Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The ninja woke up in a heap, with the sun already risen high in the sky. All piled up in a ninja pancake stack, the teens blearily blinked their eyes open and, with tired groans, pushed themselves off the mattresses they slept on. 

Kai stretched, his back creaking as he did. His entire body was sore, and judging from the noises everyone else made, so were the others. He shook residual sleep from his head and looked around.

The events of the previous day had finally caught up to everyone, and it was clear that everyone was dead tired after all that. The only one that wasn’t was Wu, who was sitting at the counter of the mattress store with a full spread of teacups. Better than nothing, Kai decided, grabbing a cup and chugging it. It soothed his sore throat. 

“Everyone alive?” Cole asked, joining Kai at the counter and grabbing his own cup.

“Barely,” Nya grumbled. Her hair was a mess. Kai knew his was also a mess, since he didn’t have the gel needed to spike it up like usual. 

She tried to get up, but was kept down by Jay, who was wrapped around her in a tight hug. She smiled softly, then shimmied her way out of his grip (with some difficulty, she noted) and grabbed some tea.

“D’we win?” Lloyd blearily asked, rubbing sleep crusties from his eyes. “That wasn’t a dream?”

“Yep, your dad kicked ass,” Kai snorted. He went over and picked up the kid, ignoring his half-hearted attempts at getting out of his hold. 

“Fuck yea,” Lloyd grumbled. He let himself be carried over to the counter, grabbing some tea and washing his mouth out with it. 

“Good morning,” came a slightly glitchy voice. Zane finally woke up, and everyone cringed when they saw half of their face still missing. They should probably get that fixed.

Taking initiative on that, Cole nudged Jay with his foot. The blue ninja barely stirred, just curled further into himself. “C’mon, Bluebird,” Cole grumbled, still half asleep. “You know the most about how to fix Zane. Wake up.”

“I could handle it,” Nya muttered into her tea.

“Do you wanna?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

“I wanna go back to sleep,” she snarked, then shook her head. “Gotta fix my mech, anyway.”

Finally, Jay stirred, eyes snapping open and staring off into space for a bit. Cole bit his lip. Was Jay alright?

It took a few seconds for Jay to fully pick himself off the mattress, tail lazily waving. There was a weirdly distant look in his eyes, and a little seed of worry grew in everyone’s stomachs when they saw that Jay was mostly scales. 

Eventually, though, Jay focused enough to grab the cup Cole held out to him, and he drank it, holding its warmth close. “Thanksss,” he hissed. 

“Do you have a mo-mo-moment to make sure I a-am in fully functioning order?” Zane asked, sitting beside Jay. 

His eyes fixed on the exposed metal of Zane’s face. “Yea, I can. I’ll try, anywaysss.” 

“Meanwhile, we must find a new home,” Wu finally spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him. His face was serious. “Am I correct in assuming the Devourer consumed the ship?” At everyone’s nods, he sighed. “Therefore, it would be best to find a new place to stay.”

“I liked the ship…” Lloyd said. His ears drooped sadly.

“I know, kid,” Kai gave him a one-armed hug. 

“All our stuff was on that ship,” Nya groaned, dropping her head in her arms. 

“That sucks,” Cole grumbled. “Anyone have any ideas?”

Wu hummed and walked over to the window of the mattress store. Outside, the dragons dutifully watched over the group, with wary civilians with cameras and phones taking photos of the mythical beasts.

But beyond the dragons was ruin. The city did not escape the Great Devourer’s rage unscathed, and a good few blocks of Jago City were heavily damaged, if not outright destroyed. Firetrucks and other wailing cars carted the injured and scared away from the scene of destruction, even hours after everything went silent. 

“We must try t-to find a place to stay,” Zane frowned. They ignored Jay poking at their wires. 

“I dunno, here isss fine,” Jay said. “No worry about… ssstuff.”

“Wow, you’re really asleep,” Lloyd giggled.

Wu cleared his throat, bringing attention back to him. “Kai, Cole, Nya, you all try and find a place for us to stay. I’m sure there must be some place in the city to live.”

“In the city? Tough luck,” Cole scoffed. “Waiting lists for apartments are a mile long. We’d never get a place.”

Kai hummed. “Yea, that sounds like hell.”

Nya suddenly snapped her fingers. “I may have an idea. With me, boys!” She stood up and grabbed her Samurai X helmet and goggles. She tugged those on, along with her armor, and waved the other two along.

As Kai and Cole exchanged looks and followed suit, Jay whined. “Why can’t we go?”

“You need to fix Zane,” Wu explained. “That should take some priority.”

“Masssksss exissst,” Jay hissed, but turned back to Zane anyway.

“What about us, Uncle?” Lloyd asked. His eyes widened hopefully. 

“I will go purchase any necessities,” Wu explained. “I do not want to use my abilities for anything that cannot be obtained any other way.”

“But tea is free game?” Lloyd snorted. “Can I go with you?”

Wu seemed to consider that for a bit. “You only have the Green Ninja gi, right?” When Lloyd nodded, Wu looked a bit more disappointed. “Then I’m afraid you cannot.”

“What!?” Lloyd squeaked. 

“It is safer to not compromise our private identities,” Zane reasoned. 

Lloyd grumbled. “Doesn’t mean I gotta like it.”

“Talk to the dragonsss,” Jay suggested. He tried to put a hand on Zane’s shoulder, but flinched away. It was so cold .

Zane noticed. “Are you alright?” they whispered. 

Jay didn’t respond, just turned back to their exposed face. 

“Can I help?” Lloyd sidled up to the teens. 

Jay turned to look at him, and Lloyd noticed his pupils were almost completely slit. “Toolsss. Can you…”

Lloyd nodded and headed out to search the store for any spare tools they may have stored. As he did, Wu waved goodbye and vanished.

-=-

On the opposite end of Jago, a group of Serpentine gathered, finally getting out of the tomb and exploring the surface. Skales breathed in the fresh desert air, relishing the heat. He and the other two leaders (because the Constrictai were dealing with Skalidor’s leadership on their own) exchanged looks, glancing at the crowd of snakes gathered before them. 

They were in the shade of a large overhang, not too far from a deep canyon. Scraps of red wood were scattered around from an unknown source. It was far from the tombs, but many snakes felt comfortable in the desert. It was safe, for now.

No one knew the state of Ouroboros. They were taking a small break on the journey there, the only safe place the Serpentine knew. Skales only hoped it was still standing enough to live there.

“Are you even sssure it’s still intact?” a voice asked from the crowd. He looked over to see a small Fangpyre raising a hand. “What if we get back to Ouroborosss and it’s completely… dessstroyed?”

“I’m sssure there’s still sssomething remaining,” Skales assured. He looked over at Selma, who clutched their hatchling tightly. Junior was aggressively wiggling, rubbing his sides against his mother’s scales. He was going to start growing limbs soon, and Skales wanted to make sure he had a home to do this safely in.

Acidicus hissed in an upset manner, coiled up on the ground. “I may take the Venomari to a ssswamp,” he said. “The desssert heat will fry usss.”

“Ve Fangpyre alssso do not like the desssert,” Fangtom added, frowning and shaking their head in dismay. Their other head rolled its eyes. “Ve like the coolness of night.”

“The desert isss freezing at night,” Skales argued.

One head perked up, but the other continued to glare. 

Skales sighed. “Allow me,” he said, then rattled his tail, getting the crowd’s attention. As far as he was aware, this was almost every Serpentine remaining alive. “Fellow ssserpents! We stand before you now with a proposition. I underssstand that many of you do not prefer to live under the desert sun,” he subtly nodded to Acidicus, “and therefore, I suggessst everyone choossse where to live - in the desssert in Ouroboros-”

“If it’s still there,” someone in the crowd snarked.

“-or go with Acidicusss to the Toxic Bogs,” Skales continued, ignoring the interruption. 

“But where would we go if Ouroboros isss gone?” someone asked. 

“Or, what if we don’t wanna live in the ssswamp OR Ouroborosss?” someone else spoke up.

Murmurs moved through the crowd as Skales rose up on his tail. He had opened his mouth to get people to quiet down before he was interrupted, but this time, by an unfamiliar voice.

“If you seek a home elsewhere,” someone rumbled, “I can certainly provide that.”

Every snake turned to see who it was. At the mouth of the cave was a pitch black figure, with white markings, tall antlers, and four arms. Lord Garmadon smirked, shifting so that all four Golden Weapons were on full view. His smirk was all teeth - a thinly veiled threat. Behind him, a crowd of skeletons gathered, observing the snakes with pinpricks of light in their sockets. 

“Lord Garmadon?” someone exclaimed as hushed whispers spread through the group. Garmadon and the Serpentine had not interacted much, other than when he invaded their hideout to steal back the Fangblades with the ninja. To the others, he was still a myth.

To those old enough to remember, he was a vexing man who turned traitor on them at the last moment and condemned them to their fates underground.

“I have not been myself as of late,” Garmadon sighed, shaking his head. “However, it is time for me to finally take control of Jago for good. I figured I’d come here, to see if I could recruit any living blood.” The skeleton army behind him snickered.

“We do not wish for conquessst,” Skales snapped. “We only wish to live peacefully.”

“Who died and put you in charge?” someone asked sarcastically, and Skales suppressed the urge to groan when he saw Mezmo, smirking up at him.

Some snakes seemed to agree, exchanging looks and nods. Skales hissed in alarm. Were these all the Pythor loyalists?”

“Do not follow him!” Skales snapped. “Lassst time you followed sssomeone with dreamsss of conquest, the Great One rose!”

Garmadon gave him a look. He looked bored . “You want a home? Not in the desert, not in the swamps? I’ll give you a home!” He pointed his scythe towards the desert, at the scraps of wood in the sand. Golden energy swirled around him, the weapons, and the scraps of wood. He seemed to mutter something under his breath, in words no one could hear or understand.

And the snakes watched as sand swept up, and out of the tornado, they could see the scraps of wood piecing together, forming new connections, like a quickly healing wound. Sand turned into stone and metal, and the sandstorm whirled around it, solidifying shapes in the air.

And then the sand faded away, leaving a beautiful ship in its wake. The same flying ship the Fangpyre had seen when chasing the ninja through the desert. 

Garmadon groaned, taking a knee, using the sword and scythe to keep himself even remotely upright. He panted, and the gold around him faded. Still, he pushed himself up and, through heavy breaths, grinned. “Behold! The power of Creation!”

Amazed whispers echoed through the crowd. The power of Creation was a sight to behold. 

Skales, however, wasn’t fooled. “Are you all SSSERIOUSLY going to follow a mad warlord into world domination?” he snapped. “Are you going to blindly follow him becaussse he had a fancy spell!?”

“It’s alright if you choose to not to follow me,” Garmadon hummed, speaking in a tone that definitely did not sound like it was alright. “You will only lose out on glory and power and security . Oh, and, a home that isn’t a pile of sandstone or toxic sludge.”

The skeleton army, as he spoke, cheered and boarded the ship. And to the leaders’ horror, about a dozen or so snakes left the crowd and ran to the ship. “Covards,” Fangtom sneered. 

“Did they learn nothing from Pythor?” Acidicus hissed. 

“Clearly not,” Skales sighed. Still, he was happy that it was only a select few Serpentine that decided to defect. Though… he looked over at Mezmo, happily exploring the ship, and a pit grew in his stomach. There were powerful snakes on board that ship of Garmadon’s. 

The ship's engines came to life, fire bursting from them as they flew into the air and began to fly to the right of the cave. Skales sighed and decided to take initiative. They needed to explore Ouroboros, or what remained of it.

Meanwhile, on the ship, the snakes and skeletons mingled. Garmadon counted a good 16 snakes that came with him, which was admittedly worse than he hoped. They were supposed to crave war, where was their warlike spirit?!

A Hypnobrai slid up to him. There was a certain bloodthirst in his eyes, which Garmadon could appreciate. “If you do not mind me asssking, your Eminence,” he began, “why are we heading away from the city? Sssurely, with the Golden Weapons in hand, you could kill thossse ninja within minutesss!” 

Garmadon smirked at the use of a proper title, but didn’t keep the smile on his face for long. He focused on steering the ship in a specific direction. “Because they have my son, and it is written that he will one day defeat me. What good would turning Jago into my own image be when that victory would be fleeting?”

Mezmo was silent, not completely understanding the weight behind those words. He, instead, nodded and shuffled back. 

A Skulkin, who was in the hangar with them, smiled. “Why don’t we just kill your son then?” 

Garmadon saw red, and seconds later, the Skulkin was nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor. “ NEVER INSINUATE THAT AGAIN, ” he snarled. The hangar was silent as Garmadon composed himself. “My son will NOT be harmed. No matter what. But killing those pesky brats and my brother would prevent him from ever reaching his full potential and defeating me.” It would halt it, in any case. Perhaps he would be able to defeat him in a few years, when he was old enough. In the meanwhile, Garmadon would try and stall as much as he can.

Mezmo looked at the other snake in the room, a Fangpyre named Sui. They both quickly kneeled, looking up at the angry warlord. “Then… why are we heading away from them?” Sui asked quietly.

Garmadon whipped back around to the steering wheel and tilted it slightly to the left. “Because we are flying to the Golden Peaks, birthplace of the Golden Weapons. Even they have secrets yet to be unlocked. And once I uncover their full potential, nothing will stand in our way.”

The snakes exchanged nervous looks, but quickly became excited. “We’ll follow you to the ends of the Realm, my lord,” Mezmo said, tail wagging happily. 

Garmadon gave him one spare look, smiling. “Good.” He turned back to the wheel. “You’re dismissed.”

“Yes, Lord Garmadon!” Sui stood, saluted, and ran out of the room. Mezmo hung around just a bit longer, staring longingly at the Golden Weapons. How he longed to hold them, to even stand near them was filling him with wonderful bloodlust. 

But he shook those thoughts out of his head as he saluted to Lord Garmadon and left, leaving him and the dust of a Skulkin behind.

-=-

Back in Jago City, Jay was busy fixing up Zane’s face. He hummed as he worked, occasionally spacing and flicking his tongue around Zane’s face. It’s not that it was particularly uncomfortable, but it was… weird. Zane frowned as they looked up at Jay. He was usually so self-conscious of his new snake-like features, but he didn’t even blink at the tongue movements. It was weird, with how spaced out he’s been all day, too.

Jay’s solution to half of Zane’s face being missing was to, essentially, graft it back on, using some of the artificial skin on Zane’s chest panel. One could see the lines between the original skin and the added parts if they looked close, but from afar, it looked normal.

Their voicebox was back to normal, thankfully, with a little tinkering on Jay’s part. “You’ve gotta let me do maintenance on you more often, dude,” Jay had said while working. “You can’t let yourssself go like thisss, your wiresss are ANCIENT. It’sss a miracle you haven’t russsted away to dussst yet.”

With a promise to let Jay do maintenance on them more regularly, Zane let him keep working. The skin taken from his chestplate was actually not too noticeable, as it was in the middle of their torso, and was currently covered in rolls of bandages. Not for any particular reason, but it wasn’t like they had many other options to cover it up and make it a little less obvious that there was a chunk of skin taken from their body. It at least made Zane feel better about it.

Lloyd was outside, talking to the dragons. Zane saw him out of the corner of his eye giving the new green dragon a scratch behind the ear. They were glad he was entertaining himself.

Jay finally sighed and stepped back. “You should be all good now.”

Zane hummed and touched their face. Sure enough, it was mostly smooth skin, with one jarring line down the center. Looking at their own reflection in the window, they could see the line clear as day. They frowned.

Jay frowned too. “Sssorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” Zane mechanically said. They turned back to Jay and smiled. “Thank you for fixing me up.”

Jay blinked and smiled back. “Sssure.”

The door took this moment to slam open, and the house-hunting trio came back with big grins on their faces. Jay jumped and hissed, claws digging into the wall as he clung on.

“Sorry for the scare,” Nya said, “but we got one!”

“Well done!” Zane grinned. 

“Yea, but we gotta show up in our ninja gi,” Kai groaned. “We managed to sweet talk the realtor in giving us a spot ahead in line cuz we just saved the city.”

“And then she didn’t even believe us???” Cole complained. “She was all like ‘but Lord Garmadon killed the giant snake!’ Like we’re chopped liver.”

Kai then noticed Zane’s state. “Wow, not bad. You look almost normal!”

Zane chuckled. “Jay did a good job.”

Jay finally unhooked himself from the wall, staring at the others warily (no one knew why he looked wary). He blushed, looking away. “I jussst did my bessst,” he mumbled.

“You said you found a place to stay?” Zane continued.

Nya blinked. “Oh, yea! Here, come on! And put your masks on!”

It took the ninja a little time to convince the dragons to take them to the apartment, where the ones who could talk to them (everyone but Nya, she realized bitterly) were delivered bad news. 

“You’re leaving again?” Cole exclaimed, dismayed.

‘I apologize,’ Rocky rumbled. ‘We were only here to drop off Green-Of-A-New-Sprout before we head back home.’

“It’s not faiiiirrrrrrrrr,” Lloyd complained. “I thought we were gonna see the dragons for longer!”

‘I’ll still be here!’ the little green dragon said, flying beside Kai and Flame. As they were fairly small and not used to carrying passengers, Lloyd was forced to ride on Flame’s back. 

“Why did you all need to drop them off here?” Zane asked.

‘You needed assistance,’ Shard replied, ‘and Green-Of-A-New-Sprout needed training, much like your own little sprout.’

“So they will train each other?” Zane said.

‘They will make each other better through growing together.’

“I see,” they nodded. 

The dragons landed on the roof of an apartment building, and their riders immediately descended to wish them goodbye. “Stay safe,” Kai murmured, running a hand down Flame’s face. 

‘We will,’ Flame purred, leaning into the touch.

Jay tilted his head and stuck his tongue out, tasting the air. Wisp chuckled and headbutted him, causing him to laugh too, nuzzling against their soft facial fur. 

The four adult dragons eventually parted from their riders, and, with a final farewell, shot into the sky and vanished into a portal. The little green dragon was all that remained, curled up into a ball and letting Lloyd scritch their head. 

“C’mon guys,” Kai waved them all to the roof access door. “Let’s go see our possible new home.”

Everyone took their time to recover from the dragons’ departure, but followed Kai down. There, a woman with black hair in a bun and a pink blouse waited. “Oh, you must all be the ninja! And Samurai X, of course,” she added hastily, nodding to Nya. “Follow me, follow me.”

The team exchanged worried looks when they saw the state of the building. The wallpaper was slightly peeling, the carpet underfoot wasn’t in the best state, and the lights overhead flickered. This place looked like it was on its last legs.

Still, the realtor led them to a room a floor below them (with Cole almost falling through the stairs at some point) and opened the door to… the saddest thing they’ve ever seen. The apartment was dingy and musty, with an algae green filter over the entire room. The tech and equipment inside looked thousands of years old. “This one-bedroom, one-half-bath is a cozy dream. Who needs extras when everything is in arm's reach?” The realtor presented the room with the excitement of someone who wasn’t in front of the worst apartment in existence. “Now, wait until you see the lighting!” 

She flicked on the light switch, only for the single lightbulb to fall out of its tiny holder and shatter on the floor. Silence reigned as everyone looked at it. The realtor laughed nervously, turning back to them. “Wh- who needs lights when you have this view? ” She headed over to the window and opened the rickety shutters, but the smile fell from her face when she revealed a brick wall behind the dusty glass.

“Uh, why do I smell old people?” Lloyd grimaced, looking around with a glare. 

“ This is the apartment you said was ‘perfect’ for us!?” Kai snapped. “We just saved this lousy city!”

“Look, doll, I’m just trying to work around your budget,” the realtor suddenly dropped her nice face, getting snarky. “This is all you can afford.”

Before Kai could fire back at her, Cole grabbed his shoulder. “Red, calm.”

“This is-”

“-certainly something promising, ” Cole cut off his hot-headed friend before he could blow up on their realtor. When Kai finally backed off, Cole sighed. “Remember guys, Master told us our main objective is to train Green, not kick our feet up in some swanky suite. If this is all we can afford, this is all we can afford.”

“We haven’t exactly been getting paid,” Jay commented from the back. He was wisely staying out of sight of the realtor, since he had a tail that was very hard to hide now. He wasn’t like Lloyd; he couldn’t just stuff it in his pants and pretend it doesn’t exist.

“Let's not rush into any decision here,” Nya hummed, leaning against Jay’s shoulder. “I mean, if it's really all about Greenie, don’t we need to live in some place that'll make training easier?”

“She’s right,” Kai nodded. “Kid needs his own room, at least.”

“Technically, that does not matter, he only-” Zane’s statement was cut off by Kai elbowing them in the ribs. 

“We’re only thinking of the children, heheh,” Jay chuckled, peering over at the realtor from behind Nya. 

The realtor did seem to consider this for a moment, putting a hand on her chin. Then, she brightened and clapped her hands together. “Well, I do have another property that you'll just love .”

With that, she headed out of the shitty apartment, leaving the ninja no choice but to follow. It took them about fifteen minutes of walking to come up to another apartment building, this one looking much sleeker and cleaner. 

Riding the elevator up to the top floor, the ninja watched as mechanically sliding doors slowly opened, revealing a gorgeous suite. Everyone gasped in awe as they looked over the giant TV and couch in the living room that was bigger than that entire one-bedroom shithole they saw just fifteen minutes ago. The view of the city from the floor-to-ceiling windows was stunning, casting warm light from the sun into the room. 

“Now, this is the eight-bedroom ‘Hero Suite,’” the realtor explained, “with plenty of room to breathe, play video games, and with smart toilets, at that!”

Kai’s awe quickly faded as he realized exactly why this was the polar opposite of the other apartment. “We can’t afford this.”

“Oh, sure it costs a little more, but you deserve it, you mighty heroes,” the realtor said, her voice gaining a sarcastic edge. 

“Don’t sssupossse that givesss usss a hero dissscount?” Jay asked.

The realtor finally seemed to notice that Jay was there, and a snake, because her eyes widened and she backed away slightly. “Uh-” she cleared her throat. “I thought that Garmadon saved the city.”

“We helped!” Cole exclaimed. 

“You’re lucky you’re even getting this place offered ,” she said hurriedly. “Consider that your hero discount.”

Cole sighed. “Gang, meeting?” he said, pulling them into a little huddle. “This whole apartment is too good to be true,” he muttered.

“Do we have to live in Jago City specifically?” Zane asked. “Would it not be easier to live in a small village on the outskirts of town?”

“We gotta help repair the city,” Cole countered. “We did kind of destroy it.”

“We could get day jobs to pay for rent,” Kai suggested. 

“Oh, great, we gotta worry about rent now?” Nya groaned. “I think Zane has a point.”

“Garmadon could come back to take over the city again,” Cole said. “We wanna be here when he does.”

“ If he does,” Lloyd muttered. 

Everyone chose to not think about that. “Can’t Wu make usss money?” Jay suggested. “He can make thingsss. Many thingsss.” He leaned into Kai’s warmth, who frowned. What’s up with him?

“He’s careful about using his powers too much,” Cole said.

“We still gotta train the kid,” Kai jerked his head in Lloyd’s direction.

Before anyone could say anything in response, the realtor piped up. “Did I mention the in-house training facility?” She opened a door to reveal a large gym. 

This seemed to seal the deal for the ninja, as they all cheered “WE’LL TAKE IT!” in unison. The realtor threw them the keys and bolted out of the room. For some reason, Jay didn’t seem bothered. 

The ninja excitedly chattered about the new apartment, even with some of their trepidation. They hurried around the place, exploring it, and quickly claimed which room was theirs. Later, when the sun was setting and the room was painted red and orange, the teens found themselves on the giant couch, playing video games. 

Jay hadn’t left Kai’s side since they entered the apartment, happily cozying up to his warmth. It made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, and he managed to wriggle the blue ninja off and into Cole. He didn’t seem to care, though his tail was still wrapped around his leg. Looking at the others didn’t give any clearer answer, as everyone shrugged at their teammate’s strange behavior.

At some point, the apartment doors slid open and Wu entered, the tiny dragon in tow, sniffing everything in sight. Wu’s eyebrows raised as he looked over the apartment. “Very… classy.”

“Ain’t it?” Cole grinned. 

“This is gonna cost us a pretty penny though,” Kai sighed. He paused the game. “We’re gonna get jobs.”

“It will teach us all responsibility, at the very least,” Zane added.

Wu smiled and nodded. “Not an awful idea. Here,” he held out a few large bags. “I bought you all various necessities.”

The teens cheered and got up, thanking their teacher for the purchase. In the bags were toothbrushes, toothpaste, and several different types of clothing. All a group of kids would need. 

Jay and Nya remained on the couch, mostly because the former was wrapped around the latter. She frowned and raised a hand. “Uh, Master Wu? Something’s up with Jay.”

Wu immediately headed over, leaving the bags behind. “Is everything alright?” He placed a hand on Jay’s forehead.

He opened his eyes and stared unnervingly at Wu, watching him as he checked his temperature. Nya began running a hand through her boyfriend’s hair. “He’s been kinda… spacey all day. More than normal. And a bit quiet.”

“His temperature is fine,” Wu said. “Perhaps he is simply exhausted from yesterday.”

“We all are,” Cole grumbled, stretching. “But it’s barely sunset.”

“All the more reason to get some rest,” Wu got up and began to explore the apartment. “You must all wake up early tomorrow to seek out employment.”

“Yes, Master,” everyone droned. 

They did not end up going to bed, just going back to playing video games, but it was Jay who began to nod off first. Nya smiled, still playing with his hair. “Let’s get you to bed, Jaybird.” 

And then she felt it. In his hair, along his skull, was a small hard bump. 

Jay made a little noise of protest as Cole slid his hands under him, trying to pry him out of Nya’s arms. She was still as she processed what she just felt . 

Cole disappeared into the rest of the apartment, then came back a few minutes later. “He’s tucked into bed,” he smirked. “Sleepy little thing.”

“I felt something,” Nya blurted out. Suddenly all attention was on her. “On his head. There was a bump.”

There was quiet in the room. “What does that mean?” Zane asked.

“I don’t know,” Nya twiddled with her fingers. And she truly didn’t. Something was wrong with Jay, and no one knew what it was.

It was a few hours later when the ninja would find out what was wrong. Deadly, deadly wrong.

Chapter Text

Cole knocked on Jay’s door ever so gently. “Hey, dude, just coming in to give you some water,” he whispered. “Sorry if you’re still asleep.”

It was silent from Jay’s room. Cole cringed slightly. He probably was asleep. But from the lack of noise, Jay didn’t seem to have woken up, so Cole breathed a sigh of relief. Carefully, he opened the door, keeping the doorknob from squeaking too much. It was silent and smooth (fancy apartments, huh). 

It was dark in the room, and Cole had to squint to make out any of the room details. He finally made out the shape of the bed and crept closer, keeping his footsteps light, like a true ninja. The soft carpet in the room certainly helped. 

He found the bedside table and put the water bottle down. He snuck a glance to the bed, to see if Jay was snuggled up in the new covers.

His blood ran cold when he saw the bed was empty.

His barely adjusted eyes took in messed up sheets and blankets, strewn all over the bed like they were torn off. There wasn’t a hint of life on the mattress. But there was a large set of slashes on the pillow, soft cotton spilling forth.

Cole felt his heart skip a beat. The door was closed, and no one saw Jay leave. But he was gone , with obvious signs of a struggle. “Jay?!” Cole exclaimed, raising his voice. “Are- are you in here, buddy?”

He backed up towards the door, his eyes sweeping around the room. “C’mon, dude, where are you? This isn’t funny.”

A scraping noise caught his ear, and he whipped around. Nothing. Cole chuckled nervously. “H-hey, Jay, you’re not sleepwalking, are you?” He tried to lighten the mood, but there was a strong weight of fear entering his lungs. “Come on, just give me a sign that you’re in here?”

And then he heard it. A low, quiet hiss. His limbs froze up, but he forced himself to turn around, facing the door. And looking up.

And… looking… up…

Two glowing yellow eyes met his. Pupils sharp like knives. A large, dark shape clinging to the wall above the door. 

Neither of them moved for a moment. That moment was enough for Cole to realize who’s eyes those were. And the second he did, he realized that this was bad. Very, very bad.

He swore softly under his breath, then tried to slowly walk out of the room. That proved to be the wrong move.

The second he moved, the creature on the wall snapped their jaws open in a horrible hiss and lunged. Cole could only yell as they moved towards him at lightning speeds, fangs shining in the dim light, and then-

-=-

Nya laughed as Kai once again failed the level, watching him groan and rub his eyes. He heard her laugh and gave her a playful glare. “You give it a shot, wise guy.”

“Don’t wanna,” Nya chirped. “It’s funnier seeing you fail.”

Kai rolled his eyes and smacked her on the shoulder lightly. She just kept laughing.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nya noticed Zane standing up and moving to the bedroom area. “Zane? You heading to bed?”

Zane frowned. “No, I’m worried about Cole. He has not returned yet.”

“Why are you worried?” Kai turned his game off. “He probably just dropped off the water at Jay’s and went to bed.”

“No, he said he would return to help transfer the groceries to the fridge,” Zane shook their head. 

Kai and Nya exchanged a glance. “He’s probably just washing up,” Nya reasoned. 

Zane didn’t look convinced. “I will go make sure he is alright.” And he left, going up the stairs to the bedroom area. 

As he left, Nya got up too. “Well now you’ve got me worried,” she said, catching up to the nindroid. Footsteps behind her signaled that Kai was following too.

“I’m sure nothing’s wrong, guys,” Kai groaned. “You’re working yourselves up for nothing.”

“Maybe so,” Zane furrowed their brow, “but one can never be too sure.”

“Especially in this line of work,” Nya added.

Their walk to Jay’s room was pleasant, if not slightly tense. The pleasantness immediately died the second the group laid eyes on Cole’s body on the ground.

“COLE!” everyone exclaimed, running over to him. Zane’s hands immediately flew to Cole’s neck, trying to feel for a pulse, which they seemed to find, if the sigh of relief was anything to go by. 

“Cole! Are you ok?!” Kai shook him. His eyes were wide with panic. To everyone’s surprise, Cole’s eyes moved to meet his. They were open the whole time.

“Cole?!” Nya cried, moving so that she could look at Cole in the face. 

But he didn’t move. Not an inch. His eyes darted between the group, panic and fear drowning them, and his chest shallowly rose and fell in uneven intervals, but he didn’t move. He didn’t even speak, he just let out strangled breaths. 

And then Nya saw it. Two holes in his neck, like a bite. A snake bite. She snapped her head to the door to Jay’s room. It was open, with no Jay in sight.

“Cole! What happened?” Zane was asking, trying to shake him awake. Cole’s eyes just kept moving between his teammates’, trying to communicate something.

“He can’t move,” Nya realized with a cold rush of dread. She pointed at the bite wounds in his neck. She saw how Zane and Kai’s eyes widened, processing that information. “Cole. I know you probably can’t speak,” Nya began, addressing the body on the floor, “but can you tell me what did this to you?”

Please no please no please no-

Cole made eye contact with her, then deliberately, slowly, moved his eyes to Jay’s room. Nya’s heart dropped to her feet. Please no please no no no no no no-

Zane seemed to catch on, their eyes widening in terror. “No. It can’t be.”

“What?” Kai breathed, staring at Jay’s empty room. “But- how, why, what ?”

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Nya stood up and began pacing. “Why would he- he wouldn’t just-”

Fear gripped her heart at the same time Kai reached up to grip her shoulder. “Hey, stop freaking out.”

“Stop freaking out?!” Nya snapped, whirling around. “Dude, my boyfriend potentially just tried to kill Cole! How am I not supposed to freak out?!” She groaned and pulled on her hair, trying to calm her breathing. 

“We do not know that it is indeed Jay,” Zane tried to reason, though everyone could tell it was weak. They wrung their hands together. “Perhaps Cole was hinting that there was someone else in the room; an intruder, perhaps?”

Kai didn’t look convinced. He leaned over Cole, noting how his eyes followed him. “Blink twice if it was Jay. Blink once if it isn’t.”

Nya and Zane looked over to see Cole’s response. The sinking feeling didn’t lift when the poor guy blinked twice. 

Nya hissed a curse under her breath. “Sssssshit. Now what.” She shook her head. “We gotta stop him.”

“How?!” Kai asked. He waved a hand at Cole’s supine body. “He can apparently just bite people now and paralyze them, and if he attacked Cole, that means he’s not in his right mind.”

“You’re right,” Nya nodded. “Whatever attacked Cole wasn’t really Jay.”

“Are you suggesting he is possessed?” Zane frowned. 

“Not exactly,” Nya said. “I think it’s something… worse.”

Just then, a scream pierced the apartment. High-pitched and shrill. “Lloyd,” they all realized with growing horror. 

Nya’s blood went cold. “Kai, you stay here with Cole while Zane and I go check that out.”

“Oh come on, I wanna help!” Kai complained. 

“And you will be of much greater help guarding Cole,” Zane stated. “If Jay - or whatever it is - returns, Cole will need a bodyguard.

Kai weighed his options for a moment before groaning and crouching near Cole. “Well what the fuck are you still standing here for?! Go!”

They didn’t need to be told twice, and the two remaining teens nodded and ran off. They raced down the stairs and into the living room, where they stopped in their tracks at the sight of Master Wu on the ground, with Lloyd and the dragon (Sprout, if Nya remembered correctly) crowding around him. Just like with Cole, there were two bite marks on Wu, though this time in his arm. 

“Master Wu!” they exclaimed, running up to him. He groaned as they approached, and Lloyd looked up tearfully. 

“He’s not fully paralyzed yet,” Zane noticed. “What happened?”

“A green and blue thing just- just-” Lloyd fumbled his words, sucking in a shaky breath. “It just- flew in, attacked Uncle Wu, and- a-a-and then left!” He sniffled. “Sprout fought it off f-for a bit.”

Sprout growled, and Nya spotted a set of scratches on their shoulder.

Zane frowned and turned back to Wu. “We have reason to believe that that was Jay.”

Wu’s eyes opened, slower than usual. “Jay?” he said. His voice came out strained, but wrung with fear. “That… is not good.”

“Didn’t he act a lot more snakey today?” Nya realized with a chill. “Looked it, too.”

Wu’s gaze quickly flickered to the giant windows behind them. Nya hazarded a look, and saw nothing but a clear night sky and a full moon. “This is… worse… than I thought,” Wu whispered. He tried to raise his arm to see the bite wound, but the motion was stiff and slow. His face contorted into a weak grimace. “This… is very… very bad.”

“Yea, we got that,” Nya said hurriedly. “We’ve gotta stop him!”

“Do you know where he went?” Zane asked. “We may be able to subdue him.”

“Jay did this?” Lloyd finally caught up, eyes widening. His tremors seemed to have stopped, at least. “How’re you gonna stop him if he did this to Wu?” 

“To Cole, too,” Nya couldn’t help but add. Lloyd curled his lip and looked away. 

“I am a nindroid,” Zane said, a new confidence spreading across their face. “I believe I may have resistance to his venom, if anything.”

“You will,” Wu confirmed. “Jay… is not… a Fangpyre.”

Everyone froze at those words. “What do you mean?” Nya managed to ask. The pit in her stomach grew. “He got pricked by Fangpyre venom, of course he’s a Fangpyre too!”

Wu shook his head slowly. Stiffly. The paralysis was setting in fully. “No. Not Fangpyre.” His hand shook as he placed it on Zane’s leg. “Remember. Snakes… are… cold.” And with some final words of wisdom, his mouth locked shut, and he slumped against the floor. Though his eyes remained active, darting between his students and nephew with fear and warning in those golden depths.

Nya breathed through her teeth and got up, cracking her knuckles nervously. “Great. Great great great great. What the fuck do we do?”

Zane was silent, but then shook their head and stood up. “We follow the trail, and we take him down.” Their voice was steady, but a slight tremor in their hands gave away their nervousness. 

“You may have the advantage here,” Nya pointed out, “with the whole- nindroid situation… But I want to help too.” She straightened up, looking at Zane with a newfound determination. “He’s my boyfriend. I’m not gonna let him down.”

Zane nodded. “Lloyd, you stay here and guard Master Wu with Sprout,” they ordered. Lloyd gave a thumbs up. “Nya, with me. Be on your guard.”

“Surprised you’re not fighting to join us in the search,” Nya noted, addressing the kid on the floor. “Where’d Jay go?”

Lloyd frowned and pointed at a corridor. “I don’t wanna be bit by a nutso lizard, thank you very much. ‘Sides, Wu does need to be guarded.”

Nya just nodded and headed out with Zane, choosing not to think about Lloyd’s odd behavior. It was just a little different than what he was usually like, but Nya figured it was stress. Besides, she was probably just hyper-aware of every little detail right now due to how stressed out she was. Nothing to worry about.

Other than a feral snake boy attacking their teammates and friends. …Yea.

The corridor was dark when Nya and Zane entered, hearing nothing but the hum of the AC in the background. Nya sighed. “He’s been weird all day,” she whispered. “You noticed, right?”

“Usually, I do not notice odd quirks,” Zane said, equally as quiet. “I do not prioritize myself with knowing what is socially normal or not. But… Jay has been different today. Too green, too unfocused. He shied away from me many times while fixing my face.” They subconsciously reached up to touch the seam on their face. “And he clung very tightly to Kai, Cole, and you.”

“I guess snakes are cold-blooded,” Nya hummed. “He’s probably seeking warmth.”

“And is afraid of cold,” Zane said, in a tone of voice like they just realized something huge. They lifted their hand off their face, and frost and snowflakes gathered around their fingers. 

Nya knew what that meant. “As a last resort only.”

Zane nodded grimly, and they extinguished their frost. The two continued to prowl the corridors, stalking silently and carefully.

And then… a slight noise. It caused them both to freeze and look around, slowly as to not startle. And then… Nya saw it. The dark shape with the glowing yellow eyes. She saw it mere seconds before it lunged, faster than a bolt of lightning.

But Zane moved fast too, pushing Nya away as they let themself be tackled. They struggled on the floor with something, horrible hissing noises and snarls clanking against metal. Nya looked around, lamenting that there was no light switch in the corridor nearby, but settled for clicking on the light in the next room over, hopefully illuminating whatever was in the hall.

And it worked, because she rushed back out to something green and blue on top of Zane, who groaned and, with a shout, pushed the figure off of them and scrambled up. The first thing Nya noticed was the tear in Zane’s shoulder, the same size as a pair of sharp fangs. 

The second thing she noticed was the figure.

Illuminated by only the next room’s light, a humanoid being crouched on the floor, breathing heavily. They had green, scaly skin, the color of a lime rind, with hints of peacock green patterns. A set of small horns emerged from dark blue-green hair, messy and untamed. Bright, glowing, yellow eyes, with pupils sharp as razors, stared at them with the pressure of a predator. A torn cyan gi hung around a thin but spiky frame. 

Undeniably a Serpentine, and undeniably Jay.

Nya didn’t have time to think before Jay hissed a horrible spitting noise, claws digging into the wood floor beneath him. He lunged back towards the two, though Zane was more prepared and intercepted him. He struggled in the ice ninja’s grip, newly-clawed feet scrabbling to find purchase. He bit down on Zane’s arm, fangs digging into artificial skin and metal casing, but flinched back just as fast when it was clearly not real flesh.

Nya finally came back to her senses when Zane grunted, trying to hold onto a very unruly and feral Serpentine. She slowly approached the wild thing that was once Jay, making careful and deliberate steps forward. Jay’s eyes snapped to hers (no, not Jay’s eyes, those couldn’t be his eyes). 

“Hey, Jay,” she said gently. “Hey. It’s alright. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Jay curled his lip (and she could see, from closer up, that his face was more of a muzzle, with a long, stretched out snake face, rather than a flat, human one) and snarled, the sound wholly and completely inhuman. It made Nya flinch back a bit, and gave Jay a chance to struggle against his robotic restraint some more. 

Before she could say anything else, Jay seemed to get a brilliant idea in his weird snake-brain, because he suddenly whipped around and slashed at Zane. They gasped, almost letting go, and instinctively fired up an icy aura around their hand, which was still wrapped around Jay’s arm. 

Needless to say, that probably hurt a lot, and Jay agreed with that notion, if the sudden screech of pain was any indicator. Zane immediately shut their powers off, shifting their grip, but there was an ugly mark on Jay’s arm where Zane’s hand just was. His tail lashed angrily as he continued to struggle.

“Jay!” Nya exclaimed. Even if he’s a feral snake monster, he didn’t deserve to be in pain about it! “Zane, ease your hold!”

“He’ll- he’ll get out that way-” Zane grunted, trying to hold onto what was probably a very slippery snake. Thankfully, Jay seemed more preoccupied with hissing angrily than actually breaking loose. Perhaps some corner of his brain remembered the consequences of trying to hurt Zane, because he was no longer attacking.

Perfect to try and talk down. “Jay. Listen to me.” She crept closer, keeping a safe distance from his claws, but being close enough to see. “Look at me, Jay.” At her soft words, Jay seemed to stop hissing, sending her a pointed look, studying her. “Yep, that’s good!” And it was, because if Jay was actually hearing her, that’s a great step to calming him down. “It’s me, Nya,” she continued. “Your girlfriend?” 

Jay’s tongue flicked out, long and thin. He seemed to sniff the air around her. 

“You’re not in any danger,” Nya murmured, stepping closer, hands up. “I’ll tell Zane to drop you, cuz they’re probably too cold and scary for you.”

“I am not,” Zane halfheartedly grumbled, but their face was guilty. 

Jay’s eyes flickered over to Zane when they spoke, and she could see some instinctual fear enter them. “Put him down,” Nya said. 

Zane looked unsure. “He might attempt to attack once he is free.”

“I don’t think so,” Nya shook her head. “I think he’s just scared. And very cold.”

Jay let out a low, quiet hiss. Zane sighed. “Alright. I trust you, Nya.”

And when they let go, Jay dropped and bolted away from Zane. Before the samurai could decide whether he was about to attack her or not, he ran behind her and stopped. She looked around to see him hiding behind her, peering out with piercing yellow eyes glaring at Zane. 

“See? It’s fine,” Nya said, chuckling slightly, before telegraphing a hug to Jay. He seemed to understand, falling into her arms and hissing happily, a soft little cooing noise from the back of his throat emerging. She smiled, hugging him tight. He melted into the touch. 

“We should probably get him to the living room,” Zane suggested. 

“If he can even walk,” Nya shrugged. Jay hissed.

Zane blinked. “I shall go retrieve Kai. He will be able to help more than me.”

Their tone was guilty, and Nya bit her lip. “Not your fault that you had to burn him,” she said, though her eyes flicked to the site of the iceburn. It was a different shade of green than the rest of the scales, almost pinkish in hue. Still, “Kai would be able to help,” she deduced. 

Zane nodded and headed out of the hallway, and the sudden lack of an ethereal chill made Jay relax further into Nya’s side. But as they couldn’t stay in a corridor forever, Nya decided to say “fuck it” and picked up the feral Serpentine bridal style. He was surprisingly light, and she had been working out. So it wasn’t even that hard to move him, despite the surprised squeak he let out.

When Nya and her snake boyfriend arrived back into the living room, she put him down on the couch. And thank the First Ones she did, because he puffed up only a second later when he saw Wu and Lloyd on the opposite side of the couch. 

“Jay, it’s fine,” Nya said, putting a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “They’re not gonna hurt you.”

“Not with Wu conked out like that,” Lloyd rolled his eyes, jerking his thumb at Wu behind him. The old man appeared to be asleep; not exactly much else to do when you can’t move your body. 

Jay finally seemed to realize that the child wasn’t a threat, and lowered his hackles, though he still hissed as a warning. Lloyd sent him a middle finger in response.

“Rude,” Nya frowned. “You shouldn’t point that at people.”

“Eat shit,” was Lloyd’s response. Nya rolled her eyes.

Footsteps sounded nearby, and everyone turned to look at Kai, running down the stairs. His eyes immediately zeroed in on Jay, on the couch holding onto Nya’s arm, and he froze. “Whoa. Holy shit.”

“Yep,” Nya said, popping the p.

“ That’s Jay?!” Kai exclaimed, as if he couldn't believe it. Which… is likely. Jay doesn’t exactly look like himself right now.

“Yea, and he needs some proper warmth right now,” Nya explained. “He’s cold-blooded.”

“Doesn’t mean I get to be used as a glorified heater,” Kai rolled his eyes. He walked up slowly, carefully, keeping his eyes on Jay the entire time. Jay met his gaze and hissed, hunching to make himself look bigger. Kai didn’t bite the bait, showing no fear and approaching steadily. “You sure he’s safe?” he asked, not looking away from Jay. “Last I checked, he was attacking everything in sight.”

Nya frowned. “He’s just scared and confused. I don’t think he realizes where he is right now, or who’s around him, so he did the only thing his snake-brain said makes sense - defend himself.”

Kai stopped his approach, holding out a hand to Jay. The Serpentine narrowed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, sniffing the air around Kai. “And I’m supposed to help how ?”

“He needs the human furnace,” Nya shrugged. “It’ll at least calm him down.”

Kai seemed to fight a battle in his head, but whatever he was fighting against won, because he groaned and flopped down next to the feral snake. “Alright, let’s get it over with.”

Jay eyed the fire ninja warily, but his pupils immediately widened when he sensed how warm Kai was. He fully peeled himself away from Nya and fell onto Kai’s lap, curled up in a little ball. He hissed happily as he settled into his warmth.

“Look at me, being used as a heated pillow,” Kai complained, but it didn’t have any bite to it. 

Zane came down the stairs a few seconds later, Cole’s body in his arms. “I figured it would be cruel to leave him on the floor,” they said.

“Makes sense,” Lloyd said. “Put him over here with Wu.”

Jay had cracked open one eye, which was tracking Zane’s every move. He curled up closer to Kai. It looked like he had developed a fear of the nindroid, which was a bit sad. Nya just hoped this wouldn’t carry over to when he went back to normal.

…He would go back to normal, right?

And the weight of it settled on everyone - they didn’t know if Jay was going to come back from this. If he was gonna become a normal Jay again, or if he was destined to be a snake monster forever. Nya ran a hand through Jay’s hair, now dodging the horns that sprouted from his scalp. Is their Jay ever going to return?

Half an hour later, Jay’s breathing evened out. He had fallen asleep. Kai carefully scooted out from under him, and Nya picked him back up to carry him to his room. There, she wrapped him in a thick blanket, several layers of burrito, and left him to sleep. His hissy snores were cute to her, in a way, though tinged with sadness. 

When she locked the door behind her, outside his room, she had to hold back some tears before they could rise from her eyes. She just headed to her room and crawled into bed. Maybe it’ll all get better in the morning.

Maybe. Hopefully. 

-=-

Despite being exhausted, no one got much sleep that night. When the tired teens emerged from their rooms the next morning, fumbling around the kitchen to make morning tea and coffee, memories of the previous night came back. A feral snake that was once Jay, two of their strongest teammates downed from a single bite, and an unknown future ahead. Nya stared tiredly at Kai across the table, who gave her an equally tired glare. 

Thankfully, a good night’s sleep seemed to have drained all the paralysis venom out of Wu and Cole, though that wasn’t without consequence. Cole groaned, his head on the table. “I feel. So sore.”

“The downside of paralysis,” Wu said, sliding a mug of healing tea over to him. Cole lifted his head up to accept the mug, chugging its contents. 

“What exactly was that?” Kai asked. “What happened to Jay?”

“You said he was not a Fangpyre,” Zane said, frowning. She had bandages tied around her arm where Jay scratched her. “What is he, then?”

“I would like to explain this while Jay is in the room with us,” Wu said. 

“So he’s back to normal?” Nya exclaimed. She shot up, hands pounding the table. 

“Yes, he should be,” Wu nodded, sipping his tea. “Someone may need to wake him up.”

“I’ll go,” Nya offered, as she was already standing up. Not wasting a second, she took off through the corridor (the same one they had cornered Jay at last night) and ran up the stairs to their rooms. Finding Jay’s door, she raised her hand to knock.

Only for the door to open a second later and for her fist to collide with Jay’s forehead. “OW-” he exclaimed, flinching back. 

“Ah- sorry!” Nya flinched back too, withdrawing her hand.

“If I wasn’t awake before, I sure am now,” Jay grumbled, and the sound of him complaining was music to her ears. She smiled, taking him in. No longer a Serpentine, Jay was back to normal, with still fairly sharp ears, a scattering of green scales, and a medium-sized tail, but that appeared to be the new “normal” for him. 

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“Everything hurtsss,” he hissed, but it was a hiss through his teeth, not an animalistic, serpentine hiss. “I feel like shit.”

“Do… you remember last night?” Nya asked carefully.

“Last night?” Jay tilted his head, furrowing his brow. His eyes flickered back and forth, trying to remember. “Vaguely… I think I was… I had a dream I was a wolf, hunting things. I fell asleep playing video games again, didn’t I?” He chuckled.

Nya’s heart sank, but at the same time, she was relieved. “You don’t remember turning into a wild snake and attacking us?”

Jay’s eyes widened in horror. “No??? I think I’d remember that!” More scales blossomed on his face.

Nya cringed. “Alright. That’s… not great. Wu said he knows what’s up, though.”

“No- wait, what the fuck do you mean by that?” Jay yelled, pupils sharpening. Nya felt great relief at the fact that they were his usual gray-blue, not toxic yellow. Though, when Nya flinched back away from his yell, Jay shrank back and shuddered. “An explanation would be nice.” He huddled into himself, hugging his arms. He unfolded his arms when Nya extended a hand, and they walked to the kitchen together. Jay was worryingly silent behind her, and Nya had to squeeze his hand to assure herself that he was still there.

They did arrive back in the kitchen eventually, where everyone else looked relieved to see Jay back to normal. Zane immediately got up to check him over, but halted before she could. Jay blinked confusedly at her. 

Everyone seemed on edge, watching Jay with a careful gaze. He bit his lip. Sure, his head still felt fuzzy, and echoes of hisses still bounced around his ears, and he woke up in pain, but that’s no reason to flinch away from him.

…Unless he actually did become a feral snake. His stomach dropped.

He had woken up with his body hurting, and he almost didn’t want to get out of his (very tight) blanket cocoon, but his growling stomach forced him up. He nervously shifted from foot to foot. “Uh, is everyone ok?”

Kai grimaced. “Are you ?”

“Nya said I turned into a wild snake,” Jay began cautiously. The way everyone grimaced wasn’t a good sign. “I don’t remember it. Can someone just fucking tell me what happened?”

All eyes turned to Wu, who sighed and put down his mug. “Jay. I need you to tell me exactly how you got bitten.”

Jay frowned and thought about it for a bit. Everything still felt a bit hazy. “I got pricked by a skeleton. Ancient Fangpyre, I think?”

“Fangpyre venom does not persist past death,” Wu said, and it felt like the universe shattered around him.

“Wh… what?” Jay breathed out. Murmurs of confusion sounded from the table. 

“Even if it did, it would have a much different effect than it would today,” Wu continued. “Fangpyre were quite different thousands of years ago. While I do not know the exact carbon date of that skeleton, the fact that you are not a Fangpyre is clear enough evidence.”

“What do you mean I’m not a Fangpyre?!” Jay exclaimed. “What am I then?”

“I thought only Fangpyre could bite and transform their victims,” Cole added. 

“If a Fangpyre bites you with the transformative venom prepared, you will turn into a Fangpyre as well,” Wu nodded. “But Jay is a special case. The fact that his true potential halted the transformation before it could finish should have left him in a half-transformed state permanently. Instead, the amount of scales and Serpentine features fluctuate depending on the day.”

He sighed. “Day-by-day changes in snake features, those murky green scales, and the… feral form. All of that points to one thing.” He made direct eye contact with Jay, who felt a cold chill run down his spine. “Werefang.”

“Werefang?” echoed everyone.

“So… Jay’s a werewolf?” Kai narrowed his eyes.

“It was a full moon last night,” Zane realized. 

“I thought werewolves are just a legend,” Cole said. “You’re saying they’re real?”

“They used to be real,” Wu explained. “Werefangs were an odd hybrid of the Venomari and Fangpyre tribes, creating the coloring of a swamp-dweller, the ferocity of a night-lover, and the fear factor of both. They unfortunately died out due to the stigma around them, which helped spread the werewolf rumors. 

“Werefangs were characterized by their ability to go into a more bestial form upon a full moon,” he continued. “It made them stronger, but it caused them to lose control. Venomari and Fangpyre were forbidden from meeting for a very long time, I believe, due to the danger of their crossbreed children and the fact that their lifespans tended to be… cut short.” His tone grew mournful, and the others could understand. A danger like that would be hunted down by those who feared them.

Jay felt a hole open in his stomach and he willed it to swallow him whole. “So… am I just gonna be like thisss, forever?” He slammed a hand over his mouth at the hiss. Just another reminder that there’s something deeply wrong with him . He was so damn freaked out.

Master Wu looked unsure. “I am not certain there is a cure. I don’t remember there ever being one.” The pit in Jay’s stomach grew. He sighed and leaned into Nya’s side. She rubbed circles into his back.

“Hey, we’ll figure it out,” Cole said, placing a hand on Jay’s leg. “We’re not just gonna leave you like this forever.”

“And we’re buying you a heat lamp,” Kai added, moving to put a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “I’m not being your personal heater again.”

Jay blushed. “Wh-what does that mean?”

“You two were cuddling,” Lloyd giggled. 

Kai squawked. “I only did it so that Jay’s weird snake brain would feel good, alright? He’s the one that fell asleep on my lap!”

“Took a photo,” Lloyd smirked, showing Jay his phone. 

His stomach vacated his body into that hole it’s been digging when he saw a monster in the image. He subconsciously reached to grab at the messed up gi on him, noting where unnatural spines erupted and tore the material. His eyes didn’t leave the image. That can’t be him that’s not him it can’t be it can’t it can’t it can’t-

A warm hand on his head cut him out of his thoughts, and he groaned, dropping his head onto the table. Great. Fucking great. He was a weresnake. As if almost dying to a giant world-eating snake wasn’t enough. “This is fucked.”

His sentiment was met with nods. A mug of tea was handed to him, and he was very glad that he didn’t see a monster in the reflection.

Chapter Text

The rest of the previous day was spent recovering from Jay’s transformation and gathering the necessary things for the apartment. Toiletries, clothes, and groceries. Injuries were patched up and everyone looked fine (other than the constantly guilty look on Jay’s face).

The next day, everyone was ready to go find jobs. Actual rent-paying jobs for their very expensive apartment. Everyone had some concerns - they were still kids, but they couldn’t just not pay rent. Even with Wu’s insistence of not forcing the teens to work, they decided to find some way to afford this apartment. 

The real challenge was finding a way around Jago City’s labor laws. Unfortunately, 14 year olds were not normally old enough to work. With the age of work being either 15 or 16, depending on the location, none of the ninja could legally pass those standards (other than Zane, but he didn’t have legal papers of any sort). Which left the ninja trying to figure out what exactly they could do.

The answer came in the form of shady bosses. While it wasn’t the best or safest strategy, it would still get them money. Jay found a small pizza place that was willing to let him drive around and drop off pizzas for cheap (the boss REALLY didn’t care), Zane started working in the back of a fast food kitchen, and Nya found an internship at a mechanic’s shop that would be willing to pay if she showed promise. 

Kai and Cole took a different tactic - using their status as ninja to their advantage. Cole managed to convince a bank to let him guard it from any robbers, and Kai took a more freelance career - birthday party cameos. Turns out, enough kids found him cool to want him at parties, and he could charge their parents tons of money (but not enough) for an appearance and further tricks. 

And at first, it all seemed to go well. Jay didn’t look too snakey if he put on a big coat and a beanie, which meant the people he gave pizzas to didn’t care, and neither did his boss. Zane was like a machine back in the kitchen, cooking perfect fries and burgers. Nya was finally getting paid for her work, excitedly toiling over cars and bikes. Cole had stopped a couple of robbers, which gave him a bit of a raise and some trust. And kids were very happy to see the Red Ninja at their parties, which was great! Even Wu was getting some cash on the side, even if no one knew where he got it from.

(He wasn’t creating it out of nowhere, mind you. He was helping Mystake at her store. It’s the least he could do, for his loyalty to her.)

Day after day, they came home absolutely exhausted . Lloyd kept looking up, hope in his eyes, only for it to be dashed every time. The ninja just went straight to bed after work, or played a game or two before passing out. They collected tips, or paychecks, or any spare cash they were given, and put it in a large jar. Lloyd, most of the time, was left to train on his own, or just under the supervision of a ninja or Wu. 

And after a while, the jobs started getting worse. Jay stopped getting tipped, no one was robbing Cole’s bank (though that’s a good thing, really), Zane had to force his body to work on overdrive to keep up with rushes, Nya did more and more dangerous fixes for parts she didn’t fully understand, and Kai… he was getting tortured by children. He didn’t want to talk about it.

Almost a month into being employed, everyone was having the worst fucking time. Lloyd, the only member of the team who was not suffering, was about to join them when he looked over at his exhausted teammates and missed the punching bag sending him down to the floor. Now his face hurts.

“My feet- I can't feel my feet,” Cole panted, his feet submerged in a tub of ice water. 

Kai collapsed on the couch, staring hollowly at the ceiling. “There were so many of them. And they wouldn't stop.” Dirt and chocolate were caked all over his gi and face.

Nya tightened another bandage around her arm. “We’re running out of painkillers,” she groaned. 

Zane dripped some motor oil into his arm. “Ugh, my gears locked up several times,” he frowned, shifting around his arm so the oil went all the way through. “I didn't even know my gears could lock up.”

“I don't even have enough energy to play video gamesss,” Jay complained. They half-heartedly reached for a controller, but gave up halfway through and collapsed. 

Lloyd emerged from the training room, a frown on his face. “Oh, but I thought you were going to train me when you got home!”

“Sorry, champ, but we can't until we make rent,” Cole grimaced. He turned to the collapsed blue ninja. “How close are we, Jay?”

They were the closest to the jar, and their eyes widened when they saw they were nowhere close to the line at the top. “Is thisss jar getting fucking bigger!?” they exclaimed. “We’re not even clossse!”

Zane’s face scrunched up. “And our rent is due in three days.”

“Three days!? Motherfuckerrrrrrr that’s not good,” Nya said, pressing her face into a pillow.

“I can pull a double shift,” Cole sighed. “Stay there all night.”

“And I can do overtime,” Zane agreed, though his twitching arm disagreed.

“I can try and sssling sssome more pizza-piesss,” Jay grumbled, “but I think my bossss is catching onto my ssscales. Let’sss just hope I don’t get fired.”

“I need to convince my boss to let me work on something more advanced,” Nya groaned.

“And maybe I can make a little extra if I do the human piñata,” Kai added. When everyone sent him a confused and horrified look, he just dropped his head in his hands. “Don’t ask.”

“Great, then our priorities are set,” Cole weakly raised a fist. “Tomorrow… we make rent.”

A round of weak cheers followed. Lloyd wasn’t satisfied, however, and squawked his disapproval. “What about me?!”

Cole looked back at his mostly-melted ice bath. “How about you help out and fetch me some more ice, huh?”

Lloyd glared up at the black ninja. “And what about training me?”

“I’m sure Garmadon can wait, like, an extra few months for you to start training,” Nya shrugged. “He’s already been gone for a whole month, what’s a few more? You’re still a kid, you don’t have to start now.”

“Yea, and what are you guys?” Lloyd stomped his foot, crossing his arms. “You’re all kids too!”

They tried not to think about how they were, indeed, kids. “We don’t have much of a choice,” Kai said, softly. “You still have a childhood.”

“I never did,” Lloyd snapped, then turned around and retreated back into the training room, slamming the door closed. Everyone grimaced.

“Maybe we shouldn’t worry about training him,” Jay suggested. “We’re already ssstressed enough as isss.”

“Garmadon might not be as patient as us,” Zane countered. 

“I wish he didn’t need to do this,” Kai frowned. “Maybe Garmadon is gonna wait a few years. Kid’s barely eight, he can’t be training at such a young age.”

“Tell me about it. Jay and I are only 13,” Nya shrugged. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be training this young either.”

“Destiny sucks,” Cole said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

If they could defend Lloyd from the ticking clock of destiny, keep him from growing up too fast too soon, they could all grow and get ready for the future. But if Garmadon hurries the hourglass, forces time to run faster…

They either follow Fate’s natural path, or need to catch up. They just hoped that a part of Lloyd wouldn't get left behind.

Like a normal teenagehood was taken from them .

-=-

It was almost a month after Jay first went feral, and they weren’t enjoying the fact that they could see a pattern. The day after the whole weresnake situation, they woke up with barely any scales and a tail that could barely be considered a tail. Sure, they still had fangs and sharp ears, but they looked normal again!

And then they started sprouting scales and growing tails again. It was like the day after going feral was a fluke, a false alarm that maybe, maybe this whole situation could blow over. But with a second full moon creeping in, Jay was very worried about it happening again. And they didn’t know what to do.

Stress was making their pain worse. It was harder to hide their greener features from the public eye. If they gave people pizzas directly, they would be met with fear, so they didn’t. They just dropped off the pizza at the door, with no tips to be collected, and left as soon as possible. 

Jay’s boss wasn’t helping matters, either. With a suspicious glare at the blanket covering the back of Jay’s bike (and their tail), he looked back at them and handed them a stack of pizzas. “21st and Union. Get it there in time, or else it's on you. You have five minutes.”

“Five minutes?!” Jay exclaimed, trying their best to suppress a hiss. “I’ll never make it acrossss town in that time!”

“Then I guess it comes out of your pocket,” their boss sneered. “Now get going!”

He turned around and slammed the door to the pizza place shut, and Jay grimaced. Why the fuck was there a time limit now? Fuck, alright, great. Thankfully, they still had their motorbike, which meant speed . They revved the engine and took off across town, tail wrapped around the pizzas to keep them safe. 

They drove through traffic, underneath a truck that decided red lights were a suggestion, and weaved around cars that were just a bit too slow for them. But they cursed when they heard, distantly, a cry for help. Looking through their side mirror, they saw a woman get pulled into an alleyway. 

Oh, these pizzas can fucking wait. Jay spun their bike around and gunned for the alleyway, stopping for just a moment to assess the situation. Three guys surrounded a woman, a purse in one of their hands. She was cowering from them as the guys looked through her purse.

Jay narrowed their eyes and revved their engine, catching the robbers’ attention. “Leave her alone!”

“What are you gonna do, pizza boy?” one of the robbers laughed. 

“Are you guysss ssseriously not afraid of being run over?” Jay deadpanned. “I’m on a motorbike.”

“Like you’re actually gonna do it,” another robber laughed, but Jay just revved their engine again and shot forward. The robbers, predictably, yelped and jumped out of the way. They easily sent a tiny wave of lightning at them as they passed, grabbing the purse with their tail.

Jay slid to a stop, and handed the woman her purse. She looked quickly between him and the fallen robbers, who were trying to get up. Fear at the situation won over everything else, and before Jay could say anything, she shrieked and ran away. 

The robbers seemed unharmed but dazed, in no condition to follow the woman, especially when Jay stood between the running woman and the robbers. Their eyes all widened in fear, and they ran the other direction.

Normally, Jay would have cared, but they were very sleep-deprived. And on a time crunch, so they peeled out of the alleyway, trying to not think about how the woman and robbers definitely saw their snake tail. Shit. Whatever.

They finally arrived at 21st and Union, but were met with nothing. Empty lots and lonely billboards. Only one person was there, tearing an ad off the billboard. “Uh, did you order four pizzas?” Jay asked the worker.

The person shrugged. “Not me.”

Jay frowned. “This isss 21st and Union, right?”

The person raised an eyebrow at the hiss. “Sure is. Hasn’t been much in these parts in a while, though.”

As the person turned back to working on the ad, Jay leaned back and frowned confusedly. Going to the right lot, with even less stuff on it, they scratched their neck in confusion. All that was there was a sewer grate. 

With… sounds coming out from it? Jay took off their helmet to listen closer, and crept closer to the manhole, pizzas in hand. Hushed voices wafted up from the sewer, and Jay cautiously leaned in to see.

Their ears pinned back and eyes grew wide when they saw Fangtom, Skales, and Acidicus - the three Serpentine leaders that never sided with Pythor. What the fuck were they doing in the sewer ?

Unfortunately, their decision to carry the pizzas backfired, and the snakes immediately sniffed out the meal. Fangtom’s left head looked up and made direct eye contact with Jay.

They hissed and stumbled back, tripping over their tail as they tried to move away. It’s not that they were afraid of the leaders, but Jay’s been having some pretty bad snake issues as of late. The Serpentine knew that the Blue Ninja was somewhat serpentine from the last time they met. And this was Jay right now, not the Blue Ninja.

Their stumble cost them, as something very strong grabbed onto their arms and torso. They looked back to see a Constrictai, sleek black scales and orange accents shining in the sun. They didn’t look like the other Constrictai leader, so either that guy got demoted, or they dealt with him another way. And judging by the tight squeeze that was held around Jay’s midsection by the snake’s naga-like tail body, they were gonna deal with Jay too.

The Constrictai, holding onto Jay, jumped down into the sewers. They grabbed a ladder rung at the last second and landed with a loud thud. “We got a ssspy,” they said. 

“I- I wasss jussst delivering your pizzas-” Jay hissed.

The other leaders’ eyes widened, especially one of Fangtom’s heads, as the Fangpyre slid down the ladder with their pizzas. “Vait-” “-aren’t you-”

“How much did you hear?” Skales rose up on his tail, glaring at Jay.

They struggled in the Constrictai’s grip. “Nothing! Didn’t hear anything!” It wasn’t like they were lying , they only heard hisses.

Acidicus hissed something, which sounded vaguely like a sentence Jay couldn’t understand. Was that their weird snake language?

“Let them go, Boida,” Fangtom said.

The Constrictai - Boida, apparently - shifted, but reluctantly loosened their grip. “Didn’t you get the inssstructionsss, kid? We sssaid to leave the pizzasss by the manhole!”

Jay scowled when they realized their boss left out that part of the request. “Didn’t get the memo. Lisssten, I’m jussst gonna leave, and-”

“Oh, ignore Boida,” Fangtom shrugged. “She gets cranky vhen hungry.” One head leaned in, tongue flicking out to sniff around Jay, who flinched away. “Sssay, don’t ve know you?”

Jay’s heart caught in their throat. “Nnnno?” 

Fangtom didn’t look impressed. One head shook as the other blinked at them slowly. “No, no, ve do know you. You vere that boy-” “-at the amusement park, no? You vere-” “-bit by one of usss-” “-changing-” “-becoming Serpentine.” “One of usss. ”

Jay inched towards the ladder as best they could, but the bulky Constrictai blocked their path. “Wasssn’t that the Blue Ninja?” Jay tried to counter. 

“ You’re the Blue Ninja?” Skales snorted. “You really are jussst a kid.”

Jay’s face heated up, either from embarrassment or from anger. “I’m not a fucking kid!” Lightning loosely sparked around their hands. “Maybe I am the Blue Ninja-” no use backing down from the lie, they were already caught, “-but that just means I’m more ready to kick butt!”

The Serpentine were silent, tongues flicking out to sniff the air. Eventually, Acidicus sighed and tilted his head. “And you’re sure you heard nothing of what we sssaid?”

“Not a word,” Jay said, fumbling back for the ladder. A pair of strong arms grabbed onto them again, and they struggled to get out. 

“And not a word’s gonna get out,” Boida hissed into their ear. 

“I thought we were chill!” Jay shrieked angrily. “We helped your people essscape the Great Devourer! We sssaved the world from that thing!”

“And we’re grateful for that,” Skales began, his voice steady and not revealing anything. “But we cannot survive on wild animals alone. Living in civilization is not perfect and free.”

Jay’s mind spun as they thought about the implications of those words. “You’re not gonna do anything illegal, right?” they asked warily. “Cuz if you do, me and the other ninja are gonna ssstop you.”

“Oh, nothing like that,” Boida laughed. It was deep and boisterous. “We’re just gonna make a quick withdrawal.”

Jay had to laugh to get some tension out. “Ssso, I guessss I’m not getting that tip?” They blinked. “Did you even pay at all?”

“Doesn’t really matter, now does it?” Skales tilted his head condescendingly. Jay struggled against the Constrictai’s grip, but their hands were carefully kept away from any Serpentine. So there was little they could do when a rattle echoed around the tunnel. 

As Skales’ eyes began to swirl, and a fog began to take over Jay’s brain, they heard Fangtom’s voice poke through the haze. “Come down here tomorrow night at midnight.” “Ve can give you answersss.”

That was the last thing Jay heard before succumbing to the Hypnobrai’s hypnosis. They went limp in Boida’s hold, gently looking up with red-swirled eyes. 

“What’sss the best way into the Jago City Central Bank?” Skales asked.

The blue ninja hummed. “Might be hard. Cole’s guarding it.”

“Cole?” Boida asked, letting go of the hypnotized boy. 

“Must be one of the other ninja,” Acidicus reasoned. He frowned and turned to look at Fangtom. “Why the sssudden interessst? You asssked to meet them again.”

Fangtom’s heads exchanged a quick glance. “They seem like-” “-one of usss, now.” “But not quite.” “Ve believe ve know vhat they are-” “and ve’re sure they vant answersss.”

Skales sighed. “Fair enough, I suppose.” He turned to Jay. “Stay still, won’t you? We can’t have you running off, now.”

Jay sat down obediently, and Boida quickly tied them up with some rope. Now they won’t interrupt them when they make a little… withdrawal. Money makes the world go round, and they didn’t want to straight up rob small businesses. They needed to pay for food, clothing, anything that could help them out. The Serpentine were struggling, after all.

And so the leader Serpentine went through the subway systems (after some guidance from Jay, who they left at the entrance to the subway for the hypnosis to wear off at Skales’ command), making their way to the bank. 

-=-

At the bank, Cole was definitely not asleep. Pulling a double overnight shift was horrible for him, apparently, because he kept dozing off. His boss gave him a jumpscare a few times, though he woke up quickly enough to pass it off as being lost in thought. 

A hissing noise caught his attention at some point when he was nodding off, and he blearily opened his eyes to see a group of Serpentine entering the building. “Hhhey, you can’t be here,” he said, frowning and approaching the snakes. “What are you doing here?”

The snakes exchanged worried looks, before Skales licked the air and tilted his head towards the back of the bank. Oh yea, they weren’t at the front door, were they? “We’re just here to make a withdrawal,” he said easily.

Oh, the snakes were just here to get some money. That makes sense. “Yea, sure, alright,” Cole shrugged. “You guys got an account here or something?” His eyes were blurry. That’s probably not good.

“Certainly,” Skales nodded. “We need sssome cash, to keep our people safe and healthy.”

Cole nodded. “Makes sense, okay.” Then, he got a thought, and narrowed his eyes. “Wait, you’re not lying to me, are you?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Skales said. His companions seemed to have gone missing. How weird! Where’d they go? They must’ve gone to collect the money. 

“Yea, cuz we’re all cool and stuff,” Cole decided, yawning. “I get it, being a leader’s toughhh and you’re probably stressed.”

As Cole began to ramble about the challenges of leadership, Boida leaned in to Skales’ ear. “Your hypnosis is some powerful ssstuff.”

“I didn’t hypnotize him,” Skales said, sending an unimpressed look Cole’s way. “Thisss is just good old-fashioned sssleep deprivation.”

Boida cringed. “Yikesss.” She spotted Acidicus and Fangtom returning with handfuls of cash. “Well, thanks a lot, kid.”

“Ah yea, no problem,” Cole yawned, waving the snakes off. They vanished back into the shadows. He vaguely heard something about a subway before they disappeared.

It was about twenty minutes later when he realized he majorly fucked up. His boss stormed up to him, angrily, and pointed at the place the snakes just were. “You just let us get robbed!”

Cole blinked. When’d that happen?

“Just now!” his boss yelled. Oh, he said that one out loud. His boss glared harder. “You just let four snakes waltz in here and steal hundreds of dollars in cash!”

That made no sense. “They didn’t steal it,” Cole frowned, suppressing a yawn. “They came in and politely asked for it. For a… uh, withdrawal.”

“And you believed them!?” the bank manager shrieked, disbelief etching into every one of his wrinkles. “That’s it, this whole thing you’ve got here is done! ”

This seemed to wake Cole up, as he blinked away sleep and squinted at his boss. “Whoa, whoa, wait, huh? ”

“You let four snakes -” the man spat in disgust “-rob our business blind, and did nothing to stop them! In fact, I’ve been noticing you slacking off on the job as of late, and I’ve had it up to here with that hero complex of yours!”

Cold dread washed through his veins, thoroughly waking him up. “H-hold on, I'll make it up to you, I swear!”

When he yawned, the motion cutting off his last word, his boss scowled. “Hmmm, no. Why don't you go home and get a good night's rest, and go ahead and sleep in. In fact, sleep in all day for all I care, because YOU’RE FIRED!”

Before Cole could reply, his (former) boss whipped around and stalked back into the bank, leaving him alone and tired in the bank lobby, with multiple sets of eyes on him. The cold feeling settled in his gut and his skin flushed in harsh contrast. That… was bad.

Similarly, on the other side of Jago City, Kai grumbled as he held a cluster of balloons. This sucked. He usually thrived under attention, but the kids had gotten this idea in their heads that they could do anything to him and he wouldn’t retaliate. He’s obviously not gonna hurt kids, but he’s so tired. He’s just so, so tired.

His tired grumbles were cut off by a police siren, winding its way towards the center of the city. Several cars charged through the streets. 

A rush of adrenaline suddenly sparked in Kai’s chest. “Trouble? Sounds like they need me!”

As he turned to sneak away from the party, the mom of today’s snot-nosed brat whipped around and grabbed him by the collar. “Not so fast, I still have you for another hour!”

Kai looked at her incredulously. “Lady, people could be in serious trouble.”

“And? My son’s party is more important!” the woman huffed, turning to look at her son. 

To her chagrin, the kid got a big smile on his face. “Go, Red, go! Defeat those bad guys!”

“And I said we’re not done with the party yet!” she scolded, then turned back to the Red Ninja.

Only to be met with a bunch of balloons in her hand. Looking around, she quickly spotted a cherry red blur moving down the street. She growled and stomped her foot. “And get lost! Consider yourself fired! I’ll be telling the Facepage mom group about you!”

She ignored the sounds of her son and his friends cheering the ninja on. This just won’t do.

At yet another part of Jago City, Zane felt like she was on the brink of a malfunction. Her body was overworked, and her limbs were twitching and moving erratically. She tried to school her tremors, but a stray spark from her wrist told her to not push it. 

Idly, she heard one of her coworkers gossipping to another coworker. “I just passed by the bank,” they said, “and there’s like 5 cop cars there. I heard someone stole a whole bunch of money.”

“No!” the other coworker gasped. “Seriously?”

As focused as Zane suddenly was on this conversation, she missed when her arm moved on its own and some weight was shifted from her spatula. Only when someone cleared their throat behind her did she notice what she did. Her boss stood there, a fried egg on his head. He leveled an irate glare at her, and she shrunk back. “I- uh, I’m sorry-” she stammered.

“You’re FIRED!” her boss screamed. “You’ve messed up orders, been horrible at the front counter, and you’ve just been generally weird!”

Zane became vaguely aware of smoke escaping from some part of her as she began to overheat. “It- it must be my h-hard drive overh-h-heating-” she said, before realizing that her boss didn’t know she was a nindroid. She tore off the apron she wore (thank the First Master, that was uncomfortable as hell). “I mean- nevermind. I’m going.”

She ran out of the restaurant, not bothering to listen to the angry screams behind her. She just had to get to the bank.

Thankfully, Zane was only a block away from the bank, and she was relieved to see Kai and Cole, both in their ninja gi, sitting on the front steps, talking to some cops. Cole was draped atop Kai’s shoulder, looking like he was asleep. Zane fished out a spare white hood-mask she kept on her for emergencies, and pulled it on, approaching the others. “Gentlemen,” she greeted. 

Kai visibly brightened at the sight of her. He looked back at the cop interviewing him. “Are we all done here? We’ve got ninja business to take care of.”

The cop blinked, not expecting Zane’s appearance, then nodded. “That should be all, thank you.”

They left, and Zane tilted her head. “What happened? I heard that the bank got robbed.”

“Yea, cuz C- Black let the robbers in,” Kai rolled his eyes. He still used Cole’s code name, since the police officers were in earshot. “Rolled out a red carpet and everything.”

“I didn’t realize they were robbing it,” Cole grumbled. He looked like he was running on barely an hour of sleep, if even. “I thought we were cool with the Serpentine.”

Zane frowned. “I cannot imagine that is good for the bank.”

“Nope, they fired me,” Cole snorted. He blinked slowly at the bank, grimacing.

“I don’t think I can work as a party boy anymore,” Kai groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ran from the party with an angry mom.”

“I suppose we are all the same, then,” Zane nodded. “I, too, got fired just now.”

“Why are we so bad at having jobs?” Cole grumbled.

“Maybe cuz we’re teenage superheroes?” Kai shrugged. “I dunno.”

“It appears that Jay and Nya have, thus far, not been fired from their jobs,” Zane noticed. “Perhaps they are more competent than us.”

Kai snorted. “Jay? Competent? Unlikely.”

“Nya is, though,” Cole added, yawning. “‘S fine, I hated this job anyway.”

“Do you think we should, perhaps, follow the thieves?” Zane asked.

“It’s been half an hour,” Cole shook his head. “They’re long gone by now.”

“Great,” Kai frowned. “What now?”

“We go home,” Zane suggested, “and get some rest. Perhaps we can search for more jobs tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” Kai stretched, his back popping. 

The three set out to their apartment, but were stopped at some angry ranting. A man screaming into his phone in front of a little pizza joint. Zane’s eyes widened slightly when she recognized it as Jay’s place of work. She motioned to the others to halt, and they all listened in to the rant.

“I swear to the First One above,” the man growled, “that kid is fired if he ever comes back!” The ninja exchanged shocked looks. “Vanishing like that after not even getting the payment for four whole pizzas, does this place look like a charity?! Fucking ridiculous!”

Zane frowned and pulled her mask off, quickly waving the other two into the shadows. She approached the angry man, who shoved his phone in his pocket. “Um, excuse me, sir?” she said.

The man turned to her and scowled. “Not in the mood right now, kid.”

“My friend works here,” Zane explained, ignoring the man’s tone of voice. “Is everything alright?”

The man snorted and rolled his eyes. “Uh, your friend worked here. Kid’s fired . He went out to deliver four pizzas that the customers said will be paid upon delivery, but he just up and vanished into thin air! No money, no pizzas, no Walker.”

“When did they go missing?” Zane asked, urgency entering her voice.

“‘Bout two hours ago,” the man grumbled. “If you see that weirdo again, let him know he can stay missing. I don’t ever wanna see his face again.” Continuing to grumble under his breath, the man turned around and slammed the door to the pizzeria.

Zane heard Cole and Kai walk up behind her. “Jay’s missing?” Kai asked, worry etched into his tone.

“Guess they couldn’t keep their job, either,” Cole frowned. “But where are they?”

-=-

Jay woke up in the subway, alone. Alarmed, they thrashed around, but the ropes around their wrists and arms and ankles stopped them from going too far. They stopped struggling, breathing heavily, alone in an abandoned subway tunnel. They took a deeper breath to try and calm themself, and decided to remember what happened.

Oh. They were hypnotized by Skales. The leader Serpentine were gonna go do something illegal, possibly rob the bank. They didn’t remember what they said when they were hypnotized, but it couldn’t have been good. 

Most likely, they’ve been out for a while, possibly hours. They couldn’t see any clock, or a window up to the outside, but they just kind of knew they’ve been out for a while. 

…Their boss wasn’t going to be happy. Were they fired? 

Fired, most likely. Separated from their team. Working overtime for someone who didn’t give a shit about him, all for nothing. Doing nothing but collecting rent for an apartment they could barely afford to keep. Not given a moment of time to rest, or train, or even exist . Stress building up in their veins until they collapsed. The Serpentine, hypnotizing, kidnapping, and doing who knows what afterwards. 

A certain kind of rage built up in Jay’s chest and they growled deep in their throat. Lightning surged through their nerves, a storm brewing in their lungs. None of this was fair. They were kids. They were just fucking kids. Trying to make their way in the world that wasn’t fair to them, and taking more than they could give. Garmadon was a looming threat on the horizon. They couldn’t pay rent, their jobs working them down to their bones. Lloyd, left alone at home more often than not. 

The storm continued to brew, and sparks of cyan blue arced from Jay’s arms. Their rage fueled the charge, and they felt the sparks travel through them. 

This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t fucking fair -

With a rumble of thunder and a blast of power, the ropes holding onto Jay exploded. They yelped and instinctively ducked and covered, jumping away from the blast. Or, rather, away from the place they just were. They breathed, quickly and heavily. Whoa.

Blue sparks of lightning still lingered in the subway tunnel. Thunder echoed down the tunnel, like a faraway storm. Jay stared at the fried ropes, and at their trembling hands. Tiny lightning-shaped pale marks stretched up their skin. Their eyes widened. Shit. 

They were immediately startled out of their thoughts when their phone started ringing. They pulled it out of their pocket, and flipped it open. Cole’s name showed up on the screen, and they hit the accept call button. “Cole?” they greeted. Their voice was shaky and slightly rough.

“Jay! Thank the First Master,” Cole’s voice filtered through the phone. “Dude, where are you?”

“Sssubway,” Jay said. “Did I get fired?”

There was silence on the other end of the line, then a sigh. “Yea, bud.”

Jay just sighed deeply. “Expected that.”

“We all got fired,” Cole added.

“ALL OF YOU?!” Jay exclaimed. 

“All except Nya, as far as we’re aware,” Cole grumbled. “What station are you at? We’ll come get you.”

“The abandoned part, where we first saw that big Ssserpentine meeting, remember?” Jay looked at a sign and tried to calculate where they were. “Down 7th and Kirby.”

“We’ll meet you there, then?” Cole asked. A muffled noise of him repeating the directions to the others sounded from the other line.

Jay growled, still feeling some of the frustration from earlier. “I can walk.”

“...Go up 7th, then,” Cole decided. “We’ll meet you on the way.”

That sounded more reasonable. “Sure.” They snapped their phone closed. Ok, Jay, time to take some deep breaths. No use being angry at the others. Their tail lashed. Their hands still shook. They tried to shake off their stress, and ascended up the steps to the entry of the subway. 

-=-

On the other side of Jago City, Lloyd was extremely bored. He was home alone, and he had nothing to do. Everyone else was away at work, even Wu, and Sprout the dragon was away flying, equally as pent up. But Lloyd didn’t want to go outside to an arcade or something, cuz that required money. Money he didn’t have. 

And he didn’t want to train right now. The ninja and Uncle Wu haven’t been training him at all, this past month, and he’s been home alone and bored. Training on his own proved to be kind of pointless, since he kept falling on his tail or injuring himself somehow, so he just tried to do the basic stretches the ninja managed to teach him. 

So he was stuck playing video games, idly destroying pots in the RPG that the apartment already had. He sighed. This whole situation sucked.

But then, in the light of the setting sun, he caught something odd. Out of the corner of his eye, there was movement in the giant floor-to-ceiling windows. At first, he thought it may just be a bird, but a quick glance over made Lloyd’s blood run cold.

A Serpentine skeleton, riding one of those skyscraper window-washer stations. As Lloyd paled, backing away into the couch, the skeleton grinned and wiggled their fingers hello. “Hey there, kiddo!” they rattled.

Lloyd screamed and tore off the couch, sprinting for the door out of the apartment. “Help me!” he yelled, hoping that anyone could hear. Skeletons and snakes only meant one thing - his father was near. And the awful grin the skeleton snake sported was not friendly in the least.

He pounded against the door activator, a little panel in the wall by the door. Its shitty little screen said it was locked, and the voice that came from it said the same thing. “Door is locked,” it said, like Lloyd didn’t fucking know that already.

No amount of pulling on the doors would get them to budge, and only caused the panel to repeat itself. “Door is locked.”

“I KNOW!” Lloyd snapped, wiggling the door harder. “I want it open!”

A horrible shriek forced Lloyd’s hands over his ears. Turning around to the source of the noise, he saw the snake skeleton had carved a hole in the glass with a particularly sharp sword. They stepped inside, purple and red robes dragging behind them. They had some pointy ivory armor, accentuating their bony appearance. The glass they cut out crashed around them, and crunched underfoot.

“Your father cares an awful lot about you, kid,” the skeleton began. The hollow dark pits of their sockets contained a single pinprick of pink light each, staring down at Lloyd. “He’d like you to be safe. I can take you to safety.”

“Who are you!?” Lloyd yelled, backing away into the door. 

“Oh, my apologies,” the skeleton tipped his head. “I am General Tebraeus, currently working under your father.” His eyes met Lloyd’s. “Lord Garmadon wants you back. You may be safe under his care.”

“I- I’m the Green Ninja!” Lloyd said. He could feel himself begin to hyperventilate. “I’m supposed to defeat my dad!”

“I’m sure Fate can wait,” Tebraeus tutted. “In your father’s arms, I’m sure it will wait longer.”

On one hand, Lloyd wanted to fit in his father’s hug again. To not worry about destiny. But he knew that he was being kidnapped, here. The ninja wouldn’t survive Garmadon’s wrath, and he’d probably do anything to keep Lloyd away from Fate.

So when he heard footsteps outside the door, he immediately screamed “HELP!” 

Wu’s voice greeted him. “Lloyd? Are you alright?” 

“There’s a skeleton snake in here trying to kidnap mE-” Lloyd was cut off when Tebraeus’ sword plunged into the wall beside him. Lloyd yelped and ducked out of the way, running further into the apartment. Cackles and the rattle of bones echoed after him as he ran, and a few seconds later, there was a huge blast-  

-=-

The ninja stood like zombies in the elevator as it brought them all the way up to their fancy suite. They felt and looked like shit, and they were ready to call it a day and pass out for a few days. But they knew they couldn’t rest. Their rent was nowhere near filled, and they were completely out of energy. This fucking sucked.

But when the elevator doors opened and they saw the destroyed front doors of their apartment, something cold and sick settled in their guts. They ran in and found the apartment dark and empty. “Lloyd?!” Kai yelled. 

No response. “He’s not here,” Zane realized, looking around the living room. Evident signs of a struggle were all around, including various weapons. 

“Oh, we shouldn't have left him,” Cole lamented, peeking into the kitchen. 

Kai sighed after leaning his head out of the training room. “We shouldn’t have taken those jobs in the first place,” he said. “They left us nothing but tired, unable to fight, and unable to train him. And now he’s gone.”

“We should’ve been here to protect him,” Jay groaned. “We’re sssupposed to be his protectorsss, or whatever, right?”

Kai, already bitten by this once, shrunk into himself. “Forget getting fired. Losing Lloyd was our greatest loss.”

“But it could be your greatest lesson,” Wu’s voice suddenly pierced their anxieties. They all whipped around to see Wu, with Lloyd clutched close to his side. The kid immediately unlatched himself from Wu’s side and ran up to the ninja, who opened their arms to envelop him in a big hug.

“Lloyd!” they all cheered at once. 

“You're okay!” Kai smiled in great relief, checking Lloyd over for any injuries. He frowned when he saw some cuts by his hands.

“I almost wasn’t,” Lloyd shook his head, and buried his face in the closest ninja’s chest, which just so happened to be Cole. “I almost got kidnapped by a snake skeleton.”

Kai’s eyes widened in recognition, but his thoughts were cut off by Wu. “I arrived just in time to prevent that from happening,” he said, “but I could have been too late. I believe our desire to give Lloyd a good place to stay overshadowed your ability to protect him.”

The ninja all grimaced and looked up at Wu. “We’re sorry,” they said in unison.

“We don’t actually need any of this fancy stuff,” Cole said, smiling gently. “We just needed each other.”

“Sap,” Jay rolled their eyes.

At that moment, they all heard footsteps, and everyone looked up to see Nya run into the apartment, looking around the place. “What the fuck happened?!”

“Lloyd almost got kidnapped again,” Jay said, their face slack and deadpan. 

“We also all lost our jobs,” Zane added.

Nya blinked. “I take a couple of extra work hours for one day and everything falls apart.”

“You didn’t get fired?” Kai asked.

“I got promoted,” Nya shook her head. “Not much, but my boss thinks I’ve got potential, so I’ll stick around.” Then, she groaned. “Do we have to go find another place to live now?”

Cole suddenly brightened. “I think I have just the place!”

-=-

“It's not much, but this one-bedroom, one-half-bath is a cozy dream,” Cole echoed the realtor from a month ago as he showed off the shitty little apartment to the others. “Who needs extras when everything is in arm's reach?”

The ninja, with boxes of things in their arms, trudged into the apartment. It’s going to be a tough squeeze, with so many of them here, but their options were low, and this would do for now.

Lloyd accidentally bumped against Jay’s elbow as he moved by with a box of stuff, causing them to yelp and drop their own box, right on top of Kai’s foot, who yelled and clutched his foot, hopping around with several noises of pain escaping his mouth. And swears.

As everyone chuckled at his misfortune, Jay smiled. “Hah, feels like home to me.”

A warm sort of feeling settled over everyone. Home wasn’t a physical space that was good enough to live in. Home was being with people that cared, no matter what the circumstances or surroundings were. 

Nya placed down a pile of her stuff on one of the roll-out futons. “Hey, at least we get to stay in Jago City for a little while,” she said.

“And now without work to drain us,” Zane continued, “we can put more energy into training Lloyd. After all, Garmadon has clearly returned to the city.”

“Yea, since that Tebraeus guy came after me,” Lloyd grumbled. “Dad’s probably back.”

“So we can’t waste any more time not training you,” Cole decided. “You need to be ready, if Garmadon’s forces want to kidnap you again.”

“Let’s not train him too hard,” Nya suggested. “He’s still young. Growing bodies can’t be stunted too hard with intense training, I’ve heard.”

Wu nodded. “Of course. His training will be paced evenly, so he will only become the Green Ninja officially when Fate decides it is time. Which, hopefully, my brother does not rush.”

“He won’t, if he knows what’s good for him,” Kai growled. He watched over Lloyd carefully, he and Zane supporting the heavy box he was carrying from the other side. 

“He surely won’t think of harming his son,” Wu shook his head. “He can wait. He will. He is patient.”

At that reassurance, everyone relaxed and got to work making this shitty apartment a home. And it could be, with all of them inside. 

-=-

Lord Garmadon was tired of being patient. Evil churned in his veins as he stared down the pit of lava in the core of the Golden Peaks. The birthplace of the Golden Weapons, which he held in each of his hands. The buzz of power emanating from them rushed through his nerves as he steeled himself for what he was about to do.

In about a week and a half, Garmadon would return to Jago City, and one of his new minions would go to attempt to kidnap Lloyd. But now, he was busy with a monumental task. 

To create something new from the bones and flesh of the original four Golden Weapons. 

He could sense the army he formed standing behind him. Watching his every move. Might as well give them a show . He raised his arms and the Golden Weapons up to the sky. He channeled the power of the dragons, the innate sense of Creation held dormant within him, and mixed it with his own power of Destruction. To create from that which is to be destroyed. 

The weapons began to glow as gold and violet energy swirled around his hands and the weapons. He felt every surge of energy come with his breaths. In, out. Surge, flow. Ancient gold melted in his hands. He pushed them together, willing for something to come out of the decimation of creation. 

The weapons began to meld. Energy, golden and violet and vibrant green , swirled around Garmadon, flowing through and around him, and into the mass he held in his hands. They moved, as if of their own accord, molding and shaping the weapons into something greater. 

Something worthy of Creation itself. 

When the power and lights faded, and the army behind Garmadon could open their eyes, everyone bore witness to the power of Becoming. A beautiful staff was held aloft by Garmadon, his four hands clutching it tightly. It had a long shaft, the remnant of the Scythe, with a set of powerfully curved points at the top from the Sword, fanned out fractals from the Shurikens, and a thick top from the body of the Nunchaku. Lightning, Ice, Fire, and Earth danced around the top of the staff, showering their power down upon its wielder.

“...Your Eminence, are you alright?” someone asked in the crowd. 

Garmadon took a knee, trying to support the massive amount of strain suddenly on his body. The energy that Creation took from him was taxing, but it was worth it. As he panted, he grinned, all teeth and victory. “Never better.” He stood up, using the staff as an aid. He turned back around to his army and held his chin up high. “Now, to defeat those ninja, to reclaim my son, and to stop Destiny’s hand… once and for all! Jago will be mine!”

As the skeletons and snakes cheered around him, Garmadon smiled. A little bit of good burned away in his heart. 

Far away, far from the eye of most, a clock ticked forward another second.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since the ninja team moved into their new apartment. Their setup was cramped, tight, and claustrophobic, but it already felt more like home than everyone’s individual cramped rooms. With three shoddy bunk beds (and Wu’s futon), there wasn’t much choice in how to sleep, but they were all clumped in a corner, falling asleep to Cole’s loud snoring. 

No longer cursed with jobs, they were free to lounge about the apartment, though there wasn’t much to do. They did manage to grab some spare tech from the Walkers to get at least some kind of entertainment going, Jay and Nya fixing up an old games system to get them some videogames back. Small comforts.

Still, they needed groceries, and the little money Nya was bringing home from her (less stressful) internship and Wu’s work at his friend’s tea shop (which was still a complete mystery to the kids) was helping. So half the team went out for food, while the others stayed inside to help clean up.

“I dunno how long we’re even gonna stay here,” Jay grumbled. “I mean, surely we can get a better apartment, right?”

The full moon came and went, though suspiciously without Jay even being there. He was pretty tight lipped about it, refusing to say where he was. 

“Jay, we’ve checked all over,” Kai groaned, wiping dust off the kitchen counter. “No apartments aside from this and that fancy penthouse.” He shot him a glare. “You could always go back there.”

Jay paled and shook his head. “Absolutely NOT!”

Kai snorted. “Yea, that’s what I thought.”

It was just the two of them working at the house that day. Zane and Cole were out getting food, while Nya and Lloyd were out on the town. Apparently, the greenbean wanted to see Nya’s place of work, and she was more than happy to show him the garage. 

Kai smiled proudly. He was so happy that his sister found something she truly liked. It was always clear, in the old blacksmith’s shop, that she enjoyed building things. Taking scraps of metal to create something functional. Kai mostly did the actual blacksmithing part. But she’d always had a fascination with mechanics, and he was glad that she had an outlet now, with her Samurai X stuff and internship. She was learning so much!

And he was glad she and Jay were getting along. Their brains worked on similar wavelengths, and they clearly liked being with each other. Nya deserved a sweet, caring guy like Jay. Even if he was incredibly obnoxious and loud and absolutely a hazard to be around. Kai had no idea what Nya saw in that grease monkey.

Kai frowned. He hoped that Lloyd would be able to find something to do around the city, because the kid had been itching to train, and a tiny apartment like this wouldn’t cut it. Maybe he could distract himself with Nya’s awesome mechanic skills, or something-

His thoughts were interrupted by the door to the apartment slamming open and Lloyd rushing in. His face was blotchy and red and he was breathing heavily. 

Before either Kai or Jay could react, Lloyd groaned and threw himself into bed. His covers were black, with small yellow stars. They also now had his fists balled into the sheets, and a low grumble into the mattress.

Nya opened the door a few seconds later, out of breath. “Jeez, kid, you- you run… fast.” She leaned against the doorframe, shutting the door behind her.

“What happened??” Jay was the first to react, going over to stabilize his girlfriend. 

She accepted his hand with a grunt. “Some punks tried to bully Lloyd. Called him- some really mean stuff.” 

“Explains why he’s so upset,” Jay frowned, glancing at Lloyd. Kai had already made his way to the bed, providing a gentle weight while not intruding on his space.

“That’s the weird part,” Nya murmured, keeping her voice down so that only Jay could hear it. Kai could pick up on it too, and decided that Lloyd wasn’t paying attention, with the pillow over his head. “He was upset at first, but when they started getting personal… he shut down.”

“Shut down?” Kai whispered under his breath.

“After he got over it, I had already made my way over and was threatening the guys with a wrench,” Nya continued. “But those pricks wouldn’t leave. And then Lloyd started really cursing them out.”

“Darkleys corrupted this kid’s language,” Jay sighed. “And I thought I was bad.”

“He pulled a knife from somewhere,” Nya cringed, “and pointed it at them. The threat he made… it sounded real.”

The others were silent, looking at the lump of Lloyd on the bed. “You alright, kid?” Kai asked, softly.

“Peachy,” Lloyd replied, pulling his head out of the covers. “Jackasses didn’t know when to stop. They said some real fucked up shit.” He huffed. “I think the trip to the hospital’ll make them reconsider.”

“Did you stab them?!” Kai exclaimed, suddenly very worried.

“No, I hit one on the head with my wrench,” Nya corrected. “They’re fine.”

“I thought we left that shit behind at Darkleys,” Lloyd growled. “All the harassment and bullying. Adults who think they’re better than us. Aren’t we supposed to be, like, heroes?”

“We have private identities,” Kai said. “We can’t control what people think of our civilian identities.”

“Especially when you’re not human,” Jay murmured, covering up the ever-present patch of scales on his hand. The originating wounds that were cursed to always be green. 

Kai sighed. “Let’s let the kid cool off, yea?”

“Yea,” Nya agreed. She certainly remembered how Kai would let her tantrum when she was upset, giving her some space so she could exhaust that anger. Lloyd needed that now.

So Kai hopped off the bed, gently ruffling Lloyd’s hair (and almost missing how he flinched at that), and ushered Nya and Jay away from the bed. 

Eventually, Kai and Jay went back to cleaning the apartment, while Nya left to go fix her Samurai X mech. It still needed some repairwork done. Jay kept sneaking glances over at Lloyd, who was grumpily sitting in bed, messing with the covers. Kai kept trying to force the blue ninja’s gaze away from the kid, but Jay’s natural curiosity won out every time. 

Which did earn him a death glare from the green bean, and Kai definitely did not laugh at that.

Lloyd, at some point, vanished to go to the bathroom, and the others were about done with their cleaning job. Jay groaned, as if he just finished a whole training course and fought skeletons instead of dust. He flopped down on Cole's bunk underneath his and pulled out a controller to boot up some video games.

Kai, meanwhile, was worried about Lloyd. He’d been in the bathroom for a while now, and Kai was beginning to irrationally fear that something happened.

So he knocked on the bathroom door. “Lloyd? You alright in there bud?”

He was met with scrambling noises. Kai frowned. “Uh- everything’s fine!” Lloyd said from the other side of the door.

“Did something fall in there?”

“...I’m picking it up!”

Kai sighed. “Can I come in?”

He was met with silence for a bit, before the door cracked open and a single red eye peeked through. “...Sure.”

The door was left ajar, so Kai took that as a cue to open it a bit further. He blinked at the disheveled hair and hygiene supplies on the sink and floor, clearly knocked over when he had accidentally startled Lloyd.

And speaking of Lloyd… Kai’s eyes naturally went up above the kid’s eyes, to his hair. What had once been a choppy shitty bowlcut was now a spiky, though still choppy and shitty, mohawk. Kai’s hairgel was out on the sink, contents leaking out of the nozzle just slightly.

“So…” Kai started, then just as quickly aborted the sentence. Not much to say when the image speaks louder.

Lloyd blushed and narrowed his eyes threateningly. He was just a pouting kid, but it was the thought that counted. “What?”

“New hair,” Kai managed to say, assessing the mohawk. It wasn’t good by any means, but it wasn’t a complete failure. 

“Yea, and?” Lloyd argued. “Am I suddenly not allowed?”

Kai raised his hands defensively. “Never said that.” He looked annoyedly at his hairgel. “I’d appreciate being asked first before you nab my shit.”

“It was out in the open, your fault for not locking it up,” Lloyd shrugged. “Seems like a you problem.”

This fuckin kid. Where’d he get all the cheek from today? “Don’t touch my hairgel without asking me, okay Lloyd?”

He seemed to freeze for just a moment when Kai said his name, but it was so quick he almost didn’t think about it. “Yea, whatever.”

Good enough. “You all cooled off now that you’re the spikiest thing around?”

“Uh, duh,” Lloyd snorted, attempting to push past Kai to leave the bathroom. He paused. “You’re not, like, mad at me, or whatever, for this, right?”

“Mad? I’m miffed you used my hairgel,” Kai said, capping the gel and putting it away on a top shelf where Lloyd couldn’t reach. “But I’m not mad you wanna experiment with your hair. Do what you want, you’re the Green Ninja, or whatever.”

“Prophesied world savior gets to have a mohawk?” Lloyd chirped with a cheeky grin.

“If that’s what the all-powerful Dark Lord Defeater wants,” Kai teased. He couldn’t exactly ruffle Lloyd’s hair again - it’d stab clean through his hand - but he could give the kid a fist bump, which Lloyd accepted, though notably with less fanfare than usual. “You wanna go play video games and bother Jay?”

“Uh, PLEASE,” Lloyd cackled, running out of the room. Kai barely heard Jay’s yelp from the distance as Lloyd crashed into him and stole his controller. The two squabbled about it for a bit while Kai rolled his eyes and shut the bathroom door, joining them by chilling on the floor.

Lloyd had seemingly won the battle and took over from where Jay just was in the game, who grumbled and scooted back towards his pillow. “What’s with the mountain range on your head?” Jay asked. 

“Trying out something new,” Kai answered for Lloyd, who grunted. Whether that was a confirmation or just him being too focused on the game, he couldn't tell.

“Now you really look like some punk kid on the street,” Jay snarked. “Need to get you a leather jacket and big stompy boots.”

“He’s eight,” Kai rolled his eyes. “He’ll grow out of those so quickly.”

“Yea, you’re right,” Jay huffed, crossing his arms. “We’re not spending what little money we have on thirty pairs of boots for a child.”

“Who said we gotta spend money on them?” Lloyd asked.

“We’re not stealing, kid,” Kai narrowed his eyes.

“Shame.” Lloyd shrugged and went back to focusing on his game. 

“I’m gonna pound some morals into that spiky head of yours,” Kai growled half-heartedly.

Lloyd cackled. “You can try!”

The three of them stayed like that for a bit, Kai and Jay bickering and having light conversation in the back, Lloyd providing occasional commentary from the front. 

At some point, Jay got out a lollipop. No one knew where it came from, but it was suddenly here, and Lloyd noticed . That sweet tooth hadn’t died since they met him. 

So when Jay started unwrapping the candy, Lloyd’s head whipped around, carefully studying the candy. Jay smirked cattily. “You want it?”

Lloyd didn’t respond. He stared blankly at the lollipop, eyes slightly dilated. 

“Uh, earth to Lloyd?” Kai raised an eyebrow, snapping his fingers before the kid’s face. 

Lloyd blinked, then his eyes began to focus. He noticed the candy, eyes widening, and he yelled “GIMME” as he lunged towards Jay, video game forgotten behind him. Jay yelped and fell over, at the mercy of a little green gremlin. Lloyd snatched the lollipop and stuck it in his mouth with a triumphant grin. 

“Aw man, that was my favorite flavor too,” Jay grumbled, picking himself back up. He pulled a second one out of his pocket. “That’s why I got two.”

“We gotta do something about that sweet tooth,” Kai chuckled. 

Lloyd pouted around his lollipop. Then, all of a sudden, he blinked and looked around. “Wh-”

The front door opened, immediately interrupting him, and Nya walked through, sighing. “About done with repairs. Could use some more…” she trailed off, staring at Lloyd. Or- specifically his hair. “Uh…”

Lloyd looked confused, looking around the room. “When’d I…?” Then, he groaned. “Oh, not again.”

“What?” Kai raised an eyebrow, suddenly concerned.

Lloyd hesitated answering that, shaking his head. “N-nothing, don’t worry about it.” 

“So… what’s with the hairdo?” Nya cocked her head, grinning playfully. “Did you get Kai to do it for you?”

“Nope, he did it himself,” Kai said.

“Huh?” Lloyd’s hands went to his hairline. Then up. Touching the mohawk.

And he screamed.

The teens were instantly on alert, gathering around him. 

“Lloyd?” Jay exclaimed, pupils going sharp.

“Why are you shouting?” Kai asked, suddenly very worried.

“Why do I have a mohawk?!” Lloyd yelled.

“Y-you gave yourself one?” Kai frowned. That was like 5 minutes ago!

“No I didn’t, I-”

Lloyd’s retort was cut off by the door opening again, this time Cole, Zane, and Wu. Cole’s greeting was cut short by the chaos in the apartment, so he closed his mouth in the middle of saying hello. “Uh…”

“You have a mohawk,” Zane stated, matter of fact.

“I didn’t do it!” Lloyd immediately retorted.

“Yes you did!” Jay argued. “You went into the bathroom and came out with a modern art piece on your head!”

“ I didn’t do it! ” Lloyd repeated, more adamantly. “I didn’t even go to the bathroom! I was at Nya’s mechanic job! And I’m here now, so…” He huffed. “What happened to those bullies anyways?”

Everyone exchanged a worried glance. “Lloyd, do you… not remember getting here?” Kai asked, softly.

“You threatened them with a knife,” Nya frowned. 

Lloyd went quiet for a moment, his face at war with himself. “Sometimes everything goes dark and I wake up in a completely different place,” he admitted.

Silence took over the room. “I don’t think that’s normal,” Zane commented. 

“Like you know normal,” Lloyd bit back, then winced. “Sorry.”

The others winced too, but Zane’s face didn’t shift from his neutral expression. “I understand I am not the most normal one of us,” he said, “but I do know that momentary blackouts are not normal.”

“What’s it matter to you all, anyways?” Lloyd grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away. “No one’s cared about my blackouts before.”

“Consider this a fresh start,” Wu said, approaching his nephew carefully. “We all care about you, Lloyd, and if there is something wrong, we want to help you.”

Everyone else nodded and made sounds of agreement. Lloyd’s petulant and unsure face eventually evened out, and he sighed. “Sometimes I black out for a while. I get really stressed, and I… something happens, and I wake up later, in a different place, hours later.” He shrugged and touched his hair spikes. “Sometimes I get a note from someone named Knife-”

“Knife?” Jay asked, suddenly at attention. The tone of his voice sounded like he remembered something.

“You know who that is?” Cole noted. 

Jay shook his head. “When we were at Darkley’s that first time,” he began, ignoring Lloyd’s flinch, “I went into the elevator and someone carved into the wall ‘Knife was here.’ I remember seeing it and thinking that Knife is the coolest name ever.”

“It really is,” Lloyd giggled, then sobered up. “I still don’t know who that is, but they helped me out in Darkleys a lot when I’d black out or get bullied. Wish I could thank them.”

Everyone was quiet as they processed that. Eventually, Wu sighed. “Nya, Kai, Jay, why don’t you catch us up to what happened after Lloyd met those bullies?”

They did so, as Cole and Zane dropped off their groceries at the counter and headed over to sit by Lloyd, who was poking curiously at his mohawk. Cole poked at it too, commenting something about the quality of the do. 

Eventually, after the group got everyone else back up to speed, Wu sighed and turned back to Lloyd, crouching down to his eye level. “What is the last thing you remember?”

Lloyd thought for a moment. “Uh, those bullies making fun of me. They were saying some mean stuff, and then… I zoned out, or- blacked out, really… and I woke up here, in front of the video game and Jay and Kai.”

Wu nodded and hummed thoughtfully. “The others say you were still moving and talking and doing things between those two points. You do not remember any of that?”

Lloyd shook his head. “Nope.”

“You definitely don’t remember gelling your hair into a mohawk either?” Kai raised an eyebrow. 

“Nope,” Lloyd said again, frowning. “What does this mean, Uncle?”

Wu’s face looked taut and worried. “This is a rather… delicate situation. However, considering everything, I may know who Knife is.”

“You do?” everyone said at the same time.

“Indeed,” Wu said, though he didn’t sound particularly excited about it. “I will have to, someday soon, take you to a friend of mine, to hopefully get concrete answers, but… I believe Knife resides in here .” He poked a finger at Lloyd’s forehead.

The kid flinched back from the tap, but then looked even more worried. “I’m POSSESSED?”

“Is Knife an oni or something?!” Jay exclaimed.

“Or a ghost?!” Cole added.

“Oni cannot possess others,” Wu immediately corrected, “nor is Knife a ghost. I have heard of a situation occurring, where, in order to protect itself, a person’s identity may end up splitting, unable to form as one.”

“I have heard of this as well,” Zane confirmed, frowning. “Many times, it happens as a result of negative treatment that prevented identity from growing.”

Lloyd gasped and grabbed the sides of his head. “There’s another person in my head!?”

“They are as much you as you are you,” Wu said, placing a hand on Lloyd’s knee. Kai and Nya placed their own hands on his shoulder, Jay on his other knee, and Cole and Zane on his back. “It is not an alien being, it is not another human being. From what I understand, Knife is someone who wants to help and protect you, as much as they’re able to.”

Lloyd sniffed and turned his head so no one saw the tears gathering in his eyes. Everyone exchanged sympathetic looks.

At the relative silence, Wu sighed and continued. “I am not certain of what I have said, we would need a medical or mental health professional to see if you’re alright, but… it’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

“Why couldn’t it be a ghost?” Cole hazarded an ask.

“There would have been signs of possession,” Wu explained. “Typically changed eye color, or complexion, or a strange cold feeling surrounding someone.”

“...What does this mean?” Lloyd asked quietly. 

“It just means we’re gonna treat Knife like part of the team,” Kai confidently said. “I don’t understand most of what Master Wu just said, or what it really means , but until we can figure it out, we gotta make Knife feel safe here. And since they’re part of you, they’re part of the team.”

Lloyd sniffed and smiled. “You’re right. You’re right!” He wiped at his eyes and shook his head, the mohawk falling apart a little bit at the motion. “We’ll figure it out!”

“Attaboy!” Nya grinned. 

“We will all help you figure it out, together,” Zane added, smiling.

“We’re not leaving you alone - either of you,” Jay tapped the back of his hand against Lloyd’s arm.

“No one gets left behind in the team,” Cole declared. “No matter what happens, we’re gonna make the best of it.”

“Hear hear!” Kai cheered.

Lloyd laughed (somewhat wetly). “Thanks, guys.” He looked awkwardly at Kai. “Can, uh, you help me wash out the gel?”

Kai rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Yea, come on, shrimp.”

He took Lloyd’s hand in his and led him to the bathroom, and the door clicked behind them. 

Cole hummed. “Y’know, from what I heard, I think Knife trusts us already.”

“You think so?” Jay raised an eyebrow. 

“They came out to protect Lloyd, then gave themselves a mohawk,” he mused. “But when everything was relatively safe in the apartment, they went away.”

“Astute thinking, Cole,” Wu smiled. The smile instantly dropped as he stood up. “I’ll give my friend a call. Perhaps he will be able to help, or knows someone who can.”

Nya gave him her phone, which he flipped open, nodded at the team, and left out the apartment doors. 

“...Not how I expected to get another teammate,” Jay attempted to joke. “But hey, we all wanna protect Lloyd, so I’m not complaining. Besides, Knife really is the coolest name ever.”

“It is pretty sick,” Nya giggled. 

“I, for one, am excited to properly meet and introduce them to the team,” Zane said. “We promised to assist Lloyd, and that will include all who come as part of him.”

“We got used to you being a nindroid, and Jay being a snake,” Cole added. “We can easily get used to this.”

“Exactly,” Nya said. “Besides, from what I saw, they do kick ass, and I like their spunk. I’d keep them around anyway.”

“...Where did the kid even get a knife from in the first place?” Jay wondered.

Later, when Lloyd was playing video games (his hair flat and wet) with the others, Cole leaned over to Jay discreetly. “Are you sure everything was fine the other night?”

Jay bristled. “‘M fine, I already said so.”

Cole sighed. “Last month, you went all crazy scary snake monster on us. You didn’t, like, do anything bad, right?”

“Of course not,” Jay hissed (humanly). “I was safe. No one got hurt.”

Cole mulled over the response a bit, then nodded. “As long as no one got hurt…”

“I’m fine, and I don’t wanna talk about it,” Jay huffed. “Hey look, it’s my turn to play.” He switched the topic easily by standing up and taking the controller from Kai’s hands, who yelped and scrambled to get it back.

-=-

That mysterious night, a day after the ninja lost their jobs and moved back into the shitty old apartment, Jay found himself once again in the old abandoned subway, climbing down the rickety old ladder, and cringing at the smell. Last time he was here, he dropped some pizza in here, and it was beginning to reek . Great.

“You came after all,” a voice cut through Jay’s internal monologue, causing him to yelp and fall off the ladder. As he lay on the ground, groaning, he heard the figure laugh. “I thought ninja-” “-vere sssupposed to land on their feet.”

He groaned again. “That’s cats.” He picked himself off the ground and looked up to see Fangtom’s two heads looking down at him. He swallowed nervously, tail swishing. “Hhhey.”

“Hello, Blue Ninja,” the left head greeted. “Ve’ve been vaiting,” the right head said.

Jay huffed and brushed off his clothes. “Alright, alright, you sssaid you had anssswers. I wouldn’t be down here otherwissse.”

“And ansversss ve have,” the right head nodded. “You are… very peculiar-” “-ve have never ssseen anyone like you.”

“Take a picture, it’ll lassst longer,” Jay grumbled. “I’m not in the mood for sssmalltalk, cut to it.” He was already feeling a little out of it, with the full moon being only a day away.

Fangtom hummed. “Impatient.” “No matter, ve can give ansversss.” They began to circle Jay, observing him from all angles. He felt distinctly uncomfortable under the red snake’s gaze. “How long ago-” “-did you get bit?”

Jay counted up the time. “About two monthsss ago.”

Both of Fangtom’s heads looked alarmed. “Tvo monthsss?” “And you still have green scalesss?”

“Uh?” Jay asked intelligently.

“Vhen ve bite sssomeone,” they explained, “their ssscales are green, but after a month-” “-they vill molt into their new red ssscales.” 

“Why do they ssstart being green then?” Jay asked.

Fangtom shrugged. “Ve don’t qvite know,” they admitted. “Perhapsss the newly bitten ssstart off like Venomari-” “-but lose their Venomari venom as they grow into their ssskin.” “It hasss been like thisss for a-” “-long vhile.”

“Ssso what doesss that mean for me?” Jay crossed his arms. “Why’m I ssstill green?”

“Ve don’t know,” they said again. The left head’s tongue flicked out to sniff Jay, hitting him right in the face. He yelped and flinched away. Grossssssssss. “Ve vere hoping to find out-” “-by studying you directly.”

“I’m not a fucking tessst sssubject,” he growled. “Isss there a way to cure thisss?”

They reached into their pocket and took out a small glass tube. Bright green liquid floated inside, shimmering white, like it was full of glitter. “Try drinking thisss.”

Jay hesitantly took the bottle, swirling the liquid inside around. “You’re sssure thisss is gonna fixsss me?”

“Try it.”

Jay suddenly recognized the liquid. It was the same one his parents drank to stop being Fangpyre. “Antivenom?”

The left head nodded. The right head’s expression firmed up. “Try it.”

He sighed. What’s he got to lose? If it’s the actual antivenom (and he saw what the venom itself looked like, nothing like this), it could only help. “Bottomsss up,” he joked, uncorking the bottle and tipping it back. It tasted sour on his tongue, but he forced himself to drink the entire vial.

And- shooting blinding pain ripping tearing someone screaming-

He came to on the ground, breathing hard and his entire body aching. He blacked out? He could barely even move, but he forced his eyes to focus on the red blur a good distance away. “Wha-”

“Finally,” Fangtom said. Their voice sounded ragged. “You vake.”

“H’w long was I out?” Jay slurred out. He tried to shift, to stand up, but found his arms and legs bound. “uhhHHH”

“All night,” Fangtom said, and Jay froze. The snake slithered over to the poor ninja, kneeling down and untying him. “It felt cruel to leave you ssso cold-” “-but our sssafety wasss our number one concern.”

“...Did I…?” As much as he didn’t like the snakes, he didn’t wanna hurt them. He remained still as the ropes around his wrists and ankles were untied.

“You did not hurt usss-” oh, good- “-much.” “Vvvvvhy did you tell him that?” “Better he knovsss, and-” “-he’sss going to vorry more now.”

Huh. The heads were able to argue between each other. Still, Jay was more concerned that he hurt someone. As soon as he was free, he looked up at Fangtom. A loop of fabric was tied around one arm, but otherwise looked fine. 

Fangtom noticed his eyes on their arm, and sighed. “Ve vill be fine,” they assured. “All you did vas ssscratch usss.”

“What… happened?” Jay managed to say. His voice sounded raw from his throat, and his whole body hurt.

“The antivenom turned you into a…” The two heads looked at each other, unsure what to say. 

“Feral monster?” Jay offered up. 

“...Yesss.” “Ve did not know you vould react like that-” “-ve have… never ssseen anything like it.” “The antivenom did not even cure you fully,” they pointed out, and Jay noticed his miniscule snake tail and sharp teeth. His tail twitched, as if greeting him. “It did not vork.”

He thought back to a month ago. “My… master told me I was a… werefang?”

Fangtom reeled back and hissed in fear. “You should have told usss from the ssstart!” both heads snapped in unison. “Of courssse our antivenom-” “-vouldn’t vork, it only vorks-” “-on Fangpyre, not-” “- Verefangsss .”

Jay cringed. “I thought it could help! You said you had answers!”

“Ve thought ve did-” “-but it vill be impossssible to cure you.”

Jay’s heart sank to his feet. “W-what?”

“Ve had been vorking under the assssumption-” “-that you vere merely a faulty Fangpyre-” “-and ve vould help right the wrong, and show you-” “-how to live as a Fangpyre.” “Unfortunately, this-” “-is not sssomething ve can help vith.” They looked apologetically at Jay. “Verefang venom needsss Verefang antivenom.” “No known Verefang is ssstill alive today.”

Jay slumped back down to the ground, facing the dingy subway ceiling. Hints of daylight were peeking through the manhole above them. “So, what, I’m just… stuck? Like this? Forever?”

“Until you miraculously find the right antivenom-” “-or another Verefang-” “-you might be ssstuck, yes.”

Jay sucked in a deep breath, held it in, and let it out in a very loud scream. “FUCKING DAMMIT. I’m stuck as a one-of-a-kind freak for my entire life, cuz I was stupid and unlucky enough to get bit by something that died a thousand years ago! And not even the guy I thought could be my last resort to help could do anything but make it worse . Fucking- aaaHGGRAAHRHRHRHRRGRRHHHHHH”

He placed the heels of his hands over his eyes, groaning and growling and screaming. Eventually, he took a deep breath in, and out, staring glumly at the ceiling. 

“...Ve should get going,” Fangtom said, after a while of listening to Jay rant. “It isss almossst time for usss to sssleep.”

“Right. Nocturnal.” Jay sighed and pulled himself up, facing the double-headed snake once more. “Why’d you even try to help? Don’t you hate us?”

“Ve owe you-” “-for defeating the Great Devourer,” they explained. “If the antivenom had vorked-” “-ve vould have done you a favor.” “If not-” “-ve vould have velcomed you to the Fangpyre tribe.”

“...Oh.”

Fangtom paused, then sighed. “You are velcome to the Fangpyre tribe regardlessss.” “You and your fellow ninja-” “-sssaved our people. Ve owe you that.” 

A little warm feeling lit up in Jay’s heart. “Thanks, I guess.” Whatever, not like he was ever gonna join the snakes in the first place. As if.

“Farevell,” Fangtom nodded both heads and slithered off into the darkness of the tunnel, leaving Jay alone.

He got home, eventually, with a lot of pain in every inch of his body, minimal snakeparts, and torn clothes. He managed to change before anyone noticed, greeting everyone as they awoke.

The next night, the full moon, hit with no major transformations. Mostly because he slept through the entire day, curled in his blanket nest like it was the only thing that could protect him from himself.

Chapter Text

Some 200 years ago…

Captain Soto would describe himself as a proud man. A captain of a pirate ship renowned among the lands of Jago, he commanded the crew upon the Destiny’s Bounty like he would his own limbs. 

Which isn’t saying much, considering he was missing two of them.

Still, he had the utmost faith in his crew. The ship, and his crew, were not large, and not nearly as impressive as some pirates out there (he scoffed at the thought of a certain orange pirate scourge), but they were tight-knit and capable. And the storm they were currently facing was no threat to them, he decided. They could brave the wind and water they fought through with no issue.

Which was why he was sitting below deck, writing in his journal. When he made it out of the Dark Island, he would publish his findings and his logs, and his name would be known worldwide. He grinned to himself, stroking his mustache. He could imagine the fame (and booty) now.

We have spent months searching for this fabled Island of Darkness, but all my eyes have seen is ocean, he wrote. The ship tilted to the side, yet he kept a steady hook on the journal. The Skulkin skull he managed to win in a fight against the dreaded Ghost Ship rattled on his desk and slid to the other side. I fear my crew has given up, but I hold out hope that it exists.

It wasn’t wrong, what he wrote. The Dark Island was a rumored landmass far off the coast of Jago, unable to be reached by mortals. Determined to be the first one to chart and explore this unknown island, Captain Soto rallied his crew to attempt to find it. At first, everyone seemed enthusiastic, but as time went on… he could sense their discontent. They were beginning to give up. 

But they had to keep going. After all, they’re floating in the middle of the ocean. Hard to dock and stop at the nearest island when there is no nearest island.

Finishing up his journal entry, Captain Soto closed the book, sealed it tight, and stored it in his desk’s secret compartment. What, you think he’d let his crew see his most private of thoughts? Of course not! What do you take him for!?

He finished writing at the perfect time, as he caught hints of music from above deck. Were his men really fooling around at a time like this?

Hobbling out to the front deck, his men were in fact singing. Unbelievable. 

“This is no time for fooling around,” he said harshly. Then, he noticed his usual helmsman in a barrel, drunk out of his mind. “Who's steering the ship?”

The wasted helmsman grinned and hiccuped. “Don't worry, captain. No-Eyed Pete’s behind the wheel!”

Dread nearly keeled Soto over as his face blanched. “No! Not Pete!”

No-Eyed Pete was a cruel little nickname for one of Soto’s longest lasting crewmates. The man took a horrible slash to the upper half of his face, completely eviscerating his eyes and ability to see, but he stuck by Soto regardless. His loyalty made the captain weep at the time, and such tenacity couldn’t be argued against.

The only problem was when he still tried to do things sighted people could, like steering a ship through a storm. With how clearly wasted everyone on board was, or too despondent to care, it left Soto’s right hand man to steer - much to everyone’s dismay. 

He could hear Pete’s seeing-eye parrot, Iris, chirp on his shoulder, helping with directions by pulling on his hair. Soto was about to run upstairs to give his shipmate a piece of his mind, when something distracted him.

A cliffside approached rather quickly, despite Pete’s attempt at steering away from it. The storm was brutal and unforgiving, and their trajectory was clear.

“Is that the Dark Island?” one of the crew members wondered.

…No. Soto recognized that coastline. “You fools, that’s Jago!” He sprinted up to the wheel and wrenched it out of Pete’s hands, deciding to chastise him when they’re safe and sound.

Only then did he realize that there will be no safe and sound ending. The cliff was approaching too fast, and there was no way to swerve away at this point. He gritted his teeth and shouted to his crew one final warning. “ALL HANDS ON DECK! BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

And so the ship crashed into the cliffside, crunching like it was nothing but branches, and sank into the ocean, taking its men with it. The tale of Captain Soto ended with a gruesome, watery grave.

-=-

Lloyd’s fist flew through the air and landed a punch on Kai’s cooking mittens. The red ninja stood his ground and grinned as the kid continued his assault.

“Good, keep it up,” Kai encouraged, amidst Lloyd’s focused grunts.

“FISTS OF FURY!” Lloyd exclaimed, landing three quick punches on the mittens. He gave Kai a cocky, toothy grin. “You can’t even see me move I’m so fast! Hah!”

Kai sighed minutely. “Save the gloating. It can only be used against you by your enemy.” He pointedly ignored Jay doing a spittake and laughing in the back of the apartment.

Lloyd didn’t seem bothered. “Oh, please,” he scoffed. “I'm ready to face whatever you throw at me!” 

He jumped up and did a roundhouse kick at Kai’s mittens, forcing the teen back and causing him to fall on his rear end. He grunted. “Easy, greenbean, you’re not even ready to face my pinky toe!”

Behind the duo, kneeling on the floor, Wu chuckled. “I see the student has become the teacher,” he smiled warmly at Kai, fondly remembering their first meeting. Then, he turned to his nephew. “You will learn fast, Lloyd, with lessons from us.”

“Great,” Cole agreed, stretching. “Now, I think it’s our turn for some training. How about target practice… on Kai?”

Kai, who looked about to agree, suddenly shot an appalled and betrayed look Cole’s way, to the black ninja’s laughter.

“You’ll each get a turn,” Wu chastised, “but first, Lloyd, why don’t you go see Nya on the roof?”

“But I wanna learn Spinjutsu!” Lloyd whined, crossing his arms. 

“Patience,” Wu sighed. “Your Spinjutsu will come in time. You are still too young.”

Lloyd groaned, but trudged out of the apartment anyway. 

Cole immediately started giggling the second the kid was out the door. “Heh! Sound familiar?”

As Jay giggled too, Kai grumpily looked away, crossing his arms. “I wasn’t that whiny.”

“No,” Zane said. Kai was about to thank them for their support when they smiled deviously instead. “You were worse.”

Jay broke out into full laughter as Kai groaned. After he composed himself, he sighed sadly. “Y’know, guys, we’re trying to prepare Lloyd for the future, but this place isn’t the right spot for it. It’s so cramped and horrible!”

“Jay’s right,” Cole sighed. “I miss our ship.”

“Wish we didn’t even have to train him, to be honest,” Kai said, stretching. “He’s still a kid.”

“We can only pray Garmadon will be patient,” Wu said, getting up off the floor. “It will not hurt to prepare him for what is to come, in the event that my brother rushes the hand of Fate.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Still, I believe the issue of location can be remedied. You all need to keep in shape too, and this apartment simply won’t do.”

The ninja all readily agreed with him, ready to finally stretch their legs and do something. Adrenaline-seeking teenagers cannot be crammed in a tiny space like this for long.

Meanwhile, on the apartment building roof, Lloyd trudged over to Nya, who was fixing her mech. She noticed him and smiled. “Hey Lloyd, just finishing up these last few touches. Wrench?” 

Before Lloyd could do anything, a little green reptilian head poked out from inside the mech and handed Nya a wrench. She thanked them with a nose scritch. 

“Sprout!” Lloyd greeted. The dragon immediately perked up and leapt out of the mech, rushing up to Lloyd and giving him a nice big lick, which the kid groaned at good-naturedly. He flomped down on the ground with Sprout, scritching their face as they made happy little noises at him.

“Aww, look at that,” Nya smiled fondly. “They like you!”

“Well, Sprout is my dragon best friend,” Lloyd said firmly. 

‘And you’re my non-dragon best friend!’ Sprout added. ‘Or… maybe you’re just my best friend? I don’t have any other best friend!’

“Yea, we’re besties!” Lloyd agreed, hugging Sprout. Then, he sat up and tilted his head at Nya. “Why don’t you have a dragon? I know all the others had one, but they’re all back home now.”

Nya’s smile grew a bit sad. “I don’t have an element,” she said. “So no dragon for me.”

Lloyd frowned. “You deserve an element. But, like, you’re cool without one anyways? You’re Samurai X! You have cool weapons and a giant mech!” Sprout nodded in agreement. “You can just build a dragon!”

Nya barked out a surprised laugh. “I don’t think I’m capable of that .”

“Not yet you’re not!” Lloyd gave her a big grin and thumbs up.

“That’s the spirit!” she chuckled. 

A little bit later, the kids and Wu found themselves in the streets of Jago City. Standing outside their apartment in their ninja gi under some warmer duds (because it was the middle of winter and they were cold) , Wu looked around and found something good. 

“It's time we search for a more suitable place to train,” he said, leading the team to whatever he found. 

Jay groaned, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Damn this cold, every part of him hurt. “It’s gonna take forever to search the entire city!”

“And we do not have our bikes anymore,” Zane frowned. “I believe the Great Devourer ate them.”

“Didn't eat mine,” Jay pointed out.

Wu chuckled. “You’ll learn to travel with these ,” he said, handing the group a small copper coin. 

Everyone looked curiously and confusedly at the coin. “What is that?” Cole asked.

“They can transport you anywhere you want to go in the city,” Wu said mysteriously.

Cole gasped in excitement. “Like a magic portal?”

“Oooh! Or a spinjutsu vortex?” Jay added, smiling widely.

Wu kept that mysterious little smile. 

Then, Cole’s face dropped. “Wait a minute, it’s a bus token,” he deadpanned.

Everyone groaned as Wu laughed and tapped his cane against the bus stop sign they stopped at. This just made everyone groan harder. 

-=-

Meanwhile, far away from the city, Lord Garmadon pondered the giant megaweapon he had created. This thing… this amalgamation of the Golden Weapons, the Elements of Creation merged into one… it should not exist. 

But he made it so it did exist, and therefore, he could control it.

That’s why he has four arms. Just two wouldn’t suffice; this still contained the strength of four weapons in one. 

Nevertheless, he hadn’t touched or used the weapon since he got it, now over two weeks ago. And he could tell the crew aboard the ship were getting antsy about it. Floating around the outskirts of Jago City, waiting for their chance to strike, but never taking it… No, Garmadon wasn’t stalling . Not in the least.

He could tell his crew’s patience was wearing thin, however. 

“Ssso,” a random Skulkin asked, eyeing the megaweapon, “what does it do?”

He glared at them. “The weapon possesses unspeakable powers.”

“Like what?” another skeleton asked.

His glare turned into a snarl. “What part of unspeakable did you not understand?”

“Kinda looks like you don’t know how to use it,” a Serpentine muttered under their breath, earning a death glare from Garmadon.

“Of course I know how to use it,” he snapped. “I just don't have anything to use it on!”

“Lord Garmadon! We spotted something!” another snake called out from the back of the ship. Curious (and desperate to leave this conversation), Garmadon headed over to see what the serpent saw. 

Floating around in the clouds was a small green dragon, diving in and out of the puffy white. Playing. 

Garmadon recognized that dragon. It was the tiny hatchling that accompanied the dragons’ return during the fight against the Great Devourer. Lloyd seemed to be that dragon’s friend, as all the dragons had paired up with their elemental human counterpart. 

…Lloyd did have an element, right? He remembered something about little green sparks in his hands as a kid, and surely the Green Ninja wouldn’t be powerless. The only question was which element he possessed. 

That’s a question to worry about another time, he decided. Lloyd wouldn’t be happy about his dragon being injured, but it will certainly hinder his progression into becoming the Green Ninja, and hopefully give him more time. And an outlet to release his evil anger onto.

“Keep up with that thing,” he commanded his crew. “What better way to test out my Megaweapon than to blast that thing out of the sky?” He wasn’t looking to kill the poor thing, but he certainly wasn’t against harming it. So he raised his megaweapon towards the dragonling and bared his teeth, focusing destructive power towards it. “Fell dragon!” he shouted, hoping it’ll do something.

The weapon remained inert, and the dragon continued to play with the clouds.

Garmadon felt all eyes on him when nothing happened. He growled. “Keep straight at it!” he shouted at his crew, who were desperately trying to keep the ship from tipping over in its chase. Clearly, these snakes and skeletons had no idea how to pilot a flying ship, because they kept tipping over and nearly falling out of the ship every five seconds.

“Destroy! Fire! Annihilate!” he yelled, swinging his megaweapon and pulsing as much destructive power as he could through it. Not like he could destroy pure Creation, so it didn’t work. “Shoot it down… pretty please?”

Nothing. The weapon remained an amalgam of gold, humming angrily in his grip, and any attempt to blast the thing out with just his usual destructive blasts didn’t work due to his crew’s terrible steering. 

He growled and turned on his crew. “I can't concentrate with us jostling around like this,” he yelled.

His crew seemed to take that as a command for “stop,” and the ship slowed to a halt, letting the dragon escape unharmed. 

A low growl built up in his chest. “Useless, all of you! If you had steered the ship properly, I’d have at least hit it with my own power. Leave me be!”

Without waiting for a response from his pathetic crew, he stormed downstairs into the cabins and slammed the door shut. Worthless piles of bones and scales, can’t even pilot a flying ship. “They dare mock me,” he muttered, remembering the faces of some of them. Laughing at him. Seeing him as weak, worthless, incapable of doing as he promised.

…And worthless Golden Megaweapon, for barely fucking doing anything . “How does this stupid thing work?!” he snarled, slamming it against a desk, one that the ninja didn’t bother to toss out due to it being in more or less fine condition. 

What he didn’t expect was a secret compartment in the desk to pop open, a book appearing in the crevice. Curious enough to set his annoyances aside, Garmadon plucked the book from the compartment. It was a journal, aged leather and sea-worn yellow pages lined with scribbled writings of a man named Captain Soto. 

Captain Soto, Captain Soto… where had he heard that name before?

Then, it clicked. He remembered spending time with Misako, her excitedly rambling about history, trying to find any bit that he and Wu did not personally experience (which was a very hard task, they had seen a lot of history). She eventually brought up pirates, which he and Wu had to concede to knowing fairly little about, as they did not think much about the sea-faring life during their adventures. 

Misako had told them about Captain Soto, a pirate captain lost to the sea some 200 years ago, trying to find the Dark Island. Garmadon had grimaced, pointing out that his loss was expected - no one found the Dark Island and came back. Unmapped, unseen, unknown. Misako argued that Soto got close, but got turned around and crashed into the side of the Light Island instead, he and his crew lost forever.

…This ship must have been his, Garmadon realized. He flipped through the journal. Pages upon pages of talking about his ship - the Destiny’s Bounty - and his crew - Pete being a name present since page one. He talked of trying to find the Dark Island, of being the first to map its coast, to even prove its existence. Unfortunately, his crew potentially doubting him was the last entry, rushed and unfinished. 

“At least this crew sounded like they knew how to pilot a ship,” he remarked sardonically. He gripped his megaweapon tight with his left arms. He scoffed, thinking of his own crew up top. “This was their ship after all. I wish they were here to show these boneheaded and scaly idiots how it's done.”

And that was when the Weapon began to glow and shake. “What?!” Garmadon gasped in alarm- and pain. Oh fuck. He felt his energy being absorbed into the megaweapon, stealing hidden Creation from inside his bones, funneling Destruction to Create. His very energy and lifeforce, being used to fuel this weapon’s power. “What- what’s happening?” he groaned.

He tried to pry his fingers away from the weapon, but whatever it was doing to him, it forced him to stay attached. He took a knee, supporting himself with nothing but the glowing life-stealing weapon. “I feel so weak…” he murmured, feeling his energy and power drain.

And then… nothing. He tossed the Megaweapon, finally able to let his death-grip go, and collapsed, heaving for breaths and struggling to regain his lost energy. 

That was when he heard noises from above deck. An unfamiliar voice cried out “ALL HANDS ON DECK!” and footsteps sounded around him. 

Garmadon grimaced and pulled himself up. Unsteady as he was, he was forced to use the weapon one more time as a walking stick, as much as he loathed to see it right now. 

He heard one of his own crew members ask something indistinct. The answer, however, was much clearer. “I am Captain Soto, you bone-brained fool!”

Garmadon’s eyes darted to the journal he was just reading. His hearts stopped for just a beat. Oh. Well then.

-=-

Back in Jago City, the ninja had scoured the internet for any well-reviewed dojo they could find. There were quite a few dotted around the city, but many were far too expensive to send Lloyd to, and were clearly set classes without the ability to actually use the space. The ninja had their own training regiment, and wanted to teach Lloyd themselves, rather than relying on some random person who did not know ninjutsu.

They had tried several cheaper dojos, asking if they could use the space to train, but had gotten no’s every time they did. And especially not for cheap or free, and they just didn’t have the money to afford renting that much space. Not even using their “ninja reputation” would give them discounts, as many dojo owners still thought Garmadon was the one true savior, and didn’t seem to trust this group of kids, even despite what they had been doing the last few months.

So that was why they had gotten off the bus near one of the lower-rated dojos in the city - Grand Sensei Dareth’s Mojo Dojo. It was actually the closest dojo to their apartment, but it… well, it didn’t look super promising. They were, unfortunately, out of choices, so in they went. 

Opening the door, they were greeted with a rather small training room, barely big enough to fit the whole team inside, with tatami mats on the floor and a bead curtain partitioning the room from another part of the building. The walls were a warm, worn brown, a few cracks showing through the wallpaper. A large shelf display of trophies adorned the back wall by the bead curtain doorway. 

“ This is where Green’ll be training?” Cole raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“Better than our shitass apartment,” Jay grumbled, hands in his pockets. 

The team heard footsteps, and all turned to watch a man walk through the beaded curtain. He was fat, with pale skin and brown hair carefully styled into a pompadour coiffe, and wearing a brown gi over top of what looked like an unbuttoned button-up with a large collar. Lightly covering his chest hair was a gold chain with a coin with a star on it. He was also wearing… cowboy boots?

“Welcome to Grand Sensai Dareth's Mojo Dojo,” the man, presumably Dareth, introduced himself. The ninja cringed at the way he said sensei - which they all guessed he was not. “I am Grand Sensai Dareth, and I Dareth you to join my dojo. Heeeeeya!”

He tried to spin his way dramatically through his beaded curtain (partially brown - seriously, this guy had one hell of a favorite color), but got caught by the beads with a yelp. The ninja stared at him incredulously as he struggled to escape his self-imposed trap. This was the guy they were gonna borrow the dojo of? This was embarrassing.

Dareth pulled himself out of the curtain eventually, clearing his throat like nothing happened. He strutted over to his trophy wall, gesturing at them. “Face the wall of karate trophies. If you look closely, my name is on all of them. That is because I am a highly skilled karate machine.” He rubbed the side of one proudly.

Oh dear First Master this guy was infuriating. Kai took a deep breath, and let it out. “Look, Dareth, we're wondering if we could share your dojo,” he said, like he had the last dozen times. “We’ve gotta have a good space to train this little guy-” he placed a hand on Lloyd’s head “-to be the greatest hero of Jago.”

Dareth didn’t look impressed. “Not possible, for I am the greatest in the land. How many trophies do you have?” 

“Look, pal, we're the guys that just saved the city from that giant snake,” Jay snapped. He was tired of this song and dance.

“Ha!” the dojo owner laughed. “Am I looking at Lord Garmadon? Because unless I'm stupid, and I'm not, Lord Garmadon destroyed the Devourer.”

Jay chuckled without any mirth. “That's been a huge misunderstanding. Actually, we were the ones who dest-”

“I'll let you train here but only on one condition,” Dareth interrupted. Oh great, the ninja groaned inwardly, preparing for the pricetag he was about to drop. “If you can defeat me.” Wait, what? Everyone blinked confusedly at each other. That easy? “If you succeed, we will share the dojo.”

When Dareth finished explaining, he dropped to a fighting pose, but not one that was familiar to anyone in the room. “That's right. I, Grand Sensai Dareth, master of all animal fighting styles, challenge one of you to a battle,” he smirked proudly, wiggling his body like it would convince the ninja he was actually capable of defeating them. “I know the tiger-” he dropped to all fours, raising a “paw,” and growling, “-the python-” he got up and wiggled his body and arms in the air, hissing, “-the penguin-” his arms clamped to his side and he started waddling around, making vaguely penguin-like noises, “and-”

Kai decided to cut to the chase and spun into a quick spinjutsu, engulfing Dareth instantly. The man yelped and dropped to the floor the second Kai spun back out, crossing his arms and staring down with a raised eyebrow. “You might know animals,” he said sarcastically, “but we know Spinjutsu.”

As Dareth looked up at the ninja, it was like something clicked. He picked himself up, brushed off his gi, and chuckled. “You can, uh- you can train in the dojo anytime.”

…Well that was easy enough! Just to check, though, Nya cocked her head. “How much are you going to charge us?”

“Nothing?” Dareth raised an eyebrow. “I told you kids, beat me in a fight and the space is yours! I’m, uh, gonna go train my own spinjutsu now.” He hastily exited the room, leaving the ninja team alone.

-=-

Captain Soto didn’t know where he was when he opened his eyes. Last he remembered, his ship and crew were set to crash into the Light Island cliffs, the sea engulfing them and taking them down to its depths. And now… he and his crew, a measly 7 members, stood aboard the Destiny’s Bounty, like nothing had happened.

He did a quick headcount. That’s everyone he considered truly his crew, including Pete and his parrot. Good. 

The headcount continued beyond his crew, however. Several serpentine and skulkin were aboard his ship. By instinct and habit, he drew his sword and pointed it at the intruders. “MEN! GATHER!” he cried, hoping there were more crew members below deck.

He was, unfortunately, incorrect, as the only thing that emerged from below the deck was a black-skinned, four-armed, terrifying oni, bearing a staff that radiated power. Soto gulped, seeing that thing. He didn’t know what it was, but something about this man… he didn’t like it.

Garmadon’s ear flicked as he studied the pirates and his crew facing each other. His eyes flickered to the Megaweapon. When he wished it to destroy that little dragon, it couldn’t. Wouldn’t. But his wish for a better crew, like a djinn twisting words, brought back the previous crew members of this ship. He laughed. Of course! The weapons of creation only knew one thing - how to create. It couldn’t even begin to imagine how to destroy!

“How did you get aboard our ship?” Mezmo spat, breaking Garmadon out of his thoughts.

“ Your ship?” one of the pirates spat. He had a grimy mustache and goatee and was missing several teeth. Not that he was the only one. “We built 'er! So why don't you slither yourself off the plank?” The pirates around him cheered.

Garmadon smirked, sensing an opportunity. “Finally, an answer from above!” he jovially greeted the pirates. He approached calmly, still leaning on the megaweapon like a cane. It sucked so much energy out of him… “A crew I could really rely on for results. Batten down the hatches, boys!”

“Excuse me, four-arms,” Soto glared at him, “who do ye think ye are, ordering me crew around?”

“Lord Garmadon,” he introduced himself with a snarling smile. “I created you, you fool. I am your captain now!” 

In between words, he panted, not quite having the energy to command as he should. 

Soto scoffed. “ Created me? I be Captain Soto, stealer of the seas! Raise your weapon!” He stuck his sword out to Garmadon’s chest, not touching the warlord, but issuing a challenge.

Garmadon’s ear flicked as he overheard his crew mumbling about the effects his new weapon had. As well as his apparent weakness. He grimaced, baring his fangs at the undead pirates, breathing heavily. Shit. Summoning them took too much out of him.

The pirate captain seemed to notice that too, for he nodded at one of his crew members. “Take it from him.”

The man walked up to the weapon, haughtily, greed dancing in his eyes. He reached out to grab the staff the second Garmadon cried out “no, don’t-” 

But it was too late. The pirate touched the megaweapon.

And began to scream.

It was almost like Garmadon’s native powers of Destruction. When he uses them, whatever he touches dissipates, dissolves, and, sometimes, explodes. No part of it remains but ash and dust, if even that. But this wasn’t like that. This poor man began to be unmade . His limbs, vanishing into thin air, coiling around his skin and clothing like horrible golden worms. He wailed in agony as every part of him was undone, unraveled, unspun, and after only a few seconds, he was gone. Nothing remained. Only the memory of his scream in everyone’s ears.

The bridge was silent as everyone on board processed what had happened. Garmadon panted and leaned on his terrible weapon, clutching it like a lifeline, claws digging into the gold. “Only I have the power to wield it… to control it.” He shook his head minutely and glared at the remaining pirates, who all looked shaken and afraid. “It may have drained my power for now, but when my strength returns, I'll deal with you.”

Soto’s gaze hardened. He closed his eyes in a brief mourning of his fallen crewmate, then met Garmadon’s glare with one of his own. A man with a gray beard and a cloth wrapped around the top half of his head approached, standing by Soto’s side. A scarlet macaw stared at him tenuously.

“Likely you will,” Soto scoffed, raising his sword up to Garmadon’s chin. “We’ll be taking back our ship now. Men, lock him and his crew up!”

The pirates cheered and charged at the just-over-two dozen crew members Garmadon still had, who defended themselves as best they could. Unfortunately, the ferocity of the pirates quickly overtook the snakes and skeletons - it was almost like these men had practice with these species. Knew exactly the weak spots. And Garmadon, still held in place by his drained strength and sword to his neck, could do nothing.

The fight was one pirate for every two or three of Garmadon’s men. And they still lost, locked in a small back room, crammed together like sardines as the pirates locked the door. Garmadon realized, with a dry laugh, that this was the same room he had fought Kai in when they had been aboard the ship together.

He looked up, glaring daggers at Captain Soto, who smirked and walked away. Oh, when his strength returns…

A few minutes later, up at the steering wheel, Soto and his men puzzled and hummed over the ship’s… new additions. “Someone’s done something to my ship,” Soto muttered. He ran his hand over the steering wheel, bright and glowing with lights he couldn’t understand. 

“She ain't like how we left her,” replied Soto’s shipwright, Salton. “Ye think it were those skele’ons in the brig?”

“They don’t got brains in their heads,” Soto guffawed. “Them snakes, maybe.”

Their attention turned to the large glowing map on the wall, animated and enchanted in some way they did not recognize. A spiderweb pattern branched from the center, with a line that traveled around from the center point in a circle. Landmarks were listed in red, though some were moving. 

“Must me some sort of treasure map,” Soto theorized, leaning against a ledge near the strange map. 

This, unintentionally, made him lean on a button, pressing it. The ship began to rumble, and he rushed outside to find out what was happening. His jaw dropped when he saw strange mechanical features on the side of the Bounty, extending and shifting, and rumbling.

And then the ship began to lift off the water. Into the air. Flying.

Iris began freaking out, screaming “flying, flying!” as the Destiny’s Bounty became airborne. Soto watched as fire emerged from the machinery, and pushed the ship into the air, flying as if it were still in water. Some sort of futuristic motor, he realized. 

…They were in the future? Was that what was going on?

“Captain?” Pete asked. He felt the vibrations and movement, as well as hearing Iris’ commentary, but could not see the miraculous development of technology.

“Iris speaks the truth, my friend,” Soto wrapped his arm around Pete’s shoulders. “A flying ship! What wonders the future holds.” He cackled loudly. “Just wait till the world sees this! We’d be unstoppable!”

Whoever was steering the ship got the Bounty above the clouds, and they took off at top speeds, Soto laughing madly into the mountains as they flew. Yes! Wait until the world sees this! Captain Soto is back!

Chapter Text

Later that day, the ninja had the dojo set up for their perfect training course. Several obstacles resembling the ones they trained with at the monastery were erected around the dojo, in hopes of creating the perfect atmosphere for training Lloyd. It was… good enough.

Currently, Jay and Lloyd were on some balancing posts. Jay kept his balance easily on the posts, jumping from one to another. He was always the best at that. “You must be light on your feet,” he told Lloyd, who was struggling to keep his balance as well. Still, he didn’t fall off as Jay leapt at him with a mock kick.

Later, Cole presented a wooden board to chop through. “You may be small, but you’re strong.”

Lloyd nodded, and chopped with all his strength-

-and yelped in pain when that didn’t do anything. “Owwww owowowowowowwwww…” he whined, cradling his hand. 

“You said the Green Ninja was as strong as Cole is,” Kai mentioned. 

“Well yes, when the Green Ninja is not as young, and has far more training, the powers he can harness could rival the power of Earth,” Wu stated.

“But I wanna break through boards now !” Lloyd pouted. 

Zane took his injured hand in theirs, icing it. “That is why we train. So that you, in the future, may break as many boards as Cole. You have the potential to be the greatest ninja.”

“This is what you could do in a year or so, probably,” Cole smiled, chopping down at ten entire boards , shattering them and causing the ground to quake. Lloyd’s jaw fell to the floor in awe.

“I have to admit, not bad for a kid,” Dareth interrupted, walking through the beaded curtain with two of his students. They might have been his only students.

“Kid!? I’m fourteen!” Cole frowned.

“And I’m twice your age, so you’re still a kid to me.” Dareth raised an eyebrow. Cole huffed, unfortunately conceding. “So watch this, kiddos. Instead of ten boards, how about fifty? Stack ‘em, boys.”

Everyone exchanged uncomfortable and worried looks as the two young boys stacked twenty boards on some cinderblocks. It wasn’t even fifty, as the man bragged. Wu pressed his hand into his face, sighing.

“And perhaps if I, Grand Sensai Dareth, can break through them all, you will allow me to join your team and become…” Dareth spun around and pulled over his head a brown hood, loose and barely fitting his giant hair inside. “The Brown Ninja!”

Jay couldn’t stop himself from snorting. “‘The Brown Ninja?’ You gotta be joking.”

“Sorry man, club’s already full,” Cole said, trying to let him down a bit easier.

“Okay, okay,” Dareth waved his hand. “Then maybe this demonstration of my superhuman strength may persuade you.” He danced around, trying to strike cool poses but ultimately not having the balance for it. “Jeffy, Phil, are we ready?”

The two kids bowed excitedly. “Yes, Grand Sensai Dareth!”

“Oh come on, they’re saying it that way too?” Kai muttered under his breath.

“Observe.” Dareth moved to stand in front of the boards, readying himself with some deep breaths. “I call upon the greatest animal to give me strength, the Dragon. Hee yah!!!”

He slammed his outstretched hand onto the boards, and didn’t even break one. A second later, he screeched in pain, holding his poor hand just as Lloyd had minutes before. The ninja could no longer hold back their cringes and laughed at his plight. “Oh man, ow!” Jay winced sympathetically, still giggling. 

Zane rolled their eyes and iced his hand. Dareth stopped yelling, then chuckled sheepishly. “Heh. Thanks, White.”

-=-

Meanwhile, Captain Soto decided on his main target. Jago City, a budding city on the coast of the northwest part of the Light Island. Though, by the looks of things, it’s already sprouted into a giant city, with buildings rising high into the sky made of steel and glass. It was lit up in a way he had never seen before, with people running through the streets away from the flying Bounty wearing clothing he was not familiar with. The future. What an interesting sight.

He and his men had learned that about 200 years had passed between their crash and death, and their resurrection at Lord Garmadon’s hands. A long time for society to completely change. One of their captives even mentioned that pirates did not exist anymore, which Soto scoffed at. Of course piracy still exists, how would it have died out?

Salton’s eyes were wide as he gazed upon the city. “What is this place, Captain?”

“A place to plunder,” Soto answered with a smirk, watching screaming people run away. “Never has my eye seen such treasures.” He turned around to his crew. “Boys! Take whatever you want!”

And so began their plundering streak. They fired a cannonball into the side of a tall steel-and-glass building (Soto decided to call these towers), then climbed in to loot through the things remaining. They robbed some of the people still in the room, taking all the money they had before leaving them to run. They snatched parcels from deliverymen, not caring if it was just worthless news - any information was good information. They even approached a strange steel beast with humans in its maw, growling back when it made a horrible honk at them. 

“Aye, a creature!” he shouted. “Let's give it a taste of our steel!”

The people inside the beast quickly got out, though not before paying the price of being saved. Slashing and stabbing at its soft feet caused it to whine and stop moving, electing a victory cheer from the pirates. 

(They learned, much later, that that was a futuristic carriage of some sort, and not a living beast as they had thought.)

Hearing the commotion finally, the ninja ran out of the Mojo Dojo, and their jaws dropped. There, before their eyes, floated their ship.  

“That’s our ship!!!” Jay cried, pointing at it and the pirates climbing into it.

“But- pirates?!” Lloyd exclaimed in utter confusion.

“Pirates haven’t been around for centuries!” Cole added, still in disbelief.

“I sense Lord Garmadon is somehow behind this,” Zane frowned. “Returning pirates and our ship from beyond the grave, I surmise.”

“But how are we gonna catch up to them?” Lloyd asked.

Kai eyed an approaching bus, stopping next to the one that the pirates looted and slashed. “I’ve got an idea. Green, stay with Master Wu.”

The ninja rushed aboard the bus. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but follow that flying pirate ship!” 

The bus driver nodded, let the other passengers get off, and gunned it for the ship. The street was mostly empty anyway.

And then they noticed that Lloyd climbed in the bus with them. “Kid, why are you coming along? I told you to stay,” Kai furrowed his brow.

“An actual mission may be too dangerous,” Cole agreed.

Lloyd frowned from under his hood. “Please, please, please,” he begged, “I'll be super good!”

“You’ll be super dead if you get stabbed by a pirate,” Jay said. 

Zane knelt and put a hand on Lloyd’s shoulder. “You do not have the training or powers necessary to fight effectively,” they reasoned. “There is much you still do not know about your own abilities, and rushing into battle unprepared is a death sentence.”

Lloyd looked down, dejected. Cole decided to cheer the poor kid up. “One of these days, you’ll be able to join us. Sorry, kid.”

It didn’t exactly work in cheering him up, as he sighed and sat down in one of the bus seats, pressing his face against the window despondently.

“Is Samurai X still working on his suit?” Jay asked as the ninja used an open window to climb to the bus roof. 

“I can give him a call, but I think we’ve got this,” Kai said. “Pretty sure he’s still repairing the suit.”

The ninja readied themselves, seeing the ship’s anchor haphazardly swinging around too far from its holder. They could almost reach it, almost jump over to grab it-

And the bus swerved, tipped to one side, and fell over. The ninja barely managed to clamber over the bus and avoided getting squashed, but with the bus tipped over, they weren’t going anywhere. “What happened!?” Jay exclaimed.

They looked over at an old woman that the bus driver unfortunately had to swerve to miss hitting. She trembled frightfully, then ran away.

While the ninja and their bus were unfortunately stopped, Dareth was not so easily impeded. Standing on a convenient rooftop, he puffed his chest out. “This is my chance to prove they need the Brown Ninja.” With a bit less confidence, he grunted and said “let's do this.” 

And he jumped onto the passing pirate ship with a “HEE-YAH!” He landed clean on the deck, looking powerful and strong. “Surrender, or face the Brown Ninja!”

Captain Soto sneered at this strange man on his ship. He knew how dangerous ninja could be. “Pajama man! Get him!”

And with pirates surrounding him, Dareth pulled out every move he knew. “The wolf! Awoo! ” He got on all fours. “The spider-” he made a chittering noise “-the hippo-” he waddled around, snorting.

Before he could call upon any other animal, the pirates looked at each other and laughed. This was a ninja in the modern day? This was the one who would save the city?

Soto rolled his eyes. Ninja these days, can’t even put up a good fight. He slashed at the brown clothes on his “opponent,” revealing his entirely non-muscular body to the open winter air.

Dareth quickly covered up, chuckling nervously. “Those swords- they’re really sharp!”

Soto laughed callously. In no time at all, there was rope around Dareth, tying his arms down and rendering him entirely useless. “Aw, nuts.”

Captain Soto smirked. “Mates, keep an eye out for other silly masked pajama people.” If this was the best the city could send, he didn’t have much to fear. 

He then regretted not covering the mouth of this pajama man when he began to scream. “Oh! PLEASE, help!”

The ninja, having left the bus in favor of running after the ship, groaned when they heard Dareth’s alarmed call from the ship. Kai groaned. “Seriously, Dareth? Come on.”

“How did he get there in the first place!?” Jay exclaimed.

Cole grimaced. “We need to get onboard that ship,” he said.

“How exactly do we do that?” Zane asked.

Thankfully, the ship seemed to have stopped, presumably for more plundering. “Well, we’re ninja, aren’t we?” Kai said. “We sneak aboard.”

The others nodded, and so they ran as fast as they could to the ship. They barely reached it in time, grabbing the anchor seconds before it began to retract, the ship rising high into the air. They climbed up and around the ship, careful to not be spotted. Though it was easier than they thought, considering the pirates (oh there were only seven of them) were gathered around Dareth, standing at the base of a plank overlooking open air, tied up. They exchanged looks and cringed, gearing up to save the poor man.

“How about we have him walk the plank?” A man in a black and red pirate cloak and a big black pirate hat asked. He had a peg leg, hook hand, and eyepatch. Probably the captain.

The rest of the pirates “YARRR!!!” cheered, and the captain led Dareth to the plank with a sword at his back.

“You’re making a big mistake,” Dareth pleaded. “Don't make me call upon- th-the Dragon!”

“We have to save him,” Jay whispered.

“Not while he’s dangling off the edge of the plank,” Kai muttered back, “he’ll fall off.”

Dareth and Soto were standing at the very end of the plank now. “Heh-heh, plank’s getting shorter, huh?” the pirate captain taunted. He removed his sword from Dareth’s back and curled it around the poor man’s neck. 

He gulped. “W-w-we don’t need to do this, fellas!” he tried to bargain. “There’s no point in killing me. I’m a lousy martial artist - what I do, I wouldn’t even call it an art! I’m not even a brown belt, I just really like the color… And my trophies are all faaaake,” he cried. 

As he rambled, the ninja got closer, creeping a step forward slowly but surely. They made near-inaudible groans and shook their heads. This guy… absolutely hopeless.

But they were almost ready to jump in and save him when Soto made a quick motion and pushed Dareth off the plank. His screams mixed with the pirates’ cheering and the ninja screaming “NO!” as he plummeted toward the city down below.

Dareth shut his eyes against the wind forces. This was it. This was how he died. Being captured by pirates, never doing anything good in his life, just a poor, sad owner of a dojo that had 2.7 stars on Jelp. He met the ninja and was nothing but an embarrassment to them, instead of the hero they deserved to look up to - or just a cool adult to look up to. His trophies, his achievements, his skills, all fake. 

Was he going to achieve anything real in his life?

He’d never know. 

But as he accepted his fate, he felt something grasp his gi and pull him out of the wind pressure against him and his thoughts. Snapping open his eyes, he saw that he was being held in the jaws of-

“A dragon!” he gaped. “I- I called the dragon!!! I CALLED THE DRAGON!” he screamed, laughing in terror and exhilaration. 

Sprout dipped a little in flight, unused to carrying both Lloyd and a strange, heavy man. They were only a young dragon, they couldn’t handle that much weight!

“Go, ninja, go!” Lloyd yelled out to the ship, guiding Sprout and Dareth to a nearby rooftop.

And so the ninja took this opportunity to reveal themselves, jumping out and ambushing a few of the pirates, knocking them down.

“More pajama men?” Captain Soto exclaimed in disbelief. 

“Ninja versus pirates,” Kai jeered. “Who will win?”

The ninja drew their weapons - standard, steel versions of their favored golden weapons. The pirates all got up and drew their weapons - mostly cutlasses and knives.

Cole made the first move, vaulting off the mast to slice at Soto. The captain ducked, but saw his feather float down, sliced off, from the corner of his eye. He growled, and yelled a wordless cry of attack, rallying his men.

Zane noticed as the pirates began to run at them, so they threw down a smoke bomb. The air filled with pale smoke, though they could see just fine. They tossed their shurikens. Their aim, precise and true, hit Soto by the shoulders of his coat, pinning him to the wall behind him.

Jay was surrounded on two sides, but didn’t let it phase him. He just struck out with his nunchaku at one guy, who slumped against the railing, and hit the second as he charged at him. The two men groaned as they were downed.

Kai saw the reflection of a pirate jumping at him in his katana, and easily dodged. Thankfully, these pirates were loud as hell, barely silencing their sneak attacks. With that momentum, he stabbed his sword into the planks below and used it as a hold to roundhouse kick the pirate.

One pirate rushed at Zane, who fended him off with a spare kyoketsu-shoge. Their shurikens were currently being used elsewhere. But not for long, as Soto removed the shurikens from his coat, freeing himself from the wall. He quickly ran to join his crewmate in attacking the White Ninja.

Cole, meanwhile, was fighting Pete. A fight that he had assumed would be easy due to his opponent’s blindness was quickly proven to be harder than he thought, all because of one little bird. The parrot kept squawking instructions at its owner, making actually hitting the guy nearly impossible. So Cole growled and tried to snatch the bird, only for it to fly up-

-and get chased off by Wren, who made a sudden nosedive into the fight. “My friend!” he heard Zane call excitedly. Wren made a little happy chirp, then returned to dealing with the parrot. Cole’s opponent seemed to realize his seeing-eye bird was gone, and tried to run, but got downed by Cole’s fist.

And then the ninja all heard something that made their hearts stop. A gunshot. But… the ninja hadn’t noticed any of the pirates carrying guns.

They heard a whoop of adrenaline from above, and looked up to see one Lloyd Garmadon, riding Sprout with a small gun aimed at the pirates. He tried to fire another shot, but missed terribly, burning a hole in a sail. Before anyone could say anything, he put the gun away and jumped into the fray, hitting both Zane and Soto and knocking them both down. 

Soto, scrambling to his knees, had the quick instinct to stab at the kid that downed him.

And the blade would have hit, if Kai wasn’t even faster, blocking the blade with his leg. 

He yelled in pain, taking a knee, though he still managed to raise his sword to block Soto’s next strike. “Green! What did I say about staying out of this fight!? You’re not supposed to be here!” Also, why did he have a gun?

Kai successfully pushed Soto back and away. He picked up Lloyd, who was making all sorts of distressed noises, and stuffed him in a nearby barrel. He then barely managed to block another incoming pirate, leg almost buckling. Shit , that was probably bad.

Somehow, Lloyd rotated himself and the barrel so that he knocked into Soto unintentionally as he charged for Kai again. No one was hurting Kai again, not on his watch! He was the Green Ninja!

-=-

Meanwhile, down below deck, listening to all this commotion, Garmadon finally felt strong enough to make his move. Curling around his fingers was raw Destruction, enough to actually do what he wanted. He approached the doorknob and evaporated it, simple as that. He turned to glare at his Serpentine crew members. “And a constrictai could not have bored through the wall? A fangpyre not melted the doorknob?”

“We can’t drill through wood, My Lord,” the only constrictai on board said. 

“I forgot I could do that,” one of the fangpyre said. The other two nodded in agreement.

He glared at them. “Hopeless, all of you.”

-=-

Back on top of the deck, Soto focused his sights on the kid in green - or rather, the kid in the barrel. He had stubbornly encased himself in the barrel, and his sword wasn’t cutting him out. “Come here, you blurry little munchkin!” he complained.

Lloyd took that as a sign that he was winning. “Fuck off!” was his rebuttal. 

Wait. He was in something super round. Spinning is round. Maybe…

And so, Lloyd spun around in circles, hoping to unlock that secret bit of spinjutsu deep inside, so that he could defeat the pirate that stabbed Kai, so that he could prove to the others that he can be part of the missions, so that he can prove that he’s not just a little kid-

The barrel exploded in a wave of green and gold energy, knocking Soto to his back and leaving splinters and shrapnel everywhere. Lloyd spun out, shaking his head dizzily. “Woah! Did I just do spinjutsu?” He didn’t quite know what he did, but if he could do it again…

And then he was hit by the blunt side of a blade upside the head and fell over.

He was picked up quickly by Zane, who was joined by the other ninja. Kai, unfortunately, was supported by Cole, though he still held his sword tight in his hand. Anyone close enough could see how hard he was breathing. They surrounded Soto, weapons pointed at him.

Garmadon, as this was happening, glanced out from the stairs. “My son,” he murmured softly. “He’s growing stronger already.” Was the hand of Fate drawing closer? Did he have even less time than he thought? Would Lloyd have to fight him before he even started dealing with puberty?

He kept watching. Just in case.

So of course that was when Lloyd decided to show off. He focused on the energy he just felt, gathered it around him, and felt it grow. Everyone’s eyes widened as they saw a globe of gold and green energy surrounding him, expanding and pulsing and filling everyone’s bones with the sense of being alive . Adrenaline and warm sunlight and a cold breeze. The smell of sprouting buds and soft tea, mixed with the sound of birds and dragons singing in harmony.

This was Lloyd’s power? This sheer force of life and energy was what this squirt could wield? The older ninja couldn’t take their eyes off of him, but they all agreed. They felt this when he first got crowned the Green Ninja. And now they know - that was always his power.

Unfortunately, this power couldn’t be controlled that easily. Kai shook himself out of his stupor when his leg smarted angrily. “Don’t! We don’t know what your powers can do yet!”

Too late. A wave of energy erupted wildly from Lloyd, who took a knee at the strain. And that happened right before everyone onboard heard the mast creak, and looked over to see it wobble. And topple. And fall right on top of everyone. 

The ninja had the bad luck to all be pinned under the sails, crawling out from the heavy fabric. So they felt even more unlucky to find swords pointed at their noses, and pirates surrounding them. “You lose, Pajama People,” Soto taunted, relishing the shocked gasps the ninja made. He smirked happily. Thank the Firsts these ninja at least had the sense to put up a good fight. That previous one must have been a fluke - the art of ninjutsu was still alive and well. “Now, you’re walking the plank.”

The pirates broke into laughter, jeering and callous, happy with their long-fought win. That was, until they heard loud stomps, rattling their teeth and the deck with every sound.

And everyone looked up to see a bright red and blue mech land on the ship, pick up the fallen mast, and slam it down at the pirates, felling them instantly. 

Nya placed the mast down in its proper place as the ninja got up and approached him. He hopped out of the mech, twirling his chakram, and landed on Captain Soto’s back, who gasped in alarm before going back down.

“Who wins between pirates and ninja?” Jay quipped. “It’s Samurai!”

Nya chuckled, his voice distorted by his modulator. Jay sighed dreamily and fluttered his lashes at him. Kai rolled his eyes and pretended to gag.

A little bit later, the ninja and samurai climbed down to the city streets and led the defeated pirates into cop cars. The few of them that were still conscious moaned something about being fed to strange beasts, before their captain moaned something else about them being fancy land ships. It wasn’t exactly the ninjas’ first idea to put the pirates in prison, but… well, there wasn’t anything better. Besides, they did rob the city and commit property damage. That’s illegal!

“Good work, ninja,” one of the cops smiled, nodding at them. 

“Don’t forget to include this guy,” Kai smirked, ruffling Lloyd’s hood. The kid looked up at him with hope and adoration in his eyes, smiling brighter than the sun. Kai smiled back.

The cop looked at Lloyd curiously, then snorted. “Sure.” Then, he looked up. “Uh, that your ship?”

Jay looked over at what the cop was looking at. “Sure is!” he said proudly, before blanching.

“Sorry! You snooze, you lose!” a voice rang out from the ship. Everyone spun around to see Garmadon and his crew back on the ship. Someone (probably Jay) swore under their breath.

“Lord Garmadon!” Cole shouted.

“DA-” Lloyd began to cry, before Nya’s hand clamped his mouth shut, wary of the police force nearby.

Garmadon heard anyway. “You're becoming stronger, but you'll never be strong enough to defeat me. Give up, before it's too late.” To an outside viewer, it sounded like a vague threat to all the ninja, an evil plot he was preparing to set into motion. To those who knew, they recognized it for what it was, what his red eyes shone with. He was addressing Lloyd. He saw the power he wielded. He was asking for his son to join him.

Lloyd wilted, shying away. He wanted to jump into Garmadon’s arms, hug his father goodbye, like he was promised. But he had to defeat his father. He had to protect Jago. He had to fight for his friends, for what is good. So, with the nods of the ninja around him, he furrowed his brow and stood his ground, willing himself not to cry. He stepped back to the ninja team - a sure sign of who’s side he was on.

Garmadon’s hearts were torn. On one hand, he respected his son for standing up for what was right, in the end. Fate wouldn’t have it any other way. But Firsts he missed his son. He could only hope there would be moments of reprieve between their battles. Enough time for his son to come into his own. Perhaps into a time when he no longer needed his father.

But that was in the future. For now, Garmadon steeled his expression and held his megaweapon into the air. “Have it your way! Another day, ninja. Another day!”

He flew off, cackling as the ninjas’ old home disappeared before their eyes.

“Ah, great. Lord Garmadon is back, and now he's got our ship,” Jay grumbled.

“Well, at least we've got this little guy,” Cole reached over and patted Lloyd’s shoulder. The kid preened.

Wynn landed on Zane’s outstretched arm. “Come,” they said. “Let us go home. We have had a long day.”

Various sounds of agreement were voiced, and the ninja started to walk home.

Only for Kai to shout in pain and to collapse to one knee.

As everyone cried out in alarm and surrounded him, he grimaced. “Oh right. I’ve been stabbed.”

Chapter Text

“You were STABBED?!” Nya immediately ran over to help Kai back up. Everyone’s eyes locked onto Kai’s leg. His red gi had hidden the stab wound and blood pretty well up to this point - plus, they all had other things to worry about. Like pirates attacking them. But oh shit that was a lot of blood.

The cops had all left at this point, leaving the ninja alone on the street. Where in the world was Wu?

Jay grimaced. “Oh, that looks really bad. How are you still awake?”

“I got stabbed in my leg, not my stomach,” Kai grumbled. “Can’t walk, but I’m not dead yet.”

“Thank the Firsts you only got stabbed in the leg! ” Nya exclaimed. “Shit- do we have any of that healing tea left?”

“No, it was all left on the ship,” Zane frowned. They looked at their winged companion. “Can you find Wu, please?” 

Wynn squeaked and took off. 

“Wonder where it goes when it’s not with us,” Jay pondered. Then they shook their head. “Doesn’t matter right now! Stay with us, Red!”

“Blue, I’m not dying,” Kai deadpanned. “It’s just a stab wound.”

“Not if it gets infected it won’t be!”

“...It’s still gonna be a stab wound, Sparky,” Cole deadpanned.

Jay had no time to find a clever response, because Wynn returned with a loud squeak, diving down to land on Zane’s arm. Close behind, rounding a corner, Wu appeared. 

“Wynn seemed frantic,” he said. “Did something happen?”

“Red got stabbed,” Cole explained. 

“He what?” Wu snapped his gaze to Kai, who gave a little peace sign. Jay pointed at the stab wound. Wu assessed the wound and grimaced. “Oh dear.”

“What do we do?” Nya asked.

“He’s not gonna die, is he?” Lloyd asked, tail swishing nervously. 

Wu’s eyes shot around everywhere, then pointed at Nya. “Get in your mech, pick Red up, everyone into that alleyway. Block the entrance with your mech.”

Nya quickly complied, despite Kai squawking an “I can stand up!” (He could not.)

In the alleyway and away from prying eyes and ears (though still using code names just in case), the ninja quickly debriefed Wu on the fight.

“I should’ve shot them better,” Lloyd muttered. “Aiming is hard. And I finally got my powers, so I forgot I could shoot them from up close.”

“...Do you still have my parents’ gun?” Jay squinted suspiciously at the kid. 

“No,” Lloyd lied.

“Do we have any healing tea left?” Cole asked his teacher.

Wu opened his mouth for a second, then closed it. “I do not think this is a wound healing tea can solve.”

“Well we can’t go to a hospital,” Kai said. “What are we gonna tell them, heal this guy who won’t take his mask off? I’m already feeling dizzy, I need all the oxygen I can spare.”

“PLEASE STOP DYING!” Jay screamed.

“And changing me into day clothes is stupid,” Kai continued. His eyes were already fluttering, his mask pulled up to give him air to breathe. “Like… what’re they gonna think about some teen that got stabbed and is now wearing other pants? T’s stupid.”

Wu sighed. “Give me a second, I need to make a phone call.” He flipped open his phone, dialed a number, and stepped away.

On the second ring, a tinny voice picked up. “Wu.”

“Feng,” Wu greeted. 

“What happened.”

“We may need official medical help.”

Wu heard a groan from the other line. “How bad is it?”

“Stab wound to the leg.” Wu glanced at Kai, still in the Sam X mech’s arms, being fussed over by his team. “My student is still conscious.”

“Oh, so it’s not you this time,” Feng grumbled. Wu winced. “Outside or inside the leg?”

Another quick glance. “Outside.”

“Good, you have time. How soon are you getting here?”

“Give us-” he mapped Jago City in his head “-fifteen minutes.”

“Make it ten.” And the line clicked off.

“Great talk as always, Feng,” Wu muttered. Turning back to his students, he snapped his fingers to get their attention. “Ninja, we’re going to the hospital.”

“Give me a moment to plug that into my GPS-” Nya began.

“No need,” Wu interrupted. Focusing and breathing in, he called upon the roaring dragon inside his element. The alleyway filled with a gold and white ethereal creature, snaking all the way up to the roofs. “Blue, White, Black, on my dragon with me. Samurai X, keep Red in your arms and follow me. Green, I know your dragon is close by. Follow us closely, do not stray away.”

“Yes, Master!” chorused everyone. Jay, Zane, and Cole climbed onto the dragon (the former two marvelling over the elemental beast, as Cole and Kai had been the ones to ride it previously), Nya fired up her engines, and Lloyd called for Sprout - who was right above them, it turned out.

As the ninja left Kai’s side, Wu noticed with a large amount of pride that Cole had used his belt to tie down Kai’s wound. Good, basic first aid wasn’t completely lost these days.

They all shot through the air, racing as fast as they could to the hospital. Wu mapped the city in his head, watching out for the distinctive green cross of the Jago City Central Hospital. After several minutes of flying, he spotted it, and gunned down for it, ignoring the ninja yelling behind him. 

He landed in the back of the hospital, with a flickering light and a giant NO PARKING sign. Nya’s mech landed shortly after, and Sprout seconds later.

The ninja all dismounted (minus Kai and Nya) and looked at the man standing in the back of the hospital, tapping his foot. He looked… painfully normal. Light tan skin, short brushed back black hair, a short beard and mustache, glasses, dark eyes, and a standard doctor’s uniform. This was just some middle-aged guy.

And yet, Wu stood almost nervously around him. The older men made eye contact. Wu shrank back just a centimeter.

The doctor quickly scanned the ninja. He settled on Kai, who weakly waved. “Give him to me.”

“I can carry him inside,” Nya argued. 

“Your mech won’t fit,” the doctor argued back. “I can carry him.”

Nya thought it over for a moment, then sighed and handed her brother over to the doctor, who lifted him without issue. She hopped out of her mech and started following.

He noticed. “Nope, none of you follow.”

“That’s my brother!” Nya exclaimed. 

“Nya-” Wu warned.

“And that’s my patient,” the doctor stated firmly. “I want to operate on him in a scenario free of stress, thank you very much.”

“But-”

Nya’s attempt at a rebuttal was quickly stopped by Wu throwing an arm out in front of her. “Dr. Feng can take care of things. I trust him with my life, as I have done hundreds of times in the past. We’re in his care now, and it would be best to listen to him.”

Nya shrank back, mollified. “He’ll be okay, right?”

Feng shot a quick look at the bleeding boy in his arms. “Unless he spontaneously combusts, he’ll be fine.”

“We’ll wait out here for you,” Wu concluded. 

Feng nodded and turned back to enter the hospital, disappearing into its depths.

Every ninja at once started asking him questions the second the door closed. He grimaced and covered his ears. “One at a time, please, kids!”

“Who is that guy?” Cole asked.

“That is Dr. Feng, a man I have known for a very long time,” Wu explained. He sat down on the curb, and the others sat down around him, dropping after the adrenaline rush. “My brother and I have relied on him as our primary caregiver since we were young. I couldn’t count the amount of times I was in there.”

“Wait… since you were young?” Cole furrowed his brow. “Aren’t you and Lord Garmadon thousands of years old?”

“We are,” Wu agreed, and did not elaborate.

“You said my name out loud to him,” Nya frowned, taking off her mask and voice changer. “And he’s probably gonna see Kai under the mask. Is that okay?”

“If there’s one thing I know about Feng, it’s that he can keep a secret,” Wu smiled. He sighed. “The time has ended for me to rely solely on healing tea to help you kids. It’s expensive and hard to grow, not to mention difficult to find. Wasting tea on every injury you get would be foolish. And besides, its power extends mostly to minor injuries - scratches, slight burns, bruises, the like. It cannot help against a stab wound. And if it did, it might not heal properly.”

Jay’s face paled. “Well! I guess it’s good that we didn’t try to forcefeed him healing tea!”

“Not that we had any in the first place,” Zane added. 

“Which is why I believe it was the right time to introduce you to Feng,” Wu continued. “The battles ahead will be more dangerous, more deadly, and there is a high chance that something bad will happen in those fights - something healing tea and a bandage won’t fix. Kai got stabbed in a mere fight against pirates; how would you fare against tougher enemies without professional medical attention?”

This made the ninja pause and think. True, this fight should have been easy enough to handle. Just a bunch of pirates - they’ve faced snakes and skeletons and Garmadon himself and came out mostly just bruised and scratched up. But one fight against pirates caused a stab wound bad enough to be hospitalized over. 

Lloyd curled into himself. “It’s my fault Kai got stabbed,” he said. “I wanted to join the fight, I wanted to help!”

“Even when we told you not to?” Cole raised an eyebrow.

Lloyd looked away. “Yea… I mean- I thought I could help anyway! You were all in a pickle, and I could get you guys out of the pickle!”

“You did, in a way, help the fight,” Jay shrugged. “You caused the mast to fall down on us.”

“Thanks,” Lloyd winced. “I don’t know how to control my power, you’re right.” He paused. “Now I know I should have shot that guy.”

“Can I have my parents’ gun back?!” Jay exclaimed. 

“No,” Lloyd shook his head with a smirk.

“A gun is not exactly ninja weaponry,” Zane mused.

“Yea, it’s too loud,” Nya agreed. “Give it to me instead, I don’t gotta worry about how loud I am - I’m in a mech!”

“No one’s getting a gun, especially not the child,” Cole stated. 

“Too late, you don’t know where I hid it,” Lloyd stuck his tongue out.

“You little brat,” Nya reached over and tousled Lloyd’s hair, who cried “noooo” playfully, batting her hands away.

-=-

In the hospital, meanwhile, Dr. Feng laid Kai down on an operating table. The poor kid was floating in and out of consciousness, though the anesthesia was helping him stay under for longer. Thankfully, the wound wasn’t terribly deep, and he only had to sew through one layer of muscle before stitching up the skin. It was a good thing those kids put pressure on the wound when they did; the red ninja lost a lot of blood. Nothing fatal, but it was best to get him here when they did.

He sat back in his chair and studied the kid. All of the ninja outside looked like children, especially the green one - First Lord did Fate choose a child? He put a toothpick in his mouth to chew on as he waited for the anesthesia to wear off. He thought Wu would know better than to train kids again. After last time…

Feng was shaken out of his thoughts when his patient groaned and came to, slowly blinking and breathing heavily. “Good, you’re up, that was quick,” he stated.

The kid blinked and processed him. “Who- what-”

“My name is Dr. Feng, I’m the guy who sewed your leg back up,” he introduced himself.

“Kai,” the ninja introduced himself back. Then he shook his head. “Wait, no I’m- I’m just the Red Ninja-”

“It’s okay, kid, I can keep a secret,” Feng said. “Besides, something tells me I’m gonna be seeing you and your friends more as time goes on.”

Kai seemed a lot more focused now. He looked down at his leg - all stitched up. “Woah.” He looked back up at Feng suspiciously. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“Wu does,” Feng shrugged. “I’ve had him in my office so many times he might as well call this a home away from home.” He stood up and gathered his equipment, placing it in an autoclave, and threw away everything else. Then, he sat down by Kai and cocked his head. “So, you wanna tell me how this happened? What’s Wu got you kids doing?”

“I got stabbed by a pirate,” Kai explained. He spotted Feng’s scrunching in disbelief, and waved a hand. “Not lying. Lord Garmadon summoned them-”

“Lord Garmadon,” Feng scoffed. “I can’t believe that idiot actually goes by that name now.”

“It means… destructor, in some old language, right?” Kai thought.

“Yes,” Feng confirmed. “I refuse to call him that. It’s a foolish title.”

“He’s not gonna be too happy to hear that,” Kai frowned.

“Like he would hurt me,” Feng laughed. Then, he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Right. Back to business. You’re the next holder of Fire, right?”

Kai hesitated for a moment, then nodded, sparking up a little flame in his hand. “I can’t really control it, but Wu found me because of my connection to fire.”

“Thought so,” Feng smirked. “You’re a spitting image of your father.”

Kai’s eyes widened. “You knew my father?”

“I’m pretty sure I helped your mother deliver you,” Feng said. “Haven’t really kept in contact otherwise; your parents were just friends of Wu’s that he’d occasionally drag in here for some healing. They been good?”

Kai turned away, an unreadable expression on his face. “Dunno. It’s been almost ten years since they went missing.”

Feng’s eyes blew open. “Missing? Does Wu know they’re gone?”

“Probably,” Kai shrugged. “Wish I knew where the hell they were, but Nya and I have survived on our own this long; we’re fine.”

“And how old are you?”

“Nearly 15, gimme a month.”

“And your sister?”

“Just turned 13.”

“Right.” Too young. Could Wu not have waited a few years? If he wasn’t mistaken, the Green Ninja was among the posse of children outside the hospital right now, and was potentially the youngest kid of them all. He sighed. “Okay. I’m sure Wu already knows this, but I’m likely to become your primary doctor from now on. I know who you are behind the masks, and can deal with elementals who keep getting themselves in trouble. Only been doing it my whole life.”

“That… definitely makes sense,” Kai nodded. “I mean, I was wondering for a while how we’re gonna deal with serious issues like this. Good to know that you’re willing to help us.”

“I’m only doing this because I owe Wu’s father,” Feng huffed. Totally not because these are the youngest patients he’d had in his office since… Since the last time. 

“...The First Master?” Kai’s voice was ripe with disbelief.

Feng shrugged. “Sure. It’s a whole thing.” He reached into a jar and pulled out a small candy. “Here, take this.”

Kai was forced to follow the topic shift and grabbed the candy. “What is this? Candy for me being a good boy at the doctor’s or something?”

“It’s made of the same stuff healing tea is,” Feng explained. “Normally, your leg’d take four to six weeks to fully heal and stitch together, but I assume that you and your friends are gonna be keeping active. The candy’ll take the healing time down to just one week.” He grabbed two more. “Take one every two days.”

“Powerful stuff,” Kai muttered. “How come this isn’t commercialized?”

“Because of how difficult healing tea is to grow,” Feng frowned, “you can’t really mass produce them without running into a complete shortage of the plant.”

“That sucks.” Kai popped a candy into his mouth and hummed. “Nice flavor. Same as the tea.”

Dr. Feng grabbed a pair of crutches from the corner. “Still, stay off that leg until it’s 100% healed. Come back here in a week.”

“Do we need to go through the back again?” Kai shifted so his legs were dangling off the bed, ready to jump off. Then, he glared at his missing pant leg. “Where’s my pant?”

“I had to do surgery, kid, I was not about to navigate around a bloodsoaked rag to do so.” Feng, to prepare for the surgery, had obviously cut off Kai’s pant leg. That was in the trash now. “I’m sure you have spare pants.”

“...I’ll ask Master Wu.” Kai looked at Feng gratefully. “Thanks for the short notice surgery.”

“It’s what I do,” Feng shrugged, but nodded. “And, for your earlier question, if you’re coming in civilian attire, you can just ask for me at the front desk.”

He grabbed a spare wheelchair from the back, wheeling it to the bed. He easily grabbed Kai (ignoring his noises) and placed him in the chair, handed him the crutches, and began to wheel him out to his friends. 

Leaving the back door, Kai saw the team in various positions and groupings, all talking to Wu. Nya and Lloyd had their eyes glued to the door, and so were the first to see him as he was wheeled out. Their eyes lit up as they called his name and ran over. He grinned and was about to let them tackle him in a hug until Dr. Feng cleared his throat.

They settled for gathering around him, soon joined by the others. “Everything went well?” Nya asked, staring at the bandages around Kai’s leg.

“I survived,” Kai smirked, shooting her a thumbs up.

“I’m so sorry I got you stabbeddddddd this is my faultttttt,” Lloyd babbled, eyes full of tears. “I should’ve listened to you and not gone on the ship but I wanted to help and I didn’t want you guys to do this on your own a-and-”

“Woah, kid, it’s okay,” Kai’s smile went warmer. “It was stupid of you to join the fight when it was still dangerous, but I know you just wanted to help.” His face got sterner. “Don’t do that again, though. You are still seriously in danger in a fight.” 

Lloyd shrunk back, but had a hint of a smile on his face. “Yea, I’ll try.” He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “I just gotta train more and faster so I can join fights better!”

“Please don’t, I don’t think Kai’s heart can take it,” Cole joked.

They continued bantering and chatting for a while, Kai filling them in on the information he learned in Dr. Feng’s room while the others filled him in on what Master Wu told them. Meanwhile, Wu and Feng took up a spot close by but not within earshot, talking about things the kids couldn’t hear. 

Wu handed some sort of payment to Feng, who pocketed it and headed back to the hospital. “It’s bad for a doctor to say ‘see you later,’ but with you kids, I think it’s a premonition," he said sardonically.

Everyone smiled guiltily at him. “We’ll try not to make it a habit!” Cole said.

Dr. Feng nodded like he didn’t believe him and left the ninja team alone.

Thankfully, the Sam X mech was able to take Kai, his wheelchair, and his crutches safely back home, while the others travelled by dragon. After such a long day, they fell asleep the second their heads hit the pillow.

-=-

It was the next morning that they realized Dareth had been left on the rooftop.

Since Kai was currently bedridden until further notice, and Nya wanted to make sure he didn’t try anything stupid, that left the other four to go visit the dojo (and rooftop) to make sure Dareth was alright.

“Well,” Lloyd reported, seeing Sprout shake their head far above them, “he’s not up there.”

“I would be extremely worried if he had been abandoned on that rooftop,” Zane said. “I am pleased he made it down safely.”

“Or maybe he fell off and exploded,” Jay snarked.

“He wouldn’t explode,” Cole rolled his eyes.

“You don’t know that,” Jay argued back.

They considered going out in their ninja gi, if only because Dareth didn’t know them in plainclothes. Not that they would tell him their identities - that’s just some annoying man whose dojo they were borrowing. He doesn’t need to know.

But they were pretty soiled with dirt and sweat and blood, and it was cold enough to be forced into mostly plainclothes anyways. Jay especially was bundled up, his scales complaining at every snowflake. So yes, it was snowing, and they wanted to be warm , thank you very much.

So it was bizarre to literally everyone around when Jay felt someone tap his back and, by pure instinct, grabbed whoever it was and tossed them over his shoulder forward. The bizarre part was that it was Dareth.

No one managed to suppress a surprised “Dareth?!” as he rubbed his head and picked himself up off the snow. 

“Ugh, come on. I Dare-th you to forgive me,” he smarmed. He turned around and realized who had thrown him. “Oh jeez, kid, you’ve got an arm on you.” He smirked. “Say, you should stop by my dojo, I could teach you some tricks.”

Jay and Cole shot a quick look at each other. “Uh, we’re good,” Jay laughed. “Why’d you tap me on the shoulder anyway?”

“Oh, I saw the Green Ninja’s dragon up there,” the dojo owner pointed at the rooftop where Sprout just was. “That’s actually where I summoned the dragon and had it rescue me from a great fall from a pirate ship. It was pretty cool, you had to be there.”

Cole suddenly realized something extremely funny and had to cough to cover up his bubbling laughter. Dareth now had such a fascinating experience to share, and no one was going to believe him . How would anyone believe that he fell from a flying pirate ship and got rescued by a dragon??? And yet, it was more real than any of his trophies. Oh, dear First One.

“So anyways, just wanted to let you know that that was the dragon who saved me,” Dareth concluded his story, clicking a “ch-ch” with his mouth and winking.

“And you are alright after the… pirates?” Zane asked. 

“Oh yea, perfectly unharmed!” Dareth confirmed. “Got a bit scratched up from where I was fighting the pirate captain with my bare fists against his sword, but I survived and won in the end, so… battle scars, am I right?” He flexed and kissed his biceps.

“Right,” Jay chuckled, sounding like he didn’t really believe him. 

“You’re lame,” Lloyd said out of nowhere.

“Lloyd, you can’t just say that!” Cole chastised immediately.

“Don’t kiss up to him,” he rolled his eyes. “I mean, come on, are you guys gonna believe all that? From a guy like this?”

“That is enough, Lloyd,” Zane placed a hand on Lloyd’s head and began to walk out of the alleyway. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it, he does not have much of a filter.”

Dareth didn’t appear stung in any way. “I’ve heard that one enough, kid, you’re gonna need to try better material to get me down.”

“Dude, he’s gonna take that as a challenge,” Jay frowned.

“Then show up at the dojo and challenge me!” Dareth winked, then fluffed his very fluffy brown hood and gave Lloyd a business card. “Classes are only 40 bucks for a month.”

“That is incredibly cheap,” Zane commented. 

The dojo owner shrugged. “Better for some people, y’know? I help where I can.” He sent a finger gun at Lloyd. “Looking forward to hearing the next burn against the Brown Ninja soon, kid!” And he walked away, presumably to his dojo.

The ninja watched him leave. When he was out of earshot, they all gave each other baffled looks. “Why is he so lame ,” Jay groaned, pressing his face into his hands.

“Cuz he’s cringe,” Lloyd shrugged. There was a devious glint in his eyes. 

“Don’t blow your cover over a burn, Lloyd,” Cole deadpanned.

“I won’t, I’m careful,” Lloyd lied.

“Well, at least he is unharmed,” Zane stated.

“Lucky guy,” Cole smirked.

Jay blinked. “...Seriously, does he own anything that isn’t brown?”

They exchanged looks, then burst out laughing. No, he probably didn’t.

Chapter Text

A week later, the ninja were back in the Mojo Dojo. They had gone there intermittently throughout the week, but it was the first time Kai was back with them. Thanks to Feng’s healing candy and treatment, he was given the ok to join back on observing training, though discouraged from actively participating in anything other than stretches.

So there the ninja were, watching Lloyd futz with a lightbulb. Jay had mastered the art of futzing with lightbulbs ages ago, figuring out their currents and how much voltage is needed to turn one on - and how much voltage exploded it. 

Wu said that it was likely that Lloyd’s power was energy. What that meant, they didn’t quite know, but their master said it was likely to be very powerful. More powerful than the cardinal elements. Close to the level of Creation and Destruction. They all gaped at this.

(But then again, they knew who his family was. Demigods who did not skip out on their heritage’s power. It was just crazy to think about, for such a young kid.)

That was why they were gathered around Lloyd and a lightbulb - electricity ran lightbulbs, but… maybe energy could too. It was also an easy enough conduit to see if he could tap into that power through an external tool.

“Focus, Lloyd,” Jay guided him through. “Control the power inside you. When you feel a surge welling up, harness it.”

“I understand,” Lloyd nodded, seriously, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I am in control.”

There was a power thrumming in his veins, in his nerves, in his bones. It felt like ants crawling through him, if ants were actually raw adrenaline and energy and didn’t feel horrible. He focused on the energy inside, pretending like it was something he could reach out and grab. He took hold of that surge, feeling like he could run a marathon in a second, and pushed it into the lightbulb. 

Under his closed eyes, he saw the bulb flash. 

Jay gasped. “Come on, you can do it!” they encouraged.

More energy. More power. More fuel. The lightbulb had to glow , not flash. He needed to focus, focus, focus-

The bulb exploded in a shower of green sparks and glass.

Lloyd yelped in alarm, shielding his face from the explosion, then groaned. “Argh! Stupid fucking lighbulb! Stupid piece of shit bulb!” But before anyone could chastise him for his foul mouth or comfort him for another burst bulb, he turned on the other ninja. “You're putting too much pressure on me! Let me have one more try.”

Kai tsked sympathetically. “Sorry, that was the last lightbulb.”

Lloyd glared at the remains of the other lightbulbs on the floor around him. “Well, they’re all shit bulbs.”

“Take a breather, L,” Cole offered, handing him a broom. “Wanna sweep that up?”

“Not on your life!” Lloyd complained. He took the broom anyway, but went over to a punching bag in the corner and started whacking it, making actiony noises.

Jay sighed, tail waving slowly. “What am I doing wrong, Master Wu? Am I putting too much pressure on him?”

Lloyd swung his broom angrily and hit himself in the face, falling flat on his back with a groan. “You dare defy the Green Ninja!” he got up and challenged the punching bag with a dramatic voice.

“You two have very different powers,” Wu explained. “Energy and Lightning may be related, but they do not function the same. But your methods are on the right track. You must have patience, Jay. Sometimes, the greatest opponent we face is ourselves, and that's especially true of Lloyd. Remember where he came from.”

No one wanted to say it, but they all winced. The son of the Lord of Destruction seemed to have an affinity for destroying. They just needed to hone his raw powers, instead of whatever was happening here. Explosions. No more of those.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the door sliding open, Nya walking through in her mechanic’s uniform. Just in case, she still had her Samurai X mouthpiece on. “Hey guys!”

“Hey, Nya!” the ninja said in unison.

She waved at them all, then turned to her boyfriend. “Hey, Jay. Uh, wanna come by the autobody shop later?”

“Your internship place?” Jay straightened up, at attention.

“Yea, I thought we could work on something together. I’ve told my boss about how cool you are, and I wanna build something with you,” she blushed. 

Jay blushed too. Their wonderful girlfriend, inviting them to come build something with her? That’s basically a dream come true! Their tail wagged happily. “A- sure!!!” To distract from their growing blush and as to not stammer every word, they looked around for a topic change. Oh look, a topic change in her hand! “Uh- what do you got there?”

“It’s for Master Wu,” she explained, handing the letter over to its recipient. She didn’t sound too happy when she said it.

Wu didn’t look too happy either after reading who it was from. “It’s from Darkley’s.”

The dojo grew so quiet you could hear a pin drop. “Lloyd’s old reform school?” Cole asked, shakily.

Kai immediately drew closer to Lloyd, who had gone stock still.

Wu opened the letter and read it quickly. “Apparently, former reform school,” he said, with no small hint of suspicion and wonder. “Since the last time we were there, they have changed their ways and renamed themselves to Darkley’s School for Great Children.” 

No one said anything. “That… sounds like bullshit,” Kai broke the silence.

Wu kept reading. “It says here that they were looking for… Lloyd. They want to apologize. They even planned an apology ceremony, as well as extending a scholarship to Lloyd if he wanted to come back.”

“That’s a trap,” Cole decided. “I don’t trust that place as far as I can throw it. And I haven’t figured out how to bench-press buildings yet.”

“Yea, there’s no way this is real,” Nya said. “Read further. They reached out to Master Wu because they searched through every living relative to find out how to contact Lloyd, just in case he was with one of them.”

“I am not even in that many public records,” Wu scoffed. 

“Our apartment is technically under your name,” Zane said.

“And his dad is an evil warlord that used to live in the Underworld, and who knows where his mom is,” Cole added. “Wu was the best bet for finding him.”

“Looks like it worked,” Jay bit their lip nervously.

“We’re not going,” Lloyd said sharply. 

“You got that right,” Kai agreed. “That letter is a trap waiting to happen.”

“...But what if it is genuine?” Zane suggested. Everyone gave him a look. He did not appear phased. “Perhaps the letter is just ominously worded. Perhaps they truly do want their missing student back, to return to him the education he was promised.”

“And if the celebration is real…” Cole mused, “there might be cake.” He sighed dreamily. “I love cake.”

“Don’t get lost in La La Land, guys,” Kai snapped. “This stinks of trouble.”

“I said, we’re not going,” Lloyd stood up, tail lashing. “That place was terrible for everyone, but especially bad to Lloyd.” Oh, Knife. “We’re not going, and that’s final.”

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. “What if you guys just… checked it out?” Nya suggested. “Lloyd doesn’t need to come in until you’re sure it’s safe.”

“We don’t even wanna see that fucking building,” Knife snapped. “Bad memories on its own.”

“If it turns out to be a trap, and we bring you along, you have full permission to punch whoever you want with our protection,” Kai offered.

Knife considered this. “I should be allowed one stab.”

“Really? In front of my freshly stabbed leg?” Kai deadpanned sarcastically.

“Skill issue,” they snorted. 

“I usually would not condone violence such as that,” Wu began, stroking his beard, “but if this does indeed end up being a trap, you have our permission to exact your revenge.”

Knife grinned toothily, red eyes flashing. “Awesome.”

“Besides, there’s no way we’re gonna let them take Lloyd unless he wants to go back,” Jay added. “That scholarship deal can bite it.”

“But his education may suffer-” Zane started to say.

“Zane, you’re a 30 year old robot, Kai and Nya didn’t have formal schooling, Jay was homeschooled, and I dropped out before entering my high school,” Cole snarked. “None of us have gone to school since becoming ninja.”

“Which I am looking to remedy,” Wu said, folding the letter. “A group of teenagers not in school still deserve some form of actual education. We can’t expect you to make ninjutsu your only goal in life. Regardless, scoping out the place would prevent them from sending more letters. We do not know if Lloyd’s mother is at her place of residence - and what she might do upon learning that her son ran away.”

“Our mom? You mean the woman who went missing years ago?” Knife snarked. “Sure, see if she cares.” They smirked. “Okay, let’s go stab people.”

“Knife, no.”

-=-

Elsewhere, on the Destiny’s Bounty, Garmadon was ready to make his next move. The ship rocked gently on the waves, the crew was fed and watered, and Garmadon was tired of waiting. So he gathered his people on the deck, stood at the bridge, and slammed his staff on the planks. 

“Can everyone hear me?” he called to his gathered audience. Several resounding “yes, my lord”s rose from his crew, and he nodded. “Let’s brainstorm on how to use the Megaweapon to destroy the ninja. Remember, the weapon can only create , never destroy, and I can only use it once per day, as it drains my strength upon use. So, no such thing as a bad idea. Anyone?”

Someone snorted in the audience. “What about more piratesss?” Garmadon pointed a glare at where he heard the voice from. The constrictai that spoke immediately shook their head and backed up. “I w-was just kidding! Sssorry, my lord!”

With a jerk of his hand, he directed one of his favorite crewmates, General Tebraeus, to toss the offending snake overboard. They landed in the water. But Garmadon was feeling charitable today, so there was an anchor down that they could climb up to rejoin the crew if they so desired. Of course, being cast out into the open sea wasn’t a terrible alternative.

“Don’t be shy, no bad ideas,” Garmadon smarmed, as if he didn’t do anything.

“Oh! What if you resurrected the Great Devourer?” a skulkin offered. 

Lord Garmadon was no longer feeling charitable. 

He blasted a concentrated ball of Destruction at the skeleton, who screamed and decayed into nothing.

“Alright, no more fun and games,” Garmadon growled. “Serious suggestions only.”

The crew shifted nervously. That skulkin had crossed a line.

“Those pesky ninja always come out on top,” Garmadon mused. “How can I defeat ninja who so rudely refuse to be defeated?” 

The crew was silent. Some murmured among themselves, but none dared to speak their ideas out loud.

Garmadon snarled. Fine, he’ll consult his weapon instead. “Do you have any bright ideas?” he asked it, half-jokingly. He was met with his reflection glaring back at him.

…Wait.

“That’s it!”

“Did the weapon actually give you an answer?” Tebraeus asked.

“It did.” Garmadon laughed evilly. “No more brainstorming! Gather me any ninja belongings left on this ship!”

The crewmates scattered, running around the ship to search. Eventually some returned with older versions of the ninjas’ gi - the ones with golden dragons on them - as well as Lloyd’s old hoodie and Nya’s fancy dress. The clothes were dropped in the center of the ship.

Garmadon immediately frowned. “Take Lloyd’s away.” A skulkin quickly did. 

Only five outfits remained in the center. Perfect. He grinned. 

Lord Garmadon slammed the Megaweapon against the ground, pinning all the clothes beneath it. He channeled all his power into his mutated weapon, breathing in and out. “Ninja, today I wish for you to finally meet your match. Your perfect reflections. The only ones you could never beat.”

The wind blew. The air crackled with unknown energy as the Megaweapon gathered power. Destruction fueled for Creation, Garmadon breathed and screamed as more power than before tore from his body. He was being torn apart. 

Fire, earth, ice, and lightning circled around the megaweapon, then around the clothing, swirling and humming and screeching. It was impossible to see anything, but there were horrible noises from Garmadon and the affected clothing. Every snake and skeleton felt like running from the unfiltered force of Creation before them. It was heavenly. It was divine. 

It was abominable.

With a final blast of light, five sets of footsteps landed on the deck. Everyone opened their eyes to see…

The ninja, dressed in their dragon gi, and a girl in a fancy dress. 

They looked around confusedly, eyeing up the crew around them, then turned to look at Garmadon, who had sunk to his knees from exhaustion. He breathed heavily, leaning on his weapon. “I have made you… to be equal to the ninja,” he panted, sitting back against the guardrail, “...and loyal only to me.”

Five pairs of eyes pierced him. Then, Not-Cole tilted his head. “Who are you?”

“That’s Lord Garmadon!” Not-Kai yelped, hiding behind Not-Zane, who laughed uproariously. 

“Are you scared of him?” he mocked. “Little baby Kai scared of some evil warlord?”

“I’m not scared, I’m just… healthily cautious,” Not-Kai mumbled. 

“Aww, you are scared!” Not-Zane grinned widely, grabbing Not-Kai and spinning him around. Then, he presented him to Garmadon like a cat. “Look, there he is! Scary Garm, ready to kill you!” His piercing blue eyes and terrifying grin met Garmadon’s. “Or- are you too powerless to do anything? How shocking!”

“Please put me down,” Not-Kai whined, looking close to tears.

Not-Cole leaned over to Not-Nya and fiddled with his glove. “Izzat our boss?”

Not-Nya frowned and shuffled away. “Idon’tknowdon’taskme,” she said quietly and shyly.

Not-Jay impassively stared at the others, not moving.

Garmadon tried to figure out what the fuck happened. Then, it clicked. Of course. He instructed the Megaweapon to create the ninjas’ reflections . From the brief few weeks spent living with the ninja, he could immediately tell that these new not-ninja were exactly what the ninja weren’t. Great. More complications to the plan.

Then, his eyes caught Not-Jay’s. Let’s see… Jay, jokester, silly, small, always running around, kind of pathetic, if it weren’t for their deadly power. So, everything that they were not…

Not-Jay’s eyes narrowed minutely. He flicked his gaze to the others. “Be quiet.” Everyone stilled. Not-Kai went back to hiding, this time behind Not-Cole, who didn’t even seem to notice, Not-Zane stood sassily, pouting at the loss of some fun, and Not-Nya scooted closer to Not-Jay.

The false blue ninja sighed. “What do you want, Lord Garmadon?” His tone was icy and cut sharp, like the edge of a knife.

“Destroy your ninja counterparts,” Garmadon panted, still out of breath. 

“Why?” Not-Cole asked. “What’d they do?”

Think fast. “If you destroy them, you will… take their places,” he said. “As of now, your- your existence depends on… on theirs. Defeat them, and… you will be real.”

“Can I rob a bank?” Not-Zane asked, still smiling. “Can I punch someone in the face? OH! Can I kill someone?”

“You can kill the ninja,” Garmadon offered.

“No, that’s scary,” Not-Nya shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

“F-for once, I agree with her,” Not-Kai stuttered. “I can’t hurt anyone.”

Oh boy. Turns out “total reflections” also meant their moral codes . Garmadon growled, not expecting this to happen. Kai was the most ruthless member of those ninja brats, and now, Not-Kai was some sopping wet rag of a boy. Seeing as how he flinched away at Garmadon’s growl.

“Don’t complain,” Not-Jay ordered. 

“B-but-” Kai stammered.

“Just defeat your counterpart. Take his place. That’s all you need to do.” Not-Jay turned to Not-Nya. She squeaked and blushed. He remained impassive. “You too.”

“Y-yes, Jay,” she mumbled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Hey Jay, I think she likes you,” Not-Cole blurted.

Oh brother.

Lightning crackled. “Everyone. Focus on our objective.” Not-Jay raised his hand, watching the sparks travel. “Weak.” He shot a glare at Garmadon, as if it was his fault that he copied elemental powers and made them too weak. He can have a breakdown about recreating an element later.

“I want to kill my good self~” Not-Zane chirped, twirling around. He laughed loudly. 

“You’ll do that,” Not-Jay nodded. He addressed the other three. “We all will. Got it?”

“Yes, Jay,” they nodded sheepishly.

“Good.” He turned back to Garmadon. “Let us know when we get to the city. I’ve talked too much as is.”

He walked away, going through the parting crowd and under the ship. 

“W-wait for me!” Not-Nya squeaked, following behind.

Not-Kai and Not-Zane walked away in opposite directions, one shuffling and the other skipping. Not-Cole remained, staring up at the clouds. Then, he looked at the water. “Oh cool, we’re on the ocean.”

…This was who Garmadon was relying on? At least Not-Zane seemed bloodthirsty enough and Not-Jay was reliable. What a group of wackos.

Let’s just hope they listen to their leader and do what they were made to do. First Lord it’s like herding cats.

-=-

The ninja took the bus up to Darkley’s. Well… close to Darkleys. Turns out there was only one specific bus that took people to the school from the nearest bus stop and back, which belonged to the school. They dressed in plain clothes on the ride there, with a change to their gi under their winter coats and pants. It was getting close to the coldest period of the year, and the ninja gi were just too thin to protect anyone that wasn’t Kai or Zane, who seemed immune to temperatures due to their elemental natures. Everyone else had to suffer.

Thankfully, that bonus bus to the school was waiting there for them, and they got a ride up the giant hill that led to Darkleys. Lloyd stayed behind, perched on top of the bus on Sprout, ready to fly away the second he got overwhelmed. Wynn circled close above as a bonus lookout.

This was a scouting mission. They were here to check out the place, if it really was bad news, and if they were genuinely reformed (hah), then they would call it a day and leave Lloyd to figure out what he wanted. Most likely it was just to say goodbye to this place for good, but they weren’t here to make decisions for him.

All in all, it took way too long to travel from the city to Darkley’s. The trip took almost two hours , and the ninja weren’t happy with how far away it was.

When the bus dropped them off, the ninja blinked in surprise at the bed of flowers now growing in front of the dark and dreary building, now slightly less terrifying with the flowers. Watering the plants was a young boy around Lloyd’s age, with black hair and glasses. He looked up at the group curiously, placed his watering can down, and headed over. “Who are you guys?” he asked.

The teens looked to Wu, signaling he should take the lead here. “Hello, young man. My name is Wu, I am Lloyd’s uncle.” The boy’s eyes widened at the name. “I take it you know him?”

“We were classmates,” he explained. “My name is Brad.” He looked around the group. “And you guys?” 

“I am a teacher of my own right,” Wu explained (and didn’t miss the minute flinch and immediate loss of interest in Brad’s eyes). “A martial arts teacher. These are my students.”

“We’ve been helping to look after Lloyd,” Kai added for credibility. “He sits in on our lessons sometimes.”

Brad nodded, accepting this information. “Is Lloyd here? I thought we were throwing a party for him .”

“We’re making sure this place is cool enough for a party,” Cole said. “He’s had a bad experience here, and we didn’t want to throw him back to the lions when he wasn’t ready.”

Brad’s brow furrowed, thoughtfully, then he nodded. “I suppose that makes sense.” He began to walk into the building. “Come on, you can meet the principal. He can explain everything.”

They went inside. It did, in fact, look better than it used to. Where broken floorboards and nails stuck out everywhere and wire poked out of walls, the building was clean and well-constructed, with new walls and floors that didn’t wiggle at odd angles. 

But the thing that set all the ninja on edge was the fact that there was no one here .

“Uh, aren’t you supposed to be in class?” Cole asked. “Or… setting up for the party? Or at the party?”

“Actually, today is a new Darkley School tradition: Ninja Day,” Brad explained. “We stay out of sight to honor the way of the ninja for showing us the light.”

Kai and Jay exchanged looks. What the hell did that mean?

“I’m impressed!” Cole continued, playing along. “You’re all shaping up well!”

“I have yet to see a staff member,” Zane murmured to the others.

“They’re the ones I’m most worried about,” Kai muttered back. “I mean, the kids can be rotten or traumatized, depends on the kid, but the adults? Surely, if the school went good, we’d be seeing a lot more good teachers.”

“I don’t like this,” Jay whispered.

Wu walked along, stoically, though the ninja closest to him could see the worry etched in his wrinkles. He didn’t like it either.

They were led into a room, which appeared to be the principal’s office. There was a second, smaller room on the other wall, where the ninja could see a silhouette behind the window. “Principal Noble? Lloyd and the ninja are here for the ceremony.”

“I'll be with you in just a moment,” a man’s voice sounded behind the door.

“Everything will be explained by Principal Noble,” Brad said. His mode of speech was, as it has been since the start, exceedingly formal, but now, it held a tinge of fear. The ninja immediately bristled, then clenched their fists when the kid started backing out of the room as soon as possible. “I should get back to the flowers!” he said quickly, shutting the door behind him.

“Okay, this is wacko, ” Jay hissed. “No teachers, no students, and Brad acting terrified out of his wits? I don’t like this one bit.”

“Neither do I,” Zane frowned. “Their absence is most strange. Though, I suppose it does fit our original theory that this was a trap.”

“I'll see you now,” Principal Noble said from behind the door. “Come in, come in.”

The ninja warily approached the door. Wu was the one to open it, which made him the first to see the older man sitting behind the desk. He hummed curiously. “Ah, you must be her uncle. Wu, was it? Sit down.” He motioned at the chairs. Then, he turned his gaze to the ninja. “And who might these be? New students?”

There was something in the way he said it that made everyone’s skin crawl. “No, Principal Noble. They are my students.”

Noble seemed to accept that. Wu did not sit, which earned him a hum, before he straightened out some papers. “Now, if you’re here for the reason I think, we’re here to discuss your niece.”

Everyone froze. “Niece?” Wu repeated carefully.

“Well, of course,” Principal Noble said, then said a name that was not Lloyd’s.

Everyone that was not the principal felt sick to their stomachs. 

“I believe we are here to discuss my nephew, Lloyd,” Wu corrected harshly. His words were sharp and clipped. 

Principal Noble tsked and frowned. “Now she’s got you believing that, too? We do not allow such deviance in this school.”

Ozone crackled in the air. Kai immediately grabbed Jay’s arm, whose pupils were thin as razors and was nearly drawing their lip back to growl at the man. “He’s not worth it,” Kai hissed.

Jay’s sharp gaze turned to Kai. They breathed heavily. Then, they shook their hand out, getting rid of the smell of ozone. 

“While I am in this room,” Wu stated. The air wavered around him dangerously. “We are to discuss my nephew . Is that understood, Principal?” He spat the title like poison.

Noble appeared to feel the aura around Wu, because he sighed. “Fine.” He picked up a sheet of paper. “We will play by your rules, Mr. Wu. Now, I’m sure you know the reason as to why sh- he was enrolled here, yes?”

“Do remind me,” Wu said.

“Her- his mother dropped him off here,” the principal explained, “at a rather young age. Too young to begin schooling. She told us to raise her daughter well, and to keep …him out of trouble.” He shot a look at Wu without lifting his head. “Trouble that he kept finding himself in.”

“And what sort of trouble would that be?” Wu icily asked.

“Disrupting classes, pranking her fellow classmates, and being born evil, for some,” Noble stated, like he was saying that the sky was blue. “And, of course, lying to the wonderful staff we have employed, not turning in homework assignments and schoolwork, and, as I’m sure you’re aware, running away from school.”

“And I’m certain the… nature of your institution is not to blame,” Wu wondered with barely contained rage.

“Of course not!” Principle Noble barely caught the intention of that statement. “We at Darkley’s support the right to correct bad behavior, no matter how. Her acting out is purely a sign of her inner evil. You must know who her father is.”

“Yes, my brother is quite a handful at times,” Wu said through gritted teeth. 

“Oh,” Principal Noble looked up curiously. “I had assumed you were on the mother’s side of the family. You’re related to… Lord Garmadon?”

Wu’s aura flared. “Why did you call Lloyd back here?”

Principal Noble frowned, noticing the diverted topic. “Well, I had intended for… Lloyd to see the new Darkley’s. We no longer tolerate the more inhumane methods some of our previous teachers had used, and now focus on teaching children the way a normal school would.”

“I’m sure,” Wu said, disbelief ripe in his voice. “And… you wish for Lloyd to return to this school, which has caused him innumerous pain, just for the sake of furthering his education?”

“We hate to lose our students,” the principal said pensively. “We would love to take Lloyd back. Our students miss he- him.”

Wu looked thoughtful for just a moment. “And you expect us to believe you?” he snapped.

Principal Noble opened his mouth for a rebuttal. He never managed one. In one fell swoop, a baseball bat hit the back of his head and he slumped in his desk, groaning. 

The ninja all leapt to their feet, wondering what had happened. And then, they heard children laughing. And a baseball bat swinging at each of them.

The next thing they knew, everything went black.

-=-

They woke up some time later, blinking and groaning. Then, they quickly processed their surroundings. A small room, what looked like an old classroom, with moldy walls and uneven wooden floors. Ah, older Darkley’s. 

They were in a room with a group of adults, who were watching them curiously. “They got you too, huh?” an older man asked. 

“What happened?” Kai groaned, rubbing his head. It felt like he just rammed his skull into a wall. “Where are we?”

“And who are all of you?” Cole added.

“We’re the teachers,” an older woman said. The ninja immediately tensed up. “We’ve all been taken prisoner. Those nasty, rotten kids, good for nothing trash-”

“Calm yourself,” a slightly younger woman said, placing a hand on the older woman’s arm. “There are teenagers in the room.”

“Teenagers?” the first woman scoffed. “Worse than kids, sometimes.”

“I disagree, personally,” a man said.

“Shut! Up! All of you!” Jay snapped. “Why did the students kidnap us?”

“They must’ve heard I invited the devil spawn back,” Noble, who was slumped in the back, groaned.

“They want to take their revenge on us,” the older man said angrily. “And they must have thought that that oni, returning, would be their leader. Fools. We are the teachers, we are the ones in power. How dare they try to hurt us like this?”

“Are you all fucking insane?” Kai said, being, as we all know, the master of tact.

The ninja could all feel the gold aura of fury emanating from Wu. They saw him glaring down at Principal Noble, and decided to smartly stay out of the way. They could only hope that Lloyd didn’t come inside. That’ll be a worse fate than him not being here at all.

But for now, they hoped more that Wu didn’t outright murder the principal.

-=-

“Is it something… white?”

“You fucking moron, you asked that five times already.”

“...I did?”

“S-six times, actually…”

Not-Jay pinched the bridge of his nose. His companions were driving him insane. 

The Not-Ninja had been dropped off at the city as inconspicuously as possible. They were to find the “good” ninja, though that turned out to be a harder task than expected. They didn’t exactly have a homing ray to find where their counterparts were, and those multicolored fools didn’t advertise to the world where they were going.

So now they were scouring the city, hoping to find even a hint of a clue as to where their “good” versions were. And, well, if they caused some minor havoc along the way, who was to say otherwise?

Not-Zane did, in fact, rob a bank. He used his expert skill in technology manipulation to open up an ATM and grabbed all the money inside, giggling as he ran off, not caring about the people yelling around him. 

Not-Cole, entirely absently, stole some child’s cotton candy, eating it in one bite. The child cried behind him, and he wondered why. Such an annoying noise.

Not-Nya and Not-Kai ended up glaring at each other across the street, their animosity palpable. She didn’t look like a ninja, so she hung back, watching as her brother was hounded by an old woman to rescue her cat from a tree. Well, the wording was “reunite me with my sweet cat,” which Not-Kai took to mean tossing her into the tree, running as fast as he could across the street away from her. Not-Nya wished a car had hit him on the way.

Not-Jay caused a pile-up by shutting down a major intersection’s traffic light. He watched, emotionlessly, as the cars slammed into each other, beeps and honks echoing around him. He turned the traffic light back on, erasing the evidence. 

They met back up at the most unlikely place, a tiny, shitty dojo. They only knew it was a lead because a man inside, in a brown suit, waved them inside excitedly.

“Oh, am I glad you boys came back!” he said.

Not-Zane grinned. A lead!

“Seriously, come on, Blue,” the man waved a small phone in his hands. “You can’t leave this in an open spot. You’re lucky that I, Dareth, the Brown Ninja, am part of your team, and respect your privacy enough to not look through your contacts.”

Not-Jay grabbed the phone roughly. “Right.”

Dareth winked, then looked at Not-Nya. “And who’s this? New addition to the team?”

“She- she’s nothing, no one, really,” Not-Kai mumbled. “Just- uh, just, uhhh… oh! Yea! She’s just a crazy fan, mhm.”

What a terrible liar. 

Not-Nya turned her watery puppydog eyes at Dareth. “I’msorryforintruding…” she muttered, shrinking back.

Dareth’s face softened. “Aw, it’s okay! …Do you want my autograph?”

Jay’s phone took that second to buzz. Not-Jay raised an eyebrow, then flipped it open. “Yes?”

“Jay! Oh, good, you’re back,” a voice that sounded remarkably like Not-Nya sounded through the phone. The real Nya. “Guess everything got sorted?”

“...Sure. We’re good.”

“Okay, awesome,” she continued. “Well, whenever you wanna join me at the autobody shop, come by! I’ve been meaning to have a fun date.”

“Will do,” Not-Jay snapped the phone shut. He moved with liquid grace to the door. “You four stay here.”

“What are you gonna do, huh?” Not-Zane snarked. “Hoping that one’ll be hotter?”

“I’m doing my mission,” Not-Jay stated. He stopped, and turned around. “Do you know where we just were?”

Dareth blinked at being addressed. “Uh, no? I just came back to the dojo.”

“Useless,” Not-Jay snapped. He jerked his head. “Deal with him.”

“Yes, Blue!” Not-Zane chirped, immediately grabbing Dareth by the scruff and tossing him at the wall. He screamed, then went limp.

Not-Cole frowned. “Aww, I wanted a turn.”

Not-Jay heaved a sigh and left. He was going to see a Nya that was much different than his, and he had to act properly. She couldn’t suspect him. Not when the mission was at stake. So he would talk to a Nya that was polar opposite to the one he knew, acting like someone who he would never be. 

“B-be careful!” Not-Nya chirped behind him. He paid her no mind. Not like he cared about a sniveling fool like her.

-=-

The door wasn’t opening. The room had no windows. There was no way out. Their phones were stolen, so they couldn’t call Nya or Lloyd for help. The ninja were stuck, because they couldn’t exactly use their powers in front of random teachers (that they hated). So Cole’s super strength was out of the question. They decided that it would have been pointless anyway, as the building was so dilapidated that it would fall apart before the door could even be broken down. 

And besides, he was busy making sure Wu didn’t murder the entire staff. There was a time for murder later, he convinced him. This didn’t help matters much, but it did… sort of help. Wu wasn’t projecting his aura across the entire building now.

“Unless Lloyd fucks up somehow,” Kai grimaced, “I don’t see how this could get worse.”

“Don’t worry,” Jay reassured him. “Nya’s expecting me at the mechanic’s. If I don’t show on time, she’s gonna know something’s wrong and come help us.”

“And when would that be?” Zane asked.

Jay reached into their pocket, then swore. “Right. Stolen phones. Time?”

“Nearly five,” Zane said.

“Oh, then… right about now.”

-=-

Nya hummed as she worked. It was a good thing she called Jay; she had arranged a time, but had no clue when he’d be back. He might have even done something stupid and forgot his phone, unable to answer. But now that he’s back in the city, she just had to wait until he showed up.

She heard footsteps. Quiet ones. Not her boss then, who wore giant boots that shook the entire garage when he walked. She turned to see Jay, who- why was he in his ninja gear? And an older set, at that. She quickly closed the garage door, then hopped off the car she was working on. “There you are,” she said. “I was worried you were still on the road. I hope that nothing went too badly at Darkley’s.”

Jay’s eyes shifted ever so slightly. Almost imperceptibly. “It was fine.” 

She frowned. What was up with the clipped response? “You doing okay? You didn’t sound too hot over the phone either. I know there was probably some heavy stuff back there, so if you wanna call a raincheck, that’s fine. No biggie.”

Jay’s face morphed into a thin smile. “I’m fine. Really, I am. Darkley’s really is some horrible stuff.”

“I’ll say,” Nya agreed, stretching. Jay was probably just tired. That’s all.

Jay observed the car she was working on. “Looks nice,” he commented, running a hand down its hood. “Like you,” he suddenly said, shooting a flirty grin at Nya. 

She blushed a bit. “What’s gotten into you?” she giggled. 

“Oh, nothing,” Jay smirked. It didn’t look quite right. It looked like his face was being pulled like clay. “Just saying how pretty you are.”

Nya brushed some hair behind her ear. Something wasn’t right, but Jay’s confident side is one she could stand to see more often when he’s flirting with her. 

Right. Her date idea. “Well, you wanna grab a wrench and help me out with this car?”

She barely turned around, and there were hands against her shoulders, pinning her to the wall. She gasped and looked at Jay. They were approximately the same height, but something about him made him tower over her. His grin, once flirty, was now feral . 

“Nah, I think I wanna do this,” Jay said, low and enticing. Like a honey trap.

Something was wrong . “Jay, we talked about boundaries,” Nya frowned. “I told you, I don’t know if I’m ready for stuff like this-”

And she was cut off by a pair of lips slamming into hers. She made a sharp sound of alarm, struggling under hands that were pinning her to the wall. Jay deepened the kiss, trying to take her as much as he could, like he was eating her alive-

Nya kneed him in the groin. He reeled back with a groan, his lips making a wet pop as they left hers.

She panted, wiping her mouth. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she screamed. “We talked about this! You agreed that you wouldn’t do anything I didn’t want, and now you’re-”

Her rant was cut off when she took in the Jay before her. Blue ninja gi, sharp gray-blue eyes, freckles dotting his face between green scales, messy brown hair. A notched eyebrow.

…

Nya’s eyes widened. Something was wrong . This wasn’t Jay.

“Who are you?” she said heavily, eyes not leaving Jay’s. 

He recovered from being kneed, and tried to smile at her again. It looked so wrong . Her blood ran cold. “I’m your boyfriend,” he said.

“No, you’re not.” Nya shook. “You’re not Jay. Jay wouldn’t do all this. Jay listens to me, and is sweet to me, and doesn’t push boundaries. You aren’t him.”

“You bitch ,” Jay - no, Not-Jay, this was not Jay - spat. “I am Jay. I’m just tired .”

Well. She knew for a fact Jay wouldn’t ever call her that . She bristled, hand feeling for a weapon beside her. Anything. “No. And you know how I know for sure?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Your notched eyebrow’s on the wrong side.”

His face was mirrored exactly. The part in his hair and the notch and scar in his eyebrow were no longer on his right - they were on his left now. It was subtle at first. It made her think she was seeing things, imagining what wasn’t there. But now, it was disgustingly obvious.

Not-Jay’s face dropped instantly. His eyes grew cold and his body language stiff. “Smart. Too smart for your own good.” He scoffed, cracking his neck. “No matter. I got what I needed.”

Nya’s hand closed around a wrench. “Fuck you,” she spat, swinging at her boyfriend’s imposter. He blocked her with his forearm, face impassive, and swung back with a fist. She took it, then growled low in her throat and swung again. This piece of shit was going to learn not to mess with her like this.

That day, Nya learned what it felt like to be electrocuted. Her scream echoed through the garage as she slumped to the ground. 

She could barely make out anything around her as she twitched. She barely registered as Not-Jay opened his phone and dialed in a number. “Darkley’s,” he said, then flipped it shut. He gave her one last silent glare, then left her to unconsciousness as the world turned black.

Chapter Text

Lloyd frowned. The ninja were in there too long. He didn’t see them from atop Sprout. Not that he wanted to keep staring at this First-forsaken building, but he made the choice to stay outside. 

‘Is everything okay?’ Sprout asked.

“I dunno,” he said. He heaved a deep breath. Oh, he could not believe he was actually considering this. “Bring me down, Sprout.”

‘Okay!’

As they soared down to a safe spot, Lloyd heard a wary stream of thoughts in the back of his mind - now that he was aware of the other… person, in his head, he could now identify that voice as Knife’s. He’d heard it for a while, but never knew why, or who it was. Their worry was comforting now. It meant he hadn’t lost his touch.

He landed, and immediately debated changing into his ninja gi. Sure, it would mean that the Green Ninja took his petty vengeance on a school, which would tie him to this building forever. His classmates could even piece two and two together - not to mention the staff. They’d force him back here, while knowing about his Destiny.

But the Green Ninja gi had become a lifeline for him, a shield that could protect him from the most dire of challenges. It could help him through this place. Yes. No one would be able to tell it was him.

…No. He couldn’t risk people connecting Lloyd to the Green Ninja. Especially not Darkley’s.

So the gi stayed on under his black coat and pants. Just in case.

It turned out he made the right choice, as the second he stepped around the corner, he saw one of his classmates. Brad. Watering flowers. And Brad saw him.

The kid’s face morphed into shock as he approached him. “Lloyd? You came after all! It’s so good to see you!”

Lloyd backed away from him. “It is? You put fire ants in my bed once.”

A cute little prank from the other kids, to “punish” Lloyd for his heritage. And for when he (Knife, really) punched a hole in an older kid’s teeth.

Brad’s face softened artificially. “Please forgive me, I wasn’t myself! Besides, it was Jake’s idea!”

“Right.” Lloyd heaved a sigh. “What happened to the teenagers that went in here earlier?”

Brad froze minutely. “Probably still talking to the principal.” He put a hand on Lloyd’s shoulder and began to lead him into Darkley’s. He could feel his limbs locking up as he walked, but he forced himself to go in anyways. “Come on, I’ll take you to the main ceremony area! We were expecting you!”

The kids walked through Darkley’s halls. It was brighter than it used to be, Lloyd could admit, but he knew these walls - he could tell when there’s just a facade put up. And he could tell that he was not being led to the auditorium.

“Where are we going, Brad?” Lloyd asked warily.

“To the ceremony!” Brad said.

“Uhuh,” Lloyd scoffed, “which is held in one of the upstairs classrooms?”

Brad looked away nervously. “Indeed!”

“Cut the bullshit, Brad, where are you taking me?” Lloyd snapped.

Brad continued to look away. “Someplace we need you.”

The fuck does that mean? Lloyd furrowed his brow. 

They stopped in front of one of the teacher conference rooms. Lloyd tensed up, but Brad calmly opened the door. They walked through, and…

“Welcome back, Lloyd,” sneered a familiar voice. “We’ve been waiting for you.” Lloyd’s mouth dropped open at the sight of Gene, one of his main bullies and a kid with absolutely no empathy. Instinctively, he backed away. 

And felt something hit his head, and was knocked unconscious.

-=-

He came to some time later - enough time to have been tied up and left attached to a chair, before all of his former classmates and bullies. His stomach dropped. Shit. How could he have let them get the upper hand? He was too worried about the ninja, about if they were okay or not, or if-

“Time for your welcome back ceremony, Lloyd!” Gene’s voice broke through his thoughts again, and he squinted at the sudden light pointed at him. “Or, should I say, the beginning of our evil plan!”

Lloyd grimaced and forced himself to squint into the light. Gene’s form barely showed through the harsh beam. “Fuck off, Gene,” he spat.

After a second, his eyes focused better, and he saw what was probably the entire student body of Darkley’s gathered in this room. Not everyone, but certainly everyone in his grade. It wasn’t exactly a large school.

Yes it was tall, but that was mostly to force children to climb stairs all day. That elevator’s been broken since he got here.

“You don’t understand, Lloyd,” Brad spoke up from somewhere on his left. “We want to destroy this place.”

This gave Lloyd pause. “What?”

“I don’t exactly like you,” Finn, another one of his favorite bullies, crossed his arms and scoffed. “But you’re Lord Garmadon’s kid. You know how to topple this shithole.”

“You think we like Darkley’s either?” Gene frowned. “You think we have fun here? It was only best for us to bully you cuz it meant attention wasn’t on us as much.”

“Gee, thanks for the logical explanation,” Lloyd snarked. “Now I feel so much better about the torment you put me through for my entire life.”

“At least we use your name,” a girl named Jasmine said. “The teachers sure don’t.”

That was a good point. When Lloyd decided on his new name and pronouns, he got bullied so much, he nearly ran away right then. Presumably, Knife came in and retaliated so hard that the other kids learned to drop it. Also potentially they gendered him correctly just to piss off the teachers - who they hated more than they hated Lloyd, at times. It was hard to tell.

“We have them trapped in another room,” Jake jerked a thumb in the direction of the room (presumably). “We can go in and beat them up if you want.”

“If I want?” Lloyd repeated.

“We heard Principal Noble was trying to find you,” Brad explained. “He had sent out letters to your relatives to summon you back here. Any chance he could take to bring you home.”

“This isn’t home,” Lloyd snapped. “It’s a prison.”

The kids were silent for a moment. Then, Brad continued. “When we heard he would do that, we realized that we had to formulate a plan.”

“That’s where I came in,” Gene pushed his glasses up his face dramatically. “I devised a devious plan - if you actually came here, we would capture the teachers and make you our leader. So that your evil instincts could help us properly destroy Darkley’s forever!”

Lloyd opened his mouth to rebuke that, but closed it. He had been doing a lot more destroying the last while, instead of saving. Was Gene right? Was he supposed to lead the Darkley’s kids into a proper rebellion? Was destroying the school that tormented him for his entire life what he was really meant to do? Was his destiny leading him to destruction?

He really hoped not.

-=-

Nya groaned and opened her eyes. Shit. What just-

Her eyes flew all the way open when she remembered what happened. Oh fuck. The Jay impostor. He got the location of the ninja and was likely on his way to hurt them. And judging from how he had Jay’s phone, it was probably the correct assumption to make that he forgot his phone at the dojo. And her phone was-

The second she pushed herself up off the floor to get a better look at things, she was met face to face with her clone.

Both Nyas yelped and backed away, the real Nya scooting back and Not-Nya jumping back. They were silent for just a moment, staring at each other.

It was… eerie. Not-Nya looked identical to her real counterpart. The same bob of dark hair, the same brown-blue eyes, the same round face and body. She even wore Nya’s old dress that got left behind on their ship before it crashed. 

It was her facial expression that set her apart. Where Nya’s face was hardened with confusion and slowly morphing into a determined sort of worry, Not-Nya looked seconds away from crying, looking down at Nya with wobbly wet eyes and a quivering lip. As expected, the mole under her eye was under the opposite one.

“You’re one of those impostor clones,” Nya said, breaking the ice.

Not-Nya jumped. “Um… y-yes, I am…” she mumbled.

Oh boy. Direct opposites, huh. Nya sighed. “That fake Jay just came in here to get information from me, then knocked me out so I wouldn’t go after him,” she explained, in a careful and measured tone. “Do you know anything about that?”

“Oh, yea! J-Jay’s pretty cool,” Not-Nya’s face went ditzy and dreamy, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “He’s so gruff and strict a-and, um, cute…” She sighed wistfully.

Dear First Ones. “Why did he want to know where the ninja were?” Nya pressed. 

Not-Nya blinked, shaking herself from her daydreams. “Oh… we’re supposed to defeat them?” She shuffled nervously. “Um… Lord G-Garmadon m-m-made us, said we h-had to defeat our counterparts to b-be real…”

“So that Not-Jay and the rest of his team are after the ninja?!” Nya exclaimed. Then, she paused. “Wait. Are you here to defeat me?”

Not-Nya bit her lip and shrunk back, hands balling into her dress. She nodded shyly. “I don’t wanna though. That sounds s-scary…”

Oh, good! She could be reasoned with! That’s a relief. Nya nearly sighed from the feeling. “You don’t have to! You can help me get to Darkley’s and defeat the ninja impostors!”

Not-Nya’s eyes widened. “I can’t do that! I don’t like to fight! B-besides, I don’t wanna hurt Jay… he’ll be mad at me if I do, and h-he’s scary when he’s mad…” She blushed anyway.

Nya fought the urge to groan. “W-well, maybe you can come with me anyway to convince them not to fight my ninja?”

Not-Nya looked thoughtful. “Mmmmmaybe? I dunno…”

“Here, come on.” Nya walked over to the garage door. “You can sit in the Sam X spare seat and we can fly over to the school. Might be a bit of a bumpy ride, but it’s way faster than going by bus or bike-”

Just the barest hint of air swooping down to her neck was all the warning she got. It was enough.

Nya ducked out of the way of a knife aimed directly at her nerve cluster. She turned around, as if in slow motion, to see Not-Nya, watery eyes and fear in every inch of her, attempting to assassinate her.

Thankfully, she was quick enough to dodge, pressing against the door. She grabbed a spare quarterstaff she had stashed by the door for emergencies, swiftly pointing it at Not-Nya.

“What was that about not wanting to fight me?” she snapped.

Not-Nya clutched her knife with shaky hands. “I have to…” she whispered. “It’s the only way… Jay asked me to…”

Nya’s face hardened and her grip on the quarterstaff tightened. Looks like she’s dealing with her evil twin after all.

-=-

Meanwhile, the other evil twins arrived at Darkley’s. Turns out, threatening taxi drivers worked well enough to go 20 over the speed limit on country roads to Darkley’s - even beyond the point where buses don’t go. They left the driver alive, but not without a serious bruise and cut to nurse. Either way, no longer their problem.

The evil ninja looked up at Darkley’s. “Looks like a dream school,” Not-Zane sighed. 

“You wanna be miserable?” Not-Kai said quietly. 

“I’d make the staff miserable!” Not-Zane smiled widely.

“That sounds right,” Not-Cole hummed absently.

“Focus,” Not-Jay snapped his fingers. “We go in, kill the good ninja, and get out. Nya’s dealing with her counterpart.”

“Like she can get the job done,” Not-Kai muttered, uncharacteristically darkly. 

“They’re still in there,” Not-Cole scratched his head.

“How can you tell?” Not-Kai asked.

“Vibes.”

Not-Jay sighed and started walking inside. Not-Zane noticed and followed behind, skipping. “What’s the plan? Can I stab my double?”

“Do whatever,” Not-Jay shrugged. He looked over at a row of lockers and slammed his electrified hammer, stolen from Nya’s work, against them. The lockers exploded and crackled at the impact.

“Niiiiice,” Not-Zane whistled, then stabbed at the drywall with his knife. 

Pointless destruction was bound to get the good ninjas’ attention, right?

-=-

Unfortunately, they didn’t account for the fact that the good ninja were stuck in a small room with adults that they were trying to restrain themselves from hurting. The teens were gathered in a corner, phoneless and unable to use their powers without revealing themselves to the teachers. Wu, sitting before them, sighed.

“Lloyd is most likely already inside, and has most likely been taken by the students that kidnapped us,” their teacher reasoned. “If the teachers are correct, then the students plan to take their revenge on them for their treatment over the past… however many years.”

“And we’re supposed to want to stop them?” Cole muttered.

“Did you hear how Principal Noble was talking about Lloyd!?” Jay hissed angrily. “It’sss evil!”

“I am not in the interest of stopping the kids from what they will do,” Wu confessed, “but I would like to ensure that they don’t kill them. As well as that, I want to ensure Lloyd’s safety, and whether he wants to assist them or not.”

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” Kai decided. “But Cole’s the only one strong enough to break the door down, and there aren’t any windows here.”

“I noticed a vent above us,” Zane pointed at the vent in question. It was just big enough for the ninja to squeeze through.

“We need a distraction to get out of here,” Cole reasoned.

Wu cleared his throat. “Leave that to me. Ninja, you four get out of here, find Lloyd, and learn of the students’ plan.”

“Yes, Master Wu!” the ninja chorused quietly.

They slunk over to where the vent was as Wu moved to the crowd of teachers, deliberately standing where they could all look at him and not see four teenagers escaping through a vent. He opened his mouth…

Those teachers were not surviving his fury. Thankfully, all attention was on him, and the teachers didn’t look up from their reaming to notice the ninja escaping. 

-=-

Lloyd was still having a crisis when the kids all heard a strange noise in the distance. Their heads turned to where the sound came from. Downstairs, close to the entrance. “What was that?” Gene asked.

“I’ll go check,” Brad offered, already moving out the door.

“I hope it’s nothing bad,” Jake scoffed. “We need our plan to go off without a hitch.”

“Lloyd,” Gene addressed his old classmate, who flinched and looked at him. “Are you in? We need you.”

“I…” Lloyd buffered. What was he supposed to do? 

On one hand, he did want revenge. He wanted to make those teachers pay for the years of torment he went through since he got here. He wanted to show them that he wasn’t weak, that he was able to fight back, that they were nothing before him.

But isn’t that what the son of Lord Garmadon would want? They would just look at him and think “he’s exactly as we thought he was,” just a devil spawn here to destroy them. It wouldn’t change their minds about him. 

So what was he to do? Conform to expectation, or just say fuck it and take his revenge as he had dreamed of for years? 

…Why did he have to make the choice anyway? He didn’t… He didn’t want to. He really, really didn’t.

-=-

Brad barely managed to reach the stairs before he saw something he wasn’t expecting - the ninja! What could he say to them? That they were cool? That they dropped down one day to take Lloyd away but leave the entire school in ruins? That he was thankful they did that?

He didn’t have a chance to say anything before gray piercing eyes locked with his. He couldn’t even scream in alarm when the Blue Ninja rocketed towards him and pinned him against the wall. 

“Where are they?” Blue asked. 

“Wh-who?” Brad gasped.

“The ninja,” Black said, sidling up next to Blue. 

“Wh- what?” Now Brad was confused. Were these not the ninja? 

“Forget it, he’s useless,” White snarked, flicking Brad on the forehead. “Those bastards can’t be far! The building is only so tall!”

“I’ll keep looking up there,” Red mumbled as he walked past, hugging his arms.

Brad breathed shallowly, still pinned to the wall by the Blue Ninja. He looked him over a few times, then decided White was right and let him go. Brad fell to his knees, holding his shoulder. 

“Call for help, child,” Blue said icily. “It’s the only use you’ll have for us.”

Brad nodded fiercely and sprinted back up the stairs into their meeting room. “HELP!” he shouted. He barreled past the Red Ninja, who yelped and ducked out of his way. “NINJA! HELP ME!”

-=-

The ninja, freshly out of their entrapment, jumped at the echoed screams for help. “What was that?” Cole exclaimed.

“Brad, the boy we talked to outside Darkley’s,” Zane identified the voice. “Something is wrong.”

“He’s calling for the ninja,” Jay’s ears twitched. 

Kai looked around quickly. “No one’s around.” He spun into a spinjutsu tornado, hearing the others do the same, and emerged quickly with his hood up and outside clothes off. They piled them in a spare open locker and sprinted towards the sound.

Brad ran around the corner and nearly crashed into them.

“Kid!” Cole exclaimed. “What’s wrong?”

Brad’s eyes widened and he backed away. “You- you’re here! You really are here!”

“What’s going on?” Kai demanded.

The kid flinched. “There’s- you- they were looking for you!”

The ninja exchanged glances. “Ok, kid,” Cole nodded. “We’ll deal with whatever’s going on over there. You get to safety.”

“Can you and the other students evacuate at all?” Zane asked.

“Um…” Brad looked around uncertainly. “We still have a plan…”

“Forget about whatever plan you have,” Jay said sharply. “You gotta get to safety! Hide in a classroom or something!”

Brad breathed in shakily, then nodded, breathing out. He ran around the ninja and vanished into a nearby classroom.

Someone was looking for them. Not a good sign. So the ninja nodded determinedly to each other and went onwards through the hall.

But the last thing they expected to see when they rounded the corner was… themselves.

Their old dragon gi, the gold designs glistening in the overhead lights. Weapons, makeshift and real, held tight in their hands. A callous look in their eyes.

Their first thoughts, obviously, were “oh, some jerks stole our old gi and decided to prank them.” But the longer they looked at these fake ninja, the more they realized how these were not just random jerks. Their eyes, peeking out from behind the masks, were the same shapes and colors, their skin tones were identical, their heights were the same, and the fake Jay’s tail was the exact same as the real Jay’s. 

And besides, there was no way normal pranksters would know where the ninja would be, and there’s no way someone would give them the information. The only one who knew where they were going was Nya, who stayed at work in the city. And she wouldn’t give up that information without a fight. Plus, the dragon gi were left behind on their old airship - the very one that Garmadon now piloted.

The ninja got into fighting positions. “Guys, why are we staring at ourselves?” Kai asked, still feeling confused.

Not-Kai yelped and hid behind Not-Zane. “I’m not ready for this!”

“Stop hiding, pussy!” Not-Zane snapped. “The ninja are here!” His tone turned gleeful, looking at the good ninja with manic delight in his eyes.

Zane stiffened. “That is a very rude thing to call your teammate,” he said. 

Not-Zane rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips playfully. “Oh, and you’re the knower of all things nice and unrude?”

“Unrude isn’t a word,” Not-Cole commented.

“Ninja,” Not-Jay broke the chatter. His hand tightened on his hammer. “We’re here to kill you.”

“Garmadon sent you, didn’t he,” Cole realized. “He summoned pirates last week, and now he made evil clones?”

“Lord Garmadon wants you out of the way!” Not-Zane explained, twirling his knife in his hands. “And we’re more than happy to take your place!”

“Like we’ll let you do that,” Kai growled. And so he charged, his team not far behind.

The evil ninja readied themselves and charged forward, intent on meeting the good ninja and fulfilling their evil goals.

-=-

Nya dodged out of the way of another knife swing. “You don’t have to do this!” she tried to reason one last time.

“Just let me kill you!” Not-Nya sobbed, stabbing through a waterfall of tears. 

“Can’t do that!” Nya quipped. “I like living, actually!”

She swung her staff at her counterpart, catching her on the head and sending her reeling with a cry. She immediately burst into tears.

“It’s the only way!” she wailed. “If I- if I kill you, then-” she hiccupped, “then Jay’ll like me back, and- and Lord Garmadon won’t see me as a failure, and- and- and- and I’ll be useful and good and liked and strong-” She didn’t get to finish her ramble before she broke down crying again.

Nya cringed. “You’re a bit pathetic, you know?”

Not-Nya sobbed. “Yea…”

“I keep telling you you don’t have to kill me,” Nya sighed. She didn’t lower her guard, though. She learned by now that Not-Nya liked taking advantage when guards were down. “You can live with us, be part of the team, on the good side! Lord Garmadon made you, right?” Not-Nya nodded. “You don’t have to go back to him. You can stay with us.”

The impostor was silent for a while, crying quietly. “I don’t think I can…”

“Is this really about impressing your Jay?” Nya rolled her eyes. “He’s a jerk! He kissed me without consent and lied to me about who he was. That doesn’t sound like good boyfriend material to me.”

Not-Nya shook her head. “He’s sweet, deep down. He can be mean… but he… he’s cute…”

That cannot be her only reason for liking him. This girl…

“Really? Is he really who you wanna be with? Someone who’s a massive jerk but is kind of cute?” Nya snapped. “You can’t do this, Nya.”

Not-Nya went silent. Fully silent, no longer sobbing.

Then, she looked up at her counterpart. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to live if I fail.”

Nya’s breath caught in her throat. “Garmadon doesn’t have to know.”

“He will,” Not-Nya whispered. 

The room was quiet for a while. 

“Do you think your friends will win?” Nya hazarded an ask. “You think they’ll beat the ninja?”

“...I want to believe…” Not-Nya murmured. “I want to- I want to have hope they will. But… I think I know they won’t.”

“What makes you say that?” the samurai asked softly.

“Good always beats evil, right?” She smiled sadly at her counterpart. “Lord Garmadon wanted us to beat the good versions of ourselves. He said it was the only way we could really be real. Our existence relies on yours.”

Nya didn’t know what to say. These reflection ninja were made to defeat their good versions, but… they deserved to live too. If they didn’t succeed, Garmadon would kill them anyway. That is…

“I see two options out of this,” Nya began. Her clone looked up curiously. “Three, if we include you killing me, but I’m vetoing that, personally. Doesn’t look like you want to anyway.” Not-Nya bit her lip but nodded. “So. Option one. I let you go, you run off and don’t bother me or the ninja ever again.”

“But- won’t Garmadon find me?” Not-Nya stammered. “He’ll know I failed and try and find me and then he’ll kill me and then-”

“How’s he gonna know?” Nya shrugged. “Cuz here’s option two.” She swung her staff at Not-Nya. She flinched, but the staff hovered right above her head, not hitting her. “I can defeat you.”

“H-huh?” Not-Nya’s eyes widened in confusion. 

“Your existence depends on ours, right?” Nya reasoned. “So, I figured, you don’t really exist as a physical flesh-and-blood human yet. Defeating you will send you back to where you were, in whatever reflection space you came from. And if I let you go, then Garmadon’ll think that you’ve been defeated by me anyway. No doubt the other ninja will defeat their counterparts and send them back, so you could join them.”

“You don’t know that they’ll really be defeated!” the fake Nya cried.

“You’re the one without faith in them,” Nya shrugged. “I know my ninja will succeed.”

Not-Nya’s lip quivered, but after a while, she sighed and hung her head. “Do it.”

Nya’s heart sank. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t know if I can live on my own,” she laughed sadly. “At least I know I’ll go home otherwise.” She made eye contact with her counterpart. “I never wanted to do this.”

Nya hesitated, then lifted her staff. “I hope you have a good trip home. Goodbye, Nya.”

“Goodbye, Nya,” Not-Nya smiled. “Thank you for talking to me.”

“Yea,” Nya smiled back.

She swung her staff down with all the strength she could muster. She hit the back of Not-Nya’s neck, and she cried out in pain. 

Then, it was like the world shimmered and folded in on itself. Not-Nya’s body wiggled, like when you poke the surface of water. In a flurry of ripples and particles, she dissipated into the air and vanished.

The studio only held one Nya now, panting and breathing heavily. She felt a tear prick the corner of her eye. She blinked it away before it had a chance to form. Her grip tightened on her staff.

“Hope you find someone better for you,” she murmured.

-=-

Brad rushed back into the classroom, yelling something about evil ninja, before telling the other kids to get somewhere higher. The entire room evacuated, and one green ninja was left behind.

“They forgot us again,” Knife drawled sardonically. 

Sometimes, the Darkley’s kids would tie them up and leave them in a closet or something, to get him punished for missing class. No amount of telling the teachers they didn’t miss class on purpose convinced them. The teachers probably didn’t care - they just wanted an excuse to punish Lloyd.

Knife squirmed in their bonds. “You’d think we’d be pretty good with knots by now,” they said. 

‘Why do we always get tied up?’ Lloyd grumbled from the back of their head.

“Tell me about it,” Knife huffed a laugh. “Anyway, the kids left.”

They felt a wave of resentment and relief, complicated sorts of emotions, from their headmate. Then, ‘Wait, what did Brad mean by evil ninja?!’

“Fuck if I know,” Knife huffed. “You still need me to make that decision?”

Lloyd poked his way back to front, and it felt somewhat like being pat on the shoulder. “I gotta go help my friends,” he said.

Back in his own body, realizing the room was empty, Lloyd wiggled in his chair. Unfortunately, the Darkley’s kids knew about his claws, and kept the ropes pretty far from his fingertips. Great. 

Knife nudged a thought of “up” at him, and he glanced up. All that hung above him was the lightbulb Gene used to spotlight him. 

…The same lightbulb as the ones he was breaking earlier today! He grinned. 

“Okay, you can do this, Lloyd,” he told himself. Knife sent supportive waves from the back.

He closed his eyes and focused on the energy in the bulb. He could feel the power coursing through the building, he could feel bright spots all around, and he could feel the weight of power that he could only assume was his uncle. But he focused on the bulb hanging above him. He focused on its power only. 

He heard it buzz. It hummed unnaturally. He channeled more power into it. It hummed louder. Okay, okay! It’s working! More power-

It exploded. Lloyd turned his head away from the burst, though thankfully all the glass shards landed on the floor. 

“Haha, YES!” he cheered. He maneuvered his chair over to the shards and flopped down (not without that bit of alarm when his chair fell to the side). He rubbed his ropes against a shard, and felt great relief when he heard the telltale sounds of rope being cut. It was working! And so when the ropes snapped off, he hurriedly stood up and shook himself off. “I’m FREE!”

Right as he was celebrating, the door opened and Gene walked back in. They blinked at each other owlishly. “I thought you were supposed to be tied up,” Gene said.

“Changed my mind,” Lloyd shrugged. “Did you leave me here on purpose, or on accident?”

“Accident, I swear,” Gene said, though he didn’t sound particularly convincing. “Come on, we gotta get out of here.”

“What’s that about evil ninja?” Lloyd didn’t move. 

Gene sideyed the direction that they probably were. “Uh, Brad said there were evil ninja in the building. Good ones too. I think they’re fighting.”

“What?!” Lloyd rushed out of the room and down the corridor, where- oh. Yep. That sure was the ninja fighting themselves. “What the…”

Almost naturally, the ninja all gravitated towards their counterpart. Zane fought Not-Zane, Cole fought Not-Cole, et cetera. While the fighting wasn’t exactly equal, they were all moving slightly differently, it was still obvious one couldn’t land a move on the other without it being blocked or dodged.

“Fascinating,” Gene mused, rubbing his chin as he watched them fight. “It’s like fighting a mirror. No one appears to be able to be able to land a blow!”

“We’ve got to help them,” Lloyd frowned in determination, taking a step towards them.

“Uh, you and what ninja powers?” Gene snorted. “Unless you somehow got your father’s powers of destruction, you couldn’t help the ninja if you tried.”

Lloyd paused, then looked down at his hands. These lousy powers have mostly been used for destruction, at least as long as he’s had them. Maybe he was meant for destroying…

“Regardless,” Gene continued, “we need you to execute our plan. While they’re distracted here, we could take down the teachers and show them our pain!”

Lloyd faltered in his step. He really didn’t have a choice here. It was either help the ninja, or get his revenge. And as much as he wanted to help the ninja, he could sense that that wasn’t going to be possible. Not with the entire student body paying attention to him. They wanted him to lead their rebellion. 

He looked over at Kai, trying desperately to land a hit on his counterpart, who was doing an impressively good job dodging every single blow. He and Kai made eye contact. The red ninja paused in his combat to jerk his head to the corner away from the fight. 

He didn’t want to leave them alone. But he didn’t have a choice. “Okay, let’s go,” Lloyd nodded, turning around and sprinting down the hall away from the fight.

Kai watched Lloyd disappear down the corridor and nodded to himself. Good, the kid was out of the fight. 

But that didn’t mean he was.

Unfortunately, the ninja were just unable to hit the evil ninja, and vice versa. Kai’s double constantly ducked out of the way, almost like he was running away, and so had no time to swing back. Zane’s clone was practically dancing around him, while his stiffer battle movements couldn’t make contact - though it didn’t stop Not-Zane from missing every shot because of how much fun he was having. Cole’s counterpart managed to block every hit without even realizing it, which just made him more frustrated and miss more shots. And Jay’s reflection was relentlessly attacking, forcing Jay to be the one dodging the entire time, barely managing to attempt a hit before being forced to dodge. 

All that to say, they weren’t having a very good time.

So while they kept fighting, Lloyd and Gene ran to find the other students mostly gone, but some hung around where they were keeping the teachers. “Where is everyone?” Gene narrowed his eyes.

“Too scared of the evil ninja, I guess,” Finn scoffed. “Not me. This is the perfect chance to get our revenge.”

A cheer of YEA! rang out from the students, and Lloyd frowned. “What exactly is the plan here?”

The students raised various makeshift weapons, including baseball bats, hammers, and scissors. 

Lloyd sighed. “We’re not gonna kill them, guys.”

The scissors went down.

“They’re all still in there?” Gene asked. At Finn’s nod, he puffed out his chest and looked at Lloyd. “It’s time.”

Lloyd bit his lip but nodded. “Yea.”

To be honest, he did want to get his revenge. Physically. With a lot of weapons. He’s just sad he didn’t bring his gun. (His uncle told him not to.)

So he watched Jasmine unlock the door and turn the doorknob, letting them see the teachers and principal…

…on the ground, looking like they were contemplating their life choices. Wu sat before them, sipping tea. He looked up and saw his nephew, smiled, and got up. The staff immediately parted to let him through.

“Uh, uncle?” Lloyd furrowed his brows. “Why are all the teachers…”

Wu smiled mysteriously. “Oh, I merely took the time to reeducate them. This is a school, after all.”

The teachers looked up at him with no shortage of fear and mollification. Whatever Wu told them, they weren’t about to act out against him any time soon.

Still, Mrs. Lopez pointed at him. “The devil spawn did come back!”

Lloyd tried not to flinch or shrink back. Wu turned to glare at her. “Watch your tongue.”

She didn’t meet his eye and looked down at her clenched hands.

Wu turned back to Lloyd. “Safe to say, I believe every member of the staff here, aside from one, will be fired. You will never see them again.”

“What!?” Gene exclaimed. “But we wanted to take our revenge on them!”

“YEA!” cheered the rest of the students. 

Wu breathed in deeply. “Well, I won’t stop you from doing so, as they are all still here, but I think they’ve learned their lessons.”

“But- but we wanted to get our revenge,” Jake scoffed. “You can’t take that from us!”

“True,” Wu nodded. “Though I do not like to see children committing violence.”

“P-please, Mister Wu!” Principal Noble spoke up. “Don’t let them hurt us!”

“Uncle-” Lloyd began, “-you know how much they’ve hurt us!” Was he really going to make that choice for them? “You can’t just-”

Wu smirked, closed his eyes, and walked out the door. “Oh dear, it seems I cannot see any children committing violence. What a shame. I can only hope they don’t kill those poor defenseless teachers.”

He walked away, standing just outside the crowd of children. He winked at Lloyd, who grinned and winked back. Then, he turned around. “Alright. You call me a devil spawn? You say I’m pure evil?” He cracked his knuckles. “Then I guess I can’t feel bad for my uncle putting the fear of the First One in you. He was just the warmup.”

The teachers stammered out something at the same time, voices overlapping. Calling him a name that wasn’t his, ordering him to stop, flexing their authority, and outright trying to get up to stop him physically. 

But twice their number of extremely angry students with weapons and aggressive intent forced them all back. Lloyd allowed himself one last evil laugh, different than his older “mwa-ha-ha”s - this one was real, tinged with vengeance and a painful grief - and the students were let loose.

They all heard the threats. “Stop, or we’ll call your parents.” “They’ll hear how badly you’re misbehaving.” “They’ll punish you.” Some said that Darkley’s was a school for bad kids, for those who acted out in society and needed to be corrected. But all this school did was punish them for existing, tell them off for doing things that come naturally to kids. It almost felt, sometimes, like it was fostering evil intent, keeping its students “bad” to keep punishing them forever, to keep them trapped.

So what if the students fought back against their teachers? So what if they were seen as bad? So what if they were villainized for wanting to be free? If wanting revenge for years of torment was bad, then they were bad fucking kids. Just the worst. 

At this point, no one cared about all that. They just wanted to feel something good for the first time in years.

-=-

The ninja still weren’t getting any closer. “We’re evenly balanced,” Jay panted, them and their double both pausing to catch their breaths. “This fight could go on… forever!” They hastily dodged another hammer swing from Not-Jay. “Come on, at least quip! You’re… you’re so boring!”

Not-Jay narrowed his eyes. “I’m not interested in combat banter.”

“Combanter,” Jay automatically said. 

“We can’t give up,” Kai encouraged. “Keep fighting!”

His counterpart, on the other hand… Not-Kai shrieked as Kai’s sword swung over his head. “Mercy!”

“I thought you and your friends were supposed to be killing us!” Kai snapped. 

“That’s scaryyy,” Not-Kai whined. 

“You’re so pathetic!” Not-Zane yelled at him, dodging a kunai from his good version. “Just kill that stupid red guy already!”

“I do not approve of this!” Zane snapped. 

Meanwhile, Cole realized that his reflection barely knew where the fuck he was, so he took advantage of it by taking a moment to breathe. “Why- why are you doing this anyway?”

“Oh, something about… us being real?” Not-Cole wondered. He had a zoned out, faraway look in his eyes. “We can’t be real unless we kill you?”

“That’s your goal?!” Kai, overhearing, exclaimed. 

“We gotta…” Not-Kai whimpered. “It’s the only way…” He loosed a miniscule bit of fire at Kai, who easily dodged it.

“It appears that the fake Kai and Cole do not wish to kill their good selves,” Zane reasoned. 

“Oh, I don’t really know what I’m doing,” Not-Cole giggled. “Am I supposed to kill you?”

“...No, Garmadon lied,” Cole bluffed. 

“Oh, okay,” Not-Cole smiled and sat down.

“Don’t listen to him,” Not-Jay snapped. “Lord Garmadon spoke the truth.”

“Oh, okay,” Not-Cole lost his smile and started to get back up again. Cole groaned.

-=-

The teachers didn’t escape without their fair share of bruises and cuts. They appeared to have wisened up and realized that they couldn’t convince the kids out of this, nor could they fight back - not with Wu still watching them. So that left only one option.

They ran away.

Not upstairs, for Wu was blocking that path. And they did not want to mess with him. The kids chased them down the hall, to where the exit should have been.

If not for the complication of the ninja fighting each other. Right.

A flood of terrified, screaming teachers ran down the hall. They skidded to a stop before the fighting duplicates, visibly confused, but continued yelling in alarm when what sounded like a swarm of children ran after them. 

“Ninja!” Principal Noble exclaimed. “Please, help us! These kids are going crazy! They’re beating us up and being just- just horrible!” 

“We’ve got bigger problems here!” Kai snapped. 

Not-Kai cried out in alarm when one of the teachers decided that the best course of action was to run through the fight. Who knows what she was trying to do. Either way, this forced the red double against the wall, looking up at Kai in fear. “I don’t wanna fight you!” he screamed.

“Oh, good, that makes it easy for me.” Kai wasn’t exactly sure what possessed him to do this, but he swung his sword down, slashing across Not-Kai’s chest. Some sort of rash instinct due to adrenaline, he supposed.

Either way, it worked. The hit landed. Not-Kai clutched his chest, watching as his body started fading away like ash in the wind. He looked up at his counterpart gratefully. Then, he opened his mouth in a scream as he faded away into nothing. Kai stared at the space he was with wide eyes.

Somehow, the rest of the teachers took this as a sign to keep pushing, to run through the fight. The thought process that told them that a bunch of kids was more scary than the actively fighting ninja was a strange one, but it did work as a distraction. 

Not-Cole hummed. “I think Kai just died.”

“Do you really wanna fight and kill me?” Cole asked. 

“...Nah, I just do things people tell me,” Not-Cole shrugged.

“I see,” Cole nodded, then hit his evil clone over the head with his scythe. He barely even reacted, just crumbled into smaller and smaller particles until he was gone.

“What?!” Not-Zane shouted. “How did they lose?! Pathetic fucking guys, can’t even rely on them for a good killing!” He stopped stabbing at his good self, angrily swiping at the passing-by teachers. 

“Keep your focus!” Zane called, spinning into a vortex and tackling his clone. Not-Zane slammed into the floor, glared up with such unbridled fury that Zane flinched, and shattered into a million tiny fractal pieces.

The destruction of his teammates didn’t dissuade Not-Jay from continuing his barrage, but it certainly helped when the ninja all surrounded him, readying their weapons and glaring down at him. “You and your friends lost!” Jay said. “Give up.”

Not-Jay’s eyes flickered to the surrounding ninja, then he sighed and dropped his hammer, brushing his gi off. “Fine. I know when I’m beat.” Then, he looked at his counterpart. “Your girlfriend is nice to kiss.”

It took a millisecond to process before Jay screamed “YOU WHAT!?” and kicked Not-Jay in the chest while slamming their nunchaku into his head. He smirked, laughed cruelly, then fizzled out like static.

“That asshole!” Kai growled. “If you didn’t just kill him dead, I’d do it myself.” Jay hissed under his breath in agreement.

“I saw what happened,” Master Wu suddenly spoke up, sauntering in behind them. “Or, at least the final battle. You dealt with your doubles handily.”

“Garmadon pulled a nasty trick,” Kai brushed off his suit, “but not nasty enough to get us down.”

“Are you alright?” Zane asked. “I notice you are no longer trapped in the classroom.”

“Ah, yes,” Wu chuckled. “I let the children have their revenge.”

He nodded at the swarm of kids running after the teachers, who were mostly all out of the building. Food was thrown at their heads, staining their clothes and hair, they were covered in bruises and bumps and scratches, and they all looked utterly humiliated and afraid. 

The ninja, taking advantage of the lapse in attention, ran back to put their outer clothes on. Then they and Wu joined the crowd of cheering students as they watched the staff pile into a convenient bus and leave as fast as they could.

They spotted Lloyd at the front of the crowd, jumping for joy and whooping. Kai smiled and headed over to the kid, ruffling his hair. The kid grinned and tackled Kai in a big hug, which he was more than willing to return.

“They had this coming,” said the only teacher remaining, a younger woman with long hair in a ponytail and glasses. “I’ve wanted to quit for the longest time, but… well, you know how it is with blackmail.”

“I assume you have evidence of their wrongdoing, should they take it to legal proceedings?” Wu asked. In his harsh scolding of the staff, he learned that only one, the newest hire, wanted what was best for the students, but was unable to do anything due to the nature of the staff. 

“Of course,” her eyes sparkled with well-deserved vengeance. “I’ve been compiling it since I got here.”

“Good,” Wu’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. He cleared his throat. “Children!” Everyone quieted down and looked at him. “I believe this calls for a real celebration!”

“Does that mean there’s gonna be cake?!” Cole excitedly asked, practically salivating.

“Oh, yes,” Wu smiled. “Lots of cake.”

“And pizza?” Lloyd asked, tail wagging. 

“And soda?” Brad’s eyes were wide.

“I’ve never had pizza before…” Jasmine mused.

“Okay, we’re ordering pizza,” Jay said. 

And so everyone celebrated, knowing that now, the school was free.

-=-

The party went on until the children naturally crashed, sometime around 10pm, shuffling off to their dorms and passing out wherever they could find a comfortable spot. That’s what happens when children get hyped on adrenaline and then eat like ten cakes. Wu’s wallet had seen better days.

Nya, in her Sam X mech, arrived just at the start of the party, where the ninja caught her up on their side of the story after she explained hers. Jay tried to apologize for their evil double’s evil ways, but she didn’t look like she wanted to talk about it, so they were forced to drop it.

And so the team headed home, thankful that the school was free and that Lloyd, most of all, was safe. He fell asleep in Wu’s arms on the way home. 

Master Wu promised to do something with the school, as did that one remaining teacher. There will be legal troubles to follow, but nothing that the ninja had to concern themselves over. They just had to worry about Garmadon, and what he might throw at them next. Hopefully, it wouldn’t involve evil doubles again.

-=-

The air shimmered, then broke apart into several pieces. Reality warped as the air itself opened up, shimmering like fractals and static.

And Not-Jay fell onto the snow with a yelp.

“Oh, finally,” Not-Zane complained. “Took you long enough.”

“Saved you for last, huh,” Not-Cole noted. 

Not-Jay looked around. The woods below Darkley’s cliff. Why were they here?

“I like the cold,” Not-Kai said from the ground, making snow angels. “It’s nice.”

“You’re just sayin that cuz you’re fire,” Not-Cole pointed out.

“Nooo, I just like it…” Not-Kai turned around and hid his face in the snow.

Not-Jay shook his head decisively. “Right. We’re alive.”

“So Garmadon did lie?” Not-Zane asked. “I thought it was just the good ninja fucking with Cole. Not that it’s hard to do.”

Not-Jay tried to summon lightning. Nothing. Completely inert. And yet… he felt more real than he did before. “We’re alive,” he repeated, somewhat in disbelief. 

“...Now what?” Not-Kai sat up, hugging his knees.

“Not like we gotta do anything Garm asks us to do now,” Not-Zane decided. “I mean, we only took orders from him cuz we thought he was right. Turns out, he just straight up lied to us! What a dickbag!”

“No elements, no masters, no bonds,” Not-Jay began. “We are completely alone in this world.” He looked at the others. “We can do whatever we want.”

“...Do you guys wanna get an apartment and hang out?” Not-Cole suggested.

“I’d like that,” Not-Kai smiled softly.

“I can go steal us one!” Not-Zane offered giddily.

Not-Jay contemplated his options silently, then decided. “Find us one away from the main city action. We need to lie low.”

“Ah, the slums,” Not-Zane sighed dreamily.

“Guys! You’re alive!” a bubbly and cheerful voice piped up. They all looked up to see Not-Nya running towards them. 

“Did you run all the way here on foot?” Not-Kai frowned. 

She chose to answer that by collapsing in the snow. “I didn’t kill my Nya and she talked to me so nicely and now I don’t know what to doooooooo-”

“We’re getting a house,” Not-Cole said.

She pulled her face out of the snow. “Oh, really?” Then, she blinked. “Jay, your scales are red.”

He looked down in confusion. Huh. So they were.

“I want to get out of this snow,” he said. “So, team, let’s go.”

With various sounds of agreement, the warped reflections headed home.