Skylor's POV

We get inside the museum at around six. The place is giant, with dozens of rooms branching off. However, when you first walk in, there are people who direct you towards a large room.

In this room, there's several tables of food, an open space I assume is for dancing, music, and a temporary stage up front. From this room, people can explore the rest of the museum. The room is already buzzing with people.

People, all in formal clothing, are all over the room. Some are chatting, others eating, and the rest are dancing. The people range drastically in age, with a decent amount having grey hair , but there also some children and a significant amount of people who look around our age.

"So, what's the plan?" Chamille asks, looking around the room.

"The guardians are supposed to show up at 6:30 on that stage," I point to the stage, "to give a speech. That gives us 30 minutes to try to find the vault the gemstone is in. After their speech, I'm going to propose a deal to the fire guardian..."

"The fire guardian? He's not the leader," Chamille raises an eyebrow at me.

"Well, I'm guessing Lloyd is their leader, but he'll be swarmed by the most people, so I'm going with someone else. After I propose a deal, each of us are going to have to watch the guardians to make sure they don't try to pull anything. They'll most likely split up throughout the night, so we'll need to also. If we stay right by each of them all night, they can never escape to steal the gemstone, or if they do, we can follow them," I say lowly, so no one around us can eavesdrop.

"I call dibs on not Jay," Seliel declares, a smirk on her face.

"I'll watch Jay. What's one more night?" Nya offers. As I go to protest, Chamille claps her on the back.

"Thank you. Seliel, I vote you go Cole since you've already interacted with him before. I want to go Lloyd. I have a plan," Chamille suggests, making Seliel shrug.

"Why not?"

"I'll keep watching Kai since I'll have already found him in order to propose the deal. PIX, are you fine with watching Zane?" I finish the assignments. She nods. "Great. Now, let's do some exploring."

---

"It's been 25 minutes, and we still haven't found anything," Chamille groans as we walk through yet another exhibit.

"My scanners have not picked up any secret entrances yet," PIXAL informs us, looking around the room. This room, out of all the rooms, is busier than the rest. A large group of people are surrounding a giant display.

"We should head back now. It doesn't seem like we'll find anything," I sigh, frustrated. We had around thirty minutes, and we found nothing.

"Can we see what the commotion is about? It'll be quick," Seliel asks, trying to look over the group of people. I shrug.

"Sure." The five of us walk to the display, squeezing between people until we're at the front of the group. In front of us, there is a display of the same tower, but twice. In one, there is a giant snake wrapped around the tower. On the top of the tower, there is a figurine of what I think is a human, but they have four hands and are holding four weapons. At the bottom of the tower, there are figurines of all of the guardians but Lloyd.

The other tower has a different scene. On the ground, there is an army of some sort. A man wearing brown is standing on rubble in the middle of them. The guardians, with exception of Lloyd, all are climbing up the side of the tower, some further down than others. On top of the tower, a golden ninja is facing off against a giant, dark dragon.

"They're great, aren't they?" a man next to me says, looking at the display.

"What's this display of, exactly?" I ask him. He looks at me like I'm crazy, his eyes wide.

"Only two of the most important days of Ninjago's history. The one on the left is from when Pythor released the Great Devourer. With the help of Lord Garmadon, the ninja, with the exception of Lloyd who was a kid, were able to destroy it before it could eat all of Ninjago.

The more recent one is the one on the right. The Overlord came and was trying to take over all of Ninjago with his stone army. He wanted to turn it into a land of darkness. The ninja returned from the dark island where they were trying to stop him before. Lloyd had a broken leg, and the rest of the ninja helped him reach the top of the tower. Once he reached the top of the tower, he completed his temporary transition into the golden ninja and defeated the Overlord," he explains with a passion. "I was in the city the day the Overlord attacked. I owe my life to them; we all do. They countlessly put their lives in danger to keep Ninjago safe."

"I see," I say, looking at the model and not really believing the story all that much. Auntie and Mother said the guardians had a talent for getting in people's heads. They were able to convince all of Ninjago that they were their saviors.

"I was so happy when I won tickets to get in here. There was a limited amount, and there were several "ninja super fan" contests in order to win some," the man smiles brightly. "They're my heroes."

"Skylor, we need to go. They're starting soon," Nya appears next to me before giving the guy next to me a polite wave.

"Alright. Thank you for the information," I say to the guy before quickly working my way out of the crowd.

---

When we make our way back into the main room, it's packed. People are close together with very little room to walk. To make it even harder, we get trapped in place by the people flooding in behind us.

"Attention everyone," the room goes silent when an older woman speaks up from the front of the stage. She's wearing a modest beige dress with green accents. Her hair is grey and pulled up in a braid. Her expression is warm, her glasses magnifying her happy eyes. "I would like to welcome you all to the grand reopening of the Ninjago Museum of History. Not only are we here to celebrate our museum being back, but we are also here to honor the five young men who made this day possible. Please welcome Cole Brookstone, Zane Julien, Jay Gordon-Walker, Kai Smith, and last but definitely not least, my son, Lloyd Garmadon."

When they're announced, the crowd roars, cheers and claps flooding the room. I need to plug my ears to keep it from being too loud. I keep my eyes on the stage as the ninja walk out. All five of them come out in tuxedos matching the color their gis usually are. When I see them scan the crowd, I put my head down.

When I finally lift my head up, I glance over at my sisters. Chamille seems bored. Seliel is checking out the hair of all of the people around us. PIXAL is looking at the five boys on the stage, probably running some sort of scan. Nya's jaw is tight as she looks at them, looking slightly angry.

"Um...hi everyone," Lloyd greets awkwardly, taking the microphone from his mom. "It's really cool that you guys all came out today. I know all of the museum staff worked really hard to make this happen..."

My mind starts drifting away from Lloyd's speech when I really look at Kai. He's cleaned up since the last time I saw him, his hair neater and his face and clothing missing the layer of ash they had. He smiles a little at whatever Lloyd says, and I feel my chest tighten a little. The little gesture invades my thoughts.

I close my eyes, but it won't go away. Ever since the first day we got here, I haven't been able to get him out of my thoughts. I tried everything to get him out of my head.

I tried to explain to myself why he would save me, but it left me with more questions that I didn't have answers to. Then, I thought that with exposure, I'd be able to think clearer, but after looking and reading about him in Seliel's magazine, I just wanted more.

"Nya, are you alright? You look like you're about to blow a fuse," Seliel asks her, putting a hand on her shoulder. I look over, and Nya looks like she's trying to calm herself down. Her fists are bunched up my her sides. Knowing Nya, that's not a good sign.

"Yeah, I'm just peachy," she says with a bit of anger in her voice. Letting her vent, Seliel takes her hand off Nya's shoulder.

"Why is Jay in a sling?" Chamille asks when she sees that the blue ninja is sporting a sling, keeping one of his arms in place.

"It appears he has an injury to his upper arm. My scans have picked up trace amounts of fresh blood on the sleeve of his tux," PIXAL explains. Suddenly, the crowd erupts in laughter, so we laugh along to fit in.

"Thank you boys," the woman from earlier, Lloyd's mom, takes the microphone back from them. "The boys are going to enjoy the party just like the rest of you. Please don't swarm them. They're people too. Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy your time tonight."

---

While we had a clear view of all of the ninja at first, they got swept up in the crowd, and now we can't find any of them. We split up to try to be more efficient, but I've ran into the other girls multiple times, and none of us have found any of them. This place is huge, and if they keep moving around, it'll be impossible.

We decided that if we find any of them, we'll contact the others through our earpieces. Then, we'll follow them until the person whose ninja it is can come and follow them around.

"Excuse me," I walk up to someone leaning against the wall. The man isn't much taller than me, but he's broad. His hair is a mix between blonde and brown, floofed upwards. His nose is wide, contrasting with his narrow head. He appears to be young.

"Hello there, gorgeous," the man smirks, but I ignore him.

"By any chance, have you seen any of the ninja walk through here?" I ask him.

"Don't know, don't care," he stands up from against the wall. "But I do know that you're smoking hot. You wanna get something to drink?" I don't really understand what he's saying, but it still gets on my nerves.

"No thanks," I turn to walk away, but he grabs my wrist, pulling me closer to him.

"Do you know who I am?"

"No, and frankly, I don't really care," I get straight to the point, pushing him away.

"Hard to get I see," he goes to touch my waist, but I squirm away. "My dad is the major of Ninjago City, which means I'm filthy rich, you know. I get every girl I wa..." his words slowly fade out, confusing me.

Suddenly, I feel an arm wrap around my shoulder. I'm confused at first, but once his hand brushes over the skin on my shoulder, I know exactly who it is. A surge of warmth rushes through me, flowing through my veins. It swarms my entire body, a comforting heat taking over.

"I've been looking for you all night," he tells me before looking at the guy in front of me, who is now awestruck. "Hey Melvin. You weren't harassing her, were you?"

The guy, Melvin, now looks scared. His face is pale, his jaw slacked. "N-nope. I...I'm going to go find my dad."

"Good idea," with that, Melvin rushes off. Within seconds, he's out of the room. Once he's gone, I shrug Kai's arm off of my shoulders before turning to look at him.

"I could've handled myself. You don't have to swoop in and try to save the day again," I put my hand on my hip.

"I-I know. I couldn't have you kicking his ass in front of everyone. That'd blow your cover, wouldn't it?" he recovers from his original stutter. I smile slightly at him.

"You don't know how close I was."

He laughs. "While I really wish I could've watched Melvin get knocked down a peg, I knew I couldn't," he pauses, looking down at my arm. "Is your arm doing better?"

"Yeah. It's functional now," I look down at the stitches in my arm. When my eyes drift even lower, I see the scar from when I was a child. Subconsciously, I tuck that hand behind my back.

"That's good, really good," he states, putting his hands in his pockets. He subconsciously tugs at his lip with his teeth, and I can't keep my eyes off of it. "Well, I better get going. I can't wait to beat you guys in," he looks down at the watch on his wrist while walking backwards, "an hour and thirty minutes." He flashes me a smile before turning and walking away. When I realize what's happening, I jog to catch back up to him.

"Actually, I need to propose you a deal," I bring up, falling into step with him. He raises an eyebrow.

"Me? Shouldn't you bring it up to Lloyd?" he says the same thing as Chamille did as the two of us walk out of the room. Several girls glare at me as we walk past, but I ignore them.

"I thought you'd be the most likely to hear me out," I admit. The two of us walk into the main room. A formal song is playing the background. Kai sticks out his hand.

"Care to dance?"

"But the off..."

"You can tell me while we're dancing. It's not every day that I get the chance to dance with a girl as gorgeous as you," he winks at me, and I can't help but cave in. I take his hand, amplifying the warmth that rushes through me.

"Fair warning, I've never danced before," I tell him.

"I have a feeling that you'll be a natural," he reassures me. Now that we're in the center of the dance floor, he stops. He takes my right hand, placing it on his defined shoulder. He intertwines my left hand with his right one, lifting them up in the air. His free hand rests on my waist, partially on the area between the two parts of my dress. His touch sends shivers throughout my body. "Just mirror my steps. It's a pattern."

After watching his feet for several seconds, I'm able to mimic his steps, falling into a rhythm. After several seconds, I realize our closeness. Something about it makes my breath hitch in my throat, but I play it off. "So about the offer... it's not really an offer, more of a threat."

At that, his faces switches to a look of worry. "Skylor, you don't need to do this. The guys and I can find a way to get you girls away from those psychopaths and keep you safe. We can..." even though hearing him say my name briefly draws my attention away, I interrupt him when I realize what he is saying.

"If anything, you guys are the ones who need to escape. The royal family is controlling you all," I inform him, gently rubbing the back of his hand with my thumb. The small gesture distracts him. He closes his eyes and gently breathes in and out.

"What's your offer?" he asks after he opens his eyes again.

"Well, if you guys let us have the gemstone, we'll not make a scene and let the party go as planned. If you guys even try to go for the gemstone, this building is going to end up just like how the Explorer's Club now is, except this time there will be hundreds of people inside," I tell him. He pauses for a second before dropping my hand and stepping away, leaving me with an empty space in front of me. His jaw is clenched.

"You can't be serious, right?" he asks, his look a lot colder than before.

"We're not letting anything go to chance. It's your choice," I tell him. He shakes his head.

"You realize how insane this is, right? Hundreds of people have dedicated hundreds of hours to restoring this museum, and you guys are going to recklessly destroy it just because? And the people? All of the innocent people you're willing to kill to get your way?" his tone starts to get more aggressive, anger seeping through. He clenches his fists, just like Nya does.

"We're not letting anything get in between us and the gemstone," I state firmly.

"You're all evil. I should've never thought otherwise," he shakes his head, looking both pissed off and disappointed.

Kai turns away from me, walking away from me through the crowd of people. He leaves me in the center of the crowd, alone, feeling nowhere as good as I thought I'd be feeling.

A/N I'm sorry for the later update guys. I was busy Sunday and yesterday.

1/3 of the banquet chapters are done. I know the first part was boring. I hit a writers block, so I had to work through it. I think a lot of you guys are going to like the next chapter (it's one of my favorites)

So far, what has been your favorite part of this book? 

What do you guys hope is going to happen, and what do you guys think will happen?

Thank you guys so much! You're all the best