To Tame the Flames of Her Spirit

by abysmime

Summary:

Rise of the Snakes

Now that Nya has become a ninja, she's become used to the vacation that Garmadon's disappearance gave them. When a new foe arises, a race of ancient snake people controlled by Lord Garmadon's son, the ninja are left scrambling to get back in the game. The new Serpentine wars disguise the ninja's inner conflict - who is the Green Ninja?

Or
Nya's continued adventures in becoming a Fire Master

Chapter 1: Rise of the Snakes

Curled up in a corner of the entertainment room in the monastery, Nya listens to her teammates cheer as she delves into her history book. She’s been reading up on old Ninjago legends since she found out that the mystical dragons were real, worried that other creatures of her childhood nightmares may become real-life enemies one day. The pages of her book are lit up colourfully by the TV on the other side of the room.

“Hiyah!”

“Jay, stop trying to do everything yourself. We’re meant to be a team.”

“No, Zane, you gotta save your special attack!” The rest of her team are gleefully playing video games and snacking on pizza. Nya had stolen a few slices herself, having worked up an appetite after her training a few days before.

“Fantastic, I’m out!” Distracted from her book, Nya watches as they completely botch their strategy, and Jay loses his final life. Had she been playing, which she sometimes does, he wouldn’t have died so quickly.

“You should’ve healed instead, Jay.” She tells them over the pages of her book, turning a page as she again diverts her attention. 

“The lesson lives on, and I am getting the hang of this,” Zane says gleefully, as he always does when he finally grasps a difficult subject. Like Nya, he doesn’t often encounter things he isn’t good at, and so every small obstacle seems much bigger than it really is. Still, he always learns eventually. “Hee-yah!”

“Okay, now!” Just as they can attack the final boss of the level, the TV screen goes black. “Wha- Hey!”

They all turn to look at Sensei Wu, who holds the plug to the TV in his hand, staring down at them disapprovingly. He lifts his chin at the immediate outrage of his students, ignoring all their complaints.

“Sensei, that took us three hours!”

“Why would you do that? Why?”

Wu tuts at the, dropping the plug onto the floor. “Just because Lord Garmadon disappeared does not mean that he won’t return one day for the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu!” He gestures to where their Golden Weapons are strewn about on the floor. 

Nya blushes in embarrassment when she realises he is primarily looking at a pizza slice that is heating up on the Sword of Fire.

“But Sensei,” Zane protests weakly. “Ever since Garmadon has gone, Ninjago has known nothing but peace.”

“Yeah, peace is boring!” Jay gestures wildly with his hands, sounding very much annoyed at the very prospect of training. “There’s no one to save, there’s nothing to do !”

“We can train tomorrow.” Cole says with a yawn, leaning back and pillowing his head on his hands. He relaxes back, closing his eyes and missing the harsh glare that Wu sends his way.

“Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today.” He cautions with narrowed eyes.

Cole reopens his eyes, reaching for the pizza slice that had been heating on Nya’s Sword. He folds it in his hand and brings it up to his mouth. “I was gonna eat this pizza tomorrow, but if that’s the case… Hey!”

The pizza slide flies out of his hand as Wu kicks it, colliding with the shoji doors and slowly sliding to the floor, leaving a smear of grease on the paper. “No pizza for you! In order to reach your full potential, you must train.”

“I mean, I’ve been training.” Nya says when Wu turns to look at her. She has used the training course a few times recently, but obviously not right now. She lifts the book from her lap, showing Wu the dull cover of her non-fiction book. “In a sense.”

“While as valuable as physical prowess, strength of mind alone will not win a battle.” Feeling properly humbled, Nya sinks back into a slump, and simply buries her nose in her book once more.

She has been training! And keeping her mind sharp is an important part of battle strategy. Just because she’s choosing to hone the mental doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s neglecting the physical.

“Sensei, remember that itsy-bitsy feat of ours called the Tornado of Creation ?! If we can do that, then what else can we learn?” Jay sits forward, looking more like he wants an actual answer than the sarcasm his tone implies. He reaches for his controller again.

“You four have merely scratched the surface of your full potential. There are many secrets you have yet to unlock- many powers of your golden weapons that you can’t even begin to fathom.”

Cole scoffs, reaching for the Scythe of Quakes. “You wanna talk secret powers? Check this out.” He uses the Scythe blade to lift the TV plug and insert it back into the outlet. He sets the Scythe back down when the TV screen lights up white.

“Don’t worry, Master,” Zane tells their teacher sincerely as the TV boots back up, and the bright, flashing colours light up their faces once more. Jay and Cole whoop in celebration, immediately resuming their game. Zane takes a moment to speak directly to Wu, but he too picks up his controller and returns to the digital battle. “We will be ready when Lord Garmadon returns.”

Nya watches the boys return to their game and exchanges a disappointed look with Sensei Wu. She turns back to the book in her lap, ignoring the stab of guilt at her own lack of enthusiasm for training. She’s been training some, just not as much as she could be.

“Guys!” As if on cue, Kai suddenly bursts through the door, out of breath and still wearing his smithing apron. He looks down judgmentally at the group of ninja on the floor, then incredulously at Wu. “Garmadon’s returned!”

Wu looks over, alarm colouring his features. Nya feels the book fall out of her hands, caught off guard at the very real and unexpected threat suddenly thrust upon them. Immediately, she gets to her feet and prompts her brother for more information.

“He was spotted on his way to Jamanukai Village.” Kai watches the boys scramble around, and hands Nya her Sword. She accepts it and rushes to the changing rooms, where her gi is waiting for her, pristinely folded and vaguely dusty. She pulls it on haphazardly, and puts her vambraces on over the sleeves, securing the ropes tightly.

She’s just leaving the changing rooms when Jay finally makes it inside. Zane comes out soon after her, but hits his head on the large doors to the dragon’s stables. He is quick to fall back into the swing of things though, muscle memory taking over. Cole gets Rocky’s saddle situated easily enough, but drops the Scythe on his way by.

Kai has made it down the steps and is observing them as they scramble around. As he heads towards Flame, he bends down to hand Cole the Scythe, who accepts it bashfully. He reaches Nya just as she puts Flame’s saddle down on his back.

“Poor boys are getting rusty.” Kai says, vaguely worried, as he watches Wisp flap around away from Jay’s attempts to saddle him, grown unused to flying with a rider. Nya isn’t sure if he means the dragons or her teammates. Kai pats Flame’s flank and watches as Nya rushes to get his saddle tied on. When she finally gets the thing secured and sits down, he reaches up to hand her the reins when they’re just out of her reach. “Anything I can do to help?”

“I think the steel swords for the training course are getting dull?” Nya straps herself into the saddle, and looks around frantically for her satchel. She finds it after a moment, and pushes it down underneath her feet so that it doesn’t get lost during flight. “But Garmadon’s a job for us ninja.”

“Sharpened them yesterday.” Nya is again reminded of just how little she’s been using the training course. Kai moves over to help Jay with Wisp’s saddle, clearly pitying both parties. He waves over his shoulder at her. “Stay safe, kick butt!”

“Don’t wait up!” As Nya pulls Flame into gear, she sees Wu watching them with the same unveiled judgement. She nudges Flame to take off, following closely behind Shard, who flies gracefully in gentle swoops, stretching his wings.

Cole joins her seconds later, but the three fly together for a long moment before realising that Jay had not caught up. She brings Flame back around to see Wisp only just taking off.

“Come on!” She calls back, waiting for Jay to catch up. Wisp takes off at a headlong speed, whipping past her and Cole to join Zane far up ahead. Just before she takes off after them, she sees Kai and Wu watching them passively.

“You really think they’ll reach their ‘full potential?’” Kai leans into Wu a little with crossed arms, dropping any semblance of subtlety. He watches the four colourful dragons until they fade out of sight, squinting against the midday sun.

“In time. Perhaps a long time,” Wu says consideringly, sipping tea from a cup he had not been holding before. He smooths down his beard as they turn to head back inside the monastery. “But in time.”

Up in the air, the dragons twist and turn around each other, getting used to flying together and with riders after a long period  of inactivity. The dragons had been let out regularly to fly on their own, but the ninja’s habits reflected directly on their dragons.

“Just like old times, eh, Rocky?” Cole strokes the side of his dragon’s neck fondly. Weeks of tending to the dragons had softened his fear into a healthy respect, followed by a deep bond with his own dragon. The dragon in question swoops into a roll, drawing a laugh from its rider.

“So, what do you guys think about Sensei’s ‘true potential’ spiel?” Nya finds herself asking, weighing the previous conversation in her head. It’s difficult to fathom how much more they can improve on the elemental level - it's hard to think bigger than the Tornado of Creation. “Gonna get back to training?”

“Hey, we deserve a nice vacation! But, he might be onto something.” Jay brings Wisp into a swooping dive, getting closer to her so he can hear her more clearly. The dragon does as he directs, but huffs in annoyance at being pulled. “It’s not like we’ve really gotten to use the Golden Weapons. I wonder what they do.”

“I, for one, look forward to the future.” Zane calls down from where he’s flying above their heads, sounding decidedly eager. “If there is more for us to accomplish, then let us accomplish it.”

“Don’t know about you, but is anyone a little excited about battling Lord Garmadon?” Cole asks as they crest over the clouds and begin to descend. 

“Ugh, speak for yourself!” Jay says with a shudder. Nya strongly agrees, thinking back to the terrifying shadow that beat her black and blue in that Temple of Fire. “Are you thinking of the right Lord Garmadon? Red eyes, evil laugh? ‘Cause that guy gives me the heebies-jeebies.”

“Well, I’ve been looking forward to trying out some new Spinjitzu moves. Could be the perfect opportunity.”

“I think the perfect opportunity was over that vacation of ours.” Nya says as Jamanukai Village comes into view. She had been there once as a young child. It looks the same as it does in her memory, a larger town that only looks big until one has been to a proper city.

“Oh, don’t be such a Debbie Downer. Garmadon won’t know what’s coming to him!” Jay punches the air enthusiastically. Then, he grabs the reins and urges Wisp into a sharp dive, yelling “Race you!” over his shoulder.

Easily encouraged, each dragon dives after him. Nya leads Flame in large swoops, gaining speed past the others as her hair whips around in the wind. In her peripheral vision, she can see the other dragons gaining on her and squeezes her feet against Flame to urge him into higher speed.

Her dragon briefly slows to gentle her landing, while Wisp thuds harshly into the ground. The others touch down just milliseconds later, and Nya begins her rightful celebration.

“You snooze, you lose, boys.” Nya unstraps herself from the saddle, patting Flame’s neck. He’s easily the most experienced dragon in terms of flying with a rider, and so it only makes sense for him to bring her sweet victory. She makes a mental note to get him a treat or something. “Good dragon.”

“What do you mean?” Jay exclaims, throwing his hands in the air as Wisp straightens out of his rough landing. “No one was faster than me!”

Cole quickly jumps off of Rocky, cheering at his own lesser victory. “My feet were down first!”

“You were all disillusioned. It was clearly me!”

“Oh please, as if your dragons could beat mine!”

“You shouldn’t lie to yourself, Jay. It’s a sign of poor character.”

Nya’s attention snaps away from their childish argument at the sounds of screaming  from the townspeople. A villager pushes her out of the way as she moves deeper into the village, desperate to get into his house. A familiar maniacal laugh echoes through the town square as the ninja trudge closer to the source.

Nya pulls the Sword from its scabbard across her back, preparing for the worst as stares up at the shadowed figure of a man. It lacks the glowing eyes that Garmadon had in the Fire Temple, but one miniscule inconsistency isn’t about to convince her to let her guard down.

“Alright,” Nya says as she takes the lead towards the shadow. “I hope we remember our lessons in shadow puppetry.”

As they round the corner, the source of the shadow is revealed to be a small boy using perspective to intimidate. Up close, the maniacal laughter sounds more like youthful giggling, and the boy behind it lives up to the childish cadence of his voice.

 “It is I, Lloyd Garmadon!” He waves his arms above his head in a failed attempt to be menacing, and hops up on the town’s fountain. The kid puffs up his chest, and Nya has to laugh at his attempt to loom. Having seen the real thing, Nya has no patience for an imitation. “I demand all your candy, or else!”

“‘Lloyd Garmadon?’” Jay scoffs, stowing away his nunchucks and shaking his head in annoyance. “I thought we were gonna face Lord Garmadon.”

“It’s his son,” Cole explains, exasperation lacing his tone. He crossed his arms as the cowering townspeople began to peek out of their windows and doors. “Looks like he’s escaped his boarding school for bad boys again. To think we could’ve been doing Spinjitzu already.”

“Leave it to Kai to give us faulty information.” Nya sighs, sheathing the Sword of Fire and moving towards the kid. “I guess taking care of this troublemaker doesn’t take too much time out of our day.”

Up on his perch, Lloyd is starting to falter as the townspeople filter out of their houses. The more people that crowd around him, the more nervous he becomes.  “Uhm, gimme you candy, or else I’ll release the Serpentine on you!”

When no one moves to bring him his desired candy, he opens a trick can, releasing fake snakes onto the people. The villagers surrounding him start booing the kid, jeering at him and throwing vegetables, to which he cries out.

“Ugh! No way, I asked for candy, not vegetables! I hate vegetables!” He then slips and falls backwards into the fountain. Nya picks up one of the fake snakes, examining it briefly before throwing it away.

“I think he’d get a lot farther with a more realistic threat.” Until fairly recently, Nya had believed that the Serpentine were nothing more than a bedtime story to scare naughty children. Since beginning her research into Ninjago’s ancient history, she’s learned otherwise. She calls out to the kid from where he’s fending off the angry villagers. “No offense, kid, but no one is going to think you can find the Serpentine tombs.”

“I mean, yeah, but maybe don’t give the kid advice on how to be more effectively evil?” Cole suggests as he finally begins to wave away the townspeople. By now, the kid is soaked through with fountain water and covered in bits of rotten vegetables. “If there’s anything I hate, real or not, it’s snakes.”

Together with Zane, he hefts Lloyd into the air above their heads. The kid lets out a scream of frustration, throwing the trick can as hard as he can towards Jay and Nya. The can bounces off Jay’s skull, who lets out a small yelp of surprise.

“Unhand me!” The boy is shrieking, thrashing about in their grip. Cole and Zane begin walking, ensuring the townsfolk as they go. “Don’t worry, folks. Nothin’ to see here.”

Nya and Jay follow behind them closely as the kid thrashes about. He flails about, but being lifted on his back limits his range of motion drastically. He’s just wasting his energy. “Bow down to me or suffer my wrath! I’ll give you the count of three? One, Two!”

“So, uh, how are we meant to punish him?”

“Two and a half!?”

“I think I’ve got an idea.”

“I don’t think this is our finest solution, but it certainly is satisfying.” Nya feels a little bad for the kid, strung up in front of an entire town, but she’s fairly certain that he isn’t going to repeat this act again.

The kid swings a little from where his cape is snagged on a shop sign, suspending him high up in the air. His face is blotchy and red, covered in food bits as the townspeople continue to laugh at him. He’s still thrashing and screaming shrilly, and Nya has to admit that his lung capacity is very impressive.

“You’ve made me your nemesis! Mark my words, you’ll pay for this!” Lloyd kicks his feet out at anyone who gets just a bit too close to him. He narrowly misses someone’s head, who swears at him as they back away. “Do you know who my father is?”

“Yeah, we do. And last we saw him, it was him who disappeared.” Nya knows what she’s saying isn’t the truth, but right now she’s putting solving this problem over honesty. “I don’t think you’d fare too well against us either.”

“Right, so you better eat your veggies and smarten up, quick.” Cole tells him as Zane moves over to a vendor selling candy. He gleefully accepts a handful of candy when Zane offers it, taking off his mask to munch on the sweets. “Next time, try paying for your candy.”

“Mhm, mhm. Cotton candy.” Jay hums as he chows down into his portion. The kid lets out another wordless shriek of rage, but his energy seems to be dying down.

“You know, when he isn’t terrorizing townspeople, this kid is pretty cute.” Nya says passively as she tears off a piece of Jay’s cotton candy. If anything, Nya’s words seem to offend him the most, reviving his hissy fit instantly. 

Another banana peel flies at him as he thrashes, punching and kicking wildly. When she spots the tears in his eyes, Nya finally takes pity on the boy. “Alright, folks, wrap it up. I think he’s learned his lesson.”

The jeers of the townspeople die down, and they slowly disperse. Jay pouts from his place beside her, tossing away the stick from his cotton candy. “Aw, I was enjoying that.”

“Here, help me get him down.” Cole comes over to lift the kid’s cape off of the sign, lowering him to the ground. As soon as both feet are planted, the boy aims a swift kick between Cole’s legs. It immediately causes Cole to let go of him, allowing Lloyd to scamper away out of the village.

As he goes, he glances back over his shoulder, glaring at her with wet, angry eyes.

“Well, I don’t think Junior here will be back anytime soon.” Jay says after the boy has disappeared from sight, and they begin their trek back to their dragons. The streets are no longer empty as the town resumes its daily lifestyle. “Those people really took the Serpentine seriously.”

“Jamanukai has a history with the Serpentine. I guess they’ve held a  grudge.” Nya informs him as they reach the dragons. There had been a detailed history of Jamanukai Village in the history book she had been reading just this morning. Nya jumps up on Flame’s saddle, accidentally knocking her bag to the dirt path. When it hits the ground, the clasp opens and a scroll rolls out. She huffs, annoyed, and hops down to retrieve the bag and scroll. “I wish Kai would stop borrowing my bag. He always leaves his stuff in it.”

“That is not your bag,” Zane looks over her shoulder, pointing at the pattern embossed into the corner. “It’s Sensei’s. You must’ve accidentally taken it in the rush.”

“What is it?” Jay, too, has wandered over instead of mounting his dragon. He takes the scroll from Nya’s hands, eagerly unrolling it to see its contents. There is a ninja dressed in green in the center, surrounded by four ninjas that very closely resemble them. “Ugh, it’s written in chicken scratch!”

“Not chicken scratch. The ancient language of our ancestors.” Upon prompting, Zane points to one of the symbols on the scroll. He squints for a moment, before dutifully relaying, “This symbol means ‘prophecy.’”

“‘Prophecy?’”

“A vision of the future.” Nya explains with a sideways look at Jay.

“Oh, of course. I already knew that. Ha, ha.”

“‘One ninja will rise above the others and become the Green Ninja ,’” Zane reads, scanning over the page with a finger as he reads. “‘The ninja destined to defeat the Dark Lord.’”

“Dark Lord?” Cole cuts in from where he is sitting in Rocky’s saddle. He cranes his neck to see the scroll. “ That has got to be about Garmadon.”

“And they are obviously us .” Nya says with an encompassing gesture to them all. The wording paired with the imagery confuses her, seemingly presenting a dichotomy. She turns to Zane curiously, trusting his opinion over the others’. “Will one of us become this ‘Green Ninja’? Or does it mean that the ninja are hiring again?”

“The wording suggests that one of us will transcend the others.” Zane says, placing his translation abilities over the physical images before them. “I believe that all four of us are represented to show how it could be any one of us.”

“And I don’t think there is a fifth element.” Jay adds, looking around them. He counts on his fingers briefly. “Four Golden Weapons, four elements for the Tornado of Creation… I think we’re it.”

“So, one of us will defeat Garmadon.” Nya says decidedly as she rolls up the scroll and stuffs it back into Wu’s bag. Something tells her that he wouldn’t be pleased with their recent discovery. “So, I think that-”

“I’m going to look amazing in green?” Jay flexes his arms, showing off his meager muscles. While far from weak, he has always been lean. Nya laughs at him blatantly.

“I was going to say that we should keep this to ourselves. I think Sensei hasn’t told us about this for a reason.” She puts Wu’s bag back into the bottom of Flame’s saddle and prepares to climb in. “But who says it’ll be you? I have much better training scores than you.”

Jay scoffs in offense, putting a hand to his collarbone. “The colour obviously suits me. Redheads look great in green, that’s a fact!”

“Technically,” says Zane, cutting off Jay’s speech about his own vanity. “I am the best. It stands to reason that the Green ninja must be perfect in technique. How else would he rise above the others?”

“Who says the Green Ninja will be a ‘he?’”

“Alright, everyone, stop!” Cole butts into their growing argument, jumping from his saddle. He looks annoyed with all of them, throwing his arms out in front of Jay and Zane, and glaring up at her on Flame’s back. “Remember why Sensei recruited us in the first place? We’re a team. Nya’s right - we weren’t supposed to see this. We’ve got training to do.”

“Right. It could be any of us.” Nya says as Zane relents and mounts his own dragon. Jay still looks annoyed and Cole remains in front of him, glaring. “Or someone else. Who knows? Maybe Kai will don a gi.”

“Now that I’d like to see. Come on, let’s head back.”

Jay sighs dramatically before stretching his hands high above his head. He ducks away from Cole’s outstretched arm and makes his way back to Wisp. He flips easily into the saddle and picks up the reins, ignoring the dragon’s rumble. “It's about time I added some finesse to my routine.”

“Well, I could use some exercise.” Zane pats Shard’s neck and the dragon lifts off back towards the monastery. The others are quick to follow him, eager to begin training to beat each other. As they fly swiftly, Nya considers the supposed prophecy and wonders if she has a larger part in destiny’s play.

The journey back to the monastery literally flies by, with the ninja leading their dragons into tricks and twists. They each try to outdo each other, performing increasingly complex rolls and flips. By the time she gets Flame unsaddled, Nya is increasingly excited about getting back into training.

“The prophecy states that one of us will become the Green Ninja,” Jay closes the gates on the dragon’s stables and leads them up the stairs back into the monastery. The ninja completely forgo the changing rooms, heading straight to the training grounds. “So we can’t rest the issue until we figure out who .”

“May I suggest a tournament? Last ninja standing is the best.”

“Oh, sure. And the best of course is the Green Ninja.”

“I like it! Let’s get this thing started.”  Cole overtakes Jay and pushes open the doors to the training grounds, which is currently being run by Kai. They watch for a moment as he runs through the course like a man possessed, but abandons the course with a roll when he spots them. “Trying to beat your speed record?”

“Not too difficult, seeing how you guys never set any of your own scores. I’ve only got myself to beat.” He walks over to the deck, swiping up his water bottle and sitting down heavily. He takes a drink and runs a hand through his hair sheepishly. “I heard about Jamanukai. Sorry for the false alarm.”

“It’s fine. We’re having a tournament, if you don’t mind clearing the field.” Kai just shrugs at her ask, standing up and stepping a little closer to the doors. Nya knows that he’ll find something else to do easily enough. He’s had a surprisingly easy time staying busy with the uptick of business at Four Weapons Forge.

“You want to get in on it?” Cole offers as he reaches to properly power down the training course. The machines grind to a halt and the log platforms sink back into the ground, freeing up more of the courtyard for a proper sparring ground.

“Ha! No, thanks.” Kai claps Cole on the shoulder and says, “I think I’ll leave the ninja-ing to the pros.”

“Care to watch, then?” Nya asks as the other ninja move over to the armoury where all the weapons and training gear reside.

“No need. I know you’ve got this in the bag.” He claps a hand on her shoulder and gives her a proud grin. Then he takes his leave, disappearing into the monastery with a wave over his shoulder. “And I actually have a delivery in Jamanukai Village, so, I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Alright, team. Two matches, then the winners of each face off for the title.” Cole says as he opens the door to the armoury cabinet, pulling out both the Scythe of Quakes and one of the sparring helmets, which he throws at Jay’s head. He raises the Scythe, saying “It’s time to see what these babies can do!”

“First up, Nya versus Jay!”

“What?! Not fair!” Jay whips around to glare at Cole, and then rushes over to retrieve his Nunchucks and another sparring helmet. Nya follows close behind, accepting the Sword and spare armour when Cole hands it to her.

“Afraid of a little fire?”

“Ha, ha!” Jay waves away a fake tear, setting his feet. “I’ll go easy on you?”

“Ninja, go!” Cole slices his hand through the air sharply before bounding away from the scene.

Nya smiles sweetly at Jay, raising the Sword in her hands before rushing him suddenly. Surprised, Jay steps back, giving her an opening to attack him straight on. She originally forgoes the weapon, trusting more in her one-on-one fighting prowess. 

She sweeps at his legs as Jay tries to charge up his Nunchucks, swinging them above his head. He jumps easily, avoiding the kick, but accidentally electrocutes himself in the process. She has a leg up, thanks to his lack of recent training and reliability on his unreliable weapon.

Jay falls back onto classic nunchucks technique, forcing Nya to block with the Sword of Fire. When the two weapons intercept, a series of sparks shoot off from the point of connection, startling both parties.

Nya then retracts, shooting a fireball out of the Sword, which Jay jumps out of the way to avoid being burnt. When the two weapons next hit, Nya successfully disarms Jay, leaving them to grapple for the victory.

Nya ends up on top, pinning him with a knee to the chest and hovering the sword over his neck. The Nunchucks lay several feet away from them on the ground, and Jay sheepishly raises his hands by his ears.

“... How about a rematch?”

“Let me guess, you let me win?”

“Victory for Nya!” Cole cuts in from the sidelines, getting to his feet at the same time as Zane. Nya gets to her feet and helps Jay up, who looks sideways at her before accepting her help. He looks haughtily at her, before marching to sit down with a huff. Nya can’t bring herself to care. He’s mostly joking. And he’ll get over the real offense soon enough.

“Okay. Zane versus Cole. Go!”

Nya watches from the side as her teammates begin their spar. For a moment, it’s evenly matched. Mostly a back and forth of blows and blocks. Suddenly, Zane gets the upper hand and successfully freezes Cole’s feet to the ground. However, he doesn’t yield, blocking everything thrown at him with the Scythe. 

Cole, with all his squirming, was able to melt away most of the ice, and squeeze his way out of the frozen prison. He leaps at Zane, tackling him to the ground and rolling. Zane shoves at him with his hands, Shurikens long discarded, but is unable to regain his advantage.

“Victory for Cole.” Zane grumpily gets to his feet but shakes Cole’s hands before collecting the Shurikens. Nya is a little unprepared to face Cole, as he hadn’t used the Scythe of Quakes any differently than he would a regular steel scythe.

“For the prize and title of best ninja… Blah, blah, blah. Ninja, go.” With Jay’s unenthused commentary, their final spar begins. They are fairly evenly matched though they use different techniques. Being on opposite sides of the size scale, they each use their builds to their advantage in different ways.

Nya ducks underneath a swoop of the Scythe and aims a slice at the back of Cole’s legs. She rolls out of the maneuver and darts back around, leading Cole in a bit of a goose chase. He swings the Scythe downward in a dramatic arc, causing her to hold her sword in both hands to block. 

They struggle for a moment, with Nya pushing up and Cole pushing down with their weapons, before they each relent, moving off to the side. His next strike collides with her, pushing her backwards, off her feet and to the ground. She rolls with the motion and gets back to her feet, brandishing her Sword.

She strikes back, and the Sword lets out another fireball, which Cole is able to dodge. She trips over Cole’s Scythe when he yanks it under her feet, crashing down to the ground hard. She kicks him when he gets closer, using the Sword to launch another fireball directly at his face. It had felt warm through the entire fight, but abruptly her gloves began smoking.

The Sword had grown to a scorching heat within her grasp, burning her hands through her gloves. She has a brief memory of the Sword scalding Kai’s hands in the Fire Temple, having overheated. With her natural resistance to fire, and the fact that it was her elemental weapon, she didn’t realise that the same thing could happen to her. She drops the sword like it’s, well, hot.

“It’s burning!” Zane exclaims worriedly, which Jay follows by shouting “Fire!”

She looks down at her hands, seeing her own reddened palms instead of the gloves she’d been wearing. When she looks back up, she sees the courtyard enveloped in flames. The first begins to spread to the training equipment still out, flames flickering at the bottoms. 

Fire catches all along the ground, surrounding her and separating her from the others. Ordinarily, Nya would leap over the flames, but her new burns make her anxious. Dread fills her as she helplessly watches her element enveloping her vision.

It is then that Wu rushes into the courtyard, drawn by Jay’s yell. He flips over the line of fire, retrieving the Shurikens with an urgency that Nya has never seen from him before. He twirls the Shurikens and strikes the ground with them, freezing the ground. He then throws them into the air, causing a heavy dusting of snow to fall over the training yard.

It is only when all the fire is put out that he speaks, fury thick in his voice.

“What were you thinking?! ”

“Uh, we were trying to figure out who the Green Ninja is.” Jay supplies easily, standing straight up under the wrath of their teacher. Zane promptly smacks the back of his head, giving him an urgent look. Jay, impossibly, stands even straighter, stammering “Uh, sorry, did I say ‘Green ninja?’ No, sorry, what I- what I said was lean. Lean ninja-”

He is silenced by Wu sharply raising his hand, turning his eyes away from them. “You were not supposed to see this.”

“Sensei. Is one of us the chosen one?” Nya asks, hoping for confirmation of their earlier dispute. Wu turns sharply to glare at her, reminding her starkly that his anger is directed at all of them. "I mean-“

“ No one will become the Green Ninja if you do not unlock your true potential.” Wu turns to head back inside, clearly still very upset with them. 

“The Sword caught fire. It burned me.” Nya tells his back as he walks away from them. A hint of worry clouds her mind as she ponders the burns on her palms. If she’s lost her resistance, does that mean she’s losing her powers? Hoping for the opposite, she asks, “Is that a step towards unlocking our weapons?”

“You are only at the beginning of a long and winding road, but you have made it to the road.” Wu sighs as he reaches the doors, turning around to face them once more. He strokes his beard, still avoiding their eyes, instead glaring at the sun above. “If competition is what it takes for you to train, then so be it.”

Finally, he looks at them all. His eyes pass over them each critically. Nya suppresses the urge to squirm under his cutting gaze. “None of you are near the level of what it takes to be the Green Ninja.”

With that, he disappears back into the monastery, the door closing loudly behind him. Thoroughly scolded, the ninja separate in silence, avoiding each other’s eyes. They separate to begin their training the proper way - returning to the basics.

They go through their forms independently, getting used to the feel of their weapons. The edges of Nya’s gloves are still blackened and her bare palms are directly on the hilt of the Sword, but it's no longer hot in her grasp. They’d hardly been practicing for ten minutes when Wu bursts back into the courtyard.

Nya only has time to think ‘what now?’ and brace herself for another invigorated lecture before Wu opens his mouth. He’s oddly frantic, his anxiety inappropriate from how long it had been since the incident.

“The Serpentine are back!” Wu exclaims gravely, as smoke whirls out of the room behind him. “Everyone in Jamanukai Village is in danger.”

“Calm down, Sensei.” Cole says carefully, lowering the Scythe and exchanging a cautious look with the others. “We were just there. It was some kid who said-”

“The spirit smoke does not lie! An ancient evil has been released.”

“Well,” Nya says after no one moves for a long moment. She tucks the Sword back into its sheath across her back and turns to leave the training grounds. “It can’t hurt to double check?”

The ninja head back to their dragons and resaddle them, quickly but not urgently like the first time. Flame seems unhappy as Nya buckles his saddle back on, miffed to go through the experience again. 

Nya watches warily as Wu comes over and sits solidly in Flame’s saddle and simply gets in behind him. Luckily, Flame has gotten used to having several riders, as he is the main dragon used for errands. When they take off this time, they are a little more organized. Wu watches the sky gravely as they move out. 

The dragons touch down with a thud, and the ninja quickly dismount their respective beasts. Wu remains with the dragons just outside of the village, while the ninja run on foot the rest of the way into town square.

When they arrive in inner Jamanukai Village, the town is in full chaos. Villagers run away from little Lloyd Garmadon once more, who is steering a massive cart full of candy. He looks majorly wired, and giggles to himself as he chews another candy.

“Woo, I am never coming down from this sugar high!” He only halts briefly when the ninja skid to a stop in front of him, eyebrows briefly raising. He stops his cart completely but looks mainly unbothered, wiping a bit of chocolate off of his cheek.

“Sorry to bust your buzz, little Garmadon.” Cole steps forward as if to confront him physically, but Lloyd just dances out of his reach, momentarily abandoning his cart.

“But it's already past your bedtime.” Jay finishes their opening line, but Lloyd is unintimidated. Instead, he turns around and raises his arms, gleefully yelling “Get them!”

They follow his eyesight up the paved road, and Nya almost shrieks at the sight of Lloyd’s apparent bodyguards. The men are tall, covered in teal scales, and bear the huge head of a cobra snake. The largest one has a long, winding tail and holds a large golden staff in one hand, seemingly the one responding to Lloyd’s command.

“Seize them!” The Serpentine holding the staff commands, rattling its tail. As more Serpentine reveal themselves, Nya quickly gets used to their odd appearance. She had known objectively that the Serpentine were real, but it was one thing to read about them being locked away underground, and another thing entirely to actually face one.

The Serpentine quickly approach the ninja as Lloyd hauls his cart away from them. Nya stares after him incredulously. “I’m sorry, he found the Serpentine tombs?!”

“I told you not to give him advice.” Cole reminds her as the Serpentine, along with many villagers, close in on them. They all have reddened eyes, irises and pupils completely covered in a red sheen. “Look, the whole village has been hypnotized.”

“This directly opposes what I told him to do. This kid has got some complex.” Nya says, getting more and more worried about the bodies closing in on them. Jay raises his nunchucks, swinging them around his head with a battle cry. Zane throws his hand out to stop him from actually striking any one or thing.

“No! Our weapons are too unstable!” Zane looks around at the Serpentine and the innocent, though hypnotized, people. “We may do more harm than good.”

Jay laughs nervously, but stows away the nunchucks as told. He too looks around and then launches himself over the crowd. “Well, I guess that leaves us with run !”

The others are quick to follow him as he darts away from the angry crowd. They weave through now empty streets, avoiding any stray villagers and serpentine while escaping the large group around Lloyd. As they run, Nya curses the kid in her head.

“I’m starting to really regret letting that kid go.” Nya whispers as they slow to a stop, hiding in the backyard of a shop behind crates and barrels. The other ninja, Cole in particular, looks at her with a clear ‘I told you so’ sentiment. 

“Was he the one causing trouble earlier?” Jay lets out a scream as Kai speaks, suddenly right beside him. Kai shies away from the sudden volume. “You want to alert the entire town to where we are?”

“Yeah, he was.” Nya tells him, leaning around the wall closing in the yard to check for any eavesdroppers. When the coast is clear, she returns to the group. “His name is Lloyd Garmadon, and he wants to be just like his daddy.”

“‘Lloyd’ is a little on the nose, no?”

“Are you alright?” Zane asks, putting a hand on Kai’s shoulder. He shrugs, looking a little tired.

“I was able to avoid them, but they’ve got the whole town under control.” Kai slides his hand over the blade of a short sword, likely the one he had meant to deliver. Nya supposes that one less armed villager is a blessing. “Was anyone ever going to tell me that the Serpentine aren’t just bedtime stories?”

“Uh, that’s common sense? Basic history! Didn’t you go to school?” Jay demands, throwing up his hands. Kai looks deeply offended. Seeming to understand that, Jay quickly changes the subject. “Nevermind, how is mind control possible?”

“That book I was reading earlier said something about their tails and eye contact.” Nya puts a hand to her forehead, trying to concentrate on the information that hadn’t fully digested before she was interrupted from her reading. “Just don’t look them in the eyes.”

“Great! Fantastic! So we’re fighting blind and without our weapons!” Jay exclaims, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“Is there any way to reverse the mind control?”

“The one taking orders from Lloyd is the General - his staff holds the anti-venom.”

“So we need to get our hands on that staff and then distribute the anti-venom.”

“I hope you’re over your competition for now.” Kai says as he begins scaling the wall to get up on the roof. “I don’t think you’ll get far without working together.”

“You’re right. Let's forget about the green ninja stuff,” Jay says, ignoring the questioning look Kai aims at him. “And get this done as a team.” He then turns to her brother with a grin, trying to make up for his earlier offense. “And Kai can be our honorary member!”

“Great, thanks.” Kai says, rolling his eyes and taking off on the roofs. The others scramble to follow. As they split up, Nya keeps an eye on him, a little worried about him. The ninja may not be able to use their weapons, but at least they have their Spinjitzu.

Nya comes across a large group of serpentine, and is able to immobilize them with some effort. Her Spinjitzu is a little rusty, but she uses it easily to knock out her adversaries. She stumbles coming out of her tornado, tripping into a wall. “Oh, we are so out of shape.”

Nearby, Kai is handling his own little group of Serpentine. He dodges, punches, and kicks, but mostly stays out of reach as he deals with the snake people one by one.

“Ha! Consider this a warning, ninja!” Lloyd cackles as he runs past, pushing his cart of candy. Zane freezes the ground in front of him with his Shurikens, causing the cart to skid and topple over. “My candy!”

“Sensei was right.” Zane says gravelly as he catches up to the child using Spinjitzu. “‘Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today.’ We should’ve dealt with you the first time around.”

As Nya makes her way over to him, the kid squirms back to his feet. He looks around, realizing the reality of his failed operation, and turns again to the general. “ Retreat! ”

“Retreat!” The General echoes, lifting the staff. As the Serpentine slither away, Cole drops in front of the General and kicks the staff out of his hands. He raises his Scythe menacingly, saying, “Go ahead, give me a reason.”

The snake glares but slithers away, allowing Cole to retrieve the staff from where it had fallen to the floor. When he straightens, he comes face to face with another Serpentine. “Look into my eye. I control you.”

Nya watches wearily as he becomes woozy on his feet, eyes losing the spark of awareness. She sprints toward the pair, aiming a flying kick straight to the Serpentine’s head. It recoils in pain, before retreating after its tribe. When she looks over, Cole still looks a little bit intoxicated.

“Cole!” He snaps out of it upon hearing his name, looking from the staff in his hands to Nya and then around. Despite the Serpentine’s retreat, the townspeople are still closing in. “The fountain!” When he doesn't react further, she swipes the Staff from his hands.

She rushes over, wading in the knee deep water on the top layer of the fountain, and plunks the staff into the water. Slowly, the anti-venom bleeds into the water and begins misting through the air. The townspeople begin to come back into awareness, and spread the mist to the others that are still under the Serpentine’s spell.

“Good idea, sis.” Kai says as he walks over, avoiding the water that seeps into the deep cracks in the pavement. They watch together as the villagers return to themself, and see Wu enter warily into the town.

“Our apologies, Sensei.” Zane says as he comes over from straightening Lloyd’s forgotten cart. “If we had dealt with Lloyd before, none of this would have become a problem.”

“Even lessons learned the hard way are lessons learned.” Wu says tentatively with a sigh, looking to where the Serpentine had fled. “A great evil has been released, I fear this is only the beginning of greatly troubling times.”

“Then when the Serpentine return, we will be ready for them.” 

“These snakes may not be Lord Garmadon,” Cole adds, finally coming back to awareness. He leans against the Scythe, disguising any lingering instability. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t bring our A-game.”

“Guide us, Sensei. So that we can reach our true potential.”

“Hm, there is much to teach.” Wu hums, stroking his beard slowly. He turns on his heel, headed back to where the dragons had been left. He leans heavily on his bamboo staff, clearly exhausted from the day’s events. “We must return to the monastery.”

The ninja follow in step behind him, sticking together. They walk in silence, thinking only of the intense training they have ahead of them. Nya is privately grateful for Wu’s renewed efforts in training them, as she had been struggling a little on her own - both in motivation and in training itself.

Nya gets into Flame’s saddle quickly, and moves to help Wu climb on behind her. He swats her hand away in mock offense. She’s just about to take off when she hears a shout.

“Hey! Wait up!” Kai runs down the path as the other three dragons take off. He climbs onto Flame, who is luckily not a stranger to carrying three riders. “Geez, you guys move quickly.”

“Well, what took you so long?” 

“I was dropping off that delivery finally. I couldn’t give it to someone who was hypnotized!” Okay, point to Kai. She couldn’t argue with that, seeing as she had that thought herself earlier. Her brother sighs, patting Flame’s side as he takes off. “Sensei, when am I going to get a dragon?”

“In time. Have patience.” 

“‘In time.’ Always ‘in time.’” Wu chuckles in response to the dramatic sigh that Kai lets out. Nya smiles all the way home. When they make it back, Kai helps her unsaddle Flame and feed him while Wu disappears, getting him settled for the night.

The siblings watch the sunset for a moment longer before heading up to the monastery together. They find the other ninja in one of Wu’s sitting rooms, drinking tea with the man himself and discussing the events of the day.

Jay is talking animatedly, while Zane listens with a polite smile. Every so often he interjects with a correction or an anecdote of his own. Wu listens with his eyes closed, but Nya can spot his smile hidden behind his tea. 

Cole, however, is sitting silently, staring blankly ahead. His teacup rests against the ground in his hands and his eyes are glazed over. Sharing a look with Kai, Nya sees that he noticed as well. As the two sit down, Kai knocks his shoulder into Cole’s.

“Hey, are you feeling okay?” When being directly addressed, Cole shakes his head and his eyes lose the glassy quality. He looks a little dazed and it takes a moment for him to answer, long enough that the other occupants of the room turn to look at him with worry.

“Huh? Uh, yeah.” He brings a hand to his own forehead, frowning. “Must be more tired than I thought.”

“Today has been very eventful.” Wu says with a nod, seeming unworried. He does not inquire further, accepting the base explanation that his student gives. “You have all earned your sleep tonight.”

“I don’t want to cut your conversation short-”

“The one you clearly weren’t paying attention to?”

“You should all take that earned rest.” Wu says with finality. He drains his cup and gets to his feet. “Finish your tea and head off to bed.”

“Yes, Sensei.” The ninja recite together as Wu leaves the room. As Nya herself gets ready for bed, she finds herself going through her routine sluggishly.

Wu was right - sleep has never felt so sweet.

Chapter 2: Home

When the morning comes, Nya is eager to get back into the swing of things. She gets ready for the day with a spring in her steps, and heads straight to the changing rooms to put on her gi. After the whole mess with the Serpentine, she and her team are ready to throw themselves head first into training.

Early to rise, Nya heads straight to the training course. As she goes through her stretches, the movement soothing her muscles, she watches as the equipment whirl to life in the morning glow. She reaches for her toes, then up to the sky, before bending sideways.

Before coming to the monastery, she had never really warmed up for anything, but is now thoroughly thankful for Wu’s enlightenment. Before, she dealt with the soreness of muscles with heat and brute forcing herself through the motion. Now, the stretches inspired a dull, pleasant ache that prevented most of the future pain from all the laborious exercise.

With a few arm swings, she deems herself ready to start the real training objective - working on completing the course. She flicks the course on and watches for a moment as the machines whirl to life. She takes a deep breath to center herself, and then throws herself into the training.

By now, the motions are so familiar that she hardly needs to think about them. She had been considering adjusting the settings, and maybe rigging the course to reverse or change patterns, but hadn’t actually gotten around to him. She ducks underneath a swinging Scythe and dives to the next machine.

She leaps across the logs, and twists to kick the dummy, which feels like it's flying towards her. The actions are so close to Spinjitzu that it takes Nya a conscious effort to not invite her blazing tornado into her workout.

Nya has just completed the course, going to return her practice sword to the weapons cabinet, when she hears clapping. She turns and finds her teammates watching her as they go through their warmups. 

“I think you’ve just beat your own record!” Cole tells her as he gets to his feet. He reaches up towards the sky then bends at the waist, gracefully swooping downward to touch his toes. Nya is a little bit captivated by how refined his movement is, the elegance of his actions directly contrasting his size. “Before the day’s even begun, too.”

“My turn!” Jay calls, bouncing on his heels as he reaches to reset the course. He abandons the remainder of his warm ups in his eagerness to get on with the day. Zane looks up at him disapprovingly from where he sits on the ground, stretching in a butterfly pose.

“Your muscles will not thank you, Jay.” Zane says as he stretches his legs outward, falling easily into another stretch. Then, he moves onto the rest of his warm up, completing the exercises with perfect form. “Rushing into movement will only impede them”

“Eh,” Jay says as the course finally starts up again. He begins the course with a running leap, easily going through the practiced motions. “I’m wired! I don’t think I can get any warmer.”

Zane clicks his tongue with a smile as he finishes his warm up, and heads over to retrieve his iron shurikens from the weapons cabinet. As he sets himself up for target practice, Nya falls back into practicing her kata. 

The boys go through their own training while she goes through her forms, with and without the Sword. Occasionally Jay and Cole will shout out cheers or he actions that they’re performing, like they are in a video game. At some point, Zane abandons the target practice to meditate in the midst of the controlled chaos, and Nya moves on to practice her Spinjitzu.

From the corner of her eye, she sees Master Wu walk out into the yard, surprise colouring his face for a split second before he covers it up again. Seeing as he has nothing to say to them, Nya returns to her training.

Suddenly, her attention is again stolen as Zane leaps out of his butterfly pose, forgoing his mediation in an abrupt move. He leaps over the training machines and seems to not even see them in his fevered daze.

“Hey!” Jay shouts as Zane jumps in front of him, deflecting the arrows that Jay was blocking with a well placed wave of his Shurikens. He rolls across the ground and intercepts Cole’s course, stealing his Scythe to slice through the dummy flying toward him. Then, he abandons the Scythe and twists into Spinjitzu.

His Spinjitzu lazily swirls around the training course, freezing the ground solid with a thick layer of ice. Nya, in the middle of spinning into her own Spinjitzu, slips and falls straight into her back. She wheezes for a moment before she sits up, vision suddenly clouded by the worried faces of her teammates. She waves them away as she gets to her feet.

“I think we need a bigger training yard.” She winces as she struggles to find footing on the ice, grabbing onto Jay’s gi to steady herself. Unfortunately, he too starts to slip, so she quickly abandons that endeavor.

“I think he needs a bigger yard.” Cole corrects testily, securing the Scythe of Quakes across his back and crossing his arms. They all get a little touchy when the others take their weapons. 

“It’s like he’s off in his own universe.” Jay says, slightly astonished if anything. They watch as Zane comes out of his Spinjitzu. He raises his voice pointedly, leaning towards Zane as he speaks. “I bet he can’t even hear us!” 

Predictably, Zane doesn’t even flinch, just carries on practicing his already impeccable form. Nya sighs, watching as the frozen ground begins to melt in the sunlight. “He is a little… weird.”

“What is weird?” Wu asks, suddenly right behind her. She jumps a little as she turns quickly to face him. Wu is watching the three of them intensely, but he doesn’t yet seem angry or annoyed. “Someone who is different, or someone who is different from you?”

“Sensei, Zane is great!” Nya protests, ruminating on his behaviour since she's arrived at the monastery. Despite the twinge he had originally set off in her head, he has been nothing but kind and respectful. It’s just that, on occasion, his peculiarities shine through. “It’s just that he’s a little offbeat sometimes.”

“He’s ‘weird’ weird.” Cole adds, before briefly detailing his own experiences with Zane’s eccentricities. Nya thinks of her own little incidents where Zane has been a little… unconventional, like when he had burst into laughter while watching the Noteblock, a terribly sad film. The abrupt laughter had startled her right out of her tears and she remembered exchanging confused looks with Jay.

“Zane is one of us. And he’s a good guy.” Nya defends him, meaning everything she’s saying. For all his weirdness, he is a good teammate and friend. Nya likes him quite a lot. “Just a little different.”

Wu seems pleased at her words, as if they’ve grasped a concept that he thought would be difficult for them to understand. “Zane is a brother, and brothers are often different.” Nya thinks of Kai and agrees wholeheartedly. “I should know.”

Just then, the piercing clanging of the doorbell interrupts their conversation. It even snaps Zane out of his training trance, finally stowing away the Golden Shurikens and removing his mask. The ninja move over to crowd around the door, eager to receive their mail.

They open the door to the same Postman who delivered the mail to Kai and Nya back in Ignaca+ia, which surprises Nya. She didn’t realise that his mail route was so extensive, even excluding the extreme hike up the mountain to the monastery.

“Okay!” The man says, taking a moment to catch his breath before rummaging through his massive carrier bag. He pulls out four letters, examining them through narrowed eyes over his glasses, before beginning to pass them out.

“A letter from Jay’s parents.” Jay snags the letter without so much as a thank you, moving to sit on the monastery’s deck and tearing open the envelope. He sorts through the copious amount of pages, sighing to himself.

“Nya has a fan letter.” Nya perks up at that, muttering a ‘thank you’ as she accepts the letter. It’s decorated in a very cutesy style, with uneven handwriting. It isn’t the first letter she’s retrieved of its kind, but the letters aren’t a common occurrence. She turns to walk away to join Jay, but is stopped by the Postman.

“Oh, and hand this over to your brother, please.” The nondescript envelope is addressed to ‘Kai Smith’ in a careless, untidy hand. Though curiosity gnaws at her, she knows better than to snoop in Kai’s things. He’ll absolutely figure out if she reads his mail, and he will definitely chide her for it. She heads to the monastery doors and calls into the halls “Kai! There’s mail!”

“Something from Cole’s father…” As she returns to sit beside Jay, she watches as Cole collects his letter and then hassles the postman for a parcel too. He folds the letter and tucks it away into his gi, starting down towards the dragons, calling for Rocky as he goes.

“And that’s all for today.” The postman turns around, staring down at the cascading staircase down the hill. Nya can see him mentally steel himself against his future endeavors. Zane, who had been hovering around the group defeatedly, calls after him “Have a good day, sir!”

“Wha- oh, you too, kid.” With that, the man disappears from sight. Nya can hear Cole and Rocky for a few seconds more, but they’re muffled drastically when Zane closes the monastery doors. 

“Hey, Zane, how come you never hear from your parents?” Jay asks as he puts aside the letter from his own parents. He puts his fingers between two pages in the middle of the long letter, marking his place.

“I don’t remember my parents.” Zane says sadly as he returns to the training course. He doesn’t move to resume training, despite how invested he had been in it just minutes before. He avoids their eyes as he says. “I’ve been an orphan all my life.”

Nya feels her heart twist in her chest, relating more than she cares to admit. All she had of her parents were the half-remembered stories that Kai had told her. Still, even without her parents, she had family in Kai. “I’m sorry, Zane. Do you have any other relatives?”

“None to my knowledge.” Zane says reluctantly, lacing his hands together behind his back.

“No matter.” Wu puts a gentle hand on Zane’s shoulder, sad fondness shining in his eyes. “The Monastery is your home now, and we are your family.”

Nya and Jay both confirm the sentiment, but Zane’s eyes are still drawn to the papers in their hands. Then he raises a hand to shield his eye, turning towards the afternoon sky. Nya politely pretends that she doesn’t see the longing sheen to his eyes.

“It is getting late.” Zane says after clearing his throat. He drops his hand and climbs the steps to the monastery’s interior. “I believe it is my turn to make supper.”

With that, he disappears inside. For a moment, the three just stare afterwards, considering the new information. They hear him exchange brief pleasantries with Kai before said boy emerges from the monastery.

“Is he alright?” Kai asks delicately as he slides the shoji doors closed behind him. Nya shrugs, unsure of how to explain such a familiar situation to her brother. He looks a little worried, but schools his expression as he comes over to them. “You said there was mail?”

“Yeah, there’s a letter addressed to you.” She hands him the letter as she speaks, hoping that he will sit down so that she can read over his shoulder. She is severely disappointed when he doesn’t, carefully opening the envelope with his nail where he stands. “I didn’t recognise the handwriting.”

“What is it?” Jay asks eagerly, again distracted from his own letters. He leans forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the letter’s contents much less slyly than Nya. Kai notices his interest and playful yanks the letter close to his chest with a smile. “Oooh, is it a love note? Do you have an admirer?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a follow up on an order.” Kai says a little evasively as he laughs at Jay, tucking the letter away into his pocket. Nya and Jay slump back in unison, disappointed with the lack of entertainment. Nya catches Wu watching them with a curious eye, but he doesn’t add anything to the conversation.

“Clean up the grounds before supper.” He tells Jay and Nya, ignoring the former’s immediate protests. He then turns to Kai, gesturing for him to go ahead. “And you, set the table.”

“This isn’t even our mess!” Jay yells after them as the two disappear inside, flushing in annoyance at the answering laughs that they receive. Nya gets to her feet and pushes the button for the stagnant training equipment to disappear back into the ground.

“It’s hardly a mess, Jay.” Nya asks as they move to clean up the rest of the area, spotting the many, many pages of the Walkers’ letter on the deck. “What did your parents have so much to say about?”

 Nya bends to collect the various weapons still strewn around the now open area. She makes sure that her gloves are firmly on her hands as she picks up the Sword, Shurikens, and Scythe. Even though her own weapon is back under control, the first instance of it burning her comes to the front of her mind every time she handles any of the weapons. She has no doubt that the other elements would hurt her more, should they want to. 

“Ah, what don’t they have so much to say about?” Jay sighs as he collects his Nunchucks and all of the steel weapons still left out. Nya places the Golden Weapons into their specified cases, then piles them up on the top shelf of the weapons cabinet. “You know- well, I guess you don’t know them. But they can talk, talk, talk for years about the smallest things. It’s impressive, really…”

Nya listens with a small smile as he jabbers on, a few things about him sliding into place in her mind. She wonders if he recognizes the harmless hypocrisy coming out of his mouth. They put each of the steel swords into their designated slot, and box away the steel shurikens as Jay finishes his little spiel. “So their verbal babbling translates directly into written word!”

Cole chooses that moment to reenter the monastery, conveniently right after the weapons’ cabinet closes with an audible thud. He whistles at the state of the place, looking around. “You sure clean up quickly.”

“Didn’t take too long.” Nya herself heads into the inner monastery, effectively tuckered out from the day. Her stomach growls unabashedly as she heads toward the dining room. “Zane should be finished dinner soon.”

The three of them enter the room together, with the table already set and occupied by Kai and Wu. Nya slides down the bench to sit across from her brother and next to Wu, with Jay following close behind her.

“Man, I love when it’s Zane’s night to cook.” Jay says blissfully, no doubt smelling the delicious odor wafting in from the kitchen. He shoots a pointed look at Cole across the table, who gapes in offense.

“Hey! I didn’t hear any complaints about my duck chowder last night.” He crosses his arms primly, looking to Nya for help when Jay just laughs at her. She grimaces at him, unable to make herself lie directly to his face. That chowder had been disgusting. Cole’s brow furrows a little more as he turns to Kai.

“There were no complaints because it glued our mouths shut.” Kai tells him emphatically, raising his arms in the universal gesture for innocence. Cole huffs in annoyance, literally turning away from the criticism. “You really thought Jay was speechless all throughout dinner?”

“Yeah… Maybe don’t make that again.” 

Zane then cuts off their lively culinary discussion, pushing the door open with his leg, two trays held aloft in his hands. He settles the food down on the table cheerily. He spreads his arms invitingly, highlighting the gaudy pink apron that he’s wearing. “Dinner is served!”

The room is silent for a short beat, before the entire table bursts into laughter. Nya laughs so hard that her stomach cramps painfully and her vision blurs with hysterical tears of laughter. The boys around her, including Wu, react the same way, banging the table and heaving through loud laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Zane asks obliviously, looking down at the carefully prepared meal in confusion. It only draws attention to the flashy apron he wears, a bright floral pink that starkly stands out against his white gi.

“ Zane . Your whole… ” Nya gestures to him with a hand, speaking through wheezing laughter. “Even I wouldn’t wear that!”

“You laugh because I ensure I remain clean while cooking?”

“No, we laugh because you came out wearing that ridiculous outfit!” Kai holds his side, laughter subsiding briefly as he grins up at Zane teasingly. Zane only stares blankly back at him, saying flatly “I guess we don’t share the same sense of humour.”

“Yeah? Well, how about this?” Cole grabs the plate of shrimp in front of him, grabbing the back of Kai’s head as he pushes the plate up into his face. When he finally lets go, the plate clatters back to the table, revealing Kai’s furious glare, face smeared with seafood.

It of course inspires another round of laughter. Nya leans into Jay, having difficulty staying upwards with her raving glee. She sees her brother’s eye twitch as he stares straight ahead, mouth slightly open. Cole laughs almost directly in his face, turning to Zane with joy.

“How do you not find that,” he points at Kai dramatically, “funny?” Nya watches with elation as Master Wu stands, lifting a bowl of soup, and walks behind the gloating boy. Kai’s wince is quickly covered by glee as Cole’s laughter dies with a shriek when Wu pours the soup directly over his hair.

It drips down his closed eyes and mouth, and makes a dull squelch when Wu settles the bowl on his head like a hat. Wu then turns to Zane with a serene smile, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. “There. Now, you are brothers.”

Nya continues laughing until Cole nails her in the face with a dumpling, sparking an all out food fight. Wu cackles at them all as he escapes to the kitchen unscathed, with the ninja quickly forming teams against each other. 

Nya ducks below the table as another dumpling launches her way, and she watches it stick to the wall. In the corner of the room, Zane watches it unstick and tumble to the floor with a sigh. He too escapes back into the kitchen as the food fight rages on. 

When the fight finally dies down, each individual realises that state of themselves. Nya has sticky, doughy food smeared into her hair, while Jay has escaped relatively untouched. The four sit in their joy, before Kai takes in the room and swears.

“Oh, shit. We have to clean this all up.”

When the dining room is finally put back in order and all of the dishes cleaned, they go their separate ways for the night. Nya doesn’t see Zane as she rushes to beat Kai to the bathroom, and vaguely worries that they had offended him.

As she goes to sleep with wet hair and a mostly empty belly, she vows to apologize to Zane in the morning.

 

***

 

The next morning, Nya doesn’t really get a chance to follow through on her vow. Zane wakes her up with an almost frantic knocking on her door. By the time she had changed into her gi, the others were outside waiting impatiently, a direct contrast to how the day usually began.

“Last night, I stumbled upon Lloyd Garmadon’s secret hideout.” Zane doesn’t say anything else to them, just heads out of the monastery, trusting them to follow him.

“What’s going on?” Nya asks as they start down the towering steps down the mountain. At first, she thinks that they are headed towards the dragons, but Zane bypasses them without so much as a glance, continuing on foot. “Where exactly is this hideout?”

“He hasn’t said.” Cole pants as they reach the bottom of the mountain. “Just ‘Lloyd’s headquarters.’” No one speaks for a long time as they run, breathing heavily as they struggle to keep up with Zane’s fevered pace. When they enter the woods surrounding the mountain, Nya brings herself to ask again.

“So, how did you find this secret place?” Nya asks as they start to slow down. Zane turns to look at her blankly, as if forgetting that he really hadn’t told them anything. HE shrugs as he turns around, absently saying “I followed a bird.”

“And why did you follow a bird?” 

“Because it danced.” Zane doesn’t turn back around, clearly not understanding what they couldn’t grasp. Nya just stared at the back of his head incredulously.

“Oh,” Jay said with false understanding in his voice. Then he brought his hand up, swirling it by the side of his head. Nya fails to fight back a giggle, and the other boys don’t even try. “Was it a cuckoo bird?”

“Of course not.” Zane tells them reasonably, looking unbothered by their laughter. Nya can tell he still isn’t getting the joke. “Everyone knows that cuckoo birds are not indigenous to these forests.”

That shuts them up for a long moment, left alone with the sound of their own thoughts and the pounding of their feet. Nya hears their destination before she sees it, the loud clamor of construction violently disrupting the quiet peace of the forests.

As they approach the crest of a small hill, Zane leads them downwards to hide and observe. Nya looks up incredulously at the massive tree fortress in front of them. It’s multiple stories and the lowest level takes up about as much ground as the monastery itself.

“Watch it!” Lloyd Garmadon’s childish whine echoes loudly through the huge clearing. When she looks closer, she can see that the fortress is inhabited by the Serpentine tribe, being ordered around by Lloyd with commands to make his treehouse bigger and better. “It’s not time for a lunch break!”

“Holy cannoli,” Cole wheezes from beside her, clearly taken aback. “Frosty was right!”

“That is so cool !” Jay cheers quietly with stars in his eyes. “There’s a ropes course, a tree swing… Coolest treehouse ever.”

“Hey, whose team are you on?” Cole smacks him on the shoulder, frowning. He turns back to the fort with an analyzing gaze, looking for weak points and worker rotations. “Alright, what do we do?”

“The entire structural support relies on these three trees.” Nya points as she speaks, leaning towards Cole to give him better sightlines. The minute they collapse, the whole thing will follow. “All we need to do is cut those ties.”

“Travel in shadows, folks.” With that, Cole leaps from their hiding, climbing into the trees and taking cover in the foliage. The others are quick to follow his main destination, though taking different paths. Nya takes a running leap to the second story of the fort, hauling herself up and into the interior elevator that she had seen Lloyd use earlier.

“Ssssscuse me.” A snake enters the elevator after her, holding a stack of wood so large that it covers his eyes. Nya watches him sideways but he never notices her, despite opposing both rules - no girls, no ninja - displayed proudly on the inside of the elevator. 

“What floor was that?” Nya almost feels bad from knocking him out when he goes to answer her, tumbling to the floor in a pile of plywood. She whispers an apology to the unconscious Serpentine as the elevator dings and swings from the topmost level and on to the floor.

“What was that?!” Lloyd Garmadon’s voice echoes through the level that she had just abandoned. She feels the boys land around her and move over to peer at the brat through a hole in the roof. He stomps his foot as he comes across the Serpentine, apparently not as unconscious as she had thought. As the snake shakily gets to his feet, Lloyd gripes at him. “Hey! I didn’t say you could take a nap!”

The ninja exchange a look before turning away from the kid and to the three ropes connecting the treehouse to its supports. As Nya uses the Sword to slice through the first rope, she hears a sudden scream and Lloyd’s maniacal giggling. The treehouse takes a harsh, sudden jolt, lilting down to the corner that she stands on, forcing her to jump to a different spot to stay steady.

The same jolt happens again when Zane splits the second rope, and Nya again hears Lloyd screech, finally figuring out the source of all his problems. “I said no ninja! Attack!”

“I think Junior needs better henchmen.” Nya says as they watch the Serpentine start to flee, leaving Lloyd scrambling to get off of the treehouse. He continues whining after the retreating Serpentine, moving farther away from the top of the treehouse. Nya is privately grateful - she didn’t feel particularly inclined to save the brat had he been in danger.

“Cole! Cut the line as soon as we are off the fortress.” Zane calls up to their friend where he stands on the platform connecting the final rope to the treehouse. He nods resolutely before suddenly snapping his head away. Nya watches him closely but can’t actually see what he’s looking at.

“Where’s Cole?” Jay asks as they all stumble. Nya is starting to realise that her estimate hadn’t been entirely accurate - the whole place was collapsing even with the third support still attached. Cole chooses that exact moment to jump down onto the roof with them, landing so heavily that the treehouse lurches again dangerously.

“No one goes anywhere until you deal with me!” He raises the Scythe threateningly, standing steadily despite the shaking of the structure. Up close, Nya can see his eyes sheened over with red, just like the villagers in Jamanukai Village. Zane dodges a strike towards him, which severs the boards of the roof.

“He better snap out of it!” Jay says as Cole takes another swing at Zane, who flips over his head to land with the other ninja. The action leaves Jay closest to Cole, and he quickly becomes Cole’s sole target. He raises his hands nervously. “Come on, now. Friends don’t hit friends.”

He cries out as Cole’s boot connects with his jaw, head snapping to the side. “Ow! Okay, I’m gonna ignore that.” He dodges the next punch that Cole throws, staggering back, dazed, to regroup.

“What do we do?” Nya wonders desperately as she becomes Cole’s target. They can’t seriously hurt one of their own, but if she fights back with her Sword, the forest is likely to go up in flames. She sticks to dodging.

“The anti-venom is in the staff, isn’t it?” Zane asks as he joins the fight, keeping Cole distracted on two fronts.

“Yes! But it’s back at the monastery.”

“And I don’t think our pal here will wait for us to go get it.” Jay shrieks again as Cole charges at him, effectively knocking him off the tower. Nya hears herself and Zane call his name, rushing to look for him over the side. Luckily, he’s managed to hang on to part of the treehouse, because they don’t have time to go save him.

“Can we shock him out of it?” Nya jumps away, going separate ways from Zane. She’s hoping to confuse him by recreating the brief dual front fighting that had confused his addled state earlier. However, it doesn’t work this time.

Cole, seemingly sick of fighting, leaps back onto the platform supporting the rope. He lifts his Scythe to cut the line, much to the other ninjas’ horror. Nya nearly trips in her rush to stop him, only to realise that she can’t get close enough.

“No, Cole! No!” The ninja’s terrified chorus suddenly becomes the harmony for a beautiful, mellow melody. A mesmerizing flute song flows through the air, halting them all in their tracks. Up on the platform, Cole slowly lowers the Scythe, staring at it confusedly.

“Wha-?” Nya nearly collapses in relief as his voice sounds out, clear despite his confusion. His eyes have cleared, now looking high into the sky to their saviours. “What was I…”

“We gotta go before this whole thing comes down!” Kai urges them from where he sits in the saddle. Beside him, a wooden flute is held in Wu’s hands, poised as if to play it again. Cole wastes no time in joining them, leaping from the platform onto Flame’s back behind Kai.

“The flute! It cancels their powers.” Jay exclaims excitedly, also having noticed Cole’s sober state. Nya and the other boys quickly follow, and Nya feels a pang of sympathy for her poor dragon, having to carry the weight of their whole team. 

“It’s as old as the Serpentine themselves.” Wu tells them solemnly, before turning to Kai urgently. Kai gets the hint, urging Flame to swoop around and head back to the monastery. “Quickly, the monastery is unguarded!”

Nya knows what has happened before they even arrive. The air fills with thick black smoke, so much more potent than just Flame’s smokey breath. When the dragon touches down in a torched Monastery, Nya is saddened but not surprised.

“We’re too late.” Nya looks around at the ashes of their home miserably, listening to the cries of the dragons from their stable. Cole rushes to free them to the open air, worry clinging tight to his frame as he runs towards them. They fly out quickly, moving higher into the clean mountain air.

“Our home.” Kai comes to stand beside her, picking up a warped blade weakly. He looks it over before tossing it back into the ashes. The glow of the fire, still burning on the Monastery’s wooden beams, lights the area gloomily.

“Shard!” Zane calls up to his dragon. “Put this out!” The dragon dutifully listens, freezing the area in a long exhale, quenching the fire and freezing Nya down to her bones. Their home looks even more bleak without the gentle glow of fire, and Nya finds herself, foolishly, hating her element.

“The training equipment…”

“Our video games!”

“They stole their staff back.” Wu says with finality, clearly admonishing his students’ frivolity. Kai suddenly turns to him, face contorted in anger. He crossed his arms, his voice full of bitterness as he asks, “Did the spirit smoke foresee this ?” 

“Kai.” Wu warns, but her brother continues. Still glaring at the teacher, he says, “I told you that one of us should’ve stayed behind.”

“As if you could have done anything.” Nya mutters under her breath, but her brother whips around to look at her, face red with his offense. As much as she loves her brother and respects his fighting ability, none of them could single-handedly face the entirety of the Serpentine army, let alone the one without an elemental power. And she knows that he couldn’t have suppressed the flames - she knows about his complicated relationship with water. “I’m just saying that you alone couldn’t defeat the entire Serpentine tribe.”

“He wouldn’t’ve had to if we had still been here.” Jay joins in, siding with Kai for probably the first time since they had met. He looks at Zane accusatory, pointedly saying, “If someone hadn’t followed that cuckoo bird, all of our stuff would still be here!”

“This is a teaching moment.” Zane sounds as though he has just had an epiphany, and he turns to Sensei Wu for confirmation. However, even the old man says nothing to confirm or comfort him. “We must learn from this.”

“A ‘teaching moment’?!” Cole mocks furiously, coming over to roughly push Zane on the shoulder as if trying to rattle his brain. “Don’t you get it? What’s wrong with you? Everything is gone !”

“Enough!” Wu chooses that moment to finally end their fighting. He stands between the ninja, looking them each in the eye, angry at their dissolution into fighting so quickly. “We are all at fault, and we only play into the Serpentine’s plan by fighting among ourselves.”

“Zane is your brother. Apologize at once.” The ninja all look at each other, feeling thoroughly shamed. Kai is oddly the first one to sigh, turning to speak to Zane with his head hung low.

“I’m sorry, Zane. I…” He stops abruptly, and Nya hurries to look at him, afraid that he’ll start another fight. Her fear quickly turns from Kai to Zane, who is nowhere to be seen. “Zane?”

The flapping of wings alerts her to his exit. Nya watches helplessly as Zane flees from them, Shard’s pale hide disappearing against the evening sky. “Shit…”

 

***

 

“What is it that we're eating, again?” Kai chews through one of the cooked lizards that Cole had managed to catch and cook over Nya's bonfire. Nya finds that she doesn’t want to know whatever the gamey meat was called while it was still living. Still, Cole answered anyway.

“Mud newt.” He poorly disguised a grimace after gnawing off another piece. The bite looked like it fought him on the way down. He pulled away his newt-on-a-stick to look over the slightly charred animal. “Not bad for something that lives underground.”

“What?!” Jay spat the meat out of his mouth, which Nya thought was a little dramatic. It was disgusting, sure, but no more so than before it had a name. He lobs the lizard away, crashing it into one of the tin cans that he had stood up as a rudimentary game. “Hey! A new high score!”

 “Remember,” Wu chided, leaning against Flame where he sat curled around the fire. The night was surprisingly cold, even though they had a fire to their fronts and a fire dragon to their backs. Their teacher was not the only one shivering. “We must be thankful for what we still have.”

“What do we have?” Cole slumps forward in front of the fire as he finishes off the last of his newt. His own dragon and Wisp have settled close by, occasionally roaring grumpily where they lay in the sand. So far, Cole has been the only one to finish his portion. He leans away from the scorching fire and into the body heat of his team. “Our home is gone.”

“Forget about home, I miss Zane.” Kai sighs beside him, rubbing his hands over his face tiredly. Kai had briefly suggested that they go to the Forge, but they both knew that the Forge wouldn’t fit them all with its small loft bedroom. Also, Nya had feared that Zane wouldn’t be able to find them. While the smell of smoke still tinged the air, at least staying so close to the Monastery meant that Zane could come back to them easily.

“Yeah, I miss Zane.” Nya tunes out Jay as he speaks, eyes focused on the horizon as she sits up abruptly. A small speck slowly grows bigger, a starkly pale figure getting closer and closer. White-blond hair and white gi stand out starkly against the dusty dunes. “Zane!”

Jay then turns to her, stupidly explaining who their friend is. She rolls her eyes at him as she gets to her feet. “No, Zane!” By the time the others have clued in, echoing her exclamation, she’s rushed to greet him. He smiles sweetly at their approach, but seems a little startled when she embraces him in a tight hug.

“Zane. We’re so sorry for everything we said!” The others join in on their hug, dogpiling them in their frantic relief to see him. Zane laughs a little, confused at their sudden enthusiastic affection. When the hug finally breaks, Jay rushes to apologize further. “We’re a team, and we were all responsible-”

“You don’t need to apologize to me.” He reassures with a gentle hand on Jay’s shoulder. He looks pleased either way.

“Uh, yeah, we do. We were awful to each other, especially you.” Kai adds from where he’s hanging on the edge of the group. Even though he had readily joined in on the hug, he still sees himself as a bit of an outsider of their club. Zane smiles at him.

“Well, thank you. I accept your apologies, although I did not need them.”

“Isn’t that why you left?” Nya asks gently, sure that they had driven him away forever with their anger and vitriol.

“Of course not.” Zane’s tone says, as though that were obvious. Zane’s gaze moves across the sky, but when Nya turns to look, she can’t spot the object of his attention. “I saw the Falcon again and I followed him.”

“That’s our Zane.” Cole laughs weakly, reaching up to ruffle his hair. Nya moves to hug him again, still incredibly for his safe return. “We’re so happy to have you back.”

“Why? Is it my turn to make dinner?” Zane’s innocent, thoughtful words spark a bout of laughter that clenches Nya’s stomach with both joy and guilt.

“Yes, Zane.” Wu adds fondly, placing a hand on his pupil’s shoulder. He gives a sideways glance to the discarded mud newt that Cole had tried and failed to make appetising. “We would love for you to make dinner.”

“Next time we won’t waste it either.” Zane grins at her words, looking happier than she’s ever seen him. He breaks away from their little group, headed back the way he had came.

“I’ve already made it! Come, I want to show you what I’ve found.” He beckons over his shoulder as he speaks, and the others rush to follow him. The dusty desert makes the hike laborious, and Nya slips several times as they go. “I think you will all be pleased.”

They follow Zane blindly through the sea of sand, trudging through a walk made several times more difficult by the terrain. The evening light guides their way, though Zane hardly seems to need to look where he’s going. Now, he is gazing upward once more.

“I cannot explain it, but I feel a strange connection with the Falcon.” Following his eyes, Nya finally sees what he has been looking at all night. A dark-feathered falcon soars above them, flying gracefully through the air. Nya realises that it must be his ‘cuckoo bird.’ “I think he is trying to guide us on the right path.”

Distracted by Zane’s new friend, Nya almost misses the massive ship half buried in the sand as they crest the hill. Her jaw drops as she takes in the size of it. A realistic pirate ship that would easily house them all. “Our new home.”

“Zane, you found a pirate ship?”

“Oh my god. That is so awesome!”

“Do I smell pie?” Jay asks, cutting through their excited clamour. He looks to Zane hopefully, who spreads his arms and begins counting on his fingers. “Cobbler berry. And I made myrtle berry, and apple, and-”

“You are the best!” Kai exclaims excitedly as the other three ninja take off at a run towards the ship. Nya can hear his deafened footsteps follow her closely, rejuvenated from exhaustion just as she is. Nya crosses the wooden bridge and bursts through the door separating in- and outside, taking in the dusty interior.

“This is so cool.” Jay gushes, looking around. Though the rooms are much smaller than she had expected, there’s quite a few of them. “Much cooler than that treehouse. We’re like pirates!”

When they find the dining room, Jay nearly squeals in delight. Nya breathes deeply in the doorway while the boys try to push past her, just appreciating the state of her life at the moment. When she finally lets them through, the boys practically throw themselves at the mountain of food that Zane had prepared.

Nya spots most of the same dishes he had served the night before, made just as pristinely and smelling just as good. Peeking into the kitchen, she spots the varieties of pie that Zane had promised, and grins as she goes to sit at the table.

“You’ve really outdone yourself, Zane.” She calls as he and Wu finally enter the room. Zane beams with crinkled eyes as he sits at the other end of the table, before reaching for a shrimp and launching it full force into Cole’s face.

“Hey!” It sparks another food fight, which Nya participates in gleefully when she sees Zane’s enthusiasm. Despite the nutritious free for all, they each eat their fill of dinner and dessert. This time, with Zane laughing and solidly at the table, Nya feels no regret.

Chapter 3: Snakebit

Nya wakes with a start from a pleasantly vague dream in her new bedroom on the Destiny’s Bounty. The loud gong clashes in the other room, drawing her up and out of bed like nothing else. She can make out the boys complaining in their bedroom and rushes to get dressed in order to avoid bringing that terrible noise into her bedroom.

Once dressed, she rushes out into the hallway, where she nearly collides with her brother. He has a wicked case of bedhead and is clutching the sides of his head like he’s in pain. He hardly spares her a glance as he speeds away from the boys’ shared room.

“I think my back has more lumps than the mattress.” Cole is complaining as she hurries into the room, rolling out of his bunk with a thud. He turns to greet her weakly, giving a half-hearted wave from his place on the floor. 

“What’s going on?” She asks as she observes her teammates’ complete disregard for Master Wu’s urgency. She leans against the doorway as the adrenaline drains out of her.

“‘Evil doesn’t sleep and neither should we.’” Zane quotes dully as he stretches his arms towards the ceiling and then sits on the edge of his bed. Even he, who can handle the worst of conditions with ease, looks exhausted. 

“And none of us slept well!” Jay exclaims as he moves over to the sink in the corner of the room. As he goes, he looks past Nya out into the hallway. “I think we just lost a roommate, too.”

“He does care about his sleep.” Nya grants as Jay squeezes some toothpaste onto his toothbrush. 

“And we were up so late, talking about how cool it is to have a new HQ, and I guess we lost track of time.” Jay continues as he sticks the brush in his mouth. Nya grimaces as he continues to speak through the frothing toothpaste. “I mean, since the Monastery burned down, I'm just glad we have a roof back over our heads.”

He then turns on the tap, oblivious of the sand that rushes out and puts the brush back in his mouth. Nya watches with mild amusement as he gags and spits directly into the sink. “Eugh!”

“What is our lesson today, Sensei?” Zane asks as he finally slides down to the floor. The floorboards creak loudly, even as he lands light on his feet. “Mastering the Strike of the Scorpion? Or perhaps the grace of-” The floor abruptly breaks underneath him, leaving him waist deep in the ground.

“I think that today's lesson will be chores.” Wu says sagely as he places both hands over the gong. He seems to relish the immediate protests from his pupils. 

“Ninja fight, Sensei!” Cole says amidst Jay's whining and Nya's complaints. Even having done extensive chores as a child had not warmed her heart to them. “We do not clean.”

“In order to  respect ourselves, we must respect our space and our home.” Master Wu tells them as he slowly walks toward the door. He swipes a finger against the wall and grimaces at the dirt that clings to his hand. “This place is a long way from being a ninja's headquarters.”

“I am going to find your brother. We have errands to run.” He pats Nya on the shoulder as he walks by her, gong in hand. He abruptly crashes it in the doorway, saying “I expect this place to be spotless when I return. And put your backs into it!”

The ninja cringe away from the loud noise as he disappears into the hallway, laughing the whole while. Nya can distantly hear the gong sound again deeper into the ship's barracks, followed by Kai's irate complaints.

“This place is quite the fixer upper.” Nya says as she looks around, hands on her hips. She moves over to haul Zane out of the floorboards when she realises that he's still stuck. Nya plants her feet and yanks at Zane’s arms, and he finally stumbles out of the hole in the floor. The boards splinter more as he's finally freed. “It's gonna take forever to clean it up!”

“Well…” Jay examines the dusty sink closely, before shutting off the nonexistent stream of water. He throws his toothbrush down into the sink, turning to face the room at large. “Unless we put more than our backs into it.”

Nya grins widely as she understands what he’s implying, excited to finish Master Wu’s objective without missing out on any training. The mystery of the Green Ninja still lingers on the horizon of their team, constantly and unconsciously impacting their every action. “Let’s get to it.”

Nya and Zane take over the actual cleaning process of the day after Cole clears out each room. They begin with the boys bedroom, using their elemental weapons to do most of the work. Zane freezes the floor and walls with the Shurikens of Ice, thoroughly frosting over every crevice of the place. Nya then twirls through the room in Spinjitzu, holding the Sword of Fire aloft. The ice melts away rapidly, leaving the room squeaky clean. 

“We make a pretty good team!” Nya high-fives Zane as they move back into the hallway, leaving the pristine room behind in order to drag the bunk beds back inside. In clearing out the room, Cole had knocked away any dust still lingering on the beds. The boys’ room is cleaned and ready to be properly moved into. “One down!… How many to go?”

The rest of their morning is spent going through the same process - freeze and burn. It doesn’t take the two of them very long to sterilize each room. The majority of the furniture is either beyond repair or unwanted, so most rooms are only filled with beds and tables. At some point, Zane and Cole break off to mend the ship’s giant sail.

“I found a computer system in the lower deck.” Jay explains as they go down below deck and enter one of the smaller rooms. It has a large wall of circuit boards and computer systems, which Nya takes a long moment to look over. “I was going to just shock it onwards, but I wanted a second opinion.”

“Well, it looks like all it needs is a power boost.” Nya comments after a long moment. Technology wasn’t something she had actively pursued, but she’s always had the talent for it. She steps back as Jay strikes the board with his Nunchucks and only a second occurs before the lights flicker on.

They spend a long time experimentally flicking switches, followed by a longer time labelling all of their discoveries. They finish with the electrical room and head up to find that Cole an dZane have repaired the sail with neat, methodical stitches.

Looking up at the sun, Nya finds that they’ve cleaned the entire ship in record time. 

“Well, that took a lot less time than forever.”

“Video games?”

 

***

 

Kai whistles as he and Wu enter the new entertainment room, briefly distracting the ninja from their video game. He walks around the room, examining the shelves, behind the doors, and the hard to reach crevices. “This place looks amazing!”

Then, he comes over and ruffles Nya’s hair fondly. She squawks as her hair tangles under his hand, batting at him as he laughs. “Where was this effort back at the Forge?” Nya just glares up at him before returning to the game. It’s one she hasn’t really played before and she’s still getting the hang of the controls.

“Ninja don’t just fight, Kai.” Cole says from his spot on the floor, grinning up at her brother. He spreads his arms, gesturing around the room dramatically, and after a brief pause, continues, “We clean .”

“You have exceeded my expectations.” Wu admits, looking around the cleaned room, pleased. He doesn’t move to examine the place the way Kai had, but his eyes dart around as he speaks. He leans on his bamboo staff a little and smiles. A loud car horn outside the window causes him to start for a second, but he asks, “But can you keep it up?”

Nya’s character in the game dies dramatically, screen flashing red at the same time that the car honks again. Curious, she gets to her feet and peers through two slats of the wooden blinds. “Looks like we’re about to have some visitors.” Remembering what he had told her back at the Monastery, she turns to Jay and adds, “ Loud ones at that.”

Just as she had expected, he groans loudly and lays back on the floor with a huff. He scrubs his hands aggressively over his face, disregarding his controller and the game completely. “Ugh, it’s my parents. Please, if they start yapping, just don’t let them get going, okay?”

He sits back up, turning fully to face her. His words are very familiar, an echo of every other time he had ever spoken about his family. “They don’t know when to quit!” Nya and Kai exchange a glance over Jay’s head, and Nya has to stop herself from rolling her eyes fondly. Cole is not so polite. “And if you start talking, then they’ll start talking, and then half the day is gone and before you know it-”

“We get it! They talk a lot.” Kai cuts in loudly, throwing his arms in the air. He turns off the TV and makes to leave through the door to the main deck. On his way, he briefly leans into Zane and mutters, “The cherry doesn’t fall far from its blossom.”

With that, he leaves through to the deck, presumably to greet the Walkers. As if realising this, Jay jumps to his feet and bounds after him, intercepting their interaction loudly. “Mom, Dad! What are you doing here?”

 “Oh, look! It’s my baby boy!” Nya watches as the woman, with greying hair and crows feet, coos over her son, pinching his cheeks and drawing him into a bear hug. She shoves down the pang of jealousy that rushes through her and instead focuses on the scene before her. It’s no use to grieve something that she’s never known. “It’s been so long since we heard from you!”

“Ma,” Jay grouses, apparently already exhausted with holding up happy appearances, and squirms out of his mother’s embrace. Though gentle, he pushes her away and outs distance back between them. “I called you two days ago.”

“Oh well,” His father laughs timidly, scratching at the back of his neck. Still, he also swoops Jay into a tight hug, and Nya almost laughs when she realises Jay’s heels are no longer on the ground. “It’s not soon enough, son.”

“Say, when are you coming out to the junkyard?” He finally lets his son go, who stumbles back a little as he returns to standing solidly on the ground. Jay’s cheeks flame red, and he fails to suppress the scowl that takes over his face. His father continues on obliviously. “You say you’re coming and then- then you don’t.”

“Dad!” Jay hunches in on himself as he quietly complains, voice hushed and annoyed. “Do you have to talk about the junkyard in front of my friends?”

“Oh, he hates it when we tell people he was born in a junkyard.” His mother tells them with a snorting laugh. She goes to pat her son’s shoulder but seems unbothered when he ducks away. Jay puts his head in his hands and turns away from the group, though Nya can see the dark flush reaching his ears. His mother’s eyes lock onto Nya and she gasps, clutching her hands in front of her.

“Oh, and are you Nya?” Nya stands still as the woman comes over towards her, shaking her hand. The sudden attention surprises her, but the woman hardly pauses in her conversation. She gushes over Nya for a moment, framing her face in her hands and saying, “You are so cute! You are just his type, you know.”

“ Ma! ” Jay cuts in, and Nya doesn’t have to know that their faces are both aflame in their combined embarrassment. His mother just laughs, releasing Nya’s face and waving away her son’s outrage. Nya giggles a little, incredulously.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Walker,” Nya begins, turning to lead her teammate’s parents out of the sun and into the main room of the ship. 

“Oh, call me Edna.” Edna says and then introduces her husband Ed, who has a hand on Jay’s shoulder as they speak quietly. They paint a very nice picture of a loving family, though they don’t really look similar. At all, Nya is noticing. Then again, Ed’s hair is completely white, and red hair is a recessive trait. Nya shelves the thought for another time. 

“Well, Edna, I’m sure Jay can give you a tour of the place.” Cole cuts in, looking a little too smug for Nya’s comfort. Beside him, Kai is looking upon them with an odd look, and Zane looks appropriately polite. Still, Nya wants to talk more with Jay’s parents, which seems to be the exact opposite of his objective.

“He has worked very hard on the place.” Nya adds when Jay tries to say no, frantically waving his hand by his neck with a grimace. When his parents turn back to him, he abruptly stops. “Dad, it’s getting late, shouldn’t you-”

“Why, we’d love a tour!” Ed cuts him off, taking a glance outside at the setting sun. “We’ve got nothin’ but time!” Jay sighs, glaring at the rest of the ninja over his father’s shoulder. But he relent, bringing his parents through the ship.

“This is amazing, son.” Ed comments as Jay briefly shows them the electrical room. “And you got this old thing into working order all by yourself?”

“Well, Nya helped me.” Jay admits, gently nudging her with his arm. Ed turns to look at her with an impressed nod, and she smiles a little. She briefly explains some of the concepts they had applied, while Ed and Edna listen with rapt attention. “She helped me to figure out a few things.”

“We weren’t too sure when our boy told us he was going to be a ninja,” Ed tells Wu as he examines the electrical board below the deck. He looks impressed by it, peering close at the switches and connectors, all labelled in Nya’s careful handwriting. It had been a measure against the less technically inclined team members, so that nothing could get confused. “But I really think this is good for him.”

“Well, he has his flaws,” Wu says impassively, but he is smiling. “But he is progressing well.” Nya shares a small, impressed smile with Jay. He grins bashfully at the rare, indirect compliment. Still, it’s not often that Wu gives positive reinforcement to his students, which makes it all the more special when it happens.

“You are just what we expected, you know.” Edna leans into her conspiratorially as they move on to another room. “From all of Jay’s letters, I mean. Oh, he just gushes about you.” Nya flushes a little again, a little embarrassed about what that could imply. “And you two are so cute together. So compatible!”

“You know,” Edna turns to Kai, who has been listening to their conversation and is looking a little constipated at the thought of his sister dating. Nya rolls her eyes - he has to accept her growing up eventually. “You remind me of Ed and I at that age. There was one time that we worked together on an invention, and…”

Nya listens to her stories politely, and with suppressed laughter when Cole steers the conversation back to Jay. With every embarrassing story about their teammate, Cole’s smile grows and Jay’s cheeks flush deeper and deeper red. By the time they make it into the bridge, he's completely tuned them out.

“And this is the bridge. This extends the periscope,” He yanks at the bottom of the viewfinder beside the table as his parents ooh and ahh. “It tells us what’s going on in Ninjago. And this…”

He walks over to what Nya knows is the cappuccino machine, exaggerating to his parents for a moment. “If a Serpentine’s not giving us the answers we want, and we’re up late at night…”

“A neuro apparatus to read their minds?”

“An audio appliance to make them talk?”

“No,” Jay slides a mug under the spout and pushes the button on top of the machine. “A cappuccino machine.” His parents laugh at his theatrics and clap indulgently. Nya smiles as Ed pats his shoulder and says, “Amazing, son. We’re so proud of you.”

“Why don’t you tell them about the button?” Cole cuts in with a falsely innocent tone, but his wide, mischievous smile betrays him. Jay groans and shoves at him. “It’s not ready yet!” 

“What’s the button?” Edna asks the room at large, to which Zane dutifully jumps in. “He’s building an advanced special defense system.”

“Oh, really?” Ed asks excitedly, walking over to examine the big red button, much to Jay’s chagrin. “What does it do? Can I help?”

“No, Dad! I don’t need your help. Just leave it alone. And look,” Jay gestures to the sky outside, nearly pitch black with how late it has gotten. Only a thin strip of the sky near the horizon is still bright. “It’s way too late. You ought to get back before it gets fully dark. There’s dangerous Serpentine out there.”

At his words, his parents fully deflate. Nya feels a pang of sympathy for them, though she can see how much they’ve been grating on Jay’s nerves. She, self-admittedly, attributes a lot of it to the lack of parental presence in her life, but she also really likes Jay’s parents. It’s clear to her that they just want to be there for him, as smothering as they are.

“I guess we should.” Ed admits, scratching the back of his neck. Edna nods while linking her arm with her husband’s. “We have been here a while…”

“Edna, it was a pleasure hearing about Jay’s first potty time.” Cole leads them out onto the deck with a wide grin as Edna rejuvinates right before their eyes. “If you thought that was good, then let me-”

“Snakes, Ma! Snakes!” Jay cuts in, fully pushing them towards the wooden bridge connecting the deck and the sandy dunes of the surrounding desert. As he urges his parents towards their old, customized car, he barrages them with questions. “Now, you’ve got the headlights working, right? ‘Cause I really am serious about those Serpentine. They’ll do some real damage and they won’t show any mercy-”

“The headlights are working just fine, son. Don’t worry about us!” Ed reassures as he and Edna get into the car. He hits the dashboard as the headlights turn on, fully blinding the ninja in front of the car. They all rush to shield their eyes as Ed turns down the lights. “Like ‘em? I used some extra juice.”

“Yeah, I see them.” Jay squints against the lights, now much less bright.

“You’ll come to the junkyard and visit your mother and father soon? Maybe bring Nya, too?” Edna asks, worry clearly in her tone. Jay rolls his eyes and avoids that second question, but dutifully responds. “Yes, I promise I’ll visit. You should get going now.”

“Alright. Yep. Bye, son, we couldn’t be more proud!” With that, the car’s engine roars to life, backing up before tearing away into the desert. The headlights kick back up, illuminating the ground and briefly lighting up Edna as she waves over the back of the car. 

Nya waits outside with Jay as the others trickle back inside, waving until the Walkers are well out of sight. Dusk has fully settled by the time they’ve disappeared, and Jay turns to Nya, sheepish.

“I’m sorry about them. Ma gets these ideas in her head and she’ll hold onto them until she’s blue in the face.” Jay scratches the back of his neck as they cross the bridge together. “And they’ll do just about anything to embarrass me-”

“They’re lovely, really.” Nya cuts him off as they descend into the hallway containing their bedrooms. “I liked them. And I wouldn’t mind going to visit them sometime.”

Jay just stares at her for a long moment, before she gets uncomfortable and bids him goodnight. He smiles, seemingly to himself, as he returns it and she disappears into her room.

 

***

 

The next morning, Nya wakes well before the gonging alarm that Wu has instilled. After getting dressed in her gi, she leaves her room to go up on the deck. She passes Wu in the hallway on her way out and gives him a wide berth to avoid running into the gong that he wields. He chuckles at her theatrics, and moments later she hears the muffled clashing and the following complaints from her teammates.

“Morning.” Kai greets her miserably when she enters the Bounty’s bridge. He looks as tired as he had the day before, and is curled around a steaming cup of coffee. Though not in his pajamas, he still has that wild bed-hair and his clothes are rumpled. “Looks like you slept well.”

“Looks like you didn’t.” It really does look like he hasn’t been sleeping.

“I thought you didn’t like coffee.” Nya says as she sits down in front of him with an apple in hand. He only shrugs, taking another long sip. “Give me some.”

“No.” He wraps an arm around the cup, effectively shielding it from both her view and grasp. Nya notices a smear of something black on his shirt sleeve. Grease, maybe. Or ink? When she makes a swipe for the mug anyways, he stands and holds it above her head and out of her reach. “It’ll stunt your growth. Do you want to be as short as Jay?”

“You're hardly taller than him.” As if summoned by their conversation, Jay enters the bridge, looking almost as tired as her brother. He’s got a toolbox in his hands and bypasses the siblings as if he doesn’t even see them. “Good morning, Jay.”

“Wha- oh, hi Nya.” Jay turns to them briefly before settling in front of the elusive Button and opening the toolbox beside him. He spreads out the contents in a chaotic assortment that Nya doesn’t even try to understand. Kai scoffs playfully, saying, “Hello to you, too.”

“Hello, Kai.” The flat tone of his voice makes Nya chuckle and he turns back to his work easily. “Are you going to sit there watching me all morning?”

“Fortunately not. Cole’s been complaining about the practice scythes.” Kai tells them, and sets the half-full coffee mug in front of Nya. She narrows her eyes at him questioningly. He was supposed to be going to the Forge today. He does a half-joking ‘I’m watching you’ gesture at the two of them as he leaves and warns, “No funny business.”

“So,” Nya prompts after a long moment of quiet tinkering. She drains the rest of Kai’s coffee before she continues, “When are you going to go visit your parents?” 

“You guys are laying it on thick… First Cole, as if he visits his parents… Then Zane…” Jay mutters, rubbing the space between his eyes and subsequently smearing grease all over his nose. Nya suppresses a grin at the sight. “But yeah, I’ll head out around noon.”

“Well, tell them I say hi.” Nya gets to her feet and swipes up her mug. She moves to leave and head down to the deck to finally begin her day's training. At the door, she turns around and nudges her finger along her nose bridge. “Oh, you’ve got some…”

“Ah!” Jay turns red and rushes to scrub the smear away with a spar rag. He smiles at her as she finally leaves. “Thanks.”

 

***

 

When Nya comes outside later that afternoon, she finds the rest of her team waiting with the rest of them. Jay in particular looks worried as Wisp evades his every attempt to physically interact. The dragon, which is already testy at the best of times, is finicky and looks ready to shock even its rider.

“It is as I suspected.” Wu says as he walks up beside her. “The dragons are molting, shedding their scales.”

“What does that mean?”

“Every adolescent dragon undergoes a transformation before it becomes an adult.” Wu strokes his beard as he looks out at his pupils with their dragons. Nya goes over to gently pet Flame, who ruffles her hair with a deep breath. “We must allow them to migrate east to the Spirit Coves.”

“Rocky’s going east?” Cole sounds miserable from where he stands at his dragon’s head, slowly petting the beast. Despite his initial paralyzing fear, he has easily connected the most with his dragon. “Say it ain’t so, Rocky.”

“So I guess I’m never getting my own dragon, huh.” Kai says grumpily to Wu, who just shakes his head in response. He sighs, gently dragging his hand down Flame’s back, echoing Nya’s soothing movements. Flame fidgets under their attention, his hide peeling gently.

“Will we see them again?” Nya asks as Flame nudges his snout against her hair. She and Kai stop petting his sides at the sign of discomfort, but Nya’s heart feels heavy in her chest. Wu hums.

“It’s hard to say. But we must let them follow their own paths.” There’s a long moment of quiet as each ninja digests the new information presented to them. Zane too looks upset, something that Nya rarely sees so plainly from him. Their dragons had become their closest friends over the past few months.

Eventually, the dragons pull away from their riders and take to the open sky as the sun crests high in the sky. Nya shields her eyes as she watches their flight towards the risen sun. Jay comes over to stand with her, and she turns to high after a long moment. “Are you still going to see your parents?”

“Yeah. I guess I’ve gotta go on that long walk… All by myself…” Jay leans into her before taking a long dramatic step eastward. He clasps his hands behind his back innocently, making Nya smile, as his voice takes on a sing-song-ish tone. “Would be nice to have some company.”

“Of course we’ll go, buddy!” Cole cheers, slugging an arm over Jay’s shoulders. Jay groans, trying and failing to shove his arm off. “I think we could all use a break.”

“All you had to do was ask.” Zane adds with a beaming smile as he and Kai walk over to join them. Wu clanks his bamboo staff against the ground in silent agreement and Jay sighs before setting off on the long walk.

As they walk side by side on the rudimentary sand road, Wu plays the Sacred Flute, its hauntingly beautiful melody distracting them from the hot air of the desert. The heat casts mirages on every bump in the road, and although Nya isn’t desperately seeking for water, everytime one vanishes, she feels a little annoyed.

“Out of all days to lose our ride.” Jay sighs miserably, feet trudging through the sand. Nya has to agree, even though the heat that Flame gives off would have her complaining, too. Even with her natural resistance to heat, she finds continuous, excessive warmth annoying. “Why’d the Bounty have to be so far away?”

“Sensei.” Zane says to draw Wu’s attention. He waits as the song finishes before lowering the flute from his mouth. “You never told us why that flute is so special.” Wu hums in consideration, holding the flute lowly, though hands still poised to play.

“Long ago, there were many flutes, created to combat the Serpentine’s powers and draw them underground. But over time, Ninjago’s forgotten its ancestors’ wisdom,” He lifts the flute back to his mouth and inhales. “And now, this is the only one.” The flute song again fills the air, Wu turning pointedly to play right in Jay’s face.

“I get the lesson - respect your elders or suffer the consequences!” Jay groans and speeds up to walk away from the group. “You guys are really trying to hammer that home.”

The flute stops once more as Wu laughs, saying, “Perhaps you only hear what you need to hear.”

Nya almost runs into Jay as he stops suddenly. The junkyard is in full view, with a rather cute sign displaying ‘Ed and Edna’s Scrap N Junk’ over its open entrance. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s quiet,” He says worriedly and takes off at a run, the ninja scrambling to follow him. “My family’s never quiet.”

By the time Nya and the rest of the ninja catch up to him, he’s freed his parents from their captivity in an old fridge of all things. Edna is gingerly peeling duct tape away from her mouth while Ed rubs his shoulder as though it had been bruised. 

“You’ve gotta get out of here. You shouldn’t have come,” Ed urges them all as Jay ushers them away from the fridge. Nya stares at him oddly as he speaks. She hadn’t noticed anything off the night before, but now it seems like he’s gained a lisp over night. “It’s the sssnakes!”

Then, she notices the bite on the side of his neck and everything falls into place.

“The bite of the Fangpyre! Once they sink their teeth, the venom will turn anything into a serpent.” Wu confirms her fears as Jay’s parents recoil in shock. Nya had read something along those lines in one of her history books, but she had honestly disregarded everything that wasn’t about the Hypnobrai. Jay himself looks furious, shoving his mask on over his face. “It’s only a matter of time before they completely transform.”

Now that she knows what to listen for, the sounds of hissing fill the Junkyard. The ninja fall into step with their backs to each other, surveying the area as a team. “Uh, is that wrecking ball staring at me?”

Nya follows Cole’s eyeline to the huge wrecking ball, and hardly has time to yell before it swings towards them. Jay quickly turns into Spinjitzu, twirling and saving his parents from the ball’s destructive path. The Serpentine that had been controlling the equipment sneers down at them.

“Thanksss, bud.” Ed hisses from where he and Edna are now perched on top of one of the scrap piles. A familiar maniacal giggling overpowers all the hissing, and Nya’s stance goes sloppy with annoyance. She’s getting rather sick of being run around by this pathetic brat.

“Hi, Uncle!” The boy in question waves enthusiastically from the top of a garbage pile as Wu says his name like it's a swear. His cheery attitude drops for something attempting to be sinister. “Looks like we aren’t the only family reuniting!”

Jay scowls up at him, but the brat continues without even a glance. “I’m glad you brought your ninja. I could use some help taking out the trash .” Then he breaks back into his evil, harmless giggling. The snakes around him are not so harmless, Nya finds as she jumps to avoid a bite.

“We need the antivenom in the staff to turn you back!” Nya calls up to Edna as she punches a snake in the face. They’re slowly closing in on the ninja, and Nya really doesn’t want to become a sitting duck.

“Second dose, to the dirt!” Cole calls, and everyone drops just in time to avoid another swing of the possessed wrecking ball. Nya rolls to the side to get back to her feet, and finds that the snakes advancing towards them have doubled.

“Easier said than done, sis.” Kai calls from where he is standing with Jay’s parents and Wu. He’s standing tall and craning his neck, using his vantage point to better count the number of snakes in the Junkyard. “We’re way outnumbered!”

“No one messes with my family.” Jay cracks his knuckles before pulling out the Nunchucks, twirling them around his body. The Nunchucks crackle with electricity and fill the air with blue as he twists into Spinjitzu again. “Ninja, go!”

Nya and her other teammates quickly follow him, twirling through the throws of Fangpyre servants, knocking several snakes out at a time. Nya falls back into the familiar motions of fighting, sweeping a snake’s feet out from under him before knocking it out with the butt of her sword. 

The possessed wrecking ball swings through the air, and Nya has to leap out and back into Spinjitzu to avoid being pummeled by it. She follows its track through the air and watches it get wedged in one of the scrap heaps.

Through the red haze of Spinjitzu, she can see her teammates going through their own fights, leaving literal piles of Serpentine behind them. Up on the garbage heaps, she can see her brother fighting closer to Lloyd Garmadon.

The flute song fills the air as Kai knocks a two-headed Fangpyre down to the floor. It gets hit by the wrecking ball mid-air, finally freed, and it screams before its ally can halt the machine. Though it succeeds in stopping their opponents, the flute is quickly drowned out by Lloyd’s blasting rock music, lifted by a serpentified boombox.

“Young nephew, must I teach you whose side you should be on?” Wu calls up at Lloyd, waving the Flute at him in annoyances. Lloyd only giggles, turning up the volume of the boombox. He cups a hand around his ear, yelling, “Sorry, Uncle, can’t hear you!” 

 Up on the scrap pile, Kai is knocked down to the ground by the General, freed from the Flute’s paralyzing powers. Nya watches Edna whack an approaching Serpentine in the head with a frying pan. Wu turns around suddenly, the snake’s intended target, and nods at her, impressed.

“Heh, way to go, Edna!” Ed cheers on his wife.

The Serpentine are mainly cleared away. Most are knocked out on the ground while others have outright fled. Nya can only see the General still standing. Still, the ninja do a final sweep of Spinjitzu through the Junkyard to be certain.

All of a sudden, Nya is knocked out of her tornado by a loud, sudden quake in the ground. The whole yard jolts, and Nya looks up, up, up at a massive robotic ninja. Jay sounds horrified as he whips towards his parents to ask, “What is that thing?!”

“It was supposed to be in your honour, son!” Ed explains anxiously, out of harm's reach. The thing twirls its huge nunchucks, its glowing red eyes looming ominously. “But, do you like it?”

It takes a shuddering step towards them, and Nya doesn;t waste a moment before she's turning heel and sprinting away. By the frantic footfalls, the others have taken to her approach like fish to water. Jay calls over his shoulder, voice cracking, “Thanks, but no thanks!”

Nya narrowly avoids getting demolished by the thing’s nunchucks. At the last second, she notices its shadow rapidly becoming smaller over her, and dives to the side. It just misses the tie of her gi, crushing the dirt below it.

“Oh, why’d you have to grow up in a junkyard!” Cole complains as the Bot lumbers on behind them, and Jay groans in response, “Ugh, tell me about it!”

Nya spots the wrecking ball returning to life put of the corner of her eyes, and nearly screams her warning to “Get down!” She just rolls out of the way as the wrecking ball makes a huge crater in the ground. When she gets back to her feet, she looks around incredulously. “Where’s Jay?!”

Nya doesn’t have time to ponder it before the Bot returns its attention to her, and she jumps to avoid another strike. She darts between its legs, hoping that it will distract it enough to turn its attention away. 

Her mission succeeds as its massive head turns to look at Cole. He gulps under its gaze, and narrowly avoids a strike from its nunchucks. “I’ve got it!” He calls as he struggles back to his feet, and has to hold the huge nunchucks off with the Scythe held in both hands. The Bot is suddenly rammed into by the wrecking ball, with Jay leaning out of the cockpit. Cole throws up his hands. “I told you, I had it!”

Nya thinks that he shouldn’t be complaining, wincing at the massive amount of dust it kicks up as it hits the ground. The ground shakes as it powers off, and Jay leaps out of the cockpit once more.

“Retreat!” Lloyd shrieks, seeing the state of his army, once again defeated by the ninja. He leaps onto a serpentified helicopter with the General, and the rest of the Fangpyre army follows suit.

“He’s getting away with the staff!” Nya says, frustrated. And without their dragons, there’s virtually no hope of catching up to him. Especially, Nya thinks as she turns to look at Edna, with the state of Jay’s parents.

“Of all days to lose our ride!” Jay curses, echoing his earlier words. Ed puts a hand on his shoulder, struggling to stand with his green, scaly skin. “It’s okay, ssssson.” Jay practically growls in his fury, but Wu comes over and hushes him.

“There is still a way.” Wu reassures, and ignores Jay’s infuriated cry. Nya’s own feelings are reflected in the anger in his voice. She feels hopelessly angry about being bested by that brat, especially at the cost of Jay’s parents. They’ve really grown on her.

“Part of reaching your full potential is understanding your weapon’s potential. Once it is in tune with a focused heart,” Wu lectures, putting a hand to his own chest. “Its secret power can be unlocked.”

“Now is not the time to be cryptic!” Jay literally stomps his foot, voice growing shrill with his anger. Zane comes over to him, examining the Shurikens. “He means that Weapons are vehicles themselves.”

 

Nya looks at all of the weapons and ponders the logistics of how each could possibly be used as a vehicle. She draws a blank on all fronts. Even holding the Sword out in front of her, she can’t fathom a reasonable way to work it - unless it becomes something else entirely. Kai at the same time says, “Don’t tell me you have to ride that thing like a broomstick.”

“Jay, concentrate on your Golden Weapon,” Wu says. Jay looks down at his Nunchucks and screws his eyes shut, doing as he’s told. “Let your heart guide you, imagine that you are taking flight.”

Jay reopens his eyes, and twirls the crackling Nunchucks around him. They sparkle with the surge of lightning as they move, creating an odd circular impression around Jay. There’s a sudden blinding light as the Nunchucks disappear, and Jay is suddenly sitting in the cockpit of a huge mechanical glider.

“Whoa-oh-oh!” Jay cheers before laughing. The darkened glass top of the glider closes over his head, muffling his voice from the outside. “Did I just do that?”

Inspired, Nya focuses on the Sword as she goes through her katas. Having done them every day for the past few months, the motions come easily. She can see the same visual impression surrounder her, though this time it’s red, and with the blinding light, she’s perched on the seat of a wicked bike.

“Whew!” She looks over the controls of the bike, and it’s just about everything she’s dreamed of. Somehow, each button is labelled with a word or symbol, suitable to every situation imaginable. She even spots an ejector of knock out gas, of all things. 

“I hate to hurt Rocky’s feelings,” Cole’s voice echoes in her ear, drawing her attention to a communicator on the handlebars of the bike. She looks around at her teammates and sees Cole in a huge dune buggy and Zane in a snowmobile. “But I think he’s just been replaced!”

“Your flute doesn’t turn into anything, does it?” Kai asks Wu as Jay takes off after Lloyd, arms crossed and sporting a new bruise on his cheekbone. Wu just sighs sadly, lowering the flute in question. “I wish.”

Nya has just a second to laugh at her brother before taking off out of the junkyard. There’s not much the three of them can do from the ground - this battle is purely in the air. Jay’s voice then comes over on the communicator, a little staticy but still intelligible. “Whoops, overshot that a little!”

A shot explodes from the Glider, knocking into the platform that Lloyd and the Fangpyre General stands on. Lloyd stumbles, and clings to the support wit both hands. In the scramble, the Fangpyre drops the staff.

Nya watches as Jay swoops into the staff’s path towards the ground and catches it in the cockpit. “Ha ha! I got it!” In his excitement, he loses his concentration and the glider blinks out of existence. Though his input from the communicator is cut off, Nya can hear his screaming loud and clear.

“Concentrate!” Nya yells up at him, wondering if he’ll even be able to hear her. With the staff in one hand and the Nunchucks in the other, there’s nothing that he can really do besides curl up against the force of gravity. Apparently, though, he can hear her, as he screams back, “ I can’t! ”

“We have to catch him.” Zane realises as Jay gets closer and closer to the ground. Squeezing the handle bar as tightly as possible, Nya speeds ahead of the others, looking up instead of forward. She doesn’t even know if the nike can get to him in time. She’s going by hope and dreams. “I got him!”

“No, I’ve got him!”

“He’s mine!”

Apparently, the other elemental weapons had better speed than she believed, because Zane and Cole have caught up to her. They’ve caught up to her so well that one of them bumps into her and then into the other. Nya screams as her bike is sent flying, her concentration snapping and the bike disappears. Somehow, her momentum stops abruptly, and she lands in a pile with the others. Despite the dull ache in her shoulder, she’s more rattled than anything.

Nya can’t focus on hardly anything, let alone enough to recall her vehicle. She has to watch helplessly as Jay falls, screaming, through the open air, down to the dusty desert dirt. She can’t look away, eyes locked onto the imminent death of her friend.

Distantly, she’s aware that the Fangpyre have set their sights on the ninja once more, turning tail to track them down.

Just when she thinks he’s going to splat on the ground, the Walkers’ old car speeds by, kicking up dirt. She watches Jay land in the front seat next to Kai, exchange a word or two, and then collapse fully into the seat. The car abruptly turns around, headed back to them.

“Get in!” Kai urges frantically, and upon following his gaze, Nya is quick to comply. The entirety of the Serpentine tribe have revived, and are marching towards them on foot and in vehicles. The ninja leap into the car, settling on the top of the backmost seat.

“Sensei!” Jay calls, waving his nunchucks around. Kai leans away with a glare as the old car peels away from the approaching snakes, and Nya grips tightly to the seat below her. She’s never been in a car with her brother behind the wheel, and she’s suddenly very grateful for that fact. “Why isn’t it working?”

“Your weapon is an extension of your mind.” Wu brings the flute upwards to play, though Nya doesn’t know how effective the song will be from this position. “If your mind is immobile, then so is your weapon.”

“We have to get back to headquarters!” Jay urges from his spot in the front seat. Though she can’t see his face, Nya can tell that Kai has rolled his eyes by the slight movement of his shoulders. “Where do you think we’re headed?”

Nya struggles to hang on to the car against the extreme speed that the old car is reaching. Even Kai is clinging tightly to the steering wheel, despite the fact that it’s his foot pushing the pedal to the metal. When they finally stop, he grabs the staff from Jay.

Nya glances over her shoulder at the advancing Fangpyre army as Kai leads the Walkers onto the ship. The ninja then rush over the wooden bridge and on the way, Nya uses her Sword to completely torch the footbridge. It turns to black dust before she follows the others up to the wheelhouse. Jay directs them sternly to where they’re needed. “Man the stations!”

“Jay, we have to hurry!” Nya calls as she watches the snakes get closer to the Bounty through the bridge’s large window. “I’ve been waiting for this.” Jay says as he dramatically lifts the button cover, and then slams his hand down.

For a long moment, nothing happens. Nya turns back to the window, and can begin to make out individual Fangpyre faces. “They’re closing in!”

Jay’s parents chose that moment to enter the bridge, miraculously cleared of the venom. Their scales have disappeared and they are back to normal, human colouring. Kai follows them in, staff held loosely in his hand as he stands guard at the door. The snakes keep getting closer.

“I don’t get why this isn’t working!” Jay exclaims, smacking a hand on the side of the countertop. Just as Nya is about to head over to see if she can help at all, Ed beats her there. “Uh, son? Maybe I can help?”

“Dad!” Apparently only noticing their presence now, Jay rushes to hug his parents tightly. “Ma! You’re okay!”

“You’re darn tootin’!” Ed says strongly, before nudging past Jay to look at the button. Jay, in direct contrast to how he had acted the night before, lets him look easily. “Can I?”

“Please.” Jay says, opening the wiring box quickly. Anxious of their wasted time, Nya moves over to stand with her brother by the door overlooking the deck. The Fangpyre are almost at the top of the dunes, and though the footbridge is gone, it wouldn’t take much effort to board, or worse, bite the Bounty.

“Oh, there.” Ed says after a one, quiet moment. He yanks at a wire until it comes loose and switches the placing quickly, and then closes the panel. “That should do it. Now, try it.”

Jay slams his hand down on the button, and the entire ship jolts suddenly. Nya can see something resembling wings stretch out of the sides of the Bounty, and the boat seems to defy gravity before Nya registers the sound of the rocket boosters.

Nya stumbles at the takeoff, but less so than Kai, who was standing in the doorway. As he loses his footing, he accidentally lets go of the staff to catch himself on the empty door frame.”Shit!” They watch together as it clatters on the deck and then begins rolling. Incredibly inconveniently, it rolls right where the footbridge had been, falling down onto the sand below.

“Atleast Ed and Edna are already cured.” Nya reassures at the sight of Kai’s meekness. She helps him back onto steady footing, wincing at his weight on her sore shoulder. They watch as the snakes disappear from view, and then head back into the bridge together.

They walk in on the Walkers reconciling, hugging each other tightly over by the button. Edna smooths Jay’s hair out of his face and Ed has an arm around each of their shoulders. They look happy, safe, and loving.

Beside her, Nya can see her brother smiling in a politely absent way, his mind clearly elsewhere. Nya lets herself feel her jealousy for a second as she watches the complete family in front of them. 

“Oh, take a note, Edna - Of all of our inventions,” Ed grips the back of Jay’s head, drawing him into another hug and rustling his hair. “This one is our greatest.”

“Oh,” Edna smiles, wiping away a tear. “I already know, dear.” Jay laughs a little as they continue to shower him with affection, and the ninja politely ignore how it sounds a little choked. His family is safe and whole - the rest of them can be happy for him.

Chapter 4: Never Trust A Snake

The soothing sway of the Bounty in the blue ocean slowly draws Nya from the lull of sleep. The daybreak lights up the sky, early sunlight streaming through the blinds and illuminating Nya’s cabin. The sky outside is lighter than it usually is when she wakes, so she takes her time getting ready.

She throws on her gi, now kept in her bedroom instead of a designated changing room. Despite the sheer size of the Bounty, its rooms don’t have all the same functions that the Monastery had. Many are small and unused, and a majority of their activity happens above-deck. She carefully pulls her hair back so that the side pieces won’t fall into her face, and then heads up to the training area.

 When she gets to the deck, her teammates are nowhere to be found. As that had been a common occurrence since she became their teammate, she isn’t bothered, and simply finds something else to do while she waits for them to wake up.

She simply enjoys the morning for a while, appreciating the sparkling glow of the sun on the rippling waves down below. The gentle, salty breeze wakes her further in addition to the warmth of the dawn. She decides to go into the wheelhouse and check for any alerts.

When she makes her way to the top of the steps, she finds her brother there already, sitting at the table. It’s odd that he is up so early, and it doesn’t seem as though he’s slept much at all the night before. He starts as she accidentally creaks a floorboard, but settles a little when he realises who it is, putting his head on his arms. 

“I didn’t realise that your whole thing was this bad.” Nya says as she walks further into the bridge. She’s known about his anxiety surrounding large amounts of water, but she hadn’t considered that it might impact his sleep. “Maybe Sensei could help you.”

“Wu has advised me to do meditation .” Kai’s voice is muffled from where his head is buried in his arms. The disbelieving tone still carries through, and Nya can practically hear him roll his eyes. While Kai has been following many of their training practices on his own, there are some things that he can’t seem to get behind. “He didn’t seem inclined to just avoid the ocean.”

“I mean,” Nya says as she sits down across from him, playing devil’s advocate. As much as she feels sympathy for her brother, a little part of her is annoyed by his unfounded anxiety. “We do live on a ship. It comes with the territory.”

Kai sighs, the wind knocking out of his sails completely. “Yeah, I know.”

Wu chooses that moment to enter the bridge, and tuts at the picture they make. He carries his tea set with him, teal teapot raised on a tray. He sets the tray between the siblings and then takes his own seat, sitting cross-legged at the low table.

“You will never conquer your fears if you cannot face them.” He pours the tea into two cups, speaking as though he had been repeating the same thing over and over again. By the way that Kai groans at his words, it's likely that he had. 

“Easier said than done,” Kai accepts the cup of tea pushed towards him, sipping at it gingerly. Wu then turns to Nya appraisingly, and she suppresses the urge to squirm under the sudden attention.

“I will guide your training this morning once I am finished here.” Wu tells her dismissively with a sweeping gesture.. “You should go down to the deck and prepare.”

Nya simply nods with a final glance to her brother, who has his hands wrapped securely around the mug, but is at least looking away from the table. She heads down to begin her warm up on the deck, but takes a long moment to just bask in the morning sun.

“I know I’m usually up before you guys,” Nya greets her teammates as they finally emerge from their rooms. She’s going through her stretches as Wu had instructed, waiting until he comes to train with them personally. “But you guys are really late today.”

“Zane had one of his dreams.” Cole explains as he falls into step beside her. He mimics her stretches, reaching for his toes, as Nya turns to look at the ninja in question. Zane does look particularly absent. His wide eyes are focused on the floor and when he finally looks at her, he blinks rapidly as if to clear his head. 

“Oh really? What about?” Nya lowers her voice as Wu finally emerges from the bridge with a frown, walking slowly down the steps. Nya turns to Zane as he starts to speak with furrowed brows.

“I saw the Falcon again.” Zane watches the horizon where the sky meets the sea. Jay turns to him quickly, hands raising in excitement. Evidently, Zane hadn’t filled the others in on the contents of his dream. Jay comes up beside Zane and elbows him, saying “Woah, Zane! Every time you see that bird, something big happens!”

“Like with Lloyd’s treehouse.”

“And then it led you to the Bounty.” Cole adds as Wu comes to stand in front of them. He moves out of his warm up to pay attention to their Sensei, though his focus is clearly still divided. 

“All right.” Says Wu, drawing their attention for a moment. “First, stretch.” He turns away from them to face the ocean, and lifts his arms high above his head. The ninja move to follow him as he balances on one leg and says “The Swooping Crane.”

“This time,” Zane whispers, perfectly mimicking Wu’s example. He doesn’t waver even a little as he drops the bomb. “It showed me the Green Ninja.”

Nya stumbles at the huge news, completely disregarding their current training objective. If there’s one thing she’s learned about Zane, it would be to give his dreams some merit. She had quickly learned that Wu’s description as a ‘seer with a sixth sense’ was not as mystical as it had seemed.

“The Green Ninja?!” Her disbelief is echoed by Cole and Jay as they all whip around to look at Zane. When Wu starts to turn, Nya rushes into any pose besides the shocked stance she had fallen into. When Wu faces them fully, he frowns at them, disappointed.

“That looks like the Shocked Monkey.” Wu sounds almost disgusted with their form. Nya glances to the side to see Jay and Cole in similarly terrible attempts at the pose.  If he had his staff in hand, Nya doesn’t doubt that Wu would be whacking all three of them on the heads. “Bed form, more focus.”

As he turns around again, the ninja falls back into the correct form of the poses. Her balance is a little wonky as she resumes the stretch because Nya’s focus is entirely on Zane and his dream. On the other end of the line, Jay sounds furiously curious as he whispers, “You can’t just drop a bomb like that. Spill the beans!”

“What else happened?” Nya asks in the same low tone, curiosity about Zane’s prophetic vision overwhelming her.

“He was fighting Lord Garmadon.” 

“In accordance with the prophecy.” Nya fills in, beginning to feel the slight burn in her muscles from holding the stretch for such a long time. Despite the physical discomfort, she can only focus on the scroll that they had seen on that day in Jamanukai Village. Their debate on the Chosen Ninja’s identity also comes back to her, and she asks, “Did you see under the mask?”

The boys quickly back up her inquiry, adding their own whispered encouragement to Zane. Zane simply shakes his head, eyes still trained forward on the horizon. Jay chimes in then, bouncing on his heels. “Which of us was he?”

“I could not see under the mask, but he had attributes that each of us possess.” Zane follows Wu as he changes positions, crouching low and holding his hands outward. Wu himself stays facing the other direction as he says, “Pinching Crab.”

Nya ponders that for a long, quiet moment as she too switches poses. Zane’s information wasn’t very specific at all, except, “Hey, who says it’ll be a he?”

Zane doesn’t answer, drawing her attention to the other side of the deck, when Wu is staring straight at her judgmentally. His hands are clasped behind his back and his nose is tilted upwards. Nya cringes under his stare, shrinking back into herself as shame clings to her throat. “What is so important to ignore my teachings?”

“Nothing. Sorry, Sensei.” Feeling thoroughly cowed, Nya bows her head in her embarrassment. Wu makes a small, annoyed sound as he turns to the others.

“It was nothing, Sensei.”

“We don’t talk when you teach.”

“Everyone was paying attention.” Nya doesn’t let her surprise show at Zane’s words. He rarely denies Wu’s orders, and while she wasn’t expecting him to throw her under the bus, she wasn’t anticipating him speaking up. Then again, it was his topic of discussion that drew them off track.

Wu tuts, walking to stand directly in front of them. They subconsciously crowd around him as he speaks. “Since you all are lacking in focus, you may share the punishment.” Wu seems to relish in the immediate protests that arise from his students.

“Hang on, punishment?”

“Wait, it was all Zane!” Cole points to the white ninja accusatorily.

“I was merely answering their questions!” Zane defends himself, throwing his hands up and glaring viciously at Cole. He turns back to look at Wu, clearly frustrated. Their teacher only clicks his tongue in discontentment.

“No free time for the foreseeable future.” Wu turns to walk away from them. He heads towards the stairs leading up to the bridge, saying as he goes, “Your time will be used for training, and only training.”

“How far away is the ‘foreseeable future?’” Jay whines, leading Wu to halt in his path.

“Until you can answer a simple riddle: what is the best way to defeat an enemy?” Upon a series of frantic, incorrect answers from his pupils, Wu sighs and goes to climb the staircase. “Pace yourselves. In your training, be sure to sharpen your mind as well as your Spinjitzu.”

As they watch Wu disappear into the bridge, they separate and spread out on the deck. Nya takes a moment to stare out across the horizon, and glances up to see the sun settled in the late afternoon. As he walks over to collect a staff, Cole contemplates the riddle aloud, saying, “Ugh. The ‘best way’ to defeat an enemy could be anything!”

“We can figure this out.” Nya moves to start up the training course, one that she and Jay had worked to create based on the memory of the training equipment at the Monastery. The machines slowly rise from below deck, and as they wait, Jay adds, “Right, we’re smart. It won’t even take us that long!”

Thoroughly warmed up from the stretches with Wu and her own exercises, Nya heads over to the punching bag. As she feels the hits echo from her arms and through her body, she ponders Wu’s ‘simple’ riddle. The riddle feels like a trap - the question itself is incredibly subjective. If she were fighting a Skulkin army, she would take a completely different approach than if she were facing a Serpentine army. 

After a long few minutes, she steps back from the bag with a sigh, wiping away sweat from her forehead. The sun is growing increasingly hot on her back, only adding to the internal heat generated from the intensive workout.

“So, I’m sure you haven’t told us all of your dream.” Nya says as she passes by Zane on her way to grab her water bottle. She leans against the side of the cabin wall as she sips, and the other ninja also halt their training to look at Zane.

“Let me just say,” Zane throws a steel shuriken directly into the centre of the target board. As he draws his arm back to throw another, he continues, “The Green Ninja is awesome .”

The team listens to the recounting of his dream with bated breath, taking in every detail with excruciating attention. Nya takes note of the ‘shared attributes’ that Zane had mentioned before, but mostly in reference to herself. 

“He defeated Lord Garmadon with ease.” Zane is saying, sitting cross-legged in front of the others. The other ninja have formed a semi-circle around him, sitting in various states as they listen closely. “And then he turned to me with his fist on fire.” 

“Her fist, you mean.” Nya leans back on her hands, a smug smile taking over her face. The final detail was simply the nail in the coffin of her belief. Zane’s narration of the Green Ninja’s fighting style reminded her starkly of herself, but the raw evidence of them using Nya’s element was frankly undeniable. “ Her fist was on fire. I’m the Green Ninja.”

“Hang on!” Jay says, turning to look at her disbelievingly. “Just thirty minutes ago you weren’t even sure the Green Ninja would be one of us, and now you’re certain he’s you ?”

“Yeah, what are you talking about?” Cole cuts in, sitting up abruptly from where he had been lounging on his back. He catches the ball he had been tossing into the air, turning to look at her sharply. “He had incredible strength to lift that cargo and save Zane. Sorry, Scrawny, but that’s me .”

“Uh, wait, did you miss the part where he pulled out Nunchucks?” Jay abandons their short-lived alliance built on ganging up on her, kicking his feet in the air from where he’s been laying on his stomach. He struggles for a moment to reach his own weapon, but eventually succeeds in freeing his Nunchucks and then waves them about on display. “I have Nunchucks!”

“I think you’re all missing the point of the dream.” Zane frowns, holding his hands open on his knees. “The Falcon landed on his arm and it was in my dream. So, naturally, it’s me.”

“I think we can cross Cole off the list.” Jay says after a long moment, getting back to his feet. He flexes his biceps as if evaluating his own strength. While he is undeniably strong, Nya resists the urge to call him flat out delusional at his next sentence. “I could’ve lifted ten times-”

“Woah, hang on! Cross me off the list?” Cole too gets to his feet, all but stomping his foot in annoyance. He leans closer to Jay, copying the appraisal of Jay’s strength and then laughing. “I could toss you from one end of the Bounty to the other. You could not even lift half of what I can.”

“And,” Nya adds, swiping Jay’s weapon out of his hands to prove her point. She twirls them around for a moment, slowing down when she hears the tell-tale whirl of building electricity. “Anyone can hold Nunchucks.”

“Exactly.” Cole confirms with a smirk, gloating at the way that Jay puffs up in anger. Nya dodges his attempt to steal his Nunchucks back with an innocent smile, moving to stand beside Zane.

“What did the Green Ninja look like?” Nya asks, and then when Zane’s brows furrow with confusion, she clarifies, “Their body I mean. Surely they would resemble one of us more.”

Zane hesitates a little, as if considering his knowledge and realizing that it does not support his stance. “He was lean. And certainly not as tall as Cole.”

“So we can cross Cole off.” Jay says gleefully, grinning up at the ninja in question. Then he turns to Zane with a critical eye, and Nya can tell that he’s comparing their heights by the way he holds his hands at varying levels in front of himself. “In fact, I think we can rule out Zane, too.”

“So with the shorter build and the fire,” Nya says, twirling the Nunchucks once more. “It’s definitely me.”

“Just because Zane’s dreams are prophetic doesn’t mean they’re 100% accurate!” Cole interjects, throwing his hands up. “Like the Falcon! The Falcon doesn’t talk.”

“That is a good point.” Zane says consideringly, tilting his head as if picturing the scene in his head. He closes his eyes briefly and when he opens them, he grins. “The Bounty’s deck seemed much smaller. Clearly, my fantastical scale was incorrect.”

“You can’t go back on your evidence just because it contradicts you!” Nya cries, and can see Jay enthusiastically nodding along in her peripheral vision.

“Since you are not training,” Wu’s sudden disapproving tone causes Nya to startle dramatically, shoving the Nunchucks back into Jay’s hands. Wu walks around so that he can face them all, looking from one face to the next as he continues, “You must have found the solution to the riddle. What is the best way to defeat your enemy?”

The enduring silence does nothing more than incriminate them further. Nya glances sideways and downwards, and in her peripheral vision, can see her teammates doing the same. Wu doesn’t turn to leave or move to speak again, forcing them to speak for their lack of action.

Nya doesn’t want to be the one to speak. She knows that whatever answer she gives will be wrong, and Wu has not been kind to failure. “...To train?” she asks weakly, hands clasped tightly in front of herself.

“Feeble and incorrect. Maybe more training will help you focus.” Predictably, Wu scoffs at her, tossing his head as if too disappointed to even look at his students. He turns away from them, this time heading towards his cabin, saying, “Remember the focus required for your vehicles. A razor-sharp weapon is an extension of a razor-sharp mind.”

The ninja groan as he disappears, already sick of training. While Nya has always had a natural inclination to it, even she grows sick of it. Privately, she thinks that sharpening her mind would be more effective through research. Unfortunately, that was considered a ‘free-time’ activity. She scowls as she returns to the punching bag.

“How am I supposed to focus when we don’t know who the Green Ninja is?” Jay whines, whipping his Nunchucks around his body.

“We’re never going to solve this stupid riddle.” Nya grumbles, kicking the edge of one of the machines in her frustration. The spark of pain that shoots through her foot quickly makes her regret it, and she hops on her uninjured foot for a moment. When the pain subsides, she decides to go through her katas instead, hoping to distract herself from her frustration.

“We can figure it out if we work together.” Cole corrects her as he goes to the training machine with the swinging wooden swords. He boots it up, tapping his foot as he waits, and leaps into motion once it starts. “Let’s try. I don’t want to be training all day.”

The hot sun doesn’t soothe Nya’s frustration, and only serves to make her angrier. The longer she stews on such a question, the further from an answer she feels. Again, she returns to the subjectivity of the question. What could possibly be applicable against every enemy - what is universal to every single fight?

She thinks of the fights she has participated in, and more importantly, came out victorious. She ruminates on the fight against the Skulkin army, every interaction with the Hypnobrai, and most recently, the Fangpyre at Jay’s parents’ Junkyard. 

She quickly grows tired of her katas, and vows to try something she hasn’t yet. When Zane finally moves on from target practice, she goes over to yank the handful of steel shurikens from the target board, all of which are within four fingers-distance of the bullseye. 

She stands a little closer than Zane usually does to accommodate her lack of ability, and spends a moment getting used to the weight of the throwing stars. They feel weird in her hands - the tips are very sharp, but the edges are almost completely dull. She knows that Kai is the one who maintains the practice weapons, and wonders how often these little stars require upkeep.

Nya takes one star in her right hand, pinching it between her thumb and forefinger. She draws her arm back, the way she had seen Zane do so many times, and throws it by bringing her arm down sharply. It wedges into the board with a slight thump on the outer edge.

She frowns, but throws another, which misses the board entirely, embedding into the wooden side of the cabin. Her next throw hits the board, but is farther from the centre than her first. When she runs out of stars, only the one didn’t make it onto the board. The others lie around the centre with a two hand-width margin.

She collects the stars twice before she is satisfied with her progress. She hasn’t yet made a bullseye, but she is both closer and more consistent in her aim. She is nowhere even remotely near Zane, but the minute victory does cheer her up a little.

Cole had moved on to practicing with the bamboo staffs. He had gone through his katas, but had since broken off to simply twirling it around and around his body. He then succeeds in ruining Nya’s little moment of success by reminding her of her current adversary - the blasted riddle. “Anyone have any solutions to Sensei’s riddle?”

“It can’t be that hard.” Jay pants from where he’s been doing flips and handsprings over a stretch of the Bounty’s deck. It’s a wonder that he hasn’t made himself sick with dizziness with how he’s been flipping around non-stop. “What’s the best way to defeat an enemy?”

“I sense that Sensei will keep us here until we work together and find an answer.” Zane adds, perfectly balanced in one of Wu’s stretches. His form hasn’t wavered even a smidge in fifteen minutes.

“That's stupid. If he wants to keep us here working,” Cole huffs, still spinning the staff around him. Nya glances at his furrowed brow but looks down at the star in her hand as Cole slams the staff onto the deck. “He’s giving the enemy time to play.”

“Well what can it be? The art of Spinjitzu? The enemy’s own pride?” Nya rants as she sticks her final star into the target board. She glowers at the little piece of metal as it swerves sideways, metaphorically setting her back to square one. “Teamwork?”

“Hey, wait!” Jay stumbles on the landing of a handspring, turning excitedly to face her as she walks over and wrenches her shurikens from the target board and the surrounding wall, which is littered with nicks. He practically bounces over to her, looking to the others to make sure they're listening. “That actually might be it! Zane said the same thing, right?”

“It is certainly important.” Zane admits as he finally falls out of the Swooping Crane and into another stretch. “Think of how dysfunctional we were before we learned to work together.”

“Like when Nya didn’t want to wait for the rest of us when we were trying to save Kai.” Cole grins when Nya gives him a sharp look. They all know that Nya does not like to be reminded of her previous faults, and that particular obstacle had been difficult to overcome. “”

“Or when the Hypnobrai turned Cole against us.” Nya counters, now seriously considering her own input. She had only said it out of frustration, but hearing the boys support it furthers her confidence. The more she thinks about it, the more likely it seems. “It is a constant in all of our victories.”

“So we have ourselves an answer.” Cole says, excitement bleeding into his voice. “A practical one, at that.”

“Well, let's go tell Sensei and get off our butts!” Jay doesn’t wait for the rest of them, immediately heading off into the ship. He disappears into the upper cabin, and Nya rushes to follow him into Wu’s meditation room. 

When they slide open the shoji doors, Wu is sitting cross-legged on the floor as he paints with a careful hand on a piece of washi paper. Upon hearing their footfalls, he lifts his head to look at them expectantly. “Oh, you must have found the answer to my riddle.”

“We have, Sensei.” Cole looks between them as if for reassurances. “On three, guys. One, two…”

“Teamwork!” They all chime in, but as she watches Wu’s face, Nya knows they don’t have the right answer. His awaiting smile doesn’t waver, but the crease of his eyes bleeds with vague displeasure.

“Is this what you all think?” Wu tilts his head as he sets aside his paintbrush and paper. He reaches for his cup and teapot, slowly pouring himself a drink. The steam rises from the hot tea as the ninja nod enthusiastically. 

“Yes!”

“Definitely!”

“Sadly, you are all wrong.” Wu puts away the pot, ignoring the immediate groaning and complaining from his students. He simply closes his eyes as he sips his tea. “Don’t you have training to attend to?”

“Ugh, come on .” Cole complains as he leads them out of Sensei’s room and down the hallway. As they head back out into the sun, away from Wu’s range of  hearing, he continues. “I’m starting to think that whoever solves this riddle can be the Green Ninja, for all I care.”

Nya starts when the alarm system begins shrieking through the Bounty’s hallways, heart rate abruptly rising. The sudden blaring draws the ninja away from their conversation, turning back to the hall. As they look to the loudspeaker for more information, Jay asks, “What’s that about?” 

“Something besides training.” Nya runs up the stairs towards the bridge, and hears her team rush to follow her. When she enters the wheelhouse, she finds Kai sitting at the table, still looking queasy. He gestures towards the large holographic map on the wall when she asks, “Where are we needed?”

“Darkley’s Boarding School for Bad Boys.” Kai’s words match up with one of several glowing red dots on the map. Nya manually zooms in on the other dots as Jay preps the Bounty for flight. “Our little friend Lloyd has been terrorizing the country with a lone Serpentine. Darkley’s is his last known location.”

“Ugh, that place is a cesspool for the crooked and misbehaved.” Jay complains as he joins Kai at the table. He looks annoyed at even a mention of the school, clenching a fist on top of the table. 

“Well, it doesn’t mean they don’t need our help.” Cole admonishes, looking up at the map. When no one moves for a long minute, he turns to the others and raises his hand in a shrug. He raises an eyebrow, which finally spurs Zane into motion. “Step on it.”

Zane reaches over the countertop to hit the button, powering up the repulsors. Nya can hear the whirring of the rocket boosters, and this time, is prepared for the sudden jolt that the Bounty takes as it lifts out of the water and begins its flight. She can see her brother clinging to the table with a white-knuckled grip.

“Wait, you say that Lloyd has been ‘terrorizing the country.’ Why is this the first we’re hearing of it?” Jay asks, squinting suspiciously at Kai as if he were planning something. 

“Well, they were spotted all through Ninjago yesterday.” Kai supplies dutifully, physically waving away Jay’s mistrust with a flick of his hand. Nya navigates the computer to the list of sightings throughout Ninjago, including Jamanukai Village. “But the school is the only place to report a current sighting.”

“Well, let’s get a move on, ninja.” Cole commands, leading the team back out of the bridge and onto the deck. They fumble to retrieve their weapons, playing a sort of hot-potato as they scramble to get each ninja the correct weapon. “Ninja, go!”

The Bounty doesn’t take long to cross above the sea and reach the school for miniature dark lords. Nya privately thinks that the towering building doesn’t look suitable for its name and reputation. It looks like a normal, though rather large, school. Though it certainly looks different from the school she attended back in Ignacia.

“Looks quiet down there.” Zane says serenely as he looks over the railing of the Bounty. The clouds swirl over the school, seemingly absent of activity. It almost seems as though the children are all dutifully attending their classes, though Nya suspects that is not the case. Zane turns to her as she walks up beside him. “Shall we infiltrate using stealth?”

“I don’t know how effective that will be.” Nya says, thinking of Lloyd’s domineering battle strategy. The way he commands his Serpentine soldiers isn’t easily combatted by the silent approach. They seem to need a head-on attack to properly quell their young enemy.

“Well we can’t use our Golden Weapons.” Cole calls from where he’s examining his Scythe that has turned into its vehicle. Despite unlocking the new transportation features of their Golden Weapons, none of the ninja had managed to master it for more than a few minutes. Nya could hear the clang of a hammer and wondered just what he was doing with the Tread Assault. “Anyone have any ideas?”

“Well, I have one idea.” Jay says as he walks over to the group, securing his Nunchucks on the back of his gi. He spares a questioning glance at Cole’s vehicle, but bypasses it without much thought. Nya doesn’t like the look on his face. “But you guys have to trust me.”

“Why did you say it like that?” Cole asks, a hint of panic entering his voice. However, he is ignored when Nya and Zane nod their assent, and he watches helplessly as Jay disappears into the wheelhouse.

Nya can see Jay through one of the windows on the bridge. He’s talking to Kai, who has gained back his natural colouring for the first time since they had landed in the water. Kai seems to listen to whatever Jay is explaining, albeit cautiously. Despite any worries Nya held, Kai reluctantly nodded and Jay raced back down to meet them.

Nya watches as Jay leans over the side of the railing, and only then does she spot the anchor hanging out into the open air. She carefully follows him out onto the prongs of the anchor with the others, gingerly climbing down the chain and clinging to it once she’s settled.

“Alright, hold on tight!” With that, Jay holds his arm up and pulls it down in a signal. Kai in the bridge turns away from the window and presumably presses a button, as the anchor suddenly drops. Nya wouldn’t say that she feared heights, but her stomach drops fully out of her body as they plummet through the ground.

The world spins as she tightens her grip on the anchor, feeling her body rising off the prong due to the extreme acceleration. The scream ripped from her throat isn’t the only sound to back drop the rush of wind in her ears, and Jay’s yell sounds particularly loud despite it being his idea.

Nya lets out another shriek as the building approaches quickly and the anchor shows no sign of slowing down, squeezing her eyes shut as though that could prevent her imminent death. It crashes directly through the roof and jolts before falling several more stories. When Nya finally pries her eyes open, she’s looking out at a group of restrained children.

The dust that kicks up threatens to invade her lungs through her mask, and she coughs to clear her airways, waving a hand in front of her face. When the dust settles, she can see the trapped children more easily. About a dozen little faces stare up at them, looking terrified.

“Okay, let's agree to never do that again.” Cole says with a particularly scathing look at Jay. As he speaks, he unsheaths the Scythe and walks towards the kids. As he raises the blade, the kids shrink back in fear, but he only slices the rope to free them. They waste no time in running off, out of the room and down the path to leave the school entirely. “Stay out of school, kids!”

A sudden noise from the corner of the room draws Nya’s attention to two very familiar skeletons. The Skulkin who had taken her brother all that time ago are tied up upside-down on opposite sides of the room, dressed in formal clothing that one may find on a teacher.

“Why is it always you two?” Nya asks tiredly as she walks over to Kruncha. He looks at her pleadingly through the fear in his eyes, shaking his head rapidly. He whimpers when Nya raises the Sword but stumbles to thank her when the ropes go up in flames. Nuckal’s reaction is similar and they take off together when she tells them to scram.

As she watches them go, she lifts her eyes to the anchor and the chain leading out past the roof. She catches a glimpse of a young, pale face leaning over the edge of the hole they’d created. Lloyd’s eyes widen when he sees her, and he disappears with a swish of his black cape. Nya turns to the ninja, saying, “He’s up at the top.”

Spurred into action, the ninja take off in separate directions. Cole starts to scale the anchor itself, taking advantage of his climbing abilities, while Jay starts towards the elevator. Nya and Zane stick together, following each other up the stairs. Their Spinjitzu quickens the process up the stairs, but when they emerge close to the top floor, they’re trapped in a sticky, gooey substance.

“Ew!” Nya shrieks as the slime drips down her face and around her legs, fully immobilizing her. Zane beside her is in no better state, squirming fruitlessly and saying, “I can’t move.”

The floor spins under Nya’s feet as she takes in the sight of the giant purple Serpentine laughing at the two of them, slithering away from the doorway. Lloyd’s boyish giggling fills the room, accompanying the snake, and Nya looks up to see him watching them from the roof. His snorting laugh cuts off abruptly and then he disappears.

Looking down slightly, Nya realises that Cole, who is almost to the roof, is the source of his fear. He too disappears upwards as he climbs another and another level. Zane is still squirming, though he is making virtually no progress.

“Nya, can you burn away this… substance?” Zane asks as he gains no give in the slime. Nya considers it, examining the goo as closely as she can without further impairing herself. The consistency of the green stuff reminds her of tar, and it seems like it would melt and stick to them more than burn away.

“I don’t want it to melt and risk burning us.” Nya raises the Sword farther away from the goo. Looking over, she sees that Zane has one Shuriken free, and says, “If you can freeze it, we may be able to crack it.”

With a nod, Zane brings down the Shuriken and freezes the goo solid. Nya’s discomfort skyrockets as the substance expands and presses in on her, but it is completely alleviated when she brings the butt of the Sword down on the top of the ice. It shatters under the pressure, which creates fissures on the frozen goo.

Zane attempts to make a step forward, and the remaining slime breaks away from them in chunks. He turns to wait for Nya before they take off back to the stairs together. “Good thinking, Nya.”

“I think Sensei was wrong. Teamwork is great.” Nya says as they head up the final flight of stares, and by the crinkle of his eyes, Zane awards her a small smile. Distantly, Nya can hear the voices of Jay and Cole and realizes that they must have made it to the top a while ago. Together, she and Zane burst through the hole in the roof.

There is no giant purple Serpentine anywhere on the roof when they arrive. Little Lloyd Garmadon is completely by himself, boxed into the upturned corner of the roof by Jay and Cole. He tried to run, but there was nowhere to go but down. Nya can’t bring herself to feel sympathy as the kid shakes and shudders at the consequences of his actions.

“Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon!” The Bounty awaits on the opposite side, with Wu and Kai standing at the open gate in the railing. Wu bangs his staff on the ground, and calls out angrily. “You come here right now!”

“I got him.”  The kid gulps as Jay advances, stowing away his Nunchucks in the process. Jay lifts the kid like he weighs nothing, throwing him over his shoulder like a bag of rice. Lloyd squirms around to no avail, trying and failing to free himself and flee.

“Hey!” Lloyd thrashes, kicking and wailing his fists at any part of Jay he can reach. Jay doesn’t even blink, just brings him over to finally face his uncle. Nya feels a pang of irritation at the kid’s theatrics, but also a wince of sympathy for the clear desperation in his shrill voice. “Let me go!”

“What should we do with him?” Cole wonders aloud as he comes to stand with Nya and Zane. He crosses his arms and leans on one leg, watching the kid with a titled head. “Wash his mouth out with soap for a month?”

“Send him to bed without dinner for a year?”

“Have him sit in a corner for a century?”

“I know exactly what we must do.” Wu says gravely, watching them all through narrowed, somber eyes. Lloyd, still slung over Jay’s shoulder, had been looking more and more anxious at each ninja’s hypothetical punishment. He looks ready to faint at his uncle’s words, finally ceasing his thrashing and tears budding at the corner of his eyes.

Nya can hear the kid audibly gulp, looking all the world like he’s facing down his death. She feels a little gratification at that, beyond being annoyed at Lloyd for everything that he’s done. She wonders, with a smile on her face, how exactly Lloyd will repent his actions.

 

***

 

The ninja crowd around the doorway of one of the empty cabins on the Bounty. It had been cleared out of any dirt or dust, filled with a comfortable bed with soft bedcovers and fluffy pillows. Nya would know, because she had helped wash the sheets and blankets.

In that cozy bed lies Lloyd Garmadon, their sworn nemesis, dressed in an old, oversized shirt and shorts. Nya can’t see those pajamas, as he’s tucked under the blankets up to his chin. His big eyes are half-shut, and he watches his uncle blearily in the low light.

“And that is why Jack the Rabbit never trusts a snake. The end.” Wu finishes the story with a soft voice, slowly closing the children’s book with a soft click. On the bed, Lloyd yawns deeply, burrowing into the covers.

“If my dad had read me the book, I would’ve never made that mistake.” He looks genuinely sorrowful, which unwittingly twists something deep in Nya’s gut. As much as she hates to admit it, she can see a bit of herself in the troubled kid, especially with the whole absent parents thing. She shoves down any sympathy at her pure feelings of injustice at the lack of punishment. “I’m sorry, Uncle.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” Nya can feel her face twist up incredulously at her master’s words. She understood that the brat was young, but he had spent weeks tormenting them. He had done irreparable damage to them and the country of Ninjago as a whole, and Wu was standing by and doing nothing.

“I’m sure that your father, were he still here, would have read you this book years ago.” Wu says sadly as he gets to his feet. Lloyd doesn’t look very comforted, but he stays quiet as Wu smooths his bangs out of his face soothingly. “Good night, nephew. Sweet dreams.”

“Good night, Uncle.” Lloyd’s voice is meek, almost inaudible as he turns over in bed. Wu watches him for a moment longer, and the four ninja rush to get away from the doorway to avoid being caught spying. Nya glowers a little as he finally emerges from the cabin, closing the door carefully behind him.

Her fellow ninja were similarly infuriated at the lack of consequences for the little Garmadon. Jay in particular looks furious, no doubt hit the hardest by the attack on his family led by Lloyd. They abandon their attempt to stay hidden, grouping together to face their Sensei as one.

“Sensei, why is he getting off scott-free?” Nya asks lowly, very conscious of the not quite sleeping child in the next room. The longer he goes unpunished, the more annoyed Nya gets. Had she ever acted out as a child, or caused even a fraction of the chaos that Lloyd brought, her babysitters would have punished her to hell and back. She can’t wrap her head around the leniency.

“Yeah, why isn’t that little brat getting punished?” Jay demands, taking no care to lower his voice. Nya knows that his fury has been building for longer than hers, built on more than a general anger and annoyance. It’s personal for Jay.

“We had to train all day, but he gets read a bedtime story?” Cole adds, crossing his arms as Wu finally turns around to look at them. Zane nods along, and Nya’s annoyance grows at their universal opinion. If they can all agree so easily, why is Wu acting so contrarian?

“You’re right, I nearly forgot.” Wu hums at them all, glancing between them consideringly. His hands are clasped behind his back as he looks over them all, curiosity in his eyes. “Why are you not still training? Unless you have solved the riddle.”

“No, Sensei. We haven’t figured out your impossible riddle.” Nya is a hair away from throwing up her hands in the air, but she just holds it together. She’s already resigned herself to another dull day of constant training when he smiles just slightly.

 

“To truly defeat an enemy, you must make them your friend.” Wu tells them sagely, but he does not look at them. He turns back to look at the cabin’s window, and following his eyes, Nya can see his nephew tucked deep into bed. 

A rush of understanding falls over them all at his words. They all stand in silence, simply observing the kid’s deep slumber through his window. After a moment, Wu turns and heads off to his own bed, not even sparring them a goodnight. The boys soon follow him, leaving Nya alone with her thoughts and the night sky.

The kid does look almost angelic in the depths of sleep, white-blond hair framing a sweet face. Nya feels a smirk cross her face at the thought of how Lloyd would react to that thought. She finally turns away from the window and leans over the railing at the end of the deck.

She later heads to bed, dreading what the future, babysitting Lloyd Garmadon, will hold.

Notes:

I hope it doesn't feel like I'm hyper-focusing on Kai's aquaphobia, but living on an active ship would be a literal hellscape
Also baby Lloyd really tugs on my heartstrings... but luckily, the ninja won't always be dicks

Chapter 5: Can of Worms

The morning sunlight streams in through the circular window of the bridge, illuminating the table as Nya sits down. Equipped with a tool set and her vambraces from the Forge wrapped in cloth, she settles in at the table and rolls up the sleeves of her gi as she prepares to work.

It had taken her a while to find the vambraces, as they weren’t where she had left them the last time she had worked on them. They were stuffed deep under some boxes instead of on the top shelf where they were easily accessible.

The intricate mechanics on her Golden-Weapon-motorbike had inspired her to incorporate some more contemporary technology  into her ninja techniques. She’s been incorporating some advanced tech recently by adding to the original base, but she had woken up with an idea to incorporate another firing mechanism, this time for paralyzing darts. 

However, when she unwraps the vambraces, she’s faced with a dented piece of metal and a broken panel. She had already added a control panel that would connect to each of her new additions. There had already been a canister for knock-out gas, which was now no longer there. 

A surge of anger rises in her - it looked almost deliberate. And paired with how hidden they were, a clear picture appears in her mind. Someone broke her things and tried to cover it up.

“Oh, hey Nya.” Lloyd’s boyish voice draws her attention from her broken vambraces to where he stands in the doorway, inspiring an immediate suspicion in the back of her head. For whatever reason, though Nya has a good guess, the kid seems to like her the least. He hasn’t been adjusting well to living with them all on the Bounty, and he doesn’t do well in hiding that.

“Good morning.” She returns, narrowing her eyes at him, “What can I do for you?”

“I was looking for Uncle.” He says, not quite innocently, but neutral enough that Nya’s suspicion mostly subsides. He comes over and leans on the table, looking down at Nya’s vambrace with his foot kicked into the air behind him. “I didn’t know those were yours.”

“Well, they are.” Nya says shortly, turning back to the problem before her and trying to figure out where to start fixing them. She would almost suspect him of being the one to tamper with them if not for the blank expression of recognition. The kid had almost no poker face to speak of, but there was nothing revealing in his eyes. “And they need some major upkeep.”

“Hey, I’ve seen this before.” He holds up the cloth the vambraces had been wrapped up in before. He brings it closer to his face. “Yeah, I saw Cole knock this out of the weapons’ closet. He seemed pretty rushed to hide it.”

“Oh, really?” Nya asks, anger rising in her again. Lloyd nods seriously, throwing the cloth back onto the table, and turning on his heel. As he disappears out the door, he waves over his shoulder, saying, “I’m going to go find Uncle. Bye, Nya!”

His whistling allows Nya to follow him away from the bridge without seeing him. As it fades away, Nya’s anger is brought back to the surface. She looks back down at the dented vambrace, and can picture in her head exactly how it broke and Cole frantically hiding it.

Did he think she would be mad? Because maybe she would be, but if Cole just explained himself, she wouldn’t hold it against him. For very long, at least. Why did he feel the need to hide it from her? She wouldn’t be mad if he had just owned up. His cowardice only infuriates her further.

She rewraps the vambraces and slams her toolset shut, getting to her feet. She practically storms out of the bridge, anger blazing hot and hurt in her gut as she heads down the stairs.

“Cole!” She bursts into the boys’ bedroom, not even bothering to knock in her anger. The boy in question turns to look at her with furrowed brows from where he was watching Zane and Jay argue in the middle of the room. He gets off of his bed, asking, “What’s up with you?”

“You can’t just mess with my stuff and then hide it!” Nya’s face feels hot with her annoyance, which is furthered by Cole’s confused face. He won’t even own up to it when confronted! “I wouldn’t have been mad if you’d just told me.”

She throws her arms up when he offers no reaction. “If it was just an accident, why are you hiding it?”

“Woah, hang on!” Cole interrupts, confusion rapidly transforming into defensive annoyance. His arms uncross and hang loosely at his side. “Why are you accusing me? You think I’m some lumbering idiot or something?”

“I’m just saying, you have a tendency to mess shit up.” Cole’s face hardens more, and he steps away from her.

She’s aware of the others squabbling in the background, but her focus is on her own tirade, absolutely tearing into Cole. His blatantly fake hurt and confusion only infuriates her more. She can’t remember the last time she had been so angry at someone.

Her attention is dragged away from Cole’s incredulous face to Zane, who looks furious on his own, by a tap on the shoulder. His face is flushed in his anger, and it takes a minute to understand what he’s mad about. 

“How am I meant to strike fear in this?!” Zane is in her face, demanding an answer while brandishing a scrap of pink fabric in Nya’s face. It takes her a long moment to realise what exactly he’s blaming her for. His gi is an admittedly very nice shade of pink, though he doesn’t seem to agree. His face matches the fabric, and his voice is shrill as he raises the gi another time. “It’s pink !”

“What’s wrong with pink?” Nya asks, annoyed at being distracted from her own issues. She doesn’t take lightly to being accused by Zane, especially when she has an actual problem with Cole, who now seems to be ripping into Jay.

The clearing of a throat draws Nya’s attention to Master Wu, who has been watching them all passively. When they are all looking at him, pausing in their squabbling, he wordlessly pushes the door connecting the boys’ room to the bathroom open. It reveals his nephew, whose hood is thrown over his hair as he giggles.

At his feet, Nya spots a jar of spices, a toolset , and peculiarly, some detergent. Looking from the laundry detergent to the pink gi in Zane’s hands, mixed with his unfounded anger at her, Nya draws a conclusion quickly.It adds up with all of his previous behaviour, so they were foolish not to see it coming. The little brat had set them up.

“You did this?” The boys come to the same conclusion at the same time, and varying sounds of displeasure radiate from the group. The kid’s smile falls and his eyes grow wide, stepping behind his uncle at their mounting anger. Cole steps up, looking particularly angry and saying, “I get first dibs-”

“No dibs!” Wu cuts in, as if only now realising the height of their fury and the potential violent reaction. He steps further in front of Lloyd and puts a hand on Cole’s shoulder, stopping him dead in his tracks. “I put him up to this for today’s lesson. You have perfectly displayed the destructive power of rumours and how quick conclusions only cause problems.”

He looks them over for a long moment as Cole steps back to stand in line with them, looking properly ashamed of himself. Nya can’t inspire that same response in herself, still feeling a little bitter over how her hard work was discarded and ruined, all for some stupid lesson. Wu continues, raising a hand and an eyebrow accusatorily. “Did you ever find out if the allegations were true.”

“Uh, no offense, Sensei. But let me jump to this conclusion.” Cole says, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. Despite his embarrassment, his thick brows are still furrowed in annoyance, which Nya thinks Wu has only added to. “Today’s lesson is lame .”

“Yeah, why couldn’t you teach up how to paralyze an enemy with one finger?” Jay lifts and quirks his pointer finger as he speaks, and then brings it up to the side of his nose. “Or find out if a man is lying by the twitch of his nose?”

“Because not all lessons centre fighting.” Wu says sternly, looking disappointed with their violent nature. Nya resists the urge to point out that he has fostered such an alleged nature. Then, his stance softens and he looks askance. “And I misplaced my lesson book.”

“That lesson book?” Nya asks as she spots a familiar book cover sticking out from underneath Lloyd’s black cape. It hangs out of his back pocket, and Nya is easily able to pinch it. Lloyd scowls up at her, crossing his arms and stomping his little foot.

“It was the perfect plan until you had to mess everything up-” Lloyd rants, sticking a finger at her chest accusatorily. Cole wordlessly shoves the shoji door shut, effectively blocking Lloyd from seeing and speaking to them. By the vague outline of his all-black form, he throws up his arms and sulks.

The loudspeaker crackles to life abruptly, and Kai’s voice fills the room. “If you’ve solved your pranking problem, come up to the bridge - we’ve got some news in the Serpentine department. Over and out.”

At those words, Lloyd throws open the bathroom door and primly stalks out of the room, disappearing around the corner and presumably up to the bridge.

Nya sighs at his attitude, but leads her team out of their bedroom and up onto the bridge, where Kai and Lloyd are waiting for them. He’s been much more relaxed now that the Bounty is perched on the top of a mountain rather than that in the ocean. Nya notices that there is a familiar history book as well as an English-Ninjago dictionary on the table, and one wall displays a projection of the map of Ninjago.

“Last time we saw Pythor, he stole the Map of Dens from Lloyd.” Kai begins, leaning back on the countertop and obscuring part of the map of Ninjago. Lloyd sighs dramatically from where he sits at the table, leaning his head on his hand and saying, “Don’t remind me.” Kai spares him a pitying look that Nya thinks is wholly undeserved.

“And now he’s on his way to open the remaining Serpentine tombs.” Nya fills in when Kai doesn’t continue. He looks at her approvingly, waving his hand as if to support her, frankly rather obvious, point.

“Pythor is our greatest adversary. If he finds the tombs before we do,” Wu chimes in, stroking his beard, deep in thought. “There’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“The tombs could be anywhere.” Jay whines, gesturing to the map futilely. He looks seconds away from throwing his hands up, and Nya is right there with him. She misses when their enemies were mindless skeletal servants instead of ancient cunning snakes. “We might as well throw darts at a map without the Serpentine map.”

“How about shurikens?” Kai walks over to stand with their group and holds up a handful of throwing stars that glint in the light cast by the projected map, freshly sharpened. He throws them with startling accuracy into the map, one by one. “That is where the first two tombs were.”

Nya privately wonders just when he had gotten so prolific with throwing stars, especially compared to the target practice she herself had done just days before. She was aware that he trained when not at the Forge, but she hadn’t realised the extent. Oddly, it twists something deep in her gut.

Kai throws another shuriken, saying, “And there’s Pythor.” The shurikens are scattered over the map of Ninjago is a way that Nya is very familiar with. While it hasn’t been her main focus, she had been thinking deeply about the seemingly random placement of the tombs.

“Look,” Kai says as he pushes a button on the counter and a second projection lights up the map. Nya immediately spots the pattern, the tombs align with where the line of the symbol intersects itself. It’s easy to place the other two tombs on the only overlaps. “The Ninjago symbol for serpent.”

“They line up with the coils.” Nya mutters, and Kai ruffles her hair with a proud smile. “Got it in one, sis. So, the final tombs-” Kai is abruptly cut off by Jay as he rushes to point at the pattern Nya has already realised. “Are here, and here.”

“Thanks to Nya’s history research, we’ll be able to catch up to Pythor in no time.” Kai says, and rolls his eyes at the smile that Jay briefly shoots at Nya. He turns to the other two ninja, and looks sheepish as he says, “I can’t tell you which tribe will be in each tomb, unfortunately.”

“There is little time.” Wu cuts in, stroking his beard again. “Nya, Jay, you will head to the northern tomb. Cole and Zane will take the south.” He then holds up the Sacred Flute, and solemnly places it in Zane’s hands, who accepts it with a stoic expression. “Take this - you may need it should you meet Pythor. Good luck, ninja.”

“Hey, what are we gonna do?” Lloyd asks, sitting up sharply at the table, looking between Kai and Wu. Kai winces a little, saying, “I was going to go into the Forge today-”

“No, Kai.” Wu says with a commanding glare. Kai’s confrontational stance shrinks and he seems to wilt at Wu’s words. The stern look turns to Lloyd at the table, who doesn’t look nearly as sad. That is, until Wu says, “I need you here to keep Lloyd out of trouble.”

“Wha- Hey! Uncle, I don’t need-” Lloyd protests immediately, getting to his feet and rushing over to his uncle. Wu looks annoyed at the kid, but simply gestures to him to sit back down. The sudden ‘shush’ cuts off the kid’s steam, and he sags in disappointment.

“Well, good luck babysitting.” Cole says to Kai with a grin, nudging him with an elbow. However, the teasing mood slips away from him as he turns to the team, though the grin remains as he says, “Let’s go, we’ve got some snakes to club!”

Nya sighs, but dutifully follows him out of the bridge and out onto the deck. Jay is waiting for her, offering her a smile as she stops beside him. They head off down the mountain as a group, which leaves Nya a little short of breath by the time they reach the bottom of their treacherous climb. The group split off at the base of the mountain, bidding each other good luck as they head their separate ways.

 “The Dream Team is back together, eh?” Jay lightly bumps their shoulders together once the other two are out of view. Nya smiles at him indulgently, walking along the path. They are an undeniably good team. “So, where are we headed?”

“Kai marked it off for us.” Nya holds up her paper map, proudly displaying a point and a hasty arrow scrawled in black marker. ‘Toxic Bog’ is also written over the area, which makes Nya think. “I think we’re headed towards the Venomari tomb.”

“What makes you say that?” Jay asks, coming up to look at the map over her shoulder. She gestures to Kai’s writing and recalls her prior research. “The Venomari have a natural resistance to erosive substances, like the acid in the Toxic Bog.”

“You’re so smart.” Jay leans into her a little, voice practically dripping in awe. She laughs a little as she picks up the pace, ready to meet this threat head-on. She calls back over her shoulder, spurring him into movement. “Was there ever any doubt?”

She easily equips her motorcycle, and hears the telltale sound of Jay’s glider powering up. They take off, and Nya grins and the feeling of the wind brushing past her.

Her happy mood is ruined soon - Nya smells the bog long before she can see it. The foul stench of muddy, rotten eggs fills her nose even through the mask, and she scrunches her nose in a vain attempt to block it out. The smell intensifies when they actually enter the bog, filled with sickly green ponds and tall, tall trees.

She deactivates her bike and winces at the squelch of the mossy ground under her feet. She picks up a stick that lays nearby on the ground, and dips it into the closest body of water. It dissolves quickly in her hand, and the acid crawls up the stick toward her hand. She drops in frantically, trying to avoid being corroded herself. Thankfully, her gloves are clean and intact when she looks down at them.

“Eugh, this place is awful.” Jay echoes her own internal thoughts, and she nods her agreement. However, she’s more focused on what she had thought were small ponds, but now realises are more like lakes of acidic green liquid. A bubble floats to the top of a nearby lake, and pops, releasing a pungent scent that makes her recoil backwards.

“Steer clear of the swamp water,” Nya warns when she turns back to Jay. He’s looking at where the stick had been, fear clear on his face. He gulps and nods, saying, “Yeah, will do.”

They take to the trees instead, using branches and sturdy vines to swing through the air and avoid the toxic materials down below. Nya lands on the spongy ground in a roll, and they head over to the tomb together.

Jay opens the door easily with no resistance which makes Nya tilt her head a little in confusion. Shouldn’t such a secure tomb be locked? The doors slide open and reveal a huge empty cavity of the tomb, and unveils another disgusting stench, to which Jay says, “Pe-yew.”

“Pe-yew.” An echo repeats, which makes Jay laugh. He turns to her excitedly, making her roll her eyes in exasperation. He busies himself by messing around with the echo for a moment, and then says to her, “Looks like we just missed them. This place is deserted.”

He goes back to playing with the echo while Nya worries herself with the lack of Serpentine. Surely, that means Pythor had beat them to the chase, but would he leave so quickly without a confrontation? It doesn’t seem like him.

The ribbiting of a frog startles her out of her ruminating as she walks farther away from Jay and the empty tomb. The frog in question is sitting on an oddly-shaped lilypad. Nya takes a step back, looking around to see no other lilypads in the whole swamp.

The lilypad rises, bringing her face to face with a Venomari Serpentine. She’s only just able to dodge the spit sprayed right at her eyelevel, hitting the snake in the side of the head as she moves. The Serpentine falls to the ground, but Nya’s attention is drawn to many other snakes of the same kind approaching her.

“Jay! A little help here?” She calls as she’s backed into a corner. She strikes another snake with the butt of her sword, narrowly escaping being sprayed again. Unfortunately, another Venomari was lying in wait just behind its fallen brethren, and succeeds in spitting directly into her eyes.

 “Ew!” Nya shrieks, backing up into the side of the massive tree stump that was serving as the top of the Venomari tomb. She desperately scrubs at her eyes, falling onto her behind in her haste to avoid the intoxication. Distantly, she can hear Jay joining the fray, but can’t focus on any of his words.

When she looks up, her vision is tinted green and swaying back and forth. The world feels unsteady under her feet, and she doesn’t know how much of that can be attributed to the sudden arrival of Constrictai Serpentine. But all of a sudden, there are no snakes at all.

All around Nya are huge, cuddly teddy bears. She moves towards them with outstretched arms towards the nearest one,but is yanked back by a hand on her shoulder. She sees Jay’s worried face peering down at her, saying, “I don’t know what you’re seeing, but now is not the time to lose yourself, partner!”

Time seems to speed by from there on out. Her attention is torn between the massive teddy bears and the way Jay is yanking her around. She eventually gets the memo that the teddy bears are not kind.

Vaguely, Nya is aware of Cole, Zane, and Pythor arriving but is more focused on staying on her feet. She’s led by two arms around her to jump onto something that sinks a little under their weight. There’s a loud hissing that makes her giggle, but the huge teddy bears walking away from her makes her sad. Where are they going? What did she do to make them leave?

“Woah, a magic rope.” Nya says when she finally looks away from the bears. She makes to step off the log but is held back by a tight grip on the back of her gi. She stumbles into Jay, the one holding her back, and very nearly causes them all to tumble off of the log. The rope falls closer to her, but she struggles to see which one is real.

“For whatever it is worth,” Zane begins from somewhere else on the log. He sounds sad, which makes her sad. She doesn’t like when her friends are sad and scared, because she doesn’t like feeling sad or scared. “It was an honour to fight beside you all.”

The other boys make sounds of agreement, but Nya is still focused on the rope in front of her. It’s swaying in the air like a snake, but it's still there. When she tugs away from Jay, he lets her go this time, and Nya feels triumphant as she climbs to safety.

“I told you…” She trails off as she lands safely on solid - squishy - ground. When she looks back up, the retreating teddy bears are falling to the ground around her. A heavily armored man is fighting them off, wielding an oddly curved spear with two swords strapped across his back in an X. “An angel?”

The swords seem to multiply, making massive wings behind their mysterious saviour. His head snaps towards them as he kicks a snake away from himself. A Venomari snake approaches him from behind, and Nya points at it. At the last second, he flips out a hand fan of all things, blocking the spit from his eyes and beating the snake away.

Despite the armour, the man moves with surprising agility. He flips in between snakes as he fights them, unafraid of using his elbows and knees to be the stuffing out of the teddy bears. Nya frowns, wondering why anyone would want to fight a teddy bear. He turns suddenly, catching sight of a big purple thing.

“Target acquired.” The man’s voice is heavily distorted, and if Nya’s brain were any clearer, she would wonder where in that helmet he was hiding a voice changer. He throws a shuriken directly into the base of Pythor’s tail, which makes him shriek and slither out of the way.

“Who are you?” Cole says, though Nya can hear the hint of admiration in his voice. The teddy bears are quickly retreating, led by Pythor, underground and out of the bog. Jay jumps on his heels beside her, saying, “How about the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Thank you, mysterious warrior.” Zane says gratefully, walking up to the man with open arms and a smile. The warrior flips his fan closed, and watches his approach cautiously. “I owe you my life for saving-”

He’s cut off suddenly when the man chops his closed fan into the side of his neck. Zane crumples to the ground, inspiring the immediate protest of Nya’s teammates. 

“Woah, hey! Not cool.” Jay says, attitude taking a 180, as he and Cole angrily approach the not-quite savior. The man doesn’t move towards them, only waits for their incoming attack. Jay twirls his Nunchucks, charging them, and brings in down toward the man’s head. The man raises the curved spear to meet the Nunchucks, and the blast throws Jay backwards. Several shurikens whip through the air, pinning him to the ground.

Nya sits down as she watches Cole and the mysterious man fight, cheering Cole on by raising her hands when he gets a leg up. However, the victory is short lived when the man kicks Cole in the stomach, which halts him. While Cole hunches in on himself, the man brings him into a tight chokehold and holds a rag doused in something over his mouth. He squirms for a long minute before he eventually slumps.

The man stands among the fallen ninja before he begins walking towards her. On his way, he bumps Jay, who is spitting vitriol at him from his place on the ground, on the head, knocking him out. Nya tries to square herself for a fight, but he disappears out of her field of vision before anything happens.

A cloth is held over her mouth and nose, and though she tries to break the hold, she is unable. She squirms and squirms, but her eyelids droop and her limbs get heavy. The last thing she’s aware of is being slowly lowered to the ground and laid gently on the cushiony floor of the bog.

 

***

 

When Nya comes to, she’s tucked snugly into her bed and dressed in her pajamas. She doesn’t remember much of what had happened, but the ceiling swims up above her from where she’s lying on her bed. When she tries to crawl out of bed, the world sways and she ends up in a heap on the ground.

“Nya?” The knock on her door is accompanied by her brother’s worried voice. When she doesn’t answer for a long moment, he opens her door frantically, his face creased with concern when he spots her on the floor. He comes over to kneel beside her and helps her sit up. “How are you feeling?”

“Wugh.” The sound she makes is unintelligible to her own ears. The world sways when Kai finally helps her to her feet, and she clings to him tightly. He puts an arm around her shoulders and rubs her back, helping her out of her room. “What happened?”

“We found you four passed out in the Toxic Bog.” Kai explains as they start down the hallway. “The Serpentine were long gone. Jay said that there was some mysterious Samurai that saved you before turning on you.”

“Right, yeah.” The gaps in her head start to fill it, though the details are still foggy. The grain of the wooden planks under her feet seem to wiggle like snakes.

“You aren’t hurt, are you?” Kai’s tone makes her look up. He often sounds worried when concerning her, but something about the note is different than usual. She shakes her head, which she immediately regrets for the way her stomach lurches as the world spins. 

The spinning world causes her to gag and tug on Kai’s sleeve. Understanding her without words, Kai redirects them to the bathroom and holds her hair back out of her face when she vomits into the toilet. She lays down on the cold tile for a long moment, thankful of the way it grounds her from the spinning of the world around her.

“Think you could eat something?” Kai asks after a long moment, and helps her to her feet when she nods. He goes to help her walk as well, but backs off when she shoves at his hands. She’s a little more aware now, despite the active hallucinations going on, and she’s always had a stubborn distaste for accepting his help. He stays close to her however, as if waiting to catch her should she fall.

When they arrive in the dining room, Nya is still unsteady on her feet. Her vision is swathed in a sickly green, and every little thing spooks her, fantastical images keeping her heart rate high. She is sitting next to her brother and dressed in her warm pajamas, leaning heavily on the table in front of her. Her head feels like it weighs a million pounds.

The back of a cold hand presses to her forehead, and she leans into the soothing gesture. She startles and opens her eyes, unaware that they had even closed, and turns to find her brother peering at her worriedly. He tucks her hair behind her ear and redirects her to her plate as her hearing returns to her.

“Just when we were gonna bite it,” Jay is saying to the table at large, waving his hands as he speaks. Lloyd in particular looks enraptured by his story, though he tries to hide it behind a falsely stoic expression. Nya can only focus on the worms crawling up the wall behind Jay’s head. “This armoured samurai-”

“A Samu-wha?” Lloyd cuts in, turning to look at Zane and Wu, clearly hoping for an explanation. Nya tries to bring a spoonful of soup to her mouth, but is quickly distracted by the conversation. She sits with the spoon half raised for a long moment as she tries to listen.

“Samurai were the highest level of warrior class.” Wu explains clearly, enunciating the word for Lloyd’s benefit. “They would protect nobility and serve on the battlefield with honour.” 

“He was more similar to a Rōnin.” Zane interrupts, turning his head to look at Jay at the other end of the table. Nya can’t focus on his face, but his voice is clear as he continues. Beside her, Kai goes a little pale at the term, but she doesn’t really notice it. “Meaning ‘man of the waves.’ He served no master.”

“Perhaps you’re right, Zane.” Wu says with a considering look around the table. Beside her, Nya can feel Kai shift just slightly, but no one else seems to notice. His brows are creased as he watches her, focusing on her utensil held aloft.  She finally remembers the spoon in her hand, and tries to eat the now cold spoonful, but misses her mouth completely. 

“He had wings made of swords!” Nya adds suddenly, leaning forward in her haste to speak her mind. As she does so, Master Wu’s beard sways in the air, and she shrinks away from it and whispers to Cole, who tries to move away from her. “Cole, look. Sensei’s beard is moving like snakes !”

“It’s not real, sis.” Kai says soothingly, running a hand over her back. When she turns to face him, he accosts her with a raised napkin. He scrubs at her cheeks, cleaning her face of the lingering food residue, ignoring how she shoves at him. She nearly lilts off her seat in the struggle, but he catches her in time. “When is this Venomari spit meant to wear off?”

“Well, Rōnin or Samurai, we can’t let this guy cloud what’s really important.” Cole says after a long pause, finally turning back to the rest of the table. His voice is slightly frantic as he tells them, “If Pythor can unite all the freed Serpentine, the legend states that some ‘Great Devourer’ is going to consume the land-”

“Great Devourer?” Kai cuts in, speaking slowly on the awkward syllables with a grimace on his face. “What’s that?”

Cole only shrugs in response, looking to Zane briefly. “Whatever it is, it’s a can of worms I don’t want to see opened.”

“It’s all my fault.” Lloyd’s voice is miserable as he leans his head on his hand. He looks down at the food on his plate, and pushes it around with his free hand and a pout on his face. “If I hadn’t opened the first tomb, none of this would have happened.”

“There’s nothing you can do about it now, Junior.” Kai says with a voice that sounds like he’s underwater. Nya’s head feels like it’s going to detach from her neck and float away like a balloon. Her brother shoots an odd look at her when she giggles.

“Precisely. We cannot change the past, but we can affect the future.” Wu adds, nodding his head. Lloyd, underneath the green tinge, looks at least a little comforted. “At least we still have the Sacred Flute in our possession-”

“Oh, um.” Jay interrupts and all attention turns to him. He plays with the rim of his teacup, rocking it back and forth on its edge, and winces when it tips over. “About that-”

“Pythor sort of… stole it.” The last part is said quietly as Zane bows his head in shame. 

“The last Sacred Flute is gone?” Wu demands angrily before he closes his eyes and schools his expression. Past his wavy beard, Nya can see him taking deep, calming breaths. “You four are Ninjago’s last hope.”

As if cued, the alarm begins blaring all throughout the dining room. Nya’s intoxication with the Venomari spit only doubles the volume in her head. It brings her a splitting headache that she tries to stave off with her hands clasped over her ears. She just stutters out, “Cold vision?”

“Right, the Serpentine must be near.” Kai finishes for her, thankfully catching on to her train of thought. The ninja waste no time in getting to their feet, abandoning the table to head to the bridge.

“Watch your step.” Cole says when she stumbles on the staircase up to the bridge. Jay steadies her with an arm, and his face takes on a flush as he lets her hold onto his arm while they head up the final steps into the bridge.

When they arrive, the hologram displays a rotating image of Ninjago City. It shows five different coloured branches underneath the place, joining at a major hub underneath the heart of the city. The colours sway and meld together in her blurry eyes.

“How many are there?” Jay asks.

“A lot.” Nya stumbles, trying to force her vision to stop swaying. No matter how much she tries, she can’t focus clearly on the image. Kai centralizes the image, and says, “It looks like all of them.”

“Pythor must be trying to unite them.”

“Go!” Wu urges, rushing them out of the bridge to go put their gis back on. As they leave, Nya can hear him yell, “You mustn’t let the five tribes unite.”

Nya trips into her Spinjitzu, trying and failing to put on her gi the fancy, easy way. She falls out of the twirling motion, dizzy for the first time since she’d mastered Spinjitzu. She’s left to stumble around in her room and put it on the old-fashioned way, struggling a little bit to fit her arms through the floppy sleeves, and then struggling with the tie around her waist.

When she finally emerges from her room, she finds Jay waiting for her impatiently. His face softens a little at the sight of her, and he slips his arm through hers, guiding her to the rest of the team. “Don’t worry, you’ll be back to normal soon. We’ll stick together in the meantime.”

They head out onto the Bounty’s deck as a team, and the cool night air helps to clear her head a little bit. The wind blows coldly above the city as its light blaze far beyond its reaches. As they move to the gate in the railing, Nya feels a bit of vertigo over the huge city, but her head feels a little clearer.

“Hold on!” Jay tells her, and waits a second for her to cling tighter to him, and then steps them off into the open air. She can’t help the scream that is torn from her as the hurtle towards Ninjago City below.

Just when she thinks they might actually hit one of the buildings, Jay pulls out his Nunchucks, and suddenly they’re crammed together in the seat of the Storm Glider. Jay seamlessly weaves the Glider through the many high-rises of the city while Nya catches her breath.

“Well, that’s one way to sober up.” Nya mutters and she feels Jay’s laughter shake his body because of how close they are. She’s surprised the Glider’s seat is so wide, and wonders if that was a modification that Jay had to focus to create.

“Glad to have you back!” Jay grins as they go closer and closer to the ground. His face is a little pink, and his arm jolts a little where it's still looped through hers. Nya can just make out Cole’s Tread Assault in an alleyway, and Jay brings the Glider downward, saying, “Get ready to jump.”

The Glider disappears in a flash and the two are sent flying through the air. Nya just manages to catch herself in a flip and to land on her haunches. When she straightens back out, she finds Cole, Jay, and Zane, still dressed in pink, surrounding her.

As they exit their alleyway, Nya feels a surge of awe fall over them all as they get their first real look at Ninjago City. The gorgeous lights shine down on them from a variety of buildings, including skyscrapers and smaller shops. The jungle of buildings make Nya feel incredibly small, looming ominously against the night sky.

“Whew, Ninjago City.” Cole said with a low whistle. None of her teammates made any moves to find the Serpentine, so Nya let herself bask in the sheer might of her surroundings for a few moments. The boys made a few sounds of agreement, to which Cole continued, “I always dreamed of being on a billboard here one day.”

“You too?” Jay asks, and then snorts at himself. “I went through a billboard. That’s close enough, right?”

“Uh, may I remind you, where are the snakes?” Zane cut in with a shake of his head. The awe disappeared from his eyes as he started into motion down the street. He looked around, spinning in a slow circle, and confusion creased his brow. “We should be standing in the middle of a massive Serpentine gathering.”

“Well, snakes like to burrow.” Nya says reluctantly as they approach a manhole covering. She dreads the idea of dropping into the belly of the beast, and even more so now that she knows that they’re congregating in the sewers. She grimaces as Cole drags the cover off of the manhole, releasing a bout of steam.

“Ugh,” Cole wipes his gloves off on his gi before he starts down the ladder underground. “I hate snakes.”

The rest of the team follows him down beneath the city streets, sticking close together and following the maze created by the subway system. The ladder brings them out into a massive hub of inactive railways. Nya leans over the railing of a higher platform, looking out at the sea of snakes.

“Friends, enemies, and enemies who pretend to be friends…” At the front of the gathering, Pythor is leading a speech that seems more like an attempt at comedy than a rallying call. Nya has to admit that whatever he’s doing is unfortunately working. The snakes seem to be laughing and chattering agreeably while the tribe generals oversee with a vague sense of satisfaction.

“That is a lot of snakes.” Cole’s voice is low beside her, poorly disguising his disgust. Nya backs away from the railing as they all shrink back against the wall to avoid detection. Over the sound of Pythor’s speech below, Jay asks, “What do we do?” 

That morning’s lousy lesson flashes through her mind, particularly how quickly a manipulated narrative turned such a tight-knit group against each other so quickly. And with how disorganized the snakes were - Even Pythor’s greeting highlighted the rocky history between the different Serpentine tribes. If only they could… “I have an idea.”

Nya relays her thoughts in a hushed voice, satisfied to see the boys agreeing easily. She carefully climbs down the subway wall, shrouded in shadow, until she’s almost at the level on the crowd of Serpentine.

Nya waits for a pause in Pythor’s speech and adds an odd inflection into her voice, calling out. “That sssounds like a good plan, but you can trussst the Venomari to ssscrew it up!”

Her words kick up an immediate protest, particularly from the Venomari near her. They start targeting any non-Venomari Serpentine around them, and start arguing in hushed voices. It escalates enough that some snakes start getting physically violent as she scales her way back up to the platform overhead.

She can see her teammates spread out across the crowd whispering similarly controversial things, and by the time they’re all back on the platform again, the crowd is in disarray. They seem to be getting violent, on the verge of becoming an infighting riot mob. At the front, the Generals are looking around worriedly.

Pythor and Skales, the Hypnobrai general, exchange a few particularly heated words that end with Skales catching sight of Nya and her team. He wastes no time in pointing them out to Pythor, who turns to glower at them before directing the other Generals into action.

“Uh, oh.” Cole says, clearly seeing the same thing that Nya had. “Let’s go, folks.”

Taking off at a run, Nya narrowly dodges the first snake that comes her way. There isn’t much she can do when she’s confronted with a Constrictai Serpentine bursting out of the ground in front of her. Two more appear and box her in, and she can’t escape.

Though she squirms and fights the whole time, Nya is eventually tied up with ropes secured around her legs and arms. She’s later brought over to Cole and Jay, and tied to them as well. 

“How do we get out of here?” Nya wonders, trying and failing to reach her Sword. It seems that the boys are having similar problems, and they flounder uselessly against each other. Nya thinks privately that it would be great to have her vambraces right about now.

“Can you turn around?” Jay asks, to which Nya and Cole both shake their heads. Tied back to back, there’s nothing more they can really do than grasp at each other's hands. 

“Hey, ssstop that!” A Constrictai commands them, thumping Jay on the head with a closed fist. Nya can feel him shake his head as if to clear it, before they lurch suddenly. Nya is forced to walk backwards, glaring at their Serpentine bodyguards as they’re directed into a cranny behind Pythor’s makeshift podium.

“Did you take care of them?” Nya can hear Pythor hiss, and then the crate in front of them is moved so that he can see the ninja that his servants captured. Skales gestures to them dutifully, saying, “All but one.”

Pythor glares at them with a scrutinizing eye before turning back to Skales, and saying, voice urgent, “Search every nook at cranny. You’ll never find him in plain sight.”

As if on cue, Nya’s attention is stolen by the sight of a blur of pink across her vision. It sails over the crowd of Serpentine on a rope, moving from one platform to another. They cry together, “Go Pink Ninja, go!” As he sails through the air and uses his momentum to kick Pythor and Skales off of their makeshift platform.

The snakes fall hard to the ground, allowing Zane to leap off the platform and land in front of them. All of a sudden, they’re face to face with Zane, whose eyes are wide behind his pink gi. He twirls a Shuriken in his hand before bringing it down in front of him to slice away the ropes. “Let’s get out of here!”

They rush to get out of the tangle of cut ropes, briefly tripping over each other. Once they’re free, they waste no time in rushing after Zane, following him as he swings on another rope across the huge subway hub and the mob of angry snakes.

They rush off down an empty track line, and Zane uses his Shurikens to freeze the entirety of the inside of the passageway. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” He says cheerfully as he calls upon his Snowmobile. He waits until they’re all seated on the extended seat until he revs the engine and floors it down the tracks.

“Popsicle stand?” Jay clings onto the seat in front of her, laughing. “I like it!”

Nya watches over her shoulder gleefully as the Serpentine in pursuit after them slip and slide on the icy ground. None of them are able to stay on their feet or tails, falling to the ground as Zane drives them further and further away, into the safety of the Ninjago City night.

***

 

Nya’s eyelids weigh down heavily, but she isn’t yet ready to sleep. The team is sat around the dining table once more, eating a second dinner that is closer to breakfast than anything else. She eats a bowl of soup peacefully. Not being drugged with Venomari spit really makes it much easier to get the food in her mouth.

“You know,” Cole says with a yawn, stretching his arms high above his head. He leans on the table, looking at her around Kai, who sits in between them. “It might not have been in the lesson book, but we used the destructive power of rumours to our advantage.”

“Who knew that a little middle-school bullying tactic would be so effective?” Nya asks rhetorically, finally putting down her spoon into her empty bowl. Kai nudges her with his elbow, grinning as he says, “Well, thanks to you guys, the Serpentine are far from getting their act together.”

“Well, they were already a little dysfunctional without our help.” Nya concedes, pushing her bowl away from herself and leaning back in her seat. She wipes her mouth primly with a napkin, but it comes away clean. She flushes a little at the thought of the mess she had made earlier in her impaired state. “Pythor needs to sort himself out before they can get anything done, which should buy us some time.”

“They did get the jump on you.” Kai points out, clearly thinking of the same thing. Nya glares at her brother, unhappy to be reminded even further of her unwilling intoxication. He just laughs at her, ruffling her hair a little, a direct contrast to the caring actions he had taken earlier. “Surely they deserve some credit.”

“That was without Pythor’s leadership.” She counters, though she doesn’t really think it helps her case. “Anytime he’s not around, those snakes are much more formidable as opponents. It feels like he’s actively making them worse.”

“Well, either way. Zane saved our butts today.” Jay adds from his seat across the table. He slings an arm around the white ninja’s shoulder, leaning close into him with a grin. “I don’t think we could’ve gotten out of there without him.”

“Do not thank me. Thank Lloyd.” He says with a grin as Jay’s face twists with annoyance. He raises his hands and quirks his fingers in the air to make air quotes around his next words. “If not for his ‘laundry skills,’ we all would have been found.”

He sets off a round of laughter around the table, smiling at their reaction, that dies off as the shoji doors slide open. Lloyd toddles in behind a mound of neatly folded white fabric, piled so high that it blocks his face. Only the top of his head is visible from the stack of laundry held awkwardly in his arms.

“It took me twenty loads.” Lloyd grumbles playfully, setting Zane’s laundry down on the cleared table. He sits down with a huff as Zane holds up the gi at the top of the pile to examine it for its cleanliness. Nya has to admit, the kid did a pretty good job. “But your suit’s no longer pink.”

Zane nods his appreciation with a small smile, which the kid preens under. While he still isn’t Nya’s favourite, the kid is at least earning his keep. And he is difficult to stay mad at. Then, the kid pulls something out of his pocket and leans across the table.

“And to show that I’m sorry,” Lloyd says as he holds out a tin in Cole’s direction, who leans away from the outstretched hand. “Cole, I got you a can of nuts.”

“Ha, yeah. Don’t think I don’t see what this is.” Cole gets up from the table, walking a wide berth around Lloyd to get to the fridge. The kid just smiles a funny little smirk, lowering his arm as Cole stops a few feet in front of him. “I open that and a bunch of snakes are gonna pop out, right? Yeah, no thank you .”

He completes his journey to the fridge as he speaks, and he opens it without looking. A huge barrage of rubber snakes rain down on him as he squeezes his eyes shut. He turns back to face Lloyd slowly.

“Whoops.” The kid says with a wide, simpering grin. He pops open the can of nuts and begins to snack on the cashews inside. Cole gapes like a fish, starting and ending a sentence multiple times.

“Wha- Hey! Really?” Cole demands as he pulls a rubber snake out of his hair. They have landed in a big pile around him, but a few stragglers remain in the fridge. The otherwise empty fridge. Cole glares at the wide, white inside of the fridge, and Nya can hear his stomach growl.

“Cashew?” Lloyd offers, but not to Cole. He leans over the table to hold the can in front of Kai, who accepts with a smile. “Thanks, kid.”

“You helped him?” Cole sounds furious, but Nya can see the teasing set to his shoulders. Kai just offers him a gleeful, shit-eating grin as he tosses a cashew into the air and catches it in his mouth. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kai says, but does slide his own plate of food towards Cole as he sits back down, practically pouting. Nya laughs at their antics, glad to see her brother finally getting along with the team. “I’m just the babysitter.”

When the team splits off to head to bed, Kai comes over to her and walks with her to her room. She can almost physically feel the worry exuding from his pores, and she rolls her eyes when he presses a hand to her forehead.

“The Venomari stuff has worn off?” She bats away his hand but listens to his question. She knows that he’s just worried about her, and that he’s just acting as her brother. Still, his seeming lack of faith in her honesty annoys her. “That Samurai thing didn’t hurt you when it knocked you out, did it?”

“No, no.” She reassures as she opens her bedroom door. He lets her go with a final investigating look. “I think it was chloroform or something.”

“Good.” Kai sighs, and finally lets her into her room to go to sleep. He smiles at her once, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, and sets off towards his own bed. “Goodnight, sis.”

“‘Night, Kai.” She watches him go before closing her door and tucking herself into bed. The night sky passes by outside of her window, and she can faintly hear the repulsors as they drift through the open air.

She yawns, turning onto her side and thinking over the day now behind her. Now, there’s a new mystery to solve - the identity of the lone Samurai in addition to the Green Ninja. 

She tries hard to think of her interaction with the Samurai, but any memory that could be useful is distorted by the hallucinatory purposes of the Venomari spit. She can’t differentiate what was real, let alone specific details that could be clues.

In the end, her thinking amounts to nothing, leaving her frustrated and annoyed, but she lets it go for another time when she yawns again. She listens to the slight wind entering her window, and the smooth gliding of the Bounty lulls her to sleep.

Notes:

Woah man, did this chapter fight me ToT
Also, the cartoon physics tag has been added finally - its about time

Chapter 6: The Snake King

The sun streams in through the open door of the Bounty’s dining room, lighting up the team and their breakfast. Right now, the team is listening with mild amusement as Lloyd goes through his super-secure method to defeat any and all Serpentine.

“First, I’d stomp on his tail,” Lloyd begins, leaning over the table to grab the strawberry jelly. He struggles to open the jar, and ends up relinquishing it to Cole when he can’t get it open. Cole pops it open without missing a beat, and hands it back over easily. “Thanks! Then when he turns, a thunder clap to the ear!”

Lloyd spreads his jelly on a piece of bread, and Nya watches with mild disgust as some of it drips down his hand. She grabs the jar from him so that he won’t get it all sticky, and listens to his continued explanation. “And when he’s stunned, I’ll disarm him!”

“Too late,” Cole says as he bites into his own food. “He’s already hypnotized you and now you’re under his control.”

“Or he’s already put you in a squeeze.” Zane says lightly with a smile. Lloyd sags a little at their opposition.

“Or he’s spit on you with his hallucinatory venom.” Kai says with a teasing elbow stuck between Nya’s ribs. She jolts away from him, scowling at him, but adds, “And trust me, you don’t want that.”

“Ugh. Uncle,” Lloyd whines as Wu enters the dining room. He leans forward on the table, seemingly defeated, but he watches his uncle with big eyes. “How do you stun a Serpentine if you don’t know what kind they are?”

“Unfortunately, it was the Sacred Flute that you four carelessly lost.” Wu speaks with a pointed look towards his students. He sits down and sets a black box with a silver symbol on the top in the middle of the table. Then, he pours himself a nice cup of steaming hot tea.

“Hey, we didn’t lose it!” Jay protests, leaning forward on the table with a sour look. “Pythor stole it.”

“Whatever the case,” Wu pours another cup of tea and passes it on to Nya, who passes it on to Kai. “I fear that we have nothing to combat their powers without it.”

A solemn silence falls over the table. Jay puts his head on his palm and looks down at the table, tracing the grain of the wood with his free hand. Nya feels a slight sense of shame as she turns to look at Wu as he continues speaking. “We may have prevented their union in the past, but they will try again. And one day, they will be stronger.”

“Don’t worry, Sensei.” Cole says, putting a comforting hand on Wu’s shoulder. “I’ve almost reached my full potential, and when I became the Green Ninja, we won’t need any magic flute.”

“When you become the Green Ninja?” Nya cuts in, thinking back to all of their previous arguments. Every time, the Green Ninja was clearly her - down to the build, abilities, and fighting prowess. “Did you forget the clear evidence that points to me ?”

“I thought it was decided that I was destined to become the Green Ninja.” Zane adds with a frown, as though it were obvious. He has a peculiar conviction that he will be the Chosen One, something that Nya can’t understand when he’s usually so reasonable. 

“The only thing decided about you is that you’re weird.” Jay says patronizingly with a hand on Zane’s shoulder, which he shrugs off with a scowl.

“Come on, guys, I’m a naturally born leader-” The ninja dissolve into squabbling, rehashing the same argument again. Nya sighs, wondering just when the boys will let go of their stubbornness and accept that she’s the clear answer. Kai is shaking with quiet laughter beside her, and Nya turns to glare at her brother.

“You’re supposed to be on my side!” Nya says petulantly, smacking his shoulder. Kai only laughs at her again, finishing off his cup of tea. Nya huffs, and turns to simply watch the argument playing out. She doesn’t need to strain herself to defend the truth - they’ll realise eventually.

Lloyd sighs from the other side of Kai, and slides out of the bench. He watches the three arguing on the other side of the table and walks behind Nya to look over his uncle’s shoulder.

“So, what’s in the box?” He asks over all the yelling. Wu shakes his head at his pupils, and takes the lid off of the box, revealing another package wrapped in gray, embossed with Cole’s symbol. “Your new uniforms.”

“Woah, cool!” The ninja rush to grab their gis, tearing open the packaging. Nya looked down at her own gi eagerly. She didn’t mind her own vambraces, but it will be nice to have a little more protection. Her new suit has extra body armour over her torso and thinner fabric on the arms that make room for her vambraces.

“Woah, they’ve got like, armour!” Jay exclaims, and Nya looks over to see the boys on the other side of the table looking over their own gis with the same fervor.

She runs her hands over the thick material under the outer flaps of the gi, which is covered in belts to keep the armour tight to her body. She nods to Wu, looking over the sheath on the back, and says, “Not too shabby.”

“Battle claws!” Cole says, holding up his now gloved hands. He turns to Zane excitedly, who is scrutinizing his pristine white gi for any flaws. His inspection is unnecessary - Nya can see the quality of their new uniforms. She isn’t one to fawn over clothing, but the practicality justifies her excitement. Zane is saying, “The material is very light and breathable.”

“And for Kai,” Wu pulls out a slip of paper from his pocket, neatly folded into quarters, and reaches over Nya to pass it to her brother. He accepts it with a blank look and unfolds the envelope, straightening out the creases. His name is written in an oddly familiar, untidy hand.

Nya watches eagerly as he goes to open the envelope, but stops when he notices her looking over his shoulder. He tucks the letter into his pocket and flicks her forehead, scowling at her and saying, “Nosy.” 

“Is there anything for me?” Lloyd asks hopefully, still leaning on his uncle’s shoulder. His face looks a little hopeful still, but Nya can see the slight panic that crosses their Master’s face. Clearly, he hadn’t remembered to consider his nephew.

“You get… the box?” Wu scrambles, lifting the black box and handing it to Lloyd, clearly hoping that it will be deemed suitable. The boy slumps, disappointment taking over his small features. Nya lets herself feel a little sympathy for once - there aren’t many kid-friendly activities for him to partake in on the Bounty.

“Don’t let it get to you, kid.” Kai says with a slightly rueful smile, ruffling the kid’s hair as he walks by. Nya can hear a hint of longing in his voice and wonders just how content he is not being a ninja. Lloyd looks up briefly, but reverts back to a scowl, batting away Kai’s hand. “You’ll get used to it.”

The alarm then blares through the dining room, to which they all sigh. Kai, already standing, leads them out of the dining room and up towards the bridge. The screen connected to the periscope displays the map of Ninjago with a blaring red light over the Serpentine sighting.

“Sorry to break up the moment, but a faction of our slithering friends are causing trouble at Mega Monster Amusement Park.” Cole says, peering at the screen as it zooms into the site in question. The screen eventually displays a high-quality still taken from a security camera, showing a crowd of terrified citizens running away from a few stray snakes.

“Amusement park?” Lloyd interrupts, pushing past Cole to see the periscope’s view. He turns back to his uncle excitedly, for once looking his age as a wise smile takes over his face. He runs to stand in front of Wu, tugging on his sleeve with big, pleading eyes as he begs, “Can I go? Can I go, please?”

When Wu doesn’t say anything, simply looking askance with a guilty expression, he turns to the team instead. Nya winces a little when she sees Wu’s expression. “Let me make things up. I can help!”

“I’m sorry, nephew.” Wu puts a gentle hand on Lloyd’s shoulder, who sags in disappointment. The kid takes the denial pretty well, not protesting despite how he sulks. He’s gotten used to boredom and disappointment in recent days. “You will stay on the Bounty, where it’s safe.”

“Ninja get all the fun.” He mumbles with a huff, crossing his arms and ducking away from Wu’s hand. He goes over to stand by Kai, who spares him a pitying look.

“I’ll make it up to you, Green Bean.” Kai tells him as Lloyd goes over to stand with him. It’s a phrase that Nya had heard from their brother many times throughout her childhood. It tugs on something deep in her chest, to see him acting like that with someone other than her. Kai leads the sulking kid out of the bridge and down into the halls of the inner Bounty, voice getting fainter. “How about we work on your training? Then you can help out…”

“Well, what do you say?” Jay asks with a grin on his face, lifting up his new gi. Nya knows that he still hasn’t warmed up to the kid, primarily for the direct attack on his family when Lloyd controlled the Fangpyre. “Time to try out the new merchandise?”

The team runs out of the bridge, leaving Wu behind on his own. On her way, Nya twists into her Spinjitzu, using the tornado as a way to change into her new gi quickly.

When she comes out of her Spinjitzu, she does a quick check in with her body, feeling out the new suit, and comes away more than satisfied. It feels snug without being restricting, and the gentle pressure of the body armour against her stomach is mildly comforting. She straps on her vambraces over the gi, and finds that they hold onto the thinner fabric easily.

“All right.” Cole cheers when they stand on the edge of the Bounty’s deck, each clad in their new uniforms. He seems very happy with the new armour, and Nya can see him flexing his gloved hands. “This new stuff feels like it’ll really protect us.”

“Yet, provides more mobility.” Nya understands what Zane is saying. The fabric of the gi seems to glide against itself, making for less friction around the joints. Jay makes a face at them both when she nods along.

“It works well with my new tech, too.” She raises her forearms, showing off her vambraces, now lined in gold-paint to match the metallic armour on her gi, rather than the gunmetal gray it had been before. She’d upgraded them after she’d finally worked out the dents, incorporating web-like nets as well as the knock-out gas that her bike had.

“You wanna strut your stuff on the catwalk?” Jay asks mockingly, walking in an approximation of a model’s swagger, before sobering up dramatically. He turns excitedly, bouncing on his heels. “Or get down to the amusement park so we can go on some rides?”

“You boys are so frivolous. We’ve got some snakes to deal with.” With that, she takes off at a run, heading straight over the edge into a freefall. She laughs with the thrill of the dive, plummeting towards the ground. She unsheaths her Sword midair and calls upon her bike in a flash, using it to bring her to a safe landing just outside the park.

“Ha!” Cole laughs, after he lands in his Tread Assault. The vehicle disappears in a flash, and he gleefully twirls around to show off his pristine gi. “Check that out, and not a scratch on me!”

“Where’s the trouble?” Nya asks as they walk in under the amusement park’s massive arching signs, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. In fact, the people within the park seem to be quite happy, cheering about something a little ways away from the ninja.

“Ladies, relax! We have arrived.” Jay says cockily, a sort of swagger bleeding into his stride. He waves a hand in front of him, as if waving away all their worries. Nya rolls her eyes at him, and almost bumps into him when he suddenly stops short.

“What’s going on?” As she moves to stand beside Jay, she sees what caused him to halt in his tracks. Right at the centre of the bustling crowd lie a pile of unconscious Serpentine - the same ones they had seen on the security feed just minutes ago. 

A woman standing next to them leans into her conspiratorially, an admiring grin on her face. “Oh, you just missed it. There were like, these icky snakes,” The woman waves her hands about, narrowly missing colliding with Cole’s face as she recounts the story. “And then this like, mysterious Rōnin guy came in and saved everyone.”

The woman’s friend nods eagerly, swooning a little as she says, “He was totally gorgeous.”

“You should be sad you missed him,” The first woman says with a lovestruck sigh. Nya’s face twists in annoyance under her gi, and she clarifies, “He showed his face?”

“No, no, but we could tell .” The second woman says with a wiggle of her eyebrow, giggling as her friend draws her away. As they leave, Nya can hear their squealing and fawning as her own appreciation for this Rōnin dwindles. It’s then that she spots Kai in the crowd.

“Hey Kai. Why are you here?” Cole asks, a little bluntly, as Kai walks up to them wielding two sticks of candy floss. He smiles as he comes to a stop. “Making it up to Lloyd.” He raises the larger of the two sticks as evidence, and then grins. “You guys missed all the action.”

“What happened?” Nya urges. Something about this whole situation is grating on her nerves and she wants an answer as soon as possible. Kai just shrugs. “He swooped in, took care of business, and left.”

“Well, I’m gonna get this to the kid.” He starts to walk away, but then pauses and turns back to them with a grin. He points at the pile of Serpentine, who are unrestrained and starting to wake up, groaning and hissing. “You should take care of them.”

With that, he disappears out of the park, eating some of his candy floss as he goes. The crowd thickens once he’s gone and Nya can hear various praises for the Rōnin from visitors of all ages. One man passing by says loudly, as if to goad the ninja team on, “I bet that Rōnin could kick the ninja’s butts.”

“Ugh, Kai’s right.” Nya complains as she leads the group over to the rousing Serpentine. As a Constrictai shakily gets to its feet, she thumps it on the head with the butt of her Sword, watching as it collapses again. Her mouth tastes bitter at being shown up by some mysterious figure. “Who even was that guy?”

“Whoever he is, he’s stealing our thunder.” Cole throws a few Serpentine over his shoulders, carrying them like sacks of rice. The others each pick up one or two while Nya is left to ponder the situation. She picks up the Constrictai and follows Cole’s lead toward the park entrance to deliver the snakes to the proper authorities.

“And we just got these cool new suits. Agh!” Jay readjusts the snake over his shoulder, scowling as he goes. Nya cares less for the credit and more about how familiar this feels. She can’t really remember her first encounter with the Rōnin clearly, but she planned to solve this mystery as soon as possible. “I’m gonna say it: I hate Samurai!”

“Is that a hint of jealousy I hear?” Wu’s voice behind her startles her, making her whip around to face him. He smiles serenely at his students, eating his own stick of candy floss. He tilts his head, considering the implications of the ninja’s newfound rival. “Maybe this can be a lesson for you.”

“Not another lesson.” Jay groans, shrinking in on himself dramatically. The snake that he’s carrying jolts with his movement, but doesn’t wake up. Then he straightens, raising an eyebrow and pointing a finger at their teacher. “Hey, how’d you get here so quick?”

“The lesson,” Wu starts, completely ignoring Jay. “Is that iron sharpens iron.”

Nya glances to the side, and is glad to see her own confusion reflected on her teammates' faces. Zane is the one to speak up, lifting his palm and saying, “I do not follow, Sensei.”

“Healthy competition can help you reach your True Potential faster. Don’t be jealous of this Rōnin, let it inspire you.” He tells them with a dramatic waving of his hands, but then stops. He catches sight of something, eyes lighting up and he takes off in that direction. “Ooh, Ferris wheel!”

“‘Inspire?’” Jay repeats dully, looking after Wu with an unimpressed raised eyebrow.

“He can’t expect us to compete with Rōnin, right?” Cole wonders as they finally reach the Amusement Park’s security guards and several officers who were only just arriving at the scene. They deposit the snakes in a pile at the guards’ feet and quickly make their way back to the Bounty. “He’s too advanced. He doesn’t even fight like a ninja!”

“Perhaps we can transform Sensei’s lesson.” Zane says as Jay summons his Glider, this time with multiple seats, and they slide into it easily. As they take off, Jay pushes the handle bars and leads the Glider into fancy flips and turns, clearly showing off. In the seat in front of her, Cole looks a little green. 

“What do you mean, Frosty?” Cole says as they fall into a barrel roll, gripping the sides of the Glider’s cockpit. His eyes are squeezed shut, and it looks like he’s fighting off a bout of nausea. 

“Whoever can unveil the mysterious warrior’s identity must be the best of us all.” Zane says as the Bounty appears in the Glider’s field of vision. “Ergo, the Green Ninja.” Nya fills in, to which Zane nods. 

“Yeah, okay!” Jay calls from the front seat as they reach the Bounty. Nya shrieks a little as the Glider suddenly disappears, dropping them a few feet onto the deck. She manages to land in a roll, but Cole is not so lucky.

As he gets to his feet, he glares at Jay and says, “Remind me to never let him drive ever again.”

“So, whoever can find the Rōnin is the destined Green Ninja.” Jay says to Zane, who nods along at his understanding. Jay stretches his head above his head, showing off the silver armour on his gi. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. How well can a Rōnin hide?”

“Well, they wouldn’t stick to the shadows, like us.” Nya adds, seriously considering her own words. The Rōnin hadn’t been exactly flashy yet - she hasn’t even seen him while in her right mind - but the stories from others tell her that he doesn’t focus much on subtlety.

Nya looks up at the bridge briefly, where she can see Kai sitting with Lloyd and snacking on their candy flosses. Distantly, she wonders how he’d gotten back so quickly. She shakes it off, turning back to the problem at hand. The thing Nya wants most right now is to uncover Rōnin’s identity. 

The proposed bet doesn’t actually prove anything. It won’t change the course of destiny - she’s still the most likely candidate to become the Green Ninja. In fact, this arrangement can only benefit her - it will lead to the solution of her problem, and allow her to follow several leads at once.

“Still, he’s quick.” Jay says as they walk into the inside of the Bounty and wander through the halls. “Only the best will be able to catch him!”

Nya, who cares less about the competition and more who they’re competing with, readily agrees. Though it would be satisfying if she could unmask the Rōnin herself, she’ll take the answer in whatever way she can get it. Besides, one little competition isn’t going to rewrite the truth of destiny. “Sure, I’m in, too.”

“So it’s agreed.” Cole says solemnly as they gather around in the kitchen and begin making themselves their lunch. “May the Green Ninja win.”

Nya is just biting into her sandwich when she notices a crumpled piece of paper sticking out of the trashcan. Something about it prods at her brain, and curiosity rises in her. She sets her sandwich down on a plate, walking over and pulling the ruined letter out of the trash, much to the disgust of the others.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Jay asks, chopsticks full of noodles half raised to his mouth. His mouth is twisted in a mix of confusion and disgust. She just shushes him, lifting up the paper and dusting some residue off of it. 

“We have plenty of food, Nya.” Zane is saying, brow creased and opening the fridge as if to show her. “You do not need to look in the garbage for scraps.”

Nya just waves him off, bringing the paper to lay down on the countertop. It’s damp, as if it had been run underneath the tap. She has to be careful as she uncrumples it, gentle so as not to rip the extra fragile paper. She feels more than sees the boys come over to look at what is captivating her attention.

“What is it?” Cole asks, reaching to help stretch out the paper. However, their efforts are in vain. The water damage has smudged the ink beyond legibility - the paper is a smear of black-gray smudges. The only intelligible words are the name at the top-

“It’s Kai’s letter.” Nya frowns as she wonders what he’s hiding. She had written off his secrecy as just a need for privacy in such an open living environment, but ruining his letters so they couldn’t be read seemed excessive. The other intelligible word, signing off the letter is-

“Rōnin?!” Jay’s astonished exclamation isn’t quite right. The written name lacks the accent over the ‘o’, though Nya can’t tell if it was intentional or not. The paper is far too damaged to be certain. Jay’s head whips around toward her, and his voice is shrill when he demands, “Why is your brother getting letters from Rōnin ?”

“I don’t know.” Nya says dumbly, “And I don’t understand why he’s hiding it from us.”

“Well, for whatever reason, he’s in cahoots with the enemy.” Cole says with a scowl, walking away from the letter and returning to his meal. He finishes off a sandwich and holds a hand over his mouth, speaking through his chewing. “I didn’t expect it from him.”

“Perhaps we are merely misunderstanding?” Zane asks as she stuffs the letter back into the garbage can. He continues as she moves to wash her hands, speaking louder over the rush of water. “Kai has never been anything but supportive. And he would never do anything to harm you.”

“Well, I hope so.” Nya is left pondering the implication of her brother’s communication, and wonders just how they could catch the Rōnin in their grasp. Her thoughts are interrupted by the blare of the alarm, which she had grown more than used to. The team abandons their meal and rushes up to the bridge.

“There’s been snake sightings all over Ninjago.” Kai tells them when they arrive, gesturing to the periscope screen, which is split into three smaller screens, each displaying a group of Serpentine at varying locations. They ignore their new discovery in favour of dealing with the newfound threat. “They’re everywhere.”

“Where are we needed?” Nya asks, leaning around her brother to see the screen more clearly. The screen displays the familiar forest that surrounded the monastery, some place underground, and the snowy lands of the north. She turns to the others. “I’ll take the forest.”

“Well, we know our own strengths.” Cole says with a look at Zane, who nods. Jay slumps a little, clearly disappointed by not having any snakes to fight. Nya turns to him as the others walk out of the bridge, saying, “You could come with me.”

“No, thanks.” A mischievous look crosses his face as they walk out of the bridge together. He examines his fingernails, and his voice is cunning when he says, “I’ve got an idea.”

“Oo-kay.” Nya says, bemused. They split off then, with Nya taking a running start over the railing. She enjoys the fall for a long minute before calling on her bike midair, landing easily on the ground. She revs the bike and takes off over the rocky terrain towards the remains of the monastery.

She dismounts the bike as it disappears with a flip through the air, landing among a gaggle of girls. They seem a little excited to see her, but dutifully point her in the direction of the three Constrictai advancing towards them. “Go, ninja, go! Girl power!”  She’s just readying her Sword when the Rōnin lands in a crouch right behind the snakes. Looking up, she quickly locates the branch he had jumped from by the way it bounces in the air.

The snakes turn around, hissing when they see him, but cease when he immediately engages them in a fight. One Serpentine drops with a punch to the snout, whimpering and clutching at its face. The other two try to ambush the Rōnin, but are easily smacked away by the Rōnin’s curved spear, twirling around his body. Something about the technique reminds Nya sharply of Sensei Wu and his bō staff. 

“Oh, Rōnin .” The girls swoon, to which Nya glares at them. She raises her Sword against the Rōnin, prepared to attack, and is countered with the curved end of the spear. He aims to disarm her, but she moves with the strike and holds onto her blade. When she gets back to her feet, she manages a spinning kick, successfully disarming the Rōnin of his spear. It skids across the forest floor and lands out of reach. When she turns around again, she raises her vambrace, and a net shoots out, effectively pinning the Rōnin underneath the heavy ropes.

“Not so high and mighty now, huh?” Nya asks as she walks over, reaching her hands out to unmask the elusive Rōnin. He can’t reach either the swords strapped to his back, and his shurikens can’t do anything at such close range. The girls behind her gasp and whisper among themselves, but they watch with a fixed attention. “Let’s see who you really are.”

The man only laughs, pulling out his fan and tearing the net to shreds with its sharpened edge. He kicks her in the side, bringing her down to her knees, and handsprings away from her. He grabs his spear from the ground and takes to the trees. 

“Damnit!” Nya suppresses the urge to scream as she watches him disappear from view. One of the Serpentine stirs with a groan, and she kicks it in the head in her frustration, knocking it back out. “Stupid Rōnin.”

“Wasn’t he gorgeous? He totally saved us, too.” The girls are fawning to each other as Nya piles up the unconscious snakes. She throws the destroyed net over them and calls upon her bike, using the scraps of rope to secure the bodies to the back of the vehicle. “He was dreamy .”

“What happened to Girl Power? ” Nya grumbles to herself about their lack of fortitude and independence as she throws herself up onto her bike. She kicks it to life, taking off with a roar and leaving the girls in the dust. By the time she’s dropped off the snakes with the police and made it back to the Bounty, her mood is thoroughly spoiled.

“Hey, sis.” Kai greets when she makes it back onto the Bounty’s deck. The deck is alive with the training courses, powered up in the same format that the monastery’s machines used to be in. Kai is sitting on the edge of one, only looking a little winded. “You sure dealt with the Serpentine quickly.”

“Ugh, I didn’t.” Nya says with a scowl, sitting down heavily beside him.She takes a minute to watch Lloyd try and fail to go through one of the machines, short little legs failing to hop between moving platforms. He tumbles to the deck and groans, seemingly accepting defeat. “That stupid Rōnin showed up.”

“And what, he stole your thunder?” Kai asks teasingly, nudging their elbows together. Across the deck, Lloyd rolls to his feet, rubbing his hip with a sour look on his face. Kai grins as the kid walks over to them, and calls out, “You’re giving up that easily?”

“It’s not fair .” Lloyd laments, sitting down in front of them and flopping out on his back. “The course is too big, and it’s not any fun.”

“Training isn’t supposed to be fun, kid.” Kai turns back to her when Lloyd doesn’t respond and stretches his arms high above his head. “And you’ll catch up to the Rōnin soon. Just focus on your own training - it’ll come with time.”

“Did he tell you that?” Nya asks bitterly, picking at the threads of her glove. The thread loosens around her palm, and she knows she should stop, especially because of how new her suit is. She doesn’t though, annoyed at Kai’s blatant disloyalty.

“Did who tell him what?” Lloyd cuts in, looking questioningly between the two siblings like he was watching a tennis match. Kai shrugs and gives him an incredulous look, which only angers Nya more.

“The Rōnin?” Nya dares to confront her brother, whose face briefly flashes with panic, only spurring her on. “He did! You’ve been talking with him!”

“How did you- wait. Nya, I don’t know what you’re on about.” Kai says helplessly, shuffling backward a little. Then something crosses his face, and his mouth opens a little like something has just dawned on him. His eyebrows crinkle and his eyes grow hard. “Did you go through my mail?”

“You left it out!” Nya defends, confused at the annoyance now directed at her. A few feet away, Lloyd is now sitting up, looking tense. The tennis-match comparison is no longer funny, now that his eyes are filled with anxiety. “And why are you mad at me? You’re the one communicating with the enemy.”

Kai takes a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. All at once, the fight seems to rush out of him, and he shakes his head. “I think you’re missing a few details, firecracker.”

Nya can hear the finality in his voice, and with a look to Lloyd, she kind of gets it. She slumps back, content to shelf the conversation for a later time.

“Look, can you hang out with Lloyd for a bit?” Kai asks as he gets to his feet. The kid’s anxiety seems to melt off of him, quickly replaced by an indignant scowl. “I need to go down to the Forge.”

“But you’ve hardly…” The kid trails off when Kai ruffles his hair, saying, “We can do something fun tomorrow, Junior.” He sighs dramatically, slumping where he sits, but nods his agreement. Nya, on the other hand, does not agree.

“Why is it my turn?” She complains, and ducks away from her own dose of hair ruffling. Kai just grins as he disappears into the hallways, presumably off to his room, calling over his shoulder, “Wrong time, wrong place!”

Nya and Lloyd spend a long moment just staring at each other with matching scowls over their faces. She doesn’t usually mind him all that much, but after the day she’s had, she is not eager to babysit. Especially such a difficult kid. Said difficult kid is the first to finally crack.

“Sooo, are you gonna help me train?” Lloyd asks, with a hopeful lilt at the end of his sentence. Nya sighs, long suffering, to which the kid deflates. She’s already all gross and sweaty, and if she were to exert herself, she would rather it be for something productive. And while training may help the kid, it will only waste Nya’s time.

“How about you help me solve a mystery instead?” Nya tries to force an intriguing tone, but can tell it falls short when the kid pouts. He crosses his arms and leans back away from her. She gives up pretty quickly. “What about the arcade?”

That seems to perk the kid up. He leans forward eagerly, a wide smile taking over his face. Nya internally pumps her fist, cheering on her own progress. The arcade will be an enclosed space that he can’t, and won’t want to, escape from with reasonably responsible people watching over him. All Nya has to do is drop him off and arrange a pickup a few hours from now and then she’s free. “Please, can we, can we? ”

“Alright, come on.” She quickly puts away all of the training equipment and summons her bike. She helps Lloyd up onto the seat behind her before she takes off the side of the deck, plummeting to the ground. Lloyd’s arms squeeze tightly around her middle, but she can hear his hysterical giggling in her ear. When they finally land, he cries, “That was so cool!”

He clings tight to her as they take off down the street into Ninjago City. Nya weaves her bike through the traffic until she finds an arcade in a more secluded part of the city. She brings the bike to a stop on the curb and helps Lloyd off of the bike.

“Whew, I haven’t been here in a while!” He’s saying when the bike engine lowers enough to hear him. He turns to look at her excitedly, as though waiting for her to join him. “I’m gonna show you my favourite game, and I really think you’ll like it!”

“Kid, I’m not going in with you.” Nya says, digging out some cash from her pockets. She dumps it unceremoniously into his hands, ignoring the sad look he gives her as he steps away from the curb. 

“You’re not?” He seems inappropriately disappointed. He can’t really have expected her to hang out with him all afternoon. Besides, he’s more than old enough to hang out alone for a few hours, right? Nya certainly spent hours alone at his age.

“I’ve got a Rōnin to catch. And I don’t need any distractions .” The kid glowers at her words, and stomps his foot with a huff. He pockets the money anyways, and just stares up at her with big eyes for a long moment, before saying flatly, “I like your brother better than you.”

“Tough.” With that and nothing else, Nya takes off down the street, literally leaving Lloyd in the dust. She’s got a nemesis to track down and unmask.

 

***

 

By the next morning at breakfast, Nya has made no further progress in uncovering the Rōnin’s identity. She’s beyond annoyed - the whole thing is gnawing at her insides, including Kai’s questionable involvement with the mysterious Rōnin.

“Trying to figure out his identity is worse than dealing with the snakes.” Cole is saying, sighing as he leans his head on his palm across the table. He had just finished recounting his own story with the Rōnin - being thoroughly outdone and left stunned, with only a mocking wave from the Rōnin to remember the encounter by. “Did anyone have any luck?”

“The guy’s elusive. He’s like a ghost.” Jay says as he finishes and slams down his glass of orange juice. “I tried to trick him into saving me, but he didn’t go for it.”

“I’m starting to believe that we may never catch up to him.” Zane says dejectedly, with his finger running over the edge of his fork. It’s a little disheartening to see him, who is usually so motivated, acting so defeated.

“He was prepared for everything!” Nya complains, before launching into a, probably too-detailed, explanation of her own encounter. The incapacitation of the Serpentine, her capture of the Serpentine, and their own fight.

Nya had told her team about Kai’s sketchy response to her confrontation, and the consensus had been that it probably wasn’t relevant. They had decided to give up on that lead, and that it would be far better for the team if they let the issue go. Still, her curiosity itched at her.

“I don’t think any of us are closer to unlocking our destinies.” Nya adds distractedly, chewing on the new information eagerly. She had spent her Lloyd-free hours the day before pouring over all footage of the Rōnin available and using various technological systems to try and zoom in on his face underneath the helmet. She had even cross-checked with a number of civilian identities, but it led her absolutely nowhere. “I’d been pouring over the security footage we have of him all day yesterday, and still, nothing.”

“What do you mean? About destinies?” Kai asked, forcing her to remember his presence. Right. They had never told him about the bet.

“We agreed that whoever could figure out the Rōnin’s identity would be the Green Ninja.” Cole explains, to which Kai smiles and shakes his head, saying, “You guys are obsessed.”

“I’m not obsessed!” Nya snaps. “Just- who is that guy? And who the hell sharpens a fan ?!”

“Looks like iron is sharpening iron.” Wu interrupts with a pleased smile as he walks into the room. He stands beside Cole and squeezes his arm. When he speaks next, his voice is dripping with wisdom. “I feel you are getting closer to your True Potential.”

“Ow!” Cole says, yanking his arm out of Wu’s grip with a glare. Wu only smiles down at them, moving to take a seat. As he does, he looks over the table and seems to fall short.

“Where is my nephew?”

“I thought he was just sleeping in. He was pretty worn out from his training.” Kai says after a long, awkward moment, looking around at the others. When no one offers any more information, Wu turns to him and says, “I thought you were looking after him.”

“I was going to the Forge, so I handed him off to Nya for the afternoon.” All attention turns to her, unjustly, may she add. Though a sinking sense of guilt hardens in her gut. She points accusatorily. “Cole was supposed to pick him up.”

“Well, I went by the arcade but he wasn’t there.” Cole explains awkwardly, and then he looks at Kai. “I figured you had picked him up on your way back.”

“Sensei, we have not seen him.” Zane cuts in, ending the input of any more useless accusations.

Wu looks faint and pale, stroking his beard with worry. “We must find the boy.”

Urged along by Wu, the ninja rush to get dressed and look for Lloyd. Nya feels a stab of shame in her heart, even though she had dropped him off at a safe place. She doesn’t really understand how he could’ve gotten lost.

“Lloyd?” She calls as she enters the arcade, earning only a glare from the teenage cashier. Besides him, the arcade is empty of any blonde children, so Nya regroups with her team outside. “Nothing?”

“There’s security cameras in the alleyway.” Cole says, pointing to show her the camera nestled on the corner of the building. The red light suddenly goes out, signalling a pause in recording. She looks down the alleyway in question, noticing the suspiciously child-shaped footprints. “Zane’s checking them as we speak.”

“Lloyd was captured buying a Serpentine disguise.” Zane says as he walks back up to them from a neighbouring building. He gestures to the footprints that Nya had just been examining. “And exiting the alleyway through here. But they come to an end. Why?”

“Guys, I’ve got a lead out in the desert.” Kai’s voice crackles in through their earpieces, sounding slightly hushed and panicked. The information only slightly helps them. The street that Lloyd disappeared on leads out of the city towards the desert, and since there were no snake sightings in the city itself, there was only one logical way to go. “A place called Ouroboros.”

“We’re on it.” Cole says as they each summon their weapons into their vehicles. Nya leads them on her bike out of the city and towards the desert. She can hear the roar of the other engines as the dust kicks up around them, and wonders just what Lloyd had gotten himself into. He had been with the Serpentine for the entire night - there was no telling what state he could be in.

“What is that place?” They come up on an odd circle of sandstone that Nya is certain hadn’t been there a week ago. Up close, Nya can see the backs of Serpentine heads at the top of the sandstone. Bleachers? Jay whistles through their teeth as they ditch their vehicles and continue on foot. “Looks like snake city.”

They take off at a run towards said snake city, leaping up on one of the empty bleachers, keeping to the air in order to avoid detection from the guards stationed at every entrance. They jump down to peer one of the gaps in the sandstone brick, peering into the bowl of the makeshift stadium. At one end is a massive statue of a snake that Nya takes notice of immediately. She points it out, whispering to the others, “The Great Devourer?”

“It looks like they’re worshiping it.” Jay chimes in. 

“It seems that Pythor has successfully united the five tribes.” Zane’s observation is correct, based on the mixed population of Serpentine in the bleachers. Cole leans over a little, taking in the huge crowds. “I know we busted their last get-together, but I’m a little hurt that we didn’t get an invitation.”

“Look, there’s Lloyd.” The boy in question is strung up in a huge bird cage, which is just big enough to hold him when he stands. He leans against the bars miserable, hands held loosely around the locked cage. “Let’s get him and go!”

Nya leads them into the arena at a run, but stumbles back when iron bars suddenly close around her path. When she whips around, she finds that her team has been captured in a larger version of Lloyd’s cage. When her Sword is wrenched from her hands through the bars, she makes eye contact with Lloyd through the bars of the two cages, and sees him visibly gulp in his fear.

“Well, well, well.” A sickly voice draws her attention to a very familiar, very large purple snake. His long neck brings his red eyes down to glare into hers, and Nya tries to stab her fingers into his eyes. He catches her hand through the bars and tuts at her. “It looks like we’ve caught the main event.”

Pythor laughs as he yanks her arm up, as if she had just won a wrestling match and he was declaring her the victor. The gesture yanks her off her feet, bringing the rest of her buddy uncomfortably flush to the bars. The jeers and hisses from the crowd rain down on them as Pythor throws Nya to the ground inside the cage.

“Are you okay?” Jay asks as he helps her to her feet on the inside of the cage. She nods, ignoring the dull ache in her shoulder as she shakes out her arm. “What does he mean by ‘main event?’” 

“I have a feeling that's us.” Nya watches as Pythor slithers away from them, raising his arms to the crowd and inspiring more cheering. Snake servants come and collect the Golden Weapons from where they lay just out of reach, taking them and dumping them at the base of the Great Devourer statue.

“Or the main course.” Cole is staring at the gated den just across from them, shrouded in darkness and mystery. Nya struggles as the cage suddenly disappears and she’s grabbed by two Serpentine, thrashing around.

She and the other ninja are shoved forward by armed guards, and directed into the centre of the swirling pattern on the arena floor. Nya is pushed over and stumbles over her feet, landing in a heap on the ground. When she looks to the side, she finds the rest of her team in a similar state. The guards flee the area, leaving to stand guard at the entrances instead.

“Well, the Rōnin could still come and save us!” Jay says desperately as they stand back to back. The boys cover her blindspots while Nya is left facing down Pythor directly, stationed underneath the Great Devourer and next to where Lloyd is caged.

However, that means that she doesn’t see their opponent in this gladiator battle. She only knows that they have one by the cheers from the crowd, and the growing smile of Pythor’s face as he speaks.

“You say you wanted a battle,” Pythor begins with a wicked smile, spreading his arms out in a falsely welcoming gesture. “Well, I'll give you one! Ninja versus Rōnin!”

Nya breaks formation to whip around, locating the man in question through the gaps in her teammates heads. His hulking, armoured figure is restrained in chains, which suddenly drop around his feet. He doesn’t seem affected, simply pulling the spear from its back on his back.

“What?! We have to fight the Rōnin?!” Jay is shrieking in her ear, cowering back from the figures. Nya steps back from their opponent, getting closer to Pythor in her haste to escape this battle. She’s fought an even match against this guy and stood no chance - fighting him unarmed was a death sentence. “But we don’t have our weapons and he has a whole arsenal! That’s not fair.”

“I want to see who the greatest hero is!” Pythor is continuing, voice dripping with sickly sweet satisfaction. “Is it Rōnin, or ninja? Only the victor will be allowed to leave.”

“Okay, we can do this. He’s just one man.” Nya urges as the boys back up to sand with her. The Rōnin twirls his curved spear around his body menacingly, but doesn’t yet advance. Zane takes his hesitancy as a good sign. “Perhaps he can join in our efforts to fight our way. After all, he hates the Serpentine, too.”

The Rōnin slams the butt of his staff into the ground, and quicker than lightning, throws a shuriken directly at Zane’s head. He’s forced to hit the ground, dodging his own weapon of expertise. Another flies towards Jay, but he too is able to dodge in the nick of time.

“Scratch that.” Cole says as he flips away from the Rōnin’s target, with Nya quick to follow him. The Rōnin abandons the long-ranged attacks, twirling the staff and sending the butt of it straight into Cole’s stomach as he tries to get closer. “He is not on our team!”

“Tornado of Creation?” Zane offers feebly as he handsprings out of the way of a swooping attack from the Rōnin’s curved spear. Nya gets on board quickly, leaping to be closer to the team as Cole twists into his Spinjitzu. Nya soon follows.

The dirt brown and fire red tornados are quickly joined by snow white and electric blue, swirling together to form the Tornado of Creation. It’s just as dizzying as the first time, though this time, Nya is prepared for the pure white lighting taking over her vision.

She can see the snakes watching in awe, as well as the Rōnin string up at the Tornado without an ounce of expression. He simply attaches the spear back onto his back, between the two swords.

They use the material the tornado sucks in to fashion a large slingshot, with a curved boomerang as its ammunition. As they come out of the Tornado, they pull back the boomerang-like ammunition, sending it straight into the Rōnin across the arena.

The Rōnin jumps out of the way, but the boomerang slams into the bleacher behind him. It bounces off and ricochets off of the other bleachers, before it slams into his side, sending him tumbling to the ground.

“Now’s our chance!” Nya calls to her team, sprinting towards the nearest exit. However, just a few feet from the arching doorway, a series of spikes shoot up from the ground, stopping her short. They’re taller than her head, too high to jump over, and placed too closely to squeeze through.

“Why can’t anyone play fair!” Jay yells as he stops beside her, turning to glare scathingly at Pythor. His anger is only rewarded with the snake pressing a lever, and the entire area tilts. Nya nearly falls off the edge into the endless abyss below, and it’s only Jay suddenly grabbing her that keeps her in the arena.

“I think you jinxed us!” Nya scrambles, reaching past Jay to grab onto one of the protruding spikes. Above her, she can see the Rōnin start to slip. He tumbles down the tilting ground, unsheathing one of his katanas. He just manages to drive it into the ground, holding on tightly to the handle as it’s dragged through the dirt.

“Can this get any worse?” Cole laments above her, where he and Zane are just barely holding on to the spikes. The arena jolts, sending them flying again. Jay lets out a yelp as Zane grabs onto his wrist, while Cole lands on the other side of the Rōnin.

“I need you to trust me.” The Rōnin’s rough, modulated voice cuts through the rush of adrenaline and the roar of the crowd. Nya recoils, almost letting go of her spike in her deep reluctance to trust their mysterious nemesis.

“And why the hell would we do that?” Cole demands angrily, easily holding himself up on the spike. He could probably outlast them all if needed.

“Do you have another way out of this?” No one volunteers any ideas when the Rōnin pauses, inspiring him to continue. “Because if not, we’re all falling into that gaping hole below us.”

“...What have you got?” Nya reluctantly asks, to the outrage of Jay. However, he’s a little too focused on keeping him and Zane from falling to say much about anything.

Nya startles when the Rōnin suddenly unbuckles his outer armour, revealing a dark red gi similar to her own. The lack of bulky armour really cuts down on his size, and it makes Nya wonder just how old their adversary is. She startles even more when he tosses the armour over her on handedly, still clinging to the handle of his katana with his other hand.

“What are you doing?” Nya asks as her grip on the spike loosens. The armour is heavy and it weighs her down, tiring her arm much quicker than before. The man doesn’t respond, simply securing the straps of the armour around her. 

“Hold onto the armour!” The garbled voice demands, looking at the rest of her teammates. Surprisingly, they listen, moving from their own spikes to hanging off of her. The Rōnin also grabs on to her, and flips a switch at the front of the armour.

“Woah!” The armour kicks to life against her back, and she can hear the telltale whirring of repulsors. The jetpack whips them away from the tilted battlefield, up into the air and over the stands full of snakes. Just when she thinks they’re able to get away free, the jetpack stutters and halts, leaving them floating in midair.

The Rōnin looks down at the raging crowd below, and then back up at the ninja. He seems to calculate something in his head, before reaching to flip another switch. The thrusters on the jetpack kick up again, taking them a little higher. With nothing else to do, the Rōnin lets go of his own armour, dropping down onto the stands below. 

“I can’t believe he just saved us!” Cole yells over the rush of the wind as they get farther and farther away from Ouroboros. Distantly, Nya can see the Rōnin leap from the bleachers to pull his katana out of the ground, simultaneously unsheathing his other sword. Nya just has to hope that he’ll be alright, because the jetpack starts going haywire.

“I hate that Rōnin!” Jay shrieks as the jetpack starts to fail, taking them in wild circles above the dusty desert sand. Nya fails to suppress her own shriek as they rise higher in the air, instead of plummeting toward the ground. Nya isn’t afraid of heights, but they have absolutely no control over the malfunctioning device. “How do we land this thing?”

Nya can hardly hear her teammates screams over the rush of wind in her ears, but she certainly feels when they let go of the armour. The flight path gets even crazier, taking her far away from where her teammates have landed, and closer to the city of seething snakes.

She hits the ground hard, headfirst into the sand. The armour bunches around her neck, briefly strangling her until she’s able to sit up and relieve the pressure on the armour. It sits awkwardly on her, and in her haste to get it off, she doesn’t notice the arrival of a bus on the road in the distant horizon.

She undoes the straps of the heavy armour and it piles up in her lap. She throws it away from her and lies down with a huff, taking a minute to just appreciate the solid ground underneath her. In a minute she will have to get up, find her friends, and try to find their way back to the Bounty. Further than that, they’ll need to figure out how to save Lloyd from the Serpentine. Nya shudders at the mental image of him cooped up in that cage.

Nya closes her eyes and just breathes for a long minute, and jolts out of her skin when the blunt end of a spear jabs into her side. It doesn’t hurt through the body armour, but it does scare her. She sits up and reaches for her Sword, only to remember that the snakes had taken it. She raises her fists instead, but is met with the image of a very unimpressed Rōnin.

Her fists are shoved to the side by the shaft of the curved spear, and Nya abruptly realises the extreme disadvantage she’s at. The Rōnin stands over her wielding his curved spear, his swords strapped to his back, and Nya can spot his shurikens and his sharpened fan folded into a pocket of his gi. He has a large bundle of red cloth folded under his free arm.

She scrambles to get to her feet and tries to fight, but the Rōnin refuses to engage with her, simply stepping away from any punches she throws. A garbled sound comes out of the voice modifiers, and Nya rushes to use her vambraces, only to find them busted up from the fall.

“What do you want from me?” Nya grabs the discarded armour, intending to use it as a barrier or a bargaining chip. The Rōnin tilts his head at her, and the garbled, staticky sound happens again. He lifts his arm but hesitates, before pulling the helmet off of his head.

“Kai?!” Nya stares incredulously at her brother as he drops his spear and his helmet to the sand below them. He gives her a half smile, and Nya notices the odd angle to his stance, as if his side was bruised. “Hey, sis.”

“You’re the Rōnin?!” Nya demands, waiting for the puzzle pieces to click together in her head. But there are some things that just don’t fit into the picture, no matter how she looks at it. “I thought you didn’t want to be part of the team.”

“Being a ninja would be cool,” Kai admits. “But I think the Rōnin suits me better. You know I don’t take orders from anyone.” 

Okay, point to Kai. He never had been a good team player, always too caught up in his impulses. He preferred to act first and explain later, a trait the Nya figured suited an independent samurai just finely. 

As Nya examined the armour and weapons, she cursed herself for not seeing it before. The helmet alone was almost identical to the hundreds of helmets fashioned by Kai himself, and she bet that if she looked on the inner dome, it would proudly bear the Forge’s stamp. Even the blades had Kai’s hand written all over them - made all the more obvious by the hundreds of training blades on the Bounty.

Still, there was the matter of the jetpack and the voice changer. “Were you writing letters to yourself? And where did you get all the tech?”

“Eh, I know a guy. Trade?” Kai asks with a shrug, holding up the red wrapping. Nya reaches to lift the wrapping, revealing the four Golden Weapons. Nya lifts the armour and hands it over to him. He accepts it gratefully, and drops the Weapons at her feet so that he can slip the armour back on over his gi.

Nya bundles the Golden Weapons back into the wrapping and settles them in her arms. Something dawns on her as Kai secures his weapons back in place over the armour.

“Have you just been doing this to protect me?” The realization angers her. She’s more than capable of protecting herself, and she’s proved it tenfold. She knows that Kai is protective, but he had told her that he trusted her. The images of him in the swamp, the forest, and at the amusement park, going out of his way to try and protect her, truly annoys her.

“I know you can take care of yourself, really. I’ve accepted that.” Kai cuts off her angry spiral. He puts a hand on her shoulder, ducking a little to look her in the eyes, despite her bowed head. Something about the action makes her ache with nostalgia, and she gives him a small smile. “But a guy worries, you know? And you aren’t the only one who needs my help.”

Nya takes a minute to consider that, and finds that he’s right. Both instances of him ‘protecting her’ were really his efforts to protect others. Even in the swamp when he handled her with particular care.

“And if I can be brave enough to jump into battle to protect people from evil? Innocent, defenseless people?” Kai raises the helmet in one hand. He shakes it for emphasis, brows creasing, before dropping it again. “Then what’s stopping me?”

His explanation twists something deep in her heart, and foolishly, she feels a little choked up. For her entire life, Kai has been a protector. Her protector. She supposes it’s only natural for that to redirect to others now that she doesn’t need it anymore. Like Lloyd.

“Well, that’s very virtuous of you. It makes me feel a little silly.” Nya admits after a pause, punching his shoulder lightheartedly. He smiles at her own explanation. “I just wanted to be a cool ninja.”

“Well, you are a pretty cool ninja.” Kai allows with a grin. He ruffles her hair roughly, now that they’ve moved away from such a serious, heartfelt moment. “Maybe not the Green Ninja, but a cool one, at least.”

“The bet!” Nya remembers suddenly, standing straight up. This will be the final bit of proof she needs for the others to finally admit that she’s the Green Ninja. Not that she needs to prove the truth, but revealing the Rōnin’s identity will satisfy some of the shame for not seeing it sooner, especially with all the evidence directly in her face. “The one who catches you will be the Green Ninja! I have to-”

“But you didn’t catch me, did you?” Kai cuts into her ramble teasingly. However, behind the quirk of his smile, Nya can spot the underlying truth in his words. After all, he had kept this a secret from them - had gone to extreme lengths to keep this secret. For whatever reason, this mattered to him more than he said that it did. 

“...I guess I didn’t.” She said reluctantly, scratching the side of her nose. Kai grinned wider, more genuinely, at her reaction, which tells her that, though it hurts a little, she’s making the right decision.

“Thanks, Nya.” His smile flattens into something more serious. “Look, you’ve got to get back to the boys. The sooner we can get back to rescuing Lloyd, the better.”

“You’re right.” Nya suppresses the pang of guilt at his words. Lloyd’s capture felt like it was entirely her fault. And, though she knows Kai doesn’t blame her, she feels even more guilty because Kai had trusted her with the kid’s safety. “I should go before they get suspicious.”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you back at the Bounty.” Kai pulls his helmet over his wild hair, cutting off any further interaction. Nya turned to leave, ready to get back, but…

“Be safe, okay? You don’t have to do everything on your own.”

“Promise.” He says with his voice modulated before flipping the switch on the jetpack. However, the engine only sputters, failing to lift him off the ground. Nya turns, beginning her trek back to the boys, and stifling her laughter at Kai’s incensed muttering. “Piece o’ junk. Knew I shouldn’t have trusted that conniving little…”

Nya heads back out into the desert, heading towards the distant sound of the boys calling her name. They seem to break into an argument just before she crests the top of a sand dune. Once they spot her, they break off into cheers, rushing to meet her.

“Nya! You’re okay!” Jay says, bringing her into a brief hug, before he is quickly distracted by the Golden Weapons. He pulls back the wrapping and grabs his Nunchucks from the pile. He looks so happy that Nya wouldn’t be surprised if he literally kissed them. “Hey, our weapons!”

“How’d you get these?” Cole asks as he joins them, followed shortly by Zane. They each take their weapons and Nya slips her Sword back into its sheath. She folds the wrap under her arm, and turns to Jay.

“If Jay gives us a ride in the Glider, then I’ll explain when we get back.” Jay rushes to comply, and when they file in, Nya can tell he’s changed the interior to be bigger. It’s hardly a squeeze to fit them all in, and Jay takes off towards the Bounty.

When the Glider disappears and they roll out onto the Bounty’s deck, Nya wastes no time in going off to get changed. Once in her pajamas, she goes to the boys’ room to debrief the latter half of the mission. On the way, she crosses paths with her brother, who ruffles her hair and follows her lead into the boys’ room.

She leans on their doorframe, with Kai sitting on his old bed, and they watch as the other boys brush their teeth and wait until they notice her. Cole glances over her before spitting into the sink and rinsing his mouth and toothbrush. “So?”

“I landed near the Rōnin, and he was all mysterious.” Nya begins lamely, trying to make the story convincing but uninteresting. “He traded the jetpack for the Golden Weapons, and then he was just gone.”

“What, like poof?” Cole flares his hands out in a ‘poofing’ motion, leaning forward where he now sits on his bed. “He just poofed?”

“Yeah, hang on, Nya.” Jay adds from where he’s starfished out on his own bed. “If the Rōnin had the most powerful weapons in all of Ninjago in his grasp, why would he just give them back to you?”

“He didn’t,” Zane cuts in, tucked primly into his pristine bedcovers. “He traded them to get his armour back.”

“Well, yes.” Nya admits with a tilt of her head. “But maybe he’s not so bad. We owe him our lives - and maybe he’s made us a little better, too.”

“I sense that means that the bet is off.” Zane rolls over in bed to face her completely, adjusting his covers as he does so. Nya’s attention is drawn from him to Wu as he approaches the room from down the hallway. She shifts a little so that he has a better view into the room.

“More importantly, my nephew has found his way into the den of all snakes.” Wu says mournfully, stroking his beard. “I fear there may be no way of rescuing him now.”

“I’m sorry, Sensei. We couldn’t save Lloyd today.” Nya admits with a bowed head. However, Kai slides off his old bunk to stand with her, saying, “But there’s always a way.”

“And don’t worry,” Cole adds. “We’ll find it.” 

With that, Wu and the siblings leave the boys’ room, sliding the door shut behind them. They walk together down the hall towards their rooms, with Nya breaking off first. She bids the two a goodnight and disappears into her room, leaving her door open by just a crack.

Through the door, she can hear the quiet exchange between Wu and her brother.

“I believe you forgot this.” Wu says, accompanied by the distinct sound of a hand fan opening. The sound rings out again as it closes, and there’s a long moment of silence before Wu continues, “As iron sharpens iron, sibling sharpens sibling.”

Nya listens to Wu’s foot falls as he disappears farther down the hallway, followed by the quiet click of Kai’s door closes. Nya smiles to herself as she fully shuts her own door and tucks herself into bed.

That night as she goes to sleep, she ponders the issue of Lloyd and just how they can save him. She’s motivated even more by her guilt, and how personally she’s connected to this particular loss.

She vows to do whatever it takes to bring him home safely.

Notes:

If anyone cares, Kai's under-armour outfit is just his ZX gi, and Nya's gi is a modified version of her non-canon ZX gi
Little Lloyd is so precious to me
RGB siblings are also so precious to me ToT
And I went with Rōnin for Samurai Kai for a reason

Chapter 7: Tick Tock

Nya is slow to rise the next morning, exhausted from the chaos of uncovering the Rōnin’s identity and losing Lloyd to the Serpentine. Sunlight streams in through her window and rouses her gently, though she is very unwilling to get up. She tosses and turns for a while before she accepts defeat and leaves the comforting confines of her comforter.

She gets dressed slowly, fatigued from the lack of sleep the day before, feeling less than her best for the first time in a while. Nya hates to admit it, but the ninja are fragile after so many perceived losses. They have elected to ignore the Serpentine for the time being, letting them peacefully exist in the not so lost city of Ouroboros.

Instead, they’re focusing on bettering themselves in pursuit of what Wu calls their ‘True Potential.’ He insists that there’s more to their powers than the base level understanding that they each have, though Nya isn’t sure how exactly she can improve. Despite their recent losses, the ninja have been performing better than ever as individuals.

She takes her time to get dressed, taking full advantage of the lack of alarms going off and nagging brothers. She brushes out and tries to plait her hair, though it doesn’t hold up for very long. She settles for tucking the side bangs behind her ears, and sets off to find the others. All of the bedrooms and halls are empty, so she quickly climbs the steps and heads outside on the Bounty’s deck.

“Morning Nya,” Jay greets her as she comes out onto the deck, turning around to face her and leaning backwards against the railing. He has a stopwatch in his hand, thumb held far away from the ‘stop’ button to avoid pressing it. “You’re usually up before us. Are you feeling okay?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Nya yawns as she walks over to greet them. Cole glances at her as she comes to stand beside him before he returns to peering at the water below. When Nya leans to see what he’s looking at, she’s unsurprised to see a flash of white deep below the clear blue water. “I see Zane is testing himself again. How’s he doing?”

“He’s only just getting started, got a long way to go.” Jay tilts the timer so that she can see it, set at 2 and a half minutes. For the average person, it would be a fairly good time, but for Zane, it's a piece of cake. He’ll be under there for at least another six minutes, getting closer to eight - he’s practically inhuman. “Though technically, we’re testing him.”

Nya will give him that. They watch the calm surface of the gentle waves for a long moment, looking for the odd bubble that tells them Zane is still alive down there. She doesn’t take long before she pushes away from the railing with a sigh. “Have either of you seen Kai? He wasn’t in his room.”

Nya doesn’t have to explain why that’s unusual - he hardly leaves his room when they’re settled in the water, or at least not without a good reason.

“I saw him this morning, he’s up in the bridge.” Cole supplies, looking up to the large porthole window that looks into the wheelhouse. From this angle, they can’t really see anything inside except the top of the main screen and the porthole window on the opposite wall. Then, Cole makes a wide, sweeping gesture towards the entirety of the ship and its surroundings. “He looked pretty rattled, but what else is new?”

“Yeah, he hasn’t been doing well.” She trails off, thinking of the brutal hits he took yesterday, both physical and mental. Nya knows without his saying that he’s been blaming himself for Lloyd’s capture, and more so for his failure to save the kid. She starts off towards the stairs leading up to the bridge, calling over her shoulder, “Thanks!”

She walks in on light, quiet feet, observing the state of the room with a scrutinizing eye. The screens are all lit up with maps of Ninjago and screen captures of various Serpentine. Kai is sitting on the floor in the middle of a pile of books, both open and not. He looks like he’s struggling to stay upright, despite his laser focus on his frenzied research.

“Hey, Kai.” He startles harshly at her words and finally looks away from the screens, whipping around to face her. His hand goes to his bare ankle, as if reaching for a concealed knife, but comes up empty.  He’s dressed in his pajamas, but it doesn’t look like he even went to bed last night. His undereyes are so dark that they look bruised, and Nya isn’t sure if it’s due to the water below them or the subject of his research. 

“Oh.” His aggressive defensive stance softens when he registers her, sagging back with a sigh. His hand falls to the wooden floor beneath him, empty. “Hey, sis.”

“Are you doing okay?” Nya asks as she walks over to do a mental scan for any major injuries that Kai may be hiding. She can’t see anything, but the way he’s leaning off of one side tells her that the ninja’s boomerang from the battle at Ouroboros did more damage than he owned up to. She reaches to look more closely at his face and eyes, but he bats her away with a scowl. “You look awful.”

“I’m fine, Nya.” He ducks away from her hand again, and he’s clearly coordinated enough to escape, so she lets it go. To his credit, he has that helmet anyway, so he probably doesn’t have a head injury. 

“Would you even tell me if you weren’t?” Nya’s question makes him falter, glancing off to the side as he busies himself with one of the many books around him. A paper map of Ninjago pokes out from underneath several of the books, with several key locations circled. Nya can see the Serpentine tombs, Ed and Edna’s junkyard, and the city of Ouroboros.

“ Fine . I feel awful.” He says, running a hand through already messy hair. Nya glances at the several recent snake sightings across the city, though none serious enough to alert the ninja. Each screen capture only has one or two snakes, sneaking in the shadows to avoid detection, rather than the intrusive attacks they usually see. Kai sighs loudly as he switches the main screen to an image of Ouroboros. “The snakes are being pretty discreet. I figure that they haven’t found any Fangblades either.”

Right. The mystical Serpentine blades were said to be the key to releasing the Great Devourer, Pythor’s newest goal. So far, the ninja haven’t been able to find any traces besides Wu’s stories, neither in any books nor word of mouth. It was ass if the myth didn’t even exist.

“Let me help.” Nya insists, sitting down beside her brother and taking up one of the books into her lap. Kai shakes his head, pressing a ‘play’ button on the screen that Nya hadn’t noticed before. Ouroboros comes to life before their eyes, bustling with snakes in and around the arena. Nya isn’t quite sure how they got access to this feed, but she decides not to think about it. “Watching over Lloyd?”

“That’s just it.” Kai manually zooms into Pythor’s platform at the base of the Great Devourer’s giant stone statue. It takes Nya a moment to find the discrepancy, but eventually she clues in. The large bird-like cage that once held Lloyd wasn’t just empty, it isn’t even there. “He’s missing. Along with about half of the snakes.”

“He must be somewhere. Are you sure they haven’t just moved him?” Kai winds back the footage to the very beginning of the recording, catching the brim of a red straw hat for a split second before the camera focuses. However, Lloyd has been missing since the beginning of the tape and there’s virtually no evidence of his presence. “Well, moving him makes sense. They know that we know Lloyd was there. And he is a bit of a flight risk.”

“Exactly. To the kid’s credit, he is very weaselly.” She supposes that he would know, considering how much time he’s spent with Lloyd since he’d fallen into their care, training and otherwise. “I would go after him myself, but…”

He trails off and Nya thinks of the malfunctioning jetpack from the night before. He lays back on the floor, kicking his legs out and covering his face with his hands. He’s clearly in no state to do anything Rōnin-related. 

“We’ll find him.” Nya reassures, to which he nods. He picks up one of the books that lies on the floor just out of her reach, and shows him an odd symbol. Nya has never seen it in any Ninjago folklore, and she doesn’t recognise the serpent-like shape. “What’s that?”

“It’s an Ouroboros.” Kai explains, flipping the page so that she can read the book’s description. She skims it, taking note of the very familiar name, and waves her hand for him to continue. “A symbol of life, death, and rebirth.”

There’s an odd note in his voice, something full of worry and caution that Nya can’t find a cause for. Nya continues his train of thought, though only the part she understands. “So the City was named for the symbol. Interesting.”

“It makes me wonder about the City’s true purpose.” Kai says, sighing and closing the book. He puts it on the top of an existing stack, with other books about non-Ninjagonian myth. It is curious that the Serpentine would take inspiration from other cultures. “I get the feeling that it’s about more than the unification of the Serpentine tribes.”

“Well, whatever it is, we’ll take care of it.” Kai only nods at her words, still looking a little green around the gills. Despite the weeks they’ve lived on the Destiny’s Bounty, he still hasn’t managed to shake his fear of the water. They sit there for a long, quiet moment while Nya just listens to the sounds of the waves, and feels the lulling crash of them on the Bounty’s hull.

“I hate this stupid boat.” Kai says finally as he pushes himself to sit back up, face pale. Nya wonders how unethical it would be to slip him some sleeping tea and force him to take a break. It would give him some reprieve from the anxiety surrounding the Serpentine and from his constant fear of the surrounding water.

At that moment, the Bounty’s old landline phone rings shrilly, and Kai gets to his feet on shaking legs, rushing to answer it. As he picks it up, he twirls the cord in his fingers and makes a very constipated face.

“Well, well,” He begins, voice dripping with annoyance and startling Nya. She watches his face carefully as he glances over at her and lowers his voice. He waves a hand at her, clearly shooing her away. She huffs, but does as he asks. “Yeah, about that deal. Whatever happened to your end of the bargain?”

Nya hesitates outside of the doorway, just out of her brother’s view, and contemplates the benefits of eavesdropping on his conversation. She waits for a long moment, but is rewarded only with a resigned “Will do,” and the sharp sound of the phone slamming down on the receiver.

She reaches the bottom of the stairs just in time to hear the telltale splash of Zane finally breaking the surface. The boys broke out into cheers as they reached down to pull him back onto the boat. Zane stumbled a little when Cole clapped him on the back in congratulations, though he was smiling widely.

“Ten minutes! We’re not worthy.” Jay is crowing as she crosses the deck with a grin, coming over to high-five Zane. He seems rather pleased with himself, and for good reason. Ten minutes underwater makes even Nya, who has always been a strong swimmer with a love of the ocean, balk.

“Amazing, Zane.” Cole says, laughing as Zane dodges another friendly pat on the back. His spindly form easily maneuvers around Cole’s hand, light on his feet. “You destroyed your old record!”

“We should get your brother down here to try it out.” Jay says, playfully nudging Nya with a glance towards the bridge. “See how he fares against Aquaman here.”

“Please,” Nya waves her hand at Jay, laughing at the idea. Kai could hardly even come out onto the deck when the Bounty was in the water. Nya thinks of his current state, and says, “The fear would kill him before he even touched the water.”

“Well, forget about him.” Jay says as he slings his arms around Cole and Nya’s shoulders. He tugs them to turn and face Zane, exaggerated by the difference in their height, with his arms being pulled to two different heights. “Is anyone thinking what I’m thinking? With all this training, I don’t think we can get any better! Just think about all that we’ve accomplished.”

Nya takes a second to consider his words, and can’t help but agree. She has mastered her control over fire to the point that hot coals couldn’t burn her bare feet, and even Wu has praised her extensive control over her Sword. When she thinks about the others, she finds that they measure up to her achievements quite well. It’s hard to image something they haven’t conquered already with ease.

“Well, the question should be raised. Perhaps we have reached our Full Potential.” Zane says as he takes the pocketwatch from Jay, glancing at it before it disappears inside his gi. He begins to walk towards Wu’s meditation room on the inside of the Bounty. As they go, Nya listens with deep amusement as they argue over who works out the most.

“Hey, I do a thousand push ups, too.” She cuts in as they slide open the shoji doors. Jay scowls at her for repeating his number, but Nya just flashes him a cheeky smile as she falls into step in front of him.

“What’s this, amateur hour? That sounds like my warm-up. Sensei, what does True Potential loo-” Cole cuts himself off, coming to a stop as they take sight of Wu. He’s in the process of sheathing an old katana, littered with scratches telling of many fights and spars. Cole bows in apology when Wu turns to face them, to which the others quickly follow.

“Aplogies, Sensei.” Zane says as they straighten up in unison. Wu frowns, though not at his pupils. He reaches down to place the wrapped katana inside a black rectangular case. “We’ve interrupted you.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve been distant lately. My mind has been elsewhere since Lloyd has gone missing.” Wu says with a sigh, turning to look out the rectangular window at the blue sky and its idyllic white clouds. “What can I help you with?”

“Sensei, after all the training we’ve done, don't you think we’re ready for something more?” Nya asks, tilting her head as she speaks. She shrugs a little, a hint of doubt entering her voice. “Something bigger?”

“What if we’ve done enough training?” Cole adds seriously, all former bravado gone. “What if we’ve reached our Full Potential? What if we’re ready ?”

Wu tuts at them, finally turning fully to face them with a hint of a smile on his face. He gestures to their gis and weapons, and looks between them all purposefully. “You may have reached peak physical condition, but your inner potential is still out of reach.”

“In all of us, there are obstacles that hold us back. Things deep in our hearts that we must overcome.” Wu says gravely, though a serene look crosses his face. He looks away from them, holding his hand over his own heart as if it pained him. “It is then, and only then that your heart will be free, and only then when you may reach your True Potential. ”

Nya considers her own faults, and finds herself frustratingly short. She has no obvious struggles, everything has always come easily to her. Even her ninja training only ever briefly stalled her. How will she ever overcome something that doesn’t exist? A sudden stab of anxiety pierces her stomach at the thought of being stuck like that, and she runs her finger over the edge of her vambrace distractedly.

Wu seems to snap out of his trace-like state, looking down sharply ast his katana. His voice becomes grave once more, though this time full of anger rather than reflection. “Then, we may have a fighting chance to stop the Serpentine from releasing the Great Devourer.”

“There is more to the Great Devourer than you’ve told us,” Zane asks as he steps up to Wu, placing an inquiring hand on his shoulder. “Isn’t there, Sensei?”

“I too have obstacles within my own heart.” After a long moment, Wu sighs and turns back away from them. Even though she can only see a sliver of his somber, regretful face. “There’s a story I never told you.”

“When we were young,” Wu begins solemnly, head bowed. “Garmadon and I were more than brothers. We were best friends.”

“Woah, best friends? I knew you were brothers but, really? The literal embodiment of evil,” Jay rants suddenly, causing Wu to look at him sharply. Though Nya understands his incredulity. It’s hard to believe that such polar opposites of the spectrum of morality could ever be friends. Especially since she’s seen them interact in the present day. “You were friends?”

“Yes, he did not always have a wicked heart.”

Wu continues his story with a fondly nostalgic tone. He tells them tales of brotherhood, of adventures and spars. He tells them of his brother’s cautionary saying, that one should never ‘put off until tomorrow what can be done today.’

Nya listens with a heavy heart as he details losing a katana, the one bundled up in the case right before them, and of how his brother was bit by the Great Devourer because of Wu’s own hesitance. It reminds Nya uncomfortably of her own brother.

How often had Kai stepped up to help her and fallen victim to a greater evil? Once, he even fell to Garmadon himself. He so often sacrificed parts of himself for her, just how Wu claims that Garmadon had once done the same for him. Nya tries to fathom a world where Kai had tried to protect her, only to be turned against her by the bite of a wicked, mythological snake. Suddenly, she’s a lot more sympathetic to Wu and his brother.

Wu tells more of how the evil venom infected his brother - how it turned his heart against his family and distorted his reality. Nya is stricken with the knowledge that Ninjago’s greatest evil had been borne by one bite, and even more so that the Serpentine sought out to revive the perpetrator of said bite.

“It is the snake that took my brother from me.” Wu finishes rather lamely, voice a horrible concoction of dozens of negative feelings that makes Nya’s head spin.

“And turned him into the Dark Lord.” Nya thinks that had she been in Wu’s position, she would probably never sleep well again.

“It was my fault.” Wu straightens then, shedding the miserable, mournful exterior in favour of the wise teacher they are all used to. “You now have finished your training. You must instead focus on keeping the Fangblades away from Pythor.”

He pauses, letting that information sink in before he continues. “But, never lose focus on the obstacles in your heart that block the path to greatness. Unlock your True Potential.”

“How are we supposed to do that, Sensei?” Zane asks feebly, uncertain about the sudden lack of guidance.

“It is up to each of you to discover.” Wu reaches down and closes the case, picking it up with gentle hands. He brings the case to carry at his side, gently pushing past the ninja to stand in the doorway of the room. He looks at them for a long moment before he sets off down the hallway, regret deep in his posture as he walks slowly. “Now, I must go on a personal journey of my own.”

“Where are you going?” Jay demands, a little helplessly, following him into the hallway.

“A place you cannot follow.” Wu halts in his tracks, but does not turn.

“If you’re going for Lloyd, the City of Ouroboros is filled with hundreds of Serpentine.” Cole adds,throwing his hands up indignantly and finally prompting Wu to face them once more. He smiles a little at his pupils and it's clear to Nya that he is still keeping secrets from them. She wonders just how many one man could ever have. “You’ll never make it alone.”

“I’m going to find someone who can be of aid. The united Serpentine have grown stronger and we will need all the help we can get.” With that, the man finally leaves them behind, leaving to the outside deck. Nya follows him after a moment, leaving the other ninja behind.

She catches up to their teacher on the stairs to the bridge, halting the old man with a hand around his arm. He pauses, surprising Nya, and turns to face her. She’s mindful of the case, narrowly missing smacking into her knees, stepping down another step and releasing Wu’s arm.

"What else troubles you?” Wu’s voice just barely covers up the annoyance that Nya knows is there, his face just carefully blank. She scans his face with narrowed eyes, searching for any cracks and fissures in his calm facade.

“You’re hiding something from us.” She doesn’t explain further, just watches as his face mellows into something more bittersweet, as though he expected her intervention. “What help are you going after?”

“You remind me much of myself in my youth, Nya.” Wu looks out over the horizon, clouds slowly overtaking the vast expanse of sky blue. Nya suppresses the flinch at that, only thinking of the man’s flaws. Well, maybe it can help her find her own faults. “And I believe you’ll understand who I’m searching for, and why.”

“Your brother is a good man.” Wu adds, and despite her initial outrage, understanding dawns on her abruptly. She stares at Wu in disbelief, eyes wide and mouth agape. There’s no way. He can’t be doing what Nya thinks he is. “He shares many things with my brother.”

Nya recoils a little, making Wu laugh. He totally is. He’s going to recruit Evil Incarnate to help defeat the Serpentine. “He was a good man, and a better brother. Before, at least.” He looks away, turning to start back up the steps, a new sense of lightness filling his being. Nya follows close behind him, but does not say anything. “Though I doubt Kai would appreciate hearing that.”

“I don’t think he would.” Nya agrees as they enter the bridge together. Kai looks up from his place on the floor, seeming unsurprised to see them. The screens no longer display Serpentine sightings, instead showing a system of underground tunnels under Ninjago. “I wouldn’t either.”

“What’s going on?” Kai asks, closing his book gently and unsubtly eyeing Wu’s case. Wu walks over to meet him, looking over the maze of maps and books scattered around the bridge. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yes. I’m seeking help with our Serpentine problem. I fear we may not face them alone.” He looks around, an impressed expression crossing his face. “I see that you are searching for my nephew?”

“Without much luck.” Kai says miserably, getting shakily to his feet. “Where are we going now?”

“A mountain at the top of the world.” Wu doesn’t expand, simply taking over the navigation system. He bypasses any labelled destinations, inputting in a literal set of coordination and pressing the autopilot button. Nya feels the repulsors firing up and they gradually lift from the water. “I must take this journey alone.”

Kai exchanges a look with Nya around Wu’s back, but Nya can only shrug. “But Sensei-”

“We all have obstacles that we cannot accept help with.” Wu cuts him off gently, walking towards the opened door. With a final remark, he steps out of the bridge and disappears down the steps. “This is mine.”

Nya wants to follow him to interrogate him further , but knows that she will only hinder his state of mind, and potentially his personal mission. She chews around his recent words, considering the parallels that he drew between his brother and hers. It’s an odd thing, to hear that her family is just like theirs, the thing of mythos.

“Well, I hope he finds what he’s looking for.” Kai shrugs and turns back to the underground systems, including the sewers and the subway system, which Nya is very familiar with. She watches their teacher through the porthole window as he stares out across the horizon, oblivious to the world around him as the wind rustles his beard.

It takes the Bounty a long while to reach Wu’s destination, but when Nya disengages autopilot and lowers the ship onto the rocky surface, the sky is still blue with daylight. The ninja gather around the gate as Wu wordlessly steps off the deck and onto the mountain.

He smiles at them once before heading off down the mountain, disappearing into the fog. The team stays there until he’s completely covered in the white cloud, with Jay waving with one hand. Once he’s gone, they head into the bridge for takeoff.

“That was a lot sadder than I expected.” Jay mutters as he collapses at the table and Nya prepares the ship for takeoff. Kai is moving all of his books into one corner, and the screens have returned to the Serpentine sightings. His complexion is much clearer and his stance sturdier. “I miss him already.”

“He will return to us soon, Jay.” Zane reassures with a hand on his shoulder. “Do not worry.”

“And when he does, we’ll be stronger than ever.” Cole’s conviction is inspiring as he pumps a clenched fist. Nya smiles at the enthusiasm. “Those Serpentine won’t know what hit ‘em.”

“In the meantime, let’s see if we can’t narrow down anything about the Fangblades.” Nya says, grabbing one of Kai’s books from his arms as she walks by. The Bounty takes off again, course set to Jamanukai Village in hopes that a place with such a rich Serpentine history may have some clues.

 

***

 

Nya sighs as she hangs up another poster plastered with the image of a fang blade on a shop on the outskirts of Jamanuaki Village. The Bounty’s phone number is written across the bottom with ‘Missing’ emblazoned in red across the top. It’s a desperate resort - the Fangblades are incredibly rare, and unlikely to just be sitting on someone’s mantle. Still, any kind of lead would help them out immensely, especially since they don’t have access to the map.

“Oh, this is silly.” Zane sighs, holding up one of the many posters from the top of his stack. His mask fails to disguise his displeasure, shining through in his voice and body language. He puts the paper back on the top and shuffles the whole pile back into its previously perfectly neat order.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Cole asks impatiently from where he leans against the building with crossed arms. He had freed himself from the duty of hanging up posters, as he had been the one to draw and carefully copy the posters. He too looks fed up with the particular route, but Nya figures that it can’t hurt them.

“Well, maybe Sensei is getting the Rōnin to help us!” Jay suggests, throwing a roll of sellotape up in the air from hand to hand. So far, he’s dropped the tape a total of four times, and twice has had to chase it when it began rolling down the town’s sloping streets. “I bet he could help us find the Fangblades.”

Nya suppresses a wince at his words. Now that she’s been clued into Wu’s actual intentions, the blind faith of her teammates make her cringe. Still, something in her won’t let her share the news, clinging to the hope that the lack of confirmation from Wu meant a lack of truth.

“I’d bet he’s busy with the Serpentine.” Kai counters Jay, examining his fingernails. His other hand is tucked into his armpit to fend off the cold. Nya knows that he has several weapons tucked into his casual clothes, as well as an alarm for any suspicious Serpentine activity. She’sstill not sure how he set that up on his own. “Or maybe he’s looking for Lloyd.”

“He might not want to get involved with us either.” Nya adds quickly, exchanging a look with her brother when she spots Jay’s eyebrows creasing. She would rather avoid an argument about the purity of the Rōnin’s intentions with the man’s supposed greatest hater. “He does seem like the ‘lone wolf’ type.”

“Something like that.” Kai agrees easily.

“Is everything alright?” Cole asks as he looks between the two siblings with raised eyebrows. It feels like Nya is about to be caught out in their secret. It’s as if their secret keeping ability had plummeted overnight.

“Yeah, yeah.” Kai says, waving his hand dismissively. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“One hundred percent.” Nya adds, unfortunately suspiciously, and internally winces. What happened to her masterful secrecy? She swears that she used to be better at this. Cole looks between them once more, slowly nodding disbelievingly. “Oookay.”

At some point during their conversation, Zane had wandered off away from the group. He’s staring out at the frozen wasteland that lies past the outskirts of the village, a sea of white snow and blue skies. 

“Maybe I should teach you a lesson in manners!” A shopkeeper is yelling at Zane, to absolutely no response. The fliers crunch under Zane’s feet as he wanders away, lying forgotten on the man’s storefront. Kai rushes to pick up Zane’s mess and soothe the man’s anger.

“I’m sorry, sir.” The man scowls down at Kai as he ducks down to collect the papers. The others come over and stand around as the man continues to complain. “Well, he’s littering all over the place.”

“We’ll pick it up, sorry.” Cole repeats, grabbing the last few papers as Kai straightens back up. He looks down at the papers and sighs at the smudged ink. Nya feels a little bad - he had spent a long time on those. The man wanders back into his shop, muttering about the youth of the modern day. Kai unabashedly sticks his tongue out at him as he leaves.

“I think you’d better catch up with Zane.” Kai nods after said ninja, who is in the process of disappearing into the snow, his white gi blending in with his surroundings. He takes the final papers from Cole, organizing back into a haphazard pile. “I’ll take care of these.”

“Zane, what’s the deal?” Jay calls, running after Zane and grabbing his arm once he catches up. Zane wordlessly points up to the sky, where his Falcon is flying overhead. Nya is momentarily captivated by its beauty, swooping through the air as it sings its crooning call. “The Falcon! Every time we follow it, it leads us to good fortune.”

A sudden muffled beeping fills the air, coming from a small device clipped to Kai’s belt. He shifts the papers to lie under his arm, pulling the device out to read off of the screen. His face hardens as the beeping comes to a stop. 

“What’s all that about?” Cole asks, startling Kai out of his focus. He glances over his shoulder, back towards where the Bounty was parked, and sighs. Zane has already started to head off in pursuit of his bird, ignorant of his stagnant teammates.

“Just some snake sightings. I’ll head back to the Bounty while you guys follow the bird. Or maybe the Forge…” Kai doesn’t wait for a response as he turns on his heel and heads off down the cobbled streets, calling over his shoulder, “Maybe you’ll find the first Fangblade!”

Nya’s chest feels like it’s collapsing in on itself with an odd sort of anxiety. She resists the urge to tell him to be careful, mindful of Cole’s presence and the massive secret they’re keeping. Something about the situation mixed with Kai’s impulsivity and his recent bond with the kid is setting off warning signs.

“You ever get the feeling that he’s hiding something?” Cole asks as they finally set off after the other half of their team. Jay is a distant but reachable blur of blue, while Zane and his light complexion is completely out of view. Nya scoffs.

“You don’t know the half of it.” Cole tips his head in assent as they pick up speed. They run in silence until they finally catch up to Jay, with Zane finally in sight up ahead. It’s a long way before she speaks again through bated breath. “Good fortune feels really far away.”

They continue onwards, lagging behind Zane and his inhuman pace through the harsh terrain. About thirty minutes into their hike, Jay had started up a game of ‘I Spy’ that Nya failed to shoot down despite the apparent fact that there was nothing to spy.

“I Spy something… Blue!” Jay pants, choosing the same colour for his third turn in a row. Nya rolls her eyes as Cole nearly trips on an icy bump in their path.

“If it’s your own gi again, I might have to kill you.” Cole says with a particularly nasty glance sideways. He had his permission to play revoked when he had chosen white, to both Nya and Jay’s outrage. Still, he was subjected to each of their turns when he couldn’t clear the not inconsiderable distance to Zane in time.

“Not if I beat you to it.” Nya mutters under her breath, though not quietly enough to be heard. Cole cackles at the betrayed look Jay sends her. “Let’s play something else.”

“How about the quiet game?” Cole suggests as they begin the hike across another snowy plain. They’re all huffing and puffing, Zane’s Falcon a blue of purplish-black against the blue sky and Zane himself disappearing against all the white snow. Nya glances back over her shoulder as Jay disappears completely from his peripheral view.

“You know what?” Ha says, stopping to stand still, Nya turns around and jogs backwards to face him. He sits down heavily against the only rock in view. He tilts his head back and pulls off the mask, coughing at his sudden intake of freezing air. He waves her off when she slows even more, saying, “Keep going… I’ll catch up.”

Nya looks at Cole up ahead, who has also slowed and looked over his shoulder. He shrugs and starts to pick up the pace again, and so Nya takes off after him. It takes her a few minutes to clear the gap between them, and from then on, they run in silence.

Their next sudden break comes sooner, and Cole is the next to drop off. He’s clearly exhausted from the long distance running, and he waves her away, just like Jay had. “I’ll meet up with you later, just… Don’t lose him.” 

With that, Nya takes a moment to breathe deeply, hands on her knees, before she takes off running again. She’s following the Falcon more than Zane as they enter the Birchwood Forest. Zane’s white gi with black highlights easily blends into the bark of the trees, especially with the way he’s dodging in and out of tree trunks.

“Man, you run fast.” Nya pants as Zane suddenly slows, meaning they’re abruptly running side by side, instead of the staggered positions they had been in before. Nya spots a sign nestled among the trees and fallen branches, sticking out of the snow in a distinctive brown colour, and sticks her chin in its direction. “Treehorn? Do you know what that is?”

“I’m not familiar.” Zane’s voice is far away as he looks around the forest in clear wonder. Following his eyeline, Nya understands why it’s affecting him so much. The forest is beautiful, especially swathed in the winter scene, though if she didn’t know any better, she would say that he seemed oddly nostalgic. His attention then snaps back to the Falcon and he moves like he’s going to run again.

“Uh, I’m going to wait for the others to come back.” Nya points her thumb over her shoulder sheepishly, to which Zane hardly notices. He barely glances at her and nods before he’s taking off deeper into the thicket.

Nya sits down heavily against the white birch bark of a tree, fatigued from the intense, constant running. She’s never been a fan of running, and her thighs are throbbing with the strain of it. She rips off her mask, feeling dizzy at the rush of cold air against her burning face.

It takes a long while for the other boys to catch up, and she’s almost fully recovered by the time two blue and black dots appear on the horizon. She gets to her feet, using the tree for leverage as they come up to her, dragging their feet through the snow.

“So much for ‘peak physical condition.’” Jay snarks as the three of them set off at a walk through the forest in the direction that Zane had gone. “What did we miss?”

“I’m sure you caught up on everything I’ve seen.” Nya says, nodding back to the path they had taken. Truthfully, nothing interesting has happened. The only deviation from the maze of trees was the sign warning of Treehorns and the slight indentation of Zane’s footprints. “I’m not sure about Zane though.”

They follow Zane’s winding path, until it becomes odd;y erratic. In fact, there is almost zero chance that Zane was alone based on the tracks. At the least, he had recrossed the area several times over, which only makes Nya cautious of his state of mind. But it’s only when she spots a deconstructed robot, which looks like it’s taken a beating, that she really begins to worry.

“Woah, what happened here?” Jay asks as he comes up to the robot, nudging it with his toe. The thing sizzles with electricity before it sparks, making them jump back. When nothing else happens, Cole comes over and, with a heave, flips the robot up onto its side to look at its front.

“Well, whatever started it, I think Zane won.” He’s staring at the front of the robot with the distinct scraps made by Shurikens. Nya has seen and even made those indent many times over, though never with that sort of force, when she’s grazed the side of a target.

“We better catch up to him.” Nya says worriedly, taking off after the next set of footprints in the snow. The footsteps are much closer than they had been before, suggesting that Zane had walked, and not ran. There’s also no blood nor dragging to suggest an injury, which settles Nya’s erratic heart a little bit.

They come to a large birch tree, with a trunk wider than the four ninja combined. A door is carved into the trunk in pale wood, marked with an odd symbol that Nya has never seen before. Said door is swung wide open, revealing a winding spiral staircase underground. The ninja exchange a look before Nya is overtaken by curiosity and dares to cross the doorway.

“Zane?” She calls, and is shocked at the echo that rattles around the small little burrow. She leads her team down the stairs until they reach the bottom, coming face to face with the ninja in question, sitting on the floor with his head on his knees. Nya can’t see any injuries, but his face is devastated. She’s never seen him look so lost. “Hey, are you okay?” 

She hears Jay and Cole ask similar questions, but focuses less on what they have to say and more on what Zane doesn’t. He gets to his feet and moves over to a workbench on the opposite side of the room, lifting up what looks like a blueprint of all things. He turns to them slowly, reverting to a blank expression. 

Nya nearly faints when he opens his stomach.

That is, until she registers the hard panel of his stomach, hiding away a series of dials, wires, and switches. Nya has to restrain herself from reaching into his stomach like a weirdo. She’s absolutely fascinated with his inner workings, and it distracts her so much that she momentarily forgets that one of her best friends is a robot.

“You’re… bionic.” Nya hears the disbelief in her own voice under the surprised exclamations of the rest of her team. “This is a huge-” She cuts herself off when her gaze finally returns to his face, recognising the pain cracking through his mask.

“All this time,” He raises the blueprint once more, showing off the building of himself. He drops it to the floor, watching it glide through the air. He lowers his hand back to his side, avoiding the open panel on his stomach. “And I never knew.”

“I mean, this explains why you’re always acting so weird.” Jay says with a painfully forced laugh trying to lighten the mood. When Zane offers no reaction, he elbows Cole in the ribs with another forced chuckle. “Right?”

“The reason I never had a sense of humour was because my funny switch wasn’t turned on.” His voice is still flat in a way that immensely worries her. His tone of voice has always been subtle, and his voice has always had a floaty quality, but it seems more disassociated than anything.

Nya watches with a deep sense of wonder and simultaneous guilt as he reaches into his stomach and flips a switch. He then breaks into a song and dance, with an odd old-radio inflection. Nya can’t stop a small giggle at the sheer ridiculousness of it, but it quickly sours. Jay bursts into laughter, but it twists something in her heart. She can feel herself now failing to fight off a frown.

“This just… makes you more special.” Cole says as Zane turns off his funny switch and Jay’s laughter dies off. He walks over to Zane, who’s back on the floor, clearly struggling, but trying hard to be comforting. “You’re still the same Zane, just more gears.”

“You’re our friend, Zane.” Nya places a gentle hand on his shoulder, and offers him a small smile as she helps him to his feet.  “I mean, you’ve got some very interesting insides, but that doesn’t change you at all. We love you just as you are.”

“Really?” Zane asks, insecurity bleeding into his voice as it cracks. Nya clasps his hand between two of hers, and tries to smile a little wider. Zane returns it, though it’s hardly a quirk of the corners of his mouth, and he’s clearly forcing it. “You're one of us, robot or not.”

“Yeah, and how cool is it that I can honestly say that my brother is a Nindroid?” Jay cuts in excitedly, bouncing on his feet. He claps Zane on the back, who stumbles a little with the force of it. It really goes to show how out of it he is.

“A nindroid?” A quirk of his head and the lilt of his voice betray his blatant confusion.

“Pythor is still out there, looking for the first Fangblade.” Cole interrupts, shoving at Jay’s face as he approaches. He grabs Zane in a sideways hug, and urges him. “We need you.”

“I-” Zane cuts himself off with a shake of his head, looking at his feet regretfully. His hands rest over his stomach, panel now closed, and his foot shuffles on… his blueprint. “You’ll have to go without me.”

“We’ll wait for you.” Nya offers as Zane finally takes his hand from hers. He turns away from them, stooping to pick up the blueprints and laying them on the workbench. He shakes his head again, and says, “I just don’t feel right.”

She purses her lips, but upon exchanging a look with Jay and Cole, they head up the stairs and out towards the frozen wasteland. It’s hard to leave Zane behind, and harder to believe that he wants to be left. Nya was confident that he was content - that he had found a home and a family in their team. His hesitance stirs something uncomfortably and heavy in her gut.

“Let’s give him some time.” Nya says as the door swings shut behind them. She leans back against the wide tree bark, waiting for any sign of anything. “I don’t want to go home without him.”

“Yeah, imagine finding out you’re a robot?” Cole adds, glancing out into the tall, spindly birch trees and where their prior footprints disappear into the thicket. “I’d be shaken, that’s for sure.”

“You mean a nindroid.” Jay corrects with a wide grin, leaning forward to stare up at him. Cole groans, shoving the blue ninja away from himself without mercy. Jay stumbles back into the snow and glowers at them both when he falls backwards onto his behind. Nya rolls her eyes at them both.

“Well, how do we get out of here?” They retrace their footsteps, dodging around any rocks and covered treeroots. The ninja barely make it to the edge of the clearing before they hear a creaking groan that stops them in their tracks. “What was that?”

Nya stares into the trees and steps backwards when she sees a tree uproot itself. The long tree just suddenly lifts out of the snow, clean of any roots and tapering into a point, before it sinks back into the ground. “Why the hell are the trees moving?”

“What are you talking about?” Jay cuts in after a long moment, clearly not catching the slow, ominous rearrangement of the forest around them. Cole points frantically, but he still doesn’t get it.

“Well, now I know what a Treehorn is.” Nya says as she steps backwards towards Zane’s tree. Now that she’s seen one, the Treehorns are all she can see. They move around the ninja, slowly closing in on the clearing.

The great big robot on the forest floor starts twitching, chanting ‘Intruder!’ over and over again. And that’s when it clicks. “Shit, we have to fight these things! Why did Zane have to go and destroy our only protection?”

She’s cut off when one of the Treehorns knocks her flat onto her back with a sweeping kick of its leg. It knocks the wind straight out of her lungs, leaving her on the forest floor gasping for breath. When she sits up, she finds that Cole and Jay are similarly being beaten by the tree creatures.

Cole has managed to pick one up, twirling it around to knock down others. However, as soon as he lets go, the Treehorns are quickly replaced by others. They stab their legs into the ground around him, trying to trap them. He just barely escapes.

“Ther’s too many of them!” Cole yells as he retreats towards where they had left Zane, covered in snow from how the Treehorns have been batting him around. Nya bets she would be in a similar state. She had attempted to defeat them with Spinjitzu, but that only led to her being kicked around.

When she tries to burn them with the Sword of Fire, they screech and maneuver around the blade. Everytime, she either ends up with a foot to the face, or flat on her back with her Sword several feet away, melting the snow instead of doing something useful. She tries to trap them with the nets from her vambraces, but they simply slide through the webbing.

“Guys, wait up!” Zane suddenly bursts through the door of his tree, nearly knocking Cole off of his feet. His voice is a direct contrast to his attitude just  minutes before - determined, upbeat, alive. Nya turns to look at him, just in time to see his eyes harden as she’s again kicked to the ground.

Across the clearing, Jay isn’t faring much better. He’s being kicked around between several Treehorns as if he were a football, crying out with every impact as he skidded across the ground. Cole gets dragged back into the fray as tree-like legs slam down around Nya, caging her in.

“Leave my friends alone!” Zane cries before whipping himself into his icy Spinjitzu, batting at the creature’s legs. He throws his Shurikens next, ricocheting them off the legs and into others, hitting as many Treehorns at once as possible. The ones trapping her release their binds, allowing her to roll away.

“What’s gotten into Zane?” Cole asks as he helps Nya to her feet. They watch in awe as he leaps twenty feet in the air to kick one of the creatures in the jaw. He runs through the rest of them, knocking them around the same way that the Treehorns had been knocking the ninja around.

“Whatever he’s doing is working!” Nya cries as she runs headfirst back into the battle. The four end up back to back, and fall into their tornadoes in unison. As a team, they spread out, dividing and conquering the enemies. It works fairly well until the Treehorns suddenly fall back.

“Are they regrouping?!” Jay cries as the ninja meet side to side, and he accurately describes their foes. The smaller Treenhorns have fallen behind a larger one, with a large, diamond-shaped head, almost serving as back-up. It brings them all to stare up at one Treehorn in particular. “Who’s that?”

“The Queen.” Zane’s voice has an odd, low quality to it. He steps forward away from the group, raising his voice to yell up at the roaring creature. “You will not hurt my friends. There is nothing that will hold me back!”

Zane spins his Shurikens to the side of his body as he approaches the massive Treehorn, and a haze of blue smog begins obscuring him from their view. The Shurikens form icy particles around him, and with a loud blast, he suddenly starts to lift off of the ground. “I know who I am! ”

 “He’s amazing!” is all Nya can manage as she stares up at Zane in unabashed awe. He rises to meet the Treehorn face to face, and throws his Shurikens out to the side. As he drops down, he falls back into his Spinjitzu. “He’s unlocked his Full Potential!”

Nya watches the blue-white tornado whip around on the snow, kicking up a trail of white dust. It follows him as he weaves through and around the Queen’s legs, trapping her solidly in place. He raises again in the air, and this time his body is lit up in glowing, translucent white.

He extends his Shurikens as they spin, and a huge beam of ice shoots out towards the Treehorn, slowly freezing him solid. Despite how it squirms, it can’t escape the ice cold hold of Zane’s power, and finally freezes solid. The rest of the Treehorns retreat quickly, helpless without their Queen. With the threat neutralized, the blue glow around Zane fades, and he suddenly falls to the ground.

The ninja run over to him when he hits the snow with a grunt, but he’s sitting back up on his knees by the time they’ve reached him. His mask is off of his face, and he looks up at them with bleary eyes, a harsh, electric blue slowly fading back to his regular like grey.

“What… happened?” Zane asks as he gets to his feet. No one offers any useful information, instead yelling his praises.  Nya throws her arms around him, beginning a lung-crushing group hug that Zane preens under the attention of.

“You are awesome!”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“That had to be your True Potential!” 

“It must be what Sensei meant about unlocking our hearts.” Zane looks down at his hands, held palms up, before clenching his fists and bringing them to hold over his start, still confided within the embrace of his team. When they finally step back, he grins up at them with bright, clear eyes. “I remember now. I remember everything. My father and how he cared for me…”

He looks around at the expanse of the snowy forest, and he spreads his arms out in an encompassing gesture. “I remember where I came from, and I feel stronger for knowing.”

“Am I the only jealous one?” Cole asks rhetorically, punching Zane lightly on the shoulder with a grin. “Your powers are so cool!”

“We have our very own Nindroid!” Jay yells excitedly, squeezing Zane into another side hug that startles a laugh out of him. Cole and Nya join in the cheer as Zane is released, smiling widely for the world to see. His eyebrows crease, changing to a more serious topic without losing his love and joy.

“Now for Pythor,” Zane says as they begin their hike back towards the Bounty. “We’re coming to get you.”

Notes:

Lord above, this chapter fought me so much. I hate it, I'mhave delirious, I'm tired, and I didn't even skim it to try to proofread. When I have free time again i might rewrite it, but I can't look at it anymore ToT

Chapter 8: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

The hot, dry, midday sun beats down on the ninja as they spend their day training. The Bounty floats directionlessly through the clouds, above the larger Ninjago area. For once, it is peaceful, lacking any ominous enemies wreaking havoc. The Serpentine have been disconcertingly quiet since the incident at Ouroboros, and they haven’t been able to uncover any snake-related leads. Without Wu’s guiding presence, they’ve regressed into practicing their basic skills and making sure the blades of their fighting abilities do not dull with disuse.

Settling down for a short break, the wind beats against her back as Nya observes her teammates, taking slow sips from her water bottle. Cole is carefully balanced on his hands, as he has been for the past ten or so minutes, keeping his muscles strong and able. Zane is meditating peacefully, a gentle smile gracing his face. Since he had unlocked his True Potential, Zane has been, impossibly, even more serene than usual - absolutely nothing seems to rattle him anymore, and nothing can break his focus.

Jay, on the other hand, can’t seem to keep his focus. He’s done something different with his hair and he smells different. In fact, Nya is certain that he’s the source of the headache she’s been staving off all morning. Every time he breaks from a set, he looks over at her. She can’t tell if his flush is from exertion or something else. She kind of hopes it’s something else.

She quite likes Jay, is the thing. They work well as a team and they’ve never had problems getting along. He’s funny, and smart, and they share the same interests… She likes him. When Jay catches her eye the next time he glances over, he quickly averts his stare, red climbing high up on his face. She smiles to herself, pleased, as she sets down her water bottle and returns to her training.

 Nya is in the middle of going through her katas when the intercom, settled on the outer corner of the dining room, crackles to life. Her brother’s tinny voice rings through the system, and only Nya’s proximity to the wind allows her to hear it. “Nya, if you’d take a break from all the training, come up to the bridge. Over and out.”

She catches Jay’s eye again as she abandons her katas, stashing the Sword of Fire in its sheath across her back. She can only shrug at his inquisitive look and wastes no time in climbing the stairs to the bridge. When she enters, she finds Kai leaning over the low table, brow furrowed.

“Check it out, sis.” Kai says once he notices her, beckoning her over to the table in the bridge, where a large sheet lay over half the table. It was raised in the middle, casting a bumpy, jagged shape that Nya can hardly begin to dissect. He pulls the sheet off with a flourish, releasing a plume of dust that sends them both into brief coughing fits.

“Check what out, exactly?” Nya waves a hand in front of her face in an attempt to clear her airways, walking closer to inspect the skeleton. Up close, she can easily make out the sharp, gleaming sets of teeth attached to two separate heads branching down to connect to one collarbone. “A Fangpyre?”

“Bingo. Some villagers uncovered it a few miles away.” Kai moves the tray closer to the centre of the table and lifts up a little card lodged underneath one of its heads. He flicks it towards her with two fingers, laughing as she leaps to catch it. She reads the card as he continues, saying, “It’s hundreds of years old. Figured you would find it interesting.”

“Yeah, it’s… something. Thanks.” It’s a little unnerving, actually, to see a skeleton like this. It’s fascinating. Nya leans down, tilting her head sideways to examine one of the open mouths. She knew on an objective level how Serpentine venom worked, but it’s incredible to see the hollow method of injection up close. The fangs look like curved syringes. “You can see the venom channels.”

He runs a hand through his hair as he leans on the doorframe, sighing dejectedly. The bags under his eyes have yet to lighten, and as Nya pulls her books from the cabinet, she realises just how many pages are dog-earred. Pages about the Great Devourer, specifically. “Yeah, well, there’s not really much else I can do.”

Despite their best efforts, many sleepless nights and many sonar sweeps, they hadn’t been able to track the Serpentine in any meaningful way. The ninja knew that the Serpentine were looking for the Fangblades, but they had also been in hiding since the incident at Ouroboros, and along with the snakes, Lloyd was missing. Kai in particular had dedicated his time to the search of their little former-nemesis, and was hit the hardest at the lack of any news.

“The R ōn in could do something.” Nya mutters, to which Kai shoots her a sharp glare, still oddly sensitive about the topic. That could be because the other ninja have yet to know about his secret, but Nya personally thinks that’s ridiculous. She’s getting a little sick of her brother’s moping. “Help the team, maybe.”

“The R ōn in has been doing something.” Kai crosses his arms, tucking his hands, which Nya is now realising are stained with grease, into his armpits. His jetpack contraption had apparently died at Ouroboros, but he wouldn’t let her look at it. It wasn’t like it really inhibited him - he rarely used the thing anyways. He smiles a little ruefully, and says, “And I’m not part of your team, anyways.”

Nya shakes her head at him, but doesn’t verbalize a response. They settle into a comfortable silence as Nya leafs through their Serpentine-related books for ones more related to the biology of the snakes, rather than their history, which they don’t have as many of. Still, she gathers up a small stack and brings them back over to the table, settling down with a thud.

The longer she looks at it, the more uncomfortable her skin feels. She examines the skeleton of this not-quite human and mentally catalogs all the ways it is different from the typical human skeleton. Two sets of a flat snout, sidelong eyes, and hollow fangs all mark it as other , plus the tail sticking out of its back.

She finally turns away to look at her collection of textbooks and reads until her eyes feel like they’ve dried out. She discovers some very intriguing bits of knowledge about how the Fangpyre works - genetic mutation that crosses species’ kingdoms, turning mammalian cells into reptiles. The process itself isn’t very well researched, at least in the volumes she has access to, but she also uncovers a hypothetical substitute to the antivenom.

At some point in her research, Zane makes his way into the bridge. He sits next to her and marvels at both the skeleton and her findings. He takes to poking and prodding at the snake, not-quite-flesh hands carefully avoiding the prick of the long fangs. While he investigates, she returns to one of the older books, detailing the Serpentine Golden Age.

The other boys find their way into the bridge at some point, bringing a quiet buzz of conversation with them. They make their way over to sit down at the table, and as they settle in, Kai asks, “So, what have you found?”

“Well, we know about the anti-venom that resides in the General’s staff.” She raises a hand to gesture to her brother, continuing, “Like the one you used to cure Jay’s parents. But I’ve found a hypothetical alternative.”

She slides one of the textbooks over to her brother, folded open to the page in question. He picks it up and squints as he reads, either uncaring or oblivious of the way the other boys crowd around him, trying to read her findings for herself. “If one is able to wildly raise their heart rate, it should, hypothetically that is, reverse the symptoms.”

She leans forward onto the table to point out the specific passage, a small aside from an interviewee. It’s not a lot to go off of, but it is something to consider. Should they be able to employ the strategy, it would absolutely change the game. As she leans forward, Nya accidentally catches a huge whiff of Jay’s perfume, and she can feel the blood rushing to her head. “Uh, excuse me, is someone wearing perfume? I’m severely allergic to perfume.”

“Oh,” Jay says with a wince, pulling his collar higher up on his neck. He turns to Kai with a look of scathing betrayal, jabbing an elbow into his ribs. Kai flinches a little, as Jay has hit what Nya knows is one massive, not yet healed bruise, and he leans into Cole to evade him. Jay hisses, “You told me it was men’s cologne .”

“I get them mixed up sometimes.” Kai says with a wicked grin, getting up from the floor and walking away from the table. He laughs as he goes, joined by Cole and Zane, and Nya’s face flushes further in indignation. She has to step away from Jay though, her body swiftly reacting to the allergen. She feels a little vindictive when she spots Kai’s arms still protectively curled around his ribs.

“As if you do, you lying, scheming little-” Nya says, chest tight with annoyance as she crosses the room to poke a finger into his face. He just grins at her, unphased. Of course he would know the difference, he had been responsible for her for years! He was messing with her, for whatever reason.

“ Okay ! Looks like class is over.” Cole says as he gets to his feet, putting an arm between her and her brother and breaking up the one-sided fight. From the corner of her vision, Nya can see Zane nod, flipping a switch in his arm, and get to his feet, dusting off his white gi. Cole turns to her with an inviting grin. “How about we get to stomping some Serpentine before they can find any Fangblades?”

“Better than my face, right?” Kai says, lifting his hands up by his ears with faux innocence. She scowls at him, but has to agree that it would be far more satisfying to punch some snakes over and over. At some point, Kai would start to whine and then she would just feel bad for him, which was very counter-productive to her anger.

“I’m excited to join.” Zane adds with a grin, heading towards the door. Jay scowls at them all, but when Nya looks over, he forces a smile. 

The phone rings suddenly, drawing the attention of all the ninja. Cole immediately shoots over to get it, desperate for a reprieve from the tension, but so is Nya. She shoves him out of the way and lunges for it, managing to pull it off the receiver despite nearly being tripped by Cole. He makes a final swipe at the phone with a scowl on his face, but she dances out of his reach with a wild grin.

It’s only then that she realises that the dialer has been speaking, and that she hasn’t caught any of it. The gruff drawl ends on an upward lilt, clueing Nya into a question that she wasn’t able to discern. “-out of your price range, eh, Kid?”

“Uh, I’m sorry, what was that?” Nya asks sheepishly, twirling the cord around her finger and furrowing her brow. The line goes silent for a long moment and she exchanges a dumbfounded look with her teammates' confusion. That’s when she notices Kai, who is staring at her very intently, as if she’s holding a bomb poised to explode, and not a landline receiver.

“...Who’s this?” 

“The Destiny’s Bounty?” There’s a long pause before the man next speaks.

“You’re the sister, right.” It’s a statement, not a question, carried by a flat voice. Nya’s nose scrunches in distaste, returning Kai’s intense stare as she wonders just who he’s been making friends with. “Look, sweetheart, why don’t you put your brother on the line.”

The nickname sparks a flash of anger, red rushing to her cheeks in indignance. “Look, I don't know who you’re calling sweetheart , or why-” The receiver is suddenly plucked from her white-knuckled grasp by quick fingers, and Kai gently shoves her away.

“Who is that?!” Nya demands in a whisper as Kai presses the receiver into his chest, muffling any sounds on both ends. He shoos her away before turning his glare on the boys, urging them all out of the bridge. Nya goes with a huff, ruminating over the implication of the small snippet of information she had heard.

Who was that, talking to her brother? The mysterious Ronin from his letter, perhaps? Maybe it wasn’t even their first phone call - in fact, the call she had overheard the other day was likely the same person. If she strains her ears, she can hear the muffled rumble of her brother speaking lowly, but she can’t discern any words.

Jay follows her out just a few seconds later, rubbing the back of his hand idly. He pulls his sleeve down over his hand as he rushes to catch up with her.

“Uh, hey Nya.” Jay stops her with a gentle hand on her arm, interrupting her wondering. She halts in her step, still a little upset, but willing to listen as the other boys scatter off to take care of their own business. To his credit, Jay looks incredibly remorseful, keeping his distance despite wanting to talk to her. “I’m sorry. The reason I, well...”

He stammers as he rushes to explain himself, but Nya doesn’t really have the patience for his explanation. She dismisses him with a roll of her eyes, feeling thoroughly annoyed with everyone by now. “It’s just a joke, I know. I’ll be fine. Let’s just go and fight some snakes.”

“A joke? No, no, I was trying to, you know, impress you.” Jay says, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. His meticulously coiffed hair sticks up at the back with the motion, something that Nya is finding annoyingly endearing. Then, she registers the words, and the flush on her cheeks is no longer only due to her allergy. “You know, Sensei said our hearts were the key to our True Potential…”

He didn’t have to try to impress her, he was an integral part of the team. And hearts? ‘Hearts’ implies an awful lot. Nya stares at him for a moment, trying to puzzle out what he’s implying through the fuzz in her brain. She really doesn’t want to get her hopes up, but his words still strike a chord. “Impress me?  But I’m so…”

“Fantastic?” Jay finishes for her emphatically. His grin is nearly dopey, a sweet expression that makes her heart beat faster, which can’t be completely attributed to the perfume that wafts towards her when Jay sways towards her just a little. She smiles at him, feeling warm all over, and her hands find their way to play with her hair bashfully. “Look, maybe if you’d let me, I can take you to some fancy restaurant. I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I just thought…”

“You mean like a date?” Her heart soars in excitement, and she fights to keep an almost crazed grin off of her lips. Sure, it didn’t take long for her to notice Jay, but now that she knew him, she was more than a little excited about the prospect of a date with him.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Sure, I’d love to!” Nya says, internally wincing at how high her voice sounds. She lets her hair slip out of her fingers, taking a step back and gesturing over her shoulder.”But I have to go now before the perfume toxins enter my bloodstream and I go into shock. I’ll see you tonight.”

With that, she runs off down the stairs and heads into her room. She barely suppresses an embarrassing squeal in her excitement, and then chides herself for acting so childishly. Still, she can’t shake the pleased glow rising in her chest. She lies back on her bed and takes a moment to just bask in her feelings.

She brushes out her hair and sorts through her closet, wondering what she should wear. She has a few nice dresses, but she doesn’t know how fancy the restaurant will be. She’s never even been to a fancy restaurant before, as Ignacia only had a family-owned tavern and Kai and Nya only ate their own food.

She eventually picks out a dress, a nice red one that is fancy, but not the fanciest one she owns. She decides to forgo any excessive makeup or elaborate hairstyles, and chides herself when she finds herself lingering on such ideas for too long. It’s just Jay, she tells herself. He probably wouldn’t care if she wore a trashbag and bedhair. 

Nya has just pulled her dress on, pulling at where it drapes around her body, when there’s a knock on the door. She calls out “Just a second!” as she fights to get the fabric to lay properly around her knees. When it finally behaves, she rushes over to open the door to see her brother waiting with crossed arms.

“You look nice.” Kai comments as he pushes into her room. She lets him, rolling her eyes at him as he takes in the mess of her closet. She walks back over to sit at her vanity, running a comb through her hair once more and ignoring her brother. “Made a mess though.”

“I want to look my best.” Nya says, feeling young and judged as Kai meets her gaze in the mirror. He’s rooting through her dresses, scattered on the floor, and laying them out on the bed. She braces herself for a lecture about etiquette, or a promise to protect her from Jay should he suddenly become evil, but Kai just smiles.

“It pains me to say it, but you’re pretty well there.” He walks over and grabs the comb from her. He smooths it over the back of her hair, briefly pausing to mess with the blunt end of her bob, and adjusting it slightly. He hands the comb back, and Nya can see him refraining from ruffling her hair and ruining his work. “There.”

“Who was that on the phone earlier?” Nya asks, taking her chance now that it’s just them. With the boys still not knowing about Kai’s secret side gig, it makes sense that he had shooed them out earlier. But since she knows…

“I told you, I know a guy.” Kai says evasively with a wide grin, clapping a hand on her shoulder.  He’s been off all day, bouncing between moods like a ping pong ball. “Have fun on your date.”

“Not going to go on an over-protective spiel?” She asks as she gets to her feet, retrieving her purse from its spot on the floor. She holds up her gi, considering, and eventually stuffs it into the bottom of the bag. Just in case.

“As if you need it.” Kai smirks, heading for the door. “I just wanted to wish you luck. And tell you that I’m going to the Forge.”

“Right. The Forge.” Nya hasn’t exactly hidden her recent skepticism surrounding the state of the Forge. Kai frequently disappeared with the excuse of taking care of smithing matters, but Nya has recently been clued into his secret R ōn in side gig. She wondered how often he used the Forge to beg off and play saviour. Kai stopped in his tracks in the doorway, picking up on something in her tone.

“You guys can live without me for a few days.” He admits easily, and Nya wonders just when they stopped needing each other. Kai shifts on his hip, face turning cold as his attention drifts away from her. “I don’t know if Lloyd can.”

“Well, good luck finding him.” Nya says, and finds that she means it. Somewhere along the way, the kid had gone from annoying little nemesis to reluctantly tolerated member of the team. “We’ll focus on the Fangblades in the meantime.” With that, Kai nods and disappears down the hallway, presumably into his room. ‘Days’ he had said. She wonders what lead he’s uncovered and why he didn’t share with the class.

“Team to bridge.” Cole’s voice echoes over the loudspeaker, muffled from the thick wooden walls, and Nya only hears it because her door is already open. “We’ve had some new sightings of our slithering friends.”

Nya sets about tidying her vanity, putting her comb back in its drawer before she heads out into the hallway. She makes her way to the bridge quickly, speedwalking through the hallway, almost bumping into Jay. He, unnecessarily, reaches out a hand to steady her, and lets out a surprised breath. “You look beautiful”

“Thanks,” Nya says with a smile, brushing her fingers through her hair. She grabs his arm and drags him along, knocking him out of his stupor. They head into the bridge together, finding the rest of the team already there. “We’ve got some snakes to deal with.”

“Well, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Fancypants,” Cole greets with a wide grin as the two come over to join the others around the screens. Nya flushes a little at his words, and when she looks away from him, she notices a pair of white gloves on Jay’s hands. Something twists in her gut and she looks down at her own outfit, suddenly feeling significantly underdressed - how fancy was this restaurant? “Where are you two going?”

“Jay’s taking me out to a nice restaurant.” Nya says when it’s clear that Jay himself isn’t going to say anything. Jay grins at her, cutting in with “A really nice restaurant.” Nya smiles at him as she moves to stand beside her other teammates, closer to the bridge’s screens to look at the screen. She’s a little shocked by the depiction of Serpentine on the screen. It’s the most snakes they’ve seen in one place in quite a while. “Although…”

“Sorry to break up your plans,” Cole starts with a sidelong look at the two of them. He points to a specific image of Pythor and Skales, oddly posing with a family at Mega Monster Amusement Park. “But our reptilian friends are regrouping.”

“What is Pythor doing with a bunch of tourists?” Jay wonders aloud, leaning back to rest on the low table. Cole finally turns away from the screens, crossing his arms with a sigh, saying, “More than handing out autographs, that’s for sure.”

Over by the wheel, Zane furrows his brow and looks down in concentration. He shakes his head as he speaks, eyes narrowed as he reasons, “Pythor would not be there for fun. We believe a Fangblade may be hidden underneath the park.”

“We can’t let them get it!” Jay says, a little reluctant, and Nya knows exactly where his head is at. They should cancel their dinner, but it would be the right thing to do to reschedule and go after the snakes. Of course, they're going to reschedule. He turns to her with a frown, looking apologetic and annoyed all at once. “But…”

“Guys, get your priorities in order.” Cole says, looking between them with hard eyes. He sighs as he turns away from them again, scanning the screens as the Serpentine move through the Amusement Park on the security camera. “You have the rest of your lives to go on dates. Lives you won’t have if the Serpentine release the Great Devourer.”

“We could have dinner at the Amusement Park?” Nya offers hesitantly as they leave, lagging behind Cole and Zane. Jay lights up, drawn out of his sour mood, and grins at her dopily, saying, “Because we’ll already be there! You’re so smart .”

 

***

 

The restaurant at Mega Monster Amusement Park is somehow simultaneously empty and packed with people. It’s more of a diner than anything, which puts Jay and Nya even more out of place in their fancy garb. She can’t bring herself to mind the odd judgmental look from other patrons, simply enjoying herself on their very first date together.

It’s a little hard to see Jay around the massive burgers they had ordered, as they pile so high that they clear the top of Nya’s head without a problem. She can just see the top of his carefully styled hair, along with the occasional glimpse of his face when one of them leans sideways around the food. She makes due though, as she eats away at the huge portion, keeping a light conversation as she works through her raving hunger.

“I was born and bred for adventure, you know?” Jay is saying, just one little portion of his almost endless stream of consciousness. He’s been rambling through a lot of the dinner, which isn’t exactly rare for him, but it does make her wonder if he’s nervous for some reason. She’s not really paying attention, admittedly, paying a special attention to the world outside of the doors. Even though she knew that Cole and Zane could handle the Serpentine on their own, she still worried. “I was first in my group to get my little scouts group to get my knot badge, and-”

“Are you okay?” Jay’s nervous questioning draws her attention from the doors as he leans around their food to look at her. She refocuses quickly, and feels her face flush at being caught. “You seem kind of distant.”

“Yeah, just getting a little full.” She tucks her hair behind her ears as she reaches out to rotate her plate slightly. She’s not trying to be distant, but the Serpentine are closer than they have been in weeks. It’s a little hard to focus when they could be losing a Fangblade as they speak. “So the R ōn in, huh?”

“Oh, man, I hate that guy.” Jay groans, leaning his head on his hand and looking at the table dejectedly. Nya stifles a laugh at the dramatics, watching with a smile as he gears himself up for another ramble. “Don’t you? He’s such a showboat. Who in their right mind masters that many weapons?”

“I mean, it is pretty impressive.” Nya says as she takes a bite from her burger, tilting her head consideringly. She lets her amusement bleed into her voice as Jay scoffs.

“I thought you hated him.” Jay narrows his eyes at her, and his eyebrows twitch in confusion. Still, he smiles at her, looking perplexed at her one eighty. To his credit, she had been raving mad about the R ōn in just weeks ago. Of course, finding out the mysterious warrior is her brother served to change her tune. “Well, nothing can compare to two good old fashioned feet and fists, don’t you think?”

“Well, what about Spinjitzu?”

“Oh! Well, good point…” He says consideringly, lips pursed in thought. “But the R ōn in can’t do Sssspinjitzu-” He cuts himself off suddenly with wide eyes, drawing Nya’s attention to his slight slip of the tongue. She can feel her eyebrows crease as he ducks behind the huge pile of food, out of her view.

“Are you okay?” She leans around the food to try to get a look at him, but Jay has pulled his scarf up around his mouth. The majority of his face is obscured by his gloved hand, but Nya can see an odd green tinge on his face. She wonders if he’s about to be sick - the Amusement Park food isn’t exactly the pinnacle of health, after all.

“Uh, excussse me,” Jay tells her as he gets to his feet, “I have to use the ressstroom.” With that, he turns on his heel and rushes towards the washrooms, leaving Nya alone at their table. She watches him go, feeling something wicked rise in her throat. Nya tells herself to ignore the sting of rejection because that rejection hasn’t even happened.

Nya picks away at her burger as she waits for several long minutes to pass. The longer Jay takes, the more nervous she gets. A waitress comes by to fill up her water glass with a pitying look to Jay’s empty seat after a while, which just twists her stomach in annoyance. She taps her fingernails on the laminated tabletop, leaning her head on her hand as she watches the outside world through the windows.

She sits up straight in her seat when she catches a glimpse of a flash of orange outside, followed quickly by blurs of black and white. She gives one last glance towards the bathrooms, where Jay has yet to emerge from, and abandons the table. “Sorry, Jay. Duty calls.”

She throws some money down on the register counter as she passes, heading out into the throes of Amusement Park crowds. She nearly runs into Cole, who is grappling with a Serpentine in the middle of the street. He looks over at Nya as the snake finally goes limp, asking, “Where’s Loverboy?”

“I’m not sure.” She admits as she ducks around a screaming citizen. Zane throws his Shurikens into the ground outside of a ride, freezing the  ground solid and sending snakes and citizens alike sprawling to the ground. Zane whips his head around, and at Cole’s instruction, disappears into the ride. “I think you should go after him, I’ll catch up.”

Cole barely spares her a nod before he takes off after Zane, fighting through a crowd of terrified, hallucinating park-goers to get into the ride. Nya looks around, and is just ducking into a restroom to change into her gi when she comes face to face with a group of Serpentine.

“Ninja!” One of them shrieks, lashing out with her tail, which Nya just barely dodges/ She was not expected to be ambushed in the restroom of all places. One of the snakes slams the door shut behind her, and they pile onto her quickly. Without her Sword and trapped in such a small area, she can’t fight her way through the ambush. 

She tries to kick at the snakes’ legs as they lock her arms behind her body, but they all dance out of the way. She even tries to headbutt the snake holding her upright, and feels its grip slacken as she hits its bottom jaw. She just manages to slither away when something hard hits her on the head, rattling her brain and rolling her eyes back into her skull.

When she next becomes aware, she’s out in the dusty streets of the amusement park. She’s being held up by her bound arms, and she can feel a piece of cloth wrapped around her mouth. She can see a few snakes ahead of her, riffling through her bag and pulling out her gi. One of them, the one that had called her out in the restroom, brandishes it at Pythor as if to say ‘see, I told you so.’

Pythor looks at it with a hint of vague interest, snatching the garment from his henchmen and holding it out in front of Nya. He holds the mask up over her head, evaluating.

“Well, if it isn’t a ninja, caught all on her own?” Nya hears Pythor’s sickly sweet drawl as the mask drops away from her face. He grins evilly at her as his long neck brings his head down to her eye level, leering. He tilts his head in faux-pity as she struggles against the snakes holding her. “Without your team, who’s going to save you now, hmm?”

She hocks a loogie and spits in his face, and he recoils in disgust. His long neck coils tightly like a cobra prepared to strike, but he simply waves his hand as one of his henchmen rush to wipe off his face. “Take her away!”

She feels a sharp point of impact at her temple, and the world fades away.

 

***

 

When she comes back to awareness, she’s staring up at the wide blue sky above her, feeling the telltale jolt that begins jittering climb of a track coaster. The world is a distant blur below, and it smudges even more when she tries to lift her head to look around. She nearly vomits up her dinner before she is able to clamp down on her nausea, steeling her resolve.

Nya takes stock of herself, taking a minute to just breathe as she catalogues her state. Her arms are tied firmly to her sides and her legs clamped together, thick chains limiting her movement. The squished little roller coaster car presses into the chains, and she can feel the indentations left in her flesh. 

She struggles, trying and failing to loosen the restraints. Now was a very inconvenient moment to lose access to her Sword. She couldn’t move even the slightest bit, making Spinjitzu impossible. Her movements become more frantic when she catches a glimpse of the track ahead of her, and the reality of her predicament settles in.

About half way through the roller coaster’s duration, the track abruptly drops off. For a slip second, Nya thinks it's just an unexpected but intentional design to make the coaster more exciting, but then she clocks the way the tracks curl up. That, plus the literal ring of fire, leads Nya to believe that this may not end happily.

The fire, she can survive that easily. She can’t say the same for the hundred-feet fall in her imminent future. She must admit, Nya is really not enjoying being the damsel.

For a moment, she longs for her brother. For how annoying his overbearing concern is, it would be really helpful right now. Where was he to jump to her defense? The one time she actually needs him, and he’s disappeared from the modern world. She slumps against the chains holding her in the cart, her efforts to escape so fruitless that she, momentarily, gives up completely.

She’s just looking over the side of the track, hoping for a glimpse of her brother, her team, anyone to help her, when she catches sight of her date. He’s held his Nunchucks aloft and ready to strike, but falters at the jeers of a crowd of Serpentine.

“Jay!” She shrieks, though she doubts he can hear her. It turns out that he doesn’t need to hear her, as he’s already looking up at her. His head is covered by a thick maroon scarf, fashioned into a makeshift mask. He takes off running towards her.

Nya wriggles in her chains again as Jay leaps towards her, jumping on and off of various signs, platforms and roofs. He lands beside her in the cramped car heavily, feet slamming into the seat. He stumbles a little, flailing his arms to keep his balance, but manages to fall backwards into the car instead of forwards onto the track. His weight slows the cart a little, and the steady chugging towards the end of the track up ahead gets a little slower.

“What happened to you?” Nya asks as Jay turns to her, hands hesitating and hovering over her chains. He doesn’t seem to know what to do, and Nya would appreciate it if he kicked his brain into high-gear. The clanking of the coaster climbing higher and higher grates on her resolve, and she can feel her face twisting in fear. 

“What happened to you ?” Jay echoes with a frantic look over his shoulder as he follows her sightline towards the ring of fire that they are drawing ever near to. “We gotta get out of here!”

As he turns, Nya catches sight of an additional appendage emerging from his back, a pale green, scaly tail. Jay finally starts to work on the chains, and she wiggles a little to make more room for his hands to work. “Were you bit?! Take off your headscarf.”

He glances up at her guiltily, wide eyes surrounded by greenish skin. He nods sheepishly, pulling off his scarf with one hand while the other continues to work away at the chains, to no avail. Nya suppresses a gasp at the state of him - skin fully green and rapidly growing scales, he looks worse than his parents ever did before Kai gave them the anti-venom. He’s nearing full-blown Serpentine. “I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to ruin our date…”

“Oh, that’s sweet.” Nya blinks, flattered, as Jay yanks at the chains again, making them dig painfully into her arms. She lurches forward a little against the force of gravity, hissing in pain at the tug. She glares at Jay, leaning into the pull with a huff, complaining, “How bad was your Scouts group if you were the best they had to offer in the knots department?”

“Oh, um.” Jay squints a little, refusing to meet her eyes.  “I never was in Scouts, I just made that up to impress you.”

“You always impress me. You don’t need to lie-” Nya’s mouth contorts into a confused scowl as Jay laughs, the sound full of shame. His cheeks darken into a sickly green colour, making the dull scales stand out harshly like freckles. Right past him, Nya sees the track drop off suddenly, yelling over the din of the machinery. “Hold on!”

“What?” Jay perks up, as if expecting an idea he hadn’t thought of, but quickly sags back into the seat as the car plummets down the drop of the roller coaster. He clings onto the bar restraint as the drop turns into a looping corner, leaning into Nya with the force of the turn. “Oh, that.”

Nya watches, full of dread, as the car begins another slow, creeping ascent. Jay struggles with the chains a little more, leaning around her front rather than perches on the front of the car like before. “I hate him, but where is the R ōn in when you need him?”

“I don’t think he’s coming.” Nya says miserably as the chains grow tighter around her chest. They don’t really, but her lungs feel like they’re collapsing in her chest cavity. Kai had left that morning, disappearing with the vague explanation of the Forge. If he knew what Nya’s going through, he would have been there before she even ended up in the cart.

“You know, now is not the time to lose faith!” Jay reprimands with a near-manic grin. Then he keeps on talking as if they aren’t rapidly approaching their impending doom. “You really can’t form a solid opinion on him, huh?”

“I just trust my team more than him.” Nya explains, though she can’t tell if it tastes like a lie as it leaves her mouth. It’s an odd thing to feel, the complete lack of faith in her usually reliable brother. The ring of fire looms closer, and Nya’s face is warm against the blazing cold of the wind. “I trust you more than him.”

“Oh.” Jay mutters, looking at her wide wide eyes as the green flush rises on his cheeks. “Well, I’m sorry my Scouts skills didn’t come in handy here.”

“You mean the made-up ones?” Nya teases, looking straight forward as the track slowly disappears under them. “Just so you know, you don’t have to wear cologne, or make-up skills, or pretend to be something you’re not.” 

“Nya?” Jay’s hand finds hers underneath all of the chains, and she holds on tightly, squeezing the blood out of both of their hands. 

“We’re a team, and a damn good one.” She looks over and gives him a small smile, even as the fear claws up at her neck. “I like you best when you’re you .” She feels the heat of her element as they get closer and closer to the end of the tracks. It’s ironic that a Master of Fire will die to the very flames she claims to control.

It hits her very hard, all of a sudden, as imminent death becomes unavoidable. She’s going to die. She’s going to splat a hundred feet down, strapped into a cart with a snake-ified Jay Walker, having lived too few, too sheltered years. She’s going to miss so many firsts, so many experiences she would never get to live-

“You know, morbid as it may be,” Nya adds, leaning over into Jay’s space. “I’m glad it’s with you.” She presses a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth, distorted by scales and that odd, unnatural split, and Nya smiles despite it.

Jay stares at her in shock for a long moment, blue eyes seeming to grow wider as the green recedes. She stares back as his skin returns to its almost-usual pink flesh tone. His freckles are hidden underneath the deep red flush as his smile turns up the now-normal corners of his mouth. “You’re face. You’re returning to normal!”

“It’s like you said, you raised my heart rate.” Jay laughs, this time genuinely.

“Just know, you are the best you.” The wind rushes through their hair as the coaster goes through a loop-de-loop, and Nya watches with a smile as he sits up in his seat, somehow oblivious to the push of gravity. “What a way to go out, Jay Walker.”

On his back, the Nunchucks surge to life, crackling with visible blue electricity. He gets to his feet slowly, standing upright in the car as the begin the final climb towards the end of the track. The electricity snaps through his body, lighting him up in a harsh blue-white that Nya has to turn away from.

Nya is stunned by a blast of light, and when she opens her eyes again, Jay is no longer beside her in the cart. “Your True Potential .” Nya breathes, staring down at Jay as he braces himself between the track and the cart, feet positioned over each rail. Sparks fly from the tracks where his feet dig into it, but eventually, the cart slows, rather than speeding up as it should on the downward curve.

They skid to a stop just before the ring of fire, and Nya has a brief moment of panic when one of Jay’s feet slips off of the track, kicking backwards in the open air. He manages to cling onto the front of the cart and right himself before Nya’s breath can even hitch in worry.

“Whew.” Jay says as the glow fades from his body and he slumps against the cart. He looks over his shoulder at the ring of fire and stares down over the huge drop below. He takes a minute to just breathe before he turns back to Nya and reaches for the chains again. “Now, how do we get these off?”

 

***

 

After they finally free Nya from the tracks, and Jay brings her down to the ground in the safety of his Storm Glider, she feels hot with the sheer embarrassment of the situation. She is a very formidable ninja, one of the best on her team, and she had been reduced to a mere damsel. Though very thankful, she’s especially sour that it was Jay who came to her rescue. As if the situation couldn’t be any more like a fairytale.

In hindsight, she chides herself for even wanting to rely on her team or her brother, but in those minutes, when it seemed like every road led to failure, she found herself completely at the mercy of her own hesitation.

“Let’s find the others.” Jay says, a gentle hand on her arm leading her towards the place they had last seen the rest of their team. Nya goes willingly, though the point of contact stings a little. It’s odd that such a menial thing twinges in her mind, when not ten minutes ago, she had kissed him freely. 

“They were in that ride,” Nya says, pointing to the simple haunted-house-esqe where she had been knocked out. “Before you had to come save me.”

“Hey, I’ve been the damsel a few times myself. You’ll make it up to me!” Jay winks at her, nudging her with their linked elbows. She can’t help but grin back, leaning closer before they are startled out of their moment by a shout.

“Nya, Jay!” Cole calls to them, throwing off his hood as he and Zane approach them through the empty park. He looks grave, a direct contrast to the congratulatory joy that Zane had gotten from the team. “The Serpentine have the first Fangblade!”

Immediately, any ecstasy drains out of Nya, seeping from her being to settle deep underground with the snakes. She feels a deep sense of guilt, though she knows it’s a little irrational. Sure, she had been distracted because of the date, but it wasn’t her fault she was knocked out when she went to help. She’s been the deciding factor for victory over the snakes before - it wasn’t as if she hadn’t contributed.

“But we are getting stronger.” Zane says, looking between Jay and Nya as if sensing her worry. He places a proud hand on Jay’s shoulder, getting a small smile back, and then turns back to Cole and Nya, saying, “Soon, we will all reach our True Potential, and Pythor will not continue his plot.”

“And we did this all without Sensei.” Jay adds as they exit the park and head off towards the Bounty, heading off down the dirt road. “Pretty good for four ninja.”

When they arrive back on the Bounty, they throw a proper celebration for Jay’s True Potential, putting off the anxiety that the loss of a Fangblade brings. Nya sets the table in the dining room as Zane cooks up Jay’s favourite, and the man himself chatters away to his parents on the phone in the bridge.

“Have you seen your brother recently?” Cole asks that night as he sidles into the room, changed into his sleep clothes. The sky outside has long since darkened, dots of white lighting up a moonless abyss. She looks down the table and its empty benches as she digs into her food. With Wu, Lloyd, and Kai missing, the Bounty feels bigger than ever. “It feels like we’re dropping like flies.

“He said he was going off to the Forge for a few days.” She explains, fidgeting with the cloth napkins that are nestled at each eating space. The table looks much too large with only four places set, and Nya is brought back to the lonely days of an empty house, except Kai, her only constant, is the one missing. She shakes her head to clear those invasive thoughts, sitting down across from Cole. “Though I wonder…”

“What do you mean by that?” Cole asks, leaning across the table conspiratorily. Nya just shakes her head at him, refusing to betray her brother’s trust, at least without a good reason.

“Oh, nothing.” There’s a sing-song quality to her voice, and she grins as Jay and Zane come into the dining room at last, carrying serving bowls and trays heaped with food. The feast seems much too large for four people, although Nya supposes that everyone is affected by the sudden halving of their team. “This looks great, Zane.”

“Leave room for the First Spinjitzu Master.” Cole chides in a high, mocking voice as Jay sits down beside Nya, gesturing between the two with the end of his spoon. Nya’s annoyance rises as he laughs at their affronted faces, even more so when Zane joins in. “What? I’m just filling in for your brother.”

“Please, he’s fine with Jay.” Nya defends. “Well, now, at least.”

“Hey! What does that mean?” Jay cuts in, turning to her with an exaggeratedly hurt expression. He holds a hand to his chest in faux-offense, pouting a little. Nya just gestures to the entirety of him, evasively saying, “You know Kai.”

The rest of dinner carries on in the same fashion, quips and insults exchanged between the four ninja. It’s so close to normal, with the familiar ribbing and heckling, that Nya can pretend for a moment that this is normal - that Wu is reading Lloyd to sleep, and Kai has taken an early night. For now, all they can focus on is bettering themselves, and working towards  being able to save their missing member.

“I bet I’ll reach my True Potential before you do.” Cole challenges her with narrowed eyes. Nya bristles a little, leaning across the table to clap their hands together in a handshake.

“You’re on.”

Notes:

This chapter has been eating at me and I'm still not happy with it. Oh well

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of Come Hellfire and Highwater