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WANDER. WONDER | The Arcadian Wild

half awake, i wander through this house

lost in a labyrinth and left with no way out

i built this hall of mirrors all myself

the faces staring back at me look like somebody else

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ok the original title was pretty funny so i kept it.

enjoy

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"You guys are seeing what I'm seeing, right?"

"Guys," Ally hissed, "nobody answered my question. Is it aliens?"

"Nope, not aliens," Morro responded distractedly, eyes fixated on whatever the sight was.

"What is it then?"

"No clue."

"So this isn't you, Morro?!" Realm exclaimed, suspicious.

"Ha, as if. What would I have done? Hired a bunch of actors to dress like us and then beat us up?"

Harper tried to kick his shin with her heel. "Wouldn't put it past you.

Zap scrunched up their face. "I have no idea who they are."

Ally sighed exasperatedly. "Very helpful."

"Then look for yourself!"

And that she did, shoving her way in front of everyone—including Harper and her protective arm held out—until she could see. "What the shit?"

"See what I mean? I have no idea?" Zap whispered pointedly.

"Yu-huh. I get it now."

"Do we attack?" Harper asked. Immediately, the warmth emanating from their fists became much more noticeable.

Realm shook her head. "Not yet, we don't want to start an unnecessary fight."

"Well we have to do something. Fast." Sky urged, bouncing on their toes in anticipation.

"Do you think we've been seen?" Zap asked.

"I doubt it, they haven't made their way over yet."

"Not for long," Harper added unhelpfully.

Ally considered their options momentarily. There didn't seem to be any that were super appealing, so she may as well try something. Without another second to waste, the girl jumped out from behind the wall, slipping past Harper and their attempts to stop whatever plan was about to ensue.

"Ally! The fuck?!"

She ignored them, eyes straight forward as she watched the six coloured figures dressed almost exactly as she and her team were; six gis - red, white, black, blue and green. Their sixth was grey though, she noted.

The figures had been looking around the street, yet to notice her. However, now, they all turned and spotted her in her bright mint-green attire.

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You'd think they'd have realised the rainbow of suits undermines the whole 'stealth' aspect of a ninja, yknow, the main thing a ninja should have.

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"Hey!" A voice could be heard. Ally assumed it was the one in Black, who pointed at her.

"Guys, I've officially blown our cover," Ally whispered, still staring at the figures as they began to approach.

"Thanks," Morro remarked dryly.

"Do continue the next step of this genius plan," said Sky.

"Well," the girl began in a pitched voice, "this was kinda the whole plan."

"Get caught and hope for the best?! We know nothing about them!" Zap exclaimed in a hushed voice.

"I had to do something!" She glanced between her team and the approaching strangers. "Now what?! They're coming closer!"

"Who are you?!" They shouted.

Ally fidgeted with her hands. "Who?" She started uncertainly. "Me?"

Someone could be heard scoffing. "Uh, yeah you."

"Ummm..."

"Oh- First Spinjitzu Master," Harper cursed before suddenly leaping forward. She tumbled out from behind the wall and in front of Ally, raising their fists immediately into what was ready to be the offensive.

"Harp!" Zap gasped, trying to grab at them and pull them back, but there was no point and she sighed before diving out herself.

Skylar and Morro glanced at each other. They both shrugged before rolling into vision as well. Realm followed finally.

The ninja were all prepared for attack. Realm was notably less aggressive in her stance, but she was the only one who remained so. "Well, we've definitely made our presence known now," said Sky as the figures stared at them, dumbfounded.

"No shit," Morro replied. Sky stuck out their tongue but immediately remembered it was covered by their hood. He opted to flip Morro off instead.

"Who the hell are you?!" Harper shouted.

"And why are you in our city?!" Zap added.

The one in blue laughed. "Your city?! If anything, this is ours!"

The tall individual dressed in white held up his hand. "Technically speaking, this city is neither ours nor theirs—unless of course they are the Mayor of Ninjago. There may be some argument for the First Spinjitzu Master as creator of the realms, and then perhaps some descendent rights through the First Master, but that is highly contestable when you consider the fact that-"

"Okay, we got it. Thank you for-"

"Wait!" Realm shouted after a sudden realisation, holding up her hands. She turned to the figures, now stopped only 10 metres from them. "You don't recognise who this is?" She pointed at Ally, who waved emphatically.

The one in green who opposed them squinted, turning his head to the side as he considered her. "Uhh, no. Should I?"

The ninja glanced at each other, entirely taken aback.

"Wait wait wait, you don't recognise the Green Ninja?" Skylar's eyes went wide. "Do you recognise any of us?!"

The one in black raised an eyebrow. "I would say the gi is more mint green than green-" he started, but was cut off by the one in green beside him.

"I'm the Green Ninja!"

"What the shit?" Ally stopped, taken aback. "What do you mean 'I'm the Green Ninja'? I'm the Green Ninja!"

"What's your name?" Green-boy demanded, pointing at Ally with an accusatory finger.

Ally did the same, almost as though they were the same figure in a mirror. "What's your name?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Lloyd Garmadon!"

"Ally Garmadon!"

They cried at the same time.

"What the fuck?" Harper and whoever the red guy was across from them said, also in unison. They glanced at each other, equally suspicious of their opposition.

The grey one turned to her green counterpart- Lloyd. "Do you have a sister?"

"Ally, do you have a brother?!" Morro exclaimed.

Lloyd flipped his hood up quickly, revealing a head of golden blonde hair and brilliant green eyes. Ally did the same, only her hair was a deep brown. They did share their eyes, but little more resemblance. They stared at each other as everyone else analysed them, a strange sort of quiet falling over the group.

"I'm so confused," Zap eventually said. "How do you not recognise us? We're literally the 'Saviours of Zenjago'!"

"Huh?"

"'Masters of the Elements', 'Heroes of the World', you have to have heard," Skylar added, taking a step forward. He kneeled, placing his hand on the concrete road. A small layer of ice began to spread over it. "See?"

The opposites all turned to the one in white- the one yet to speak thus far. "Zane?" The grey one nodded at him. He flipped off his own hood to show a face entirely tranquil but nonetheless, showing confusion. Slowly, he leaned down and pressed his fingers to the concrete as well. In an almost identical movement to Skylar's, thin ice spread across the ground.

Morro shook his head. "Holy shit."

Zane turned to Zap. "You mentioned 'Zenjago', may I ask, what is that?"

"What is- what is what? Zenjago?" Realm interrupted. "It's here. This is Zenjago. This world."

The team opposing them shared a look. The ninja didn't like that look. Not one bit.

"This is bullshit," Harper said suddenly, striding forward to stand before them. "Who the hell are you? Why does this guy have Skylar's powers? And why are you in our city?" They demanded.

Zane shook his head softly, his expression seemingly kind. Harper didn't like that. Why was he pitying her? "I'm afraid you are mistaken. There is no 'Zenjago' here, nor have we heard of you. I have zero recollection in my files of any 'Masters of the Elements' other than ourselves and our ancestors."

Harper scoffed, crossing her arms stubbornly. "So where do you suggest we are, then?"

"Nin-jago," the one in blue answered.

Everyone faltered, Harper included.

"What?" Ally broke her staring contest with Lloyd to move her stare to him.

Morro blinked. "Harp, you're smart, ever heard of 'Ninjago'?"

Harper rubbed her temples. "Nope. Haven't heard of Ninjago before, Morro."

"This is fuckin' weird, man," Skylar watched the ice melt into a little puddle on the concrete.

Zap shook her head firmly. "They have to be lying, right?" They glanced at the others and flailed their hands apologetically. "No offence, it's just- this makes absolutely no sense."

"Yeah!" Ally chimed in. "They're probably just gaslighting us. Y'know, girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep." She nodded at Lloyd, who looked completely and utterly confused. "Good one."

Sky raised his hand to his ear cautiously, almost as though he were nervous. "Bounty, come in?" He furrowed his brow, listening intently until he dropped, sighing heavily. "Nope, nothing."

Zap's shoulders dropped in disappointment. "Must be out of satellite range... they aren't lying. We're seriously not in Zenjago."

"Well fuck me," Harper cursed, clasping her hands on top of her head as she did a stressed turn to face her team.

"No thanks," Skylar, Morro and Zap all responded dejectedly.

She continued, ignoring them. "How the fuck did we even get here? And where the fuck even is here?"

"Ninjago," the blue one repeated, a little too cheerful for her liking.

"I heard, thanks," Harper snapped. He stepped back just slightly. "I just have no fucking clue what 'Ninjago' is or where it is or how we got here. It may as well be a different real-" The ninja trailed off, eyes widening as they turned to face Realm.

Realm wore a similarly wide-eyed expression, as did the other members of their team. Realm looked at Harper, nodding seriously as they shared an unspoken message before she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. If you blinked you would have missed it, but momentarily, an orange glow wound up her arms in streaks as though it filled her veins.

Everybody watched anxiously as she reopened her eyes. "Well, I can tell you where we aren't." They all groaned defeatedly. "I can't recognise any of the neighbouring realms. We aren't in Zenjago, that's for sure, and 'Ninjago' is nowhere close to it."

Skylar scratched their head. "But how did we even..." He gasped, flipping around to give Morro the death stare of his life. "The fucking Realm Blade!"

The rest of the team's jaws dropped as it hit them. The orange wave. The energy. Morro.

The boy held up his hands, taking half a step back as he chuckled nervously. "Let's think about this guys..."

"Yeah," Zap said, uncharacteristically calm. "It's not like he meant to send us to a different realm." Morro cringed, hearing the sarcasm as it leaked into their voice. "Oh wait," Zap feigned a realisation. "YES HE DID!"

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Oop-

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"I'm sorry," the one in black interrupted. "But what are you even talking about now?"

Realm sighed wearily, her classic 'I'm-the-only-one-with-braincells' sigh. She flipped back her hood and gave an equally weary smile. "Long story short: my name is Realm, that is Skylar," she went down the line of her team, "Harper, Zap, Morro and Ally." She waved. "We're from a realm called Zenjago, which is apparently very similar to Ninjago. In Zenjago, we're who I assume you are. Elemental masters and what not."

The red one held up his hand, throwing back his own hood. "And you're here, why?"

"That's a great question," Skylar noted. "Morro—please do tell—why are we here?"

Morro grinned smugly. "Because I'm a genius."

Harper punched him in the shoulder, perhaps harder than one might consider 'joking'.

"Ow! Fine. First Master, you never let me have any fun-"

She went to hit him again.

"Okay!" He looked at them and pointed to the Realm Blade in his hands. "See this thing here? It's a Realm Blade, not a Time Blade so you nerds can chill the hell out about that. I was testing a joke out on my lovely team here––Harper you better not punch me again––and it turns out that the guy I bought this off was no joke. Now we're here."

"Realm-Blade?" Zane inquired.

"It facilitates travelling through different realms, apparently," Harper said, wringing her hands out.

"Interesting."

"One way to put it," Zap muttered.

"So," the blue one said, "of all the sixteen realms, you just happened to land in the one that has your doppelgängers in it?"

"It serves the plot," Ally shrugged.

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Fourth wall break go brrr.

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"Pardon?"

Harper let out a low whistle. "Sixteen, huh?"

The Blue one turned back to her. "Yeah! You didn't know? We've been to like three. It's pretty crazy."

Realm nodded kindly. "It sounds great!"

"For an amateur, that is," Morro added with a sly smile.

The grey girl stared at him. "Come again?"

Harper waved her brother off. "He's being a smartass," she went to hit him again, but he was prepared for it this time and deftly moved out of the way. "What he's trying to say is that we've been to quite a few realms ourselves. We've been working on charting them."

"Oh, wow!" He exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Like ten, fifteen?!"

"Try more than twelve thousand," said Morro.

"Holy shit," he threw back his hood, letting an entire head of auburn curls and face of freckles loose. "Twelve thousand?"

"And then some," Ally added.

"It's tricky to navigate," Realm affirmed. "We haven't been to all of them, but I can sense the surrounding ones enough to get a general sense of how many there are and their general placement."

"Sense?" The black one asked.

"She has a sixth sense for realms!" Ally explained.

"It's like a spider sense," Zap added.

"A... what?"

She did a double take. "YOU DON'T KNOW SPIDER-MAN?!"

Realm clapped her hands, swiftly cutting off what she knew could turn into a long spiel very, very quickly.

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So valid, by the way. We love a Spider-man rant.

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"Who are you all?" Realm asked, smiling as welcoming as she could given the incredibly overwhelming circumstances.

The one in black pulled off his hi hood. "My name is Cole, I'm the Master of Earth. That's Jay," he pointed to Bluey, "Master of Blabber-"

"LightnING!"

"Lloyd; green," he continued.

"The least cool way you could possibly put my powers. Thanks so much," Lloyd remarked sarcastically.

"Zane; ice- you've already seen that one."

He held out his hand to Skylar, the closest of them to him. "Zane Julien," he said politely.

Sky shook his hand slowly. "Julien?"

"Yes, after my father Dr. Julien." He smiled.

"Freaky," Ally shook her head in confusion. "First me and Green-boy-"

"Wow, so it's already a thing. Great."

"Now you and Zane?"

Zane listened curiously. "I beg your pardon?"

"You and Sky. You have the same names. And origin stories, apparently," Ally elaborated.

Zap looked at Jay. "Walker?" She questioned, at this point expecting a specific answer.

He nodded, bouncing on his toes happily. "Yep! Jay Gordon-Walker, at your service!"

"Brookestone, I assume," Cole said to Realm, who smiled again.

"The one and only."

"But, not actually," Morro pointed out. "There's literally two of you."

Harper jutted her chin at the red one. "So what's your name?"

"Kai," he responded hesitantly, apparently still not entirely trustworthy of them. They didn't blame him, she didn't exactly trust them either. "Kai Jiang." Kai then pointed to the girl in grey at his side. "This is my sister Nya Jiang."

Harper looked from Kai to Nya to Morro then back to Kai, confused. "Well, we- me and my brother, I mean," she pointed at the boy who nodded at them. "We don't have the same last name as you. Why are we the only inconsistency?"

"What's your name then?"

"Smith," Morro shrugged. "Boring as hell, we know."

"Oh," Kai turned back to Nya.

"'Oh', what?" Morro asked.

"We thought our name was 'Smith' until we met our parents a little while ago. Turns out Kai just kind of assumed it was our name because he's an idiot-"

"Hey!"

Morro stopped dead, throwing off his hood to stare at Harper with a mix of a glare and confusion. Perhaps throw some shock in there as well. "Is our name not Smith?"

Harper pulled off her own hood to stare back, an expression equally mixed upon her features. She glanced quickly at Kai and Nya. "We haven't met our parents. We- I- They're dead. I think. It's a long story." She hurriedly turned back to Morro, who threw his arms out demandingly.

"Harper. Is our name not Smith?!" Harper's mouth gaped open. She made the sounds of someone who had suddenly lost all ability to speak. "HARPER!"

"I'm pretty sure it is!"

Morro stalked up to them, grabbing them by the shoulders to shake her wildly. "What do you mean you're 'PRETTY SURE'?! Isn't it on our birth certificate or something?!"

Harper pushed him away, averting his gaze as she pulled the sticks from her hair and let it fall down her back. She ruffled her hand through the curls, stressed. "I- We don't- We don't have birth certificates."

"We don't have birth certificates?!"

"You don't have birth certificates?!" Realm looked over her shoulder suddenly.

"Well, I don't have a birth certificate either," Sky piped up.

Zap scratched the back of their neck. "I don't know if my parents got mine."

Ally opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again. "I should?"

Morro watched them all with a passive expression. "Okay, so a lot of us don't have birth certificates." He focussed back on Harper. "Still, we don't have birth certificates?!"

Everyone turned to watch with curiosity as Harper was uncharacteristically at a loss for words.

"I don't know! I never found them!"

"I'VE BEEN TELLING PEOPLE OUR NAME IS SMITH LIKE THE BORING ASS WHITE KIDS I THOUGHT WE WERE! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU NEVER FOUND THEM?!" Morro seemed ready to throw himself to the floor Ally-style.

"I was likE FOUR!" Harper defended, shoulders raising with her voice. "It wasn't like mum and dad tied them in a pretty bow and left them on the table!"

Morro held his head in his hands, defeated by this new news. "I hate it here," he practically sobbed. "We could have had some cool name like 'Jiang' but instead you chose Smith!"

"I didn't choose it! I'm like seventy percent sure it's our actual name!"

This time, the boy actually fell to his knees. "Seventy percent," he repeated in a dramatically soft voice. "Seventy percent."

Skylar clapped their hands together, breaking the attention from the siblings. "Okay! Bigger issues at hand people!" Morro rolled his eyes, muttering something the others couldn't quite catch. "We're stuck in a foreign realm and Realm has no idea how to reach our home realm. Now what?"

Zap opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the sound of a large crash about a block away. She closed it, eyes going wide. "Maybe that," they offered, pointing to where more crashes, and some screaming (for good measure) were coming from.

Sky nodded shortly, clearly exasperated of the timing. "Yeah. Maybe that."

Lloyd began to sprint toward the area, leading the others as they obliged his call to follow.

Ally sighed, dragging her feet as she began after them. "This day just keeps getting better and better."