"She's in a bad mood."

My lips thinned as my ears caught the subtle murmuring of Chen in front of me. It was just a whisper of words, a slight indent in the breeze, but it was enough for my head to shoot up and send a disgruntled glare the brunet's way.
"Do you mind?" I asked, voice a little harsher than I had intended. I lifted the book on Social Histories I had in front of me. "I'm trying to concentrate."
Chen raised his palms in a silent apology and turned back to his own study materials. Kvasir and Ambrose shared a quick glance before pretending to look busy. The smoothed, aged wood of the library table between us held an ocean of awkward space and the soft mumblings of studying students, usually an accompanying, soothing soundtrack, was grating on the ear.
I slammed the book shut and stood, digging the edges of my teeth into the torn skin of my bottom lip. A metallic taste instantly bloomed upon the tip of my tongue but I paid it no mind as I closed my eyes and inhaled.

When I reopened my eyes, Chen, Ambrose and Kvasir were staring at me in apprehension. It just sent blinding, burning fury from my feet to my mouth and the words burst forth before I could tame my sudden spiral of emotions;
"I'm not going to break!"
The soft murmuring of students silenced considerably and the weight of their gazes had my cheeks flushing pink. My three companions continued to stare in silence. Indeed, I was a hypocrite. I had proved my own words wrong.
"Yo..." Ambrose began uncomfortably. "Are you, like... good?"
"I'm fine," I managed to say brusquely before snagging my textbook and stepping from the bench. After a moments hesitation, the three clamoured to follow my irritated march from the study desks and out from the library.
"That wasss a lie," Kvasir hissed in scrutiny. His yellow eyes stared at me as if he could read my mind through the frustrated lines across my face. "What'sss wrong?"
"Nothing!" I shrilled as I tried to storm away faster in an attempt to leave them in the dust. Unfortunately, they were all substantially taller and had no trouble keeping up. "Absolutely nothing, I'm totally fine."

"She's in denial," Ambrose whispered. The retort made me spin around and set a furious scowl in the elemental master's direction. He wasn't phased and instead raised his shoulders in a defiant shrug. "I'm right!"
My dignified response was a dismissive snort and a toss of my hair as I stalked off. The boys continued to keep pace.
"What is it?" Ambrose pressed while Chen and Kvasir trotted behind him unsurely. "You've been pissy ever since you returned from visiting Lloyd. Is it something to do with him?"
"No," I said, like a liar. "I'm just stressed because of exams."
"Stress doesn't make you this shitty," Chen piped up, pulling a sneer his way from my end. Once again, ignored. "Stress makes you cry and procrastinate and eat ice cream in the middle of the night."
Well, they were right, but I didn't want to admit it.
"Leave me alone," I said, scrunching my eyes shut as I powered across the courtyard. "Please?"
Ambrose frowned. It was the kind of frown that would settle buzzing live wires over my scalp. The kind of frown that would slump my shoulders, weigh in my chest and drag my feet. It was one that made me feel guilt.

"You're worrying us," he said, and his words made the weight in my chest sink my feet through the earth. "We just want to help."
I stopped. The boys stopped. I closed my eyes and sighed through my nose and they watched in a somber kind of eagerness that in which I saw myself. Would I not be the same if one of them felt the way I did? Would I not want to help in any way that I could if one of them were acting out like how I had been?
"I just... miss Lloyd," I murmured. My hands gripped tightly over the strap of my bag and I felt vaguely like a broken record. "I feel useless."
"Studying to get a degree in something is far from being useless," Chen said. "Just because you're doing something for yourself doesn't mean you're useless. And it's not as if you're abandoning them, either. You're not part of the team."
You're not part of the team.
That hit me like a truck. I was aware of it - of course I was - but to hear somebody else say those same words I'd been telling myself was like driving a hammer into a nail, ramming a car into a post, shooting a cannonball into a wall. I felt briefly winded.
You're not part of the team.
Chen seemed to realise that I took his encouraging words the wrong way. His lips closed into a regretful line, twisted down at the corners.
You're not part of the team.
But I want to be. I need to be. I'm sick of staying on the sidelines.

I'm not strong enough. Not in the way that Lloyd wants me to be. Not in his world.

You're not part of his world.

I turned my head away. I didn't want them catching the reddening of my eyes, the sorrowful blush of my cheeks.
"Yeah," I said. My voice caught on the lump in my throat. "He said that, too."
I heard Chen sweep an inhale past his lips and prepare to say something; reassurance, perhaps, or backpedaling upon his prior words. Instead, a strained breath was all that slid from his teeth.
Ambrose's blue eyes regarded the scene silently. There was an understanding in them that suddenly seem to lighten, he knew something that I didn't even have to tell him. He was always good at reading people... or maybe I was just easy to read.
"Go back to your dorm," he said in the kind of voice that only a person about a century older than I could muster - stern and polite and full of concern. "Get some rest. We'll see you tomorrow."
I raised my gaze to his grim expression. I stared at him in confusion.
"What?"
"You're taking something to heart and you're not ready to tell us about it yet," Ambrose deduced with a simple shrug as if he didn't just rip my soul from my body and procured a deep-read through of it. "That's okay. Take your time. We'll be here when you need us."

The lump in my throat suddenly swelled to twice the size. I swallowed sharply and gave a lip-bitten nod.
"Thanks," I whispered, because producing any sound louder than that would've required effort of mine that had swiftly drained away.
Ambrose gave a nod and steered the other two boys away. I raised my eyes to the sky enough for it to strain as I tried to corral my silent weeping into something controllable enough - for at least until I was within the private quarters of my dorm room.
That's where I remained for the day and deep into the night before finally re-emerging from my pity fest to pester the vending machine for a block of popping candy chocolate. Aisling had rated it five stars. I was yet to figure out if it was full five out of five stars or a mediocre five out of ten.
It was dark in the common room of the hall house, and empty, too. I wasn't entirely sure what hour it was, but gee, it was late.

I stared apathetically as the metal spiral released the pink plastic covered candy. My bleary eyes, exhausted from crying over a million different stresses, followed as the candy fell with a clang to the bottom.
A hand reached in to grab it. My eyes widened as it was being held out for me though not for the kind gesture; but rather the worried face behind it.
"Echo?" I exclaimed in disbelief. I grimaced slightly at the sound of my voice - so thick and raspy from my pitiful wailing. I felt sorry for my neighbours. "What are you doing here?"
Echo's yellow optics remained steady on my face. He held out the candy more insistently so I slowly took it from his hands.
"... why do we always seem to meet in front of the vending machine at dark?" I asked with a sheepish chuckle after discerning that my first question wasn't going to be answered.
He lifted his hand. A cool touch brushed across the apple of my cheek. It felt nice against the rawness of my irritated skin, the product of wiping at them with my sleeve for hours. Lloyd's hoody, of course. I was always one for tradition.
Echo tilted his head. His eyes seemed to peer right through me.
"You have been crying."
My eyebrows raised. "You fixed your voice."
"Why have you been crying?" he pressed with a slight frown. It looked like a struggle to produce, as if he hadn't been outfitted with enough artificial muscles on his face.

I dutifully ripped open the candy bar and pretended that it wasn't an excuse to not look him in the eyes. If facing Ambrose, Chen and Kvasir before was hard, then facing the inquisitive gaze of a robot who could read me better than any psychologist was a million times harder. There was no point in lying or hiding anything from Echo.
"Just having my annual breakdown," I muttered before taking a bite of the chocolate. The popping candy exploded within my mouth and sent the feeling of tiny fireworks across my tongue. "When did you get your voice box repaired?"
Echo stared at me. "Favour from a friend."
I raised my brows. Cryptic. Then again, Zane usually was pretty straight forward, only saying what needed to be said and elaborating on nothing more without prompting. I brushed it off as a similar trait.
"Why are you here?" I asked as I stuffed one hand into the pocket of Lloyd's hoody and chewed on the sugary candy. I started off back towards my dorm and my companion followed. "I keep forgetting to tell Zane about you. Probably got too much on my mind. Have I told you that I'm going crazy?"
Echo watched my face. "You are not mentally deteriorating."
I let out a dry 'ha!' "Now that, I definitely am."
Echo let out a huff, as if annoyed at being challenged. "You are not mentally-"
Laughter from one of the dorms had Echo swiftly silencing and stepping behind me, as if a girl with tear stains and chocolate on her face would protect him from what most certainly was a nasty beast. I stared down at the cowering robot in bewildered scrutiny.

"You alright there, buddy?"
He slowly rose. His optics kept scanning and re-scanning the hallway.
"I do not like crowds."
I stared at him and then at the closed dorm door the laughter came from. I glanced back at Echo.
"A single person laughing at what I'm assuming is a TikTok compilation is hardly a crowd."
Echo set me a look that was actually irritated. It was the most I'd ever seen him emote. I was almost surprised. Amused, but surprised.
"Let us just reach your dormitory."
I raised my hands, half-eaten candy bar included, in placating defence.
"Alright, homie. You're the boss."
While Echo perched on the edge of my bed with an expression like a constipated cat - grumpy and in discomfort - I busied myself with finishing off my candy while preparing a hot chocolate. Sweet treats are the only thing that made me feel better when I'm down like this.
I took a seat on my bed and crossed my legs. He watched as I slowly swirled my warm beverage.

"Have you ever been in a relationship before, Echo?"
His silence was enough to make me glance up. I was being pelted with an 'are you stupid?' look. It seemed he thought the answer was obvious and I was just too dumb to realise. Prick.
"Guess that's a no," I grumbled. "Being in a relationship is difficult already. Learning new things, new routines. Knowing what and what not to say. Remembering birthdays, likes and dislikes, preferences in coffee or tea or juice. It's hard work, but eventually, you each become a part of one another's world. At least, that's what I discerned."
Echo tilted his head. "You are speaking as if you do not experience this."
"I don't know," I sighed. "I do. I guess. But... my boyfriend's different. His world is different. I thought I had my place in it but now I'm thinking... now I'm not so sure"

"Why is that?"
I huffed a laugh through a bitter smile. "He never lets me join him. He thinks I'm not strong enough."
"Does he love you?"
I stopped. My chocolate drink continued to turn lazy circles.
"... yes."
"Then do you not have a place in his world?" Echo asked with an inquisitive furrow of his metal brow. "I am unaware of much of your relationship, but perhaps he is simply... looking out for you."
"But this much?" I pressed with a incredulous look. "It's ridiculous!"
"Maybe you are simply too precious to him," Echo said quietly. "Maybe the mere thought of you coming to harm, not matter how little of a scratch it may be, keeps him awake at night."
I stared at him silently. My lips had parted in shock. I hadn't expected his response to be so... enlightening.
He wasn't finished. Echo's eyes found mine and I was trapped in his unmoving stare.
"Pure love drives people to go through extremes. The purer, the more controlling it may become. The more one may love, the more they may do something unexplainable," Echo continued in that same, soft voice. I watched him talk, transfixed. "His protectiveness might drive you crazy but he may see it as the only way to keep you from harm's way. Maybe he's seen people get hurt before and is trying to prevent that same fate being inflicted upon you. There is nothing more horrifying than seeing a loved one in pain."

I could see what he would be implying, if Echo knew who my boyfriend really was.
'Don't you wish that you could also keep Lloyd safe? Don't you wish that you could keep him on the sidelines?'
I realised, with a start, that that was exactly what I had been subconsciously wanting this entire time. Not just for me to join the team - but to trade places with Lloyd entirely. To be the one in danger so he wouldn't have to be.
"Become your own part of his world," Echo continued as he watched the numbers on my bedside clock count. "Become your own piece of the puzzle. You may not fit perfectly, but you can still be on the board."
I stared at my duvet.

Become my own piece of the puzzle?

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

Become my own piece of the puzzle.

Even weeks later, standing at the front of the monastery with my second year at uni tucked under my belt, Echo's words... well, for lack of a better adjective, echoed around my head.
Become my own piece of the puzzle.
But how?
With a sigh, I walked up the steps to my home-away-from-home. My legs were stiff and sore from the seven hour car ride with Chen and Ambrose back to Ninjago City from the day before, plus the hour trip on the bus through city traffic and walking the extra half-hour down the old forest road to reach the monastery itself.
It'd been a while since I'd had to make my own way there. With no ninja offering dragon taxi services and no one available to drop me off by car, the trip was long and boring...
But when Kashu came bounding up with his classic, three-legged english mastiff lope and his tongue hanging from his mouth, I knew that making the hour and a half commute was a good idea.
It was sunny, at least. It was summer.
My first summer without Lloyd.

"Hello?" I called down the entrance hallway after evading puppy-dog drool. "Anyone home?"
A loud metallic CLANG made me wince. Kashu boofed and scattered down the hallway.
"In the scroll room!" Misako's voice called. I poked my head around the corner and found the aforementioned room in a complete mess. It was almost as if Morro had made his return and had a temper tantrum.
"Was there a miniature tornado or am did I miss something?" I asked in bemused concern. A pile of yellowed parchment shifted before the grey haired plait of Lloyd's mother emerged.
"Y/n!" she greeted with a beaming, motherly smile. I felt myself begin to smile in return. "We weren't expecting you!"
I raised a brow. "'We'?"
Another pile of scrolls was shoved aside to reveal a dead-tired looking Garmadon. I blinked.
"Hello, child," he said with a lazy raise of his hand. "What a wonderfu..."
Garmadon's chin dropped and his eyelids followed. Misako threw a scroll at him and he startled awake with a scared snort.
"I'mno' asleep!"

"Hold on," Misako said. "Did you come here on your own? What about the gang? Y/n, that's dangerous!"
How could I tell Misako that I didn't care about the danger of my stalkers anymore? I gave a shrug and Misako sent a disappointed frown.
I gave another slow scan of the scroll room, unused to seeing it in such shambles. It was usually one of the most tidied and looked after rooms in the whole of the monastery due to the sensitive information it held. It seemed that Lloyd's parents didn't care about that anymore.
Or maybe they'd just gone off the rails.
"What's going on in here?" I asked as I gingerly stepped inside, shuffling through some discarded scrolls. If Wu were to see this mess, he'd freak. The thought of his reaction made me smile in bittersweet memory.
Garmadon raised his arms and dropped them to his side in defeat. He looked as if he'd been hit by a truck.
"Nothin,'" he slurred in clear exhaustion. "Absolutely nothin.'"
"We're looking for anything we have about alternate realities," Misako rushed as she pulled open a scroll and quickly read its contents. Rejection, she tossed it over her shoulder with a huff. It hit her husband on the head. He didn't seem to notice. "See, when it comes to playing with time, mistakes can easily happen! Timelines can split and create new versions of worlds! That's why Acronix and Krux were so dangerous, they can bend pure existence to their very will! So, alternate realities!"

Oh... oh, wow.
They'd lost it.
"Um..." I began, pursing my lips in concern as I glanced over the mountainous mess. "How... how long have you been at it?"
"What day is it?" she chirped.
"Tuesday."
"For forty-three hours!"
My eyes bulged. "And either of you haven't rested?"
"Rest is a concept of illusion that shackles mankind to a schedule desired upon by those more powerful than us," Misako announced as she merrily grabbed another scroll and yanked it open. My mouth gaped.
Okay. So, she's gone bonkers. Great.
"It's bed time, I think," I announced as I pulled Garmadon to his feet. He gave a grumpy, old-man kind of groan and I rolled my eyes. "Suck it up, gramps. You're not sleeping on the floor."
He pouted.
"But the research!" Misako insisted when I reached a hand out for her. Her plait was barely in a plait anymore and her brown eyes were desperate. "I need to find something! Anything! I'm just on the cusp of a brilliant discovery, I can feel it!"

"You're on the cusp of sleep deprivation," I argued. "Go to bed."
Misako whined but rose to unsteady feet and followed me towards their bedroom. After dropping Garmadon onto the mattress, Misako followed.
"When did you get so mature?" she mumbled. Her hand reached out to brush my cheek. "My precious girl."
I had to control my giddy smile and instead rested on a soft look. "Someone has to take care of you guys."
Misako grinned tiredly.
"Sap," she said. I gasped.

After that fiasco, I made my rounds and caught up with the rest of my friends at the monastery. When night fell, I found myself alone in Lloyd's room.
It was... dusty. And smelt as if it hadn't been lived in for the past year. The closet doors were closed, the bed was made, the desk was tidy. Any forgotten knick-knacks that Lloyd usually left laying around had been cleared away. It didn't even smell like him anymore. It was so un-lived in.
It felt so lonely.

After that painful night in which no sleep was gained and instead I was haunted by my memories that took place within the very same room, I returned to sleeping at my own home. The windows stayed open during night, partly because of the summer heat, but more so to soothe the part of me that hoped Lloyd would drop by.
He didn't, of course.
At least with University's unrelenting and unending pile of work I could keep myself occupied, but with this newfound freedom with nothing to do (Ambrose and Chen were traveling the coast in a motorhome and Naomi's family was spending her summer at her grandparent's down south), I found myself susceptible to overthinking.
And, of course, overthinking lead to nightmares.
A new routine appeared; spend the day training at the monastery. Get home. Sleep. Wake shaking and sweating and crying from a nightmare that I could never recall. Sleep. Wake for the day. Repeat.
Misako and Garm were worried about my health, and I couldn't blame them. I looked like a walking corpse at the best of times, and my screaming in the middle of the night had left my throat in a constant state of raw. At least they kept me eating right.

My birthday that year sucked.
Twenty. Woo-hoo.

Half-way through summer, just when I was deciding on what courses to choose for the next year and scrolling through BIT's website on my phone, I was stopped in my tracks.
I'd taken a mindless stroll through the zen garden, a regular place I'd go to between or after classes. There was always something so peaceful about it, something about it that allowed me to calm myself, to centre myself, to reel all my emotions and anxieties back into something manageable.
It'd become my safe haven.
My safe haven had an intruder.
A woman with long, black hair was sat against a rock beside the trickling stream that wound through the maple trunks, dipping her delicate hand in the water. The cool water ran past her fingers like silk. The dappled light settled over her hair like copper. She was the picture of elegance.
"Hello?" I almost didn't want to break her silence, but I'd never seen her before. I wanted to know if she was a visitor from the earthly plane or something more ethereal. She certainly resembled a goddess.

The woman glanced over and I almost had to take a step back from how gentle her grey eyes were. They settled on me like how a blanket would over a child, soft and secure and warm. I almost felt like crying. I hadn't felt like a little kid in so long.
"Hello," she greeted with a smile that resembled the pink blossoms of the sakura trees. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
My throat ran dry. She was definitely a goddess. She had to be.
"Um. Y- yeah!" I nodded. I took a robotic glance around the small bundle of maple and sakura trees. The woman's smile warmed into something bemused.
"You must be Y/n," she said as she rose to her feet. Her movement was graceful and sure, something I could only hope to achieve. It was like she was entirely aware of her body the whole time. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Y- you have?" I stammered. Who's been talking shit about me to a goddess? I bet it was Dimitri.
"Yes," the woman said with a curt, kind smile. "My name is Maya. I'm Kai and Nya's mother."

WHOA, hold the phone.

"Ka- Kai and Nya's mother?!" I spluttered before slapping my hands over my mouth at my outburst. My palms dragged down as more words bubbled past my lips. "You're the previous mistress of water!"
Maya chuckled. It sounded charming, like the wind through leaves on a summer's day. No wonder why Kai and Nya were so damn attractive. They had good genes.
"Yes, indeed I am," she answered. "Misako wanted me to train you."
I felt my heart drop to the floor.
"What?"
"She seemed to think that approaching from different angles would be the best way," Maya said, lifting a hand to a pink blossom and stroking the petals with delicate fingertips. Now that I knew who she was, I knew that those slender fingers could easily knock a man out cold. I wanted to be her.
Maya stared at me. Her eyes narrowed a smidge as she stared me up and down.
"Hmm," she hummed. Her hand lowered.
Then, suddenly, I was pelted in the cheek by a piece of bark.
"Ow!" I yelped from surprise more so than pain, flinching away. Maya perused through the trunks of trees, hands tucked innocently behind her back as if she hadn't just thrown bark at me. Her chin was lifted, high and regal. I gazed at her in bewilderment.

"I'm told that you have a great aim. Extraordinary, even," she said. Her grey eyes slid to mine, narrowed like slits. "But guns aren't weapons that our kind use."
I swallowed. "... our kind?"
"Elemental masters," Maya elaborated. She stopped beside a tree, ebony hair swaying like rippling water. She frowned. "But you're not an elemental master, are you? You're not one of us."
I was suddenly not liking this goddess so much anymore, no matter how anciently wise or pretty she was. Her words carved into my chest and scooped my heart out only to stomp her heel on it.
You're not part of Lloyd's world.
Another piece of bark found contact against my neck. I gasped, clasping my hand to the stinging spot. It was almost as if she noticed my mind beginning to drift. I sent her a glare and she stared back, blank-faced.
"Because of your unforeseen and mysterious power, we're forced to try new strategies. Too many attempts from the same angles can grow stale and no progress will be made. It can become frustrating, and for powerful people, frustration can become deadly."

I stared at her in stunned silence as she pouted in concentration. Her grey eyes shifted to the sunlight trickling through the leaves.
"So, I ask you this;" Maya continued. Her eyes stared me down and I found myself rooted to the spot and almost breathless. "If you're not one of us, why are you trying so hard to train like one?"
My eyes widened. Her gaze softened.
"Ah," she said. "Breakthrough. The first step into developing one's self is to stop comparing yourself to other people. Growing your powers is like learning to draw - you need to work at it on your own. You can certainly take tips and tricks from others, but you can never create the next Mona Lisa without putting the work into developing your own skills first."
Interesting metaphor, but alright. I shifted uneasily on my feet, frowning.
"So what do I do?" I asked.
Maya grinned.
"We find your breaking point."
"Huh-? Ow!"
I was pelted with a barrage of bark and small stone pieces and I raised my arms in defence. Maya walked calmly as she threw her attacks, circling.
"Stop!" I exclaimed, clenching my eyes shut. "Stop it!"
"You're not at your breaking point," Maya said.
"Pretty sure I am!"
"You'll know it when you are," she insisted. The attacks picked up on intensity and if it weren't for the fact that I knew she was a previous elemental master, I would be wondering how on earth she was pelting these small bits of organic shrapnel at me so fast.

"Please stop!" I pleaded, feeling my skin begin to pucker with bruises. What kind of training was this anyway? "Please!"
"This is the only way."
Frustration dug at my gut. "I really doubt that!"
Maya didn't answer but instead continued railing her attacks against me. This was seriously the worst and most bizarre day of my life. I was quickly growing annoyed.
"Seriously, stop!" I bit, raising my arm to protect my eyes. Maya apathetically stared at me. "Stop it. Stop it!"
But she wouldn't listen. Her grey stare was cool and piercing, not unlike the small pieces of stone and bark. I clenched my eyes shut, gritting my teeth. I felt my frustration bubble swiftly into a growl and-

"STOP IT!"

Maya's attacks instantly ceased. My breathing was heavy and laboured from the stress of being fucking attacked and it took me another couple of beats to realise that I wasn't getting hit anymore.
"... fascinating," she breathed. "You truly are fascinating."
Breathing heavily, I slowly peeled my eyes open to take a curious glance at what Maya was talking about. I found her staring at me from behind a peachy-haze, figure distorted as if I were staring at her through water.
She threw a piece of bark. I flinched. It bounced harmlessly off of the peach wall.
I took a glance around me and found the wall was actually a small egg-like structure with me safely inside. I poked at it. It was like a one-way-mirror, it seemed. I could push myself through the barrier, but outside could not pass in.
"Whoa," I breathed, watching as the peach mist curled over my hand. Maya approached and tentatively knocked her fist against the dome. It echoed, as if made of solid material.
"Breaking points are usually catalysts for powers," she said quietly. "But sometimes they are necessary to unlock something buried deep within."
I glanced at her, hands still outstretched in the disconcerting mist. I frowned.
"Didn't you just say it was dangerous?"
"Yes," she said, then shrugged. "For anyone that isn't me."
Ah. So that's where the siblings got their ego from. The peach haze slowly melted away, slinking back into my body. I watched with eerie fascination.

"Misako and Garmadon will be pleased with this progress," Maya said. Her face twisted into something unpleasant and sorrowful, making me watch her in quiet alarm. Her grey eyes couldn't find me, instead raking over the trunks of maple trees in discomforting thoughtfulness. "Something is coming, young one. Something big and soon."
I felt my breath catch in my throat. "What is it?"
But Maya acted as if I never even asked a question. She placed her hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"Practise hard, Y/n. You'll need it."

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

"I want you to imagine that you're being attacked like how you were the other day."

Maya and I were sat in the dojo, standing before each other. The doors were wide open, letting in the sun and air, creating a gentle breeze. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the pain, the feeling of the small pebbles and bark pinching my skin.
Nothing.
I gave a frustrated cry. We'd been going at it for hours at a time for a week now and try as I might, I couldn't get that peachy dome back. My head was pounding. Maya sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"Get some rest," she said, disappointed. "We'll pick it up again tomorrow."
I laid down on the tatami flooring, spread armed with a weary frown. The door shut behind Maya.
I rolled to my side and pulled out my phone to check my notifications. There was nothing from the team, of course, but that didn't stop me from routinely prying into my messages just in case something slipped by me.
When my search proved to be fruitless, I turned to my phone's gallery to scroll through the photos of Lloyd and the others. I stopped on a chaotic, goofy selfie of me with the team in the games room (Jay was leaping towards the camera and it made his entire face a blob of blur).

"Ugh," I groaned, turning my head back to the ceiling and dropping my hand. I was restless and suffering, tired and jittery. I just wanted to feel normal again.
I raised my hands and stared at them. Things would be different if I had control over my powers. I could probably be part of the team. I could hold my own. I could finally be in the same league as the ninja, rather than scrambling to catch up, always in their dust.
The longer it took to take control of my powers, the more unattainable it felt. It was like trying to hold water - soon enough, there won't be any of it left. It felt as if my grasp on my powers will never exist.
"Why are you like this?" I mumbled.
Why can't I just be normal? Why can't I be useful?
"There is a book in the scroll room." A memory emerged from the recesses of my mind. I stared hard at my calloused palms while I recalled Wu's words. "An ancient one. It is Uchū's old journal. I would like for you to read it... it had an interaction between him and the ancestry of your powers."

"It may be your only warning"

"Something is coming... something big and soon."

I sat up. Maybe it was time to find that journal. I wondered if it would make me feel better about this apparent approaching doom or even more anxious.
Well. One way to find out.
The scroll room had since been reorganised back into its rightful tidiness (Misako and Garmadon had given up on the whole 'alternate realities' theory) so it wasn't hard to find the leather bound, ancient journal. I grabbed it from the shelf with bated breath, handling it as if it were a bomb about to explode.
This was a journal that was over two thousand years, still kept in almost-mint condition. This was a journal that Uchū himself kept.
After settling down at the table, I gingerly flicked through the old pages and found that it was a transposed version of an even older journal - translated from Old Ninjagoan and recently re-inked. The remnants of the first run through of inking still stained the pages a faint ochre.
A paragraph caught my eye.
'... it is of no knowledge where this woman's power came from, for it surely is not a branch of my own. It feels wrong, somehow, yet I inherently find myself drawn to her. It is as if part of me yearns to protect her. I have felt this peculiar need ever since we met.'

'Though I find this want to protect her particularly unnerving - it certainly wasn't of my own volition - I cannot help but find the woman charming in her own right. She is kind and helpful, and though she came from out of our village, the people have quickly adapted to her arrival. It is as if she'd been here from when I created man. It has only been two days since her arrival.
Perhaps keeping she who goes by Minerva close, I can figure out where her powers originated. They are not of an elemental kind, despite my best at discreetly studying the way she uses them. She draws more upon the energy of the realm rather than specific elements.
The other elemental masters share the same scrutinies that I do, and yet they also share the same want to protect. It's unnerving and unnatural. Maybe it is simply because I did not create her powers. I can not cast her out simply because she is not one of my children.
With her powers, she may prove useful.'

I flipped through a few more pages. Another passage caught my interest.

'It has been two weeks since Minvera arrived at the village and agreed to let me study her powers. I have never been stumped before when it comes to the workings of this world I created, but Minerva's powers simply do not make sense. She spoke of her creation into a material form - of drifting through a dark universe before a blinding light had her waking outside my village. Her powers created herself a body, a vessel to blend in with the children I created in my own image.
With that, I conclude that Minerva is far older than even I am. She may very well have been in this realm before it was even created.'

I placed the journal down with a stumped look. That's... that's crazy. My powers were older than Uchū? How does that even make sense!
Desperate for an answer, I continued to read.

'It has come to my attention that a seperate realm from my own has collided. The result of this have been instantaneous; all of my elemental masters haven been reviving odd dreams depicting future events. We have been recording as many of them as we can.
To my knowledge, Minerva has not received any of these dreams.'

'Another unforeseen result of the realm collision is the growth in strength of the world's darkness. My elemental masters have been trying to keep them at bay, but with these constant visions, their fighting skills have degraded. I fear that the world may be consumed by the evil.'

'Battle has ensued across the world. My elemental masters have been stretched far than thin to try and battle back the darkness. This collision of realms has caused nothing but anxiety, evil and issues. I strive to understand how it occurred so I may potentially reverse the effects.
I created this world to be safe. The collision has all but promised the opposite.'

'My elemental masters are falling. This collision is tearing apart families and driving despair through my people. This wide-spread distraught is making the evil stronger.
My research into the collision is inconclusive. Minerva suggested pouring my essence into weapons and joining the battle myself. With my research coming to no conclusion, it may be the only way.'

'The Golden Weapons have been made and the evil vanquished for now. I have no doubt that it will return. The collision is irreversible and the effects will forever be long lasting.
Knowing that with this new darkness lingering across the land and in people, I hid the weapons to evade any power-hungry monsters from catching ahold of them and causing another war.
I stationed young, eager dragons as their guards. I pray that they do not fail."

'Minerva has been talking recently about some prophecy that I do not understand. She claims that she must leave the village to prepare, but for what, she will not tell.
Minerva said that I would understand soon. I am not used to being left in the dark.'

And then, finally, at the last page;

'Minerva caused the collision.'

I sat back in blind shock. Minerva, who was certainly my ancestor, caused the collision of what was surely the Cloud Kingdom and Ninjago. My ancestor.
Uchū made the world with a balance of light and dark. Minerva purposefully upset that balance. Minerva was the cause for the Golden Weapons. Minerva was the cause for the secret ninja force, for this unending battle.
I placed the journal back onto the shelf, feeling sick.

I wish I never read it in the first place.

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

Lloyd perched on the edge of a rooftop of the party city of Tonchu, watching the blinding city rush along.

Tonchu was like Ninjago City if Ninjago City built its economy on gambling, strip clubs and fancy hotels that cost an arm and a leg to stay in. It was loud and shone a million different neon colours.
Lloyd found himself missing the usual hustle and bustle of his home city. It was more mundane, more domestic. Tonchu seemed to be like the setting of a fantastical, fast paced movie.
His feet swung from the edge of the roof, frowning at the list of names he held in his hand. He'd just finished catching up with the last of Wu's known accomplices and not one of them had anything substantial.
The silence in his comms meant that his team, spread out far and wide across the country, hadn't found any success with their leads, either.
Lloyd crumpled the list into a ball and shoved it into one of his pockets. What to do now? He had nothing to go on. The list was the last bit of plausible knowledge.

With a sigh, Lloyd pulled his hood from his head and let the breeze tumble through his hair and catch on his gi. He couldn't remember the last time he'd even taken his hood off.
Y/n would have a fit, Lloyd thought with a bittersweet smile as he watched the crowded streets below his dangling feet. He definitely hadn't been taking care of himself, that's for sure.
'Let me help. When are you going to see me as who I am?' Her words had been running through his head daily. The sorrow in her voice made him ache, but Y/n had far to go before being strong enough to be a member of the team.
The thought of Y/n being on the front line... it made him shudder with fear.
What would it be like if I wasn't the green ninja? Lloyd could imagine a mundane life for himself. He'd probably be at University, maybe even the same as Y/n. He could picture exam stress and late night study sessions, off-campus dates and the long drive home for the holidays. A normal boyfriend, a good one. One that didn't put Y/n in constant danger.
He could be normal.
He wanted it. He pined for it.

His comms burst to life with a brush of static. Lloyd scrambled to place his hood back on to hear the report, but found his heart sinking when he realised it wasn't someone from the team.
"10-31, 10-31. There has been a B and E at Borg Tower. I repeat, a B and E at Borg Tower. Requesting backup."
Lloyd glanced to the direction of Ninjago City. The last time there was a break and enter at Borg's Tower, a bunch of drones on the fritz were dispersed to shoot down civilians. Whatever was happening now could get messy and fast.
Lloyd stood. Tonchu wasn't far from the capitol. He could make it in twenty minutes if Bentley was fast.

"Ninja never rest," he said with a sigh as he stepped off the edge of the building and landed in the saddle.