3rd Person POV

"I think Aeria's experiencing some kind of dual personality output." Nya told the guys her theory.

"Uh, translation?" Ronin asked from his corner of the room.

"She's been acting weird since she got here, but I think that it's because of her dark element giving her a split personality." Nya explained.

"Well, that would explain why she's tolerable one second and the next she's completely icing people out." Cole observed and Nya and Xia looked over to him.

"What? I heard her talking to you two through the walls. You can't exactly keep secrets from a ghost, you know."

"Somehow I keep forgetting that." Nya admitted with a sigh.

"Well I say we just ask her head-on." Kai declared a bit harshly.

"Yeah, and why don't you just ask her to cut you down a couple inches while you're at it." Ronin spoke in a sarcastic voice.

"Uh uh uh you don't get to talk after everything you put her through." Jay pointed at Ronin.

"Me?"

"OK everyone just calm down!" Lloyd yelled out and got everyone's attention just as Aeria entered the room.

"What's going on in here?"

"Just a little disagreement, what's up?" Lloyd quickly covered up and Aeria still wasn't falling for it, but continued to play along.

"Alright, well, lunch is ready if you guys are hungry." Aeria informed us and we followed.

"That was fast..." Nya murmured as they all sat down at the table and Aeria set out some bowls of noodle soup that had some vegetables in it and a bowl without broth in it for Cole, him looking at her in question before she answered his unspoken question,

"Ghosts are only able to travel through straight lines and water isn't, I do paranormal research every so often."

"Ok?" Cole responded a bit uncertain.

"Finally, I get to use an actual, working stove and oven." Aeria joked as we all started to eat, even Ronin. The ninja, except Cole, just to be safe around the soup, all sat in awkward silence until Aeria broke it with,

"Alright, out with it, what do you guys want to know?"

"What's with your evil side?!" Jay blurted out before getting a hard kick under the table from Kai.

"What Jay meant was-"

"You don't have to sugarcoat it, I get the whole 'being nice one-second and the next I'm a total jerk' can be confusing."

"Well, when you put it like that... it sounds kind of mean." Lloyd pointed out unsure.

"It's true though. I guess since I'm gonna be stuck with you guys for the next two weeks, you might as well know..." Aeria reached for the bangs hanging over her eye and pulled them aside to reveal her hidden eye. It was lined in black with a red pupil surrounded by dark purple and casted a faint red light onto her face.

"Woah! That's not what I was expecting!" Jay pushed back on his chair so hard and fast he toppled backward.

"Yeah, that looks rough even by my standards." Ronin admitted with a straight face.

"Got this little beauty mark the same night I got my powers over the dark." Aeria told the ninja as she covered her eye back up with her bangs.

"When?" Cole asked as he stood off to the side.

"About two years ago." (AN- I don't know what the official lapse between seasons is, so I'm just making up a time-lapse)

"Wasn't that around the time when the Overlord was defeated a second time and Zane and Xia...?" Jay questioned hesitating at the last part in front of said nindroids.

"You may finish that sentence, Jay." Xia told him innocently.

"It is alright to talk about it." Zane added on sincerely.

"Died." Jay blurted out quickly.

"Can you tell us exactly what happened when you got your powers?" Lloyd asked Aeria as she looked away with her eyes pinched up, either with worry or discomfort, it was hard to say before she started,

"It was the middle of the night..."

Flashback

Aeria's POV

"Huh?" I pushed myself up from my bed after I thought I felt the ground shaking beneath me.

"Aw man... now I won't be able to go back to sleep." I whined as I rubbed my eyes and got up to turn the light on. After my sight adjusted to the sudden light, I started to pull my messy hair up into a low ponytail when I spotted my helmet sitting on the counter.

"Might as well go for a ride."

I pulled it on, along with my jacket and some loose boots since I was already wearing some dark purple leggings and a matching sports tank top to bed.

After firing up my motorcycle, I drove out into the forest leaving a trail of kicked up dirt behind me. Navigating through the forest, I had started going faster and reached a clearing that led to a marshy bog when the ground started to shake again. Caught off guard, my bike flipped to one side on the ground as I lost my balance, luckily, missing my leg as it was almost crushed underneath my overturned bike.

"What the heck was that?" I stood up and brushed myself off when I felt the presence of something overhead.

Looking up, a purple comet was streaking through the sky above and it wasn't until it was almost right above me did I realize it was about to crash and I hid behind a tree nearby as the comet crashed into the ground with a hard impact.

Peeking my head out, I looked to see that something was glowing in the crater and I cautiously walked out towards the point of impact. When I looked into the crater, there was a little rock-like object in the center that was glowing a light purple edged with a bit of gold and covered what looked like ice spikes.

Suddenly, I heard whispering coming from the rock and I felt an urge to touch it, but it exploded into a liquidy substance right as my hand made contact. A small drop of it made it into my right eye and I clutched my eye moaning in pain as it felt like it was burning while being poked with thousands of needles.

When I could open my eye again, I noticed that the clearing wasn't as dark as it had been just a minute ago and I saw blobs of red in the forest that looked like the outlines of animals. I started getting the sense that something was wrong, so I picked my motorcycle back up and rode back towards the shop.

Back to the Present

"It appears our suspicions were correct, you acquired the powers of darkness the same day we had destroyed the Overlord." Zane declared as he and Xia looked worried and slightly guilty.

"Guys, this isn't your fault." Lloyd seemed to recognize the look of guilt on their faces.

"Wait, what's not their fault?" Aeria asked, confused about what they were talking about.

"You see, a year ago, the Overlord, an evil spirit with powers of Darkness, had survived our first battle by escaping into a digital realm and it took Zane and Xia sacrificing themselves to force his spirit to go dormant in order to protect Ninjago from his plan to make it like him, dark and lifeless." Cole explained to Aeria.

"But if they died, how are they here?"

"We rebuilt ourselves using the machinery in Borg's factory." Xia answered as she held up her arm to show how, just like Zane, she had a compartment that contained buttons and switches to activate certain functions.

"So I have the powers of an evil phantom who wanted to make Ninjago a place of shadows and ruins?" Aeria asked in disbelief and everyone winced and nodded.

"Typical."

"But we're going to help you any way we can until you have full mastery of your abilities." Nya told her with determination.

"In the one and a half week, you have left to train her?" Ronin asked skeptically.

"For once, Two-Face makes a good point. That does seem like a pretty tall order, even for you Ninja" Aeria admitted before everyone finished their meal and went to go put their bowls in the sink.

"Whatever it takes. You're just going to trust us on this." Lloyd told her as he took her bowl.

"It's hard for me to trust anyone anymore..." Aeria whispered, but Lloyd managed to hear it.

"Aeria..." Lloyd started when, out of nowhere, the Bounty started to shake uncontrollably and everyone struggled to keep their balance.

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