Heels had never been her thing. Even though she was absolutely killing her cat-walk, she could not stand wearing high heels for personal occasions.

Nya was not required to step out of her comfort zone, yet she felt like it was time to. Besides, almost every other woman was wearing six-inch heels and sparkly dresses, and she was in the mood for receiving some compliments while she was at it.

It was already past midnight in the tame kingdom of Shintaro. Almost everyone had already gone up to their rooms.

The ninja were all still on the dance floor, as well as a couple of dozens of Shintarians. The music was loud but not deafening, so everyone was enjoying themselves a lot.

A half empty cocktail glass was comfortably held by Nya's index finger and thumb, the rim attached to her lips. The red liquid trickled down her throat effortlessly, the fruity taste leaving a trail of mango, strawberry and cherry behind.

"Wanna go upstairs?" Jay asked her, yawning. He was still holding his glass, too, even though it had been empty for a while.

Nya softly shook her head, the bass of the rhythmic music beating in her eardrums. "I'm not tired yet, are you?"

Jay nodded, his eyes hooded.

The Water Ninja looked at the time and realized it had already gotten very late. "You can go up to the room if you want," she told him. "I'll come after you in a bit."

She didn't feel like leaving the main event yet. It still felt like they had just started the Royal Ball thrown by Queen Vania.

It was the Queen's birthday, and since the ninja were good friends of hers, they were, of course, very high up on the guest list.

Speaking of Vania; she was currently busy conversing with the Black Ninja.

The sparks that were flying all around those two were obvious — everyone was aware of that. Everyone but them.

Since he was barely able to stand up straight, Jay accepted Nya's offer and made his way up the bedazzled staircase after giving his lover an uncontrolled smooch on her mouth. She even needed to wipe her lips, which smudged the clear but sparkly lipgloss she was wearing.

She didn't care about that though, the night was almost over anyway.

Her hurting feet led her over to the food table. A maroon table cloth was spread over a long string of rectangular tables and all kinds of pastries and drinks were scattered around. She gave the young flying guard, who was hovering behind a large bowl of the red cocktail with a silver ladle in his hand, a polite smile and watched as he poured another round into her glass.

The cocktail was surprisingly better than Nya had first thought. In fact, everyone seemed to love the intoxicating beverage that was served by Vania's staff.

Nya was not dancing but walking around slowly whilst watching the people dancing around her. Kai was wearing his red tuxedo that he had bragged about before arriving, and it seemed like he just spilled something on it because he was vigorously trying to wipe something off with dark green paper tissues as his date, Skylor, was laughing at him.

Nya chuckled, taking another sip of her drink. To her right were Cole and Vania, who were still talking animatedly. But something caught Nya's eye... something very interesting. Because Cole had his muscular arm wrapped around her waist, which was normal when dancing, but now they were not dancing. They were standing very close to each other. He was looking down at her, she was looking up at him.

The Master of Water smirked and quickly pulled out her phone. She snapped a few pictures of the two and then focused on someone else, leaving them some privacy. She could nag him about his obvious infatuation later on.

Zane was doing the mannequin dance, probably trying to impress his girlfriend Pixal. Nya really liked her appearance that night; her lilac flowy dress brought out the dashing purple in her eyes. Zane looked pretty handsome, too, in his white tux.

Lloyd was leaning against a large white pillar and sipping his drink, with his other hand tucked away in the front pocket of his dark green tuxedo pants. One of his legs was pushed up against the pillar.

When his green eyes met with Nya's brown ones, he offered her a smile and held up his drink, as if to say "cheers."

Nya copied his actions and took a small gulp when he did. Then she turned away.

The other people in the ball room were all unknown to Nya. They were native Shintarians, so they were naturally more closed off than open. Some of them did, however, like to make conversation with the ninja, which did happen throughout the event.

A few more moments passed with nothing interesting happening, but when Nya noticed how concerned Hailmar looked as he approached Lloyd in the distance, she knew something was off.

She waited for them to talk, and just like she thought, Lloyd's complexion turned pale. His widened eyes looked around the room, as if he was looking for someone, until they landed on her.

Then he hurried across the center of the dance floor to get to her.

"Lloyd, what-"

Lloyd grabbed Nya's elbow tightly, almost a little too tightly, and basically dragged her to a quiet corner. Nya was too perplexed to say anything. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Kai and Zane following the two, probably realizing something was wrong.

"Lloyd!" Nya hissed when they almost crashed into a dancing pair that was minding its business.

"Sorry!" Lloyd apologized haphazardly, but Nya couldn't tell if it was directed to her or the couple.

"What is wrong with you?" Nya asked him quietly when they were secluded from the rest of the people.

"What's going on here?" Kai asked the two. He and Zane both stood next to Nya and Lloyd, creating a small square to keep whatever was said to themselves.

"It's Jay," Lloyd answered. "Hailmar just told me that he was found unconscious on the top floor."

Nya's complexion stilled, her eyes wide and alert. "Unconscious?"

Lloyd nodded. "He's being treated by this place's medical staff."

"Where is he?" Kai asked.

"In his guest room."

Without waiting for any of them, Nya pushed past Zane and Lloyd and began to speed-walk toward the stairs. She could feel the others' presence behind her, following her closely. She also heard Kai say, "Come!" and realized that he must've pulled Cole with them as they passed him and Vania.

Just as she stepped on the first marble step, a loud, collective gasp came from behind her, which caused her and the guys to stop abruptly. Her brother even crashed into her, unable to stop in time.

The ninja turned around and looked at the large crowd gathering around something — someone. Someone's body, a woman's body, was lying on the floor and looked at like it was a morbid party decoration.

Although Nya's ninja instincts kicked in and she felt like she had to go up to the crowd, dissolve it and aid the unconscious woman, she also knew that her boyfriend was in just as much of a condition like the woman's, so she had no choice but to ignore the scratching feeling against her heart.

"Keep going," Lloyd told his friends. He grabbed Zane's elbow and began to pull him towards the crowd of distressed people. "We'll take care of her. You guys go to Jay."

Nya, Cole and Kai quickly climbed up the staircase. Around halfway through, another gasping from the crowd made them stop and look down at yet another, smaller amount of people gathering around another body that was lying still on the floor. This time it was a man.

"What the hell is going on?" Kai exclaimed before they kept walking up.

Once they reached the top floor, they all ran to the room that Jay and Nya were assigned to and stormed inside.

Two Shintarians dressed in white coats were standing around the large queen-sized bed. And on that bed was the unmoving body of the Blue Ninja.

"What happened?" Nya asked no one in particular as she went to Jay's side of the bed. His face was paler than usual and his hair was more wild than she last saw.

"We are not sure," a doctor answered, "but it seems like he consumed something he was not supposed to."

"Poison?" Nya's trembling hands held on to Jay's left one, clutching it to her stomach.

"Probably," another doctor answered. He was looking at a movable monitor that was standing close to Jay's form. "But if he was poisoned, it must not have had such big of an effect on him since his body is not showing any signs of severe damage. All we can conduct is that he is out of it, and it does seem like he'll be back up again soon."

"Do you know who did this?" Cole asked the same doctor, crossing his arms. His eyes were narrowed at him, but when he looked at his best friend, his eyes had a softer tone to them.

The doctor shrugged. "Landon's looking at the camera footage. He's responsible with all that tech stuff. He's up in his room for more privacy, says he needs that to function," he explained. "Besides, it could take a while until he finds something. This was a huge party after all. There was an estimated guest count of roughly four hundred people."

Nya brushed her hand through Jay's soft, curly hair. Under the blinding light coming from the ceiling lamp, it seemed more like the dark orange tones his hair used to have back in the day until it became more of a warm auburn.

She was blaming herself quietly.

He had shown signs of tiredness when he was talking to her and telling her he'd go to bed, yet she hadn't thought it was anything but his sleepy self since it was already very late. But she was wrong. So, so wrong.

The groaning of a man turned every head in that direction. The doctor who had first spoken to Nya was rubbing his forehead, his body was tilted forward.

"Manny, is everything alright?" the other doctor asked his partner.

"Yeah, yeah," Manny waved him off. "Just a little tired."

Nya furrowed her eyebrows at that response. It was just like what Jay had told her before he-

Manny fell to the floor. His body shook vigorously for a few seconds before it laid limply on the floor.

Kai and Cole immediately ducked down and checked on the fallen man. The doctor got up from his wheely stool and ran over to his partner. Nya watched the entire ordeal with wide eyes, shock and worry spreading in her body.

That was the fourth person who had fallen unconscious that night.

Two guests, a doctor and a ninja.

That could surely not be a good thing.

"I have a heart beat," the doctor announced from the floor. "And his pulse is steady, too."

Nya looked back at Jay and listened to the chaos unfolding in the room that was mixed with the loud and rhythmic melody that was his heart beat coming from the heart monitor. She brought a hand up to his face and caressed his cheek, rubbing slow patterns on his cheek bone with her thumb.

"You need to wake up now, Jay," she whispered to him, leaning down to his face. His freckles looked unrealistically beautiful from that angle.

"Kai. Buddy. Dude, not you too!"

On high alert, Nya straightened back up and whipped her head at Kai and Cole. Her brother was holding his head, and Cole was supporting his weight.

"Kai?" Nya almost whimpered. She was too scared to understand what was going on.

"I'm fine!" Kai yelled. He ripped Cole's helping hand away from his arm.

And within those two seconds of standing on his own feet, Kai collapsed to the floor.

Cole was luckily able to catch him before he hit the tiled floor. Nya let go of Jay's hand and rushed to her brother.

"Kai," she said, grabbing his face and hitting his cheeks. She instinctively put the tips of her fingers on his neck just below his jaw and let out a relieved sigh when she felt his heartbeat. It was neither fast nor slow; it felt like a normal rhythm.

Nonetheless, she told the doctor to also check up on Kai to make sure he wasn't in any acute danger. Once he too confirmed that Kai's breathing and heartbeat was fine, Nya was a lot more relieved.

Together with Cole's help, she managed to place Kai's unconscious body next to Jay's on the large bed, both facing up to the ceiling. She would have been able to carry him all by herself but her own legs felt like they'd give out at any moment due to the intensity of the stress she was exposed to.

First Jay, then Kai. What was going on?

"We need to get Lloyd's blonde and Zane's metal butt into this room right now," Cole announced, already heading for the door. He looked at his female teammate from over his shoulder. "You stay here."

Nya nodded and watched as he left the guest bedroom. She then turned to the doctor who seemed to be running some tests on the unconscious doctor. "Found anything?"

He hummed, a confused hue in his tone. "This is strange."

"What is?"

The doctor slowly got back up to his feet, with his gaze still set on his partner. "If I am not mistaken, it looks like Manny here has the same thing that Walker has."

Nya looked at Jay, then Kai. "So does that mean that Kai might have the same thing, too?" Her stomach churned.

The doctor walked over to where Nya was standing and looked down at the Red Ninja. He pulled out a small, pen-sized flashlight and gently grabbed Kai's jaw. His clothed fingers pulled his lips apart and his other hand shone the flashlight down Kai's mouth.

Nodding, he closed Kai's mouth again and turned off the small device, putting it away. "Yes, he most likely does." Then he walked around the bed and did the same thing he just did to Jay.

"What are you doing?" Nya asked, looking at the doctor.

"It is red," he answered cryptically. "Redder than it is meant to be."

"What's red?" Nya pushed. "Can you please just get to the point?" She was not only impatient but mostly worried, and that paired with the vague answers she was getting was an unpleasant mix.

"Their mouths are red. Everything is; the tongue, the inside of the cheeks, the throat — even the uvula. All three of these people," he gestured to Jay, Kai and the doctor, "have their mouths completely red."

Nya nibbled on the skin of her lower lip as she carefully opened Kai's mouth to have a look for herself. And just like the doctor said, the inside of his mouth was undeniably red.

"What does this mean?" she whispered. Kai's teeth were just as white as usual, just everything else was a darker shade of his gi.

"I don't know, but..." The doctor slowly walked back to Nya and stood right in front of her. He was a little shorter than Nya but was significantly older judging by his combed mustache that was tinted white. "May I please have a look in your mouth."

Nya's eyes widened in surprise. "My mouth?"

He nodded. "I have a suspicion and I need to check if I'm correct about it."

A little warily, Nya opened her mouth. The doctor, with his small flashlight in front of his face, looked inside her oral cavity. Her eyes caught the small, almost unnoticeable freeze the doctor's body underwent. He removed the flashlight and allowed her to close her mouth.

She could already sense what his assumption was, and based on his reaction, the results weren't nice.

"I have it too, don't I?"

The doctor nodded glumly. He gestured to the free space on the bed next to Kai's feet. "Please take a seat." She sat down. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Nya answered honestly. Although she really was feeling well, her shaking hands she tried to hide by placing them on her thighs stated otherwise.

She was feeling nervous, worried, exhausted.

The doctor then used that opportunity to test out a few things. He shone his flashlight directly into both of Nya's eyes and checked whether or not they'd shrink in size (which they did), he tested her knees reacting to the light tap of a small hammer (which they did), he tested her eyesight by checking if she could see writings from further away (which she could). He even gave her a minty piece of gum, which was the only edible thing in the room, to check on her tastebuds working accordingly.

They did, but Nya quickly took it out of her mouth the second the doctor turned his back on her. The taste was too terrible for her own good.

The only responsive male in the bedroom glanced down at his pocket watch. "I better go check on Landon. It's been a while, and I need to know if he's found anything yet." He looked back at Nya. "You stay in here. I don't need you collapsing on the hallway floor like your partner."

In a matter of seconds, he was gone, and Nya used that chance to stand up and walk around the bed. She took ahold of Jay's hand once again. She had nothing to say to him, knowing he wouldn't hear her anyway.

She felt beyond scared now. The knowledge of her possibly having the same fate as her boyfriend and brother was eating her up.

Her conscience tried to assure her that everything was fine, but her heart was disagreeing. Hell, even her brain was agreeing to her heart disagreeing.

Nonetheless, Nya willed herself not to cry. It felt like a cowardly act to her, and she didn't want to feel like a coward.

The second Nya felt a headache hit her, she forced herself not to panic or go into hysterics. The others didn't know what was happening to them but she did, so she calmly lifted her dress, settled right next to her boyfriend on the bed and lied down, facing him.

She made sure that no inappropriate part of her body was showing before rolling on her side and admiring Jay's side profile. Nya closed her eyes and took deep, even breaths.

The more time passed, the worse the ache in her cranium became. It came to the point of it being unbearable. Like her head was on fire and instead of pouring water on it, someone was dumping oil on it, creating a larger, angrier conflagration.

Nya knew where it was leading to. She was expecting it.

So she calmly lied there, next to her boyfriend on the bed that was now supporting three bodies, and accepted the darkness that soon overpowered her and sent her down a black void.

❀✿❀✿❀

The clock struck three as he entered the silent palace of Queen Vania. His hands were covered in black silky gloves and clasped behind his back, a black cape-like cloth draped around his shoulders that went down to his calves. His face was hidden behind a mask; a black mask with streaks of a deep, dark gray and brown. He was certain that a mask was not needed — there was not a single awake soul in that place anyway.

When he entered the foyer, he almost smiled. All flying guards — six upon a quick count — were no longer flying but lying limp on the floor, their weapons strewn around them and their golden wings crooked.

The halls didn't look any better. For the guards at least. Each and every person he came across was unresponsive and on the floor, eyes closed and all. Pathetic, he concluded.

When he strutted through the tall doors that led to the ball room, he instinctively stopped and nodded slightly, almost appreciatively.

The scene looked like it was pulled straight out of a horror movie, or maybe a thriller. It looked like a bomb had exploded or a bloodless massacre had taken place. Dozens of party guests, with or without wings, were all around the place. Some were lying on the dance floor, some were lying on the stairs, some were sitting against the walls. Some people were even stacked on each other, as if they had fallen unconscious right on top of each other.

The uninvited party guest made his way through the limp bodies, his cold brown eyes searching for a specific group of people. Lots of colors of the clothes of bodies blinded his eyes, but they were not the colors he wanted to see.

They were supposed to be there, he knew that. He was sure of that. After all, they had been the ones bragging about being invited to Vania's birthday party in Shintaro.

His fists clenched upon recalling that memory. It was a pity, really.

His eyes landed on the food table. He walked closer to it and admired the almost empty bowl that had once been filled with the red cocktail he had prepared.

He smiled. It was too easy sometimes.

"Wow. This place looks like someone had some happy time with a firearm. Get it? Firearm."

Releasing an exhausted sigh, he turned around and looked right into his disturbance's eyes. The other male was grinning whilst lifting his left arm and waving with it.

"Where are they?" he asked his accomplice, ignoring his unserious remarks.

Shrugging, the other man looked around the room. "Looks like they aren't in here." He walked closer to his higher up and gave him a funny expression. "What's up with that?" He nodded at his face.

"That's none of your business," the other snapped, not bothering to explain why he was wearing a mask. "Get your head back to the mission, you dimwit! Where are they?"

"I don't know," his accomplice swallowed. He knew he shouldn't be feeling as intimidated by a person he had more-or-less known for a while but he couldn't help himself when the reflection of a shiny object strapped to his boss's belt caught his sight. "But I'm sure they're in this building somewhere."

"I would hope so," was the response he got. "And I really hope you're not mistaken by the cocktail's effects. Now, don't stand here lookin' all stupid and start the search!"

❀✿❀✿❀

"How long will it take for them to wake up?"

"We are not certain. It might take a while."

"Okay..."

"Dude, can you stop tapping your fingers on the shelf like that? It pisses me off."

"Oh, boo-hoo, poor you!"

"Don't make fun of me!"

"Already have!"

With a blaring headache, Nya woke up. It took a while for her to open her eyes. She didn't know where she was or who was there with her, but at that time she couldn't find it in herself to care.

She did, however, recognize the voices she just woke up to. After all, she had woken up to the mindless bickering of her boys many times before, so distinguishing the three voices wasn't difficult at all.

She was lying on the floor, she realized. It was hard and cold. But she did feel that her head was placed on top of something, probably to refrain it from touching the floor. A weird smell hit her nostrils, and it took her a few seconds to recognize it as disinfectant. She scrunched up her face and groaned quietly, her head tilting to the side.

The sounds around her disappeared. Within a moment, Nya felt a hand on her forehead that gently pushed her bangs out of her face.

"You're finally awake," a gentle voice whispered into her ear before she felt soft lips leaving a tender kiss on her forehead.

She groaned and turned her face away, making him smile. Her eyes slowly opened fully.

"Now that she's awake, all we have to wait for is our Sleeping Beauty," another voice, Cole, said loudly.

Nya craned her neck back and locked eyes with a dark blue knee. Her brown pupils climbed up the body it was attached to and finally landed on a face she never got tired of seeing.

A small smile graced her dry lips. "Hey," she said, but since her throat was dry and scratchy, it came out more like an incoherent word.

Jay's smile dropped for a second before he turned around. "Water," he commanded, looking at Kai who was leaning against the wall.

Said person nodded and bent down to the six pack of water bottles that was standing on the floor right next to his feet and freed one bottle. He threw it at Jay.

In the meantime, Nya slowly sat up. She felt Jay's hand on her back to steady her. He handed her the unopened water bottle and watched as she took big gulps out of it.

The water was lukewarm, not exactly Nya's favorite.

After drinking, Nya looked around as she screwed the bottle's cap back on. Kai, Cole, Zane, Lloyd, Pixal, Skylor, Jay, Vania, Hailmar and the doctor were all in a room that looked like a clean storage closet. The floor was covered in black-and-white tiles and there were a few shelves pushed up against the walls. Cleaning supplies such as laundry detergent, huge loads of toilet paper, cleaning mops, and different bottles of all sizes were on those shelves.

Her eyes landed on Lloyd, who was lying a few feet away from her, still unconscious. She assumed Cole meant him when he referred to someone as "Sleeping Beauty."

"How are you feeling?" Jay asked her as he rubbed up and down her back. Nya was still in her dark blue dress that had a sweetheart neckline and two lace straps. Her torso was tight against her body but the dress was flowy and more silky from her waist down.

"Fine," Nya answered, turning her head back to look at him.

Jay was also still in his navy blue tuxedo, but his suit jacket was missing. When she looked down at where she had just lain, she saw his jacket neatly folded on the floor.

Her heart melted when she realized he had taken his jacket off to put it under her head.

Looking back at Lloyd, she saw that he had no such head coverage. She snorted.

Then she looked back at the others with one question in mind. "What happened?"

Her gaze met with the doctor's, who was sitting on a yellow bucket that was upside down in the corner. He quickly looked down at his fidgeting fingers, avoiding eye contact. "Um, uh. Well, there has been a... uh. I mean someone has, uh..."

"Oh, for Johnny's sake!" Kai exclaimed. He grabbed a toilet paper roll and tossed it at the doctor's head. Then he turned to his sister. "Some deranged maniac drugged the cocktail that literally almost everyone drank."

Everyone in the room silently looked at Kai like he had turned into a maniac himself.

"Why would you throw this at me?" the doctor hissed, readjusting his thin-rimmed glasses that had been crooked from the impact of the toilet paper.

"Who's Johnny?" Cole whispered to Zane, who shrugged.

"Okay," Nya dragged out, turning her gaze to Zane. "Zane?"

"An unidentified person has put a substance into the popular cocktail everyone has drunk which caused them all, including you, to fall unconscious. Since we didn't know how dangerous that someone is, Pixal, Hailmar and I collected all of you," Zane looked at his friends, "and brought you in here and waited for you to wake up."

"And Hailmar and Doc didn't drink the cocktail, right?" Nya guessed.

Zane and Hailmar nodded.

"It is my mission to protect Queen Vania at all costs. I could not risk letting a lousy drink get in the way of that," Hailmar said sternly.

Slowly but surely, Nya's memories from a few hours ago came back to her. She remembered Jay being unconscious, then the other doctor, then Kai. She remembered the other doctor, whose name she had yet to find out, telling her she had been at risk as well. She remembered falling asleep with a blaring headache.

"We don't know who that person is?" Nya asked, trying to stand up. Jay instantly helped her once he noticed what she was doing. "What if it's more than one person?"

"We don't know that for sure," Pixal began, "but something that we do know is that they are most likely after Vania."

At that, Vania, who was standing between Cole and Kai, shrunk back into the black tuxedo jacket that had been draped over her shoulders that belonged to the Black Ninja himself. Cole slung his arm around her waist and pressed her into his side, hoping it would calm her down.

Nya looked at the two sympathetically before glancing down at her friend in green. "What's with Lloyd? Is everyone outside awake, too?"

"Probably not," the doctor answered, finally bringing out a coherent couple of words. "I brought a huge amount of medicine and antibiotics with me and basically gave you what I had. Since I couldn't entirely figure out what was in the cocktail, I needed someone to be my test rabbit."

"Which was me," Kai scoffed, shooting a dirty look at the doctor.

"Quit whining," Cole told him. "You're fine."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Okay," Skylor said, interrupting the two. "How 'bout we focus on the real problem now, hm?"

When Kai opened his mouth, Skylor sent him a warning look. He understood the message and closed his mouth and hung his head. His date then smiled and patted his head, liking the fact that she was the only one who was allowed to touch, let alone mess with, his styled hair.

"So we're most likely the only ones awake?" Nya asked, just to be sure. The doctor nodded. "Then why is Lloyd still out?"

"It took each of you different times to wake up," Zane explained. "Lloyd will wake up, too. We just don't know when."

"Or it's because he's blond," Kai whispered to Cole.

"Can you two stop being children for a second?" Jay asked his friends, irritated.

"Says the one who still colors in coloring books!" Cole threw back.

Jay gasped. "I will have you know that coloring is my type of therapy," he justified. "Which, let's be honest, you all need as well."

Kai let out a provocative laugh. "Not Cole, though. He can't even stay in the lines."

Cole looked him up and down. "Yeah, well, at least I know when to draw the line!"

Kai gaped at him. Cole mocked his gaping. Skylor face-palmed. Vania sighed.

The two women gave each other the "I can't believe that's my man" look.

A quiet grunt made everyone turn their heads to the Master of Energy. His head was rolling from side to side, and his eyes were trying to open. He put a hand to his forehead and squinted at his friends, trying to tell them apart.

"Alright, now that Blondie's awake, let's split up and try to find that mystery villain," Cole suggested, to which the others agreed.

"Groups of five make a lot of sen-"

"Oh, no, no, no," the doctor objected quickly, waving his hands in front of his body whilst pushing his bucket back. "I will not go out there."

Kai blinked. "Okay. Then we'll just... leave you here?"

"Yes."

"Let's just go in teams of four," Skylor said, earning some agreeing glances.

"So, I'm assuming that the couples won't split," Nya said. Jay hooked his arm through hers and Vania and Cole exchanged glances. Zane and Pixal nodded at each other, whereas Kai pretended to think about it which Skylor dealt with by punching him in his ribs. "And Hailmar won't leave Vania's side," Nya continued, earning a confident nod from Hailmar.

After the teams had finally been selected, everyone quietly and stealthily snuck out of the storage closet and began their search for the person who was responsible for what had happened that night.

❀✿❀✿❀

While she was holding the front of her dress to have better access at walking, Nya wondered why she hadn't brought an extra pair of pants and a shirt. Heck, her gi would've been the best of all options.

She should have seen this coming, honestly. Villains waiting for the ninja being the most vulnerable was a commonly used time at trying to efficiently get rid of them at once.

Well, at least Jay was holding up a useful amount of fabric from the side of her dress to help her.

The four of them — Nya, Jay, Kai and Skylor — were on the lookout on the northern side of the castle. The five remaining members, including Hailmar, were roaming the southern side.

Since Lloyd hadn't brought a date, both teams played rock, paper, scissors in order to not have him in their team, and since Cole lost the last round against Nya, Lloyd had to five-wheel their group.

It was unnervingly quiet in the northern side. There were no other people in sight and neither lights nor sounds were present. Since it was still very early in the morning, the sun hadn't even risen yet, so the only light source they had was the moon peeking through the many windows there were.

None of them had their weapons with them; they were all in the Bounty that was flying somewhere near the castle grounds, so all they had was whatever useful they could find in the broom closet.

Jay and Kai both had brooms, Skylor had two toilet paper rolls she swore would "come in handy" and Nya had a toilet plunger with a surprisingly long shaft.

"Do you think this is a past acquaintance or some new wannabe villain guy?" Kai whispered, wanting to start a quiet conversation. They had been walking for a good three minutes in complete silence.

"How do you know it's not a girl?" Skylor asked him back, earning an innocent look from him with his arms raised in the air.

"Can you two shut it?" Nya whisper-scolded them, giving them an intimidating look that made the couple go quiet. "For all we know, there's someone here, and we don't know where. They poisoned everyone's drinks and made them go unconscious. New villain or old, this person is dangerous and we can't let our guard down by fighting over their gender."

After scouring the upper levels with no success, the four slowly walked down the royal staircase until they stopped in front of a long corridor that was dark but not too dark to not see a thing.

Just as Nya was about to go first, Jay stopped her by placing his hand on her stomach. She gave him a questioning look. Her boyfriend gave her a serious look back, nodding his head in the direction of the corridor.

And when Nya saw what he meant, a cold shiver ran down her spine.

There were many doors on both sides of the corridor, and whilst all of those doors were closed, one of them wasn't.

Because the one door in the very back was open. And light came out of it.

Jay and Kai exchanged glances and nodded at each other, having the same thought process. Without giving the two women an explanation, the two men walked in front of them and began to slowly walk down the ominous corridor.

Nya and Skylor rolled their eyes at the same time. It was either another macho-chivalrous boyfriend and overprotective brother thing, or it was because the women were wearing dresses that were most definitely not appropriate for fighting. Although they knew it was probably the latter, the former made more sense after being and living with them for a long time.

Jay and Kai tried to open each door they passed in case it was a trap and someone would try and overwhelm them with a decoy, but none of the other doors were openable. So, with as much courage as possible, the two men stormed inside the last door when they were close enough, hoping to scare whoever was inside with their fighting stances and brooms as their choice of weapon.

But there was nobody inside, they quickly noticed.

The light was coming from a loose lightbulb that seemed like it was about to fall off the ceiling any second. There was no window in the room and barely any furniture.

A single round table was pushed up against the wall and a porcelain plate was on it. A single chair was leaning against it. As Kai looked around, Jay walked up to the table and scrunched up his face when he saw that a half-eaten piece of red velvet cake was on the plate.

"Isn't this some cake that was served at the party?" he asked the others.

Nya glanced at it and recognized it on the spot. "Yep."

"Guys, there is nothing here," Kai told the others, looking down at a silver fork that was lying on the floor.

"We should get out of here," Skylor said, already on her way out of the room again. Kai nodded and followed her out.

Jay and Nya were about to walk out as well, but Nya stopped when something caught her eye. "Guys, come back," she said, beckoning her brother and friend back inside.

"What?" Kai asked impatiently.

Once everyone was inside and a few feet away from the doorway, Nya grabbed the door handle and gave the door a swift push, watching as it closed slowly.

"Holy granola bar," Jay mumbled.

"Oh, hell nah," Kai sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Stuck to the upper part of the wooden door was a small television, a monitor so to speak. It was already turned on.

On it, the screen was split into four parts, all showing different black-and-white security camera footage.

"Look," Nya said, pointing at the upper right. "There are the others."

And indeed, the other five people were shown on the screen. They were in the very large dining hall, but how they were displayed was enough to worry the four to death.

Cole, Pixal and Vania were trapped in a cage that was hovering about three feet above the floor. Lloyd was being held down to the floor by two Shintarian guards. His hands were on his back and he was wiggling around, trying to escape their grasp. Hailmar was lying motionlessly on the floor next to the cage.

Zane, on the other hand, was also lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious. And his left arm was lying a few feet away from his body.

"Is that... the Mechanic?" Jay asked, noting the man who was standing to the side and laughing dubiously at Lloyd.

"Looks like him," Nya confirmed.

"Come on, we need to get there!" Kai exclaimed, grabbing Skylor with his free hand and pulling her out after him.

Jay and Nya exchanged glances before running out after them.

It didn't take long for them to get to the scene. They did not want to be seen yet so they hid behind tall columns and watched from afar.

They waited for the right time to strike, for the one second no one was paying any attention to their surroundings. And that came when the Mechanic turned to his newfound accomplices who also happened to have been Vania's royal guards. What caused them to turn on her was yet to be discovered.

Kai and Jay were the first ones to jump into action. They grabbed the guards who were closest to them and quietly knocked them out. Then, when they got close enough without anyone noticing, they took down two more guards.

But that was when the guards holding down Lloyd noticed them and yelled out they were there.

Nya and Skylor immediately ran over to those people and tried to get them off Lloyd, but halfway through, they were interrupted by other minions.

"Ugh, useless!" the Mechanic bellowed, his face scrunched up in distaste at the sight of his henchmen failing to apprehend their unwanted company. "Utterly useless, all of you!"

He himself blasted a few fireballs with his custom robo-arm, but every shot was dodged easily.

All seemed to be going well for the ninja until one fatal hit with a guard's golden scythe to Nya's temple knocked her out cold. Her body fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"Nya!" Jay yelled and ignored his opponent as he rushed up to her. He couldn't get all too far, however, when someone hit his head as well, making him drop to the floor.

He wasn't unconscious yet so he tried to crawl over to his Yang's unmoving body that was now in the watchful gaze of both the guards around them as well as the Mechanic, who was laughing at Jay's misery.

When he turned to look at him, he saw that Kai and Skylor were captured in a second cage. They were screaming and trying to kick open the cage, but all Jay could hear was the loud and deafening ringing in his ears.

As his body began to give up, he felt a foot pressing down on his back, stopping him. The shoe had a heavy heel, Jay could feel it.

"You know," the person began. "I've always looked up to you. To all of you. Did every dirty task you gave me to fit in and pushed every negative thought away. Because you're my friends, right? You wouldn't... I don't know, forget me? Neglect me? Think I was stupid and illiterate?"

"Let her go," Jay heaved out, still trying his best to crawl out from their hold on him. It did not work.

The person sighed dramatically. "Always the hopeless romantic, huh?"

The heavy boot slid down under Jay's body and flipped him over, making him lie on the floor on his back. Jay squinted to get a clearer look of the person above him, but the image kept blurring and getting sharp again.

"My time for revenge has come... ninja."

The right hand of the man slowly went up to his hidden face, and with one swift motion, the mask was taken off.

The other ninja gasped at the revelation. Before losing his consciousness, Jay put all of his remaining strength to identify the cruel person who was grinning darkly at him.

Who was the reason Vania's birthday party was ruined.

Who was the reason his friends were trapped.

Who was the reason Nya was knocked out.

Jay's eyes found it hard to focus but the familiar features he saw were unmistakable.

"Dareth."

A/N: Man, I love a good plot twist. Imagine Dareth actually becoming a villain tho... would be epic, ngl. Be honest, did you expect this twist or did you already guess it?

And no, before anyone requests it, this won't have a part two, I'm afraid. As you know, I don't like making more than one part and if I were to actually continue this plot one day, it'd be in a separate book probably.

And before I leave, I just wanted to thank you all because this book has officially passed 100k reads!!! I'm so happy, y'all have no idea.

Okay, that is all. Thank you for reading and have a good day!