Zane's POV

I stand still as Jay plugs wires into me, connecting me to the computer.

"If anything goes wrong, don't be afraid to disconnect. You're more valuable than anything else," Jay informs me, his features emphasizing both his worry and concentration.

"The only way something would go wrong is if PIXAL was prepared and protected her network with some sort of virus, and I can assure you she doesn't know what that is or how to do it," Nya rationalizes. Jay has a record of "freaking out", so his current state does nothing to deter me from my mission.

"I am ready," I inform them.

"Jay, insert the tapes that Lloyd and Cole got from the police station into the machine," Nya instructs Jay. He runs over and promptly inserts them. "These are the videos of Ciara not only stealing all of my sisters and I, including PIXAL from Cyrus Borg, but also the murders of all of our elemental mothers and my dad. You won't be able to force her into watching them, but you can upload them to her database. You'll need to convince her to watch them herself."

"I understand."

"Are you ready?" Jay asks, now standing in front of a button.

"Yes."

"Good luck, buddy."

Once his hand hits the button, my visual sensors no longer receive input. Several seconds later, it comes back, but now I am in a dimly lit black void. The only reason I know that an error did not occur is because PIXAL is standing approximately 4 feet away from me.

"What...what is happening?" PIXAL looks around frantically, trying to analyze the situation. She looks around for any logical reasoning for why she is here. "I was just sitting in my room and..."

"PIXAL, I brought you here to communicate with you," I inform her. She raises an eyebrow.

"Are you turning yourself in?"

"No, I am not," I smile a bit at her assumption. "I came here because it is the only safe place I can communicate with you, and I need for you to listen to me. Ciara and Mara are not the women you believe them to be..."

"Zane, I have already heard that opening a numerous quantity of times, and every time it is followed with pure accusations, no evidence. I cannot switch my beliefs based on that."

"I have evidence," I pull the tapes out of my pocket and stick my hands out. "These videotapes contain Ciara not only stealing your sisters and the murders of their mothers, but also your capture from your creator."

"My creator?" a hopeful spark crosses her features for a brief moment before she conceals it.

"Yes, the man who built you. He goes by the name of Cyrus Borg. He is a kind man. I have met him on several occasions, and he has treated me with nothing but generosity. He's told me that you are the project he has always been the most proud of."

"How... how do I know if I can trust you? Trust your words?"

"Watch these, you will see it for yourself. If you wish to help us after watching them, do not hesitate to reach out."

"Your creator... where is he?"

"He is sadly not with us," I respond, letting out a sigh.

"My condolences."

"It's as if he lives on through Cyrus Borg. Cyrus is using modified version of my blueprints to create more Nindroids. It is comforting to see it all occur," I admit.

"How did you cope with being the only android for such a long time?" she asks me, her eyes scanning me up and down.

"Due to my memory switch being turned off, I did not remember being a nindroid. It was only when I noticed I was significantly different than my brothers that I noticed something was out of the ordinary. I simply did not understand a lot of their idioms or many of their actions. When I found out, I believed that they would treat me differently, but they were actually very accepting. I still had struggles that none of my team could understand, but they helped me feel less alone," I open up naturally. PIXAL is the first nindroid I've actually talked to. It creates a mutual bond between us, the struggle of feeling like we're outsiders.

"That is good. My experience is slightly different because I also had no powers, but I can relate," she reassures me, a smile of gratitude on her lips.

"Please watch the videos if you do not believe my words about Mara and Ciara. They are evil."

"I...I will contemplate it."

---

Seliel's POV

"Is she still frozen?" I look up from my phone. Chamille and I were mid conversation with PIXAL in her room when she just froze and stopped talking. While we panicked at first, we both remembered how PIXAL has explicitly told us to never touch her system unless whatever glitch that occurred takes more than an hour for her to resolve. The two of us have been waiting with her.

"Yep. How long has it been?"

"Like ten minutes. Maybe something crashed," I hypothesize.

"Maybe. I don't really know," Chamille cracks her knuckles. "We should go shopping sometime."

"Mother doesn't want us out of the palace when we don't need to be, remember?" I remind her. She rolls her eyes, leaning back and groaning.

"That's so dumb. We can handle ourselves. I just want some cute shirts."

"Tell me about it. Do you know that they have cute clothes that you can train in?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. It beats our nasty beige, baggy shirts," I tell her as I scroll through my direct messages. Lots of people, primarily fan pages for the ninja and boys around my age, send me messages. While some are vile, others are nice. "This guy said 'tell Skylor I want to smash.' Like what? What does that even mean?"

"I have no idea," Chamille shrugs, going back to filing her nails.

Seeing that she isn't interested, I go through them silently. When I finally reach the top, I notice that I have a new message. Furrowing my eyebrows at the little checkmark next to it before even looking at the name, I click it. It's only when I see the username blown up on the top of the screen that I realize it's Cole.

Hi Seliel, since I didn't think I would be able to sneak a cake into the palace (I know I'm a ninja, but those stone warriors are intense) I decided to send you a message instead. If it works with you, I'd like to meet you at the bakery at noon tomorrow. There, we can share a cake and discuss a possible truce. Ninjago isn't going to get any better if there's this tension. Please consider it. :)

The little smiley face at the end puts a small smile on my face. I type out a response.

Would I need to come alone?

A few seconds later, I see the little text bubble pop up.

Yeah, just for security. I just want to be able to talk without any possible tension.

I glance over at Chamille. "Hey Chamille, if you cover for me tomorrow when I leave the palace, I can grab you some clothes. If anyone can sneak out, it's me. I literally can teleport."

She strokes her chin. "Alright. If Mother or Auntie want you, I'll just morph into you."

I quickly message Cole.

Alright, I'm in. Send me the address.

---

Kai's POV

"There's still one place I need to show you before we get to the Bounty. Take a right here," I tell Skylor as I take the exit as opposed to going straight on the freeway. She wasn't there mentally when we left my house, so I insisted that I drove.

"Aren't we in a time crunch?" she asks me.

"You need to see this, and lucky for us," I look out at the horizon,"we're going to get there just in time."

The two of us drive in a comfortable silence. She gazes out the window while I keep my eyes set on the road. About fifteen minutes later as the sun nears the horizon, I park at the bottom of a grassy hill.

"A hill?" she asks, rising an eyebrow.

"Oh, it's so much more than a hill. Come on," I get out of the car, and she follows suit. "You're not allergic to grass, are you?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"Perfect," I lead her to the top of the hill. When we reach there, she's speechless. From here, we look out on Ninjago City in all of its beauty. The sun, in its' low position, reflects off the skyscrapers, a sea of red, orange, and yellow bouncing off. "It's not the same as it used to be, but do you want to watch the sunset with me?"

"Of course I do," she tells me. The two of us sit down and look out at the city in silence. "It's so beautiful."

"I've only ever seen one thing more beautiful in my entire life," I admit to her. She looks over at me, curiosity in her eyes.

"And what was that?"

"You."

She looks slightly off guard, a smile crossing over her lips. "So I'm a thing now?" She cocks an eyebrow at me.

"Only the best," I look forward before looking back at her. "We have an interesting relationship, you and I."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you started it off by tying to kill me..."

"In my defense, I didn't know any better, and I didn't want to kill you, just significantly injure."

"...and then I ran back into a burning and crumbling building to save you. Pretty heroic if you ask me."

"Keep going."

"After that day, I couldn't get you out of my head, and from what I've heard, it's been mutual. We've been torn apart multiple times, considering how you not only threatened to destroy a building full of people but also threw a fireball at my best friend, but each time I couldn't help but want you even more," I look into her beautiful eyes as I say this. My eyes flicker down to her lips that are slightly parted.

"Then I left for a couple of months," she takes over for me,"and I tried to forget about you. I can only assume you did the same. It didn't work though, and when I saw you again..."

"It was like that same fire lit back up inside again," I finish for her. "It was the definition of 'you want what you can't have'."

"And this entire trip, every touch, every look, it's made it even more intense."

"But now," I reach out, cupping her face with my right hand. Her eyes gently flutter shut, her hand grabbing onto my wrist before she looks up at me, "there's nothing stopping us. We're on the same team."

"Every single time you touch me, it's the most intense thing I've ever felt. It's so strong. The warmth...it makes me feel alive."

"You know how when we first started our little trip, you asked me what a kiss was?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you want a demonstration?" a smirk finds its way onto to my face, and Skylor's face slightly mirrors it.

"That's exactly what I want," once the words escape her lips, I can't hold back any longer. With one hand on her waist, I pull her closer. When she gives me a nod, I connect our lips.

It feels unlike anything I've ever felt before, unlike any other kiss I've ever had. The feeling of her soft, full lips against mine causes the burning desire I've felt to flare even more. One of her hands is holding onto my shoulder while the other one runs through the hair near the bottom of my head. My hands are on her waist and the small of her back.

Wanting her even closer, I pull her in so she's straddling me. Skylor depends the kiss, and I respond in the same way. My hands run up and down her waist. Knowing this is her first kiss, I don't do anything else.

She looks at me with her big, beautiful eyes when she pulls away,"If I knew that was what I was missing out on, I would've left Mara a while ago."

"Would you have now?" I gently raise an eyebrow at her, a small smirk playfully appearing on my lips.

"Mmmhmmm," she leans in and gives me a short but passionate kiss. "You've been my weakness ever since the day I met you, Kai Smith."

"And you've been mine," I tuck a strand of her scarlet hair behind her ear.

"I figured out your plan a while back by the way, how you were trying to get me to switch sides," she informs me.

"Then why didn't you stop me?"

"Because I didn't want to. I wanted to enjoy the time with you that I had, especially because of Mara," she admits. "You guys have a plan to stop her, don't you?"

"Yeah, I don't know their progress back in the city, but having you makes it so much easier," I twirl the end of her ponytail between my fingers.

"I'm guessing you want all of my sisters to switch sides?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"No, just what I'd do in your position."

"Imagine if the rolls were reversed and the guys and I were the ones kidnapped as babies. All of this would've been done so much sooner."

"What do you mean?"

"That banquet would've been the end of us. I definitely would've caved into you. You looked absolutely smoking that night," I tell her, shooting her a wink. "If Nya got kidnapped like Jay did, Jay would've already given in by that point, and if he didn't by that point he would've then. Lloyd and Zane probably wouldn't have flipped, and Cole's a wildcard because even though he respects authority and is a rule follower, he's also been really into Seliel since the first day he saw her. Even if Cole didn't switch though, a seven versus three would have been really easy to win."

"I didn't know that Cole has a thing for Seliel," Skylor says, and my eyes widen.

"Don't tell her anything. If Cole finds out that I told you, he'll be pissed."

"I won't, don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

"Skylor?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know what a girlfriend is?" I ask.

"Seliel might have explained it to me in detail," she runs her fingers up and down my arm.

"Well, do you want to be mine?" I ask her. A smile grows across her lips.

"I would want nothing less."

---

PIXAL's POV

I sit in my room, staring at the wall. I am in an arduous situation. After talking to Zane for a rather large amount of time, I have to decide whether or not to watch these videos.

They could be a trap, a lie to deceive me into believing them. There could be some trap inside, possibly some programming that would hinder my system's inner workings. However, if they were going to do that, why would they not do it earlier?

Zane also appeared to be telling the truth while he was talking to me. He opened up to me about his past and his creator. I don't foresee him lying to me about that. That could just be confirmation bias though. Because I find comfort in Zane and enjoy talking to him, I am trying to find data that proves that he's innocent, not that he is lying to me.

The idea of my creator also intrigues me. Assuming that I was built in that realm was ignorant due to how inept Mother and Auntie are with technology and how young Nya was. There is someone in this realm that built me, and I have never met them. Watching the video would give me their clear

 identity while also providing answers as to why I made it into the prison realm.

I find the videos in my database and pull them closer to my audio and visual sensors. I increase their input so I can still focus on them and hear them while also being able to be present in the real world.

I pull up the first video on my file. A woman with blonde hair lies in an elaborate bed with a purple headboard. Next to her is a man with scarlet hair tied back in a bun. The woman holds a small baby in her arms. I stare at the scene to try to identify the people, zooming in on their faces. When I get closer to the woman, I see that with the exception of her hair color and slightly rounder face due to her pregnancy, she has a striking resemblance to Skylor.

"Oh Chen, she's beautiful, isn't she?" the woman says, looking endearingly at the small child.

"She is, my love. Do you think she'll possess your powers?"

"Without doubt, look at her eyes, they're so..."

"Hello, Earth to PIXAL," at the audio disruption, I direct more outwards stimuli into my visual sensors. Seliel and Chamille stand in front of me.

"Apologies. I was looking at security logs from the city to try to get information," I tell the truth.

"Alright, it's dinner. We texted you, but you didn't respond," Seliel taps her phone.

"Thank you for telling me. I will be down in a moment," I tell them.

"Alright. Hurry though, Mother is in a bad mood tonight," Seliel gives me what Chamille calls her "oh no" face before exiting the room.

Sighing, I reroute all of my visual input to the outside stimuli. "I'll get to you eventually."

A/N sorry for the POV changes, I merged chapters 16 and 17, so there had to be more switches to get everything in

There's only 11 chapters left (not including the alternate ending) so things are going to get more dramatic soon 

KAILOR IS TOGETHER NOW WOOOHOO

Next chapter is going to focus on 2 ships. Who do you think they'll be?

Also, I'm trying to decide on my next story. Each one is going to be Jaya centric, but I have multiple ideas I want to explore. One is a modern day royal AU, one is a ghost AU (in its simplest terms, it's complicated), and another one would be called Starstruck (without giving the plot away). Rn I'm leaning towards starstruck.

Thoughts on the chapter?

Thank you for reading you guys are the best! The goal is to have this book done by the end of the year but we'll see