The war began a long time ago. Long before there were any elemental masters. Before people saw the need for protectors. It has been lost in time, quite literally. 

I fell in love with her on a sunny day. 

"Seriously?" Skylor asked, her hands on her hips. "That's how you're gonna help us learn about Gaia? By telling us you guys fell in love on a sunny day?"

"I must admit, Master Wu, that Skylor has a point," Pixal said. "Now is not the time to be descriptive. We have to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible."

"Okay!" Wu said, frustrated by the girls' lack of appreciation for his monologue. "I will omit the poetic sentences I've prepared."

"Thank goodness," Skylor said, taking a sip of the tea Dareth had made. The god of the earth claimed that simply watching Mystaké serve him tea had taught the basics of brewing it. Pixal had been hesitant to believe this, though Skylor assured her after a single sip that the tea didn't taste like rotten apple juice or muddy water. 

"Go on," Gayle urged, her notepad and pen already in her lap. Vinny had Mrs. Benedict in his lap, since Wu hadn't allowed him to film the "conversation."

"As I was saying," Wu said, clearing his throat.

I didn't think, I just fell. And when people fall, they break bones.

"Not necessarily," Dareth pointed out. "I've fallen a lot but I only broke my leg once."

"That's not what he meant, brownie," Skylor said, rolling her eyes. "Keep going, Wu."

She didn't come from a wealthy family, nor was she favored by my father. There was nothing about her that was out of the ordinary, besides the fact that she was a goddess.

"Don't," Wu warned. "Don't say anything." Skylor, Pixal, Dareth, Gayle, and Vinny zipped their lips and nodded.

She wasn't a typical goddess. She didn't live in the sky and listen to prayers. Instead, she served the land and those who cared for it.

She lived in a small hut a thousand paces away from my father's house. Despite being one of the most powerful beings in Ninjago, she was kind and sweet and my father encouraged me to learn from her. 

She brought trees up from the ground, creating rain during droughts, and grew us food when there wasn't enough to go around. I suspect my father thought she was simply a privileged person with good intentions. But the unintentional things were the ones that really caused trouble. 

"Like what?" Gayle asked.

"More on that later," Wu said.

My father was once given the choice to either kill her or keep her. If he chose to kill her, he himself would have to stab her in her sleep. If he chose to keep her, she would have to marry of his sons.

At first, the First Spinjitzu Master saw no reason she should be killed. She wasn't the center of everyone's problems, and she had no visible anger issues.

"Visible anger issues? Does that mean she had-"

"Yes," Wu said curtly. "Dareth might be able to say something about that."

"It's true," Dareth admitted. "She should get some help."

I was very young at that time. I don't know how many years exactly, but I looked to be a few years older than the ninja. Unfortunately, I wasn't as mature as the ninja are now. I was naive and had no experience with girls. I did have a small crush on the master of life but she died very soon after. 

"Jay and Nya are already Yin and Yang," Skylor said teasingly. "Late bloomer, are we?"

"Perhaps. But it's not like you and Kai have done anything dramatic together," Wu replied. 

The master of amber turned a bright shade of red and Pixal giggled.

"Master Wu isn't one you should mess with," the nindroid told Skylor. 

"So did Garmadon become-" Gayle began. 

"Not exactly."

It was obvious that Garmadon was mature enough to be ready for love. He had fallen in love once already and had pulled through a heartbreak without breaking more than ten vases. So my father asked him if he'd like to meet the goddess.

'The girl who speaks to the earth', he'd called her.  

My brother said no.

I knew why. Garmadon had no interest in permanent love. It was just another thing he couldn't have.

And so I was arranged to see her the next day. 

My father spoke to me on the way to her hut. He spoke in a light tone, though it was evident that he was frightened. He did not walk with as much confidence as he usually did. He grasped my hand very tightly and shielded me from every passerby. His face became pale when I asked him if she'd ever become like Garmadon.

I'll never forget his response to that.

"We all have a sheathed sword, Wu," he had said. "None of us are born with the intention of looking at it, and none of us are born with the intention of using it to harm someone. But there are people who will shove the sword into our hand and then leave us. Those people don't always have an unsheathed sword, yet their actions cause us to become confused and angry. Confusion and anger are the two things that blind us the most. So when they overtake us, we do the only thing we can think of: use the sword.

Promise me Wu. Promise me that you won't unsheathe Gaia's sword."

"But you did, didn't you?" Pixal said quietly. "You were the one to take it out and place it in her hand."

"Yes. Yes, I was."

A girl of about twenty-three years was waiting at the door, dressed in a blue gown that shimmered like the sea. Her necklace was a chain of marble-like pebbles and she wore a bracelet made of woven grass. She was smiling shyly at the ground, her cheeks pink with excitement. She looked absolutely beautiful.

My father saw that.

"Looks can be deceiving, Wu," he said for the nineteenth time that day. "She is gorgeous to you, but her sword is as sharp as Garmadon's."

We said our greetings, my father standing stiffly beside me. Eventually, he went back home, though I noticed that he glanced over his shoulder when she wasn't looking. 

"Sword," he mouthed.

I ignored him.

"You didn't enjoy obeying your father," Pixal observed. 

"Garmadon was always the more obedient one," Wu sighed. "He got bitten by the Great Devourer simply because he wanted to follow our father's words. A shame I wasn't the one to go."

"Hey, you couldn't have done anything differently," Vinny said, stroking Mrs. Benedict. "That's just the way the cookie crumbles."

"Perhaps," Wu whispered. "But I think the only thing that crumbled was Gaia."

We went inside her hut, and the first thing I noticed was that it said nothing about the person living in it. There were no decorations, no antique objects, no pretty paintings. 

Some straw had been piled on the floor (for a bed, I assumed) and a fire was slowing heating up a bucket of water. At first, I was unsure of the purpose of the bucket, because it was being burned by the flames, but I soon realized that it was a very clever way to slowly put out a fire. 

I just hoped that she herself didn't have fire that needed to be extinguished.

We talked for hours that day. She told me her strengths and I told her my weaknesses. She spoke of the earth and I spoke of the sky. She explained of her love for the moon and I boasted of the power of the sun. 

At nightfall, as I left, she kissed my cheek. That's when I realized.

She was the Yang to my Yin. 

"You don't really sound like a Nya/Jay couple," Dareth interrupted, much to Gayle's dismay. "I mean, you guys only knew each other for a day her she wasn't even that nice to you."

"We'd heard of each other long before then," Wu explained. "And she was kind enough. Maybe not the warmest of beings, but still, she wasn't like Garmadon." 

"Did you guys really spend time talking about dirt and clouds?" Vinny asked. 

"Yes."

"Would you please describe the kiss?" Gayle asked eagerly.

"No."

When I got home, I began fantasizing. I thought of all the adventures we'd have. The memories we'd create. The love that would blossom between us.

It was too early for me to be so excited, but I couldn't help it. The prospect of being with Gaia was too exhilarating. 

I suppose that's what passion does to us. Even I'm not immune to being lovesick. And Garmadon certainly isn't.

"That's quite obvious," Skylor said, still burning from Wu's comment about her and Kai. "Both of you fell head over heels for Misako."

Wu blushed and turned away. 

"Just goes to show how heavenly Misako is. She's so angelic that both sons of the First Spinjitzu Master fell in love with her."

"Mrs. Garmadon is very special," Gayle agreed. "I need to interview her some time."

I got up at dawn the next day to go see her. 

I ran to her house in my best clothes. I was too excited to think about what I was doing, too lovestruck to notice that I wasn't loving her enough. 

When I arrived, I found herself crying by the door, her tears watering the dry ground. 

"Gaia!" I cried, running to her. 

She looked up, and in that moment, I saw her true self. 

It wasn't perfect. It was cracked and dusty. Cracked, dusty, and forgotten. She was like an ancient vase, remembered forever but never noticed. 

I hadn't seen that part of her yesterday, which surprised me, but perhaps that was because I hadn't really met her.

Her eyes were watery with sadness but fiery with anger. Something about the world didn't please her, and I was prepared to eliminate it right then and there.

"What's wrong?" I asked, squeezing her hand.

"I can't do it, Wu!" 

"What can't you do?"

"I can't love you right! You deserve more than me, Wu. This arrangement was not meant to be. It was not the destiny writers who told your father to bring you to me. We can't be planning for such big things at our age." 

"I am not that young anymore," I said. "And neither are you."

"We haven't done things like this before, and you know it. We'll kill each other before our time ends."

"Don't think of such things," I soothed.

"I can't let you die now. You will pass away eventually, and I guarantee you, it will be me who will end your life. I have the power to do that."

Gaia sobbed into my shirt, her warm tears soaking my shoulders.

"The danger you can bring is frightening but the size of your heart is admirable," I whispered, stroking her hair.

"I will never part with my powers, even in death, for they have become one with me. But I could never bear to leave you, so let me stay away before we ever get together."

"But then my father will-"

"Let your father come to me in the night, let him relieve me of my heartache and stop the beating of my heart."

And then she ran away. 

*A/N Hope you enjoyed this chapter! (There will be a part 2 :D)*