A/N Part one of a double update ;)

Skylor's POV

"Ouch," I yelp as I face plant into a field of grass. I look beside me, and my other sisters promptly follow, falling out of the portal and, without grace, landing on their faces.

"No, my makeup is ruined!" Chamille exclaims, wiping the dirt off her face. I sigh, standing up and wiping off my gi.

I watch as Auntie and Mother gracefully land on their feet. Mother immediately looks around, a giant grin on her face. "Oh, it's been a long time, Ninjago, but I'm finally back, and I'm here to stay!"

"Don't get too cocky. As soon as that emerald goes, so do you," Auntie looks at her sister before turning towards the rest of us. "My darlings, we are here."

"You need to get the Helmet of Shadows from the museum. I have a picture of it here," Mother goes to hand me the picture, but gives it to Seliel instead.

"And we must stay in the shadows on our way there to remain undetected?" PIXAL double checks.

"Exactly. We do not know where the guardians are, and while it is unlikely they are near the museum, it's better safe than sorry," Auntie elaborates. "Meet underneath the city at this location," she hands me a map with a circle drawn onto it. "From there, we will attack the palace."

---

The four of us dart through the shadows, hiding in between buildings. Surprisingly, there are not many people in the city. It seems to be fairly cleared out, perfect for us.

"Ninjago is so pretty," Seliel hums as we start to climb a building in an attempt to travel via rooftops.

"It certainly is significantly different to the monastery," PIXAL says, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"We can focus on the scenery later. Now, Seliel, can you teleport us over to that other rooftop?" I ask, noticing the gap is too large to jump across.

"Of course," she says, sticking out her hands. The three of us grab onto her, making skin contact, before a cloud of smoke surrounds us. We appear on the other roof. We continue that for several rooftops.

Interestingly, with each rooftop, the noise coming from the street gets increasingly louder. When the sound becomes immensely louder, I peek over the edge of the building to see a giant crowd of people. They are filling the sidewalk and the whole street, blocking the cars from driving through. The crowd is screaming loudly.

"What's happening?" Seliel asks, curiously before looking over. "Woa that's a lot of people."

"Let's keep going. We can't have anyone spotting us," I pull her back from the roof. We keep going for several more roofs until we're on the roof of the museum. Attached to the roof is a door.

"In and out in a blink. No one will ever see us," Chamille says, cracking her knuckles. In front of our eyes, her gi turns to a blue one, looking identical to the one Jay wore at the Explorer's Club, her face morphing under her mask. "And if anyone catches us, I'll be ready," she says in his voice.

Holding onto Seliel, the four of us materialize on the other side of the door. Then, with light steps, we tip toe down the stairs. Luckily for us, the entire building was redone right before the last time we came, so the stairs aren't creaky at all.

"Auntie mentioned to me earlier that the museum should still be closed now, so there should be one person in here max," I bring up to my sisters once we reach the bottom of the stairs. They nod. Quietly, we sneak out, staying in a cluster. We listen to the sounds around us for any other signs of life, but there are none. We slowly start to investigate, looking at the various displays for the helmet.

Walking through the museum sends a wave of emotions crashing through me. All of the feelings I felt that night that I've tried to burry in the past two months resurface within seconds. I can remember Kai standing up on that stage in his red tuxedo, smiling at Lloyd's words and making my chest tight. I remember the closeness of our dancing, how his hand rested on my waist and radiated a warmth throughout my body while managing to make me shiver at the same time. I remember the look of disappointment and horror on his face when I told him the offer, all remorse off his face. I remember how guilty and empty I felt as he walked away.

"Are you alright, Sky?" Seliel asks, noticing the dazed look on my face.

"Yeah, it's just weird being back here," I admit, purposely leaving information out. The girls and I go systematically room by room, trying to find the helmet. It feels as if we've checked everywhere, yet we still can't find it.

"Are we sure it's..." Seliel starts.

"Misako! There may or may not be a screaming mob of fans outside. It's all Jay's fault," at the sound of his voice, my breath hitches.

"We need to hide, now," I say sternly, realizing what this means.

"Why?" Chamille asks, obviously not paying attention.

"It's so not my fault," Jay protests against Kai. Now that my sisters are paying attention, they realize it. Seliel grabs all of us, teleporting the four of us to a balcony above the room where we can't be seen well from the ground below. We get low, looking out at the room.

"I didn't expect you four to stop by today. The museum doesn't open for another hour, you know," the voice I remember as Lloyd's mother's says.

"Four? There are five guardians," Chamille questions, her eyebrows furrowed.

"I guess one of them is missing," Seliel shrugs.

"Yeah, we kind of got swarmed and needed a place to go to to escape that, and this was the closest place," Jay elaborates. We still can't see them, but their voices seem to be getting closer.

"Well, I was about to offer my car as transportation, but if there are people all around the museum, it won't be able to leave," Lloyd's mom tells them.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" a deeper voice that I don't quit recognize asks.

"Cole," Seliel whispers, primarily to herself.

"So either Zane or Lloyd aren't here," I observe. Seliel nods.

"Hmmm, oh, we can show you what we did when we had to travel by rooftop last time we were here! It's so fun, trust me," Jay exclaims in an excited manner.

"We?" I murmur quietly to myself.

"Can we take a rest first? It's tiring weaving through all those girls," Kai asks, sounding as if he's stretching.

"I'm sure you don't mind it," Cole says. "But yeah, why not? We never really got a proper chance to look around the museum the last time we we here, but only if you say it's okay, Misako."

"I don't see the harm," the older woman says.

"Darn it," I groan quietly. They fall into casual conversation while the girls and I have to wait it out. It's feels like forever, with various conversations happening in different places. We can't risk the guardians finding us, even if it is even on both sides. They might warn the royal family.

"I don't understand, Cole," I focus in on the sound of Kai's voice. "How come she wants to hang out with Jay instead of me? I've been trying everything to get her to hang out with me."

"Cause she likes Jay. Jay's her boyfriend, remember? It makes sense that she wants to spend time alone with him. Wouldn't you want to spend time with your girlfriend if it was the other way around?" Cole answers. I don't understand what they're talking about, but I still can't stop paying attention to the conversation. "Look, I know you're not too thrilled about her dating Jay, but he really, really likes her, and he cares about her a lot. He wouldn't let anything bad happen to her ever, even if she would fight against his protection."

Kai let's out a short laugh. "Can I be honest with you?" There's a pause in the conversation. "Yeah, initially the idea of the two of them together grossed me out, but I've realized that she could have fallen for guys a lot worse than Jay. They're actually...oh boy, I'm actually going to say it... really good for each other."

"And why won't you tell that to them?"

"You think my ego can handle complimenting Jay?"

"Fair point, but don't you think Jay should know he has your stamp of approval..." mid sentence, I hear a muffled sneeze from next to me, belonging to Chamille. My eyes widen. While she attempted to stifle it, it was still loud.

"Did you hear that?" Kai interrupts Cole.

"No."

"Come on, let's investigate," at those words, my heart starts to beat rapidly in my chest. If they catch us, we're screwed.

I hear rustling in the rooms next to us before they walk into our room. At the sight of Kai, everything in the room disappears. His hair is the same shade of brown in it's wonderfully styled yet messy fashion. Even from this far away, I can see the depth in his brown eyes. Just seeing him makes me long for his touch and to hear my name come out of his mouth. I close my eyes, trying to banish the thoughts from my mind.

"I swear I heard a sneeze!" he stomps, his fist balling up at his sides.

"Look Kai, I think we're fine. The last time you thought you heard something, you nearly fried a lizard to death," Cole places his hand on Kai's shoulder.

"But I didn't," Kai defends himself before lifting up his hand to shield his mouth. "What if they're here?"

"Kai, they haven't shown up in nearly two months. What makes you think they'll show up today, to the museum of all places?" Cole reasons incorrectly to him, but Kai seems to ignore it.

"Is anyone here?" Kai asks, loudly. "Skylor? We don't want to hurt you guys. We just want to talk," hearing him say my name causes my chest to tighten up. I want so bad to go down there and talk to him again, but I stay in my spot.

Cole face palms next to him, "Kai, why in all of Ninjago did you think that she'd come out if you said her name, even if she was here?"

"Um...."

"Exactly," Cole sighs, looking around the room. "No one is here Kai."

"That's what you think."

"Are they here? I heard 'Skylor' and ran from the other side of the building," at the sight of our sister, all four of us quietly gasp. Her hair is pulled back away from her face and she's wearing a red sundress. Jay is holding onto her hand, coming in with her.

The sight of her makes my heart ache. I didn't expect to see her so soon. It makes me miss her even more. If everything was perfect, she'd still be on our side, but sadly, she made up her mind. It doesn't make it hurt any less. I miss my youngest sister, but I can't let that cloud my view of the mission.

"No, Kai is just paranoid," Cole says.

"Am not," he crosses his arms in defense. Kai walks around the room, looking behind and underneath all of the displays. "Maybe they already left, or maybe they're in the other room. Let's go," Kai grabs onto Cole's wrist, dragging him out of the room. It's clear that Nya waits to talk until they're out of earshot.

"Did Kai really leave us alone for the second time in a row?" she asks, a small smile on her face and an eyebrow raised.

"I think he did, shockingly," Jay tells her, a warm smile on his face. It makes me uncomfortable watching her be openly nice to him and vice versa. It just feels wrong.

"Pun intended?"

"The pun is always intended," Jay laughs before gently tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"It's so weird to be back here," Nya sighs. Jay tilts his head to the side, questioningly. "While you might have dozens of memories here, I've only been here once, and a lot happened that night."

"That was the night you decided to switch sides," he observes out loud. The statement surprises me, and it seems to shock the rest of my sisters. All of us assumed the switch was a last minute thing after she kidnapped Jay again. None of us expected that the second kidnapping was planned on both sides.

"I know I made the right choice, but it still doesn't mean it was an easy one," she says, gently biting her lip. "It was also the night I watched that video of my mom..." at that, Jay pulls her close to him, wrapping his arms around her.

"I couldn't even watch it. I...I can't even imagine how you felt or even still feel. Have I mentioned that you're one of the strongest people I have ever met?" at Jay's final comment, she looks up at him, holding both sides of his face in her hands. She stands on her tip toes and pulls his face closer to hers until their lips are pressed against each other. Their lips start moving against each other, and I'm just met with confusion and a strong feeling of uncomfortableness.

"What in the 16 realms are they doing?" Seliel asks quietly, obviously as confused as I am.

"Perhaps it's a form of mind control that works very well since they are very close to each other," PIXAL hypothesizes. Nya's hands explore Jay's back as he pulls her even closer by her waist. I feel like I'm intruding on something important by watching, so I look away.

"I never would have expected for you to be this good of a kisser after being stuck in isolation for 16 years, but you're absolutely amazing at it," Jay admits. At the sound of his voice, I see it as an okay to look back. Their faces are extremely close, their lips just a centimeter or two apart.

"Kisser?" Chamille asks, quietly.

"Well, I did have a wonderful teacher. He made learning fun," she tells him, her hand gently running up and down his shoulder.

"It appears they have gotten a lot closer since we have last been in Ninjago," PIXAL observes.

"That's what happens when you get into someone's head," Chamille grumbles, glaring at Jay. "Of course she wants to be near him after he's been poisoning her mind for two months."

When their lips touch again, I look away. This time however, my eyes settle on something black with a shiny tint on the other balcony. I nudge Seliel and nod in that direction. Her eyes widen before she vanishes from next to me, a cloud of smoke taking her place.

She materializes on the other side, behind the partition that is most likely to keep the public from touching the helmet. Slowly and quietly, she removes the helmet from the display before appearing next to us again. "Let's get out of here."

The three of my sisters creep towards the edge of the balcony, so we can escape through the shadows. I look back at Nya again, sighing. She's giving him a giant smile as he whispers something in her ear.

Seeing her smile makes my heart ache, but how she acts towards Jay also scares me. Jay got in her head and was able to get her to be this happy and content around him. He was able to manipulate her into switching sides by working his way into her mind.

I'm well aware that Kai found a way into my head. While I've been trying to fight it, and I thought it was going fairly well, it's as if seeing him got rid of all of my progress. I fear that if I have too much contact with him, I'll end up just like Nya.

A/N Who needs school when you can write fanfiction? Not me, that's for sure?

I've been itching to write this chapter for the past several days, and I've never had time it was such a struggle ugh.

Thoughts on this chapter?

See you guys in 10 minutes for part 2 of the double update