https://youtu.be/sKBY85jB5_o

WILL I FIND MY HOME | Juniper Vale ft. Vian Izak

will i find my home?

 will i find my home? 

my home in you, home in you?

everybody ready?? i did my fucking homework and now you have to read this shit 

aka, this is the chapter where i dump a bunch of exposition on you 

aka, my silly little brain thought too much about this silly little story 

The group stayed lying on the ground until a flying ship, not unlike the one those from Zenjago were familiar with, appeared and landed nearby. From there, a robot-looking woman appeared on the deck. Her hair shone in a brilliant chrome and her eyes were a vibrant green, so vibrant they looked (or perhaps were) lights. She waved. Zap waved back.

"Friends, this is PIXAL," Zane smiled, a hint of pride evident upon his features.

"And this," Jay gestured dramatically, "is-"

"The Destiny's Bounty?" Morro cut in.

Jay's showmanship faltered. "Uh- yes. The Destiny's Bounty."

"How the hell did you know that?" Cole furrowed his brow.

"I'm just cool like that," he grinned cockily.

"Contrarily," Harper shoved Morro to the side, "we have the same one," they explained. "Same ship, same name... not the same robot-chick though."

"She is a Nindroid," said Zane. "As am I." The white ninja suddenly flipped up a piece of his skin across his forearm.

"HoLY First Master!" Zap jumped back, eyes wide. The rest of his team was entirely unfased.

Underneath the panel was a set of buttons and switches, one of which he pressed. Moments later, Zane's appearance as, well, human became that of a robot. His skin now titanium, his hair the same chrome as PIXAL's. Zane's eyes remained bright blue, only less natural as lights like Pix's green ones.

"A nindroid?" Asked Skylar, interest piqued as he watched the seamless transformation.

"An android-ninja: a Nindroid," Cole clarified.

Morro shoved his sister back. "Hey! Like Harper!"

Kai glanced at Harper and raised an eyebrow. "You're a Nindroid as well?"

Harper sighed. "To the best of my knowledge, I am not. Morro just likes to say that. He can't accept someone is smarter than him without them having some insane artificial knowledge. Little does he know it isn't hard to be smarter than him, because he gets us into bullshit situations like this one." They pushed him back.

"Let's get you some rest, you're irritable now," Skylar patted Harper on the head absent-mindedly as though they were an aggravated puppy.

Morro stuck his tongue out at them. "Nindroid," he hissed as he walked past her. He shoved her back, slightly harder.

They then all made their way toward the ship. Morro and Sky allowed Realm to lean on them despite her insisting she was completely fine and the rest slowly climbed aboard. All except Ally, who remained lying on the ground now several metres behind.

"C'mon, Ally!" Zap called, noticing she was yet to get up.

The Green Ninja remained stubbornly in place. "The last time I was forced to get up, I ended up fighting the Preeminent in a foreign realm. I am not falling for that shit again."

"In that case, we're happy to leave you," Sky remarked.

"Say hi to the Preeminent when she comes back!" Morro waved before culling his mouth and calling over his shoulder. "Step on it, PIXAL!"

"That's not-"

Ally stuck her head up. "Wait! Can the Preeminent actually come back, Morro?!"

"Who can say?" The boy held his chin as he stared seriously into the distance; embodying the stoicism of a well respected academic. Someone he was notably not.

"Me. She won't come back," Realm muttered. She was barely paying attention to the conversation, but apparently enough to call him on his obvious bullshit.

Ally did not hear such a mutter, however. "Fine!" She shouted. "I'll get on the Destiny's Bounty that isn't ours! But if one more bad thing happens today I'll sacrifice myself to the Preeminent!" She groaned as she rolled onto her hands slowly, heaving her aching body from the ground.

"Any day now!" Skylar called.

"Be glad I'm coming at all," she said back, dragging her feet as the girl made her way onto the ship in arduous fashion.

Zap patted her on the shoulder. "Welcome back. It's good to have you."

"Well it's not good to be had." She went to lie down on the deck of the Bounty instead.

- 🐉🌪🐉 -

The exhaustion of the impromptu battle hit all at once, all of the ninja ceasing conversation for a while to rest both their minds and bodies after such an overwhelming hour and a half. Realm was directed to a spot where she promptly fell asleep, the most drained of them all. The others took various positions both under and above deck. Some conversed lightly but it died down very quickly. They were all tired as hell.

Harper stood above deck, watching Ninjago City pass under them with a tense expression. Her hands fiddled with the Realm Blade she had collected from Morro. They twisted it between their fingers back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and for-

"This is all fucking crazy," Skylar came up behind them and rested his hands on the wooden railing beside her. He sighed deeply. "So fucking crazy." She didn't look at Harper, nor did Harper really regard them. The two just stood in silence. Though one might notice Harper's fidgeting had stilled as she softly rested her head against Sky's.

They had so much ahead of them.

- 🐉🌪🐉 -

Zap and Morro helped a still groggy Realm from the ship as they landed at the Monastery. It was, again, almost identical to their own.

"You have a secret base under your Monastery as well?" Morro asked as he guided Realm inside.

Cole looked over his shoulder. "Let me guess, you have one too?"

"No, I'm just that coo-"

"Yes, we do," Zap interrupted from Realm's other side. "We keep all our mechs and vehicles there. It's pretty epic!"

"But if you don't have a PIXAL, who built it?" Lloyd inquired.

Zap shrugged. "I did!"

"Huh," he nodded, impressed.

The Z!Ninja were given a quick rundown of the Monastery, not that it was required, for theirs was almost identical. Numerous times did Realm deny a guest bedroom for her to sleep, instead they all ended up in a meeting room where she promptly fell asleep on a couch in the back of the room.

The others gathered around a large square table. Zane appeared after a small disappearance with cookies.

"Did you just bake these?" Jay asked as he took one.

Zane merely smiled warmly. "Please enjoy."

"Wizard," Zap uttered in awe.

Morro glanced back at a sleeping Realm, a sly smile creeping onto his lips. He made eye contact with Skylar. "Doo doo doo," he whispered. He flashed his phone screen with an image of 'three-hour baby shark loop'.

Skylar shook her head. "Don't."

"But-"

"Don't, what?" Ally called, grin shit eating as she intentionally caught the attention of the rest of the ninja.

"Damn your super weird hearing," Morro said, barely audible.

Ally smiled proudly.

Everybody was eventually settled in chairs they had pulled up against the big table. They were all still considerably exhausted, but after their short rest they were slightly more alert and with a bit of their energy back.

"Well," Skylar began. "I suppose we have a lot of explaining to do, don't we?"

"Not that we want to pressure you," said Kai. "But also I'm still confused who the fuck you are or why the fuck you're here."

"That makes two of us," Ally muttered solemnly.

That makes all of us," Zap added.

Cole leaned forward on the table. "So let me get this straight (gay)... you're us..."

"But from another universe," Harper finished with a click of her tongue, "bingo."

"You have our powers and our names and have fought the Preeminent too?" Nya cocked her head to the side.

"Serpentine, Garmadon, Chen, the Preeminent- you name it." Morro ticked the names off his fingers.

Lloyd looked up with wide eyes. "Garmadon?"

Ally raised her hand. "My dear, loving father," she rolled her eyes. They made eye contact, an unspoken connection between them felt among them both. Ally broke it with the hint of a smile on her expression.

Jay scoffed. "For a city named after 'Zen' it sure isn't relaxing if it's anything like here." He laughed half heartedly.

"The name and the city don't align, it seems," Zane responded seriously, missing the joke.

Kai folded his arms across his chest. "And you're here because..."

"Because my idiot brother," Morro waved with the smile of an innocent man (something he was also not) as Harper glared at him, "bought some insane black market item called a Realm Blade. And apparently–like a Time Blade–it facilitates the manipulation of the fabric of reality. Only, instead of time, it travels between realms."

Harper, who was still clutching the Realm Blade, now slid it into the centre of the table. Everyone noted how it was indeed very similar to a Time Blade–almost identical in fact. This one was a brilliant orange that, as the Z!Ninja had seen demonstrated, lit up even brighter when activated.

"He used it on us as a prank," said Skylar. "Then continued to bash it for good measure, opening up more portals."

"That would explain the Preeminent's sudden arrival in Ninjago as well," Zane affirmed.

Kai held up his hand. "Wait a hot second- You're telling us there could be more?"

Harper sighed. "It's sure as hell possible."

"But Realm can also travel, well, realms?" Cole asked.

They all nodded.

"She can travel through realms and sense them. Like we said- a spider sense but for realms..." It was Zap's turn to ask a question. "You can't do that?"

Cole stared at her blankly. He blinked. "Why would I be able to do that?"

"Her 'realm powers' come from her elemental ones," Skylar explained. He gazed at Cole curiously. "You've never noticed any connection to other realms... not even a strange sense when you travel between them?"

"We don't travel between realms all that often," he rubbed the back of his neck. "And when we do, it isn't exactly ideal."

"I notice a strange feeling!" Jay piped up. "But it's only my guts turning inside out."

"So if Realm can travel between Realms," Kai continued, ignoring Jay entirely, "can't you guys just travel back?"

"Or use the Realm Blade," said Cole.

Morro held up a hand straight and tall in the air, like a student in a classroom. He waited with a smug grin for someone to select him.

"Morro?" Zap eventually said.

"I just wanted you all to know that I have no fucking clue how to actually use the Realm Blade."

"We did figure that one ourselves, believe it or not," Harper said tiredly.

Zap rolled her eyes. "Can't imagine what gave it away."

Morro raised his hand a second time, stretching it high above him. His eyes dared them to select him again, just because he could.

Harper looked ready to throttle him. "Yes, Morro?" She hissed.

"Just wanted to let you know you can go fuck yourself, Harper." They opened their mouth to retaliate but he spoke before she could, "or Cairo, or both, or someone else. I don't know or care."

The rest of the room sat, rather confused, as they watched the exchange. Nya was the first to speak again, as Harper stared Morro down, unimpressed. "Sorry, who's Cairo?"

Skylar jumped to change the subject. "Anyway, I doubt Realm would be able to travel back to Zenjago. Considering we've never found Ninjago in our mapping, you guys are far– too far for her."

Cole bit his lip in consideration. "But not too far for the Realm Blade?"

Harper shrugged. "I'd need to do a proper analysis- if I can, that is. But from what we've already seen, the Realm Blade appears to be more sporadic than other methods of dimension manipulation." The others looked at them blankly, so they continued. "It is more common to have a certain range, like a radius. But the Realm Blade has reached the Departed Realm, Zenjago and Ninjago. Either its radius is crazy far or the Blade is completely random. Either way it seems uncontrollable."

"Realm will need days after today's little show as well," Ally added. "Realm travelling knocks everything out of her. It's super draining."

"Understandably so," said Zane.

"I think I'm getting it," Nya nodded. "But if you didn't even know our realm existed, do you know where Zenjago even is? Or how to find it?"

"Well, that's a bit of an oversimplification," said Harper. "We knew your realm existed, just, it was entirely theoretical up until about three hours ago."

"Huh?"

Zap let out a low whistle. "This is getting further and further down the rabbit hole."

"This took forever to understand," Ally agreed, slumping in her chair.

"I still don't get it!" Morro kicked his feet up on the table. He looked at Ally. "Bet they get the paper out next," he gestured to Harper as she went to continue explaining.

"Do you guys have any paper? This might be easier to explain with visuals."

"Ha!"

Moments later Harper was scrawling on a large sheet of paper. They were drawing a diagram; a large circle followed by numerous smaller circles that surrounded it. She drew lines connecting the small ones to the larger. Then, on the big one she wrote in big letters:

DEPARTED REALM.

"I am going to do my best to explain the Equilibrated Realm Theory as simply as possible," she said.

Morro groaned. "This is class all over again."

They ignored him. "The Departed Realm," she pointed to the big circle. "Is the centre of everything. It is the unifying factor between every single realm. We all go there."

"Theoretically," Skylar jumped in.

Harper pointed to them in acknowledgement. "Yes. Theoretically. This is all theoretical."

"Doesn't that just mean made up?" Morro asked, only half seriously. He was more so being antagonistic than anything else.

"Actually," Zane held up a finger, "'theoretical' ideas are those that are based on or calculated through the application of scientific theories, understandings or interpretations. They are not based solely on experience or practice, nor just random hypotheticals."

Morro stared at him blankly, not really sure how to end the interaction as his sarcasm had been taken seriously. "Um... thank you."

"You are welcome," Zane smiled. "But Harper, please do continue explaining this Equilibrated Realm Theory. I am most interested to hear it."

Zap tilted her head in inquiry. "You haven't heard of this at all? Nobody studies the Realms here?"

Zane shook his head in the negative. "We do not."

"You do?" Jay asked, bouncing his knees as he grinned excitedly.

"For sure! We help out, with Realm's abilities and what not. But there are heaps of people who create and work on these theories constantly."

"So cool!" 

"Perhaps the Realm Blade is even some evidence of some testing gone wrong," Skylar thought out loud.

"Oh! Maybe!" Morro exclaimed. "Finally it gets interesting! Secret labs!"

"The Equili-something-or-other Theory?" Kai reminded.

"Right," Harper went back to her diagram. Morro slumped back into his chair. "Through Realm's senses, as well as our and others mappings, we have a general idea of how many and where realms are. Currently the number stands in the mid twelve thousands-"

"Thousand?!"

"It's an estimate," Zap reminded. "But yes."

"From research, it is believed that each of these Realms follow some key rules- those of the Equilibrated Realm Theory. So, if we know the Departed Realm," she pointed to the main circle, "is the centre of everything, then it can be assumed that it maintains stability of the balance between realms – keeps the realms in equilibrium. Think of it kind of like our world's core, only it's the core of all the realms."

"That would require all surrounding realms to be balanced," said Zane.

"That's where you come to the idea of Sister Realms," Skylar said, nodding along. "Every realm has its own force that pulls on the Departed Realm. In order to stabilise it, there needs to be an equal force. This comes from a 'Sister Realm', that is exactly alike in shape, size, distance and therefore, pull."

"Realm can explain it much better than I, she knows all about having to destroy or create realms herself. Without an equal force to neutralise the other, the Departed Realm has to detach itself from both realms through destroying one or both. It's why a while ago, one realm was destroyed and thus the other Sister Realm crumbled."

"Yeah! What was that about!" Zap looked at the N!Ninja. "We knew one was the Cursed Realm but we had never been to the other. Did you know about this?"

The group looked around confusedly, all except for Jay, who's laugh was nervous. "Nope!" He said loudly. "Nothing!"

Zane furrowed her brow at the suspicious comment, but said nothing else.

"We didn't know who our Sister Realm was," said Ally. "But after today, it's probably you guys."

"Ninjago and Zenjago are Sister Realms." Cole repeated, nodding to himself. "Okay, I'm still following... just."

Harper drew a big line across the Departed Realm, connecting two of the smaller circles opposite each other. She drew a single line through each side to show they were equal and wrote 'Zenjago' above one and 'Ninjago' above the other. "If we are Sister Realms, then we know why Realm is able to make the Departed Realm from here, it's within her radius. But it also makes sense why we haven't actually visited this realm. We've assumed your existence as a Sister Realm but have only really visited realms on our half of the Departed Realm, much closer to us."

"Wait..." Cole looked at them seriously. "Are you can't get back to Zenjago?"

"Well-"

"We could realm hop!" Ally said. "We've done it before!"

"Realm is already exhausted," Sky pointed out. "It'll take days for her to fully rest after today. And even if we did, Ninjago is so much further than we are used to. That's not one or two hops, it's like ten!"

Harper sat down and leant back in their chair. "If not more," they said in a quiet voice.

"And she has to take all of us," said Zap. "Usually only her and one other go through with her. It would be so hard to stabilise a portal for all of us. That is way too exhausting."

Jay's eyes widened as he watched the Z!Ninja grow more anxious. "Traveller's Tea?"

Harp narrowed her eyes in thought. "I'm unfamiliar," they said after a moment's consideration. "What is it?"

"It has the power to create a portal. It enables the manipulation of dimensions, warping its users to certain locations. We have used it to travel to other realms previously," Zane explained.

Sky raised her eyebrows. "It's an option."

"Not a promising one," Kai muttered.

Morro took his feet off the table. He actually looked serious. "So now what?" He stared solemnly at Harper. "How do we get home?"

She pushed her elbows against the table. "We'll have to start seeing if we can find a way to control the Realm Blade. Or find a way to hop between realms safely."

"And if we don't?" If one listened closely, they might note a slight tremor in his voice.

"We're stuck here," Skylar finished the realisation, eyes wide as they looked around at their team.

"Forever?" Ally asked, eyes equally wide and nervous.

"The Realm Blade effects may be temporary. It is not certain you are caught here indefinitely. You may appear back in Zenjago in hours or days." Zane's expression was soft as he suggested it, though it felt like a stretch even to him.

The reality of their situation fell across the room. It took hold all at once, like a sudden submerge into ice cold water. It clutched their lungs and tightened its icy grip.

Ally stood up quickly. It seemed she hadn't even noticed as she bounced anxiously on the spot. "But- but if we aren't in Zenjago..."

"People will notice! They'll attack!" Zap's mouth fell open.

"There's no one to protect our home." Skylar's gaze dropped as she focussed on the corner of the table. "If we aren't there, how do we know Zenjago is safe?"

"We can't," Harper said shortly.

"Well, fuck me, I guess," Morro whispered.

Ally shook her head absentmindedly, still standing. "No thanks."