"Please don't call this place a crime scene, Ava.  It's scary when you do things like that."  Lloyd stops, frozen in horrified fascination, as the team steps into the clearing and observe the scene of utter annihilation.

Random limbs lie strewn about the ground, and several severed heads litter the area.  One arm clings tightly to a thick tree branch, as if its owner had been attempting to drag itself away before its untimely demise.

"What a woman."  Acronix mutters.  "Wait, where's my brother?!!"

"He ran away, the coward!!!"  Ava snarls contemptuously.  "He couldn't even fight me like a man!  He saw his troops being decimated, and he took off!!!  Very inspiring."

"So he's still out there, waiting for a chance to strike?!!"  Jay wheezes, terrified.

"Pretty much."

Jay squeaks, looking rather ill.

"But not to fear!  We have the wildest, most battle hungry, bloodthirsty warrior woman that Ninjago has ever seen on our side!"  Rhea announces.

"I'm not sure how useful Night will be against Time."  Ava protests.  "I wager that the only reason my power is so effective on those Warriors is because Night is related to whatever they're made of."

"And we've lost the element of surprise now."  Lloyd adds.

"What we need is something to even out the playing field.  A way to balance the odds in our favor."

"We need to discuss this further."

"Indeed."

The two leaders confer in muttered tones, drawing away from everyone else as they attempt to come up with a suitable course of action.

Acronix casts a slightly jealous glance at Lloyd and furrows his brow.

"What'cha thinking 'bout, Nix?"  Rhea grins, pulling a cookie out of her pocket and handing it to him. 

He bites into it aggressively, still glaring at the Green Ninja's back.  "M'thinking."

"About how to set fire to a blond guy using nothing but your eyeballs?  If so, you're going about it the right way."  She lowers her voice.  "..But just between you and me, I happen to know for a fact that she isn't into blonds, so you're fine."

Acronix's cheeks redden.  "Am I that obvious?"

"Yeah..."

Acronix groans and lowers his head into his hands, mortified.  Then he looks up.  "Not to deliberately change the subject or anything, but I've remembered something that may be of use."

Rhea munches on another cookie.  "Okay?  So what do you want me to do with that information?"

Acronix pauses, then turns to Emily.  "Emily, I've remembered something that may be of use."

Emily smiles and gestures for him to follow her, and they walk over to Lloyd and Ava.  A few moments later, Ava yanks the girl away and savagely growls something at him.

"I'm sorry, you'll hit me with your mace where?!!"

"YOU HEARD ME!!!"

"I MIGHT KNOW SOMETHING USEFUL!!!"

"Let's hear it, then."

"Back when we were very small, our mother used to tell us all manner of stories.  One of them used to be about a magical river called the Time Stream.  She said that it flowed through 'The Island's Twin.'  I never understood that part, until I realized that it could only mean Ninjago Island's twin-"

"-The Dark Island."

"Precisely.  It was fabled to run along the 'passage of time.'  Now, I have no idea if it even actually exists, but it's worth checking out, don't you think?"

"You can't be serious!"  Lloyd exclaims.  "You want us to check if a mythical river is actually somewhere on this huge island?!!"

"Wait just a minute, Lloyd."  Surprisingly, Ava jumps to Acronix's defense.  "All myths have their roots in reality.  How true it is, I can't say, but if he's telling the truth, and that's a big if, then perhaps we could do something with that knowledge.  ..Or it's a trap.  In which case, I'll kill him myself."

"It's not a trap!!!"  Acronix says exasperatedly.

"Then you have nothing to fear."  She replies, raising an eyebrow.  "..Except me, of course.  What exactly is the Time Stream capable of doing, anyway?"

"Mother said that it altered the flow of time.  If you got swept up in its current, then time would rewind.  If you couldn't escape its grasp, then you'd essentially become nonexistent, as if you'd never been born at all."

"Sounds dangerous.  I like it.  Count me in."

Lloyd sighs, resigning himself to his fate.  "Alright, we'll come with you, but you'd better be right about this, Acronix."

698 words.