Nya's POV

"We're out of the city, finally," Jay breathes heavily, his hands on his knees. All of us are winded, but at least no one spotted us.

"And we thought the amount of people looking for us at the museum was bad," Cole adds.

"I was right," Kai realizes something out of nowhere.

"Yeah, crab cakes aren't real cake," Jay agrees, but Kai shoos him off.

"No, not that. At the museum, I did hear something! It was the girls. They were there stealing the Helmet of Shadows, so Mara could control the stone army!" Kai announces before letting out a groan. "They were right under our noses."

"Who were we to know though?" Jay brings up, standing up straight before stretching out his back.

"Um, guys, I have 47 missed calls from Zane and several text messages," Cole says, looking at his phone that he just turned on. "He says to call him, so they can bring the Bounty over."

---

The four of us walk into the common room, and as we do so, Lloyd seems to loosen up a bit, but he's still tense as he holds his phone up to his ear.

"Hello. Garmadon informed us that he will pick up Misako and come here with her and Wu, so we can temporarily move away from the city," Zane greets us.

"What's wrong, Green Bean? Like, I know that Mara is here, but you weren't even near this stressed last time " Cole asks, sitting on the couch next to an agitated Lloyd.

"Did you watch the news? Both the emperor and empress got murdered, and now Rumi won't answer her phone," he says, his voice strained. "I was on the phone right before I passed out. If only I told her, then maybe..."

"No, this isn't your fault. Mara and Ciara are the evil ones here, not you," Kai tells him sternly. He walks over to Lloyd, sitting down on the side Cole isn't, and gives Lloyd a hug. "Don't you think they'd publicize it if they killed her? They would use it as a political advantage. She probably escaped." I take the two person couch adjacent to them, and Jay follows, taking the seat next to me and wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

Every muscle in my body is tense, from my head to my toes, and his touch helps me relax. Seeing my sisters on that screen shook me to my core, and adding onto the fact that we're significantly underpowered in regards to Mara and all of her forces, the stress is toxic. Having Jay next to me lessens the load.

"You're right, but I still need some validation to make sure she's safe," he sighs, looking down at his phone.

"I knew you and the princess were friends, but I didn't know you were this close of friends," Jay admits. Cole nods in agreement.

"I've been meaning to tell you all; there just hasn't been a good time. Rumi isn't just my friend, she's...she's my girlfriend," he tells us all, a bit bashful.

"You got a girlfriend before Cole! Good job," Kai congratulates him.

"Hey!"

"I won't anymore if she's dead..." Lloyd sighs, looking down at his hands.

"Knowing Mara, she'd want to flaunt every kill. If Harumi wasn't shown, she's most likely safe," I try to comfort him, but it comes out a bit awkward.

A silence fills the room, something I've learnt that is very uncommon with these boys. Lloyd looks down at his phone, waiting for a response. Both Kai and Cole are on their phones. Zane sits in a chair by himself, most likely running some sort of analysis. Jay rests his head on my shoulder while playing with my fingers.

"Why does Seliel have a chirp and instabrick already?" Cole asks, breaking the silence.

"It's definitely fake," Kai dismisses it casually.

"No, it's real. Look," he hands his phone over to Kai, who starts to look through the account.

"Why were you looking for Seliel's account in the first place?" Jay asks, raising an eyebrow at his best friend.

"I was looking for hints and hoping that we could find something," he admits. "Can I have my phone back, Kai?"

"I'm trying to find out if Skylor has an account."

"You can do that on your own phone," Cole snatches his phone back.

"It doesn't surprise me that Seliel already made stuff. She's always been into that type of stuff," I admit, watching as Jay runs his hand over mine.

"Oh yeah, I remember how she always had those magazines with her that she'd read," Jay recalls.

As I go to say something, Misako, Garmadon, and Wu all walk into the room. With them, they bring a chalkboard to write on.

"I hope you all have been brainstorming," Wu says, his voice slightly strained. Misako glances at Garmadon, who has his eyes focused on his brother. "Mara is here, and she has wasted no time gaining a foothold in the city. Riots have already began to spark up, but have been squashed, quite literally, rather quickly."

"Wait, you don't mean..." Cole starts, now leaning forward.

"Yes, Mara sent her army out to step on the protesters. My brother and I passed it, and as much as we wanted to do something, we knew we had to get back."

Wu's words make my stomach churn.

"No one in this realm has ever faced Mara, considering the duration of her entrapment, so we have no idea what to expect," Garmadon steps up, taking over for his little brother. "We don't know how similar her powers are to the Overlord's, or how to diminish them."

"According to my analysis, it is highly unlikely for us to be able to strip Mara of her powers. Instead, it would be easier to send her back to where she came from," Zane informs us.

"How can we do that? She has the emerald, meaning she can leave that place whenever she wants, and there's no way we're getting past the stone army and the girls, getting close enough to take it, and getting her sent back," Kai brings up, keeping things realistic.

"The emerald can be split back into its original four components. Zane, Kai, Cole, and Jay must shoot their powers into the emerald. When the stones get charged, they will split back into their original forms," Misako explains. "However, charging the stones will exhaust the four of you to the point of collapse."

"And since they'll be charged, they can be combined again right after," Jay adds from next to me.

"And this is even if we get close enough to do that. Who's to say we can even make it that far without getting restrained?" Lloyd brings up.

"Let us take a step back and look at our resources," Garmadon steps forward, drawing a line in the middle of the chalkboard. On one side he writes 'us' and on the other he writes 'them'.

"So we have the six of you, knowledge of the area, and Wu and I who can combined lock her back in her prison realm due to our relation to the First Spinjitzu Master," Garmadon writes all of our names on the chalkboard along with the next two points. "Now, what do they have?"

"The entire police department."

"The royal weaponry."

"Three elemental masters and an android."

"An entire stone army."

"The part of the public trying to turn us in."

"The emerald."

"Two psychopaths, one with dark powers and the other a trained fighter."

Garmadon writes it all down, and the longer the list gets, the more uneasy I get. Their list significantly outnumbers ours. Just looking at the raw facts, we're screwed.

"Now, which of these will not significantly hinder us? While there is a lot that are rather bad, some of these are simply minor inconveniences."

"The public nor the police will be able to hunt us down and capture us, most likely," Zane says. Garmadon crosses both of those off of the list.

"Now, the odds look more in our favor."

"Still, we're still screwed! It was hard enough to defeat the Stone Army last time, and that was when Lloyd had his golden powers!" Jay starts to mildly freak out.

"But last time, we were trying to defeat the Overlord, not banish him..." Lloyd starts talking, but I drift off, looking at the board. I look between our side and their side, trying to find something that we can do. Looking at the lengths of the different lists causes my hope to diminish, but when an idea flickers in my mind, my hope flares up again.

"I know what we need to do," I announce, standing up. I walk over to the chalkboard, and Garmadon steps out of the way. "What if we were to turn some of their assets into our assets?"

"I'm not following..." Kai says, raising an eyebrow.

"What if we took some of the things they have and put them on our side?" I say, circling my sisters names and drawing an arrow to our side. "Think, if they're on our side, they can escort us to Mara herself, and we can ambush her, making it so she can't use the weaponry or the stone army against us. It'll be Mara and Ciara versus 9 elemental masters," I suggest.

"Do you honestly think we could get them to switch sides?" Jay asks, resting his elbows on his knees as he looks at me.

"They're good people. They're brainwashed just like I was. As soon as they're revealed to the truth, they'll join us," I state confidently.

"How would we even get close enough to them without them taking us in to Mara? I just can't see how anyone could convince them in such short time," Lloyd brings up, obviously not on board.

"I was able to convince Nya after several days, and besides, being exposed to Mara in this setting is sure to raise some red flags," Jay says.

"Plus, I lived with them for sixteen years, I know exactly what makes them tick and what their weaknesses are," I say before looking over to my brother, "and I know exactly where to start."

---

Skylor's POV

I sit in my new room, looking out of the window onto the city. The skyscrapers tower over everything, positioned in a grid fashion. The streets have broken into chaos. People aren't enjoying our takeover, deciding to riot instead. They're protesting and starting fights, catching things on fire and trying to reach the palace, which is being defended by stone warriors.

Mother wanted us to go out and stop them ourselves, but Auntie didn't let us, saying that we should wait until the people are less violent to go out. While she knows we can defend ourselves, we still don't know the city, and the people could use that against us.

As I look out at the city, I can't help but wonder where the guardians are now. They're obviously close, considering we saw Jay, Cole, Kai, and Nya today at the museum today. I didn't expect seeing them to have the effect it had on me, but it did.

Seeing Kai was a whirlwind of emotions. I'm drawn to him, even after all of this time away. Hearing him say my name again, after such a long time, made my chest tight and made me want to go to him. I wanted to feel his touch again, see the deepness in his eyes. I know that it's wrong, so I try to block it out, but I can't.

Seeing Nya was something completely different. Seeing Kai made me feel light inside while seeing Nya crushed me. I've missed her so much, but I've been trying to block it out. If I try to not think about it, it's as if it's not there. Additionally, seeing her that close to Jay made me very uncomfortable.

"Um, Skylor?" at the sound of someone's voice next to me, I jump. Seliel is standing there, her BorgPhone that she was very eager to get on our way back here in her hand.

"What have I said about smoking into my room without a warning?" I grumble.

"This was important. When I was in the middle of making a Brick Tok, I got a message on Chirp for you, and it's an important one," she hands me her phone. I raise an eyebrow.

"For me? Why would anyone want to..." at the sight of his face in a little circle on the side of the screen, I'm taken off guard.

"'Can you give this message to Skylor? I couldn't find an account for her on here'," I read the first little chunk of writing before going to the next one. "'I can't stand the idea of anyone getting hurt because I didn't turn myself in. The others don't agree with me, but I don't care. I don't trust the civilians in the city to not hurt me on my way to the palace to turn myself in, and I don't trust any of your sisters to come get me either. I need you to meet me, alone, at the location below this Friday at 3. If you try to bring anyone else, I won't hesitate to fight back, and I won't hold back. If it's just you, I'll go with you with no fight. It's a multi day drive from the city, so you should probably start heading out soon.'"

"I haven't gotten any messages from any of the other ninja," Seliel tells me as I reread the message.

"And you're sure this is actually Kai?" I clarify. I click on the little picture of him, and I'm brought to a new screen.

"Yeah, he's verified with millions of followers. It's legit," she says before taking her phone back. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll probably ask Auntie what to do. If I go alone, he might be able to get into my head," I admit, making Seliel's eyes widen.

"You can't tell Auntie that I got a message on here. Her and Mother will freak out and not let me have it anymore," Seliel pleads, grabbing onto my arm, sending a wispy feeling through me.

"Then what should I do?" I ask.

"I think you should go. You've been handed a ninja on a silver platter, and even if it is a trap, you can easily defeat them," Seliel advises.

When I go to counter her suggestion, all logic leaves my body, and the desire to see Kai again takes over. "You're right. I can tell Mother and Auntie that I got a lead, but that you, PIX, and Chamille should stay here in the case of an emergency."

"Great, then it's settled. One ninja down, five to go."

A/N Writing instead of doing schoolwork: my new normal

My brain has so many cool fanfic ideas that I can't explore until this one is done. However, this book is about to get a looooot more interesting 😉

Thoughts on the chapter?

As of now, this series has 23 chapters left (including the epilogue) but some chapters might get split so it might be more

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