❝ love is in the air when my reflection,

isn't staring back at me,

'cause i know down in my soul,

that i'm hardly half the man i need to be ❞

gotta get away, vista kicks

cole

"Your leg is sticking out." Reg said smugly, "Dead."

"How is it my fault this stupid bin isn't big enough to cover me?" Cole cried, shoving the garbage can over. Rotten food tumbled out of the holographic prop, splattering the street floor.

"Dude," Jay said, emerging from where he'd tucked himself into an impossibly small cranny in between two buildings. "This is like the tenth time you've been caught."

Cole felt a snappish reply - the wrong reply - rising in his throat and quashed it immediately. "I'm sorry. Let's go again."

"Maybe someone else should go instead." Zane suggested over Cole's earpiece. Matching grimaces appeared on Jay and Cole's faces, even though they knew Zane could see their every move over the cameras. It was too quick of a reaction to hide from him alongside everything else. Reg sighed in anticipation of what was to come next, his line on the comm going silent. "It would be easy for me to optimise the best hiding places along our route."

"It might be more effective for you to do that from headquarters, though." Cole replied, hoping he'd chosen his words carefully enough.

"Cole's right. Besides, worse case scenario, he and I can create some sort of metal-rock debris to cover him." Charlie added, the stress on his face showing more than usual. They'd been going at the same exercise for the last two hours, but it was crucial they could make the journey without being spotted.

"She'll notice." Reg spoke again. "You know she will."

"She can't be monitoring everything at once," Jay said, a bit desperately. Cole wished he couldn't recognise the tone of Jay's voice, but it was a panic he was all too used to. "I mean, to a high level of detail."

"As long you avoid using your powers. Those elemental activity scanners are screwing us over." Reg moaned.

"They're still not accurate enough at low levels to be dangerous." Cole reminded him, trying to sway the conversation in a more hopeful direction. Charlie shook his head to himself and Jay's shoulders sunk as he chewed on his lip. "Actually, let's take a break. Topside, our territory?"

Jay's eyes immediately lit up."Milkshake."

Charlie nodded fervently. "Milkshake."

So Cole found himself sipping a malted chocolate milkshake with ice cream melting on top, kicking his feet atop a stool in a ridiculously bright pink and blue diner. The sugar was going straight to his brain, a nice kick of energy he needed to tackle the problem ahead. He couldn't tell if he kept screwing up the stealth part of the mission because he was getting in his own head or if he was, actually, just that bad at his. His gracefulness from his dance wasn't exactly helpful, and neither were his scythe-swinging, rock-punching skills. Sighing, he squeezed his eyes shut. The interior of Lola's was bright enough that the neon blue and pink interior burned into the back of his eyelids after every visit. He stomached the visual attack only because it was the last dessert store left in SOG territory. Every other cupcake stand, cookie store, and doughnut shop had been blasted to bits, so Lola's was shouldering the burden of every dessert possible to feed the community clustered near it.

Jay sat next to Cole, sucking down his milkshake with worrisome speed (one day he was going to choke and Cole was going to have to perform the Heimlich on Jay and it would not go well). He'd been a lot more talkative than usual to fill the awkward gaps of silence that Zane left. It was usually random stuff, but it gave Cole enough time to cobble together some sort of response that Zane wouldn't immediately shut off at. It had been weeks of this enigmatic back and forth, and he still wasn't used to it. Even that was a tiny change compared to how life had been before Wu left Ninjago.

There was an odd sort of hole in the Sons of Garmadon where their namesakes had once been. Cole had no idea how Misako was standing so tall beside Troya as they planned the SOG's future while her husband and her kids were missing. At least they had some idea where Lloyd had gone, chasing after Wu, but that thought was sobering in itself. Lloyd was alone in that realm. He'd had more of a sibling dynamic with Kai and Nya, but Cole had always thought of Lloyd as a little brother, and every day he woke up, he hated himself a little more for not stopping Lloyd from walking through. The small snapshot of the world Astra had walked into wasn't optimistic either, and Cole knew her well enough to tell that Astra had burned off everything but her anger before she'd entered the portal. On her own, without any of her friends to stop her, who the hell knew what she was going to do?

The Lord - the leader of the Sons was nowhere to be seen. The satellites hadn't picked up any sign of him leaving the monastery, despite Misako combing through the footage again and again after their techs had done it a thousand times over. They watched the display replay the battle, the video footage just choppy enough that they could catch the blur of elemental powers and blades; Wu winning, Lloyd and Astra leaving their world, and nothing more. Just glitchy stills of the battle. They were more informative of what had gone down than his own memories. He couldn't tell if it was because Neuro had messed with his mind for so long, or because his brain refused to investigate his memories past the surface level details. If he wanted to, he could have asked Zane for his memory capture stores, like Misako had done, but he really didn't want to live through that a second time.

The even bigger problem with accessing Zane's memory drive was the last part of their day.

The part where Pixal had betrayed them.

Even just thinking of the word betrayal stung him more than he could ever expect.

Because putting the word betrayal next to Pixal was mind boggling just for Cole, so he had no idea how Zane was coping with the revelation on his end.

That was a lie. He knew how Zane was coping. 

Zane only spoke to suggest ways to approach Pixal, to get closer to her, to send more spies in, to develop more tech to reverse whatever Wu had done. He'd run Jay ragged interrogating him about the flash on the day of the ball. Zane, normally one to keep track of everyone's emotions and wellbeing, wore Jay down until he was lying on the floor answering Zane with one word syllables. If it was killing Cole to see Zane like this, how badly was Zane dying inside?

"We should go," Charlie said, his battered stool screeching as he stood up. "Sun sets soon."

And so marked the beginning of their mission.

Cole suited up without listening to Zane's new speech. Bels had altered their uniform to blend in a little better - their battle armour was no longer sleek over their layers, instead it was scratched and streaked rugged, the layers of their gis cut rougher. They looked more like a ragtag group of mercenary ninja than SOG agents, which was only a tiny help to their survival, but a help nonetheless. He hung Tellum's new compact scythe on his hip, the swinging motion as the van screeched around corners soothing. Eventually, the car came to a stop. The driver triggered the door to open - Cole still wasn't used to seeing anyone other than Seliel in the front seat - and they hopped out, melding to the shadows.

Cole took point, followed by Jay, then Charlie. Somehow, Ninjago City had become even more unsettling after Wu escaped it. His madness had kept the city moving with a kind of anxious frivolity, and now everyone crept around, even those within his territory. Well, not his territory. Each movement he made, even angling his body slightly away from the street, took ten times the concentration it normally did. Slipping through the alleyway Zane directed them through, Cole kept his powers on a low burner, sensing any unusual movement through the earth. It was a new trick, and didn't work half the time, but if it saved them from being captured he wasn't going to complain.

"Left turn in ten metres. Wait for the tower patrol to pass. About thirty seconds."

Heeding Zane's stilted words, Cole squashed himself rather uncomfortably down a minuscule alleyway and waited with bated breath as a five-man patrol from the tower marched past. Their armour had taken a beating too, and it wasn't an artistic choice. They'd lost the grand flaunting nature of Wu's old armour style and were reusing old metal plates and whatever they had to keep the city army guard functional. Nowadays they spent less time trying to corral the fights out in the slums and more time protecting the inner city mansions from splintered gangs. Nonetheless, they walked by with their heads held high and pride beaming so brightly Cole flinched a little as they barked out a promise to their leader. How on earth did they still have dedication to Wu?

The question toyed with him more often now, especially after being subject to Neuro's mind control and witnessing how easily he'd controlled Harumi. How easily Neuro had controlled him. Could the man have been powerful enough to ensorcel an entire army? Even if that was possible, Neuro was gone, and the city guard still functioned with blind loyalty. His body tensed at the thought of the dead man. The reaction in itself made him want to shiver.

It was exactly how he'd felt under the Mind Master's control.

A little stiff, out of place, but almost right.

Like he was meant to be throwing chunks of rocks at his friends, meant to be defending Wu.

"Now." Reg's urgent voice cut through.

Cole propelled his legs forward, crossing the street in a dash. This was the furthest any human from the SOG had come to the tower. Flattening himself against the wall, he waited for the others to fold themselves into the alleyway, waiting for Reg's signal. You can't screw this up, he reminded himself. Everyone is counting on you. Don't fuck this up.

"Cole?" Jay whispered, cocking his head. He could see worry through the slit in Jay's ninja mask, and it took him a second to realise that the worry was meant for him.

"I'm fine." Cole shook his head dismissively. "Reg?"

"You're a go in three. Two. One."

Cole made their final mad dash to the sewer cover in the middle of the street. It was the least conspicuous way to get into the tower from the outside without trying to get past walls riddled with traps and guards, but it was dangerous to waste the thirty seconds he spent hauling up the metal cover in the open. Grunting at the unexpected effort, Cole ushered the others into the sewers a bit more frantically than he'd hoped. The cover was definitely heavier than the one they'd trained with - had she ordered for them to be weighted just in case they were coming? He wouldn't put it past her to account for every possibility, and they'd known this, prepared for this. Charlie couldn't use his metal elemental power to shift the cover without alerting the scanners to their presence, and Cole was the strongest. Had she known? Did she really know him that well, like she was inside his head?

"Cole!" Charlie hissed, "Get down."

The sound of approaching footsteps forced his body rigid again. Shit. Cole scrambled to lower himself into the sewer, hitting the floor with a thump. He stood on his very tip-toes, fingers blindly grasping for the manhole cover as the footsteps grew louder. I'm fucking this up. He wasn't in the simulator - this wasn't something he could start over again. His breaths came shorter, faster, until finally he pulled the cover over and it settled with a quiet clunk. Cole's legs wobbled as he leaned against the stone walls of the sewer, hoping the darkness concealed his shaking.

"Okay, let's go." He started off before Jay or Charlie could stop him.

They'd had plenty of practice roaming through sewers silently since many of the SOG entrances were built that way, but Cole's senses were on triple alert with every step he took forward. He half-expected a mutant monster turtle to leap out of the water and strangle him. The scenario hung with him right to the moment they reached the other end of the sewer.

"Cole—" Charlie's hand rested on his shoulder for a moment. He shrugged it off, playing the casual card as he pulled himself up the ladder. I need to get through this. We need this intel.

He knew to expect the sudden weight, lifting the cover up ever so slightly with his fingertips. Squinting, he took a quick look around the garbage disposal basement and called the all-clear. After sliding the cover back, Cole hauled himself out and stood on guard while his friends clambered out. From here, they were completely blind. They had old schematics of the tower, of course, but over the war it had undergone battle nearly as much as the palace had for all the technology it contained. Now, it was the hub of all of their enemy's activity. Like most of Ninjago, it had been rebuilt and cobbled together with prayers. Cole closed off their infiltration route and took a silent step towards the door. Charlie's hand grabbed him - rougher, this time - and he gestured wildly with a small metal device in his hand. His scouting drone. Nodding, Cole inched the door open and let the drone fly through. Charlie's eyes focused on the controller, which thankfully didn't rely on any of his powers. The drone swept the corridor the door led into, revealing a non-descript lift at one end.

Once they were in the elevator, Charlie wordlessly showed them the old schematics he'd stored on the drone. By those maps, they should be popping out in the garage of the tower where all the test vehicles were stored. With as much luck as they'd get this entire mission, they stepped out into the cavernous garage, taking in the neat rows of cars, trucks, and bikes lined up. All of them sleek and shiny, covered in a layer of dust. Frowning, Cole examined the nearest car to him. It had flamethrowers rather obnoxiously attached to the side with a matching decal. Kind of trashy, and also the exact thing that Kai would love. Peeking through the window, he caught a glimpse of the high-tech systems installed. No wonder Wu had banished them down here. Many of the vehicles actually seemed to be in use, a few of them warm to the touch, which set Cole on edge again. Pacing through the rows felt a lot like waiting for someone to pounce on them. Whatever god had given them enough luck to get into the tower without being noticed wouldn't hold their good fortune for long.

Charlie stopped them, scouting out the area ahead. He returned the drone to them with a grim nod. "Just like we thought. A security room right next to the lab. We'll have to be careful with the distraction, make sure we get the data we need, and get out."

"Jay?" Cole turned to his friend, whose hair was jumping with little lightning shocks.

Jay wiggled his fingers and stood by the door. "Let's do this."

Cole wrenched the door open, forcing himself in before anyone else. Jay slipped into the security room as fast as possible. His ears went deaf with the overwhelming wail of alarms screaming around them. A few muffled shouts escaped from the security room as Jay's lightning whipped through the guards and the computers, shutting the sector's camera system down and cutting it off from the main network. As soon as Jay gave the all-clear, Cole smashed into the lab with a pillar of earth, forcing a path for Charlie to race to the computers.

"Hey!" One of the three scientists in the room yelled, clutching a bagel. He threw it limply at Cole, watching it hit his armoured chest and roll to the ground. "Oh."

Cole swept an arm in front of him and stone surged up from the ground to root the scientists to the spot. Their eyes widened, all coming to the same realisation. The elementals were here. The bagel-thrower reached for the phone next to him, only for Jay to shoot an arc of lightning and split the thing in two.

"Sorry man," Jay said with an overly enthusiastic chuckle. "Can't have you tattling on us."

"They'll find you. She'll find you." Retorted the bagel-thrower. His head snapped to the left when the computers began to let off a horrendous screeching noise.

"Whoops." Charlie said. He unplugged the nearest PC and tucked it under his arm neatly, walking over to Cole and speaking in a hushed whisper. "We don't have enough time for me to crack this here."

"What if she tracks us?" Cole answered, a hint of paranoia seeking through. He could practically feel something going wrong on the horizon, but the bugging feeling wasn't clear enough to warn him of what was to come.

"We need this." Charlie returned stubbornly. "How the hell are we going to get everyone out without this data?"

Nodding, Cole tugged on Jay's arm and jerked his head to the exit. Kicking up the bagel at his feet, Cole shot up a stalagmite of stone that flung it back at the bagel-thrower, knocking him out with a surprising amount of force. The other scientists kept quiet as the three of them marched outside, ready to face the slaughter. Cole's grimace deepend. Soldiers, to be expected.

"Oh, man." Charlie groaned at the sight of the soldier-filled corridor in front of them. He hefted the PC to his chest, metal ribbons slipping from his armour to secure it to his front like a rather rectangular baby carrier. Jay's giggle caused him to raise a very judgemental eyebrow. "Come on, I'm adapting to the situation."

Cole couldn't help himself, even as the soldiers readied their swords and guns. Right. New weapon additions. "Don't worry about it, dude. You make a lovely father."

"Put down the equipment and your weapons, and raise your hands." Barked one of the soldiers, shifting the aim of his rifle. Cole rolled his shoulders. This part, at least, he was good at. Nothing much here to screw up aside from the whole gun-thing.

"We're not holding any weapons." Jay called back, wiggling his fingers. "So just the hands in the air?"

"You have weapons right there!" The commanding officer pointed a black-gloved finger at the collapsed scythe hanging off Cole's hip. "And your hands are basically weapons too. You are weapons."

Cole unhooked the scythe and swung it into full form, the hook of the scythe poised behind his back. "At least you got one thing right."

Swinging his scythe into the nearest soldier, he jerked it out with a clean pull and swept their body aside. He didn't care about the elemental activity sensors anymore, stamping his foot to send out a ridge of earth that split the soldier pack in two. Flicking his hand, he slammed the low wall up into the ceiling, sealing the others off. There was already muffled gunfire from the other side, but he'd bought them enough time to sprint away. Charlie's drone soared ahead, following his command to scope out an escape route. Jay covered their retreat with a series of attacks as fast as his element, vaulting up in the air to punctuate each jump with a shock of lightning. He hit the ground running behind Cole and Charlie, lightning still fizzling off his body.

"We've got about ten of them on us. Three with guns."

Charlie risked a glance behind, shooting Cole a look he didn't entirely comprehend until metal swirled itself into an example of Charlie's request. Nodding, Cole sliced his arm out to the right, creating a smooth ramp up for Charlie to run up and spin around, hands splitting the metal of the guns into wide-gaping mouths and peeling it back to blind the three soldiers.

"Nice!" Jay cheered, harnessing a sphere of lightning to blast the controls on the doors.

The drone bobbed ahead, unsure of which fork to take. Cole frowned, taking a step closer to evaluate the situation himself. Charlie's tech was usually pretty good at determining where to go. Then he saw why it was panicking. They were still on the same floor as the lab and as Astra would say, shit had hit the fan.

There were mines covering the ground in front of them, with soldiers poised and ready to fire on the other side.

She'd written off this part of the building as a sacrifice already.

Written off those soldiers as well, just to kill them.

The soldier in the middle wiggled the detonator in his hand and smiled.

"Run!" Cole screamed, doing just that.

The explosion scorched his armoured back as the blast threw him against a wall. Groaning, he coughed out the blackened air and rose to his feet. The world swayed around him, tipping this way and that when he tried to right himself. His ears were ringing, every sound a warped version of itself. He saw Charlie dragging himself out from under the rubble, blood running through the black and grey material of his mask. He'd chosen the PC over himself, throwing all the metal of his armour to protect the data. And then, to his right, there was a shout that wasn't some soldier succumbing to their injuries from the explosion.

The smoke cleared, revealing Jay, unconscious from a blow to his head, being dragged away by a squadron of black ops soldiers.

"Jay!" He yelled, clawing past the debris, throwing himself across a gaping hole in the floor that gave way to the level below. Something cold and metal pulled him back and wrapped across his chest.

Charlie's face appeared behind him, shouting indecipherable noises, mimicking something with his hands. A round object, throwing, what the hell was he saying when Jay was being kidnapped?

"Grede." Charlie shouted, blood pouring out of his mouth. He only understood what he meant a second later.

Cole was met with a very strange sense of deja vu as the explosions happened all over again.

There was one new thought in his mind, though.

Pixal has Jay.

a/n: posted a scrap astra edit on tt