Kai's POV

"And after nearly 3 months, the team is finally reunited," my girlfriend smiles at the scene in front of her. The ten of us, with the addition of Harumi, are all sitting in the lab together. The girls, with the exception of Chamille who is off to the side being tended to by Zane, are standing in the middle of the room in a group hug.

"And we're ready to kick those psychopaths' asses," Seliel declares, making the rest of the girls lightly laugh.

"We're happy to have all of you on our side this time," I tell them all, and the rest of the guys nod in agreement.

"Sensei must be so proud of us for listening to him. 'The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them your friend', and that's precisely what we did," Jay places his hands on his hips.

"Where is Sensei? He should probably be in here," Cole asks.

"He's extra weak right now, so he's napping," Lloyd explains.

When Sensei pulled me aside to talk to me once I got back, I expected him to congratulate me in bringing Skylor back, not tell me that he's dying. It was a hard blow, knowing that I'm going to lose the person who brought me to the only family I had for a long time, but the situation right now helps defer attention away from it.

"So boys, what's the plan to defeat Mara?" Skylor asks us.

"We only have a vague one, but you all can elaborate on it later," Lloyd starts, finally accepting that they're on our side. "We need you four to pretend to escort us to Mara with fake vengestone. We'll need to get close enough to steal the gemstone, and once we do, Kai, Jay, Zane, and Cole will shoot their powers into it and destroy it. That'll cause Mara to instantly be sent back to her prison realm, but it'll also knock the four of them unconscious. We'll need to detain Ciara, and then my dad and Wu can banish her to a prison realm just like her sister, so she'll never get out."

"Do you guys know where the keeps the emerald?" Cole asks. All four of the girls who have seen her with the emerald shake their heads.

"We need to know where it is before we go in. Are any of you not in immediate danger going back? I know Skylor can't because she'd need to bring Kai with her, and we don't know what Mada will do to him or how fast she'll do it," Lloyd tries to form a more solid plan.

"If Seliel goes back, she could easily get killed. If Mara is mad at her, there's no way that'll turn out good," Skylor informs him, and Seliel nods in agreement.

"Once Chamille is feeling a bit better, her and I can return to the palace in an attempt to decrease suspicion. The two of us will also locate the emerald, and I will communicate with Zane via our shared network," PIXAL tells us. Chamille nods in the background.

"Great. Kai, can you forge us some fake vengestone handcuffs?" Lloyd turns to me, expectantly.

"Not here, but if I go back to my old house I can," I answer honestly. Without a forge, I can't create anything.

"I'll go with you. It's not safe for any of you to go anywhere alone," Skylor offers.

"Jay and Nya should go along too. Nya's powers can help speed up the forging process. Cole, Seliel, Zane, and I will hold down the fort here," he instructs.

"I'm proud of you, son," at the sound of one of our master's voices, we all whip around. Garmadon is standing near the doorframe. "I see you all have united, just like your parents did years ago. Wu and I, we are proud of you all."

---

"So, what am I supposed to do?" Nya asks as the four of us walk into the forge at our old house. Right before, the two of us stopped by our mom and dad's graves while Jay and Skylor got some food for us. The two of them are now sitting off to the side, quietly talking while trying not to disturb us.

"I'll heat up the metal and shape it. You'll need to fill these buckets of water, and when I tell you, you'll spray the handcuffs also," I instruct.

"Oh, that doesn't sound too hard."

---

"Alright, I'm tapping out," I say, the fatigue of both my element and the crafting taking over me. "How many did we do?"

"Three," Skylor answers, and my eyes widen.

"Only three! I swear we've done more," I groan, flopping back in a chair.

"Hey, at least you're halfway there," Jay tries to point out the positive, but I'm too tired to come up with any remark. "We got some of those spicy chips you like. Skylor insisted on it."

"Pass them over. Skylor, you're my savior," I catch the bag of chips Jay tosses over to me, quickly opening the bag and pouring some in my mouth.

"Oh Kai, Seliel told me that she got a dm from this guy saying,'tell Skylor I want to smash.' What does that mean?"

My eyes get wide, and I nearly choke on the chips in my mouth. Jay starts hysterically laughing as I feel rage creep up my body. "It means that he's a creep that wants me to kick his skull in."

"Kai!" Nya scolds as the fire fills me.

"You don't get what it means, sis. If you did..."

"Yes I do. Jay explained it to me," she tells me, and as soon as she does, fear appears across Jay's face.

"Hey, hey, hey, in my defense, you said you didn't want to, and you were gone, and she accidentally found some stuff while scrolling through instabrick and..." he rapidly tries to defend himself. I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"I'm still so confused," Skylor says, looking between the three of us.

"I'm sure Kai wouldn't mind giving you a demonstration," Jay laughs, and Nya elbows him in the side.

"So, back to the handcuffs, Skylor, do you think that you could use Kai's power to heat up the metal, so he'll get less tired?" Nya suggests, and I'm surprised none of us thought of it earlier.

"Of course, anything to help," she stands up.

"Ooo, ooo, can I get a job?" Jay asks, eagerly.

"Umm, you can be the entertainment. You can tell jokes or something," Nya suggests, making my eyes widen.

"No, no, you really don't need to," I say, not ready to hear bad puns for the next hour.

"You're such a party pooper. I'll go get more food."

---

Chamille's POV

With the tea helping to heal my body, PIXAL and I enter the palace again. When we do, we're met with Ciara at the entrance.

"You two took a while," she notes as we stop by her.

"There were many people at the hospital today, and they had to use various tests on Chamille to determine what treatment was best to give her. They ended up giving her a tea that sped up the healing rate of wounds," PIXAL lies. However, she had no choice but to. She can't just tell Ciara that she got caught up talking to Zane. The two of them talked forever, and while I knew we had to leave, I also saw that PIXAL and Zane have a shared bond of both being robots, and the two of them deserve to talk to someone else about it. I even think I saw the two of them flirting.

Ciara hums,"That's good that you're feeling better. Did you happen to see Seliel anywhere?"

"No, but I heard that she caught wind of where the masters of earth and energy have been staying, so she went to go after them," I lie, just like PIXAL.

"Well, I'm sure your Mother will be happy at the news of your return. She's been awfully lonely."

---

Cole's POV

"I have a super important question," Seliel tells me as me look off the edge of the Bounty down to Kai's home. While four of them are down here, the rest of us are up here relaxing as much as we can. While Seliel and I are hanging out, Zane is communicating with PIXAL over their network, and Lloyd is busy watching Harumi. I offered to take a shift, but he decided against it.

"What is it?"

"What should I wear to give Mara the biggest 'eff you' when we beat her?" she asks, one of her defined eyebrows slightly higher than the other as she asks the question.

"I think you have to wear your gi since you're supposed to be sneaking us in," I break the news to her, making her frown.

"But it's so ugly. I understand why, and by no means do I want jeopardize our mission to wear something cute, but it looks like a paper bag," I laugh at her comment. "It's beyond boring, and it's all one color. Bleh."

"Okay, but what if you thought it about it like this? If you wear it this time, you'll have the freedom to dress however you want for the rest of your life," I bring up. Her eyes light up.

"I didn't think about it like that," she admits, "and speaking of dress, I have something else to ask you."

"Go for it."

"So recently I've been doing research for my prom, since we're going to absolutely destroy Mara and Ciara, and I was wondering if you wanted to be my date to it? It said that you want to bring someone you enjoy being around and are attracted to, so yeah."

My heart beats rapidly in my chest as she waits for an answer from me. Even though I'm typically good at concealing my emotions, some blush creeps onto my cheeks. "Of course! I mean yeah, yeah sure."

My response causes her to laugh, her nose cutely scrunching up. "Great, and by the way, we're going to be wearing corresponding outfits. I don't make the rules."

---

Lloyd's POV

"Wow, the all mighty green ninja can't even look me in the eyes, how pathetic," Harumi scoffs. I proceed to avoid her stare as I watch her. There's a delicate balance between making sure she doesn't do anything and staring at her. "Yet again, the all mighty ninja in general must be bailed out by their enemies. First, Lord Garmadon defeats the Great Devourer, and now you must bring in an entire other team of elementals. At this point, you should just drop the ninja gig."

"Ninjago needs protecting, and every life we can save, the better. There will always be darkness, but there needs to be a light at the end of the tunnel to keep the people going," I explain to her. She rolls her eyes.

"What about every life you lose, Lloyd? Do you even think about them?" her voice starts to raise in volume. She jumps up in the chair in an attempt to get out of the ropes, but it's no hope.

"Of course I do! You think that I don't? You think that any of us don't? During battle, when we see people limp on the side of the streets, we all mourn. We mourn for them, for their families, for their friends, and we wish that we could have saved them."

"Oh sure you do, just like I actually ever had feelings for you," she spits, sending daggers into my heart. "Not only did you fail to protect the city when the Great Devourer attacked, but it was also directly your fault. You were the one who opened the serpentine tombs, am I wrong? All of the blood from that day is on your hands."

"You think I didn't realize that? You think that I didn't think about that when I was receiving all of those awards declaring me a hero just several months ago? Most people can just forget about their childhood regrets, but mine will always be there, and there's no changing that. Dedicating the rest of my life to making sure less people die from those type of things is my form of trying to make it up to all of Ninjago," my eyes start to get slightly watery, but I manage to hide it.

"Doing that won't work. It won't bring back my parents or anyone else who were killed that day."

"I know, but it will prevent more kids from becoming like you."

A/N happy New Years everyone! I hope 2021 treats us all well. I'm hyped to the new content we'll be getting this year.

Also, if I don't merge/ split more chapters, there's only 5 chapters left including the epilogue (but not including the two bonus chapters for the alternate ending)

I posted a chapter to the fanfic that I'm going to work in after this (it's called unscripted) in case you all want to check it out. It's my story that used to be called starstruck

Thoughts for the rest of the book?

Thank you all! You're the best, and don't forget to comment and vote