***Okay, for this chapter, I picked "Trust" by Christina Perri for the song! Her voice is so emotional, and she doesn't have to hit crazy notes to make it sound that way. Beside that, the song isn't going to show up until Nya's POV, just so ya know. Thanksies!***

***Jay's POV; song for this chapter: "Trust" by Christina Perri)***

Cole and I are currently parked a block away from Harumi's mansion. I'm a little jittery. I mean, I'm a ninja, and I like sneaking around and all, but if Harumi catches us, we're so dead. She's like Regina George from Mean Girls on steroids.

"I think I know what Nya meant by 'you-know-who'," Cole says as we climb out of our vehicle.

"Who?"

"Did you know that Harumi has a brother?"

I wrinkle my forehead. "I thought she was an only child."

"She was, but that was before she was adopted by the Jade family. The Jades have a biological son."

"Who?"

"The master of light."

"Um, ignore the pun, but doesn't that guy seem pretty shady to you?"

Cole rolls his eyes. "If you get to know him, he's actually pretty nice. He just doesn't have many friends, since he...blends in, if you know what I mean."

"Um, okay. So, what are we supposed to say to him? 'Hey, your sister Harumi might be up to some evil activities. Mind spying on her for us?' I'm pretty sure that's not going to work."

"Nya seemed to think it was a good idea."

"Yeah, if she did the talking! Cole, it's just you and me. You're nice to everyone, but you'll probably botch the whole operation if you say anything to that guy."

"You're an all 'A' student. You should be smart enough, since you continue to doubt my abilities." He crosses his arms.

"Yeah, that's school smarts! I'm horrible with talking!"

Cole gives me an 'are you serious?' look. "Really, Jay? Talking is all you ever do."

"Yeah, about unimportant stuff!"

"Relax. I have faith in you. Now, you're going to march right in there and – "

"What about marching in places is stealthy?" I exclaim. That's when I look up and realize we've walked all the way to Harumi's during our conversation. My feet immediately lose the power to walk, so Cole ends up pushing me forward.

"Stop pushing me!" I hiss. "Pushing is not stealthy!"

My best friend stops and sighs. "Okay, let's come up with a plan. I'm the better ninja, you're the better talker."

"Hey! I may think you're the better ninja, but you don't have to say it!"

He laughs. "Okay, well, you find a way to sneak into the master of light's room. I, on the other hand, will find a way to sneak into Harumi's room."

"You just want to see what she does when she's not torturing us!" I complain.

Cole shrugs. "Whatever helps you go through with this. Now, I suggest we come around the house opposite ways. I'll take the right, you take the left."

"I don't even know the master of light's name!"

"It's Paleman. Now, let's go!"

Without a choice, I sneak past a house several yards away. I pick my way into the forest behind Harumi's mansion. The place is actually pretty fancy. Apparently, Harumi's parents couldn't bear to have their houses look like the rest in this high-class neighborhood. A huge garden (which, honestly, looks more like a labyrinth) replaces the backyard. The top of the house towers into the sky, and it's adorned with turrets. The side of the house I can view has an enormous fresco painted on it, and I can tell even from a distance that it's the handiwork of Ninjago City's most renowned artist.

Wow, the Jades have money.

I creep from the forest to the garden, seriously hoping these people don't have guards. Or a really angry security dog. Actually, I hope I don't see anything but plants.

I crawl under a large, leafy bush, then wiggle through the high grass to an ornamental tree grove. It looks like something straight out of a Barbie movie. Not that I've ever seen one of those, but if I had, I'm sure this place would've been in it.

I spot a particularly sturdy tree close to the roof. This is probably the best way in. Once I finally reach it, I grab a sturdy branch and pull myself up. Finding my footing, I repeat the process until –

"What do you think you're doing here?" asks a nasally voice from above me.

I let out a small yelp and almost fall out of the tree. Then, I mentally slap myself. Somebody probably heard that.

"Hey, Paleman," I chuckle. "How's it going?"

I'm sure he's rolling his invisible eyes. "I asked you a question first."

"Well, you're actually just the guy I was looking for. Um, mind if I have a seat on this branch?"

"Why should I let you stay?"

Oh, what to say here? "Because I think your sister is evil?"

He cocks his head. I know this because his sunglasses tip to the side.

"Lots of people think my sister is evil," he says cautiously.

"Yeah, in a bully kind of way. This is...something more sinister."

He pauses for a moment. "All right, come on up. But don't try anything funny. I know you're the elemental master of lightning."

"Me? The master of lightning?" I force a laugh. "That's crazy. But, theoretically, um, how would you know if I were?" I ask, befuddled.

He scoffs. "I've seen you fix your pencil sharpener once or twice when it runs out of battery life."

"Oh. I'll have to not do that anymore. Theoretically, of course." I sigh. "Okay, about your sister...she's close to Camille, right?"

He releases a bitter laugh. "If what you mean by 'close' is that Camille is her right-hand minion, then you'd be right. Camille comes here every day after school, and the two hang out in Rumi's quarters plotting who knows what."

"Okay. Um, well, it seems to me that Harumi might be involved in...an underground power stealing operation." I gulp, wondering if he'll buy this or not.

"You think my sister could be stealing others' elemental powers?"

"Yes? Or maybe something equally as bad."

He debates over this. "How would you know about it?"

"Well, uh, I heard from a reliable source that she had a conversation outside the cafeteria today. She and Camille were talking about somebody joining something, and how if they did one thing, they could know whether that person would join or not. Does that make sense?"

"Not really," Paleman sighs. "But I think I might be able to get some context for you. Follow me."

Confused, I climb up the tree after the master of light. Once he crosses to the roof, I do the same, carefully placing my foot on the tiles. I look up. "You come out here often, don't you?"

"Believe me, if you lived in my house, you would do the same."

Not far from the tree is a glassed-in sunroof that lets light into part of the house. I wonder if the Jades hire someone to clean it every day. There's literally not a speck on it, and if it were at my house, there'd be bird poop all over the place.

Paleman crouches down beside the sunroof and points inside.

I look down to see Harumi and Camille in some sort of lounge room. Harumi has out her laptop, and Camille is standing behind her.

"Well, is the latest one posted?" she asks.

Rumi huffs. "I'm working on it. Until he completes his initiation, though, you know I can't mention him on the page."

I give Paleman a look of fear. "Um...initiation?"

He nods. "Come around this way."

We crawl behind the solar panel to get a better view of the laptop screen. Meanwhile, from inside, Harumi says, "If all goes as planned, we can do it at the party tonight."

"Wait – does that mean you intend to take – "

"Yes," Rumi laughs. "He's invited to the party, too. And since he won't fall for your tricks, you'll be approaching Neuro without using your powers."

"Neuro?" I whisper. "Isn't that the guy who – "

I stop short when I see the laptop screen. An emblem with a familiar face appears on the top left, followed by a familiar name.

Sons of Garmadon.

Bewildered, I look up at Paleman. He nods grimly.

Harumi is a member of the Sons of Garmadon, and if she posts initiations, she has to be pretty high up in the hierarchy.

***Nya's POV***

As we step out of Ronin's shop, I see Stiix has come to life. Some streets are illuminated with lanterns. That's true of the strip downtown, which has a bar, a tattoo parlor, and a generic fast food restaurant. The rest of the town mostly remains dark, and that's what Lloyd and I are afraid of. I've never seen somewhere with as many shady alleys as Stiix.

Lloyd unlocks his bike, flips up the seat, and produces a helmet for me.

"That was...interesting," he says.

I nod. "I told you Ronin would have the info we needed."

He raises a brow. "You don't find it suspicious he knows so much?"

"It does seem that way when you first get to know him, but Ronin has a lot of black-market sources. He may have even seen the staff at some point. He couldn't have had it in his possession, though. Otherwise, he definitely would have stolen it."

Lloyd starts up the motorcycle, and I climb on behind him.

"That's a lot to think about," I yawn. "I wonder how the kidnapped elemental masters are faring."

"If Jacob got his power stolen, he's going to have withdrawals whenever he hears anything. And what about Karloff, master of metal? If he's put in any sort of a metal cell, he's toast."

I sigh. "This isn't good. We need to figure out what's going on, and soon."

We pull out and head for the center of town. I restart my GPS, noticing a text from Zane has popped in.

"The party is at Harumi's," I inform him.

"She didn't tell me," he says sadly.

I would give him a hug right now, but my arms are already wrapped around him. Welcome to riding a motorcycle.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd."

He shrugs. "It's okay. It's just – I guess she has this whole other life she won't tell me about. I could help her."

"You can only help those who want to be helped," I remind him.

He nods. "Yeah, I guess. I'll just have to hope that conversation we heard earlier is more innocent than power-stealing." Shaking off a wave of sadness, he says, "I wonder if Cole and Jay have found anything interesting."

"Let's find out." I tap in Jay's number.

"Nya?" he asks.

"Yup. We just finished talking with Ronin, and things don't look good." I inform him of the staff's abilities.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in. That staff sounds dangerous."

"Definitely. We have to find those elemental masters soon," I sigh. "Did you guys learn anything?"

"Well, um, Harumi's probably involved in the leadership of the Sons of Garmadon gang."

I laugh.

"No, I'm actually being serious. She was posting gang initiations to their page when we found her. And her brother seemed to know all about it."

"So, you did talk to Paleman. But – really? I may not like Harumi, but..." I trail off, casting a nervous glance at Lloyd.

"Yep. And the party's at Harumi's, as Cole found out."

"We just figured that out, ourselves. Would you like to meet us there? The only way we're getting in is with Lloyd."

"Sounds good. Do you, um, need something different to wear? Just so you don't look like a spy." I can hear the blush in his voice.

I laugh, but my heart isn't in it. I'm too concerned about how to break this news to my best friend. "Yeah, that'd be nice. Don't let Kai know you're in my room, though. He'll think – "

"Let me guess, that I'm trying to steal your virtue in a secondhand way?"

I giggle. "Something like that." I feel the bike begin to slow down. "I'm excited to see you tonight, Jay. I'll talk to you then."

"Okay," he says timidly. "I'm excited to see you, too. Bye."

I smile. He even waits for me to hang up first. Jay's so cute.

"Hey, Lloyd, why are we turning here?" I ask.

"The bike's low on gas," he replies.

"It couldn't pick a shadier part of town to run out," I mutter. The lot we pull into isn't even lit. I'm sure there are illegal deals going on behind the dumpster.

"Um, Lloyd, Jay and Cole found something...disturbing."

Climbing off the motorcycle, he gives me an "I-can't-take-more-bad-news" look.

"Um, so Paleman showed Jay where Harumi was, and she was on the Sons of Garmadon's initiation page."

His face turns white. "Rumi...Rumi is a member of the Sons of Garmadon?"

I nod grimly. "And she wasn't watching any videos. She was, um, posting one."

He loses his balance and stumbles back against the gas pump. "I-I don't believe you."

I smile in my most reassuring way, but I know it means nothing. "I'm sorry, Lloyd. It's true."

He turns his face from me and rests his head against the machine. I can hear his heart breaking, and after spending enough time with Jay, I realize the best way to describe it is by song.

"Like the winds, blowing,

Changes, fast and growing,

I knew better then.

I knew better then.

Words that hurt the ones you're lovin',

Hatred for who you're becomin',

I knew better then, yes,

I knew better then.

To trust myself,

To trust someone else,

To trust the lies that slip from my mouth,

Trust the heart I'm so quick to sell.

Yes, I knew better then,

I knew better than

To trust love again."

"How could she?" he mumbles.

"I don't know," I quietly confess. I hop off the motorcycle and wrap Lloyd in a fierce hug, even though his back is to me.

He turns toward me, hugs me back, and cries into my shoulder.

All the while, I'm on high alert. Somebody's probably going to jump out and mug us while we have a tear fest.

"I'm so, so sorry," I murmur.

Lloyd sighs and straightens up, using his arm to brush the tears from his face.

"Wanna drive back?" he smiles, his voice only slightly cracking. "I don't know if I can."

"I totally would, but I only work on bikes. I've never actually driven one on the road."

He sighs, runs a hand through his hair, and finally swipes his card at the pump. All I can do is watch and hope he won't be scarred too badly by this. Even if he isn't totally in love with Harumi, it still hurts to be lied to be someone you care about.

That's when I hear a slight movement from the parking lot corner. My body wants to tense up, but I retain my position to give us the element of surprise.

"Lloyd," I whisper, "Someone's watching us."

He catches on and discreetly scans the back of the parking lot. "Get back on the bike while I fill it with gas."

"Maybe we should go home early tonight," I say in a conversational tone. It's just loud enough for whoever's watching us to hear.

As I climb back on, Lloyd replies, "Yeah, I don't really feel like a party."

That's when the footsteps come running behind us. Lloyd and I are ready, though. He lifts up the gas nozzle and aims it at the attacker's face.

"Ugh!" the male moans. He's covered from head-to-toe in black, so I can't tell if I know who he is.

Suddenly, someone approaches from the other way. I swivel to determine the assailant's position, then throw a knife in his direction. The large man catches it between his palms.

That's when raucous, hyena-like laughter permeates the air, accompanied by the rumbling of a dozen motorcycles. "All right, boys, it's time for some fun!" screeches a female voice.

"Nya, we need to go!" shouts Lloyd. He hops on our ride, putting it in motion before I'm fully on. We race right between two thugs and gun it to the road.

I whip out my phone and dial Jay's number again. As soon as he picks up, I shout, "We need backup! I think the Sons of Garmadon have found us!"