Time was a funny concept.

It entailed many memories and perspectives. Somebody died the moment another person was born, and there was nothing that could have stopped either.

Life and death were fused together, bonded by mere strings, and for Cole Brookstone, death meant peace. He had been a ghost once upon a blue moon, he should know best of all.

Not that he would want to meet his end any time soon, though. He liked the life he was living now, even when all he did was either fight or hide.

The thrill enticed him and gave him something to look forward to. The fact that his family was there to witness all of life's aspects with him was even better.

But dread was a feeling he never wanted to feel, not back in the day, not now in the moment.

The air was thick and cold inside the Land Bounty. All six passengers were buried in their own thoughts. Nobody joked. Jay didn't make everyone laugh. Nya didn't yell at anybody. Kai didn't brag about anything. Cole didn't turn on any music from his We in da land bounTAYY playlist. Lloyd didn't talk about video games. Zane didn't correct anybody's grammar. Not that he could with no one uttering a single word anyway.

He was the one driving the vehicle, since he was able to control his emotions best. Nindroids tended to do that often.

While Kai and Nya were still on the verge of breaking down at any given chance, Jay was completely and utterly petrified.

It was obvious what must have happened to Ray and Maya. Everyone could sense it, but no one actually said it out loud. They were scared it would turn out to be true the moment they said the words.

Having seen the image of a bloodbath inside Ray and Maya's sleeping quarters was something Jay was sure he wouldn't forget for a long time. But he stayed somewhat composed for his girlfriend, who'd been sobbing uncontrollably just a couple of hours prior.

She was silent now. Not that she had said anything at all after what they had seen.

Jay was not dumb. He knew the Smiths were either kidnapped or killed and then kidnapped. He bet every penny in his bank account it was their combined enemies.

So if they did that to Ray and Maya, what would stop them from doing the same to Ed and Edna?

Just that thought alone caused Jay to visibly shake. In fact, his hands were shaking so badly he placed them on his thighs and fiddled with the belt of his gi.

They were all in their ninja-wear now.

Scrap 'N Junk was in the middle of nowhere, in the center of a freaking desert. They were the perfect victims of a planned murder. Hell, even an unplanned one.

Jay could feel it coming. A panic attack.

One of many, probably, with the rapid beating of his heart.

He had had many panic attacks in the past, so the team was already prepared for such moments. Reaching forward, Jay unzipped a small portion on the back of Lloyd's seat and pulled out a pill bottle, as well as a small water bottle.

He felt a pair of eyes on him as he popped a few pills into his mouth and drank the water. Then he turned his head to the side.

It was Nya, looking at him with red tear-brimmed eyes. The two exchanged knowing glances before looking back ahead.

Nya was feeling all kinds of emotions. Sadness. Anger. Fury. Remorse. And now pride, because she was proud of Jay for knowing what was coming and taking care of it.

She had never wanted to be held more in her life than at that moment. Her skin still felt cold to the touch, and she knew the color was still drained from her face.

Nya's bond with her parents was a strange one. She loved them, she would do anything for them, but she still didn't feel like they were really a part of her family. It was weird.

But if something bad had happened to them, if they were harmed...

She didn't even want to imagine that.

"We are almost there," Zane announced.

Jay's nerves spiked up by a hundred percent. He could see the junkyard in the distance, even if most of his vision was blocked by Lloyd's seat. He leaned his body to the side and let his tired eyes take in the state of his childhood home.

When the Land Bounty came to a halt and each ninja climbed out, Jay examined everything. From the scrap metals lying on the sandy floor to the old tires stacked around the place miscellaneously.

It looked...peaceful.

That sparked up a sliver of hope, but Jay quickly pushed it back down, knowing that was a bad thing.

Hope meant it was meant to be crushed.

He would rather crush it himself than let someone else do it.

He liked the control, the power to do something for himself, without anyone jumping in to save the day.

"Everything's okay," Jay mumbled to himself, but Nya, who was standing right next to him and looking at the same spot, heard him.

"Are you sure? Nothing's out of place or gone?"

"Doesn't seem like it," he answered a bit skeptically. "But how would I know if they've thrown something away, sold it, or acquired something new? I haven't been here in a while."

About a year and six months, Jay quickly realized, and it made his stomach drop. The last time he had seen and talked to his parents was at Nya's funeral-like ceremony. They had attended it, of course, like so many more people, to pay their respects to their son's girlfriend. They had comforted him, too.

Tears blinded his eyesight. His tired hands gripped onto the empty bowl like letting it go would make reality actually reality. He didn't want reality to be reality.

So he held the bowl and listened to Wu's speech. How great Nya was, how much she had done for Ninjago, how strong she was. He agreed silently.

She was great. She had done so much for Ninjago and its population. And she was strong, stronger than he would ever be. He was man enough to admit it.

Cole placed his hand on Jay's shoulder and showed his understanding when their gazes met. Jay couldn't make out each of Cole's features, but he could see the tears glistening in his best friend's dark eyes.

Everyone was crying. Lloyd was crying. Cole was crying. Wu kept sniffing. Kai was on the brink of sobbing. Zane and Pixal weren't crying per se, but their facial features showed that if they could have cried, they would have. And Jay? He was sobbing freely, letting out all of his emotions for the world to see.

His eyes raked over the people inside their monastery's courtyard. He could see all of their friends and acquaintances. Skylor, Vania, Benthomaar, Murtessa, a few Munces and Geckles, the mailman, Okino, a few keepers of the Storm Amulet, Dareth, Vinny from NGTV News, Gayle Gossip, and so, so, so many more. The courtyard was overcrowded with crying and mourning people.

His eyes stayed on Ray and Maya for a little while longer. His heart broke at the sight of Ray's arms wrapped around his wife, trying to comfort her the best way he could while he himself was breaking down slowly. Maya's occasional loud sobs shook the silence in the air. Nya was her daughter.

Jay could understand the messed-up irony of the situation. Ray and Maya were taken away from Kai and Nya too soon, then they came back, and now Nya was gone.

The Smith family never managed to seem to catch a break.

After Wu said his last words and the monastery was drowned in silence, the ninja stepped away from the urn. They placed their bowls down on the steps. Kai walked over to his parents and let them embrace him. Jay could hear the heartbreaking echoes of Kai, Maya, and now Ray's sobs in his ears.

"My boy," Edna said softly, stepping up to her son together with Ed. Her own face was flooded with tears.

Jay, now ready to accept that reality was reality, threw himself into his mother's arms. His body shook violently as he sobbed, "She's gone, Ma. She's really gone." He gripped Edna tighter.

"I know, my heart." Edna sniffed. She felt another pair of arms joining in on their hug. Ed, she knew.

"She is a hero," Ed praised proudly. He knew his to-be daughter-in-law was the reason he was able to embrace his son, and he would forever be thankful for that. But that didn't stop his heart from breaking at the loss of her. "A true hero."

Jay, whose face was buried deep in his mother's shoulder, nodded. Then he pulled his face back and looked at his parents. "She is the reason we are all here. But...I...I..."

He didn't want that. He hated himself for not thinking about Ninjago first, but he didn't want Ninjago to move on when Nya sacrificed herself. The people who were there and mourning would mourn for a certain period of time before they would all just go on with their lives.

Nya couldn't do that. She no longer had a future.

He no longer had a future with her.

A new set of tears sprung up and escaped his eyes. Nya was just twenty-three years old. She was too young to be gone, she still had so many more years to spend alive. She had so many plans, so many aspirations, so many memories to make.

With him.

She couldn't have gone. Jay didn't want to accept it.

"It's okay, son," Ed said, placing his hand on Jay's shoulder and squeezing it gently. "She will be remembered for who she is."

"A hero," Jay continued. "She will always be my hero."

"It's quiet," Jay said, his nerves immediately spiked up. "It's never quiet here."

He stormed off, before anyone could talk to him and make him wait until the entire area was checked for any danger, and knocked on the trailer's door. He waited a few seconds, and when nobody opened the door, he shocked his friends by stepping back and flinging the side of his body against the door, breaking it open.

The door collided with the wall on the inside with a loud bang. Jay stepped inside, his friends right behind him. His eyes quickly took in the small living room that was connected to the open kitchen, but nothing looked wrong. He walked inside his childhood bedroom and found the same, normal scene.

He passed by Nya and Lloyd, who were inside the living room and looking around, searching for anything wrong, and guessed Cole, Zane, and Kai were outside and doing the same.

Jay's feet stopped right in front of his parents' bedroom, the closed metal door right up in his face. He could feel his heartbeat in the depths of his ears, his fingers trembling as he brought his hand up to the knob and twisted it. The door opened with a squeak.

Jay took one glance inside.

Then he turned back around and closed his eyes shut, his mouth covered by his hand, tears rolling down his cheeks, pain hitting him in the chest.

"Goddamn it," he heard Lloyd curse quietly, probably to himself.

Nya's arms wrapped around him and squeezed him tightly. Jay removed his hand from his face and embraced his girlfriend back, his face buried in her hair. His sobs were loud enough to draw the others from outside inside.

"Fuck," Kai cursed the moment he saw Jay's trembling body pressed against his sister's. He walked around them and entered Jay's parents' bedroom. His own tears came back flooding his eyes.

It looked as if a large bubble filled with blood had exploded inside. Most of the blood was on the messed-up bed, and the floor was done for as well. Kai cursed once more when he accidentally stepped into a puddle of blood with his boots.

He stepped out of the room and watched Nya comforting Jay.

His eyes then found Cole's, who looked like realization hit him straight across the face. The two shared knowing looks.

Their next stop was Lou Brookstone's home.

— — — —

The ninja were back in disguises as they walked down Rocky Studs Street in Jamanakai. It was more in the center of the city, where Cole's childhood house was located. The brick house was known to the four Elemental Masters of Creation, a funny reminder of when they had been trying to win Jamanakai's annual dance competition to get one of the Fang Blades. They had won, much to Pythor's dismay.

But there was no fun anyone felt as they all walked up to the house, almost about a decade later. Things had changed drastically, and them having to evacuate Lou in order to keep him alive was one of the many indicators of said change. It was sad.

Cole knocked on the door, but after a few seconds of standing around awkwardly, he remembered the doorbell. Knowing what was about to come, he pushed the doorbell and retracted his finger when the annoying tune erupted from the speakers.

"WELCOOOOOOOME-UH!"

Instead of feeling embarrassed or disappointed, Cole smiled. His father had always been one for dramatics.

Yet his smile disappeared again when no one opened the door. With a heavy sigh, Cole pressed his fists together and activated his super strength, already guessing what he was about to find inside.

Kai and Nya's parents were gone, and a bloodbath was left behind. Jay's parents were gone, and a bloodbath was left behind.

There was a high chance Cole would sob today, too.

Swallowing down his nervousness, Cole punched the door open, breaking it off of its hinges. The six quickly walked inside, and Cole grabbed the broken door and placed it against the opening, hoping his father's neighbors would not notice. The least he needed was to explain why he just broke down his father's door.

He remembered how his mother used to ask guests to take off their shoes, a form of respect for her hard work cleaning the house. After her death, that request had never been brought up again, since his father had barely come home. It had been Cole who had done all the work at home, a few weeks before Wu had recruited him as a ninja.

Cole sighed as his eyes landed on the body-length mirror right beside the front door. He looked at himself, and he was no longer able to recognize the mourning boy he used to be before he'd become a ninja.

"What do you mean, you won't be here?" fifteen-year-old Cole Brookstone stomped on the carpeted floor, his way of showing his annoyance. The cleaning rag he was holding was dripping with water lily-scented cleaning detergent.

"I have a gig to perform, Son. I can't just abandon my team." His father, older but still in good shape to be a singer, grabbed his briefcase and stood in front of the long mirror, fixing his crooked bow tie. "One day you will hopefully understand what that is like, having people who rely on you. You should make some friends at school, you know."

Cole threw the rag down on the floor, uncaring of the carpet soaking up the wetness of the damp fabric. "But you're willing to abandon me? Your son!"

Lou Brookstone sighed. "Cole—"

"No, Dad. You listen to me." The boy came to stand in front of his father to make sure he was able to see the angry expression on his face. "It's been like this ever since Mom is gone. It's like you don't...you don't...like you don't want me anymore."

"That is not true, Cole."

"Is it not? Dad, it's my birthday! And you're abandoning me on my birthday to celebrate your gig or whatever. I turned fifteen today, and I didn't even get a 'happy birthday'!"

Cole was about to cry, but he forced himself to stay strong. If he were to cry now, his father would just call him emotional.

"You're making a big deal out of nothing, Cole." Lou looked down at his wrist watch. "I have to go now. I don't want to be late."

Cole shook his head and walked deeper into the house. He didn't want to think about that memory, that fateful day he had been left alone during his birthday.

However, that day, as sad as it had been and as stinging the memory of it was, it had also led up to one of the best moments of his life.

He didn't know why, but the mountainside of Jamanakai had always been a spot of relief for him. Cole's sorrows were drowned out by the sound of the wind. He could rest his mind at ease whenever his hands grazed the rocky surface.

Grunting, he pulled his body up further. He always came to the mountains whenever he would have a straining fight with his father, but today was different.

Cole was fueled by nothing but anger. He was furious. How dare his father leave him alone, especially on a day like his birthday?

This was the very first birthday Cole would spend without his mother, and instead of it being a day of as-happy-as-can-be celebration with his father, he up and left him, too.

His mother didn't have a choice. But his father did.

Cole groaned, but the pain of clinging on to rocks for close to an hour sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine.

He managed to shove the ball of disgust and anger down as he looked down. Instead of feeling frightened at the massive height he had reached, he smiled, knowing he, once again, reached past his limits.

But now he needed to find a good ledge to rest on to restore some of his energy to climb back down.

Grabbing the rope he was carrying down his shoulder, he flung the metal hook up to the smoother surface right above him. Having climbed up the same type of mountain multiple times, he could recognize when a ledge would cross his path upwards easily.

Once he was sure the hook was secured and he wouldn't fall to his death, he let go of the rocks and gripped the rope with both of his hands, his feet against the mountain. He slowly began to pull himself up.

He groaned and grunted, his arms burning with the sensation of accomplishment, but he kept his head up and reached the top of the rope. Then he gripped the edge of the ledge and pulled himself up.

A smile graced his face. He did it. He reached a new height.

But the smile quickly faded away when he noticed he was not alone.

That day had changed Cole's life, and he was afraid this one would, too.

"Dad?" he called out, walking deeper inside.

His friends scattered around. He saw Lloyd and Kai investigating the living room, Jay and Nya looking at the kitchen area, and Zane going towards the bathroom.

He guessed they were leaving Cole and Lou's bedrooms for Cole to look at.

With tentative steps, he walked up to the door of his childhood bedroom, taking a deep breath before opening it. His own bedroom looked just like he remembered it to look like—plain, lifeless, like a rentable room for a stranger to sleep inside.

He had never felt the need to decorate it since it had never felt right to. He had slept there, yes, but that had been it. He'd spent most of time outside, mostly by the mountainside or on the burial grounds of his mother. He had taken down every typical boyish thing after his mother had passed away.

The only thing that was still up was a family portrait right next to his window. Cole didn't need to step inside to remember the day that picture had been taken.

"Smile, Cole," his father said, the camera ready in his hands. When Cole didn't smile, Lou made a movement with his finger that resembled a smile. It still didn't work, making him sigh. "Cole, this photo of you will be in your room, in a large frame. You don't want to look upset on a picture you will see every day, do you?"

Cole, with his face set stoically and his arms crossed in front of his chest, shook his head and agreed to his father but didn't make any changes when it came to the way he looked. He didn't want to take a picture. Not now, when he had been denied his favorite cake prior to the idea of a picture.

"Come on, Son," Lou tried again. "Smile. Just like this." He demonstrated an exaggerated smile on his own face.

Cole snuck a glance at his father and pressed his lips shut, a laugh desperately trying to escape from them. He snorted but otherwise managed to refrain from showing any more emotion.

"Are you boys still not done?"

"I want cake, Mom!" little six-year-old Cole yelled, immediately running up to his mother who stood in the doorway. He hugged her waist tightly and looked up at her face. "Cake!"

Lily Brookstone smiled down at her son and stroked his pitch black hair with her hand. It was soft and smelled of water lily, just like most of the scents inside their home. Ever since Cole had understood his mother's name was Lily, he had fanatically made sure everything inside their house smelled like water lily, the closest scent he tied to her name.

"But you've already had cake on Monday, my love," she answered.

"So? It's Thursday! Monday was, like, ages ago!"

Lily sighed, knowing her son would not stop asking for her infamous chocolate cake. She loved baking, and ever since Cole had had a bite of her chocolate cake, he never stopped asking for it.

"Will you smile for the camera if I bake you some cake tomorrow?"

Cole stuck out his lower lip, trying to gain some sympathy points. "But tomorrow is so far away, Mom!" Then he focused on mastering his puppy eyes, and it was then that Lily knew she could not resist her son's request.

With a defeated sigh, she smiled at him, shaking her head a little. "You sneaky, little man." She laughed, and that caused Cole to laugh, too. "Fine. I can bake you some cake today. But now you have to go back there," She pointed at the wall, "and give your father one of your biggest smiles, okay? And I don't just mean smile, I mean teeth and gums and everything."

Knowing he achieved his goal, Cole nodded quickly and ran back in front of the wall. His father held up the camera and placed his finger on the trigger, but Cole gasped, making him falter. "What is it now, Cole?"

"I don't wanna be alone!" He pointed from his father to his mother. "I want you on it, too!"

Lou and Lily exchanged knowing glances. The former tapped away on his camera and activated the timer. Ten seconds before the picture would be taken.

Cole's parents rushed over to him and stood on either of his sides. Cole wrapped his arms around both of their waists, and one of their arms was around his shoulders.

The small family grinned as the camera took an audible picture, capturing one of Cole's favorite moments with his parents.

The moment was still, to this day, one of Cole's favorites. Granted, it was up there mostly because it was one of the few memories he could still vividly remember, but still.

He closed his bedroom door with a sigh and moved on to his father's. He hoped, he prayed, that there wouldn't be a bloodbath on the other side. He begged the First Spinjitzu Master silently.

His hand trembled as it grabbed the doorknob and twisted it. He closed his eyes to garner a few more seconds of blissful ignorance before he finally opened them again once the door was open.

His hand flew up to his mouth, a single tear escaping his right eye.

The room was clean. So clean.

No blood, no messy sheets, no broken window.

Feeling overly relieved, Cole closed the door and walked back to the living room to talk to the others. "Guys! My Dad's bedroom is not..."

All five of them looked at him as if someone had died.

And that was all the unwanted confirmation he needed to know that maybe the master bedroom was not necessarily the only place used to create bloodbaths.

He swallowed down bile and cleared his throat. "Where?" His voice cracked.

Zane looked down as he answered, "The bathroom."

The five ninja stayed in the living room as Cole stormed over to the bathroom. They didn't need to see his reaction to know what he felt, and the string of profanities he let out did not leave much for the imagination.

He came back a minute later. His eyes were red, but all of his tears were gone, wiped away. Kai slung an arm around his shoulders and side-hugged him, but when Cole sniffed, he gave him a full hug, letting the brute man cry out his heart.

"What do we do?" Nya asked the others.

Jay took a seat on the black leather couch and motioned for Nya to take a seat next to him. "I don't know."

"Do you guys think..." Lloyd didn't finish his sentence. He didn't need to.

"There is...a high chance for that, Lloyd," Zane answered. His cool blue eyes watched Kai and Cole taking a seat on the couch across from Jay and Nya. Lloyd sat down on the armchair. Zane was the only one still standing. "But there might be more."

"Like what, a ripped-off arm lying under the bed?" Kai scoffed, his dark humor appearing quickly. It was his way of coping with the situation.

"No, my friend," Zane said softly. "In fact, the fact that we have not found a single indication as to where any of your parents are is in our favor."

"How so?" Cole asked.

"We cannot confirm...their deaths."

Jay pressed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. "Okay, so what do we really do now?"

"We have to get our friends," Lloyd said, his mind set. "Dareth should be at Laughy's."

"Which is point blank in Ninjago City," Kai deadpanned.

"We have our disguises. And Dareth knows us. I don't see a big problem."

"Fine." Cole stood up and looked at his friends. "We should get going. I need to get some fresh air."

The others stood up as well, and they all moved back over to the broken front door.

Cole took one last glance around. The mirror brought back unpleasant memories, since all he could remember was his father fixing his clothes before going out, without him, to another gig that had been more important than Cole himself. The shoe stand was filled to the rim with his father's black shoes. He had to have about ten copies of the same pair, it was ridiculous. A few coats were hanging down the hangers on the wall, and there was a commode right under the coats.

Usually, Cole would have walked by, since he knew there wasn't anything interesting in that commode—a few pairs of balled-up gloves, miscellaneous pens and flashlights, a utility kit.

Cole knew exactly that neither he himself nor his father had really used that commode. He knew for a fact that his father rarely ever touched that thing since it used to have his mother's things inside before she had died and the stuff had been taken out and stored in the basement.

So why could he see a stiff paper sticking out of the top drawer?

"Dude, how the hell is this door so heavy?" he heard Kai grunt out, but he didn't care about the door now.

Cole walked over to the commode and pulled the paper out without opening the drawer.

When he looked at it, he stilled for a moment before bursting out in laughter, much to the others' surprise.

"What's got you cackling like that?" Kai asked, coming up beside Cole. He glanced at the paper, averted his eyes, then did a double take, his mouth dropping open. "What the actual fu—"

"They messed up my face!" Kai complained, ripping the paper out of Cole's hands and examining it thoroughly. "One of my eyes is bigger than the other, ugh! And my mouth! Do you see this?!"

He stuck the wanted poster into Nya's face, making her chuckle. She pulled paper away from her nose and looked at it. Then she faked a grimace. "Oof, they did you dirty, Bro."

"I look too friendly to be on a wanted poster," Zane said, looking down at his own poster.

"I look like I've seen...a lot," Nya said, her own poster in her hands. "But in a good way. I look tough!"

"I look okay," Lloyd commented about his own wanted poster. "They still could have chosen a better pic, though."

"I look fantastic!" Jay laughed. "Look at this, Nya! I look awesome!"

Nya smiled as she looked at her boyfriend's wanted poster. The officer who had to have chosen that picture really did Jay a favor. He looked adorable.

Kai faked a gagging sound, making Jay laugh and Nya roll her eyes.

Lastly, Cole picked up his own wanted poster. "I look like I've seen the First Spinjitzu Master himself." Then he narrowed his eyes. "Hey, wait a minute! Wasn't this from the time back when we were at the police station a few years ago? Look, I can even see one of your guys' armor to my left."

Lloyd looked at the picture used to show Cole's face and hummed. "Yeah, that looks like our armor. They must have gone back all these years in their CCTV databank to pull up your pic."

When Zane sighed, the others stopped looking at themselves and glanced up at him. The Master of Ice was standing in front of the upper drawer and looking into it. It was stuffed with stacked wanted posters of each ninja. But not only them...

Zane reached inside and pulled out three particular wanted posters.

Lloyd grimaced. "They made my uncle look like he's been possessed."

"He was," Jay said, "kind of. I remember when he looked like this."

"I remember it, too," Cole agreed. "This was when we tried to blast ourselves to the Never Realm to rescue Zane."

Nya furrowed her eyebrows. "How the hell did the police get this picture? We didn't take any pictures ourselves."

Zane frowned. "They must have gotten into our CCTV footage, too. There is no other explanation for it."

Lloyd sighed. "That means they've taken over our monastery already."

"Makes sense, since I'm in the base in my picture," Jay said. This made everyone else look at their pictures.

"I'm in the living room," Nya said.

"I'm in the courtyard," Kai said.

"So is Pixal," Zane added. "And I am in the living room as well. Misako seems to be in Wu's scroll room."

"Oh, these slimy...stinky...arrogant officers!" Nya licked her lips in disdain, her expression angry and upset. "They're rubbing it into our faces! They know exactly what they're doing! They wanted us to find these posters and recognize when and where our pictures were taken from."

Lloyd frowned. "I think so, too, but what about my picture? You all are somewhere in the monastery, apart from Cole, but where am I? I don't remember this."

"You're outside somewhere," Jay said.

"Well, duh."

"A pity that you're wearing your everyday gi in this one," Kai said, "or we could have at least known when this was taken."

Cole tuned the others out as he looked inside the drawer. Tears came back to his eyes but he pushed them down the best way he could. "He protected us," he said quietly. "He probably cleared the entire neighborhood, maybe even more."

He picked up a few opened envelopes and read through each letter. They were all sent from the police department, asking Lou Brookstone to come in for an interrogation regarding the escape of the ninja.

Speaking of escape, Nya walked over to the drawer and pushed the posters aside, trying to locate something.

"What are you looking for?" Jay asked her.

"These are all just us, Pix, Wu, and Misako," she said curtly. "But not a single poster of Killow, Violet, or Fugi-Dove."

"Maybe my father only cared about protecting us since, you know, family," Cole speculated.

"Or the police doesn't care about them and only wants to find us."

"Wait a hot minute," Kai said, his Adam's apple visibly bopping up and down. "If they're looking for Pix, Misako, and Wu, too, that means we've made an oopsie."

"A big oopsie," Jay agreed, also scared now. "We shouldn't have let Pix go out all by herself. Zane—"

"I am on it," the nindroid answered. He rung up his girlfriend, but she did not pick up his urgent phone call. "She is not replying."

He tried to call her again, but this time, he lost all connections to Pixal.

"This is not good," Zane panicked.