"This was the only item they left for you."

     "Several thousand dollars to their name and all they left her was a key?" my grandmother barked at the bank attendant as I gently clutched the object.

     "I believe it was an archeological masterpiece, probably worth thousands of dollars on its own," the bank attendant stuttered. Grandmother had fierce dark eyes and a heavy brow, making her look like she was always mad about something. She was quite scary when she was infuriated.

     "Yeah," she barked, "like a tiny piece of steel is going to be worth anything. Are you sure there's nothing else in there?"

     "I can check their accounts again, Ma'am."

     Grandmother followed the attendant out of the room, her waddle becoming more of strut. Grandfather was in the other room, signing papers to succumb to my parents' will and have full custody of me. My parents had died two months ago in a terrible fire. The only reason I had survived was because my mother used herself to break my fall from the third story of our house. I could still smell the smoke wherever I went, and I could certainly still imagine the ashes hiding in my dark hair.

     I cradled the small key in my hands, my fingers tracing over every bump and crevice. It was so small, so fragile, but it was their last gift to me. The end of the key was long and thin, while the loophole was thick enough to need a saw to slice through it. The crevices didn't seem random but engraved with a pattern and a language I couldn't understand. It probably had once been beautiful, but time had worn it to a rusty green and grey color.

     My mother and father had been archaeologists their whole lives. Father had made a few extraordinary finds early on in his career, which was mostly due to him and Mother taking the risk to travel to the mysterious Dark Island. The finds made him quite a bit of money. Mother didn't have as much luck as him on their adventures, but she did find this key. She had treasured it even though it looked like something to be thrown away. I guess it was my turn to care for it now.

     Tears gathered in my eyes. This was their last gift to me. Their last gift. I would never see their faces again. As my grandmother barked for more money and my grandfather resentfully signed his papers, I curled into a little ball on the bank floor. It was cold, hard, and relentless. Just like the world around me.

     That day, I made a promise to myself. I would not be weak like the end of my key. I would be strong like the loophole. I would not let grief break me, and I certainly wouldn't let my new situation define me. I had always been a good little girl, then my life had been turned on its face and I was suddenly in the hands of a couple who didn't want me. If that was the way life was going to treat me, then so be it. I would do as I pleased, and no one would stop me. If life was to end so quickly and unfortunately to good people, then I had to make use of it while I still had it.

     I would rebel simply for the fun of it.

     The marketplace was busy, filled to the brim with tourists and residents alike gathering around the new trader, who was currently showcasing his new goods. While he was going on and on about this 'golden' statue he had fought tooth and limb with danger for, I hooked my feet around the steady poles of the tent. I was currently on top of the new trader's spot, pulling my set of keys out of my shirt. They always sat around my neck on a tiny chain, ready to be pulled out whenever I felt like thieving.

     I leaned over the side of the tent, to an enclosed area in the back where the trader had hidden his finest goods. There were plenty of small orbs and statues scattered about the back, as well as some foreign spices. I could feel the blood rushing to my head, so I scanned the room for something useful.

     A lone wooden box stood locked on top of a pile of books. The carvings looked fascinating, but what caught my attention was the big lock the trader had secured around the entrance to the box. I grinned beneath my hood and swung my body until I could grasp the box. With the treasure in my hands, I pulled myself back into a sitting position above the tent. The trader had chosen to make the front a lot higher than the back so he could display a big sign. It was his mistake, giving me a way to mess with his stuff without being noticed.

     I went through my necklace until I found a smaller key, then went to work. I crammed the key inside the lock started to fiddle around.

     Click.

     Click.

     Slight pressure there, slight pressure here. I felt for the gears inside, maneuvering them to my advantage. The lock made a satisfying springing noise and clicked. I gently removed the key and pried the box open.

     Inside the wood had been coated in a rich velvet, to hold a necklace inside. I pulled the necklace out gently by its golden chain, dangling it in the sunlight to study it closely. The charm at the bottom was coated in what appeared to be real diamonds. They had been twisted into a shape with the gold lining to resemble a dragon. When the sunlight hit it, it sparkled in an almost ethereal way. This necklace had to be worth a lot of money, but luckily for the trader, it wasn't what I was looking for. I heard the trader prepare to enter the back to grab more supplies, so I quickly placed the diamond necklace back on the velvet. I locked the box once more and leaned through the top's curtains to place it back where I found it.

     I disappeared above the tent right as the trader entered his back room to grab the box.

     There was nothing worth stealing here.

     I slipped back down to the ground outside the tent, using the cover to pull off the sweaty black mask covering my head. While thieving and sneaking around was easier when no one knew who you were, I had to blend into the crowd if I was going to make quick work of them. My black hair puffed out around my head, causing me to look like I just got out of bed. I didn't care. I wasn't at the stupid academy, so no one cared what I looked like.

     The crowd around the trader's tent was dense, so it was easy to steal from them. Many of the citizens had taken to wearing bland clothes and hiding their wallets. My thieving was notorious, and it hadn't been long before people started noticing the patterns. Money was worthless to me. Having money had landed me in a pompous boarding school so my grandparents wouldn't have to deal with me. I only stole what was fascinating to me, like an exotic feather or a key I had never seen before. The little trinkets reminded me of the old days when my parents would show me their finds, making sure to tell the perilous adventure that accompanied it. In a sense, thieving was a way to relive their memories. This time, however, I was making my own adventures, and finding my own exotic items.

     Luckily for me, several tourists were in the crowd. Someone was wearing a black fedora with white swan feathers sticking out of the side. Another person's car keys were sticking out of their pocket. I plucked what I pleased, leaving the crowd without a single person realizing they had just been robbed. They'd find out later, but by then, it'd be too late. Everyone was warned about thieves when they came to town, but there were always people who didn't listen.

     To the rest of the city, I was the Midnight Menace, a thief cloaked in black who could rob you of the most worthless possessions before you even realized it. I was the terror of the night, an unknown figure no authority could catch. I was the definition of freedom, adventure, and power.

     To my boarding school, however, I was their quiet little girl, who never did too well but never failed either. The teachers often told my grandparents I was the most well-behaved child in class. Little did they know instead of taking notes I mapped out plans for my next outing.

     I hooked the new set of keys around my necklace, tucking that beneath my collar. Keys gave me gratification. They were an odd collection, another way of reminding myself of the life I once had. Loving parents. A mansion filled with beauty and wonder. A life that I'd always loved, even when I took it for granted. But now, things were so different.

     I hated that I had to be two persons.

     But, unless I wanted to live on the streets when my grandparents kicked me out for thieving, my title was going to have to stick.

It was hard to have fun when you didn't really know anyone at the event.

     I can't believe that I let Shade talk me into coming.

     The school's end of the year dance was a celebration for many; it was a place to party, eat, and be merry. For others, it was a place to find a partner before speeding off to wherever life called them to next. For me, it was a four-hour long festival of awkwardness.

     Shade always had a blast at the dance, so he was more than excited when I begrudgingly agreed to come. Mother was excited as well, though I think it was for different reasons. It struck quite differently when Shade always seemed to have a girlfriend following him around and I always came home alone.

     For the first hour of the dance, I stood in a corner, feeling very itchy in one of Father's tuxedos. A few girls tried to talk to me, but I avoided conversing as much as possible. Just like with the brunette from lunch, they were likely trying to get to my brother through me. Shade flitted from friend group to friend group, smiling and laughing and generally having a great time. He entreated me to join him, but I barely knew the names of the people in my class, much less be able to talk with everyone in school. I ended up sitting in a corner at a table by myself, miserably sipping the overly sweet fruit punch.

     When the dancing started, the music was so ear-shattering that it shook the whole building. I covered my ears and retreated to the tables as far away from the speakers as possible. Most were taken by groups of students, all of them laughing and snacking on the cheap sugar cookies the school had provided. My first instinct was to go back to my old table and put up with the speakers, but then I saw a table in the back corner with only one person sitting at it. It was a girl, sitting alone, looking absolutely miserable with her current situation.

     Everyone else was with their friends, having the time of their lives. She sat alone, probably as uncomfortable as I was. I wasn't the type to randomly approach people I had never seen before, but Mother often did complain that I didn't have enough school friends. This could be my chance to meet someone vaguely like me. I swallowed and walked over to the table, forcing out the words, "Is this seat taken?"

     It obviously wasn't, but the girl still looked at me, then the seat, then shook her head. I sat down and sipped at my punch, not exactly sure what to say. My only friends were the other Ninja's kids, so my skills at talking to new people were virtually nonexistent. Besides, years of ignoring Shade-fans had wiped my social slate clean.

     The girl's eyes were puffy as she pecked at her plate of cookies, as if she had been crying. Her hair was a bright ginger, which somehow highlighted the red in her face. At least her thick-rimmed glasses obscured her smudged makeup. She appeared to be a freshman, which was way too young to even consider dating, but a casual acquaintanceship might be nice. It'd help me get through this dance a lot easier.

     "Um... I saw you were sitting alone... and I thought... I could, um... be lonely too."

     Why was I so bad at forming sentences in front of people I barely knew?

     The freshman looked up, confusion crossing her features. I attempted to smile, but it ended up looking like a grimace. I wished more than ever I had just stayed home with Ver, whom my parents had deemed too young to come.

     "Uh... yeah," she offered, wiping her nose with green gloves that probably cost a fortune. "My date kind of ditched me so... I'm kind of... alone." Instead of blowing her nose or sobbing like any other girl would, she just shoved a whole cookie into her mouth.

     "Aren't you a little young—"

     "You know, we had even picked out the perfect outfits to wear. Then, I get this call like twenty minutes before the dance where he tells me his breath is too bad for him to come," the girl chomped, cookie crumbs falling into the folds of her emerald green dress.

     "I'm sorry." It took me a second to realize she was waiting for me to say something. "Uh... I don't really have a date either so..."

     "Not to be rude or anything, but aren't you like a senior? Don't most boys have partners by your age?"

     I chuckled nervously, intensely regretting any impulse to come over to this table. Why did my life consist of people reminding me how I didn't have a girlfriend? Why did it always come back to people either telling me to get a girlfriend, get a social life, or to beat Shade in something for once? Why was I always not good enough?

     "I get it, girls are dumb," she wiped her mouth with the icing stained glove, swallowing the last of her cookie. "I'm Kitty."

     "I'm Morro," I stuck out my hand, probably looking like a nerd who had been sheltered his whole life.

     Kitty made a face, but tentatively shook my hand.

     The action meant more to me than she realized. My whole life had been filled with touch. I wasn't sure how to explain it. When I was little, I would rather learn to walk by holding onto people instead of objects. Hugs were always more comforting than any set of sympathetic words. I longed for someone to pat me on the back when I did a good job or shake my hand when they met me. Touch was my way of seeing if people accepted me, appreciated me, or loved me. When this girl shook my hand, I instantly felt myself relax.

     Kitty stared at me for a second, nearly making that instant relaxation wear off. Then she chimed, "Wait, you're Shade's brother, aren't you?"

     I felt ready to throw up my punch as I nodded. The temperature rose and I pulled my collar out to breathe.

     "That's awesome! You're totally not like what everyone says," she leaned forward, drawing my attention to the large gap in her front two teeth.

     "Thank you?"

     "I've always wanted to talk to Shade. He's surrounded by the popular girls, though. Do you think you could bring him over? I have so many questions I want to ask him." The excitement radiating throughout this little girl's visage was making me shrink back in my chair. She was only interested in Shade. Of course, they always were.

     Instead of trying to switch the conversation away from my brother, which would probably be a hopeless endeavor, I merely nodded and got up to fetch him. He was fine with talking to Kitty, in fact, he handled her constant questions with a practiced ease.

     "Have you ever worn a ninja gi like your father?"

     "Not really, I mostly wear exercise clothes."

     "Have you ever stopped a major crime boss?"

     "I hope to someday."

     "Do you have elemental powers like your parents?"

     This was the tricky question; our parents didn't want us showing off our powers in public.

     "Elemental powers work in weird ways," Shade replied nonchalantly, hooking an arm through Kitty's, "but dances do not. Will you dance the next song with me? Eating cookies isn't going to be fun all night."

     Kitty squealed in delight, nearly dragging my brother away. He was being nice, even though he probably had no interest in her. In his mind, she was just another one of his admirers bothering me to get to him. Shade tried his hardest to protect me from that fate, but it always came back to bite me in the face. I was second to him. I had always been second.

     When the next song began, I slipped out of the brightly colored crowd and made my way back to the car. My book on the federal laws of Ninjago was waiting for me; the comfortable haven of the car was way more exciting to me than any fancily dressed crowd. I spent the next few hours trying my best to ignore the screeching music and focusing on what everyone else considered to be the most boring text ever.

     I was ready to fall asleep, but every time I would nod off, the music would somehow get louder. Father had been pushing Shade and my training even harder than usual the past week. Even though we spent all of our free time making sure we would pass the finals, even that time was cut short by elemental training.

     Father had explained the light in the sky was part of a prophecy. He never told us the exact words, but he did explain the flash signaled there would be a darkness coming that could only be defeated when we gathered a key, a sacrifice, and a voice that sings. We were pushed even harder in our training so that we could fight against this darkness. Right now, the other Ninja were looking into the three things that we needed. Father told us to focus on the finals and training. This dance was supposed to be a big break to give us some rest from it all.

     I could be getting a lot better rest at home.

     When Shade finally came out to the car, his demeanor didn't falter when he saw what I was doing. Over time, he had accepted we were two different people, and that I wasn't as much as a social butterfly as he was. The drive home was filled with enthusiastic stories of how so and so had done this or so and so had done that. I listened with a quiet patience, since I understood that Shade would not want to hear what I had learned about law in those few hours.

     Mother begged us for stories the minute we entered the house. She listened to Shade's constant yammering with excited questions at hand, wanting to know who we danced with and what there was to eat. Father stayed to know we had a good time, then went off to bed. Like me, he would rather sleep than gossip. Ver was supposedly in bed, but I doubt she could be sleeping with the noise Shade and Mother were making.

      I avoided as many questions as possible as I changed into pajamas and pulled a sleep mask over my face. It didn't stop the concerned looks from my family.

      "I honestly thought I could help him have a good time," Shade said quietly from the other side of our room.

     "Morro's just... different," Mother struggled to find the right words. "I'm sure he'd like dancing if he tried it, but he's not very big on large crowds of people."

     "Yeah." I heard Shade sit down on his bed. The temperature cooled slightly with his mood. His last words were barely audible as the fogginess of sleep drifted into my mind. "One day Storm and I are going to need to get him to play that dancing game at the arcade. I bet Morro's hiding some great moves under his sudoku books."

     Mother laughed quietly, then wished us both good night.

     I felt my own heat burn beneath the covers. Someday I would find someone who enjoyed endless rounds of sudoku, someone who didn't care if I spent my spare time reading schoolbooks, someone who would look at me not as different, but as a somewhat normal person. Someone who didn't have Shade's legacy hanging over him. Maybe then I wouldn't feel like an outcast. Maybe then I could be 'fun'. Maybe then, I could be at peace with myself.

"You mean the light in the sky was part of a prophecy?!" Shade had nearly spit out his soup in shock.

     "Yes," Father admitted, playing with his grilled squash. "The prophecy basically states that the flash in the sky will signal an oncoming darkness, and that we must find a key, a sacrifice, and a voice that sings to defeat it."

     "So, all this time you were preparing us for something," Shade's eyes were shining, "it was this, wasn't it?"

     "You aren't mad we didn't tell you?" Mother asked quietly.

     "I get it," Morro's logical voice rang out as I shoveled down bites of food to keep myself from running straight to the dead meadow. "You didn't want to pressure us our whole lives."

     "You're good," Shade said.

     I, on the other hand, was more than good. That dinner where my whole life changed had happened the last day of finals week, where Mother and Father had finally decided to explain why they were pushing my brothers so hard in their training. The whole week I had been yelling to the strange voice in my head to explain himself, but nothing had ever responded. I spent countless hours that I should have spent studying researching different prophecies in Ninjago. Every time I would find one, I would go the meadow and yell myself hoarse trying to get the voice to respond. While there were quite a few interesting tidbits on my father's legacy as the green ninja, no prophecy would ever get the voice to respond.

     I was pretty sure I failed the finals, but at this point I didn't really care.

     When Father mentioned there was a prophecy about the flash in the sky, I nearly yelped in delight. Of course I hadn't told my parents about what the voice had said to me. Mother was already consulting my therapist about stronger meds to use. That night, after Mother and Shade finally stopped talking about the stupid dance (something Mother and Father deemed I was too young for) and went to bed, I slipped out of bed to sneak into the meadow.

     The spirit hadn't appeared yet; I didn't know why but I wasn't going to complain. Every second I could forget about his existence was a good second. I carefully climbed back through the attic, slipped out of the window, and ran through our backyard to get to the meadow. The lifeless area greeted me with a decayed stench as a couple rats scurried out of my way.

     "Are you here to practice listening to wind?"

     "No, you idiot," I growled at the air, "I'm here to... oh, it's you."

     The spirit stood behind me; his arms crossed. "I thought you wanted to learn if you had elemental power. You've spent the whole week looking up prophecies instead of trying to listen. You do realize your parents aren't going to be happy with your test grades."

     "I don't care," I said, plopping down on the dirt and crossing my legs. The dumb spirit did have a point, though. Last time I tried to listen to the wind was when I heard the voice. Maybe if I tried again, I could connect to him once again.

     The wind was fiercer tonight, signaling an oncoming rain in the morning. I closed my eyes and listened to it rushing in the trees and rustling the life outside of this meadow. I felt its sting against my bare arms; the way it whipped my hair out of my braid to let it fly free. The wind was filled with life tonight, but it said no words. Wind couldn't speak.

     I have your prophecy.

     The wind kept biting at my arms, begging me to pay attention to it. The cold of the night air seeped through my tee-shirt, making me wish in my haste I had remembered to bring a jacket. I couldn't hear the spirit moving anymore over the rushing in my ears. I tried to focus on my own mind's projections, tried to get the mysterious voice to respond.

     I have your prophecy!

     All I could feel was the wind. I wanted it to calm down; I wanted to snap my attention away from it. Somehow, it was drawing me in as it picked up its pace. Somehow, in the deadened air of that meadow, the wind was harsher and clearer. It thrashed through the air on a sharp set of notes, calling out a noise I never realized was there. When I started to think about the prophecy again, I heard the mysterious voice in my mind once more.

     Listen.

     I was almost distracted by finally being able to reach the voice in my head, but the rushing notes were getting higher and louder, sparking my curiosity beyond its limit. The wind climbed through the air faster and faster, filling the world with its message. I must have been going insane or dreaming. Wind couldn't speak.

     Yet here I was, trying with all my might to hear what it had to say.

     What is it promising you?

     I slowly got to my feet, my eyes still closed, and lifted my arms into the air. As my head got higher, so did the notes get more familiar. They were whispering a language that was slowly becoming clearer, sharper, like an object coming into focus.

     What is it saying to you?

     It wasn't singing a set of words, only one. One word repeated over and over. One word that I could almost grasp.

     This is the one thing I will give to you that no one else can ever promise.

     Almost instantly, the word became clear. Once I had heard it, I couldn't un-hear the wind calling it out over and over. As the breeze swirled around me, chilling me to the bone, I embraced the promise it gave to me.

     Power.

     It was promising me power.

     What is the prophecy? the voice asked.

     I opened my eyes to the dark meadow. The flash in the sky signaled an incoming darkness. We must find a key, a sacrifice, and a voice that sings to defeat it.

     And what of the son of Oni and Light?

     What son?

     You do not know the exact wording of the prophecy?

     I growled at the air, annoyance somehow making the wind's call louder.

     Your parents are hiding it from you. When the moon is new, place the prophecy amongst the shelf mushrooms. Then, I will give you what I promised.

     I don't recall you ever promising me anything, I put a hand on my hip.

     There are many things your parents have hid from you. There are many things they have neglected to teach you. Your spirit cannot make you a master of wind, but I can make you into the Chosen One.

     Who are you?

     But the air was silent as the winds died down, leaving me with nothing but a painful curiosity that ate away at my gut.

     WHO ARE YOU?

     Despite my crushing rage with the silence that followed, I couldn't help but feel a bit satisfied with the small amount of information I obtained. If I listened to this voice, I could become a master of the wind. I could be powerful like my brothers. I could be noticed and respected. If I was powerful, maybe everyone wouldn't think I was crazy. I could just lie and tell them it was always the wind speaking to me.

     But who was this Chosen One? Father never told us of a chosen one. Did that have something to do with the strange son of Oni and Light the voice mentioned?

     Whatever it meant; I had a time limit now. The moon would turn new soon, which meant I only had a few days to find the exact wording of Father's mysterious prophecy. He probably had a document somewhere, and if he didn't, I'd have to resort to extreme measures to coax the information out of him. The other Ninja had also been raising their children to be warriors. They probably knew the exact wording as well.

     Furthermore, this voice somehow knew about the spirit that followed me around. A hungry curiosity burned in my chest, more potent than ever before. No one knew of the spirit's existence except me. How could this voice know not only that the spirit existed, but that he had promised me to train my 'wind powers'? I slowly turned around to see the spirit leaning against a tree, smirking at me.

     Perhaps this voice was just the spirit all along. Perhaps it was my own insanity eating at my mind until I slowly dissolved into a pile of mental ashes. But, for the sake of my own mind, I had to believe that this voice belonged to an entity somewhere. I had to believe this voice knew and understood my regrets and fears, and that if I followed it, it would lead me to my peace.

     "You heard the wind," the spirit smiled at me.

     "How did you know?"

     "I saw the sparks in the air," the spirit waved his arms around, like I was supposed to look around and see vague sources of light. "The same thing happened to your mother."

     He sighed and started pacing across the meadow, "The wind is filled with a word that promises you much. Power. You have to understand the wind is a very tempting source. If you let yourself listen to its every command, it will envelop you and change you into a machine to do its bidding. Power can change people for the worse. That is why learning to control the wind requires a heart strong enough to ignore it and force it to do your bidding. It is the same process one must take when ignoring fire's call of spreading the warmth, ignoring water's words of movement, or energy's call to envelop. It is a hard process, but hopefully I can guide you through this so you will come out unscathed."

     His smile was laced with hints of sadness when he met my eyes, like he suspected that wasn't going to be the case.

     "How do you know these things?"

     "I am a spirit, Ver, nothing is unknown to me. Not even the future."

     "Then you know the exact wording of Father's prophecy," I pushed forward my agenda, not caring how blatant my intentions were.

     "Yes."

     "What is it then?" All I needed was the exact wording, then I could find my true potential.

     "That is up to you to figure out. I am not allowed to interfere with your timeline."

     "My timeline?!" I boiled over, stalking off back towards the house. "You know what, I don't care. I've made it this far without your help, so I won't need you for this project either."

     "Ver?" his voice was small.

     "What!" I snapped, looking back to see him press his fingers together.

     "Please remember what I said. You have to ignore the call to power if you truly want to find peace with it. He cannot give you what you want to have."

     "I don't need your help figuring out my life!" I turned around, disappearing behind the foliage of the trees beyond the meadow. "I can make my own choices," I muttered, holding out an open palm to feel the breezes once more. Their word was soft, but I could still feel it upon my skin.

     I would find the prophecy. I would find the source of the voice. And then, I would become the most powerful elemental master alive. No one would dare call me crazy again.