"Can you, like, stop doing that?" Kai asked Lloyd when he began to mindlessly click his tongue.

The Green Ninja stopped for a second. "Doing what?" He clicked his tongue once more.

Kai's nostrils flared. "That."

"Hm..." Lloyd seemed to think about it. "No."

Kai was ready to viciously attack his friend but refrained from doing so because everyone else was asleep, and drawing unwanted attention to them was not very smart.

Both of them were lying in their beds and trying to sleep, but none of them seemed to be able to obtain it. Lloyd was on the top bunk and Kai on the lower one.

"Kai," the younger whispered. There was a sudden edge to his voice that Kai immediately detected, frowning.

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"Do you think... Do you think we'll really be in here for five years?"

The Fire Ninja sighed. He pressed his head harder into his fresh pillow (at least that was regularly washed so it smelled like lavender) and thought about Lloyd's question.

In the perspective of any other criminal, five years would have been like a dream coming true, but for the ninja? It was torture knowing that they'd waste away their precious lives while other, more dangerous villains were out on the streets, living their lives carelessly.

Kai himself was still conflicted about it all. But no matter how angry he was with his circumstances, he knew it was worth having his sister back in his life.

"Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I know what to do!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I think I know where they might be! All I need to do is just-"

"Nya. It's too late for them to come back."

"But-"

"I was once like you, in denial and hoping to see them walk in here again and raise us like normal parents would do. But we are not normal and they are not coming back. It's time for you to accept that, because I have. Don't cry, sis, I'm sorry. Look, I promise that whatever happens, I'll be here. I won't leave you and I won't let you go either, okay? You'll always be my baby sister and I'll always be your big brother. We'll always be Kai and Nya, the best siblings there are. Okay?"

"Okay."

"There's the smile again! Now come on. We still need to open the shop."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

He smiled at the small fraction of memory he just relived. He'd been eleven years old when it happened, and his sister had just turned nine.

"Kai?"

"Uh, what?" He snapped out of his little trip down memory lane and remembered he still had a question to answer to.

"Do you think we'll be-"

"Yes," Kai answered honestly, feeling both uneasy and accomplished. "I think we need to accept it, Lloyd, and go through with it."

He couldn't help but feel the same way he had when he'd told Nya that their parents would never return to them. Lloyd was like his younger brother from another set of parents, and Kai's must-comfort-distressed-sibling senses came up.

"But what we did wasn't all that wrong, was it? Yeah, we unleashed Aspheera and all, but we didn't kill a guy, so it couldn't have been any worse... right?"

Kai sighed when he heard the small tremble in Lloyd's voice.

"Lloyd, are you okay?"

"Yeah," his voice slightly cracked. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're crying."

"No, I'm not!" Lloyd quickly said, trying his best to sniff as quietly as possible.

Kai still heard it though. He sat up in his bed, his blanket falling down to his hips, and moved to the center of his bed. "Do you need a hug, Lloyd?"

The response came a couple of delayed seconds later. "Yeah."

The upper bed creaked as Lloyd climbed down the steps of the steel ladder. As his feet landed softly on the ground, he looked at Kai, got on his bed and crawled over to him. With his back leaning against the wall, he glanced down and let Kai pull him into a side hug. They swayed from side to side a little while Kai tried to comfort him at least a little bit.

Lloyd sniffled, blinking rapidly to stop his green eyes from letting out any tears. Luckily for him it worked, and all that was left from his bad mood was his clogged nose.

"I need a hug too," a quiet whisper coming from the other side of the cell admitted.

Kai and Lloyd stopped moving and looked at Cole, who was lying in his bed, his blanket pulled up to his shoulders. He was glancing at the two.

Kai opened his right arm. "Come here, bro."

Slowly, Cole sat up and pulled his blanket off his body. The walk over to Kai's bed was short. He, too, sat with his back against the wall and let his short-tempered friend side hug him, though it was a little harder for Kai to reach Cole's other shoulder since he was naturally buffer than Lloyd.

"We're fine, guys," Kai told the two. "We're fine. We have each other and that is all that matters. We caused it together, we bathe it out together."

The two stayed quiet and let Kai speak his truth.

"Yes," he continued, "we're doomed to stay in here for five years, but on the bright side; we'll get to make a new experience."

"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Cole asked him, smiling.

Kai noticed that his words were making his friends' mood light up, so he continued. "Well, no, but what do you want me to do? Lie and pretend that we're gonna get out of here by tomorrow? You know it's an unrealistic wish." Kai waited a little before wanting to say more, only to be interrupted by yet another voice coming from the other side of the room.

"Guys?"

"Jay?" the three said at the same time, looking up at the top bunk on the other side of the cell.

The Blue Ninja was gripping the edge of the metal frame and glancing down at Kai's bed, seeing the three all sitting next to each other, with the Red Ninja's arms around the other two.

"What are you doing?" Jay whispered.

"We're having a sentimental never-have-I-ever moment. Wanna join?" Cole replied, making Kai smile and Lloyd laugh softly.

Blinking slowly, Jay decided that sleep was boring when his friends were talking amongst themselves, so he carefully climbed down his bunk. As he walked over to them, he shortly looked over to the left and saw Zane's single bed pushed up against the wall, where he lay still, recharging his battery perhaps.

Kai let go of Cole and Lloyd to allow them to sit a bit away from him to create more space on the single bed for Jay to join them. They were now sitting in a circle, all able to look at each other.

"Okay," Cole said, holding up ten of his fingers. "Never have I ever been arrested." He put down his left thumb.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, what a funny guy you are." He put his finger down as well and watched as the others also put down a finger.

"Want a better one?" Cole asked him, playfully narrowing his eyes. A good idea then popped up in his head, making him smile mischievously. "Okay. Never have I ever been with my friend's sister romantically."

All eyes fell on Jay.

"Really, Cole? That's the best you've got?" he said as he glared at his best friend. He still put a finger down though.

He was about to say that Cole was technically supposed to put a finger down as well, but he refrained from doing so because the bitter taste of more bitter memories crept up in his mind that he quickly shoved back down.

"Well, never have I ever tried to get with a literal queen and obviously got rejected."

Cole narrowed his eyes. "Vania and I are taking things slow," he huffed, putting a finger down. "Also, didn't you try to get with that Munce Queen?"

Jay gasped accusingly. "She tried to get with me, not the other way around. I'm a faithful man, Cole, I'd never cheat on my girl. Besides, does Vania know she's 'taking things slow' with a criminal?"

"Weren't you the one who did nothing but watch as Nya fought over you in a literal pit?"

"You think I enjoyed it?"

"Sure do."

Lloyd and Kai exchanged both concerned and amused looks.

"Can you please stay quiet?" Zane's voice suddenly interrupted them, making them all turn to look at him. He was still in his bed. "Some people are trying to sleep here."

"But you don't need to sleep," Cole told him, raising his eyebrows.

"Indeed. However I need to recharge my battery."

"From doing what? Working out? Fighting? You've been rotting in here with us ever since we got here," Jay asked, sounding sassier than intended.

They watched as Zane slowly sat up, moving his upper body like a robot. Which he was.

His turned his neck in a 45-degree angle and stared at his friends.

"Zane, stop that. You're being creepy again," Kai ordered, shuddering.

"I apologize."

Lloyd tiredly rubbed his eyes. "Why don't you join us, Zane?"

Zane wordlessly got out of his bed and sat down on Kai's bed between Lloyd and Jay. They were now sitting in a pentagon, with the space capacity on Kai's bed reached.

"Are we performing a ritual?" Zane asked, earning shocked looks from his friends.

Cole and Kai burst out in laughter. Jay's eye twitched. Lloyd face-palmed.

"You know," Kai began, "maybe I do somehow enjoy emotionless Zane more than normal Zane."

"I will take that as a compliment."

"You should!"

Suddenly an ear deafening alarm broke through Krypterium, making the five wince. One would think they'd have become used to hearing it at six in the morning by now, but it was still something they would forget existed until it made its appearance again.

The other prisoners also woke up, most of them without freaking out or complaining about it.

The light finally went on so looking at each other was more bearable than only seeing their shadows.

"Aww," a guard fake-cooed as he stood in front of the ninjas' cell. "It's a play date. How cute."

The ninja scowled at him and watched as he fished out a set of keys and began to shuffle through them.

Just as he slipped one of the keys into the lock, another guard rushed to him and whispered something into his ear that made him freeze. He stuck the key back out and blankly stared at the ninja before walking away.

"Hey!" Kai yelled, scrambling out of his bed and running to the cell door. He held on to the bars as he kept his eyes on the guard. "What about our breakfast?!"

It was usually time for breakfast at six in the morning, but somehow that fell off the radar the second the guard was told some interesting news.

"It will be delayed, Smith," the guard yelled over his shoulder.

Cole and Lloyd came to stand beside Kai. None of the other cells were opened, which was weird. It had been the same routine for them ever since spending their days and nights inside Krypterium, and breakfast had always been at six sharp.

Unless...

A mechanical sound came from the steel wall as it was pulled up, revealing at least six prison guards. The two at the front began to move, so the people at the back moved forward as well.

"Who do you think they're bringing in?" Kai asked his friends as all five of them curiously looked at the guards.

"I don't know, but probably someone dangerous," Lloyd speculated, "because look at those guards, man. They look scared as heck."

By the time the guards stepped into the main circle of the large area, several gasps from fellow inmates flew into the air.

"Who is it?" Kai asked as he tried to get a good angle.

And just then, when the guards shifted just enough to reveal the person's head, Kai freezed.

"Who is it?" Cole asked him, noticing his sudden change.

With wide eyes, Kai slowly let go of the bars. His mouth opened and closed, strange sounds escaping it as he tried to form tangible words. Nothing worked. His skin paled, as if he had just seen a ghost.

The second they saw who it was, all they could do was stare in shock. The person's face was turned away from them as they looked at the several cells on the other side of the room, but their hair... their black hair that was up in a ponytail... and their figure... It all matched.

"Nya?" the ninja chorused.

As they were moving across the center, the person turned around, and just like that, as brown eyes locked on the five incriminated ninja, a smile slowly spread on a familiar pair of lips.