Shark Bait

by northpen

Summary:

The Secret Ninja Force has one rule: they may never reveal their secret identities to anyone. Not even to each other.

The morning after a Garmadon attack, Lloyd lets himself get kidnapped in a bid to prove his innocence. His plan goes awry when he learns of the kidnappers’ true intentions: if Garmadon does not surrender in seven days, they will take Lloyd’s life as forfeit.

Shortly after Lloyd is kidnapped, the Green Ninja disappears, too. The Secret Ninja Force is launched into chaos as they struggle to choose between rescuing Lloyd and looking for their missing teammate.

The clock is ticking. And things are about to get very, very messy.

Chapter 1: Day/Night 1

Notes:

hi everyone! this is very much a strange masked/vigilante AU that i've had on my mind for like two years and have finally gotten around to writing. i hope you enjoy!!

1. LLOYD — 07:22 AM

Nobody likes Lloyd Garmadon. And they especially don’t like him the day after a Garmadon attack on Ninjago City. 

It hurts, but Lloyd can’t bring himself to blame them. His father’s attacks hurt people. They level buildings. They destroy lives. They make people angry, and angry people need a target for their aggression. Since Lord Garmadon is good at hiding, they turn to the next best thing: his son. 

This makes going outside pretty dangerous. On normal days, it isn’t uncommon for strangers to yell at him, or attack him, or even try to follow him home from school. If a Garmadon attack is particularly destructive, Lloyd doesn’t bother leaving his apartment at all—people have the tendency to get a little stabby when the damage is bad enough. It just isn’t safe for him. 

Last night was the worst attack they’d seen all year. Lloyd would need to have an actual death wish to risk showing his face on the street today. 

Well, he doesn’t quite have a death wish. However, he does plan on going outside today. Just for a few minutes! That should be enough time for everything to fall into place, he thinks. 

After getting dressed, Lloyd reaches below his sheets and sticks his hand into a slit in the mattress. He pulls out a small satchel of electronics. Now, these aren’t just any electronics—they’re gifts from Blue, resident tech designer of the Secret Ninja Force. Among the goodies are a stun gun, smoke pellets, by-pass keys, and a number of other devices he could use for self-defence. Their presence in his mattress has always made him feel a little safer at home. 

Lloyd upends the bag over the floor. He pushes the smoke pellets out of the way, then crushes each device underfoot. Once they’re reduced to small enough pieces, he sweeps them up and dumps them in the toilet. He tosses in the smoke pellets and flushes them away. 

Before returning home last night, he ditched his ninja communicator in a pile of rubble. His gi is stored under bricks somewhere else in the city. There is absolutely nothing in his apartment or on his person that could connect him to the Green Ninja. 

You see, Lloyd doesn’t plan on being safe today. But he doesn’t plan on dying, either. 

He intends to be abducted instead.

2. LLOYD — 08:10 AM

If this were a normal school day, Lloyd would leave his apartment building through the fire escape and make his way to school through Ninjago City’s alleyways. He would move with his hood up and head down to conceal his face. He would hide behind dumpsters and boxes when he heard other people in the alleyway. He would take different routes to make it impossible for someone to trace his path back to his apartment building. No one knows where he lives, and Lloyd has always intended to keep it that way—it’s the only place where he can be himself without facing danger. 

Today is different. Today, he leaves his building not via the fire escape, but through the front entrance. He walks along a main road, hood down and chin up to give anyone passing by a clear view of his face. If anyone is looking for Lloyd Garmadon this morning, they’ll find him. And he knows people are looking for him. 

A few blocks ahead of him, a couple of men stand beside an idling van with tinted windows. While crossing a busy intersection, he sees another van waiting on an adjacent road. One of the men posted outside is conducting a sweep of the area. When he sees Lloyd, he puts a handheld radio to his mouth and starts making rapid gestures to a few people standing nearby. 

Lloyd steps onto the same block as one of the vans. His heart beats quicker in anticipation. As he moves to pass the vehicle, one of the men steps directly into his line of sight. Lloyd crashes head first into his chest. 

It’s a little hard to act annoyed, but he does his best.  “Ugh, watch it,” he grumbles. He tries to step around the enforcer, but he moves to block his path once more. 

The enforcer opens his jacket, giving Lloyd a peak at the long blade strapped to his chest. With a smile, he asks, “Did you need a lift to school today, Garmadon?”

Before Lloyd can respond, the enforcer grabs him by his shirt and pulls him towards the van. Lloyd puts up a pretend struggle, pulling at the enforcer’s arms and kicking his knees, but refrains from using one of the many tricks he knows that could be used to get out of his grasp. Another enforcer opens the van’s back doors and helps drag Lloyd inside the rest of the way. 

The doors are shut behind them. A thick bag is pulled over Lloyd’s head. Someone binds his wrists behind his back with scratchy rope. Once they're done, they use their weight to pin him to the van’s floor. As the van pulls away, the rumbling engine rattles his skull painfully. 

“Ow,” he mumbles. He makes a half-hearted attempt to throw off the person on top of him. They punish him by pulling back his head and slamming it against the floor. 

“Shut up!” they command. “If you keep talking, we’ll gag you.” 

That isn’t threatening enough to silence him. “What do you want from me?"

Another voice—the enforcer from outside—speaks up. “We want your father. We want him gone. You’re going to help us do that.” 

Lloyd opens his mouth to protest, but falls short of speaking when he feels something prick his arm. The effect is immediate. Within seconds, his body feels heavy as lead and he can barely think at all. 

Sedation. Of course.  

“Just sit tight, kid,” the enforcer says. “This will be over before you know it.” 

With sick satisfaction, Lloyd smiles at how wrong they are. They want to use him as bait for Lord Garmadon. Unfortunately for them, Lloyd’s father doesn’t care for him at all—he won’t surrender his imperial ambitions for Lloyd’s life. This whole plan of theirs is going to end up as yet another fruitless attempt to save the city from Garmadon’s attacks. 

That doesn’t mean it won’t save Lloyd. As long as he doesn’t die in the process, Lloyd will leave this kidnapping an innocent man. The world will finally realize that Lloyd has nothing to do with his father and leave him alone. 

Nobody likes Lloyd Garmadon. This abduction is going to change that for good. 

3. COLE - 11:44 AM

The news breaks while Cole is in gym class. 

During a small break between exercises, one of his classmates opens her phone. Her immediate reaction—a gasped, “holy shit!” —gets everyone’s attention. 

As usual, Cole stays back as the rest of his classmates group together to look at the student’s phone. Some of them laugh at what they see. Some of them swear in disbelief. Eventually, Cole can’t resist his curiosity and walks over to his pile of things on the bleachers. He grabs his phone and turns it on. 

The news is pinned to his lock screen. 

NCTV BREAKING NEWS: LLOYD GARMADON HOSTAGE VIDEO RELEASED BY VIGILANTES — LORD GARMADON’S SURRENDER DEMANDED IN EXCHANGE FOR RELEASE.

With a sharp inhale, he clicks on the notification bubble. It brings him to a news site with the posted video. 

The scene in the video is simple. Lloyd is tied to a chair in a dark room. Cole’s stomach sinks when he sees the red markings on his face. Lloyd’s gaze is distant, like he isn’t all there. It’s impossible to tell if it’s from shock, injuries hidden by his clothes, or some kind of drug. Maybe all three. 

A filtered voice speaks over the display. It’s cold and robotic. 

“ Lord Garmadon! You have held our city hostage for years. Now, we have taken your son. Say hello, Lloyd.” 

Lloyd is lucid enough to turn his unfocused gaze to the camera. There’s a confused and desperate haze in his eyes. At the prompt to say hello, he shakes his head—he can’t speak around the duct tape over his mouth. 

The voice continues anyways. 

“Our demands are simple: we want your complete, unequivocal surrender. You have seven days to give yourself up to city authorities. If you wait too long, we will kill your son. If you attack the city again, we will kill your son. If you send your Sharks on a rescue mission, we will kill your son. Understand? 

As the voice lists off the terms, Lloyd’s hands start to tremble. His chest rises and falls rapidly. Cole has a feeling that this is his first time hearing the demands, too. 

“The clock is ticking, Garmadon. Don’t mess this up!” 

The video ends. Cole struggles to fight the horrible feeling in his gut as he realizes exactly what all of this means. 

Unlike most people, Cole doesn’t think Lloyd is an undercover Shark secretly helping his father launch attacks on the city. In fact, he doesn’t think the two of them have a relationship at all. No loving father would allow their child to suffer what Lloyd goes through on a regular basis. Even Cole’s father, for all his flaws, would have found a way to put a stop to it by now.

Clearly, Garmadon couldn’t care less about Lloyd’s well-being. Why would he abandon his dreams of city domination for a kid that doesn’t matter to him at all? 

By making such strong demands, the vigilantes have ensured they will not win. Garmadon will continue attacking the city, and Lloyd will pay the ultimate price for their ridiculous scheme when they kill him seven days from now.

Curious, Cole looks up from his phone to observe his classmates. They’ve all finished watching the video by now, and their reactions are mixed. A few of them find it funny, while others appear a little more apprehensive. No one seems upset. This is disappointing, but he doesn’t let himself get too annoyed by it. As far as his classmates are concerned, this hostage plot will lead to one of two results: Garmadon’s surrender, or the elimination of a spy. Both outcomes are positive. 

After gym, he slides his headphones over his ears to block out the world. He waits impatiently for the school day to end, doing his best to drown out his classmates’ conversations about the video. When the final bell rings, he goes home to an empty house and eats dinner alone. In his room, he listens to music and does homework until the sun goes down. 

Under the cover of moonlight, he pulls a black mask over his face and climbs out of his bedroom window. As Cole, there’s nothing he can do to help Lloyd. 

The black ninja of the Secret Ninja Force, however, is a different story.

4. BLACK - 9:00 PM | 21:00

On his way to the warehouse, Cole takes a break in the downtown core. A large electronic billboard is playing a newscast where the two hosts argue over the virtues of Lloyd’s kidnapping. 

Cole left a little early for the Ninja Force’s rendezvous, so he allows himself a moment to sit on the ledge of a building and watch. There is no audio to accompany the video and he strains his eyes to read the subtitles. 

-Listen, I think it’s a good thing. Who is defending our city right now? No one!

-You think the Ninja aren’t defending the city?

-Of course not! They—

-Hold on, how can you think that? Have you ever seen the figures? Since they started fighting back we have decreased property damage, lower mortality rates, and get this: fewer Garmadon attacks. They aren’t useless.

-If the Ninja wanted to protect Ninjago, they would have attacked his volcano by now. Instead, they just wait around for him to come back. What’s the point of that? These new vigilantes—as in, the ones that kidnapped the kid—are the only people interested in stopping him for good. If this works and Garmadon is gone by the end of the week, they should be honoured as heroes.

-And what if they’re wrong? What if Garmadon is willing to cut his losses and lets them kill the kid?

-Then we’ll have one less Shark to worry about.

“Hello, Black.”

Cole jumps at the voice. In his panic, he almost falls forward over the edge of the rooftop and scrambles to find a hold on the building. He digs his palms into the concrete lip he’s sitting on and pushes himself back. When he’s a safe distance away from the edge, he sighs in relief and climbs to his feet.

He knows who to expect when he turns around. The other ninja have their own particular ways of speaking, but something about this one’s cadence makes him much more recognizable than the others.

Polite as usual, White offers a quick bow in greeting. Cole returns it.

“You scared me,” Cole says. He puts a hand on his hip. “I thought we told you to stop sneaking up on people.”

The mask covers White’s mouth, but he can see the smile in his eyes. “As a ninja, you should be more aware of your surroundings. It would be unfortunate if someone snuck up on you and killed you and you died.”

“. . . Yeah.” Cole has no idea how to respond. This is a common problem when talking to White—he has a bluntness to him that tends to leave everyone a little speechless at times.

Not that Cole is amazing with conversation in the first place. In all his sixteen years of life, he’s only ever managed to make one real friend. And even then, their early friendship was entirely due to Jay’s persistence. That really goes to show for his social skills, huh?

 To make things worse, he's fairly certain that Red hates him. So, really, he has one good friend and one enemy. He’s fairly certain those cancelled each other out and left him with nothing.

White turns his head, looking towards the docks where they would find the warehouse. He looks back to Cole and shoulders his quiver of arrows. “Would you like to travel the rest of the way with me?”

Cole is given no time to mull it over. As soon as finishes speaking, White twists on his heel and takes off to his right. With a startled laugh, Cole breaks into a run and gives in to the chase. If White wants a race, then Cole intends to give him a run for his money. 

He follows him across rooftops, clearing the gaps between buildings with practised ease. White is fast and agile, but Cole manages to overtake him when they’re only a few blocks away from the warehouse. The friendly competition is a welcome break from the dread he felt during the day, and by the time they reach the warehouse, Cole is struggling to keep a grin off his face.

White comes to a stop next to him at the building’s entrance, showing no sign of exertion. He smiles as he punches in his access code to the door. 

“If that was a real race, I would have beaten you,” he says. The lock releases with a buzz and he opens the door, gesturing for Cole to enter. “After you.”

Cole rolls his eyes and steps inside.

5. BLUE - 22:30 | 10:30 PM

Jay Walker does not relax. As much as he would love to, he's come to accept that it just isn't possible. 

For as long as he can remember, there's always been a tingling sensation beneath his skin. It courses through him like an electric current; a hum that travels from his toes, to his hands, and to his brain. It makes him fidget and overthink, pulling him back like a bowstring that will never fire. He's convinced the hum will only go away when he's dead. 

Honestly, it kind of sucks absolute ass. Of all people, why was he the one cursed with an elemental power that carries the physical symptoms of an anxiety disorder? The all-powerful being that gifted him his powers should have given the lightning element to a worse person—like Red, for instance. 

Not that he actually hates Red. Jay doesn’t hate any of his teammates. It’s kind of hard to hate or even like his teammates when he barely knows them. 

The Secret Ninja Force has been working together for almost two years now. Ever since the group’s inception he’s trained with them, cried with them, laughed with them, and faced death with them more times than he can count. In the field, he trusts them to protect him when his back is turned—he trusts them with his life. Apparently, he’s just not allowed to trust them with his name. 

When they first established themselves as a team, Green made the rules very clear: if they were going to work together, they had to conceal themselves from one another. They cannot know each other’s civilian identities. They must use colours to identify each other in lieu of names. They are not allowed to reveal any potentially identifying information to each other. It’s safer this way—if one of them were ever captured by the Sharks, they couldn't be tortured into giving up the identities of the other ninja. It protects them and their families. 

Jay has never had a problem with the rule until today. Right now, all it's doing is turning a bad situation into something downright catastrophic. 

Ten hours ago, a new vigilante group released a video announcing that they'd captured Lloyd Garmadon. One hour ago, the ninja convened at the warehouse for their usual follow up the night after a Garmadon attack. As far as Jay can remember, the Green Ninja has never missed one of these meetings. Even when concussed and half-dead, he's always found a way to show up. 

So, here lies the problem: the Green Ninja isn't here. With each passing minute, Jay is becoming a little more convinced of something he's been trying very hard to ignore:

Lloyd Garmadon might be the Green Ninja. 

This isn’t something he wants to know. He never tried to figure it out. The Green Ninja’s identity just kind of . . . revealed itself due to an unfortunate coincidence. 

Shark Army attacks leave behind a lot of damage. Jay’s parents work in the scrap business, which means that their job is to look through rubble for recyclable metals and collect them for the city. It’s the kind of gig that pays by the amount of scrap you collect, but since almost anyone can do it, the earnings per piece are pretty low. For the first few days following an attack, Jay is expected to be on site with his parents by four in the morning to help them before school. If this falls on a weekend, he’s there all day. He spends a lot of his time digging through bricks and broken glass. 

A little over a year ago, a residential building was struck by a Shark rocket. Believe it or not, this doesn’t happen often—Garmadon may want to take over their city, and he may try to do so by bombarding it with attacks, but he doesn’t gun for civilians. Residential buildings are typically left untouched. This time, however, a rogue rocket hit an apartment building’s base structure and toppled the whole thing over. 

By law, all buildings are required to have bomb shelters for their occupants. On the rare occasion that an apartment building is downed during an attack, the loss of life is usually kept at a minimum. Unfortunately, this still entails the destruction of everyone’s personal possessions, and also leaves a lot of work for scrap collectors. 

The destroyed building left behind enough of a mess that Jay was forced to skip school to help out. He wound up a little far away from the other scrap collectors, venturing into the area with piles of unstable concrete that required good balance and quick reflexes to stand on. Since one slip up could mean hitting your head or falling into glass, not many people bothered working there. A year of ninja training meant that Jay was incredibly agile, so he navigated to the thick of it without much fear. 

It was here, isolated from the other collectors on uneven ground, that he found Lloyd Garmadon. 

The teenager was sitting on a slab of concrete, a shocked expression on his face as he held a hand in front of his eyes. From where he stood, Jay could see streaks of red running down his hand and wrist. Lloyd was bleeding—injured, probably, from being reckless in the area. 

Unlike most people he knew, Jay didn’t have strong feelings about Lloyd Garmadon. Everyone had theories about Lloyd’s true relationship with his father, but Jay didn’t spend enough time online or with other people to care about it very much. It just wasn’t very important to him. 

That was probably why he didn’t turn away. After shouting to get Lloyd’s attention, he approached him carefully and stood a couple feet away. Lloyd had gone completely still, although Jay could see his eyes tracking his every move. He was tense. Afraid. It took a stupidly long moment for Jay to realize that Lloyd was probably waiting to be assaulted. 

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Jay said. He kept a backpack full of supplies on him while working, which he slipped off his shoulders so he could rummage inside. He found the small medkit at the bottom and pulled it out. “I have bandages in here. Hold on.” 

His words didn’t assuage Lloyd whatsoever. Jay thought about offering to wrap the cut on his palm, but decided that would be a bad idea. Clearly, Lloyd wasn’t the type of person willing to accept help from strangers. Jay would just have to improvise.

“Do you do this often?” he asked. If the answer was yes, Jay intended on teaching him about the importance of safety while scrap collecting.

Lloyd looked away. His uninjured hand balled itself into a fist. “I’m not stealing anything. I’m just trying to help.”

Gently, Jay placed his roll of bandages and a sealed pack of medical disinfectant wipes on the chunk of concrete in front of him. “Okay,” he said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “Next time, make sure you help with gloves.”

He wiggled his gloved fingers so Lloyd would see what he was talking about. Then he zipped up his backpack and walked away. 

The ninja had weapons training that night. Jay stood beside Green as they chose their weapons from the armoury. It was here, in this moment, that a horrifying, dreadful kind of feeling settled into his bones. Through the corner of his eye, Jay watched as the Green Ninja picked up a sword with his good hand and then flinched in pain. 

Jay tried to ignore it. He reminded himself that Green had sprained his ankle a couple months ago—maybe he’d just stepped on it weirdly and aggravated it. Yeah, that had to be it. No other reason for him to flinch. 

For the rest of weapons training, Green hissed and tensed up in pain whenever he used his right hand. It was the same hand Lloyd had injured earlier in the day. 

The thought entered Jay’s mind before he could stop it: Lloyd Garmadon is the Green Ninja. 

Since then, he’s done everything he can to ignore this connection. Green doesn’t want him to know his identity, so Jay tries his best to convince himself that he hasn’t figured it out. The hand injury could have just been a coincidence, he likes to think. There’s no proof that they’re the same person. 

Unfortunately, the proof is staring him directly in the face tonight. Lloyd has been publicly kidnapped. Green is missing in action. What else is Jay supposed to make of this? He doesn’t know if he can realistically keep pretending their connection is a weird coincidence at this point. 

To kill time until the Secret Ninja Force decides their leader isn’t coming, Jay has been using the warehouse computer to ping Green’s comms unit in five second intervals. He bites the inside of his cheek each time the computer tells him that Green’s earpiece isn’t receiving any data. This can only mean two things: his unit is dead, or it’s been destroyed. Neither are a good sign for the ninja’s condition. 

Jay isn’t the only one nervous about Green’s fate. The other ninja are equally tense, speaking to each other in hushed voices on the couch a few feet away from him. Red is pacing in circles around them. 

Finally, it seems like he’s done with waiting. Red twists to face the rest of the group. “Are we just going to sit here, or are we going to look for him?”

Grey raises an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting we try to find a ninja? ”

Red huffs. “It’s better than doing nothing! What if something happened to him on the way here?” 

“He didn’t report anything,” Black says with a shrug. He glances over to Jay. “Did you reach him?” 

“His comm is dead,” Jay replies. He doesn’t want them to search for Green—he knows what a waste of time that will be. It makes the hum below his skin go haywire, but he manages to bring himself to keep speaking. “I think we should start our meeting without him. We have a bigger problem to deal with right now.” 

Red shoots him a confused look. “Bigger problems than our leader missing?”

“Well, there’s the whole, you know…” Red’s expression is too intense. Jay looks away shyly. “Kidnapping thing.”

The change in subject makes Black sit up a little straighter. “Blue is right. We should be looking for Lloyd.” 

White holds up a hand. “The Secret Ninja Force is only meant to fight Garmadon. Is it wise to intervene here?”

“Are you kidding me?” Black laughs in disbelief. “Garmadon won’t surrender for Lloyd. If we don’t do something, he’s going to die.”

Red presses his hands against the sides of his head. “I can’t believe this. Green has never skipped a meeting before. He’s missing! And you, what—you want to focus on someone who we know will at least be alive for another week? This is insane.” 

“Okay, wait.” Grey stands up from the couch and steps forward to stand beside Red. “We all know that Green believes Lloyd is innocent. I mean, he’s even vouched for him publicly! What if he went after him earlier in the day and got into trouble?” 

White nods. “I agree. If we are going to get involved, we should investigate the group behind Lloyd’s kidnapping. They may have something to do with Green’s disappearance.”

Red looks between the ninja with narrowed eyes. He’s pissed.

“Fine! If you want to abandon our leader, then go right ahead!” He stalks over to the weapons wall. After looking over his options, he takes two swords and slides them into the holsters on his back. “I’m looking for Green. Maybe I’ll find him before he’s dead.” 

Red leaves through the side door. It slams shut behind him. 

Jay shrinks back in his chair. If he could tell them what he knows, they could put all their energy into tracking down their leader. He just can’t—Lloyd is viciously protective of identity, to the point that Jay thinks he’d rather risk his life than expose himself to the world. If Lloyd has been unwilling to confess to his teammates until now, Jay doesn’t think he’s in a position to do it for him. Even when his life is at stake.

Grey glances between the door and the other ninja, a conflicted expression in her eyes. She curses. “Shit. Sorry, guys—I’m going to follow him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Call me if you need me.” 

She grabs the spear from the weapons wall and disappears out the side door. Only half the ninja remain in the warehouse.

Black stands up. Jay wonders if he’s going to leave, but the ninja instead rounds the couch and comes to stand beside him at the computer. “Is there anything you can do with the video to trace its location?” 

Jay shakes his head. “I already tried at home. It’s a dead end.” 

“Well, at least your head’s on straight.” Black rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe that Red doesn’t want to look for him. Like, come on—Green said he vetted Lloyd himself. He’s innocent and we should be helping him.” 

“I wonder how they found him!” 

Jay yelps at the sudden voice beside him. He turns his head and sees White standing right next to him—how did he get there without Jay seeing him move? 

Oh, right. Stupid ninjas. 

Black furrows his brow. “What do you mean?” 

“Lloyd is very sneaky. When I decided to vet him on my own, I found him hard to follow around the city. He makes a great effort to hide his location from potential stalkers.” White stares ahead impassively. “It took months of dedication to uncover his home address. I am one of the only people who knows where he lives. And yet, these new vigilantes somehow abducted him on his way to school. Do you not find it suspicious that they knew which direction he would come from?”

That’s weird, but not for the way White believes. “Lloyd doesn’t go to school after Garmadon attacks. You’re saying they caught him going somewhere he avoids for his own safety?”

“How do you even know they caught him before school?” Black asks. “No witnesses have stepped forward yet. We have no idea when they took him.” 

“Blue, please pull up the hostage video.” Jay does as he’s told. He finds the video on a news website and lets it roll until White tells him to stop. In the still frame, Lloyd’s face injuries are displayed clearly for the audience to see. “Those red markings are the beginnings of bruises. They are at most three hours old at this stage of colouration. If the video was released around noon, and we take into account any time spent applying voice filters and scrubbing the video of identifying information, then we may reasonably assume he sustained those injuries early in the morning. He was abducted on his way to school.” 

“Like I said, Lloyd doesn’t go to school after attacks.” Jay can’t take his eyes off of Lloyd’s face in the video, wondering just what’s going through his leader’s mind right now. “Did they abduct him from his apartment?”

“Perhaps. However, I passed by this afternoon and there were no signs of forced entry.” White reaches over Jay’s shoulder to tap Lloyd’s face on the screen. “All of this fascinates me. Whether he was abducted at home or outside, these vigilantes have somehow managed to locate his domicile. Lloyd is too smart and too paranoid to have let them track him down. They could not have learned it from him. Do you know who does know his home address?” 

Black frowns. “Enlighten me.” 

“When I deduced Lloyd’s address, I decided to monitor it for any irregularities. I observed a pattern that you may find interesting: his city block is not targeted during Garmadon attacks. Sharks occasionally enter the area and do their own damage, but they do not fire rockets there. What is the natural conclusion here?” 

Jay connects the dots immediately. “Garmadon isn’t targeting the block because he knows that Lloyd and his mom live there.”

“Wait, what are you saying here?” Black says. “Do you think Garmadon sent those vigilantes to kidnap him?” 

White shrugs merrily. “Nope! I simply believe that there may be a bigger picture we have yet to see. Out of respect for Lloyd’s privacy, I intend to follow through on this line of thought independently. I presume you will conduct your own investigations, so I must advise that you proceed with caution. We do not know the true depth of the issue. Goodbye!” 

With a small wave, White walks away from the computer and leaves the warehouse. Jay and Black exchange a knowing glance—what the hell was that?

Black sighs and puts his head in his hands. “Great. Everyone is being weird but you.” He pulls his hands away and meets Jay’s eyes. “Can I be honest with you about something? Promise you won’t tell the others.”

At this point, Jay is very confident in his ability to keep secrets from the other ninja. “I promise. What is it?”

“Red doesn’t seem worried about Lloyd at all. He’s always been a little more extreme than the rest of us, and it kind of makes me wonder if he had something to do with it.” 

That’s a big allegation. “You think Red helped them kidnap Lloyd?” 

“Maybe. I mean, look at how he flipped out as soon as White suggested we look into the kidnappers. Doesn’t that seem a little suspicious to you?”

Jay taps his fingers against the computer desk anxiously. “What about what White said about Garmadon? If he’s behind this, Red wouldn’t be cooperating.”

“What if the Sharks are undercover and he doesn’t know? They might have tricked him.” 

It’s hard for Jay to take a side here. He knows that Black and Red have had their disagreements in the past—it’s true that Red is a bit of an extremist, and Black chastises him for being too reckless all the time. There’s a lot of tension between the two of them. Black may be right that Red could be pushed to kidnap someone by the right people, but Jay doesn’t believe he would undermine the team like that. Red is too loyal, and especially so to the Green Ninja, who he knows would never approve of hurting Lloyd Garmadon to make a move against Garmadon. It just doesn’t make sense. 

At the same time, he’s curious about Black’s train of thought. Undercover Sharks . . . 

“You should look into it,” Jay tells him. “I’ll try to find Lloyd on my own. We can cross-reference each other’s notes and see if it brings us anywhere.” 

This seems to be exactly what Black wants to hear. He smiles behind his mask—a rare sight on the Black Ninja. 

“Sounds good. I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Good luck.” 

The Black Ninja leaves. Jay closes his eyes and leans back in his chair. 

The team is going in too many directions. If they can’t get it together, then Lloyd will be left to die. They’ll lose the Green Ninja. 

Still, Jay wants Black to look into the possibility of undercover Sharks being involved with Lloyd’s abduction. Jay has a feeling that White is correct to assume that Garmadon may have something to do with it. 

In that case, he definitely isn’t going to surrender. And the vigilantes aren’t targeting their boss, either. 

City authorities won’t step up to help Lloyd. The Secret Ninja force is a big maybe , since their primary focus is defeating Garmadon—why would they stop someone trying to accomplish the same thing?  

But here’s the thing: this has to be targeting someone , and there’s only one member of the Secret Ninja Force who openly defends Lloyd Garmadon to anyone who will listen.

If White’s Garmadon theory is true, then Lloyd wasn’t kidnapped to pressure Garmadon. He was kidnapped to lure the Green Ninja into a trap.

Things are about to get messy.

6. GREEN - 3:25 AM 

He learns of the plot to kidnap him on his way home from fighting Garmadon’s forces. From a rooftop, he sees a group of masked individuals with weapons standing around a few fallen Shark soldiers. This catches his attention—is this group also fighting back against Garmadon? 

The group catches sight of the Green Ninja watching them from the top of a fire escape. They wave him down. Curious, Lloyd reluctantly climbs down from his perch but remains on the second story balcony. He refuses to get close until he knows their intentions. 

A masked man with a spiked baseball bat speaks up. The others seem to fall in line behind him—this must be the leader.

“What’s your stance on the kid?” he asks Green, making eye contact so sharp that Lloyd briefly worries he can see through his ninja mask. “Do you still think he’s innocent?”

“We don’t care about the kid,” Lloyd responds automatically. The rest of the his team doesn't like to share their opinions about this kind of thing—not publicly, that is. “Until solid evidence comes up, we’re leaving him alone.”

The leader rolls his eyes. “I’m not asking about the other ninja. I’m asking about you.”

It’s hard to keep a controlled reaction to the line of questioning. Everyone knows how the Green Ninja feels about Lloyd Garmadon. Why bother asking?

“How I feel doesn’t matter,” he decides to say. “Even if he’s a Shark, Garmadon has other spies for us to worry about.”

The leader seems a little displeased, but offers a smile anyways. “We plan on finding out tomorrow. We’re going to kidnap him and demand his father’s surrender. Will you stop us?”

His heart pounds against his chest. “What happens if Garmadon refuses?”

The others exchange looks with each other, like they haven’t considered this to be a possibility. The leader just shrugs. “If the kid is innocent, I guess we’ll just have to let him go.” 

Lloyd should feel threatened, maybe even scared. Instead, he feels something a little closer to hope. This group is offering him a chance to clear his name on a silver platter. A full public rejection from his father will be enough to prove his innocence. He’s sure of it. 

He doesn’t need much time to mull it over. 

“I won’t stop you. He’s all yours.” He lowers his voice to seem more threatening. “But if you don’t let him go at the end, I’m coming after you. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Quickly, Lloyd makes his way back up the fire escape. Once he’s sure he’s out of view, he finally lets himself grin and cheer in excitement. 

Sixteen long years of rejection and public hatred are about to come to an end. He might get a little hurt in the process, but in the near future, Lloyd is finally going to be free. 

He can’t wait.

Notes:

thanks so much for reading!! chapters 2 and 3 are already finished, so i'll probably be posting those in the next couple of weeks.

kudos and comments are super appreciated. have a great day/night <3

Chapter 2: Day 2

Notes:

thanks so much for all the comments and kudos on the last chapter!! this chapter will launch the beginnings of everyone's investigations. enjoy!!

1. GREY — 02:25 AM

Nya is supposed to be the better one. 

At least, that’s what everyone likes to tell her. The adults in her life have always made it very clear that they like her more than her brother. 

Admittedly, it does make a bit of sense. Compared to her twin, her interests are a little more . . . palatable to adult tastes. Nya likes science, sports, and spending her evenings getting ahead in her studies. Her brother gave up on school when he was eight and spends his evenings beating people up. He’s a walking nightmare for social workers. It’s no surprise that Nya has always come though as the favourite.

In her brother’s defence, they would probably like him better if they knew what he did during his evenings. It would probably go a long way to help his reputation. Unfortunately, no one is allowed to know the truth—not even Nya. 

It’s too bad, really, that it’s hard to keep secrets from her for long. Nya has known that her brother is the Red Ninja since the very first night he went out to fight Sharks. It didn’t take long for video clips of the new ninja to emerge; a ninja who, coincidentally, fought just like her brother did during their more intense sparring sessions. It wasn’t hard to piece everything together after that. 

Tonight, Nya finds the Red Ninja standing alone on a rooftop. Across the street is an all-female orphanage she knows too well. 

He doesn’t know that Nya is standing a few metres behind him. To get his attention, she scuffs her shoes on the floor and says, “Do you know someone who lives there?” 

Kai looks over his shoulder with narrowed eyes. “Have you been following me?” 

“Only all night,” she replies with a smile. She takes a few steps closer. “Any success in finding the Green Ninja?”

The question must sting. Kai rolls his eyes and turns to face her completely. “What do you want, Grey? Any reason you decided to stalk me all night?”

Someone had to make sure her brother didn’t get himself killed while looking for their leader. Nya has a feeling saying so may hurt his pride, so she comes up with a lie instead. 

“I wanted to help you find Green, but I had a feeling that you needed some space. I kept my distance and planned to jump in if anything important happened.”

Kai’s suspicious expression doesn’t change at first, and Nya briefly worries that she’s failed to convince him. After a moment of thought, he rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Fine. At least you agree that looking for Green should be our priority.” 

Hmm. That’s not entirely true. Nya considers telling him the truth about her feelings on the matter, then quickly decides otherwise. Securing Red’s trust will help her in the long run, and everyone knows it’s better to win through a lie than to not win at all. 

“None of us would be here if it weren’t for him,” she says. It’s only a half-lie this time—Green was the first among them to take a stand against Garmadon, and more than likely inspired most of them to do the same. Nya’s pretty sure that’s why Kai is here. The others probably aren’t too different. “We should be doing everything we can to find him.” 

“Is that why you joined? Because of Green?” Kai asks. The question itself isn’t accusatory—he’s trying to find common ground between them. The ninja all trust each other with their lives, but the only person Red really gets along with is Green. He might need someone to fill that void right now. 

Now that Nya feels she’s regained his trust, she moves to stand beside him. It takes inner strength not to put her hand on his shoulder, or pull him into the hug he must need right now. That isn’t the relationship Kai has with Grey, and that kind of friendliness isn’t how Nya has ever conducted herself as Grey around the others. She has to keep her distance here. 

“Garmadon hurt someone I love,” she says. She supposes that she should mourn her parents a little more than she actually does, but they died when she was too young to ever really know them. Kai is her family. And he’s been hurt by Garmadon a whole lot. “Green inspired me, but he’s not the real reason I’m here.” 

Kai steals a glance back at the orphanage. “Me too,” he whispers. 

Nya follows his eyes to the orphanage. As far as Kai is concerned, his twin sister is sleeping safely somewhere inside. She doesn’t often partner up with him for missions, worried that too much time together would lead him to uncover her identity, so she can only wonder how often he passes by here during Garmadon attacks. Have any of the other ninja figured out that this place is important to him? Have the Sharks? 

It’s getting late. School starts in six hours. If either of them want a bit of sleep tonight, they’ll need to head back soon. 

It won’t be easy for either of them to fall asleep tonight—there’s too much going on, too much to worry about. Some exercise to drain their energy might help. 

Nya chucks her spear to the edge of the rooftop. “Let’s spar,” she says. “Hand-to-hand. No weapons.” 

Her proposal surprises Kai. He gives her an incredulous look. “Right now?” 

She shrugs. “Why not?” 

It’s a good enough reason for Kai. He removes his swords from their sheathes and places them down gently at the edge of the rooftop. When he meets her again in the middle, there’s an amused spark in his eye she hasn’t seen all night. Good.

If there’s an activity he likes as much as fighting Sharks, it’s fighting in general. He’s a borderline professional—Nya has seen him win enough tournament trophies to prove it—and has more or less turned his body into a weapon. Red has personally taught the ninja everything they know about combat. Without his expertise, they all would have died fighting Sharks by now. Herself excluded, of course. 

Unlike the others, the Red Ninja has been teaching her everything he knows since they were kids. Even when they were separated six years ago, he made sure to keep her up to speed with what he was learning. Nya wouldn’t put her skills at his level exactly, but they’re pretty damn close. It’s given her quite the advantage over her teammates. Even if she can never show it. 

The spar begins. As usual, Nya holds back so she seems like someone who only started doing martial arts two years ago. Kai holds back so she doesn’t get hurt. She knows all of his moves like the back of her hand, but she lets him land a kick she saw coming because it’s not something Grey would know to predict just yet. 

She lands on her back. Kai offers a hand to help her up, a sight she’s seen hundreds of times throughout her life. She takes it.

When they get back to the warehouse, they put their weapons away and bid farewell. The ninja aren’t supposed to go home at the same time to conceal the locations of their homes, so Nya tells Kai to go home first and waves him out the door. 

Nya doesn’t plan on going home tonight. Instead, she finds a spare blanket in a supply chest and passes out on the couch for a few hours of shut eye. The orphanage administrators will give her a slap on the wrist for staying out when they see her tomorrow, but that’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make for the greater good. Grey’s ninja business isn’t finished just yet.

Her alarm goes off three hours later. Nya gets up, puts the blanket away, and makes her way to the weapons wall. 

The spear is her weapon of choice, but she’ll need something small for her next mission. Something subtle that people won’t notice at first glance.

She grabs a knife small enough to hide in her gi. Then she leaves for school.

2. GREY — 5:10 AM 

It’s way too early to be here.

The doors to Waterfront High School won’t be unlocked for another hour, so Nya climbs to the overhang on the second story to break in through a window. She tests all of them to see if one was left unlocked by mistake overnight. At the other end of the building, she finds a window that opens at her touch—but it isn’t simply unlocked. It’s been broken into. 

She leans in to inspect it closely. The window’s locking mechanism has been cut in half; cleanly enough that she can only assume the perpetrator used bolt cutters to sever the metal. How weird. Who else is trying to break into her school tonight?

Nya opens the window and quietly slips inside. The target of her mission is on the first floor. As she makes her way to the stairs, she looks over her shoulder every few steps to make sure no one is behind her. It makes her feel overly paranoid, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Especially if someone else has broken into the building alongside her.

She exits the stairwell into the first floor and starts counting the locker numbers. The locker she needs is number 392—Lloyd Garmadon’s locker, to be precise. 

Nobody knows where Lloyd Garmadon lives—not even the school administration. Nya has a feeling that his abduction has something to do with Green’s disappearance, which makes finding Lloyd her best option for saving them both. If she can’t break into his house for clues, then his locker is her next best option.

It might invade his privacy, but the situation is too dire for her to care. Her leader is in danger. Green has always made it clear that he will defend Lloyd if anything were to happen to him. He must have gone after the kid’s kidnappers after the video was posted, then gotten himself injured, or captured, or maybe even killed. She doesn’t like that last option, but she has to face the facts: Green has never gone radio silent before. Something has gone terribly wrong. 

Lloyd’s locker is around the corner, right in the main stretch of the hallway. The administrator who placed him there must have had a vendetta; its location puts him right in the thick of things, where it’s easy for students to find him if they want to harass him. No wonder Lloyd is always covered in bruises. 

Nya rounds the corner. She freezes at what she sees. 

Someone definitely broke into the second story window. And that someone is currently doing the same thing to Lloyd’s locker. 

The intruder presses down on a heavy set of bolt cutters. There’s a sharp metallic noise; the sound of a metal lock being cut in half. The intruder puts down the bolt cutters and opens Lloyd’s locker. 

Nya watches them from the corner, curious to see what they’re doing. If this is a bully about to destroy all her evidence, she’ll need to stop them. Something about them gives her a different vibe, and she chooses to wait it out for a bit instead. 

Besides, the intruder is a little familiar to her. It takes a minute of close observation to realize that she does know this person—he’s in most of her classes. He’s just dressed differently than usual. 

Jay Walker likes wearing blue sweaters and brightly-coloured scarves. Today, his outfit is one shade only: black. 

He’s trying to be stealthy. How interesting.

This is enough to convince Nya to intervene. While Jay is absorbed in digging through the depths of Lloyd’s locker, she silently moves down the hallway until she’s standing beside him. At her feet is an open backpack full of shiny metallic things—tools? What is Jay trying to do here?

It’s always good to make a strong first impression, so Nya takes the bag into her hands and starts rummaging around to see if there's anything interesting inside. Jay hears the sound of his bag rustling and looks up. Nya responds by kicking him to the floor. 

She doesn't feel bad. It won’t hurt him, but it will surprise him. 

Jay lands hard on his side. He scrambles to a sitting position right away, chest rising and falling rapidly as he takes in his assailant. Nya makes a show of pulling something out of his bag to observe—a pair of high-tech goggles. “These are cool. Where’d you get them?”

She watches with amusement as Jay’s hands ball into fists at his side. “I built them.” 

There’s a small switch next to the right frame. She flicks it and then presses the goggles to her eyes. They cast a green hue over her vision, and any light sources pop brightly as she looks around. She knows exactly what these are. 

“Night vision goggles,” she comments. She flicks the switch and pulls them away from her eyes. “You know who else likes using night vision? Sharks. ” 

Jay sits up straighter. “Only in their helmets. I used parts from helmets I found to make those.”  

For a moment, she considers asking why he’s looting Shark technology for parts, but then remembers one of the only things she knows about Jay: he’s interested in engineering. It might be weird that he likes to mess around with lost Shark tech, but it doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable. 

None of this explains why he’s looking through Lloyd’s locker. Time to pivot back to the topic at hand. “Do you need night vision goggles to look through Lloyd’s locker? What are you trying to do?”

“Same as you, probably. I’m trying to find him.” Jay stands up and brushes off his hands on his pants. Then he holds out a hand. “Can I have my bag? If you aren’t careful enough, some stuff in there might explode.” 

It pains her to know someone is running around her school with a bag of explosives, but she hands it over anyway. “Why are you trying to find Lloyd? Are you friends?” 

Jay gently places the bag on the floor. He kneels beside it and starts to look for something inside. “We’re not friends. I just feel bad for him.” After jostling some things around, which makes Nya nervous given the bag’s alleged contents, Jay removes a pair of thick construction gloves. “You see these? Scrappers use these gloves.” 

Nya nods slowly, not understanding his point. “Okay. . .?” 

He puts the gloves into her hands, then pulls a flashlight from his bag. He shuffles over to the locker and shines it inside.  Nya leans over to get her first good look at the locker; it’s a bit of a mess, but mostly appears to be filled with school stuff. It seems like Jay has found something though, because he beckons her closer and then points the light to the locker’s top shelf. There’s a roll of white bandages and a pair of gloves like the ones in her hands now. 

Jay grabs the gloves and holds them up for her to see. They’re well-worn and surprisingly small, clearly made for someone much younger than Lloyd. Do these really belong to him?

“I ran into him at a scrap heap a year ago. He wasn’t using gloves and cut his hand.” Jay clicks off the flashlight and stands up. He traces his finger along one of the glove’s worn down seams. Nya holds one of Jay’s gloves beside it as reference, and it’s clear that Lloyd’s pair is much older. “I’ve had those gloves for three years. Obviously, Lloyd’s had those gloves for longer than that. Here’s what I don’t get: why would he mess around with scrap without gloves if he already owned a pair?”

Admittedly, this is a little beyond Nya’s area of expertise. She didn’t even know scrap collectors used gloves until thirty seconds ago. But it seems like Jay needs to bounce ideas off someone, so she says, “I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t care if he gets hurt.” 

Jay frowns. “That’s not it. Lloyd doesn’t go to school after Garmadon attacks—it’s too dangerous. If he keeps his gear here, then he probably doesn’t always have a chance to grab it before he goes outside to help. That’s why he doesn’t wear gloves sometimes. I just . . .”

Nya notices Jay’s eyebrows pinch together. He’s coming to some kind of conclusion. She decides to give him a push. “You just what?” 

“Lloyd doesn’t just not go to school after attacks, he doesn’t go outside at all. I don’t know why I saw him that one time. Maybe it was because an apartment building fell?” 

Oh. That tracks. “An apartment building on the east side was downed during the attack two days ago. Do you think he felt bad enough to check it out in the morning?”

Jay’s eyes widen. “That’s it! He must have been abducted when he went there early in the morning.”

“Someone might have known he likes to hang around scrap heaps. If word got around, he was like a sitting duck going there,” Nya says. She passes back the gloves to Jay and takes a step back. “We should go. The school will open soon. Let’s meet up tonight at the apartment building. Does ten thirty work for you?”

There’s hesitation as Jay thinks it over. He bites his lip. “You want me to help you?” 

Is he shy? That’s kind of cute. 

“You’re smart. I think we can help each other.” Nya smiles and parts with a wave. “See you later, Jay.”

3. NYA - 1:42 PM | 13:42 

As it would turn out, Jay isn’t just in some of Nya’s classes—he’s in all of them.

Given his bag of inventions, it makes sense that he would be one of the students selected for the advanced stream. Most of her fellow classmates are smart kids with inflated egos, so Jay’s quiet nature has allowed him to slip under the radar. The school day is almost over and he hasn’t spoken a word to anyone. No wonder she never noticed him. 

Contrary to her initial assessment, Jay isn’t friendless. At the end of the day, he talks to another student for around ten minutes before parting ways. She’s never seen the other student and makes sure to take note of him. He mostly wears black, has long hair, and wears big headphones over his ears. Jay has already proven to be a well of information—she wonders if this can extend to his contacts, too. 

They go outside and part ways. Nya has half a mind to follow Jay home, but decides that it’ll serve her better to rest instead. She needs to have a clear head when she sees Jay tonight. Sleep-deprived confusion won’t bring them any closer to finding Lloyd and saving Green. 

The administrators at the girl’s home give her an earful for disappearing all night and ground her for a week. Nya doesn’t know why they still bother to punish her; it’s a pointless venture. The last time they grounded her, they installed bars on the windows to make it harder for her to sneak out. She still found a way. What kind of ninja would she be if she couldn’t escape an orphanage ?

At last, she’s finally allowed into her dorm. She crawls into bed, ignores her roommates’ annoying questions, and closes her eyes with the full intention of sleeping through dinner.

4. KAI — 4:30 PM | 16:30

What a load of fucking bullshit. 

Kai can’t believe what he’s hearing. No way is this going to happen. 

“This is completely rational,” says Tengfei, the group home administrator with complete control over Kai’s future. He sits back in his big leather office chair (like a jackass) and then laces his fingers together (like an even bigger jackass). “Everyone goes through initiation. Did you expect special treatment?”

He curls his hands into fists. “Honestly, yeah, I did. You already know what I can do. Why do I need to prove myself?”

Tengfei laughs. “Are you serious? The Sharks don’t accept anyone until they’ve proven their loyalty to the cause. And with your history, they’re going to want something big . It’s the only way in.” 

Yeah, they want something big all right. Ninja-level big. 

Tengfei is out of his mind if he thinks Kai is actually going to bring him one of the Ninja. Those guys eat Sharks for breakfast, and now they want him to take one of them down just to prove himself? This is one of the stupidest things he’s ever heard. If they don’t want him to join, they can just say so. 

It’s kind of ironic, really. If Kai wanted to, he could bring any of them in with ease. He’s the best fighter on the team. None of them would stand a chance. He just doesn’t want to betray one of his teammates to the Sharks. He’s pretty sure that kind of thing would defeat the purpose of being on a team in the first place. Right?

“You’re a piece of shit, Tengfei,” Kai growls. Tengfei’s security guard puts his hand over the hilt of his holstered sword in warning. With a roll of his eyes, Kai holds up his hands to show he means no harm. “Relax. I was just speaking my mind.” 

“I suppose that means we’re done here.” Tengfei gestures to the door. “Get out of my office, Kai. I have other people to see. People who might appreciate the opportunities I’ve given them.”

Now, it’s Kai’s turn to laugh. “Okay, sure. Opportunities. That’s what you gave me.” He makes his way to the exit, but then decides to stop in the doorway. “Just a reminder, boss: bring more guards next time you let me into your office. If you really piss me off, one guy just isn’t going to cut it.” 

More annoyed than he’s ever been in his life, Kai ducks out of the office and considers the corner he’s let himself get backed into. There’s an easy way out, but it feels more like a trap door than an exit, so to speak. It might get him killed. It might get others killed. There would be no guarantee that he would ever be allowed to leave again. And it may be his only way of finding Green. 

Ugh. There has to be another way. Anything is better than going back to that place. 

Back in his room, Kai grabs his backpack and leaves the building through the exterior fire escape. The metal structure was damaged by a Shark attack a few years ago, and of course none of the adults around here have bothered to fix them, so the entire structure is bound to collapse any day now. It’s incredibly dangerous. But using the front door requires passing by Tengfei’s office, and there’s no way Kai is going anywhere near that asshole again anytime soon. The fire escape will just have to do for now. 

On the street, he shoulders his backpack and makes his way to the cache where his ninja gi is stored. The group home is basically a Shark recruitment pool, so keeping it there would be suicide. He’s taken to burying his ninja supplies under a big rock just outside of city limits. Sure, it’s probably not the most secure hiding spot in the world. He just doesn’t know where else to put his stuff. 

A little ways into the jungle that surrounds most of the city, Kai drops his bag beside his hiding rock. He pushes up the big rock, pulls out his duffle bag of supplies, and then changes into his gi as quickly as possible. You never know when someone might be watching, after all. He doesn’t even want to think about how complicated his life would become if his identity was unveiled to the world. 

Once he’s changed, he stuffs his normal clothes under the rock and waits for sunset. There isn’t much he can do as Kai the civilian. But as he watches the city from the trees, he thinks he has an idea of what the Red Ninja can do tonight. 

Hm. This just might work. 

5. RED — 7:40 PM | 19:40

If it isn’t obvious by now, Kai has the shittiest luck in the world. 

Of course, the Black Ninja is in the warehouse when he stops by for weapons. There are currently three active members of their team that he’d rather deal with right now. Of all people to run into tonight . . .

Kai tries to avoid him. He hurries past the computer station where Black is working, ignoring his attempts to start a conversation. Who is he to ask what Kai is doing tonight? Black isn’t his boss. He isn’t even his friend! He should mind his own business and consider leaving Kai alone for once.

The ninja all have their favourite weapons. Grey likes her spear, Blue likes his nunchucks, Black likes his hammer . . . Kai wouldn’t dare to touch any of those weapons without their permission. Sure, they’re mounted on the communal armoury wall, but that’s only because no one wants to deal with the hassle of storing them at home. De-facto ownership is still ownership! 

And so, it surprises Kai to see that his dual swords are missing from their spots on the rack. Did someone really take them without asking? Or—

“I asked you a question, Red.” 

Kai turns around. Black is no longer seated at the computer station.

Instead, he’s situated himself right behind the couch, where he holds up his hands for Kai to see.

The dual swords rest across his palms. Kai’s dual swords. 

“I’ll say it one more time.” Black’s eyes are narrowed in overt suspicion. “What are you doing, Red?”

Oh, wow. Black is actually holding his swords hostage. And why? Because Kai won’t explain what he’s doing? 

“I’m looking for Green.” Kai strides over to the couch. He notices the way Black’s hands curl around the blades, like he’s worried Kai will try to take them. How annoying. “If you don't plan on helping, give me the swords and get out of my way.”

Black shakes his head. “Not unless you tell me your plan.” 

This fucking sucks. If Kai tells Black his plans, he’ll be forced to explain why he knows the people he does. By that point, he may as well take off his mask and hand over his city ID card. Goodbye, secret identity! 

Even worse, telling Black about his plan might make the ninja want to accompany him for his safety. Kai has no intention of hanging out with this guy all night. Not if he can help it. 

“I don't have to tell you anything. Who died and made you leader?” Kai takes another step forward. The front of his legs brush the bottom of the couch. Black is within arm’s reach now. “Not Green, that’s for sure. Even if you think he’s a lost cause.” 

Obviously, Kai won't be using his swords tonight. That’s annoying, but he can deal with it. He’s trained with other weapons. What he won't accept, however, is being pushed around by his teammate. 

He knows his reputation among the ninja. Reckless. Dangerous. Violent. Usually, he doesn't go out of his way to reinforce the way the others perceive him. His reputation makes them less likely to trust him. It hurts sometimes. Especially when they make their feelings obvious, like Black is doing right now. Like he does all the fucking time. 

Today, however, Kai is already extremely frustrated. And being frustrated makes him petty. It’s time to take advantage of the way Black sees him. 

Quick as a cat, Kai pretends to lunge forward into an attack. Black flinches and jumps backward, clutching the swords against his chest. Because despite his tough guy act with the swords, Black is still afraid of the Red Ninja. Of his own teammate. 

Kai laughs humourlessly and backs away from the couch. “You’re pathetic. I hope you know that.” 

Black is silent as Kai makes his way back to the weapons wall. After pondering his choices, he takes two daggers. These will have to do for now. 

Without sparing Black another glance, he slides the blades into the hilts across his chest. Then he leaves the warehouse and slams the door shut behind him. 

6. RED — 9:12 PM | 21:12

Obviously, Tengfei doesn’t live at the group home. None of the staff do. Honestly, Kai can’t blame them—if he had a choice, he wouldn’t live there, either. 

It’s only a matter of time before Tengfei packs it up and goes home. Kai fiddles with one of his knives as he sits on a rooftop close to the group home, waiting impatiently for the administrator to finally leave. Usually, he would be heading out around now . . .

The plan for tonight is pretty simple. Kai will follow Tengfei home and break into his apartment. There, he intends to intimidate him into giving him the name of his Shark contact so he can skip the stupid initiation process required to meet a recruiter. If that doesn’t work, he’ll ransack the place until he finds something that might lead him to the contact. Even if it takes all night. 

He hopes it doesn’t. If Green is really being held captive by the Sharks, it won’t be long before it’s too late to save him. Every second counts. 

A car stops in front of the group home’s door. Someone steps out of the back seat and waits beside the car. Curious, Kai leans forward to get a better look at them, initially assuming them to be one of the various social workers that go in and out of the building on a regular basis. As a certified problem child, Kai has dealt with nearly every case worker the city can throw at him. He knows all of them by name. 

But he doesn’t recognize this adult. They’re a complete stranger to him. Interesting.

A few minutes later, Tengfei exits the building. He bows to the stranger outside the car, who does not return the gesture. They both climb into the back seat and the car drives away. 

Kai slides his knife back into its holster with a smile. Knowing Tengfei, this can only mean trouble. 

Perfect. 

7. RED — 9:55 PM

Ten minutes ago, the car parked in front of a house in Hidden Peak. Kai sits in a tree across the street as he catches his breath. When he decided to follow the car on foot, the last place he’d expected it to go was the rich neighbourhood on the side of the mountain. Chasing a car uphill is exhausting. His legs are definitely going to be sore tomorrow, and he’s not even done for the night yet. 

When his lungs no longer feel like they’re going to fall out of his body, he climbs to a closer tree to get a better look at the house. He sips from his suit’s water sleeve as he takes it in. Two storeys. Lots of windows. From his vantage point, he can see Tengfei and three adults in suits sitting on couches in what appears to be a living room. A handful of security guards patrol the room. The suits and Tengfei are discussing something. If Kai wants to know what, he’ll need to get into that room. 

There’s a balcony on the second floor. If he’s quiet enough, he should be able to jump from a branch and land on the roof with alerting anyone. The drop to the roof from the closest branch appears to only be around half a metre. This should be easy. 

He shuffles as far as he can down the branch. When it feels like the branch is about to snap under his weight, he grips the wood with his hands and lets his feet dangle. Then he drops.

The landing is quiet enough. Kai sneaks over to the edge of the rooftop and climbs down to the balcony. The balcony door is unlocked, so he slips inside the house with ease. 

The door leads to a large bedroom. It’s the size of around three dorm units in the group home, briefly making him long for the time when his only roommate was his sister . . .

Kai bites the inside of his cheek to make himself refocus. His early childhood is a bygone era. It isn’t worth thinking about. Especially not now, when so much is at stake. 

He peeks out of the bedroom door and then immediately pulls his head back into the room. There’s a guard at the top of the staircase!

The way the guard is standing gives him a good enough angle to see everything in the hallway. There’s no way Kai can get the jump on him. At least, not without risking the people downstairs hearing a scuffle above them. The daggers could potentially be used as throwing knives, but that kind of thing isn’t really in Kai’s skillset. There’s a good chance they won’t land right. Probably not worth trying. 

As he resigns himself to a direct confrontation with the guard, there’s a loud banging noise in a room at the end of the hall, like something has smashed against the side of the house. Curious, Kai peers into the hallway again. The guard has turned his back to him completely as he watches the other room.  

The maneuver is one Kai has practiced many times. Kai charges the guard from a low position, where he grabs his waist and wraps his legs around one of his knees, toppling the guard quietly to the floor on his side. Kai quickly unravels himself and kneels on the guard's chest. Before he has the chance to call out a warning, Kai slams his hand over his mouth and holds down until he hears the familiar hiss of the sleeping agent releasing from the palm of his glove. The guard is unconscious in seconds. 

Like the rest of his ninja devices, the gloves are one of Blue’s inventions. He once tried to explain how they work to him, but chemistry and computer stuff have always been a little beyond his comprehension. All he knows is that putting his hand over someone’s mouth makes them pass out. Oh, and that holding it there for too long might give them brain damage. That's good enough, right? Why should he need to know the science behind it? Save that for the scientists on the team, please. 

There’s no way he’ll be able to take down anyone in the living room the same way. Once he’s there, all he’ll be able to do is fight until only one other person remains. Then he’ll interrogate them for information. 

Easy, right? 

There are a series of surprised shouts when he bursts into the living room. Because he’s petty, the first person he targets is Tengfei. That jackass is unconscious with a broken wrist almost immediately. 

Next, Kai deals with the rest of security. They aren’t dressed like Sharks, but they sure fight like them. Their swords do nothing to help them. By the time Kai is done with them, they’re curled on the floor in too much pain to move. 

All that’s left are the suits. When Kai makes his first move towards one, the suit stands up and holds out his hands. “Wait!” he cries out. “Let’s talk. All of us will talk. Okay?” 

Kai surveys the room. The suits are spread out. He doesn’t like that. 

“I want everyone on the same couch,” he commands, using a knife to point to the three-seater in front of him. The suits obey and move to the couch. “Good. Are you Sharks?

 Another suit nods their head. “We’re middle-men. We meet with potential recruits and then hand off their information to actual Sharks if we like them.” 

Kai gestures to Tengfei’s body. “Who is he to you?” 

“A scout. He flags potential recruits and refers them to us.” 

He notices a folder on the coffee table. “Is that the info on your recruit?” 

“Yes.” 

He keeps his knife pointed towards them as walks to the coffee table. The folder isn’t very thick. He flips it open and suppresses any external reaction to what he sees.

There’s a photo of him clipped to the first page. Beside it is his full name, age, birthday, home address, and all other info Tengfei would have access to as a home administrator. The profile appears to be some kind of standardized format, almost like a resumé. He wonders if this is what Tengfei handed out to people when he sold Kai away all those years ago. 

“I’m not here to stop you,” Kai says, glancing up to the Sharks to make sure they’re still seated on the couch. “Tell me where you’re hiding the Green Ninja and I’ll let you go.” 

The Sharks look between themselves in confusion. “We don’t have the Green Ninja,” one of them says. 

Kai clicks his tongue. “Don’t lie. It’s annoying.” 

A Shark leans forward. “You have no idea what’s going on, do you?” 

Before Kai can ask what they mean, he hears movement behind him. He turns around just in time to see one of the security guards, face full of bruises, pull a dart from his waistband. Then he jams it right into Kai’s chest. 

This will be his first time getting hit with Venom. Some of the other Ninja have been hit, so he knows what to expect: muscle weakness, dizziness, nausea, and if the dose is potent enough, powerful hallucinations. For his sake, he hopes this one is a little watered down. He has no desire to hallucinate and ramble in front of the enemy. 

His legs give out first. Kai falls backwards, slamming his spine against the side of the coffee table. He reaches backward to find purchase on the table and winds up just pulling the folder into his lap. His attention is unravelling. Was he trying to do something? 

Colours are overtaking his vision. Oh, look, there’s a folder on his legs. When did that get there? He opens it and struggles to read anything inside. The words are shaking and moving all over the place. 

At the top of the page, there are three bolded and underlined words that he’s able to summon enough concentration to read: 

PROPERTY OF CHEN

Aw, fuck. That’s right—this is his profile. When the Sharks pull off his mask, they’re going to know exactly who he is. And then they’re going to kill him.

He is so, so screwed.

Notes:

again, thanks so much for reading!!

the next chapter might take a bit longer to upload since it needs some major work. i will finish and post it asap <3

Chapter 3: Night 2

Notes:

thanks again for all the kudos/comments!!! here is chapter 3 :))

1. JAY — FOUR YEARS AGO.

The forecast calls for lightning. 

Car engines roar overhead as Jay makes his way deeper into Ouroville. The concrete steps bring him past his neighbours, whose makeshift brick-and-metal houses are built into the wall below the elevated street and the riverbank. Water rushes past his feet as it flows down from street-level. The walk home from school is a long one; his shoes and clothes are completely soaked through by now. It’ll be a miracle if he doesn’t wake up sick tomorrow. 

It sucks, but at least the scrap sites are closed. He was supposed to spend all afternoon working with his parents. Thanks to the storm, he suddenly has seven hours of free time to use however he pleases. And he already knows exactly what he’s going to do. 

With an optimistic spring to his step, he carries on past his house and continues down the stairs to the riverbank. He set up a tarp tent there not too long ago to hide his more interesting scrap finds from prying eyes. Currently, the tent is sheltering some very cool Shark items left behind during the last Garmadon attack. He’s been waiting for an opportunity to mess around with them for a whole week. Now he finally has one. Thank you, storm!

Jay ducks below the tarp and steps into the tent. He finds the Shark items splayed out on a mat in the middle. Among them rests his greatest find to date:

A certified, action-ready Shark dart gun. 

Fucking sick, right?

Without hesitation, he takes it into his hands and observes the poison dart inside. He can’t tell what kind of poison it is. Anyone can recognize the bright green hue of Venomari Venom, but this one is a dark purple substance he’s never seen before. Knowing the Sharks, it’s most likely some kind of fish venom. Maybe puffer fish? 

If Jay wants to fiddle with the gun, he’ll need to get rid of the poison dart. The only issue is that he doesn’t know how to remove it without potentially exploding the poison container on himself. It looks like he may need to fire the gun to get rid of the dart . . . 

Oh, this just got even cooler. Jay peeks out of the tent to make sure no one is around. The riverbank is covered in trash and doesn’t get much sunlight due to overpasses that run overhead, so it doesn’t surprise him to see that he’s the only person down there right now. It isn’t somewhere people like to hang out. Unless, of course, you have something to hide. Or shoot.

Once he’s confirmed the coast is clear, Jay steps out of the tent and walks along the water as he searches for a good target. Eventually, he stumbles across a no-littering sign beside the cliff’s face. It’s a perfect target: there’s a circle in the middle to use as a bullseye, and if he misses, the dart will hit rocks instead of the water. The last thing he needs is to make the river even more contaminated than it already is, you know? 

Jay lines himself up to take the shot. Rain patters against the top of his head. Confused, he looks up and discovers that he’s standing below a narrow gap between an overpass and the cliff. Water falls from his hair and into his eyes. Rather than move, he decides to stay and accept the extra challenge. The Sharks attack the city during storms all the time! Shooting their gun in the rain only makes it more realistic.

Remembering what he’s seen in movies, Jay closes one eye to aim. The atmosphere feels heavy. His hair stands on end. The air smells like it’s burning. He takes a deep breath, ready to pull the trigger—

At that moment, a bolt of lightning shoots down from the sky. It ignores skyscrapers, street lights, and trees as it instead slips right into the gap between the overpass and the cliff. And then it strikes Jay Walker dead. 

He remains dead for ten minutes. When he jolts back to life, he’s facedown in the sand with a pulsing ache in every one of his bones. He spits out a mouth of sand, rolls onto his back, and then opens his eyes. 

Above him, through the gap, the sky is clear. The storm was supposed to last until tomorrow. And now, right after killing him, it has disappeared. 

It takes a few minutes for everything to really sink in. He holds a hand in front of his eyes and touches his fingers against his thumb. When he pulls them apart, thin arcs of electricity buzz between his fingertips. He drops his hand back to his side with a groan. 

That storm was here for him. And it has brought him a simple, potentially life-ruining message: 

Jay Walker is the Master of Lightning. 

2. JAY — 10:30 PM | 22:30

There are public safety officers at the destroyed building site. 

When Jay got home from school earlier that day, he expected to find a note from his parents instructing him to meet them at the scrap pile. Instead, they were sitting at home complaining about city officials blocking off the site because it’s too dangerous. No one is allowed near it for the next few days. All the scrappers have been warned that trespassers will be punished severely.

His parents are annoyed. Jay, however, has never been more interested in a scrap pile in his life.

He adjusts the focus on his binoculars as he watches the site from an adjacent building’s fire escape. City authorities have never deemed a scrap site off-limits before. It’s weird. Usually, they want scrappers to come in and deal with all the loose material so construction can begin as soon as possible. There’s no reason for them to delay it. 

Unless, of course, they’re trying to hide something. As Jay observes the site, public safety officers patrol its perimeter. There must be at least ten of them. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but Jay is pretty sure they’re holding batons in their hands. Actual batons. Since when were they allowed to use weapons?

The city is definitely hiding something in the scrap site. It might have something to do with Lloyd’s disappearance. Or maybe it’s completely unrelated.

Either way, it has caught his attention. Good. He needs the distraction from his pesky memories. It’s nice to get a break from the sound of Grey’s voice ringing in his brain. 

“See you later, Jay.”

Never mind, it’s back. Fucking fantastic.

There are now two (two!) conspiracies he needs to focus on. Instead, his brain is entirely preoccupied by the forbidden fruit of Grey’s identity currently being dangled oh so cruelly in front of him. It’s within reach. With a little bit of careful observation, he could definitely piece it together.  He just doesn’t want to.

Why did she have to say his name? The Grey Ninja shouldn’t know his name. He never introduced himself to her. And since she’s clueless with regards to scrap work, there’s no way she knows him from work. That only leaves school. But Jay keeps a low profile at school for safety reasons; he only has one friend and avoids speaking to his classmates. He isn’t popular. That means Grey must share a lot of classes with him. The advanced stream only accepts twenty students per grade. Out of the nineteen other students, who does she most resemble? Who shares her voice? Her eyes? 

“Jay?”

The voice startles him. He pulls the binoculars away and looks down. Grey is standing on the street below him, where she waves in greeting.

It takes substantial effort to not analyze her for similarities with his classmates. He isn’t supposed to know her secret identity. He isn’t supposed to know anyone’s! Why do his teammates keep accidentally revealing themselves to him?

Okay, no. He needs to concentrate on the matter at hand. Lloyd is missing. The city is hiding something. And Grey is waiting for him to greet her back.  

He returns the wave and then puts a finger over his lips. Be quiet. He points to the spot next to him. Understanding what he means, Grey gives him a thumbs up and climbs the ladder to join him on the fire escape. 

“Why all the secrecy?” she whispers, leaning against the railing as she observes what remains of the destroyed building. Some of its foundations are still there, and they’re what the public safety officers are patrolling so strictly. “Do guards not usually watch over scrap areas?”

Jay shakes his head. He passes her the binoculars. “Check it out. They’ve got batons.” 

Grey places the binoculars over her eyes. 

After a moment, she hums. “Yeah, that’s weird. We should go talk to them.” 

“What?” Jay breaths. He can’t imagine she’s serious. 

“Oh, right.” She hands him the binoculars and gestures to the mask over her face. “Let me talk to them. They might make an exception for a ninja, yeah?”

Jay doesn’t think so. The ninja break a lot of rules every night they go out. Public safety only turns a blind eye because they’re useful for stopping Shark attacks. If they find out the ninja have moved beyond their jurisdiction, will they still be as tolerant? 

“They said they would arrest any trespassers,” Jay says. He fiddles with the binoculars in his hands, trying to think of something he can say to convince her not to speak with public safety. “You ninja have secret identities, right? What happens if they decide to arrest you?”

Grey clicks her tongue. “True. Then we should take them out.”

“Like, fight them?”

She shrugs. “Finding Lloyd is our priority. If I have to take out a bunch of cops, so be it.” 

“Are you sure you can do it on your own?” Jay asks, because he isn’t sure if she can. He doesn’t like underestimating his teammates, but he likes watching them lose fights even less. Unlike Blue, Jay the civilian can’t step in to help if things go south. Grey will be completely on her own. 

The question seems to annoy her. She rolls her eyes and places her hands on the railing. “I’ll be fine. Wait here.” 

Grey vaults over the bar. She lands on the ground in a roll, then takes off in a run towards the scrap site. For a moment, Jay is dumbfounded by her decision. This is so stupid! If even one of them lands a lucky hit, Grey will be carted off to an interrogation room for questioning. They’ll remove her mask and her days as a ninja will be over.

He puts the binoculars against his eyes. As expected, Grey makes herself hard to see as she approaches the first officer. Jay sucks in a sharp breath. Out of all the ninja, he would only trust Red to get out of this unscathed. Maybe Green. But Grey is an inexperienced fighter like him, and he doesn’t think he could ever trust himself to take on ten people at once. It’s well beyond their skill level.

Tension curls in his torso as he watches Grey strike the first guard. He expects her to go for one of the few basic takedowns Red has taught them, but she instead trips the guard and takes him out using a move he’s never seen before. As soon as he’s unconscious, Grey is back on her feet and moving towards the next one. This officer is knocked out by a different move, and yet again one Jay has never seen her use before. There’s a strength and practised ease to her movements he's only used to seeing in Red. It’s a completely foreign look on her.

Beyond their identities, the ninja all keep secrets from each other. Jay has never told any of them about his elemental powers. What if Grey is the same way about her fighting abilities? 

It doesn't take long for her to deal with the safety officers. Once she's done, Jay packs up his binoculars and climbs down the ladder to meet her on ground level. Grey waves him over to the scrap pile, flashing him a thumbs up as though to tell him it's safe. He returns the gesture and hurries over. 

“You're really good at fighting,” he comments. Grey is breathing a little hard, but otherwise doesn’t seem exhausted from the exertion of her assault. That kind of stamina requires a lot of practice. Interesting. 

Grey waves a hand dismissively. “We’re all good at fighting. It’s part of being a ninja.” She claps her hands together. “Okay, now it's your turn to show off your expertise. Where should we start looking?” 

The weirdness of seeing armed public safety officers has distracted him from their goal here. Right, they’re supposed to be looking for evidence of Lloyd’s kidnapping. That should be his only focus here. Even if the security officers were really strange.

Jay looks over to the building’s foundations. Who says he can't investigate the police presence and Lloyd’s disappearance at the same time?

“Let's check out the foundations,” Jay says. He points to steel beams. “It’s the most dangerous part of the site. If Lloyd was trying to escape kidnappers, he would have tried to lure them there. It's the best place to look.” 

Grey nods. “Okay. Then let’s start.”

Once they're at the foundation pillars, he keeps his eyes peeled for anything suspicious. The city is guarding this place for a reason. It might have something to do with Lloyd’s disappearance, but he has a feeling that something else is afoot here.

As he inspects one of the columns, Grey speaks up from a few metres away. “So, is this where you find your Shark stuff? In scrap piles?”

Jay doesn’t take his eyes off the steel beam in front of him. “Sometimes,” he says. In the junction between the pillar and another piece of frame, he thinks he might see a blinking light. “Usually, I go to places where you fought them and . . .”

Without finishing his sentence, he puts down his backpack and takes out his flashlight. He shines it on the blinking light. 

The gasp leaves his lips before he can really process what he’s seeing. Panicked, he steps backward and then tenses up when he feels the rubble shift suddenly below him.  He fails to catch his balance and tumbles over, landing hard on his back. A brick jams itself into his spine and he lets out a sharp hiss as pain dances across his vertebrae. 

“Jay!” He turns his head to see Grey hurrying over. She stops beside him and looks him up and down with a worried expression in her eyes.. “What happened?”

The flashlight is still tight in Jay’s grip. “Look,” he says, and shines the light over the package taped to the pillar. 

“Holy shit,” Grey curses. “Is that a bomb?” 

Although it hurts, Jay forces himself to sit up and points the light at the remaining pillars. Unlike the pillar in front of him, which stands tall, the others have all been cut down at around the same place. It almost seems like the building was taken out by a controlled demolition, and not a stray Shark rocket as claimed by the city . . .

“I think I know why the city doesn’t want anyone here,” Jay says. He directs the light back to the bomb. “They used bombs to destroy the rest of the foundations. This one failed to detonate. I bet they were guarding it until they could disarm it while everyone was sleeping.” 

Grey narrows her eyes in confusion. “But why would they take out the building? Do you think they were trying to lead Lloyd here?”

After a moment of consideration, Jay shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with Lloyd at all. It could be something completely different.” 

Grey hums. She kneels beside him and puts a hand on his shoulder. At first, Jay thinks she’s trying to comfort him after his fall. It would be out of character for the Grey he knows, but maybe she’s different with people who aren’t ninja—

In a quick movement, she uses her other hand to snatch the flashlight from his grip. He only has a moment to feel betrayed before she stands up and looks down on him. “Stay here,” she says, a commanding tone to her voice. “I’ll investigate the bomb. It’s too dangerous for you.” 

It takes all his self-control not to protest. Does Grey know how to handle explosives? Jay definitely does! And he knows that Grey knows he does too, unless she thought he was bluffing about the explosives in his tool bag.

In the end, he’s forced to bite his tongue and swallow his pride. Right now, Grey only knows him as a technologically competent civilian. Her job is to protect people like him. If they continue to work like this together, he’ll need to get used to being protected—to staying behind while she heads into danger. Even if it pains him a little. 

“Okay,” he says with a nod. “Just be careful. It might, you know . . . explode.” 

Grey gives him an unimpressed look. “Stop doubting me. I’ve got this.” 

At that, she marches off towards the pillar. Jay watches her with increasing anxiety. The bomb carries an electric current; likely between its battery and detonator. That means it’s still primed to explode. If Grey isn’t careful, it will detonate. And Jay’s pretty sure the ninja gi aren't strong enough to protect against blasts at such close range.

Shortly after unlocking his powers for the first time, Jay swore to never use them. Elemental masters only put themselves and their loved ones in danger. Nothing is worth that risk—not even a threat to his own life.

And yet today, in a rash and impulsive decision, he stretches his senses until he feels the bomb’s electrical current between his fingertips. Then he cuts off the detonator from the battery so it no longer poses a risk of igniting. 

The blinking light disappears. It catches Grey’s attention. She leans in close, face mere inches away, and points the flashlight at the bomb. “Oh, that’s weird. It looks like the bomb just died.” 

“Maybe it ran out of battery,” Jay suggests. It probably isn’t a good idea to connect its issues to electricity, but he also doesn’t want Grey to think he’s incompetent. Most of the elemental masters are supposed to be in South Ninjago, anyways. Why would she assume someone like him has elemental powers?

“Huh, you could be right.” Grey continues to observe it closely. “Well, it doesn’t look like a Shark bomb. It must have come from the city.” 

Jay taps his fingers against his knee as he thinks. “But why? Even if this wasn’t for Lloyd, what were they trying to do here?”

“If we can’t figure it out here, let’s go straight to the source!” Grey puts her hands on her hips. “The director of public safety must have an office in their headquarters. Why not check it out? This might have something to do with Lloyd. We need to look into it."

Jay balks. “You want to break into public safety HQ?”

“I’m a ninja. I’m good at that kind of thing.” 

“Yeah, but—” Jay cuts himself off when he notices that Grey isn’t paying attention. She presses a hand over one of her ears as she steps away from him. Jay recognizes her actions immediately—she’s receiving a call over the Secret Ninja Force’s communications systems. 

Has someone found something? He perks up in anticipation. If this is another lead, they might be even closer to rescuing Lloyd! 

Grey gasps. “Grey here. What’s his status?” She runs a hand down her face anxiously as she listens to the response. “Fuck. Okay. I’ll meet you there. Grey out.” 

Is someone injured? Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound good. “What happened?”

“My teammate is in trouble. I need to go,” she says curtly. She takes a step as though to leave, but then stops and regards him for a moment. “Look, Jay—I think you have a good head on your shoulders. Let’s investigate this together. I’ll break into public safety HQ when I’m done dealing with my teammate. I’ll bring any evidence I find to you. Can you make yourself free tomorrow?”

Her question surprises him. “Wouldn’t you rather work with another ninja? I can’t help you in a fight.” 

“You won’t be doing any fighting. That’s my job. Where can we meet tomorrow morning?” 

Jay bites the inside of his cheek as he comes to terms with the situation. For whatever reason, Grey has decided she would rather work with him than the team right now. The Blue Ninja probably won’t be allowed to work with her on this lead. As annoying as it is, his only option to move forward here will be to continue in his civilian identity. He has no other choice.

“The riverbank in Ouroville. Look for a blue tarp tent. I’ll wait for you there.” 

Grey nods. “Sounds good. Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

At that, she leaves. Jay watches her climb out of the scrap pile. Once she’s back on the street, she takes off into an alleyway and disappears from sight.

Now that he’s alone, Jay must make a decision: should he respond to the emergency call as Blue or get a jump on investigating public safety? 

Whoever made the call must be well. Grey is on her way over. That’s two ninja to take care of one—more than enough, in Jay’s opinion. 

He rises to his feet and shoulders his backpack. Despite Grey's orders to go home, he knows that breaking into public safety HQ isn't something she can do on her own. She will need his help to get out of there unscathed.

For a moment, he allows himself to feel the electricity running through his veins. The headquarters may have electronic traps she doesn't know about . . .

Jay shoulders his backpack and gets moving. Looks like it's time to break into public safety HQ and help Grey.

Whether she knows he's doing it or not.

3. WHITE - 11:20 PM | 23:20

Lloyd’s mother is not home. 

Zane finds this fascinating. Her second job finished an hour ago. She has no friends or romantic partners (anymore). Where could she be this late at night?

With a sigh, he gets up from his seat at the Garmadon family’s kitchen table. He only came here so he could speak to Koko about her son’s kidnapping. Assuming Lloyd returned home before or after the Garmadon attack, she is the only person who would have seen him the night and morning before his abduction. If he was acting strangely, she would know. 

Zane needs to know if Lloyd was acting strangely. His conversation with Jay and Cole in the warehouse has made him more curious about Lloyd Garmadon himself. If Jay’s assertions are true, then Lloyd should not have been on the street the morning of his kidnapping. He should have been at home. Why was he outside when he usually avoided leaving home for his own safety?

After a day of hard thinking, Zane has arrived at the most logical conclusion: Lloyd wanted to be kidnapped. He was aware it was going to happen. And he chose to facilitate it by going outside the morning after a Garmadon attack. 

This begs yet another question: why would Lloyd want to be kidnapped? It defies what Zane knows about him. Lloyd is private and extremely cautious. He does whatever he can to avoid danger. Allowing himself to be kidnapped violates these characteristics. 

Lloyd’s actions do not make sense. They're weird. They're suspicious. 

Zane intends to get to the bottom of it. Since Koko is not here to provide insight, he supposes his only option is to conduct a search of the family’s private belongings. Something in the apartment may provide some insight into Lloyd’s motives.

The first place he checks is Lloyd's bedroom. It is not much of a room; Lloyd’s private space consists of a single mattress wedged between two walls and a long basket full of clothes at the foot of the bed. The outlet in the wall has nothing plugged into it. If Lloyd has a phone, he must have brought its charger with him when he went outside. 

Zane checks the basket of clothes first. Nothing strikes him as odd. He moves on to the pillows on the bed, removing their cases and feeling around for anything hidden inside. These are also clean. The comforter appears to hold nothing suspicious either. He strips the mattress of its sheets, once again prodding around for something out of place—

His fingers breach a slit in the side of the mattress. He pushes his hand inside, where he finds that the bedding has been pushed around to create a hollow cavern of some sort. Lloyd must have used this to store something he didn’t want his mother to find. Unfortunately, it lies empty. There is nothing inside that can help him. 

That’s okay. Zane climbs back to his feet and leaves the bedroom. Now that he knows Lloyd was hiding something, he feels confident that he might find something more conclusive in the apartment. Lloyd may be paranoid, but he is still a teenager—he’s bound to have been careless and missed something while clearing up evidence of whatever he was doing prior to his abduction. Zane is sure of it. 

There is a lot of makeup in the bathroom. His first instinct is to brush it off as belonging to Koko, but then he finds two bottles of concealer in different tones. One of these must belong to Lloyd. Zane supposes he could be using makeup to cover up his many bully-induced injuries, but this once again does not line up with what he knows about him. Lloyd sports bruises and other injuries in public all the time. Why does he only cover some of them? Why not all of them? 

In that case, there must be some injuries that Lloyd does not want the world to know about. What differentiates these injuries from the others? Is it their size? Their location? Who did it? What he was doing when it happened?

That last one tugs at his brain a little. If Lloyd gets hurt doing something that he does not want others to know about, then he would have an incentive to hide evidence of his injuries.

Zane puts down the concealer and continues to rifle through the cabinets. There is a large bottle of vitamin D tablets next to a medical kit. When Zane picks it up, he does not hear pills rattle inside. He gives it an additional shake—there’s something inside, but it is clearly not what the bottle is advertising. Curious, he removes the cap and upends the bottle over his hand. 

A plastic eye contacts case falls into his palm. He flicks it open. Two dark-brown contacts stare back up at him. 

Weird. Based on his observations, neither Koko nor Lloyd have ever required glasses. These contacts must be used to conceal eye colour. And he is pretty sure that Koko’s eyes are already brown. 

Why does Lloyd have these? Why does he need to hide his green eyes? Why—

His thoughts are interrupted by the familiar sound of a bowstring being pulled back to fire. When he turns to the bathroom entrance, he comes face-to-face with the steel tip of an arrow. Behind it stands the Lady Iron Dragon. 

“What are you doing here?” she demands. Her eyes narrow in anger when she sees the contacts case in Zane’s hand. “Kidnapping my son isn’t enough? Now you’re, what—stealing my stuff? Explain yourself. Now.”

Zane takes the opportunity to hold up the contacts and compare it to Koko’s eye colour. They’re both brown. “Why does your son hide his eye colour? Is he hiding his identity from someone?”

For a brief moment, Koko looks at the contacts case with confusion. Zane takes note of it right away—she has never seen this case before. She has no idea that Lloyd likes to use brown eye contacts. 

Koko steels herself again. “No, that’s not how this is going to go. You’re not interrogating me. Tell me what you’re doing here or I’ll shoot.” 

It is hard to tell if she is bluffing. Regardless, Zane decides that escalating the situation will provide no benefit to his investigation. It is obvious that Koko does not know the extent of her son’s secret activities. Even if Lloyd is not innocent, she might be. 

Zane raises his hands in surrender. “The Secret Ninja Force did not kidnap your son. I am here because I want to find him.” 

Koko takes a moment to think it over. Then, slowly, she points the arrow to the floor and slackens the bowstring. “Shit. If the ninja didn’t kidnap Lloyd, then who did?”

“Were you home late because you were looking for us?” Zane places the contacts back on the counter. “That’s silly. Don’t you know it’s impossible to find a ninja?”

The question seems to annoy her. Koko gives him a weird look as she slings the bow back over her shoulders. “I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that you know my schedule. Are there hidden microphones in my walls too or did you not bother to go that far?”

“Do not be concerned. I removed the cameras and microphones when I finished vetting your family two years ago,” Zane assures her. He did this to the other ninja as well after following them to their homes to learn their secret identities. Of course, he did not do this with malicious intent—he simply wanted to make sure that none of Garmadon’s Sharks had infiltrated the only group dedicated to stopping him. He is certain the others would have forgiven such a gross violation of their privacy if that had turned out to be the case. It is better to be safe than sorry, after all. 

Unfortunately, he never quite succeeded in tracking down Green’s place of residence. He’s the only ninja whose real name and face that Zane does not know. And now, he has disappeared off the face of the planet. How bitterly ironic.

Koko takes a deep breath. “You know what? I don’t have the time to care about that right now. Would you like some tea?”

Without waiting for his response, she leaves the bathroom. It takes a moment for Zane to process the question and follow her to the kitchen. “Thank you for not shooting me. I need to ask you some questions.” 

Koko turns on an electric kettle and then leans against the counter. “Fine. Ask away.”

“Did you see Lloyd the night before he disappeared?”

“No. He stayed late at school to work on a project and got stuck in their bomb shelter during the Shark attack. He only got home really early in the morning.”

“Was he acting strangely when he returned home?”

Koko fiddles with the sleeve of her uniform in thought. “He was tired. Obviously. But I think . . . he was more chipper than usual. Like he was excited about something.” 

This slots in with Zane’s theory perfectly. If Lloyd wanted to be kidnapped, he may have been excited about it. That means he was under the impression that the kidnapping would benefit him. Hmm.

“Why does it matter? Did that help you figure something out?” Koko asks. Her voice is tinged with desperation. “If you think you know what happened to him you have to tell me. I need to find him.”

Zane considers the potential consequences of revealing his theory. Is Koko trustworthy? She seemed clean two years ago, but a lot could have changed since then. Garmadon cannot send his Sharks to find Lloyd as per the kidnappers’ demands. What if he is working with Koko to rescue Lloyd? As parents, they may have put aside their differences for the sake of their son. That could become a problem down the road.

Hmm. On the other hand, Garmadon may be a useful resource in the investigation. The Sharks must perform some level of surveillance on Ninjago City. What if Lloyd’s kidnappers are people they know about? It would be unwise for him to pass up on an opportunity to use the Shark Army’s resources. 

“I believe Lloyd may have known about the kidnapping plot in advance,” Zane decides to say. Koko is either working alone or with Garmadon. Either way, he sees no downside in sharing this information with her. “If that is true, then he was a willing participant. It would explain his excitement the morning it happened.” 

Koko blinks in surprise. “Lloyd doesn’t even like going outside because he’s terrified of being assaulted. Why would he let himself be used as a hostage?”

“There are many reasons. I will analyze potential motives later. What does he do with his friends after school?”

“He doesn’t have any friends. Usually he comes straight home after school.” 

“Lloyd had to find out about the plan to kidnap him somewhere. He is lying to you about what he does after school,” Zane says. Koko looks doubtful, so he keeps pushing. “I found a secret compartment in his mattress. What do you think he was hiding in there? Something related to the plan?”

There is a moment of tense silence. Then Koko bursts out into laughter. “Are you seriously telling me you think it’s weird for a teenage boy to hide things from his mother? He probably had alcohol or pictures of naked models in his mattress! That doesn’t mean anything.” 

He supposes Koko could be correct. “You work pretty late. How do you know what he does while you’re away?”

“The entire city hates my son. This is the only place where he’s safe.” The kettle lights up. Koko scoops tea leaves into a teapot, then empties the heated water inside. “I don’t think you understand how bad it is. People have tried to kill him before. We can’t trust anyone.”

“You are putting a lot of faith into someone you barely see. If teenagers hide things from their parents, he could be hiding what he does while you are away. How can you be so certain that he is not lying to you?”

Koko sighs. Instead of answering his question, she removes two tea cups from the cabinet and puts them on the counter. She pours tea into them and then gestures Zane over. “Come on, get your cup. We can talk at the kitchen table.” 

Zane walks over to the counter and takes both cups into his hands. He holds one out for Koko. When she does not take it, he looks up and discovers that she is no longer standing next to him. 

Then something heavy smashes into the back of his head. 

4. BLACK — 11:30 | 22:30

The Red Ninja is unconscious on Cole’s living room couch. 

This was a very dumb place to bring him to. He just couldn’t help it—Shark back up was sure to arrive soon, and Cole didn’t think he could outrun the Sharks on foot, and Red had almost died. He needed to find someplace safe for them to hide immediately. It just so happens that he lives up the street from the residence the Shark meeting took place in. 

Cole is glad he decided to follow Red tonight. One of the Sharks in suits had been about to remove Red’s face mask when Cole intervened. If he’d left Red alone, the Sharks definitely would have taken him prisoner. Or killed him. Maybe both. And then they would have revealed his identity to the world to top it all off. 

It takes a lot of mental strength not to lift Red’s mask himself. Really, it’s not like it would wake him up—Cole made sure of that when he used the sleeping agent in his glove to knock him out around an hour ago. He figured it was better to let him sleep through the worst of the venom’s symptoms. Now, it has presented a perfect opportunity to learn more about his teammate . . . 

In the end, violating Red’s privacy like that would only cause problems. Red already believes that Cole doesn’t trust him. This would be the final nail in the coffin of their already tumultuous relationship. It would probably get Cole kicked off the team, too. Not worth it. 

Still, he’s curious. Why did Red know that meeting was taking place? It was a small one. They were only there to discuss one potential recruit. How close does Red have to be to the Shark Army to find out about that kind of thing? How many Sharks does he know in his civilian life? How involved is he? 

These are uncomfortable questions even in the comfort of his own head. Out of all the ninja, Red has always seemed to hate Sharks to most. The way he treated them tonight only proves that. So why is he so close to them? Who does he know? How does he know them? If undercover Sharks wanted to kidnap Lloyd Garmadon, would they know Red’s name well enough to ask him to help?

Would he say yes? 

“This is Grey. I’m a few minutes away on my bike. How is he?” 

Cole pushes down on his earpiece to respond. “Asleep. Watch out for Sharks on your way here.” 

“Noted. Grey out.” 

He sits on an adjacent couch as he waits for Grey. When she gets here, she’s going to bring Red back to the warehouse on her motorcycle. Cole will follow on foot. Although he knows it will be messy, he wants to be there when Red wakes up. It shouldn’t be Grey’s responsibility to explain to Red that one of his teammates only managed to save his life because he was stalking him all night. 

The sound of an engine approaching announces Grey’s arrival. It cuts out and then Grey enters through the back door only a few moments later.

“Are you sure he’s okay? Where—” Her eyes land on Red and she hurries over to his side. “I checked at the warehouse and we’re out of antidote. Did you put him to sleep?” 

Cole nods. “Yeah. He’ll be out for a few hours.” 

Grey sighs in relief. Now that the core issue has been dealt with, she looks around the room with worried eyes. “Are the people who live here going to be home soon?” 

“I already checked. The calendar on the fridge says the owner is away on business.” 

“Okay, good.” Grey turns to him. “What even happened? You said he was fighting Sharks…?”

With a deep breath, Cole accepts that there’s no way to spin this story to make himself look better. “I thought he was acting suspicious so I followed him. He tracked a car that left from some kind of orphanage and wound up at a house down the road. Sharks were having a meeting in the living room and he interrupted. I didn’t hear what he said, but it looked like he was interrogating them. One of the guards he took out earlier recovered and stabbed him with venom. I intervened to save him and brought him here.” 

“From an orphanage…?” Grey’s eyebrows furrow in thought. “Okay. Weird. Anything else you didn’t mention?” 

It surprises Cole that she doesn’t seem to care about the not-trusting-his-own-teammate bit of the story. Then again, she did follow Red when she split off from the group last night. Maybe she is also suspicious of him. Or, at the very least, less trusting of others than she seems to be. 

He gestures to the folder on the coffee table. After seeing Red look at it, he also brought it back home with him. “They were talking about the person in that folder. I have no idea who he is, though.”

Grey opens the folder. A quiet gasp escapes through her mask. 

Cole perks up. “Do you recognize him?” he asks. 

Grey swallows nervously. She looks up to him and then back down to the folder again. 

“No. Um, did you plan on investigating this?” 

Why is she so nervous? “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Grey holds up the first page for him to see. She points to a note at the bottom: PROPERTY OF CHEN. 

“This man—Master Chen. Don’t go anywhere near him.” She taps the note to accentuate her point. “I’m being serious. He’s more powerful than Garmadon. Do you understand?”

Cole has never heard of this person in his life. “Who is he?” 

“Okay. Ninjago City has a mayor, right?” Grey holds up a hand at chest level. “The mayor is here. And Master Chen”—she holds her other hand over the first—“is up here. He’s allowed to do whatever he wants because he worships the Serpentine. That means he can make people like you or me disappear. If we weren’t fighting Garmadon, he probably would have killed us by now. I doubt he’s a fan of vigilantes.”

Her last point catches his attention. “He hates Garmadon?” 

Grey groans and taps Chen’s name again. “He’s not involved. And don’t try to interrogate him! You’ll die.” 

“If you think I’ll die, I won’t do it,” Cole says with a shrug. It’s only a half-lie. As he says it, he can already feel a plan forming in his brain.

“Good. I’m going to bring Red back to the warehouse now. Help me put him on the bike.” 

In the driveway, they use a rope to make sure Red stays attached to Grey’s back. They also put her spare helmet on his head in case he happens to fall off. It should protect him in the event of a small crash. Hopefully. 

Grey puts on her own helmet and roars the engine. “I’ll drive slow. See you soon, Black.” 

Cole goes back inside. Before he takes off for the warehouse, he takes a long look at the profile in the folder. 

He does not know who Kai is. But he knows that he knows Chen. And if Chen is powerful enough to do whatever he wants, surely he could have organized a plot to kidnap Lloyd Garmadon. Especially if he hates Garmadon as much as Grey implied he does. 

Cole stares at the photo of Kai attached to the profile. To investigate Chen without getting close to him, Cole just needs to investigate the people who work for him.

Kai is the perfect target. All Cole needs to do is find him.

5. WHITE 11:35 PM | 23:35

 Ouch. 

Zane turns around. Koko stands behind him holding the broken handle of the teapot. The rest of the pot has shattered to pieces on the floor. 

“What the fuck?” Koko breathes. She looks him up and down in shock. “How did that not hurt you?”

“Perhaps you did not hit me hard enough,” Zane offers. He kneels down to take a piece of the teapot into his hands. The texture reveals its material immediately. “Ceramic would not be enough to knock out most humans. You could have maximized your damage by hitting me while the liquid was still inside.”

Koko stares at him with a dumbfounded expression. “Wow. You’re not going to hit me back?”

Zane shrugs. “You warned me that you could not trust anyone. I should have seen it coming.” He puts down the shard and stands back up. “Koko, you must cooperate with me from now on. We only have six days to find your son before he is murdered. Please do not let your love for him interfere with your judgement. Was he lying to you?”

She stares at him for a moment. Then she steps back with a shake of her head. 

“No, you’re right—we only have six days to find him. That isn’t enough time.” Koko reaches back and grabs an arrow from her quiver. “But we can still save him. If you really didn’t kidnap my son, will you promise to help me?”

Zane tilts his head in confusion. “Help you with what?” 

Koko points the arrow to the kitchen window. Through the gaps between buildings, Zane can see the telltale smoke from the volcano. 

“I’m going to give the kidnappers what they want. I’m going to kill Lord Garmadon.”

Notes:

from now on the ninja are mostly split into duos as they investigate different leads. however, i promise their stories will still overlap with each other!

chapter four isn't written yet, but hopefully i can crush it out quickly. compared to the last long fic i wrote (in which a character is locked alone in a room for 7/9 chapters) this one is a bit of a breeze writing wise. it's fun being able to just have stuff happen because i want it to lmao

anyways, thanks for reading and leaving kudos/comments/bookmarks! i super super appreciate it. have a great day/night everyone <3

Chapter 4: Day 3 (pt. 1)

Notes:

SORRY this took so long, i've been way busier than anticipated :ccc hopefully the next update won't take a whole month haha

anyways, thanks again for all your comments and kudos last chapter! here is part 1 of day 3 <3

1. GREY — 12:03 AM | 00:03

BLACK IS FOLLOWING YOU.

Nya stuffs the hand-written note into Kai’s sleeve. It’s a vague warning. Unfortunately, it’s the most she can give as the Grey Ninja—what excuse would she have for knowing Red’s connection to Kai? To Master Chen? 

Hopefully, Kai will find the note and understand that Black may also follow his civilian identity. Nya herself doesn’t know what Black plans on doing after tonight, but he seemed a little too inspired after learning about Chen for comfort. From an outsider’s perspective, Chen would definitely seem like an obvious suspect for Lloyd’s kidnapping. It isn’t a stupid assumption on Black’s part. She just knows that isn’t the case. 

Nya has never spoken to Chen. She only knows what Kai has told her. But if what he’s said is true, then Chen would never go out of his way to eliminate Garmadon. Threatening or not, Garmadon is way too useful for his organization’s purpose. 

The Serpentine are terrified of Oni. Every time Garmadon attacks Ninjago City, he proves over and over again that the Oni are violent conquerors who cannot be trusted. He is a constant reminder of the realm’s violent history. 

That kind of fear is what keeps men like Chen in power. Why would he do anything to stop it? 

Nya takes her brother’s hand into her own and gives it a squeeze. His stunt with the Shark recruiters has scared her. If something that dangerous was his first plan, what is he going to do now that it’s failed? Tengfei was his only connection to the Shark Army. What if Kai does something stupid to make up for this setback? 

Ugh. Knowing her brother, he definitely will do something even stupider than this. He will do anything to protect the people he loves, even if it means putting himself in danger. There are countless scars hidden below his gi to prove it. 

Nya has seen some of them before. When they were younger, and Kai was more willing to show his injuries to her, she used to look at his wounds and pretend they didn't worry her sick. She remembers some of the worst ones: the cut in his eyebrow, the exit wound in his thigh, the purple snake tattooed across his back . . . 

“What are you doing, Kai?” she whispers. A familiar feeling of guilt swirls in her gut. The lead she uncovered with Jay cannot wait—no matter how much she wants to stay by his side, she needs to leave soon to continue her search for Lloyd Garmadon. Becoming a ninja was supposed to give her the opportunity to fight alongside him. And now, just like before, she is being forced to abandon him to fight his battles alone. It hurts her heart in ways she cannot describe. 

The warehouse door opens. Nya drops his hand and steps back. Stay safe, she thinks, almost like a prayer. Logically, she knows this will not happen. All she can do is hope that he’ll make it out of this week okay. 

Black approaches the couch with a duffle bag in hand. “I brought food and water,” he announces. “There’s other venom hangover stuff in here, too. I think electrolytes are supposed to help.” 

Nya gives Black a once over. Out of all the ninja, he’s the only one who has ever really slipped under her radar. He’s fiercely opinionated and judgemental, but he also makes great effort to avoid conflict. Aside from his feelings about her brother, Nya doesn’t really know much about him. Black has been very good at hiding his true personality from the team. 

It’s hard for Nya to genuinely trust the other ninja. How can she when she barely knows anything about them? She doesn’t know their motivations or what they do in their personal lives. As far as she knows, they could be terrible people who are only ninja because they want to beat people up. Hiding her fighting skills keeps her identity a secret from Kai, but it also makes the others underestimate her. They will never be prepared for what she can do if they decide to turn on her. 

The Black Ninja, however, does not worry her much at all. He suspects her brother has ulterior motives and still saved his life, anyway. Perhaps she owes him a bit of trust. 

Nya gestures to Kai’s sleeping body. “Keep an eye on him. He saw the same folder you did.” 

Black’s eyes widen. “Do you think he’s going to go after Kai?” 

“No idea,” she says with a shrug. She gives Black a knowing look. “We both know how reckless he is. It’s possible. What if he goes after Kai to find Chen?”

Black’s gaze shifts down to her brother. “You’re right. He might try something like that.” 

She watches his expression closely. Black looks a little inspired, just like he did when she told him about Chen for the first time. He’s fallen for the bait. No matter what Kai does, whether as a ninja or a civilian, Black will now be watching over him. A ninja will be around to save his life if he gets into trouble. 

“I found a lead that might bring me to Lloyd. I’m going to check it out.” Nya steps back from the couch, forcing away a smile when she notices that Black has yet to look away from Kai. “If it turns out to be something big, I’ll let you know. Will you watch Red in the meantime?” 

“Sure. I’ll keep my earpiece on,” Black says. He sounds distracted, which means he must be thinking about ways to deal with Red and Kai. Good. 

Talking more might derail his train of suspicion. Nya wants him focused on her brother, so after checking to make sure her knife is still in its holster, she leaves the warehouse without saying another word. 

Now that Kai is safe enough, she can focus on the task at hand. Public safety HQ is one of the most fortified and monitored buildings in the entire city. Guards and various traps will await her around every corner. Not even the Shark Army has managed to get inside yet. 

Well, it’s a good thing Nya is better than the Shark Army. Breaking into the building shouldn’t be too hard for a ninja of her calibre.

Nya climbs onto her bike. Then she hits the gas and takes off for public safety headquarters. 

2. GREY — 12:55 AM | 00:55 

This must be some kind of joke. 

Surely, the municipal government is capable of designing better security systems than this. When she arrived at the headquarters, she expected the break-in to take at least a couple of hours. It’s always good to allot time for fighting guards and picking door locks. Instead, she has practically walked straight up to the director’s office with no resistance at all. There’s no way this security system has thwarted the Shark Army multiple times. The Shark Army sucks at most things, but even they aren’t this terrible at infiltration. It’s almost weird that they haven’t got inside the building by now. 

There is an electronic lock on the director’s office door. To get inside the room, Nya will need to input a numeric passcode. The door doesn’t seem particularly fortified, so she will probably need to break it down to get inside. Since she doesn’t know how long the passcode is meant to be, she won’t be able to just guess her way inside. There are an infinite number of combinations the director could use to open the door. 

As a small joke to herself, Nya punches in ‘0000’ to laugh at the absurdity of trying it in the first place. A passcode that stupid and easy would never be used as the access key for such an important room. The security here may not have impressed her so far, but it’s not like public safety is totally incompetent—

The lock beeps and flashes green. In disbelief, Nya tests the handle. It turns all the way and the door pushes open. 

There is no fucking way. Until now, Nya has mostly felt bewildered by the lack of security here—but this just makes her feel embarrassed. She understands that Ninjago City isn’t allowed to have a police force or anything resembling a genuine security apparatus, but surely they can manage something better than this. They’re supposed to be able to defend themselves in the case of an attack. If this is the best they can do, what hope do they have if the 'allegedly inevitable' Southern invasion actually happens?

She shakes her head and forces herself to focus on the task at hand. Lloyd and Green both need her. Once they’re free, she can lament her city’s position in the world all she wants. Now just isn’t the time. 

The director’s office is a mess. Despite the numerous bookshelves and filing cabinets for storage, bundles of files and folders are stacked on the desk and littered across the floor. Nya observes them with dismay. She has no idea where to look. If she isn’t lucky, finding any documents relating to the fallen building could take hours . Lloyd and Green will be dead in five days. She can’t afford to waste time looking for evidence that may not even be here!

Nya takes a deep breath. There’s no use in panicking. If she doesn’t find anything here, she will simply have to find a new lead. That’s all. 

The first thing she does is narrow her search. Since the building only exploded a couple of days ago, its documents are likely to have been accessed pretty recently. She decides to check the big desk first. There is folder after folder of expense reports, employee profiles, and other business stuff that has nothing to do with the building. A sense of hopelessness creeps into her bones until she moves a pile of papers and finds the corner of a map. 

Huh. Quickly, she pushes everything off the desk until only the map remains. It’s a large diagram of the entire city and surrounding areas. Nya almost brushes it off as a reference map before she notices the red lines cross-crossing over the city. 

There are dozens of them. Nothing in the map’s legend denotes any meaning to the lines. What do they mean? Nya runs a finger along one of them, following it to its exit point on the map. It goes beyond the East Gate and disappears into the jungle at the edge of the map. 

Nya pulls back her hand and surveys the edges of the map. Only two lines actually exit the city. One goes through the East Gate. The other stops at Garmadon’s volcano. 

What does this mean? Curious to see if it has something to do with the fallen building, Nya tracks down its location on the map. Many lines intersect in the place where the building used to be. A red circle has been drawn around it in marker. 

Okay. That means it must be important. If the circle is related to Lloyd’s kidnapping, maybe she can use the map to find where they took him . . . 

At the bottom of the map, just off the docks, she finds another red circle. Inside is a hand-written note: DESTINY’S BOUNTY.

If it’s in the water, it must be some kind of boat. Is that where they’re keeping Lloyd? 

She looks over the map a few more times to see if she’s missing anything. Aside from the red lines, there is nothing on this map that stands out to her. The two circled locations definitely have something to do with each other. If she wants to find Lloyd and Green, her best bet is to check out Destiny’s Bounty.

Nya steps away from the map with excitement. This is another good lead. If she continues at this pace, it won’t be long until Lloyd and Green are free!

It’s just as easy to leave the building as it was to get inside. The cameras do nothing to alert the guards of her presence. One of them spots her and tries to call for backup, but his radio dies right in his hands as soon as he speaks into it. A small part of Nya’s brain finds that a little too coincidental, but she cannot afford to devote any attention to it right now. She has more important things to worry about.

Her motorcycle awaits her a few blocks away. As she climbs onto her bike, she considers her options for the rest of tonight. Her meeting with Jay won’t take place until morning, so she has a few hours to kill until she can continue with her lead. Ideally, she would like to spend that time catching up on sleep, but she doesn’t really have anywhere to crash right now. Returning to the group home is not an option—the administrators are probably pissed that she’s stayed out two nights in a row, so she doubts they’ll let her out of their sight if she goes back now. The warehouse is her usual go-to place for emergency naps, but its couch is currently being used by her brother. She has no money, so 24 hour cafes and similar establishments are out of the question. 

Does she really need to pull an all-nighter? The idea of it is extremely unattractive. There has to be somewhere she can pass out that isn’t dangerous or currently inaccessible. 

She bites her cheek as she recalls what Jay said about their meeting place. They’re going to rendez-vous in a tent on the river. Tents are made for sleeping in. Even if there isn’t a bed or anything, surely she can fall asleep on the riverbank floor. Sand is comfortable enough. 

Nya revs her engine. The tent it is, then.

3. BLACK — 7:45 AM | 07:45

After nearly a full day of being awake, Cole is on the verge of nodding off when Red erupts into consciousness.

The Red Ninja sits up with a sharp gasp. He tenses up defensively, looking every which way as he takes in his surroundings. When he locks eyes with Cole, he blinks in recognition, but his body language does not relax at all. 

“What happened?” Red demands. Before Cole can speak, he winces and presses his hands against the sides of his head. “Ow, fuck. My head is killing me.”

“I have water.” Cole opens his duffel bag of supplies and retrieves a bottle of water. He holds it out to Red, who eyes it suspiciously and makes no move to take it. 

“Tell me what happened,” Red drawls. It’s obvious that he’s in pain. Cole has suffered through a venom hangover before, so he knows the symptoms well. He remembers waking up with a splitting headache that lasted for hours, and pain in his bones like he’d been hit by a truck. It was a miserable day of recovery. If Red refuses any help, the symptoms will only last longer. 

“One of the guards stabbed you with venom. I was following you because you were acting weird in the warehouse, so I was able to save you.” Cole tosses the water bottle onto Red’s lap. “You’re welcome. Now drink something, unless you want the headache to still be there tomorrow.” 

Red stares at the water bottle. His right hand lowers to touch his face mask. “Did they see who I was?” 

“No. I got there before they could,” Cole says carefully. He spent all night preparing for this to be a fight, and he’s still wary that it could quickly become one. Red has accused him of not trusting him before, but this is the first time Cole has ever given him real evidence to support his claims. The lack of trust in their relationship is no longer just a feeling—it’s a cold, hard fact. It’s only a matter of time before that sinks in and Red explodes at him with righteous fury.

Red glances to the warehouse door. “Are you sure none of them saw you bring me here?”

The anxious tone in Red’s voice takes Cole by surprise. The Red Ninja is usually overflowing with confidence; a high self-esteem propped up by his unchecked skill as a ninja. Cole has never seen him so obviously shaken before. Nearly losing to the Sharks must have really spooked him. 

“I brought you to an empty house first. Then Grey picked you up and brought you here. You’re fine.” 

“Grey was there?”

“I called her to help.” Cole recalls her many warnings. “She was really stressed about the file in the folder. Have you ever heard of that guy before?”

Red stiffens. “Who? Kai?”

If that’s the name Red is fixated on, then he must not know what Cole is talking about. “No, the other one. Master Chen.” 

For the first time since waking up, Red meets his eyes. The expression in them is unreadable. “What did Grey say about him?”

“Not much. She said he was dangerous, but probably not involved with Lloyd or Green’s disappearance.” Cole feels optimistic about the civility of the conversation so far. As an olive branch, he asks, “Did you learn anything from the Sharks?”

Red ignores his question. “Is that all she said?” 

Cole bites the inside of his cheek. The rest of Grey’s testimony makes it pretty clear that Chen has the resources to make someone like Lloyd or Green disappear whenever he pleases. Knowing Red, he’ll jump at the potential lead and seek out Chen immediately in hopes of finding their missing leader. The only way of getting close to Chen will be through Kai. Cole doesn’t want Red going anywhere near him. Red is reckless—Cole doesn’t trust him to investigate Kai with the caution required to go unnoticed. There’s a good chance he’ll get caught by Kai like he did by the Shark recruiters last night. 

If that happens, Cole will lose his only way to learn more about Chen’s organization. That isn’t something he’s wiling to risk right now.

“She didn’t say anything else,” Cole lies. He shrugs in a display of feigned defeat. “I tried to ask questions and she refused to answer. All she did was tell me he’s not involved.”

Red flexes his right hand, opening and closing it into a fist over and over again. “I’m guessing you don’t believe her.” 

Cole suppresses his panic. Despite his desire to keep Red away, it’s true that Black wouldn’t let something this suspicious go without looking into it. He needs to show some interest. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll look into Chen if nothing else comes up.”

“Okay.” 

Red sucks in a sharp breath. Then he launches himself off the couch and tackles Cole to the floor. 

It’s quick enough that Cole has no time to react. The back of his head slams against the ground painfully, and he’s sure that he would have sustained a serious injury if not for the armoured padding in his gi. Red shows no mercy as he uses his knees to pin Cole’s arms to his sides and leans over him, face hovering only inches above his own. His dark eyes look down on him with such intensity that it’s hard not to look away.

“Do not go after Master Chen. I mean it. Stay the fuck away from him. Do you understand?” 

“I—” Cole tries to speak, but he’s cut off when Red slams his right hand over his mouth, silencing him. 

He hears a hiss. By the time he registers what’s happening, he can already taste the strawberry-flavoured gas in his mouth. Sleeping agent. He tries to hold his breath, but Red shifts in place and jams a knee into his stomach, forcing a gasp out of him that carries the gas into his lungs. 

It takes hold right away. As Cole slips into nothingness, he listens as Red lets out a chorus of angry, panicked expletives.

4. KAI — 8:30 AM | 8:30

Fuck! Fuck!! Fuck!!!

Kai collapses against the boulder where he hides his clothes, legs feeling like jelly with fear as he slides to the jungle floor. He takes a deep breath and considers his options for the future. Then he bursts into tears. 

It’s a heavy cry, the kind that explodes from his stomach and makes his heart hurt. He hasn’t cried like this in a long time. He hasn’t felt powerless like this since he was thirteen—since he paid the price that was supposed to get him out for good. How stupid of him to think that was possible. Master Chen will never give up his absolute control over his life. Why did he ever let himself think otherwise?

Now that Black knows about Master Chen, it won’t be long until he starts tracking him down. Chen will catch wind of it right away. Kai will be blamed for letting a ninja get on his trail, and Chen will assume their deal is broken. Then he will retaliate by sending an assassin to kill his sister. 

If Kai wants to save Nya’s life, his only hope is to beg on his knees at Chen’s feet for his understanding. Chen may be willing to forgive him, but he will never let him go again. Kai has no more tricks up his sleeve. Once he’s back inside Chen’s underground palace, he will be stuck there for the rest of his life. He will never be free again. 

The thought of it is enough to send him into hysterics. The gi that usually provides unmatched comfort suddenly feels suffocating, so he peels off its outer layers for what he assumes to be the last time. When he gets to his arms, a small piece of paper tumbles out of his left sleeve. He wipes away the tears blurring his vision to read its warning. 

Yeah, no shit Black is following him. Fucking Grey. She probably wrote this out of goodwill, but all it’s done is convince him that he’s making the right choice. He hates her for it. She failed to convince Black to ignore Chen, and now Kai is paying the price. Why does she know so much about Chen, anyway? It’s kind of suspicious.

Fuck. There’s no point in asking, is there? It’s not like Kai will gain anything from the answer. Chen won’t let him close enough to any of the ninja to warn them if there’s a spy among them. Or maybe that will just be Kai’s job from now on—he’ll pretend to be a ninja and then sabotage them if they’re not doing anything that benefits Chen. Or he’ll just be sent to take them out because Black has proven them to be a huge liability to his organization. Fuck. Fuck!

Okay. Get your shit together, he tells himself. Black won’t stay knocked out forever. If Kai wants to keep his head start, he’ll need to get moving soon. Crying in the jungle all day won’t save Nya. It’s time to get going. 

Once he’s changed back into normal clothes, he drapes his gi over the rock as some kind of effigy. A part of him wants to bring it with him for its sentimental value, but he doubts he’d be allowed to keep it, anyway. Chen will want to re-assert his control wherever possible. Until Kai has regained his trust, he won’t be allowed reminders of his time outside. And after what Kai did last time, he doubts Chen will ever trust him again. 

He turns to face the city and takes a deep breath. Here he goes. 

5. WHITE — 8:40 AM | 08:40

Koko is not going to assassinate Lord Garmadon. 

Zane has no doubt that she is skilled enough to do it. He simply has no intention of letting her achieve her goal. 

Lloyd’s motivations remain unclear. The vigilante group who abducted him is still a mystery to everyone. What are their goals? Is Lloyd working with him because they want to stop his father or because they want to help him? If the latter is the case, then what is their end goal? Are they Sharks or something else entirely? 

There are still so many questions that need answers. Garmadon may be the only one capable of providing them. This is not something he can do if he is dead. Koko must be stopped. 

That will come later. First, Zane is going to use her to get close to her husband. She knows him intimately—unlike the ninja, she understands how Garmadon works. She can help him avoid the Shark Army and sneak into the volcano safely. And then, once they’ve arrived in his inner lair, Zane will incapacitate her and ask Garmadon his questions. 

Until then, his only option is to pretend to go along with her plan. Even if it means going on quests that he considers to be a waste of time, such as hiking several kilometres into the jungle to access her secret weapons stash.

“Weapons aren’t allowed in the city, so I hid everything from my Lady Iron Dragon days in here. The bow and arrows I have now were the only things I smuggled in,” Koko explains. The stash is hidden in a hollow tree, which has been marked for reference with a splash of blue paint at its base. Koko reaches inside and pulls out a handful of arrows. She looks over their arrowheads carefully, then drops them to the ground with a frown and continues looking. “It should be in here somewhere . . .” 

A pile of various weapons has accumulated at Koko’s feet by the time she finds what she’s looking for. She pulls away from with tree with a single arrow in hand. Like her other arrows, it has a metal spine and feathers. Its arrowhead, however, is made of a shiny gold material. Zane has never seen something like it before. 

“What is that?” he asks. 

Koko runs her finger over the arrowhead. “This is the only weapon in the world capable of killing an Oni. Its arrowhead is sourced from one of the Golden Weapons.”

Oh. Perhaps this was not such a big waste of time, after all. 

“Where did you get it?” Zane asks. The Golden Weapons have been missing for centuries. It shouldn’t be possible for Koko to possess something made of this material. 

“Garmadon knows where the weapons are hidden. He made this for me when we got married.” She stares at the arrow with a sombre expression, turning it over in her hand. “Back then, we didn’t know how the venom was going to change him over time. I was supposed to use this if he ever tried to hurt me or his family. If he won’t even turn himself in to save his own son, I think he’s far gone enough to justify killing him. Don’t you think?” 

Zane struggles to place his feelings as she explains. All this time, Koko has been able to end Garmadon and the Shark Army whenever she pleased. She could have saved the city from over a decade of misery as soon as it started. It should make him angry, and a part of him wants to feel angry about it. But all he feels is wronged , like this woman he doesn’t even trust has betrayed him harshly enough to leave a scar. It’s confusing and he can’t help but feel like there is considerable distance between himself and his heart.

“Garmadon has been attacking Ninjago City for sixteen years,” Zane says. As usual, his emotions do not make themselves known in his voice. He sounds calmly curious despite his internal turmoil. “Why haven’t you tried to stop him all this time? Why is this what crosses the line?” 

“Garmadon has always been a conqueror. It’s in his genes, like it is for you and me.” Koko puts the arrow in her quiver and shrugs. “Attacking Ninjago City doesn’t say anything about the state of the venom. Letting his son die makes me think he’s lost himself completely.”

Zane scowls as he watches her put the other weapons back into the tree. “That’s a selfish way to measure compassion.”

To his surprise, Koko is not upset by his comment. She scoffs and gives him an sarcastic look. “Don’t you know my reputation? I was humanity’s greatest warrior. They needed me to hold the line, and I abandoned them because I fell in love. I’m as selfish as it gets.” 

“Abandoning them was the right thing to do,” Zane says. That is not something he could ever hold against her. 

Koko hums. “Don’t give me any credit for it. At the time, I didn’t care much about right or wrong.” She gestures towards Ninjago City’s general direction. “Come on, I’ve got what I need. Let’s head back.” 

She sets the pace. Zane follows a few steps behind, watching the golden arrow as it bounces around in her quiver. He wonders if there is someone he would quit being a ninja for, like how Koko quit the war for Garmadon. There should be someone he loves enough to defect for. 

When he scrolls back through his memories, he finds nothing. He sees today, yesterday, the past two years, and then nothing. 

It should bother him. For whatever reason, it doesn’t.

Notes:

again, thanks so much for reading!! i will get started on chapter 5 right away. have a great day/night <33

(p.s. i've had quite a few comments asking for lloyd POVs. he will get some sections eventually, but right now the fic will mostly be focused on the others. ty for your patience !!)

Chapter 5: Day 3 (Pt. 2)

Notes:

wow its been a very long time!! sorry everyone, i lost like all my motivation for this fic last summer. i recently got it back and will hopefully be on a writing binge for it now!!

ty for your patience!

1. JAY — FOUR YEARS AGO

It takes a while to tell someone. 

Jay pretends to be sick for seven days, hiding below his bed covers in a desperate attempt to block out the noise. A place as big as Ninjago City has a lot of electricity. He can hear it all; the wires in his house, his neighbours’ television, the streetlights on the overpass, the impulses that carry his brain’s commands to the rest of his body . . . it’s overwhelming, a white noise that overpowers even his own thoughts. He spends the first few days of his new life as the Master of Lightning assuming that the noise will only go away when he’s dead. 

Slowly, he learns to rein it in. His senses stop travelling as far. By the end of the first week, he’s managed to limit his hearing to his home only. It leaves him constantly on edge, the kind of anxiety that makes him want to stay in bed forever, but he forces himself to leave the house anyways. The person he wants to see most lives on the other side of town. He takes a deep breath before leaving his house, and though it pains him,  he then sets off on the two hour walk to the Hidden Peak. 

By the time he reaches Cole’s house, he’s drenched in sweat and struggling to control his senses. They keep lashing out, escaping his grip to explore a passing train or the contents of someone’s apartment. It’s harder to block out the noise when he’s tired. At the house’s front door, he can feel the interior lighting circuit, the slow drain of Cole’s laptop battery, and the cell phone that makes its way towards him, telling him that Cole is about to open the door before his fingers even touch the handle. 

Cole pulls the door open. His eyebrows furrow in concern. “Jay, are you all right? I heard you were sick. What are you doing here?”

His focus is too absorbed by his senses to think about a response. He pushes past Cole and enters his house, where he allows his powers to search every corner for hidden devices. “Your house is safe, right? I don’t feel any cameras . . .” He looks for something that might belong to Lou, like a watch or phone, and finds nothing. “Your dad isn’t home. That’s good. I need to talk to you.”

A hand wraps around his arm. Cole forces him to turn around, putting his free hand against Jay’s forehead as he gives him a quick once over. “You don’t feel sick. Why are you so out of it?” 

Jay didn’t prepare for this conversation. He proceeds simply, because simple is really all he can handle right now. 

“I’m the Elemental Master of Lightning,” he says. A bewildered expression crosses Cole’s face, and he decides to prove himself by holding up a hand and summoning an arc of electricity between his fingers. “Look. I can control electricity.” 

Cole blinks. The shock lasts only a moment, and then Cole grabs Jay’s wrist and yanks his hand down.

“Stop that!” Cole hisses. He looks behind him, to the big living room windows, and swallows nervously. “Never do that again. Not even when you think you’re alone. Got it?”

A week of mental torture has made Jay’s feelings quite raw. As soon as Cole finishes scolding him, tears well in his eyes.

“I’m sorry!” he cries. The ceiling lights flicker erratically above them. “You’re the only person who knows. I swear.”

Cole looks up to the ceiling lights with alarm. “Shit. Hold on.” 

He lets go of Jay and starts fumbling with the rings on his fingers, a myriad of which decorate his hands, and then removes the two solid black bands that sit at the base of his index fingers. He puts the rings into Jay’s hands and forces him to close his hands around them. 

The relief is immediate. All at once, the lights stop flickering and the white noise disappears completely. Jay feels the rings against his palms inquisitively, marvelling at their power. “What are these . . .?” 

Cole plays with his other rings nervously. “Those are rings made of vengestone. They block elemental powers.” 

Vengestone . . . Jay learned about it in history class once, although he doesn’t remember all that much. “Isn’t vengestone super rare? How do you have these?” 

The question makes Cole visibly uncomfortable. “Some people like to wear vengestone jewellery in South Ninjago. If an Elemental Master dies or gives up their powers, you can’t inherit them if you’re wearing vengestone. I haven’t cared about that kind of stuff since I moved. I only wear the rings because they were my mom’s.” 

It’s rare for Cole to bring up his past in South Ninjago. Jay needs to tread carefully. “I thought they liked Elemental Masters over there. Why are they scared?”

“Elemental Masters are expected to fight. Some people think it’s safer to just avoid elemental powers altogether.” 

That must be why Cole’s mom had them. Jay is tempted to ask, but he knows better to push his luck with that particular subject. “What about here? What will they do if they catch me? Should I just release them?” 

“The Serpentine are paranoid, but they’re not as cruel. The worst they’ll do is make you release your powers.” Cole squeezes Jay’s hands firmly. “But Jay—you can’t let them catch you. You’re a good person. Don’t release your powers and let someone worse than you have them.” 

This is a responsibility that Jay has never wanted. “What am I supposed to do?” he asks weakly. “Do I need to get vengestone?” 

Cole shakes his head. He pulls Jay’s hands apart and removes the rings. “No. You need to learn to control your powers.” The noise returns like a hurricane, and Jay puts his hands against his ears while he waits for it to calm down. He can barely make out Cole’s voice over the storm. “To control them, you need to practice using them. It should get easier over time.” 

Jay mourns the loss of the rings. A part of him wants to wrestle them back from Cole, but a small, rational part of him is telling him that his best friend is correct. He can’t rely on vengestone forever. Controlling his powers will be better than suppressing them in the long run. 

However, that requires practice. “How do I train them?” Jay asks, although he doubts Cole will have an answer. Understanding the political climate surrounding elemental powers is different from knowing how to use them. 

Cole slides the rings back on his fingers. “If you want, we can figure it out together. You can practice here with me. It’s a bit more private than your place.”

The offer of help makes him realize just how terrified he is to do this alone. “Please,” Jay says breathlessly. It doesn’t matter if Cole has no experience. It’s clear that Jay can never reveal his powers to anyone else—this is all the support he’s going to get. And he needs help to figure out how to control this new part of his life. 

“Okay.” Cole’s voice is calm. Neither of them are touchy people, but Cole puts a comforting hand on Jay’s shoulder anyway. “It’ll be okay. This whole lightning thing might even come in handy in the future, yeah?” 

The reassurance feels empty, but it consoles him a little nonetheless. “Yeah, okay. Thank you, Cole.” 

For the next two years, they spend whatever free time they have together testing the limits of Jay’s new lightning powers. He learns to summon lightning from his hands, to control electrical pathways from a distance, and to finally establish complete dominance over his senses. The element of lightning eventually feels like something he owns, and not something that was forced upon him by outside, supernatural forces.

When Jay starts off as the Blue Ninja, Cole turns out to be correct—his powers can be helpful. The Sharks use battery-powered communicators. Blue can find them wherever they’re hiding. He never actually manipulates their batteries, although the idea tempts him once or twice. Ultimately, he never does, determined to uphold his promise to his best friend. 

I will never use my powers in public, Jay thinks to himself often. He can use his senses because they are invisible. It’s a passive ability that goes unnoticed. The rest of it can be observed by a keen enough eye, so he holds himself back day after day until he finds himself in a situation where he does not have much of a choice.

The Secret Ninja Force cannot afford to lose another member right now. If protecting Grey requires using his lightning, so be it. He’ll apologize to Cole later. 

Breaking into public safety headquarters is easy with his powers. Jay wears an all-black outfit and a hat and mask to conceal his identity. The security guards inside use battery-powered radios and carry cell phones. He can see them no matter where they go. Jay disables cameras and motion sensors as he avoids the guards, turning himself into something of a ghost as he makes his way to their basement security office. 

 This office has two important features: a wall of monitors displaying camera feeds around the building, and a breaker in the back wall that connects to all the security systems in the building. Jay rips the front off the breaker, where a bed of many interconnected wires awaits him. He sticks his hand inside and inserts himself into the electrical circuit. 

He watches the Grey Ninja enter the building on the monitors. As she heads towards the director’s office, he plays with the wires and figures out which charges to send or block in order to protect her from motion-tripped alarms and locked doors. Jay pushes the extent of his powers by casting a wide sensory net over the whole building, feeling and learning to control the buzz of a guard’s radio battery even from several floors away. With his help alone, Grey is able to break into and escape one of the most fortified buildings in the city with no trouble at all. 

On his walk back home, he finally understands why Elemental Masters are so feared. Jay Walker is one of the most powerful people in the world. 

It’s too bad, really, that no one else will ever know it.

2. WHITE — 9:00 AM | 9:00 

Zane sits beside Koko on a roof overlooking the dockyard, watching workers as they load containers onto a medium-sized cargo ship. They appear to be around halfway done. Once the ship is ready to go, him and Koko are going to stow away on board for a quick trip to the other side of Garmadon’s volcano. Then they are going to break in and track down Garmadon.

Ninjago City is built on an ocean bay, which means its access to the ocean is somewhat limited. Garmadon’s volcano sits a few kilometres off the bay’s sand, restricting access to the ocean even further by constraining it to two narrow corridors to the north and the south. The southern corridor leads to hot war zones, so it is usually full of mines and generally unusable. The northern corridor opens to deep Serpentine territory, which has allowed it to remain open to civilian boats, although Garmadon has been known to sink any he believes to be undercover military vessels.

The ship currently being loaded goes between the city and South Ninjago every few days.  Of all the ships that are going to pass through the northern corridor today, this is the one Garmadon is most likely to recognize and leave alone. Riding it close to the volcano and then swimming the rest of the way there is the easiest way to enter Garmadon’s base undetected. 

“I have a question,” Koko says, breaking the silence between them. “How serious are your secret identities? Do the other ninja know who you are?” 

Zane knows that Koko is not a trustworthy person. Someone who is willing to betray an entire nation out of love is not someone who deserves to know his secrets. However, there is a part of him that is interested in what she might have to say about things. She may be an outsider, but she is someone who is also trying to stop Garmadon. They are connected in that way. 

“We hide from each other as well,” Zane answers. “It is safer that way.” 

A quizzical expression crosses Koko’s face. “Interesting. If I was Garmadon, I would have sent someone to infiltrate your group by now. How do you know one of your teammates isn’t an undercover Shark?” 

Zane weighs the pros and cons of telling her what he knows about the other ninja. It is much safer to keep it a secret so it cannot be used against him in the future. Regardless, he finds himself saying, “I investigated them myself. None of them are Sharks.” 

Koko stretches out her arms. “Huh. You know, most people in this city wouldn’t lift a finger to help anyone. What made you all decide to fight Garmadon?”

Despite his work to uncover their identities, Zane has yet to make out any solid motivations among most of his team. Kai and Nya are simple—based on public records, their parents died during a Shark Attack eleven years ago. Cole and Jay have no personal reasons to fight Garmadon. Green’s identity remains unknown. Even if he wanted to, this is not a question he could answer easily. 

“We haven’t talked about it. Does it matter?”

“Of course it does.” Koko shrugs. “Your teammates could have different goals than you. I mean, once Garmadon is gone, who wins?”

The Secret Ninja Force fights Garmadon to protect innocent people. The implication that his teammates might be doing it to benefit a third party offends him deeply. “Ninjago City wins. Is that not enough?”

Koko rolls her eyes. “Come on, ninja. Do you really think everyone is motivated by selflessness?”

Annoyed, Zane fails to bite his tongue. “Not everyone is selfish like you,” he snaps. “I became a ninja because I believe in a greater good. I am sure my teammates are the same.” 

To his surprise, Koko huffs out a laugh. She leans back on her hands casually, appearing unbothered by his comment. 

“How old are you?” she says. 

“Sixteen.” 

“Ah, that’ll do it.” Koko smiles and turns her head to watch the dockyard. “In time, you’ll figure out that the ‘greater good’ means something different to everyone. What you think is good, or evil, or natural is something you’ve learned from someone else. Your teammates have all had different teachers than you. If you were honest with each other about your goals, you might have realized by now that you all want something different from Garmadon’s defeat. Don’t you think so?”

Self-reflection is hard. Zane doesn’t know what he wants from being a ninja, he just knows that he has a drive to be here. The first night he saw the Green Ninja fighting Sharks on TV, he felt like he’d unlocked a deep-seated purpose hidden away in his soul. He wants to help others. He needs to help others. There are no motivations beyond that—how is he supposed to want something for himself from Garmadon’s defeat? That is not how he thinks. It is not how he functions. 

“What about you?” Zane asks. “Aside from Lloyd’s safety, is there something you gain from killing Garmadon?”

Koko frowns. “A lot of people want to take over Ninjago City. Most of them are worse than Garmadon, but even with their big armies and weapons they’re too scared to try because an Oni claimed us first. As long as Garmadon stays on his volcano, all those other people will stay far away. Once he’s gone . . . I don’t think any of us will benefit. Ninjago City will be more dangerous than it was before.” 

“We still have a few days. We can find Lloyd if we work together. If you think killing Garmadon is so dangerous, why do it right away?”

“It’s like you said: I don’t think very selflessly,” Koko says. Zane studies her face, looking for any kind of remorse or indecision, but finds nothing. “I would burn this city to the ground to save my son. He’s all I have left.” 

3. GREY — 10:00 AM | 10:00

Nya awakes to something prodding her side. “Hey, Grey Ninja,” says a familiar voice. “Get up. We need to talk.” 

The surface below her body feels a little strange. Since she’s in uniform, she can’t be sleeping in her bed at the group home. The mat-like board beneath her doesn’t feel like the couch in the warehouse, either. Where is she?

When in doubt, it’s always better to get the upper hand. Nya pretends to still be asleep as her body returns to alertness. Then she snaps open her eyes, grabs the ankle closest to her face, and yanks it hard so the person falls onto their back. 

She’s on her knees in an instant, ready to fight. Hovering over her assailant, she finally gets a good look at him—

Oh. Whoopsies. 

“Man, come on,” Jay complains. He sits up and angrily gestures to the sand all over his clothes. “Don’t sleep in public if you do this when people wake you up. Seriously, it’s inconsiderate.” 

“Sorry,” Nya apologizes, although she can’t help but find Jay’s reaction somewhat amusing. “I got here a little early and fell asleep waiting for you. It won’t happen again.” 

She climbs to her feet and offers him a hand. Jay looks at her extended hand, but makes no move to take it and stays seated in the sand. “Did you find anything in the director’s office?”

Straight to the point. That’s fine—the sooner they’re done here, the sooner she can rescue Lloyd. “I found a map on the director’s desk. It looks like Lloyd is being held on a boat called Destiny’s Bounty. I’m going to rescue him as soon as we’re done here.” 

“Do you have a plan?” 

“No.” 

“Do you even know what the boat looks like?”

“No.”

“Alright.” Jay jumps to his feet. He stares at Nya for a moment, then says, “Are you hungry?”

The question takes her by surprise. “What?”

“You just woke up. Do you want breakfast?”

Nya can’t remember the last time she ate. Aside from the protein bars stuffed into her gi, there isn’t much food available to her right now. She supposes a proper meal before her rescue mission wouldn’t be such a bad idea . . . 

“Sure, but I don’t have any money,” Nya warns, just in case Jay is going to ask her to pitch in for something. 

He laughs. “Me neither. Let’s raid my kitchen and see what we can find.” 

Halfway up the stairs out of Ouroville, Jay brings her into a small house made of brick and metal. There are two rooms. In the first room, she spots two beds, and the other room is a kitchen and living area. Various items and belongings are piled haphazardly against the walls. The interior is very tight and she can see why Jay would choose to use a tent on the riverbank for his workshop. There definitely isn’t enough space for something like that in here.

Inside the kitchen, Jay rummages through the fridge and then pulls out a container of what appears to be vegetables and rice. He takes a metal spoon from a dish drying rack and passes it and the food to Nya, and then invites her to sit on the floor because the kitchen table is covered in stuff. “Sorry, my parents are hoarders,” he says bashfully. 

Wary of revealing her identity, Nya sits with her back to him so she can lower her mask to eat. “You’re giving me free food.  I don’t think I’m allowed to complain about where I eat it.” 

“Really? I complain about everything. It’s one of my only joys in life,” Jay says. She hears him shuffle behind her, likely looking for a comfortable way to lean against the wall. “Maybe that’s why I only have one friend. What do you think?”

Nya shoves a spoonful of rice into her mouth, busying herself with chewing as she thinks of what to say. It feels like Jay is making a joke at his own expense, but she doesn’t want to lean into it and hurt his feelings by accident. Instead, she says, “I don’t have many friends, either. I’m only close to my brother.”

“Really? You’re not friends with the other ninja?”

“We have secret identities, remember? It’s hard to be friends when we don’t know anything about each other.” 

“Huh. How does that work? Like, how did you form a team if you don’t know one another?”

The ninja keep a lot of secrets from the public. This is one of them—they don’t want random civilians trying to join their ranks. Jay seems trustworthy, though, and she’s already let him get pretty close. No harm in telling him. 

“Green started alone. You probably remember all the news stories about him. Then Red joined him, then White, and then the rest of us trickled in over time. We made our own costumes at home and met the other ninja in the field. It was Green’s idea to form a team.”

The early days were chaotic. Once they decided on a warehouse to use as their base of operations, they all chipped in to provide resources for the team. Kai brought all the weapons, which she assumes were all stolen from one of Chen’s supply depots. Blue and Black supplied all the technology. White made their suits, which Blue later augmented with his creations. Nya and Green didn’t have much to offer. What was she supposed to do? Steal from her group home? Nowadays, she uses the meagre allowance she gets from the city to keep the warehouse stocked with protein bars and other snacks. It’s the least she can do. 

Jay doesn’t respond right away, so Nya continues to shovel food into her mouth. Eventually, he pipes up and asks, “Why did you join?” 

It’s not something she can explain honestly. There are many, many revealing layers to it. Her brother’s involvement. Her feelings on the Oni. Her memory of being trapped with her parents in her family home’s basement, the stairs collapsed in the blast, Kai screaming from the top of the rubble, all of them helpless as water poured in from above, slowly filling the room—and then waking up in the hospital a day later, the lone survivor from the basement. The doctor said she’d floated into an air pocket in the rubble. You’re lucky, they’d said. 

She’s never felt that way. 

“Garmadon ruined my life,” she decides to say. No longer hungry, she puts the lid back on the container and pulls her mask back over her face. She turns back to Jay and hands him the container. “Thanks. I should get  going.” 

With a nod, Jay stands up and returns the container to the fridge. He turns back to her. “Do you know how to swim?” 

Nya raises an eyebrow. “Yes. Why?” 

“Just an idea. Have you ever wanted to in breathe underwater?”

4. KAI - 11:30 AM 

This must be what death feels like. 

On the way to Chen’s Noodle House, Kai’s body rebels against him. His lungs seize, his eyes tear, and his muscles shake, forcing him to take breaks as he’s hit with waves of panic. He does not want to go back. He has to go back. He is fighting himself each step of the way, forcing his brain and body to listen to him and keep moving towards the restaurant. If he turns around, Nya will die. There is nothing else he can do. He must return. 

Two blocks out, he almost throws up. He sits on his knees on a rooftop and holds his face in his hands, letting the tears and shakes and snot flow out of him freely. He will not be allowed to show weakness like this ever again. When there are no more tears left to cry, he cleans himself up and waits for his eyes to dry and for his face to return to its normal colour. Then he keeps moving. 

When he stands across the street from Chen’s Noodle House, the panic dissipates all at once. He is embraced by a cold calmness, a numbing sensation that sharpens his mind and dulls his emotions. His body has stopped fighting him. There is no turning back. Finally, it has accepted its doom. 

The restaurant opened only five minutes ago. There is no line. Kai enters the front door and walks right up to the host at the seating stand. 

“Hi,” he says. His voice reveals no emotion. “I need to speak to your boss.” 

Recognition flashes in the host’s eyes. “Go to the kitchen.” 

Kai does not need to be guided to the kitchen. Chen’s students are required to work here in their downtime, so he spent much of his youth completing random chores around the restaurant. He knows the place like the back of his hand. Which means he also knows exactly what kind of danger awaits him in the kitchen. 

He walks through the kitchen door. The entire kitchen staff looks over to him, and he watches impassively as they slowly realize who he is. The manager steps forward, but remains a few metres away—wisely keeping his distance. 

“This is your only warning,” the manager tells him. He speaks slowly, as though to make sure Kai understands what he’s saying. “If you continue, there’s a chance you will never leave again. Master Chen does not make idle threats.” 

“I know,” is all Kai says. He passes through the kitchen, where the workers eye him suspiciously, and then climbs down the stairs in the back wall. They lead to the basement where the restaurant keeps its supplies. Off to the side, there are surface-to-floor metal racks full of sauces and cooking materials. Kai reaches to the back of a shelf and presses a button on the wall. 

The rack swings open like a door. A small concrete room awaits him on the other side. Once he’s inside, he hears the rack close behind him and lock shut. 

There is no other door in sight. No windows. Kai has been through this many times, so he looks up to where he knows a hidden camera is watching. 

“I need to speak to Master Chen,” he announces. If he were an intruder, hidden panels in the walls would open and automatic turrets would kill him on the spot. Kai’s seen it happen before. It’s horrific. 

Since Chen has been waiting for this day for years, that does not happen. The wall opposite to the door pushes inward, revealing below it a concrete staircase that descends into total darkness. 

Mutely terrified, but resigned to his fate, Kai begins his descent. 

5. KAI - 12:00 PM

Two guards check him for weapons. They give him a bundle of clothes and force him to change on the spot. The outfit he now wears makes him frown—it’s the last thing he ever wore here, the suit given to students on the night of their final test. The test Kai chose to fail. 

It’s not too different from his gi; armoured pants, an armoured sleeveless shirt, and a mask to pull over his mouth and nose to protect his identity. A slit in the back reveals the Anacondrai tattoo that slithers up his left shoulder blade. The last time he wore this, all the clothes were black. This time, the mask is red, and Kai immediately understands that it’s designed to humiliate him. Chen wants everyone in the compound to recognize him as the Red Ninja. He wants to rub it in—the best of all his students, who had once escaped, has returned to his ownership. Kai is going to be paraded around as a testament to Master Chen’s absolute power. 

The guards bind his wrists with rope in front of him. They connect a rope lead to his bindings, which a guard tests by yanking it hard and forcing Kai to stumble forward. He catches himself, thankfully, but the guards laugh at him anyway. 

“I don’t need my hands to kill you,” Kai growls. They must know it’s true, because they stop laughing and proceed to lead him into the compound in silence. 

The underground compound is huge, and lavishly decorated, resembling the old human palaces seen in history books. Master Chen’s large collection of war memorabilia is displayed in glass cases along the walls. Kai sees dragon scales, ancient Oni blades, and weapons and armour from throughout the several Human-Serpentine Wars. The guards give him no time to observe anything closely, tugging him along if he slows his pace for even a moment. 

Servants, students, guards, assassins—all kinds of Chen’s personnel pass him in the halls, and all of them stare. What are they thinking? Do they think their boss has caught the Red Ninja? Or do they know who he really is? They must have heard stories. Chen does not pick his students likely. And he never lets any of them go. Especially not prodigies like Kai.

Kai was lucky. He had an ace up his sleeve. It is not one he has anymore. There will be no escape for whatever Chen decides to do with him. By entering the restaurant, he has sealed his fate. He will be stuck here forever. 

Finally, they come to a stop before two grand, red doors. A guard turns to address him coolly. “In the presence of Master Chen, you must follow our etiquette. You will kneel the whole time. You will keep your eyes on the floor. You will only speak once you have been given permission to speak. Do I make myself clear?”

Kai rolls his eyes. “I used to live here. I know the rules.” 

“Yes, you used to live here,” the guard mutters. He pushes against the door, opening it slowly. “And you were very bad at following them.” 

The doors open wide to the throne room. At the top of a few steps, Master Chen lounges in his throne, eyes wide and a wicked smile on his face. Clouse, his right hand man, stands dutifully at his side. And at the other end of the platform— 

Skylor Chen steps forward, red curls bouncing with motion. Her face is twisted in anger. “You idiot! You weren’t supposed to come back.” 

Before Kai can respond, the guard shoves him to his knees. He places a hand against the back of Kai’s head and pushes his head down. Looks like he’ll be following the rules, whether he likes it or not. 

“I always knew you would return some day.” Chen’s voice, dripping in violent sweetness, carries across the room. “Although I don’t understand why. You have two more years until the government stops taking care of you. Why come back now?”

Several seconds pass. Kai can feel all the eyes in the room on him, waiting for his response. Then Chen laughs and says, “Oh, my apologies. You may speak.” 

It’s hard to keep his composure. He hates it when Chen flexes his power like that.“One of the ninja has found out about you. I came here to warn you.” 

Chen hums. “Does it matter if they know? I thought you only fight Garmadon.” 

“He thinks you kidnapped Lloyd. He’s going to investigate you.” 

“He won’t get past the front door. I’m not worried.” He hears Chen shift in his chair. “Now, what should I do with you? What would you hate more? Being a guard or a servant?”

“Dad,” Skylor whispers urgently. “You said—” 

“I’ve said a lot of things,” Chen snaps. A moment later, he sighs. “You are a very lucky man, Kai. My daughter has begged me to give you a chance. Do you think you deserve such a thing?” 

The question is a test. A reminder of the oath drilled into all students. 

“Humans deserve nothing.” The words come out easily. He’s said them hundreds of times before. They’re natural to him, in a way that makes him feel a little sick. “What about my sister? Will you leave her alone?”

A long pause. 

“You may look up,” Chen says. 

The guard removes his hand from the back of Kai’s head. Kai lifts his head and sits up a little straighter on his knees, glad to feel even a small ounce of his pride return. 

Chen does not look at him. He’s staring past Kai, eyes locked on something in the doorway. The wicked smile has not dropped from his face. 

“Bring him in.” 

Angry shouts. The sound of a scuffle. As Kai looks over, the Black Ninja is shoved to his knees a metre away from him. 

“Get your hands off me!” Black tries to push back against the guards, but the four guards accompanying him give him no chance of escape. They force him stare at the floor before Black even manages to get a good look at Kai. 

The cool embrace of calmness is shattered into pieces. Kai does not panic, but he can hear the distress in his voice when he turns to Chen and demands, “What the hell is he doing here?”

“He got here thirty minutes ago. Right after you, actually.” Master Chen leans forward in his chair. His expression is now downright mischievous. “This is your chance. I will spare your sister. In exchange, you must deal with this new problem. Does that sound fair?” 

Deal with . . . ? Oh, no. 

“You want me to kill the Black Ninja.” 

Black has stopped thrashing. In fact, he has gone completely still. 

“Red?” he asks quietly. 

Kai ignores his question. He gives his teammate a once over, remembering everything he knows about how well he can fight. He’s about as bad as the others. Kai will have no issues defeating him in the Slither Pit. 

“I’ll do it.” 

Notes:

as always, thank you soooo much for reading. have a great day !! <33

Chapter 6: Day 3 (pt. 3)

Notes:

everyone i had suuuuuch a blast writing this chapter! hence why it's out so quickly.

kai-focus chapter. enjoy!!

1. LLOYD - 3 YEARS AGO

The knife is held an inch over Lloyd’s heart.

The assassin meets his gaze with wide, surprised eyes. He must not have expected Lloyd to hear him climb through the window. 

In all fairness, a normal person wouldn’t have. A lifetime of universal hatred has made Lloyd a little paranoid like that. He’s a very light sleeper. 

The assassin shifts awkwardly in place. Lloyd is confused. This is the first time someone has found where he lives, and he is clearly here to kill him, so why is he hesitating? 

A minute passes. Then two, three, four—

The blade is pulled away. “Bad people know where you live,” the assassin says. His voice betrays his age: he’s young, about the same age as Lloyd. “You should move. They might send someone else.”

As the assassin backs away, Lloyd tries to memorize everything he can about his would-be assailant. Dark eyes. Short hair. Nothing about him stands out. This isn’t someone he will recognize on the street. 

Then the assassin turns around. Through a slit in the back of his shirt, something unique catches his eye:

A fresh tattoo of a purple snake that curls around his shoulder blade.

2. GREEN - TWO YEARS AGO 

This is the third time the Red Ninja has made an appearance during one of his father’s attacks. 

Lloyd doesn’t know how to feel about him. He’s a good fighter—way better than Lloyd, whose only experience in fighting is being on the receiving end of punches. He’s dedicated to the cause. He knows how to handle himself in the field. But he’s also fucking brutal. The Sharks unfortunate enough to attract his ire are left bloodied, bruised, and unresponsive on the pavement. The Red Ninja claims they’re still alive. “Well, you know,” he said on the first night, awkwardly shrugging his shoulders, “as long as they see a doctor in the next day or so.” 

It’s a mean way of doing things. Lloyd is worried that the Red Ninja is going to take things too far. If they ever manage to fight their way to the volcano, what will he do once Lord Garmadon is in his grasp? Lloyd doesn’t want his father to die. And he’s terrified that the Red Ninja will turn on him if he tries to save him. 

With a sickening crack, Red takes out the last Shark on the street. There are others nearby, but for now, they can take a small break to recuperate and assess any wounds before heading off into danger again. Lloyd feels mostly okay. One of them got a lucky hit that makes his knee ache with each step, but he isn’t too concerned about it. He’s young. It should heal. 

Red falls to his knees. Lloyd hurries over, where he sees that a blade has cut diagonally across Red’s back. The fabric of his shirt is barely hanging on, nearly cut in two. It is dark around the edges—blood. A lot of it. 

“Can I see?” Lloyd asks. He doesn’t want to touch him without warning. Last time he’d done so, he’d ended up flat on his back after Red threw him over his shoulder on reflex. Lesson learned. 

“Yeah. Is it bad?” Red replies breathlessly. 

Gingerly, Lloyd pulls back the fabric to get a better look at the wound. It’s still bleeding. “You might need stitches,” he says. He starts from the bottom and works his way up Red’s back, checking to see if any parts of the cut are particularly ugly. It doesn’t seem like it. Just a clean gash all the way through. 

His fingers lift the shirt hanging over his shoulder blade. The cut stops here, right beside a tattoo of a purple snake. 

His breath catches in his throat. With shaking hands, he traces the outline of the tattoo in his skin. It can’t be him. Red can’t be him. But . . . but their ages match, and a double life as an assassin would explain exactly why Red is able to do the things he does. He’s a trained killer. 

But he chose not to kill Lloyd. He looked into his eyes, one breath away from plunging the knife into his heart, and then chose not to do it. He spared him. 

A more rational person might react to this revelation with terror. Lloyd, however, has never felt so safe in his life. 

This is someone who believes in his innocence. This is someone who will protect him. This is someone he can trust with his life.

Lloyd sits back on his knees and takes a deep breath.

“We should be a team. Like, officially.” 

The Red Ninja thinks it over for a few seconds. 

“Okay,” he says. 

3. LLOYD - 12:10 PM

They haven’t touched him since the hostage video. 

Lloyd expected a week of torture. Instead, once the camera stopped rolling, his kidnappers tied a blindfold over his eyes, apologized for roughing him up, and then locked him in a makeshift prison cell. He hasn’t left since. It’s completely dark in here, except for the three times a day where the door opens so they can bring him food. He tries to get a better look at his surroundings whenever the hallway light spills into the room, but all he’s been able to make out so far are the featureless stone walls on all sides. He has absolutely no idea where he is. 

Not that it matters. There’s no way for him to get a message out to the other ninja, so even if he knew his exact current coordinates, he could not do anything with them anyways. He’s stuck here until he gets rescued. 

Or until he dies. As his kidnappers keep reminding him.

“Wow, your dad doesn’t care about you at all,” one of them says as he opens the door to deliver Lloyd his lunch. He places the tray on the ground and laughs dryly. “Does that hurt your feelings?”

“I already know he doesn’t care,” Lloyd grumbles. 

The guard laughs at him again. “Don’t be sad. Only four days left to go. Then it’ll all be over.”

He nudges the tray of food closer to him with his boot and then exits the room. The door locks behind him with a loud click. 

Chains rattle as Lloyd climbs to his feet. His right ankle is attached to the wall by a long chain; it’s forgiving enough that he can walk around and stretch out his legs, but just short enough to pull taut half a metre from the door. As much as he wants to jump at one of the guards bringing him food and run to freedom, the ankle chain has rendered such a thing impossible. It’s very annoying. 

He grabs the tray and returns to his preferred corner of the cell. The food doesn’t smell too bad, but he has no appetite right now. It’s difficult to eat when a cloud of death is constantly hanging over his head.

Four more days. Then he’s done. Gone. Disappeared. Sent into the void. 

He presses his face into his hands. The chances of being rescued are low. But if there’s anyone he trusts to pull it off . . .

Where are you, Red?

4. KAI - 13:30 | 1:30 PM

Master Chen has a very cruel sense of humour. 

Kai expected to be placed in one of the palace’s holding cells until the Slither Pit event tonight. He expected the same for Black. What he did not expect, however, was to be placed directly across the narrow hallway from him. 

“Talk to me, Red.” Black is leaning against his bars, staring at Kai as he sits on the floor and tries his best to ignore him. Black is sounding more and more desperate as time passes. It’s starting to really get on Kai’s nerves. “You don’t have to do this. We can figure something out.”

Such empty words. Black has been trying to get him to respond for two hours now, and Kai has been very diligent in keeping quiet. But the insistence that he has a choice in all this—as though he’s ever had a choice when it comes to Chen—finally gets to him. 

“Shut the fuck up!” he snaps. He keeps his eyes to the wall in front of him, refusing to even look in Black’s direction. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Stop talking and die with dignity.”

“Of course, I don’t know what I’m talking about! You refuse to tell me anything!” Black argues. He’s borderline shouting, now. If Kai’s hands weren’t still bound in front of him, he would have put his hands over his ears by now to drown him out. “Who are these people? Why do they know you?”

Kai rolls his eyes. “Come on. You read my file. You should know.” 

It takes a minute for Black to realize what he’s saying. “You’re Kai,” he breathes. Kai can feel his eyes looking him over as he connects the dots. “The paper said you were Chen’s property. What does that mean?”

“What do you think it means? He owns me.” The memory of Tengfei explaining his new situation to him in his office, counting wads of cash as Chen’s guards prepared to take him away, adds extra venom to his voice. “I was sold to him for money. It’s pretty straight forward.” 

Not all group homes are run like Kai’s. He’s never heard of Nya’s home administrators getting up to shady business. Unfortunately, Kai has always been just that unlucky—not only was he randomly placed into Tengfei’s orphanage, but his parents had been training him to fight since he could walk. He was the perfect candidate for Master Chen. 

Black takes some time to mull it over. The next time he speaks, he sounds apprehensive, not angry. “How old were you?”

“Don’t pretend to care. It won’t make me spare you.”  

“I’m not—” Black groans in frustration. “Whatever. You’re impossible.”

His boots scuff on the floor as he walks away from the bars. It’s a small relief, no longer having his eyes on him all the time. Kai knows that a guard will still be watching him through the cameras, but at least he can’t feel their judgement. At least they aren’t trying to talk to him. 

A little curious, Kai glances in Black’s direction. The ninja is standing very close to one of the cell walls, tracing his bound hands down the concrete. His gloves are on, so it’s not like he’ll be able to feel anything.What is he doing?

Black continues his investigation of his cell’s materials. Kai grows bored of watching him and leans back against the wall, closing his eyes so he can get some much needed shut-eye before the fight. 

5. KAI - 14:45 | 2:45 PM

A knock against the bars brings him back to the land of living. 

“Wake up, gorgeous.” 

The voice is sarcastic, yet familiar. Kai smiles and opens his eyes. As expected, Skylor Chen is waiting for him on the other side of the bars. “Hey. Are you allowed to be here?”

“Nope, so let’s make this quick.” She gestures for him to stand, so he climbs to his feet and meets her beside the bars. She reaches through and cups his bound hands between her own. “You said your friend over there was looking for Lloyd Garmadon. Is that a team thing, or is he doing it on his own?”

“Why?” he asks, even though there’s no reason to. Skylor knows his connection to Lloyd. She has a good reason to be curious. 

“We captured a Shark the other day. He offered up some pretty juicy intel about the case.” 

Whenever there’s a Garmadon attack, Chen is quick to send one of his agents to apprehend an injured Shark and bring them back for questioning. If an upcoming attack already has a date, then Chen will know to keep his important assets underground before it happens. Keeping up with Garmadon is good for business. 

“He said his squad was taken out by different vigilantes during the last Garmadon attack,” Skylor continues. “They didn’t knock him out, so he heard them talking to each other. They were discussing plans to kidnap the kid the next day.” 

Kai sees movement in the other cell. Suddenly, Black is back to leaning against his bars, apparently unashamed to be eavesdropping. “Does he know where they’re keeping him?”

The question annoys him. He catches an amused expression on Skylor’s face when he looks over to glare at the ninja. “Shut up. Why do you care? You won’t be alive to save him, anyways.” 

“Wow, you’re mean,” Skylor says with a light laugh. “The vigilantes didn’t get into any details. But do you want to know something really interesting? The Green Ninja was there, too. And he gave them permission to use Lloyd as a hostage.” 

Kai’s brain completely stalls. “What? But he wouldn’t . . .”

“Why didn’t he tell us?” Black says. He starts to pace back and forth. “Why just disappear? If he had some kind of deal, he should have told us so we didn’t fight and split up. I don’t get it.” 

Kai ignores him. “Did the Shark see Green leave safely?” he asks Skylor. Assuming this happened after the attack was over, it would have been the last time Green was seen or heard by anyone before he went missing. What if these vigilantes have something to do with his disappearance?

“Green said he would go after the vigilantes if they hurt Lloyd. Then he left totally unharmed.” 

This detective, strategy-type stuff has never been Kai’s strong suit. He can see the pieces but he doesn’t know how to put them together. Green is involved, but he’s also vanished into thin air. The vigilantes didn’t hurt him that night. How are they connected? What if they have nothing to do with each other?

“Grey was right.” Black stops in front of the bars again. “Green tried to stop the vigilantes when they threatened to kill Lloyd in the video. They must have captured him. Or killed him. I don’t know. Either way, we have to find them.” 

Kai scoffs. “‘We?’ You’re not living to see tomorrow and there’s no way Chen is letting me outside ever again. There’s nothing we can do.” 

Skylor clicks her tongue at him. “You know, maybe you should listen to your friend. He seems smart. What if he’s right?” 

“Smart? He’s only here because he was too stupid to listen to me. I’m only here because he was too stupid to listen to me.” Thinking about it enrages him. Once again, he faces a lifetime of servitude to a man he despises. And it’s all Black’s fault! He leans toward the bars, locks eyes with Black, and barks, “You did this! I got out. I was free. And you had to fuck it all up because you don’t trust me! I won’t take pride in killing you, but after what you’ve done to me, I promise you that I’ll enjoy it.” 

Black narrows his eyes. “You talk about killing so casually. How many lives have you taken?”

I never had a choice. Kai opens his mouth to respond, but Skylor suddenly turns around and beats him to it. 

“You think you’re so perfect?” She stomps over to Black’s cell and reaches inside the bars, swiping for his mask. “Let’s see what you’re hiding.” 

“Wha—” Black jumps backwards, narrowly avoiding her hand. His shoulders rise and fall with each breath. He’s scared. 

Skylor laughs coldly. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She turns back to Kai, pushing her hands through the bars again, but this time she cups his cheeks. The affectionate touch is a little embarrassing, knowing Black is watching, but he doesn’t say anything. “I should go. When the Slither Pit is done, ask my father if you can have another shot at your test. Lloyd is still your mark. He might let you.” 

At that, she removes her hands and leaves. Kai watches her go, missing her presence already. She’s the only good thing here. He remembers when they were younger, and they would sneak into each other’s beds to whisper into the night. He remembers cherishing every moment, knowing that their friendship wouldn’t last forever. Each class could only have one graduate. It’s a miracle, really, that both of them are still alive today. 

“Let me get this straight.” Black is back against the bars again, brow furrowed in concentration. “If what she said is true, then you once attempted to murder Lloyd Garmadon. Does Green know about this?”

Kai is still angry. He doesn’t owe Black an explanation for anything. 

“Fuck you,” he spits. “Stop talking to me.”

He returns to his spot on the floor, leaning his back against the wall. Finally, Black must decide to listen to him, because he shuts up and lets Kai rest in peace. 

6. KAI - 17:10 | 5:10 PM

“I’m sorry.” 

The words rouse Kai from a semi-doze. He looks over to Black, who is sitting crossed-legged in front of his bars, face tilted to the ground. 

“I have no right to judge you. I did the math. You couldn’t have left Chen’s after you became a ninja, so your attempt on Lloyd would have been at least two years ago. We’re all sixteen. Green made us confirm that. So, you were sent to kill someone when you were at most fourteen or even younger. I assume there was training involved, which means that if you did kill other people . . . you would have been a kid when it happened. I can’t blame you for something you had no control over. I’m sorry.” 

An apology is not something Kai has ever expected to hear from him. Still, it makes him suspicious. “I already told you not to play nice. Acting like my friend won’t stop me from killing you.” 

This time, Black does not fluster at the accusation. He sighs and gives Kai a weary look. “How old were you? When Chen . . . ‘bought’ you?” 

Maybe it isn’t trick. Maybe, although far too late, this is Black’s attempt to extend him an olive branch. A truce right before his death. 

Kai can work with that. He has no reason to fear the judgement of a dead man, anyways. 

“Eight. I left when I was thirteen.”

Black nods slowly. “Adds up. Your friend said you failed the test. What happened?”

Saying he failed it makes him laugh darkly. What a funny way to put it. 

“You make it sound like I messed up. Trust me, I was perfectly capable. They’d been training me to do that kind of stuff for years.” Kai rests the back of his head against the wall. He looks straight ahead at the wall of his cell again, finding it easier to talk to than the other ninja. “Lloyd was less careful back then. I followed him around for a few days, and eventually he slipped up and led me back to his apartment. I climbed in through the window late at night. His mom wasn’t home, so no one was around to stop me. I snuck right up to his bedside with the intention of stabbing a knife into his heart. Then he woke up. He looked at me, at the knife, and then just . . . laid there. No fight. Totally willing to just let it happen. I don’t know if he wanted to die, or if he had just always assumed that someone was going to kill him eventually, but it made me lose my nerve. Chen had told me he was a Shark. He was someone I was supposed to want to kill. But in the moment, I couldn’t do it. Sharks have a cause. They have something to live for, you know? People with plans fight like hell on the verge of death. I’ve seen it up close. Lloyd wasn’t doing anything. I knew he was innocent, so I let him live. I couldn’t bring myself to kill him.”

“Were you punished?” Black asks.

“I should have died. Students have been killed for less.” Kai looks down at his hands, flexing his fingers in and out of fists. “To survive, I gave him something he really needed. It was big enough that he let me go. On the condition, of course, that I kept my mouth shut and never screwed up his business again. If I ever broke those rules, he said he would punish me by sending someone to kill my sister. That’s probably why he’s making me kill you—if I undo my mistake, my sister will be safe. And he gets to keep me forever. Thanks for that, by the way.” 

Black ignores the ending jab. “What did you give him?” 

Kai holds up his hands with a wry smile. “He has a staff that can imprison elemental powers. Once the power is in the staff, it’s gone forever—you can’t release it to someone else or pass it down to your kids. The Serpentine like it because it means there’s one less Elemental Master to worry about. So, that’s what I gave him: my powers.” 

Black’s sucks in a sharp breath. “You were an elemental master?”

“I got it from my dad, who swore me to secrecy. Chen had no idea until I was bargaining away my powers. I think I only got away with it because I caught him by surprise.”  

“Which element?” 

“Master of Fire. Well, not anymore, I guess. A small price for freedom, don’t you think?”

“. . . Yeah,” Black says quietly. “Maybe.”

7. KAI — 18:30 | 6:30 PM

Black is acting very strange. 

He sits on the other end of the cell with his back to Kai. Every so often, Kai hears the sound of clattering teeth followed by a curse. He doesn’t know what to make of it. 

“Are you trying to bite the rope off? It’s not going to work.” 

Black takes a deep breath. “No. I’m trying to take off my gloves.” 

With his teeth. That explains why he’s hiding from Kai—his mask is down and he doesn’t want him to see his face. 

“Why? You can use the gloves to sleep gas me. Don’t you want to at least try to win?” 

A few seconds of gnawing sounds later, Black groans in frustration. “Fuck! They’re caught in the bindings. I can’t get them off.” 

He hasn’t answered Kai’s question, but he supposes it shouldn’t bother him. If Black wants to make the fight harder for himself, why get in his way? 

"They'll cut the rope when the fight starts. I'll wait for you," Kai says. He doesn't know why he makes the offer. His own olive branch, maybe. 

8. KAI - 20:00 | 8:00 PM

The underground Slither Pit is the size of a small arena. The fighting pit itself is barren, and surrounded by a tall, circular concrete wall that traps the contestants inside. On top of the wall, students, guards, cultists, and Chen’s guests line the stands, cheering and clapping as they see Master Chen himself rise from his throne for the usual pre-match address. 

Kai and Black stand in the competitor waiting area. A metal gate separates them from the arena floor, and a troop of guards separate from each other in case they try to start early. The rope around their wrists will only be cut when the address is over, but that doesn’t appear to be soon enough for Black, who stares at his bindings like he’s trying to cut them open with his eyes. Still unsure of what to make of this sudden and strange behaviour, Kai averts his gaze through the gate to Chen, who has stopped in front of a large microphone. 

“Welcome!” he says to the crowd, who quiet down so he can be heard. “The Slither Pit is an ancient, yet honoured tradition of the Serpentine. Historically, it was used to bring the community together by allowing enemies to settle their disputes through controlled aggression. The two parties would see the pointless horror of bloodshed and learn the value of cooperation. The existence of the Slither Pit is yet more evidence for the superiority of their species!” 

This snatches Black’s attention away from the rope. “Wait, what?” 

He’s looking at Kai to see if he agrees that Chen said something ridiculous. “He does this every time,” Kai says. “Did you think all the snake decorations were just for fun?” 

Black blinks. “Every time? You’ve been in the pit before? I thought it was just for prisoners.” 

Kai smirks. “That’s cute. There were thirty kids in my grade here. Only  one person gets to graduate. How do you think they weeded us out?” 

“Oh,” Black says softly. 

Kai hopes this scares him. He should be. Kai has been in the pit many times. And, obviously, he’s never lost—otherwise he would be dead.

Chen continues. “I have adapted the Slither Pit for human behaviour. Sadly, since violence and conquest stain our blood, we cannot end a Slither Pit with peaceful resolution. So, we must end it the human way—with death!” 

The crowd boos. Black stares out the gate with disbelief in his eyes. 

“I guess they weren’t lying,” he mutters. It’s just loud enough for Kai to hear. “Some of you city people really do act like this.” 

It’s enough information to very quickly make Kai see the other ninja in a whole new light. He gives him a once over, thrust into his own state of disbelief. “You’re from South Ninjago?” 

Black does not get to speak before Chen prattles on. 

“Tonight, our competitors are two members of the Secret Ninja Force. Watch how quickly they turn on each other when their lives are on the line!” 

More cheers. The guards grab Kai’s wrists and saw through the rope with a serrated knife. Kai is excited to have his hands free again, rolling his wrists in circles to get them used to individual movement again. As soon as he starts to really get the feeling back into them, the guards have opened the gate and shoved him through it. 

Black stumbles in behind him. He fumbles with the straps on his gloves, hands shaking too much to remove them properly. A loud gong sounds out, scaring him into a jump that further stalls his progress. Kai watches the pathetic display with pity. That gong is meant to signal the start of the fight. If he were anyone else, Black would already be dead by now. 

Chen won’t like this. Kai faces his throne in the stands, hands held up in a placating gesture. “Wait for him!” Kai shouts, hoping he’s loud enough to be heard. “The gloves have hidden weapons. He’s taking them off so the fight is fair!” 

The audience erupts into applause. Kai has faced other students in this pit many times, so he knows how much the viewers hate it when the fight is one-sided. Not that this one will be any different. Out of respect to Black, Kai will make his death quick. It should all be over in less than a minute. 

Black finally manages to pull off a glove. He removes the other one much faster, and Kai marvels at the hands that were once hidden within them. Black’s fingers are covered in a gallery of rings, each one prettier than the last. He never knew he had such good taste. 

Oh, well. 

“The gloves are off,” Kai says. It’s an announcement of intent. He is going to kill the Black Ninja now. 

This is not a teammate, he tells himself as he approaches Black in his usual fighting stance. Not anymore. It’s you or him. That’s all.

Black’s eyes widen. “Wait! Wait, I’m almost—” He tries to jump away, but he falls awkwardly on his heel and lands on his behind. Desperate to maintain distance from Kai, he pushes himself back with his legs until his back hits the pit wall. His hands are busy pulling rings off his index fingers. It’s weird enough that Kai stops and lets him do it. 

The last two rings are thick, black bands. He holds them up for Kai to see, then tosses them in his direction. “Catch!” 

For some reason, Kai does as he’s told. He catches the rings and holds them in his palm, observing them with confusion. “What are these?” 

“Without those, we can have an even fight.” Black stands up and enters the fighting stance Kai taught him to use two years ago. He beckons him to get closer. “Come on. Attack me.” 

With a shrug, Kai drops the rings on the ground. He has no idea what those rings are meant to do, but as he enters a quick sprint to close the distance between him and Black, he concludes that the ninja is trying to scare him. He wants him to be careful. How stupid. Kai doesn’t need to be careful with such an inexperienced—

As he gets close, Black thrusts his palm in his direction, aiming for his chest. Kai brings up an arm to block it. The palm connects with his body and then, as though he weighs nothing at all, Kai finds himself in the air as he is quite literally launched across the Slither Pit. 

He lands hard on his side, rolling once, twice, before he slams against the wall. It knocks the air out of him. Disoriented, he doesn’t move from his spot on the ground, lungs and bones aching as he tries to figure out what just happened. Since when was Black strong enough to throw someone across the room? Since when was anyone strong enough to do this to someone with a palm strike? 

His body shakes all over. Kai worries for a moment that the landing damaged some kind of critical nerve, but then the fog in his brain clears just enough to realize it is an external sensation. It’s not him who is shaking—it’s the entire arena. 

It sends jolts of pain across his body, but Kai forces himself to sit up. His vision blurs, doubles, and then clears just in time to watch Black approach the middle of the pit. He faces Chen and holds out his hands at his sides, showing them off for the whole audience to see. 

“Master Chen. For the past two days, I have been warned to stay away from you. They said you were dangerous. Powerful. Some kind of mastermind, even.” Black laughs loudly. He flexes his hands and the ground tremors grow in intensity. “What kind of genius brings the Master of Earth into an underground facility made of concrete?”

Oh. That would explain the mysterious strength. 

Even when someone has ruined his game, Master Chen remains as giddy as ever. He leans forward in his throne with a wide grin. 

“Ha! Now, this is interesting! I suppose you want something from me?” 

Black closes his hands and the tremors stop. “You will let Red and I leave. If you don’t, I will bring down the ceilings and kill every single person in your palace. Yes or no?” 

“Ah, you’re threatening me.” Chen is less amused now. “Yes, fine.  You may leave. Anything else?”

“You will not send anyone after us. If I think for even a second that one of your assassins is going after me or Red or his sister, no matter how much time has passed since we were here, I will release my powers. And I will make sure they go straight to the Emperor of South Ninjago.” 

Chen frowns. “You would do something so terrible to protect yourself?” 

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Black gestures vaguely to Chen. “Red told me you have a staff capable of trapping elemental powers. Can I see it?” 

As always, the staff is in Chen’s hand. He holds it out to the side, then taps the base on the floor. The gemstone at the top glows in response. “I am not giving back his powers.” 

Black shrugs. “I’m not asking.” 

He flicks his wrist. Suddenly, a spire shape shoots out of the wall behind Chen. Its tip pierces through the staff’s enchanted gemstone and shatters it into pieces. 

The effects on Kai are immediate. He sees a flash of red, and then everything is hot, too hot, like he’s on fire— 

He holds out his hands in front of him. Flames have engulfed his entire body. 

Oh, hello again, fire. I’ve missed you, he thinks. His thoughts feel delirious. Giving away his powers took a lot of energy, enough so that he’d passed out on the spot, and getting them back feels just as hard. He steels himself and does his best to blink the stars out of his eyes. 

Distantly, he can hear Chen screaming. He’s never heard him this angry before. Black has really pissed him off. 

Two black boots step into his vision. Kai looks up to see Black standing over him, hands on his hips and a mirthful expression his eyes.

“You are so lucky that I didn’t want to kill you,” he says. With a laugh, he jerks his head towards the metal gate. It’s been opened by guards, promising an easy exit. “Come on, let’s go. You’re free.” 

Black extends a hand. Kai looks at his own, grimaces at the flames around it, and shakes his wrist until the fire goes out. Then he takes Black’s hand and allows him to pull him to his feet. 

They leave. For the second time in his life, Kai returns to the surface world thanks to nothing short of a miracle. 

Notes:

thank you SOOO much for reading!! i will get working on the next chapter right away. have a super great day <3

Chapter 7: NIGHT 3 (pt. 1)

Notes:

hi everyone!! i hope youre ready for a LOT of exposition haha. enjoy!

(also, this chapter technically starts during the day, but thats because its happening concurrently with the last chapter. i just didnt feel like having a pt. 4 for day 3 again lol)

1. WHITE - 15:00 | 3:00 PM

Zane and Koko hide between shipping containers as the cargo ship sails around the volcano. 

Koko peeks out of their hiding spot to watch its progress. On her signal, they will jump off the ship together and swim the rest of the way to the volcano. Then they will infiltrate Garmadon’s base and kill him. 

At least, that’s what Koko thinks will happen. Zane glances at the arrows in her quiver, where an Oni-killing arrow lays among them. He has no intention of letting it be used against Garmadon. If anyone can lift the mysteries surrounding Lloyd’s kidnapping, it’s Garmadon. Killing him before Zane can probe his mind for the truth would be a huge mistake.

And now, after his talk with Koko earlier . . . he is quite worried about the potential fallout from Garmadon’s death. She said the nearby presence of an Oni deters other forces who want to take over Ninjago City. What ‘other forces’ is she talking about? 

Obviously, there are the rest of the humans in South Ninjago—they have always claimed ownership over the entire continent, and the Emperor has spoken at great lengths about ‘liberating’ the humans in the city from Serpentine rule. It could be them. But humans have no reason to be afraid of an Oni; they are one and the same, after all. Garmadon shouldn’t be enough to keep them at bay.

Who else? Is the city at risk of being attacked by something worse than an Oni? 

“Koko,” he whispers as quietly as he can. The crew members have largely gone below deck for now, but he still worries that one of them might hear them talking and sound the alarm. “Who wants to take over Ninjago City?” 

Koko turns back to him and rolls her eyes. “Everyone. You need to be more specific.” 

He nods. “Okay. The city is part of the Serpentine’s territory, so it cannot be them. That leaves the humans in South Ninjago and the Shark Army. Is there anyone else?” 

 The answer should be simple. Koko instead takes her time, eyes sharp and expression unreadable as she considers him before her. “That depends. Did you grow up here? In Ninjago City?” 

“Yes. Why does it matter?” He hopes she doesn’t plan on withholding the truth based on his answer. Clearly, there are more potential invaders out there, but she might not want him to know about them. Why?

“I’ve seen what they teach Lloyd in school. It’s all very, I don’t know . . . strong? Extreme? They only let you feel one way about history. Do you believe what they told you about the Oni and the dragons? About the First Realm?” 

The question throws him for a loop. “The story of the First Realm comes straight from the First Spinjitzu Master himself. Should I not believe his word?” 

Koko sighs. “No, I’m sure the story is true. Do you believe that we learned the right lessons from it?” 

The story of the First Realm is a sad one. In the First Realm, the origin of life itself and their current world, two intelligent species evolved into existence: the Oni and the dragons. The First Spinjitzu Master lived among both of them during his childhood in the realm. According to him, the dragons were strong and beautiful and kept to themselves. The Oni were natural-born conquerors who wanted to control the whole realm. As the Oni Empire expanded, the dragons could do little to resist, and were slowly hunted to near-extinction by Oni warriors. The First Spinjitzu Master was terrified of the Oni, so he created a new realm and escaped into it with the last dragon. The Oni Empire was left behind. 

The First Spinjitzu Master, however, was not very creative. He believed that all worlds were doomed to war like his own, so he sought to make a realm where the two armies were equal enough in power that no conflict would ever lead to the extinction of an entire people. In the new realm, these two armies were modelled after his home: the Serpentine after the dragons, and humanity after the Oni. 

All Serpentine are gifted with one of five powers. Only a small number of humans are gifted with powers, but the abilities bestowed upon them are strong enough to alter the foundations of the realm itself. The balance of the two species has kept them in multiple centuries’ worth of wars and peace time, without one ever completely conquering the other.

Until now. The Serpentine have pushed humanity back into a corner of the continent, the smallest territory possessed by humans in the history of the realm. All that protects them from total defeat is a heavily guarded mountain range between South Ninjago and the rest of the continent. The Serpentine have been building the manpower to push through for many years. Their victory is practically guaranteed. 

Zane, like all sensible people, couldn’t be more excited.

“The First Spinjitzu Master correctly guessed the fate of our realm. Humans and the Serpentine have been at war for centuries. What other lesson is there?” Zane says. 

Koko frowns. Evidently, this is not what she wanted him to say.

“You really think we’ll never figure out how to get along?” she asks. 

What a childish question. “We are descendants of the Oni. Conquest is in our blood. Peace will not be possible until humanity is totally disarmed.” 

Koko blinks at him. Then she turns around, watching the volcano with her back to him.

“If that’s what you think, then I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.” 

---

2. WHITE - 16:10 | 4:10 PM

When the ship is finally on the other side of the volcano, Koko and Zane jump off the edge of the ship and swim to shore. 

The beach is made of rocks that shift beneath his boots. He follows Koko as she marches toward the volcano, always keeping a distance from him even as he calls for her attention. 

“If killing Garmadon will bring these secret people here, then I have a right to know who they are,” he pleads. Koko pays him no mind and he feels that his frustration is reaching its peak. “Koko! This is unreasonable. You must tell me!”

They are at the edge of the beach now, where rocks give way to a patch of trees and shrubs at the base of the volcano. Koko stops on the grass and whips around. Her face is twisted in anger. “I must tell you? What will you do if I say no?”

The unspoken accusation freezes his anger. “I am not threatening you,” he assures her quickly. “I just want to know what I may face in the future.” 

Koko takes a deep breath, calming herself down. She looks deep into his eyes, as though trying to read his soul. “Don’t take this personally. You are the exact kind of person they want in their ranks. I don’t want you getting anywhere close to them, even if you’re trying to stop them—they’ll find a way to recruit you anyways. It’s better to keep you in the dark.”

That is not how Zane operates. He likes to know everything, to be in control of every situation whenever possible. How is he supposed to let a dangerous group run wild after learning they exist? After learning they might attack his city? The idea of sitting back and doing nothing simply does not compute. 

“How can I convince you to trust me?” Zane asks. If Koko has absolutely no faith in him whatsoever, she would not have brought him along on this mission to kill Garmadon. She trusts him—just not enough to tell him what she knows. If there is something he can do to change her mind . . . 

Koko puts a hand on her hip. “Ninja, I don’t trust you because you have no idea what you’re doing. You fight for ‘good’ without knowing what it means to you, which means I’m sure you don’t know what ‘evil’ is either. These people are going to jump at the chance to define them for you. I don’t think you’re a bad person. I just think that if you feel so strongly about doing the right thing, but you can’t figure out what the ‘right thing’ is supposed to be, then it's easy for your kindness to be molded into hate. Do you understand what I mean?” 

A defensive wave of indignation splashes over him. He forces himself to swallow it down, not wanting to prove her point by getting angry at an accusation that is not even particularly cruel. “You said this to me earlier. I do not know how to define ‘good’ and ‘evil’. I am just one person. How can I possibly decide that for everyone else?” 

“You already do!” Koko scoffs incredulously. “You refuse to let Garmadon take over the city because you think he’s evil. You made a moral judgement on Garmadon’s character and you impose it on the city every single time you go out there with your friends to stop him. You’ve already joined the fight, kid. You’re not allowed to act like a politically confused civilian anymore.” 

“Garmadon’s attacks on the city hurt people. I have no vision for the world beyond saving people.” This has been his primary motivation in life since he first saw the videos of Green fighting Sharks online. He wants to help people. Why must that be so complicated?

“You know what would save a lot of people? Ending the war.” Koko steps toward him and flicks the edge of the bow hanging over his shoulder. “I wonder, since you care so much, how far you would go for peace. What would you be willing to do to end the war forever?”

Like all beings in this realm, he has dreamed of a day where humans and Serpentine are no longer locked in perpetual conflict. He wants to see what the world can become when it is no longer marred by war. Once the Serpentine push through the last of the human defences, this dream will become reality. He wonders what it will look like. 

If the Serpentine and humans were still fighting on even terms, he doesn’t know what he would do to end the cycle of war for good. He doesn’t know what Koko expects him to say. He does, however, have a good idea of why she might be asking him this question out of the blue. 

“Is that what this secret group wants? To end the war?” Zane asks. There is a brief flash of surprise across Koko’s face, one she doesn’t suppress quickly enough. His guess is correct. It’s time to push. “You are worried about their methods. What do they intend to do?” 

Koko brushes the bangs out of her face. It is an anxious gesture, and Zane hopes that means she is considering telling him the truth. 

“Do you really want to know that badly?” she says. 

“Yes.” 

Koko sighs. She takes a few seconds to think, and then holds out her hand for a handshake. 

“Fine. Let’s make a deal. I’ll tell you everything. In exchange, by the time I’ve killed Garmadon, you need to have told me everything wrong with what the group wants to do. Prove to me that they won’t be able to recruit you if you go after them after we’re done here.” 

Zane eyes her hand suspiciously. “And if I fail?” 

“Then I will personally make sure that they can never get their hands on you.”

The implication hits him right away. “You’re going to kill me,” he breathes. 

If this were anyone else, Zane would have already called their bluff. But after everything he’s learned about Koko over the past few days, he’s inclined to believe her. She will absolutely kill him if he fails to answer correctly. 

Zane is not worried. She will already be incapacitated by the time she’s expecting his answer. Assuming, of course, all goes according to plan. 

He takes her hand and shakes it. 

“Okay,” he says. “You have a deal.”

---

3. GREY - 17:45 | 5:45 PM

Nya is going to breathe underwater. Pretty cool, right?

She sits beside Jay on the mat in his tent, passing tools and device components back and forth as they slowly work towards making a Shark helmet functional again. Jay explained that if they can make it work, then the helmet’s oxygen filters and night vision will allow her to swim underwater all the way to Destiny’s Bounty—making her virtually undetectable. A stealthy approach where she can get the jump on Lloyd’s kidnappers is better than a loud one where they know she’s coming, so she’s accepted Jay’s offer of a helmet despite the delay it’s caused to her rescue plans. 

“You’re pretty good at this,” Jay comments as he watches her snap one of the air filters into place. “Do you do all the tech-y stuff for the ninja, too?”

“Nope.” Nya motions for him to pass the other filter. Once it’s in her hand, she slides it into the helmet until it clicks. “We have another guy for that. The Blue one.” 

Jay hums. “Really? I always thought the Red Ninja was the smart one.” 

Nya can’t help but laugh at that. Kai is reckless, not stupid, but calling him the ‘smart’ one is definitely an inaccurate assessment. “That’s funny. He’s really good in the field, but I don’t think he’s very good with technology.”

She says it lightly, in a way that makes her feel bad for laughing at her brother upon reflection. It’s not like Chen would have let his trainees use computers or phones—what if they revealed his underground cult to the world? Or worse, formed opinions that went against his teachings?

Sometimes, it still amazes her that he was allowed to see her every so often. He was tied for the highest rank in his weird assassin class, and apparently best friends with Chen’s daughter, which he claimed was enough to grant him some extra leniency in his surveillance. They let him outside to see his sister. As some kind of reward, she assumes. Kai is no longer there, but it still frightens her to think about what would have happened to him if he wasn’t gifted in everything Chen wanted from his assassins. If Kai were someone like Jay, who doesn’t appear to have a fighter’s bone in his body, how long would he have lasted there? He probably would have died before he turned ten. 

With a shudder, she returns her attention to the helmet in front of her. No more thinking about the past—the present needs her more. Once the helmet is done, she can sneak aboard Destiny’s Bounty and find Lloyd. Green, if her theory is correct, will be there too. Even finding just one of them will be good news—as soon as one of them is rescued and safe, the Secret Ninja Force can reunite and focus their efforts on tracking down the other one. Everything will go much smoother once they can work as a team again.

“Okay, so Red’s the fighter and Blue is the tech support,” Jay says. He rests his chin on his palm, watching her curiously. “What’s your specialty?”

There is no good answer for that. Since she must hide her true fighting skills to protect her identity from Kai, the team believes she’s on par with everyone else. Blue has been supplying them with self-engineered devices right out of the gate, so Nya has never felt the need to bring up her expertise in that field, either. As far as her teammates are concerned, the Grey Ninja is just kind of . . . there. 

“You know that saying? No matter how good you are at something, someone else will always be a little bit better than you? That’s me on the team.” Nya has a lot of pride, so it hurts to say this about herself, but it’s the unfortunate truth of her position there. “I’m good at all things, but not the best at them. It’s fine. I like to think of myself as a utility player.” 

Jay is quiet for a moment. “Do they know how good you are?”

She wonders, briefly, if Jay is some kind of mind reader. Despite her mask, he’s managed to read her perfectly, and she supposes she must not be as good of a liar as she thinks she is. 

“They don’t know how good I am. They don’t know anything about me.” Nya is out of helmet components to work with, so she sets it down in front of her and leans back on her hands. “It’s not a big deal. We all keep secrets from each other. I’m sure the others have secret talents I’m not allowed to know about, too.”

“You should tell them,” Jay says. He takes the helmet and removes a panel inside, revealing a set of wires that he jumps right into tinkering with. “If you’re capable of doing more, why hold back?”

“I can’t. If any of the other guys know me in their normal lives, they’d figure me out based on my skills pretty fast,” Nya says. She’s tempted to tell Jay the truth and explain that she does know one of the ninja personally, but it’s important to keep secrets like these from him for the same reason she keeps them from the other ninja. Jay is involved in her hunt for Lloyd and Green now. If he’s captured, he could be coerced into spilling everything he knows about the ninja. Nya doesn’t want him to know anything that could be used to identify one of them.

Jay connects one of the wires into a different socket, then closes the panel. “Huh, okay. And what if I know who you are?”

The question is like a kick to the stomach. Right. Jay is literally in her class at school. Like Kai, he knows both of her identities. It’s very possible that he can figure out who she is if she isn’t careful. 

“You don’t,” she says sharply. It’s better to pretend that he has no chance of knowing. It might deter him from thinking about things too hard and piecing her secret identity together. 

“No, I don’t. But what if I did? What would you do?”

Jay is looking right at her now. Nya meets his gaze, searching for what he expects her to say. Is he afraid that she will kill him? Threaten him into silence? The answer is not in Jay’s eyes. However, she finds something comforting about them, like she’s stared into them hundreds of times before and can trust the brain seated behind them. 

It reminds her of when she’s with Kai or the other ninja. She feels safe, like she can trust Jay to protect her with his life. Which is a bit funny, really, since she’s not sure if he could protect her from the Sharks or Lloyd’s kidnappers. Still. He would try, and that’s what actually matters, right? The intention? 

She decides to answer his question with one of her own. 

“Do you want to know who I am?” she asks him. 

Jay’s eyes widen. Silently, slowly as though approaching a wild animal, he reaches forward with both hands, and Nya can feel her heart slamming against her ribcage as he places them against both sides of her head—an implied yes to her question. His fingers splay over her ears. She should stop him. He knows her from school, so as soon as this mask is gone, he’ll recognize exactly who she is. She doesn’t want to stop him. The idea of someone finally knowing the real her, of knowing her inside and out, is so tempting that all reason is sent away by the gravity of her desire. For a moment, it doesn’t matter that this is dangerous and against the rules. She just wants to be truly, genuinely close to someone for the first time in her life.

 Jay’s hands probe blindly as he searches for the clasps that will undo her head covering. His eyes narrow, expression intense as he feels around, and her stomach leaps in anticipation when his fingers finally brush against the fastenings on the back of her head—

Jay pulls his hands away. She blinks in confusion. What? 

He holds out the helmet to her. “Good. This should fit over your mask without an issue.”

Dumbfounded, Nya accepts the helmet. That was it? He was just checking to see if the helmet is big enough to accommodate her gi?

“And by the way, I don’t want to know.” Jay climbs to his feet. He looks down at her with a concerned expression. “Don’t let someone do that again. For all you know, I could be an undercover Shark.” 

“But you’re not,” she says. It makes her sound stupid, as though she’s refusing to understand his point, but she doesn’t care. Jay is an untrained civilian who chose to start looking for Lloyd because he felt bad for him. He has a good heart. She sees no reason not to trust him. 

“You don’t know me. I have my own secrets, too.” As Jay speaks, the tent’s lamp flickers erratically. It stops as soon as he looks at it. “Everyone does. Be careful, yeah? And good luck with the rescue mission.” 

Jay ducks under the tent flap and leaves. His departure is so abrupt that Nya finds herself staring blankly at the place he used to be. 

As far as she knows, Jay is a brave, but fairly normal person. What secrets could someone like him possibly be hiding?

---

4. GREY - 19:38 | 7:38 PM

It takes fifteen minutes to swim to Destiny’s Bounty. 

The ship is ancient. It’s a big one with multiple storeys, but it’s made of wood and uses physical sails. As Nya approaches underwater, she becomes totally convinced that this is where Lloyd is being held prisoner. It’s low-tech and off the grid. It’s also outside the city, which means public safety has no authority to investigate it whatsoever. The Serpentine don’t bother to get involved in internal issues like this. This ship and kidnapping has situated itself in a perfect grey zone in which no one is willing or capable of intervening on time to save Lloyd.

Except Nya, of course. If all goes well, Lloyd and Green will sleep safe in their own beds tonight. All she has to do is board the boat and find them. 

Destiny’s Bounty has been anchored here for quite some time, so whoever’s aboard has left its ladder hanging off the side of the boat, too. Nya climbs up the first few rungs until she’s out of the water, then sheds her Shark helmet so the kidnappers don’t get the wrong idea and execute Lloyd on the spot. It floats away on the waves, and she momentarily feels bad for Jay, watching as his possession disappears into the darkness of the ocean at night. Did he want her to hold on to it for him? She hopes not. 

At the top of the ladder, just below the lip of the deck, she stops climbing and goes over the plan in her head. There will be no more element of surprise once she’s on the main deck. She will fight through the kidnappers as quickly as possible in order to find Lloyd and Green before they realize what’s happening and kill them. Then she will rescue them and bring them home. 

There’s no point in formulating a better plan than that. She has no idea what’s waiting for her on the ship. And so, with nothing more than a vague idea of a plan in her brain, she ascends that last few rungs of the ladder and swings over the side of the ship. 

Her boots land loudly on the deck. Just three metres away, a dozen heads turn to face her direction at once. 

Heads with scales, that is. 

Nya has never met the Serpentine face-to-face before. Members of all five Serpentine tribes are here tonight, each and every one of them standing from their chairs as they abandon the card game they were playing to give her their complete and undivided attention. 

This should scare her. The Serpentine are capable of horrifying feats: hypnosis, super strength, spitting hallucinatory venom, bites that cover the human body in scales until it suffocates . . . there are a number of fates that await her tonight, but she doesn’t care because she is blinded by rage. 

Ninjago City has a mayor and a government, but every single one of their laws must be approved by the Serpentine before they can come into effect. They control what items are allowed to be imported into the city. They control everything, and they do so largely through proxies on the ground. Proxies like Master Chen. 

These people are responsible for what happened to her brother. And Nya has always wanted to make them pay. 

“You kidnapped Lloyd Garmadon?” she demands. Her voice is hot with anger. She grabs the spear attached to her back, freshly sharpened back at the warehouse, and points it threateningly at the Serpentine. “I should have fucking known. Where is he?” 

A Constrictai’s hand hovers over the gun strapped to his leg. “Stand down. We have nothing to do with that.” 

“Liar! You blew up the apartment building to lure him into a trap.” Some of the other snakes reach for their sidearms, too. Nya ignores them. “Why? Are you going after his father?” 

At the back of the group, a Hypnobrai steps forward. “How do you know about that?” 

The threat is implicit. She’s not supposed to know about the building, so he’s going to hypnotize her into forgetting she ever saw it. There is no way she’s going to let that happen. Absolutely not. 

She holds her spear farther out in front of her. “Stay back!” she yells. The Hypnobrai falls totally still, though he doesn’t appear to be scared at all. None of them do. She must be like a bug to them—an annoying buzz in their ear just waiting to be squashed. “If any of you take even one step forward, I’ll—”

A loud, sarcastic laugh cuts her off. This one comes from an Anacondrai, who towers over the rest of the group. He must be at least four heads taller than her. 

“You’ll what? Stab us? Don’t be ridiculous.” He takes one, two steps forward, an intentional test of her threat. Nya backs up until her heels kick the railing around the deck. The Anacondrai smiles at her, revealing a sharp set of teeth that she knows are capable of tearing clean through human limbs. She remembers stories from hundreds of years ago, where the Anacondrai Dynasty would bite off the hands of human prisoners before sending them home. Such a thing has not happened in ages, but it scares her enough that she almost shrinks away from him. “Put down your weapon. Now.”

She forces herself to stand tall. “Not until you let me check this ship for Lloyd.” 

“We don’t have him!” A Fangpyre rolls his eyes at her. “You’re wasting your time. Go home.” 

The Anacondrai glares at him. “No. She knows too much. We can’t just let her go.” 

“Not yet, that is,” says the Hypnobrai. He walks forward to stand beside the Anacondrai, just beyond the reach of her spear. “Let me erase all this from your memory. Then you can leave unharmed.” 

The Hypnobrai’s eyes change into a swirling pattern. Nya knows how these powers work. As long as both sets of eyes make continuous contact with each other, she will be sucked into a trance wherein she can do nothing but accept whatever revisions the snake makes to her mind. She is only a handful of seconds away from waking up tomorrow with no memory that any of this ever happened. 

Typically, one can close their eyes to get out of it. But Nya kind of needs to keep her eyes open right now, so she settles on dealing with the problem at the source by dashing forward and jamming the tip of her spear into the snake’s right eye. 

He screams and falls backwards. She tries to pull her spear back, but a scaled hand grabs it and yanks it out of her grip. Nya follows it with her eyes, only to watch in horror as the Constrictai who grabbed it snaps it in half over his knee. 

“Big mistake,” he growls. He throws the pieces over the side of the ship and then stomps over to Nya, hand reaching for her throat—

The Hypnobrai shifts to his knees and blocks him with his arm. “Wait!” he gasps. He covers his injured eye with one hand. “I only need one eye to do it. Someone just has to block her left one.” 

“She stabbed you!” the Constrictai argues. 

“She doesn’t know any better!” the Hypnobrai snaps. “Grab her arms. Hold her down this time!” 

A set of hands grab for her left shoulder. She grabs a wrist and twists it, bending it like Kai once showed her until she hears a snap and the snake pulls away with a yelp of pain. The next one doesn’t approach with his hands out, but he gets too close anyways and she kicks his knee in before he has time to jump out of the way. He collapses to the ground with a scream. If she can get through them one-by-one like this, maybe—

Two approach from either side. And then, while she’s distracted, someone grabs her ankle and yanks it forward. 

Momentum is not on her side. On the way down, the back of her head smashes against the ship’s railing, and then once again slams into the floor when she finishes her fall. 

The Serpentine are yelling around her, but everything sounds muffled and she can’t hear what they’re saying. She lays on her back as she stares at the sky, where the stars flash and soar across her vision. She tries to blink the world back into focus, but the weirdness seems here to stay, and a distant part of her that can recall biology class is wondering if she may have just injured the part of her brain responsible for sight . . . 

She is flipped roughly onto her stomach. A set of fingers brush against the back of her head, causing a wave of pain so sharp that her vision goes completely black for a few seconds. Distantly, she feels them undo the clasps of her head covering and unwrap it from her head. Her hair, wild and greasy after days of running around with no opportunities to wash it, falls free over her shoulders. She might be crying. She has no idea. What is she even here for again? She can’t quite remember. 

There is a loud gasp behind her. “What the fuck did you do to her?” 

These are the first clear words she’s heard in a minute. She recognizes the voice, so she assumes her brain must be working over time to piece together what he’s saying.

“Jay?” she croaks.

Jay speaks again, but his voice is lost in a sea of others. It brings tears to her eyes. She’s alone and helpless. She needs a friend. She needs someone she can trust.

Adrenaline allows her to summon the energy to move. She climbs to her feet. The noise around her shifts in tone—alarm? It doesn’t matter. They aren’t fast enough to catch her as she places her hands on the railing, just like they aren’t fast enough to stop her when she vaults over the railing, excited to be reunited with her friend. 

Things don’t go as planned. For starters, she still can’t see quite right, so she’s working off the assumption that the ladder is still directly behind her. This turns out to be false. So, instead of jumping right into Jay, she leaps into nothing and then falls several metres until she plunges into the cold ocean water. 

It’s hard to swim when you’re disoriented and can barely see anything. She tries to go up, but her whole body feels like dead weight, and so she sinks, and sinks, and sinks . . .

---

5. JAY - 20:04 | 8:04 PM

Actually, he has two functional Shark helmets. Grey just didn’t need to know that. 

He leaves for Destiny’s Bounty fifteen minutes after she does. He finds the ladder she used to get to the deck, then sheds his Shark helmet and climbs up to peek over and see if she needs his help. As Jay, he’s not sure what he can do to intervene, but it’s better than doing nothing. If all is well, she doesn’t even have to know that he was there. 

All is not well. When he looks over onto the deck, he’s met with a scene that makes his stomach drop: Grey lays unmoving on her stomach, surrounded by Serpentine as they inspect a bloody wound in the back of her head. 

They shout in alarm at his arrival. A number of them get up, ready to fight, and in the chaos they all fail to notice when Grey jumps to her feet, grabs the railing around the ship, and throws herself overboard. 

The injury looked really bad. Jay doubts she can swim. He turns around on the ladder to dive in after her, but a hand grabs the back of his shirt and then pulls him onto the ship. 

“Let me go!” he cries, thrashing as he fails to find purchase on the floor. “She’s going to drown!”

Two sets of hands grab his arms. They reposition him onto his knees, where they force his arms behind him and snap his wrists into a pair of handcuffs. Jay stops resisting. He’s a decent fighter, but Grey is leagues better than him—if she failed here, so will he. There’s no point in trying. 

“If you go after her, you’ll drown, too,” snaps a voice from behind him. A boot presses against his back, forcing him to bow low against the floor. “Answer our questions and we’ll let you go. How did you find us?”

“Please!” he splutters desperately. His thoughts are a loop of Grey falling deeper and deeper into the water, disoriented and holding onto her last breath for a rescue that is never coming. “Let me try. I dropped a Shark helmet nearby. I can use it to find her without running out of air.” 

The boot presses down harder. “A Shark helmet? Is that what you are? One of the Oni’s worshippers?” 

His vision blurs as the tears start. Grey is going to die. She is going to die and he’s helpless to do anything about it. She is going to die because these people on the ship would rather interrogate him than let him save her. 

Another voice pipes up. “He’s in shock. We should call the General and bring him in for questioning.” 

“Good idea. I’ll call it in,” says someone else. 

They stop asking him questions, but the pressure on his back doesn’t let up. That makes sense. If he were Serpentine, he wouldn’t be nice to an Oni worshipper, either. They’re pretty terrible people. 

The Serpentine talk amongst themselves, but he doesn’t bother to listen. He’s too focused on Grey. How is he supposed to explain this to the other ninja? She said that she has a brother. Will he miss her? Will he look for her after she mysteriously disappears? He hopes not. It’s not like he’ll ever find her. 

A sudden series of swearing and gasps erupts around him. The boot is removed from his back. Jay sits up straight again, looking around to see what’s taken the Serpentine by such surprise. 

It’s impossible to miss. 

“Holy shit,” he mutters. 

A large, tube-like stream of water curls and loops over the ship. At the very tip of the stream is Grey, floating in a bubble of water which lowers to the deck and deposits her gently upon the floor. 

She takes a few shaky steps sideways, clearly off-balance. In his euphoria at seeing her alive, he forgets to avert his gaze from her maskless face, and when they meet eyes he recognizes her immediately. 

His assumption was right. The Grey Ninja is someone from his class: Nya. 

“Ha! You can’t kill me that easily!” Her words slur and she bursts into laughter, which quickly devolves into a coughing fit. “Ouch. I think I swallowed a lot of water before I figured out how to breathe around it.” 

Jay glances at some of the Serpentine soldiers. They appear to realize what’s going on at the same time as him. 

Nya can naturally breathe underwater. She is not only the Grey Ninja—she’s the Master of Water, too. 

The Serpentine act quickly. A Constrictai is behind her seconds, tackling her to the floor while another arrives to help restrain her with a pair of handcuffs. Nya does her best to throw them off, but it’s obvious that she’s weak and not all there—they have her locked up and on her knees with little struggle. 

A Hypnobrai with a bleeding eye glances up to the sky. “Chances that was caught by human surveillance?” 

The only Anacondrai curses under his breath. “We’re just off the coast of Ninjago City. They saw it. We need to get them out of here now.” 

In the distance, Jay can hear the loud spin of helicopter blades. The Serpentine notice it as well. 

“Prep them for take off!” barks the Anacondrai. 

Before Jay can react, a black bag is pulled over his head, blocking his vision completely. It’s hard to get air through the material, and he is forced to take long, deep breaths to fill his lungs properly. “Nya!” he shouts, realizing she might not be in the right mind to think of the same thing. “Breathe slowly or you’ll suffocate!” 

“Don’t bother,” says one of the Serpentine. “We’re putting her under until we get her far away from a body of water. We can’t risk her making a show like that again.”

“What will that do to her breathing?” he asks, but receives no reply. The Serpentine are too busy yelling orders at each other to pay attention to him. 

The helicopter gets louder and louder until the entire boat rocks upon its landing. Jay is pulled roughly to his feet, then shoved toward the helicopter. He walks slowly, wary of tripping on something he can’t see, until someone grabs the front of his shirt and yanks him forward. His shin bangs into a metal ledge and he lets out a hiss of pain. He recognizes the ledge as a step and climbs into the helicopter, where someone pushes him onto a hard bench and straps him in. He tries to listen for when Nya is brought on board, but it’s too loud to hear anything above the helicopter’s engine. By the time they’ve lifted off into the sky, he has no idea if she’s even there. 

It’s dangerous to do this here, but he has to make sure they haven’t been separated. He casts a large sensory net over the helicopter, searching for the specific electrical hum of the ninja comms earpiece. There are many devices active aboard the helicopter, but the earpiece is one he knows extremely well, so it does not take him long at all to find it among the noise. Nya is sitting right in front of him. Good. 

As they fly, Jay becomes very, very glad that he’s good at keeping secrets. No one knows he’s a ninja. No one knows he’s capable of controlling electricity itself. They’ll underestimate him, and he’ll make sure they regret it when he finds a way to rescue himself and Nya right from under their noses.

Jay Walker is one of the most powerful people in the world. If the Serpentine army has to learn that tonight, so be it.

He’ll apologize to Cole when he gets back. 

---

6. ZANE - 20:40 | 8:40 PM

Zane has learned a lot about the situation in South Ninjago. 

The humans there are nervous. The war will be over soon. They don’t trust the Serpentine to treat them kindly once they control the whole continent, and this fear has spawned a faction that operates outside of the Emperor’s authority: the Elemental Alliance. 

This faction believes that the only way to guarantee the survival of humanity is to alter the foundations of the continent itself. They want to use the elemental masters to split the continent in two, creating one large island for the Serpentine and one large island for humanity. They will live apart since they cannot live together peacefully. 

Koko stopped her explanation there. She wants him to figure out its problems on his own as part of her test. If they have different feelings about the Elemental Alliance, she will kill him. Zane has a lot of thinking to do.

They have spent the evening hiking towards one of the volcano’s entrances. The Shark Army is still nowhere to be seen, almost like they’ve abandoned the volcano completely. It makes Zane nervous. If they aren’t patrolling the volcano, where have they gone? 

Currently, they have stopped in a small cavern to take a break before sneaking into the volcano. Koko sits nearby on a flat rock, eating one of the energy bars Zane always keeps in his gi. Zane likes eating, but he hungers rarely, so he is content to rest until Koko is ready to go. 

“Any thoughts?” she asks, breaking the silence. “You don’t have much time left. What do you think of their plan with the continent?” 

Zane frowns. “I . . . I am trying to ascertain their level of threat. Which elemental masters are members of the alliance?” 

“A few of them. Gravity, I think. Nature, too. It doesn’t matter just yet. The Elemental Alliance has the Master of Mind in their ranks. As soon as they get their hands on an elemental master, they can mind control them into following their orders.” 

That is concerning. The only reason the Serpentine are winning is because most of the elemental masters have gone into hiding. They are not interested in joining the war effort, and it has obliterated the balance upon which the war is meant to be fought. The Serpentine, each and every one of them possessing their own powers, now hold an absolute advantage over humanity as long as the elemental masters stay out of the war. 

Since the Elemental Alliance has the Master of Mind, they do not need to worry about the elemental masters abandoning them. Once they find them, they will be forced to fight for the alliance’s cause—whether they like it or not.

“They must be searching hard for the other elemental masters,” Zane comments. It is the logical next step for the alliance. “Who do they need the most?” 

“They’ve torn apart South Ninjago looking for Earth and Water. The Master of Water disappeared three decades ago, and the last Master of Earth transferred her powers to someone at random before she died around ten years ago.” 

“Someone in her family must have them,” Zane says. Elemental powers are never truly transferred at ‘random’—the user must select who the powers are going to. This can happen unconsciously, resulting in a slightly more ‘randomized’ selection process, but in nearly all cases, it is sent to one of the elemental master’s family members or friends. 

Koko is chewing, so she covers her hand with her mouth while she speaks. “The Master of Earth is the most wanted person in the world right now. The Emperor need them to protect the mountain range, and the Elemental Alliance needs them to separate the continent in two. Trust me, her family has been scanned and tested and what-have-you a million times already. They’re clear.”

“What if they’ve come here?” Zane asks. Ninjago City defected to join the Serpentine around a century ago, so the humans from Ninjago City and South Ninjago barely know each other. For this reason, it is rarely assumed that elemental powers have been transferred to someone in the city—the masters in South Ninjago have no known family in Ninjago City to send them to. 

However, it is still possible that the current Master of Earth could have found his way to the city, dangerous as the journey through the jungle is known to be. The Serpentine send any humans they find back to South Ninjago, where they are usually imprisoned or executed for treachery. A Master of Earth, on the other hand, might not have too much trouble hiding from patrols in the dirt. They could have hidden themselves away somewhere in the city. 

“I think they’re in the city, too. It’s the safest place for them to be.” Koko crumples up the energy bar wrapper and shoves it into her pocket. “Same goes for the Master of Water. I hope they’re good at hiding.” 

“From the alliance?”

Koko shakes her head. “No, from everyone. The Emperor and the Serpentine are both aware of the Elemental Alliance’s plan. They want to stop it by any means necessary. This place will turn into a fucking war zone if either of them are found here.” 

Zane tries to imagine it. The Serpentine, South Ninjago army, Elemental Alliance, and the Sharks all fighting over the city at the same time—it will destroy them. The city would get absolutely crushed. 

“I don’t think the Secret Ninja Force can stop something like that,” he mumbles, and it draws a quiet laugh from Koko. 

“Don’t stress too much. They haven’t been found yet.” She stands up and stretches out her arms. “Let’s hope they never will be. You ready to go?” 

Zane finds himself weighed down by several tons of dread. He worries he will sink through the rocks and fall into the core of the planet. He doesn’t know why, but it suddenly feels like the world is going to end tomorrow. Does Koko not feel the same way? Like the status quo is going to flip on its head over night? 

Zane shakes his head and stands up. “Yeah, let’s hope they stay hidden forever,” he says, and then follows Koko towards the entrance to the volcano. 

Notes:

thanks so much for reading!!!

i hope the serpentine are fine here. im worried they might come across a bit as plainly evil, since they dont treat jay or nya super well here, but you'll get a much better look at them next chapter :)

as always, ty for the kudos and comments!! have a great day <3

Chapter 8: Night 3 (pt. 2)

Notes:

with all the exposition out of the way, i can now offer you a proper cole-centric chapter. enjoy!!

1. COLE - TEN YEARS AGO

There are weird men downstairs. 

Cole sits at the top of the staircase, listening carefully to a conversation that he is not supposed to hear. The men in suits have been speaking to his father, Lou, in the kitchen for almost an hour. He’s been having a lot of meetings lately. Yesterday, it was soldiers who came by to the house, and their guns were scary enough that Cole actually listened to his father and stayed in his room the whole time. The weird men in suits don’t scare him as much.

And so, he listens. 

“The clock is ticking, Lou. You can’t keep her on life support forever.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Lou says angrily. “The Emperor told me the same thing. He’s pulling the plug next week.”

A quiet, sarcastic laugh. “He must be excited. Lily was too stubborn. The kid will be much easier to control.” 

“I’m sure that’s how you feel, too,” Lou says coldly. 

“Oh, please. No one is too difficult for us to control anymore,” says one of the men. His voice is calm, almost soothing. “It’ll be easier if we don’t have to get Mind involved. Let him grow up with us. We’ll make sure he’s fighting for something he actually believes in.”

Footsteps go in circles. Lou paces often, so Cole assumes this must be him, walking around the kitchen table over and over again as he does when he's stressed. 

“There’s still a chance he won’t get the element.” Even to Cole’s young ears, Lou sounds desperate. He’s saying something he doesn’t believe is true. “It’s happened before. What if I get it instead?” 

“Don’t be an idiot. Mothers always pass down their powers to their babies. Your son is going to be the next Master of Earth.” 

Lou swears loudly. Cole startles in place, shocked at the enraged tone in his voice. He’s never heard his father so angry before. 

It doesn’t make all that much sense to him. Before she got sick, Cole’s mother used to travel with the Emperor and use her earth powers to fight the evil snakes on the other side of the mountains. Cole thinks that sounds really, really cool. He doesn’t understand why his father is so against it. 

What’s so bad about being the Master of Earth, anyways? 

---

2. COLE - TEN YEARS AGO

This is the first time they’ve visited his mother in the middle of the night. 

Lou parks the car two blocks away from the hospital. His hands shake as he removes the key from the ignition and turns around to look at Cole in the backseat. 

“Do you promise to be quiet?” he asks him. His gaze is so intense that Cole squirms nervously in his seat. 

“I promise,” Cole says. 

“I mean it. No talking, no crying, no screaming, no laughing—I don’t want to hear anything out of you. Got it?” 

Cole mimics closing a zipper across his lips. “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”  

Lou closes his eyes and sighs. “Okay. Let’s go.” 

They leave the car. Lou takes Cole’s hand and guides him to the hospital, keeping him close as they pass through the doors to the emergency ward. They duck into a hallway labelled AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY and then slip into an emergency stairwell. They climb multiple flights of stairs, and Cole is dragged along even when his little legs ache in protest. He does not ask for a break. He promised his father he would stay quiet and he intends to do so.

Finally, they reach the floor where his mother sleeps. The soldier posted outside her room has fallen asleep in his chair. Lou puts a finger over his lips, an extra reminder to remain silent, and then tiptoes past the guard and into the room. Once Cole is also safely inside, Lou shuts the door, twisting its handle at the same time so it can close without clicking noisily into place. 

Cole has spent countless hours in this room. His mother, body connected to numerous tubes and wires, sleeps peacefully in the bed. She hasn’t woken up in two months. The doctors don’t think she’ll ever wake up again. Cole has been trying to hold on to hope that she’ll pull through, but it’s getting harder with each passing day . . .

Lou walks around her bed. Tenderly, he brushes a strand of hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear. Then he reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a giant needle. 

Cole opens his mouth to ask what it is, but then remembers his promise. It’s okay. Lou will never do anything to hurt her. Cole trusts him. 

Lou removes the cap from the needle. Then he stabs it into her heart. 

It takes a moment to kick in. His mother twitches, just a minuscule amount, and then her eyes flutter open. 

“Lily!” Lou says breathlessly. He rushes forward to take her hand in his own. “Lily, there’s no time. The amphetamines won’t buy you more than a minute. You need to get rid of your powers right now.” 

She does not speak, but she blinks in rapid succession. His father sucks in a sharp breath. 

“It needs to be someone we barely know. Someone they can’t find. Can you do that?” 

She blinks twice. The building suddenly shakes violently, knocking scalpels and beakers off the tables. Cole loses his balance and falls to the floor. 

The tremors stop a minute later. “Thank you,” Lou says, clutching her hand against his chest. 

The door is kicked open. The soldier from outside takes two steps into the room, his assault rifle gripped tightly in his hands. Cole crawls into the corner, where he hopes the soldier won’t see him. 

The soldier is breathing heavily. His eyes dart between Cole’s parents and the needle, and then he aims the barrel of his gun right at Lou’s chest. 

“What did you just do?” he yells. He sounds both angry and terrified at the same time. “What the fuck did you just do?”

Lou looks over with a wry smile. “Sorry, but you’re too late. The Master of Earth is no longer here.” 

---

3. COLE - TEN YEARS AGO

The men who rescued Cole and his father from prison are angry. 

“You broke the deal!” one of them hisses. There are about six of them, including the Master of Metal, who was responsible for ripping apart the cell doors and tall fences that had contained Cole just a few hours prior. The men shoved Cole and his father into a van and then drove in silence for a few hours.

They stepped out of the van just ten minutes ago. Behind them is the mountain range that separates South Ninjago from Serpentine territory. A few metres away, concealed by bushes, is one of the tunnels that goes under the mountains and opens into the jungle on the other side. 

There’s been a lot of yelling ever since. Cole doesn’t understand all of it, but he’s trying his best to follow. 

“I told you that she might not listen to me,” Lou says calmly. He sits on his knees with his hands behind his head, where someone with a big gun told him to keep them while they talked. “She wants her powers far away from the Emperor. Why would she give them to me, one of the first people he’d check? Her powers are gone.” 

A man with a bandana around his neck—Cole thinks he might be the leader—takes an angry step toward his father. “You’re a fucking liar! You know exactly where she sent her powers. Tell us or we’ll shoot both of you.” 

One of the men repositions to point his rifle at Cole. He gulps in fear, glancing to his father for reassurance, but Lou hasn’t looked away from the group leader yet. 

“Lily and I have known each other since we were kids. We’ve done everything together. I might not know exactly where she sent her powers, but I’m probably the only person in this realm who has any hope of finding them. So, go ahead—shoot me and see how much closer that brings you to achieving your goal.” 

With a growl, the leader crosses the distance to Lou and kicks him in the stomach. As his father hunches over, tears blur Cole’s vision, and he cries out, “Dad!” 

After a few seconds of rough breathing, Lou sits up straight again. “It’s okay, Cole,” he says, once again directing his attention to the leader. “I can make it up to him. He’ll let us go.” 

The leader lets out a sharp laugh. “Oh, will I? Why should I let you leave after what you’ve done?” 

“Listen to me. I might not have her powers, but I can give you something else you really want,” Lou says. He speaks quickly, almost desperately, but it doesn’t sound real to Cole’s ears. Like his father is acting. “Lily spent years helping elemental masters and their families escape South Ninjago. I know their names and faces. If you let me go to Ninjago City, I can help you find them.” 

“Official estimates say two, maybe three elemental masters are hiding in the city,” the leader says with a scoff. “You betrayed humanity by letting your wife send her powers somewhere else. You’ll need to offer up more than a couple of elemental masters to make up for it.” 

Lou sucks in a deep breath. “I can give you ten. That’s how many Lily smuggled across the mountains. Is that enough for you?” 

“Ten? Do you mean to tell me that half of all known elemental masters are hiding in Ninjago City?” 

“You’re the Elemental Alliance. Shouldn’t you know where they are? I thought you needed them to build your little paradise.” 

This time, Lou is not given the mercy of a kick to the stomach. The leader slams the butt of his rifle against his face, knocking him to his side. 

The violent action makes Cole jolt in place. The man watching him shakes his head. “Don’t move, kid. He did this to himself.” 

Lou puts a hand to his face to feel the blood gushing out of his nose. The leader walks around him in a slow circle, like a hunter observing its prey. 

“You know what, Lou? I think I’ll risk another deal with you. This time I’ll just make it one you can’t break.” His voice is low, dangerous—a challenge to refuse. “You can go to Ninjago City with your son. In exchange, you will give us the names and locations of the elemental masters hiding there. I’ll give you five years to do it. When you’re done, you’ll come back to South Ninjago and help us find the new Master of Earth. How does that sound?” 

“Or what?” Lou asks wearily. 

“Or we’ll kill your son.” 

Cole glances to the barrel only a metre away from his head. He falls completely still, terrified now that any movement at all will make the man pull the trigger. 

“My son stays in the city,” Lou says, shifting back to his knees. He keeps his hands in front of him. “When I come back, he gets to stay there. That’s my only condition.” 

“Sure, I can work with that.” The leader smiles and saunters over to Cole. He kneels in front of him to be at eye level, then lightly pushes Cole’s chin up so he’s forced to look at him. “Your dad just agreed to hurt a lot of people to save you. You better thank him every day for the rest of your life.”

“Get away from him!” his father barks. 

The leader releases Cole’s chin and stands up. “Relax. I’m just making sure he understands.” The leader waves his hand toward the mountains. “You can go. See you in five years, Lou.” 

A little wobbly, Lou rises to his feet and brushes off his pants. He holds out his hand to Cole. “Come on, let’s go.” 

The entire ordeal has been so harrowing that Cole wastes no time in running over to take his father’s hand. As he leads him towards the tunnel entrance, Cole studies his father’s face, feeling as though he’s now seeing his father in a whole new light. He doesn’t understand what he’s done just yet, so the sickly tone of the light doesn’t make sense to him, but he’s pretty sure the leader with the bandana was lying to him. This isn’t something he’s going to be thankful for for the rest of his life. 

This is something that is going to haunt him. And he can already feel the ghosts dancing beside him in the tunnel. 

---

4. BLACK - 21:00 | 9:00 PM

The Master of Earth is in Ninjago City. 

By tomorrow morning, the news of his return will reach South Ninjago. The Serpentine will put the city on lockdown. The Emperor will prepare his forces for an invasion. The Elemental Alliance, always ahead, will send their undercover agents to Cole’s house to kidnap him and then brain wash him with the Master of Mind. Within the next few days, his life will no longer be his own.

All because of the stupid Red Ninja. Who’s the life ruiner now, huh? 

“I should have killed you,” he mutters to himself. It’s what his father would have wanted him to do, anyways. Hide your powers at all costs, as he always says. 

As it would turn out, Cole isn’t very good at that. A whole life of preparation and he can’t even kill someone in self-defence. Go figure. 

“What?” Kai asks groggily, shifting a little against his back. Cole is piggy-backing him across the city to the warehouse. The blow Kai took during their fight, combined with the sudden reclamation of his powers, did a number on his body and he could barely put one foot in front of the other on their way out of Chen’s palace. Cole got tired of waiting for him and has been carrying him ever since. 

It’s not like it’s difficult. Without the vengestone rings to suppress Cole’s strength, Kai’s weight feels as light as a feather. 

“I said I’m bringing you back to the warehouse,” Cole lies. It’s safer for the both of them if Kai doesn’t know anything about him. “Unless you’d rather go home?”

Kai groans. “No. I beat up my home administrator. Also, Chen knows about the warehouse.” 

Cole stops in his tracks. “What do you mean?” 

“He sends people to follow me around sometimes. I caught one of them outside the warehouse,” Kai explains. 

This might be a problem. “How close is he to the Serpentine? Will he tell them where to find us if they ask?”

“He tells them everything. They probably already know.” 

Well, shit. There goes his plan for the night. 

Cole’s only hope of making it out of this both alive and with his mind intact is to get out of the city before all hell breaks loose. That means he needs to be gone by tonight. He was planning to dump Kai at the warehouse, return home to pack any essentials he might need, and then escape into the jungle until things calm down. He doesn’t know what to do if he might run into the Serpentine at the warehouse. This situation is so delicate that trying to beat them there is a not a risk worth taking.

“Let’s go to your house,” Kai suddenly suggests. “If you have one, that is. I don’t know anything about you.” 

For a moment, he considers bringing Kai to Jay’s house, but decides that he doesn’t want to burden him with unnecessary attention when the Serpentine come looking for the Master of Fire. What if they find out that Jay is an elemental master, too? It’s best if Cole keeps him out of this completely.

There’s no one else he can turn to for help. He’s never been very good at making friends, after all. 

Kai is right. His house might be the best place to hide out right now. The Serpentine don't know where the Black Ninja lives. The Elemental Alliance probably hasn't even heard the news yet, so his house should be safe for at least the next few hours. Hopefully.

“Yeah, I have a house,” he says with a sigh. He continues walking, taking a turn down a street that will bring them up to the Hidden Peak. 

---

5. BLACK - 21:32 | 9:32 PM

Kai whistles as they approach the front door. “Wow. I didn’t know you were rich.” 

With a roll of his eyes, Cole punches in the code to unlock the door and then steps inside. “Yeah, well, you can have all my money. I won’t be using it much anymore.” 

Not bothering to deal with removing his complicated ninja boots, Cole strides into the living room and unceremoniously drops Kai onto the couch. The Red Ninja grunts in surprise. “Hey, watch it! I don’t have full control of my fire yet. I might burn down your house.” 

“I don’t care. I’m never coming back here again.” Cole points to the kitchen, which can be accessed by an arched doorway in the living room’s wall. “Eat whatever you want in the fridge. You need to get your energy back up.” 

Kai narrows his eyes at him. “Why aren’t you coming back? Chen doesn’t know where you live.” 

For a moment, Cole contemplates telling him the truth. However, he’s already done enough damage to himself today, so he says instead, “Chen isn’t the one who scares me.” 

He leaves Kai and goes upstairs. Word of his powers will reach the Elemental Alliance any minute now. Chen doesn’t know his name, but he’ll be able to provide the Serpentine pictures of him in his ninja mask, which will end up in the Elemental Alliance’s hands soon enough. Once they have those photos, the resemblance to his father in just his eyes will be enough to expose his identity. They will realize, in an earth-shattering moment, that Lou has been conning them for a whole decade. 

He hopes his father has a contingency plan for this. If not, things are going to get very ugly for him down in South Ninjago. 

“He’ll be fine,” Cole whispers to himself as he enters his father’s bedroom. It’s sparingly decorated, fit for someone who only intended to be here for five years. There is a queen bed in the middle of the room, a dresser against one of the walls, and a walk-in closet still full of clothes. Lou didn’t take much with him when he returned to South Ninjago. It’s up to Cole now to see what’s worth bringing with him when he goes into hiding—everything else, most likely, will end up being taken away by the city government. He’ll never see anything from this house ever again. 

The top drawer of his father’s dresser has a false bottom. Cole takes the socks out of the drawer and dumps them on the floor, then presses against the wood panel at the bottom to pop it open. He slides it out of the drawer and then takes a moment to observe the items inside. 

What remains of his mother’s belongings are laid out before him. His eyes glance over her favourite comb, her marriage pin, a black and gold robe, and a small photo book. Lily was a well-known person, constantly seen at the Emperor’s side during public appearances, so her possessions must remain hidden in this drawer at all times. If someone found out he was the son of the Master of Earth, whose successor remains a mystery a decade after her passing, they might suspect that he’s not as powerless as he seems. 

Not that keeping her a secret really matters anymore. Oh, well. 

Cole takes the photo book into his hands and flips through the pages. All of the pictures feature his mother, at various stages in her life, with her friends and family. He’s only looked through the whole book a few times. Usually, he’s most intrigued by the backgrounds, where the plants and buildings look so different from the ones he knows in Ninjago City. Based on his hazy memories of the place, he likes to try to figure out where the photo was taken in South Ninjago, treating it as some kind of game. 

Today, he looks over each one carefully. Bringing the whole book into the jungle with him will be a waste of space in his bag, so he should pick out one, maybe two pictures to bring along with him. One should be a photo with him and his father in it, and the other should be the one where his mother is at her happiest, he thinks. There’s one he has in mind, at the back of the book . . . 

In the photograph, his parents are seated across from another couple at what appears to be some kind of restaurant. He’s never really observed the other couple closely, assuming them to be family friends he never got the chance to know. Something about them catches his eye this time. The man sitting across from his father looks almost familiar, and Cole studies him closely, trying to figure out where he might know him from. Did he know him as a child? His memory draws a blank, so he keeps searching, taking in every detail in the hope that his brain will finally recognize him. 

There’s a mischievous look on the man’s face. Why? 

Under the table, the man’s hand is splayed open. A tiny fraction of bright orange light emerging from his palm has been caught by the camera. 

It’s not just a weird light—it’s a flame. No wonder he seems so familiar. This man is Kai’s father. 

Cole shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. He’d wondered if this might have been the case back in Chen’s prison, and this single photograph has confirmed all of his suspicions. 

Kai was sold to Chen at eight years-old. Though not impossible, Cole doubts his parents were the ones to sign his life away for money. They were gone by the time it happened.

The time frame matches up. The photo matches up. All evidence points to a single conclusion: 

Kai’s parents were murdered. And Cole’s father was the one who killed them. 

---

6. WHITE - 21:35 | 9:35 PM 

Inside the volcano, Zane and Koko finally encounter some Sharks. 

The volcano’s interior has been excavated into a large, multi-storeyed base. Each floor is a ring-like tunnel that connects to the upper and lower rings via three staircases at different points in the ring. Garmadon’s lair sits at the very top floor. In order to kill him, Koko and Zane will need to make their way up from the bottom without being caught. Or killed. Either one. 

Koko and Zane camp just inside the entrance, watching as two Sharks walk around a bend in the hallway and disappear from sight. “It looks like they’re patrolling in circles,” Koko notes. She points to the left, where the Sharks will arrive as they complete their loop. “We’ll catch them by surprise here. As soon as we can see them, we’ll shoot. I’ve got the one on the left.” 

 Koko pulls an arrow from her quiver and knocks it into her bow. Zane frowns at way light gleams off the arrow’s sharp tip. “Please do not kill them,” he says.

She glares at him from the side of her eyes. “Whatever. Just get ready.” 

Zane knocks his own arrow and points it down the tunnel. During his fights with Sharks, he typically aims for their legs to incapacitate them without hurting them too badly. In close quarters, he will aim for shoulders and arms, but he is worried about missing and avoids shooting arrows near the upper body a much as possible. Not that he has ever missed a shot in his life. He is very accurate. 

The Sharks come around the bend. Koko releases her arrow immediately. Zane hesitates. 

Ever since he joined the Secret Ninja Force, the Shark Army has attacked Zane with spears, harpoons, swords, and even frozen fish—but he has never been shot at with the kind of weapons they use in the war. Guns are impossible to get in Ninjago City. He’s never seen one before. 

So why are these Sharks carrying automatic rifles?

“Come on, ninja!” Koko hisses. As Zane snaps out of his stupor, she loads an arrow and takes out the second Shark on her own. It hits them in the shoulder and they fall to the ground with a scream.

This is a mystery that must be solved. Ignoring Koko’s calls for him to stay put, he runs into the hallway so he can get a better look at the Sharks. The first one was only hit in the leg, so he recovers quickly enough to grab his rifle and point it right at Zane’s chest—

An arrow plunges into the Shark’s neck. He inhales sharply, coughs up blood, and then collapses on his side. 

Zane whirls around. “Koko!” he cries. 

The Lady Iron Dragon steps out of the hidden entryway. A furious expression rests upon her face.

“What’s wrong with you? He almost killed you!” When she finally catches up to him, she shoves his chest roughly. He stumbles backward. “I thought you were supposed to be good at fighting these people. Wake up!” 

“I’m sorry, I . . .” he trails off, too distracted to finish explaining himself.

Zane looks down to the Sharks. The one who was shot in the shoulder is still conscious, though gasping in pain as his hand wraps around the shaft of the arrow. He whispers a countdown to himself, and Zane feels the need to step in before he reaches the end. 

“It will be worse if you pull it out,” Zane tells him. He steps away from Koko, not responding to her even as she splutters in disbelief behind him. He picks up one of the rifles from the floor and kneels beside the Shark. “Where did you get this?” 

The Shark does not respond. Koko’s boots step into his vision. “You don’t know how to use that. Give it to me. You’re making me nervous.” 

With a sigh, Zane relents and passes the gun to Koko. She presses a switch on the side of the rifle and ejects the big box at the bottom—the magazine, he thinks—and then drops the rifle and all its components on the floor. It’s disabled now. Probably. 

“Where did they get guns?” Zane muses. It’s weird and dangerous. He doesn’t like it.

Koko kneels beside him. The angry expression is gone, replaced by an amused smirk. “Is that why you freaked out? Because they had guns?” 

“I am not scared,” Zane says, but it comes out too quickly and makes him sound defensive. “I am just curious.” 

“That’s cute. You city people are so soft.” Koko clicks her tongue and gestures to the Shark’s helmet. “Ask him. Make him talk.” 

“I will not torture him, if that is what you mean,” Zane warns her, and then reaches for the helmet that conceals the Shark’s face.

The Shark grabs his helmet to try to keep it on. How typical. Sharks always love to hide behind their anonymity. Unfortunately for this one, Zane wants to speak to them face-to-face, and he’s much stronger than most other people. He rips off the helmet easily and throws it to the side.

The eyes of the enemy peer up at him. However, there are no real eyes: just a reflective, mirror-like sheer where the irises and pupils are meant to be. Zane stares into his own eyes through the reflection. What’s going on? Why is this happening?

A hand slaps itself over Zane’s eyes. “Hey! Stop looking at him!” Koko snaps. 

A strange fog has entered his brain. He falls backwards, clutching his head in his hands as the fog tickles his skull and tugs on his synapses. It is everywhere. Random memories flash in front of his eyes, all the way back to the beginning of his existence, and he claws at his face to try to get them out of his brain. 

“Ninja? Can you hear me?”

Koko’s voice makes him wince. Every moment they’ve spent together plays in his brain all at once. It hurts. He claws at his face even harder. 

“Sorry, kid. This is going to hurt.”

He hears the draw of a bowstring. Then an arrow plunges into the side of his head. 

The fog seeps out of the hole created by the arrow, slowly clearing his brain. Zane gains enough sense to prod his head for the arrow, only to find that nothing is there. What . . .?

With effort, he blinks his eyes open. He looks back to the Shark with the weird eyes. 

The Shark lays dead on the floor. A pool of blood is forming below the arrow stuck in his skull. 

Zane’s face feels hot. He wants to cry. He doesn’t know if he can cry. Whatever just occurred has left him feeling raw and exposed, like someone has unearthed long-buried emotions and set them on fire for the world to see. He wants to crawl into his bed and hide beneath the sheets. He wants to disappear. 

In need of an explanation, he looks around for Koko. She seemed to know what was happening to him. She can tell him why he feels this way.

He finds her standing a few metres away from him. An arrow is knocked in her bowstring. She aims it straight at his chest. 

“Koko?” he asks weakly. 

“You were just attacked by the Master of Mind,” Koko explains. She nods her head to the dead Sharks on the floor. “Both of them were under his control. He was using one of them as an anchor to enter your mind. If I hadn’t killed the Shark, he would’ve been in there long enough to figure out how to control you.” 

It doesn’t make any sense. “You said he was in South Ninjago.” 

“That’s the problem. If he’s here, so are the rest of them.” She pulls back the string a little tighter, pressing the back end of the arrow against her cheek. “The Shark Army doesn’t exist anymore. The Elemental Alliance has taken them over. We are deep in enemy territory, which means we have to do this now. Tell me what’s wrong with their plan.” 

Zane has been thinking about this all evening. It’s been difficult, trying to figure out what Koko wants him to say. She cares about it a lot. Disagreeing for the wrong reason might be enough to get him killed. 

After the mind attack, his logic and feelings have been flattened into a straight line. There are no more loops and knots to navigate as he tries to think about these things. He knows how feels about the Elemental Alliance. And he feels no qualms in speaking his mind to Koko, regardless of the arrow that threatens to end his life at any moment. 

“It is wrong. Not because it is evil, since I cannot define that for you, but because it assumes a better world is not possible. It sees only the cruelty in others. That is not what I do. I . . . I think most people are quite beautiful, actually.”

Koko is unfazed. “Oh, really? You seem like one of the most paranoid people I’ve ever met. You literally bugged my apartment. Is that believing people are beautiful?”

“Yes, I find it hard to trust,” Zane says. He is not sure why this might discredit his previous statement. “I am a product of my environment. So are you. But I believe we all have the potential to do good things for each other. Don’t you?” 

Koko watches him impassively. Zane swallows nervously, terrified to receive her final verdict. If she decides that he’s still susceptible to recruitment, she will kill him here and now. 

“Wrong answer,” she says, and then lowers her bow to the floor. “But it’s good enough. They won’t be able to convince you.” 

The relief is palpable. Zane runs his hands down his face, feeling as though a great weight has been lifted from his shoulders. “Thank you,” he says. 

“Don’t get too excited. You do understand what we’ve just walked into, right? The Elemental Alliance has probably mind controlled the entire Shark Army. The next time they attack Ninjago City, they won’t be doing it for fun the way Garmadon does—they’re going to burn it all down to flush out Earth and Water. I don’t think you and your friends are ready for a Shark Army that actually wants to kill people.” 

The idea of a Shark Army who intentionally slaughters civilians is incredibly distressing to him. The loops in his thinking are forming again, however, and he cannot help but tie this back to the issue that brought them here in the first place. 

“Do you believe they are the ones who kidnapped your son?” Zane asks. “It would provide a good distraction as they secretly took over the volcano.”

Koko hums as she thinks it over. “No. In fact, I think those idiots taking Lloyd hostage is an extremely fortunate coincidence. The Elemental Alliance won’t make a move if they think it’ll get him killed.” 

“Please do not take this in a mean way, but why would they care about his life?” Zane says. The Elemental Alliance seems perfectly okay with killing people to get their way. Why stop at Lloyd?

With a dry laugh, Koko reaches behind her to grab the golden Oni-killing arrow. She caresses it in front of her and runs a finger down the tip. 

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? The leader of the Elemental Alliance is his uncle.” She gestures upwards to the rest of the volcano. “He’s part Oni, too. Maybe I’ll use this arrow on him instead. What do you think?”

Zane sighs. Everything is so big, and scary, and messed up that he doesn’t even know how to be surprised by something like this right now. 

“I think you have a very messed up family,” Zane replies. 

Notes:

to clarify: the guy talking to lou in the flashback is NOT wu. i'll get into what wu's been up to when he finally reunites with koko soon!!

you will also get an explanation for how cole still received his mother's powers. i originally had that in here too, but it turned into like 10 paragraphs of explaining stuff you already kinda knew, so i decided to cut it out and i'm gonna make it work for the next chapter.

as always, thank you soooooo much for reading!! i love all your comments too. have a great day!!

Chapter 9: Night 3 (pt. 3)

Notes:

its pretty late where i live and im TIRED but i want to finally post this, so please enjoy!! i will do a full edit tomorrow but i think it's mostly okay aside from inevitable typos.

enjoy <33

1. BLACK - 22:00 | 10:00 PM

Guilt is a very familiar sensation to Cole. 

It has accompanied him since he arrived in Ninjago City. It weighs down on his shoulders, a ghost haunting the periphery of his life that he can’t quite touch. His father has always been wise to keep him in the dark whenever possible. Cole knows what he’s done. He’s just never been allowed to observe the fallout. 

Tonight, the fallout is staring him right in the face. He can feel the weight of the guilt like spikes across his skin. And it fucking hurts. 

The sound of footsteps on the stairs snaps him back to the present. Quickly, he manages to put down the photo book and shut the drawer just as Kai steps into the doorway of his father’s bedroom. 

In one hand, he holds a half-eaten protein bar he must have taken from Cole’s pantry. In the other, he carries a stapled stack of papers. He reads over the first page with a smug grin. “You left your report card in the kitchen. Nice to meet you, Cole. Your name’s little on the nose, isn’t it? Do your parents hate you or something?” 

Cole swipes for the report card. “Give that back!” 

Kai yanks it out of his reach and then saunters into the bedroom. He giggles as he looks at it. “Your teachers definitely hate you, dude. They all say you never pay attention in class. No wonder your grades are terrible.”

“I’m surprised you know how to read,” Cole retorts. As soon as he says it, he wishes he could take it back—there’s no way Chen let his students go to normal school. Kai might take it very personally. 

Instead, Kai laughs at him again. “I can read all the Serpentine languages too, asshole. Fighting wasn’t the only thing Chen’s teachers drilled into me.” 

Cole feels his brain stall for a moment. A part of him wants to tell Kai the truth about his parents, feeling it’s the right thing to do. A part of him wants to pack his things and leave him behind. Another part of him, the biggest one, is curious about what Kai actually experienced under Chen’s care. He has about an hour to kill until he has to hide in the jungle for a few years. Why not learn more about his teammate before he goes?

“And what did they teach you?” Cole asks. 

Kai gives him a teasing look. “I don’t think you can handle it, South Ninjago. It might make you think twice about your Emperor.” 

Cole rolls his eyes. What a dumb comment. “If I liked the Emperor, I wouldn’t be here.” 

Kai takes a bite of the protein bar and sits on Lou's bed. He uses the report card to cover his mouth while he speaks. “Fair point. I don’t think they taught us anything super weird. We learned a lot about the Serpentine, like their history and culture and whatever. The human lessons were mostly about our connection to the Oni. Chen thinks we’re, like, some kind of blight on the realm or something. I guess he’s not entirely wrong, because of the whole Oni blood thing, but it’s a little, you know . . .” 

As he trails off, Kai averts his gaze to the wall behind Cole. Huh. Is the Red Ninja afraid to share his opinion with him? 

That’s fucking weird. Cole is used to Kai being loud and opinionated. He’s confrontational in nature. He doesn’t know how to process a Red Ninja who’s afraid of saying the wrong thing, in the way he failed to process the way Kai submitted to Chen so easily back in his throne room. It’s so uncharacteristic that Cole can’t help but feel like a different person is now sitting on his father’s bed. 

He wonders if there’s a reason. “What happened if you disagreed with him? Like, if you expressed a different opinion during your snake cult history lessons.”

“Why would we? We weren’t exactly an innocent group of kids, you know.” Kai raises his eyebrows at him. “We were training to kill each other. There was no reason to believe we weren’t naturally violent.” 

It makes sense. No one is a killer at heart—the students at Chen’s must have latched on to any excuse they could find to make sense of what they were being forced to do. Humans have Oni blood, so therefore killing comes naturally to them. It’s an easy way to justify their actions to themselves. 

“Do you feel naturally violent, Kai?” Cole decides to press him on the subject. He wants to see if he can get past Chen’s conditioning and convince Kai to see things his way. “Were you ever happy to kill the other students? Or did you just do it because you were forced to?”

“You sound like my sister,” Kai says dryly. With a sigh, he falls onto his back and stares at the ceiling. “I told her pretty much everything, even though I wasn’t supposed to. She always asked me the same questions you did. Truth is, I don’t know how I feel about myself. I don’t feel an urge to kill people, so I guess that’s something, but I don’t regret what I did to the other students, either. I felt no moral dilemma over killing you, and you’re actually, like, an innocent person. What does that make me, then? A reluctant killer who just doesn’t care?” 

Maybe it’s because they’re in his father’s bedroom, or maybe it’s because his past is rapidly catching up to him, but Cole feels like he’s had this conversation in his head a million times before. Lou departed for South Ninjago when Cole was eleven years-old. He wasn’t old enough to confront him then, and now they only talk sparingly whenever the Elemental Alliance is nice enough to let Lou use a phone. The calls are monitored. Neither of them can say what they really want to say to each other. Cole has reluctantly accepted that he will never get any kind of closure from his father. The lies and scheming and betrayal it took to get him and his powers out of South Ninjago are just something he will simply have to reckon with in the solitude of his own brain. 

He’s done a whole lot of reckoning already. His feelings about it all are fine tuned, sharp like a knife after years of reflection. Kai is asking for him to share these feelings now, and Cole has been waiting to carve them into something for a long time.

“You were backed into a corner. If you didn’t kill the other students, they would have killed you. If you didn’t kill me, Chen would have killed your sister. I won’t say there was no other choice, because there was—you could have chosen to die. You could have let another student kill you during the first Slither Pit. You didn’t, of course, because why would you? It makes no sense. It wouldn’t help anyone. There were no good options for you. Asking you to make better choices in a situation like that is totally unreasonable.” As he speaks, he begins to pace back and forth, a habit he inherited from his father. “You were dealt a very shitty hand by life. I think you did the best you could with what you had. Is that supposed to make you an inherently violent person? Is it proof that you have Oni blood? No, I don’t think so. Do you?” 

For a minute, Kai does not speak, simply laying on the bed as he stares blankly at the ceiling. His confident and teasing demeanour has completely deflated. Cole stops pacing to watch him for a moment, once again struck by how strange it is to witness the Red Ninja act so demure. Every time they fought on the team, Kai never once backed down or admitted to uncertainty. He was annoyingly stubborn and set in his ways. This version of Kai, the one molded into existence by Chen’s careful hand, is entirely different. 

“My first fight in the Slither Pit was against a girl from South Ninjago. She was really small and weak, like she didn’t get to eat enough as a kid. We all knew she was a goner.” Kai huffs a dry, humourless laugh. “She was annoying in the same way you are. She questioned everything Chen taught us about the Oni and called us crazy for believing him. That’s probably why they put her against me right away—I was tied for best in the class, and they wanted her gone. It was a death sentence. At the time, though . . . I wanted her to be right. So we made a deal.

“As soon as the gong went off, we sat on opposite sides of the pit and refused to fight. We wanted to prove that humans could be peaceful, too. Chen didn’t stop us. He found it kind of funny, actually. We probably looked pretty stupid, two eleven year-olds with huge political convictions. He told us we would kill each other eventually. It was in our nature. And, I guess . . .”

Kai blinks, then rubs his eyes. Cole realizes that he might need some help continuing the story. “You’re still here, so he was right.” 

“We spent six hours doing nothing. Then Chen had someone throw a knife into the pit. It landed right beside her. At first, nothing really happened—she promised she wasn’t going to use it, and I believed her, so we kept protesting in silence. I don’t know what changed, but she started to get weird a few hours later. She paced in circles and made me promise I wasn’t going to hurt her. She said I had a real reason to kill her now, since she actually stood a chance against me with a knife, and that made us dangerous to each other. I don’t know how she came up with it. Maybe she was too smart for her own good, cursed with the kind of intelligence that makes you paranoid. All I know is that she stopped trusting me all at once.

“I tried to convince her that I didn’t care if she had the knife, but she refused to listen. She kept getting closer to me, which made me paranoid, and I told her to get rid of the knife if it was making her so nervous. It was the wrong thing to say. She walked right up to me and stood just outside arm’s reach. If I was smarter, or even a little older, maybe I could have convinced her to stand down, but I couldn’t find the right words to do it. All I could do was beg her to go away. Everything I said just made things worse, so a minute later, she finally tried to stab me in the neck. I was still better than her at fighting, so I was able to turn it around on her even with the knife in her hand, but I hated doing it. It felt terrible. And then the gong rang, and the match ended, and Chen just fucking laughed at me. We proved him right! Humans can’t settle things peacefully. I never doubted my teachers again.” 

Kai covers his whole face with the report card and takes deep, shaky breaths. Cole, meanwhile, feels like someone has ripped his heart from his chest and thrown it to the floor. 

Kai had tried to find a third option. It had just failed. No wonder he didn’t think twice about killing the other students. About killing Cole. 

Except that’s not entirely true, is it? 

“And yet you still spared Lloyd,” Cole says. Kai is still hiding behind the report card, so he doesn’t know if he’s paying attention, but he continues nonetheless. “The girl forced your hand. Lloyd wasn’t fighting back because he was too depressed to care. You had enough time to think of a way out. Do you understand what I’m saying? As soon as you had the opportunity not to kill someone, you took it. Violence is not intrinsic to your nature, Kai. It’s part of your life but it’s not part of you. You deserved a better life than the one you got. I’m sorry.” 

Kai yanks the papers away and sits up. To Cole’s surprise, he isn’t crying, but his face is puffy in a way that suggests he might want to be. The walk down memory lane has certainly upset him. 

“What do you have to be sorry for?” Kai asks incredulously. “You have nothing to do with it.” 

Oh, how Cole wants to laugh in his face. He is the reason Kai wound up at Chen’s. An unintended effect, sure, but a result of his father’s actions all the same. None of this would have happened to Kai if his parents were still alive. 

Telling Kai the truth is the least he can do. The Red Ninja deserves to know why his childhood turned out the way he did. 

Cole, however, is a coward. Instead, he walks over to his father’s dresser and opens the top drawer. He removes the photo album and tosses it to Kai. 

“What is this?” Kai asks. He turns it over in his hands with a confused expression. 

“Look through it carefully,” Cole says, and then leaves the room without another word. He needs to start packing his things from his bedroom.

As he enters the hallway, he hears the crinkling of plastic as Kai turns to the first page. 

---

2. WHITE - 22:00 | 10:00 PM

As they enter the stairwell, Koko knocks the Oni-killing arrow into her bow. 

“Thanks to Mind, the Elemental Alliance already knows we’re here. There’s no point in stopping on the way, so we may as well go straight to them.” She looks up to the top of the stairwell, where Garmadon’s personal lair and the Elemental Alliance await them. “They have the numbers to overwhelm us. I’m sure I’ll only get to shoot one arrow before they take us down. For the realm’s sake, I hope Wu is stupid enough to leave himself open.” 

Her confidence should not surprise him anymore, but he finds himself astounded anyways. “I understand why you wanted to kill Garmadon. But why Wu? He is part of your family. You might be able to reason with him.” 

“If his clowns have taken over the volcano, he is the reason Garmadon hasn’t been able to turn himself in.” Koko starts up the steps and gestures for Zane to follow. “I just want Lloyd. If Wu gets in my way, I’ll kill him. Simple as that.” 

If Koko’s assumptions about the Master of Mind are correct, then Wu and the Elemental Alliance should already know why they’re here. They will be ready to negotiate when they reach the top floor. It is a negotiation that that Zane and Koko are bound to lose. 

Still, he follows her without hesitation. The answers to Lloyd’s kidnapping are located in this volcano. There is no reason for him to leave, even when he knows he is walking into a trap. 

At the top of the stairs, Koko pauses beside the entrance to the lair. She looks at him and nods. “Ready?” 

“Ready,” Zane replies, offering a nod in return. 

Koko kicks open the door. The lair at the top of the volcano is not a hallway, but one large room with big computers and a furnace in the back wall. Zane follows her inside closely and takes in his surroundings with a quick survey of the room. 

Dozens of people await them inside. Multiple Sharks form a perimeter around them, guns drawn and ready to fire. An old man in a straw hat stands in front of the perimeter with a serious expression.

“Hold your fire, Misako,” Wu warns her. He holds up a hand, a gesture to stop. “We do not have to be enemies. We can help each other.” 

This does not appear to convince Koko. She lifts her bow to aim the Oni arrow at his chest, pulling back the bowstring to her cheek. “Oh, we can be friends again? Prove it.” 

“As you wish.”

Wu steps to the side. A Shark is shoved forward, then forced to her knees by a member of the alliance. Zane notes that she wears the uniform of a general—she must be one of the highest-ranking members of Garmadon’s army.

“Three months ago, a small group of Shark soldiers decided that Garmadon was unfit to lead his army.” As Wu speaks, the general’s shoulders rise and fall rapidly. She’s furious. “They planned a coup d’etat. Three days ago, they put their plan into action. Can you explain your plan to our guests, General Huang?”

“Lord Garmadon is a coward,” General Huang spits. She keeps her gaze to the floor as she explains. “He refuses to launch a proper invasion of the city because he doesn’t want to hurt his son. Lloyd clouds his judgement. We decided to take him out of the equation.” 

Koko shakes her head. “I don’t believe you. Where’s Neuro? He can make anyone say anything.” 

“Show them your eyes, General,” Wu says. 

General Huang lifts her head. There is no grey sheen over her eyes. The Master of Mind is not controlling her. 

“Kidnapping Lloyd was a win-win scenario,” General Huang continues. “Either Garmadon stepped down, or we took out the thing holding him back. We were going to fix the Shark Army. Then these idiots showed up this morning and ruined everything!”

As Koko takes it all in, Zane is quick to put the pieces together. “You know where they’re hiding him,” Zane says. He turns his attention to Wu. “I presume she has already told you. Why are you making a show out of it?”

“When you stumble upon a bargaining chip, you do not waste it.” Wu taps the side of his head. “I have no idea where he is. Neuro has not been allowed to probe her mind, either. General Huang is the only person on this volcano who knows where to find Lloyd. If both of you do not stand down, Neuro will erase her memories. Then no one will be able to rescue him.” 

Koko narrows her eyes. “Threatening your nephew is low, Wu. What would your father think?”

“I am fixing my father’s mistakes! He doomed us to constant war and suffering. I want it to end!” Wu snaps. He shuts his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath. “Lloyd will be fine. I am sorry, Misako. This was the only way to contain you without hurting you.” 

It is hard to read Koko’s expression. Her fingers twitch on the bowstring. If she wanted to, she could kill the leader of the Elemental Alliance right now and ruin their entire operation. She could save the realm from a group that is slowly closing in on the two elemental masters they need to enact their deadly plans. 

But her son has always been her priority. She has made that clear to Zane over and over again. 

And so, it does not surprise him when Koko kneels down and places her bow on the floor. 

“Consider me contained,” she says as she stands up again. She kicks the bow out of reach for emphasis. “As long as you promise to save Lloyd, I’ll stay out of your way. Deal?” 

Wu smiles. “Good. The ninja must agree, too.” 

The attention in the room turns to Zane. Something about it makes him defensive, and in a rare instance of pettiness, he decides that he really wants to find a way to ruin Wu’s day. And what better way to do that than to take away his bargaining chip? 

You see, Zane is not only stronger and more durable than the average person. He can think faster than them, too. His logic circuits have fully recovered from the Master of Mind’s attack, and he feels like he has all the pieces of the puzzle finally laid out before him . . .

Okay. If Zane were a Shark general rebelling against his boss, he would feel inclined to take advantage of two pieces of information: 

1. Lloyd’s home address is known to very few people; 
2. Most of said people are sharks.

In the hostage video, the vigilantes warn Garmadon against sending his Sharks to rescue Lloyd. Like everyone else, Zane initially brushed this off as a broad threat to make sure Garmadon did not cheat his way out of the ultimatum. However, now that he knows the context behind Lloyd’s kidnapping, he understands just how wrong he was. 

The mention of Sharks in the video is designed to tug on Garmadon’s paranoia. By the time he finished the video, he was likely already considering the possibility of Shark involvement. Many people in the city want to hurt and kidnap Lloyd—yet no one has ever succeeded because no one has ever found him. The kidnappers must have known where he lived. Therefore, from Garmadon’s perspective, there is a very high chance that the vigilantes are Sharks in disguise. 

General Huang would have predicted this. To warn Garmadon against trying to rescue Lloyd is to imply that Lloyd can be found within a week. The kidnappers are holding Lloyd at a secondary location Garmadon already knows about. They are playing a game of chicken with Lloyd’s life. 

Come get him. If you dare. That is the message the hostage video intends to convey. 

Now, the Sharks and Garmadon have never established another base outside the volcano. There is only one other place the Sharks and Garmadon both have in common. Which means Zane knows exactly where Lloyd is being held: 

Lloyd is at home. Perhaps not in his exact apartment unit, but somewhere in the building. All dwellings in Ninjago City have bomb shelters in their basements. An underground, steel-reinforced concrete bunker with only one entrance would be a very good place to hold someone prisoner. That is where Lloyd can be found. He’s sure of it. 

A part of him wants to reveal what he knows right now. However, he is not sure what undermining Wu will accomplish for himself and Koko at the moment. General Huang will be able to report Zane’s discovery to her soldiers, which will either get Lloyd killed or moved to another location. Mind-controlled Sharks with guns surround him—any attempt to escape the volcano be cut short. His best bet is to keep his knowledge a secret for later.  

It does not please him, but Zane follows Koko’s lead and lowers his bow to the floor. He kicks it away and places his hands on the back of his head. His right pinkie inches toward his ear, where it presses against the edge of his ninja earpiece. Good. It is still here.

“I surrender,” he says, and struggles to suppress his smile even as Wu orders the mind-controlled Sharks to bring him and Koko to a prison cell in the basement. 

---

3. WHITE - 22:30 - 10:30 PM

There is only one cell in the basement. Or, rather, in the Shark Army’s very large armoury room. 

The cell bars are built into the volcano’s rock foundations. It is surrounded by aisles of weapons, where mind-controlled Sharks and members of the Elemental Alliance mill about as they prepare for whatever it is they came here to do. Zane has half a mind to ask them, but he is sure they have been instructed to ignore him, so he does not bother. 

Besides, there is something much more attention-grabbing in the prison cell with him. 

“No, it has nothing to do with being an Oni. The Master of Mind failed to mind control me because I am far too sexy!” Lord Garmadon says. He erupts into loud, grating laughter, which rattles the chains connecting his four arms to the cell bars behind him. “You would know, Koko. You could never control me either.” 

Zane and Koko’s hands have not been restrained. They sit together on the other side of the cell, putting as much space between themselves and Garmadon as possible. Zane was initially terrified to be locked in a small space with the Oni, but that fear has now melted down into something else. Something like . . . awkwardness?

Koko narrows her eyes at Garmadon. “Right. And if I told you to get on your knees right now, you would say no?”

Garmadon smiles slyly in response. It is disorienting and weird enough that Zane cannot handle it. 

He shoves his face into his hands. “Please stop flirting,” he pleads. 

“Good idea. Let’s change the subject.” Zane looks up from his hands to see Koko gesture to the weapons outside the cell. “Like, why is your prison in the armoury? Are you stupid? What if a prisoner escapes? You’re basically giving them free weapons to use against you.” 

Garmadon groans. “You’re so critical. Besides, I have never needed to take a prisoner. If I feel transgressed by someone, I simply kill them.” 

Koko jerks her thumb in Zane’s direction. “Really? Because he’s still alive and I’m pretty sure he’s ‘transgressed’ you quite a bit.” 

Garmadon’s gaze shifts to land on Zane. Nervously, Zane pushes himself back into the cell bars as far as he can go, internally cursing Koko for reminding Garmadon that a ninja is trapped alongside him. 

“If my army can’t beat a bunch of kids with weapons, they don’t deserve to rule the city with me.” Garmadon huffs angrily, but he does not appear to be on the verge of ripping off his chains and trying to kill him, so Zane allows himself to relax a bit. “The ninja aren’t even very good at what they do. I could crush them all easily. Even the Red one that scares my troops so much!” 

“Red can be very scary,” Zane concedes quietly. 

Koko laughs. “I think they do their job fine, actually. You haven’t taken over the city yet because you’re a terrible leader who can’t figure out how to beat a bunch of teenagers. In fact, you’re so bad that your soldiers literally kidnapped your son to pressure you into quitting. You couldn’t even defend your headquarters from Wu! Aren’t you embarrassed?”

Garmadon grins, revealing a row of sharp fangs. “Oh, Koko. It’s cute how obsessed you are with me.” 

Koko looks just short of combusting. “You’re an idiot,” she snaps, and then turns  around so her back is to the Oni. “I’m not talking to you anymore. Goodbye.” 

Zane glances between the two of them, feeling a bit like a child trapped in the middle of arguing parents. He decides to follow Koko’s lead and spin around to face the bars.

The Lady Iron Dragon’s face is bright red. Either she’s embarrassed, or Garmadon is correct. Zane forbids himself from thinking about it further. He wants nothing to do with the catastrophe that is their romantic relationship. 

The silence is welcome. Zane needs a break from talking to solidify his plan here. He will likely only get to use his communicator once, so he must be careful to not waste it . . .

In the corner of his eye, he sees a pair of shoes come to a stop beside the cell. Welp, never mind. It seems like he won’t be left alone anytime soon. 

“Hey, ninja kid!” a voice whispers urgently. 

Zane looks up. An older man with thick eyebrows and a cane stands on the other side of the bars. His eyes are wild and desperate, and he looks over his shoulder quickly before looking back to Zane. 

“How do you ninja talk to each other?” the man says. “I need you to get in touch with my son.” 

Zane frowns. “What do you mean? I do not have a phone.” 

With a wince of pain, the man kneels to be at eye-level with Zane, who continues to sit on the floor of the cell. “My son is the Black Ninja. If you can reach him, you have to tell him these people are on the volcano. You have to do it now.”

The revelation makes him balk. Zane studies the man’s face closely, only now noticing all the similarities between him and Cole. He is definitely the Black Ninja’s father. 

“Holy shit, Lou?” Koko shuffles on her knees to be closer to the bars. “I thought you were dead. Weren’t you—” Lou holds up a hand and cuts off her question.

“Executed, yes, that is what the Emperor has been telling people. I don’t have time for this.” He reaches through the bars and grabs Zane’s gi, pulling him closer to him. “Please call him. They’ve just located the Master of Water. It won’t be long until they get impatient and test my son again. He needs to get out of the city and hide.” 

It takes a second for his words to click properly in Zane’s head. “I—I don’t understand. Cole is the Master of Earth?” 

“Can you call him or not?” Lou demands. 

Zane nods. “Yes. But I can only reach him if he is wearing his communicator.” 

“Then call everyone. Tell them where he lives. Give them his name and phone number. I don’t care—just find a way to get his attention. Okay?” 

That is against the rules, Zane almost says, but decides to bite his tongue. Lou is correct about the urgency of this situation. The Elemental Alliance is very close to being able to carry out their plans. Getting Cole out of their reach should be his priority. 

A shout sounds out from the entrance to the armoury. Lou grimaces and looks over his shoulder. “Neuro is away hunting the Master of Water, so you can lie for the next few hours. I was never here. You don’t know me or my son. Say anything else, and Wu might not be able to stop them from killing you. Thank you.” 

Lou releases Zane’s gi and stands up. He turns the corner and walks out of sight. 

Behind him, Koko is stunned. “Why would he work for the Elemental Alliance? They basically want to turn his kid into a slave.” 

“I don’t believe he is a willing participant,” Zane says, recalling the way Lou was clearly terrified to be noticed by other members of the alliance. “I suppose I must call Cole now. Give me a moment.” 

Zane presses his finger against his earpiece. A quiet chime indicates that it has been activated. 

“Attention, attention! This is White calling. Is anyone there?” 

There is no response for a minute. Zane feels his stomach sink, and then—

“This is Black. I’m busy. Sorry.”

He could jump with joy. “Black, I just spoke to your father. He says you need to evacuate the city. The Elemental Alliance has taken over Garmadon’s volcano.” 

“Wait, what? Is he still there?”

“No. He left. Black, you need to go. They have found the Master of Water—” 

Koko slams her hand over Zane’s mouth. Perplexed, Zane looks up to see that a Shark has stopped his patrol close to their cell, helmet turned to face them. Zane must look guilty, because the Shark marches right up to the bars and looks down at him. 

“What are you doing?” the Shark demands. He raises his gun to his shoulder and points the barrel at Zane. “Is that an earpiece? Are you calling someone?” 

The threat of instant death makes Zane freeze in fear. His earpiece must still be sending audio, because Cole says, “White, come in! Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“You know, you’re supposed to check for communication devices when you take someone prisoner,” Koko chimes in, grabbing Zane’s shoulder to subtly pull him away from the bars. “I guess not even the Master of Mind can fix bad training. What do you think, Garmadon?” 

“Don’t drag me into this!” Garmadon huffs. 

“Was that Garmadon?” 

Zane hates the Shark helmets. He can’t see the soldier’s eyes, so he has no idea how much danger he is truly in. Simply calling someone might not be an offence worth killing him over, but he cannot tell because he cannot see his expression. 

There is no other way to get himself out of this. Zane raises his hands slowly, staring at his reflection in the helmet as he does. “I will give you the earpiece. Is that okay?” 

“Action permitted,” the Shark says. With ample relief, Zane fishes the earpiece out of his ear and holds it out to the Shark. 

As the Shark takes it, Zane says as loudly as he can, “Lloyd is being held prisoner in the bunker below his apartment building!” 

“Yeah, sure,” the Shark says. He drops the earpiece on the ground, crushes it under his boot, and walks away. 

The knot of anxiety slowly unfurls from his stomach. Before he can fully relax, he is suddenly slammed into the bars, then forced to turn so his back is pressed against the steel. Koko holds him in place by trapping his hands beneath her knees and pushing her forearm against his throat, a move which would likely cut off his airflow if he was someone who needed to breathe. 

“You said you didn’t know where he was,” Koko snarls. She pushes against his throat harder, and Zane struggles to release his hands from her grasp. This is a very efficient hold and he is impressed by the strength she must possess in order to keep him in place like this. “Is that why you’re here? To lead me away from him?” 

“I have nothing to do with it. I figured it out when the general explained her plan!” Zane says. 

Her eyes narrow in suspicion. “You ‘figured it out’? You’re going to need to do better than that.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Garmadon says. For a moment, Zane feels thankful for his intrusion, and then forces the feeling away. He should never feel thankful to Garmadon for anything. “My Sharks would never work with a ninja. They hate them more than I do.” 

Koko glances rapidly between them. “What if the two of you are working together?” 

“Ugh, I’d rather die.” Garmadon nods in Zane’s direction. “Have you heard him talk? He’s so annoying! I’m sick of him already. I don’t even know why I’m defending him! Kill him, for all I care.” 

A long, tense moment passes by. Then Koko drops Zane and moves to another section of the cell, between Zane and Garmadon. 

“Sorry, kid,” she says. She sounds more tired than apologetic. “You know how I am.” 

Zane clenches his hands in front of him, grateful to have them back. He cannot find it within himself to be angry. Koko is protective to a fault. He should have known better than to reveal his knowledge without confiding in her first. 

“Yeah, I know,” he replies, and forces himself to offer her a small smile. 

“Fucking weirdo,” Garmadon mutters. 

---

4. BLACK - 10:40 PM | 22:40 

There is a shrieking metallic noise, and then the line goes dead. 

“White?” Cole asks desperately, but there is no response. White is gone.  

Cole does not scare easily. Even when surrounded by Sharks, on the verge of losing a battle, his teammates have always relied on him to keep a level head. There are very few things in this world that can make him flinch. 

Right now, in this very moment, is the most anxious Cole has ever felt in his life. His bones are weak as jelly, and his skin feels too hot, like it’s burning up from the effort of keeping his heart inside his ribcage. Before he crashes to the floor, he manages to stumble over to his bedroom desk and collapse into the chair. He swivels around and presses his forehead against the desk’s surface, taking deep breaths in a poor effort to calm himself down. 

He’s worried about White, who must have been taken prisoner by the Elemental Alliance. He’s worried about his father, who is a dead man walking if he has no contingency plan for this situation. He’s worried about Lloyd, who is being held somewhere Cole doesn’t know how to find. No one knows where Lloyd Garmadon lives. What can he do about it, anyways? The Elemental Alliance will be on Cole’s doorstep by morning. He doesn’t have enough time to look for him. Lloyd may as well be considered a dead man, too.

“Um, are you okay?”

Oh, right. He has Kai to worry about, too. 

“I feel like I’m going to explode,” Cole says weakly. He probably will, if the Elemental Alliance manages to capture him and force him to use his powers to the extent they desire. Splitting the continent in two doesn’t sound like an easy feat. It will most likely kill him. 

There is a brief awkward silence. Then Kai says, “Should I care more because we might be cousins or something?” 

Cousins? Is that what Kai inferred from the photo of their parents together? They don’t even look alike!

“Our parents used to be friends,” Cole replies. He should probably get up and have this conversation face-to-face, but the darkness he experiences while mashing his face against the desk is so, so comforting . . .

“Not very good ones, apparently. I took the photo out of the sleeve and do you know what’s written on the back? ‘Ray and Maya, no kids’. The note is dated to nine years ago. Like, what, my parents never bothered to tell yours about me and Nya?” Kai scoffs sarcastically. “It even has our old address on it. So, your parents knew where we lived but they didn’t know I existed? Isn’t that kind of weird?”

Their address? With a sinking realization, Cole lifts his head and spins his chair to face Kai. The Red Ninja stands in his doorway, holding a photograph in his hand. The photo album is tucked under his arm. 

Cole motions to the photo album. “Give that to me.” 

Kai passes it over. Cole puts it down on the desk, forcing himself to open it even when he notices Kai looking over his shoulder. He flips to the end where his father placed the photos of his and Lily’s friends. One by one, he removes them and looks at their backs until he finds one with writing on it. 

Ash. No immediate family. 6848 Mambo Ln. This one is dated to six years ago. 

He finds eight other photos with notes on the back. All of them follow a similar format: names, details on the family, an address, and the date the note was written. Cole has never tried to take the pictures out of their sleeves, finding each photo of his mother too precious to touch. He had no idea any of this was here. 

This isn’t just a photo book—it’s an assassination log. This is where his father stored the information he sent to the Elemental Alliance. 

“What am I looking at?” Kai says. He sounds apprehensive. Although he hasn’t quite figured it out, he must be close to realizing that their families are connected in something far more sinister than friendship. He knows his parents were involved in something he doesn’t understand.

There is no point in hiding it anymore. Cole flips over the photos on his desk as he speaks, forcing himself to look into the faces of the people who died for his safety.

“When I was little, my mom got really sick. She got worse, and worse, and worse, and we slowly accepted that it wasn’t the kind of illness you recover from. I was very suddenly set to inherit my powers much earlier than expected, which meant that my life was basically over. Elemental masters don’t have freedom in South Ninjago. I was going to spend my entire existence being paraded around by the Emperor and following his orders. If I hadn’t escaped, you probably would have seen me on TV by now, standing beside him during all his stupid speeches. He used to make my mom do stuff like that, too.”

With a nod, Kai crosses his arms and leans against the wall beside the desk. “Is that why you left?”

“Yeah. My father wanted a better life for me, but he wanted to keep my powers away from the Emperor, too. You saw it at Chen’s—I can do very dangerous stuff with my powers. More so than most elemental masters. He didn’t want anyone to turn me into a weapon. So, he came up with a plan to get me and the powers out of South Ninjago at the same time.” Cole hears a tremor in his voice, a sign of tears to come, but he forces himself to keep going. “By that point, my mom was basically dead. The doctors were about to take her off life support. My dad snuck into her hospital room and stabbed her with a syringe full of drugs to wake her up for a minute. He made this big show for the security cameras, begging her to release her powers to a random person, but it was all a lie. The tip of the needle was coated in vengestone. It was designed to break off into her heart and block the transfer of her powers. It worked, too—only my father knew she still had her powers. Everyone else believed she’d sent them away. I inherited them automatically when the doctors took her off life support two weeks later.

“We went to prison for two days. The Emperor’s doctors tested us for elemental powers a dozen times, but since my mom still had her powers, we rang up clean every time. The vengestone in her heart tripped up the elemental power detectors and protected my mom, too. The Emperor was furious. He said my father had committed the highest form of treason possible by encouraging my mom to hinder the war effort. He was going to have him executed. I don’t know what was going to happen to me. Either way, it doesn’t matter—a bunch of people showed up and broke us out of prison. They were from a group called the Elemental Alliance. Ever heard of them?”

Cole braves a look at Kai’s face. It scrunches up in confusion. “No. Who are they?”

“They’re a bunch of extremists from South Ninjago. They believe the only way to end the war is to use the elemental masters to split the continent into a human island and a Serpentine island. You have to understand, though—they won’t split it evenly. Their founders were inspired by the tombs. They want the Serpentine on a separate island so they can control and eventually kill them.”

Unsurprisingly, Kai is disgusted. “These are the people who rescued you from prison? What did they want from you?”

“My mom’s power’s. They need the Master of Earth to actually pull the continent apart. My dad promised them he would convince Lily to give him her powers, and if they could bring us to the border safely, he would transfer the powers to one of their members as payment.” 

“But he never had them,” Kai says. His eyes are alight with interest. “So, what did he do?” 

“Like I said before, elemental masters do not have freedom in South Ninjago. My mom built tunnels below the mountain range to help some of them escape the country. They all came here, to Ninjago City. And then . . .” 

He struggles to continue. The end of the story is near. What he’s about to tell the Red Ninja will change the way he sees him forever. It might even make him want to kill him.

Perhaps Cole’s father deserves that kind of heartbreak. His own son, killed by one of his victims. How poetic. 

Cole brushes his fingers over the photos on the desk. “The Elemental Alliance believed the elemental masters who escaped here had betrayed humanity. They believed that they deserved to die for it. My father knew this, too. In exchange for letting us go, he promised to hand over the names, faces, and locations of the elemental masters hiding in the city to the Elemental Alliance. He spent five years tracking them down and sending their information to the alliance. All of them are now dead. I’m sorry, Kai.” 

It takes a moment to click. When it does, Kai backs away from the desk, face pale from shock. He looks down at the photograph and then back to Cole.

“No. You’re wrong. My parents were killed by Garmadon,” he whispers, but it’s a desperate assertion both of them know is not true. “A rocket hit our house and collapsed it on top of them. They drowned after a pipe burst in the basement and they couldn’t get out.” 

Heat builds behind Cole’s eyes. He blinks away the water in his eyes before it can form into tears. “Your house was probably rigged to explode. They must have used a Garmadon attack as cover. I’m sorry.” 

Slowly, Kai lowers himself to the floor. He presses his face into his hands and sucks in a shaky breath.

“I only did this whole ninja thing to get back at Garmadon,” Kai mutters into his hands. “I have nothing else going for me. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?” 

Cole feels wholly inadequate to answer his question. He has no idea what he wants to do with his life, either. “I don’t know,” he replies. It feels like a pathetic thing to say, so he adds, “You deserve better. I’m sorry.” 

Kai pulls down his hands to glare at him over his fingertips. “Stop apologizing. You weren’t the one who did it. It’s not your fault.” 

After a decade of guilt, the reassurance hits him like a train. He falls into a fit of delirious laughter, holding desperately on to the back of the chair to prevent himself from falling over.

“My father didn’t do it to protect himself. He did it to protect me.” His words come out airy, tinged with disbelief. “Everything that happened to you at Chen’s happened because of me! I don’t know if I can apologize enough for it.” 

A moment passes as Kai stares at him. “I never blamed Lloyd, either. In case you forgot.” 

The mention of his name stops Cole’s breakdown right in its tracks. Aw, fuck. Lloyd.

“White figured out where he is,” he blurts out. 

Kai’s eyes widen. “What? He did?” 

“It doesn’t even matter. The Elemental Alliance is on Garmadon’s volcano. They caught White and imprisoned him there. They’re coming for me next. I can’t save Lloyd. There isn’t enough time.” He runs his hands down his face as the anxiety from earlier returns in full force. “I have at most a couple of hours until I have to hide in the jungle for the rest of my life. That’s not long enough for me to figure out where he lives.”

In an instant, Kai is on his feet. “What do you mean? Is he being held at home?” 

Cole nods. “Yeah. In the bomb shelter below his apartment building. White told me over the radio, but he didn’t have a chance to give me his address.”

“Oh, my—you idiot!” Kai grabs Cole’s shoulders and gives them a shake. “I know where he lives! I can bring you right to him.” 

Cole shoves Kai away. “The Elemental Alliance knows where I live. They know who I am. I can’t help you. I need to hide.” 

“Dude, you’ve seen those bomb shelters. They only have one entrance. I won’t be able to get in without being spotted.” 

Kai reaches down and grabs Cole’s wrist. He lifts Cole’s hand to wave it in his  face. 

“With you, we can drill. We can dig right into his cell and pull him out. The kidnappers won’t see it coming.” 

It could work. Cole’s powers allow him to map out subterranean structures—he could scan the bomb shelter and find the best entrypoint to Lloyd’s cell. Then he would just have to break down the wall, grab Lloyd, and escape back into the dirt. There is literally no way the vigilantes will see this coming. 

But, still—

“I can’t let these people catch me, Kai. I just can’t.” 

“Will you shut up already? I heard you the first time!” Kai points angrily out the bedroom window. “This is your one chance to use your powers for something good. Help me rescue him, yeah? Then you can go into hiding for the rest of your life. I don’t care.” 

A chance to use his powers for good . . . 

Cole’s journey to Ninjago City left a trail of destruction in its wake. It is a trail of scorched grass, upturned earth, and poisoned rivers. He looks back on it often, horrified by the sacrifices it took to get him here and helpless to do anything to fix it. This is not the type of destruction that can be undone. 

However, he has always dreamed of planting flowers around the trail. It will not fix anything, but it will make the world a slightly better place. It’s the least he can do. 

This desire is what pushed him to fight Garmadon. It is what pushes him to look into Kai’s dark eyes, into the eyes of someone whose life is so entangled with his own, and nod his head. 

“I’ll help you rescue Lloyd,” Cole says. “After that, I’m gone.” 

Kai smiles. “And then you’re gone. Sounds like a plan.” 

Notes:

thanks so so much for reading!!! we will check in on jay and nya next chapter :)

have a great day everyone <3

Chapter 10: Night 3 (pt. 4)

Notes:

despite my best effort, this night is not over yet. oh well.

jay and nya (but mostly jay) focus chapter. enjoy!!

CONTENT WARNING: there is an implied threat of sexual violence that lasts throughout most of the chapter. nothing happens, or is even remotely attempted, but i believe a warning is still necessary.

1. JAY - 23:00 | 11:00 PM

The helicopter lands in the Sea of Sand. 

If they are close to the desert's centre, there should be no rivers or lakes for miles. South Ninjago is far away, too. It is the perfect place to hide the Master of Water. 

The Serpentine soldiers remove the bag from Jay’s head and guide him into a sprawling military base. It is made up of long, light brown tents clustered together along roads paved into the sand. A tall fence topped with barbed wire stretches around the site. As Jay enters the base, he cannot find any other ways in or out—if he needs to make a quick escape with Nya, it will have to be through the main gate. This makes things harder, but not impossible. Not quite. 

Nya is held by a Constrictai in an awkward bridal-style carry. Two soldiers lead them into a tent marked with a symbol Jay does not recognize, but the interior makes it clear that it is some kind of infirmary. An army doctor invites them to a small area cordoned off by curtains, where Nya is placed face-down on the hospital bed. All soldiers leave except the Constrictai, who stands in the corner, crosses his arms, and keeps his eyes locked on Jay. 

The posture is defensive. Jay stares at the soldier dumbly for a moment, feeling vaguely threatened. He’s never been watched like this before. 

“Don’t mind him,” the doctor says. He wheels a stool closer to the bed and uses a red claw to part Nya’s hair, searching for her head wound. “He is here to protect both of us. Try not to make any sudden moves.” 

It feels a little ironic, given that Jay is still locked in handcuffs and the doctor has a whole array of sharp tools at his disposal. They don’t even know he’s an elemental master yet. What do they possibly think he could do to hurt this doctor?

“Most humans are afraid of Fangpyres like me,” the doctor elaborates, sensing Jay’s confusion. He continues to look through Nya’s hair. “I could kill your friend here with a single drop of venom from my fangs. You have every right to be paranoid. Don’t you agree?” 

Jay frowns. Why would the doctor say that? The possibility of him poisoning Nya to death wasn’t remotely on his mind until he decided to bring it up!

In the corner of his eye, he notices the Constrictai lowering his arms. Right. Okay. He needs to stay calm. 

The doctor mentioned killing her to get a reaction out of him. It’s the only explanation. But why? Is this some kind of test? 

It must be. Nya is vulnerable. Defenceless. The doctor is trying to gauge if Jay perceives the Serpentine as a threat by forcing a confrontation at the earliest opportunity. If Jay unconsciously fears all Serpentine, as many humans probably do, he will take the doctor’s threat seriously. He will feel the need to find a way to protect Nya, even if it gets him hurt or killed by the Constrictai guard watching over him. 

Jay, however, has never really cared about the Serpentine at all. His time has always been divided by school, helping his parents, and being a ninja. He’s never had the free time to think too hard about these things. The war has always felt far away, and the same goes for the Serpentine. They exist. Just not in his brain. 

What is the best way to respond? How can he convince him that he doesn’t care?

To make his point, he nods his head towards the small table of surgical tools behind the doctor. “You could kill her with a scalpel, too. Any doctor could. Your fangs don’t make a difference.” 

The doctor hums. “I like that answer. Thank you.”

The next half hour is spent in silence as the doctor cleans and bandages Nya’s wound. Without the proper equipment, he cannot test for a brain injury, but he believes she should be fine as long as she rests. She might suffer from headaches and bad vision when she wakes up, but it will not be permanent. She’s okay. 

“I need to check her lungs,” the doctor says. With a knife, he cuts a small slit into the back of her gi and sticks a stethoscope inside. After a few seconds of listening, he blinks in surprise. “The soldiers told me she almost drowned. I hear nothing in her lungs. Did she remove the water on her own?”

Jay shrugs. “She’s the Master of Water. Probably.” 

The doctor nods and removes the stethoscope from her back. “Then I believe she’s all right. As I said before, make sure she rests. But she should need no other treatment.” 

Relief hits Jay like a wave. Nya is fine. She’s going to live—

And then the doctor, in a strange act of cruelty, yanks away his relief all at once. 

He sits back on his chair and looks up to Jay with an intense expression. “Listen to me, human. The tombs were only one hundred years ago. Its legacy is heavy here; nearly all soldiers in this base are directly related to someone who was hurt during your Emperor’s campaign. They want revenge, but thanks to the stalemate in the war, the humans in South Ninjago are untouchable. The soldiers have been looking for a human to hurt for years. And now, they have been delivered two human prisoners on a silver platter. Do you understand what kind of danger you are in?”

The pinch of the handcuffs against his skin feels sharper than ever. “Are they going to kill me?” 

“No. They might beat you within an inch of your life, but they will not kill you. You are not the one who concerns me, though,” the doctor says. He taps the back of Nya’s arm. “Women experience a different kind of violence during war time. Don’t let her out of your sight.” 

The implication in his warning makes his stomach sink. Jay gives the handcuffs an experimental tug, trying to see if there’s any possibility of freeing himself, but there’s no give at all. He isn’t getting out of these until they let him out. 

Okay. That’s fine. With Cole’s help, Jay has found all sorts of ways to use his powers without his hands. It’s harder, and requires much more precision, but he knows how to do it. Nya will not be hurt today by a bunch of riled up soldiers. Not if he can help it. 

“General Arcturus is flying in from the capital to see you. He will get here in three hours. Once he’s here, you will be under his protection. This means the soldiers are going to go after you very soon.” The doctor slides off his stool to rummage through a cabinet behind him. He returns with two small cups: one containing a single pill, and one containing water. “This pill is a stimulant we give to our soldiers so they remain vigilant at all hours. If you take it, you will not sleep for two days. It will be harder for the soldiers to hurt you if you are awake and aware of your surroundings. It is midnight in Ninjago City time. You must be tired. I highly advise you take it.” 

If Jay wasn’t so terrified right now, he would laugh in the doctor’s face. He is very, very good at staying awake. Being a scrap worker and a ninja means sacrificing a lot of resting hours. During heavy testing periods at school, when studying is more important than sleeping, his brain often becomes sufficiently abused that it feels like a stew left to go bad on the counter. The information is crammed inside, but it’s soggy, and tends to shed a bit when he tries to grab it. One time, Garmadon attacked after he’d been awake for three days straight during finals, and he wound up passing out on the warehouse couch while Black was going over their defence strategy for the night. The team left him there, and he woke up during the follow up meeting the next day. It was pretty embarrassing. 

Realistically, Jay does not need stimulants to last another three hours. Exhaustion tugs at the edge of his brain, but he knows that means he can easily last until tomorrow night before his body starts to fight him for some rest. However, using his powers drains him like nothing else, and he has a feeling he’ll be relying on them a lot tonight. An extra kick will go a long way. 

“Okay, thank you,” Jay says. He takes the pill and swallows it down with the cup of water. 

The effects are not immediate. A few soldiers arrive to collect him and Nya, and as they lead him through the base, he feels his senses begin to sharpen. His thoughts are crsip, quick and clear as though he’s just awoken from a long rest. By the time they bring him into a tent to lock him up, he is ready for whatever these soldiers plan to throw at him. Perhaps more ready for a fight than he’s ever been in his life.

They put him and Nya in the same tent. Jay notes its location in the base with concern; the tent is close to the fence, where the commanding officers are less likely to hear what is happening inside. It might be intentional. It might be a coincidence. Either way, they are vulnerable. 

A bed from the infirmary has been placed inside the tent. Nya is set down on the bed, and Jay watches with bubbling anxiety as the soldiers strap her wrists to railings on either side of the bed frame. 

One of the soldiers must catch something in his expression, because he says, “Elemental masters need their hands to use their powers properly. This is for everyone’s protection.” 

That isn’t true. However, Jay the civilian shouldn’t know anything about elemental powers in the first place, so he keeps his mouth shut and nods in feigned understanding. Even if he’s pretty sure the soldier isn’t telling the whole truth.

On the other side of the tent, a small, but thick metal loop sticks out of the concrete floor. The soldiers sit Jay down beside the loop, remove one of his cuffs, slip it through the loop, and then attach it back to his wrist. The chain is way too short to let him stand up, so he remains seated beside it as the soldiers double-check that both his and Nya’s restraints are secure.

It is in Jay’s best interest to appear stupid and nonthreatening. If they underestimate him, he might be able to get the upperhand when they come for him later. 

“This isn’t fair,” he whines to no one in particular. “How am I supposed to sleep like this?”

A soldier shrugs. “Not my problem.” 

They leave and shut the tent flap behind them. A lamp on the floor illuminates the tent, though it is dim and casts deep shadows into the corners. Jay moves around until he finds the most comfortable way to sit on the hard pavement and then lasers his focus to the tent’s entrance. 

Obviously, he doesn’t plan on sleeping anytime soon. He just wants them to think he does. That way, when they inevitably break into the tent to hurt him and Nya, he will have the element of surprise. And it’s not the only element he’s hiding up his sleeve, either. 

 Nya is his teammate. If he has to zap every single person in this base to keep her safe, so be it. 

---

2. BLACK - 23:02 | 11:02 PM

Finally, Cole manages to sort through his things and pack his bag. The large backpack contains a few pairs of clothes, outdoor gear, food supplies, a big water bottle, and every one of his mother’s personal items. Cole puts the whole photo book in the bag, but he lets Kai keep the picture of their parents together. The explosion that took out their house took all of his family photos, too. This is the only photo of his parents remaining in Ninjago City. It’s only right to give it to him. 

The two of them leave through the front door. At the edge of his driveway, Cole turns around to observe the house one last time. He’ll miss this place. He’ll miss having a roof over his head. It’s sad that he has to go, but he’s always known this might happen eventually. Such is the life of the world’s most wanted elemental master. 

Kai stands beside him and puts a hand on his hip. “I have a question. Since you had to flee South Ninjago, does that mean you’re a refugee?”

Cole blinks. “Uh, I guess so. Why?” 

“Well, if you’re a refugee, why aren’t you poor?” Kai asks. 

The audacity of the question makes him burst into sharp laughter. What a funny thing to ask someone. 

“My mom got paid really well, and my dad was part of a popular band down there. I don’t think their music ever made its way to the city, but I remember hearing it play all the time on the radio before I left. They were huge.” Cole gestures to the large house in front of them. “When my mom got sick, my dad started to prepare for the worst. He funnelled a bunch of their money into a fake business here and used it to set up a new life for us. The house was already bought and furnished by the time we arrived.” 

Kai nods slowly. “Cool. Do you want to set your house on fire?” 

“What?” Cole says. He looks to Kai, trying to find a hint of humour in his eyes, but nothing is there. He’s serious. 

“You hate what your dad did to save you. The Elemental Alliance knows where you live. Don’t you want to send a message before you run away?” 

A message? It’s definitely tempting. The Elemental Alliance has influenced nearly all corners of his life. It would be nice to tell them how much he hates them—to firmly reject everything they stand for. Everything they have done. 

His heart flutters at the idea of the Elemental Alliance climbing the hill to his house, all giddy to finally have their Master of Earth, only to stumble upon a house in flames instead. He wants them to be demoralized. He wants them to know they’re too late. He wants them to know that he can be just as slippery as his father, and no matter how close they are to catching him, he will always be two steps ahead. The Master of Earth will never belong to them. Not ever. 

“Do it,” Cole says firmly. He glances at Kai with narrowed eyes. “Burn it down. Send a message for yourself, too.” 

With a flick of his wrists, flames envelop Kai’s hands. He punches a fist forward, sending a fireball through the glass of the living room window. He sends several more. After a few minutes, flames lick at the sides of the house, and smoke billows out of the open windows. It won’t be long until the building is totally destroyed. 

Kai shakes the fire out of his hands. “Come on,” he says. “We need to go.  My gi is on the other side of town.” 

Cole takes a moment to etch the sight of the burning house into his memory. Then he turns around and walks down the mountain with Kai, leaving the smell of smoke and betrayal behind him. 

---

3. JAY - 00:32 | 12:32 AM

Jay is not a strategist. Black and Green have tried to coach him through drawing up defence plans before, but he’s never been able to wrap his mind around the game of it all. It just doesn’t come naturally to him like it does to them.

Right now, he is racking his brain to remember every single thing they have ever taught him about the art. The stimulant is doing its job, allowing him to pry into year-old memories as though they occurred just yesterday. Black and Lloyd’s voices swim around his consciousness, merging with his own internal monologue as he figures out exactly what he’s going to do when the soldiers finally break into the tent. 

“Strategy follows the law of double perception. You don’t make your decisions based on what you think of your enemy, or what they think of you, but rather what you think your enemy thinks you think of them,” Black had once explained. Jay hadn’t understood it at the time, the logic too slippery to grasp in his fingers. He likes it when problems have patterns, like they do in math and science class. There are correct answers in mathematics. In strategy, some answers are better than others, but they are all assumptions. Nothing is certain. He hates it. 

Jay forces himself to understand it. He sinks his teeth into the law of double perception, chews it into mush with his canines, and then uses his tongue to split it into pieces. 

The first piece is the beginning of the law: what Jay thinks of the soldiers. Before the doctor’s warning, he was frustrated with them, but they did not scare him. They only frighten him now because he has been given a genuine reason to fear him. 

The second piece is what the Serpentine soldiers think of him. The doctor explained this part to him already. The soldiers hate him because he is a human. They are angry about what the human military has done to them in the past, so they are going to take it out on him because he’s the first human to ever be at their mercy. 

The third piece is what the Serpentine think he thinks about them. Or, rather, what he thinks the Serpentine think he thinks about them. Back on the Destiny’s Bounty, the Serpentine believed he was a Shark. There’s a high chance they still do. In that case, they will see him as an Oni worshipper: a human who believes that conquering the entire realm is their destiny. These are the type of people who join the Shark Army. They enter Garmadon’s army with enthusiasm, hoping the Oni will lead their species to total domination over the continent. Naturally, they do not see the Serpentine as equals. If the Serpentine soldiers believe Jay is a Shark, they will assume he looks down on them as an inferior species. 

This is why the doctor tested him in the infirmary. If Jay had shown signs of prejudice in his respone the doctor’s comment about killing Nya, he doubts the doctor would have done anything to protect him from the soldiers. He determined that Jay was innocent and decided to help him. 

The soldiers will not show him the same mercy. When they enter the tent to grab him, Jay will not just be a helpless punching bag to them: he will be an enemy. They may be kinder to Nya, since the Secret Ninja Force exists to fight Oni worshippers, but she’s still a human. She deserves to be hurt one way or another. 

Since the soldiers will see him as an insane, prejudiced Shark, he will not be able to talk himself out of anything. They will be hungry to inflict pain upon him. Therefore, if Jay wants to survive the next few hours unharmed, his best bet is to make sure they are never allowed to get within striking distance in the first place.

Jay closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Then he stretches his senses as far as they will go, casting a wide net over the entire military base. The stimulant helps. He can feel every device inside the net, detect every spark of electricity, much like he could in the public security building when he inserted himself into its electrical circuit. There are no wires to help him this time. He must do everything from a distance, relying only upon his own skill and accuracy to manipulate the electrical lifeblood of the base. 

The base is powered by ten generators. The wires that go from the generators to their surrounding tents are buried in the sand, but he is able to follow them easily and figure out what each generator is powering. Computers, phones, radios, vehicles—he knows exactly what kind of batteries these devices use, so from their electricity intake alone he is able to guess which devices are stored in which tents. As a test, he tries to turn off a phone that has been left to charge by cutting off the flow of electricity from its battery to the rest of the device. When it powers down, he smiles. Good.

A soldier patrols close to the tent. Jay scans him for devices, finding two he recognizes with certainty: a handheld radio, and an earpiece much like the ones the ninja use. The earpiece intrigues him greatly. This is something he can use against them. 

It is time to put his plan into action. He finds the weakest generator, one that will probably need to be replaced soon, and digs into its alternator. in order for a generator to work, an internal combuston engine spins a rotor, which creates a magnetic field that induces electricity as it passes over the wires inside the machine. These are all components of the alternator, which is how the generator gets its electricity. Jay finds the electrical current inside, wiggles his fingers, and then supercharges it with enough electricity to blow up a car. 

A boom! sounds in the distance. Earpieces—soldiers—abandon their patrols to run towards it. Soon, the entire base will be aware that a generator is down. Electrical issues are bound to ensue. It’s time to make sure that actually happens. 

He finds a tent with a lot of computers. There are earpices milling around inside, so he assumes this must be some kind of surveillance or tech centre in the base. He flickers its power on, off, on, off, and then turns it back on and leaves it alone. He does this to five other tents with groups of people inside. Not only has a generator died, but word will spread that the base’s power is on the fritz. Any strange electrical problems will now be blamed on the failing generator. 

Jay has just laid down the cover story for a very liberal use of his powers. When the soldiers approach the tent, he will make sure they can’t get anywhere close to it. And they will never suspect he had anything to do with it at all, because as far as the soldiers are concerned, he’s been asleep this whole time. 

To look the part, he shimmies down until he’s laying flat on his back. His arms are pulled over his head to accommodate the position, making his shoulders twinge painfully. His muscles are sore from being held behind his back for several hours straight. Any movement at all shoots wide, heavy pain up his arms and down his back. It’s fine, though. The Sharks have done worse to him before. He can deal with it until the General gets here. If not for him, then for Nya—she’s totally defenceless without him. She needs him. He refuses to let her down over some minor pain.

Based on his internal clock, it happens twenty minutes later. A group of eight earpieces depart a tent and make their way down the main road. They turn down the path that leads straight to his tent. 

Looks like it’s time. His fingers twitch. A power surge hits the base, shutting off computers, flickering lights, and tripping random alarms. Most importantly, it overloads half of all active earpieces in the base, sending a powerful shock into the ears of the soldiers wearing them. 

Screams erupt from outside his tent. The soldiers don’t move for a long time, but then eventually pick themselves up and hobble away towards the infirmary. Jay smiles in sick satisfaction. If they’re going to the infirmary, the shock must have done some real damage. Good. He wants it to hurt. 

It happens twice more. The next time a group of soldiers gets close to the tent, he finds a healthy generator and makes it explode. Their attention is quickly diverted away from the human prisoners as they run over to check out the explosion.

The time after that, he finds a switch connected to various speakers around the base. He turns it on, hoping it’s something useful, and triggers the air raid siren. Its loud, swooping tune sends the soldiers scrambling to the command centre to receive their orders. The whole ordeal lasts about twenty minutes, which must be about how long it takes to verify the false alarm when the base now believes none of its technology can be trusted. 

More soldiers go on patrol, but they no longer group up and attempt to enter the tent. Jay has officially spooked them. They won’t be trying to hurt him or Nya anytime soon. 

Something new enters his net of senses. A large battery pulls up to the entrance—a car, most likely. A phone exits. Earpieces follow. The phone enters the base, hangs a right, walks down a road, and then comes to a stop right in front of Jay’s tent. 

This time, Jay does not panic and sabotage something to send the person away. He lets them enter, and to his elation, there are no footsteps as they move into the tent. This is not an ordinary soldier. This is someone important enough to have evolved into their higher snake form. 

“Wake up, human,” says General Acturus. 

Jay blinks his eyes open. He lifts his head to look at the General, remembers how a scared prisoner should probably react to all this, and then returns to a sitting position by pushing himself as far back as he can go with his feet. 

“Please let me go,” Jay begs, forcing a tinge of desperation into his voice. “I was just helping her look for Lloyd Garmadon. We had no idea it was one of your ships. I just want to go home.” 

The General is tall like all Anacondrai, which makes him especially intimidating to someone chained to the floor. Jay makes sure to shrink away from him when he slithers an inch closer. 

“What’s your name?” General Arcturus asks. 

“Jay Walker.” 

The General nods. “Do you know why you are here, Jay Walker?” 

“I accidentally trespassed on a military vessel.” This likely isn’t the only reason, but it’s the one that makes him seem the most innocent. “I didn’t mean to. Please, I—I have to go home. My parents need me.”

The General regards him coolly for a moment, looking him up and down with his large eyes. “You do not need to be afraid of me. As a resident of Ninjago City, you have full citizenship in the nation of Ourobouros. We have no right to keep you here. You will be allowed to go home. We just need to talk some things over first.” 

This perplexes him. “Why? I’m no one.” 

“Because the last time this happened, I had no humans to consult with. I want your perspective." 

“My perspective?” 

General Acturus looks back to Nya’s sleeping form. “Her name is Nya Jiang. Nine years ago, a rocket from Garmadon’s army destroyed her house. It trapped her in a flooded basement with her parents. She was the only survivor. Emergency services found her unconscious, trapped beneath the water by a fallen beam, but still alive because she was breathing underwater.” 

If that was true, why did she accept the Shark helmet? She could have rejected his offer and pretended to swim below the surface the whole way to Destiny’s Bounty. There must be more to the story, though, so Jay bites his tongue and allows the General to keep speaking. 

“We brought her to this exact base and argued over what to do with her for many hours. Elemental Masters are weapons created by the First Spinjitzu Master to be used against us. We had no idea what to do with one living in our territory—we still don’t, and we are aware that many of them may have sought refuge in Ninjago City. As the leader of the military, I made the final call. I had a Hypnobrai officer erase her memories of the whole ordeal, including anything related to her powers, and sent her home. She has grown up completely unaware that she is an elemental master, but most importantly, she has grown up as a free person. Do you believe that was the right thing to do?” 

The General wants a human perspective on the problem. Unfortunately, Jay has no idea how to give him one. Humans can never agree on anything. His own team fell apart as soon as they disagreed on something! How is he supposed to speak for his entire species? 

There is another perspective he can offer, however. One of an elemental master.

“Is that how you see elemental masters? As weapons?” Jay asks. 

General Acturus sighs. His tongue flicks as he does.

“How we feel about them doesn’t matter. They have been used as weapons against us since the realm was created. If that is their role in human society, then we must treat them the same way. It is simply not up to us.”  

Cole had warned him about this. In South Ninjago, and probably in Ninjago City as well, elemental masters are seen as tools first and people second. When one yields incredible power, what they can do with the power becomes more important than the person themselves. As soon as the Serpentine discovered that Nya was the Master of Water, they dragged her away to a remote base and gave her no voice in what they were going to do to her. It happened when she was nine, and it is happening again today. The fact that she is still unconscious tells Jay that General Arcturus, despite all his ethical concerns about her, has no intention of letting her speak for herself. She is just a weapon to him. 

“What’s the point of erasing her memory?” Jay says. He’s always been curious about the necessity to keep his powers a secret, and Cole always clams up whenever he starts asking too many questions. General Arcturus may be able to answer him. “I don’t see the problem with allowing elemental masters to live in the city.” 

If the question is oddly specific, Arcturus doesn’t seem to mind. “If Nya wanted to, she could throw a tsunami at Ninjago City and kill half the people living there. She could steal the rain from our crops and leave us to die of famine. She could kill you and me, right here and now, by expanding the water in our blood vessels until they all burst at once. All elemental masters are capable of similar feats of devastation. We cannot allow them to live openly in the city because they are dangerous, which means South Ninjago would become very, very paranoid if they found out that even one of them was living there. The elemental masters were created to be humanity’s weapons. What do you think the Emperor would do if he discovered that we were keeping them in our territory?”

Although Jay has never cared about the war, the question strikes at a particular city-wide anxiety that not even he has been able to avoid. “Are you saying they would invade us?” he breathes.

“Yes. And I can say, with absolute certainty, that Nya’s show of force aboard the Bounty was noticed by South Ninjago surveillance. They know we have her, which brings me to this consultation.” General Arcturus slithers to the side of Nya’s bed and puts a hand on the bed railing. He sounds tired when he speaks again. “We have plans in Ninjago City. Do you remember the remains of the building you explored with Nya? That was us, as part of a long-term plan to fortify Ninjago City before the inevitable invasion from South Ninjago. I cannot risk the invasion occurring before we are ready. So, to protect Ninjago City, I have agreed to send her to South Ninjago.” 

Jay’s blood turns to ice. “What do you mean?”

“A human envoy from South Ninjago will arrive here soon collect her. When they bring her back to South Ninjago, the Emperor will train her and mould her into one of his soldiers. Her life in Ninjago City will be history.” General Acturus sighs and stares at Nya. “Before they get here, I have the opportunity to offer her a small mercy. I can have a Hypnobrai soldier erase her memories; all of them, from the moment she was born. Becoming a slave to the Emperor will be less painful when she doesn’t remember her old life as a free person. Do you agree?” 

Jay can hardly believe what he’s hearing. General Acturus is going to give up Nya? Just like that? And the kindest thing he can think to do is to erase her memories?

This is insane. Jay can—he might be able to stop the envoy from picking her up, but then what? They’ll send more. They’ll send soldiers into Ninjago City to find her. Garmadon certainly won’t like that, so the whole city will turn into a battleground between the Sharks and the army from South Ninjago. Everything will get destroyed. Jay will be forced to work for weeks on end to help his parents clean it all up. What a nightmare scenario for his grades.

That is a selfish line of thinking. Nya and all the people in the city are more important than his academic success. But it’s all so complicated, he has no idea what to do—

Two large batteries enter his sensory net. They’re above him—helicopters, most likely. Or small planes. 

“Are they here?” Jay says. 

General Arcturus gives him a confused look. “They’re due to arrive in the morning. Why do you ask?”

In the distance, the unmistakable sound of gunfire cuts through the night air. 

General Arcturus flinches. “We shut down our radar because we thought it was malfunctioning. It must have been telling the truth. I need to go.” 

As he turns around, a masked man with a rifle enters the tent. The uniform he wears is unrecognizable: all black and dark greens, thrown together with random pieces of clothing. A bandana is tied around his left arm. 

Not South Ninjago. Not Shark Army. But a threat nonetheless. 

“Don’t move a muscle!” the man barks. He takes another step into the room. “Where is the Master of Water? Are they here?”

Jay’s attention zeroes in on him. It could be the adrenaline, or the stimulant, but he feels like he can sense electricity inside his body. It crackles between his brain and his limbs, tiny little impulses, ones that he might be able to control . . . 

He clenches his hands into tight fists. The electricity in the man’s brain turns into a hurricane in his skull, wild and uncontrolled and intense until his body jerks erratically once, twice, and then crumples to the floor. 

A seizure. That is what Jay has just given him. 

When his focus returns to the room, he finds General Arcturus staring at him with wide eyes. 

“You did that,” he says breathlessly. “You looked at him and he fell. What did you do?” 

Jay takes a moment to study the battery in the fallen man’s radio. Once he has a feel for it inside and out, he looks for others in his sensory net. There are twenty-two other people moving around the base with the same radio. 

“Who was that?” Jay says, not bothering to answer his question. “He wasn’t a soldier.” 

General Acturus curses. “It’s the Elemental Alliance. It must be.” He nods in Jay’s direction. “Can you do that to the rest of them?” 

“What do they want with her?”

The gunshots start up again. This time, they don’t stop. The base has turned into a war zone outside the tent. 

“If they get their hands on her, they are going to mind control her into killing my entire species. I don’t know how they found out that she’s here, but they cannot be allowed to leave with her. I will ask you this again: can you do that to the rest of them?”

Jay doesn’t want anyone to control Nya. He can take out the Elemental Alliance, but the Serpentine will just send her to South Ninjago, anyways. It’s a lose-lose situation. 

There’s chaos outside. Perhaps, with all the fighting going on, he can grab her and escape undetected . . . 

“Release my hands, and I can do much more than give them seizures,” Jay says. He wiggles his shoulders for emphasis. “Your men are dying out there. I can feel it happening. Let me go and I can put a stop to it right now.” 

It’s a bit of a lie, but General Arcturus has no idea what powers Jay possesses. He has no incentive to refuse his offer. 

With a nod, Arcturus moves behind Jay and reaches down to unlock his handcuffs. His arms ache when he brings them forward, but he has no time to let them adjust. It’s time to get moving. 

As Jay stands, General Arcturus looks down at him with a smirk. “You know, the soldiers warned me you were a Shark. But I guess even someone like you knows who the real enemy is.” 

When Jay looks back to General Arcturus, he can sense the electrical impulses running through his body. The General is right: Jay knows the Serpentine are not his enemy. There are much worse people out there for him to worry about. But the Serpentine are currently standing between his and Nya’s freedom, so . . . 

Just like the man with the gun, General Arcturus is taken out by a storm of electricity in his brain. Then Jay runs to Nya’s bedside, undoes the straps connecting her wrists to the railing, throws her over his back, and escapes the tent. 

The gunfire comes from all directions. Jay uses his sensory net to guide him, avoiding earpieces and radios as he makes his way to the military base’s entrance. It’s easy to duck around tents and avoid being spotted when he knows where everyone is, so it does not take long for him to reach the entrance. 

A cluster of radios await him. Jay peeks around the corner of a tent, finding a group of six Elemental Alliance members waiting around the vehicles parked outside. They all hold rifles. If Jay wants to steal a car and escape, he’ll need to get rid of them. 

He takes them out one by one. When the first one falls, they gather around his body in concern. When the second one falls, they form a perimeter and shout for the perpetrator to show themselves. When the third one falls, they fire their guns randomly into the air. The fear mounts and mounts until they’re all gone. 

Jay darts out towards the entrance. The helicopters will be too obvious, so he lunges for an army truck and yanks open its back door. He throws Nya inside. As he secures the seat belt over her chest, her head rolls to the side and her eyebrows furrow in confusion. 

“Where . . . who?” she mumbles sleepily. 

She’s waking up. That’s good. The sooner she’s conscious, the better. Jay can only carry her around for so long.

“It’s Jay. Don’t worry, I’m getting you out of here,” he says.

“Really? I thought you were Blue. You sound like him.” 

Jay doesn’t respond to that one. 

Once she’s strapped in, he closes the door and drops back down to the sand. He moves around to access the driver’s side—

A man with no technology has slipped past his sensory net. 

He stands among the fallen soldiers, head turned towards Jay. They meet eyes. 

A fog enters his brain. It suppresses his thoughts, steals his focus, and forces him to knees against his will. It’s horrible. Jay wants to scream, but finds himself incapable of opening his mouth. The fog has established total control over his body and mind. 

The man walks toward him slowly. “My men have been dropping like flies. Is that your fault?” 

A dozen memories play in front of his eyes at once. His conversation with General Arcturus, the attack by the Elemental Alliance, the people Jay took out to escape—

They stop. Jay is snapped back to the present, where he has no will and no voice. He can no longer produce his own thoughts. He hears the man speak but feels no reaction to his words. 

“The Master of Lightning. A very talented one, at that. Who trained you?” 

Hours upon hours of training with Cole slam though his consciousness like a truck. When he returns to the present, his forehead is touching the sand. He has been bent over into a low bow. 

“Lou’s son. Why was he able to teach you to control your powers? Is he the Master of Earth?" 

There are no memories to play. Frustrated, the man kicks a bunch of sand into Jay’s hair.

“Worthless,” he grumbles, but then hums lightly. “Well, I suppose you did just give me two elemental masters at once. My bosses might even throw you a parade when we get back. How does that sound?”

A car door slams shut. The man turns to look at it. His attention slips for a split second, giving Jay a tiny sliver of control over his body again—

There is no time for anything fancy. He thrusts his hand forward and shoots a lightning bolt straight into the man’s chest. 

It doesn’t kill him. The man falls to his knees, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. The fog slowly recedes from Jay’s brain, and he presses his forehead back against the sand as he recovers. The experience of losing all control over his body and mind has rendered him completely exhausted.

“Jay, where are you? I can barely see anything,” Nya calls out groggily. 

Jay looks up. Nya has walked around the side of the car, leaning against it as she takes wobbly steps forward. The man has already turned his attention to her, and Jay watches in dismay as Nya falls completely still. He’s attacking her the same way he just attacked Jay. 

“Here’s how this will work, Jay,” the man growls. He points a finger to Nya. “If you don’t stand down, I will erase her mind. No memories, no personality, no nothing—she will never be the same person again. Stand down.” 

Jay shuts his eyes to concentrate. After the assault on his brain, his powers feel unrefined, and finding the electricity in the man’s body feels like wading through heavy sludge. Finally, after a few moments, he’s able to feel it beneath his fingertips. He can use it now.

“Can you erase her mind faster than I can fry yours?” he replies.

There is a long, tense silence. Jay hasn’t opened his eyes yet, but he imagines that the man is nervous. He knows what Jay can do. He knows that Jay can kill him with just a thought. He will need to tread very, very carefully to get out of this alive. 

Jay needs to be careful, too. Nya is in just as much danger as the man threatening her.

“My name is Neuro. I am the Master of Mind,” the man says. He laughs dryly. “I joined the Elemental Alliance to protect the realm from the exact situation we are in right now.” 

The sudden introduction surprises him. “Explain,” Jay says. 

“We both possess the ability to annihilate each other. Neither of us can stand down, because as soon as someone does, the other will achieve total victory. We will be stuck here until we die.” He laughs again, and Jay can hear desperate disbelief in his voice. “Don’t you see it? We are like humans and the Serpentine. Once one of us makes a move, we will both lose. We have our elemental masters. They have the Great Devourer. We are going to destroy this realm trying to protect ourselves.” 

The Great Devourer is the most dangerous weapon in the Serpentine’s arsenal. It is a snake capable of consuming the entire surface world, which means it would kill all humans and most Serpentine if it were ever released. The Serpentine’s official policy was always to ignore it and swear to never use it in the war, claiming no human action could ever warrant destroying the realm.

Until one hundred years ago. The late Emperor of Ninjago had conquered nearly the whole realm, pushing the Serpentine into a small corner of the continent. The Emperor wanted to weaken the Serpentine so badly they could never attack humanity again. To do so, he ordered the soldiers in the occupied Serpentine villages to kill half of their populations and then imprison the rest in underground tombs. It was a brutally effective campaign, until word reached the Serpentine leadership and galvanized them into action. 

They brought the four Fangblades together into one location for the first time in history. Then they threatened to release the Great Devourer if the Emperor’s army did not stop slaughtering their villages. 

It worked. The Serpentine bought themselves enough time to gather their forces and then pushed the humans back into their own territory. Now that the Serpentine are winning the war, the threat of the Great Devourer has dissipated, but it will never go away entirely. Not as long as it exists. 

“I thought the Elemental Alliance wanted to kill all the Serpentine. How will that help?” Jay says. If anything, it seems like a great way to guarantee that the Great Devourer is used to destroy the realm. ‘Don’t kill us all’ is literally their only rule for keeping it contained!

“Incorrect. We’re going to turn the continent into two islands. One for us, one for the Serpentine. We’ll put a whole ocean between us. Then we don’t have to worry about the Devourer, and they don’t have to worry about us. Doesn’t it sound perfect?”

No, it really doesn’t. They don’t need to live on separate islands to get along. Assuming his history teachers aren’t lying to him, it’s something they’ve done before! The peace has just always been ruined because they don’t trust each other and get all paranoid and attack each other over nothing. As long as they perceive each other as enemies, they will never be friends. No matter how much both sides want peace.

Right. Perception. Based on what Neuro knows about him, what does he expect Jay to expect him to do? 

This whole speech must be an attempt to talk him down. Jay only knows Neuro as a member of an armed militia that has invaded the base guns blazing—he has no reason to trust him. Neuro is trying to get him to see that he can be reasoned with. He wants them to both get out of this stalemate alive. 

Neuro is threatening Nya because he believes that Jay is willing to do anything to protect her. However, the continent-splitting plan he described sounds like it requires a lot of heavy lifting from the Master of Water. They need her to put the ocean between their islands to achieve their goal. She’s a critical component to their plan—why else would they attack a Serpentine base in the middle of nowhere just to grab her?

Perhaps Neuro could mind control her into doing it anyways, but a Master of Water with blank mind doesn’t sound like someone who could control the ocean with the precision required for the plan. Jay’s skills with his element come from years of experimentation and practice and understanding how it connects to himself. There is absolutely no way that Neuro can just tell her to move the ocean and expect it to work. If he erases Nya’s mind, he’ll erase the Master of Water along with her. 

Now, if Jay has come to this conclusion, then Neuro will be close behind. He will know that Jay believes he won’t do it. In that case, Jay needs to strike first. He needs to strike now!

Neuro begins to speak. A single syllable leaves his mouth. Before he can finish, Jay opens his eyes, looks right at Neuro’s head, and fries his brain with a twitch of a finger. 

The Master of Mind collapses. Freed from his mental grip, Nya takes a step to the side. Then she tips over and falls flat on her back. 

Immediately, Jay is sent into a panic. What if Neuro wasn’t bluffing? What if he was faster, and erased Nya’s memories as soon as he detected that Jay was doubting his resolve?

Jay hops to his feet and runs to her side. He slides to his knees beside her, petrified that she’ll look back at him with no recognition in her eyes. He doesn’t want to lose her forever.

Her eyes blink open slowly. She tilts her head to the side as she looks up at him. 

“Wow, you weren’t lying. It really is you.” Her face twists in pain, and she brings her hands up to cover her face. “Fuck, my head is killing me. What happened?” 

She remembers him. She’s okay. She’s okay!

The roller coaster of relief and stress threatens to send him into hysterics. He laughs, sits back on his knees, and wipes away the tears forming in his eyes. 

“Oh, you have no idea,” he says.

Notes:

a very large number of wars are caused by confusion, suspicion, and miscommunication. much like in the show, i feel like a lot of serpentine-human drama could be avoided if they engaged in even a minimal amount of diplomacy?

anyways, i think this is my most re-written chapter of the fic so far. the opening probably has, like, 10 iterations. i blame jay for this chapter taking so long.

as always, thanks so so much for reading, commenting, and leaving kudos!! have a great day <33