, the legend is true…?"

The Green Ninja stands valiantly before the skyline, striking a heroic pose. Garmadon snarls in the Green Ninja's presence, going in for another strike. The Green Ninja punches back, then backflips away with serene grace. Garmadon stabs forward with both swords; the Green Ninja jumps up, landing on both, and kicks Garmadon back.

He doesn't yell, only twirls around in a funnel of green—a shade Zane's only seen within the Tornado of Creation.

"Is that…Spinjitzu with the Green Element?!"

The Green Ninja doesn't stop to answer; they whip out the Nunchucks of Lightning and use them to zap at Garmadon. Garmadon takes a direct hit, cascading right off the edge of the Bounty with a wild scream.

Zane sits, stunned, and turns back towards the Green Ninja.

Fire currently burns in the Green Ninja's eyes…just as he holds one hand out with a flame flickering in his palm. The Falcon then soars down from nowhere, making the Green Ninja's arm its perch. Zane frowns, squinting at the sight before him.

"Who…are you? Wait…Kai? Is that you?"

Everything starts to get hazy—Zane grabs his head in pain, but refuses to take his gaze off the Green Ninja's eyes. They continue to flash with scarlet fire, then with marigold earth, then ivory ice, then cobalt lightning…and then a rainbow made of sixteen other colors…until, like a roulette, they settle on green.

Zane doesn't register this fast enough; the Green Ninja turns around in that instance, and the last thing Zane knows for sure is that there's the symbol of an ouroboros snake on the Green Ninja's back.

Which…definitely hadn’t been anywhere on the Elemental Compass.

X-X

Zane gasps, chest lurching as he rises from his slumber. His head thwacks against Cole's bunk hard enough to shake the whole bed, but everyone else is already awake and now staring at him like he's insane. They eventually just snicker at him.

"Oh, sleeping in? You're gonna be late for school," Jay scoffs. "So much for 'I don’t need an alarm', right?"

Zane yawns, shaking his head. "How come no one awakened me?"

"We didn't think you wanted us to!" Kai laughs as he cleans his face. "You looked like you were having some dream!"

"…how do I know this isn't a dream—OOOMPH!"

"Did that feel like a dream?" Cole asks after shamelessly slapping Zane with a pillow.

"No," Zane grunts, even as Kai and Jay titter in the background. "Thank you for your help."

Cole grins with delight, but leaves Zane alone to finish getting ready for himself. Zane does try to get into his usual routine, but his horribly cryptic dream has him on edge…especially if there's a very good chance it will come true.

His sluggish and distracted behavior continues all the way into the start of morning training. Kai, vigilant as always, is the first to take notice.

"A little slow today, huh?" Kai elbows him as they step onto the deck of the Bounty. It's still an hour before they reach Ninjago City Docks by water, so the team gathers for morning stretches. Cole and Jay stand not far behind Kai, leaning in with wonder as well. "What exactly did you dream about?"

"Well, it was actually—"

"All right!" Wu commands, stepping before the four of them with staff in hand. "Today's stretches: first, we will begin with the Swooping Crane."

The boys murmur as they raise their arms and one leg, attempting to keep their poise and balance. They stay like this for a moment, until Zane blurts out in a whisper:

"I had a vision of the Green Ninja."

"THE GREEN NINJA!?"

Wu turns around; Zane's still in the Swooping Crane pose, but Cole's got his ears covered, Jay hides his mouth, and Kai for whatever reasons has his hands over his eyes.

"That…looks more like the Shocked Monkey. Bad form! More focus."

A warning goes unsaid: do not speak any longer of the subject. Wu turns back around, and his students attempt to regain their positions.

"…you can't just drop a bomb like that!" Jay presses on. "Spill the beans!"

"Yeah, what else did you see?!" adds Kai, leaning in with interest. Zane closes his eyes, trying to pull the memory of the dream back to the surface.

"They were…fighting Lord Garmadon."

"Well yeah, that's what the prophecy said. That the Green Ninja would defeat the Dark Lord! But didja have a chance to see which one of us was him?!"

"Yeah, yeah!" chime Cole and Jay, but Zane shakes his head.

"I…could not see for sure. They had attributes that each of us possess, but the eye color and abilities were…inconclusive."

"Inconclusive—?!"

"NOW!" Wu interrupts, continuing on. He lowers down, clawed hands stretched out before him. "Pinching Crab!"

"Tell us everything!" Kai demands while shifting position too. "And don't spare any details! There has to be a clue that tells us which one of us is gonna be the Green Ninj-AAAAAAAAH?! OW OW OW HEY!"

Wu tugs on Kai's hair, pulling him out of the riveting discussion.

"And what was so important to ignore my teachings, hmm?" Wu asks, eyes scanning each of the ninja.

"Uh, nothing," Kai defends.

"It was nothing, Sensei," agrees Jay.

"Yeah, we don't talk while you teach," Cole blatantly lies.

"Everyone was paying attention," adds Zane, which also probably isn't true.

"…well, since you all appear to be lacking in focus, then you can ALL share in the punishment."

"What?!" "Punishment?!" "It was all Zane—"

"I-I was merely answering their questions—!"

"No video games or free time for today. When you get home from school, every moment will be dedicated to the training time you've lost while having your conversation. And tomorrow, for that matter."

"What?!" "Training?!" "For two days?!"

"Isn't that…a little bit steep for just chatting while stretching?" Cole dares to ask, biting his lip and glancing away. Wu hums, stroking his beard and taking in the thought.

"Perhaps you are right. So, if you are able to answer this next simple riddle before then, I will take it back."

The boys all straighten up, more than eager to hear the riddle. Wu scrutinizes them carefully, before finally asking:

"What is…the best way to defeat your enemy?"

"Psh, easy, with a sword!" "With your FISTS!" "Spinjitzu!" "Tornado of Creation?"

…Wu groans, heading back up to the bridge.

"Pace yourselves. You have a lot of training ahead of you yet. As I've always said…make sure to sharpen your mind as well as your Spinjitzu."

The Destiny's Bounty finally pulls into Ninjago City Docks at that point, doubling as a reminder of the long day at school they have to endure.

This is one of those very rare times Zane regrets telling his friends that he's psychic, because all morning it leads into constant questions that he struggles to answer.

Even including Nya.

"A dream about the Green Ninja?!" she screams in a whisper, now way too distracted to finish the agenda for the next student council meeting. Zane tries to push the papers back into her line of sight, but her gaze stays fixated on Zane.

"Come on, there were traits about everyone else, but nothing relating to me?!"

Zane thinks back, trying to recall anything that could link back to Nya.

"...well their eye color matched yours for a split second—"

"What?! That doesn't count, it was everyone's eye color!" Nya hisses.

“Uhhhh what are you guys talking about?”

That’s from Antonia, having just walked through the door. Nya and Zane trade a look and clam up immediately, but Antonia knows a scoop when she sees one. She keeps giving them coy and smug looks even as she sits and spreads out her papers. Nya has never felt so scrutinized.

“Oh, leave them alone,” huffs Jesse. He leans on the back of Antonia’s chair, balancing her seat on its hind legs. Antonia shrieks the moment her feet leave the ground. “Whatever they’re talking about obviously doesn’t concern you. Or is breaking privacy a creed of your newspaper?”

“H-Hey!” Antonia puffs out her cheeks. “I wasn’t going to go that far! I was just curious! Aren’t you?!”

"Not enough to make our dear Vice Prez uncomfortable." Jesse glances over to Nya and gives her a minute nod. Nya smiles back, finally turning to the papers Zane had been desperate for her to read. Zane, meanwhile, finally stands and properly addresses the council.

"Apologies for the late announcements, but I wanted to make sure everything was in order before giving anyone the good news."

At the mention of good news, suddenly everyone looks ninety percent more attentive. Zane sighs, flipping through his clipboard.

"Anyway…we have a few topics to go over. The first being a reworking of the cafeteria's school menu proposed by the members of the cabinet. The Vice President has agreed to garner connections and start up the process that will allow us to get that up off the ground. However, that won't be in effect until next semester, but—"

Zane flinches as the council all cheers, some of them tossing hats and bags into the air with glee. Others trade high fives across the table and—this is the first time they've ever looked so celebratory. Zane spares a quick glance over at Nya. She gives him a thumbs up and encourages him to keep going.

"…right then. Next, regarding the Talent Show, our curation of interest via the school paper seems to have done some wonders." Antonia beams, fist bumping Jesse. "The faculty is on board with it; it's even been turned into an extra credit assignment for the drama class, and the theater kids are more than happy to lend their assistance. Should everything stay on track, the current date scheduled for it will be the 26th of October, just before school breaks for the Day of the Departed."

More whoops flood the room.

"Sign-ups for that will be going up next Monday, so be sure to encourage anyone interested. We're also going to need some volunteers to coordinate with the drama class and theater kids to make sure everything is in order. Speak with Jesse at the end of the hour to get that squared away."

"And, saving the best for last…" Nya takes over now, and the room suddenly becomes abuzz with anticipatory energy. "…permission for the field trip to Mega Monster Amusement Park has been granted! The school has agreed to cover the transportation, as long as we're able to cover the costs for the admission and agree to bring cold lunches."

"YES!" cheers Harumi, standing on the table as the rest of the council bursts into applause. Nya hops up and down excitedly.

"Also starting next week, we will begin the class-wide Coin Collecting Competition, which will go until the second week of October, which is also our deadline for earning enough money for everyone. But, if we manage to hit our goal first, we can totally keep going and use the leftover profit to start work on our next project!"

"Like a School Dance?!" one of the members asks. The room erupts in excitement. 

"Ooooh, yeah!!" "We could never afford one of those before!" "Oh that'd be PERFECT—!"

"We could also use the money to expand the school grounds?" Zane suggests. He gets buried with rejection, although Nya is quick to reign everyone in. 

"Easy, everyone! We still have to get through our current obstacles first, one of them being striking a deal with Scrap N' Junk.  A big chuck of our funds will be coming from them in exchange for all the stuff in the old metal shop room, and who knows? We might even be able to get a sponsorship out of them in the future—"

"Which could be used to promote a school dance!" calls Jesse, getting everyone worked up again. Zane groans and commands for quiet.

"…Yes, and about the Walkers, they should be stopping by at some point this week to finalize the negotiations. Jesse, Harumi, I trust that you both have all the paperwork in order, because they could show up at any moment—"

Just then, there’s a knock at the door. The cabinet looks up from their work as a one of the students goes to answer it, revealing Ed and Edna on the other side. Nya bears witness to Zane turning white as a sheet.

“Oh goodness, is this the right place…?” Edna remarks, scanning the area with some worry. Zane’s back out of his seat in a heartbeat, welcoming them and guiding them in.

“This is indeed the Student Council room; you are right where you need to be,” Zane explains. Ed brightens up upon recognizing Zane, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“Well if it ain’t Zane! Good to see ya, bud! Been a while, eh?”

"…it was only yesterday, but sure."

“Oooh, and there’s Nya…!” Edna cheers, meeting Nya halfway from where she starts to join them. “I didn’t realize my boy had such accomplished friends! Why, when you called us up the other day, I have no idea it would be you we'd be speaking with…!”

Nya gives a shaky laugh, only to realize that the rest of the council is still sitting around very confused. Coughing, she properly gestures towards the Walkers and smiles.

“Guys, these are the owners of Scrap N’ Junk, Ed and Edna Walker! They’re actually Jay's parents, and are the ones Harumi found to help fund our field trip!”

The air of confusion around the table dissipates, replaced by warm smiles and warmer greetings.

“Hello!” chirps Harumi, while Jesse steps over to shake both their hands.

“Hello, welcome, and thank you for coming! I’m Jesse Marvell; I arranged the meeting with you guys!” He beams, which puts the Walkers a little more at ease. "If you'll wait here just a moment, I'll go get the paper work in order for you! It won't take too long, promise!"

The Walkers nod, and Jesse hurries over to sort things out. The rest of the council goes back to working on things for the talent show. Harumi trots over to Zane, tugging on his shirt and asking him for help about something related to the treasury. Everyone finds themselves busy.

And with everyone distracted, Nya takes the opportunity to approach the Walkers and say what she couldn't before.

"Is it alright if I speak with you guys for a moment?" she wonders. Ed and Edna immediately give her their full attention, which she wasn't expecting, but maybe she should have.

“Oh, yes, Nya dear?” Edna ask eagerly. Nya shuffles in place before settling on folding her arms behind her back.

“…I just wanted to thank you again for your cooperation with the school. Your contributions are going to make a lot of people happy. I know it couldn't have been easy, but—”

"That's no problem at all!" Ed exclaims. "We’re pleased as punch to be so involved with Jay's school!"

"And I'm glad to hear it!" Nya smiles, but it fades quickly, melting into uncertainty. “But, um…I’ve also got a bit of a…personal project I’ve been hoping to get started on."

Her nerves take over, and she starts talking faster.

"I-I’ve drawn out blueprints and everything, I just need the parts…and I know I don’t have much money, but if there’s anything you’d be willing to sell or some work I could do then—“

“Oh, sweetheart,” Edna begins, putting both hands on Nya’s shoulders and halting her tirade. Nya blinks in surprise. “You don’t have to pay us a penny! If there’s ever something you need, you just come right on over and ask!”

Nya’s eyes sparkle with hesitant hope. “R-Really?! Oh no, but I couldn’t—!”

“But you can!” insists Ed. He puts an arm around his wife and smiles. “Anyone who can save our boy’s life is always welcome to our wares, doubly so if they’ve got a penchant for putting things together! We’d be honored to assist in anything you wish to build.”

Nya stands straighter, clasping her hands out in front of her. “That’s so kind of you…! I…I’ll work really hard! Though I don’t know if I’ll ever be as great as Jay, even though he’s taught me so much…”

“Well now, I wouldn’t mind showing you a thing or two either!” Ed exclaims. “But you shouldn’t worry yourself about how you’ll compare to Jay. You just gotta focus on how far you can go! And you just might find that you’ll be just as good, but in your own way!”

Nya’s eyes start to water—ugh, she can’t cry here, she still has a meeting to run..!

“You have no idea how happy you’ve made me…!”

“Well, you make Jay happy, so that’s the least we can do,” Edna says with delight. “When he has called us these past few months, he’s only had such good things to say about you. And he’s enjoyed teaching you what he knows!”

“But for a bright mind like you, Nya? We’d be happy to help regardless." Ed says it with such conviction that Nya has no choice but to believe him. "And who knows, someday the kindness just might be paid forward!”

Nya sniffles, and Edna’s mom instinct kicks in. She pulls Nya close for a hug, with Ed joining in shortly. It doesn't last long, enough to get the comforting message across, and long enough for Nya to hastily dry away her tears before anyone else can notice. It's perfect timing too, as Jesse returns with a bundle of papers, beckoning the Walkers over to review them.

Zane, however, has witnessed everything.

"…what was all that about?" Zane asks, curious as ever. Nya only smirks to herself and shakes her head before drifting over to speak with Antonia.

Things are finally looking her way.

“We have absolutely no idea where Lloyd Garmadon is, Chief.”

Olivia leans her head on the cafeteria table, rubbing her temples. She sits alone in the corner, as she usually does on the days when she actually needs to eat lunch. She can see her former pals from the Occult Club sitting in the next corner, engaged in a new MoM campaign for the semester. They kicked her out after having skipped too many sessions, but…well, she's got more important things to do now anyway.

Things that'll further her agenda. Things that'll reform the world. Things that won't get her killed.

…eager to distract herself, Olivia's gaze flits about the rest of the room. Several classmates she knows not the names of all laugh over inside jokes or panic over homework, blissfully unaware of the chaos that could descend upon the world soon. Earthquaker and Thundercracker sit with the members of the Student Council, which she supposes is an upgrade from the trash cans. Showstopper is among them too, which…she doesn't know if its on purpose, or just another of the world's cruel coincidences. Still, she's not sure what to make of that one.

The sudden screech of a chair pulls her attention to another table—this one's full of all the "popular" kids that she absolutely despises. The fact that Kai is still among them, nudging Chen with smirks, getting up to antics with that bone-headed jock brigade, and eyeing up that Meghan Marshall makes her skin crawl. Olivia can see one of the many reasons why Nya's been so fed up with him lately.

"…are you even listening to me, General Number One?"

Olivia scowls, waving her hand without conviction. "Kinda hard not to when you're right on my wrist, Bridget."

General #32 frowns from the screen of the Realm Ripper, checking over the notes one more time.

“…anyway, GIT's triangulated all of his previous spotted locations, along with the travel patterns of the Secret Ninja Force, but after the last encounter in the Sea of Sand, we've only been able to scour out a few Serpentine, with no sign of Lloyd whatsoever. And, as per your command, we did not engage with any of the Hypnobrai or the Fangpyre."

"Wonder why they chose to station out in the desert though," Olivia ponders, leaning over to sip her smoothie. Bridget sighs and pinches her forehead.

"Probably because the desert is the safest remote spot in Ninjago? To go anywhere populated would risk them becoming compromised, and to go the anywhere else would be suicide, especially in the outer areas of Central."

"Okay, sure, but what if there's, like, a Serpentine-related reason for it? Maybe there's something out there that they want to remain close to?" Olivia becomes thoughtful, chewing on her straw. "Mhmm, I bet Nya would know. I should ask her—"

"Oh, yes, we need to talk about that as well." Bridget sets the clipboard down with a slam, glowering at Olivia. "I've told you this quite a few times, but I once again must recommend cutting off ties with the Master of Water. If your speculations are correct, then we'd only ever need Lloyd Garmadon, beyond whatever Our Lord requires him for, and wasting your time barking up an already fallen tree is not going to get us any farther in our plans."

"Lord Garmadon has expressed interest in her as well," Olivia counters, eyes narrowing. "And us having two Masters, and thus the Ninja having two less, puts us in a much better position strategically. We could even have three if I thought the Element of Surprise was worth anything, or four if my Metal Shop teacher wasn't such a meathead. And I believe I've told you that quite a few times."

Bridget slams her fists on the table before her. "Don't distract me! You know this isn't about evening the elemental playing field; this is about you being emotionally compromised!"

Olivia's pupils shrink, baring her jagged teeth with narrowed eyes. "I dare you to say that again—!"

"Oh, if only Lord Garmadon knew—he'd have you fired in a heartbeat." Bridget rests her cheek on her hand, staring off into the distance. "Being forced to kidnap your best friend, desperately scraping together what you remains of your former friendship, despite knowing it's all going to fall apart anyway…ooh, Our Lord would hate that kind of sentimentality—"

"It's not sentimental," Olivia grinds out, clenching a fist. "I just want to have some semblance of normalcy during all this. Is that wrong?!"

"You are the lead commander of the Shark Army, first and foremost, might I remind you." Bridget calms down. A dark shadow casts over her face. "And…on top of that, you had to inherit the position from your father, who just—"

Olivia rises from her chair, the legs of it squealing against the linoleum floor. A few heads turn in her direction, but she ignores them, fisting her hair with one hand and screaming at the opposite wrist.

"I'm NOT emotionally compromised! And if my deadbeat old man was worth anything, I would've inherited something actually useful from him, like an element!"

She grips the back of her chair, leaning even closer to the Realm Ripper.

"And you've got a lot of nerve trying to scold me for not properly doing my job when you lot can't even get your hands on one kid! It's been almost a month since you finally located him, General 32; how can he still be on the loose?!"

Bridget recoils, scrambling to refute. "B-But, in our defense, no one anticipated him being a Master Builder, and not even the ninja have been able to secure him; he's just too clever, and on top of that you believe that he's supposed to be—"

 "I don't care who or what he is! He's a little punk! He's a twerp! And the next time we get a lock on him, I'll go settle things MYSELF—!"

"Um." Olivia blinks, finding Nya standing next to her with slightly panicked eyes. "Am I…interrupting something?"

Olivia immediately cuts off the call—much to Bridget's ire—and rearranges herself back into proper position in her chair. Nya stays still, not moving.

"Hey there, Wavemaker!" Olivia chirps, flashing a wide grin. "You usually don't come to cafeteria—what are you doing here?!"

Sensing a shift in the mood, Nya finds her smile again, hopping around in place.

"I was looking for you, obviously! You were right; I don't have to be a ninja to do my part!" Nya pulls out a few papers, waving them around. Olivia has no idea what they're supposed to be. "I had to tell you in person that my personal project is finally getting up off the ground!"

"Oh…that's good, congrats!" Olivia lightly applauds; Nya actually takes a bow. Olivia hasn't seen her this delighted since Nya mentioned Jay calling her pretty. "…sooooo, ah, what is this secret project of yours, anyway?"

Nya glances around, checking for any prying eyes, and Olivia gets a similar vibe from when Nya had shown her the Map of the Weapons from way back when. But whatever Nya's about to tell her this time, she swears it isn't going to leave her lips. This is going to stay between them no matter what.

There's a dangerous glint in Nya's eye as she leans forward. A smirk spreads across her face, and finally she says:

"I'm gonna build my own mech."

Olivia's eyes widen. From anyone else, she wouldn't have given it a second thought.

But from Nya? That means everything.

"…whoa. But, um, where are you gonna store it? I doubt you'd wanna put it in the same place the ninja keep the other mechs..."

Nya twirls a pencil, looking thoughtful. "Well, I did consider building some kind of base for myself, but I want to put my all my attention into getting my mech constructed first. The boys haven't actually been to the wa—uh, the mech base in a while. They can summon their mechs from anywhere now, and…as usual, they've been distracted by ninja stuff. So, I'll at least be okay for a little while. I've been able to at least get the blueprints finished, along with cataloguing the parts I'll need."

Olivia notices the way Nya's mood dampens a little, ceasing her pencil-spinning to clutch it instead.

"Jay's parents have actually done a lot to help me. They're giving me parts to use, and space to work should I need it…they've been so kind, and yet, our failure to get Lloyd under control almost cost them their lives…!"

Olivia perks up at this, leaning in to hear more. "What…happened with Lloyd and Jay's parents?"

"He and the Fangpyre went and attacked the junkyard out in the Sea of Sand Tuesday night," Nya explains. Olivia nods minutely—that does match up with the scout reports, at least. "He ruined a lot of Jay's father's work, he almost seriously hurt Jay, and he almost turned the innocent Walkers into snakes…!"

Nya wilts, hugging her arms.

"If it's only going to escalate…I don't want to see how it's going to get worse. And that's why I've gotta start doing things myself, because whatever the boys are trying to do isn't working."

“Well, why didn’t you call me?!” Olivia exclaims. “Me and the squad could’ve wiped the floor with those dumb snakes, and we could’ve taken Lloyd off your hands!”

Nya goes quiet, glancing off to the side. Olivia sees her chance and pounces.

"Remember what I said? Lloyd's a pain in the ass for both sides of whatever this conflict is. And if I had gotten to him sooner, he never would have unleashed the Serpentine, or caused so many problems for the good people of Ninjago…or driven you further and further apart from your brother and his friends."

"They were my friends first," Nya grunts under her breath. Olivia blinks in surprise; Nya gasps and slams a hand over her mouth.

Olivia hides the sinister smirk threatening to break loose on face by taking a sip of her smoothie.

"…well, like I said, I could always take Lloyd off your hands for you. Then he wouldn't be your problem any more, and maybe things could start to get back to normal around here…"

Olivia raises her glass, tipping it in Nya's direction. Nya stares at her miserably.

"No more secrets and scorn from your brother, no more derision from your friends…no more horrible events to distract you from your crush…?"

Nya recoils in on herself, even as her cheeks start to redden. Olivia leans forward, pressing harder.

"…and with the mech you're building, even your precious Sensei wouldn't even be able to deny the sheer brilliance you'd be able to bring to the Secret Ninja Force."

Nya slowly looks up at Olivia; Olivia allows herself a tiny smile.

"All you have to do…is just keep me in the loop about where Lloyd is, and I'll handle the rest." Olivia flicks the Realm Ripper, finally grinning with all her teeth. "I could be in and out with that brat within a few minutes. I just need to know where he is."

"…I…I'll think about it, okay?"

Olivia shrugs, leaning back in her chair. She can see the gears churning in Nya's mind.

"No sweat, Wavemaker. That's more than I could have asked for."

Olivia's question remains on Nya's mind even as she returns from the warehouse that night, exhausted both physically and emotionally. She knows she can't rush anything, but finishing her mech before the next big strike is critical. She has no clue what Lloyd will do next, or if the Serpentine will have plans of their own, but…

There's gotta be more she can do than just sit on the sidelines. And, she's the Master of Water now, too—she's gotta be meant for more. She's gotta.

The thoughts keep spinning in her head as she climbs onto the deck. Her original plan was to just head straight through to her room, but the boys are still out here training, due to them getting in trouble earlier. As they weave about the equipment, they all grumble about solving some riddle. And they're all obviously still without the answer.

"How am I supposed to work on training when we don't know who the Green Ninja is?!" Jay whines, kicking and punching at a dummy to work on head-on confrontation better. Cole grunts not too far away from him, twirling his hammer around.

"…'what's the best way to defeat your enemy?' MAN, it could be anything…!" Cole shakes his head, warding off his lingering negativity. "But come on guys, we're smart! We can figure this out!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, but I want to hear more about the dream!" insists Kai, immediately sliding next to Zane. Nya frowns at him, but hefts her bag higher and drifts closer to hear as well.

The others all gather around Zane. And as even Zane's tired of doing more training at this point, he regales them with the abridged version of his dream.

"…he had the strength to catch a huge fallen crate, he wielded the Nunchucks of Lightning, he was friends with the Falcon, and his fist was on fire…and his eyes changed color depending on the element he currently wielded."

"Whoaaaaaa," goes Cole, Jay, and Kai. Nya rolls her eyes.

"So I'm the Green Ninja…" says Kai. Cole chokes on air.

"What are you talking about?! He had incredible strength to lift the cargo and save Zane's life—it's obviously ME!"

Jay jumps on the balls of his heels. "No, no, no—did you miss the part of the story where guy had Nunchucks?! I HAVE NUNCHUCkS!"

"I think you're all missing the point of this dream," Zane interrupts, holding up a hand. "The point is, the Falcon flew on his arm, and it was my dream, so naturally it's me!"

"Well I think we can cross Cole off the list," Jay insists. "I could lifted that crate ten times over—"

Cole nearly shoves Jay over. "Whoa whoa whoa, cross me off the list?! Anyone can hold nunchucks!"

"You're not even going to consider if it's me?!" Nya hisses, worming her way into the group.

"Yeah, if it's not me, I would definitely place bets on Nya," says Cole.

"Why? There's nothing linking to her in the vision!" protests Kai.

"Well maybe that just means I'll be able to do everything you guys can do," Nya declares, hands on her hips. Kai scoffs and rolls his eyes; Nya stomps on his foot.

"…regardless, let me just say, the Green Ninja is awesome!" Zane exclaims. He then sobers up a bit, even looking a bit uncertain of himself. "And…another thing I believe what my dream was trying to tell me…is that the Green Ninja is also the inheritor of the Green Element."

That makes everyone go quiet, as that's not a light claim to make. Zane shifts uncomfortably, looking away.

"When he used Spinjitzu, it was green…the same shade as the Tornado of Creation, when we all came together as one…"

"Soooo does that mean one of us actually has two elements?" Jay suggests, scratching his head. "Or do we have to, like, unlock the Green Element with our true potential?"

Nya ponders this, a hand on her chin. “Sensei did say that the Green Element’s true potential needed help from the Core Four to unlock…”

Cole throws up his arms in exaggeration. "Or it's none of us and it's somebody completely different."

"But he was using FIRE in that dream!" Kai exclaims eagerly. "That is one-hundred percent proof its me! All of us could hold that crate, all of us could wield the Golden Weapons by themselves, and all of us can hold a bird, but only I have the potential to make fire!"

"No way, if the Green Ninja is the same person as the Master of…uhm, Green? I guess? Anyway, if that's the case, then of course he'd be able to use all of our elements," insists Jay.

"But wouldn't that just bring it back to potentially being any of us?" asks Zane.

"Except Nya," says Kai, and Nya looks about ready to snap his neck.

"ENOUGH!"

The five go rigid, with Wu happening upon the scene. Everyone recoils upon his approach, and even in the dim light of the deck, they all can see the frustration on his face.

"Since you are not training, you must have already found the answer to my riddle. What is the best way to defeat your enemy?"

"Discipline, dedication, and conviction," Nya tries just for the heck of it. Wu shoots her a look. She shrugs in response.

"Teamwork?" "A sneak attack?" "The power of friendship?!" "That's basically teamwork."

"Uh, the best way to defeat your enemy is to…train? Sensei?" Kai tries.

"FEEBLE AND INCORRECT!" Wu sticks his nose into the air to look down upon them all. "You all are supposed to be using your brainpower to solve my riddle, not meddling in affairs that I told you don't concern you."

"But we were all on the prophecy! Except Nya!" Kai insists, and this time Nya really does move to grab him until Cole holds her back.

"Jeez, I'm starting to think that whoever figures this out can be the Green Ninja for all I care!" huffs Cole.

"Yeah, me too." Jay's shoulders sag as he slumps. "Thinking about it too much is just getting me down."

"Perhaps instead of focusing on what we could be, we should appreciate how far we have come instead," Zane offers. "If becoming the Green Ninja is in our futures, then we will just have to wait until the time comes."

Cole and Jay nod, content with that. Wu notes that both Kai and Nya have gone silent. He turns to face them both, a hard look settling upon his face. The siblings catch his gaze, freezing up on the spot.

"Do not seek the Green Ninja, nor the inheritor of the Green Element…both titles are not to be tossed about so freely…"

Wu wilts, actually looking somewhat faint.

"…especially in the case that they're the same person."

His words carry a heavy sadness to them that none of the teens dare to contest. Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane proceed to line up in a row, regret rolling off all of them in waves.

"…Understood, Sensei. Sorry, Sensei."

The four proceed to take a bow, then head off to their room for the night. Wu watches them leave with a heaved sigh, a hanging head, and a heavy heart.

Nya, however, stays behind. Wu too, doesn't take his leave. Nya uses this as her chance to do her own interrogation.

"…is it true that the Green Ninja is the inheritor of the Green Element? I mean, it would make sense, cuz, y'know, green…and there was Zane's vision proving it to be so. That would also rule out all of us as options, like you implied before…"

Nya studies Wu carefully; he doesn't move, which means there's nothing to immediately deny. Except…

"…if you already knew that for sure, why wouldn't you have just said that from the start and got everyone disinterested in the prophecy? None of this would have happened."

"Because, while I too believe that it is the case, I desperately hope that it is not the truth."

Nya startles, jumping back. Wu himself looks like he hadn't even meant to say it, but something that grave…must have been eating away at him for who knew how long. But by saying that, he says something else.

"You…really don't know who the Green Ninja is," Nya realizes, hands shaking at her sides. "But…you do know who inherited the Green Element. And you don't want them to end up being the Green Ninja."

Wu gazes off into the night, body steady but eyes trembling. 

"…as I said before, I would never seek out the inheritor of the Green Element unless I had no other choice. Great measures have been taken to ensure this, with some costly sacrifices…but with how things have played out as of late, and a second reconsidering of the prophecy, I fear I cannot outrun destiny for much longer…"

Wu shakes his head, swallowing the festering lump in his throat. Nya doesn't even know what he's talking about, but her heart breaks just seeing the look on his face.

"There's really only one person it can be."

Chapter Text

"This has gone on long enough! We cannot afford to continue listening to the delusionssss of a child…!" Skales insists, casting his arm out towards Pythor. Pythor shouts something back, Skales screams another, and Lloyd shrivels up into the corner. He pulls his hood over his ears in a pointless attempt to drown them out. It reminds him too much of the faculty at Darkley's, ripping their hair out over what they should do with him.

Evidently it's a question no one really knows the answer to.

"What should we do with him?" asks Skales, aimed more at Fangtom than Pythor.  It mirrors the quiet way Professor Noble had asked the same thing, and all the teachers and students had jumped in to give their two cents. But did Lloyd get a say in anything? Of course not. Choices are a foreign concept to him.

Pythor slithers off, stewing in anger. Fangtom contemplatively twirls his staff around.

"MMMmm, we could alwaysssss…turn him into one of usssss…?"

Lloyd's pupils shrink. Please, no, not that—

"...Eh, nah, the little tyke is pretty useless."

Lloyd releases his breath, though he feels no more relieved.

"What if you hypnotize him…and make him think he's a pig!"

"That would be pretty funny!"

"Can you imagine?!"

Skales and Fangtom break down into laughter; Lloyd bites his lip and pretends that his eyes aren't welling with tears. There's a tug on his arm—it's Pythor, and Lloyd can barely get a word out before he's being dragged to places unknown.

"We could push him off the side of a building, or trap him in a cage!"

"…and then we'll make him leave, and never return!"

And yet, Pythor and Lloyd vanish before the other snakes even know they're gone.

Early Friday morning in Wildwood Forest comes through in the form of the golden sky and the rising sun's rays between the trees and the leaves, giving everything an ethereal look to it. It would be a hopeful scene, if to Lloyd, everything didn't feel like it was falling apart.

He sits on the wreckage of what was once the tree fortress, nudging a stray plank with his foot and staring off into the distance. Pythor paces around in front of him, waving his arms every which way and swearing up a storm. He whirls on Lloyd, eyes blazing with fury.

"Well, congratulations! You've not only managed to get the Hypnobrai to withdraw from our plans, but the Fangpyre too! That’s basically half the Serpentine, and we'll never be able to unite the tribes now…!"

Lloyd keeps his gaze locked on the horizon, even as Pythor continues to rant and rave behind him. Most of what Pythor says goes through one ear and right out the other.

"Hey, I'm talking to you! Don't you even care?!"

"Do I really mean so little to everyone?"

A record scratch goes off in Pythor mind, cuing him to squint at the boy. "…excuse me, what?"

Lloyd turns to Pythor, and it then occurs to the Anacondrai how utterly exhausted the boy looks.

He's thin; he's tiny in every sense of the word. His face lacks the strength to even fake a smile, and the dark circles beneath his green eyes highlight just how bloodshot they are.

It's clear he is very near a breaking point.

"I wasn't good enough for my mom or my uncle to trust me with the truth, I wasn't bad enough for Darkley's or the ninja to take me seriously, and I wasn't good or bad enough for my dad to even come see me once he could…"

Lloyd's voice cracks, rough around the edges—surely from all his constant screaming—yet also worn down and frayed.

"…so what's even the point of anything?"

The question hangs in the air, sitting there for a palpable minute. Lloyd doesn’t expect a concrete answer, but Pythor has always been eager to provide. Or maybe it's just to hear his own voice.

"Well, my dear boy, the truth is, there's no point to anything; not really." Pythor flicks his tail out, folding his arms behind him. "Therefore, we make our own reasons to carry on. It's the only way to overcome all the bad that happens to us. For if we were only made to suffer, well…that's not a life I'd want anyway."

Lloyd shuffles from where he sits, losing some of his sad slouch. "…is that why you fought in the Serpentine Wars? Because you didn't want to suffer anymore?"

"Tch." Pythor lashes out his tongue. "…I was a different snake back then; I've shed my skin a few time since then. I was foolish, and naïve, and had ideas that everything could work out if I just pushed for it…a foolhardy idea that is not unlike the one you carry, actually."

Lloyd pouts at that, picking up a nearby rock and hurling it across the clearing. It doesn't go far at all, practically sinking the moment it hits the air. Pythor only shakes his head—how pathetic. Who taught that kid how to throw?

“Maintain balance with others and within ourselves—that was one teaching we Serpentine shared with human kind…or so we'd thought, at first. …nobody ever goes into anything hoping for a war. Two conflicting sides are always fully aware that the other could destroy them, and while we'd rather strive to create peace, our pride will always win out in the end. Especially if we've already been wronged."

Pythor hisses, glancing away as Lloyd’s curious eyes bore into him.

"Pray tell, chum…have you ever heard word of a being known as the Great Devourer?"

Lloyd sucks in a breath, kicking his leg against the debris. He's unsure why Pythor suddenly changed the subject, but…

"…all I know about it is that it bit my dad when he was a kid, and the venom poisoned him with evil, which is partly why he's an evil warlord now."

"Have you ever wondered if some of that venom…persists with you, Young Garmadon? After all, you share the blood…and you're not exactly an average individual.”

"Mom wondered that too, but she said even if that was the case, it wouldn't affect me like my dad. She…never really said why though." Lloyd glances at the ground, staring at his feet. "Why'd you bring up the Great Devourer anyway?"

Pythor slithers up next to Lloyd, casting his hand out towards the skyline made of trees.

"She was worshipped by my people, you know. Treated as equivalent to the Guardians themselves! And we Serpentine believed her strength would keep us safe from the eventual appearance of the Golden Master…but someone attacked the Great Devourer, ripped her four fangs out, and sealed her away in stone at the now lost City of Ouroboros. And from there, Central Province was left without anyone to watch over it."

“The Great Devourer was the Guardian of the Central Province…?" Lloyd frowns, shaking his head. "That can't be right. Mom said that Central's Guardian has been missing since before Uncle Wu was even born. And the Great Devourer was obviously around to bite my dad however long ago."

"Well for starters, she wasn't always the Guardian—rumors were that before time began, and long before the Serpentine had even arrived, it was supposedly a dragon that kept Central guarded against nefarious forces. But I haven't seen hide nor hair of it in all my years." Pythor rubs his chin, closing his eyes. "And for what short of a time that the Great Devourer watched over Central, well, she'd just been a replacement."

Pythor clenches his fists and bares his teeth.

"…but with her sealed away in the lost city, we Serpentine believed that there would be nothing to protect us against the foretold appearance of the Golden Master, an unhinged being with unmatched power comparable to that of the First Spinjitzu Master himself! A being that could destroy the world with merely a single blink…or, just straight up create a new one in Ninjago's place. Either way, the results would be equivalent, and devastating."

"…that…sounds horrifying," Lloyd remarks, and Pythor nods.

"Yes, and if the Great Devourer was still around, she would be able to consume that Golden Master whole! But without her protection, we instead tried to warn the people of Ninjago of the eventual disaster, and tried to persuade them to take refuge underground before the worst came to be…but they distrusted us, didn't believe us, called us the monsters! Somehow, they got the idea that we were trying to betray them, and that's how the Serpentine Wars really began…"

Pythor slams his fist against the nearest tree trunk, scowling to himself.

"So…I was just thinking, what if we released the Great Devourer once more, and give Ninjago what it deserves for not taking both of us seriously…"

"…And to do that, you have to unite the five tribes," Lloyd pieces together.

"…yes, as legend claims that bringing all five tribes back together will reveal the locations to where that heinous being hid the four fangs of the Devourer. And, indirectly, allow us to summon her back once again…" Pythor leans forward, looming high over Lloyd. "…but of course, that requires knowing the locations of the final two tombs."

Lloyd narrows his eyes. The map in his sleeve suddenly feels very heavy.

"…but that wouldn’t even matter. You said yourself that the Hypnobrai and the Fangpyre aren’t going to go with you anymore. They’re not your friends anymore.”

“That’s what you think,” Pythor grinds out under his breath. Lloyd then stands up, hands on his hips.

"Besides, maybe we don't need anyone else or a Great Devourer anyway! Maybe we should have just done this on our own from the start!" Lloyd points at Pythor, finally allowing himself a smile. "You can get revenge on those who wronged you, and I can get revenge on—"

"What, the whole realm?" Pythor scoffs, cutting Lloyd off. "Your list of people who have let you down goes on for a mile; and, when you have that many enemies, that's when you might need to take a step back and wonder if you're the problem."

Lloyd recoils from the words, slumping afterwards.

"For me, revenge is just the long overdue icing on the cake. But for you? That's all you care about, and you don't even mind who you drag down with you to get it. And after all this time, you haven't even gotten away with anything. You've only achieved humiliation for yourself and everyone you associate with—!"

"This time will be different!" Lloyd declares, standing straight and clenching his fists in front of him. "W-We'll go to Darkley's, how about that?! We'll get back at all the students and teachers that doubted me, and then when the ninja inevitably show up, we'll have a trap for them! And then, once we've got them in our clutches, we'll be able to free the rest of the Serpentine without them interrupting us anymore!"

Lloyd raises a fist, determination burning in his eyes.

"It'll be, like, a triple threat! And I'll prove to you, and the other Generals, and everyone else that I know what I'm doing!"

Pythor stays silent for the longest time, but eventually, something nefarious sparks in his eyes.

"…well, you're right about one thing, at the very least…"

Lloyd looks up at Pythor, bearing witness to the darkest expression he's ever seen the Anacondrai wear.

"…this time will be different, my so-called friend."

The warehouse stands empty and silent on that quiet afternoon, Nya once again planning to spend all her time here. With the schematics she'd been working on over the past few days, combined with the parts the Walkers so generously donated, she's more than eager to start finishing up her…personal project.

And with the boys stuck training all day due to the Green Ninja shenanigans, she doesn't have to worry about being interrupted. It's a day entirely dedicated to her and her genius.

Her bracelet goes off, and she nearly hurls her wrench into the wall.

"WHAT?!" She yells at nothing, prodding at the bracelet to get a lock on the location of activity. Zooming in reveals an SOS emitting from Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys, a small school on the northwestern boarder of the Central Province. She grimaces, knowing that's where Lloyd previously went to school.

Moments later, the main hub screen lights up next to her. She's quick to cast all her stuff to the floor and out sight, just as Kai's face fills the monitor. The other ninja are scrambling around in the background like the world is ending, Jay's alarm system blares, and red lights flash in the distance.

"What is causing that?!" Cole's voice yells somewhere in the distance.

"Who cares?! It's something else besides training!"  Kai laughs back, turning back to the Bounty's monitor. "Nya, we got a ping from your comms—break it down for me, Sis!"

Nya frowns, rolling the chair over to the computer.

"…Lloyd and Pythor seem to have invaded the grounds of Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys. None of the other Serpentine have been sighted though, and there's definitely not a tomb there, so I have no idea what they're trying to accomplish with this."

"Darkley's, huh? That place is a cesspool for the crooked and the misbehaved!" huffs Jay.

"Mmm, doesn't mean they don't need our help," says Cole.

"But aren't they trying to buff up factions for the Shark Army? Seems like a conflict of interest if we help them," says Kai.

"They're still children," Nya insists. "And besides, if we do nothing, either the Shark Army gains control of the school or Lloyd and the snakes do. Better that we're around to defuse a potentially annoying situation."

"But it looks quiet down there…" Zane observes after a quick scope with the Falcon. "Should we infiltrate using stealth?"

"We've done that already—Lloyd's gotta be expecting it," Kai remarks. He paces the deck with a hand on his chin. "What about using our Golden Weapons to summon our mechs?"

"We're still working on the damage from the junkyard incident," Cole says. "Anyone else have any other good ideas?"

This is a bad question to ask.

"Mmmhmmm…well, I have ONE idea…" Jay slides into the center of the group, a crooked look in his eye. His smirk goes twisted as he beams at his brothers. "…but you guys gotta trust me once we get there~"

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Ooh, I don't like the sound of this…"

"Let's just hit the button and step on it!" Cole commands. Zane takes that as his cue to sprint across the room, front flip, and slam his fist onto the button. The Bounty lurches as it rises from the water, thrusters at full-throttle and sails turned to the direction of the boarding school. The screen blips off without so much as a goodbye, leaving Nya alone and left behind once again.

The sudden silence echoes in the building. It feels too much like the time they'd whisked themselves away on freshly-made mechs, and she'd been made to wait until they handled everything.

But, this is what she wanted, right? To be left alone while she works, right? To just be called for information and then discarded again, right?

Nya chews her lip, rolling away from the computer and back to the table. She drums her fingers upon the tabletop before slipping a hand into her pocket and pulling out her phone.

She sets it on the table. She unlocks it. She very slowly punches in a number she unfortunately knows by heart.

The call tone rings out, a fast beat that is slow compared to how her heart's racing.

"…y'ello?" Olivia's voice comes from the other end.  "Nya, that you? It's been months since you last called me, you know!"

"Yeah, I know," Nya laughs nervously. She taps her pencil against one of her schematics, not caring about the marks it makes in the process. "I guess I just…wanted to check in on you. You were pretty worked up yesterday."

"Ah, yeah, that…I'm good now. Just frustrated with…work, I suppose."

"Yeah! Yeah that's…understandable."

Nya grabs her forehead as she feels her eyes bugging out—what is she doing?!

"What'cha call me for, Wavemaker?" Olivia cuts to chase, curiosity bleeding into her tone. “I know it’s obviously something; you’d never bother otherwise.”

Nya curses her predictability. Therefore, she takes another breath and just heaves it out.

“You…remember how you said to hit you up if I heard anything about where Lloyd strikes next?”

Silence crackles on the other end, but once Olivia starts speaking again, there’s a subdued urgency to her tone.

“Did you find him?! So quickly?! My people have been searching for days with no luck—!”

"He's at Darkley's Boarding School."

Nya immediately holds her breath.

“…oh jeez, that place that thinks they can dump a bunch of kids into our ranks just because they’ve trained as ‘evil’?!” The eye roll in Olivia’s voice is palpable. “I’m not against taking in the more capable ones, but we don’t just round up ‘evil’ people! We have purpose and class, you know!”

Nya’s eyes narrow, her grip tightening around the phone.

“Then what do you need Lloyd for?”

There’s a brief moment of hesitation, but then:

“I thought I told you already—it’s a direct order from Lord Garmadon. Find the kid with the green eyes and bring him in! Of course, there’s another person I’m supposed to be hunting down, but the kid’s the quicker target.”

Silence crackles on the other end, but once Olivia speaks, Nya can hear the slasher smile in her voice.

“And now I shall do you a favor and get him out of your hair for ya. Don't worry, Wavemaker…I'll be sure to take care of everything."

The school bells and all the alarms at Darkley's go off at once, creating an ear-bleeding symphony of chaos, but even over the noise Lloyd's maniacal laughter can be heard. He and Pythor have thoroughly strapped the school with several booby traps in a delicious taste of irony, as it is the school itself that even taught Lloyd how to do so. Oh how the tables turn.

It's a little bit hilarious, really—all his teachers said that his 'pranks' didn't quality as true evil, as that's what Lloyd usually fell back on when he…couldn't meet the standards otherwise. But now those same people are strung up in tripwires, caught in plastic wrap, stuck in sticky substances, and have fallen victim to whatever Lloyd could whip up on short notice… And now, not one of them can say a single word back.

It's to an extent that even Pythor's curiosity is piqued, as even with all of Lloyd's cawing and screaming over the last couple weeks, he's never seen this level of animosity from the boy.

"Was your life here truly so bad?" Pythor remarks out of nowhere. He hadn't even really meant to ask, as he doesn't actually care, but the scene before him is just that bewildering. Lloyd responds with a sneer that warps his entire face.

"…I remember I wanted a roommate, but they insisted I stay alone because I was too much of a distraction to the other children. I'd always get woken up for "inspection checks" yet there was none for anyone else, I'd always get the last pickings for food, I'd always get put on the spot for questions…I'd do all my assignments, mountains of extra credit, studied as hard as could…and I was rewarded with "do better", "do worse", or "Why'd you even bother at all"…?"

Lloyd glares at the throng of teachers he'd been forced to deal with. Not very many of them look very remorseful. Only scared for what comes next.

But, well, there's always one exception.

"Lloyd," Professor Noble begs with desperation, wincing when Pythor slides over and pulls his bindings tighter. "When I said you didn't belong here…this isn't what I meant! You weren't meant to be like this–"

"Quiet! You're just like everyone else—you never wanted me here!" Lloyd commands, enforced by Pythor lowering his fangs towards Noble's neck. Noble gulps and says nothing more. Gene sneers from where's he tied next to Brad and several other students, making a bold attempt to stand up.

"You don't get to talk to my dad like that, you insignificant little worm!" Gene hisses, glasses sliding down his face. "If you were truly as bad as you claimed to be, you wouldn't have let our teasing get so deep under your skin! Like Mikey said, you're too soft, and you're weak, and you were either going to harden up or get chased off, and guess which happened—!"

Lloyd throws himself into the nearest desk with all the force he's got. The desk crumbles under his weight, already barely standing as it was. Lloyd reshapes it into an axe and slings it over his shoulder; Gene gulps, but refuses to be silenced.

"I can't speak for anyone else, but I came here because I believe in the cause of Shark Army, and the world needs to be reformed in order to be improved. And yet, I'm supposed to deal with the fact that the flesh and blood of Lord Garmadon himself can't even handle a dark bedroom?! That he flinches every time he hears thunder?! That he believed that pulling a few pranks would put him in the same league as the rest of us?! That he really thought a bunch of snakes were going to go along with his idea of revenge, when in reality he just wants proof that someone wants him around?!"

Lloyd swings the axe; Brad yelps and pushes backwards, dragging Gene down with him. The axe swooshes and misses them both, tumbling out of Lloyd's hand and embeds itself into the wall. Lloyd pants, exhausted from the effort, and glances down at Brad. Brad's eyes shake with terror. Lloyd says nothing, instead turning back to Pythor.

"…I was only here for a single summer, hoping I could to learn to be as evil as my dad, and then maybe he'd be proud enough to come for me, but it was awful. Nothing I did was ever enough." Lloyd grits his teeth, fangs protruding. "How pathetic do you have to be to be the one getting targeted at a school where everyone is evil?!"

He goes down the line, eyeing up everyone currently tied up.

"…this can't be happening," complains Mikey, glowering with violet eyes.

"How'd we let this happen anyway?!" whines Tommy.

"It's all that snake's fault," scoffs Finn. "There's no way crybaby Garmadon could have done this by himself."

"Please let us go! I have homework to not do!" "I have to use the bathroooooom!" "I wanna go home!"

But Lloyd doesn’t see the faces of suffering children; he sees the faces of those who pushed him into the mud, couldn't let him go a moment without being heckled or called some name. He sees those who left him with just the scraps to eat, who constantly put bugs in his bed, who stole his things, stuffed him in lockers, tripped him in the halls, and reminded him that he was never going to be bad enough no matter what…

And if he couldn't be good enough or bad enough, then well, all that was left was to just do what he wanted.

"The Secret Ninja Force will come for you," Noble insists, even if it sounds more sad than defiant.  Lloyd finds his smirk again and snaps his fingers.

"Good! I'm counting on it."

He turns to Pythor once again, motioning for the snake to follow him out of the room. He ignores the screams of protest as he locks the door shut behind him with a satisfying click. 

"How are the rest of the booby traps coming along?"

"Every door, window, and hole in this place is spring loaded," Pythor assures with a bit too much glee, leering in Lloyd's direction. "Nobody is getting in or out of this place in one piece…"

"Hah, good! I'm sick and tired of those ninja sneaking their way into my evil doings…!"

Not this time, Lloyd thinks, believing this will be the last time he'll have to deal with those ninja.

Not this time, Pythor thinks, hoping to indeed make this Lloyd's last stand.

Up on the roof of Darkley's, Lloyd can't stay still, keeping his eye on the sky for any sign of the ninja. Nothing suspicious makes its way through the clouds, but that doesn't stop him from walking a rut into the rooftop. It's not nerves, though, not from Lloyd. Lloyd rounds the corner for another lap—

"Relax," Pythor snaps, three steps away from tossing him off. "We've made the perfect trap! We're in broad daylight so there isn't any shadows! But, even if they could get in—"

Lloyd's ears suddenly prick, making him jump.

"WHAT'S THAT?!"

Pythor sighs and fires the cannon beside him, launching a net clean into the air. It soars through the air with a whistle, landing on top of a scrambling newt twelves stories below. Pythor glares at Lloyd; Lloyd laughs nervously.

"Ahaha…good! Good reflexes! I was just testing you."

"Sure you were."

Lloyd huffs, pacing to the edge one more time.

"…anyway, if I know those ninja, they're cleverly and silently sneaking their way in right past us at this very moment—"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!"

"HIT THE FLOOR!" Pythor screams, going flat against the roof. Lloyd barely has the time to turn around before the four ninja plummet from the Bounty atop one of its anchors. Lloyd grabs onto the roof for dare life before the impact knocks him off, and he's forced to watch as the anchor sinks through every single floor of Darkley's Boarding School…while also bypassing all of the booby traps.

"…okay," Cole says, coughing up plaster dust on the bottom floor. "…let's agree to never do that again."

"We got in, didn't we?!" huffs Jay.

"We'll add it to the list," Kai grumbles, looking up at the giant hole they've made. "…anyway, Lloyd and Pythor are on the roof, so now we've gotta make our way all the way back up there!"

"But what about them?" Zane asks. Kai raises an eyebrow, and Zane points at the tied up pile of kids and faculty sitting before them.  Cole draws his Scythe, casually walking over to the group, then holds it high over his head. All the children scream in panic…and then Cole cuts their bindings.

"Stay outta school, kids!" Cole calls with a chuckle. "That's advice I'd love to take."

Most of the victims stampede out of the room, but with Professor Noble staying behind, so does Gene, Brad, Mikey, and Finn. The Ninja stare at them curiously, at least, until Noble drops his head into his hands.

"…this is all my fault," he sighs, proceeding to slump to the floor. Gene scoffs, folding his arms.

"Blaming yourself isn't very becoming of an evil mastermind, Father. Especially when it's Lloyd we're talking about."

"And I highly doubt that this incident is yours to blame alone, but I am curious as to why you feel that way," Zane says. Noble shakes his head, but lowers his hands into his lap.

"I should have turned Lloyd away from Darkley's right when he first applied. When he first showed up…he was so polite, and considerate, and friendly…!"

"Are we…talking about the same Lloyd?" Jay asks, to which Gene throws his head back and cackles.

"Ugh, Lloyd was the worst! Afraid of everything little thing, always crying in the bathroom…sure, he pulled pranks all the time, but he never actually did anything evil."

"It made it really easy to pick on him," remarks Mikey, blowing a bubble. "The only way to beat 'em around here is to join them. But he would do weird things like set the bugs around here free, or water the plants, or try and make gifts for people he wanted to befriend…but friendship doesn't exist in a place like Darkley's."

The ninja all trade worried glances with one another, but the students still carry on.

"His grandma even sent him a care package once," snickers Finn. "I stole it and replaced it with a bunch of bugs and mud. He wouldn't come out of the broom closet for days! Oh, and there was his first day, where we put red fire ants in his bed…remember that, Brad?"

The young boys carry on, and the more the ninja hear of Lloyd's time at Darkley's, the more uncomfortable they feel. But knowing Lloyd willingly came here in an attempt to appease his father...it makes some sort of sense on paper, given who his father is, but just the same…

"That's a lot of bad influence to be suddenly exposed to," Kai murmurs under his breath.

"But Lloyd…never was good at being bad." Brad pokes his fingers together, wincing. "He eventually became good at doing bad things, but his heart was never fully in it. He couldn't willingly hurt a person if he tried."

"And that's why I had to kick him out," finishes Noble. "I couldn't let this place torment him any longer…but by the time I did, it was already too late."

Kai and Zane exchange a forlorn expression while Jay shuffles in place, knowing personally just how bad bullying can get. Cole, however, finds everything a little too hard to swallow.

"You guys can't be serious!" he exclaims, shaking his fists. "Not evil? Couldn't be bad?! He's unleashed one of Ninjago's greatest threats, he's the literal son of the man that destroyed Ninjago City once and aims to do it again, he burned down the Monastery of Spinjitzu without remorse…and you're trying to stand here and convince me the kid isn't evil?!"

"…His drive comes not from evil, nor even anger, but from pain," Noble says, and that makes Cole deflate. "He has been hurt badly, and there seems to be no length he won't go to make it stop. I don't know everything Lloyd's been up to since he left, but if it is escalating as quickly as you say…then you must find a way to stop him soon."

Noble stands up again, dropping into a bow. He taps Gene on the head, and he and the other boys do the same.

"Please, Secret Ninja Force…do what I couldn't, and save Lloyd Garmadon from himself."

Kai looks up through their anchor-torn hole in the roof again, finding Lloyd Garmadon staring back down at him from the top floor. There's not a trace of malice on his face—just deep sadness, and a few shades of fear. And from there, Kai can start to believe what Noble had meant.

"…in that case, let's go get him, then."

Lloyd flinches back, tremors of terror running up his arms as the ninja all scatter. Cole takes the direct approach and climbs the chain of the Bounty's anchor. Zane and Kai take their chances with the halls and stairs.  Jay aims for the elevator. But either way, all four are coming, and the booby traps aren't going to stop all of them.

…well, one does stop Zane and Kai, finding themselves covered with something that is hopefully honey the moment they kick down a door.

Cole continues his ascent up the chain, hopping onto one of the higher floors the moment he finds good footing. He fails to notice the trip wire lying in wait, setting off a smoke trap that causes him to drop his weapons. And of course, Jay jumps out of the elevator at that moment. He sees Cole on the floor and gives a disappointed head shake.

"Cole, this is no time for lying around—"

"Lloyd and Pythor have everything trapped!" Cole hacks out, ignoring Jay's quip. "You might be the only one that can evade them all…!"

Jay drops the humor, schooling his face into something more serious. He tears down the hall for the stairs to the roof. He deftly evades more tripwires, rushes under doorways fitted with buckets, and swerves whatever else Lloyd might have planned. Jay even dares to get confident, spying the roof entrance in the distance, and reaches a hand out for the door—

A purple, powerful tail strikes him across the head, sending Jay down for the count.

The rest of Pythor's body materializes as the Anacondrai cackles, shoving Jay out of the way.

"Nothing personal, chum…just taking care of some business. Ahahaha…!"

Pythor then returns to the roof, finding Lloyd still scrambling about in a panic.

"They're coming, they're coming, THEY'RE COMING!"

Pythor simply slams the trap door shut behind him. He covers it with a loosened board, then sets his sights on Lloyd.  Lloyd stops scrambling around upon Pythor's approach, but somehow he still doesn't feel safe.

"…you don't have to worry about the ninja anymore, Lloyd," Pythor assures, calmly holding out his hands. "I handled it, as is expected when an Anacondrai General takes the lead as they should…"

"W-Well…good!" Lloyd exclaims. "But…what are we supposed to do now? My Uncle could show up, or the ninja might break free or—"

"Ah, yes, about that…" Pythor strokes his chin, gazing up at the sky. "I suppose there is one more little thing I need to take care of."

Lloyd turns towards Pythor, about to ask what that could be, only to find himself hanging by his collar from Pythor's hand. Lloyd grabs at his throat, struggling to breathe, but also leaving the Map of Dens free from protection. Pythor snatches it out of his pocket with his tail, chuckling to himself.

"What…are you doing?!" Lloyd chokes out, staring in horror as Pythor peruses the map. "I thought…you were my friend!"

"…your friend?" Pythor hisses, spitting the words like they burn him to speak. "All you wanted from the Serpentine was to make them your slaves! Why in the name of the Great Devourer would I ever call someone like that my friend?!"

Pythor howls, hurling Lloyd across the roof. Lloyd wails as he skids, topping over the side...and straight into a cage Pythor had prepped beforehand. Lloyd whimpers, his back hitting the floor, only able to look up at Pythor with hurt in his eyes. Pythor stares coldly back.

"I've had to deal with a lot of awful humans in my day, ones that were trying to kill me no less…!" He squints, barring his fangs. “But you are the epitome of everything I’ve always despised about the human race. You’re ignorant, greedy, self-absorbed, and for what? Because you’re sad?! It’s no wonder no one wants you around—who could stand being around someone so pathetic?!”

Every word grates on Lloyd’s mind, leaving a ringing in his ears and his eyesight blurry.

"You're a monster, Lloyd Garmadon. Congratulations, if that truly is what you were hoping for. If your maniac of a father doesn't want you now, then no one ever will."

"N-No, w-wait," Lloyd croaks out, thunking his head on the floor of the cage. "That's not…that's not what I…"

"Sorry, my dear boy… but I have other plans, and no more time to waste."

Pythor turns his back on Lloyd and vanishes into thin air, leaving Lloyd trapped in a cage of his own undoing. As he just lays there, several thoughts running through his head at the speed of his heartbeat, terror paralyzes him about what's going to happen next. Is anyone even going to come for him? Will he be trapped here forever?! And even if he does somehow get out, where is he supposed to go…?

Fate answers that for him—the cage is currently being tugged back onto the roof.

Lloyd whimpers and pushes himself as far back into the cage as he can. It could be Pythor, deciding he's not through with Lloyd just yet. It could be the ninja, who might want to hang him in a more humiliating spot. It could be his Uncle, who…might take him back to his mom, after everything. Which would be the most terrifying out come.

When he's finally dragged back to the relative safety of the roof, Lloyd finds not a snake nor the ninja nor an uncle…but a girl in navy blue, who returns the astonished look that Lloyd wears.

"….so, the legend is true," she whispers, her expression decorated with wonder and…something very close to fear. Lloyd only raises an eyebrow in her direction. "The boy with the green eyes…he does exist…!"

"…who are you?" Lloyd demands, even though he is very much not in a position to demand anything. He's stuck in a cage and tears flood his cheeks. Regardless, the girl stands at full height upon his command, first taking a bow then dropping into a curtsey with her sea-fin skirt.

"I am the current right hand to Lord Garmadon himself, the head shark honcho…General Number One!" She tilts her head up, smirking. "But feel free to just call me Olivia. I need no special treatment in the presence of the legendary son of Garmadon. I pale in comparison, after all."

It then occurs to Lloyd that not only is this girl a member of the Shark Army, but also its commander. He makes a face in her direction, even going so far as to spin around and turn his back to her. More of those idiots is the second-to-last thing he wants to deal with.

"…whatever you want from me, you can save it. I told your goons before I'm not going with you."

"Ah, I apologize on behalf of my idiot subordinates," Olivia begins, placing a hand to her chest. Lloyd tilts back a little, intrigued. "They don't know just who they're dealing with, after all…I told them to give Master Lloyd a bit more respect or else they'd regret it, but…well, I suppose they had to figure out your might first hand."

She nudges Lloyd's cage with her foot, grinning with all her teeth.

"But, wow, looks like you're a bit tied up at the moment, huh? I mean, I could always just take you and the cage back to base regardless of what you say or do, but I'd really like you to have a choice in the matter—"

It's then that the hatch to the roof busts open, a very dusty Cole rising out of it with his hammer. A sticky Kai and Zane follow behind him, and after them is Jay with a fresh tail-mark splattered across his forehead. All of them jump into fighting positions, ready to fight a snake…only to find themselves with a shark instead.

"…oh, jeez–!" starts Jay as Kai bounds forward with an accusatory katana outstretched before him.

"OLIVIA!" he howls, eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?!"

"What's it look like, Firecracker?" Olivia rolls her eyes and plants a boot on Lloyd's cage, gently rocking it back and forth. Lloyd tumbles around within. "I'm doing exactly as I told you—I'm handling your little problem for you! You're welcome!"

"Looks to me like another round of kidnapping on your part!" Cole exclaims, drawing the Scythe of Quakes. "Release Lloyd to us and we won't have to do anything drastic!"

Olivia blinks, glancing down at the giant hole that is now Darkley's Boarding School.

"…yeah, because you fools haven't done anything drastic already."

Her glare turns cutting, kicking the cage around to make Lloyd properly face the ninja.

"And moreover, why should I hand him over to you? Nya's been telling me all about how much of a nuisance you think he is, how he keeps getting in your way, and how you'd all be better off without him!"

Lloyd's eyes widen as Jay yelps.

"We never said anything like that! Well, mainly that last part, but—"

"Can you blame us?" Zane counters, eyes sharp. "He has unleashed an ancient threat to all Ninjago!"

"He burned down our monastery, our home!" Kai shouts.

"He got me hypnotized, and I almost hurt my brothers!" adds Cole.

"He could've gotten me and my parents killed!" exclaims Jay.

The more they go on, the more Lloyd wilts. However, he's shocked when Kai draws both his katanas, standing his ground.

"…yet despite all that, we're open to hearing him out. He's obviously been through a lot, and he shouldn't be left alone. You can't create a better person by staying determined that they're all bad."

Kai locks eyes with Lloyd, giving him a subtle nod. Lloyd doesn't know what to make of the sudden compassion, but Olivia interrupts the moment.

"You think he's going to willingly go with you after the way you've treated him in turn?!"

"You think he's going to go with you?" Kai snaps back. Olivia nods, painted lips broadening into a smirk.

"Of course. After all, I can give him what he's wanted this whole time—the ability to finally see his father."

Lloyd gasps, but Kai doesn't wait any longer. He throws himself at Olivia, who ducks and spirals around to drive a kick into his back. Cole moves next with the Scythe, trying to drive it into the ground…only to remember there's none to speak of. Olivia senses his hesitation and kicks at him too; Cole blocks with the hammer, and Zane throws himself into her to knock her over. She rolls backward, forcing Cole to fall forward into Zane.

She whirls onto her knees, drawing out two blasters that fire twin warning shots—of lasers!

Cole and Zane duck, while Kai picks himself up and gapes at Olivia in horror. Olivia stands back up, cocks her hip, and spins one of guns around her finger.

With Jay the only one not incapacitated for the moment, he pulls out his nunchucks—

But Olivia aims her guns and fires, Jay yelping as the lasers skim the edge of his hood.

"What's with everyone and shooting lately?!" Jay whines, sinking to the ground from the near-brush with death. Olivia just spins the blasters around her fingers, smirking.

"Didn't Nya ever tell you I'm a member of the Sharpshooter Club at school?" She cackles. She readies the pistols again, face filled with far too much maniacal glee. "Now, dance boys, DANCE!"

Cole, Jay, and Zane wail and scatter away from the laser blasts, none of them too keen on getting shot today. Kai, however, apparently cares not, as he charges forward regardless. His katanas outstretched behind him, he makes a direct line for Olivia. Olivia looks less than amused and only shoots one of the blasters—Kai crosses his katanas in front of him and deflects the blast…which also results in it blasting the lock off Lloyd's cage.

While Olivia finds herself unexpectedly fending off Kai, Lloyd kicks open the cage door and dares to poke his head out. He blinks at the absolute chaos of Olivia darting around trying not to fall while Kai keeps slipping with his foot in an attempt to catch her. Jay and Cole attempt to cut off Olivia's circular route while Zane fires arrows at her. She dodges the arrows and shoves over Jay, but Cole grabs her and drags her down, and then they all kind of end in a standing pile of some sort—

"HEEEEEEEY!" Lloyd yells, making everyone stop awkwardly in their tracks to face him. Lloyd puffs air out his nose, briefly glancing at all the ninja. He still resents them a lot, for hanging him from a sign, reveling in his failures, humiliating him, taking up all of his uncle's attention, treating him like a kid…but maybe it's a fair trade off for all the things he's done in turn. Maybe there's still some hope that they can see eye to eye some day.

He doesn't know if he's ready for it, but he still dares to hope.

But right now, there's only one person that can answer all of his questions. Only one person that can shed light on everything he's been kept in the dark about.

Lloyd carefully climbs out of the cage, setting his sights on Olivia.

“…can you really take me to meet my dad?” Lloyd asks, trying not to sound as eager as he feels. Olivia shoves over Kai and proceeds to take yet another bow.

“Of course, Master Lloyd. Unlike your pitiful uncle, I tend to avoid lies where I can…” Olivia drags herself away from the ninja and presses a finger to her lips, giving Lloyd a wink. “And between you and me, your father told me personally that he wants to see you specifically.”

Lloyd lights up, but squashes it down. He has to be serious about this.

"…then let's go. I have to talk to my dad before I do anything else."

Olivia grins and drives a foot into Zane's stomach, pushing him into the recovering Jay before making her way over to Lloyd. Cole comes at her with Spinjitzu, but she manages to jump right over him—and into Kai.

"Lloyd!" Kai barks, grunting as Olivia punches at him and leaving him no opening to attack. "You can't go with her! I don't know what your dad wants with you, but whatever Olivia needs you for isn't good—!"

"HEY!" Olivia sweeps her legs low, taking out Kai's and knocking him down. "…as he is now, he's no concern of mine. I'm just serving in Lord Garmadon's interests. And if it's what Master Lloyd wants as well, why deny him of his wishes?!"

She teleports next to Lloyd, grabbing his sleeve and telling him to hang on. Lloyd shuffles his position as the ninja scurry to catch him. His eyes widen as Kai of all people reaches out, struggling to grab Lloyd at the last moment.

"Lloyd, wait—!" Kai calls, but all he gets is a soft "Sorry" on the wind as both Olivia and Lloyd vanish through a magenta portal.

And as before, not a trace of Lloyd Garmadon remains.

Kai falls forward against the roof. He digs his fingers into the tiles, nearly ripping them right out of their foundation.

"…what the hell, I should've been faster, I should've just went for the cage, why didn't I just—?!"

"Hey! Hey, easy…" Cole kneels beside him to calm him down, hands on Kai's shoulders. Kai continues to tremble, but he stops shouting at least. "It's not your fault. We all know we should have handled Lloyd better in the first place…and it was also his choice to go with Olivia. Had we forced him with us, we might've just made things worse."

"But you can't say that this is a good outcome!" Jay exclaims. "What are we supposed to tell Sensei this time?!"

"The truth?" Zane says like it's obvious. Jay frowns at him. "It does us no good to say anything else otherwise."

"What happens, happens." Cole stands back up, scowling at the spot where Olivia and Lloyd vanished. "…and come what may, we'll deal with the consequences."

It’s supposed to be uplifting, coming from Cole. But to Kai? Well, those consequences…they’re already happening.

Chapter Text

A rainy day is a rare one in Central Province, but not unheard of. The boys awake to the pattering of rain upon the roof of the Bounty, and that (hopefully) means no outside Saturday morning stretches or using the equipment today. It's impossible to foresee what the rest of the day has in store, but the only way to find out is to ask.

Except, none of them want to be the one to witness Sensei's mood.

When they'd returned from Darkley's not only empty-handed but with news of Lloyd now willingly being in the clutches of the Shark Army, Wu had been…despondent. Was he disappointed in yet another failure from the ninja? Concerned over what would become of Lloyd? Fear for what will happen once Garmadon returns? It could've been anything, but once dinner came and went, so did Sensei.

And this morning, they did all their chores just to bide their time—Cole took out the trash, Jay did the dishes, Zane swept and organized, and Kai did everyone's laundry with varying degrees of success— but still, no word from their master.

"…do you think he is mad at us?" Jay whispers, he and the other ninja now peeking around the corner of the hall. Kai leans against the wall with his hands behind his head.

"Nah, do you really think he'd pass up on an opportunity to chew us out? Maybe he's just scheming up what to do next."

"Ninjago City News said that the Shark Army's base is projected to be on the other side of the volcanic island," Zane says, running through all the options to potentially go after Lloyd. "I could send my Falcon to scope the area, but for as incredible as it is, I doubt it'd be able to withstand the extreme temperature or any potential defensive measures."

"And neither could we, without knowing what we're getting into," adds Cole with a sigh. "Which means storming the base on our own is also out of the question."

"And beyond reuniting father and son, we still don't know what Olivia's plans for Lloyd are." Kai slams a fist against the wall, sneering. "I don't think Lloyd even knows what he's gotten into; he could be in some serious danger—!"

Before Kai can finish the thought, the doors to Wu's room open with a swoosh, Wu having been alerted by Kai's thumping fist. Kai gulps and hides it behind his back; the others shuffle around awkwardly before finally settling for a bow.

"Sorry, Sensei," they chime in unison, with Cole taking over. "We didn't mean to disturb you, but…we wanted to know what was next for us in our training."

The ninja go rigidly still as they await Wu's response. Wu merely rubs his arm across his eyes and beckons them all inside. The brothers trade glances–it's a not a bad sign, at least.

They step into Sensei's room—something they haven't actually done since they started taking refuge in the Bounty. It looks remarkably similar to how his old room was. Dressers, drawers, and some salvaged pictures line the walls, a mat sits in the middle, with some incense burning as well. It's a strong scent, but not unpleasant either.

Wu takes a seat on one side of the mat; the ninja end up sitting scrambled on the other side.

"I…I'm sorry if I've been distant," Wu begins, folding his hands into his lap. "My mind has been elsewhere ever since Lloyd has gone missing. What can I help you with?"

"Sensei, we were just wondering…" Cole begins, speaking for all of them. "What if we've done enough training? What if we've reached our true potential? What if we're ready for more?"

"Hmph." Wu shakes his head, a scoff at the ready. "You might have reached peak physical condition, but you have yet to reach your inner potential. In each and every one of us, there are obstacles that hold us back. Only when you conquer that fear will your heart be free. Only then will you reach your true potential."

Wu faces Zane, knowing his journey is frozen by his disconnect with other people. He glances at Jay, knowing he's constantly shocked by others' perception of him. He lays eyes upon Cole, who buries things so deep with the hope that they'll never see the light again…

He looks at Kai, who can't come to terms with how amazing and vibrant and essential he already is.

And he thinks of Nya, drowning in expectations yet fearing what might happen if she takes too deep of a plunge.

And he thinks of a lost little boy who only wanted to understand, above all else, why life has to be so cruel, when it is otherwise a gift.

They're all lessons he's seen Masters of the past learn time and time again, over many years of training and discipline. But with time running thin, it is not a luxury they have. It had always been like that with matters concerning Garmadon…

"Only then…will we have a fighting chance to stop the Serpentine from releasing the Great Devourer…"

He hadn't meant to say it aloud; it slips out against his will, making all of the ninja wilt in response. Even with the Golden Weapons and the mechs and Spinjitzu, their strength as they are now wouldn't be enough to face the whole tribe of Serpentine, let alone the Great Devourer herself. It had taken the entire Elemental Alliance and then some to handle just the Serpentine last time, and now—

He only had a few teenagers to fight this time around. And knowing the losses that happened last time, the fact that Lloyd's been tossed into the mix, and knowing just what the Devourer did to his brother—

Wu lays his head in his hands. He knows far too much pain, that's what.

The ninja watch their Sensei descend further into a nearly disconsolate state. Sure, the insinuation that they aren't strong enough to fend off the Serpentine stung a little, and sure, maybe some elemental powers might help a bit. But even when Wu's laid down the grim facts of reality before, it had never been without some hope.

And this is the closest they have seen him to being hopeless.

"There is…more to this Great Devourer that you're letting on, isn't there Sensei?" Zane leans over the mat, placing a hand upon Wu's shoulder. Wu sighs; some of his graveness melts away, turning into regret instead.

"I too have obstacles that I carry deep within my heart. And…there is a story I've never told you."

Wu closes his eyes, recalling the memories of an afternoon spent training in the courtyard of the monastery, wielding a katana not meant for his seven-year-old hand while his teenaged brother taught him everything he knew.

"Long ago…when I was a young boy, Garmadon and I were more than brothers. We were the best of friends."

"WAIT A MINUTE. Now I know the two of you were brothers, but…really?" Jay interrupts incredulously. He waves his arms around, nearly striking the others in the process. "The King of Cruelty? The Doer of Destruction? The Captain of Chaos?! And you two were…friends?"

"Please!" Wu holds up a hand. Jay snaps his mouth shut. "No interruptions!"

X-X

"You see, he did not always have a wicked heart."

A young Wu laughs as he successfully blocks another swing from Garmadon, finally getting the hang of wielding the sword. Little does he know that Garmadon allows him the openings, helping to build Wu's confidence with the blade. He takes care to time his foot steps to compensate for Wu's slower uptake, lest Garmadon overtake him. Still, finally having some kind of sparring partner besides their father is a refreshing change of pace, and keeps Garmadon engaged as well.

However, Garmadon doesn't entirely go easy, either. The openings in Wu's defenses are all too easy to spot. He can't resist setting his little brother off-balance, then turning his momentum against him. Wu squeals as he nearly trips, but manages to catch himself at the last moment. Garmadon nods, impressed, and Wu beams with a wide grin.

"One day, I lost the katana my brother had lent me."

The spar continues, Garmadon getting more aggressive the more Wu begins to adapt. Wu pants, having never been pushed quite this hard before, especially with a real blade. But he can't fall behind Garmadon, not when he's finally starting to learn…

His heart seizes when Garmadon manages to snag Wu's katana with his own. Garmadon whirls his arms around to disarm Wu, but a panicked Wu releases the sword instead, sending it flying in the air. The brothers watch as it soars like a bird…straight over the monastery wall.

"Knowing our father would be mad, my brother told me to go retrieve it. But I refused."

"You dropped it—go and get it!"

"N-No! If Father finds out, he'll ground us both!"

"He'll ground us for longer if we end up losing the thing!"

C-Can't we just wait until he's not home?"

Garmadon huffs, shaking his head and making tracks for the wall. Wu cries out in denial, but Garmadon gives him a cutting look over his shoulder.

"Do not put off until tomorrow, what can be done today."

And with that, Garmadon scales the wall and vanishes on the other side.

Wu waits for several minutes—surely the sword couldn't have gone that far? But he hasn't heard anything from Garmadon since, and there's no sign of him coming back. Where is he? Why isn't he back?!

Dread creeps in as Wu paces back and forth like a madman, grabbing at his head and very definitely about to cry. It's not until his mother arrives with the announcement of a late lunch does Wu fully break into hysterics. He plows straight into her dress and sobs into the brown fabric, barely consolable.

"Wu, dear, calm down—what's gotten into you?!"

"Garmadon's gone!" Wu wails, breaking into a fresh wave of tears. "W-We were practicing with the swords a-and I dropped it over the wall a-and Garmadon went to get it but that was forever ago and now I'm worried!"

His mother puts on a grim expression, setting Wu down in a nearby chair and telling him not to move until she returns. Wu nods, knowing he's in trouble now, but that pales in comparison to whatever must have happened to Garmadon. For now, he just wants his brother back safe.

But destiny was never known to be kind.

"When my mother found him, he was very ill, for he was bitten by a legendary snake that would grow forever so long as it consumed. She used every healing herb we had on hand, but there was none that could purge the venom that now pumped through his veins. While my father tried everything he could to help him, my mother vowed vengeance on the snake that did this…and did not return until she had."

Wu runs through the halls, ignoring Garmadon's echoing howls of pain as he hurries for the front door. He makes it just in time to find his mother putting on her coat, her pink eyes full of both fury and unshed tears.

"M-Mother, you can't leave now!" Wu insists, fisting his hands into her dress. His throat is sore and raw from the panic his family has been plunged into the last few days. And he can't deal with this now. "Garmadon needs you; he needs us, and Father can't do it alone…!"

"I won't be gone forever, sweetheart," his mother promises, kneeling down to press a kiss to his forehead. Wu blubbers with a trembling lip. "I'll be back as soon as that monster won't be able to hurt anyone else…and once it regrets everything it did to my son…!"

Her expression darkens, and Wu swears her face becomes something demonic for a split second. But it's just a blip, a trick of the light, and she's back to sweet woman he's always known. Wu continues to protest even after the fifth time she pries him off her and plops him back into the monastery. His father appears from seemingly nowhere to coddle Wu into his arms, giving his wife a single nod before she embarks on her journey.

"Let her go, Son," his Father says, even as he, too, carries a great sadness in his words. "It's something she has to do."

Wu doesn't understand, but if his Father said so, he would trust it.

"But in either case, nothing we did could help my brother."

The First Spinjitzu Master returns to Garmadon's room, where the boy still howls out with insatiable pain. It grates on Wu's ears, mainly in sympathy, but still Wu hovers near the door. Just in case there's something he can do. But even as his father continues to dress the wound and attempts to flood it of all its seemingly endless venom, Garmadon continues to grow more violent by the minute.

"A great evil had found its way into my brother's heart, for the snake's venom could turn the purest of things wicked."

Garmadon smacks his father's hands away, glaring with an icy hatred Wu had never seen from him before.

"Leave it! Leave me alone! I don't need you! I hate you!"

To hear Garmadon speak like that, to their Father of all people, was horrifying enough in and of itself. Wu stumbles out of fear and knocks against the doorframe; Garmadon immediately whips his head to the door, meeting Wu with a paralyzing gaze of crimson red that Wu will never be able to chase out of his nightmares.

"…this…is ALL WU'S FAULT!"

And Wu's never been able to shake off the sentiment since.

X-X

"…my mother not only found the snake, but ripped out its four fangs. She cast them across the land, then sealed the snake within stone in the abandoned heart of the Serpentine's civilization."

Wu grumbles this part, a hand gripped tight onto his beard. He dares not open his eyes, lest he bear witness to the concerned horror on his students’ faces.

"The snake is the same one the Serpentine want to reawaken today.…is it the snake that took my brother away from me."

"So…the Great Devourer is what turned your brother into the Dark Lord?" Kai asks. Wu sighs, running a hand down his face.

"Partially, mostly. But regardless, it is all my fault. Had I just grabbed the katana that day, he would have never been influenced to become wicked, and he never would have made a play for the Golden Weapons that fateful night…"

He grips the ends of the black robes he currently dons. It’s hard to believe it’s already been thirteen years.

"…a night whose anniversary happens to be today."

Lloyd Garmadon's spent well over a decade imagining what it would be like when he finally got to meet his father. On the good side, there would be hugs, apologies, maybe a giant bag of candy, or even some kind of party. On the bad side, probably a lot of yelling, screaming, arguing, and some crying. Actually, there'd be crying regardless, but still.

An all-out attack on the city certainly hadn't been on his bingo card, and neither was accompanying a Shark lady to a volcanic island to an evil lair.

Olivia walks like she's on a mission, Lloyd trailing behind her with little else to do instead. He follows her through the hangars, several metallic halls, and at least three elevators before reaching the floor of Command Central. Various members of the Shark Army drift in and out of view, catching peeks of Lloyd and whispering to one another. Lloyd ignores it, instead tugging on Olivia's cape to get her attention.

"Sooooo, where are we going, exactly?"

"As you should probably know, your dad's in a whole other realm right now," Olivia explains, giving a small glare to two goons as she glides by. They both flinch under her wrath, and wilt harder at the sight of Lloyd. "The only way to get into contact with him is via the Realm Ripper."

"What's a Realm Ripper?" Lloyd asks. Olivia pinches her nose.

"It's a basic teleportation device, see?" She holds out her arm, showcasing the silver band with the purple dial embedded into it. Lloyd marvels at it with great fascination. "It was made by combining Shark Army tech with Skulkin sorcery, and it allows one to communicate with and travel between Ninjago and the Underworld…and apparently the realm in-between them as well."

Olivia observes the device quietly, shaking her head.

"My dad spear-headed its creation with the intent to enter all sixteen realms, but…well, three ain't nothing to sneeze at, at least."

"…interesting," Lloyd observes with a head tilt. "But if that thing can take you the Realm of Madness, then can't you just take me there to see my dad in person…?"

"Not even I'm that crazy, kid," Olivia sneers. She pushes open the door to Command Central, where the rest of the members of the Shark Squad rise to attention. "Besides, he said he'll be back. You can properly hash out all your baggage or whatever then."

Lloyd winces, but instead focuses his attention on the meeting room that they've entered. A giant wall mount in the shape of Garmadon's head takes up the entire wall, with a waterfall of lava flooding behind it. He then turns to the table, where he recognizes the goons that chased him all the way from Jamanakai to Ninjago City and then some. They all stare back with wide eyes, until Olivia slams a fist on the table and draws their attention. Even Lloyd jumps too.

"Guess what, guys?!" Olivia shrieks, pupils drawn into pinpricks. "We finally accomplished the task the Lord Garmadon gave us like three months ago!!!"

General #32 nervously clicks her pen. Four-Eyes and Angler Goon look about ready to run out of the room. Crusty gulps, glancing back and forth between everyone else before shakily raising one of his claws.

"I-I think…only you managed that—"

"OBVIOUSLY!" Olivia booms, kicking over a chair. Puffer wails and flinches like his life depends on it. "You idiots had one job! One job! To wrangle one kid! I managed it in like an hour when you couldn't even touch this kid for weeks…!"

"B-But he, he…!" Jelly exclaims, pointing accusingly at Lloyd. Lloyd folds his arms and sticks his tongue out. "…he's a menace! And crafty! And way too clever! He somehow manages to get out of everything we throw at him!"

"And yet I found him primed and ready for me in a cage. Weird." Olivia waves a hand over her shoulder, gesturing to the door. "All of you, dismissed! I have to make a call to Lord Garmadon, and I don't need your failures tainting the conversation…!"

All except General #32 file out on the spot. She instead stands with her clipboard at the ready, giving a less than enthused stare at Olivia before making her way to the doorway. Olivia's about to call after her, but then the monitor at the front of room suddenly crackles to life, with a loud clap of thunder booming out of the speakers. Lloyd wails and cowers behind Olivia out of instinct. Olivia snaps her head up towards the monitor, raising an eyebrow when she finds Garmadon squinting at his Realm Ripper's screen.

Lloyd's breathing cuts short—it's him. It's really his dad!

And…he's not sure how he's supposed to feel.

He obviously looks different than in any of the photos Lloyd's seen—his teeth are sharper, his features are darker, and his clothes are those of a fully realized warrior. But if Lloyd squints hard enough, he can just barely see shades of himself within the man before him. The twitch of the eyebrows. The way his nose sits upon his face. The ears, the crooked way he grins, the glint in his eye…A connection exists!

It's really his dad, his mind thinks twice.

"Hello?" Olivia asks, putting a hand on her hip. Lloyd peeks from around Olivia's arm.

"…Hello?" Garmadon says back as more lightning strikes behind him. "What do you want? You know I'm busy."

"Uhhhh, well, I was just about to call you, but…you called me first?"

"Hmph, must've butt-dialed you. " Olivia suddenly feels very concerned. Garmadon thinks nothing of it, instead trying to decipher what in the world is shuffling behind her. It looks like some kind of skittish animal. "What is that behind you?"

Lloyd shakily steps out from behind Olivia. Garmadon doesn't react at first, but when Lloyd raises his head, the man's eyes widen just the slightest bit. Lloyd tries to stand a little taller and stop his lip from trembling, but…

This is literally his dad, and he's not even actually in the room…so why is he so nervous?!

"It…it’s…Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, your son?"

Garmadon peruses Lloyd again, then shakes his head. "Nuh-uh. MY son is bald and has no teeth."

Lloyd's eye twitches. "Y-Yeah, well, surprise! I'm not a baby anymore!"

"Duly noted. How old are you? You're…seven, you're seven, right?"

"I'm turning fourteen in like, five days, Dad."

Garmadon squints again, stroking his chin. "…huh. Has it been that long already?"

"Oh yeah, and speaking of," Olivia interrupts, shoving Lloyd out of the way and pointing accusingly at Garmadon. "How dare you make me go on a goose-chase for some mythical green-eyed kid without mentioning that he was your son?!"

"…because I didn't really want it getting out that I even have a son," Garmadon responds, and the coldness of the truth makes Lloyd freeze. "People are going to ask too many questions and start drawing too many connections otherwise."

He glares at Olivia, and Olivia sets her jaw.

"…and it appears you've already made the biggest connections, haven't you?"

Olivia doesn't confirm or deny. Garmadon pushes air out his nose, shaking his head in her direction.

"You were supposed to have handled this a little more covertly, y'know."

"Don't look at me! It was your obnoxious brat that broadcast who he was all over, and then went on to unleash the Serpentine!" Olivia snaps back, gesturing wildly at Lloyd. Lloyd waves nervously. "And now anyone that's heard of him wants nothing to do with him. Once word of what he's done becomes public knowledge, the whole city's gonna hate his guts!"

Garmadon makes no visible reaction, but Lloyd suddenly lurches. Is that…true?! He…he hadn't even considered that when releasing the snakes, but…that makes sense, doesn't it? He wanted to pave the way for the guy (that wanted no one to know Lloyd existed) to rule Ninjago, if only to give him some kind of invitation to come home. He wanted to seek out revenge on those he felt had wronged him, if only to get them to pay attention to him. He unleashed the Serpentine to prove that he should be taken seriously…only to be written off as a joke by those very snakes themselves. And now they're prowling all over Ninjago, causing more chaos than Lloyd could ever dream of alone.

Of course that would mean everyone would hate him. It's not like that isn't the case already.

And that's...not actually what he wanted.

"So anyway," Olivia continues, blind to the mental breakdown Lloyd's currently having.  "I got the green-eyed kid just like you asked! Now what do you want me to do with him?! Skin him alive? Throw him in the lava?! Feed him to a shark?!"

"For Creation's sake, girl, no! Why would we do that?! Besides, imagine the clean up afterwards, bleugh." Garmadon scoffs. He does tilt his gaze towards Lloyd, watching him carefully. Lloyd blinks back, unsure of what to do next. He's still shaking from the idea that the world is gonna hate him. That his dad is right there.

"…your pupils are still white." Garmadon nods, satisfied. "That means you haven't unlocked your true potential, thankfully. Good work, General #1. You are dismissed. The kid is free to go."

Lloyd balks at the bland declaration. Olivia, meanwhile, is on the verge of losing the rest of her mind.

"…wait, what? That's all you wanted to know?! I could have just told you that!" Olivia hisses, fisting her hair. "This kid's been driving everyone mad for a month and you just wanted to know what color his pupils were?! That's all you wanted to see him for?! What happened to him being detrimental to your plans?!"

Garmadon shrugs. "You have confirmed that he poses no threat to me as he is now. So long as it stays that way, I have no reason to deal with him directly. Let him go."

Olivia's already highly offended at this giant waste of time, but then she turns to Lloyd, who looks like the world's just spun off its axis. His exhausted eyes bug out of his skull, and he's three shakes away from his legs caving in and collapsing to the floor. His conquest, too, was always destined to have a rather fruitless end.

Garmadon acts oblivious to the stark revelations he's caused. He waves somewhat cheerily, more than ready to hang up the call.

"Welp, Daddy's gotta get back to work on getting those Golden Weapons! Glad the fangs came in—"

"…NO! Don't you DARE!" Lloyd demands as he points at the monitor, voice echoing throughout Command Central. Garmadon actually stills, and even Olivia flinches back. "I've waited way too long for you to just duck out on me again! I can't even see you in person! So you're gonna stay right there and explain some things to me and I—"

Garmadon suddenly strikes a rock beside him. Lloyd clamps his mouth shut as he watches the pieces burst in every direction. Garmadon's face twists into something unrecognizable.

"…wait a minute, pause, you think I'm the one that ducked out?!" Garmadon exclaims, vaguely offended. Lloyd's shoulders slump, but he keeps his stance. Garmadon seems to take up the entire screen now, eyes blazing and teeth gnashing together. "You think I threw myself into the Underworld for thirteen years?! You think I'm the one that abandoned the love of my life at the docks?! You think I'm the one that took myself out of Ninjago's known history?!"

Garmadon's voice reverberates like a roar in the large empty room; Olivia cowers and covers her ears while Lloyd can't figure out why his heart is pounding so frightfully.

Upon seeing their terror, Garmadon retracts a bit, resting his hand on his chin.

"…as the saying goes, 'my enemy wrote the books'. And in this case, apparently my wife has been publishing them."

He turns his hardened stare unto Lloyd and folds his arms behind his back. His expression betrays nothing, and yet, Lloyd still does not run. He can't be scared. It's his dad.

"There are two sides to every story; do you have the courage to hear the dark side?” Garmadon tilts his head, crimson eyes glinting in the limited light of the Realm of Madness. “Do you have the courage to hear my side?"

Lloyd stands cautiously, but he nods. It's still more than both his uncle and his mom have probably told him. Olivia, too, looks way too interested, even as she proceeds to use Lloyd's head as an armrest.

"Well, what's a story without setting the mood first? I tried to tell Nya a bit about this, but I've saved the full version for you, given that I feel…you'll have a better appreciation for it."

Olivia wilts at the mention of Nya, but the name means nothing to Lloyd, who just wants some kind of answer at this point. Garmadon fluffs out his cape and begins to pace, reciting his tale.

"As you may or may not know given Wu's meddlesome meddling, my father created this world long before time began with the Four Golden Weapons. And, naturally, being his only son, I assumed all of that would someday be mine to inherit—the weapons, his scrolls, his wisdom, the world, the realm…! One day, when I was older, I would be able to shape the world into what I wanted it to be, just like my father before me. Yet after those first seven years, Wu was born, and I could forget about all of that."

Something melancholic yet nostalgic flits across Garmadon's gaze, but he carries on as though nothing happened. He clenches his fists, biting down his boiling anger. Lloyd hates that he can understand the feeling.

“But, back to the Golden Weapons…my Father tasked us with safeguarding them when he was gone…nothing like having something to look forward to, right?” Lloyd blinks; Olivia looks desolate. “…Wu took that job very seriously, but whether because of the venom or my own personal resent, I did not. I knew those weapons could be used for greater, better things."

Garmadon rolls his gaze, glaring out at a distant memory that Lloyd and Olivia aren't privy to.

"And I suppose that brings us to today…only, rewind thirteen years ago."

X-X

"Sooooo…how DID Garmadon get banished, anyway?"

"…It was a morning not unlike this one—cold, dark, rainy…and the prime opportunity for evil to make its move, apparently. But I would find my hands full with a much more monumental task in the coming days…"

Garmadon steps through the monastery, unsure of what to make of it after years of his absence. The last he'd seen of it had been shortly after his wedding, and now…well, nobody was here. What was once grounds for monks, masters in training, and his own family now only housed one poor individual…and four weapons capable of reshaping the world.

"It had been nearly a year since I'd last seen anyone I'd cared about, you know. If I didn't have the venom in me, the loneliness alone would have driven me mad. I made an attempt to stay away, but my mind would always drift back to the weapons…and how they should have been rightfully mine."

The Weapons aren't hard to find—they hang decoratively on the walls of the library, surrounding the entrance to the catacombs where the Elemental Compass slumbers. Just where they were when Garmadon left, and now, he holds the Nunchucks and the Sword in his hands. The power from two weapons alone consumes him…what would all that might feel like when he possessed all four?

"Just think, those weapons could have been used for so much good, for fixing the problems my father had been too short-sighted to foresee…and sure, my takeover with them might oppose some people, but I would at least use the weapons for a purpose unlike Wu, who simply hid them away and kept their existence from the public. Is that what they were created for? I think not."

The door from the catacombs slides open—Wu appears on the other side, dressed in some of their father's old robes, carrying one of Father's favorite staffs. Garmadon sneers—Wu always tried so hard to appease their father, making him ignorant of where the man fell short. So what if he created the realm? Garmadon could create a better one.

"It was a coincidence, really. I could say I merely sensed my brother's presence, and that's why I opened the door when I did…but the truth is, I just happened upon him by accident."

"I thought Wu had been sleeping—just my destructive luck that he would have been down in the catacombs right at that moment. No wonder I met with no resistance while making my way back inside…"

"I'm afraid those are for display only," Wu declares, stabbing his staff out towards Garmadon. Garmadon spins around with a grin plastered to his face, eyes flickering crimson and bloodshot while the Nunchucks and Sword hang limply in his grip.

"Oh really? Tell me then, what good is a weapon if all it's used for is collecting dust?!"

"Don't be a fool," Wu hisses, and Garmadon can't help but think about how he's taken after their estranged mother now. "Father warned us that their power is beyond any one man but himself—"

"FATHER was the fool!" Garmadon shoots back. He stabs the Sword in Wu's direction, but the words hurt him more than the attempted strike. "If he had all that power, why did he leave so many problems in the world?! Why couldn’t he have fixed me?! He tried to make a world better than the one he came from, yet the turmoil that resulted is equivalent! We could use the weapons to finish what he started, properly!"

Wu sneers, jabbing his staff forward and knocking the outstretched Sword of Fire back. "Our world isn't perfect, but that doesn't mean we give up on it! How can we learn to better ourselves as individuals if there is nothing to overcome?"

"So it's fine to live in suffering as long as there's a lesson to be learned? What nonsense." Garmadon spins around, slicing the Sword of Fire into the wall and slamming the Nunchucks against a shelf of books. "Like I said, Father left one world to escape his problems and ended up creating the same problems in a different one. He should have just stayed from whatever hole he crawled out of."

"How dare you speak so lowly of Father?!" Wu recoils now, shuddering as he stares at the floor. "We made him a promise…and these weapons shall not leave this monastery!"

"Then I shall destroy it, and all who stand in my way!"

Garmadon swings the Sword of Fire down, launching a blast of fire that burns Wu's staff in two. Wu looks on in horror as the blast then ricochets back towards Garmadon. He ducks, causing the Scythe and the Shuriken to tumble off the wall and fall into Wu's reach. With little other choice, Wu arms himself with the weapons and takes a deep breath.

"A day I had long since dreaded finally arrived…"

"…the day my brother and I finally found ourselves on opposite sides of the battlefield."

Wu defends while Garmadon goes on the offensive, not unlike their spars back from their younger, more innocent days. Wu, however, has grown much more accustomed to how Garmadon fights…and even after all these years, his patterns have not changed. He bends backward to lessen the impact of Garmadon's strikes, then uses the Shuriken to take Garmadon's feet out from under him. With Garmadon incapacitated, Wu makes a break for it, heading outside.

"What else could I do? I had trained my whole life to protect the Golden Weapons from the hands of evil…but what could have prepared me for those hands being my own brother's?"

Garmadon chases Wu through the halls, muscle memory carrying him through every twist and turn. He fires off lightning every chance he gets. Wu dodges deftly, then whirls around and brings the Scythe straight into the ground. An outcropping of rock shoots Garmadon straight through the wall and out into the courtyard. He lands in a cloud of plaster and dust, coughing all the while. Wu approaches from the newly-made hole, Scythe outstretched.

"Put those weapons down," he demands. Garmadon picks himself up from the ground, obviously not about to stop here.

"You mean…like this?"

Garmadon cackles as he springs back into the air, both the Sword and Nunchucks held high over his head. Wu barely steps back in time to evade the devastating impact Garmadon creates. A shockwave of pure plasma expands across the courtyard, which still manages to trip up Wu. Wu jumps back to his feet and pushes back with the Scythe.

"It was only a few minutes, but that fight felt like it went on forever. And knowing I was so close to the power I'd craved for decades…I'd never felt more alive!"

The brothers match each other blow for blow. For every sword slash there is a shuriken stab. For every scythe swing there's nunchucks to meet it. At one point, all four weapons happen to touch one another, and the combined energy—

BOOM!

A greenish beam shoots into the sky just as Wu and Garmadon go sailing across the courtyard in opposite directions. Wu, weakened, can hardly pull himself up to bear witness to the catastrophe they've wrought—an unintentionally created portal to an entirely different realm, designed to punish those who used the Weapons' powers so recklessly. 

The force of the sudden creation is also enough to turn the once evening sky absolutely thunderous, with clouds rolling in and lightning dashing across the sky. The earth quakes, the air turns icy…

And Garmadon looms above Wu with the Sword of Fire, more than ready to take the plunge.

"I admit, it took everything in me to even attempt what I was about to do…I could blame it on anything; the venom, my blood, my anger, the temptation of the weapons…but regardless of the catalyst the outcome was the same: I was prepared to kill my little brother to get him out of my way."

"Goodbye, Brother…"

Wu's heart pounds in his ears, even as his eyes shake with terror. Paralyzed with fear, there's nothing more he can do than plead.

"Garmadon, do not do this!"

"It didn't matter what I did—I couldn't bring myself to hurt the brother I loved so much, even if he could find the resolve to do so unto me…so, I did the only thing I could do in that desperate moment. I prayed."

Wu holds out a hand but flinches regardless as Garmadon sets to bring the sword down onto him. However, the letters of Wu's robes, a protective incantation in disguise, suddenly begin to glow. As if from on high itself, a single lightning bolt bends out of its intended pattern…and strikes down Garmadon instead.

"I'll never forget that moment—of being on top, for once in my life…only to have it taken all away at the last moment. A permanent reminder that anything I did would never be enough. There would always be something to drag me down."

Wu looks on in horror as Garmadon transforms right before him—his hair stands straight upwards, his skin charred to black, his ribcage now exposed…and those once flickering red eyes now stay permanent crimson, and pop against his shadowy expression.

"To this day, I still believe it was my Father, from wherever he is now, that heard my pleas. And he granted my wish of me not having to do in my brother…"

From the portal above, a green beam shoots out, striking the earth below and cracking it open. Garmadon, still stunned from the lightning strike, begins to stumble backwards. The edge of the newly made hole freezes over with ice, and Garmadon slips…plunging him straight to the fiery depths of the Underworld.

"No, NO!" Wu wails, scrambling forward in a vain attempt to catch his brother. The elements that be have other plans, however, and Garmadon falls far from his grip, potentially forever.

"…but sometimes, I wonder if I confined him to a fate worse than death."

The drop feels like forever, not that Garmadon would know how long it takes to stumble into an alternate realm. As soon as he hits the bottom with great impact, he dares to glance up from where he fell…and as the earth seems to seal itself back up again, he can catch the receding form of his brother, coming out on top once again.

"…I curse you, Wu. I will be back one day…! And the Weapons of Spinjitzu will be mine!"

"But, as someone once told me, the fastest way to victory is to let yourself lose first. For when you hit rock bottom, the only way left to go is up."

X-X

The thrum of the rain against the window hits harder in the silence that follows, Wu reaching for a sip of tea. His students sit in stunned silence, the story still settling in. Wu takes in the aroma of his brew in the hopes it will bring him solace. It does not.

“I did not want to banish him. I only ever wanted him to leave the monastery…but had events not happened in the way they did, I might not be sitting before you all.”

Zane winces at the implications, while Kai waves his arms around in complete shock.

“I can’t believe you managed to hold him off like that! I mean, I knew you two were basically evenly matched, but he was bigger and older and more experienced—”

“It is not about the size of a ninja in a fight. It is about the size of the fight in a ninja.”

Kai's eyes widen, as if something in his mind has clicked. Wu, however, remains downcast.

"…but that day, I must confess my drive to fight had been sorely lacking."

"Well, who could blame you?" Cole says quietly, gaze aimed at the floor. "You were fighting your own brother, you own family…only someone consumed by evil would ever want to fully go through with that."

"Buuuuut how did you age, like, a century in thirteen years?!" Jay interrupts, asking the real questions. Cole slaps him for being insensitive regardless, but Wu just sighs and shakes his head.

"Life takes its toll on us even when we least expect it. And between nearly being killed by and banishing my brother, having to travel across the lands to hide the Golden Weapons with the Guardians, devising a map that led me to breaking a promise with my best friend, learning that many of my other old friends no longer walk this world, and gathering up their children to confront fate sooner than I would have liked…"

Wu tilts his head back, staring wearily at the ceiling.

"…I suppose I just started looking as old as I felt."

"Ah, stress then," Jay says with a nod. "Relatable."

"…in any case." Wu stands back up, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "You four have finished your current stage of training. You must now focus on stopping Pythor from uniting the tribes, and potentially collecting the Fang Blades. But never lose focus on the obstacles that lie within each of your hearts that holds you back from true greatness. Unlock your true potential."

"But how are we supposed to do that, Sensei?" Zane asks.

"That…will be up to each of you to discover."

X-X

"I'd barely been in the Underworld for five minutes, and already the remains of the Skulkin Army had descended upon me. Long story short, my last "good" deed had been fending them off from taking over Ninjago in the last war the land has seen…a battle whose victory led to the creation of what is now Ninjago City. And you can imagine how happy they were about that."

Garmadon peels himself off the cold hard ground, glancing around at the realm with roads that lead to nowhere…nowhere but the large bone-built castle that looms far in the distance. But Garmadon can hardly make it out between the hordes of skeletons that emerge from the dark and surround him. He recognizes a few of the Generals—Kruncha, Nuckal, and Wyplash—yet one face strikes far more familiar than all the rest.

"Well, well, if it isn't Lord Garmadon…!"

Garmadon spins to find Samukai, standing proud and tall in front of the literal remains of his army. Even in his defeat, he wields a wicked snicker and a helmet upon his head, demonstrating his command. Garmadon just narrows his eyes as Samurai circles him like a wolf closing in on prey.

"My, my, how you've changed…" Samukai heckles, making a show of looking around. "Where is your pathetic little brother, Master Wu? He's just as much to blame for my army's sorry state of affairs as you are."

"That name no longer holds any meaning for me!" Garmadon snarls, betrayal and hurt buried in his tone. "He is as dead to me as I am to him at this point…"

"Mmm, that may be, but I knew your sorry bones would find their way into my domain one day…and oh how I've bided my time awaiting this moment! Tell me, how long has it been in Ninjago since you cast all of us into this wretched place? How long has it been since word of our near victory has been torn from the pages of history?"

"…thirteen years," Garmadon answers, clenching his fists. "Unlike you, however, I'm not actually dead, just banished. I will be getting out of here, eventually—!"

"Well then, guess that means we'll have to ensure that you stay for just as long as we did, if not more so! One year for every General you cast down, for every squadron that you tore through mercilessly and left to rot in the ashes of flames…!"

"To be fair, that was mostly Lady Iron Dragon," Garmadon shoots back with a killer smirk. "I just happened to be in the area and decided to join the side that was winning."

Samukai scowls and Garmadon preys on that, taking advantage of the shift in conversation.

"That very battlefield, where you held your last stand? A grand city sits there now, expanding exponentially by the day…I've never personally been there myself, but from a distance…let me tell you, it's much more magnificent than anything you would have done with the place."

Garmadon grins, sharp teeth shining in the dark.

"And one day, I will destroy it, and rebuild it anew all over again…further putting your mark on history even deeper into oblivion."

"Well, guess what?" Samukai extends all four of his arms, each hand wielding a bone knife. "Right now, it's payback time! And I'll leave a mark you won't soon forget!"

"…you're quite right about one thing, at least. It IS payback time."

"You DARE challenge me?!"

"And you dare to think you can beat me, when I've bested you once before already?"

"You fool, I will CRUSH YOU!"

"…the fight wasn't even anything special; I defeated him just as easily as Lady Iron Dragon had back in the day, evading his weapons and catching him off-guard with Spinjitzu. Those who cannot find balance within themselves will always be wrong-footed by those that are."

Samukai lays defeated once again, forced to bask in the mortifying humiliation of another loss by Garmadon's hand. The Skulkin all back away from Samukai, as their customs dictate that none shall support the weak, and turn unto Garmadon, who has claimed Samukai's helmet all for himself.

"I think…they'll be some changes in management around here. Wahahahahaha….!"

"And from there, I was able to use the Skulkin Army to send spies into Ninjago, using them to recruit a second, more practical army to aid in my escape…and your father, General #1, had been among the first to deploy his services. We spent years plotting the eventual breach into Ninjago City…and despite that first invasion being entirely premature, I wouldn't have changed it for the world. A shame your father had been unable to see my plans through to the end, however."

X-X

Garmadon's tale now draws to a close, with Olivia no longer looking as eager as she had been at the start, and Lloyd losing some of the spark in his eyes. Garmadon looks at neither of them, instead turning his back to observe the desolately depressing realm that currently surrounds him.

“My father, in all his near-infinite power, could create a realm out of next to nothing…but couldn’t destroy a single drop of evil from his firstborn son, instead letting him rot away as time ticked on by.”

Garmadon's cape flutters behind him, drifting on the nearly nonexistent breeze.

"But times change. The wise man changes with them. …Or so my mother always said."

Garmadon holds out a hand, clenching it into a fist.

"But I am incapable of change, of choice, of any agency that my father wished to instill into humanity…I act only on my first impulse, against my own beliefs. I aim only to further my own goals, without regard for others, putting me into the alignment of evil. I want the world to hurt as much as I have…and so, I suppose all that remains of me is a monster."

Lloyd flinches at the world choice; the movement catches Garmadon's attention out of the corner of his eye. He turns back around, and fully observes his son truly for the first time. He's smaller than expected, and angrier…but behind all that resent is the heart of gold he'd always known Lloyd would have. …one way or another.

…but of course, those darned eyes—!

Too much like his father's. Too, too much.

"I…just have to know one thing," Lloyd begins, voice trembling as much as his arms. "I…everyone's told me that you only cared about the Golden Weapons, or getting revenge, or taking over Ninjago…"

Lloyd grabs the edge of his hoodie, tugging it as far as it can go. He doesn't want to ask this question, as it might invalidate everything's he's done. But it also just might finally prove everyone that doubted him wrong.

He had to have been coming for Lloyd that day.

"…When you attacked the city all those months ago…did you think about me even once?”

A long silence fills the space in-between. Garmadon turning his back once again should be telling enough, but the words that follow Lloyd isn't prepared for.

"…I proceeded with my plans as if you didn't exist."

It's not a yes or a no, but somehow, Lloyd still gets the answer he'd been dreading. And it means that everything he thought he wanted…

He can't even finish the thought or choke out a response; only squeezing out tears before spinning around and sprinting out of the room. Olivia hollers and demands that someone grab him, but Garmadon's booming voice overrides her command.

"I said to let him go, did I not?!"

Olivia glowers as Lloyd makes his getaway, digging her fingers into her palms. She watches as the potential best thing for the Shark Army thunders out its doors…along with allowing their potential greatest threat to just leave. She can't even begin to fathom what's going through Garmadon's head at this point, but there is one question left that's straining on her mind.

"…why do you act like you don’t care about him?" Olivia dares to ask, hands clenched at her sides. "That's the real reason you wanted to see him, isn't it? For someone who raves about how much his brother tells lies, you sure have your moments of denying the truth too."

Garmadon refuses to turn around, but he brings his arm up. Olivia swears she sees a tear-sized drop of lava upon his wrist. He flicks it away with little fanfare.

"…it's easier in the long run if he hates me, that's all."

Olivia makes a face, attempting to puzzle out just how deep that statement runs.

"My son never crossed my mind even once while destroying the city."

And that’s the first bold-faced lie Garmadon's told in a long time.

Chapter Text

The Serpentine stronghold, now consisting of both Fangpyre and Hypnobrai, goes temporarily abandoned by Pythor. He instead takes a shovel and ventures out to the more treacherous parts of the Sea of Sand, and he starts to dig. He low key wishes he’d been born a Constrictai.

And, as he has the Map of Dens now, he could always just go free them. But, without the necessary leverage to convince all the tribes to come together as one…

It’s too soon to act on that just yet. But, soon, he just might be able to—

"…you're wasting our time, again, Pythor," Skales remarks. He too has been moving bucket after bucket of sand out of a questionable hole. He unloads what must be the hundredth bucket onto the pile before hurling it at the ground. "There's nothing here but sand and dust—!"

"Keep digging!" Pythor demands. He drives his shovel into the sand with no signs of stopping, even if the dirt just goes right behind him and invalidates any progress. "The Lost City of Ouroboros is right under us! I KNOW IT!"

Skales pulls a very dissatisfied grumble from his throat. He trades his bucket for a shovel, slithering over to join Pythor. "Face it, your first attempt to unite the tribes by using that bratty child has failed, and now that you have lost your flock, you've become desperate!"

"This has nothing to do with that!" Pythor snaps. "Though indeed I am desperate, my disloyal number two…but only to bring our kind together so that we can unleash THE GREAT DEVOURER—!"

"…you put too much faith in legend," Skales scoffs. "Besides, all the Serpentine know is to be at war with one another."

“I’m surprised to hear you say that, Skales, given how immediately buddy-buddy you are with Fangtom.”

“True, but you must remember, the Venomari and the Constrictai are much more…abrasive than the rest of us.”

Pythor grumbles—tell him something he doesn’t know—but presses on with his digging. The tip of the shovel hits something hard, and Pythor moves to quickly uncover what it is with his tail. Skales slithers over to investigate himself. He finds…a symbolic lever in the sand?

"Mwehahahahaha…Skales, I believe we've found it.”

Pythor reaches down and turns the dial. Nothing immediately happens, raising Skales’ skepticism to an all-time high. But Pythor’s face split into a smirk as the ground begins to quake, and walls buried decades prior begin to rise up out of the sand and surround the two Generals.

“I present to you…the city formerly known as…the Lost City of Ouroboros!"

And otherwise known as the resting place of the Great Devourer.

 "…if you're done fooling around, I could use you guys on the bridge," Nya's voice comes in over the ship's intercom. "We do still have a snake problem to attend to. Over and out!"

The boys, having gone on to relax with some video games after hearing three percent of Wu’s backstory, grumble at the reminder of work to do. Still, after some prodding from Cole and gentle encouragement from Zane, they all pull themselves together to hear what Nya has managed to cook up. With Lloyd off the grid, and the Shark Army having gotten what they wanted, the Serpentine now have one hundred percent of their attention.

They gather at the bridge, where Nya and Wu await them in front of the monitor. Nya’s already booted up a map of Ninjago, so that must mean a plan is on the cusp of being realized.

With everyone gathered, Nya smiles and starts swinging around a laser pointer.

"…okay, so, last we heard of Pythor, he stole the Map of Dens from Lloyd. And he's now probably on his way to open the last two Serpentine Tombs."

"Pythor is now our most immediate threat," Wu begins. "If he finds those tombs before we do…well, with his Anacondrai intellect, and the might of the other four tribes combined, there's no telling what he'll do. Especially if it results in the release of the Great Devourer.”

"But those tombs could be anywhere! Without the map, we might as well just aimlessly throw darts at places!" scoffs Jay.

"Let's do that then, shall we?" Nya pulls three suction cup darts out of her sleeve, hurling them towards the screen. One lands in the Glacier Barrens, one lands in the Forest of Tranquility, and one lands in the Sea of Sand. "These are the tombs Lloyd has already located, and given what we know about the Serpentine War, we can conclude that the five tribes would be placed as far apart from one another as possible. So, if there's a tomb in the North, Central, and East…"'

"...then that means the last two tombs are in the Western and Southern Provinces!" Jay exclaims. He slides over to Nya with adoration in his eyes. "Aaaaah, you are so smart~"

Nya smirks. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"Show off," Kai grunts. Nya pointedly ignores him.

"Okay, but even if those are the two smallest Provinces, there's no way we can search every nook and cranny within them and still beat Pythor to the punch, especially when he knows exactly where to go," Cole points out. Zane leans his head on his hand.

"Well, recall that the Serpentine were sealed in the most exotic and dangerous places of Ninjago, save for perhaps the Forest of Tranquility, as not even those who were doing the sealing would want to go to the most dangerous parts of Central."

"Sooo…what are the most dangerous areas of the West and South?" Kai asks. Wu strokes his beard, letting his eyes fall closed.

"…in the South, it's most definitely the Toxic Bogs. It's an acidic swamp that only the toughest vegetation and creatures can survive in. I would suspect that the past Master of Water used her abilities to carve a path and a tomb for the Venomari there."

Nya twitches but says nothing. Cole taps his foot.

"Well, that's one place to check then. But the West is mainly small villages, cliffs, or mountains…but nothing obviously dangerous…save for maybe the Desert of Doom."

Zane shakes his head. "While that is true, it is also correct that the mountains of the Western Range are ridiculously high up. None are equivalent to the Mountain of Impossible Height, of course, but there are still some that not even experienced rock climbers would dare tackle."

"I would tackle them," Cole declares. Zane sighs and rubs his forehead.

"So, what? Are we just supposed to pick a random mountain and hope for the best?!" Jay exclaims.

"No, each tomb had a landmark. I looked into it last Friday," Nya states, gesturing to the map again. "Pythor's had a giant rock fang, the Hypnobrai had their face carved beneath the snow, and the Fangpyre had a twin-headed tree above a tombstone…all standing to serve as a final warning to anyone who managed to get near."

"Didn't stop Lloyd," huffs Kai.

"My point is, though, I'm sure the last two tombs are the same. For starters, there wasn't any obvious snake landmarks at the Caves of Despair, so we probably don't have to check there."

"Excellent, that's two mountains out of hundreds down!" Jay cheers. Nya gives him a dry look. Cole scratches his head.

"…okay, flip the script a little here. Instead of crossing off places without a landmark, what about areas that do, or places that seem a little unnatural?"

Wu taps his staff against the ground, gaining the attention of the brainstorming ninja. "…there is always the Mountain of a Million Steps. It is the second largest mountain in the range, and while I personally have not seen its peak, my brother made the journey once…and said the sight was one he wished not to see again."

Wu straightens up, trying to lighten up a little.

"And if not, you could always use the mountain as a vantage point."

"Better than nothing, I guess." Cole punches a fist into his palm. "I call going to the mountain!"

"What?! But I wanted to see the unseeable sight!" Jay whines. Wu steps in, interrupting before a fresh argument can break out.

"There's little time! Kai and Jay, you head to the Venomari Tomb. Cole and Zane, you take the Constrictai Tomb. As it's been only two days, it's not likely for Pythor alone to have hit both locations…but he more than likely has reached one of them. Be on guard, stay alert for Pythor, and good luck, Ninja."

The Secret Ninja Force gives a collective nod before setting off to pack and prepare. Nya stays in the bridge, a dark shadow cast over her eyes.

"What am I gonna do?"

"I need you here to keep an eye out for any sign of Lloyd, lest he land himself into more trouble," Wu remarks. He lowers his eyes, a frown pulling at his cheeks. "…I know not how the Shark Army managed to pinpoint Lloyd’s whereabouts like that, but given how grave the situation has now become, I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

Nya sulks with guilt, struggling not to let it show. "…yes, Sensei."

"Let's go, boys!" Cole's deep voice echoes throughout the ship. He runs down the hall with the others flanking him. "We've got some snakes to catch!"

"YEAAAAAH!" "WOO HOO!"

Nya sighs, gathering up her things to take them back to her room. Just because she's stuck here doesn't meant she can't work in peace. Wu's gaze follows her as she leaves, waiting until the door shuts. Once it clicks, he’s surrounded by silence, and only then does he speak again.

"…they’re gone now, if that’s what you were afraid of," Wu says into the silence, folding his arms into his sleeves. "…You may come out."

There's no immediate response. Wu sighs, rolling his gaze towards the top of cupboards.

He locks eyes with Lloyd who sits stuffed into the corner of the highest shelf, leering down like a frightened mouse. If it wasn't for the gleam of his eyes, his cloak would have actually hid him well among the shadows.

Still, upon being caught, Lloyd sneers with a bit of panic. "H-How'd you even know I was here?!"

"I know not how you managed to get onto the Bounty undetected—" Lloyd crushes the makeshift Realm Ripper he’d built hastily in his escape. It only had enough power for a one-way trip anyway. “—but it was hard not to miss the way you scrambled up there as soon as Nya and I came in. You're lucky she was too distracted working on cleaning your mess to notice you."

Lloyd makes a face, receding even more into the corner. Wu narrows his eyes, tapping his staff against the floor.

"Lloyd, come down here, please."

Lloyd shakes his head, pulling his hood over his face.

"Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon…" Wu begins. "You come here RIGHT NOW!"

"GAH, fine, FINE! Just don't yell at me…"

Taking a deep breath, Lloyd doesn't even bother climbing back down. He rolls forward off the shelf and alights on his feet, standing up straight. He slides his hands into his hoodie pocket and looks in any direction that Wu is not. Wu still scrutinizes the boy, a thousand thoughts running through his mind at once. Like, for example, why he suddenly decided to show back up here.

Lloyd has more important questions.

"What…what are you going to do with me?!" Lloyd tries to be aloof but the quivering in his voice gives him away. "Wash my mouth out with soap for a year?! Ground me indefinitely?! Make me sit in a corner for a century?!"

Wu narrows his eyes. Lloyd feels his stomach bottom out.

"I know exactly what I must do with you."

“Your father was about your age when he was bitten, you know. But before that point, he seemed so wise about the world, like he could take it on without even blinking…to me, he was invincible, and I wanted to be like him so much. A sentiment you must have shared, and one I could understand, from a different point in time…."

Wu gazes out the Bounty's window, heaving a sigh he'd been holding in for over a century.

“…but I must inform you, young nephew, that fourteen looks a lot different from one-hundred and sixty-four than it ever did from only seven.”

Lloyd sits miserably, warily holding the cup of tea his uncle offered him. He briefly wonders if it's poisoned, but it also reminds him of the brew he'd had at Mystake's, so he gives it a sip. Miraculously, it tastes just as good, if not better. And it's even peppermint!

“You are still a child, and still figuring yourself out. That is not a process that happens by throwing yourself in one direction and dragging yourself through it even when it doesn’t work.”

He thinks of Nya, and also frowns.

“On the other side of the spectrum, attempting to do everything isn’t going to work either. For in mastering everything, you cannot call any one thing your own.”

Wu sets a plate of snacks before Lloyd now. Lloyd eyes them ravenously, but still, there's that little issue of 'potentially poisoned'. But even poisoned food is more of a meal than he’s had in a long time.

“It comes down to picking what you like, what you are good at, and what means a lot to you. And from what I can see, Lloyd, forcing yourself to be evil is not that path from any perspective.”

Lloyd stuffs his face with a cracker, refusing to respond. He knows that, now.

He had just wanted to understand why his father hadn't been in his life, that was all. He couldn't understand why his mom would praise him as a good person yet insist he stay far away from him. He couldn't understand why his uncle would dedicate a whole hall to their family history, yet not include a trace of Lloyd at all. He couldn't understand why his father would attack the very city his son lives in, with absolutely no intention in seeing aforementioned son for the first time in his life. He couldn't understand why his dad wouldn't care about him.

And he still doesn't understand.

But he has realized, that in his bid to become more like his father, he already was.

His father had voiced many of the same feelings Lloyd himself had felt—feelings of rejections, of being blotted from history, of wanting the world to know his pain—and they both had went about it in the same way. They wanted revenge, they wanted to conquer, denounced their family, proved that they existed—!

But, whereas Garmadon had less of a choice, Lloyd made the decision all on his own.

Lloyd wanted to be a menace. Wanted to make people angry, wanted to take control of his own destiny, wanted the world to take him seriously…

But, he finally got to be just like his dad. And all he had to do was make himself into a monster.

…He doesn't want to be a monster. And now, it might be too late to take it all back.

He sniffles while chewing, his uncle watching with varying degrees of concern.

"…I really should get in contact with your mother—"

"NO!" Lloyd screeches, suddenly the most alive he's been in weeks. Wu recoils back as Lloyd scurries out of his chair, grabbing Wu's robes and pleading. "Please, anything but that! Punish me any other way! Torture me! Use some kind of weird uncle-magic spirit smoke spell! B-But you can't talk to her, you can't tell her where I am…!"

Wu's face softens. "Lloyd, she's probably out of her mind with worry about you—"

"No, she probably hates me now, just like the rest of city does, or will, and then it's only a matter of time before the whole world will…!"

Lloyd clenches Wu's robes tighter, struggling to keep himself standing.

"…and if they don't hate me, then it's because they don't even know I exist…!"

Lloyd lets go and starts pacing, grabbing his head and failing at keeping the tears at bay. Wu observes with a great amount of pity, and he fears not even he has the wisdom to cleanly fix this mess.

"…I won't contact your mother, Lloyd. Not yet, at least." Lloyd calms down somewhat at that, but he hears the catch even before Wu can say it. "But I must ask why you've come to me in her stead. Especially since, last I heard, you had run off to join the Shark Army."

"I didn't come here to get interrogated, that's for sure," Lloyd grumbles.

"Lloyd."

Lloyd throws his head back and tosses his arms into the air.

"I wasn't really going to join them; those stupid ninja probably exaggerated whatever they told you."

Lloyd sneers, folding his arms.

"But, their leader said she had a way to contact my dad…and I had to talk to him. I had to find out why…he hadn't come for me during the invasion in May. I had to figure out if he actually cared about me."

Lloyd slumps where he stands, utterly defeated.

"…turns out I hadn't been a factor at all."

Wu frowns, knowing the situation is a bit more complicated than even Lloyd’s aware of. But Garmadon outright dismissing his son in front of him? Even for all the venom that floods through the man’s veins, that is a scenario Wu would never dream to expect.

"…why did you run away from home, Lloyd?"

A clock chimes in the distance, signifying the hour's late into the afternoon. Lloyd says nothing as the constant chime rings through his head, making him realize how empty the Bounty is compared to the Monastery. Sure, everything seems homey and comfortable and warm, but it lacks the same sense of grandness that the monastery commanded. Something that Lloyd had ruined.

And, at the very least, he supposes he owes his uncle a clear truth, this time.

"…you guys were on TV, y'know," Lloyd begins, lowering his head so his hood hides his eyes. "The news managed to pick up a lot of the invasion—of Dad tearing through the streets, of the ninja doing everything they could to fend him off, of the Shark Army destroying everything in their path…"

"As I recall, Garmadon had been aiming for Ninjago Tower for reasons I'm still not sure of." Wu thinks back on the day, stroking his beard. "We were lead to believe that it was to be his vantage point for conquering the rest of Ninjago, but had that been the case, he would have reached it far sooner than he actually had. He let everything else become destroyed first."

"…that's where our apartment is, actually." Lloyd taps his foot, biting his lip. "A bunch of important people live there, on top of it being the Mayor's headquarters, and I'm still not sure what strings Mom pulled to be able to even live there…"

Wu has a slight idea.

"…but that was the one building my dad refused to destroy. And also, because it took him so long to get there, I had the theory that it was because…he was looking for me."

Lloyd trembles, clenching his fists.

"I wanted to go out there, to show him where I was, to let him know I was here…but Mom wouldn't let me. We argued about it, and I obviously lost, and before I could even do anything…you and the Red Ninja let Dad escape into that weird parallel realm. And I'd lost my chance to meet my dad."

Lloyd stares blankly ahead, and Wu understands a bit better now.

"…and then, I thought, if I could become like him, then maybe he'd be more interested in seeing me. If I could help pave the way for him in Ninjago, then maybe he'd come back a little quicker…"

"Which explains why you joined with Darkley's," Wu interrupts. "They could not only show you the ropes for being evil, but they were also hoping to provide easy-ins for the Shark Army…"

"…which would have put me in prime position to be the first to see Dad when he got back, with all my accomplishments under my belt."

Wu sits astonished as Lloyd folds his arms, puffing his cheeks and stubbornly looking away. It briefly reminds Wu of Nya, but regardless, he's utterly floored at how well-thought out that plan had been. Reckless, irresponsible, and more than likely doomed to fail? Certainly, but had things played out a little differently, Lloyd might actually be a member of the Shark Army right about now. All while killing two birds with one stone, and destined to stand at Lord Garmadon's side.

…But he'd been kicked out of Darkley's, intercepted by the Ninja, mistreated by the Shark Army themselves, and had his self-worth shredded by the Serpentine. He'd seen the true nature of his father, he'd realized the consequences of his actions…

And now, he has no place left in a world that tried to pretend he didn't exist.

"…I came here, because I'm stupid, and I dared to hope again…"

Wu jolts as Lloyd speaks up again. His voice lacks the harsher edge it has so far, having softened into something both defeated…yet encouraged.

"…before Olivia took me away, the n-ninja…" Lloyd stumbles on his words, scowling at himself. "…they said that, despite everything I've done…they'd be willing to hear me out. They believed…that I still have the potential to do something good."

He looks dead at Wu now, wide green eyes shimmering as he tries not to cry.

“…but I’ve been trying so hard to be bad all this time…I don’t think I know how to be good anymore.”

Lloyd heaves a quivering sigh, having said his piece. He expects his uncle to agree with him, to say that he's too far gone now, that it's too late to take everything back…

…so when Wu gently sets one hand on one of Lloyd's shoulders, and uses the other to wipe away the tears that have started to fall, Lloyd's caught completely off-guard.

“The mark of a good person or bad person is not by the actions they’ve previously taken; it’s by their willingness to make a better person of themselves than they were yesterday, even while knowing they’ll never be entirely perfect.”

The tears fall freely now, Lloyd's face scrunching up as he tries not to hiccup and fails miserably.

"B-But…I-I burned down your home, I h-hurt people, I unleashed the Serpentine…! How can you treat m-me so kind? I'm…I'm a monster…and I'm no better than my dad."

Wu's eyes widen slightly upon hearing that. From there, he kneels down and pulls Lloyd into hug.

"There is no punishment I could do unto you that would be greater than the way you punish yourself."

Lloyd fully starts to cry now, burying his face into Wu's shoulder. It's a little concerning how often an occurrence this is becoming for the teens Wu's brought into his care, but offering a shoulder for comfort is the very least he can do. Just the same, he wishes there was more he could do. Everything he does…never feels like enough.

“…if you had just been around to tell me all that sooner, I would have never made all those mistakes.” Lloyd blinks, failing at catching his tears. "Maybe I would have never opened the Serpentine Tombs and ruined everything."

“Lloyd, you must understand…” Wu pulls back, still kneeling, and gazes up at Lloyd. “…I’ve wanted to see you every day since you were born. In the briefest of moments I happened to lay eyes on you, I could see your mother’s sense of justice, your grandmother’s cleverness, your grandfather’s love for life, and your father’s talent for seeing the bigger picture…”

Lloyd sniffles, wadding the edge of his hoodie in his fists.

“Th-Then why? Why did you never at least visit?”

Wu glances away, but Lloyd catches the pain he's trying to hide.

“That…was a decision of your mother’s. One that I not only respected, but agreed with. And your father, as much as he protested, was on board with it as well. Mostly.”

“…I see,” Lloyd trails, staring off into the distance. “So it was Mom’s idea to make it so the world didn’t know I exist…guess I get why she didn't want me seeing Dad when he attacked.”

“…not something quite so dramatic nor simple, Nephew,” Wu says, despite the fact his voice quakes. “But…the less people that knew about you, the better. Of course, that’s all thrown out the window now given you’ve broadcasted who your father is along with unleashing a dormant threat—“

“Well what’s the point, then?!” Lloyd hisses, swinging an arm through the air. “I can't go to proper school, I don't have friends, I have all these skills that I can't even use in public, I can't even see any of my family without causing some kind of incident…! What’s the point of me being alive if I can’t even live my life?!”

“…that point, Lloyd Garmadon, is why we went to such lengths to hide you away in the first place.”

The gravity in Wu’s tone makes Lloyd freeze. Wu stares hard out the window, struggling to make eye contact.

“…when you confronted the Ninja, did you happen to notice their eyes? How they resemble each other yet no one else? How their pupils are white with the spark of possibility and potential?" Lloyd nods, and Wu continues. "Those white pupils are what currently mark them as Elemental Masters, as current inheritors of the elements. Did you not find anything peculiar about that?"

“Well, yeah, I noticed, but I didn’t think there was anything that weird about it,” Lloyd remarks. With the exception of the White Ninja, as he doesn't have any pupils at all. “If they're all Elemental Masters, then of course they'd have similar eyes. But it's really not that big of a deal. After all, they look just…like…mine…”

Lloyd blinks, turning towards the mirror that sits near the corner of the room. His irises shine with a faded green in a shade that’s supposedly unheard of, but also—

His pupils are white.

“…wait a minute.” Lloyd steps back, only to stagger against the table. “Am I…an Elemental Master too?! Wait, wait, is THAT why the Shark Army was after me?! Is that what I 'have' that's so bad for…whatever my dad wants to do?”

His snaps his gaze towards his uncle, who only gives a very solemn nod in response.

“…as is perhaps obvious to you now…you are the inheritor of the Green Element…and until you were born, it was thought that the element had passed into the ether along with your grandfather. We made the mistake of assuming it would never be passed on, as only the First Spinjitzu Master could properly wield its might.”

Lloyd blinks, not following at all. Wu gestures for him to sit back down, in front of his abandoned snacks and now cold tea. Lloyd does, making sure his gaze bores into Wu the entire time. Wu sighs and braces himself.

“When an Elemental Master has their first child, the Element they once carried is immediately passed to the next generation, in order to guarantee it continues on. Your grandfather, while he was the one to choose most of the first generation of Elemental Masters, did not choose the element he himself carried—instead, it merely came about by him coming to master the majority of the other elements on his own. As is understandable, as according to the Elemental Compass, the Green Element is all the elements unified as one." 

Lloyd balks, just trying to imagine all that power in one person. All that power in him. Wu, wearily, carries on with his tale. 

"When Garmadon was born, it was around the time of the third generation of the Alliance, and by then, my father expected him to inherit the Green Element. But instead, he had obtained half of my father's Elemental Essence, of which I ended up inheriting the other half. It wasn’t until later that we figured out Essences are a bit more influential than the Elements themselves, and that is why they were passed on before the Green Element. Essences have the priority.

…And when Father had no more children, and then passed on, we assumed that he just took Green Element with him, as no one but himself would have been able to master it with the control, patience, and discipline it commanded. Or perhaps, it was too much of a burden from him to want to place upon another. And for quite a few years, we…honestly forgot about it.”

Lloyd says nothing, his silence only begging Wu to continue.

“When your parents came together, Elemental Inheritance was the farthest thing from their minds. Then, when you came along, we had the thought that you would have inherited your father's penchant for destruction. But your father retained his powers, and your mother saw the green in your eyes…and she immediately knew what it really meant.”

Lloyd shuffles in his seat, casting his eyes down.

"She didn't want you to be influenced to used that all power for evil, so she took you away from your father. Nor did she want you to be thrust into a destiny you did not ask for through my association. As I've told the Ninja, being an Elemental Master is no longer something of a gift, but a burden. And it is the last fate I'd wish to place upon my own nephew, especially not with the most extraordinary element of them all. As I said, I understood and agreed with her sentiment, and thus I stayed away."

Lloyd's gaze rolls back up to Wu. Suddenly, he looks so, so, so tired.

"It is also the second reason I took the knowledge of Elemental Masters and all associated matters away from Ninjago, as much as I could…because that would mean less people would come after you. With less ways to connect your legacy to the First Spinjitzu Master, and thus the Green Element, we had hoped you'd be able to live your life in peace. It's no wonder your mother didn't want you out there when the Shark Army first attacked—out of everyone in the world, they would be the most likely to know what you are, due to their association with Garmadon."

"…and the moment I announced who I was, and showed myself in public…they had been right there after me," Lloyd says with a horrific realization. Wu nods grimly. "…so you were trying to protect me, basically. And I guess…I messed all of that up."

"It is not your fault alone; perhaps your mother and I could have taken a better, less drastic approach in keeping you safe. But our love and panic for you may have blinded us from the reality that by taking you away from the world…we took the world away from you. And I can never apologize enough."

Lloyd sniffles again, wiping his nose on his sleeve. Wu only looks on softly, reaching out with a napkin for him to use instead. Lloyd takes it, snuffling loudly into the cloth.

"For that, I can only hope that someday, when you're wiser beyond my years and even if it is after I'm already long gone, you can forgive me. But I would never ask for something I do not deserve. I am content with the knowledge that you are all right, and that I had the chance to meet you after all this time."

Drying his eyes, Lloyd grabs the hem of his hood and pulls it off, revealing his bowl cut hair and pointed ears not unlike Wu's own. He stands up, and for the first time in a long time, a genuine smile fills his face. His eyes finally shimmer with something other than sadness.

"…well, for right now…" Lloyd trots over, wrapping his arms around Wu's torso. "…I'm just glad you finally told me the truth. And I'm happy that we can be part of each other's lives now…so, thanks, Uncle Wu."

"Yes…I am grateful for that as well." Wu holds Lloyd tightly, as if he plans to never let go again. He doesn't want to, certainly. "More grateful than you'll ever know."

Chapter Text

Bright and early Sunday morning, Cole and Zane find themselves beholding the majestic might of the Mountain of a Million Steps. With the mountain itself being way too steep and narrow, the duo is forced to abandon their mechs at the base of the mountain.

"Our vehicles obviously can't traverse the steps…we'll go the rest of the way on foot," Cole declares. He spins around to face Zane, a small smile on his face, only to find Zane tugging at his very pink uniform and grumbling. Kai must’ve gotten their clothes mixed up while doing laundry the day before, leaving all of Zane’s whites a fresh shade of rose pink. It's a little bit amusing, as few small things ever really bug Zane, but it's also not that big of a deal. He still looks as good as always.

"But…this is the Mountain of a Million Steps," Zane points out, gesturing at aforementioned steps. "Are we not pressed for time?"

"Then we'll take a shortcut!"

Cole flounces his way towards the base of the mountain. Once there, he holds out his arms towards Zane, making a beckoning motion.

"I can scale the side of this thing no problem! And I'll carry you so we'll get up there twice as fast!"

"…how are you supposed to carry me and climb at the same time?" Zane questions. "I know you are strong, but even that seems excessive."

"You'd be on my back, like a backpack!" Cole waves his arm around like that's the most obvious thing in the world. "But I mean, if you want to climb the million stairs, you're more than welcome. I'll have some tea waiting for you at the top in that case."

Zane lets out a groan, clambering onto Cole's back, and wraps his arms around Cole's neck. Cole takes a second to adjust Zane into a more comfortable position, then sets about the mountainside.

…and then it occurs to Cole—he's on a mission. Alone. With Zane. Who he just offered to carry up the side of a mountain.

Great.

"Am I…holding on too tight?" Zane asks, picking up on Cole starting to struggle. "Or am I too heavy…?

"Light as a feather, Pinky!" Cole teases, trying to pull himself together. He's done this a million times, it's fine. There's just a whole Zane along for the ride this time. It's fine.

Zane does not take the nickname very well, making another dissatisfied grunt. Cole frowns—he hadn't meant to upset him further. Nice.

"It's really not that bad," Cole assures, Zane begrudgingly pulling up his hood. "I mean, if the Fuchsia Ninja can pull off the look, then so can you!"

"I would like to meet this Fuchsia Ninja for myself, then," Zane huffs. "And I would like to ask him why he chose pink of all colors, because this is a garish color to wear while trying to be stealthy…!"

"I…think it's because it matches his element," Cole begins. Zane's eyes pop wide open.

"Are you trying to claim he was an Elemental Master as well?!"

"Well yeah, he said so." Cole pauses, lost in thought. "He didn't say what it was, and I don't think he used his powers, so I couldn't find out, but…I'd assume it was that fuchsia element on the Elemental Compass."

"I suppose there is a certain logic to that. But my next question is, why are you so curious about him?"

Cole halts for a moment, resting his head against the slightly warm rock heated by the morning sun.

"He said…that I knew who he was. He told me to ask Wu more about the Derivative Elements, but there's never really been a good time with everything going on, and I'd hate to bother Sensei with something potentially insignificant…"

Cole sighs, resuming climbing.

"…but he also gave me a pink camellia before he left. Not Nya at all, just me. And I can't really figure out why."

Zane doesn't say anything immediately, making Cole shrink in on himself. Had he said too much? Is he just worrying over something stupid?

"…a pink camellia?" Zane asks, suddenly intrigued. Cole nods. "I've studied a few bits of flower language, and in some circles it is said that a pink camellia represents adoration. In others, it means longing from afar, or given to someone who is missed."

"…or maybe he just thought it was a pretty flower to give to a random fellow ninja to say thanks," Cole scoffs, glancing away even as his cheeks start to pink. "It's not like I'm anything spectacular anyway."

"I think you are pretty great." Zane rests his head on Cole's shoulder. Cole's face blooms into red and he's really grateful he put his hood on. "You are kind, and always putting others before yourself…even I fumble in that regard sometimes, though I do not mean to. But you never let anyone down, and I personally find that very spectacular."

"Yeah, well…" Cole pushes air through his nose, digging his fingers into the edge of the cliff and pulling the two of them up over the edge of the cliff. "You two should try telling that to my dad then."

Before Zane can press that subject, he catches a glimpse of the mountain's peak and finds himself breathless. Cole climbs up onto the ledge, helping Zane to his feet as they both gasp and take in the scenery.

As Wu promised, the entirety of the Western Province can be seen from there, stretching from the waves crashing against the cliffside, the snowier peaks more towards the north, the Desert of Doom to the east of them…and even Jamanakai's mountain in the south, and the Mountain of Impossible Height, can be seen.

"This is…incredible…!" Cole exclaims, laughing as he holds his arms out and spins around. "I gotta come back up here sometime! I wanna draw every angle…!"

"It is a little sad to believe that no one will come up here due to being deterred by the idea of a million steps," Zane remarks. "But if a view like this awaits at the end of a climb of a million steps…it is a journey I would take every time."

Cole beams at Zane's simple philosophy, then takes another sweeping look around. He then realizes they're standing beneath a giant formation in the earth…but upon closer inspection, the rock formation actually resembles the head of a Constrictai emerging from the ground.

"Uh, Zane…?" Cole tugs Zane's sleeve, pulling him out of the moment. "I think I found one of those landmarks Nya was talking about…"

"I see it too…and now, I can understand why Garmadon might have loathed this place.”

Zane climbs over what is the rock equivalent of the snake's tongue, finding a hole with a rope attached on the other side. Grimacing, Zane jumps down, Cole following suit.

"It looks like Pythor was already here," Zane states grimly. "Perhaps we should investigate."

Zane expects an answer, but doesn't get one. He turns around to find Cole keeled over on the floor, panting and grabbing his chest.

"Oof, wait, just gimme a second…! It just hit me, gotta catch my breath…! Go…go on and start without me…"

Cole flops back onto the ground. Zane allows him to have his breather, venturing further into the hole.

As expected, it's dark, except for two lit torches on the sides of the wall. Zane snags one of them, using it to illuminate the path ahead. He can't tell where the actual tomb entrance is, but he does find that most of the chamber is coated in concrete. Surely one more measure taken to make sure the Constrictai couldn't just dig their way out.

However, one of the walls is not covered in concrete. The concrete is cracked all around it, as if recently broken, and in its place lies many painted inscriptions whose age Zane cannot even begin to guess.

Of course, Cole chooses now to join him, swinging from the rope with a snicker.

"Huh, didn't Mama Snake ever tell them not to draw on the wall?"

"These images describe a legend…about the five tribes being united as one under the Great Devourer." Zane puts his hand to the wall, bringing the torch in closer to see better. "It says here that once they 'drip venom as one'…they can find the four silver Fang Blades that will unleash the Great Devourer. An ancient being…that will consume all of the land, but will also consume that which threatens to turn night into a permanent day."

"…you get all that from those little pictures?" Cole squints at the scripture, deciphering nothing of the sort. "Nah, got nothing…but what does that mean, 'turn night into a permanent day'? Isn't it usually the other way around with these ominous sorts of warnings?"

"Well, darkness is not inherently evil, nor is light automatically good," Zane reminds him. "Everything is capable of both Creation and Destruction, with neither one being more important nor better than the other. Both must exist in tandem to maintain balance and achieve peace. The same is true for every opposite, as without a counterbalance, there can be too much of a good thing, and with nothing to set it right again."

Cole puts a hand to his chin. "Soooo, lemme see here…if, theoretically, a being of light managed to expel its dark counterpart, that would leave them open to demolish the night, leaving it daytime forever…or something equivalent."

"…I believe this is more of a warning about the Great Devourer being capable of consuming something that would otherwise go unchecked, but I do believe your theory does have a ring of truth to it. I am just unsure if it's applicable here."

Cole makes a face, but carries on. "…but remember what Sensei said? He said his mother was the one that sealed the Great Devourer, and she ripped its four fangs out to do so…do you think that's the same thing as the four Fang Blades?"

"They would be appropriately named, if nothing else." Zane starts to pace, lost in thought. "…but the Serpentine worshipped that snake like a god. I wouldn't be surprised if the sealing of the Devourer was the real reason for the animosity between Serpentine and humans. It would have been a huge risk to even get away with something like that."

"…and if the Great Devourer was capable of outing something so dangerous, then why was it sealed up? Sure, I can understand wanting revenge for losing your son to evil venom, and maybe trying to prevent others from being bitten, but taking away the one thing that serves as a failsafe to a larger threat that even the Serpentine feared? If anything, it sounds like, despite the snake being able to turn things wicked—"

"It…also served as a protector," Zane finishes, realization lighting up his eyes. "Like, perhaps…maybe that of a Guardian?"

Cole's jaw drops, gaping at Zane.

"That…could be…but, the Elemental Compass…the only Guardians on there were ours and, supposedly, that dragon in the center…everything else was just fancy symbols. No snakes at all!"

"Yes, well…" Zane tugs at his sleeves, finding his gloves suddenly very interesting. "…remember that dream I had about the Green Ninja? The one thing I could distinctly recall about him with absolute certainty…is that he had the symbol of an ouroboros snake on his back."

Cole gasps again, his hands flying to his forehead. "No way…are you trying to say that the Great Devourer—"

"…is the Guardian of the Green Ninja," Zane finishes. "But I have my suspicions that the dragon upon the Elemental Compass may still be the lost Guardian of the Central Province, and the Guardian of the Master of…Green, I suppose."

"…But then, if the Green Ninja and the Inheritor of the Green Element really are the same person, then that doesn't make sense. That'd be contradictory!" Cole clenches his fists, determination glowing in his marigold eyes. "We have to take this information to Sensei, and we've gotta make him tell us everything about the Green Ninja, the Green Element, the Derivative Elements…and the Guardian of Central. And the Great Devourer, more than whatever abridged story he knitted up…"

Zane folds his arms, shaking his head. "He is never going to tell us everything, not unless we figuratively smacked him in the face with proof. Right now we only have a series of coincidences and speculation to work with. I could be wrong about the symbols and Central's Guardian, we could be wrong about what the Fang Blades are, and we could even be wrong about our interpretation of the scripture."

Cole drops his guard, deflating like a balloon. "Ugh, I hate it when you make sense…but still, we have to tell Sensei about our findings. If this all means Pythor ultimately wants to release the Great Devourer, then that snake's going to eat everything and we'll have no way to take it down."

"I agree. This gives me deep concern. If Pythor's not here, and Kai and Jay fail to find him—"

"Hey, relax." Cole puts his hands on Zane's shoulders, squeezing them gently. "I know it's a lot to take in at once, but it's going to be okay. No matter what happens, we've got a counterattack ready, even if we don't manage to nab Pythor. If anything, we've got all the—"

Cole cuts himself off, pupils suddenly shrinking. Any sense of relaxation Zane might've recovered from Cole's little speech vanishes into the wind.

"What…is it, Cole?"

"…I felt something shift in the ground."

Zane didn't, but he trusts Cole more on matters of the earth, and readies his Shuriken for anything. Cole puts a shaking hand to the wall, face losing some of its color.

"…yeah man, there's something in the ground. Don't move, I think I—"

Zane screams as a Constrictai bursts from the ground, rocks erupting in every direction. The snake swings its powerful tail through the dirt; Cole manages to dodge, but it lassoes around Zane instead. Zane drops both the torch and the Shuriken, struggling to even move at all.

"I've been waiting for you," says Skalidor, his deep voice echoing in the chamber. "Pythor…sends his regardssssss…"

"D-Did you stay behind j-j-just to tell us that?! P-P-Pathetic!" Zane forces out. He knows the tip of the tail is noosed around his neck, but he can't for the life of him figure out why he's stuttering so badly. It's tight, sure, but he's not struggling to breathe either.

"Looks who's calling who pathetic, Pinky." Skalidor squeezes tighter, and Zane swears he feels something crunch.

"HEY!" Cole snaps, drawing the Scythe with a crazed look in his eye. "Only I call him Pinky!"

He front flips and slams the Scythe into the ground, breaking the floor open. The resulting fault line stretches Zane away from Skalidor enough to escape, even if he does stumble a little. Skalidor just snarls and burrows back underground.

"Zane, get out of here! Go for the rope!" Cole calls, keeping the Scythe pointed downwards. "I can keep him at bay!"

Zane trips, but uses the opportunity to grab his dropped belongings and sprint for the rope. He trusts Cole, Cole's going to be fine, Cole's the leader, he knows what he's doing, he's the Master of Earth—

"BWAAAAH!”

Just as Zane gets a hand on the rope, Cole's pained scream rips out. A flash of Skalidor's tail dances in the shadows before Zane turns his torch on the scene, only to find nothing in immediate sight.

"Cole?! Cole?!"

Cole yells again as he's punted straight up out of the ground, Skalidor following him with a sneer. The Black Ninja smacks against the rock hard surface as Skalidor circles the chamber. Zane knows he needs to escape, ensure his own safety, fight another day, maybe even get help…

But he can't leave Cole alone. Cole would never do that to him.

Cole actually whimpers, scrambling across the floor as the trail of uprooted rocks closes in on him. His back hits the wall and fear paralyzes him; Skalidor's tail shoots out of the ground and grabs Cole by the neck. Skalidor adds insult to injury by slamming Cole against the wall, then increasing pressure.

Zane stands frozen; he's never seen Cole so compromised before, body locked in immobile position as Skalidor fully intends to break him in half. Cole can barely move his eyes towards Zane, filled with the beginning signs of tears, his hand twitching at his side.

"Z-Za…ne…"

But Zane doesn't know what to do; he's never felt so helpless. No matter what, even if Skalidor is outnumbered, they're way out-matched, and he could easily break one of the ninja before the other could even leave a scratch.

Cole's starting to turn blue. And, in a bizarre moment of panic, Zane actually thinks about what Lloyd would do.

Lloyd's faced down horrible odds and somehow managed to squeak out of all of them. No matter what the situation, Lloyd's always managed to find his own way out. When confronted with a problem, he'd face it head on, mainly because he had no choice…

…but when a way out didn't present itself, he could always make his own solution.

Moving on autopilot, Zane spins the Shuriken of Ice in his hands, the frost forming at his fingertips. He moves quickly, warping the icy dust in the air until it solidifies…and a flute of ice takes shape in its place.

Zane snags it from midair, then rips off his hood to free up his mouth. He pulls the memory of the notes that Wu once played from somewhere deep in his mind and puts them to his lips. He plays with all his might, the sound making Skalidor lurch—but Skalidor still has enough strength to grab Zane by the throat and strangle him, all while still squeezing the life out of Cole.

He can't play the flute like this, but…but…!

Cole's eyes start to roll back into his head. Zane fights the pain, forcing the flute to his lips and using whatever wisps of air left in his lungs to play.

"Please, First Master, if you're out there…let me save him; let me save my brother…!"

Zane plays as loud and fluently as he can. Whatever he manages has to be enough, as Skalidor drops him and releases Cole to cover his ears with a screech. Zane stumbles on his landing, finding his foot a bit weak. Cole, severely oxygen deprived, still manages to draw his hammer and take a stance.

"…wrap your head around THIS! RAUUUUUGH!"

He swings with the might of an earthquake, the face of the hammer nearly smashing Skalidor's skull in. Skalidor howls before collapsing to the floor, going out like a light. Cole then collapses as well, gasping for air in a harsh wheeze.  Zane drops the flute—it shatters to pieces—and hurries over to Cole, holding him carefully.

"Cole, Cole, Cole…!" Zane takes off Cole's hood, clearing his airways. Cole intakes a sharp heave of air, grabbing at his chest. Zane elevates him carefully, noting the bright purple bruise now sitting pretty around his neck. Cole tries to say something, but Zane shakes his head. "No, stop, wait until you get some strength back…it's going to take a few minutes for your oxygen flow to return to normal. For now, just breathe as best you can."

Cole makes the smallest nods, letting his eyes fall closed for a moment. And Zane's never been so relieved to just see someone's chest rise and fall in a normal pattern.

When Cole does finally calm down, he cracks one eye open. He can't resist a small smirk when he sees the way Zane's face blooms with relief.

"…good one," Cole hums out. His voice is a little softer than normal. "I didn't know you could play the flute, Frosty."

"I can't." Zane really can't believe that even worked. He's never held a flute in his life. "I suppose I just learned quickly from watching Sensei. Or my playing was just so bad that did the trick instead."

Cole laughs but it comes out as a rasp, sending him into a coughing fit. Zane sits him up a little higher, supporting Cole with a hand on his back. Cole grabs his free hand, steadying himself.

"But Zane…cough, cough…if they were ready for us here…they might be ready for us at the Toxic Bogs too." At that, Zane's eyes blow wide open. "Our little brothers…are walking right into a trap."

Meanwhile, Kai and Jay don't reach the Toxic Bogs until the afternoon, having to abandon their mechs long before even reaching the swamp. The Electric Jet is impossible to maneuver around the clusters of thin trees, even for Jay, while the Fire Mech is so big and heavy it runs the risk of sinking right into the marsh. They're forced to trek through mud and all kinds of foliage, but time passes easily with the way they aimlessly talk about whatever pops into mind.

"Duuuuude I have so much homewooooork…can you do my science for me?"

"No," Jay says for the fifth time, swiping a vine out of his face. "What do you even do during class besides sleep?!"

“I pay attention!…and maybe whisper to Chen and the guys. And doodle in the corners of my assignments. And pass notes to my girlfriend. And like you said, sleep every now and then—“

Kai cuts himself off when he notices the absolutely gob smacked look on Jay’s face. Kai only raises an eyebrow.

"What now?!"

"You have a girlfriend?!” Jay sounds even more scandalized than when he found out about Chen. “When did THAT happen?!"

"I-I told you, not everything in my life has to be related to you guys! And with all the insanity these last two weeks, it's been nice having a little bit of not-crazy to fall back on. Don’t make a big deal out of it!”

"But, but…but!" Jay's about to have a stroke. "You can't just have a romance off-screen?! How is anyone else supposed to become invested and support it?!"

"…okay, I have no idea what you're talking about, but it's nothing too serious. We're just testing the waters, that's all. Taking it slooooow. We might not even make it to the end of the semester."

Kai blinks before grinning to himself.

"Although, I definitely wouldn't mind if it did." 

Jay grumbles, tugging on the ends of his scarf. "…ugh, I can't believe this…"

Kai chuckles, giving Jay a gentle nudge. "C'mon, dude, you can't tell me you've never been on the scene before. Behind all that nerd knowledge you're actually pretty charismatic. Surely you must've been into somebody before Nya, right?"

At that, Jay turns a deathly shade of purple again.

"…oh yeah, your mom did say you had a crush on a boy freshman year, right?! I bet it was Cole—"

"What?! No! NO!" Jay sputters, waving his arms. "I-I mean, he and Zane were super nice to me back then, but…until I became a ninja, I didn't really see much of them because they're a year ahead. And besides, I'm pretty sure Cole likes Zane, but he doesn't want to ruin the team dynamic."

"Yeah, that's true…but wait, oh," Kai says, suddenly gaining a smirk. Jay turns a shade that could rival a can of grape soda. "So it must be someone who's a Junior this year, then! Anyone younger wouldn't have been at the school yet, and none of the other current Seniors will give you the time of day."

Jay pulls his hood over his face, trying to save some self-respect. How is he this easy to see through?!

"C'moooon, you can tell me! Bro Code! And it's not like you still like them; you're totally gaga for Nya right now, which means teasing you about it now is pointless," Kai tilts his head back, laughing. "I probably don't even know who they are anyway!"

"…I…think you know them better than anyone," Jay says under a whisper, trembling now. A little louder, he says, "Nor does it make it any less embarrassing…"

Kai spins on his heel, now walking backwards with his arms folded behind his head.

“Fiiiine, keep your secrets. But know that you can tell me anything.”

“No I can’t! You tease me at every turn!"

"But it's just so easy sometimes—"

"And now I know why you and Chen are on the same wavelength," Jay mutters under his breath. He draws his kusarigama and uses it to hack a path through the overgrown vegetation.

"Besides, how about we talk about Nya instead?! I could go on and on and on and on—"

"Uh, no?? She's my sister, and I'm still mad at her." Kai folds his arms. "How hard is it for her to just stay out of the way?!"

"Kai, she's been more of a help than a hindrance," Jay says flatly. "And she's got as much to do with this as you and I and Cole and Zane do…save for being a Core Element, but like, you know what I mean. She picks up our slack where the rest of us fall short. Why wouldn't you want someone like that around more often?"

"…I just can't risk anything happening to her again." Kai runs his hands down his face, shaking his head. "She was trapped in the Underworld for a week and, Jay, you had to have seen her—thin, frail, could barely stand before I got to her…if a bunch of Skeletons could do that to her, what would happen if a worse threat came along?!"

"Well, if you want my opinion—"

"I didn't ask."

"—I think she'd be more protected knowing how to protect herself than having to rely on someone else to do it for her," Jay finishes, giving Kai a hard look. "Is that not what worked for you?"

Kai goes silent, forced to think it over. Jay lets him ruminate on that as he takes a quick survey of the area. The deeper they go, the more flooded with goo it becomes. The gnarled trees either thrive or die upon coming into contact with the stuff, and Jay can't imagine anyone leading a whole tribe of snakes all the way out here.

"…ew, this place stinks," Jay declares, pulling his scarf a little higher. Kai picks up a stick, twirling it around in his hand.

"Well, they don't call this the Toxic Bogs for nothing! This stuff'll eat through you worse than Cole's chili!"

"Oh, wow," Jay says, watching as the swamp disintegrates Kai's stick in seconds. "Worse than Cole's chili? That's, like, nuclear."

Kai chuckles, tossing the stick all the way into the bog. "…I'd recommend traveling by tree, then. The farther away we are from the swamp and mud, the better."

Without further ado, Jay grabs Kai and hurls up his kusarigama, snagging it on a branch. He retracts the chain, pulling the two of them up into the scant branches of the trees. They all bend and warp under their combined weight, but the extra spring adds a little speed to their movement. Eventually, after swinging across several vines and making it over about half the swap, they find it:

A stone door sits embedded within the largest tree in the swamp, almost entirely imperceptible…with the exceptions of the fang markings engraved onto it. 

And, also, it's already open.

Years of must and stagnant air emerges from the cavern—even just standing close to it sends Jay and Kai's noses into peril.

"Welp, I'm going to need ten baths after this," Jay huffs, his words echoing into what must be the empty chamber. Amused, Jay keeps calling into it as he explores. Kai sighs and lets him have his fun, continuing to examine the surrounding area. All seems quiet, at least…

"Yeah, there's not a soul in this place." Jay's head pokes out from around the tree. "We must've just missed them."

Jay's pretty calm about it, glad that there's not actually any snakes to deal with. Kai, meanwhile finds that his skin is beginning to crawl, because if the tomb's already empty, then—

"Kai! Jay!" Cole's voice yells over the communications. Kai flinches, pressing his hand to his head with a frown. "Is the Venomari Tomb already open?!"

"Yeah, it is," Kai clarifies with a headshake. "Looks like Pythor's already been here, so you and Zane might need to keep an eye out for—"

"No, Pythor's already been here too! He must have regrouped with Skales and Fangtom to divide and conquer! We just…we just barely managed to get away from the Constrictai General. He was waiting for us."

"You and Jay have to get out of there!" Zane's voice comes in.

"But what about—"

Kai halts mid-sentence, blood running cold. There's a ripple in the swamp's acidic water…and yet, he hasn't seen nor heard anything big enough to actually cause it.

He makes the mistake of scanning his eyes over the muck. A green Serpentine head rises from the water, quickly taking aim to shoot Kai in the eyes with its venom.

"Ugh! What….what?!" Kai frantically wipes at his face, finding his vision having gone lime green around the edges. Acidicus cackles to himself as he drags the rest of his snake body out of the water, swiping out his tail and knocking Kai over. The world does cartwheels in Kai's vision as he falls, slumping to the ground and too disoriented to get back up.

"Kai?! Kai are you—" Cole gets cut off when Acidicus takes another whack at Kai, smacking him into the tree. Kai slumps down again, growing more terrified by the moment. One wrong step would find him either in the fangs of a Venomari…or meet a disintegrating fate in the bogs. He gulps, pressing his back against the tree—it's the only safety he has, limited as it is.

"Jay?! JAY!" Kai hollers, shaking as he hears more snakes descending on him. From the few clear spots in his vision, he sees the Venomari rising out of the acid without a care in the world, oozing green slime from their fangs. A few Constrictai burst out of the ground as well, hissing dangerously.

Kai draws the Sword of Fire, but no matter how he swings, he can't hit anything.

His poor vision dissolves into warping hallucinations—which, they have to be, there's no way the snakes just turned into elves and gingerbread men…and yet it feels so real and horrifying that Kai can't help but buy into it.

"Oh, this is not good…not good not good not good JAY! JAAAAAAAAY!"

Jay snaps his head up, heart leaping into his throat. He's never heard Kai yell out like that before. Panicked, Jay darts out of the tomb and around the corner, skidding to a stop upon seeing the rather slow march of Serpentine descend upon Kai. Kai sits in a corner of tree roots, body tucked into a fetal position.

"They're everywhere! Elves and gingerbread people!"

Jay blinks, carefully inching his way towards Kai with his nunchucks at the ready.

"…oooookay, I dunno what you're seeing, but this is no time to lose yourself! I need you, partner!"

Kai turns towards Jay's voice with a faraway look in his eye. Jay catches his gaze and immediately gulps—the normally subdued scarlet of his eyes have now become a menacing lime green. And the way Kai's shaking can't be a sign of anything good.

"…oh, FSM. You're not okay."

"We're toast, we're toast!" Kai wails, starting to cry green tears. "The gingerbread men are going to eat uuuuuuus!"

Jay cautiously puts hand on Kai's shoulder; Kai jumps, trying to swat at Jay but missing terribly.

"Dude, stop, it's me, Jay!"

"…Jay?" Kai squints in Jay's direction. The Jay in his vision struggles to take shape, but something that can't be mistaken is the brilliant blue of his gi. Kai latches onto it like a lifeline. "Help me, Jay…I-I can't see, I can't fight…I'm scared…"

Jay does a double take—that venom must be potent if Kai's saying stuff like "I’m scared" or "help me Jay".

The collective hissing grows louder, and by now, the legion of snakes have readied themselves for a fight, whether oozing venom from their mouths or preparing rocks to hurl in Jay's direction. Jay pries Kai off of him—Kai whines in protest—then steps before him, trying really hard not to count how many snakes he's up against here.

Jay takes a deep breath…and then smiles.

"…how rude of you, Kai, to make me take on all these snakes by myself."

He steps forward, Nunchucks of Lightning whirling over his head. Throngs of Venomari and Constrictai advance upon him, but he strikes the ground with the Golden Weapon, sending out a shockwave. It stuns the snakes that happen to be the closest, but the rest manage to jump up and over the blast, now fully charging at Jay.

Jay spirals around into Spinjitzu, masterfully dodging the shots of spit the Venomari try to take at him. The Constrictai line themselves up, burrowing into the ground before springing back up with an onslaught of rocks. Jay grins and smacks them all away with the nunchucks, then stabs the weapon into the ground. With a yell, and a slight cobalt glow to his eyes, he sends a shockwave underground, electrocuting any and all snakes that happen to be hiding below. Their muffled screams come up from under the ground—and oof, okay, that's a little unsettling, but he's still got Venomari to deal with.

He sees a pack of them going for a still freaking out Kai. Jay moves into action, tumbling back into Spinjitzu to barrel straight into them all. He sends them flying into the bog, ducking as another round of spit rains around him. He snaps his head in the spit's direction; seven Venomari clamber up onto a log, shaking their fists at Jay.

"No need to be so spitting mad, fellas," Jay chuckles, drawing the kusarigama and pulling the chain taught. "You shouldn't poison the moment with such toxic attitudes!"

"Ugh, stop him, he's resorting to puns!" exclaims Spitta. He casts a hand forward, cuing the other six snakes to kneel down and take aim.

"Sorry, but I can't afford to be bogged down right now!"

Jay ducks, swerves, sludges, dodges and dives around all the globs of goop, then hurls his sickle upwards. It snags on a branch; he uses the chain to swing around more spit-shots, then throws himself onto the log with seven snakes. …he's kinda crazy, isn't he?

Regardless, he kicks the first one straight into the bog, then twirls himself around the chain and locks his legs against the neck of the second. This allows him to flip that snake into the third, pushing them both into the acid. Jay lands at this point, leaning forward to evade a punch, then finishes flipping to kick the fourth snake in the head. Snakes five and six jump over their comrade's body and perform a joint spitting; Jay retracts the chain to pull himself over it. He swoops back down, whacking them both with his nunchucks. Snake Four rises once again; Jay gives him a killer look…and Snake Four proceeds to throw himself into the bog.

Jay chuckles to himself, turning towards the still-remaining Spitta with a too-smug grin.

"Your buddies are looking a little swamped right now, huh?"

Spitta wails and lobs several rapid-fire shots towards Jay. Jay yelps as he nearly loses his balance several times, but still manages to avoid getting hit. His limbs are off-center now, allowing Spitta to go in for a strike. Jay grabs Spitta's arm at the last second, pulling himself back up, then throws Spitta towards the swamp as well. Spitta easily descends into the acid, only to rise back up on a wave of it that takes out half the log, leaving Jay with significantly less room to maneuver. Jay scuttles back as the log starts to melt away, looking up just in time to see Spitta thrust a palm into his chest.

"DAAAAAAH!"

Jay slips on his heel and stumbles backwards. He lashes out with his nunchucks, hooking them around the chain of the kusarigama that he'd nearly lost. He's still in a very compromised position, however, as Spitta surges for him with his cheeks full of spit. Jay lurches at the idea of how gross that is, then closes his eyes to brace for the worst—

"GAAAAAH?!" Spitta suddenly screams, stumbling backwards. Jay opens his eyes to witness the scorch mark on Spitta's front, just before the snake plummets into the bog without getting back up this time. Jay whips around to find Kai still on the bank, holding the Sword of Fire like one would a rifle, the tip of it smoking gently.

"…got you, partner," Kai says with a delirious smile before slumping forward. He goes motionless as Acidicus approaches him, the green-orbed Venomari staff raised to strike. Jay's pupils shrink as he grabs his weapons and jumps into action again, the log sinking straight into the bog with his push off.

"Kai, look out!"

Kai plants his hands on the ground, trying to push himself up. He hears a deep chuckling coming from above him, but he doesn't think he can move in time. Acidicus brings the staff down; Jay crashes into him, throwing them both into the side of the great tree. Jay slams Acidicus' head into the bark, then tries to grab for the staff. Acidicus swings the staff backwards, knocking Jay off before retreating willingly into the bog, staff, anti-venom and all.

Jay scowls to himself before scooping Kai into his arms. Kai immediately latches around his neck, freeing one of Jay's arms up to toss the kusarigama again and swing their way out of immediate danger.

The adrenaline wearing off a little, Jay realizes how achy, sweaty, and tired he is. He's not sure how much farther he's going to be able to push himself, and he knows the Venomari nor the Constrictai will stay held up forever. Definitely not long enough for him and a delirious Kai to get back to their mechs.

He lands behind a tree and tries to set Kai back on the ground. Kai, however, refuses to let go of Jay's robes.

"What the—dude, it's all right, you can let go now—"

"I'm not letting go!" Kai insists, going so far as to clutch Jay tighter. "You're the only thing I can guarantee is real right now!"

Jay stares at Kai with pity, heaving a sigh before lifting him higher. "…okay."

He sucks in a breath when he spots Acidicus rising from the swamp again, flanked by all the Venomari Jay had felled and then some. The Constrictai burst from out of the ground again, still sparking somewhat, and all of them eager for payback. Jay gulps, not sure how he's supposed to get himself and Kai out of this one.

It's then that the Ice Tank rips its way through the swamp, icing a path for itself to travel safely on over the bogs. Zane drives like a maniac (and honking the horn) while Cole stands on the hood yelling with a manic battle cry, using the Scythe of Quakes to propel them faster along the ground.

"Anyone order a little kick butt?!" he hollers. Upon seeing the army of snakes closing on Jay and Kai, Cole scowls and twirls the Scythe over his head, then raises it as high as he can. A large outcropping of earth jets through the swamp, cutting off the snake menagerie from reaching Jay and Kai. A few snakes still try to make their way over the newfound barrier; Zane slams a fist on the ice launcher and chills over any other snakes that dare to try.

"Guys, you're here!" cheers Jay, trying to wave even while still balancing with Kai. Kai's not actually all that heavy, but he's so tall. Zane drifts the Ice Tank to a stop, he and Cole hurriedly running over to their brothers.

"You missed it, guuuuuys!" Kai chirps with a flighty edge to his voice. "Jay fought the gingerbread people aaaaalll by himself! He was incredible! And really funny!"

Zane and Cole blink before trading a glance.

"…Symptoms indicate that Kai must be high right now." "Pics or it didn't happen."

Jay makes a face at both of them. "Why is it so hard to believe I did something cool for once?!"

"Forget that, what even happened here?!" Cole demands, glancing with worry at Kai. "Was he bit or something?!"

"No! No, the Venomari General just shot spit into his eyes, and now he's hallucinating…like, really badly." Jay winces. "I-I tried to get the anti-venom, but I couldn't do that and protect Kai…"

Cole plops a hand onto Jay's shoulder. "It's okay, that's why we're here now."

"…and so is Pythor," Zane says grimly, quickly drawing his Shuriken. Cole and Jay follow Zane's gaze, spotting Pythor emerging from behind a random crevice, snickering to himself.

"FOOLS!"

Jay wails at the top of his lungs and nearly drops Kai. Cole and Zane jump protectively in front of them, with Zane using the Shuriken to whip up another flute. Before he can even play a single note, however, Pythor snaps out his tail and drags the flute out of Zane's grip.

"…oh, no, let's not have music ruin things, mmm?"

Pythor casts out his staff; the legions of Constrictai and Venomari advance upon the ninja again, cutting them off from the Ice Tank or any other methods of escape. They're forced to the edge of bog, where one of the Constrictai breaks up the ground and sends the ninja's little outcropping into the bogs…where it slowly begins to submerge into the acid.

"Mmmhmm…I've got a sinking feeling…that this may be the last I see of you four."

"Dang it, he's good," Jay scoffs, trying not to be put off by how absolutely sinister that sounded.

"…okay, that’s it, I officially hate snakes, and they are the worst," Cole complains.

"What are we supposed to do?" Zane asks. "We cannot stay here, but trying to get back to shore will result in the Serpentine overpowering us."

Cole puts his hands on his head, palms pushed into his eyes. "Everyone relax, just give me a moment to think…"

"Waaaaaait…" Kai drawls, feebly pointing to the distance. "Do you guys seeee that…? A magic floating rope! We can climb to saaaaafety…!"

Kai stumbles out of Jay's hold and nearly throws himself onto the acid. Jay snags the back of his gi at the last moment. He grabs Kai's hand just to ensure he's got a firm grip on him still.

"…woof, that Venomari venom is some powerful stuff!"

"Yeah it is, if it can even make Kai think you're funny," Cole remarks.

"How can you say that when we're ABOUT TO DIE?!"

"Oh, like you've never had a quip ready any other time we're in peril! I'm still mad about the bone puns against the Skulkin…"

"Psh, those were just the bare-bones of my humor—"

"SEE?!"

Cole and Jay's bickering is interrupted by the increases sizzling of their waning chunk of land. The four shuffle closer together, their safe ground very quickly running out. Jay tightens his hold on Kai's hand, and Zane hooks his arm around Cole's.

"…for whatever it is worth, it was an honor to fight beside you all," Zane says, accepting his fate. Cole immediately tears up, while Jay just loses it right then and there.

"Zaaaane, no, you can't say things like that! Cuz then Cole's gonna cry and then I'm gonna cry—!"

"Yeah…me too," is all Cole says, leaning against Zane and shutting his eyes. Jay sniffles, pushing against Zane from the other side.

"Ditto for me."

"Love you guys," Kai says, staring straight ahead with no emotion on his face whatsoever. But, his words are still nothing short of the truth.

The rock starts to crack, and it looks like Zane's about to be the first to meet an acidic end…but then, a rope drops from above right in front of them.

"…hey, WHAT?!" Cole yelps. Kai starts making grabby hands.

"The magic roooooope…!"

"…are we all hallucinating now?" Zane asks. Jay clicks his tongue and guides Kai over to the rope.

"Quick, everyone, climb over!"

The chuckling Serpentine back on the bank immediately go on the offensive. Pythor in particular growls to himself, until the sound of a propellor erupts behind him, along with dust being kicked into the air.

What can only be described as a giant, red, robotic samurai drops from the canopy and lands like a rocket ship. The Venomari and Constrictai all freeze in place, marveling at its might. The Samurai raises one of its giant clawed hands…and fires out a rope that captures a good chunk of the snakes' numbers. Those still free start screaming and running for their lives, with the Constrictai diving into the dirt and the Venomari swimming right back into the swamp.

The Samurai then turns towards Pythor, who actually gulps as he slithers a few paces back.

"…oh dear," he drolls, finding himself on the business end of a small black cannon.

"…Pythor: Target Confirmed," a very mangled and robotic voice rings out, the Samurai pointing decisively at the Anacondrai.  "Time to Bag…and Tag."

Pythor doesn't wait around—he books it as fast as he can away from the Samurai. The Samurai just raises a wrist, firing off a dart that strikes Pythor in the small of his back. He yelps in agony but presses on, swerving behind a tree for some cover. The Samurai doesn't move to follow him, instead finding themselves flanked by the return of the very confused ninja.

They all put their weapons away, now that the threat has scattered…and the Samurai steps down out of their suit. The helmet upon their head hides any trace of their identity, nor is anything given away by their body movement.

"Who…are you?" Cole asks, staring down at the high-tech warrior.

"How about the COOLEST thing I've ever seen?!" Jay exclaims, stars in his eyes as he hops around.

"…Santa?!" Kai gasps. The Samurai tilts their head in confusion at that, all while Zane steps forward and drops into a bow.

"…thank you, mysterious warrior," he says, wearing a soft fond smile. "I owe you my life for saving—"

The Samurai lifts their hand again, expelling a gas that knocks Zane out almost immediately. Cole instantly draws his Scythe again while Jay pulls out his own weapons.

"Hey that wasn’t nice!" Jay snaps. Cole moves to attack, but the rest of the ninja find themselves dosed by the mysterious mist as well. They all drop to the ground like dead flies. The Samurai stills for a moment, as if contemplating their actions, before ziplining themselves back into the cockpit of the suit and blasting off again.

And eventually, not too long later, the Destiny's Bounty comes back for them.

When Kai opens his eyes, the green haze hasn't quite left his vision, but it's clear enough to see that he's back in his own bunk on the Bounty. He glances around, surveying the damage: Cole sits up in the bunk beneath him, rubbing at the bruise on his neck. Zane, still dressed in pink, walks with a slight limp, unsure of how it even got there or what's causing it. Jay's passed out completely, gently snoring and oblivious to all the noise Zane's making. And Kai's still high as a kite on Venomari spit.

Definitely confirmed by the fact that he spies Lloyd Garmadon lingering at the doorway, hood off and studying all of them quietly.

"…please tell me I'm imagining the Garma-spawn in the room right now," Kai says wearily. Lloyd shrieks upon being acknowledged, alerting Jay back into consciousness and causing Cole and Zane to snap their gazes back towards the door. All four cast variously differing gazes onto Lloyd, but all of them do confirm that they're seeing him too.

"Well if you're seeing it, it's either real or I'm on that spit too," Cole declares.

"Have we been infiltrated?" Zane wonders. "Or do you think Sensei knows about this…?"

Kai glances back at Lloyd; the kid looks like he wants to bolt at the first chance he's got. But he's carrying a tray, and fighting past the shock, Kai realizes that it holds a teapot along with four cups. A quick whiff of the air makes it obvious that it's some of Wu's more medicinal brews.

"…Uncle Wu wanted me to bring this to you," Lloyd says, his words tilted and not nearly as screechy as usual. It's almost like he's a whole new person. "It's supposed to help you feel better."

Lloyd carefully steps into the room, like he's afraid they might attack, and places the tray on the table. When the ninja still continue to look at him like he's a ghost, Lloyd drops into a quick bow then speeds back into the hall. There's a brief moment of stunned silence before Kai, Cole, and Zane scramble out of their beds to follow after Lloyd. Jay topples off his bunk, snags a cup of tea to go, and hurries on after the others.

They find the room at the end of the hall with its light on—an extra room they had planned to use for future storage. But now, as they all fight to take a peek, they find that it has been transformed into a boy's bedroom. Lloyd lies tucked in a spare bed no one knew they had—it's entirely possible either him or Wu whipped it up–as Wu sits by the bedside reading a story. Lloyd can't even keep up with the end of it, already bidding his uncle goodnight before he can finish the current page. Wu smiles softly, face aglow in a way the ninja have never witnessed, and moves to step out the door.

He's only half surprised to find the ninja staring him down with disbelief.

"…I don't get it, Sensei," Kai says, although he does look like he wants to.

Jay, meanwhile, does not.

"Why isn't that little brat being punished?! Instead he gets an entire room to himself in our ninja headquarters?!"

"Yeah, we had to train for days and nearly get killed in snake tombs, and he gets read a bedtime story and treated to tea?! After everything he's done?! It's not fair!" Cole complains.

"And what about our identities?" asks Zane, slightly concerned. "Can we trust him?"

"…it's one thing to let the son of your nemesis live with you, but we've already got my sister here! I mean, come on! I thought this was a secret ninja force…!" Kai agrees.

Wu takes on the barrage of accusations, only calmly folding his arms behind him.

"…so you mean to say that the only way to resolve every issue is with punishment?"

The ninja nod, although hesitantly now.

"Well then, under that logic, I perhaps should punish you for hanging Lloyd from a sign? Or for telling Nya about the Ninja Force in the first place? Or for jumping into the flames of a burning building? Or for making Jay do your homework in your stead?"

"…hey, why are you singling me out specifically?" whines Kai.

"Retribution comes in more ways than just punishment," Wu says. "…but Lloyd himself told me that you believed he could still be good. Do you mean to tell me that was a lie? That he went out of his way to speak highly of you despite your differences thus far?"

The ninja recoil, all at a loss for an answer. 

"I concede that he has much work to do in order to earn your trust. But just the same, those first steps cannot be taken without a foundation to walk on. Should you build a wall between yourselves and Lloyd instead of a bridge, no progress forward can be made."

Silence continues to answer Wu. Regardless, Wu presses on.

"...do you remember a few days ago, when I asked you what the best way to defeat your enemy was? You never did give me your answer, did you?"

The four recoil, having completely forgotten about the task. Wu watches them with a little amusement, shaking his head.

"Perhaps you should still be training, or ruminating on the answer to that riddle, if you have the time to question my decision about Lloyd."

"...sorry, Sensei," Kai concedes, his shoulders slumping. "We...couldn't figure out what the best way to defeat your enemy is."

The boys sadly start trotting off, only halted by the suddenness of Sensei's next words.

"It is...to make them your friend."

Cole, Jay, and Zane all gasp in immediate realization. Of course the best way to defeat your enemy would be to make them your ally. Kai, meanwhile, doesn't seem fully convinced. Wu turns to him, a questioning glint in his eye. 

"What if...that doesn't...always work?" Kai asks quietly. He really hates to doubt Wu's wisdom like this, but... "What if...there's people you just can't befriend, for whatever reason, no matter how hard you try...?"

"Like Garmadon?" Zane says.

"Like Olivia?" adds Cole.

"Like Chad?" finishes Jay. Kai wilts further with each name, but nods.

"Yeah...like them." 

Kai sulks, not expecting Wu to walk up next to him. Wu puts a hand on Kai's shoulder. 

"It is never wrong to at least try. And, should it not work out...it is important to understand why." 

It's not entirely the answer Kai had been seeking, but it does make him feel somewhat better. He pulls away from the others to peek back into Lloyd's room. He's surprised at how peaceful Lloyd looks while he's sleep. Hard to believe it's the same kid that ran up and down the streets of Jamanakai demanding candy.

But just the same, it makes it all the more obvious that he could change, if he is allowed the room to do so.

"…all right, Sensei," Kai concedes, curling his hand into a fist. "We'll give Lloyd a chance."

And hopefully, they won't come to regret it.

Chapter Text

Good things don't just happen to Lloyd Garmadon.

And that's why, when he stares at the pristine care package begrudgingly placed next to his breakfast in Darkley's school cafeteria, his eyes nearly fall out of his head. He's never actually met with a grandmother of any kind, but if somehow she knows he's here and is looking out for him…well then, she's a pretty cool grandma. And more supportive than his parents in the moment, at the very least.

Lloyd drags the box close to him, lest too many of the other kids get curious, and carefully peels off the protective tape. The lid pops off, like prying open the lid of a treasure chest—

His gasp probably gives him away, but he can't help it—sure, there's a few things of clothes and a couple packs of supplies…but also…there's some brand new toys and a ton of candy stuffed in here!

In this bleak, bleary den of a school, such simple luxuries were unheard of. Too colorful, pleasant, and delighting to be allowed in a facility for evil. Lloyd doesn't even know how the box got in without being ransacked to death, but it's here. Gummy bears, gummy worms, sour jawbreakers, peanut-butter filled chocolate bites, pieces that turn your tongue blue, pieces that gush out filling when you bite them…and even…peppermints…!

This is turning out to be the greatest day Lloyd's had in a very, very long time. 

But as he's about to stuff his whole face into whatever bag he grabs first, Lloyd's wrist is suddenly seized by one of the boys from the one table over—Finn, if he recalls correctly. He's flanked by the smirking faces of Gene, Mikey, and Tommy, while Brad stands behind them squirming about.

"Hey there, Garmadon!" Finn exclaims with false cheer. He releases Lloyd from his grip to pull out the chair beside him, plunking down into it backwards. Lloyd leans away, tugging his box more securely under his arm.

"…hi. What do you guys want?" Lloyd squints at them all, on the verge of baring his fangs. "I thought you guys wanted nothing to do with me…"

"That's not exactly—" Brad begins, but Gene elbows him to get him to shut up. Tommy, meanwhile, leans his elbows on the back of Lloyd's chair, tipping it up off the ground. Lloyd yelps at the sudden loss of floor, while Mikey and Finn snicker at his plight.

"We just couldn't help but notice that nice stash ya got there," Finn continues, plunking his elbows onto the table. "And a true evil genius would know to pass off some of the goods with his fellow nefarious cohorts."

"Yeah, and we know how much you like to share," teases Mikey. "Weren't you trying to give Brad some flowers or something the other day?"

The crowd breaks out into cackles; Brad laughs nervously, while Lloyd grits his teeth.

"…well, if I was truly evil, which I am, I wouldn't have to share with you guys, as being selfish is seen as being evil. And if I wasn't kind, which I'm not, I would tell you all to buzz off already and get your own!"

Brad snickers under his breath; Finn's expression suddenly goes dark.

"…augh, he's trying to psyche us out again!" whines Tommy, shaking Lloyd's chair. While Lloyd's distracted trying to get him to stop, Finn swipes the box out of Lloyd's grip, helping himself to a few packs of candy out of it. He hands the packs off to Gene to hold, then tosses the box Mikey's way. Mikey struggles to catch it out of the blue.

"Here, get rid of the rest of it! We can eat these now, but the staff will kill us if they catch us hoarding contraband."

"Whaddya want me to do with it?!" Mikey demands. Finn waves a hand around.

"I dunno, do that weird whoosh thing you do when you hide all your other confiscated junk."

Mikey narrows his violet eyes. "I-It's not a 'weird whoosh' thing—!"

"Just hurry before my dad decides to show up!" Gene hisses through his teeth. "You're making too much of a scene!"

"No, give it back! My grandmummy gave it to me!" Lloyd protests, now held back by Tommy. "THAT'S MY CANDY!!!"

Panicking, Mikey doesn't really know what to do, but the sudden tension of the moment causes him to drop the box—and upon hitting the floor, the box explodes in a violet poof of smoke, turning into a giant mound of worms, bugs, and mud.

"…oh, gross, gross, gross, GROSS—!"

Brad screams, Gene recoils, and Tommy lets go of Lloyd to fling himself onto the safety of the table. Even Mikey looks a little distressed, while Finn calmly rips open one of the bags of candy. He takes out a handful, eating it right in front of Lloyd without remorse. Lloyd, meanwhile, tightly grips the edges of his hoodie, feeling his eyes well up with tears.

"That might've been too far, guys," Brad declares, eyes narrowed. Mikey throws up his hands, trembling.

"Sh-Shut up! I panicked, I couldn't think with everyone yellin' at me—!"

"You…" Lloyd hiccups on his words, squeezing his eyes shut. "You didn't have to do that…"

The other five boys just stare down at Lloyd, until Finn heaves a sigh and puts a hand on his hip.

"…ugh, you really do take the fun out of everything, sheesh." Finn shakes his head. "Don't you know the way to make friends around here is to pull pranks on them?"

"And we mean real pranks, not whatever hot garbage you cobble up in an attempt to look bad." Gene folds his arms and scoffs.

"This wasn't a prank, though," Lloyd pouts, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes. Mikey leans down, sees Lloyd starting to cry, and snarls.

"…jeeeeeez, this is why no one will ever like you, Cry Baby," Mikey huffs. "The more we try to harden you up, the softer you get, I swear."

And thus, Lloyd starts to cry for real this time, scrambling out of his chair and out of the cafeteria, slamming the door behind him as he leaves.

X-X

Lloyd wakes up with a choking gasp and a pillow damp with tears. He flails around, trying to fight out of his little blanket entrapment, and finally manages to sit himself up. He's not entirely sure if that was a faded memory or a very specific emotional dream or some mishmash of the two. Either way, his head hurts, his heart aches, his cheeks are soggy, and it's barely four o'clock in the morning. He's not going to be able to fall back asleep like this. He heaves a defeated sigh.

He is glad for the candlelight his uncle left him though, and if he'd woken up in pure darkness he might've completely lost his mind. The creaks of the ship and the rolling of the waves outside are already unfamiliar enough. And…he swears he smells something sweet coming from the kitchen. His stomach rolls in protest.

Maybe a snack will help.

Lloyd carefully pads to the kitchen, taking great care to avoid any floorboards that might accidentally make too much noise. The last thing he needs is to get on the bad side of a bunch of grouchy ninja. The Bounty’s not that big, and there’s really only one or two directions to go, so he finds the kitchen without difficulty.

He also finds the White Ninja, holding a knife.

Lloyd thankfully doesn't scream, but there's a soft dripping sound echoing out, and Lloyd's mind immediately jumps to blood. What is this psychopath cutting up in here, bodies?! Is Lloyd next?! 

His skin grows cold when White's icy, pupilless gaze cuts towards him. White's eyes seem to have a soft glow in the dark, which is already horrifying enough, but then White suddenly reaches his free hand out towards Lloyd…and hits a light switch over Lloyd's shoulder, illuminating the room further. Lloyd wails and takes to the ground while White just blinks down at him.

"Oh, hello, Lloyd. What are you doing up at this hour? Not even J–erm, Blue stirs this early."

Lloyd blinks, trying to gather his wits again as he reassesses the situation. Yes, White's holding a knife, but given the sheer amount of stuff on the counter, he's just cutting up some fruit. And the dripping sound is from the sink—the faucet hasn't been turned off all the way. White fixes it without so much as a flinch. Lloyd stands back up and stomps his foot.

"…why were you prepping ingredients in the dark?! You nearly gave me a stroke!"

White only blinks, returning to his spot behind the counter.

"Turning too many lights on disturbs the others. And I tend to not need as much light as everyone else does when they work."

Probably not when your eyes glow in the dark, Lloyd thinks snidely.

…on the other hand, that does sound kind cool. But now's not the time.

"You never did say why you are here," White points out. Lloyd makes a face, but opts to pull himself into a seat at the counter. White's one to talk, given that all this is…odd to do just after four in the morning, but then again, maybe it’s part of a normal Lloyd knows nothing about. He tries not to judge.

"I couldn't sleep and got hungry, s'all," Lloyd supplies. He barely knows where he stands with any of the ninja, let alone this creepy one, so he'll play his cards close to his chest for now. No need to confess to nightmares. Still, his quest for a snack is momentarily replaced by an insatiable curiosity. "What are…you up to?"

"I always get up early when it is my turn to prepare breakfast. Which, granted, is most days of the week, but I do not mind. Preparing breakfast is one of my favorite activities."

Lloyd doesn't think he'd ever want breakfast enough to get up at the crack of dawn for it, but nothing's even cooking yet and it already smells heavenly. Plus White hasn't chased him out yet, so he gets comfortable on his little stool and just observes. It's better than risking another stressful dream.

White whisks his way around the room as he does a spoon around a bowl. He opens cupboards with practiced ease and makes many visits to the fridge. Lloyd can’t even tell what he’s making yet, but it must be something White’s made a thousand times. The only thing he consults the recipe for is to make sure he’s still on the right track.

Lloyd wishes he could just ask, but the tension in the air is choking him. How do you just accept that the twerp that terrorized you—and is also the son of your biggest threat—is now under your roof, eating your food, taking your bed, interrupting you while you work…

Lloyd shrinks into himself. Maybe he shouldn’t have come here after all.

“…I am making muffins, if that is what you wished to know.”

“What?!” Lloyd snaps his head up at having his existence acknowledged. White stares blankly back at him, strapping on a pink apron before beginning to stir more batter.

“I am making muffins as an appetizer for today’s breakfast. Have you ever made muffins before, Lloyd?”

The first thought that goes through Lloyd’s mind is ‘dang, if muffins are just the appetizer then what’s the meal?’

The second thought is, does Lloyd know how to make muffins?

“I…I mean, my mom’s made them a couple of times.” He puts a hand to his chin, thinking. “They’re nothing spectacular, but they were still good. I…didn’t do much to help though.”

White only nods, which gives Lloyd absolutely nothing to work with on what his takeaway is. White just sets down the bowl, pushing it towards Lloyd.

“Here, you can stir that for me, then. I have a few other things to get ready in the meantime.”

Lloyd, now suddenly with a bowl and spoon in hand, meagerly does what he’s told. White watches him with a few shades of disbelief, then carries on flitting about the kitchen. He speaks as he darts around, yet never once loses his focus. Lloyd can't help but find it slightly impressive.

“My father is the one that taught me the recipe…but my mother is the one that perfected it.”

White pulls out a variety of boxes that Lloyd can’t identify, but he does spot a bag of chocolate chips that look incredibly appetizing.

“With such a strong batter as the base, my mother taught me that I can make any flavor I want from it. But with so many unique palates to satisfy—" White gestures out the door. “—it is impossible to commit to just one flavor.”

Lloyd looks closer at White’s spread, and realizes that they’re all things for different versions of muffins. There’s bananas, strawberries, blueberries, streusel crumbs, pumpkin spice, lemon zest, cheesecake bits, poppy seeds, cream cheese, carrot shreds, and even a bag of icing. Lloyd does his best not to drool.

“Do you…always accommodate the others like this?”

“I do my best. It is not always practical nor obtainable, but I have always enjoyed a bit of a challenge.” White takes the bowl of batter from Lloyd, smiling softly. “For example, your uncle prefers a more spiced or savory muffin to pair with his sweeter morning teas, while Black likes his fruity with bits of cheesecake or streusel. Blue favors the more fall-oriented flavors like pumpkin, apple, and carrot, while Red enjoys flavors that pair well with citrus zest such as lemon or orange, which are more associated with summer.”

Lloyd’s head spins—that’s more muffin information than he thought existed. And here he thought his mom’s straight up blueberry was the end all. White beams with pride as he divides up the batter to begin personalizing the flavors.

“So, as you are now living with us, I must ascertain what flavors you prefer as well. Perhaps it is lucky you happened in on me, although I too can comprehend the struggle of falling asleep in a strange new place.”

“…it’s just a lot out of nowhere,” Lloyd says on a whisper, and White nods with…understanding? How unexpected. Lloyd wonders what the full story there is, but maybe that’s better saved for another time. Right now he’s just really hungry.

He eyes the chocolate chip bag again and feels his mouth start to water.

“…would it be too much trouble to ask for a double chocolate chip muffin?”

To Lloyd’s shock, he gets a full-blown smile out of the White Ninja, who eagerly grabs the box of cocoa powder. White doesn't need to be psychic to have seen that one coming.

“In that case, I shall make two.”

Two hours pass and breakfast is as every bit as awkward as Lloyd anticipated it would be. He sits at the table long before anyone else, stamping down the temptation to eat his muffins ahead of the others. The other boys all bust in with their matching pajamas save for color, bursting into an excited uproar upon seeing the muffins. They’re so distracted by that and the good spread (Lloyd has never seen a more perfectly balanced breakfast in his life) that it takes a while for everyone to fully register Lloyd’s presence.

But once the girl drags her exhausted self into the room (the night does not seem to have been kind to her either) and Wu calmly takes his place at the table, everyone just begins eating.

Lloyd cleans up his first muffin in four bites flat, but makes a dedicated attempt to savor the second one. He chews slowly, scanning his eyes around the table to assess the ninja in their natural habitat. They study him in turn.

He lingers the longest on White, as some of the hostility between has melted since their little muffin adventure. There’s still some degree of detachment, but Lloyd can’t tell if it’s because of personal feelings, or if that’s just how White actually is.

Black sits next to White, scarfing down food like it’s going out of style. Up close, he’s big, intimidating, and a little scary, but when he’s not giving Lloyd conflicting looks, he doesn’t look all that unfriendly. But then Lloyd remembers Black is supposed to be the leader and becomes low key terrified all over again. The guy could probably break the table in half if he really wanted to. Better to avoid direct eye contact.

On Black’s other side is the girl, on the verge of falling asleep into her plate. She looks as tired as Lloyd feels, but even Lloyd knows better than to call her out on it. Red, however, has no problems in pointing out how rough she looks…and nearly gets a spoon to the head. Lloyd gulps—better to avoid her, too.

Blue is the least intimidating—at least, from a first glance. He's all smiles and jokes for the most part, and Lloyd can almost see them falling into an easy friendship. They both like video games, as he remembers Blue's room at the monastery being chock full of them. Maybe he likes reading comic books too. But then Lloyd makes the mistake of locking eyes with Blue. Blue's eyes widen like he's been shot, and it sends a paralyzing chill down Lloyd's spine that forces him to look away. Geez, okay, harder than he thought…

But the hardest one to breach is going to be Red. While he was the first ninja to vocally give Lloyd the benefit of the doubt, he's also the one that let Garmadon get away in the first place, and Lloyd's also still bitter about their first encounter. Lloyd has also picked up on the fact that while Red is not even close to being the leader, he's still the spirit of the team. And that's almost more important.

Lloyd really wishes he knew their names. But, he did hear them complaining about their identities being compromised or something, not that Lloyd has anyone he would even tell. But still, it’s a bit sad that he doesn’t even know who they are. They’ve got him at a severe disadvantage.

And yet, sitting around like this…swapping banter, sharing food, and complaining about homework…

It’s hard to see them as highly dangerous elemental ninja when they’re also just teenagers.

“Are you all faring better than you had last night?” Wu breaks the wall of hushed whispers and commands everyone’s attention. Concern laces his tone, and all four ninja return pitiful looks. “Imagine my surprise when the four of you were collectively dropped off by…well, I hardly know what to describe that thing.”

Lloyd blinks, then studies the ninja again. He wonders how he missed the purple bruises that decorate Black’s arms and neck, or the way White struggles to speak sometimes and the slight limp in his footsteps. He catches the dark circles under Blue’s eyes, perhaps from over exhaustion, and worst of all, Red’s eyes are straight up lime green. Weren't they scarlet before?!

“The Serpentine were waiting for us,” Black grumbles, rubbing absently at his throat. "Pythor somehow managed to get the drop on all of us…"

Lloyd sinks in his seat as the others recount their own experiences with the ambush of snakes at their tombs. Under Lloyd's rule, the Serpentine hadn't seemed that deadly, just enough to provide a threat and get Lloyd's message across…at least until Blue’s parents got involved…but now it's obvious that they had been sealed away for a very strong reason.

"Blue fought the gingerbread demons all by himself!" Red continues to insist, even as Black and White struggle to believe the tale while Blue puffs his cheeks out. "And then we all got trapped in the lagoon and we were gonna die!"

"But then outta nowhere, this…flying suit showed up!" exclaims Black.

"It had a magic rooooope!" sings Red.

Blue waves his arms frantically. "…and then, when we thought we were gonna bite it, the giant suit saved us—!"

"Samurai," White corrects Blue. "It was a samurai."

"…a samu-WHAT?!" Lloyd squawks.

"A samurai!" Wu interrupts, brushing a hand down his beard. "Highest level of warrior class…right under Spinjitzu Masters, that is."

The girl grumbles something, swallowing it down with her latest bite of muffin.

"They would protect nobility, and serve with honor on the battlefield."

"He was a hundred feet high with weapons coming out of every part of him!" Red exaggerates, gesturing dramatically.

"Okay, it was a big mech, but it wasn't that huge," Black grunts. "Nothing compared to what we've got, anyway.

The girl again grumbles something, swallowing it down this time with a gulp of water.

"And the only weapons we saw were a net launcher, a dart thrower, and that weird mist that knocked us out!" exclaims Blue. "…but with a little more fine-tuning, it could be an even more impressive piece of equipment. The base design's just a little too clunky to be fully efficient, that's all."

The girl slams her head against the table, barely avoiding landing it in her bowl of cereal. Lloyd raises an eyebrow at her. When she peels her face off the table, she catches Lloyd watching, but only gives him an indecipherable look. Lloyd thinks it's something close to miserable, however.

"…look at Sensei's beard!" Red suddenly whispers to Black. "It's moving like snaaaaaakes."

"…okay, when is this Venomari spit supposed to wear off?!" the girl exclaims. She slaps her hands against the table with her eye twitching. "It's starting to get annoying."

Red just stares blankly, slapping a piece of toast onto his face. White, Blue, and Lloyd look on in horror.

"Well, given the potency, and the fact that we do not have the anti-venom…it should start to fade towards the end of the day," Wu says.

"We have to deal with this all day?!" yelps Black.

"Chen's going to have field day with this…" mutters Blue to himself.

From there, breakfast ends without any further fanfare. Lloyd watches from afar as the boys all gather themselves together to prepare for the day ahead, despite their injuries and exhaustion. Lloyd can relate to that feeling at least, but what he doesn't understand is why they're all garbed in normal clothes instead of the ninja gear he knows them for.

All four of them, and even the girl, grab backpacks, books, pencils, and in White's case a giant lunch box, and start heading for the Bounty's exit the moment they pull into Ninjago City Docks. What kind of ninja mission is this?!

He's too curious; he blurts out the question.

"U-Um, where are you guys going?"

Everyone halts in their tracks, whirling around to give him looks of varying amounts of confusion. Lloyd shrinks in his seat; maybe he’s not supposed to know anything of what they do, either.

“…we’ve got school to go to,” the girl explains, tugging her extremely cool backpack onto her shoulders.

"What, did you think we just go out and fight crime all the time? I wish!" Black has the audacity to laugh. Lloyd goes red in the face.

"Well, I-I guess not, but…I don't think I realized until now that you were all…just teenagers."

Blue spits out the juice box he's drinking; Red ducks, letting the spray hit Black instead. Black complains while ripping off his hoodie, and Red just breaks down laughing before grabbing Blue.

"Did you think this baby-faced kid was actually an adult?!" Red chuckles, even going so far as to squish Blue's cheeks together. Blue wastes no time in bending Red's arms behind him and flipping him to floor. Red groans, but still can't stop laughing at the look of indignation on both Blue and Lloyd's faces.

Lloyd's still struggling to wrap his head around it all—a secret force of ninja, the current Masters of Spinjitzu…going to high school in their off time?

It's just so mundane.

But, he doesn’t have room to talk either. Grandson of the man who made the realm, inheritor of the Green Element, and he's spent most his life under just one single roof.

Lloyd ponders that to himself as the others all finally leave, taking the excitement of the morning along with them. Wu then searches around, as if he'd misplaced something. Lloyd coughs lightly.

“…how peculiar. I seem to have misplaced my lesson book.”

Lloyd very discreetly tucks aforementioned lesson book deeper under his cape. He'd only hid it in an attempt to free up his uncle to spend some time with him, given how dedicated he still is to the ninja. But if they're at school, then all Wu's attention should be on Lloyd anyway.

Lloyd bites his lip. The guilt for his selfish thoughts gnaws at him, especially when Wu just shrugs and turns to Lloyd with a glint in his eye.

“…hmm, in that case, would you like to help me with today’s lesson, Lloyd?"

"That depends," Lloyd tries to say coolly. "…what's the lesson?"

"One that will hopefully teach the ninja not to take action without obtaining the full picture. The reason they've gotten into so many mishaps these past few weeks is because they keep leaping into danger before gathering all the facts, or misinterpreting the information they do have."

Lloyd scoffs, folding his arms behind his head. "Uh, yeah, no kidding. It's no wonder that even I was able to catch them off guard so many times."

"In that case, I believe I have the perfect task for you." Wu smiles, folding his arms into his sleeves. "…how do you feel about one more string of pranks, my dear nephew?"

At that, Lloyd breaks out into an evil smile that couldn't be happier. Maybe he still has a little drive for some harmless revenge after all. And, it might be nice to be on the opposite side of humiliation this time around.

Lloyd spends the day pulling out every trick he's learned from Darkley's to enact his devious (and completely educational) little plan. After drawing up some insider information from Wu about the ninja, ranging from Red causing a disaster with White's laundry, Black having questionable cooking skills, and Blue being the resident tech genius of the group, Lloyd's got plenty to work with to start stirring the pot.

When the boys drag themselves home from school looking worse for wear (and Lloyd pointedly notes that the girl is not among them, either) they all instantly scatter around to decompress from the day. It makes it all the easier for Lloyd to spring his traps…but with how depressed they all look, Lloyd's having some second thoughts about it all.

But he remembers he's doing this for a lesson, and besides, with how bad those four have humiliated him, he's entitled to at least a little payback before they truly start to make nice. Lloyd will consider it his last hurrah in deviancy.

…maybe.

Anyway, first up is the Red Ninja, who has made a beeline for the common room. By the time Lloyd happens upon him, Red is already setting up the gaming console that Lloyd unplugged earlier. Lloyd sees that the lime in his eyes has finally started to fade somewhat, but it's clear that Red's not back at one hundred percent yet. Maybe he's using the game to test his hand-eye coordination.

…or he just really doesn't want to do his homework.

"Hey, Red!" Lloyd chirps from the doorway, nearly making Red drop the game controller. He hasn't reached the title screen yet, which is good. Lloyd's going to ham this up. "I saw Black beat your high scores last night! You should've seen it! It was pretty spectacular!"

"…yeah right, half-pint," Red scoffs, readjusting his position. "You must be talking about Sitar Legend. This is Fist-to-Face 2! I might be still a bit hyped up on Venomari spit, but there's no way anyone's coming close to my high score. No one beats me on my game!"

Lloyd shrugs coyly, taking his leave and whistling. "Huh, could be wrong…!"

It's then that Lloyd could leave, but he's also horribly nosy. He doesn't know very much about how regular school works, but he is aware coming home down from it isn't a good sign. It's hard to be intimidated by Red when he looks like he's holding back the urge to cry.

"…hey, uh…how did school go today? You seem…kinda beat."

Red goes rigid at the question, sending a glare Lloyd's way. But when Lloyd only stares innocently back, Red takes a deep breath and rubs the back of his neck.

"…let's just say I had a lot of…negative attention on me today," he says with a despairing chuckle. "I couldn't focus properly, could barely tell what was in front of me, and the slime-green eyes were a dead giveaway that something was wrong with me. Even my friends thought I was on acid or something!"

Lloyd blinks, lost. "What's acid?"

"Maybe I'll tell you when you're older." Red coughs, brushing a hand through Lloyd's hair. Lloyd hisses, swatting him away.

"How many times do I have to tell you I'M—"

"Not a kid, not a baby, bla bla bla…" Red mocks him, and Lloyd's eye twitches. "Enjoy your innocence while you got it, bud."

"But I'm sick of people not telling me things. I can handle it!" Lloyd folds his arms, defiant. Red turns to him, raising an eyebrow.

"You and me, both. But just the same, people keep their secrets for a reason. That's another hard lesson you'll have to learn when you're older."

"Ugh, whatever!" Lloyd throws up his hands and marches out of the room. "Have fun trying to get your high scores back!"

"There's nothing to get back!" Kai shouts back with a chuckle. He shakes his head; Lloyd might still be a little rough around the edges, but it's easy to see how hard he's trying. Kai can respect that much.

In the meantime, though, he's very eager to forget about today with a few rounds of Fist-to-Face 2. There's no way Cole's outdone his high score; not even Jay could manage that, and he's been trying for months!

But once Kai boots the game up to the file select screen, he finds a full row of Cole's insignia spattered across the tv, with high score numbers that Kai never even thought were possible. He sits stunned, eye twitching before throwing the controller across the room and howling out Cole's name.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, it's Black's turn to cook dinner. Lloyd knows from Wu that Black has spent days working on this dish in particular, prepping everything long in advance. Prior to Lloyd's interference, it had actually smelled rather delicious. Almost a shame he had to sabotage a perfectly good meal, but it's the best fodder he currently has against Black.

Lloyd trots through the door, catching Black in a moment of concentrated stirring. His thick brows are furrowed, his tongue gently sticks out…and Lloyd can't help but glance back at the bruises all over him. The ones on his arms are hidden by a sweatshirt, but the one on his neck still stands loud and proud. It's not long before Black looks up and catches Lloyd staring, a lopsided grin sitting crooked on his face.

"Guess you couldn't help but notice too, huh?"

"S-Sorry," Lloyd mumbles, glancing away. "You got that from fighting the Constrictai, didn't you?"

"At least you know that," Black scoffs. He sprinkles a pinch of pepper into the pot, shaking his head. "Turns out that, when you can't explain you spent the weekend fighting snakes, your fellow peers will make up the wildest stories about you instead…"

Black picks up the spoon again, expression falling.

"…not that very many of them actually like me anyway, but. Eh. Just more fuss I don't really need."

Lloyd knows how that is. He also knows that he's not equipped to make Black feel better about it, thus he changes the subject.

"What are you making, anyway? I thought White was the chef around here."

"He is," Black confirms, cheeks going pink. Interesting. "But he can't cook all the time. It wouldn't be fair. And besides, Red's able to make some mean dishes even when we're low on ingredients, and even Blue knows a few good recipes…"

Lloyd reels back as Black sweeps his arm over the pot, grinning from ear to ear.

"…but this Violet Berry Soup is my culinary achievement! If the recipe is not followed exactly…"

Lloyd watches in horror as Black scoops a sip of the stew onto his spoon, gingerly taking the gentlest of sips. Black immediately recoils, grabbing at his throat and gagging with his whole body.

"…ahahaha, yeah, um, by the way…" Lloyd drums his fingers on the table, eyes darting every which way. "I saw Blue spice things up. I told him not to, but he said your cooking could use it, and was adamant about not having his mouth glued shut again, whatever that means. Ooookay then, gotta go, bye, Black!"

Lloyd speeds out of the kitchen and leaves Cole to suffer. Yet despite the strangled garbling Cole manages, he's still able to choke out Jay's name with the appropriate amount of irritation.

Lloyd escapes out to the deck of the Bounty, where he finds Blue all decked out in ninja gear and finagling with one of the training machines. He also keeps periodically glancing at his phone, mouth pulled into a tight frown. Lloyd makes a show of poking his head into Blue's line of sight, trying to get the scoop for himself.

"What'cha doing, Bluebell?"

Blue makes a face at the nickname, swiping his phone out of Lloyd's reach. Lloyd pouts.

"I'm trying to get all our training gear up to snuff, especially with the Samurai and that Fuchsia Ninja out and about…if we don't find ways to unlock our true potential, we're all going to get beat out by these up and coming vigilantes coming out of nowhere!"

"…weren't you guys up and coming vigilantes coming out of nowhere too?"

"…maybe, but all these other guys are just coasting off the wake of our fame, and it's actually becoming difficult for us to do our jobs…"

Blue lowers the phone like one would present an olive branch. Lloyd scoots over to get a closer look, and finds a news report about the Samurai handling an offshoot of Serpentine in the Southern Province, while another article depicts many photos of a Fuchsia Ninja rounding up a group of Shark Army thugs at Ninjago City Beach. Lloyd watches in wonder—not even the Bounty had gone off signaling that these events were even happening.

"These both occurred while we were in school today, and we hadn't even known about it!" Blue exclaims. "Usually N- er, um K—nope, Red's sister keeps us updated on when there's trouble around Ninjago, but the problems had been handled so quickly that there wasn't even any need for us!"

Lloyd looks around confused. "Isn't that…a good thing?"

"On the surface. But we know nothing about these other parties, or their motivations…your uncle made sure the whole city knew what we were all about, but these other guys could be out for power, or money, or just to push us out of the picture! So we can't fall behind! And that's why I'm gonna squeeze in a little extra training today!"

Blue stands determined, clenching his fists out in front of him. Lloyd, however, notices the slight shake to his stance, and the eye bags that are weighing him down. This boy needs sleep. Not that Lloyd is one to talk, but well, it takes an insomniac to know one…or something along those lines.

"You seem exhausted," Lloyd says point blank. Blue pulls out of his dramatic pose, rubbing at his eyes.

"I'm fine. It's not like today was anything out of the ordinary. Fixed up the mechs, put up with Chen, helped Red with some assignments because he was having trouble reading, continued to be a social outcast…"

Blue pulls down his cheeks, gaze darting towards Lloyd. He relaxes, forcing a smile back onto his face.

"…but really, I'm just being dramatic! It's not that bad…I'm still here, aren't I?"

"…I suppose," Lloyd concedes, folding his arms behind his head. He's going to have to keep an eye on this one. "Anyway, have fun with the training. I caught White trying to repair the sparring bot earlier, but…isn't that your expertise?"

Jay raises an eyebrow as Lloyd walks away whistling. He shakes it off—he can't afford anymore distractions. Grabbing for the sparring bot's remote, he turns the dial and straps on some armor, ready to give his all.

"Let's ease our way into this…how about level two, shall we?"

Jay hits the button; the training bot before him sparks wildly…and the number '9' flashes on its screen. Jay looks on, bewildered, as the training bot starts to jerk about rapidly. Its weapons whirl around like propellor blades and showing no signs of stopping.

"W-Wait, what—?!" Jay tries to shut the thing off, but instead of powering down it raises its weapons and charges right at him. Jay stumbles backward and falls to the ground as the machine descends upon him. "No, no, NOOOOO! ZAAAAAAAAAANE?!"

White eagerly drags a basket of his laundry into the bedroom, ready to fold it and properly put it away. He made sure to put in extra soap and bleach to scrub away any traces of pink left over from Red's previous mishap…but what he doesn't know is that Lloyd did another secret load while he was at school. It's a little bit torturous, knowing that the guy is still under a curse of pink. But just the same, that makes it all the easier to get a rise out of such a normally composed ninja.

Lloyd comes humming into the bedroom, catching White right before the big reveal. He's all set to start hamming things up, but White beats him to the greeting.

"Hello, Lloyd!" White greets, and it's so earnest and well-meaning that it throws Lloyd off. He cuts off mid-whistle, blinking in astonishment. "What brings you to our quarters on this fine evening?"

"I…um, er, Red wanted to me pick up his GX suit, and he said he threw it in with your whites again."

White blanches as Lloyd opens the basket and finds the offending gi in question, waving it around.

"Ah, there it is! Thaaaanks~"

Lloyd spins on his heel and peels off to parts unknown. Zane's face is entirely blank as he reaches into the basket for himself, hands shaking as he grabs the nearest piece of clothing.  Sure enough, all of his whites have turned pink against his will. Again.

And this time, even more vibrantly.

It's not even an hour later when unbridled chaos erupts through the Bounty. Lloyd travels to the kitchen and treats himself to a granola bar and juice box before heading out to see the entertainment live and in person. He easily finds the ninja arguing at the other end of the hall, but with how loud they're screeching, Lloyd doesn't miss a thing.

"You couldn't just be happy with the top score! You just HAAAAAD to rub it in my face!" screeches Kai, shoving Cole. Cole stumbles backwards, grabbing the hem of Jay's shirt.

"What are you talking about?! I was trying to finish my Violet Berry Soup in all my spare time!" He lifts Jay off the ground, giving him a good shake. "You know how long it took me to make that?! Three days! THREE DAAAAAAYS!"

Cole drops Jay, just in time for Jay to sweep Zane's legs out from under him and jump on top of him.

"It's an unsaid law, okay, that you don't mess with a man's creation, so why would I have touched your probably already awful soup?! You wouldn't need my help to mess it up!" Jay hisses, gesturing at Zane. "THIS GUY, however, would willingly touch another man's robot!"

Zane throws Jay into the corner, pulling out his pink-stained sweater vest and throwing it into Kai's face.

"I would never touch your crazy inventions! I was doing my chores like I am supposed to! Which does not including doing anyone else's laundry!" Zane snaps, breathing heavily. He pulls out his GX suit and continues his assault on Kai with it. "This is the second time this has happened! How am I supposed to strike FEAR in this?! IT'S PINK!"

"Hey, pink can still be a very terrifying color!" Cole insists, just as Kai rips the hood out of Zane's hand and starts smacking him back.

"More importantly, I didn’t do that! I haven't done my laundry since the last time!"

"Gross!" wails Jay, immediately jumping back from Kai. Kai shoots him a look.

"Shut up, we've been busy! And moreover, I was gonna do it when Zane was done! I can't stand my basket smelling like Venomari spit anymore!"

"Oh please, you were so impatient that you decided to toss it into my whites! Classic Kai!"

"You're about to get a classic fist to the face!"

Oh, just like those high scores I didn't earn?!"

"What does that even mean?!"

"This is some mad disrespect to me, the future Green Ninja—"

The boys descend into a deeper bout of arguing, and just barely heard over the sound of it all is Lloyd's laughter from down the hall. He accidentally bumps into the storage closet after cackling so hard, the door popping open and revealing the incriminating evidence he'd went so far to hide. The ninja take pause and assess Lloyd's stash.

The spices for the soup, the detergent for the laundry, the hammer for the sparring bot, and the tools to hack the video game…

It was all Lloyd.

Lloyd wipes a delighted tear from his eye as the four older teens whirl on him, their combined rage something terrifying to behold.

"YOU DID THIS?!" They shout as one. It's enough to snap Lloyd out of his cackling and force him to cower instead.

"Boys," Cole growls, punching a fist into his palm. "I get first dibs on him!"

"I get second!" calls Jay.

"I knew having him around would be nothing but trouble!" Zane exclaims.

Kai beats them all to the punch and reaches out to grab Lloyd. Lloyd wails and ducks his head as Sensei Wu materializes from seemingly nowhere and blocks them all off with his staff.

"No dibs!" he snaps, quickly twirling the staff back behind him. "I put him up to this for today's lesson. I wanted to show you the destructive power of rumors, and that jumping to conclusions can only lead to trouble! Did you ever even think to find out if the accusations were true?"

"Yeah!" Lloyd adds snidely, earning a look from his uncle. He slinks back and shuts up.

"Uh, no offense, Sensei, but let me jump to this conclusion: today's lesson is lame," Cole huffs.

"Yeah!" Jay agrees. "Why can't you teach us to paralyze your enemy with one finger? Or how to tell if a man is lying by the twitch of his nose?!"

"Because not all lessons are about fighting! And none of those are even actual things, and…I seem to have misplaced my lesson book."

Lloyd shrugs behind Wu. Kai squints at him, easily noticing the booklet hidden beneath Lloyd's cape.

"You mean THIS lesson book?" Kai scoffs, plucking it off Lloyd and shaking it in the air. Lloyd sneers at him, folding his arms and pouting.

"It was the perfect plan!" Lloyd whines, stomping his foot. "But you just HAD to mess everything up and—!"

Jay shoves Lloyd into the storage closet, with Cole slamming the door shut behind him. He dusts his hands off before placing them on his hips. Cole frowns, turning to Sensei with some concern.

"You know, for someone trying to earn our trust, he's not off to a great start, is he?"

"Like I said, I put him up to this," Wu says. He folds his arms behind his back, shaking his head. "I merely used his expertise to help illustrate my point. You boys lately have been quick to jump the gun on everything, without properly taking a step back to fully assess your situations. Creating rumors, and heeding them, can lead to very destructive consequences."

"Jumping the gun? We would never!" Jay scoffs. Wu glares at him with one eye.

"Assuming one of you was the Green Ninja? Assuming Lord Garmadon was stealing candy from Jamanakai Village? Assuming you could handle Lloyd without problems? Not to mention the premature attack on Lloyd's treehouse, leaving us defenseless, or all that abrupt destruction on Darkley's which only ended up being a trap for you all—"

"OKAY! Okay, we get it, we've been hasty lately," Kai huffs, running his fingers through his hair. "So we tend to spring into action at the first mention of trouble? Isn't that just part of being a ninja?"

"Another part of it is knowing when to properly pick your battles," Wu remarks dryly, taking his leave down the hall. The boys look on after him, trading glances with one another. "And as always, such a lesson applies to more than just being a ninja."

Later on, Wu finds Lloyd back in his room. Lloyd sits on his bed, arms folded on his stomach and staring up at the ceiling. The lack of finding him not really doing anything is a touch concerning for Wu, but he tables the thought for now and sits himself down next to Lloyd. Lloyd shuffles into a sitting position, his expression indecipherable.

"So, I take it your string of pranks was a success, then?"

"…mmm-hmmm," Lloyd mutters with a small nod.

"Oh? I would have assumed you'd be more excited about it, given how readily you threw yourself into the task."

Lloyd doesn't answer immediately, struggling to find his words. Wu waits patiently until he does.

"It…didn't feel as good as I thought it would." The words pour out of Lloyd unexpectedly. But once they're out, he carries on. "I‘ve been humiliated so many times, that…I thought it would be nice for it to happen to someone else for a change, especially to a bunch of cocky ninja…I mean, there has to be some reason why people were so keen to do it to me all the time…"

Lloyd swings his legs over the bed, heaving a sigh.

"…but I have no idea what the ninja went through at school, and I based the pranks just off what little I knew of them personally. At first it was kinda funny, but seeing how it affected them, I just…feel bad about it now."

"Good," Wu declares, making Lloyd's eyebrow shoot high onto his forehead. "Then it appears you have learned your intended lesson as well."

"What?! But I thought the lesson was for the ninja, not me…!"

The absolutely affronted look Lloyd wears makes Wu chuckle.

"I have been a Sensei for as long as five of your lifetimes. Do you not think I know how to multitask?" Wu says with a light smirk, hands folded into his sleeves. "As the ninja learned the power of rumors, and to better assess their situations before taking action, you learned that revenge isn't always sweet, and opinions shouldn't be based off first impressions only."

He gains a knowing glint in his eye. Lloyd squirms.

"After all, if they were, would the ninja have presented you with a second chance at all?"

"…I guess not," Lloyd sighs, with Wu patting him gently on the head. The room's faint candlelight provides a rather cozy glow in the room, something Lloyd's still not quite used to. His more recent nights have always be so dark.

"…this place…is a lot different than being at Darkley's," Lloyd remarks, once again struggling to put his thoughts to words. "Being here…feels like everything is suddenly backwards. But it also…feels more right. I think? I don't really, um…"

Wu laughs gently, pulling his nephew close. Lloyd sinks into the physical contact.

“While you did not spend a very long time at Darkley’s, it’s still clear that the place has left an impression on you…especially considering it was your first real taste of the outside world. There's a lot of things that not even my teachings are going to be able to undo, but…if I can help you expand your worldview nonetheless, then I will consider it a success."

Wu suddenly frowns, a deep sadness washing over him.

"…and I have no doubt that your father would have said the same."

"I dunno about that one," Lloyd murmurs, glancing away. Wu shakes his head.

"Your father's opinion and my own differ greatly in many ways…but, they do originate from the same desire to see this world flourish. We just…strongly disagree about how that should be done."

Lloyd very much looks like he doesn’t believe Wu in the slightest. Still, when Wu rises from the bed and tucks Lloyd in properly, he never loses the gentle smile on his face.

"Remember what I said? First impressions aren't everything—sometimes, we have to take a little extra time to fully come to understand someone, and it's better to wait until we do to truly form our opinions about them. We might gain the courage to change our initial train of thought, or miss out on something great otherwise."

"…you're talking about me and the ninja too, aren't you?" Lloyd's voice is thick with slumber, eyes already halfway to fluttering to sleep. Wu chuckles.

"You're a sharp one, aren't you?"

"Well, I try."

Wu gives Lloyd another parting pat on the head before making his way out of rom. He stops in the doorway, looking over his shoulder one last time.

"Good night, Nephew. Sweet dreams."

"Night, Uncle Wu."

Wu leaves, and Lloyd falls back on his bed, left stewing in his thoughts until he properly falls asleep. Everything he's come to learn today swirls about in his head, until he fades off into the realm of his dreams.

And thankfully, this time, there are no nightmares.

Chapter Text

"Is he here yet?!"

"He better be! He texted me three minutes ago that he was almost here…"

Harumi puffs out her cheeks with a furrowed brow, leaning against the rail keeping her from falling into the bay. Antonia has less of a care, tapping at her phone while dangling precariously over the pier. Ninjago City Docks is a sight in the early autumn morning, with the skyscrapers traced by the arriving halo of light, the oranges and yellows in the sky mixing in with the emerging blue, and all the colors sparkling in the waters below. But not even a gorgeous Tuesday morning sight is enough to calm either girls' impatience.

"HEEEEEEEY!" a voice calls into the wind; Antonia and Harumi yelp and snap to attention, finding a boy in pink sprinting towards them at top speed. Antonia pockets her phone for moment, smiling at the newcomer and waving him over.

"Well, well, look who decided to come to school today," Antonia teases, elbowing Harumi who snickers. Jesse makes a face at both of them, even as he struggles to catch his breath.

"Aw, come off it. I had a…dentist appointment yesterday!"

"All day?" Antonia puts her hands on her hips. "Unless you were, like, getting a root canal, I don't buy it."

"Well, what can I say? Gotta keep this smile looking glamorous, you know.”

Antonia rolls her eyes, turning her attention back to her phone as Harumi scurries over to Jesse. She pulls a thermos out of her bag, bouncing on her heels all the while.

"Jesse! Jesse! My mama made us hot chocolate today! Did you want some while we walk to school?"

Jesse inhales—the sweet aroma of rich chocolate fills the air and makes his mouth water. "…I dunno if a hot drink is what I need right now, but I can’t turn it down when it smells that amazing. Your mom always makes some good stuff."

"Well, so does yours." Harumi pours the brew into a spare cup and hands it to Jesse. "There ya go! Drink up!"

Jesse thanks her and takes his first sip, all while Antonia urges them to get going. She starts texting with a bit more urgency than before, chewing her lip. Harumi skips down the sidewalk, and between drinks Jesse asks about what he missed the day prior. Antonia replies without even looking up from her phone.

"Well, Nya and Harumi started some of the negotiations with the Ignacian farmers, Zane made another atrocious attempt at getting the cheer squad demolished, and today we're counting up the current totals for the coin collecting contest."

Harumi twirls on her heels, eyes sparkling. "Also, the sign-ups for the talent show finally went up! Antonia did a really good job hyping it up! We just have to finish ironing a few things out with the theater class."

"And we need you to consult with the drama club about borrowing some of their supplies," Antonia adds. Jesse sighs—they're not even at school yet, and he's already got his work cut out for him. At least he's got some time to think about how to go about it.

"Good to know. I should have that all sorted out by Thursday at the earliest." Jesse moves to take another sip of his drink, only to find it empty. He pouts at his empty cup. "But, uh, did either of you plan to enter the talent show yourselves?"

Antonia shakes her head as they round the block. "Nah, not me. I've gotta take some photos for the yearbook. And after I told the head of the newspaper club about it, he wants me to do an article on it as well."

Harumi gives a frustrated huff and tugs on her braids. “I want to, but…I don’t really have any talents I can show off…”

“Well, I was actually planning to do a routine myself.” Both Antonia and Harumi look at Jesse now, suddenly way too invested. Jesse coughs and glances away. “If you wanted, you could help me as my assistant, Harumi?”

“Oooh!! I’d love to!” Harumi squeals. But then, she pulls back. “Uh, but wait, what’s your act going to be?”

Jesse stops walking to put on a dazzling smirk instead.

“Didn’t you know? I happen to be a very talented magician. Let's call it…a side hobby of mine. My sister and I used to have a little routine, but…well, I don't think she can perform with me for a while. And I've…never done a show by myself before.”

"Oho, now that I've gotta see," Antonia chuckles. Harumi, meanwhile, gains stars in her eyes.

“That sounds so cool! You can do real magic?!”

“Well, I dunno about real magic…”

Jesse glances around, ensuring that few people are actually paying them any attention, then kneels down before Harumi, holding out his open hand to her. Antonia leans in closer while Harumi grins, expecting him to pull a coin from behind her ear or tug a bird from his sleeve or something. But instead, his hand starts glowing as pink as his eyes, with silvery sparkles dancing around in his palm.

“…but I think I can come pretty close.”

"What the—?!" squawks Antonia while Harumi gasps and fans her hands in front of her face. Her entire expression floods with surprise, and Jesse smirks. “That’s amazing; how are you doing that?! Is there, like, a smoke gun up your sleeve?! A small projector?!”

“Nothing like that.” Jesse laughs, flicking the sparkles so they dissipate around Harumi’s head. Harumi dances and twirls through them all, delighted. “But maybe I’ll let you in on the secret, if you decide to be my assistant.”

“Okay!” Harumi promises immediately, making Jesse chuckle. He’s a little bit more excited about the show, now that he knows he has help.

"Ugh, no fair, this is gonna torment me forever now," Antonia grumbles, watching Harumi skip up the stairs to the school. Jesse laughs under his breath, clapping his hands together.

"Ah, don't worry, Antonia—I wouldn't keep my best and very inquisitive friend in the dark for too long."

Antonia turns to reprimand him, but there's suddenly a tiger lily presented before her. She gapes like a fish, trying to figure out where he could've possibly been hiding that (especially while keeping it absolutely pristine), all while Jesse struggles to keep a straight face. Flustered, Antonia takes the flower and marches into the school. Jesse slips his hands into his pockets and follows her, unable to keep the grin off his face.

Today promises to be a good one, at the very least.

…but Jesse Marvell was always one to be constantly in for surprises.

The halls of Ninjago City High have never been strangers to the sounds of gossip. People will talk endlessly about whatever strikes their fancy in the moment, regardless of whether it’s true or not. It can range from the tacky outfit Kenzie wears to whether or not the White Ninja may actually be a robot. But regardless, if somebody says something, everyone knows.

And that's part of what makes it so hard to keep a secret around here.

Jesse sighs to himself, doing his best to drown out the loud whispering going on around him. He fishes all his missed assignments and homework out of his locker. Antonia, meanwhile, continues to be distracted by messages on her phone. The flower he gave her sits partially abandoned on the top shelf of her locker.

"You know, the tiger lily represents positivity and confidence, much like yourself—"

Antonia groans, making sure her flower is safe, then slams her locker shut. Jesse continues chuckling at her expense. She turns to him, face soured at his horribly smug expression.

"…if I didn't already know who you actually had a crush on, I'd assume you were flirting with me."

"Antonia!" Jesse gasps, raising a hand to his chest in mock offense. "Can a guy not give flowers to his friends to demonstrate appreciation?!"

"You're just trying to distract me from pestering you about your so-called magic." Antonia shakes her head and turns back to her phone, frowning at it. "But you're just lucky I've got some bigger scoops on my plate right now. Sammy's hitting me hard with the rumor mill this week; Josie and Leeroy can't keep up with it all…"

Jesse assumes those are all fellow members of Antonia's newspaper club. He tries to lean over her shoulder to get a peek at all the gossip on her phone; she holds her screen to her chest, giving him a look.

"Hey, hey, you can't be privy to these headliners before the general public! You're just going to have to wait like everyone else!"

"But…you seem like you're kinda swamped with stories right now," Jesse points out, noticing the very slight way Antonia wilts. "Is there some way I can help?"

"It's all right–I'm used to it, and I wouldn't take it all on if it wasn't anything I didn't enjoy." Antonia smiles gently. "…but, there’s a few things going on that are…a conflict of interest."

Jesse raises an eyebrow as Antonia glances around, then leans in closer, partially covering her mouth in the process.

"…okay, you can't freak out when I tell you any of this, promise?"

"I-I promise, but—"

Antonia then covers Jesse's mouth, narrowing her eyes.

"…something strange is going on with Cole, Zane, Jay, and that weird Kai guy. They've been acting super-suspicious all day yesterday, and a whole bunch of rumors started spreading around them. You know why everyone in the hall is so chatty today? Those four are why."

Jesse blinks, slowly gazing around the hallway. He did think it was weird when everyone was more talkative than usual, but what could've happened to make those specific four such a hot topic?

Antonia practically reads his mind. "Okay well, first off, I couldn't even ask Nya about any of this, because she was gone for most of yesterday too…but Zane was not only being weirdly quiet...like, quieter than usual, but he was walking funny and was wearing pink."

"…okay? And? Maybe he just wasn't feeling well and wanted to try out some new fashion to feel better?" Jesse shrugs. "Y'know, pink happens to be a very becoming color—"

"That by itself isn't the issue," Antonia continues. "Jay, for as energetic as he is, was sleeping in almost every class, and also wasn't talking much either. Harumi and I asked him about Zane and Nya at lunch and he just…stared off into space. It was freaky."

Oof, that is a cause for alarm then.

"And Kai…" Antonia suddenly looks distressed. Jesse feels dread bubble in his stomach. "I don't know the guy that well, but he was the worst of them all! He was stumbling around like he was drunk, he was saying all these crazy things, and his eyes were lime green…! People are claiming he was on acid, and who knows how bad those rumors have been warped by now…!"

Jesse winces—he doesn't know Kai terribly well either, but it doesn't seem like the thing he'd willingly get himself into. Also, lime green? That sounds less like acid and more like a trace of the Element of Poison. And poison usually isn’t something people gleefully subject themselves to.

"…by themselves, none of this would really be a big deal, but considering that it all started on the same day, and they're always running off with one another when there’s chaos in the city…well, speculation started circulating, and you know how people love to talk. I just don't understand why none of them have cleared things up with the truth—anything's gotta be better than this."

Jesse agrees, but also understands where the guys might be coming from. While clearing up the misunderstandings might fix things in the short term, it could have terrible implications for the long term. Not that he’d know for sure, but…

"Sammy wants me to do a piece about them for the gossip column, but I don't want to just slander them like that.” Antonia chews her bottom lip, unsettled. “They could just be going through a rough time, y'know? Plus they already have bad reps, and I'd hate to make things worse by fanning the flames. But if I don't find something more interesting to write about, Sammy's either gonna replace me with someone that will write something bad about them, or I could get kicked from the club, or—”

“Easy, easy, easy.” Jesse drapes his hands on her shoulders, steadying her. “You don’t have to figure it all out right this second. Take a little time to decompress, then come back to the problem with a clearer head. And even if you can't think of anything else to write about, you can always spin the story to put the guys in a more positive light. It's not totally hopeless!"

Antonia smiles with reassurance; Jesse grins back. However, there's still a more pressing question on his mind.

"…wait, but you said the four of them were acting weird. What…about Cole?"

Antonia represses a smirk at the question, folding her arms.

"Oh, him? He was pretty normal…except for the giant ring of a purple bruise around his neck!"

Jesse blanches. "Wait, what—"

"And if you want to find out more, well, why don't you ask him yourself?"

Before Jesse can protest that, Antonia's pushing him down the hall. He immediately loses his footing and starts stumbling across the floor like a newborn fawn, and for the moment all he can think about is how bad it's going to hurt when he face-plants on floor. Great, if he doesn’t die from information overload it'll definitely be from embarrassment—

Cole Brookstone grabs Jesse single-handedly by the shirt and manages to stop him from face planting.

“Careful there,” Cole says, standing Jesse upright again. Jesse didn't even fully fall, and yet all the wind's been knocked out of his lungs. “That could’ve been nasty! Are you okay?”

“I…I’m fine! Totally fine! Super fine! Finer than fine!”

Cole gives Jesse a weird look; Jesse scrambles out of Cole’s hold and frantically tries to straighten himself out. …well, too late for that, but—

“Fancy seeing you here, though!” Jesse squeaks, wanting to die. "What…are you doing here?"

Cole blinks, pointing towards the locker door. "Uhm, grabbing my stuff from my locker…?”

Jesse wants to slap himself; he’s an idiot, an idiot…!

“…and I just saw you stumbling over yourself for some reason and I ended up catching you. I know some pretty klutzy people, but that really was some fall.”

“…yeah. Yeah! That's me, classic klutz." Jesse cringes at himself. Way to bring himself down, and with alliteration no less. "I’m, uh, sorry about that and—uhm, thanks for the save.”

“You’re welcome,” Cole replies with a warm smile and leaves it at that. Jesse basks in its presence, even after Cole returns to rooting around his locker for a notebook. It’s not quite an invitation for Jesse to leave, but it doesn’t give him much to work with to carry on either.

Jesse just stands there awkwardly, fuming at himself for being spineless when he needs it most. His heart thrums in his chest, so loud that it's hard to properly get any words out.

Then he remembers what Antonia said, and his eyes unwillingly drift towards Cole’s neck. He’s wearing a thick black hoodie today, but still, Jesse catches the hint of deep purple that encircles Cole’s neck. The curiosity is enough to kill him.

Why is Cole so hard to talk to?! All he has to do is ask one question. It's that simple!

…he can’t do that. You can’t just ask someone why they have a bruise! What if it’s personal?!

What if he needs help? What if he’s just been waiting for someone to mention it so he could casually share the truth? Or what if he wants to avoid talking about it, not wanting to be bothered?

…Jesse can do this. It’s just Cole.

Just very handsome, very kind, very strong, very endearing Cole.

"Hey, Cole!" Antonia strolls up in the split-second Jesse manages to find some shred of confidence, all cool and collected. She shoots a sinister grin at Jesse—and okay, he supposes he deserves it a little for the teasing from earlier, but—! "You feeling any better from yesterday? You didn't really want to talk about it, but we just wanted to make sure you're okay, especially Jesse since he wasn't here!"

Antonia elbows Jesse, giving him a very pointed nudge.

"Isn't that right, Jesse?!"

"Y-Yeah…" he mutters out, the urge to pass out increasing. Antonia looks on with disappointment while Cole stares at the both of them, still a bit on guard, but heaves a sigh and drops his shoulders. More of his neck is exposed in the process, and Jesse can see just how bad the injury really is.

"I'm all right, not in as much pain, at least…" Cole rubs the back of his neck, jolting slightly from the contact. "But it's healing. Just wish people wouldn't make such a big deal out of it. It's not the weirdest thing that's happened."

"No kidding." Antonia folds her arms behind her head. "But if you wanna talk about it, we're here, y'know?"

"And if you don't want to talk about it, then we're just glad you're okay," Jesse adds, a little softer than normal. Any traces of hesitation vanish from Cole's face as he fully relaxes. It's such a rare look on Cole that Jesse loses his breath for a second.

"Thanks, guys. I appreciate that."

Antonia winks with a thumbs up while Jesse smiles at Cole. But just as Cole is about to respond again, the bell goes off, ringing loud and echoing down the hall.

"…aw man," Jesse pouts, easing up when Cole chuckles to himself.

"Hey, we can always continue at lunch," Cole says, making Jesse perk up. Antonia gives him a knowing nudge; Jesse shrugs her off, hyper focused on Cole. "And, hey…maybe we should talk more often? I know this wasn't much, but…it made for a nice distraction. And I kinda needed that.”

Cole mindlessly tugs at his collar, and suddenly Jesse is really glad he didn't ask what he actually wanted to. But, Cole can keep his secrets. Jesse has enough of his own.

"Y-Yeah, I’d like that. I’d like that a lot," Jesse stutters out, forcing himself to start walking away. He's never going to want to leave otherwise. "So, we'll see you later then?"

“Yeah!” Cole heads off, waving and winking over his shoulder. “See ya later, Toni! Later, Jess!”

Jesse's brain short-circuits at that point, and it's a miracle he manages to make his legs work properly. Maybe it's in part to Antonia dragging him towards the Student Council room.

“So, we didn’t figure out anything significant about the bruises.”

“He called me Jess…!”

“Dude, that’s the laziest nickname in the world; he just took one letter off your name!”

“He said we should talk more…!”

“Shut up, you didn’t even get his number or anything. This barely counts!”

Antonia rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue as Jesse continues to swoon in his seat. But even beyond mild crushes, it's nearly impossible for Jesse to focus on council work. His mind is being pulled in like six different directions, rendering any and all logical thought pointless. He's supposed to be helping Harumi tally up which class is in the lead for the coin contest, but the most he can do is just jot down whatever numbers Harumi barks at him. Antonia is busy struggling to find a new topic for her article, and neither the President nor the Vice President are here yet.

Extremely odd, given that Zane's never been late a day in his life (absent, maybe, but never late) and according to the others, Nya's attendance was rather spotty yesterday as well. Jesse finds that to be more suspicious than anything the rumors are focusing on.

"…ugh, it's no good!" Antonia exclaims, throwing her papers into the air. The students sitting around her all flinch and duck away from the paper rain that now falls around them. "I can't think of a bigger story to write! And I really, really don't want to do a piece on half-empty speculation…! It's not like there's anything else going on in the school I can focus on…"

Jesse sighs in pity for Antonia; he can't even imagine the pressure of having to write a good story on a topic you don't like. But besides his advice from earlier, he's not sure he has a way to really help her.

"…why are you focusing on just news and gossip within the school?" Harumi looks up from where she's counting, waving her pencil in Antonia's direction. "Wouldn't news from outside the school, with actual basis to back it up, be a lot more substantial?"

"Hey yeah! I mean, with the Ninja Force, sharks, and snakes roaming about, there's gotta be something bigger to put the spotlight on," adds Jesse. "It might even be a good idea to raise some more awareness of what's going on in the city. That way, it's not so constantly jarring when the alarms go off."

Jesse leans back as Antonia suddenly sits up straight, struck by inspiration.

"…you know what, that’s not a bad idea! Especially with all the crazy news that happened yesterday."

Jesse wilts. "…exactly how much did I miss in a single day?!"

"Oh, it didn't happen here!" Antonia says that like it's supposed to be assuring. "Although I can't believe you didn't hear it on the news…it's some pretty juicy stuff!"

Jesse already regrets this. "Juicy…how…?"

Antonia doesn't answer. Instead, she types something into her phone. A website pops up, and soon Jesse finds its screen thrust into his face.

"The Fuchsia Ninja, man! There was a sighting at the beach yesterday afternoon?! Guess Cole’s fairy tale ninja is real!”

“….the who-what-where now?!”

Jesse swipes the phone, glaring at the article. Sure enough, there’s several photos of the Fuchsia Ninja’s presence at Ninjago City Beach. Rounding up Shark Army goons, fending off a few small subs rising from the waters, flipping through the air…the reporters are clearly getting more thorough with their ninja coverage.

His gaze tears from Antonia to the phone and back again.

“…but don’t you think it’s counterproductive for so much info about any of the ninja to be broadcast like this? I mean, their whole schtick is secrecy, yeah? What if the wrong people use this info against them?”

“If these ninja really wanted to be one hundred percent secret, they wouldn’t have announced themselves to the whole city after Garmadon’s invasion.” Antonia plucks her phone back. “I’m sure they can more than handle themselves. But, you wanna know something even juicer?”

Antonia types at her phone like a madwoman, eventually pulling up a video off GoTube. With a flourish, she holds out her phone once again and puts a hand on her hip.

“The ninja have some more competition as well…and it's not a fellow ninja!”

Footage of Samurai X handling a herd of Venomari in the Southern Province plays, and that is definitely news to Jesse. Sure, he’d heard bits and pieces about the aftermath, but not to this extent, and certainly not the day it happened either. Moreover, this guy…looks exceedingly efficient. It's a little bit terrifying.

"Everyone's been talking about it, and I can capitalize on the buzz when I write my article!" Antonia pockets her phone and folds her arms. "Already there's debate on whether we can still rely on the ninja, or if the Samurai is about to take their place! Ooooh, I could hold an opinion poll to go along with my article too...!"

"I think you should just write about the ninja instead," huffs Harumi.

"…and we just barely learned this Samurai even exists," Jesse points out. "How have they generated so much attention…?"

Antonia waves her hand about. "You know how kids are! Always latching onto the latest and most interesting thing…it might be a fad that'll die out, but right now it's the hottest topic in Ninjago! And, I'd rather have people focused on that than the mere baseless gossip that's going around…I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!"

Well, Antonia solved her problem, at least. Jesse absently twirls his pencil in his hand, still worrying about Cole and company. It's probably not really his problem to care about, but…he's seen the consequences of not doing anything at all, when he could have. So at the very least, he has to try something.

But Nya Smith chooses that time to show up, commanding a presence the second she steps in the door. The entire council greets her with cheer, but all of them are oblivious to the exhaustion written all over her face, as if she'd hadn't seen proper sleep in days. Jesse quirks an eyebrow at that—it could be related to why she's late, but it might also have to do with why she ditched so much school yesterday.

And then everyone in the room quietly loses their marbles when Zane walks in.

Zane Julien, of all people, who happens to not only be late, but is also wearing a bright pink hoodie that puts anything in Jesse's closet to shame. He only sits there gaping in distressed disbelief while Antonia pulls out her phone and starts taking pictures. Jesse kicks her from under the seat—the last thing they need is to awaken the President's wrath. Especially over something this stupid.

Nya’s lips twitch as if she already knows the reason why Zane’s sporting a fully pink hoodie that Jesse swears was once white, but Antonia’s vibrating her seat, desperate to ask. And yet innocent Harumi, bless her heart, beats Antonia to the punch.

“Nice hoodie, President Zane! Did you borrow it from Jesse?”

…even if it is at Jesse’s expense.

“Not every pink piece of clothing belongs to me!!” Jesse hisses, just as Antonia can’t take it anymore and erupts into laughter. Nya and other members of the council break into snickers. Jesse’s never seen Zane look so murderous. It’s almost entertaining.

“It is just a laundry mishap thanks to…a child I have been babysitting,” Zane grits out through his teeth. Nya chokes on air. “I did not believe a mere color was such cause for attention. Nor am I trying to make a 'Fashion Statement' of any kind.”

“It’s just so different from your usual style,” Antonia says breezily. “I kinda like it, it’s bold! Care for an interview for the paper’s fashion column?”

“No,” Zane says in a way that could freeze the air. Antonia puts up her hands in surrender. Zane takes his seat at the head of the table and pulls out his paperwork, ignoring the way everyone stares at him. Nya's the only one bold enough to continue snickering in Zane's direction, but even she clams up when he aims a cutting stare in her direction.

"…anyway, today is mainly going to be prep work and data collecting, so before we put all our focus on work—and not on what anyone else is wearing— does anyone have any questions?"