The sounds of continuous hitting and punching echoed throughout the monastery's courtyard.

A few birds and smaller animals were sitting on the walls surrounding the area and resting their feet whilst staring at the commotion that was going on beneath them.

"Faster," Wu said loudly, looking at his student. "Harder."

"I'm trying!" she yelled back, shortly glancing behind her before focusing on her target again and sending a punch its way.

The training dummy she was currently terrorizing looked like it was brand new, like it had never been touched before, and Nya hated it. It had to look like it was about to fall apart. Or better yet; it needed to fall apart.

Her ego was bruising immensely because of the lack of improvement she was seeing on herself and her strength.

Prior to being water, the results would've looked different, but right now, she felt weak, incompetent, and stupid for even trying.

Her breathing came out loudly, resembling some panting that would've come out of her mouth after three hours minimum of running about a year ago — not something she liked to hear after only thirty minutes of hitting a training dummy.

That only fueled her anger. She tried her best to take it all out on the dummy, but the thing just wouldn't show any signs of destruction.

Wu sighed as he watched Nya's pathetic attempts at breaking her motionless opponent. He had expected a result like that, yet actually seeing it come true was still unwanted.

He needed to put an end to it before she put an end to herself.

"Have a break, Nya."

"No!" she yelled. "I will not rest until this stupid," punch, "stupid," uppercut, "worthless," roundhouse kick, "dummy dies!"

After a kick like that, the dummy collided with the concrete ground. Its metallic head recoiled harshly which caused it to break its neck. The disembodied head was now rolling away as the fierce woman stood in her fighting stance, panting and looking at what she just did.

Wu resisted the urge to sigh again. "Very well. Take a break now."

Still breathing heavily, Nya turned around and wordlessly grabbed her light blue flask that was almost empty. She headed inside, leaving Wu alone with his thoughts.

Once she entered her room, Nya took a long sip of her water before carelessly tossing her bottle to the side. It landed on the carpeted floor, and if it had been fuller, it might have leaked out.

Nya walked over to her vanity and gripped her chair that was pushed up against the white desk tightly. She stared into her own reflection, seeing nothing but a person she could barely recognize.

Her hair was a mess, her face was red, her eyes looked drained, her shoulders were slumped, and her legs were ready to give out.

The gi she had on felt sticky against her skin, so she pushed herself off and went to change into some casual clothes. She was too tired to take a shower.

Once she was done, she looked around her bedroom. It was tempting to just lie down in her bed and curl up in her sheets.

Trying to escape reality was something she was thinking of quite a lot, but no matter how much she could try, she would always have to wake up sooner or later and face the truth — the reality.

So she brought up the entire courage she could muster and walked out of her room to go to the kitchen.

On her way over there, she passed by the workshop. It was the same workshop she used to work in with the boys and create new mechs and rebuild old ones.

A small, barely noticeable smile formed on her lips upon recalling some of those memories. They were chaotic and stressful but still perfect to her.

Just as she was about to pass by without going inside, she heard a voice so she stopped and stood near to the closed metal door to listen.

"Zane," Pixal's desperate voice rang out. "Zane, are you there? Zane, can you hear me?"

Some radio frequency was constantly being played with, and Nya assumed Pixal was trying to get ahold of her significant other.

"Zane?" the nindroid inside tried again, her voice coming out strained. "Please... If you can hear me, contact me."

No longer wanting to witness that sad scenery, Nya shook her head and kept on walking.

The kitchen was empty, much to her luck. She moved over to the refrigerator and looked at what it had to offer. There were only healthy foods inside, which she was already expecting, but in that moment, she needed some chocolate. And cake. Or some chocolate cake to still both needs.

But she could not see what her stomach desired.

So she grabbed the salad, her safest option, and pulled out some dressing before sitting down against the kitchen island and drowning her salad in the viscous substance.

While she was eating, she heard some light footsteps coming in, so she looked at who it was and found out that it was Misako.

She turned back around and continued to eat.

"Hello," the older woman greeted the younger.

"'Sup?" Nya said back emotionlessly.

A sigh escaped Misako's lips but Nya couldn't care less. From the corner of her eye she could see Misako taking a seat right next to her.

"You know," she began, "Aspheera is still on the loose."

Nya hummed, uninterested in the conversation. "So?"

"So? That snake is probably plotting something menacing right now."

"Most likely," Nya agreed.

Misako kept her gaze on the side of Nya's face as she thought about a way to convince her to actually be interested in something other than sulking in her own depressed state.

"Don't you think you should get into action, and, say, try to track her down or look for her?"

Nya shrugged with one shoulder as she munched on a salad leaf. It wasn't crunchy which made her frown.

"But that's your job, Nya," Misako tried to argue.

"Was," Nya quickly corrected her. "It was my job. I'm replaced now. They can do all the tracking down stuff and find her. It's not like they don't know how to track down criminals."

The last bit of her sentence came out spiteful, and the older woman knew what she was hinting at.

"Besides," Nya continued, "what can I do? I have no powers, no team, no motivation, and no recognition. I doubt anyone would take me seriously without the guys by my side."

It was a plausible argument, as depressing as it seemed. And Misako could understand that, but she was still not ready to give up on her friend.

"Yes, but what happened to ninja never-"

"Don't say it," Nya gritted out, sending her a cold gaze. Her voice was just as cold.

She had enough of that heart-wrenching, pointless conversation. While keeping her gaze on the woman who could barely recognize her, she grabbed her bowl, stood up and left the room.

"How'd it go?"

Misako looked at the source of the voice and let out an exhausted sigh. "Awfully."

"That was expected," Wu agreed, taking the seat that had just been occupied. "Do you think there is still some hope for her?"

"I don't know," Misako voiced. "She seemed pretty closed off and unwilling to talk."

Wu scrunched his eyebrows as he locked his gaze on a small piece of bright green lettuce that was left on the mahogany table. "I had hoped some girl-to-girl talk would get through to her."

"Well, you thought wrong."

"Thank you, Misako," Wu said, a little hint of sarcasm evident in his tone. He chuckled, turning to her. "I really am thankful for your help, even if it turned out to lead to nowhere."

His old, slightly wrinkly hand opened up in front of her. Misako looked down at it with a smile of her own as she placed her hand into his, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Always."

— — — —

It had been a long time since Nya ate something in her bed while being wrapped in her comforter. A random GoTube video was playing on her phone, the video being of a GoTuber her Yin was meant to adore.

Though, Nya could not understand why. All the person did was play Fist to Face 2 while screaming the entire time.

And there she thought she had an acquired taste.

As she was shoveling another forkful of her salad into her mouth, she let her eyes wander over to her closet.

Her gi was in there, together with all of her other previous gi's she had worn on various battles throughout the years.

She shook her head. She had sworn off touching any of them unless she was being forced to by Wu.

But then again, she was a very curious person after all.

After battling a short inner battle, she came to the conclusion that knowing about what was currently a hot topic in Ninjago wouldn't hurt. So she exited GoTube and tapped on the online newspaper articles.

The first few she came across were all about her friends becoming villains, and since she neither had the time nor the patience to get angry at them, she chose to ignore them.

The further she scrolled, the more her eyes narrowed at the headlines.

How could our heroes betray us like this?

Is Nya Smith really back or did the "ninja" just use her death as a coverup?

Nya rolled her eyes. She had never been dead, just consisting of a hundred percent of water instead of the average sixty. And why was "ninja" in quotation marks?

Sooner rather than later - expert explains the mindset of our former heroes and why they became what they once fought against

The new ninja team! Meet the heroes...

Nya stopped reading that one and continued to scroll.

Aspheera seeking revenge in Ninjago's National History Museum

Nya's thumb came to a full freeze upon reading that headline. She clicked on the article and came across a report by Gayle Gossip that had been put online only two hours ago.

She pressed on the play button on the video and tilted her phone to the side to experience the news on full screen.

"Breaking news! Snake empress Aspheera has been detected entering Ninjago's National History Museum today at nine in the morning. According to the CCTV footage, there is no evidence of her ever leaving the museum grounds, so her current location is still unknown. The police are investigating the area. Until further information is revealed, I will be waiting to report the news to you."

Nya turned off her phone. She inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth to calm her nerves.

She had promised herself that she would not intervene in anything going on in Ninjago if she was to do it all on her own. She didn't feel like doing anything on her own without the rest of her team.

Besides, the new ninja were now ruling Ninjago. They were prominent, not her and her family.

But then why were her fingers itching to grab her gi and her feet wanting to rush to the museum?

Nya nibbled on the dry skin on her lips.

She should just let it go. There was no reason for her to pursue a career that was already over for her.

She nodded slowly to herself. There was no way she would go. She had her bed and her salad that were great consolers for her boredom.

As she nodded, her eyes glanced at a family portrait she had hung up on her wall.

Dammit.

— — — —

"Are you sure she was here?"

"Yes! She even hissed at me!"

Nya was looking at a portrait that was taking up an entire wall whilst trying to listen in on the conversation the police commissioner had with an eye witness.

She wasn't necessarily hiding her identity, but she also didn't want to be in the center of the spotlight, so she decided to lurk around and gather as much information as she could get before stepping into action.

And by action, she meant just looking around and hoping to potentially find a clue. But if she didn't, it wouldn't be the end of the world either.

"Hissed at you... how?"

The witness looked at the commissioner weirdly before putting his fingers in front of his cheeks and hissing at him loudly, trying to imitate Asheera's hoarse voice.

Nya almost chuckled.

"Okay," the commissioner dragged out as he scribbled something into his notepad. Then he tapped a button on his walkie-talkie and turned a little away from the witness to speak into it.

Since Nya couldn't hear what he was saying to his colleagues, she moved a little closer to the scene.

She figured that since the mayor was against the ninja, the commissioner would be, too, so she still kept a reasonable distance from him to hide her face.

A red baseball cap was on her head and she wore a pair of glasses, hoping it wasn't too much of a disguise to arise anyone's suspicions. She was wearing a brand new pair of jeans and a sweater she had never worn before. And it didn't belong to any of her friends so she was pretty certain those wouldn't get recognized.

"Ma'am, the area is off limits for now. Would you mind leaving?"

Nya froze for a second before composing herself again. It was a regular worker she had seen once or twice in her life when she had been to the museum for previous missions.

He didn't seem to recognize her so Nya used that to her advantage.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just admiring this masterpiece," she said, bobbing her head in front of her and pointing at the large painting. "It's just so... fantastic and absolutely gorgeous! I swear," she looked at the lower right corner and read the painter's name, "Fergus Redheart really has some visions only the clever can see."

It was silent for a few seconds that allowed Nya to internally panic. Had he identified her by her voice?

"I couldn't agree more! I mean, I've always admired his artwork from afar but being this close to one of his bestsellers is like a blessing to me!"

Nya smiled, imagining herself patting her shoulder.

"You're a Redheart fan, too?" she asked the worker, who immediately nodded.

"Oh, I'm not just a fan. I worship him." He chuckled. "I have a copy of one of his other bestsellers; Thornblader. It even has his signature!" he nearly gushed.

"No way!" Nya exclaimed. "That costs, like, thirty grand!" She mentally thanked her younger self for always having listened to Zane and his artistic interests back in the day.

Never had she ever thought it'd come in handy in her future.

"I know!" he exclaimed quietly. "But I won it at last year's online competition he held. Totally worth it!"

Whether it had been Nya being uninterested in arts or just her lack of being a human being, she knew that she had never in her life heard of such a competition.

"Wait, you won that?" She feigned hurt. "Man, I really had some hope to win back then. Screw you," she looked at his name tag, "Timo."

"What can I say? I'm just the best..."

It was obvious he was waiting for Nya's name to finish his sentence, so she quickly came up with a fake one.

"Clara."

"I'm just the best, Clara," he finished cockily.

"Yeah, yeah." Nya rolled her eyes. "Anyway, where is the restroom?" she asked, knowing it was close to where the investigated area was, where she needed to be.

"Oh, it's right this way," the worker, Timo, said, pointing down a corridor to their left.

"Thank you," Nya told him before excusing herself and walking that way. Before she could get far, however, she stopped in her tracks when she heard his last words to her.

"You're welcome, Nya."

She immediately whipped her head back and glared at him, silently questioning how he knew it was her.

He only smiled at her and pointed at her clothing. "You really didn't think that would fool me, did you? And your voice is quite recognizable, you know."

A curse word left Nya's lips that caused Timo to snort impolitely. He walked back over to her, stopping close to her ear. He was a little taller than her but he could still reach her ear to leave a whisper in it.

"I'll give you three minutes to get into the room and get out. I don't know for how long those officers are going to be distracted."

So he was on Nya's side. That was a nice start.

Nya nodded and muttered a quick "thank you" before leaving the main area to investigate the infamous room.

Once she was successfully inside, she quietly closed the door and looked around.

It was a large storage space, sheltering a big amount of new art pieces and very fragile ones that had yet to be taken care of.

According to the news, Aspheera had been detected going into this room but hadn't been seen getting back out of it.

Nya looked at the upper corner first, finding a black cloth covering the security camera.

Smart.

Although the footage was sure to show how Aspheera had put the cloth over the camera, it didn't really matter because her next moves had been hidden. Nya could ask Pixal to hack the museum's CCTV footage once she went back home, just in case.

With fast footsteps, she moved around the room, looking for anything suspicious while making sure not to touch anything. In fact, she brought out a pair of gloves she quickly put on before touching things.

The least she needed was to be framed for trespassing and destruction of evidence.

As far as Nya could remember, the security camera that was right outside of the room had never seen Aspheera leaving the room, so all Nya could suspect was that the snake was either still somewhere in there with her, or she somehow left through another exit.

But the only door that was in that room was the one Nya had entered from.

And no matter how well she searched, she couldn't find another door, a trap door, or a window.

The more she looked around, the eerier it felt for her. Her gut was telling her that something was immensely wrong, and not knowing what it was was almost frightening.

If anything were to happen, if Aspheera were to jump out of a corner and attack Nya, she was doomed. With no powers and no weapons to defend herself, it could just be the end of her.

Just before she decided to leave the room again after finding nothing, Nya stopped in her tracks upon noticing something shiny that caught her eye.

She walked over to the source and stopped in front of a large item that was covered in a white cloth.

Nya knew she shouldn't have done it, but she had to know what it was, so she gripped the fabric, counted to three in her head, and then ripped it off the item.

It was a mirror.

A mirror she knew too well.

What was it doing in the National History Museum?

Gulping, she looked down and avoided looking at her reflection, which caused her to lock her eyes on the shiny thing she had been attracted towards.

She slowly bent down, and the further she got down, the more obvious it was to her what the small thing was.

As her clothed fingers brushed against the solid material, Nya grabbed it and looked at it intently.

It was a small, shiny, violet crystal.