Once you and Zane had gotten home, you ate, and was surprised at how good the cooking was! Lou was an okay cook, but he wasn't this good! Later the ninja told you it was Zane who prepared the meal, which made you jealous that the ninja probably ate like this every night.

You started cleaning and Jay helped you with the dishes. He asked the same question Zane asked about the scar, and you retold the fact that you had no clue where you were from other than the cuffs.

"I couldn't even imagine not knowing where I'm from! Do you ever think about going out to look for your grandpa?" He asked, with curiosity in his voice.

"Sometimes, But Lou is like a father to me, whoever grandpa K is, Lou is the one that has really raised me." You answered. You were both silent for a moment, before Jay began to tell you about some of his brother's adventures. Facing Lord Garmadon, the serpentine, discovering their true potential, and the 'little brat' Lloyd Garmadon.

You chuckled thinking about Zane in a pink gi, and Jay getting pummeled by a training bot. Most of it seemed far-fetched, but they were certainly entertaining stories.

After the dishes were washed, you headed to your room to practice your song for the competition. Soon enough, Strix came to your window, almost hitting the glass.

You opened the window to find that Strix had left some, "gifts" for you.

"Ew! Strix you eat mice, I don't!" You laughed as the owl only tilted its head in confusion, then flew up to your shoulder, his soft feathers tickled your neck as you sat down on the chair set up next to the desk beside your bed.

You began to preen through his feathers, as he was moulting and you knew the new feathers would irritate him. Strix was beginning to relax when you heard a knock at the door, then you heard Cole ask, "Can I come in?"

"Sure." You responded, wondering what he would want while everyone was getting ready for bed.

He opened the door to find you covered in dust from the preening, and a grumpy Strix turning his head around to glare at him

"Uh, you know there's a wild animal on you, right?"

"He's not wild. He's a friend, and I wouldn't bother him right now. He's trying to get comfy." You talked in a slight monotone voice, still not completely warmed up to the Earth Ninja.

Cole gave you a confused looked so you decided to explain.

"Birds moult and grow new feathers and it doesn't feel very good. It's a bird period."

He then seemed to understand and took a seat on the bed, his legs crossed.

"So what do you need?" You asked, and the look of confusion returned to his face.

"Uh, dad said you wanted to talk to me about something and that I should come over to talk to you." He explained, and you both realized at the same time what Lou had done.

"Ugh, I'm gonna kill Lou!" You grumbled to yourself.

"Not if I beat you to it!" Cole said, then you both looked at each other, and began to laugh. Strix began to hoot, and you assumed he was laughing too.

"I'm sorry about dad, you know how he is." Cole apologized for his father's little stunt.

"Oh, I know how he is."

"How's he been? He's been so focused on training us for the competition, we haven't really had time to catch up." Cole asked.

"He's been doing pretty good, but he missed you a lot. For the first few days I was here, he wouldn't shut up about you!" Cole brightened at your words.

"Really?" He seemed surprised that his father cared so much.

"Yup! It got annoying though."

"Oh, sorry."

You laughed as you accepted the apology. Strix, growing annoyed, started flapping his wings, asking for attention.

You started preening him again, as you continued to talk with Cole. "So, why haven't you told Lou your a ninja?"

"Well you've met the guy, he wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but I just couldn't." He looked down, his eyes growing sad. "When our Sensei found me, and brought me to the monastery, for the first time it felt like I belonged somewhere."

You studied his face for a second, before putting your hand on his shoulder. "You should tell him. He'll understand!"

"I... I dunno. He wants me to be a dancer like him, won't he just be disappointed?"

"Cole, Lou is you dad. I'm sure he'll support you. Would you rather keep it secret and never know how he'd react, or risk it and be honest?" You looked at him as he stared at the ground in thought, then looked up at you smiling.

"I'll think about it. Thanks for the talk!" He said, and with that, he left.

After a bit you stopped preening Strix and he left, taking the mice offerings with him, thankfully. You got into your PJ's and slipped into bed, waiting for sleep to take you.

~~~~~~~~T.S.~~~~~~~~

You woke up early the next morning to help out at the talent show. The competition didn't start till later that night, but you enjoyed helping out and volunteered to help set up the stage.

You'd been working all day and pretty soon, the ninja arrived. They began practicing backstage with some other competitors. Some beatboxing, singing, you even saw one girl juggling.

You went to check on the ninja, who weren't looking so good.

"Dude, you gotta follow me!" Jay said to Kai.

"Follow you, you're two beats off!" The red ninja countered.

"Actually, 2.72 off of the beat." Zane stepped in.

You began to walk over, about to say hi when Cole stopped their bickering.

"Guys, guys! Let's not make this harder than it needs to be. Just stick to the plan and keep up the charade until the trophy's revealed."

You stopped in your tracks.

He is not going to say what I think he's going to say.

"Once we steal the Blade cup, we can argue all we want once we get back home."

He said it.

You stormed off trying to get as far away as possible. Of course they were still going to steal the Blade cup! Just when you started to get to know them too. You peaked out from behind the curtain to see the audience, trying to focus on your own performance when you saw a snake Pokémon in the judges seat.

Wait, so they were telling the truth?!?!

You rushed back to the ninja to see Cole in his black gi and his scythe on his back. The others were comforting him, so you assumed he told Lou about him being a ninja. You ran up to them, with urgency in your voice.

"Guys, you were right! There's an Ekans pretending to be a judge!"

The ninja all snapped their attention to you. "Pythor!" Jay exclaimed.  The ninja then chuckled at you calling him the Pokémon snake from Team Rocket.

But the laughter stopped as you all turned as we saw even more giant snakes, these ones with legs, walking out to perform.

"Looks like we're not the only ones planning to steal the Blade cup." Kai turned to face everyone.

"This, complicates things..." Zane said.

"Then I say we make our move. We can't risk losing out again! I say we steal it." Jay said, in a slight whisper.

"We're not gonna steal it." Cole turned to face the group. Everyone looked at him in shock as he continued. "We're gonna win this competition, but we're gonna do it our way."

You smiled, proud that they were going to win the cup instead of stealing it.

"Our way?" The other three questioned as the stage manager tapped your shoulder.

"Miss (y/n)? You're up after the Treble Makers."

"Thanks." You replied as he walked away. "Okay guys, you think of something while I go perform, I'll see you in a bit!" You waves goodbye as you went around the corner, ready to step out onto the stage.

You covered your ears as the Treble Makers sang. "My poison lies over the ocean~
My poison lies over the sea~~~"

As they finished, you heard the majority of the audience booing while a few serpentine in the front and two skeleton cheered.

This is the weirdest day of my life. You thought as you heard the announcer call you onto the stage.

You took a deep breath as you stepped out onto the stage. You looked out to the audience before signalling the pianist to begin.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Rise Up - by Andra Day

"You're broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry go round
And you can't find the fighter
But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out
And move mountains
We gonna walk it out
And move mountains

And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up
I'll rise unafraid
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the waves
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you"

You sung with all your heart, pouring out all your emotion to the crowd. They were all staring in awe as you continued.

When the silence isn't quiet
And it feels like it's getting hard to breathe
And I know you feel like dying
But I promise we'll take the world to it's feet
And move mountains
We gonna walk it out
And move mountains
And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up
I'll rise unafraid
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you

All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other
And for that we have each other
We will rise
We will rise
We'll rise, ohh ohhh
We'll rise

I'll rise up
Rise like the day
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I will rise a thousand times again
And we'll rise up
Rise like the waves
We'll rise up
In spite of the ache
We'll rise up
And we'll do it a thousand times again
For you ohhhh ohhh ohh ohhh ohh
For you ohhhh ohhh ohh ohhh ohh
For you ohhhh ohhh ohh ohhh ohh"

As the pianist finished its part, you looked out to the audience. As the song ended, a roar of applause took its place. You smiled seeing Lou by the entrance, applauding the loudest. The two judges both gave you a nine while Pythor gave you a seven, seeming slightly impressed.

You bowed before heading off stage towards the boys to see them all in there ninja gi, staring at you.

"Wow, now I see why you're dad's 'musical prodigy'." Cole smirked under his hood.

A slight blush popped up on your cheeks, before hearing the announcer call out the ninja.

An idea popped into your head as they started to talk amongst each other. You ran out to where you saw Lou, about to leave.

"Lou! Wait!" You called out. He stopped and turned around, a smile on his face.

"Ah (y/n)! You did great sweetie!" He pulled you into a hug and you hugged him back.

"Lou, I know you're not happy with Cole right now, but at least watch his performance!" You pleaded.

"I can't, he lied to me! Why would he do that to his own father?!" He responded, with a hint of anger.

"I know he lied, but he was trying to protect you! You didn't really give him much of a choice either, pressuring him to follow in your footsteps." You countered.

He looked thoughtful for a moment before responding. "I guess I can watch a bit."

You immediately thanked him and pulled him back into the audience to watch the final performance of the night.

When you found some empty seats, the ninja had already started their dance, and they weren't that bad if you were being honest.

You then saw some of the serpentine in the crowd make their way onto the stage, but weren't there for long as the ninja worked together to fight them off.

The chorus of the song played as they used spinjistu to dance.

"Just jump up, kick back, whip around and spin~!" The song blasted over the speakers.

Good choice of music, ninja. You thought as you turned to Lou, an unreadable expression on his face.

You turned back to the stage just in time to see Zane kick a falling sandbag away from the blue ninja.

Snakes flew every direction as Jay continued using spinjistu. Cole flipped kicking a snake away, and Kai spun on his back landing in a pose. Zane even did the moonwalk!

But what silenced everyone was when Cole stepped on the head of one snake, used his hand to push off of one, and his head to push off of the other, growling a bit as he landed in a crouch.

The Triple Tiger Sashay.

The crowd cheered as loud as they could, the announcer running onto the stage rambling. The judges announced their scores, but you didn't hear, you already knew they'd won with a performance like their's. You and Lou ran backstage to congratulate them, a look of pride on the old man's face.

You ran ahead of Lou, to see three of the ninja cheering and dancing, congratulating an upset Cole.

Hugging each one of them, you cheered. "You guys were great! Congrats on winning the cup!"

"Thank you (y/n), but are you not upset that you did not win?" Zane asked, a little concerned.

"There's always next year, and besides, I would've been angrier if you stole it. But you won it fair and square, so there's no arguing with that!" You giggled.

You looked to the door as Cole spoke. "You guys go on and celebrate without me." You brightened to see who was at the door as Cole continued. "Winning just doesn't feel the same without my dad being able to-" he was cut off by Lou.

"Cole!"

"Dad?"

"I saw it all son, I saw it all."

They both walked over to each other and hugged, making your chest warm at the sight of it. Cole took off his hood, a smile plastered across his face.

"You saw me dance?"

"More importantly, I saw you fight!" Lou apologized for trying to force Cole to follow in his footsteps, and reflected on how proud he was.

It was all going great until Pythor appeared.

"Sorry to interrupt this little family reunion, but did you know, it's me, Pythor?" The anacondrai hissed.

"You couldn't fool us, Pythor!" Cole said, the four ninja marching towards the giant snake.

"I didn't want you to miss our big show ssstopper!" He then signalled two serpentine to push a crate hanging from the ceiling, crashing it into some lights, that were directly above you and Lou!

You saw Cole running towards the two of you as you held up your arms, shielding your face. You closed your eyes, and bracing yourself for the impact, when you suddenly couldn't feel the ground beneath you. Opening your eyes, you look down to see nothing but sky as you began falling, and soon the ground was in view.

Screaming you thought of backstage, where you were a few moments ago. How did I get here? But before you could even finish the thought, a bright blue light blinded you, and before you knew it, you were backstage again, but closer to the exit.

You looked up to see Lou and the ninja digging through the debris.

"(Y/N)!!!" Lou yelled, digging through the debris trying to find you.

Kai turned and saw you, a look of shock on his face. "Uhh... guys?"

Everyone turned to face you, and you stared back not having a clue to what just happened. Shock almost took control, your knees beginning to wobble, as you almost drop to the floor.

The boys rush over, trying to steady you. "What the heck just happened?!" You asked them, confusion embedded into your voice.

"Cole found his true potential and lifted all those lights off of Lou but he couldn't see you so we assumed you were still under all of it!!!" Jay rambled.

"True potential? Wait, Cole lifted the lights off of Lou???" You were beyond confused at this point.

"How did you get out of the debris?" Zane asked, but you didn't hear him. Your head was spinning, like you had just ran a marathon and needed water. The last thing you saw were your cuffs, the jewels in the middle emitting a blue glow, and then, you blacked out.

~~~~~~~~T.S.~~~~~~~~

You heard a tap on glass.

"Huh?" You grumbled, sitting up.

You were in your bed, with an anxious Strix tapping on the window.

Slowly, you stood up, walking over to open the window. The Great Horned Owl flew in, landing on your bed, hopping around.

You giggled knowing that was his way of asking you to sit with him.

After a few pets, you walked out trying to find someone to fill you in on what happened.

You walked into the living room to find Lou putting up a picture of the ninja at the talent show holding up the trophy. You smiled, remembering the events of last night.

"As far as I'm concerned, you're all family now." Lou told the boys as they all hugged. He then saw you, and a sad smile crossed his face.

"(Y/n), the ninja are preparing to leave now." He told you, alerting the rest of the ninja to your presence.

A little saddened, you forgot about your questions and looked to the ninja.

"I wish you guys could've stayed longer, it was fun having more people around."

They all gave each other a look, one you didn't quite understand.

Kai stepped forward. "(Y/n), after what happened we contacted my sister, and we think it'd be best if you come with us. Back to the bounty where we might find out more about those, uhh, powers you have."

You looked at them in confusion. "Powers?"

"Well it's like you teleported away from danger! Did you even know you could do that?" Jay questioned.

You shook your head, looking back down at your cuffs. The jewels weren't glowing now, but you felt like something was emitting off of it, calling you.

"That's why we think it would be better if you'd come with us. When our Sensei comes back he can help you to harness your powers, and until then, you could train with us!" Cole said.

You looked back to Lou, the same sad smile on his face. "You can always come to visit if you're feeling homesick." He didn't want to see you leave, but knew it was for the best.

A tear ran down your face as you went to hug him. He was like a father to you, he taught you everything you know. You hugged him for a while longer, before letting go.

~~~~~~~~T.S.~~~~~~~~

Lou had helped you pack up your belongings and the ninja stood at the door waiting for you. You let Lou say goodbye to his son before giving him one last hug.

Your eyes watered as you walked away from the place you were basically raised, and headed toward the anchor on the ground in front of you. It was attached to a floating pirate ship!!!

"Is that the Bounty???" You ask. Your excitement made Kai chuckle, a smirk appearing on his face.

"You bet it is. Prepare for your life to get ten times more interesting (y/n)!"

And with that, your journey began.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wowie! Writing is way more fun than people lead on!

Do you guys have any theories about what those cuffs are? Or the jewels at least?

Comment what you think! I'd love to hear some opinions!

Thank you all for reading, and with that, I bid you adieu~
-ThatOneScorpio♏️